Foe-Tossing Charge

Insert Knock-Knock Joke Here.

When somebody spots their nemesis or target or temporary #1 foe across a battlefield and they go after them, anyone who comes at them or gets in their way as they charge will be thrown aside without a glance. If it's a good guy going after a bad guy, the emphasis will be on how determined they are; if it's a bad guy going after a good guy, the message will be more that the bad guy's really big and strong and intimidating. If the bad guy is really evil he'll even mow down his own people just to get at his target.

Bad guys don't always need a battlefield for a Foe-Tossing Charge; they'll just as happily use this tactic in a nightclub or shopping mall, basically any time there are people between them and their target. Another variant is when an ally of the hero stands up to the bad guy and says "If you want to kill him you'll have to go through m-" and gets tossed aside, being Not Worth Killing.

Alternatively, the good guy would kick off a Foe-Tossing Charge if he sees someone dear to him surrounded by enemies, in an attempt to get to them. For some reason, it ends badly more often than vice versa, so expect a Slow Motion Fall somewhere along the way.

Depending on how Badass the target of this are, this can also end in a massive Oh Crap from said target.

Could be used in conjunction with a Dynamic Entry.

Examples of Foe-Tossing Charge include:

Anime and Manga

  • This happens a number of times on the football field in Eyeshield 21.
    • This is Gaou's way of playing offense. His team runs a game where the players follow Gaou as he runs over and through anyone who gets in his way. Until he meets Kurita.
  • In the last episode of the second arc in Naruto, Zabuza (the arc's primary villain) charges through a thick mob of gangsters to get to the ring leader, Gatou. Even as they stab and injure him, he shrugs it off and slits their throats, throwing them to the wayside. He does this armed only with a small knife. Held in his teeth. In the manga he even cuts off Gatou's head.
    • He'd also had his arms rendered useless five minutes prior.
  • Bleach
    • Near the end of the Soul Society Arc, three lieutenants try to block Ichigo's path; Ichigo takes all three down in two seconds and keeps going. This doubles as a Look What I Can Do Now! moment (especially given that a single lieutenant gave him trouble several episodes back - though, to be fair, said lieutenant was abnormally powerful for his rank). Even more awesome because he did it with his bare hands, even smashing one of the lieutenant's weapons with his fist after they powered up!
    • In anime episode #14, Ichigo does this to a massive group of hollow to get to Uryu Ishida. Partially to help, mostly so he could be up close as he continued to call him an asshole, A) For getting them in this mess in the first place and B) For endangering half the town in the process.
  • One of the biggest, and most destructive Foe Tossing Charges in fiction is probably Gunbuster's Super Inazuma Kick, which they use to tear through hundreds, if not thousands, of aliens to get back to their ship.
  • Samurai Champloo once had Mugen being denied sex he paid for from a female Ninja posing as a prostitute. When she needs help later, she whispers something in his ear, and says she'll do it if he helps. Thus we have Mugen beating the shit out of a bunch of guard while unarmed and half-naked.
  • Shannon Casull in Scrapped Princess gets his Crowning Moment of Awesome, when he enters a room full of enemies and notices his little sister Pacifica handcuffed and surrounded on the other side of it. Let's just say it takes a Physical God to stop his charge.
  • Nanoha during the final mission of Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha StrikerS, who flew towards the Throne Room of the Saint's Cradle at full speed while destroying any Gadget Drone that tried to block her path, and only briefly stopping to one-shot a member of the Quirky Miniboss Squad who had the unfortunate job of defending the path to said room. Kidnapping Nanoha's adopted daughter and using her to power the Weapon of Mass Destruction was a really bad idea.
    • Subaru gets one when she sees the mangled body of her sister in the hands of the Quirky Miniboss Squad. Unfortuantly, they manage to escape.
  • Luffy from One Piece does this often. Most notably when he charges through 5000 people to get to CP9.
    • He tries this later when trying to save his brother Ace from execution, along with several other pirates, including all of Whitebeard's crew. However, it doesn't work so well when some of the foes he's trying to toss are Vice-Admirals and the Seven Warlords of the Sea. Whitebeard has more luck with it, though.
  • Akane (sometimes aided by Ranma) in Ranma ½, when forced to fight through the male student body of Furinkan High. They used to pose some measure of challenge at first, and she had to stop to fight them seriously. Nowadays, either she kicks them into the sky all at once, or just plows through them and leaves them flattened in her wake.
  • In Princess Mononoke, Ashitaka does this to get to San and Eboshi when San attacks Iron Town, in a rare combination of this and Tranquil Fury.
    • It's also the basic assault method of the Boar Gods until Jigo's engineers took advantage of it. Moro herself indulged in it when attacking Eboshi's convoy in the mountain, killing more people by shoving them off the cliff than by mauling them.
  • Sengoku Basara does this on a large scale. Every. Single. FIGHT.
  • Junpei from Those Who Hunt Elves does this every time they encounter multiple enemies. Sometimes he does this to the women he's stripping. It Makes Sense in Context...
  • Guts from Berserk lives this trope, is made of this trope, and will mow down anyone in the way of this trope. In the early days of the Band of the Hawk Griffith gave Guts his own cavalry unit, the whole point of which was to smash through enemy lines and scatter them for the rest of the army. Later on, when confronting an especially powerful Elite Mook named Gen. Bascon, Guts and the general perform a foe tossing charge at each other! When they meet, soldiers on both sides keep well clear for fear of being caught in the middle of the two monsters. Eventually when he upgrades to an even bigger BFS, he does this to real monsters, and with the Berserker armor, even to full-fledged Apostles!
    • Cruelly subverted, however, during the Eclipse, when Guts finds a naked Casca in the clutches of a tentacled Apostle and shows every sign of going into one of these to get to her -- only to have an Apostle by the name of Borkoff snap his massive jaws right on his left arm before he can even get to full steam, which ultimately necessitates Guts having to chisel it off with what's left of his sword when Griffith, in his new form of Femto, gets his hands on her.
  • Played for laughs in Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann when Yoko does a Foe Tossing Charge... to punch Kamina in the face. Reason? He got so Distracted by the Sexy his opponents jacked his Humongous Mecha from him.


Comic Books

  • One of the most awesome parts of Spider-Man: Reign was the Foe Tossing Charge Spidey performed on the reformed Sinister Six (Now the Sinner Six) after comming out of his retirement and once again putting on the Red and Blue suit. Even Mysterio's usual trick of using an image of Mary-Jane to put Peter down didn't work.
  • The Juggernaut does this in the film X-Men 3. He also does this any time he appears in any medium. It's kinda his thing.
  • After having his life and reputation all but ruined by his archenemy Cobweb, Marvel Comics hero Sleepwalker fought his way through a mob of Cobweb's Mooks on his way to finally capturing and banishing the monster for good in the final issue of the series.
  • Asterix: As shown in the page image, this is the Gauls' signature move after everyone in the village has gotten their share of the magic potion. The lead characters (especially Obelix) also occassionally do it with unfortunate sentries when getting into one of the Roman camps, though then, the Megaton Punch is the traditional approach.
  • The first time we see Marv attacks is when he barreling through the door of a hotel room, tossing cops aside like tin pins.


Fan Works

  • In With Strings Attached, Paul does this (well, it's more of a foe-tossing series of hops) to the skeletons and zombies as he makes his way to the ruined city to rendezvous with the others and destroy the Heart of Evil. And he laughs all the way there.
  • Asuka pulls this off in the finale of Neon Exodus Evangelion.

The pattern was simple: She ran, and they died.

Film

  • A variant: In Spider-Man 2, a train-car of people stand united to keep Doc Ock from getting to Spidey...to no avail, as he shoves them all aside with ease.
  • Double example: In the climactic fight scene of Willow, Madmartigan and General Kael spot each other across the battlefield at the same moment, and each of them initiates a Foe-Tossing Charge toward the other.
  • A staple of Wire Fu movies, notably Kung Fu Hustle.
  • In the film version of The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring, Sam, Merry, and Pippin get tossed aside when they attempt to protect Frodo from the Ringwraiths on Weathertop. (In the book, Frodo is a bit more proactive, and attacks the Ringwraiths himself.)
    • In the prologue, Sauron does this on the way to the human royalty. The way it's done makes you think he was just wandering around smacking people forty feet for the fun of it, though. Not that that's not a perfectly good reason. In the battle before the Black Gates, Legolas attempts a Foe-Tossing Charge when Aragorn is about to be crushed by a troll. Unfortunately, being an elf, he lacks the muscle mass for proper foe-tossing and doesn't get very far. Pity none of them are dwarves.
    • Subverted when Gandalf and the Three Hunters arrive at the Golden Hall: Gandalf strides forwards unstoppably to confront Saruman/Theoden, while in the background Aragorn, Legolas and Gimli do the foe-tossing.
    • Near the end of the Helms Deep battle the few remaining Rohirrim pressed in the inner sanctum of the keep decide to go with a boom and charge into the Uruk-Hai army in a suicide attack trampling and tossing aside everybody in their way. The attack turns out not to be so suicidal after all.
    • This is the basic strategy of using Mumakil in a fight - move them forward fast. It'll suffice.
  • In Terminator 2: Judgment Day, some poor passerby gets riddled with bullets for standing between the T-1000 and the T-800 when they open fire.
  • In The Patriot, Colonel Tavington (bad guy) and Mel Gibson's character spot each other across the battlefield in the final battle. Each then slices, shoots, and wades his way through the other side's Mooks to get to his nemesis.
  • Gangs of New York's opening melee involves Daniel Day-Lewis wading through Mooks towards Liam Neeson.
  • In The Forbidden Kingdom, the Monkey King tosses Jade soldiers left and right with his staff as he leaps through the air. This is not to reach the Jade Warlord or anything, he just thinks it's fun.
  • Grendel does this in the Beowulf film. He also throws people at people, and hits people with people as melee weapons, and tears them apart with his bare hands. It's not really to get to anyone in particular, though, he's mostly just complaining about the noise coming from his neighbors.
  • In Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith, when Yoda enters Palpatine's chamber he knocks two guards unconscious by using The Force. Hmm, a power that belies his stature, he shows.
  • Name a movie about American Football, any movie - you'll find someone plowing through a group of the opposing team at one point.
  • Done in the Wire-Fu movie Hero, wherein two protagonists tear straight through an army of mooks to gain access to the palace.
  • In 300, one of the Spartans flies into a blood rage, killing several Persians with his everything at hand, including his helmet, to reach his son, who had just been beheaded by a Persian on horseback.
  • Behind the Mask: The Rise of Leslie Vernon features a cameraman standing between the killer and his Final Girl, stating, "If you want her, you'll have to get through me!" He's tossed aside.
  • Frollo in The Hunchback of Notre Dame throws the Archdeacon down a flight of stairs on his way to his final confrontation with Quasimodo and Esmeralda.
  • In Highlander, Connor's older brother/cousin performs one to save Connor from the Kurgan's attack during the battle of the clans at the start.
  • In Bodyguards and Assassins, the chief assassin's right-hand man does this to a crowd of civilians to get to Donnie Yen.
  • Blood Diamond has an interesting take in which the man doing the charge is actually trying to save the guy he's after, but the other think he's going to kill him and keeps fleeing.
  • Zhang Fei in Red Cliff.
  • In the film Con Air, Nicholas Cage does this after Cyrus the Virus commits an act of Kick the Dog and mortally injures his diabetic friend with a gunshot wound. After this It's Personal and Cage charges forth to the sound of Crowning Music of Awesome while he goes through three Mooks and helicopter fire to get to Con Air's cockpit and take control of the titular plane, in order to prove that God exists. During this charge, he blatantly ignores a bullet to the shoulder due to the Rule of Cool.
  • In the Chronicles of Narnia: the Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe film (2005), after Peter witnesses the White Witch fatally stab his brother Edmund, he charges her, smacking a minotaur aside in the process with one wild swing of his sword. Just before he began his Foe Tossing Charge, he had been fighting another minotaur (and had considerable trouble killing it), so this could also count as a Let's Get Dangerous moment.
    • A bit previous to this, the centaur general Oreius and a talking rhino charge the White Witch's polar-bear-drawn chariot, mowing down her right-hand minotaur in the process, in order to protect Peter. And it's awesome.
  • In Airplane!!, Robert Stack's Captain Rex Kramer refuses to be delayed on his way to the control tower by a gauntlet of evangelists and political activists.
    • One must go back to the time when Airplane!!! was released. At that time it was very common to be approached in that manner in airports. Most people were more than a little annoyed, making that scene a one which prompted much cheering and applause.
  • Juggernaut, whose superpower is the Foe-Tossing Charge in X-Men: The Last Stand, is played by Vinnie Jones, who started out in ye olde British football.

Literature

  • Happens twice in the Battle of Five Armies near the end of The Hobbit. First when Thorin and company (of 12) fight their way as far as Bolg's bodyguard. Second (and more effective) is when Beorn fights his way to Bolg himself.
    • Double points for Beorn being a werebear in giant bear form.
  • Vimes in Night Watch uses one of these to reach Carcer so he can bring him back to their own time.
  • At the finale of Children of Dune, Leto II fights his way through Alia's elite guards before smashing down the door to her chambers, his extreme strength (due to sandworm-based enhancements) letting him sweep them aside. Since he was dragging his sister along during all of this, it means his Foe-Tossing Charge was one-handed!
  • In Proven Guilty, Morgan is said to have cut his way through a Red Court army, coming within feet of the Red King himself.
  • In Off Armageddon Reef, by David Weber, Merlin engaged in one of these near the end of the book. Merlin is an incredibly advanced android with strength, speed, and reflexes far above human capacity; he is equipped with nanoengineered nigh-unbreakable incredibly sharp katanas. (Well, technically, a katana and a wakizashi.) His foes are sailors equipped with metal armor, swords, spears, axes, and primitive muskets. To quote the book: "he went through his enemies like an avalanche, more hampered by their corpses than by their weapons."
  • Subverted in Wheel of Time: Rand al'Thor is captured by Aes Sedai, and kept in a strongbox for days, only taken out to be beaten. When this doesn't break him, they show him that they also captured his girlfriend-to-be, and beat her in front of his eyes. He breaks free, kills a Warder with his hands, takes his sword, and wounds another mortally. All in the seconds it takes the Aes Sedai to control him again.
  • Jaime Lannister pulls one of these in book one of A Song of Ice and Fire. After being ambushed in the Battle of the Whispering Wood, Jaime charges right for Robb Stark, slaying several knights along the way and is only narrowly prevented from killing Robb as well.
  • The novel Star Wars: The Old Republic: Deceived start with the novelization of the Sith sneak attack on Coruscant, specifically the attack on the Jedi Temple, which is shown in a trailer for the MMORPG. As the Jedi and Sith disciples battle in the temple's entrance hall, Darth Malgus spots the most experienced Jedi currently at the temple, Jedi Master Ven Zallow. Both are having little trouble killing the other side's acolytes. Malgus rushes towards Zallow, killing Jedi left and right, while Zallow is busy slaughtering Sith warriors. Unfortunately, after an intense fight, Malgus ends up killing Zallow and destroying the temple.

Live Action TV

  • Buffy the Vampire Slayer, episode: "The Gift". Buffy heads to where Dawn is; the guy who was bleeding Dawn steps forward and says, "Ah, the Slayer. This should be interest-" He is then flung off the ledge and plummets several stories.
    • In the same episode, Ben is completely horrified to find he can remember what it felt like as Glory doing one of these through an army of knights with only the divine strength in her bare hands: crushing bones, ripping flesh, soaked in blood...
    • In "The Wish", Buffy and the Master each fling aside several vampires as they charge across the room to fight each other
  • Simon Tam did this in the Firefly episode "Safe". It didn't work but it was impressive. It worked well enough to make sure three townsfolk had a sore jaw.
  • In the NCIS season five episode "Requiem", in what may be his personal Crowning Moment of Awesome, Tony DiNozzo does a Foe-Tossing Charge with a gun, charging full-tilt at two bad guys and dropping them both with his handgun without stopping, then throwing his gun aside and diving off of a dock after the car that's just gone into the water with Gibbs and the Damsel in Distress in it.
  • Played for laughs in Power Rangers Wild Force. Whenever the normally shy and gentle Black Ranger gets inspired by his love interest, he turns this Up to Eleven, mowing down every Mook in sight and the Monster of the Week, including enemies the other Rangers were in the process of taking out - leading to some comical swing-and-a-miss shots.
  • In the season 2 finale of Carnivale, Justin Crowe hacks his way through a crowd of his own followers with a sickle, to reach Ben Hawkins


Tabletop Games

  • This is one way to interpret the Magic: The Gathering trample ability in "real combat" terms. (the other interpretation being that the creature simply walks over its opponents.)
    • Actually, a lot of cards have art where the creature shown is doing some serious foe tossing trampling. Giants tend to do this a lot.
  • In Dungeons & Dragons 3.5, if a fighter has the "Supreme Cleave" ability, then each time he slays an enemy he gets to immediately move one square and take another attack. As long as each attack kills an enemy, he can keep repeating the trick, carving a long path of carnage before anyone gets a chance to strike back.
    • There's also the Zeal spell, which lets you move through enemies and gives you some protection from their attacks of opportunity as long as you keep moving towards a designated target.
    • And Tome of Battle's last Setting Sun maneuver: Tornado Throw. It consists of running and tossing a foe for every other step you do.
  • It's not only possible but thoroughly encouraged in Warmachine to slam your enemies about the battlefield. More than one unwary player has found their key units disable by a well-timed slam attack and it forms the basis of one of the most simple assassination strategies.
  • In Exalted, this is possible and encouraged. Then again, if you weren't capable of charging through crowds of mooks and send them flying into the stratosphere, it wouldn't be Exalted, would it?
  • Warhammer Fantasy Battle's Ogres and Minotaurs cause impact hits when they charge an enemy, or in other words, smash into enemy lines just like speeding chariots.


Video Games

  • Used often in the Super Robot Wars series. A character will, at a dramatic moment, ignore movement rules and move across the entire map to attack a specific character. They also ignore HP or anything else, doing MacGuffin level damage.
  • Nethack gets very much like this later in the game, with many of the more nastier enemies summoning monsters at the player, and killing them just gives the summoner time to summon more. Then there's the big room full of monsters before facing the Wizard of Yendor, Yendor himself calling a bunch of nasties (or even a clone of himself), another such room full of undead, and after that some demons and a bunch of bug-summoning priests, right before the amulet-carrying High Priest of Moloch, and as the ultimate example, the Astral Plane with more priests summoning annoying little insects, angels and other astral beings, a gang of former heroes, and three Riders of the Apocalypse ganging up against the player. In all of these examples, beating all of your enemies would be quite crazy, when all you need to do is to get through them - and sometimes back again.
  • Bloodline Champions has a few examples of charges in the game, though it's less tossing enemies aside and more causing anything hit to be temporarily incapable of defending themselves from the force.
  • The opening cinematic of Drakengard shows Caim doing this to a group of enemy soldiers and then flashing his Slasher Smile. The player can also do several attacks in the game that qualify as Foe Tossing Charges.
  • In Devil May Cry 4, Nero performs one of these when trying to reach Sanctus in his order armor before he escapes, carrying Kyrie with him. At first, he gets battered by enemies as his attention is diverted to the aforementioned spoiler, but quickly proceeds to start throwing the enemies, before finally bursting through a group of them.
  • Dynasty Warriors is probably the video game poster child for this trope... worse yet, some incarnations of characters in 'Warriors' franchise games (for example, Lu Bu, or some Samurai Warriors 2 characters) can toss their foes... and worse yet, it's usually unblockable!
    • Sanada Yukimura is known for this, in any games he appeared, especially Samurai Warriors. In fact, he did that in Real Life, obviously his Crowning Moment of Awesome, tossing and plowing through the Tokugawa soldiers with only some trusted men, or himself alone, until he reached Ieyasu face to face, only to declare that he has ran out of energy and died afterwards. No wonder Ieyasu was so impressed and dubbed him Japan's Number One Soldier
    • In Dynasty Warriors 6, Zhao Yun and all the other characters with the True Speed ability do exactly this (once it's activated). And Zhao Yun himself did this in Romance of the Three Kingdoms to save Liu Bei's son in the battle of Chang Ban. (And Dynasty Warriors 6's intro...)
      • The opening for Dynasty Warriors 5: Xtreme Legends features Gan Ning performing a Foe-Tossing Charge... DOWN THE SIDE OF A CLIFF.
        • Gan Ning is also infamous for this as his default Musou attack. Once you hit the button, he just charges and DOES NOT STOP until the bar is empty.
          • Koei has changed the way musou attacks work. Prior to DW7, a musou was a warrior attack swinging their weapon or using a power until the bar ran out. Now that it is a single-button-press action with huge variations between characters, many characters now have musous involving forward movement, slicing, smacking or otherwise blowing away dozens of enemies at a time while charging through them.
  • This trope is the entire basis of the combat system in the DS game Rondo of Swords. Rather than moving, then attacking, one fights by selecting a path for a character to follow, then executing the move action. Then, as the character runs along the path, he attacks each enemy he passes through. Every non-ranged attack can be a Foe-Tossing Charge in that game.
  • In Dead Rising there are several ways to do this. Just grab a nearby skateboard, shopping cart, parasol or any other handy melee weapon and off you go.
  • The Tank from Left 4 Dead does this in the opening cinematic, either knocking aside, crushing or ripping apart any zombie unlucky enough to be between him and the survivors he's trying to kill, even though the other zombies are trying to do the exact same thing.
    • Also happens during the game as well. If a zombie or any other special infected are pouncing the player and a Tank is near, he'll gladly smash them to get to the player. In fact, Tanks can inadvertently rescue players who are caught by a Smoker or Hunter by smashing them since the game does not register damage on the player when a Smoker or a Hunter has caught them.
    • In the sequel, this is the entire point of the new special infected, the Charger. He charges, knocking any survivors in his path down and away, until he reaches the last one on his path. That one, he slams into the ground repeatedly until he or the survivor is killed.
  • In Dawn of War II, the Force Commander has a skill called "To Victory" which involves him quickly charging to a selected point. This causes all cover-type obstacles in the path to be destroyed, and all enemies to fly around. Painfully.
    • The Grey Knights, introduced in one of the expansions to the original, have this as an optional upgrade. Heavy weapon squads and Tau Fire Warriors really, really hate it.
  • In Prototype Alex Mercer usually uses Le Parkour while running forward at 70 mph; however, if he activates his armor or shield powers he'll simply run through anything in his way up to the size of a car. Civilians, non Elite Mooks, oncoming traffic present no impediment to his forward momentum.
  • Dragons in almost any RPG trailer almost always show up by stomping on (or eating) a fellow evil mook to show off just how big they are. Both Warhammer and Dragon Age for example have this happen.
  • In Assassin's Creed 2, when Ezio's father and brothers are executed, he tries to pull this on his way to kill the guy that did it. Unfortunately, he's stopped by a pair of heavies and disarmed, forcing him to run.
  • Haseo toss 5 PKers to the sky then slash all of them with scythe at the opening scene of .hack//G.U..
  • Titan mutants in Batman: Arkham Asylum will charge at Batman without the slightest concern for the thugs caught in their pace. You can use this to your advantage.
  • The Giga Drill Breaker Drill Dash in BioShock 2. See that Leadhead Splicer halfway across the room? * SCREEECH SMASH* Now he's dead.
  • The Charge move in Mass Effect 2 for the Vanguard.
  • In God of War III, Kratos can do this when he grabs an enemy, using their body as a battering ram as he dashes through enemies. After running for a while he'll simply toss the body or if he hits a wall he slams their head around.
  • In the X-Men Legends and Marvel Ultimate Alliance games, the big guys (Colossus, Juggernaut, Thing, etc.) can learn variations of the same move where they charge, tackle, and pummel an enemy, with any others baddies standing nearby getting knocked down.
    • This is also true in Capcom's line of Marvel tournament fighters, where most of the big characters have a charge attack that will send an opponent skyward.
  • Shadow the Hedgehog at the end of his story in |Sonic the Hedgehog 2006. After he, Rouge and Omega are surrounded by copies of Mephiles, Shadow removes his power limiters and simply blasts his way through all the clones, sending them flying and allowing the trio to escape.
  • The Standard-Reaction of a very pissed Keyblade-Wielder. In one especially memorable instance, it involved cutting their way through large, LARGE buildings.
  • In City of Heroes, it's possible to do something similar with a number of powers, such as Whirlwind, Repel, and Sonic Repulsion to name a few. These powers cause Knockback on enemies unfortunate enough to be caught in their area of effect, launching them away (but generally causing little to no damage unless they are slotted with Chance for X damage procs). Whirlwind in particular, as part of the Super Speed pool of powers, can be used for this, to the amusement of high-level players in low-level zones.
    • Shield Charge, from the Shield Defense powerset, is probably the best example. A short dash (technically teleport) forward, and your enemies flying everywhere. It's been described, more than once, as "bowling for villains".
  • In "Marvel vs. Capcom 3" Captain America can do this with his Charging Star move and its Hyper variation
  • Wario has this as one of his trademark attacks in the Wario Land series, as well as Wario World.
  • In Fire Emblem: Blazing Sword, a few turns after your arrival to the Dread Isle you'll meet up with the Pegasus Knight Fiora, who in her pain after having lost her wingmates, tries to perform one of these. If you don't send out her sister Florina to convince her to stop and join the crew, she'll fight your enemies until either she dies or the stage is done.
  • In The Legend of Zelda Skyward Sword, the scene where Link mows through a massive army of Bokoblins, Moblins, and Stalfos to rescue Zelda becomes this every other second. You can linger and slice through as many enemies as you want, even when you don't have to do so to get past Ghirahim's barriers, but because they don't stop spawning, it's usually better just to dash past them as many as you can.
  • In Mario & Luigi: Bowser's Inside Story, Bowser sorta gets one of these. When he touches a smaller foe, they simply get knocked aside (and them poof into a coin).
    • Get's a real one in the final boss battle. His opponent knocks him back and summons dark versions of all of Bowser's minions and the big guy has to march all the way back, beating aside Mooks like they were mosquitoes.
  • Warriors in World of Warcraft get one. Actually, by liberal interpretation, they get two: one is a super-speed charge that stuns anyone in its way and can even defy the laws of physics to get from point A to point B; the other is Heroic Leap, which is just what it sounds like, and will actually leave an impact crater at the point of destination.
    • Also a fairly typical boss/elite mob tactic. Sometimes the charge will only stun/hurt you; sometimes it will actually fling you backwards in the air. Try not to be between these guys and a cliff (or the edge of the airship.)
    • In the novel Wolfheart, Varian Wrynn (King of Stormwind) and Garrosh Hellscream (Warchief of the Horde) do it a few times during the battle for Ashenvale, both intent on killing the other, as they know this will decide the fate of the battle. Both warriors are evenly matched in ferocity and skill, as well as having powerful weapons (Varian wields the fused elven sword Shalamayne, while Garrosh wields a powerful battleaxe called Gorehowl). Both are so intent on each other that they barely notice anyone they cut down who happens to get in their way (although not focused enough to kill friendlies).
  • How to use War Elephants in Medieval II: Total War - select your pachyderms, double-click the ground behind the enemy lines to order them to charge-move, and watch your enemy scatter like bowling pins.
  • Kingdom Hearts: This is practically The Beast's signature move. If you hear him yell "ASIDE!", don't get too attached to whatever's standing in front of him.
  • Volibear from League of Legends has an ability that gives him increased speed and flings his victim backwards over his head. Singed has a similar skill.

Webcomics


Web Original

Western Animation

  • Avatar: The Last Airbender
    • Prince Zuko once simultaneously took down multiple "elite" Royal Procession Firebenders to get to his sister in the second season premiere. One might argue that said sister proceeding to smack him around like a red-headed stepchild served to weaken the overall effect of said charge, or confirm that she was even scarier. They could also be holding back because Zuko is a member of the royal family. Or it could be because good ole Uncle Iroh was tossing them about too.
    • Similarly in a later episode, to gain an audience with the Earth King, Aang and the Gang are forced to plow through an innumerable amount of Royal Earthbender guards, apologizing the whole way. The creators note that the biggest point of this was to demonstrate how by this point their powers have reached super-human levels even by standards of a world with people that control the elements.
    • In the season 2 finale, after Azula has shot Aang in the back with lightning, Katara takes all the water she has and creates a giant wave that crashes over Zuko and the Dai Li, catching him just in time. However, as it was just water, they're back up and ready to go a second later.
    • Subverted in episode 2 when Sokka prepares for one of these against Zuko and is unceremoniously kicked into a snowbank.
  • Makes an appearance during the wedding scene in the first Shrek movie. The eponymous ogre and Fiona find themselves beset by Mooks; Shrek starts 'wading' through them, throwing them off as necessary. They manage to slow him, but we never get to find out the ending thanks to a Gunship Rescue moment.
  • Bully Francis chasing Timmy Turner in the The Fairly OddParents episode "Timvisible".
  • Animated film example: In the 1986 Transformers: The Movie, Optimus Prime does a surprisingly dramatic version of this before confronting Megatron.
    • The absolute best part is the Oh Crap look on Thrust's face... which is reflected on the front of Prime while he's running over him! You could also call this a Crowning Moment of Awesome... if Prime weren't already the most awesome thing there.
    • Another Transformers example: in Beast Machines, Noble/Savage chases after a group of fleeing Cycle-drones. They go around a corner behind a short wall, and we see the Drones fly up into the air and fall back down.
  • In Disney's Robin Hood, Lady Cluck, a dumpy, motherly anthropomorphic chicken, does this to an army of rhinoceros mooks - all in the style of a NFL player. Set to two college fight songs, USC's and "On Wisconsin."
  • In Kung Fu Panda 2, all of the kung fu masters get to pull this off during the climactic battle against Lord Shen's forces, but it's Master Shifu who pulls off the most classic version, sprinting through several ships' worth of wolves and gorillas before we even see him.
  • Teen Titans: Nothing will stop Beast Boy from getting to the Brain! He cares not for the hundred or so villains his friends are all dealing with, He MUST get to the Brain!
    • (one epic fight later) Beast Boy: "Hey, look! (Throws Brain into freezer) BRAINFREEZE!"
  • Norman does this in Mighty Max during one zombie episode to help Max get to Virgil.
  • Aragh has quite an epic foe tossing charge in The Flight of Dragons animated film when he charges through possibly hundreds of Sandmurks to reach and then kill the queen Sandmurk.
  • Barney, of all people, got a good one in The Simpsons episode involving soccer. Everyone who goes to see the soccer game gets bored because nothing is happening, so they start fighting to get to the exit first. Someone spills Barney's beer as he's coming back from the concession stand, and Barney responds by staring at it for a moment, then going on a charge that clears out dozens of people standing in his way. After that Willie and his friends get involved, and it's all downhill from there.

Kent Brockman: What began as a traditional soccer riot has escalated into a city-wide orgy of destruction!

Real Life

  • Alexander the Great, in his final battle with Darius of Persia, is said to have performed a Foe-Tossing Charge to reach the enemy king. Darius, feeling less bold, fled the scene; it is likely that Alexander would have caught him, but for a desperate message from his own general that he was needed elsewhere.
  • Cyrus the Younger tried to pull this during the Battle of Cunaxa, charging into the Persian emperor's bodyguard of 6000 horsemen with his own escort one-tenth that size. His charge came as a complete surprise and scattered his opponents, but his foe tossing was cruelly interrupted by enemy javelin tossing, with fatal effect.
  • Pelopidas of Thebes attempted this during the First Battle of Cynoscephalae to get to his hated enemy, the tyrant Alexander of Pherae. He did not have superhuman strength, though, and fought on foot, and his enemy's bodyguards were not so amused by his attempts to toss them aside. Once they had disposed of him, they discovered to their dismay that his death was a cause for renewed enthusiasm on the part of his army, which proceeded to utterly wipe them out.
  • Bulls, rhinoceroses, hippopotamuses, elephants, and, to a degree, crocodiles are all capable of this trope. It's quite common for a large horned animal like a rhino or buffalo to impale a smaller foe on a horn then throw it up into the air.
  • There was a Japanese shogun who was forced to fight an enemy army with nothing but his elite samurai guard at his side. The couple of hundred of them rode through the whole army and seven emerged alive from the other side.
  • The Ancient Near East knew a type of cavalry which the Greeks called Kataphraktoi ("the armored ones"). They were custom-built for this trope; both horse and rider were completely covered in scaled armour and chainmail. Their moment of glory was the Battle of Carrhae, in which a mere few hundred of them completely steamrolled a Roman army that had been previously weakened by arrow fire.
  • Richard III tried this at Bosworth Field in 1485. He came very close to killing his enemy, Henry Tudor (the future Henry VII) with his own hands, but was prevented by the heavy cavalry contingent of a 6000 man force with Thomas Stanley, one of Englands most powerful magnates, at its head. Against just 800 embroiled Yorkist cavalry. With the infantry following the cavalry. Oh Crap.
  • Hernan Cortez did this with only five men at the battle of Otumba, charging through the entire Aztec army to cut down a priest bearing a standard that inspired the troops. The idea was that the Aztecs would flee the battle if they saw the standard go down. It worked.
  • At Arras in May 1940, shortly before the fall of France, a posse of British tanks charged the Germans, who quickly found out that their 37mm anti-tank guns were useless against the thick-skinned Matildas[1] and their Panzers IIs and IIIs couldn't even dent them. It was only many miles later that Rommel managed to patch up a defensive line of 88s and 105s, neither of them actually intended as anti-tank weapons. Only two battalions took part in the attack, but the Germans thought they'd been hit by five divisions.
    • Very few people seem to realise that the British and French together were stronger in tanks (and arguably with better tanks) than the Germans. Where they fell down was in the command and control area. There were other factors too: French Generals who'd e.g. been Captains and Majors at Verdun in 1916 were so traumatised by the 1940 German invasion of France that British officers had to pick them up and physically shake them to make them come up with a battle plan. Ironically, the impulsive and over-eager generals of the First World War might have performed better under the circumstances and with the same technology.
  • Herschel Walker. Has to be seen to be believed. After seeing it, it's clearly a single (albeit impressive) case of Won't Work On Me followed by two guys missing a tackle. In other words, a combination of two things that happen all the time in football.
  1. ↑ despite the silly name
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