Understanding Athelind's Argot: Conservation of Ninjitsu

[athelind]

The Law of Conservation of Ninjitsu

One ninja is a threat. An army is a nuisance.

The amount of Ninjitsu on each side of any given encounter is finite. A hero attacked by a single ninja faces a significant threat, against which he may not prevail. A hero or group of heroes facing dozens of ninjas will wade through them like any other mooks.

This Law can also apply to other classes of Detention Cool, including Killer Robots.

Example: In Batman Begins, Batman is A Ninja, and because of this, is an unstoppable force of nature. The League of Shadows are Ninjas -- ninjas who went through exactly the same training, no less -- and yet, he wades through them all.

(Edited for clarification.)

Comments

[reveille-d.livejournal.com]

Well, we already know hordes of Ninja are useless from things like Ninja Scroll, in which the main character Ninja just mows through scores of Ninja like he was cutting the grass. They exist simply to get pwned by the main character Ninja's leet superninja skills.

[stalbon.livejournal.com]

And yet! Blind Samurai with a hint of honor nearly takes the Super Ninja!

[hitchkitty.livejournal.com]

My guess is that your basic Cinematic Ninja is trained to fight alone. Given that ninja were originally used for guerilla warfare, I guess it's conceivable that the form would lend itself more to individual than group combat.

And yes, this law applies to Killer Robots. Sentinels come lurching immediately to mind. But honestly, anything becomes less awesome en masse. Consider it the "school cafeteria principle".

[hitchkitty.livejournal.com]

Addendum:

As we saw in The Princess Bride, a single foe with the freedom to move around a lot can be MUCH harder to dispatch than a crowd.

[soreth.livejournal.com]

Known elsewhere as the Inverse Ninja Effectiveness Principle!

...Both names are just about equally unwieldy, no?

[stalbon.livejournal.com]

Agreed! Look at various John Woo films and Kill Bill for instance. The Killer 88's all look alike, and swarm in on The Bride en mass, and die by the dozens. However, Gogo, a high-school assassin, nearly kills her in one-on-one combat. In Hard Boiled, there's a near-endless supply of bad guys for Chow Yun-Fat and Tony Leung to kill, yet there's one guy who differs, not because he's had more training...but because he wears sunglasses, and has a scar. That is Mad Dog, and even when the heroes double-team him, they can't beat him. Why? Because he's singularly different.

I know it's not exactly the same, but it still holds merit on that. Henchmen need to learn that you can never, ever swarm the hero.

[ebony14.livejournal.com]

I think this applies to minions in general. One minion is often more of a challenge than a crowd of minions, unless that minion is unaware of the hero's presence (which brings about a whole different cinematic law/effect, which states that the hero can fell any enemy that is unaware of his presence with one blow). Witness any fight between Jackie Chan, Jet Li, Bruce Willis, Harrison Ford, et al, and one ninja/thug/Nazi/gangster/et cetera. A crowd of ninjas/thugs/Nazis/gangsters/et cetera generally get mowed down by Our Hero^TM.

As a corollary, consider the Law of Concentration of Minions. While multiple minions are easier for the hero to defeat, multiple minions concentrated into one space (i.e., the Really Big Minion) is much more difficult for the hero to vanquish, and often requires assistance from external or environmental features (i.e., a propellor from a nearby plane, a tunnel, a gun lying on the ground, etc.).

These rules, of course, only apply to minions. Named enemies, especially nemeses, are a completely different story.