The old "Knocked-Out Cold for Convenience"-trope.
You know, the hero is eaves-dropping to the villain's plans by the door, or he's grasping an ancient artifact he's just waded through a dangerous ruin to get. Then, while he's distracted, some henchman sneaks up behind and smack him over the head with a baton. When he wakes up, either imprisoned by the baddies or by his empty loot-sack, he's all A-OK to get up and give 'em what for.
Head Trauma doesn't work that way. At best, he'll be out for around two to four minutes and then wake up with a killer nausea. If he's out longer than that, he's likely to suffer damage from it. I can buy the convenient headsmack-routine once or twice, but sometimes it just gets silly. In the original Tintin-comics, he gets knocked out with such regularity that the brave boy-reporter really should have been reduced to a vegetable by now.
And for a bonus, I've always found it interesting that female characters who can clearly kill with the best of 'em can be utterly neutralized if siezed by the wrists. It's as if it cuts off the bloodflow, leaving only the princess-in-distress functions.
You know, the hero is eaves-dropping to the villain's plans by the door, or he's grasping an ancient artifact he's just waded through a dangerous ruin to get. Then, while he's distracted, some henchman sneaks up behind and smack him over the head with a baton. When he wakes up, either imprisoned by the baddies or by his empty loot-sack, he's all A-OK to get up and give 'em what for.
Head Trauma doesn't work that way. At best, he'll be out for around two to four minutes and then wake up with a killer nausea. If he's out longer than that, he's likely to suffer damage from it. I can buy the convenient headsmack-routine once or twice, but sometimes it just gets silly. In the original Tintin-comics, he gets knocked out with such regularity that the brave boy-reporter really should have been reduced to a vegetable by now.
And for a bonus, I've always found it interesting that female characters who can clearly kill with the best of 'em can be utterly neutralized if siezed by the wrists. It's as if it cuts off the bloodflow, leaving only the princess-in-distress functions.