Bound and (to be) stabbed.
Characters have agreed to a ritual Duel to the Death. They are given their weapons and prepare for battle.
But what's this? There's a wrinkle in the rulebook for this particular ritual battle. The opponents must be either tethered or bound together in some form, with options ranging from chains, cable, cloth, rope, etc. This usually manifests by tying one opponent's right hand to their adversary's left hand, with a tether of variable length, but can take other forms. Sometimes they are literally tied wrist-on-wrist, while in other variations the tether is as long as 10 feet, and they stand far apart.
A short tether makes dodging attacks difficult, as it forces opponents to always be within reach of one another. If the tether is even shorter (as in chest-on-chest), the use of any sort of weapon with a reach longer than a knife (such as a sword or spear) is a problem, as getting the right angle to stab the opponent becomes difficult.
If this involves an Involuntary Battle to the Death, it becomes much worse for the reluctant opponent, as there is no effective way for a contestant to flee the duel by themself, as they would be dragging their opponent with them.
Conversely, the tether limitation can also be both entirely voluntary and require the active participation of the combatants, with the tether only holding because they both actively grip it in some way. The combatants may even decide to fight like gentlemen. In these cases, if one participant loses grip and drops the tether, their opponent may select the obey the rules approach and give them time to retrieve the tether before continuing the battle.
Nine times out of ten, the victor will Take a Third Option, sparing their opponent's life either because they were reluctant to kill them in the first place, or as a Cruel Mercy to insult the honor of the defeated.
Can lead to Chained Heat if the opponents decide to say screw it, and cooperate to escape the duel together, but still have to deal with being stuck with each other.
See also Bring the Anchor Along and With My Hands Tied.
A subtrope of Interesting Situation Duel.
Examples:
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Anime & Manga
- Death Note: Light and L get into a fist fight over L accusing Light of being Kira. However, since they’re handcuffed to each other (L was doing this so he could keep an eye on Light), they both send each other flying across the room with every punch.
- JoJo's Bizarre Adventure
- JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: Phantom Blood: This is the setup of the Chamber of the Two-Headed Dragon, where Jonathan fights the zombie knight Tarkus. Both men are shackled with large neck braces connected by a long chain threaded through two holes in the ceiling. The key to unlock one neck brace is found on the other brace, and it can only be retrieved when the opponent is decapitated. Since Tarkus is more familiar with the arena, he uses it to his own advantage, such as by pulling on the chain to drag Jonathan up towards the ceiling.
- JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: Stone Ocean: Joylne invokes this in her 2nd battle with Father Pucci by managing to handcuff both their arms together to prevent him from fleeing. She quickly gains the advantage over him and almost defeats him then and there if not for him throwing the CD disk containing Jotoro's memories into Anasui and forcing Joylne to break off from the fight to save him.
- Ranma ½: In the first anime adaptation, after Ranma "ran away" from their last encounter (Ryoga ran past him and through the walls of the school, getting lost again), Ryoga handcuffs himself to Ranma during their duel at Furinkan High. Ranma initially uses this to slide under Ryoga's legs and push him to the ground while Ranma sat on his back. However, just as Ranma thinks he's won the fight, Ryoga uses his free hand to launch both of them into the air. The line holding the ends of the handcuffs together is severed when the Furinkan High Chemistry Club attacks Ranma with Hyperspace Mallets, with the Chem Club blown up by the land mines they themselves planted while Ranma and Ryoga proceed to tear apart the Nerima Ward with their fight.
Comic Books
- Thorgal: Thorgal and the chief's son Bjorn must fight in a holmgang, where both are chained by the waist to a rock in the middle of the sea. Naturally Bjorn cheats at every opportunity, including hiring two men to attack Thorgal, but the situation is solved thanks to his sister Aaricia blackmailing the henchmen into leaving.
Fan Works
- The Mountain and the Wolf: The Wolf has Euron at his mercy, but proposes to settle with a holmgang, the winner taking the other's ship. Both are chained at the waist and the chain running through an oar-ring between them, and while they end up using the chain during the fight to trip and strangle each other, the Wolf wins handily.
Folklore
- In Swedish folklore, there is a mythological style of duel called spänna bälte ("to bind the belt"), in which two men fight each other while bound together at the waist with a single belt. It's been immortalized by the sculpture The Knife Wrestlers by Swedish sculptor Johan Peter Molin in the middle of the 19th century. Today, copies are located in Gothenburg in Bältespännarparken, in front of the Swedish National Museum in Stockholm, in Vänersborg and in Mästarnas park in Hällefors.
Films — Live-Action
- Boy Kills World: Part of Boy's training involves knife-fighting the Shaman while both are bound together with a length of rope around their chests, leaving them only a couple of feet apart.
- The Duel: Features as part of the backstory, specifically the "Helena Duel" variation mentioned in Real-Life below. Abraham Brant killed protagonist David Kingston's father in such a duel, and Brant's son Isaac later challenges Kingston to such a fight.
- The Iroquois Trail: The climax is a duel between Hawkeye and Ogane, this time with the variation where their right wrists are bound together while holding their knives, and while not being allowed to use their left hands. This basically becomes a standing arm-wrestling fight with knives. The binding eventually snaps from the strain.
- The Long Riders: An oral variation. After getting into an altercation at a saloon, Cole and Sam agree to duel with Bowie Knives, at the request of Belle, who wants to watch. She also provides the tether, a black stocking, which they each grip one end of with their teeth.
Beth: Have a chew.
- Police Academy 2 has an excellent if not hilarious brawl with an undercover Mahoney and Bobcat Goldthwait as a punk gang leader. Mahoney thinks he doesn't need a switchblade until Bobcat pulls out a Bowie knife.
- In Snow Dogs, Thunder Jack, in an effort to intimidate Ted into selling the sled dog team the latter inherited, threatens to fight him in one of these.
Literature
- The BattleTech novel Highlander Gambit features one such fight between Loren Jaffray, a visiting Liao Death Commando related to the Highlanders by blood, and Chastity Mulvaney, a Davion-born Highlander who takes offense to Jaffray's presence. At the Highlanders' local pub, tempers rise until Colonel Macleod has them face off in a bare-handed Bar Brawl with the addition of a short tartan scarf tying their wrists together. This fight is less bloody than most, as the Highlanders operate under three-count rules and dangerous weapons such as knives or broken bottles are prohibited. Jaffray, being larger and heavier, wins by pin and three-count.
- Redwall: At the start of The Long Patrol, Damug Warfang and Byral Fleetclaw, heirs to the Rapscallion horde, engage in a Duel to the Death while tied together by their ankles with a short length of rope to see which one will inherit their father's title and troops. Each is armed with a club and a weighted flail; the combat consists of the two beating each other up with the clubs while waiting for an opportunity to leap back to the end of the rope's length and use the flails at their effective range.
- Sharpe: The Spanish partisan leader El Matarife's preferred method of executing captives is with a knife duel where they're chained together. When Sharpe catches up to him, he challenges El Matarife to fight him the same way, and kills him.
Live-Action TV
- In Iron Fist, flashbacks show the final test by the monks of K'un Lun to determine who will get to battle the dragon Shou-Lao and receive the titular Iron Fist involves this. For added benefit, the opponents have to both wear copies of the titular character's mask from the comics. The tether itself is made of cloth about 6 feet long and is bound at the wrist, giving them a fair amount of space to move. Davos and Danny battle this way in "The City's Not for Burning" for what seems like several hours, before Davos decides to tear the cloth and separate himself to move more easily. He still loses.
- Mahou Sentai Magiranger: Meemy, the second Arc Villain of the series, meets his demise in a one against one duel with Magishine where they are tied together with a chain connected to their left hands, and only allowed to fight with swords.
- The same duel was also adapted into its American counterpart Power Rangers Mystic Force, where it's fought between Daggeron / Solaris Knight and Imperious.
- Happens at least three times in Star Trek, which loves a good Duel to the Death.
- In Star Trek: The Original Series, in the episode "The Omega Glory", the Yangs force Captains Kirk and Tracey to compete to reach a knife stuck in the ground, while both men's left arms are bound at the wrist.
- In Star Trek: Enterprise gives us the ritual Ushaan, an Andorian variant where opponents must duel with an ice-miner's tool called an ushaan-tor (basically the head of an axe held in the hand), while having one wrist from each opponent bound by cable. For added benefit, the bound wrist and hand are encased in a metal gauntlet, which can block the ushaan-tor. In the episode "United", Captain Archer and Commander Shran battle this way, after Shran challenges an important diplomat to fight after the diplomat kills Shran's lover, and Archer takes the diplomat's place to avoid a serious diplomatic incident. Archer ends up turning the connecting cable into an improvised garrotte.
- Star Trek: Strange New Worlds gives us an unnamed Klingon variation, where opponents each wrap the end of a single cloth around a single hand each, actively gripping it, then try to kill each other with d'k tahgs (Klingon daggers). In "Shuttle to Kenfori", Doctor M'Benga ends up semi-reluctantly fighting Bytha this way.
- Quantum Leap: In "Unchained", Sam and fellow prisoner Boone are forced into an Involuntary Battle to the Death while chained together, and given more chains to serve as weapons. They escape by grabbing a nearby snake and throwing it into the onlooking crowd.
Music
- In the video for Beat It, two gangs have their respective leaders fight with switch blades, while the wrists of their non-active hands are bound with cording.
- Parodied in the "Weird Al" Yankovic music video for "Eat It", with the two gang leaders trying to stab each other with a fork and spoon respectively while their free hands both hold on to the leg of a rubber chicken.
Professional Wrestling
- World Wrestling Entertainment occasionally features the Strap Match, when two opponents are bound by a long leather strap (which may also be used as a weapon), and can only win by touching all four ring corners consecutively without interruption. Variations include:
- Indian Strap Match: The wrestlers' wrists are connected with a leather strap.
- Russian Chain Match: The wrestlers' wrists are connected with a steel chain.
- Texas Bullrope Match: The wrestlers' wrists are connected with a bull rope.
- Dog Collar Match: The wrestlers are bound together by the neck via dog collars and chains.
Video Games
- Soul Series: It's common in the series to have gimmick matches where the fighters are tethered by an invisible force that constantly pulls them together.
Web Animation
- What The F 101: An episode about the history of duels covered an instance of this. The two men had one of their arms bound to each other and behind their backs, were armed with knives, and fought inside a carriage as it made three circuits around a plaza.
Real Life
- The now Ghost Town of Helena, TX was at one time infamous for being the birthplace of the "Helena Duel". In this variation, opponents agreed to have their left hands tied together with buckskin. Each was then provided with a knife with a three-inch blade (supposedly too short to reach a vital organ in a single stab). After being whirled around a few times, they would slash away at each other until Death by a Thousand Cuts set in. Crowds of spectators would place bets on the outcome.
- The French had a tradition called duel au mouchoir, in which two men would stand close enough to each hold the corner of the same silk handkerchief in their left hands. It was quite rare, however, as it was known to often result in both participants dying. When German-speaking countries took over the custom (dubbed as sich über's Schnupftuch schießen) as the most severe form of dueling, it was usually agreed that one of the guns would contain a blank.
- XARM is a now-defunct hybrid sport, designed as a competitor of UFC. It was a combination of kickboxing and arm wrestling. The fighters' arms used for the arm wrestling portion were bound together with a strap, leaving their other arms free to punch each other.
