Friday, May 18, 2012

Three-point landings

From The Daily Dish, a blurb on "Three-point landings":



Via Neetzan Zimmerman:
The Three-Point Landing is an absurdly overused visual trope defined as landing "on the ground in a crouching position, feet wide apart and supporting their weight with one hand on the floor while the other hand is outstretched away from their body, usually pointed diagonally upwards." At the ROFLCon III supercuts panel — starring Gawker's own Rich Juzwiak — clip artist Duncan Robson (he of "Tumbleweeds" and "Let's Enhance" fame) premiered a compilation dedicated to the stunt TV Tropes warns should "not to be confused with the skydiving three-point landing, where you land on your feet and then fall on your ass."

Another definition of the "Three-point landing" (and, no, it's not a gymnastics scoring thing, but a how-many-extremities-are-contacting-the-floor thing):
A popular visual trope often associated with martial arts. After performing a particularly cool move, or dropping from a great height, the character lands on the ground in a crouching position, feet wide apart and supporting their weight with one hand on the floor while the other hand is outstretched away from their body, usually pointed diagonally upwards. Extra coolness points are added if said hand on the floor is a fist that actually causes damage to the ground you land on.

A common variation of this features a head snap, where the character will land looking downward and after a brief, pregnant pause, suddenly look up just in time for something to blow up behind them.

Very common in manga, anime, and video games, but can also be seen in movies — especially those with visual styles inspired by them.

A pun on "three-point landing," an aircraft landing in which both the main gear (the wheels further back on tricycle gear aircraft like airliners) and the nosewheel/tailwheel touch down on the runway at the same time, which is seen as a mark of skill among pilots. Also not to be confused with the skydiving three-point landing, where you land on your feet and then fall on your ass.

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