#my absolute favorite thing in combat-heavy series is trying to pick out signature styles. 2k3 is SO good about it!

[adelrambles]

ALRIGHT let's talk fighting styles. There's a lot to say about little consistencies in how characters like to engage in combat throughout TMNT 2003, and to start I'm going to focus on our favorite evil bastard, Agent Bishop (if yall want more on any specific character in the future lmk!)

Now, Bishop is about 230 years old, give or take a few, by the time we meet him. It's no surprise that he's a powerhouse of an opponent when he's had all that time to train, far beyond the limits of what a normal human might be able to achieve. He has a ton of experience, being a military vet on top of that, and presumably is familiar with the weapons and combat styles of the multiple eras he lived through.

Additionally, he has his clone body. This lends him benefits and drawbacks alike, though we don't see the drawbacks effect his performance in battle. His artificial body gives him superhuman strength and durability, but earlier iterations would randomly cause him bouts of pain-- this is no longer an issue once Stockman creates a more stable body for him. It might also be inferred that he experiences less physical pain, considering how often we see him brush off devastating injuries. For example, being slammed into a metal wall hard enough to dent by Hun, or being impaled through the chest and still finding the strength to escape up a ladder. This, though, is just conjecture.

Let's break it down to its components:

Speed

One of the most defining traits of Bishop's fighting style, in my opinion, is his ability to outspeed and outmaneuver almost every opponent he faces. This is even something that's commented on in the show (Mikey noting "Bishop's got a little quickness in him!") In order to land a hit on him, he has to be distracted or overwhelmed in some fashion-- which is hard to do! His mind is fast, too, enough that he can handle multiple opponents at once. He's very consistently shown to be faster than most every character he fights, and he's extremely well-coordinated, able to flip around and slip through defenses, or out of range. Which leads cleanly into the next point:

Control

Bishop excels at controlling his fights. Because he often holds advantage in both speed and strength, he can move opponents around as he likes, and can pick and choose when he wants to be on offense or defense. Additionally, he's an adept strategist who is very effective in using his opponent's strength against them, often using their momentum to push them in whatever direction he wants. On top of all that, he refuses to engage in fights he's not certain he can win. When his back is against the wall and he can no longer control the flow of a confrontation, he will take that control back by just leaving. Essentially, he gives no one the satisfaction of beating him, if he can help it. If fighting doesn't work, he'll just find another solution to get his way.

It's worth noting the instances we see him lose come from circumstances reasonably outside his control. See: an explosion being the thing to send him to a gory impalement. Furthermore, this level of control can sometimes make him overconfident. If he's sure in his understanding of his opponent, it can leave him to being surprised, like when Mikey knocks him away while Bishop is trying to use him as leverage in their first encounter.

Countering

Bishop loves using his opponent's strengths against them, and this manifests as his style using a lot of counters. He often lets his opponent make a move, and then goes for the punish when it fails to land. He's very opportunistic and will take advantage of any perceived weakness, no matter how small.

Weapons

Two notes here!

One: Bishop prefers ranged weapons. On the few occasions we see him bring his own weapons into a fight, most of them are guns, and in one instance it's a chain. We see him to be adept in most every type of weapon (which I'll elaborate on in point two,) but he seems to like guns especially. It's worth noting he never uses a chain again after getting hooked; maybe that's on purpose lol

Two: Bishop makes his own weapons. What I mean by this is, more often than we see him bring his own weapon, he instead almost always goes into fights without one. Instead, he will either make a weapon out of his environment, or he will steal his opponent's. This ties back to his need to control a fight! Taking his opponent's weapon unbalances them and puts him squarely at an advantage. Or using whatever's in his immediate environment gives him a lot of unconventional weapons to work with, and often surprises his opponent (in fact, a lot of his style is quite unconventional.) He can essentially make a weapon of anything, and he can use any weapon with proficiency.

Durability

I've already touched on this, so there's not much to say, but Bishop is really hard to knock down for the count. Even if he seems to be hurt by an attack, his recovery is ridiculously fast, and seldom do we see an injury slow him down (the only example off the top of my head is when he gets electrocuted, which stops him for a few seconds. Even then, he powers through while still actively being electrocuted, so. This ties back to my theory that he doesn't experience pain the same way normal people do, but that's just a headcanon.) One does not so much beat Bishop as one forces him to retreat. And, to be fair, he only needs to doubt his ability to win with ease to decide he should leave.

Splinter

The only person consistently shown to give Bishop trouble is Master Splinter, and I am absolutely obsessed with their dynamic in combat. By the point we meet Bishop, we know Splinter to be a formidable fighter. One has to be Shredder-level to give him trouble. And when we first meet Bishop, he's just fought off all the turtles, Casey, and April all at once without much trouble. So when they find themselves evenly-matched, it is a brilliant shorthand for just how terrifying BOTH are! Bishop is able to handle a 1v6, yet this one ninja master can hold him off in a 1v1. And Bishop himself is instantly understood to be on Shredder's level on the power scale.

And this spans multiple confrontations between the two! This builds both of them up as very dangerous fighters, and I just think it's so cool!! Couldn't pass up talking about it

(A similar scenario happens in Hun on the Run: the entire episode we see Hun perform wild feats on strength and persistence, and then when he finally confronts Bishop, the man makes easy work of him.)

How to win

Chances of outclassing Bishop in strength, speed, and weaponry are low, and he's at his most dangerous when he's in control of the flow of the fight. Furthermore, he will bail if he starts feeling the tides turn against him. So the best chance of beating Bishop is to surprise him, or to make yourself unpredictable to him. If he can't figure out where the next move will go, it keeps him on the defensive and lowers his chances of successfully retreating. He can't control a fight he can't predict; keeping him reacting is key to getting a win.

Bishop's personal flaws can also come back to bite him. He's sadistic and egomaniacal; he'll sometimes delay a win just to torment his opponent longer, or take an opportunity to try rub their nose in their failures, which can give them the opportunity to flip things around on him. He's also prone to underestimating opponents, though he never makes that same mistake twice for any one character. If he truly feels pressure, he'll take things seriously enough that these flaws become far less prominent.

While Bishop is clearly extremely capable, he prefers to put himself in situations where he knows he can win, and can become frustrated if he feels he can't predict the outcome of a situation. In the number of times we see him truly emotional enough to be unbalanced, it clouds his judgement and makes him far more aggressive than he might normally be.

Fast Forward

Not letting Bishop be that absolutely devastating combat powerhouse he should be is one of my biggest grievances with Fast Forward! By this point he should have an additional 100 years' worth of experience under his belt, the only thing keeping him from winning every confrontation should be bureaucracy (this is the explanation I use to keep my sanity. It wouldn't do for his image as a benevolent politician to be a deadly martial artist, so he dials it down lol.) I don't have much else to say aside from that complaint, and that I would've loved the opportunity for the turtles to train with him at some point. There is a lot of missed potential with President Bishop, of which this is a small but significant facet.

Additional Notes

-Bishop prefers to use kicks in hand-to-hand combat.

-Bishop has enough physical strength to overpower Hun (the guy who stopped a train with his raw strength?? So like that's insane.)

-Bishop is shown to handle 1v6+ odds for extended periods on multiple occasions, though he ends up retreating in the end on multiple counts. Worth noting, at one point he 1v4s the Foot Elite and wins.

-Bishop has very good spatial awareness and almost always uses his environment to his advantage in some way.

-In the showdown with Splinter, Bishop uses the hook to maneuver around the space, unwittingly setting up his own defeat by moving it into place.

-Even when winning, Bishop will become frustrated if he doesn't know why he's won (i.e. when the True Shredder's army disappears, he demands aloud "why are they retreating?!")

-Bishop's power armor seems to hinder his maneuverability and speed somewhat.

-Bishop's good at driving in car chases, courtesy of FF.

-Bishop seems to prefer fighting solo.

To round us out, here are some of my original observations when I was doing my watchthrough. Sometimes I phrase things better off-the-dome, so I figured I'd throw them in. If anyone has additional observations please feel free to add on!