How would I describe this in English? I have been searching over the internet but it's so hard for me to just figure out what word best to describe it. Here's a picture to describe them :
I'll use to it to narrate a drama. Thanks
asked Apr 5, 2016 at 18:42
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2This is a rather common trope. TVTropes calls it Back-to-back Badasses.– Masked ManCommented Apr 7, 2016 at 4:11
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2 Answers
The usual English phrase would be "Back to back".
As in "Richard stood back to back with the unknown Spartan and prepared to fight the shared enemies that surrounded them".
This image is captioned as "Fighting back to back"
It's simply a literal description of the position of having their backs to each other.
The opposite, when they're fighting against one another, would be "face to face".
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3I would add "I've got your back." because that phrase is often used.– WilliamCommented Apr 6, 2016 at 3:58
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2@William, Also, "I've got your six" is used in military/policing/fighting circumstances. ("Six" being your back, if straight ahead is 12, slightly right is 1, 90 degrees right is 3, etc) Commented Apr 6, 2016 at 20:17
The two are standing back to back.
The literal position having evolved into a lot of figurative meanings from many fields.
One of the more famous varieties is having someone's (or each other's) back, that generally describes people protecting each other in critical situations, going back to the defensive stance you sketched in your question.
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4Reminds me of the nonsense poem: One dark day in the middle of the night, two dead men got up to fight. Back to back they faced each other, Drew their swords and shot each other. If you don't believe the story's true Ask the blind man, he saw it too!– user5505Commented Apr 7, 2016 at 8:26