History BullyingADragon / LiveActionTV

* ''Series/BuffyTheVampireSlayer'':
** In early episodes it was known to all that at the very least Buffy had burned down the gym at her previous high school, yet people like Cordelia and Harmony picked on her anyway.
** Then there's Glory in season 5. When Willow attacks her in revenge for [[MindRape what she did to Tara]], Glory not only shrugs it off for the most part, but even takes the time to ''taunt'' Willow over brain-sucking Tara, declaring that it was "something to treasure."

** Common humans feel the need to pick on vampires, even though vampires are superhumanly powerful and like to eat people. One notable example is when a back-country sheriff deputy harasses Bill Compton for being a vampire and calls him "boy," drawing very clumsy and illogical parallels to Jim Crow.

** Chinese gangster kidnaps John, tells him he is Sherlock, John says he isn't hi, Sherlock intervenes and goes into full blown SherlockScan mode, than tries to (awesomely} and (genuinely) get his friend out of the bad position-which puts ''him'' in a bad position, and Chinese gangster ''tries to kill him'' IN FRONT of a certain RetiredBadass. Needless to say, the gangster gets killed.

** Magnusson knows Mary was an assassin from the CIA, and seems convinced John is the only important person in ''two'' lives. Sherlock's life and Mary', to be exact. He is still convinced that he can make John do what he wants if he doesn't want information on his wife to be released (which could get ''him'' killed as well), and also is pretty convinced that if he owns Sherlock, he owns Mycroft, and, if he owns Mary...he owns John, though I doubt he knew John was A SOLDIER from the British Royal Army, and [[NightmareFuel/Sherlock had him thrown in a bonfire!]] Needless to say, ''it didn't end well for him''. At all.

** Ser Meryn Trant insulting the newly knighted Ser Bronn. In this case Trant is an armored knight who has never fought an actually fight, while Bronn has killed armored knights like him.

* While this trope is common in many classic westerns, ''TheRifleman'' is one that plays the trope the straightest. See that big sodbuster over there with the kid? The one that's a full head taller than everyone else in town, carries a custom rifle in one hand, and lugs multiple bags of feed over his shoulder with the other? That man is Lucas [=McCain=], a Civil War veteran reputed to the point of legend for being faster with that rifle than most men with a six-shooter. OnceAnEpisode some bandit or ne'er-do-well would try to bully this man, often by using the people of North Fork or his son Mark against him. The lucky ones lived to wish they hadn't.

* While this trope is common in many classic westerns, ''TheRifleman'' is one that plays the trope the straightest. See that big sodbuster over there with the kid? The one that's a full head taller than everyone else in town, carries a custom rifle in his right hand and lugs multiple bags of feed over his left shoulder? That man is Lucas [=McCain=], a Civil War veteran reputed to the point of legend for being faster with that rifle than most men with a six-shooter. OnceAnEpisode some bandit or ne'er-do-well would try to bully this man, often by using the people of North Fork or his son Mark against him. The lucky ones lived to wish they hadn't.

* While this trope is common in many classic westerns, ''TheRifleman'' is one that plays the trope the straightest. See that big sodbuster over there with the kid? The guy with the rifle in his right hand and multiple bags of feed over his left shoulder? That man is Lucas [=McCain=], a Civil War veteran reputed to the point of legend for being faster with that rifle than most men with a six-shooter. OnceAnEpisode some bandit or ne'er-do-well would try to bully this man, often by using the people of North Fork or his son Mark against him. The lucky ones lived to wish they hadn't.

* ''Series/WalkerTexasRanger'' has an example of MuggingTheMonster that crosses into this. While shopping for wedidng china with his fiance, Walker notices a man loudly harassing a woman and attacking an employee who tries to make him leave. Walker intervenes and tells the man to leave, and the man takes a swing at him. Naturally, Walker effortlessly blocks it, informs the man that he's a Texas Ranger and tells him to leave again. Then the man decides ''to try to hit Walker again'', and naturally gets the crap beaten out of him, without a single piece of china being damaged.

* More or less the whole premise of ''Series/TheIncredibleHulk''. Granted, no one really knows that David Banner has the Hulk lurking inside him, but at least once an episode, a bunch of random jerks will decide to make life rough for the quiet, amicable new guy. [[HilarityEnsues Hilarity ensues]].

* While this trope is common in many classic westerns, ''TheRifleman'' is one that plays the trope the straightest. See that big sodbuster over there with the kid? The guy with the rifle in his right hand and multiple bags of feed over his left shoulder? That man is Lucas [=McCain=], a Civil War veteran reputed to the point of legend for being faster with that rifle than most men with a six-shooter. OnceAnEpisode some bandit or ne'er-do-well would try to bully this man, often by using the people of North Fork or his son Mark against him. The lucky ones just got their asses kicked and run out of town/thrown in jail. You'll find the unlucky ones in the local cemetary.

* While this trope is common in many classic westerns, ''TheRifleman'' is one that plays the trope the straightest. See that big sodbuster over there with the kid? The guy with the rifle in his right hand and multiple bags of feed over his left shoulder? That man is Lucas McCain, a Civil War veteran reputed to the point of legend for being faster with that rifle than most men with a six-shooter. OnceAnEpisode some bandit or ne'er-do-well would try to bully this man, often by using the people of North Fork or his son Mark against him. The lucky ones just got their asses kicked and run out of town/thrown in jail. You'll find the unlucky ones in the local cemetary.

* More or less the whole premise of ''Series/TheIncredibleHulk''. Granted, no one really knows that David Banner has the Hulk lurking inside him, but at least once an episode, a bunch of random jerks will decide to make life rough for the quiet, amicable new guy. [[HilarityEnsues]].

** In the backstory, this happened to the Mad King. He executed Ned Stark's father and brother, pissing off half his kingdom and leading to the rebellion that would kill him and end his family's dynasty.
*** He gets extra credit for insulting and demeaning Tywin Lannister, calling him a "servant" and saying that Tywin hadn't earned the honor of his daughter marrying the crown prince. Tywin Lannister, the richest man in the Seven Kingdoms, who has been known to wage wars of total extermination against his own vassals over smaller insults.

* ''Series/BuffyTheVampireSlayer''

* Many episodes of ''Series/TheATeam'' have some incredibly small and weedy looking men attempting to push an angry looking Creator/MrT around, and then actually looking surprised when they get thrown through a window. Possibly they're surprised at the [[SoftGlass lack of injury]].

* ''Literature/GossipGirl'': Surprisingly often someone tries to hurt or annoy Chuck Bass. They never learn that it's a big mistake to do so. Blair as well. And if you take on ''both of them'', [[TooDumbToLive well]]...

* ''Series/{{Smallville}}''

** In the episode "Rogue," a DirtyCop who sees Clark using his powers uses that knowledge to blackmail him. Sure, Clark's ThouShaltNotKill philosophy prevents him from easily killing the guy with said powers, but he doesn't know that. All he knows is that Clark is tough enough to stop an out-of-control bus by stepping in front of it and strong enough to toss a generator across a room like a wad of paper. And yet, he keeps on provoking him and even threatening his family. [[spoiler:KarmicDeath took care of him.]]

* On ''Series/{{Chuck}}'', this happens more often than not with Casey in a comedic sense, like when he's filled his daily quotient of stupidity from the Buy Morons, but every so often this trope come into play on a serious issue. In ''Chuck vs. Operation Awesome'', an old oriental woman is bitching at Chuck about the Buy More's lack of customer service, while Chuck is just concerned with wanting to tell someone outside the loop about his being a spy, worrying for Devon's safety (since he's been kidnapped), and his feelings toward Sarah. He finally snaps, flashes on how to speak Korean, and yells at the woman in her native tongue to more-or-less [[PunctuatedForEmphasis Shut the Fuck Up]], surprising everyone around him, including Jeff, Lester, and more importantly Sarah, because he's always been so pacifistic. It's made even more apparent when Chuck Intersect-kicks Lester for trying to mess with him, Bruce Lee-style only moments after telling off the Korean lady, which drops everyone's jaws even further.

* In ''Series/TheXFiles'' episode "[[Recap/TheXFilesS05E09Schizogeny Schizogeny]]," everyone believes that a sixteen-year-old murdered his stepfather. Some of his classmates get in his face and make fun of him for being a "psycho killer." They apparently thought there was no way this could backfire on them.
* ''Series/TrueBlood''

*** She herself is shocked when ''Bill'' does this, claiming that, as someone twice his age, she can kick his ass without breaking a sweat (not that vampires sweat). She proceeds to [[CurbStompBattle curb-stomp]] him... before Bill reveals that he was just keeping her busy, so that she doesn't notice a squad of well-armed men entering the house, whose fully-automatic guns are loaded with wooden bullets.

* On ''Series/NightCourt'', Dan Fielding is a [[JerkAss big jerk]] who tends to insult everyone (even people who have the authority to fire him, which has happened a couple of times) and one frequent target of his insults was Bull Shannon, the 6'8" baliff who in one episode proved strong enough to crush a bowling ball in his bare hands. Fortunately for Dan, Bull [[GentleGiant was usually a nice guy]], but if you ''did'' make him angry, it wasn't going to end well...
* ''Series/TheVampireDiaries''

** Damon himself just can't seem to get in through his head that Katherine is stronger than him, much nastier, capable of using most of the town as weapons, and can enter his and his love interest's home anytime she wants. A lot of Damon and Stefan's conversations in the second season include Stefan reminding him to 1. Stop letting her manipulate him. and 2. Stop trying to make her angry.

* From ''Series/MightyMorphinPowerRangers'' we have Bulk and Skull, who (as [[WebVideo/AtopTheFourthWall Linkara]] pointed out) regularly bullied a group of six classmates, all of whom could easily beat the crap out of them (even though they mostly seemed to pick on Billy, the weakest of the group). Luckily for them, the Rangers were far too nice to ever do anything. It is shown in [[EnsembleDarkhorse Tommy's]] introduction, though: they go to harass the new kid, only for him to pull off an impromptu demonstration of his martial arts skills (never actually touching either bully), which causes them to run away in wide-eyed terror.
** In ''Turbo'', Justin Stewart, who is a child-prodigy in Angel Grove High School as well as the Turbo Blue Ranger, got faced with a similar situation when a duo of teen bullies tried to threaten him for refusing to help them cheat on a test as well as telling on them for when they pulled the fire alarm as a class prank. The bullies here, however, were played considerably more serious to the point where Justin was shown to have been tempted to use his Ranger powers to fight them back (though even if he didn't, he's a skilled enough martial artist that he could likely still mop the floor with them before it's time for lunch) fortunately (for them), Justin, with Catherine's encouragement, found a more peaceful way of dealing with them.

* As a villain in a new-series ''Series/DoctorWho'' episode learned, trying to chain up and experiment on a [[ScaryDogmaticAliens Dalek]] is a ''bad idea''. Deciding to capture and torture ''[[GuileHero the]] [[TheDreaded Doctor]]'' is an even worse one.
** In fact the episode "Dalek" is a sort of TakeThat to various people who have in a sense bullied the dragon in real life by not taking the Daleks seriously. Characters continually mock the Dalek's seemingly ridiculous appearance including a plunger-like attachment and seeming inability to climb stairs and subsequently end up getting their face sucked off by said plunger or finding out that Daleks can in fact fly.
** According to Dorium the black market dealer in the episode ''[[Recap/DoctorWhoS32E7AGoodManGoesToWar A Good Man Goes To War]]'', this is what the bad guys are doing by trying to pull one over on The Doctor. Dorium even all but says they are bullying a dragon - specifically he tells them they've pricked a beast but haven't been smart enough to run away from it afterward.
* Anderson and Donovan on ''Series/{{Sherlock}}'' seemed convinced that Sherlock is a psychopath who will one day commit murder in order to assuage his boredom. This doesn't stop them from endlessly taunting and hassling him, which only leads to him humiliating them by utilizing his SherlockScan.

--> '''Lestrade''': And exactly how many times did he fall out of a window?
--> '''Sherlock''': It was a bit of a blur, Detective Inspector. I lost count.

* ''Series/StarTrekDeepSpaceNine'': In the episode "Profit and Loss", Gul Toran decides to manipulate Garak into doing his dirty work for him (killing the dissident fugitives that are on the station, an act Garak disapproves of) by dangling the carrot of ending Garak's exile in front of him. Once Garak has coralled the dissidents (and Quark who was helping them), Toran intervenes intending to take the sole credit and mocks Garak with the news that Garak's exile will never end and certainly not with any trivial act such as this. Considering Garak was one of the highest ranked agents of the Obsidian Order prior to his exile, which made him one of the most powerful and dangerous men in the whole of Cardassia (and Toran ''knew'' this), Toran's attempt to manipulate and then betray Garak was the most foolish, suicidal act of his life. Not only does Garak promptly kill Toran for his audacity, but he then helps the dissidents secure their escape and freedom from Cardassia.

* In the first episode of Series/{{Wolfblood}}, Rhydian loses control and violently attacks Jimmy, demonstrating extreme strength and the willingness to use it. This doesn't stop Jimmy and his friends spending most of the series teasing Rhydian, taunting him, framing him for crimes and, at one point, blackmailing him.
* In ''Series/SpartacusBloodAndSand'', a loan shark makes several attempts to harass and threaten Batiatus, but Batiatus is usually flanked by one or more famous gladiators who kill on his command.

* ''{{Series/Merlin}}''

** A baffling example occurs in the series finale. In ''the previous episode,'' Morgana had been so scared of Merlin's power that she'd [[spoiler: trapped him in a cave without his magic. Now that he's visibly recovered his magic, is furious with her, has demonstrated dominion over actual dragons, and he's wielding a ''sword,'' she decides to stand a foot away from him, unarmed, and taunt him. That goes about as well as she deserves.]] It was somewhat justified as Morgana has been [[SanitySlippage slowly slipping into madness]] over the course of the entire series, and by that point she's far past the point of VillainousBreakdown. [[spoiler:Plus, she probably thought Merlin had brought his own sword, and not [[InfinityPlusOneSword Excalibur]], in which case she would have survived the stabbing]].

* In ''[[Series/MysteryScienceTheatre3000 MST3K]]'''s Creator/SciFiChannel seasons, Pearl Forrester kept Bobo (an ape man who considered ripping lions apart a hoot) and Observer (a quasi-omnipotent RealityWarper) - two people who could easily end her if they wanted - through sheer force of will. The fact that neither man is particularly bright and [[RuleOfFunny it's funny]] helps.

* ''SonsOfAnarchy'': It's amazing how many people seem to think that manipulating, abusing or otherwise pushing around the members and loved ones of a biker gang with enough military-grade hardware to equip a decent sized mercenary force is a great idea.
* ItsAlwaysSunnyInPhiladelphia: A frustrated Charlie sees [[CreepyTwins the newly paroled Mc Poyles drinking at Paddy's]]:
-->'''Charlie''': [[SarcasmMode Hey, Liam, sorry I sent you and your brother to jail, but anytime you want to stab me]] [[TooDumbToLive would be great for me!]]
-->''Liam stabs him''
-->'''Ryan''': That's what you get, Charlie! You get forkstabbed!
-->'''Charlie''': I just got stabbed!
-->'''Mac''': Well, whose fault is that?
-->'''Dennis''': You had to make a scene, didn't you, Charlie.
-->'''Mac''': You had to run your mouth in front of psychopaths.
* In the first episode of ''MartialLaw'', a racist cop thought it would be a good idea to mock and insult Sammo despite hearing that he was the top cop in Shanghai and the senior training officer in martial arts and hand to hand combat. Sammo politely showed him how he earned those titles.

-->'''Mac''': You had to run your mouth in front of psychopaths.

* ItsAlwaySunnyInPhiladelphia: A frustrated Charlie sees [[CreepyTwins the newly paroled Mc Poyles drinking at Paddy's]]:

** Viserys, in a fit of madness, thinks he can push the barbarian warlord Khal Drogo around by violating his sacred laws and holding his wife hostage with a sword, while surrounded by Drogo's soldiers. It ends about as well as you'd expect.

** In the episode "Chrimera", two Klingons tried to stab a ''Changeling''. Not only were they attempting to stab a giant amorphous liquid being, the Changeling summoned a sword much larger than knives.