History ConservationOfNinjutsu / LiveACtionTV

* ''Series/BabylonFive'': Presents a rare good-guy example of this: when there's only one White Star, it's unstoppable. Once there's a fleet, they start getting taken down by mid-level enemies, often with no Vorlon or Shadow support. This is especially bad since the White Stars are meant to be able to learn from each hit it takes, so that the armour gets stronger after every battle. Even as late as the fourth series, the White Stars continued to get weaker: in Series 3, it takes 3 White Stars to destroy a Shadow warship, but by the battle of Proxima 3, 4 White Stars are needed to deal with a single Earth destroyer, an incredibly simpler ship with far less firepower, which Sheridan stated was weaker than The White Star.

* ''Series/BuffyTheVampireSlayer'': Buffyverse [[OurVampiresAreDifferent vampires]] were particularly subject to this trope. Individual [[OurVampiresAreDifferent vampires]] could be fairly respectable opponents, though they still had a bad track record of getting one-stab killed after Season 1. Whenever [[OurVampiresAreDifferent vampires]] gathered in groups, they were cannon fodder. One just hopes they don't have problems with splinters. This is justified in that each character is constantly improving their fighting skills.

* Perfectly illustrated in ''Series/{{Daredevil|2015}}''. In the first season, Daredevil is nearly killed in a fight with one Hand ninja, Nobu. In the second season, he faces the whole Hand organization, and initially has a hard time beating them. However, once Stick tells him to listen to the sound of their weapons, Daredevil is able to fight them. In the season finale, he and Comicbook/{{Elektra}} easily cut through dozens of them.

---->'''Cyberman:''' [[AC:We have five million Cybermen. How many are you?]]\\
'''Dalek Sec:''' [[AC:Four!]]\\
'''Cyberman:''' [[AC:You would destroy the Cybermen with four Daleks?]]\\
'''Dalek Sec:''' [[AC:We would destroy the Cybermen with ''one'' Dalek!]]
*** The Daleks do seem capable of making good on this threat — they are so much more advanced that during the ensuing firefight they are seen to take out dozens of Cybermen, but not one of the four Daleks takes damage.
*** This even applies to Davros, their non-Dalek creator. When he's surrounded by Daleks, he's an AxeCrazy and rather unintelligent cartoon Hitler-clone who spends most of his time yelling at them. When there are no or few Daleks around, he's a much calmer and terrifyingly intelligent ManipulativeBastard.

** [[Recap/DoctorWhoS38E8TheHauntingOfVillaDiodati "The Haunting of Villa Diodati"]] does the same thing with [[spoiler:the Cybermen:]] only one appears in the episode, but unlike entire armies of its species, it not only survives the Doctor but [[TheBadGuyWins gets her to hand over a superweapon capable of wiping out the universe.]]
** The Doctor himself makes heavy use of this trope. As Rose says in "Doomsday", "Five million Cybermen? Easy. One Doctor? ''Now'' you're scared." And in previous episodes, even in the old series, the Daleks eventually started a policy of dropping whatever they were doing and fixating entirely on the Doctor once they knew he was present.
*** In [[Recap/DoctorWhoS30E9ForestOfTheDead "Forest of the Dead"]], as the carnivorous shadow creatures approach, take pause, and then flee after this one line.
---->'''The Doctor:''' I'm the Doctor, and you're in the biggest library in the universe. ''[beat]'' Look me up.
* ''Series/GameOfThrones'': Jorah Mormont, Grey Worm and Daario Naharis take on upwards of fifty guards with barely a scratch off-screen during the sack of Yunkai.

** In ''Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration'' episode "Best of Both Worlds, Part II," the Borg blows away an entire Federation taskforce, without even a fight. However the Enterprise-D is able to go it alone against the Borg cube, and escape with only minor damage. This is justified by A) the Borg having Picard, thus knowing what Starfleet would do and B) the ships moving in in single-file formation. When the Borg return to Earth in ''Film/StarTrekFirstContact'', Starfleet has learned their lesson and employ a "swarm" tactic, which leads to a severely damaged Borg Cube, even if many of the ships are damaged or destroyed.

** Speaking of a single Borg-cube wiping out all of the attacking Starships, Conservation of Ninjitsu earns its Magnum Opus when the lone ship Voyager enters the Borg home-turf of the Delta Quadrant, turning the tables completely as it takes on ''the entire collective--'' apparently destroying it when Admiral Janeway kills the Borg Queen.

--->'''The Doctor:''' I'm the Doctor, and you're in the biggest library in the universe. ''[beat]'' Look me up.

** [[Recap/DoctorWho2019NYSResolution "Resolution"]] is another episode in which a single Dalek defeats anything the army can throw at it and almost takes over the Earth, doing better than entire armies of Daleks did in previous stories.
** In [[Recap/DoctorWhoS30E9ForestOfTheDead "Forest of the Dead"]], as the carnivorous shadow creatures approach, take pause, and then flee after this one line.

** Series 4 finale [[Recap/DoctorWhoS30E13JourneysEnd "Journey's End"]] and Series 5 finale [[Recap/DoctorWhoS31E13TheBigBang "The Big Bang"]] seem to indicate that Millions of Daleks < One Doctor < 5 or Less Daleks <[[spoiler: one ''very'' pissed-off River Song]].

* In ''Series/{{Grimm}}'', a single Wesen criminal is a serious threat that can only be tackled by a Grimm or another Wesen, and even then it's chancy. When small armys of Wesen attack, BadassNormal Hank can usually punch out a couple with no trouble.

* Perfectly illustrated in ''Series/{{Daredevil}}''. In the first season, Daredevil is nearly killed in a fight with one Hand ninja, Nobu. In the second season, he faces the whole Hand organization, and initially has a hard time beating them. However, once Stick tells him to listen to the sound of their weapons, Daredevil is able to fight them. In the season finale, he and Comicbook/{{Elektra}} easily cut through dozens of them.

** Series 4 finale [[Recap/DoctorWhoS30E13JourneysEnd "Journey's End"]] and Series 5 finale [[Recap/DoctorWhoS31E13TheBigBang "The Big Bang"]] seem to indicate that Millions of Daleks < One Doctor < 5 or Less Daleks <[[spoiler: one ''very'' pissed-off River Song]]

** The Megazords are victims of this as well. A single combined one from every machine available can destroy practically anything, but two or three fighting together usually get knocked around like ragdolls.

* ''Series/DoctorWho'': The amount of danger presented by the Daleks seems to always be inversely proportional to the number of Daleks present. When the Doctor and company are only facing one, as in "Dalek", it's a potential end-of-the-world scenario. When he faces ''millions'' as in "The Parting of the Ways" and "Doomsday", all it takes is a quick DeusExMachina to save the day. When he's back to three in "Evolution of the Daleks," [[spoiler:it takes a betrayal of their enslaved army to take them down, and one still gets away. You can be sure that last one is once again going to be a serious threat when it reappears.]]
** Referenced in "Doomsday", when Daleks and Cybermen declared hostilities:
---> '''Cyberman''': We have five million Cybermen. How many are you?\\
'''Dalek''': Four!\\
'''Cyberman''': You would destroy the Cybermen with four Daleks?\\
'''Dalek''': We would destroy the Cybermen with ''one'' Dalek!
** The Daleks do seem capable of making good on this threat -- they are so much more advanced that during the ensuing fire fight they are seen to take out dozens of Cybermen, but not one of the four Daleks takes damage.

** The Series 4 Finale "Journey's End" and the Series 5 Finale "The Big Bang" seem to indicate that Millions of Daleks < One Doctor < 5 or Less Daleks <[[spoiler: one ''very'' pissed-off River Song]]
** This even applies to Davros, their non-Dalek creator. When he's surrounded by Daleks, he's an AxeCrazy and rather unintelligent cartoon Hitler-clone who spends most of his time yelling at them. When there are no or few Daleks around, he's a much calmer and terrifyingly intelligent ManipulativeBastard.
** In "Forest of the Dead", as the carnivorous shadow creatures approach, take pause, and then flee after this one line.
---> '''The Doctor''': I'm the Doctor, and you're in the biggest library in the universe. (Beat) Look me up.

* ''Series/KamenRiderDenO'': The hordes of ninja in the movie ''Ore Tanjou'' suffer so badly from this that even the [[ThisLoserIsYou ridiculously inept protagonist]] Ryoutarou can hold his own against one.
* ''Series/KamenRiderDragonKnight'': The {{Mooks}} suffer from an ''extreme'' case of this. A group of them are nothing but cannon fodder for an ''unmorphed'' Len to kick around. ''One'', on the other hand, once required ''two'' Riders to use some of their strongest attacks.

* Perfectly illustrated in Marvel Netflix' ''Series/{{Daredevil}}''. In the first season, Daredevil is nearly killed in a fight with one ninja, Nobu. In the second season, at first Daredevil he Hand a horde of ninjas and has a hard time beating them because they slowed down their breathing and their hard to hear. Once Stick tells him to listen to the sound of their weapons, Daredevil can fight them. In the final episode he and Elektra easily cut through dozens of them.

* Perfectly illustrated in Marvel Netflix' ''Series/Daredevil''. In the first season, Daredevil is nearly killed in a fight with one ninja, Nobu. In the second season, at first Daredevil he Hand a horde of ninjas and has a hard time beating them because they slowed down their breathing and their hard to hear. Once Stick tells him to listen to the sound of their weapons, Daredevil can fight them. In the final episode he and Elektra easily cut through dozens of them.

* ''Series/Arrow'': At first Oliver Queen is barely able to defeat one member of the League of Shadows, but as the series continues he fights more and more League ninja at a time, and many of them are little more than mooks who are taken out by supporting characters.

** Against Species 8472, the Borg send legions of Borg cubes, all of which are taken down in seconds. CurbStompBattle indeed.

* ''Series/BabylonFive'': Presents a rare good-guy example of this: when there's only one White Star, it's unstoppable. Once there's a fleet, they start getting taken down by mid-level enemies, often with no Vorlon or Shadow support.
** This is especially bad since the White Stars are meant to be able to learn from each hit it takes, so that the armour gets stronger after every battle. Even as late as the fourth series, the White Stars continued to get weaker: in Series 3, it takes 3 White Stars to destroy a Shadow warship([[spoiler: after a telepath has jammed it]]), but by the battle of Proxima 3, 4 White Stars are needed to deal with a single Earth destroyer, an incredibly simpler ship with far less firepower (albeit with the ability to manoeuvre ), which Sheridan stated was weaker than The White Star.
** WordOfGod [[http://www.midwinter.com/lurk/guide/081.html says]] that the White Star fleet was deliberately pulling its punches to avoid slaughtering the Earth Forces. Sheridan wanted the EA ships to stand down or defect. (It ''was'' a civil war.)
*** The evidence for this exists in the episodes themselves. In the battle in "No Surrender, No Retreat", Sheridan shows concern for the crew of the ''Pollux'' when that ship is destroyed--a ship whose captain and crew had ''[[KickTheDog openly fired on innocent civilians]]''. After the battle, he considers his task force to have "achieved the mission objective", but because an Earth Alliance vessel had been destroyed in the process, it's ''not'' a victory to him. The only time the White Stars are ''not'' pulling their punches in this conflict are when they face the "special force" of Earth ships (which have been heavily enhanced), and when they're scrambling to destroy [[spoiler:the Earth's defensive grid before it starts firing on the planet below.]]
** This also seems to apply to the Shadows and Vorlons - Shadow battlecrabs were notoriously difficult to kill and Vorlons were pretty much invincible. Until the Battle of Coriana, when they started blowing up left and right. (Though in fairness, the coalition force arrayed against them was pretty huge too.) The casualties were massively slanted against the allied fleet.
** Also at Coriana VI, the Vorlons and Shadows were up against other First Ones, who presumably had weapons at least equal to them, and superior to what the Younger Races had on their ships.

** To be fair, the Daleks do seem capable of making good on this threat - they are so much more advanced that during the ensuing fire fight they are seen to take out dozens of Cybermen, but not one of the four Daleks takes damage.

*** In that case, though, the ''Voyager'' was equipped with weapons and armor ''from the future.''

* ''Franchise/SuperSentai'' and ''Franchise/PowerRangers'': There are many instances of a monster beating up an entire team of Rangers, only to be defeated by a single Ranger in a [[ThisIsSomethingHesGotToDoHimself sufficiently climactic battle]].
** The [[{{Mooks}} enemy grunts]] are an exception, though. They are pushovers in small or moderate numbers, but huge hordes of them occasionally manage to overpower the Rangers (happens especially in season finales).

** Funny you should mention the Megazord, since they're victims of this as well. A single combined one from every machine available can destroy practically anything, but two or three fighting together usually get knocked around like ragdolls.
** Series/KaizokuSentaiGokaiger subverts this. In an early episode The Gokaigers face off against 6th ranger key clones they are able to defeat them but the 5 of them are overpowered by the other 10 keys. In The 199 heroes movie The Gokiagers and Goseigers are able to easily take on a couple of dozen ranger clones at a time in pairs of 2 and Gosei Knight easily takes out the 6th ranger clones.

* ''Series/BattlestarGalacticaReimagined'': You see this near the end of the show. Where initially a few Cylon Centurions were nigh-unstoppable juggernauts that needed to have their heads blown up before they stopped, in a suitably dramatic StormTheCastle situation the dangerously outnumbered Battlestar crew can bring them down in droves with a few sporadically-fired 9mm rounds. [[spoiler:Admittedly, they had the help of other Cylons by this point, which ''could'' mean better bullets.]] Plus the fact that the Colonials in the start of the series were armed for the last Cylon war, and the new units were massive upgrades, while at the end of the series they'd been fighting Cylons for years on end, and had plenty of time to improve.

** In ''Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration'' episode "Best of Both Worlds, Part II," the Borg blows away an entire Federation taskforce, without even a fight. However the Enterprise-D is able to go it alone against the Borg cube, and escape with only minor damage.

* ''Series/BuffyTheVampireSlayer'': Buffyverse [[OurVampiresAreDifferent vampires]] were particularly subject to this trope. Individual [[OurVampiresAreDifferent vampires]] could be fairly respectable opponents, though they still had a bad track record of getting one-stab killed after Season 1. Whenever [[OurVampiresAreDifferent vampires]] gathered in groups, they were cannon fodder. One just hopes they don't have problems with splinters.
** The final season mixed this trope with a good dose of, ahem, VillainDecay. The first Turok-Han 'uber-vamp' was a nearly unstoppable force very narrowly beaten by the Slayer after several victories. In the finale, however, the Scoobies went up against an army of them, and Xander, Anya, and the slayers-still-in-training were taking hundreds of them down easily. In the DVD commentary, Joss Whedon points out that this was a conscious decision, claiming that "they couldn't all be as hard to beat as the first one," since that would make the last fight unwinnable. No in-universe explanation is given, though each potential Slayer had just each received a power equal to a fully fledged Slayer, so it isn't entirely implausible. Several Slayers die in the battle until [[spoiler: Spike saves the day with a heroic sacrifice]]. Nothing else left to do but recite [[MST3KMantra the Mantra]] and shrug it off.

** The final season mixed this trope with a good dose of, ahem, VillainDecay. The first Turok-Han 'uber-vamp' was a nearly unstoppable force very narrowly beaten by the Slayer after several victories. In the finale, however, the Scoobies went up against an army of them, and Xander, Anya, and the slayers-still-in-training were taking hundreds of them down easily. In the DVD commentary, Joss Whedon points out that this was a conscious decision, claiming that "they couldn't all be as hard to beat as the first one," since that would make the last fight unwinnable. No in-universe explanation is given, simply the remark that storytelling is more important than an internally-consistent canon. Nothing else left to do but recite [[MST3KMantra the Mantra]] and shrug it off.

* StargateVerse: Regularly seen. ''Series/StargateSG1'' has the justification that Tau'ri ships like the F-302 Mongoose and ''Daedalus''-class battlecruiser are simply better-engineered than their opponents', which tend to be AwesomeButImpractical. Same goes for ground engagements: Numerically smaller Tau'ri forces mow through dozens, even hundreds of {{mook}}s at a time due in part to [[BoringYetPractical better]] [[RockBeatsLaser equipment]] and tactics.

* ''{{Kamen Rider Den-O}}'': The hordes of ninja in the movie ''Ore Tanjou'' suffer so badly from this that even the [[ThisLoserIsYou ridiculously inept protagonist]] Ryoutarou can hold his own against one.
* ''KamenRiderDragonKnight'': The {{Mooks}} suffer from an ''extreme'' case of this. A group of them are nothing but cannon fodder for an ''unmorphed'' Len to kick around. ''One'', on the other hand, once required ''two'' Riders to use some of their strongest attacks.
** This is actually due to the source footage. In ''KamenRiderRyuki'', we have a MonsterOfTheWeek called Gelnewt which was of standard monster strength and was fought over the course of a two-part episode. For ''Dragon Knight'', the producers decided to turn the Gelnewt into the series' {{Mook}}, meaning this trope suddenly applies. Ironically, this filtered back to Japanese, where Gelnewts are the {{Mooks}} in the ''[[{{KamenRiderDen-O}} Den-O]] and [[KamenRiderDecade Decade]]'' {{Crossover}} movie '''entirely because''' there was a surplus of the suits left over from the filming of ''Dragon Knight''.

** In KamenRiderKabuto, how hard it is to kill [[{{Mooks}} Salisworms]] depends on how many there are; just one or two may require a FinishingMove, in a larger group they can be killed with a few swipes of a weapon, and in a very large group just a hard punch can destroy them.

* ''SuperSentai'' and ''PowerRangers'': There are many instances of a monster beating up an entire team of Rangers, only to be defeated by a single Ranger in a [[ThisIsSomethingHesGotToDoHimself sufficiently climactic battle]].

** KaizokuSentaiGokaiger subverts this. In an early episode The Gokaigers face off against 6th ranger key clones they are able to defeat them but the 5 of them are overpowered by the other 10 keys. In The 199 heroes movie The Gokiagers and Goseigers are able to easily take on a couple of dozen ranger clones at a time in pairs of 2 and Gosei Knight easily takes out the 6th ranger clones.

* ''Franchise/StarTrek'' is all over this trope. In fact this could be the very basis of their famous {{Redshirt}}s. You see groups of {{Redshirt}}s get vaporized, but Scotty survives into the 24th century! Even in the future, multiple Starfleet personnel get wasted during the course of TNG, but Worf makes it, despite TheWorfEffect. Likewise, while whole armadas of ships get pummeled, single starships win the day. This even applies to the bad guys. A single Borg cube can cause so much havoc, yet every time we seen a bunch of Borg cubes, they're usually destroyed immediately after.
** In ''Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration'' episode "Best of Both Worlds, Part II," the Borg blows away an entire Federation taskforce, without even a fight. However the Enterprise-D is able to go it alone against the Borg cube, and escape with only minor damage.
** Somewhat lampshaded in the TNG episode "Contagion" where Riker says "fate protects fools, little children, and ships named ''Enterprise''."
** Speaking of a single Borg-cube wiping out all of the attacking Starships, Conservation of Ninjitsu earns its Magnum Opus when the lone ship Voyager enters the Borg home-turf of the Delta Quadrant, turning the tables completely as it takes on ''the entire collective--'' apparently destroying it when Admiral Janeway kills the Borg Queen.
*** In that case, though, the ''Voyager'' was equipped with weapons and armor ''from the future.''
** Against Species 8472, the Borg send legions of Borg cubes, all of which are taken down in seconds. CurbStompBattle indeed.
** Also seen in ''[[Series/StarTrekDeepSpaceNine Deep Space Nine]]'' during the Dominion war arc. The Dominion have powerful Jem-Hadar fighters/destroyers that attack in [[GoddamnedBats large fleets]] to overwhelm big slow clumsy ships. The [[CoolShip Defiant]] is the first Federation ship built along these tactical lines, and its first combat against the Dominion sees it nearly destroyed by only two or three Jem-Hadar fighters. Later in the series, the Defiant and other Federation and Klingon ships are seen swatting fleets of them like flies.
* [[Series/BuffyTheVampireSlayer Buffyverse]] [[OurVampiresAreDifferent vampires]] were particularly subject to this trope. Individual [[OurVampiresAreDifferent vampires]] could be fairly respectable opponents, though they still had a bad track record of getting one-stab killed after Season 1. Whenever [[OurVampiresAreDifferent vampires]] gathered in groups, they were cannon fodder. One just hopes they don't have problems with splinters.

* In ''Series/DoctorWho'', the amount of danger presented by the Daleks seems to always be inversely proportional to the number of Daleks present. When the Doctor and company are only facing one, as in "Dalek", it's a potential end-of-the-world scenario. When he faces ''millions'' as in "The Parting of the Ways" and "Doomsday", all it takes is a quick DeusExMachina to save the day. When he's back to three in "Evolution of the Daleks," [[spoiler:it takes a betrayal of their enslaved army to take them down, and one still gets away. You can be sure that last one is once again going to be a serious threat when it reappears.]]

* In ''SuperSentai'' and ''PowerRangers'' there are many instances of a monster beating up an entire team of Rangers, only to be defeated by a single Ranger in a [[ThisIsSomethingHesGotToDoHimself sufficiently climactic battle]].
** The [[{{Mooks}} enemy grunts]] are an exception, though. They are pushovers in small or moderate numbers, but huge hordes of them occasionally manage to overpower the Rangers (happens especially in season finales).
** Also, early seasons would sometimes feature battles with multiple resurrected monsters, who would usually go down with just one or two hits. Eventually subverted in the third season premiere where a villain and four resurrected monsters, all giant sized, tear the Megazord to pieces.
** Funny you should mention the Megazord, since they're victims of this as well. A single combined one from every machine available can destroy practically anything, but two or three fighting together usually get knocked around like ragdolls.
** KaizokuSentaiGokaiger subverts this. In an early episode The Gokaigers face off against 6th ranger key clones they are able to defeat them but the 5 of them are overpowered by the other 10 keys. In The 199 heroes movie The Gokiagers and Goseigers are able to easily take on a couple of dozen ranger clones at a time in pairs of 2 and Gosei Knight easily takes out the 6th ranger clones.
* In ''KamenRiderDragonKnight'', the {{Mooks}} suffer from an ''extreme'' case of this. A group of them are nothing but cannon fodder for an ''unmorphed'' Len to kick around. ''One'', on the other hand, once required ''two'' Riders to use some of their strongest attacks.

* ''Series/BabylonFive'' presents a rare good-guy example of this: when there's only one White Star, it's unstoppable. Once there's a fleet, they start getting taken down by mid-level enemies, often with no Vorlon or Shadow support.
** This is especially bad since the White Stars are meant to be able to learn from each hit it takes, so that the armour gets stronger after every battle. Even as late as the fourth series, the White Stars continued to get weaker: in Series 3, it takes 3 White Stars to destroy a Shadow warship([[spoiler: after a telepath has jammed it]]), but by the battle of Proxima 3, 4 White Stars are needed to deal with a single Earth destroyer, an incredibly simpler ship with far less firepower (albeit with the ability to manoeuvre ), which Sheridan stated was weaker than The White Star.
** WordOfGod [[http://www.midwinter.com/lurk/guide/081.html says]] that the White Star fleet was deliberately pulling its punches to avoid slaughtering the Earth Forces. Sheridan wanted the EA ships to stand down or defect. (It ''was'' a civil war.)
*** The evidence for this exists in the episodes themselves. In the battle in "No Surrender, No Retreat", Sheridan shows concern for the crew of the ''Pollux'' when that ship is destroyed--a ship whose captain and crew had ''[[KickTheDog openly fired on innocent civilians]]''. After the battle, he considers his task force to have "achieved the mission objective", but because an Earth Alliance vessel had been destroyed in the process, it's ''not'' a victory to him. The only time the White Stars are ''not'' pulling their punches in this conflict are when they face the "special force" of Earth ships (which have been heavily enhanced), and when they're scrambling to destroy [[spoiler:the Earth's defensive grid before it starts firing on the planet below.]]
** This also seems to apply to the Shadows and Vorlons - Shadow battlecrabs were notoriously difficult to kill and Vorlons were pretty much invincible. Until the Battle of Coriana, when they started blowing up left and right. (Though in fairness, the coalition force arrayed against them was pretty huge too.) The casualties were massively slanted against the allied fleet.
** Also at Coriana VI, the Vorlons and Shadows were up against other First Ones, who presumably had weapons at least equal to them, and superior to what the Younger Races had on their ships.
** Marcus Cole explained to a group of thugs why they should tell him what he wanted to know: "Because if you don't, then in five minutes I'll be the only person at this table still standing. Five minutes after that, I'll be the only person in this room still standing. So, who's in?" After he makes good on this threat, he laments that, "Now I have to wait for someone to wake up."
* ''{{Kamen Rider Den-O}}'': The hordes of ninja in the movie ''Ore Tanjou'' suffer so badly from this that even the [[ThisLoserIsYou ridiculously inept protagonist]] Ryoutarou can hold his own against one.
* Hilariously lampshaded in an Creator/AdamSandler-era ''[[Series/SaturdayNightLive SNL]]'' skit, where the group of ninjas do a review of what went wrong after another failed attack. "How did we say we were going to attack the guy?" "All at once..." "And how ''did'' we attack?" "One at a time..." Sandler's hooded ninja speaks up about the use of throwing stars, noting that they are not a good idea in a large group, then pulling back his hood to reveal one stuck in his forehead. The gang ends up deciding to get their confidence back by beating up the next person they meet in the lobby - who of course turns out to be Bruce Lee.
* A justification for the trope is given in the Russian [[PeriodPiece period]] miniseries ''Satisfaction''. A fencing instructor makes his student fight three of his servants at once. After the student loses the first round the instructor asks him why he lost. The student says that he was outnumbered. The instructor tells him that he is wrong, because their greater number is actually their weakness: none of them wants to get injured, each would prefer one of the other guys to be in harm's way, and hence none of them is willing to show some initiative and do something really daring. With that knowledge the student naturally proceeds to kick their asses.
* ''Series/{{Scrubs}}'' had this in the fantasy scene where over a dozen asian interns attackers (wearing surgical masks much like ninja masks) are handled with ease by Turk and Todd. Admittedly it's a fantasy scene so no justification is neccesary but it still fits the rule.
* You see this near the end of ''[[Series/BattlestarGalacticaReimagined Battlestar Galactica]]''. Where initially a few Cylon Centurions were nigh-unstoppable juggernauts that needed to have their heads blown up before they stopped, in a suitably dramatic StormTheCastle situation the dangerously outnumbered Battlestar crew can bring them down in droves with a few sporadically-fired 9mm rounds. [[spoiler:Admittedly, they had the help of other Cylons by this point, which ''could'' mean better bullets.]] Plus the fact that the Colonials in the start of the series were armed for the last Cylon war, and the new units were massive upgrades, while at the end of the series they'd been fighting Cylons for years on end, and had plenty of time to improve.
* Regularly seen in the StargateVerse. ''Series/StargateSG1'' has the justification that Tau'ri ships like the F-302 Mongoose and ''Daedalus''-class battlecruiser are simply better-engineered than their opponents', which tend to be AwesomeButImpractical. Same goes for ground engagements: Numerically smaller Tau'ri forces mow through dozens, even hundreds of {{mook}}s at a time due in part to [[BoringYetPractical better]] [[RockBeatsLaser equipment]] and tactics.

* ''Series/{{Leverage}}'' sees a lesser degree of this. Eliot can drop a crowd of mooks just by breathing hard (especially in a season premiere as an EstablishingCharacterMoment for new viewers, even moreso if they have guns), but a one-on-one fight takes him a while and effort.