History Main / BrainsVersusBrawn

* In ''WesternAnimation/HowToTrainYourDragon'', [[DragonRider Hiccup and Toothless]] defeat [[BigBad the Red Death]] by fighting smart: while the Red Death is [[AttackOfThe50FootWhatever gigantic]] and [[MightyGlacier monstrously powerful]], Toothless is [[LightningBruiser much faster and more agile]], so Hiccup puts that to work to their advantage by luring the Red Death into the clouds, where its line of sight is limited, leaving Toothless free to pelt it with plasma blasts. When the Red Death starts breathing fire everywhere in response and Toothless's prosthetic tail fin catches fire, Hiccup baits the Red Death into following them back to solid ground. Just as the Red Death is about to roast them with more dragon fire, Toothless shoots a plasma blast into its mouth before its breath has been ignited, leaving it to explode inside the Red Death's mouth. Just then, the Red Death [[OhCrap realizes]] it was so preoccupied with diving after Hiccup and Toothless that [[NotTheFallThatKillsYou it's about to crash into Dragon Island]], at which point [[TooFastToStop it is far too late to slow down]] as its wings rip apart in the attempt; this leaves the Red Death completely helpless as it crashes into the ground and [[MadeOfExplodium explodes]].

[[folder: Real Life]]
* A famous quote from Creator/{{Thucydides}}, the Athenian general and historian, shows this dichotomy being [[LampshadedTrope lampshaded]] and cautioned against as early as the 5th century BCE:
--> "The society that separates its scholars from its warriors will have its thinking done by cowards and its fighting by fools."
[[/folder]]

In fact, this trope has been played with so much since its inception that it's spawned a variant to [[DeconReconSwitch reconstruct]] it, in which smart characters are portrayed as agile and strong characters are portrayed as StreetSmart. Reflecting their quick-thinking, smart characters use their speed and nimbleness to stay two-steps ahead of their physically stronger opponents while BookDumb strong characters use their pragmatism to outwit smarter ones, who may only be able to think in [[BookSmart the theoretical and not the practical]]. When applied to combat, this variant tends to overlap with ForceAndFinesse. In addition, {{CloseRangeCombatant}}s and {{LongRangeFighter}}s tend to follow this contrast, as melee weapons benefit from strength and ranged weapons benefit from a mind capable of calculating trajectories, distances, angles, and the like.

This contrast can even take on gendered forms since women, as "[[WomenAreDelicate the fairer sex]]," are considered to be [[MenAreTough physically weaker than men]], giving us the trope WomenAreWiser to compensate. StrongGirlSmartGuy inverts those associations. Outside of gender, you can see this contrast applied to entire races and civilizations in fantasy settings and science fiction. Many versions of the classic ElvesVersusDwarves dynamic include depictions of elves as a lofty, high-minded, intelligent race and dwarves as physically strong and BookDumb. In general, [[CloseRangeCombatant close-combat fighters]] represent brawn because melee weapons benefit from strength, while [[LongRangeFighter long-range fighters]] [[SmartPeopleShoot represent brains]] because ranged weapons are more sophisticated, and to make up for their weakness; WarriorVersusSorcerer works similarly, with warrior corresponding to brawn and [[SquishyWizard sorcerer]] corresponding to brains as MagicIsMental.

In fact, this trope has been played with so much since its inception that it's spawned a variant to [[DeconReconSwitch reconstruct]] it, in which smart characters are portrayed as being agile and strong characters are portrayed as StreetSmart. Reflecting their quick-thinking, smart characters use their speed and nimbleness to stay two-steps ahead of their physically stronger opponents while BookDumb strong characters use their pragmatism to outwit smarter ones, who may only be able to think in [[BookSmart the theoretical and not the practical]] or are prone to missing obvious solutions due to a preference for convoluted logics and plans. When applied to fighting, this variant tends to overlap with ForceAndFinesse.

This contrast can even take on gendered forms since women, as "[[WomenAreDelicate the fairer sex]]," are considered to be [[MenAreTough physically weaker than men]], giving us the trope WomenAreWiser to compensate. StrongGirlSmartGuy inverts those associations. Outside of gender, you can see this contrast applied to entire races and civilizations in fantasy settings and science fiction. Many versions of the classic ElvesVersusDwarves dynamic include depictions of elves as a lofty, high-minded, intelligent race and dwarves as physically strong and BookDumb. WarriorVersusSorcerer works similarly, with warrior corresponding to brawn and [[SquishyWizard sorcerer]] corresponding to brains as MagicIsMental.
%%Similarly, SmartPeopleShoot implies that
%%[[LongRangeFighter ranged attacks]]
%%correspond to brain, as [[CloseRange
%%Combatant]] already corresponds to
%%brawn.

* ''WesternAnimation/LegendOfKorra'': Asami Sato largely subverts the trope. A highly skilled mechanic, engineer, and head of a major company, she can also go hand-to-hand against fighters with a major weight advantage. Arguably the two sides work together, as she uses her tech savvy to create weapons that compensate for her lack of bending ability.

* ''WesternAnimation/AvatarTheLastAirbender'': On Team Avatar, Sokka is TheSmartGuy, specifically TheStrategist who comes up with many of the team's plans for infiltration and escape. He is also the weakest for the majority of the series in terms of combat capability as the primary sole non-bender of the team. He is contrasted first with Katara, and later with [[TheBigGuy Toph]]. Toph is rude, crude, BookDumb, and one of the strongest earth benders in the entire Avatar world. Their friendship is portrayed as VitriolicBestBuds, with Toph antagonizing Sokka most of the time. Over the course of the series we learn that Toph is much more StreetSmart than she initially comes off and Sokka learns swordsmanship to compensate, pushing them closer to the second variant of this trope and to ForceAndFinesse in terms of combat.

* A plot point in the ''WesternAnimation/PhineasAndFerb'' special "Where's Perry?" has Baljeet and Buford debating over this, even at one point going into an ArgumentOfContradictions about it. In the end, they decide that both brains and brawn work together.

* The season finale of the second season of ''WesternAnimation/ThunderbirdsAreGo'', "Brains vs Brawn'' subverts the trope by having BollywoodNerd Brains go up against TheDragon only known as "The Mechanic." While he has been causing trouble for the team all season long as TheHeavy, The Mechanic is a GadgeteerGenius and far from dumb, thus making this encounter less of a battle between two [[{{Foil}} Foils]] as it is between [[MirrorCharacter Mirror Characters]].