History Main / ConservationofNinjutsu

* In the first series of ''FullMetalPanic'', most major arcs end with a showdown between the protagonist Sousuke who fights the BigBad Gauron, who fights using an Arm Slave equipped with a Lambda Driver, which makes it nigh invincible for all intents and purposes. In each encounter, Sousuke is pushed to the brink of his physical limits just trying to take down one of these things. At the end of Full Metal Panic: The Second Raid, he has an encounter with five enemies who are using the same invincibility device he struggled against in season one, and dispatches all five of them with relative ease.

* In full effect on James Robinsons' ''[[ComicBook/NewKrypton World of New Krypton]]'' arc in {{Superman}}. One Kryptonian? One of the most powerful characters in the DCU. 80,000 Kryptonians? So much canon fodder

* A memorable moment from the original ''VideoGame/Shenmue'' has Ryo and a partner fighting off seventy attackers and succeeding.

** This trope is subverted with Ginga, who was defeated by three Combat Cyborgs despite being a better fighter than all of the Riot Force 6 recruits.

* Parodied in ''LeagueOfLegends'', where the three ninjas (Kennen, Shen, Akali) all have a hidden passive which reduces their maximum hp by 1 point for every other ninja, resulting in a possible reduction of -2 hp. The effect is unnoticeable upon gameplay, and acts as a homage to the trope.

* Matthew Stover's ''Shatterpoint'', a ''StarWars'' [[Franchise/StarWarsExpandedUniverse EU]] novel, has this used quite literally. Five or six Force-users shared from the same pool of energy (somehow). As they were killed off in the climactic battle, their shares of the power flowed back into the communal pool, and the last one standing ended up enormously superpowered. [[spoiler:It didn't help.]]

* This trope is averted in basically every ZombieApocalypse movie ever made. A single zombie is usually slow, mostly mindless, and can be killed instantly with a swift blow to the head. They don't turn into a real threat unless there are hundreds of them roaming the streets.

** There's a scene in the film where the older model [=NS4=]s try to protect Spooner from the new [=NS5=]s and just get the crap kicked out of them, regardless of number.

* ''Film/TheMatrix'' trilogy: In the famous Burly Brawl scene from ''Matrix: Reloaded'', Neo is able to manhandle (though not without some difficulty) dozens, if not [[TheAssimilator hundreds]], of Smith copies, yet in ''Matrix: Revolutions'', which takes place chronologically perhaps a day or so later, he is completely beaten by just a single Smith. And this little segment of dialogue, taken in the context of this trope, shows Smith to be quite GenreSavvy when the need calls for it.

** When Indy faces multiple mooks in ''Film/TempleOfDoom'', he knocks each of them out in quick succession, but when a single mook tries to garrote him earlier in the film, it leads to a not-so-quick struggle.

* The [[Film/{{Alien}} Alien series]] invokes this trope. The first movie has a single xenomorph terrorizing a ship of miners and the third has one xenomorph menacing a prison colony. The second and fourth movie has entire swarms of them that seem easier to kill (Justified somewhat by the fact that there weren't any guns or otherwise effective weaponry in the first and third films).

* In the multiplayer shooter ''{{Team Fortress 2}} the Spy, one of the nine character classes, has the potential to singlehandedly wreak havoc across the entire enemy team. A lone Spy can cripple defenses, take out high priority targets and even ninja-capture objectives when no-one's looking, all while causing paranoia among enemy teammates. Multiple Spies, on the other hand, don't work so well: if one Spy messes up, the enemy team will be alerted and will plan accordingly, making life much more difficult for the other Spies. They also tend to interfere with each other's plans, particularly when trying to take down the same target or Sentry Gun nest. When a team has three Spies or more, chances are high none of them is doing well at all, which in turn hampers the others' effectiveness, especially as Spies aren't cut out for head-on combat.

* The GrandFinale of ''DragonAge'' has the capital city of Ferelden attacked by Darkspawn. When you get inside the city, you'll find that you're vastly outnumbered, but are only fighting against grunt versions of the normal darkspawn, meaning that they go down in one or two hits to balance things out.

* A MagicAIsMagicA example is the [[Halo]] series. In the face of a horde of aliens that are both physically and technologically superior to anything Humanity has to offer, the Master Chief (and other SPARTAN-IIs) are the only humans that are physically strong, technologically augmented and technically skilled enough to take down thousands of 7-foot tall alien killing machines. JustifiedTrope in that he was trained to be a soldier from being a very small child, was physically (and very painfully) augmented by such procedures as having his bones coated in carbon fibre, and possesses a suit of powered armour outfitted with the best shielding and enhancement technology humanity has.

* ''LegendOfZeldaSkywardSword'' plays this trope straight by the end of the game. To slow Link down, [[BigBad Ghirahim]] summons his whole army of minion, most of whom die in one hit by this point in the game. Ghirahim himself, and the BiggerBad that serves as the FinalBoss, are a different story.

* Guile in a BarlBrawl with all the rowdy drunks inside in the [[MalibuComicsStreetFighter Malibu Street Fighter comic]].

** Ben10Omniverse has a much more ridiculous exemple in episode ''Special Delivery''. Said episode involves one of the biggest VillainTeamUp in the franchise since the [[{{Ben10}} Negatve 10]]. Some of the villains involved include [[WarElephant Trumbipulor]], who was TheJuggernaut in his previous appearance and could give a hard time to Ben even when he was supported by [[HypercompetentSidekick Rook]] and an entire team of [[SpacePolice Plumbers]], Fisttrick, who could be a relatively good match to Ben in his two previous episodes, and Sunder, who had previously been a match to ''Ultimate Spider-Monkey'', to list only a few. When they all confront Ben ''alone'' at the end of the episode, he effortlessly delivers them a CurbStompBattle.

** SpiderMan also has this habit to a lesser extent. He has fought the ComicBook/FantasticFour and XMen more than once and holds his own rather well despite the fact that individual members can and have done well against the wall-crawler in one-on-one fights.

* In ''PiratesOfTheCaribbean: At World's End'', toward the end when [[spoiler:the pirates find themselves outnumbered and outgunned and standing off against the East India Company's hundreds strong fleet it turns out that the EIC only bothered to send one ship into combat -- Davy Jones's ship. The rest stood back and didn't bother joining in the battle. Of course, it kinda makes sense to send an extremely powerful and partially magical ship to do battle with a single pirate ship, especially if you can take the other ships alive when they surrender. saves lives, saves money, and it's just good business.]]
* Any BruceLee movie, where he's outnumbered 80:1; and when they use weapons, he whips out his nunchucks to do things the ''lazy'' way.
** By lazy, we mean [[CombatPragmatist "smart,"]] of course.