History Main / CurbstompCushion

** The revised Link. vs Cloud fight is this, [[spoiler: with Link being a GlassCannon who uses the Four Sword and Mipha's Grace to keep cheating death until Cloud finally gives him a OneHitKill]].

* ''Fanfic/AceCombatEquestriaChronicles'': The ponies successfully recapture Cloudsdale in chapter 14, defeating a griffin army group roughly twice their size. They've lost at least ten fliers in the process.

* Every fight Tai Lung gets into before Po in ''WesternAnimation/KungFuPanda'' establishes him as being great but not invincible. During the jailbreak he is almost stopped when the bridge is blown, The Furious Five all manage to land blows and Tigress and Viper go toe-to-toe with him for a short while before he pulls out his pressure point attack, and Master Shifu takes him on in a protracted battle.

* ''Fanfic/VowOfTheKing'': Ichigo does well when fighting against Unohana, but she makes it clear that he wasn't ready to truly kill her. Once she gets serious, she pretty much manhandles him.

[[index]]
* CurbStompCushion/AnimeAndManga
* CurbStompCushion/FanWorks
* CurbStompCushion/{{Literature}}
* CurbStompCushion/LiveActionTV
* CurbStompCushion/VideoGames
* CurbStompCushion/WesternAnimation
[[/index]]

[[folder:Professional Wrestling]]
* This summarizes Wrestling/RickySteamboat's SignatureStyle. While he did not get [[DemotedToExtra consistently]] pushed as a [[TagTeam single]]'s star and was often beaten to [[TheWorfEffect show how hard]] the champion would have to fight to retain against his next challenger, Steamboat rarely ever let anyone get sustain more than five offensive manuevers against him in a row, even if the only way Steamboat could retaliate was [[NoSell completely ineffective]]. For whatever reason, this clicked with the fans and made him an [[IncorruptiblePurePureness eternal]] baby {{face}}. Steamboat as a {{heel}} was something people refused to accept, as fans were too eager to see him make a comeback.[[/folder]]

[[folder:Tabletop Games]]
* The Inner Sphere achieved this a few times in ''TabletopGame/BattleTech'' during the initial Clan invasion, typically via luring Clan forces into [[LandMineGoesClick minefields]], ambushes, or otherwise using [[CombatPragmatist smart tactics]] to counter the Clans' superior technology. This allowed the Inner Sphere troops to bleed the Clans a bit and insure that defeated forces were able to retreat rather than being wiped completely out. As the Clan invasion carried on and lines got stretched, these tactical cushions eventually became so common that the Clans lost their momentum strategically trying to continually strike deeper into the immensely bigger Inner Sphere, eventually leading to actual turning points such as the Battle of Luthien.
** The Reunification war became this for the Taurian Concordat. A 56-world Periphery State, the Concordat were invaded by the 1000+-world-sized Star League... And lost horribly. The cushion comes in that the Star League expected the Concordat to fall within a year or two. It took them ''20 years'', and the Star League military taking disproportionate casualties, before the Taurians were forced into a surrender.
** The short story "Three Points of Glory" revolves around this trope: The world of Sheliak, facing invasion by Clan Ghost Bear and having no military at all, decided to bid their All-Star (American) Football team [[MakeGamesNotWar in a Trial of Possession for the planet]] in the hope that the Clanners wouldn't know how to play. They quickly discover that not only ''do'' Clanners know how to play American Football, it's a favoured pastime for the SuperSoldier Elementals Clan Ghost Bear use for their team. The story focuses around the Sheliak All-Stars' attempt to score even a single point off their opponents while they're otherwise being flattened. [[spoiler:The match ends 84-3, and Sheliak is handed over peacefully in the postgame]].
* A lot of last-stand type scenarios in ''TabletopGame/WarhammerFantasy'' had this theme. Most notable was the Halting the Tide scenario during the "Storm of Chaos" event, where the defending force was almost guaranteed to be slaughtered, and the "cushion" was additional time for the main defence to prepare for Archaon's arrival. (A lucky or skilled defending player could also, flavourfully speaking, claim additional cushions, such as shooting Archaon off his CoolHorse, killing his underlings in large numbers, or even forcing Archaon himself to spend some time recuperating from battlefield wounds.)
** Ironically, this cushion worked a little ''too'' well: The Forces of Order won a resounding first place during Storm of Chaos, mostly thanks to Halting the Tide scenarios ending with PyrrhicVictory after PyrrhicVictory for the Warriors of Chaos. The ensuing StoryOverwrite into a NearVillainVictory was fairly controversial to say the least, and the whole scenario was declared CanonDiscontinuity shortly after.

[[folder:Theater]]
* Directly invoked by Enjolras and the other revolutionaries in ''Theatre/LesMiserables''; when they realize that [[spoiler:no one is going to come to help them, and they are going to die]], they promise to "make them bleed while we can". [[spoiler:Given how quickly they go down shortly thereafter, it's unlikely they were very successful in this]].

[[folder:Visual Novels]]
* Wilhelm's battle with Schreiber in ''VisualNovel/DiesIrae'' was pretty much a one sided beat-down in Schreiber's favor. Despite this he managed to keep getting back up to try and land a hit and eventually managed to pin Schreiber for the briefest of moments despite him losing pretty badly.

[[folder:Web Animation]]
* ''WebAnimation/DeathBattle'' does its best to follow this trope. Even when dealing with the most one-sided victories, the hosts are able to draw up a script that makes the big fight last a third of the episode with a good number of passes with the AdvantageBall, with several episodes having the loser give one hell of a final showing before being overcome.
** An arguable inversion occurs in the battle between [[WesternAnimation/TheTransformers Starscream]] and [[WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic Rainbow Dash]], probably the most curbstompy fight in ''Death Battle'' history, with [[spoiler:the latter]] utterly toying with [[spoiler:the former]] for the entire duration of the fight, even more than their stats might imply. [[spoiler:This seems to be mostly for the purpose of the inherent RuleOfFunny in seeing a small pony annihilating a giant robot, but is also somewhat justified, since due to the potency of his arsenal any good hit by Starscream could have theoretically annihilated Dash, [[ImperialStormtrooperMarksmanshipAcademy if only he weren't too incompetent to land even one]]. Starscream lands all of '''two''' hits in the entire fight, one with his metal hand and one with the Null Ray, which does not damage organic beings and therefore only stuns and dazes Dash for a second or two. She '''is''' at least visibly worried about his final barrage of missiles, even though she [[HoistByHisOwnPetard winds up using it to her advantage]].]]
** Scrooge [=McDuck=] vs. Shovel Knight turns out to be a pretty huge one. From analysis, it appears that [[spoiler:Scrooge's feats]] vastly outclass that of [[spoiler:Shovel Knight's]]. Yet come the fight, and [[spoiler:Shovel Knight nearly dominates the ''entire battle'' until Scrooge pulls out his Anti-Inertia Ray and Neutra-Friction Ray to seal the victory for him]].
** Likewise, Jotaro Kujo vs. Kenshiro also turns out to be a pretty big one. The analysis showed that [[spoiler:the latter's]] offensive and defensive feats and fighting style gave him massive advantages over his opponent. During the fight, [[spoiler:Kenshiro seemingly manages to gets only one glancing hit on Jotaro, while Jotaro holds the AdvantageBall throughout the fight as his Stand Star Platinum easily tanks or keeps Kenshiro at bay. That one hit was all it needed for Jojo to [[YouAreAlreadyDead be already dead]], thanks to hitting a pressure point that made him explode later.]]
** And yet another with Optimus Prime vs. Gundam. From the analysis, it's clear that the [[spoiler:latter]] stood no chance, yet in the actual fight itself, the loser puts up one hell of a fight, even managing to get the winner on the ropes and make it look like they were going to win for a moment.
** DIO vs Alucard makes it clear in the post-analysis that [[spoiler:the latter]] was horribly outclassed in strength, speed, and durability, as well as having no real counter against [[spoiler:[[TimeStandsStill The]] [[FightingSpirit World]] and even his strongest advantage (his superior HealingFactor) could be chipped away at it until his three million "extra lives" were spent.]] In the fight itself, [[spoiler:Alucard [[HorrifyingTheHorror completely horrifies Dio]] during the first half of the battle (especially when Dio nearly gets turned into dog food by Baskerville) and Dio spends most of it just playing keep-away and chipping at Alucard to wear him down to find his needed openings.]]
** {{Downplayed|Trope}} in "Omni-Man vs. Homelander". [[spoiler: Homelander can use a sonic attack, which is Omni-Man's weakness. But their power levels are so different this just means he drops Omni-Man out of the sky once, buying himself maybe half a minute more. The same when he gets the drop on Omni-Man once and manhandles him for a moment; Omni-Man just waits it to be over before starting to toy with Homelander again.]]
* Even though the ''WebAnimation/MadnessCombat'' series has every episode being a nearly uninterrupted CurbStompBattle in favor of the respective protagonist, it often happens that even lowly {{Mook}}s manage to wear them down with the occasional successful ambush or lucky shot.
* Volume six of ''WebAnimation/{{RWBY}}'' gives us Cinder vs. Neo. It plays with the trope in that Neo does far better against her than anyone else, save for Raven ([[spoiler:who happens to be a Maiden]]), and matches Cinder in sheer skill. However, Cinder was holding back her Maiden powers to keep a low profile, so when they take the fight to an empty alleyway, she makes it clear she could burn Neo to crisp ''very'' easily, forcing her to stand down.
* In the original ''WebAnimation/SuperMarioBrosZ'', Yoshi lands a few good kicks on Mecha Sonic before getting totally demolished.
* The first portion of Broly and Vegeta's battle (both as Super Saiyan 3) in ''WebAnimation/DragonBallDeliverance'' does not go Vegeta's way as he's subjected to a NoHoldsBarredBeatdown and gets the tar kicked out of him. However, unlike their prior bouts, he lands several hits in and even knocks Broly around for a bit, a far cry from when he was easily defeated in the past.

[[folder:Webcomics]]
* In ''Webcomic/AskWhitePearlAndStevenAlmostAnything'', when Steven unleashes his OneHitKill attack, Rose was the only one able to withstand it, her shield blocking the attack while the others were poofed instantly.
* ''Webcomic/DragonBallMultiverse'' features a number of these, by nature of the tournament format.
** U9 Tenshinhan versus U4 Super Buu. Buu decides to be sporting and not attack for a full minute. Tenshinhan breaks out the Mafuba, which he executes perfectly, sealing Buu in a manner that bypasses his insane regeneration. Buu then returns, explaining that he's hidden pieces of himself around the arena that can regenerate into him, and having absorbed Piccolo means he knows how to reverse the Mafuba, but he still compliments the guy for trying. Tenshinhan then decides to just point-blank ''annihilate'' him, combining his four arms and his Kikoho to create a double-strength version of an already disproportionately-powerful attack that turns Buu and the entire ring to vapor. When Buu [[FromASingleCell demonstrates he can return from even that]], Tenshinhan [[KnowWhenToFoldEm throws in the towel.]]
** Cell (while [[IAmNotLeftHanded holding back his power to his Cell Games level]]) versus Dabura. It's very evident that Cell is the more powerful of the two, due to his regeneration and greater skill, but Dabura still gives one hell of a show, able to get in the first hit, break Cell's forcefield, slice him open with his sword, and even nearly negate Cell's regeneration with [[TakenForGranite his stone spit.]]
** U9 Videl versus U8 King Cold. Though it's very evident that this Videl is [[AlternateUniverseReedRichardsIsAwesome a lot more powerful than "our" version]], and gets to show off Kaioken and get in some hits with the Z Sword, it quickly becomes evident that she doesn't stand a chance, and she forfeits once he enters his true form.
* In ''Webcomic/KillSixBillionDemons'' fourth book, the TournamentArc ends with [[spoiler:82 White Chain facing down GodEmperor Solomon David. Solomon so outmatches White Chain he spends most of the match [[BeatThemAtTheirOwnGame copying her styles on the fly]] [[JustToyingWithThem just to humiliate her]], and [[WorfBarrage shrugs off White Chain's most impressive attack]] before unleashing [[NoHoldsBarredBeatdown a brutal beatdown on her in return]]. However, White Chain is able to deliver a CrossCounter during Solomon's final attack that mildly bruises his cheek, something no one has ever done to him in his tournament before. Despite not qualifying for VictoryByFirstBlood, the tournament crowd -- being accustomed to Solomon always winning by un-cushioned CurbstompBattle -- hail White Chain as the victor even if she didn't actually win.]]
* In ''Webcomic/TheOrderOfTheStick'', when [[KnightTemplar Miko]] [[https://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0251.html captures the Order of the Stick]], she's able to defeat all of them (sans Durkon, who heals his party members instead of fighting back) with the help of her celestial steed Windstriker. [[https://forums.giantitp.com/showthread.php?6495-Order-of-the-Stick-November-II/page17&p=291639#post291639 Rich Burlew provided a play-by-play of the battle]], which shows that a mixture of bad luck, being caught off guard and Miko taking out [[SquishyWizard Vaarsuvius]] first led to their defeat. However, you can see in the last panel of the comic that Miko and Windstriker have some minor injuries; according to the play-by-play, Roy's full attacks heavily injured Miko and forced her to use her Lay on Hands to recover, while Haley managed to sneak attack Windstriker with Elan's rapier after he broke her bow.
* In ''Webcomic/PeterParkerForeignExchangeStudent,'' Izuku gets his ass thoroughly kicked by a Venom-controlled Peter, but not before breaking all of Venom's teeth with a kick after recalling some of Peter's advice.
* During the Imperial Dalek invasion of Ziragalen in ''WebComic/SecondEmpire'', Anzollo engages the Imperial Fleet in space, all the way knowing he can't hope to win against the vast invading army. He still racks kill after kill and delays them long enough to allow Xenol to finish putting Ziragalen's main fortress on full lockdown and preparing for the assault.
* During newbie Viole's and veteran Urek's fight in ''Webcomic/TowerOfGod'', the weaker Irregular gets a OneHitKO… but while receiving it and protecting a little girl that somehow got into the fray, he actually manages to scratch Urek's cheek. With Urek being one of the most powerful beings in the Tower, that's something like managing to scratch Franchise/{{Superman}}.

[[folder:Web Original]]
* ''{{Literature/Deviant}}'': While Genesis gets her ass completely kicked by Terminus, she manages to actually do some damage and lasts longer than anyone really should've in her situation. This is pretty recognized in-universe afterwards.
* ''Literature/AHerosWar'': The first mission of the "Special Effects" (experimental weapons testing) team kills zombies at an unprecedented rate of thirty times their own casualties. They have to burn a lot of magic and hard-to-replace ammunition to do it, though, and the casualties on the human side are felt more keenly than the zombies losing a single army out of an endless horde. It was still a definite victory (and a valuable test of the new weapons).
* The Website/AlternateHistoryDotCom timeline ''Literature/NewDealCoalitionRetained'' has a couple of examples once WorldWarIII breaks out:
** In the Middle East, communist forces from Iran and Syria overrun northern Iraq and northern Israel, but take heavy losses to do so. Plus, the defenders in both countries manage to fall back to heavily-prepared defensive lines, causing the advance of both invasions to grind to a halt.
** The Warsaw Pact manage to invade all of Germany east of the Rhine, but at the cost of almost double the number of casualties suffered by NATO. This allows NATO to counterattack and take back significant chunks of territory.

[[folder:Web Videos]]
* The version of the Saiyan Saga ''WebVideo/DragonBallDC'' has the fight against [[Franchise/DragonBall Nappa]] turn out this way. The Saiyan has easily plowed through Earth's heroes, with only ComicBook/{{Aquaman}} and Franchise/{{Batman}} being left by the end. Aquaman is badly injured, having lost a hand, but Batman says his plan requires Nappa to bleed. Despite his injuries, [[DyingMomentOfAwesome Aquaman manages to inflict a cut on Nappa before dying]]. The injury allowed Batman to put his plan against Nappa into action and defeat the Saiyan.
** The climax of the Entity Saga sees the heroes already exhausted from previous fights when [[Franchise/{{Superman}} Rogal Zaar]] shows up. Despite that they force Rogal Zaar to resort to [[CrazyPrepared use the various traps he prepared]] as his physical strength and gadgets aren't enough. He tanks every attack thrown at him, but is damaged by them, and gives time for the heroes to escape to Earth. [[Franchise/DragonBall Kakarot]] [[AdaptationalNameChange Kent]] and Batman stay behind. Batman doesn't have any powers, but he manages to save Kakarot from a fatal blow by hitting Rogal Zaar with Scarecrow's fear toxin and [[spoiler: [[TakingTheBullet takes a hit that would have killed him]], an act which caused Kakarot to turn into a Super Saiyan and demolish Rogal Zaar.]]
** The Doom Saga has Gohan's debut fight against the Parasite. [[HopeSpot Gohan appears to have the upperhand but his attacks to just be feeding the parasite]], who prompty engulfs Gohan and starts to drain him of all his energy. Gohan releasing a massive energy burst that leaves him too exhausted to fight is enough to escape the Parasite. He's clearly lost, but managed to survive long enough for Kakarot to save him.
* In season two of ''WebVideo/MortalKombatLegacy'', Johnny Cage actually manages to hold his own against [[spoiler: [[FaceHeelTurn Evil! Liu Kang]]]] for a moment, despite being worn down and stabbed through the shoulder in his fight with Mileena just before this. Even [[spoiler: Liu]] seems impressed by this, before he stops [[CurbStompBattle holding back]]. And a little bit later, Stryker briefly manages to K.O. [[spoiler: Liu Kang]] with a taser to the back, before getting his ass handed to him.

We are witnessing a CurbStompBattle. Maybe the [[Film/ToraToraTora Imperial Japanese Navy has]] [[UsefulNotes/WorldWarII caught the American giant sleeping]]. Perhaps [[AIIsACrapShoot Skynet's]] [[Film/Terminator2JudgmentDay forces are ripping the]] [[LaResistance TechCom troops]] a [[VideoGame/TeamFortress2 structurally superfluous new behind]]. Whatever the case, the losing side is getting it ''[[AccidentalInnuendo hard]]''.

** The prequel trilogy ends with a [[ForegoneConclusion canon-mandated]] cushion; although the Jedi are about 99% wiped out, Anakin Skywalker has become Darth Vader, and Chancellor Palpatine has gained more or less absolute power, Yoda and Obi-Wan are alive, Qui-Gon Jin has managed to contact Yoda from the Force afterlife, and together they're going to be able to train Anakin's son Luke as [[TitleDrop a new hope]] for the galaxy.

** ''Film/RogueOne'': [[spoiler: [[AnyoneCanDie The Rebels are wiped out to a man]], but they manage to [[ForegoneConclusion successfully transmit the Death Star plans to the rebellion.]] It then becomes a moot point when Tarkin [[spoiler: orders the Death Star to fire on his own base, killing the last two rebels (Jyn and Cassian) along with presumably [[BadBoss every Imperial troop left on the base]]]], though even that is a Curb-Stomp Cushion since the Death Star's days are numbered.

* ''Film/UnderSiege2'' has Siegal's character, Casey Ryback, dominating TheDragon in their fight. But said dragon, does manage to land a solid kick to Ryback's face when the former tried to twist his ankle, knocking him back and allowing the former grab a weapon. And earlier in the fight, he managed to cost Ryback his knife when their tussle lead to them falling down the stairs.

* ''Film/Dune2021'': The Harkonnen attack catches House Atreides completely by surprise, destroying all of their spacecraft on the ground and forcing the survivors of the initial bombardment to charge into battle outnumbered and poorly armed. Despite this, Gurney Halleck still manages to lead the survivors in a glorious last charge, holding off the Harkonnens until most are cut down by the Sardaukar.

** ''Film/AvengersInfinityWar'': The combined might of Earth’s Mightiest Heroes and the Guardians of the Galaxy proves to be no match for Thanos and the power of the Infinity Gauntlet, but they’re sure as hell won’t go down without giving him one hell of a fight first. [[spoiler:Even if Thanos does succeed in his goal of wiping out half the universe, in the end he has lost everything in his quest due to the heroes’ resistance. His entire army and the elite Black Order is annihilated, his adoptive daughter sacrificed, the Infinity Gauntlet ruined, and the surviving heroes will surely come to avenge their fallen comrades in the near future. [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking And he got a tiny cut on his cheek from Tony's rocket-assisted punch.]]]]

* ''Film/IpMan'': All of Ip's opponents are clearly outclassed, but [[FourStarBadass General Miura]] nearly manages to get him with a RingOut.

* Simba in ''WesternAnimation/{{The Lion King|1994}}'' loses to [[IWasBeatenByAGirl his best friend Nala]] during all of their fights, but in their third fight as adults he does a much better job against her than the first two times. At the beginning of the fight he manages to [[OhCrap startle her for a moment]] when he [[DynamicEntry lunges at her out of nowhere and tackles her hard to the ground]], briefly pinning her before she manages to break free from his hold and fight back. He grapples with her evenly throughout the fight, [[UnskilledButStrong despite her having more experience than him]] and this being the first ''real'' fight of his life. Finally, even though she ends up winning with the same move she used to beat him before, she was clearly taking the fight very seriously, unlike their fights as cubs where she easily beat Simba while laughing at him with little effort, and he managed to save his friends from her.

* After messing with the poor box during the DarkestHour of ''WesternAnimation/RobinHood'', the Sheriff of Nottingham seemingly talks himself into a sound beating from the livid Friar Tuck, who shoves and whacks him stupid with a club. Even before Trigger comes to his aid however, the Sheriff recovers and easily slices Tuck's club in half. Though Tuck ''still'' doesn't lose footing until Trigger intervenes, he is clearly [[OhCrap panicking and fighting much more desperately.]]

* After messing with the poor box during the DarkestHour of ''WesternAnimation/RobinHood'', the Sheriff of Nottingham seemingly talks himself into a sound beating from the livid Friar Tuck, who shoves and whacks him stupid with a club. Even before Trigger comes to his aid however, the Sheriff recovers and easily slices Tuck's club in half, causing the latter to [[OhCrap panic and fight much more desperately.]]

** Batman and Dracula's fight. Batman finds himself unable to match Dracula's strength even with his own vampiric powers, but is able to do some damage with his silver Batarangs.

*** The rematch between the two. This time Kong has the HomefieldAdvantage because they are fighting in a city where he can manuveur by leaping around the buildings and has [[AnAxeToGrind an axe]] [[EnergyAbsorption that absorbs the energy from Godzilla's]] BreathWeapon (something Kong has no defense against otherwise). By the end Kong seems to have Godzilla on the ropes, but Godzilla in the end turns out to have been pulling his punches and reduces the fight to [[NoHoldsBarredBeatdown a one sided beating]] that leaves Kong on death's doorstep. Despite that Kong managed to get a number of hits in throughout the fight and even when pinned under Godzilla's foot, he after he's clearly beaten he gets in one last hit on a wound he made with the axe.

** ''Film/RogueOne'': [[spoiler: [[KillEmAll The Rebels are wiped out to a man]]]], but they manage to [[ForegoneConclusion successfully transmit the Death Star plans to the rebellion.]] It then becomes a moot point when Tarkin [[spoiler: orders the Death Star to fire on his own base, killing the last two rebels (Jyn and Cassian) along with presumably [[BadBoss every Imperial troop left on the base]]]], though even that is a Curb-Stomp Cushion since the Death Star's days are numbered.

* ''Film/Prey2022'': Most things that fight the Predator are taken out in short order, but in numerous cases, the alien's quarry manages to get a few hits in to show that it's not invincible. The Predator goes one-on-one with a grizzly bear, and although he ends up killing it in one punch, he's briefly knocked down and thrashed by the bear beforehand, while the French trappers that try and ambush it manage to inflict numerous minor injuries before it regains its bearings and slaughters them all. Even then, it's shown having to patch up all its wounds after the battle is over.

** An arguable inversion occurs in the battle between [[WesternAnimation/TheTransformers Starscream]] and [[WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic Rainbow Dash]], probably the most curbstompy fight in ''Death Battle'' history, with [[spoiler:the latter]] utterly toying with [[spoiler:the former]] for the entire duration of the fight, even more than their stats might imply. [[spoiler:This seems to be mostly for the purpose of the inherent RuleOfFunny in seeing a small pony annihilating a giant robot, but is also somewhat justified, since due to the potency of his arsenal any good hit by Starscream could have theoretically annihilated Dash, [[ImperialStormtrooperMarksmanshipAcademy if only he weren't too incompetent to land even one]]. Starscream lands all of '''two''' hits in the entire fight, one with his metal hand and one with the Null Ray, which does not damage organic beings and therefore only stuns and dazes Dash for a second or two. She '''is''' at least visibly worried about his final barrage of missiles, even though she [[HoistByHisOwnPetard winds up using it to her advantage]].]]

** You can't ''quite'' always tell ''who's'' being cushioned, though. In "Mewtwo vs. Shadow the Hedgehog" -- these being two characters whose similarity lies more in having almost exactly the same backstory than their powers -- [[spoiler: Mewtwo]] has only just enough raw power to defend against [[spoiler: Shadow's]] superior strength for a while. [[spoiler: But that's enough to stall until it can attack Shadow's mind, which ends the battle right away.]]
** {{Downplayed}} in "Omni-Man vs. Homelander". [[spoiler: Homelander can use a sonic attack, which is Omni-Man's weakness. But their power levels are so different this just means he drops Omni-Man out of the sky once, buying himself maybe half a minute more. The same when he gets the drop on Omni-Man once and manhandles him for a moment; Omni-Man just waits it to be over before starting to toy with Homelander again.]]

%% Image removed per Image Pickin' thread: https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/posts.php?discussion=1551307557073800000
%% Please start a new thread if you'd like to discuss a new image.

[[folder:Anime and Manga]]
* In ''Manga/BlackLagoon'', the anime-only version of Roberta's Blood Trail. [[NinjaMaid Roberta's]] battle with the [[BadassArmy Grey Fox]] unit in the manga was a [[CurbStompBattle straight-up massacre]], the OVA adaptation evens the score significantly: while she still manages to kill several of Caxton's men, she suffers ''significantly'' in the process, [[spoiler: losing several [[AnArmAndALeg limbs]], an [[EyeScream eye]], and several [[{{Fingore}} fingers]] on her remaining hand, and is confined to the use of a wheelchair afterwards.]] No matter how much of an invincible Terminator you are, [[SurprisinglyRealisticOutcome going up a heavily armored Special Forces unit with access to automatic weapons while using only a smooth-bore musket and absolutely no protection for yourself is not going to end well for you.]]
* Franchise/DragonBall:
** ''Anime/DragonBallZ'':
*** This happens a couple of times during the fight with Freeza. Gohan manages to get in a barrage of shots during Freeza's second form, and Krillin manages to cut off part of Freeza's tail. In Freeza's final form, Goku manages to score a few good blows before Freeza powers up. And even after Freeza does, Goku's [[CombinedEnergyAttack Spirit Bomb]] still does some damage.
*** This is later turned around on Freeza when he powers up against Super Saiyan Goku. Though Freeza gets in some good blows (even managing to nearly kill Goku right before the dragon revives everyone), he's still ultimately outdone, as Freeza loses power much too quickly to be a serious threat to Goku for very long.
** It happens later on in the Cell Saga, too. The most notable occasion comes with Tien using his Tri-Beam attack to keep Semi-Perfect Cell at bay so that Android 18 could escape; though the Tri-Beam doesn't actually harm Cell, he's pinned down by it and can't move until Tien stops the attack. Made all the more astonishing because Cell's previous form had been shown effortlessly taking down a Kami-fused Piccolo and Android 17, and the Semi-Perfect form made quick work out of Android 16.
--->'''Tien''': I may just be a pothole in the road to you, Cell, but it will be one '''deep''' pothole.
** Cell gets hit with it a second time after becoming perfect and effortlessly slapping Vegeta, who easily outmatched his Semi-Perfect form, around. Vegeta breaks out the [[WaveMotionGun Final Flash]], which blows off one of Cell's arms and a good chunk of his torso, and had he not dodged at the last second, it would have ''killed'' him.
** It happens again during ''Anime/DragonBallGT'', in the Shadow Dragon Saga. Syn Shenron has just absorbed all the Dragon Balls and [[AllYourPowersCombined acquired the combined powers of all seven Shadow Dragons]], becoming Omega Shenron, against whom Goku is completely outmatched. Then Goku breaks out his [[ShapingYourAttacks Dragon]] [[MegatonPunch Fist]], which not only makes Omega scream in pain, but also managed to blast him to pieces. Though Omega shortly after regenerates FromASingleCell, he nonetheless admits that the Dragon Fist was a very painful attack, even if it wasn't enough to finish him.
** ''Anime/DragonBallSuper'' introduces [[TheGreys Jiren]].
*** His fight with Goku. He easily thrashes Goku - while the latter is using the Super Saiyan Blue / Kaioken X20 combo - across the battlefield, but Goku did manage to (barely) keep up with him, get a small hit in, and his Kaio-Ken boosted Kamehameha actually gave Jiren a minor OhCrap. Of course, during all this Jiren never bothers [[IAmNotLeftHanded to get really serious.]] Goku seems to have made it even when he gains his new form, but at this point Jiren uses more of his full power and simply pushes him back, whereafter the form gives out.
*** His fight with Hit similarly has Jiren utterly dominating most of the battle, but Hit still manages to get some painful hits in after he adapts to Jiren's fighting style. The fact Jiren even bothered to take the offensive is already a testament to Hit's prowess, the fact Hit actually ''lasted'' against Jiren's assault is flat-out amazing. Hit actually manages to almost knock him out of bounds and use his time skip to paralyze Jiren, with Jiren having to put serious effort into escaping.
*** Likewise, his fight with Vegeta at first has Jiren dominating the fight at first, but once Vegeta manages to see through his RapidFireFisticuffs, he quickly turns the tables and even manages to land a solid blow on Jiren, something only Goku [[spoiler:in his Ultra Instinct form]] has managed to do. [[note]] Its ambiguous if Jiren was holding back against Vegeta though, as Vegeta comments that he did better when he fight Ultra Instinct Goku. Given Vegeta's personality, it might be a taunt, or factual[[/note]] However, Jiren quickly regains the upper hand and nearly rings Vegeta out with his Power Impact. Vegeta tries to finish Jiren with the Final Flash, but Jiren survives and blasts Vegeta away once again.
*** His final battle against [[SuperMode Mastered Ultra Instinct]] Goku has the situation ''reversed'' for the first time. After breaking even with and overpowering the incomplete Ultra Instinct once his initial surprise wears off, Jiren finds himself completely overwhelmed by the new depths of power Goku has achieved and gets thrashed like never before. It's so bad that [[TraumaButton it triggers his memories of his childhood trauma]], which causes him to unleash his full unrestrained power at long last. Surprisingly, [[HeroicSecondWind it lets him break even with Goku again, even push him back at several points]], but [[UnskilledButStrong his own rage hinders his original efficiency and prevents him from taking down Goku]]. When Jiren finally snaps and attacks Goku's friends and family in the stand after [[BerserkButton learning that Goku draws his newfound resolve and strength from]] ThePowerOfFriendship, Goku finally has enough [[UnstoppableRage and finally beats him down]]. The only thing that spares Jiren from eliminated is the fact that [[HeroicRROD the Mastered Ultra Instinct times out and leaves Goku barely able to move]] and the only thing that spares ''Goku'' from retaliation is when [[BigDamnHeroes Frieza and 17 jump in for the save]].
* The anime version of ''Manga/{{Eyeshield21}}'' hands cushion to every team that got destroyed in the manga. Aside one case of AdaptationalBadass none of them [[ForgotICouldFly make]] [[IdiotBall much]] [[AdaptationInducedPlotHole sense]].
** Zokugaku Chameleon able to stop one offense against [[TheGiant Poseidon]] thanks to their only important player Habashira stopping a bland receiver, in the manga he can't stop anything since the Poseidon has their tall lineman block him.
** The Yuuhi Guts all-star team (aces of different sport's clubs mashed together) score one touchdown against [[TheHero Devilbats]] until Hiruma decides to use combination play to beat a team that don't know enough about football to counter it, in the manga Hiruma goes with this plan right away and the all-star exchange their place with the regular starter after a forty points gap.
** The Scorpions get some AdaptationalVillainy where they kidnap Hiruma leaving Devilbats without their quarterback and strategist, they even break the replacement quarterback when they realize they are still losing. Suddenly out of nowhere Hiruma shows up and secure the win (really not clear if he shot his way out of the kidnapping or the Scorpion's captain just assume he was gone). In the original game Hiruma is never "kidnapped" so they win without letting the Scorpion score a single touchdown
** Taiyou's Sphinx shows their new line formation during their match with Hakushu's Dinosaurs that make them a great offensive and defensive team before the Dinosaurs have Gaou (strongest highschooler/possibly man in Japan) send them all to the hospital. Again in the manga Gaou crushes the line in the first play because he didn't suddenly stop existing for the first minutes of the match.
** The Masaki Wolves is a joke in the manga while in the anime their captain become an AdaptationalBadass who can become stronger and faster if he hunts the ball, he then lose against Seibu's team when the runningback remembers he is the second fastest character in the series [[spoiler: at the time]] and simply dodges him.
* In ''Anime/FairyTail'', the second time Acnologia shows up, he's confronted by [[spoiler: Igneel]]. Acnologia tears him apart and it's obvious he's just stalling for time, but [[spoiler: Igneel]] uses his last attack to tear Acnologia's arm off. And no, he doesn't regrow it.
* The final battle in ''Anime/Gundam00AWakeningOfTheTrailblazer'' is shown like this: it's pretty clear the ELS are winning the overall battle, and the human forces are getting overwhelmed. But, there are lots of scenes of individual human forces destroying truckloads of ELS, and not just the Gundam-piloting main characters. The ELS may be winning, but humanity is putting up one hell of a fight.
** The final battle in ''Anime/GundamBuildDiversReRise'' has Alus. Despite being heavily outnumbered by the Third Coalition of Volunteers, he still manages to surprise them by his sheer firepower, attacking GBN's servers directly and hijacking Hiroto Kuga's Earthree armour for himself. That being said, he ends up losing his advantage when ''millions more'' Divers, including the admins, enter the battle, push him back and undo his damage. He manages to execute a LastVillainStand, but only succeeds in taking May and Sarah out of the fight before Riku and Hiroto finish him off.
* In ''Manga/{{Holyland}}'', the [[spoiler: first Masaki vs Yuu]] fight is clearly one-sided, but Yuu still manages to get in a few hits, including a solid kick that the other thinks might have cost a rib.
* A few instances of this happening in ''Manga/HunterXHunter'' get more powerful characters interested in Gon and Killua. Gon actually landing a blow (and later successfully stealing his badge) impresses Hisoka, despite Hisoka being far more powerful and skilled. On the airship, Netero invites Gon and Killua to try to take a ball away from him. They have no chance since he's one of the most powerful beings alive, but Gon is satisfied when he forces Netero to use his other arm. When they run afoul of the Genei Ryodan they are once again totally outclassed. They put up a good enough fight to impress the Spiders, to the point that one of them even wants the two to join them.
* In ''Anime/KillLaKill'', episode 12, [[spoiler:the seemingly invincible Nui Harime is completely trouncing Isshin Matoi, [[TheHero Ryuko's]] father, and ultimately kills him. However, before he dies, Isshin manages to slice one of Nui's eyes out while she's distracted by Ryuko's voice. This is the first time Nui drops her StepfordSmiler act, with her screaming in bloody agony. Even to this day she is very sore about this and [[TheRival Satsuki]] theorises that Nui wants to fight Ryuko largely out of revenge]].
* ''Franchise/LyricalNanoha'':
** The fans of [[LadyOfWar Signum]], who has been curb-stomped in ''Manga/MagicalRecordLyricalNanohaForce'', find a little solace in the fact that she managed to chop her attacker's right arm off in the process.
** In ''Anime/VividStrike'', while Rinne makes short work of [[spoiler:Miura Rinaldi]], her opponent forces her to break her self-imposed rule of not using grappling attacks (which wasn't purely imposed out of overconfidence, but to prepare herself for tournaments in which they aren't allowed).
* The FinalBossPreview in ''Anime/MegaloBox'' has Yuri taunt protagonist Junk Dog that he can beat him [[WithMyHandsTied with only his left arm]]. After being jabbed around the ring for half the round, Junk Dog manages to get in a clean hit that forces Yuri to (instinctively) bring up his right to block it. This [[WorthyOpponent causes Yuri to take Junk Dog seriously as an opponent]] and [[OneHitKill the match is over seconds later]]. A second cushion shows up shortly after when Junk Dog is able to get to his feet and taunt Yuri from the ring as Yuri is leaving.
-->'''Junk Dog:''' ''That's'' your 'real Megalo Boxing'? I'm not impressed. You couldn't even manage to kill a stray dog.
* ''Manga/OnePiece'':
** Luffy is easily defeated by Crocodile in their first fight, in part because Crocodile's Logia ability allows him to phase through Luffy's attacks. Right before being left to die, Luffy manages to grab Crocodile's arm with a wet hand, establishing a weakness that would be exploited in later fights.
** Franky against Spandam using Funkfeed. Franky manages to stop and even scare the sword, but it still draws a lot of blood from him.
** Although Whitebeard manages to curbstomp Akainu with a few attacks, Akainu shows that he's no pushover by blowing off half of Whitebeard's face. Later, it's shown that Akainu is even capable of fighting off the rest of Whitebeard's crew by himself.
** Zigzagged with Law on Dressrosa. For the most part, he's outmatched by Doflamingo, though he manages to get a few licks in by rupturing Doflamingo's organs with Gamma Knife. Initially, this only seems to serve to make Doflamingo look stronger as he survives what should have been a killing blow, but the damage certainly helped Luffy as he stepped in to defeat the Warlord.
** A minor case with the anime version of Luffy's fight with Kaido. Like in the manga, Kaido defeats Luffy with barely any effort to show that Luffy doesn't stand a chance against the seemingly invincible Emperor of the Sea, but the anime makes the fight seem a bit less one-sided, such as Luffy landing a King Kong Gun on Kaido just before Kaido takes him down in one hit.
* ''Anime/{{Pokemon}}'':
** Ash/Satoshi manages to be the first person ever to knock out Tobias's/Tokuto's Darkrai, who up until that point, swept every foe away singlehandedly, including all the Gym Leaders. Unfortunately, half his team has already been knocked out. Furthermore, Tobias sends out a ''Latios.'' While Ash ultimately loses, last Pokemon remaining Pikachu manages to take Latios down with it.
** Also, whenever Ash battles an Elite Four member or Champion, you can expect him to get a hit in or at the very least adapt his strategy to better combat his foe, but ultimately he will lose and it will be obvious he never stood much of a chance. Averted during his battle against Lorelei (Prima in the dub), where Ash was completely beaten.
*** ''Finally'' averted when Ash [[spoiler:battles Diantha with Greninja. It starts off as if it's going to play out this way, with her Gardevoir nonchalantly dodging Greninja's attacks... but Greninja keeps doing better and better, and after completing its Ash-Greninja Forme even takes the upper hand for a bit until the PowerStrainBlackout knocks out Ash and Greninja]].
** During the battle between Paul and Cynthia, Cynthia wins four-zero. Paul's first three Pokémon are easily swept aside by Cynthia's Garchomp, but Torterra actually manages to bring Garchomp to its knees with Giga Drain. Of course, Garchomp then proceeds to block Torterra's SecretArt and knock it out in one hit, but that's still more than most would manage.
** During Paul's battle with Brandon, all of his Pokémon are beaten in one or two hits without getting any damage in, but Paul's Nidoking actually does rather decently against Registeel, eating a few attacks and getting a few super-effective hits in on its own. Even Brandon noted that Nidoking was strong.
** In ''[[Anime/Pokemon3 Pokemon 3 The Movie]]'' while Charizard is actually able to mostly outmaneuver and even land some strong hits against Entei, it's clear that Entei doesn't feel the attacks and they do little more than slow him down. Still there is one point where Entei roars in surprise after Charizard hits it with enough fire to engulf the entire tower!
** During Alain's battle with Siebold, Alain's Mega Charizard X is handily beaten by Siebold's Mega Blastoise. However, Charizard gets a couple of decent hits in and does enough to impress Siebold.
** The trend continues during Alain's battle with [[spoiler:Ash. Ash's Greninja can't even hit base form Charizard, but is fast and powerful enough to keep him on his toes. Once both transform, Ash-Greninja actually gets a rather painful hit in and matches Mega Charizard's power, but still gets beaten]].
** When Ash finally battles Giovanni in ''Best Wishes'', [[spoiler:Pikachu uses a painful-looking Iron Tail to counter Persian's Shadow Claw. Then Persian swats him with Power Gem]].
** When the ''Sun and Moon'' gang travel to Kanto for an extracurricular class (a Gym battle, which they can't have in Alola) Kiawe, TheAce of the group, battles Brock. Although Kiawe's Tortunator initially holds its own against Steelix, repelling and countering it, the latter eventually assumes control of the battle, and one Mega Evolution later not even Kiawe's Z-Move puts much of a dent in Steelix (though as Brock even notes, that doesn't mean it didn't damn well hurt).
** Team Rocket's Meowth is usually depicted as a pitiful battler and falls quickly. Odd times however he gets in a good offence before the inevitable beatdown occurs.
*** In "Jumping Rocket Ship", he lunges and uses Fury Swipes on Barry's Empoleon (a Steel-type who was ''blocking'' at that). Empoleon actually falls down in pain, before shortly getting back up and blasting him off with Hydro Pump.
*** In "Frenzied Factory Fiasco" Meowth challenges Pikachu to a SingleStrokeBattle. After an attempted dupe to capture Pikachu in his stolen Pokeball mid-air fails, he quickly improvises a Fury Swipes. After landing, Pikachu staggers to one knee visibly hurt...while Meowth faints inelegantly from Pikachu's Iron Tail. Note that this is thus far the only battle they've had throughout the entire anime series where Meowth actually managed to injure Pikachu.
** The Team Rocket trio as a whole returned to their standard GoldfishPoopGang status midway through the ''Black and White'' series after a long run having TookALevelInBadass. To maintain a CharacterCheck however, they maintained this setup most of the time, getting beaten quickly by the twerps, but often still getting in the odd hit against them or being crafty or persistent enough to force them to improvise. ''XY'' similarly often kept up this trend early on, though after a while, full VillainDecay ensued and they went back to full-on [[CurbStompBattle Curb-Stomp Battles]].
** The Team Skull trio have a similar track record in ''Sun and Moon'' and regularly get their asses kicked. Tupp is left ecstatic when his Salandit gets in a hit against Ilima's Eevee however. One. Single. Hit. Eventually, Ilima has to politely point out that Eevee has already gotten back up, and blasts them all off with its signature Z-Move.
** In the Alola League, Lillie is pit against her brother Gladion, a battler masterful enough to defeat Ash and Kiawe on separate occasions. Despite her request that Gladion fight at full power, Lillie does hold on for a fair while with Snowy and uses clever strategies, managing a Hail and Snow Cloak combo to dodge Umbreon's attacks, and landing her Subzero Slammer Z-Move. Umbreon manages to tank it however, and shortly defeats Snowy with one Iron Tail.
* In ''Anime/TheVisionOfEscaflowne'' when young pup Van and experienced knight Allen duel in their HumongousMecha for the first time, everyone expects Allen to curb stomp Van, and he does. But as he's standing over Van, he's shocked to suddenly notice a gash in the side of his own mech.
* ''Manga/YuGiOh'' has this in the form of Jounouchi's duel with Dark Marik during the semi-finals of Battle City. Now since this is the '''semi-finals''' and [[TheLancer Jounouchi]] is facing off against the BigBad of the arc, it's a ForegoneConclusion that he will lose, but the story has Jounouchi come within one move of actually beating him before [[YankTheDogsChain collapse from physical exhaustion.]] The duel also showed that it took a massive physical toll on Dark Marik as well.
** Similarly, the first time Yugi duels Pegasus, the latter's mind-reading powers make him almost invincible, especially when he takes control of Dark Magician. However, Yugi does deduce that the way he did it made another monster vulnerable, and he almost takes it out before the timer reached zero, even though he was reduced to just playing the top card of his deck without looking at it.
** Also, when Joey and Kaiba have their first duel, Kaiba's Battle Ox and its more powerful form Rabid Horseman tear apart Joey's monsters. Joey finally summons his ace monster, Red-Eyes Black Dragon, which destroys Rabid Horseman -- and then Kaiba pulls out the Blue-Eyes White Dragon for the finishing attack.
** Cronos in ''Anime/YuGiOhGX'' has a couple of these, especially after his HeelFaceTurn began in earnest. In both his duels with Pegasus and Camula, his opponent kept control of the Duel all the way, but he was able to get in some pretty heavy hits with his powerhouse Ancient Gears in the meantime.
* Even as early as the first arc of ''Manga/RanmaOneHalf'', Kuno was already a total joke to Ranma. But in the first, fully acknowledged duel between the two, even though Ranma completely dominated the fight and won in a single attack that put KO'd Kuno and left him in bandages for days, Kuno did get one good slash of his bokken into Ranma's side, to the point that a gentle poke would make Ranma double over in pain.
* In ''LightNovel/AccelWorld'', Silver Crow's fight against Scarlet Rain, the Red King, goes about as well as you'd expect, considering that he's Level 4 and she's Level 9(just below the maximum of 10, which no one has achieved yet)- he's fleeing for his life for most of the battle and ends up defeated. However, Kuroyukihime is actually somewhat impressed that Silver Crow actually managed to force Scarlet Rain to dodge one of his attacks, given that her moniker of "The Immovable Fortress" means she doesn't have to move when fighting.
* Aeon Clock in ''Manga/AirGear'' is a HopelessBossFight for Kazu and after playing around for a while he eventually gets serious and declares Kazu won't be able to lift a finger against him. He seemingly makes good on this boast by knocking Kazu out with a single, lightning-fast punch. As he's leaving the arena, he notices that Kazu ''was'' able to move one finger, flipping him off in the instant before the punch connected. Aeon notes that finger is Kazu's victory.
* In ''Manga/YuYuHakusho'', Younger Toguro at 80% of his strength effortlessly does a PunchCatch on an enraged Yusuke [[spoiler:right after Younger Toguro killed Genkai]] and sends him flying away with a single punch. Younger Toguro is impressed when he notices that catching Yusuke's punch mangled his hand, seeing this as proof that Yusuke will be a WorthyOpponent after all.
* ''Manga/MissKobayashisDragonMaid'': Tohru is noted from the beginning to be stronger than Ilulu, but she starts their fight on the defensive since she can't risk causing collateral damage to the surrounding city. However, it quickly becomes clear that Ilulu's attacks (despite looking painful) are failing to do any significant damage, and Tohru ultimately ends the battle with a single attack after Elma is bribed by Kobayashi into putting up a barrier.
[[/folder]]

* In ''ComicBook/MarvelZombies'', Magneto and later the Silver Surfer face off against dozens of superheroes. While both are eventually [[spoiler: killed and eaten]], they both inflict a fair amount of damage and take a couple of them out.
* The initial battle in ''ComicBook/TheInfinityGauntlet'' between Earth's heroes and Thanos is a ForegoneConclusion due to Thanos having the complete [[RealityWarper Infinity Gauntlet]], but Thanos turning off the sensory abilities the Gauntlet grants him, the heroes manage to get a few licks in. Drax the Destroyer and the Hulk both send Thanos flying; Spider-Man blinds him briefly with his webbing; and Thor outright presses Thanos briefly. More importantly, the Silver Surfer comes within ''inches'' of snagging the Gauntlet with Thanos distracted, which would have given the heroes victory. Thanos' shaken expression and immediate restoration of his full strength immediately afterward speaks volumes.

* [[ComicBook/RatMan1989 Rat-Man]]'s battle against The Dragon ([[HeroKiller who has been brought to the Arena specifically to kill him]], with the owners of the Arena telling him Rat-Man insulted his mother to make sure he'll kill him and make him suffer) is extremely one-sided, but Rat-Man, differently from everyone else before him, first dodges an attack with a DoppelgangerSpin, then [[{{Determinator}} takes a terrifying beating with a rock until]] ''[[{{Determinator}} the rock begs him for mercy because it's hurt from hitting Rat-Man's face so many times]]'', and finally punches him square on the nose, [[HopeBringer leading the Man in the Spider Costume to recover hope]] and [[TakingYouWithMe pull a suicide attack on The Dragon]].
* On one occasion Otto Octavius, as ''ComicBook/SuperiorSpiderMan'' faced off against Terrax, a [[PhysicalGod herald of Galactus]]. Now, Otto has the full powers of Spider-Man, his own advanced tech, an a keen strategic mind with a rich amount of experience fighting heavy hitters, so he actually manages to fight off Terrax for a decent while and inconvenience him somewhat, which considering the planet-shattering levels of power Terrax has is very impressive indeed. Ultimately Terrax still beats him savagely without getting seriously winded, forcing Otto to [[spoiler: use the device Doctor Doom once used against the Silver Surfer to steal Terrax' power.]]
* ''ComicBook/TheButton'': ComicBook/EobardThawne / Professor Zoom breaks into the Batcave to attack Franchise/{{Batman}}. Since Batman has no powers or prep time and Thawne has SuperSpeed on par with Franchise/TheFlash, this goes exactly as you'd expect, with Thawne beating the shit out of Batman. However, Batman manages to stab him in the foot while he is gloating. Thawne recovers and beats him up some more, then he stops to gloat ''again'' and Batman lands a punch. Thawne then really gives him a beating.

[[folder:Fan Works]]
* ''Fanfic/AbraxasHrodvitnon'': In this ''Film/GodzillaKingOfTheMonsters2019'' fanfiction, [[AdaptationalHeroism Monster X]] ([[TwoBeingsOneBody San and Vivienne Graham]]) gets this when being tortured by [=MaNi=]/Elder Brother -- Vivienne manages to [[spoiler:save San from being killed by [=MaNi=]]] and do some serious damage to [=MaNi=], and they try to go down fighting before [[spoiler:their HeroicRROD hits]].
* ''Fanfic/AceCombatEquestriaChronicles'': The ponies successfully recapture Cloudsdale in chapter 14, defeating a griffin army group roughly twice their size. They've lost at least ten fliers in the process.
* In ''Fanfic/{{Ancienverse}}'':
** DARC delivers one to the protagonists in their first major appearance, with Alain's Charizard able to get in a few hits, but ultimately being unable to do anything. Especially when Latios shows up.
** Hau is on the receiving end of one from Ash in their first battle, losing 3-1. He's pretty good-natured about it, though.
* In ''Fanfic/AnimorphsRedux'', when trying to retrieve the morphing cube from David, Marco, Rachel and Cassie end up facing Visser Three, two Hork-Bajir and three armed human-Controllers while they're all in wolf morph. Marco explicitly muses that there's no way they can win such a fight, but he and Cassie manage to cripple the arm and leg of a different Hork-Bajir while Rachel manages to do some damage to Visser Three before Tobias, Ax and Jake (in tiger morph) show up to even the odds.
* ''Fanfic/BoldoresAndBoomsticks'' has Yang's fourth fight with Tapu Koko going this way. While ''all'' of the preceeding fights were Koko either crushing her absolutely or spending the entire fight JustToyingWithThem, Yang (after getting it slapped into her head that being UnskilledButStrong ''will not work'' against a PhysicalGod), uses tactics to fight the fourth time - and while she still loses, she actually impresses Koko. Hala sums it up like this after the fight.
-->Laughing softly, Hala strode up and clapped a comradely hand on her shoulder, Lux and Sabra on his heels and likewise beaming with pride in their trainer. “Well done, Yang! Well done indeed!”\\
“Wha-?” She stammered. “But- I didn’t-”\\
“Of ''course'' [[HopelessBossFight you didn’t win]]!” the old man boomed. “He’s a ''god''! But do you know how long it’s been since a non-Legendary has made him work ''that hard'' for his win?”
* Ruby's fight with Yuuki Terumi in Chapter 70 of ''Fanfic/BlazBlueAlternativeRemnant'' doesn't go her way at all, and ends with her being subject to a savage NoHoldsBarredBeatdown, but she's able to land a few decent hits, enough so that she actually causes Terumi to completely lose his cool.
* Zoro's duel with Mihawk in ''[[https://www.fanfiction.net/s/5405553/1/The-Boy-with-Haki The Boy With Haki]]'' still ends with Zoro being defeated with ease. Unlike canon however, he's unlocked haki and a result his ultimate attack manages to cut Mihawk's cheek.
* In ''Fanfic/TheBridge'', the recently transformed Monster X is able to land a few powerful hits that stagger Grand King Ghidorah, thanks to the Xilian military distracting the latter. He still fails to do any lasting damage, loses outright and is overpowered entirely, [[spoiler: until the second phase of the fight when X transforms into Kaizer Ghidorah to even the field.]]
* In ''Fanfic/TheButcherBird'', Tashigi goes up against [[OurWerewolvesAreDifferent Bosque Herman]] of the [[VillainProtagonist Nightmare Pirates]], and while she initially fails to so much as force him to draw his sword (with him using [[MadeOfIron Forged Body]] to deflect her blade) and [[WreckedWeapon loses Shigure]] when he actually does, she still manages to wound him twice, with her final blow being strong enough to drive him to one knee.
* ''Fanfic/ChildOfTheStorm'':
** During the DarkestHour of the first book, HYDRA launches a massive strike against Hogwarts, the British Ministry of Magic, SHIELD, and governments worldwide. While they are very successful overall, their attack on Hogwarts is a complete disaster thanks to Harry waking up and warning the staff (and [[spoiler: unleashing the Phoenix]]). Additionally, they lose quite a few of their limited forces across the globe, the SHIELD Helicarrier is crippled but doesn't explode, and while Zemo does curb-stomp T'Challa, the latter does get a few good licks in, with Zemo [[VillainRespect calling him a decent sparring partner]]. Meanwhile, their attack on the Muggle Prime Minister of Britain goes awry thanks to [[spoiler: Agent 13, aka Sharon Carter's]], badassery and her boss' CrazyPrepared nature, while [=MI13=] dispatched those HYDRA agents going after them and [=MI5=], and the agents who attacked the Red Room [[OffscreenMomentOfAwesome never came out.]]
** During the ''Bloody Hell'' arc of the sequel, ''Ghosts of the Past'', Harry goes up against Dracula twice. In the first round, the straight fight, while the VampireMonarch maintains the upper hand throughout the fight, Harry still manages to get several good hits in. In fact, if he'd been up against any other vampire, with less power or experience, he would have won - and it should also be remembered that Dracula has previously been a match for ''[[PhysicalGod Thor]]''.
* ''Fanfic/CodeGeassPaladinsOfVoltron'': While the Paladins still get crushed by the gladiator in ''Some Assembly Required'', this time around, they manage to '''win''' the fight.
** The Paladins delivered heavy curbstomps when fighting against Britannia. However, Nonette Enneagram in the Lancelot was able to put up a good fight against them.
* In ''[[Fanfic/TheNuptialverse Direction]]'', Applejack is unable to get in any effective hits on [[TheBrute Red Hoof]] due to his [[MadeOfIron extremely dense musculature]] and [[LightningBruiser unexpected speed]] (Trixie having hired him for exactly this purpose), but a fortunately-placed pair of scissors allows her to momentarily escape his grip, and only her hesitation to shed blood prevents her from pressing the advantage.
* ''Fanfic/EquestriaGirlsFriendshipSouls'':
** When Hurricane unleashes his Bankai, Sunset and her friends are completely outmatched, literally getting scattered by his winds. That being said, they still do manage to give him a good fight, and Ditzy even says that the fact that they managed to hurt him at all shows just how far they've come. Best shown near the end, when Sunset's final and most powerful attack actually manages to stalemate a direct hit from Hurricane's Bankai; though it quickly loses ground, it's much better than Ditzy's Cero, which was completely swamped without resistance.
** Downplayed with Pinkie's fight with Cheese Sandwich. While she does give him a good fight and even manages to injure him, she still loses and it's clear she never stood a chance, even without Cheese using his Bankai.
** Human [[spoiler:Starlight's]] first fight with Sunset and her friends was much harder for her than the chapter would have you believe. Rainbow's attack actually made her hand go numb, and when Ditzy went all out [[spoiler:Starlight]] states it was a good thing she was in an enclosed space (forcing her to scale things down) as she likely would've been soundly defeated otherwise.
* This goes both ways during the League of Villains' assault on the USJ in ''FanFic/ErasedPotential'':
** Izuku struggles against Shigaraki, but still manages to land some good hits on him, in no small part due to Shigaraki's own arrogance and ignorance. In particular, Shigaraki decides to make a show of disarming him by disintegrating his eskrima rods -- causing them to explode in his hands, severely injuring himself in the process.
** Since [[ForWantOfANail All Might has yet to pass on his Quirk]], he's strong enough to handily defeat the Nomu upon arriving, forcing the League into retreat. However, while they failed to achieve their primary goal, they also inflicted far more damage onto Class 1-A than their {{canon}} counterparts managed, with [[spoiler:over half of the class requiring immediate medical treatment for serious injuries]].
* ''Fanfic/TheGoodHunter'':
** Chapter 6 presents us Daria Noharis and the Second Company VS The Good Hunter. Daria managed to kick the Hunter sideways and launch him a few feet away, yet she, and the rest of her company are ultimately no match for his [[SpellBlade Holy]] [[SwordBeam Moonlight]] [[{{BFS}} Sword]].
** Druella, the Fourth Born VS The Good Hunter in Chapter 7. Her {{flight}} means she naturally fares better in dodging the Hunter's deadly strikes, and, like Daria, she at one point succeeds in sending him flying. While it may seem that she took little direct damage, she is eventually overwhelmed by her wounds due to the magic within the [[SpellBlade Holy]] [[SwordBeam Moonlight]] [[{{BFS}} Sword]], and is left severely incapacitated. The fact that she [[NearDeathExperience narrowly avoids death]] is quite a miracle, though she's definitely not in a good shape afterwards.
* At the climax of ''Fanfic/HellsisterTrilogy'''s second series, ComicBook/{{Supergirl}} goes up against ComicBook/{{Darkseid}}. It's clear from the beginning she is severely outmatched, but she gets several good licks in before going down, such like smashing him across the room and hitting him several times with her fists or her heat vision.
* ''FanFic/TheImmortalGame'': The Royals' [[AllYourBaseAreBelongToUs attack]] on the [[LaResistance Loyalists']] base -- the Loyalists take losses, but for the most part they escape, and [[spoiler: Twilight Sparkle recovers from her [[SplitPersonality Split Personalities]]]] in the process, so that's a bonus.
** The second Battle of Ponyville looks like one of these, as even though [[PhysicalGod Terra]] takes out Luna and wipes the floor with the Mane Six, they refuse to give up, and get in plenty of hits of their own. [[spoiler: It ends up as a subversion, as they actually manage to ''win'', thanks to reigniting the Elements of Harmony and stripping Terra's power.]]
* In ''Fanfic/IncarnationOfLegends'', Kojiro challenges the Radiance, an adventurer strong enough to take on the Legiones, to a one-on-one duel as soon as they meet. She quickly plows through his skill and speed-based defense with brute force, dislocated his shoulder and bending his sword in the process. But Kojiro does damage her helmet to the point that it cracks and falls to pieces, implying that he would have cut through her head had it not been there.
* In the ''Series/{{Arrowverse}}'' fic "[[https://www.fanfiction.net/s/11904468/1/An-Interdimensional-Meet An Interdimensional Meet]]", when [[spoiler:Supergirl, Barry Allen and Jay Garrick assist Team Arrow in the final battle in Iron Heights, Damien Darhk is able to score a few blows against Supergirl through his use of magic, but the two Flashes and Supergirl swiftly turn the tables and defeat him and all his H.I.V.E. forces]].
* ''Fanfic/JauneArcLordOfHunger'':
** Due to being a powerful Force-sensitive in this fic, Jaune's sparring match with Cardin is one... in Jaune's favor. Instead of being humiliatingly defeated by Cardin like in canon, Jaune effortlessly runs circles around Cardin for most of their sparring match before sending him flying with a Force Push. Cardin briefly manages to turn the table when he knocks Jaune to the ground with his mace after the latter gets distracted, but all that does is make Jaune angry enough to tap into the Dark Side and end the fight by [[PsychicStrangle Force-choking Cardin]] into submission.
** Out of everyone who [[spoiler:Darth Nihilus]] curb-stomps in Chapter 18, Qrow is the only one who is able to put up an actual fight while also getting in a few lucky hits. His [[TheJinx Semblance]] also trips up [[spoiler:Nihilus]] twice at critical moments during their battle, allowing Qrow to last longer than anyone expected. Although he still gets swatted aside and fails to leave even a scratch on his opponent, Qrow proves to be so resilient that [[spoiler:Nihilus]] actually expresses frustration at how much effort it's taking for him to beat what should be an easy opponent.
** [[spoiler:Darth Nihilus's showdown against Cinder, Emerald, and Mercury in "Death" also plays out like this. Cinder manages to take Nihilus by surprise and reflect his own Force lightning back at him before using her scimitars to break through his Aura. She, Emerald, and Mercury follow this up with a barrage of devastating hits on the Sith Lord's now-weakened body. However, even with all that, Nihilus still outguns the trio by a considerable margin and it doesn't take long for him to counterattack with a Force scream that sends all three flying. Once that's done, Nihilus quickly gains the upper hand and knocks out Cinder before finishing off Emerald and Mercury without too much difficulty.]]
** Adam Taurus is on the receiving end of one when he comes face-to-face with [[spoiler:Darth Nihilus]]. He initially holds his own rather well, outspeeding his opponent and dodging most of his attacks. Adam then follows this up by landing a blow that would've been instantly lethal under normal conditions. [[spoiler:Unfortunately for Adam, Nihilus was fresh off from supercharging himself with the energy he drained from the Wyvern. Because of this, the Sith Lord [[NoSell easily tanks Adam's strongest attack]] and proceeds to grab him by the neck and drain his life in the span of a few seconds.]]
* In ''Fanfic/MegaManDefenderOfTheHumanRace'', the Stardroids' initial invasion is prevented from being a ''complete'' rout when Pluto takes damage from the Land Blazer and Bass is able to fight them on equal footing.
* ''Fanfic/TheNightUnfurls'':
** Kyril VS [[spoiler:Luu-Luu as a husk]] in Chapter 16. He is able to end the fight quickly (i.e. within five short paragraphs) by stabbing her in the chest with his Holy Moonlight Sword, but not before being briefly pushed back, being tossed aside a considerable distance, and exchanging a good amount of blows as the two are determined to break through each other's guards.
** Kyril, Sanakan, and Hugh VS Shamuhaza in Chapter 22, original version. It seems like the three hunters are dominating the fight at first, but Shamuhaza [[spoiler:as an EldritchAbomination]] proves to be a rather effective MightyGlacier that can not only endure a lot of punishment from the three, but also release a shockwave that launches all three of them back, even putting Sanakan out of comission. This exceeds Kyril's expectations... [[spoiler:because he thought he didn't have to [[IAmNotLeftHanded let a bit of his power out]].]]
** Kyril VS Olga in Chapter 5, remastered version. Here, it is Olga who initiates the battle by attempting to OneHitKill [[KillItWithFire him with fire]], instead of [[IWarnedYou heeding his warning for surrender]]. This [[NoSell merely]] [[ClothingDamage singes]] [[DownplayedTrope a few spots]] on his clothes. Olga also manages to maintain a distance from the ever-dashing, ever-dodging [[LightningBruiser Kyril]] for a while, even blocking a few hits from him with her [[DeflectorShields barriers]], but the moment he decides to FlashStep behind her and destroy both her barrier and staff, the battle is over.
* In ''[[Fanfic/GameTheoryLyricalNanoha Power Games]]'', Vita ''demolishes'' Nanoha in their first encounter. Despite this, Nanoha manages to break Vita's jaw, at the cost of breaking her own hand.
* Essentially features in ''Fanfic/PowerRangersMythos'', when Tommy Oliver has to fight a brainwashed Adam Park, the two taken from different time periods so that Tommy is still the Green Ranger while Adam has trained with Tommy's future self. Tommy is the better natural fighter, but Adam's experience training with Tommy's future self allows him to predict some of Tommy's moves and counter them, to the extent that Tommy needs aid from his teammates to actually win.
* In the ''WesternAnimation/{{Zootopia}}'' [[SandalPunk Bronze Age]] AlternateUniverse fic ''[[http://archiveofourown.org/works/7555468?view_full_work=true A Rabbit Clan's Fox]]'', while the bulk of the Hopps clan (including Judy) is battling a skirmish on the outside of the burrow, a small warband sneaks into the burrow in an effort to [[ItMakesSenseInContext kill or take away the kits into thralldom]]. Nick, who is Judy's thrall[[note]]a slighly more respect-worthy kind of slave, usually an enemy defeated in battle[[/note]], is hiding with the children to keep them calm, since they're fond of him. The warband is composed of five for five rabbit warriors and a stoat[[note]]a small mustelid close to the weasel[[/note]] mercenary; Nick is an adult male red fox[[note]]foxes are natural predators to both rabbits and stoats[[/note]] [[NormalFishInATinyPond and as such a VERY strong, tough and frightening enemy to face]]. In a panicked frenzy that involves [[UnskilledButStrong completely ignoring sword slashes and bludgeoning straight through weapons raised in defense (and the foes behind them as well)]], Nick manages to annihilate the entire warband, but due in no small part to catching them by surprise and immediately disabling one warrior[[note]]size differences aside, Nick is [[NonActionGuy a crafter with no combat training whatsoever and poor hunting skills]], and would stand little chance in a regular fight[[/note]], and not without receiving grievous injuries[[labelnote:+]]he ends up with a wide sword cut on his chest and a spear rammed through his abdomen[[/labelnote]].
* ''WebAnimation/SuperMarioBrosZ'': [[BigBad Mecha Sonic]] (Metallix in the reboot) ''beats the living shit out'' of [[VideoGame/YoshisIsland Yoshi]] and almost kills him, but Yoshi got several good hits in, protecting himself inside a egg (with Mecha Sonic having a hard time destroying it) and even catching Mecha Sonic in a combo before the latter's significantly superior strength and speed caught up to Yoshi. Even moreso in the reboot, where Yoshi taps into the power of the swallowed Chaos Emerald to give an extreme retaliation in the form of deadly explosive eggs.
* In ''Fanfic/SpectacularSeven'', Sunset Shimmer is being broken by the BigBad, who is using the Archon Amulet to [[ImHavingSoulPains torture Sunset with dark memories]] in an attempt to bring out her SuperpoweredEvilSide. [[spoiler:Sunset refuses to break, eventually giving a NoMoreHoldingBackSpeech and launching the Big Bad into a wall by transforming into her GoldenSuperMode. Faced with this, the Big Bad "goes to plan B" and just [[YourSoulIsMine steals Sunset's soul from her body]], the wall-launch being ultimately inconsequential.]]
* This is how the war with the martians started in ''FanFic/StrikeWitchesQuest''. The aliens opened the invasion with attacks on major cities and battlefields all over the globe, taking every nation on Earth by near-complete surprise and inflicting heavy damage on most of their civilian targets. But the battlefields they attacked mostly turned into EnemyMine situations between the Axis and Allied powers, particularly at Stalingrad and Pearl Harbor. Moreover, the alien attacks on civilian targets were ''too'' successful -- they killed off Hitler and Mussolini and gave [[OnlySaneMan Admiral Yamamoto]] an opening to wrest control of Japan from the maniacs in the IJA, paving the way for an early end to World War II.
* In the ''Fanfic/TamersForeverSeries'': [[spoiler: Although [=ChaosGallantmon=] dominates the Tamers for almost the entirety of their fight, he is still on the receiving end of an effective ''[[CombinationAttack Dual Force]]'' attack from Sakuyamon and [=SaberLeomon=], even though he manages to keep fighting, it proves more effective than anything even the ''Sovereigns'' could do to him.]]
** [[spoiler: Also, despite being ''completely'' outclassed in their fight against Daemon, The Tamers still manage to get a few decent hits in.]].
* In ''Fanfic/{{Traveler}}'', Ash manages to take out two members of Cynthia's team at the cost of five of his own then almost beats her Garchomp while fighting four on one.
* ''Fanfic/TheUltimateEvil'': When [[ActionSurvivor Valerie Payne]] is attacked in her apartment by [[ArrogantKungFuGuy Hak Foo]], she's badly wounded by the muscular master martial artist. However, she manages to use Jackie's self-defence lessons to give him a few painful strikes, block one of his blows (much to the surprise of them both), and slash his forearm with a carving knife before he inevitably brings her to her knees.
* ''Webcomic/WhatIfIKnowTooManyReasonsICanBeStrong'': Akaza and Kokushibo hold their own against Tanjiro and are able both give and put up a decent fight even with him in Yoriichi Type Zero. Considering that his battles against other demons -- including other Upper Ranks like Doma -- have been rather one-sided, this is quite an impressive feat that makes it fitting for their status as the strongest members of the Upper Ranks in the first place.
* Cinder loses her sparring match to Tai in ''Fanfic/FiveMinutesToMidnight'', but she puts up a very impressive fight and manages to score a few decent hits in, which is commendable since Tai is an experienced Huntsman and she's just a small child.
* ''Fanfic/VowOfTheKing'': Ichigo does well when fighting against Unohana, but she makes it clear that he wasn't ready to truly kill her. Once she gets serious, she pretty much manhandles him.
* In ''[[Fanfic/PatternsOfThePast Patterns of the Past]]'', Old Missie, Olesya's boss, puts up quite a fight against the Patternista when the villainess tries to kidnap her. When Ogden and Olesya go to her office, they find her desk overturned with boxes scattered all around and completely opened. Even when she is eventually kidnapped, she is a DefiantCaptive who shows absolutely no fear and is more than willing to fight the Patternista the minute the rescue team gains an upper hand.
* An odd example where ''both'' sides are the sending and receiving end happens in ''Fanfic/CindersAndAshesTheChroniclesOfKamenRiderDante''.
** On Hoshi's side, while he's able to fight his foe on equal footing and managing to nearly defeat her, his opponent was able to strike him and put him in a position where she would have been able to kill him were it not for a last minute save.
** On the other side, his opponent was [[Anime/ReCreators Altair]], a character who canonically [[spoiler:can't be beaten because she has a plethora {{story breaker power}}s at her disposal]], making any battle against her a CurbStompBattle on the ''receiving'' end. The cushion in question being that Hoshi was able to land even a ''single'' hit on her without immediately getting destroyed.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Literature]]
* Literature/HarryPotter has plenty of examples.
** Though Dumbledore has the advantage throughout his duel with Voldemort, the latter still is able to dish out plenty of powerful spells and even keep Dumbledore somewhat on his toes, though it's heavily implied that Dumbledore is just holding him long enough for the Ministry to arrive, and given his DissonantSerenity, probably could have wiped the floor with Voldemort if he'd wanted to.[[note]] The movie has it be a much closer fight, presumably for RuleOfCool purposes[[/note]]
** Earlier, Dumbledore is able to disable the remaining fighting Death Eaters easily enough, except Bellatrix Lestrange who is able to casually deflect his spell (he does catch up to her and quickly disable her however).
** Though Harry's duel with Bellatrix goes about the way you'd expect it to, he does get in one hit that knocks her down. This seems to amuse her more than anything however.
** In the sixth book, [[Characters/HarryPotterDeathEaters Alecto]] is sent running from Prof. [=McGonagall=], though as Harry witnesses them duelling a few paragraphs earlier she was presumably able to hold her own against the transfiguration master at least for awhile.
** Though Voldemort murders ministry witch Amelia Bones, we are told that she went down fighting a good fight.
** In the climax of the final book, the trio's bravery inspires the rest of the Order and the Hogwarts staff to finally stop fearing Voldemort and the Death Eaters and fight back, with Voldemort himself fighting against [=McGonagall=], Slughorn, and Shacklebolt, and Bellatrix fighting against Hermione, Ginny, and Luna, and each trio holding their own against these previously unbeatable threats. True enough, it's shortly thereafter that Harry and Molly finish both of the villains off.
* ''Literature/AHerosWar'' has an example with the monsters on the receiving end. The Minmay "Special Effects" team, testing out the latest experimental combinations of magic and explosives, achieves a thirty-to-one kill ratio against the zombies, but their own losses are harder to replace than the zombies' are, both in troops and in ammunition. Still, considering how the engagement might have gone without them, it's widely considered a success.
* In HG Wells' novel ''Literature/TheWarOfTheWorlds'' the human military is almost helpless against the invaders, but there are two small successes.
** An artillery crew takes down a tripod but is incinerated afterward.
** The torpedo ram HMS Thunder Child destroys two tripods and possibly a third before being destroyed itself. The crew's HeroicSacrifice allows a fleet of small ships carrying refugees to escape.
* In the opening scenes of the ''Literature/WorldWar'' series, human troops get annihilated all over the world by the alien invaders. Then a plucky German Panzer squad ambush an alien tank column. In exchange for losing the last 4 tanks the main character is in command of, they kill a single enemy personnel carrier and a single enemy tank by exploiting the aliens poor tactics. [[SugarWiki/MomentOfAwesome This is considered the most successful action against them of any kind, of the entire human-alien war so far.]] Obviously as the story goes on things get better for the humans as they develop innovative tactics such as the Russian dog bombs. Eventually the curb-stomping just plain ends and it becomes a more even war with lots of RockBeatsLaser.
* Creator/JRRTolkien's ''Literature/TheSilmarillion'' is full of these, as the Elves and their allies are [[YouCantFightFate doomed]] to lose against Morgoth. During the Battle of Sudden Flame the breaking of the Siege of Angband is cushioned by Barahir's rescue of Finrod's host; Fingolfin managing to get a few good strikes on Morgoth (including delivering a permanent injury to his foot) before Morgoth defeated and killed him in their duel; the utter defeat at the Battle of Unnumbered Tears is cushioned by the Men of Hador's LastStand protecting Turgon's escape; the Fall of Gondolin is cushioned by Tuor and Idril escaping with the remnant of its people; and the Kinslayings at Doriath and the Havens of Sirion are cushioned both times by Elwing escaping with the Silmaril. In all cases these cushions come at the hands of Men.
** This is actually something of a recurring theme among Morgoth and Sauron, his greatest servant. Men are constantly seen as being weak and useless, but often end up saving the day or at least cushioning horrific defeats. Even Sauron's final defeat is given to him by Men, who end the series by rising to ascension as the elves leave to head across the sea to Valinor, their time in the mortal world over.
* Several of the Yuuzhan Vong's more overwhelming victories in the Literature/NewJediOrder novels are tempered by these sorts of actions. In most cases, the mitigating factor comes from the Vong's AttackAttackAttack style and WeHaveReserves mentality leading to huge casualties, such as during the [[DarkestHour Fall of Coruscant]]; it's easy to miss amidst the heroes' desperate flight from their home planet, but ''three waves'' of Yuuzhan Vong ground troops are totally obliterated, along with similar numbers of their warships. Other specific examples:
** ''Edge of Victory: Conquest'': The Jedi Academy has fallen, and Talon Karrde's smuggler fleet has taken heavy losses getting the students out -- but they ''do'' get the students out alive, inflicting heavy damage in the process, and inadvertently spark the Jedi Heresy among the Vong's worker caste to boot.
** ''Star By Star'': Even though Coruscant has fallen and the strike team to Myrkr is devastated, their mission ''was'' successful, destroying the HeroKiller voxyn, and delivering the team a Yuuzhan Vong frigate which will help them take advantage of the growing heresy by ''impersonating a goddess''.
** ''Force Heretic: Remnant'': The eponymous Imperial Remnant has suffered a devastating sneak attack to their capital, Bastion. The only relief comes when Luke Skywalker's small expedition accidentally jumps into the conflict, giving [[ReasonableAuthorityFigure Pellaeon]] tactical advice that allows his damaged ships to obliterate a small Vong flotilla. On its own, this is a minor loss for the Vong, but it foreshadows how deadly the Remnant can be, even wounded, with a combination of Imperial [[StiffUpperLip pride and discipline]] and Jedi [[CombatPragmatism military intelligence]].
* In the third novel of ''Literature/MistbornTheOriginalTrilogy'', the BigBad is at the brink of victory right from the word go, and everything the heroes do seems to play into his hands. However, we are told several times of things that he has ''not'' succeeded in doing despite trying to - usually minor goals that would have sped up plans that were already advancing at a steady pace, but all the same, it hints that he's not infallible and that there might yet be some way to beat him.
* Felix the [[PoweredArmor Scout]] in ''{{Literature/Armor}}''. He knows that '''those''' bastards (the mass of alien Ants charging his position) are going to get him, but not ''this'' bastard (blam) or ''this'' one (pow)... [[spoiler:Turns out he's wrong...]]
* ''Literature/TheEmperorsGift'': Both Hyperion and Malchadiel are thrashed in seconds by Logan Grimnar, showing the difference in abilities between two young [[SuperSoldier Grey Knights and a highly experienced Space Wolves Chapter Master]]. Hyperion, however, is able to stop Grimnar from killing Malchadiel and even nearly destroys his axe before the fight is interrupted.

[[folder:Live-Action TV]]
* Several battle scenes in ''Series/BabylonFive'' have this element.
** Most notably, the Season 2 episode "[[Recap/BabylonFiveS02E20TheLongTwilightStruggle The Long, Twilight Struggle]]" features a fleet of ships being ambushed by a large Shadow fleet. Amidst the ships getting cut apart left and right, you do see two of the ships concentrating their fire to wound a single Shadow Battlecrab - the first time one of these ships is seen damaged in battle.
** The Earth-Minbari war was a generally one-sided stomping of humanity, with a single human victory being the destruction of the Minbari flagship ''Black Star'' in a minefield. Naturally, [[TheHero Sheridan]] was the one behind it. And the sore losers never let him forget it. However, the fluff implies that the Minbari did, in fact, sustain other casualties; it's just their casualties were significantly lower than that of the Earth Alliance. Depending on the source, the Battle of Vega, one of the first battles of the war, results in 1-3 destroyed Minbari ships, one of them being a ''Sharlin'' warcruiser being [[RammingAlwaysWorks rammed]] by a prototype ''Nova-X'' battlecruiser (the future ''Omega'' destroyers).
* Implied in the MiniSeries of the ''Series/{{Battlestar Galactica|2003}}'' remake. Boomer mentions that the only ships proving effective against the Cylons are either obsolete models or overdue for repairs. That means that amidst all the carnage shown during the invasions, at least a few Colonial warriors were getting their own punches in.
* ''Series/BuffyTheVampireSlayer'': In "[[Recap/BuffyTheVampireSlayerS5E19ToughLove Tough Love]]", when [[PhysicalGod Glory]] {{Mind Rape}}s Tara, Willow goes ballistic and attacks her in a RoaringRampageOfRevenge. Though Willow ultimately goes down, she's nonetheless able to injure Glory and make her scream in pain, something not even ''Buffy'' was able to do.
* ''Series/GameOfThrones'':
** Euron kicked Balon's ass, but Balon managed to slash his face and give Euron a scar to remember him by.
** When Daenerys Targaryen attacks the Lannister supply train with the Dothraki and Drogon, it's mostly a one-sided slaughter that shows us just how outmatched basic Westerosi soldiers are. Nonetheless, the Lannister line holds in places, we see plenty of Dothraki being killed, and most crucially, Bronn is able to wound Drogon.
* In the ''Series/StarTrekEnterprise'' episode "[[Recap/StarTrekEnterpriseS03E18AzatiPrime Azati Prime]]", our heroes are attacked by four Xindi warships. ''Enterprise'' manages to destroy one Reptilian ship before the combined firepower of the other three reduces her to a floating wreck. The only reason she's not destroyed is that the Xindi Council calls off the attack.
* ''Series/TeenWolf'' basically runs on this.
** At the end of Season 1, Scott and Derek are soundly thrashed by the Alpha before [[BigDamnHeroes Stiles and Jackson]] arrive, but they still both manage to land hits on him, with Scott briefly pinning him to the wall and inflicting enough damage to force him to transform.
** Likewise in Season 2, every fight against the Kanima ends up like this. Derek is usually the one doing the cushioning, but in the final episode it is attacked by Derek, Scott and Isaac at once, and each of them get in good hits. Derek even briefly outmaneuvers it, despite its speed.
** The failed ambush in 'Frayed' in Season 3 goes thoroughly in favour of the Alpha Pack for the most part, but there are numerous cushions.
*** Allison arrives in a BigDamnHeroes moment and stops the Alpha Pack forcing Derek to kill Boyd.
*** Scott charges at Ennis and is able to stand his ground, despite the latter's strength.
*** Finally, Derek manages to near-mortally wound Ennis by throwing them both off a ledge.
* ''Series/BetterCallSaul'' opens with one of these in the courtroom. Jimmy, a public defender, delivers a closing statement for his clients that is clearly well-thought-out and manages to do everything a lawyer should do: he downplays their actions, humanizes them and cites their youthful ignorance as mitigating factors, appeals to the jury's sympathy, and brings up pertinent facts from the case (Is it trespass if the door was open? Was it really a harmful crime if nobody got hurt?) that clearly shows off that he's very good at his job. Then we learn what, exactly, his clients were charged with: breaking into a morgue, cutting off the heads of one of the bodies, and ''[[ILoveTheDead having sex with the head.]] [[StupidCrooks And then filming it.]]'' Needless to say, simply presenting the film overwhelms any argument Jimmy could possibly make.

[[folder:Professional Wrestling]]
* This summarizes Wrestling/RickySteamboat's SignatureStyle. While he did not get [[DemotedToExtra consistently]] pushed as a [[TagTeam single]]'s star and was often beaten to [[TheWorfEffect show how hard]] the champion would have to fight to retain against his next challenger, Steamboat rarely ever let anyone get sustain more than five offensive manuevers against him in a row, even if the only way Steamboat could retaliate was [[NoSell completely ineffective]]. For whatever reason, this clicked with the fans and made him an [[IncorruptiblePurePureness eternal]] baby {{face}}. Steamboat as a {{heel}} was something people refused to accept, as fans were too eager to see him make a comeback.[[/folder]]

[[folder:Tabletop Games]]
* A lot of last-stand type scenarios in ''TabletopGame/WarhammerFantasy'' had this theme. Most notable was the Halting the Tide scenario during the "Storm of Chaos" event, where the defending force was almost guaranteed to be slaughtered, and the "cushion" was additional time for the main defence to prepare for Archaon's arrival. (A lucky or skilled defending player could also, flavourfully speaking, claim additional cushions, such as shooting Archaon off his CoolHorse, killing his underlings in large numbers, or even forcing Archaon himself to spend some time recuperating from battlefield wounds.)
** Ironically, this cushion worked a little ''too'' well: The Forces of Order won a resounding first place during Storm of Chaos, mostly thanks to Halting the Tide scenarios ending with PyrrhicVictory after PyrrhicVictory for the Warriors of Chaos. The ensuing StoryOverwrite into a NearVillainVictory was fairly controversial to say the least, and the whole scenario was declared CanonDiscontinuity shortly after.
* The Inner Sphere achieved this a few times in ''TabletopGame/BattleTech'' during the initial Clan invasion, typically via luring Clan forces into [[LandMineGoesClick minefields]], ambushes, or otherwise using [[CombatPragmatist smart tactics]] to counter the Clans' superior technology. This allowed the Inner Sphere troops to bleed the Clans a bit and insure that defeated forces were able to retreat rather than being wiped completely out. As the Clan invasion carried on and lines got stretched, these tactical cushions eventually became so common that the Clans lost their momentum strategically trying to continually strike deeper into the immensely bigger Inner Sphere, eventually leading to actual turning points such as the Battle of Luthien.
** The Reunification war became this for the Taurian Concordat. A 56-world Periphery State, the Concordat were invaded by the 1000+-world-sized Star League... And lost horribly. The cushion comes in that the Star League expected the Concordat to fall within a year or two. It took them ''20 years'', and the Star League military taking disproportionate casualties, before the Taurians were forced into a surrender.
** The short story "Three Points of Glory" revolves around this trope: The world of Sheliak, facing invasion by Clan Ghost Bear and having no military at all, decided to bid their All-Star (American) Football team [[MakeGamesNotWar in a Trial of Possession for the planet]] in the hope that the Clanners wouldn't know how to play. They quickly discover that not only ''do'' Clanners know how to play American Football, it's a favoured pastime for the SuperSoldier Elementals Clan Ghost Bear use for their team. The story focuses around the Sheliak All-Stars' attempt to score even a single point off their opponents while they're otherwise being flattened. [[spoiler:The match ends 84-3, and Sheliak is handed over peacefully in the postgame]].

[[folder:Theater]]
* Directly invoked by Enjolras and the other revolutionaries in ''Theatre/LesMiserables''; when they realize that [[spoiler:no one is going to come to help them, and they are going to die]], they promise to "make them bleed while we can". [[spoiler:Given how quickly they go down shortly thereafter, it's unlikely they were very successful in this]].

[[folder:Video Games]]
* This ''can'' be done in-universe by [[PlayerCharacter Alpha 1]] in an early mission of ''VideoGame/FreeSpace'': during an important escort mission, the known enemy is suddenly and unexpectedly taken out by untargetable ships nearly impervious to the primary weapons available, who then turn on you. It is rather hard to destroy the strange ships... but if one pulls it off, the debriefing hails it as proving that the new enemy rampaging unchecked through Terran and Vasudan space can be hurt.
* The player themselves serves as one in ''VideoGame/CommandAndConquerTiberiumWars'', when humanity meets the Scrin. The first mission introduces them in the process of utterly ''annihilating'' the city of Munich, and the entire defending GDI contingent along with it. Despite the defeat, however, the player does succeed in evacuating the local GDI council, and discovers the aliens' inherent weakness to directed sonic energy in the process.
* In ''VideoGame/TheElderScrollsVSkyrim'''s ''Dawnguard'' DLC, [[spoiler:the Hall of the Vigilant]] is destroyed by Clan Volkihar[[note]] a group of powerful, pure-blooded vampires[[/note]] after the player reaches level ten, with all residents killed. However, there are a few vampire and Death Hound corpses littered around the area, showing it wasn't a total massacre. The same later happens when the same group of vampires abduct a Moth Priest- one of his guards is found dead on the scene and the others are undead thralls in the cave where the Priest is held captive, but a few vampires died trying to seize him.
* In ''VideoGame/JoJosBizarreAdventureEyesOfHeaven'', some [[LimitBreak Great Heat Attacks]] have different cutscenes if used on certain targets:
** If DIO uses his [[CarFu roadroller attack]] on Jotaro, he will briefly act during stopped time and fight back with Star Platinum for a moment. If the attack doesn't kill him, he will even mention it was a close scrape.
** Likewise, if Funny Valentine has obtained the Corpse parts and is hit by Johnny's Perfect Golden Rotation or Gyro's Ball Breaker, he will use Love Train to stop the attack, albeit for a short while.
* ''[[VideoGame/HalfLife1 Half-Life]]'' has one in the HECU, and it applies in two ways.
** Them against the invading Xen aliens. In general the HECU are being overwhelmed, but as far as Gordon can see, they tend to win individual battles, suggesting that the aliens are only winning overall due to [[WeHaveReserves their superior numbers]] (an entire alien army vs a single special forces batallion). It's true that the marines are also enemies to the player ([[FieryCoverup and everyone else in Black Mesa]]) but it's still not hard to be rooting for the humans during an alien invasion. Even when on the ropes, the HECU are still quite well-equipped and threatening, which ''VideoGame/BlackMesa'' showcases best.
** Against [[PlayerCharacter Gordon]], they also are one. Even if Dr. Freeman slaughters them in droves along his way, the first firefight is no cakewalk and it doesn't get any easier from there, [[SortingAlgorithmOfWeaponEffectiveness even after more powerful hardware is acquired]] - they pull out their own big guns in the form of attack helicopters, armored fighting vehicles and a swarm of stationary turrets. [[LaserHallway And mines. Lots of mines.]]
* In the backstory of the ''Franchise/{{Halo}}'' series, this is the way the Human-[[{{ScaryDogmaticAliens}} Covenant]] war goes for about 30 years. The human military acquit themselves surprisingly well in ground battles due to their superior training and the [[{{SuperSoldier}} Spartans]]. Heck, the Spartans are so feared by the Covenant that [[RedBaron they call them "demons"]]. But Covenant spaceships are much more advanced than human ships, so they win the space battles and [[WaveMotionGun glass]] the planet from orbit, rendering any human victory on the ground moot.
** Even a few space battles are this, with the Covenant achieving only a PyrrhicVictory instead of delivering their usual curbstomp to humanity. The battle for Reach cost the Covenant dearly, even if they don't like to show it; they concentrated five fleets to take the world in an unprecedentedly massive campaign[[note]]Specifically: the Fleet of Valiant Prudence, the Ministry of Resolution's unnamed fleet, the Fleet of Particular Justice, the Fleet of Righteous Vigilance, and the Fleet of Holy Respite.[[/note]] and, despite eliminating its Orbital Defense Platforms fairly early on, they lost over two thirds of their ships. This is a particularly impressive feat for humanity because not only did they only have 152 warships to defend the planet against several hundred from the Covenant, but about 95% of those 152 warships were frigates and destroyers- which are individually outmassed literally ''a hundred times over'' by mainline Covenant warships like CCS-class battlecruisers. The losses in tonnage were grossly in humanity's favor during that campaign, probably hundreds of times over. [[WeHaveReserves The Covenant just have so many ships that they can sustain even that scale of losses and keep coming.]]
** When the Flood take over High Charity in Halo 2 it's mostly a one sided massacre that the distracted Covenant have no chance against, but we do see the Covenant kill a fair few Flood, just not enough to stop them.
* In ''Videogame/TheLastRemnant'', [[spoiler:Emma Honeywell]] is slain in a CurbStompBattle by The Conqueror. However, she managed to draw FirstBlood against him, proving that he's not invincible.
* ''VideoGame/MassEffect3'':
** Throughout the whole game, this is the ''best'' the races of the galaxy can do against the Reapers. They can score a victory here and there, but ultimately it's a delaying action until they finish building the Crucible.
** Palaven, the turian homeworld, is taking a heavy beating, but the description of the war includes how the Reapers actually lost a few ships in the opening. While the Codex initially refers to the Fall of Khar'shan and the Fall of Earth for the first two fronts in the Reaper War, once Shepard visits the Turian home system, the Codex is updated with a third entry: The ''Battle'' of Palaven.
** If you secure a krogan-turian alliance, it goes so far as to include [[spoiler: ''The Miracle of Palaven''. The joint forces manage to smuggle a bunch of [=WMDs=] into the Reaper processing ships. This gets millions of people killed, but they were doomed anyways and at least this way a large number of Reaper ships get to die with them.]]
** Reading through the Codex also shows that Earth had one. Knowing the Reapers were coming in force, one of Earth's admirals positioned his fleet to fire on them as they came out of FTL. They lacked the firepower to sustain the assault, but ''humans'' scored first blood in the ''Reaper ambush of the Sol system.''
* Similar to the ''Film/ToraToraTora'' example above, ''VideoGame/MedalOfHonorPacificAssault'' has Conlin, as well as several other sailors and Marines aboard the crippled USS ''West Virginia'' taking down at least a squadron of Japanese planes late into the attack. While it doesen't prevent the damage from being done, it does help to minimize said damage, and give the USS ''Nevada'' the chance to at least beach itself.
* ''VideoGame/MonsterHunterWorld'': A turf war between a Bazelgeuse and a Deviljho ends with the Bazelgeuse taking a beating, just like most other monsters... but also giving the Deviljho a faceful of its [[HavingABlast exploding scales]].
* In ''VideoGame/StarWarsJediFallenOrder'', Cal Kestis is utterly outclassed by [[spoiler:Darth Vader]] and spends most of the encounter running away. He ''does'' manage to land one good hit on [[spoiler:the Sith Lord]] with BD-1’s help… only for [[spoiler:Vader]] to shrug it off and return the favor.
* During the last mission of ''VideoGame/MetalSlug 3'', the Rebel Army (who is pulling a VillainousRescue) sends a ton of ships carrying their soldiers to the alien mothership. However, not a few seconds after liftoff, almost the entire first wave of ships is shot down by [=UFOs=], and for the entire first half of the level they can be seen being dominated in the background. Still, not only does a sizable Rebel force manage to make it into the mothership, but they take out a few aliens themselves.
* ''VideoGame/SaintsRowIV'': The Boss doesn't stand a chance against Emperor Zinyak once the latter starts using his superpowers, but they manage to get him to bleed first.
* ''VideoGame/{{Yakuza}}'': While Kiryu usually tends to easily demolish any enemy he fights, including even bosses, there does exists enemies who even he has to really try hard against, ranging from hardcore master fighters who are some of the best in the underworld who can inflict rather nasty damage on him to other lesser but still very formidable fighters who do have what it takes to give him an actual fight and leave him somewhat winded but still get beaten without getting too much in.

[[folder:Visual Novels]]
* Wilhelm's battle with Schreiber in ''VisualNovel/DiesIrae'' was pretty much a one sided beat-down in Schreiber's favor. Despite this he managed to keep getting back up to try and land a hit and eventually managed to pin Schreiber for the briefest of moments despite him losing pretty badly.

[[folder:Web Animation]]
* Even though the ''WebAnimation/MadnessCombat'' series has every episode being a nearly uninterrupted CurbStompBattle in favor of the respective protagonist, it often happens that even lowly {{Mook}}s manage to wear them down with the occasional successful ambush or lucky shot.
* ''WebAnimation/DeathBattle'' does its best to follow this trope. Even when dealing with the most one-sided victories, the hosts are able to draw up a script that makes the big fight last a third of the episode with a good number of passes with the AdvantageBall, with several episodes having the loser give one hell of a final showing before being overcome.
** Scrooge [=McDuck=] vs. Shovel Knight turns out to be a pretty huge one. From analysis, it appears that [[spoiler:Scrooge's feats]] vastly outclass that of [[spoiler:Shovel Knight's]]. Yet come the fight, and [[spoiler:Shovel Knight nearly dominates the ''entire battle'' until Scrooge pulls out his Anti-Inertia Ray and Neutra-Friction Ray to seal the victory for him]].
** Likewise, Jotaro Kujo vs. Kenshiro also turns out to be a pretty big one. The analysis showed that [[spoiler:the latter's]] offensive and defensive feats and fighting style gave him massive advantages over his opponent. During the fight, [[spoiler:Kenshiro seemingly manages to gets only one glancing hit on Jotaro, while Jotaro holds the AdvantageBall throughout the fight as his Stand Star Platinum easily tanks or keeps Kenshiro at bay. That one hit was all it needed for Jojo to [[YouAreAlreadyDead be already dead]], thanks to hitting a pressure point that made him explode later.]]
** And yet another with Optimus Prime vs. Gundam. From the analysis, it's clear that the [[spoiler:latter]] stood no chance, yet in the actual fight itself, the loser puts up one hell of a fight, even managing to get the winner on the ropes and make it look like they were going to win for a moment.
** An arguable inversion occurs in the battle between [[WesternAnimation/TheTransformers Starscream]] and [[WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic Rainbow Dash]], probably the most curbstompy fight in ''Death Battle'' history, with [[spoiler:the latter]] utterly toying with [[spoiler:the former]] for the entire duration of the fight, even more than their stats might imply. [[spoiler:This seems to be mostly for the purpose of the inherent RuleOfFunny in seeing a small pony annihilating a giant robot, but is also somewhat justified, since due to the potency of his arsenal any good hit by Starscream could have theoretically annihilated Dash, [[ImperialStormtrooperMarksmanshipAcademy if only he weren't too incompetent to land even one]]. Starscream lands all of '''two''' hits in the entire fight, one with his metal hand and one with the Null Ray, which does not damage organic beings and therefore only stuns and dazes Dash for a second or two. She '''is''' at least visibly worried about his final barrage of missiles, even though she [[HoistByHisOwnPetard winds up using it to her advantage]].]]
** DIO vs Alucard makes it clear in the post-analysis that [[spoiler:the latter]] was horribly outclassed in strength, speed, and durability, as well as having no real counter against [[spoiler:[[TimeStandsStill The]] [[FightingSpirit World]] and even his strongest advantage (his superior HealingFactor) could be chipped away at it until his three million "extra lives" were spent.]] In the fight itself, [[spoiler:Alucard [[HorrifyingTheHorror completely horrifies Dio]] during the first half of the battle (especially when Dio nearly gets turned into dog food by Baskerville) and Dio spends most of it just playing keep-away and chipping at Alucard to wear him down to find his needed openings.]]
** You can't ''quite'' always tell ''who's'' being cushioned, though. In "Mewtwo vs. Shadow the Hedgehog" -- these being two characters whose similarity lies more in having almost exactly the same backstory than their powers -- [[spoiler: Mewtwo]] has only just enough raw power to defend against [[spoiler: Shadow's]] superior strength for a while. [[spoiler: But that's enough to stall until it can attack Shadow's mind, which ends the battle right away.]]
** {{Downplayed}} in "Omni-Man vs. Homelander". [[spoiler: Homelander can use a sonic attack, which is Omni-Man's weakness. But their power levels are so different this just means he drops Omni-Man out of the sky once, buying himself maybe half a minute more. The same when he gets the drop on Omni-Man once and manhandles him for a moment; Omni-Man just waits it to be over before starting to toy with Homelander again.]]
* Volume six of ''WebAnimation/{{RWBY}}'' gives us Cinder vs. Neo. It plays with the trope in that Neo does far better against her than anyone else, save for Raven ([[spoiler:who happens to be a Maiden]]), and matches Cinder in sheer skill. However, Cinder was holding back her Maiden powers to keep a low profile, so when they take the fight to an empty alleyway, she makes it clear she could burn Neo to crisp ''very'' easily, forcing her to stand down.
* The first portion of Broly and Vegeta's battle (both as Super Saiyan 3) in ''WebAnimation/DragonBallDeliverance'' does not go Vegeta's way as he's subjected to a NoHoldsBarredBeatdown and gets the tar kicked out of him. However, unlike their prior bouts, he lands several hits in and even knocks Broly around for a bit, a far cry from when he was easily defeated in the past.

[[folder:Webcomics]]
* During newbie Viole's and veteran Urek's fight in ''Webcomic/TowerOfGod'', the weaker Irregular gets a OneHitKO… but while receiving it and protecting a little girl that somehow got into the fray, he actually manages to scratch Urek's cheek. With Urek being one of the most powerful beings in the Tower, that's something like managing to scratch Franchise/{{Superman}}.
* During the Imperial Dalek invasion of Ziragalen in ''WebComic/SecondEmpire'', Anzollo engages the Imperial Fleet in space, all the way knowing he can't hope to win against the vast invading army. He still racks kill after kill and delays them long enough to allow Xenol to finish putting Ziragalen's main fortress on full lockdown and preparing for the assault.
* In ''Webcomic/AskWhitePearlAndStevenAlmostAnything'', when Steven unleashes his OneHitKill attack, Rose was the only one able to withstand it, her shield blocking the attack while the others were poofed instantly.
* In ''Webcomic/PeterParkerForeignExchangeStudent,'' Izuku gets his ass thoroughly kicked by a Venom-controlled Peter, but not before breaking all of Venom's teeth with a kick after recalling some of Peter's advice.
* In ''Webcomic/KillSixBillionDemons'' fourth book, the TournamentArc ends with [[spoiler:82 White Chain facing down GodEmperor Solomon David. Solomon so outmatches White Chain he spends most of the match [[BeatThemAtTheirOwnGame copying her styles on the fly]] [[JustToyingWithThem just to humiliate her]], and [[WorfBarrage shrugs off White Chain's most impressive attack]] before unleashing [[NoHoldsBarredBeatdown a brutal beatdown on her in return]]. However, White Chain is able to deliver a CrossCounter during Solomon's final attack that mildly bruises his cheek, something no one has ever done to him in his tournament before. Despite not qualifying for VictoryByFirstBlood, the tournament crowd -- being accustomed to Solomon always winning by un-cushioned CurbstompBattle -- hail White Chain as the victor even if she didn't actually win.]]
* In ''Webcomic/TheOrderOfTheStick'', when [[KnightTemplar Miko]] [[https://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0251.html captures the Order of the Stick]], she's able to defeat all of them (sans Durkon, who heals his party members instead of fighting back) with the help of her celestial steed Windstriker. [[https://forums.giantitp.com/showthread.php?6495-Order-of-the-Stick-November-II/page17&p=291639#post291639 Rich Burlew provided a play-by-play of the battle]], which shows that a mixture of bad luck, being caught off guard and Miko taking out [[SquishyWizard Vaarsuvius]] first led to their defeat. However, you can see in the last panel of the comic that Miko and Windstriker have some minor injuries; according to the play-by-play, Roy's full attacks heavily injured Miko and forced her to use her Lay on Hands to recover, while Haley managed to sneak attack Windstriker with Elan's rapier after he broke her bow.
* ''Webcomic/DragonBallMultiverse'' features a number of these, by nature of the tournament format.
** U9 Tenshinhan versus U4 Super Buu. Buu decides to be sporting and not attack for a full minute. Tenshinhan breaks out the Mafuba, which he executes perfectly, sealing Buu in a manner that bypasses his insane regeneration. Buu then returns, explaining that he's hidden pieces of himself around the arena that can regenerate into him, and having absorbed Piccolo means he knows how to reverse the Mafuba, but he still compliments the guy for trying. Tenshinhan then decides to just point-blank ''annihilate'' him, combining his four arms and his Kikoho to create a double-strength version of an already disproportionately-powerful attack that turns Buu and the entire ring to vapor. When Buu [[FromASingleCell demonstrates he can return from even that]], Tenshinhan [[KnowWhenToFoldEm throws in the towel.]]
** Cell (while [[IAmNotLeftHanded holding back his power to his Cell Games level]]) versus Dabura. It's very evident that Cell is the more powerful of the two, due to his regeneration and greater skill, but Dabura still gives one hell of a show, able to get in the first hit, break Cell's forcefield, slice him open with his sword, and even nearly negate Cell's regeneration with [[TakenForGranite his stone spit.]]
** U9 Videl versus U8 King Cold. Though it's very evident that this Videl is [[AlternateUniverseReedRichardsIsAwesome a lot more powerful than "our" version]], and gets to show off Kaioken and get in some hits with the Z Sword, it quickly becomes evident that she doesn't stand a chance, and she forfeits once he enters his true form.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Web Original]]
* The Website/AlternateHistoryDotCom timeline ''Literature/NewDealCoalitionRetained'' has a couple of examples once WorldWarIII breaks out:
** In the Middle East, communist forces from Iran and Syria overrun northern Iraq and northern Israel, but take heavy losses to do so. Plus, the defenders in both countries manage to fall back to heavily-prepared defensive lines, causing the advance of both invasions to grind to a halt.
** The Warsaw Pact manage to invade all of Germany east of the Rhine, but at the cost of almost double the number of casualties suffered by NATO. This allows NATO to counterattack and take back significant chunks of territory.
* ''{{Literature/Deviant}}'': While Genesis gets her ass completely kicked by Terminus, she manages to actually do some damage and lasts longer than anyone really should've in her situation. This is pretty recognized in-universe afterwards.
* ''Literature/AHerosWar'': The first mission of the "Special Effects" (experimental weapons testing) team kills zombies at an unprecedented rate of thirty times their own casualties. They have to burn a lot of magic and hard-to-replace ammunition to do it, though, and the casualties on the human side are felt more keenly than the zombies losing a single army out of an endless horde. It was still a definite victory (and a valuable test of the new weapons).
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Web Videos]]
* The version of the Saiyan Saga ''WebVideo/DragonBallDC'' has the fight against [[Franchise/DragonBall Nappa]] turn out this way. The Saiyan has easily plowed through Earth's heroes, with only ComicBook/{{Aquaman}} and Franchise/{{Batman}} being left by the end. Aquaman is badly injured, having lost a hand, but Batman says his plan requires Nappa to bleed. Despite his injuries, [[DyingMomentOfAwesome Aquaman manages to inflict a cut on Nappa before dying]]. The injury allowed Batman to put his plan against Nappa into action and defeat the Saiyan.
** The climax of the Entity Saga sees the heroes already exhausted from previous fights when [[Franchise/{{Superman}} Rogal Zaar]] shows up. Despite that they force Rogal Zaar to resort to [[CrazyPrepared use the various traps he prepared]] as his physical strength and gadgets aren't enough. He tanks every attack thrown at him, but is damaged by them, and gives time for the heroes to escape to Earth. [[Franchise/DragonBall Kakarot]] [[AdaptationalNameChange Kent]] and Batman stay behind. Batman doesn't have any powers, but he manages to save Kakarot from a fatal blow by hitting Rogal Zaar with Scarecrow's fear toxin and [[spoiler: [[TakingTheBullet takes a hit that would have killed him]], an act which caused Kakarot to turn into a Super Saiyan and demolish Rogal Zaar.]]
** The Doom Saga has Gohan's debut fight against the Parasite. [[HopeSpot Gohan appears to have the upperhand but his attacks to just be feeding the parasite]], who prompty engulfs Gohan and starts to drain him of all his energy. Gohan releasing a massive energy burst that leaves him too exhausted to fight is enough to escape the Parasite. He's clearly lost, but managed to survive long enough for Kakarot to save him.
* In season two of ''WebVideo/MortalKombatLegacy'', Johnny Cage actually manages to hold his own against [[spoiler: [[FaceHeelTurn Evil! Liu Kang]]]] for a moment, despite being worn down and stabbed through the shoulder in his fight with Mileena just before this. Even [[spoiler: Liu]] seems impressed by this, before he stops [[CurbStompBattle holding back]]. And a little bit later, Stryker briefly manages to K.O. [[spoiler: Liu Kang]] with a taser to the back, before getting his ass handed to him.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Western Animation]]
* In the ''WesternAnimation/BatmanTheBraveAndTheBold'' episode "Clash of the Superheroes", Batman and Krypto face down a Red Kryptonite-infected Superman, who has gone all mad dictator on Metropolis. Batman makes it clear to Krypto that there's no way they can beat him, that they just need to distract him long enough for the Kryptonite to wear off. Despite donning a suit of PoweredArmor based off of the one from ''ComicBook/TheDarkKnightReturns'' and getting in a good few physical blows, Batman's no match for Superman and the Kryptonite wears off just before Superman crushes his head like an egg.
* WesternAnimation/BugsBunny often outsmarted his foes with sheer ease. Every now and again however a brief of wit would bestow the villain and take Bugs by surprise to make things a little more tense (and likely to prevent Bugs from becoming insufferably smug). Allegedly the creative team deliberately made Bugs' foes slightly more challenging so the audience wouldn't start to see him as the bully of the feud.
** It was a common formula for the villain to always get in one slapstick blow on Bugs to start the feud at the beginning of the short, at which point a riled up Bugs would prepare to do his worst:
--->'''Bugs:''' Of course you know, this means war...
* Early episodes of ''WesternAnimation/TheDreamstone'' followed a rather Golden Age-esque format with the Urpneys usually suffering a total runaround from the heroes. By the closing points of the series however, the Urpneys, while still often outsmarted very easily, managed to prove more evasive in several episodes, with the Noops [[ImmuneToSlapstick Immunity To Slapstick]] downplayed so they often suffered one or two blows pursuing them. Similar to said Golden Age examples above, this was likely done so the Noops looked more provoked.
* ''WesternAnimation/Invincible2021'': In keeping with the original comic, the FirstEpisodeTwist is when Omni-Man, the world’s greatest superhero, suddenly turns against and butchers his allies, the [[CaptainErsatz Justice League-ersatz]] Guardians of the Globe. In the original comic, this was an effortless CurbStompBattle. Here, Omni-Man kills them all just the same, but they put up a substantially better fight, and by the end of it he’s been beaten so badly he loses consciousness and has to be hospitalized. He’s back to full strength soon enough.
* When Luz duels Emperor Belos in the season one finale of ''WesternAnimation/TheOwlHouse'', it's obvious from the very beginning she's no match for him, as she has been witch in-training for only a few weeks while Belos has ruled the island with an iron fist for half a century and is said to be the most powerful witch in the world, and he easily trounces her while barely lifting a finger. However, his overconfidence allows Luz to get in one sneak attack which chips off a piece of his mask, proving to her he ''can'' be beaten. Belos is [[VillainRespect actually impressed]] but warns her ''not to try it again''.
* During Wendy's brawl against Cartman in the climax of the ''WesternAnimation/SouthPark'' episode "Breast Cancer Show Ever", Cartman manages to get a few good hits in against Wendy, but still ends up with what he deserves. Granted this was likely as much to show [[JerkAss Cartman]] WouldHitAGirl as to add tension to the fight.
* Much like Bugs Bunny, WesternAnimation/SpeedyGonzales could often run rings around adversaries like Sylvester, and at fail of that, his SuperSpeed made him NighInvulnerable anyway. In the De Patie Freleng run of ''Looney Tunes'' shorts however, his foes were often depicted as more persistent or Speedy more prone to error, leading him to take the odd lump back. WesternAnimation/DaffyDuck bizarrely enough was his most formidable opponent, having more moments of overpowering Speedy and [[TeamRocketWins even winning two face offs against him]], even if he still otherwise got comically outdone by the rodent.
* Similarly to the ''Looney Tunes'' examples above, ''WesternAnimation/TomAndJerry'' would usually end with Tom outsmarted and decimated by Jerry, but would usually get in the odd shot along the way (usually when Jerry was at risk of looking more relentless than Tom). He was even bestowed the odd DarkHorseVictory against Jerry to keep the formula that little more unpredictable. One example of Tom winning is the short where Tom can get a million dollars if he never hurt another animal with predictable results. [[LaserGuidedKarma Karma bites Jerry]] ''hard'' in the ass where Tom admits he's giving up all that money but, hey, he's happy beating on a very deserving mouse!
* In ''WesternAnimation/TransformersPrime'' Wheeljack and Ultra Magnus ended up facing the freakishly powerful Predaking in his newly revealed robot form. In Predaking's dragon form, absolutely nothing has proven to even damage him but merely slow him down, and while his robot form was a little easier to knock around he was still NighInvulnerable to their most powerful attacks. Utilizing BashBrothers they gave him one hell of a fight, but in the end they were no match.
* ''WesternAnimation/StarWarsTheCloneWars''
** Sidious largely wipes the floor with Maul and Savage Opress at the end of 'The Lawless'. Nonetheless, both brothers manage to get hits in on Palpatine, and after Savage's death, Maul is able to outright press him for a minute. In the end, Sidious is forced to use the Force to crush Maul, rather than his swordplay.
** 'The Rise of Clovis' has Anakin, a trained Jedi Knight, in a fistfight against Rush Clovis, a banker. While Clovis gets the snot kicked out of him, he does land a couple of solid hits on Anakin.
[[/folder]]

* Hilariously {{invoked|Trope}} during a segment of ''[[Series/{{Jackass}} Jackass: The Movie]]'': the department store boxing segment between Creator/JohnnyKnoxville and Eric Scott "Butterbean" Esch ([[StoutStrength a 425-lb. pro boxing champion]]) was nothing short of a full thrashing, but Butterbean willingly stopped in his barrage and offered Knoxville a free hit. He takes him on the offer with the biggest punch he can muster, to which Butterbean [[MadeOfIron happily tanks it]] before continuing his ass-whupping.
-->'''Butterbean''': Here-here, hit me once at least. ''(punch)'' There you go! ''(starts punching back)''

* In ''Webcomic/TheOrderOfTheStick'', when [[KnightTemplar Miko]] [[https://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0251.html captures the Order of the Stick]], she's able to defeat all of them (sans Durkon, who heals his party members instead of fighting back) with the help of her celestial steed Windstriker. [[https://forums.giantitp.com/showthread.php?6495-Order-of-the-Stick-November-II/page17&p=291639#post291639 Rich Burlew provided a play-by-play of the battle]], which shows that a mixture of bad luck, being caught off guard and Miko taking out [[SquishyWizard Vaarsuvius]] first led to their defeat. However, you can see in the last panel of the comic that Miko and Windstriker have some minor injuries.