History Main / DavidVersusGoliath

* In ''VideoGame/{{Fallout 3}}'', the fight between the Enclave and the HumongousMecha [[TheJuggernaut Liberty Prime]]. The Enclave can at best only slow him down.

* The trope namer is the aforementioned story in the Old Testament Book of 1 Samuel, where David kills the large and fearsome Goliath with a slingshot, making the trope OlderThanFeudalism... sort of. The story has been exaggerated to the point that it may nowadays get told as "kid beats giant with a clever improvised weapon." However, David was a warrior and a good enough slinger that he easily could have beaten Goliath; sling bullets can hit as hard as rifle bullets, and he boasts of killing lions and bears that threatened his flock. So the story was originally more like an example of NeverBringAKnifeToAGunFight.

* The American Revolutionary War. A loosely connected group of militias versus the largest and most powerful empire in the history of humanity. Granted, said militias later got help from the second most powerful empire of the time, but it was still largely a Britain vs rebels conflict.
** Actually that's a patriotic myth, in reality there were only about 40,000 British troops all together posted in America, while there were several hundred thousand colonists, plus about 300,000 French troops sent in. The French Navy also prevented most reinforcements getting to America (not that there were that many anyway, the British army was very unevenly spread out). So actually the colonists were the Goliath, and the British were David, and the troupes subverted. This doesn't take into account Loyalists (despite the myths there were quite a lot of them as well) or native American allies.

* The Battle of Britain during World War II. The Nazis had already invaded several countries and taken a large portion of Europe and assembled a massive, seemingly unstoppable army. Despite getting bombed relentlessly the British managed to keep the Nazis from even trying to invade, let alone conquering them.
** It helped that Britain still had command of the largest colonial empire ever assembled at the time.

* Cracked.com cites some cases, notably in this http://www.cracked.com/article/93_the-7-most-badass-man-vs.-beast-showdowns/, which includes a man driving a bear by kicking in the face and a women driving a way hippo by hitting in the head with a stick. http://www.cracked.com/article_19565_9-old-timey-animal-photos-you-wont-believe-are-real.html has another case with man named Gus Waldorf going into a boxing match against bear, and as they put it "[[WorfHadTheFlu Since they followed boxing protocol as opposed to the bear's preferred combat style of straight up mauling everyone, its teeth and claws were restricted with a muzzle and boxing gloves. And even though the bear went into the ring severely handicapped,]] [[RealityEnsues Waldorf still lost the fight]] [[PunyHumans due to the handicap of not being a bear]]."

* The trope namer is the aforementioned story in the Old Testament Book of 1 Samuel, where David kills the large and fearsome Goliath with a slingshot, making the trope OlderThanFeudalism... sort of. The story has been exaggerated to the point that it may nowadays get told as "kid beats giant with a clever improvised weapon." However, David was a warrior and a good enough slinger that he easily could have beaten Goliath; sling bullets can hit as hard as rifle bullets, and he boasts of killing lions and bears that threatened his flock.

* The trope namer is the aforementioned story in the Old Testament Book of 1 Samuel, making it OlderThanFeudalism
** A subversion when you realize that David was a good enough slinger that he easily could have beaten Goliath; sling bullets can hit as hard as rifle bullets, and he boasts of killing lions and bears that threatened his flock.

* The [[hottip:bosses:Apocalypse, Onslaught, Abyss and Galactus]] in the ''MarvelVsCapcom'' series.

*** That's virtually the ''entire premise'' of ''MassEffect''.

* IndianaJones is usually the "David" in a fist-fight against a bigger opponent.

* In ''That70sShow'' Kelso attempts to beat up a guy who Jackie kissed ([[spoiler:totally ignoring the fact that he's done ''far worse'' with other girls at the drop of a hat]]), but he and his friends are quite shocked to find he's just picked on a black belt.

* Touma in ''ToAruMajutsuNoIndex''. Seriously, complete invulnerability to all supernatural powers ''sounds'' awesome, but let's think about this. A. It's his only power. B. Against non powered opponents, if anything it works again him by influencing his luck. C. It doesn't protect him from the effects of said powers such as shrapnel. D. Using this ability means he can't use any sort of weaponry and therefore has to get into punching range of his opponent. E. It's only a single limb, not his entire body. Opponents so far: An esper with extremely potent electric abilities. An essentially all powered magician able to draw on what is apparently the entirety of magical knowledge. A reality warper who can literally kill with a thought or do anything he thinks of. [[SuperPowerLottery Accelerator, who can not only take a nuke head on but hit you back with it even harder.]] [[spoiler:Fiamma of the Right, a magician who has an undodgeable and always lethal attack and can level cities without effort. ''The ArchangelGabriel, second most powerful angel in existence who can end all life on Earth in minutes.'']] Basically, a partial immunity to their abilities on his side and ''street fighting skills.'' DavidVersusGoliath much? [[spoiler:And naturally, any opponents who don't rely entirely on these abilities tend to crush him. Kanzaki and Tsuchimikado, basically, who go for a wide range of abilities instead of relying on the raw power of whatever their ability is.]]

** That's not so much DavidVersusGoliath as Goliath Versus Bigger Goliath.

* You would have thought the story of impoverished orphan newsboys going on strike against newspaper tycoon Joseph Pulitzer was already an obvious DavidVersusGoliath story, but just so we didn't miss it, one of the main characters of {{Newsies}} is named "David", another character draws his attention to the coincidence ("As in David and Goliath?"), and then there's a further reference in one of the songs ("We'll slay the giant!").

* There have been two DavidVersusGoliath fights in DeathBattle. The first is [[WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic Rainbow Dash]] vs. [[Franchise/TransformersGeneration1 Starscream]] . The second is [[{{Anime/Pokemon}} Pikachu]] vs [[Franchise/StreetFighter Blanka]].

* Wrestling/{{WWE}} has put on several matches between ReyMysterio (who is 5'6" and 170 lbs.) and TheBigShow (who is billed as 7 feet tall and 500 lbs.), and even promoted them as "David versus Goliath" matches.

** Currently, Mysterio is feuding with Kane, who is about Big Show's height but weighs less. Man, they just ''love'' to make Rey fight tall guys, don't they?
*** {{WCW}} also quite liked this idea, pitting Mysterio against the near-seven foot Kevin Nash.

** A subversion when you realize that David was a good enough slingster that he easily could have beaten Goliath (slings can have the force of a bullet).

* Touma in ''ToAruMajutsuNoIndex''. Seriously, complete invulnerability to all supernatural powers ''sounds'' awesome, but let's think about this. A. It's his only power. B. Against non powered opponents, if anything it works again him by influencing his luck. C. It doesn't protect him from the effects of said powers such as shrapnel. D. Using this ability means he can't use any sort of weaponry and therefore has to get into punching range of his opponent. E. It's only a single limb, not his entire body. Opponents so far: An esper with extremely potent electric abilities. An essentially all powered magician able to draw on what is apparently the entirety of magical knowledge. A reality warper who can literally kill with a thought or do anything he thinks of. [[SuperPowerLottery Accelerator, who can not only take a nuke head on but hit you back with it even harder.]] [[spoiler:Hell, probably could have taken that angel out if he'd been allowed to fight it and it wasn't in the air.]] Basically, a partial immunity to their abilities on his side and ''street fighting skills.'' DavidVersusGoliath much? [[spoiler:And naturally, any opponents who don't rely entirely on these abilities tend to crush him. Kanzaki and Tsuchimikado, basically, who go for a wide range of abilities instead of relying on the raw power of whatever their ability is.]]
** Shiage is an even bigger underdog in his fights against superpowered enemies, he doesn't have any superpower at all.

** A 5-seed entering the tournament, the Cardinals won their first two games to make the Sweet 16. There they met Baylor, the reigning national champions who were 74-1 over the past 2 seasons (with the only loss coming against #4 Stanford when their second best player was injured). Bonus points for Baylor having a literal Goliath on their roster, 6’8” player of the year, Brittney Griner. Louisville played a very physical game to limit Griner, and made a tournament record 16 3-pointers to find themselves up late in the game. One of the game's signature moments was when Louisville point guard Shoni Schimmel, nearly a foot shorter than Griner, drove on her, scored, and drew a foul. After falling behind with [[DownToTheLastPlay 9 seconds to go,]] they drove the length of the court and drew a foul. Monique Reid, a player who had missed a key free throw only minutes earlier, was taking the shots. She made both, and Louisville pulled off what many thought was an impossible upset.

* Also ic college Football, 2006 Fiesta Bowl. Boise St-Oklahoma. Heck, when the broadcast team openly acknowledge the trope ("This is truly a David and Goliath situation" etc), and an undefeated team goes up against one of the winningest teams in the history of the sport. And pulls off one of THE most improbable and thrilling wins....yeah, I think it qualifies.
* In College Basketball March 26, 2006. University of Connecticut, a team with 6 players that would be drafted in the NBA, a 1 seed in their bracket in the NCAA tournament, and the odds on favorite to win the whole thing, takes on George Mason, a school that had only 3 tournament appearances before the 2006 tournament. The Patriots, no relation to the cheaters from New England mind you, shock everyone with an 86-84 overtime victory, sending them to the Final Four and UConn players to the coldness of the NBA.

** A 5-seed entering the tournament, the Cardinals won their first two games to make the Sweet 16. There they met Baylor, the reigning national champions who were 74-1 over the past 2 seasons (with the only loss coming against #4 Stanford when their second best player was injured). Bonus points for Baylor having a literal Goliath on their roster, 6’8” player of the year, Brittney Griner. Louisville played a very physical game to limit Griner, and made a tournament record 16 3-pointers to find themselves up late in the game. After falling behind with [[DownToTheLastPlay 9 seconds to go,]] they drove the length of the court and drew a foul. Reid, a player who had missed a key free throw only minutes earlier, was taking the shots. She made both, and Louisville pulled off what many thought was an impossible upset.

* Deconstructed to absolutely ''horrifying'' degrees in ''ShingekiNoKyojin''. Humanity are the underdogs in every way to the Titans, and this usually means a very gruesome death. On the other hand, the trope is played absolutely straight with Mikasa Ackerman and Colonel Levi, who are both fairly small but incredibly skilled. This allows them to devastate the ranks of normal Titans and even present a credible threat to the more dangerous [[spoiler: Human-controlled]] ones.

If the villain is literally ''physically'' larger than the hero, that's EvilIsBigger. [[UpToEleven Up the scale]] and [[DidYouJustPunchOutCthulhu You Just Punched Out Cthulhu]]. If someone is the Goliath,the other person may perform a ColossusClimb in order to defeat the other person.

* Probably the reason why the American public is supportive of the United States being required by law to come to the aid of Taiwan should Communist China attempt military action on the democratic island.

* Believe it or not, the ''WesternAnimation/MrBogus'' episode "[[Recap/MrBogusS2E5BadLuckBogus Bad Luck Bogus]]" actually made good use of this trope, when Bogus found himself facing off against an EvilKnockoff of himself who was three times bigger than he was.

* Gundalian Wars has Ren mocking Aoki Reika because she is shorter than he is and that she [[YouFightLikeACow fights like a girl]]. Ren is left frozen solid in the end.

If the villain is literally ''physically'' larger than the hero, that's EvilIsBigger. [[UpToEleven Up the scale]] and [[DidYouJustPunchOutCthulhu You Just Punched Out Cthulhu]]. If someone is the Goliath,the other person may perform a ColossusClimb in order to defeat the giant.

If the villain is literally ''physically'' larger than the hero, that's EvilIsBigger. [[UpToEleven Up the scale]] and [[DidYouJustPunchOutCthulhu You Just Punched Out Cthulhu]].

[[folder: Fan Fic ]]

* The RanmaOneHalf / Manga/DragonBall Z crossover ''[[http://www.fanfiction.net/s/456898/1/Human_Saiyajin Human Saiyajin]]'' gives us [[strike: [[ThatManIsDead Ranma]]]] Ranko Saotome vs Perfect Cell. Even after several power-ups, Ranko doesn't even have the ki levels necessary to level a few city blocks, where Cell is ''far'' past being capable of causing an EarthShatteringKaboom. This difference in power also translates into their physical attacks; Cell can KO Ranko in one solid hit, where Ranko has to resort to DeathByAThousandCuts just to ''annoy'' Cell... but Ranko isn't the greatest martial artist in the world for nothing, and she manages to keep up with Cell by invoking WeakButSkilled ''HARD'', capitalizing on her knowledge of the art to predict where Cell is going to move and strike, basically fighting the entire battle a step ahead of Cell and using every trick in her arsenal to keep her opponent off balance and unable to counterattack. It's only after Cell figures out how to see through the Umisenken that Ranko goes down, but not before she snaps off a [[FinishingMove Hiryu Shoten Ha]] powerful enough to spawn a gods-be-damned ''hurricane''.

* [[http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2009/05/11/090511fa_fact_gladwell?printable=true How David Beats Goliath]] is a ''NewYorker'' article about this trope and its subversions. It talks mainly about a girls' basketball team reaching the National Junior Basketball Championships due solely to the full-court press (Instead of the 'normal' method of immediately retreating to guard your own basket when the other team has possession, the full-court press is aggressively defending against the other team in their own court.) The main reason that the full-court press worked is that it wears down both teams' stamina much faster - and the girls' team had worked almost solely on building stamina. The girls' team rode roughshod over other teams with taller girls and better shooting technique due to the fact that the other team couldn't get shots off due to having the ball stolen when they weren't expecting it, or losing possession for not bringing the ball back into play or in the other team's court fast enough. In some cases, they had 25-0 leads over other teams. The girls were then castigated by the other teams for playing 'unfairly' and not letting the teams 'develop basketball skills' - to the degree that fights nearly broke out. The team then lost its final game by caving to pressure and playing the 'proper' way after the referee (supplied by the opposing team) called excessive amounts of fouls. The general moral of the story is that when David plays by Goliath's rules, David usually gets crushed. However, by changing his tactics, David can become the favorite over Goliath. However, Goliath will respond in kind by using social pressure to force David to fight by Goliath's rules.

* In ''VideoGame/{{Fallout 3}}'', the fight between the Enclave and the HumongousMecha Liberty Prime.

* In what is probably the greatest example of this trope in any form of media ''anywhere'' '''''EVER''''', the RanmaOneHalf / Manga/DragonBall Z crossover ''[[http://www.fanfiction.net/s/456898/1/Human_Saiyajin Human Saiyajin]]'' gives us [[strike: [[ThatManIsDead Ranma]]]] Ranko Saotome vs Perfect Cell. Even after several power-ups, Ranko doesn't even have the ki levels necessary to level a few city blocks, where Cell is ''far'' past being capable of causing an EarthShatteringKaboom. This difference in power also translates into their physical attacks; Cell can KO Ranko in one solid hit, where Ranko has to resort to DeathByAThousandCuts just to ''annoy'' Cell... but Ranko isn't the greatest martial artist in the world for nothing, and she manages to keep up with Cell by invoking WeakButSkilled ''HARD'', capitalizing on her knowledge of the art to predict where Cell is going to move and strike, basically fighting the entire battle a step ahead of Cell and using every trick in her arsenal to keep her opponent off balance and unable to counterattack. It's only after Cell figures out how to see through the Umisenken that Ranko goes down, but not before she snaps off a [[FinishingMove Hiryu Shoten Ha]] powerful enough to spawn a gods-be-damned ''hurricane''.