History Main / InvincibleVillain

* The Tall Man from the ''Film/{{Phantasm}}'' films. No matter what our heroes do, he will always come back for them, often pulling a new power out of his ass in the process. The series is designed to feel like a nightmare, and every nightmare needs a guy whom you can never hope to defeat and can only stay ahead of for a bit. Even if you do manage to kill him, a copy of him will almost instantly appear where the previous one died. He's actually an evil entity from another dimension who is using an old man it killed as an avatar to enter our world. It has also made copies of its host so it can keep coming back. There are tens of thousands of them. The only ways to permanently defeat him would be to kill all of his copies (and considering how hard it is to kill just one, that would be nigh impossible), use the dimensional gate to travel to his dimension to try and destroy his true form, or travel back in time to stop the gate from being used to bring him into our world (almost pulled off at one point but ultimately failed).

* ''Film/ReturnOfTheLivingDead'': The Trioxin zombies in the first film are unkillable, save for [[BurnTheUndead complete immolation]] and even that just creates more zombies as demonstrated in the. While the protagonists and military are competent enough to temporarily incapacitate the zombies through various means, the military admits that there is no way to truly get rid of the Trioxin problem. It also doesn't help that the Trioxin zombies [[ItCanThink retain their human-level intelligence]] and thus have the wits to outsmart their prey. Subverted in the second film, though, when they turn out to be killable via electricity, and are all defeated at the end.

* Despite the praise received for his improved character, the only real difference between Face "the Big Dog" Wrestling/RomanReigns and Heel "The Tribal Chief" Roman Reigns is that the latter actually gets the crowd response that he's supposed to. Otherwise, Reigns loses as often as a heel as he did as a face, which is to say not at all.[[note]] Like most IWC disliked wrestlers, Reigns almost never loses cleanly, only if his opponents cheated. He also almost never loses cleanly, with all of his wins being caused as a result of someone interfering for him. [[/note]] To those in favour of the character, his invincibility is a central part of the character and his rule over the Bloodline.

* ''Manga/MyHeroAcademia'' has All For One. Given the nature of his [[PowerParasite Quirk]] in a world where [[OnePersonOnePower all people are limited to only one Quirk]], All For One is virtually invincible, killing every hero who sought to overthrow him for many generations. The only person who was able to defeat All For One was [[BigGood All Might]], but the latter failed to kill him in spite of his efforts. Six years later, All Might is forced to retire after sustaining crippling injuries and exhausting his powers. [[spoiler:A few months later, All For One's manipulations cause national mayhem, and he breaks out dangerous criminals from six high security prisons, destroying all the peace and order in one go, what took All Might twenty years to build. Worse, All For One has already built contingencies to ensure his rise to power once again. However, the final battle deconstructs the trope- as it progresses, he begins to take loss after loss, with it becoming clearer that he will not survive as it conitinues. By the end, the efforts of every hero progressively cause him to overuse the Rewind Quirk, which makes him deage until he disappears- proving that he wasn't the all powerful BigBad he thought he was.]]

*** [[Characters/MarvelComicsCarnage Carnage]] devolved into this during his early years, most notably in ''ComicBook/MaximumCarnage'', in which he continuously bounces back from all the heroes' attempts to destroy him with ease, even when they tried using traditional Symbiote weaknesses like fire and sound waves. Nowadays, he's still dangerous, but he's no longer the unstoppable powerhouse he was before... though still, can you name how many other people can survive getting ripped in half by SupermanSubstitute ComicBook/TheSentry? Well, okay, Ares, but he's a PhysicalGod and it still took the resurrecting power of the Chaos King to accomplish -- Carnage by comparison was back being evil and jokey merely issues later.

* UltimateLifeForm [[ArchnemesisDad Yujiro Hanma]] from ''Manga/BakiTheGrappler''. In the one anime fight where someone even lands a worthwhile attack (Doppo counters with several chest crushing punches), Yujiro simply stands up smiling as if he had an itch. To date, nothing has even given him cause to pause. Though several characters have evolved based on his almost unachievable status. Yujiro is so powerful, [[spoiler:even at the [[SeriesFauxnale apparent end of the series]] he still hasn't been defeated. Baki, now the second strongest man alive, attempts to fight Yujiro for the final time. At first it seems Baki is winning, even causing Yujiro to bleed, but Yujiro gets serious and begins {{No Sell}}ing all of Baki's attacks, eventually beating him]]. Well, he is [[spoiler:not beaten, but he is humbled enough to hand over the title "World's Strongest Creature" to Baki. However, the story is still ongoing and it's implied that Baki can still surpass him one day as he's shown only getting stronger since then, to the point he [[ADayInTheLimelight rarely appeared in the following sagas]] as a result of there being [[StoryBreakerPower so few people left to rival his strength]]]].
** Best exemplified when Yujiro appears as a GuestFighter in the official mobile game for ''Anime/FistOfTheNorthStar''. Everyone else, when defeated, is knocked out (or killed gruesomely if they were an early villain and a Secret move was used by any Hokuto or Nanto user). Yujiro doesn't do that- when his HP hits 0, he instead laughs and walks away.

* ''WebAnimation/{{RWBY}}'': Discussed in regards to [[[Characters/RWBYSalem Salem]]. Raven tells Yang that she once trusted [[BigGood Ozpin]] until she learned that [[BigBad Salem]] can't be defeated, and thinks Qrow and Taiyang are fools for supporting him because of this; [[spoiler:she later discusses with Leo his guilt over [[TheMole betraying Ozpin]] to Salem due to his terror of her invincibility. Hazel also admits to Ozpin that he only follows Salem because her constant regeneration wore him down and made him conclude she's an unstoppable force of nature. The Relic of Knowledge reveals to the heroes that Ozpin has been fighting Salem for thousands of years because the gods punished her with CompleteImmortality; even when Oz obliterated her, she swiftly regenerated back. When Oz asks the Relic "How can I destroy Salem?", she tells him "You can't". In Volume 7, Nora speculates that perhaps Jinn means Salem can be destroyed by [[ExactWords someone who isn't Ozpin]]. Ruby tells Salem that she can still be beaten even if she can't be killed, and Ironwood discusses with the heroes how Ozpin has kept beating her back for centuries. Her unkillability tends to destroy people's hope and therefore will to keep fighting because it seems like Ozpin's just "delaying the inevitable" instead of saving the world; however, Salem's true goal is to destroy the world, trapping Ozpin in a "[[ForeverWar keep fighting or everyone dies]]" situation.]]

* ''WebAnimation/{{RWBY}}'': Discussed in regards to [[TheDreaded Salem]]. Raven tells Yang that she once trusted [[BigGood Ozpin]] until she learned that [[BigBad Salem]] can't be defeated, and thinks Qrow and Taiyang are fools for supporting him because of this; [[spoiler:she later discusses with Leo his guilt over [[TheMole betraying Ozpin]] to Salem due to his terror of her invincibility. Hazel also admits to Ozpin that he only follows Salem because her constant regeneration wore him down and made him conclude she's an unstoppable force of nature. The Relic of Knowledge reveals to the heroes that Ozpin has been fighting Salem for thousands of years because the gods punished her with CompleteImmortality; even when Oz obliterated her, she swiftly regenerated back. When Oz asks the Relic "How can I destroy Salem?", she tells him "You can't". In Volume 7, Nora speculates that perhaps Jinn means Salem can be destroyed by [[ExactWords someone who isn't Ozpin]]. Ruby tells Salem that she can still be beaten even if she can't be killed, and Ironwood discusses with the heroes how Ozpin has kept beating her back for centuries. Her unkillability tends to destroy people's hope and therefore will to keep fighting because it seems like Ozpin's just "delaying the inevitable" instead of saving the world; however, Salem's true goal is to destroy the world, trapping Ozpin in a "[[ForeverWar keep fighting or everyone dies]]" situation.]]

** Yhwach's power "The Almighty", allows him to manipulate and nullify any foe's special abilities just by observing it once, and gives him the ability to see everywhere and everywhen, allowing him to counter possible futures. His Quincies are infected with pieces of his soul, allowing him to absorb their souls and abilities, empowering him when they die. [[spoiler:He easily defeats Yamamoto, Ichibei and Ichigo, uses Ichigo's power-ups to gain access to the Soul King, whom he wishes to destroy. He is so overwhelmingly powerful that all the series’ heroes and villains -- including [[GodzillaThreshold Aizen]] -- team up together to stop him; it also requires a special arrow crafted from Yhwach's secret weakness being fired by Uryuu, who is uniquely immune to Yhwach's power. Even then after he’s finally defeated, Yhwach’s corpse is turned into the new Soul King to protect the balance between worlds.]]

** A literal example of this would be Garlic Junior from ''Anime/DragonBallZDeadZone'' the first villain to wish for CompleteImmortality in the franchise. True to form, he is incapable of getting killed — not even the combined might of Goku and Piccolo could put him down and it takes Gohan giving him a FateWorseThanDeath by knocking him into the [[{{Hellgate}} Dead Zone]]. He comes back in the anime by breaking out of Dead Zone thanks to the power of the Makyo Star, but is thrown back into the Dead Zone after Gohan destroys said AppliedPhlebotinum.
** Frieza is so far beyond any other characters when he is introduced that it's considered insane to even stand up to him. Going by power levels, Goku at the beginning of the series before he fights Raditz has roughly 2% of Vegeta's initial power. Vegeta has roughly 0.015% of Frieza's power at that time. Even when Goku first arrives on Namek after all his training, his power is still only 0.1% of Frieza's. He kills Krillin with barely a thought after [[NoSell shrugging off]] a [[FinishingMove fully powered Spirit Bomb]]. The only reason he didn't outright kill Goku or the other surviving heroes is because he enjoyed [[ColdBloodedTorture toying with them too much]], which eventually leads Frieza to push Goku to his RageBreakingPoint and make him ascend to Super Saiyan. Very few future villain (at least canon ones) enjoy such an enormous power advantage over the heroes, except for Cell (eventually), Buu, [[PhysicalGod Beerus and his twin Champa]], Zamasu, Jiren, Broly and Cell Max.
** Super Buu never technically loses a fight. 18/Krillin/Yamcha/Tien Shinhan, Piccolo, Super Saiyan 2 Vegeta, Super Saiyan 3 Goku, Super Saiyan Gotenks, Super Saiyan 3 Gotenks, and Ultimate Gohan[[note]]he briefly tangled with Gohan earlier and was losing, but the fight was inconclusive due to Buu fleeing. He came back, absorbed Gotenks, and stomped Gohan[[/note]] are all easily defeated by him via various methods, ranging from BatmanGambit to sneak absorption to straight up brute force. Even Super Vegito doesn't actually beat him, despite possessing the capability to; he gets absorbed intentionally in a gambit to free his friends, but this ends up backfiring when he defuses due to Buu's BizarreAlienBiology [[note]]This was later {{revision}}ed in ''Anime/DragonBallSuper'' to be due to a time limit imposed on any species other than [[PhysicalGod Kais]] using Potara Earrings[[/note]], and Super Buu subsequently stomps Goku and Vegeta apart, mostly because they can't kill him inside his own body where they're the size of insects. In the end, he's taken down by internal sabotage, when Vegeta yanks out Fat Buu's pod just as Super Buu is about to kill Goku.

** Goku Black from ''Anime/DragonBallSuper'', possessed an enhanced Zenkai ability that allows him to get stronger from every bit of damage he takes. Within the span of four battles he goes from being toe-to-toe with a Super Saiyan 2 Goku, to being able to shrug off blows from Super Saiyan Blue Vegeta in his base form before transforming into Super Saiyan Rosé and utterly decimating Goku, Vegeta and Future Trunks despite all being at their strongest forms. Even Vegeta gaining the upper hand ends up being negated when he simply used his scythe to create clones that quickly overwhelmed both Goku and Vegeta. And with him fusing with Zamasu after the latter suffered a VillainousBreakdown, he remains completely undefeated and [[KarmaHoudini will never get the chance to answer for his crimes either]]. As an added bonus, he is one of the very few villains to never suffer a VillainousBreakdown and his compliance with Future Zamasu's request for fusion isn't out of desperation but because he decides to stop playing around. With the exception of his first fight with Goku, which was a case of WorfHadTheFlu and ended before either one of them could get serious, Black ''never'' actually loses a fight.
** Zamasu himself after he gets his wish for immortality. Any attack inflicted on him has no effect, and once or twice he even allows Black to attack ''through'' him to surprise his foes. The Evil Containment Wave would have worked on him, but the heroes flubbed it (and, of course, King Piccolo had broken out of it eventually back when it was used on him). And upon his fusion with Black, he gains not only an immense boost in power but also a permanent Super Saiyan state on top of Black's ability to grow stronger upon taking damage. [[spoiler:He does gain a bit of a weakness here, in that Black was still mortal so fusing with him weakened his own immortality, but even with that the heroes barely manage to destroy his body. And when they do, he just turns himself in a universe-spanning spiritual entity that annihilates all life on Earth in a heartbeat and begins spreading himself to other timelines. And none of the characters can harm because he no longer has a body. Zeno himself has to erase the entire timeline to put a stop to Zamasu.]]
** While he's not a villain, but rather a HeroAntagonist (with a serious asshole streak), Jiren qualifies. TheAce of Universe 11 during the Tournament of Power, he was stated to be even stronger than a God of Destruction. Specifically, he's far stronger than Belmod, who's ''stronger than Beerus'' (well, in terms of physical strength). When the time comes for him to battle, he shows some incredibly impressive feats. ''Nothing'' seems to make him budge; he's like a brick wall before Super Saiyan Blue Kaio-ken Goku who is totally unable to hurt him at all, he breaks out of Hit's Time Manipulation techniques and knocks him out with one punch, and takes down Super Saiyan Blue Evolution Vegeta (who defeated a God of Destruction in training) with ''two'' hits after pulling a NoSell of his offense when it finally looked like someone was actually making him sweat. When Goku gains Ultra Instinct, it's no good, as Jiren is ''still'' stronger. It's only by gaining the Mastered Ultra Instinct that Goku (or anyone) is ''finally'' able to damage Jiren and fight on par with him- but that only lasts a short while before the sheer ''strain'' of trying to fight at Jiren's level practically destroys Goku's body and causes him to collapse. Jiren is so insanely strong that when he actually goes to full power, even the aforementioned ''Beerus'' is sweating and quaking in terror, wondering how a single warrior could have so much energy. [[spoiler:He eventually goes down with the combined efforts of Goku and Frieza in the series finale, although by that time Goku had managed to make Jiren use up most of his overwhelming power in the Mastered Ultra Instinct fight, so he was about on their level at that point. Even ''then'', Goku stated that he would absolutely ''slaughter'' them if for the technicality that they could win by knocking him out of the ring. It takes the remaining heroes using up all their strength ''just to push him a few feet''.]]

** Moro the powerful Wizard that terrorized Universe 7 millions of years ago, rivals Goku Black in this regard, he was so powerful he had consumed 320 planets to become stronger and even forced the Grand Supreme Kai to sacrifice his power to seal away his magic. Moro has never lost a serious fight in the arc and anytime he's on the brink of defeat, he always finds a way to snatch victory. [[spoiler:It takes Ultra Instinct Goku, Vegeta, the combined energy of the Z-Fighters, and the Godly Ki of the Grand Supreme Kai still within Uub to ''finally'' kill him.]]
** Broly in both his NonSerialMovie debut ''Anime/DragonBallZBrolyTheLegendarySuperSaiyan'' and canonisation ''Anime/DragonBallSuperBroly'' is nigh-unbeatable (albeit he’s ForcedIntoEvil and not a real villain in the latter). In the canon he’s able to completely overwhelm Goku, Vegeta and Frieza in their godly tier powerful forms and even before going Super Saiyan could brutalise Goku in his Super Saiyan God transformation which could match Beerus and almost destroy the universe in the Super anime. He’s so terrifyingly powerful Beerus simply freaks out when meeting Broly. In his original movie it took all the Z-Fighters giving Goku their energy for him to land a winning punch [[AttackItsWeakPoint on the old wound Broly had as a child]]. In the retelling Goku and Vegeta have to do the FusionDance into InvincibleHero Gogeta to defeat him and even then Broly still puts up a helluva fight. Also keep in mind this was all ''before'' Broly was formerly trained.

** The Black Magician [[DarkMessiah Zeref]], the series' BigBad, is a widely feared mage for good reason. The man has CompleteImmortality that prevents him from being killed by anyone or anything (and Zeref's [[DeathSeeker been trying for centuries]]). On top of that he has the power to control death magic which, at its most unstable, can create a InstantDeathRadius sphere which automatically kills anything it touches. Zeref is also one of the world's most powerful mages having spent every day of his immortal existence studying and perfecting his magic. About the only advantage anyone has is the fact he ''wants'' [[DeathSeeker to die]] and the only times he's come close to losing were when he [[ILetYouWin intentionally held back out of hope his opponent could kill him]]. [[spoiler:Finally, after absorbing the power of Fairy Heart, Zeref gains the power to become a TimeMaster able to bend space time to his whim to the point that he can unwind time if he has been hurt to completely nullify the effects of any attack. Notably, even when [[TheHero Natsu]] ''finally'' defeats him in battle, he still couldn't ''kill'' him and Zeref himself states that he would heal from the injuries eventually. Only the fact [[BigGood Mavis]] [[TheLostLenore Vermillion]] has the same Curse as him and used it was he finally able to die, and that came [[HeroicSacrifice at the cost of her own life]], though [[TogetherInDeath neither really minded]].]]
** [[NamesToRunAwayFromReallyFast The Black Dragon of the Apocalypse]] [[TheDreaded Acnologia]], the GreaterScopeVillain of the series, is a creature so powerful that even Zeref fears him. [[spoiler:[[WasOnceAMan Once a normal Dragon Slayer,]] Acnologia began slaughtering humans and dragons alike absorbing their magic to make himself stronger.]] By the time Fairy Tail's story begins Acnologia is shown to be a monster able to withstand the combined attacks of the strongest mages, which includes 4 Dragon Slayers who use magic specifically designed to hurt Dragons. Every battle that Acnologia faces ends with a CurbStomp in his favour and the one battle he was shown struggling in [[spoiler:against Natsu's father Igneel ended with him tearing a hole in said Dragon's body and then blowing him up]]. It's revealed that the source of his immense power comes from his attribute [[spoiler:which is magic, meaning that any and all magic he can eat which makes him even stronger]]. Even Zeref, who is also considered invincible, freely admits that [[spoiler:without going back in time and killing Acnologia when he was younger and weaker]] even he can't defeat him. [[spoiler:In order to finally win, the heroes had to fight a two-front war [[ItMakesSenseInContext where the seven Dragon Slayers fought Acnologia's soul and everyone else kept his body distracted]], with the Slayers giving Natsu all their remaining Magic Power while Fairy Tail had to trap Acnologia on a ship, [[WeaksauceWeakness thereby taking advantage of his motion sickness]], and channel all the Magic Power of ''every mage on the continent'' into [[BarrierMaiden Fairy Sphere]] to keep him trapped and thus [[{{Synchronization}} paralyze Acnologia's soul long enough]] to let Natsu hit him head-on with all the Dragonslaying Magic at his disposal, finally killing him.]] Had even a ''step'' of that been out of sync, Acnologia would have killed ''everyone'' and [[TheBadGuyWins won]].

** The [[GuardianEntity Stand]] Music/TheNotoriousBig in ''Manga/JoJosBizarreAdventureGoldenWind''. Ordinarily, Stands are effectively astral projections, and [[{{synchronization}} damaging them results in corresponding damage to its user]]. Notorious B.I.G on the other hand, was an EldritchAbomination [[UnstoppableRage powered by its user's malice]] that violated every known rule regarding how Stands operate, as it functioned independently of its late user and was capable of regenerating FromASingleCell. Giorno and the others had no way to destroy it, and barely manage to escape by trapping it in the ocean.

** To not be killed by any of the races in the universe except humans (Ravan thought that if the gods couldn't defeat him, humans obviously didn't have a chance. Then Ramayana happened).

* Played for laughs in ''Videogame/PeasantsQuest'', where the goal is to defeat Trogdor the Burninator. Upon reaching him [[spoiler:Rather Dashing flings his sword at Trogdor, only to find that it barely tickles him. He then states that while he appreciates that you made the trip to kill him, he's "kinda indestructible". He gives you kudos for making it further than anyone else before burninating Rather Dashing and a statue of him is built in his honor]].

* [[Characters/TotalDramaAlejandro Alejandro]] of ''WesternAnimation/TotalDrama World Tour''. Labelled "The Arch Villain", he's pretty much meant to be the ultimate reality show villain. He combines the intelligence and manipulation skills of [[AlphaBitch Heather]] (BigBad of ''Island'') with the handsomeness and charming abilities of [[MrFanservice Justin]] ([[AbortedArc initial]] BigBad of ''Action''), and tops it off by being TheAce, having almost no weaknesses, and never suffering serious setbacks to his plans. Every contestant that season gets eliminated because of him, falls for his manipulative charms, and/or doesn't realize how horrible he truly is until it's too late. Everyone that is except Heather, who is the only one able to stand a chance against him because she's just as mean, greedy, ruthless, and self-centered as he is, resulting in an EvilVersusEvil scenario in the finals (which Alejandro wins in some countries, albeit by complete accident.)
** Averted in ''All Stars''. By this point, the contestants are more wary of Alejandro's behavior, and, once he eliminates Heather, things get worse and worse for him. He winds up placing a respectable sixth place, outlasting all but three members of his team.

* ''VideoGame/FateGrandOrder'': [[spoiler:After decades of being hyped up as TheDreaded across the entire ''Frnachise/{{Nasuverse}}'', Lostbelt 7 finally introduces ORT, the [[UltimateLifeform Ultimate One]] of Mercury (although the Lostbelt reveals it is actually the Ultimate One of the Oort Cloud. The FinalBossPreview alike hammers in just how tough ORT - the fight is initially set up as though ORT has a single, million point health bar and one extra bar after that. But when you get past that bar, the symbol changes to reveal ''a total of ten heath bars, with the one you brown through being number one, and the next bar having ten million hit points''. Oh, and it should be noted that ORT is ''level 1'' during this fight. When you get to the actual fight at the climax of the Lostbelt, you have to fight ORT across multiple stages, with each break bar depleted causing it to change classes. Additionally, ORT not only has a plethora of debuts and buffs to make your fight miserable, but servants defeated by ORT are flat-out ''eaten'', [[{{Permadeath}} preventing you from using them again in the battle]]. And when you finally defeat the [[NinjaPirateZombieRobot cyborg space spider]], it pulls one more trick and ''hijacks the Throne of Heroes to summon itself as the Grand Foreigner'', something that should be '''''[[BeyondTheImpossible completely impossible]]'''''. And even when you defeat that, it summons itself ''again'', because it has a renewable catalyst in the form of your ally, Kukulkan, who is actually ORT's disembodied heart - defeating it for good requires her to pull a TakingMeWithYou on ORT via an attack that totally obliterates both of them, just to be sure that ORT can't come back. It's explicitly that ORT ''cannot'' be defeated by the power of mankind and Earth alone, and this fight proves why - ORT's CannibalismSuperpower allows it to subvert anything the world and humanity throws against it and use them ''better'' than we ever could. Oh, and just when it seemed like ORT was hopeless enough, the one you fight in Lostbelt 7 is actually ''weaker'' than the one in Proper Human History, precisely because it is missing its heart]].