History Main / PaperTiger

* ''Series/{{Galidor}}'': A villain of the week in an early episode was an evil taskmaster working for [[BigBad Grom]] who kept slaves in line use the power of a staff that could unleash a swarm of terrifying flying bug monsters, except it turns out that the bugs were actually harmless illusions, which the heroes realize after they see one of them turn into static when an object is thrown through it. The slaves never realized this before because they would always panic at the sight of them. Nick shows the slaves the bugs are actually harmless by not reacting when the Taskmaster attack him with them and Nepal wrecks the staff for good measure. The same bug creatures, which the heroes nickname bogges as in bogus, would reappear in later episodes as minions of Gorm, but he has since upgraded them to actually be solid, making them no longer harmless.

* ''Series/{{Andor}}'': For all her smugness, bullying, and willingness to order violence against civilians and enemies, when Deedra ends up actually in the field herself during the riot it swiftly becomes apparent that she's never actually been in a fight and is in fact a complete coward; her "contribution" to the battle is waving her blaster around ineptly while shaking crazily (apparently having a panic attack), then getting knocked down by a small rock to the head and nearly beaten to death by the same townsfolk she had been abusing, forcing [[spoiler:Karn]] of all people to intercede and pull her to safety.

** One villain of the week is introduced with his Stand menacing the good guys with ThePowerOfTheSun, boasting the ability to massively heat up the environment and fire off deadly lasers. They can't even see him, as The Sun looms over them like a seemingly invincible menace. Then Jotaro figures out his location, throws a rock in that direction, and... The Sun promptly goes out. It turns out that The Sun's wielder was a tubby guy sittjng behind a mirror in an air-conditioned car, and that one thrown rock knocked him out. According to Araki, the whole joke was creating a Stand-user that seemed like he'd be a multi-chapter ClimaxBoss, and then he ends up defeated the week after his introduction, to the point that the main characters never even learn his name.

* In ''Manga/JoJosBizarreAdventure'', Dio Brando [[FromNobodyToNightmare starts off as this before using the Stone Mask]]. As a kid, he often beats up and humiliates Jonathan, but Jonathan is too timid to stand up to him. The final straw is when Dio forcefully kisses his girlfriend, Erina, and then attacks her for immediately washing her mouth out with a muddy puddle. When Jonathan finds out, he finally fights back and makes Dio cry. After the Stone Mask turns him into a vampire, though, this is averted, [[TookALevelInBadass with]] [[KnightOfCerebus extreme]] [[HeroKiller prejudice]].

* In ''Manga/JoJosBizarreAdventure'', Dio Brando [[FromNobodyToNightmare starts off as this before using the Stone Mask]]. As a kid, he often beat up Jonathan and humiliated him, but Jonathan was too timid to stand up to him. The final straw was when Dio kissed his girlfriend, Erina, and then attacked her for immediately washing her mouth out with a muddy puddle. When Jonathan found out, he finally fought back and made Dio cry. After the Stone Mask turned him into a vampire, though, this is averted, [[TookALevelInBadass with]] [[KnightOfCerebus extreme]] [[HeroKiller prejudice]].
** Telence T. D'Arby from [[Manga/JoJosBizarreAdventureStardustCrusaders Part 3]] is revealed to be this compared to his brother Daniel. Both have the power to [[YourSoulIsMine steal people's souls]] if they defeat them in a game, but the former also has the ability to read the opponent's mind by asking yes-or-no questions. However, when the heroes managed to circumvent their tactics, Daniel just kept playing and tried different tactics, while Telence became so demoralized that his Stand automatically released the soul that he captured.

* While facing several Naruto-like creatures ([[NightmareWeaver born of a genjutsu bringing people's worst fears to life]]) in ''[[https://www.fanfiction.net/s/3665921/48/Black-Flames-Dance-In-The-Wind-Rise-of-Naruto Black Flames Dance in the Wind: Rise of Naruto]]'', Naruto's female clone Akiko outright calls them Paper Tigers once she realizes that since they're born of civilians fear of Naruto (who know nothing of what he's capable of), said creatures simply fight like drunken civilians.
* ''Fanfic/ASparkOfGenius'': When describing the new superpower Romania, Lex Luthor claims its leader The Leviathan won't act against Krasnia just for knocking down some of its defensive towers. He's wrong (Romania conquers Krasnia within an hour of their attack) but he was also likely just trying to pacify the rebels he was dealing with.

** In "[[https://archiveofourown.org/works/23765473 Pear Shaped]]", Nick tries having Matt Murdock kidnapped in order to have him convince the other Defenders to join the initiative. Unfortunately, they tranquilized him with insulin, the dosage nearly putting him in a coma. He was so embarrassed that he dumped Matt at a Jersey hospital.

* In ''Fanfic/HonokasBizarreAdventure'', when Honoka and the others offer Nico to join µ's and become the idols she dreamed to be, Nico's sentient Stand Circus refuses [[NeverBeHurtAgain as she doesn't want Nico to betrayed like in her First Year]], and only considering when Honoka offers to battle with her Stand All Star to prove her determination. Despite Circus's boast of how strong she is, her long range whip (which feels like light stings on All Star), and [[HeartIsAnAwesomePower how versatile her attention control is]], once Honoka figures out her ability she takes Circus down in a single punch. Regardless, Honoka was able to prove her determination to become an idol to both Nico and Circus, letting Nico join as their seventh member.

* ''Anime/PokemonTheSeries'': Team Rocket are brash and confident and often show up with an imposing HumongousMecha or device, but are easily seen off by children. Butch and Cassidy give an air of greater competence and their schemes tend to be harder to uncover, but once they engage in battle they go down quickly and easily. The anime version of Team Plasma appears threatening, but even Jessie and James could tear through a squad of their mooks, and Ghetsis (who is ThatOneBoss and TheManBehindTheMan in the games) went down without a fight. Team Skull talks a big game but are no threat to even a half decent Pokémon trainer, like their game counterparts.

*** Russia lost the 1853 Crimean War to an alliance between Ottoman, France, United Kingdom and Sardinia despite having a numerical advantage. They lost to Japan in 1905, which was the first major defeat of a European power by an Asian nation. They lost to Imperial Germany in World War I, with their defeat triggering a revolution and civil war. *** After reorganizing into a Soviet republic, Russia failed to conquer Poland and Estonia after their independence. They technically won against Finland in 1939, but suffered five times as many casualties.

*** The Russian Navy performed abysmally despite being the only force with functioning Navy in the Black Sea. Not only did the Navy fail to secure vital coasts for land invasion, but they also lost several capital ships including the prized missile cruiser ''Moskva'' despite it allegedly sporting advanced defense systems.

* The Russian military came across as much weaker than expected during the Russo-Ukrainian War of 2022.

*** While the Russian Army's vehicles seemed formidable in military parades, in combat they broke down, got stuck in mud, were destroyed by Western weapons, or were stolen by the Ukrainians (most infamously by civilian farmers riding on their tractors) to be used against the Russians. The Russian Navy failed to secure vital coasts and lost their flagship ''Moskva'' to Ukrainian missiles despite it allegedly sporting advanced defense systems.

*** Most damningly, all advantages the Russian military had were thrown away due to massive logistical problems, low morale, and baffling tactical and strategical blunders; Russian logistics were especially embarrassing with the revelation that the military had civilian tires that deflated after about 10 km, obsolete night vision devices, and even rations expired in ''2015''. As a result, the Russian military's carefully cultivated image, built off the Soviet era and further raised through decades of propaganda, took inconceivable amounts of damage. It is so bad, that Putin ''considered'' nuking Ukraine into oblivion.

*** They lost to Japan in 1905, which was the first major defeat of a European power by an Asian nation. They lost to Imperial Germany in World War I, with their defeat triggering a revolution and civil war. They failed to conquer Poland and Estonia after their independence. They technically won against Finland in 1939, but suffered five times as many casualties.
*** The first two years of the Eastern Front in World War II included a slew of heavy losses and failed counterattacks, which were overshadowed by their ultimate victory in 1945 (and even then, they were fighting as part of a coalition with Britain and the United States, receiving vast amounts of supplies from the latter). Then of course they had their ten year long war in Afghanistan, which was a humiliating war of attrition.

Subtrope of MoreThanMeetsTheEye. A character is not as tough as their physical appearance and/or personality suggests. Basically the opposite of HiddenBadass, though they ''can'' and oftentimes ''do'' go the route of the CowardlyLion or the CorneredRattlesnake.

* ''VideoGame/StarControl3'': [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fIP9IChgdMo K'tang are funny]]. Without their titans, they're even MORE cowardly than the freaking ''spathi''!
* In ''VideoGame/SubnauticaBelowZero'', this is the gimmick of the Cryptosuchus. This marine predator resembles an armored, paddle-footed dinosaur, its fearsome roars can be heard at an unnerving distance, and whenever it spots a potential meal or threat, it goes into a frenzy of snapping jaws. But the instant it faces any resistance, it turns tail and swims away, so you can fend one off with a nick from your basic survival knife.

* ''ComicBook/{{Supergirl}}'': In "ComicBook/TheUnknownSupergirl", Lesla-Lar was billed as Supergirl's first real nemesis; unfortunately, albeit she proves to be a cunning and manipulative schemer, she turns out to be a complete failure at face-to-face confrontations. In "ComicBookTheGirlWithTheXRayMind" she is unable to defend herself when her would-be allies decide to obliterate her physical body; and in "ComicBook/StrangersAtTheHeartsCore", Lesla decides finally face Supergirl in person, and she loses so badly that her very soul is destroyed.

* Lex Luthor uses this trope by name in ''Fanfic/ASparkOfGenius'' when describing the new superpower Romania, claiming its leader The Leviathan won't act against Krasnia just for knocking down some of its defensive towers. He's wrong (Romania conquers Krasnia within an hour of their attack) but he was also likely just trying to pacify the rebels he was dealing with.

* ''Manga/DragonBall''

** In the original ''Manga/{{Dragonball}}'', Oolong is this in his first appearance. He uses his transformation magic to intimidate people, but as he himself notes using transformation magic to become a powerful monster doesn't give you the ''abilities'' of that monster.
** Zoonama pulled the same trick in ''Anime/DragonballGT'', intimidating a nearby town by claiming he could cause earthquakes when in reality he only had the ability to ''predict'' them.

* ''{{VideoGame/Medabots}}'' features Banisher. Looks badass, sounds badass, decked out with cool weapons, and in general gives off an ImplacableMan vibe. Too bad his weapons and tactics are [[CripplingOverspecialization expressly designed]] for ''counter''attacks only, not to mention his armor being next to useless. In their first battle, Metabee ends up taking him down with ''a single shot'', as Banisher had to wait for Metabee to make the first move and didn't expect him to have such a strong gun.

* ''Literature/RebuildWorld'': {{Discussed|Trope}}.

* The 1981 AnimatedAdaptation of ''Manga/UruseiYatsura'' has two examples:

* The Seven-Faced Widow in ''ComicBook/BigTroubleInLittleChina'' is a PhonyPsychic who turns out to have very little power at all, certainly far less than people believe. She has managed to kill or drive mad numerous opponents in her time, but only because they were all too scared to challenge her directly, instead steering clear so she could manipulate and destroy them from afar. When Jack does challenge her directly she proves unable to accomplish much of anything at all.
* In one of the last storylines of ''ComicBook/Hitman1993'', Tommy finds himself being targeted by a skilled gunman who's the son of a master assassin who was the only man Tommy truly feared and who he defeated by just sheer luck. Tommy sees the kid on video at gun ranges, not even looking at the targets yet hitting the bulls-eye every time and knows he's in trouble. In a big battle, the kid gets the drop on Tommy, gun pointed at his head, absolutely no way he can miss, smirking as he pulls the trigger... ''Click''. He's forgotten to remove the safety. It hits Tommy that this guy was only shown firing at paper targets and the reality is that he's never shot a real person in his life and was using his father's fame to make himself look more fearsome. Tommy just grins as he empties his own clip in the punk's face.

* God is portrayed this way on ''ComicBook/{{Preacher}}''. He's meant to be a parody of the wrathful God of the Old Testament, the one that will condemn you to an eternity of suffering if you defy His holy word. He attempts to do this but all His bravado and arrogance vanish as soon as the person facing Him doesn't buy his threats. The best example of this occurs in His last appearance [[spoiler:when He returns to Heaven and finds the entire Heavenly Host murdered by the Saint of Killers. God's attempts to intimidate the Saint stop immediately when He finds Himself looking into the barrel of the Saint's revolver. Gods tries to plead, saying that He will restore the Saint's family if He's allowed to sit upon His throne once again. The Saint chooses "rest" instead and fires, killing God. He then takes his rest upon God's empty throne.]]

** Draco Malfoy is shown to be this. He is easily bested in fist fights by Hermione and tried to have Buckbeak executed for scratching him. It gets PlayedForDrama in ''Half-Blood Prince'' when he is ordered to [[spoiler: kill Dumbledore]], but he has cold feet and starts crying.

* Similar to the ''Literature/HonorHarrington'' example above, ''Literature/LegendOfTheGalacticHeroes '' has a few examples:

* [[TheBully Kyler]] of ''Series/CobraKai''. He's not a ''terrible'' fighter, being adequately talented at wrestling, Cobra Kai, and even some Miyagi-Do techniques, but he is ''[[SmallNameBigEgo WAY weaker]]'' than he likes to think he is and has, in fact, lost every even fight he's ever been in. The only time he manages to scrape out a win is when he has back-up from his buddies or his opponent is injured, and even ''then'' he loses more often than he wins. Hawk outright calls him out on this during his TheReasonYouSuckSpeech in Season 5... before promptly kicking his ass even in spite of Kyler having two other Cobra Kais at his back.
--> '''Hawk:''' You know what? That's life. You win some, you lose some, but you gotta move on. You never did. You're still pulling the same old bully act as always. Even though everyone you bullied has kicked your ass by now.
--> '''Demetri:''' I haven't!
--> '''Hawk:''' You'll get your turn. Kyler's too stupid to ''ever'' learn his lesson.

[[folder:Newspaper Comics]]
* Parodied/discussed in ''ComicStrip/CalvinAndHobbes''. Calvin comes across the term in a book he's reading for homework and asks his tiger Hobbes what the definition is. [[KnownothingKnowItAll Hobbes responds that]] it's a tiger with a newspaper route, much like a paperboy. One BeatPanel later:
-->'''Calvin:''' ''"...This book makes no sense at all."''
[[/folder]]

** Some flies, moths, and jumping spiders look like jumping spiders.

* In ''Literature/ASongOfIceAndFire'', the Iron Throne of the Seven Kingdoms is still technically the ruler of the entire Westerosi continent, even though it no longer possessed the dragons that gave them their power. In practice, however, the Throne only directly controls the Crownlands, with the other eight kingdoms ([[ArtifactName the Seven Kingdoms]] actually consist of nine kingdoms) ruled by powerful vassals known as Lord Paramounts who are nearly as powerful as the Throne individually. Should any of the Lord Paramounts rebel, the Throne is then faced with an equal foe that it must enlist the aid of the other Paramounts to quickly put down. However, there's a high chance that the Paramounts will just drag their feet and leave the Throne to its fate, as aside from personal loyalty and the possibility of punishment should the Throne manages to win, there's really nothing forcing the Paramounts to actually do their job (after all, who's going to make them do their job? The other Paramounts who can also refuse to do their jobs?). This is best seen during Robert's Rebellion, an event during which the reigning king managed to piss off ''3'' (out of 8) Lord Paramounts at once and push them to war. On paper, the Crown had 6 loyalist kingdoms against 3 rebels. In practice, only 2 bothered to help the king, with the rest either flipping sides to the rebels or dragging their feet until a clear victor emerged near the end. As a result, the Crown got absolutely destroyed despite vastly outnumbering the rebels on paper. Due to this immense power the Paramounts wield, many of them know their king is powerless and can overrule him, such as Lord Tywin Lannister bossing his king [[RoyalBrat Joffrey]] around and even having him fed sleeping pills so he can do his job in peace.

* In ''Literature/ASongOfIceAndFire'', the Iron Throne of the Seven Kingdoms is technically the ruler of the entire Westerosi continent. In practice, however, the Throne only directly controls the Crownlands, with the other eight kingdoms ([[NonIndicativeName the Seven Kingdoms]] actually consist of nine kingdoms) ruled by powerful vassals known as Lord Paramounts who are nearly as powerful as the Throne individually. Should any of the Lord Paramounts rebel, the Crown is then faced with an equal foe that it must enlist the aid of the other Paramounts to quickly put down. However, there's a high chance that the Paramounts will just drag their feet and leave the Crown to its fate, as aside from personal loyalty and the remote possibility of punishment should the Crown manages to win, there's really nothing forcing the Paramounts to actually honor their obligations and help. This is best seen during Robert's Rebellion, an event during which the reigning king managed to piss off ''3'' (out of 8) Lord Paramounts at once and plunge the continent into war. On paper, the Crown had 6 loyalist kingdoms against 3 rebels. In practice, only 2 bothered to help the king, with the rest either flipping sides to the rebels or dragging their feet until a clear victor emerged at the end of the war. Consequently, the Crown got utterly destroyed despite outnumbering the rebels on paper. As a result of this immense power the Paramounts wield, many of them know their king is powerless and can casually overrule him, best seen with Lord Tywin Lannister having his nosy king [[RoyalBrat Joffrey]] fed sleeping pills and put to sleep by the latter's own guards so he can do his job in peace.

* In ''Literature/ASongOfIceAndFire'', the Iron Throne of the Seven Kingdoms is technically the ruler of the entire Westerosi continent. In practice, however, the Throne only directly controls the Crownlands, with the other eight kingdoms ([[NonIndicativeName the Seven Kingdoms]] actually consist of nine kingdoms) ruled by powerful vassals known as Lord Paramounts who are nearly as powerful as the Throne individually. Should any of the Lord Paramounts rebel, the Crown is then faced with an equal foe that it must enlist the aid of the other Paramounts to quickly put down. However, there's a high chance that the Paramounts will just drag their feet and leave the Crown to its fate, as aside from personal loyalty and the remote possibility of punishment should the Crown manages to win, there's really nothing forcing the Paramounts to actually honor their obligations and help. This is best seen during Robert's Rebellion, an event during which the reigning king managed to piss off ''3'' (out of 8) Lord Paramounts at once and plunge the continent into war. On paper, the Crown had 6 loyalist kingdoms against 3 rebels. In practice, only 2 bothered to help the king, with the rest either flipping sides to the rebels or dragging their feet until a clear victor emerged at the end of the war. Consequently, the Crown got utterly destroyed despite outnumbering the rebels on paper. As a result of this immense power the Paramounts wield, many of them know their king is powerless and can casually overrule him, best seen with Lord Tywin Lannister having his nosy grandson of a king [[RoyalBrat Joffrey]] fed sleeping pills and put to sleep by the latter's own guards so he can do his job in peace.

* In ''Literature/ASongOfIceAndFire'', the Iron Throne of the Seven Kingdoms is technically the ruler of the entire Westerosi continent. In practice, however, the Throne only directly controls the Crownlands, with the other eight kingdoms ([[NonIndicativeName the Seven Kingdoms]] actually consist of nine kingdoms) ruled by powerful vassals known as Lord Paramounts who are nearly as powerful as the Throne individually. Should any of the Lord Paramounts rebel, the Crown is then faced with an equal foe that it must enlist the aid of the other Paramounts to quickly put down. However, there's a high chance that the Paramounts will just drag their feet and leave the Crown to its fate, as aside from personal loyalty and the remote possibility of punishment should the Crown manages to win, there's really nothing forcing the Paramounts to actually honor their obligations and help. This is best seen during Robert's Rebellion, an event during which the reigning king managed to piss off ''3'' (out of 8) Lord Paramounts at once and plunge the continent into war. On paper, the Crown had 6 loyalist kingdoms against 3 rebels. In practice, only 2 bothered to help the king, with the rest either flipping sides to the rebels or dragging their feet until a clear victor emerged at the end of the war. Consequently, the Crown got utterly destroyed despite outnumbering the rebels on paper. As a result of this immense power the Paramounts wield, many of them know their king is powerless and can casually overrule him, best seen with Lord Tywin Lannister having his nosy grandson of a king [[RoyalBrat Joffrey]] fed sleeping pills and put to sleep by the king's own guards so he can do his job in peace.