History Main / StrongAndSkilled

* Aang's successor [[WesternAnimation/The legend of Korra Korra]] starts out having mastered 3 of the 4 elements thanks to natural talent and tutelage from the White Lotus and Katara. Aang shows up to help her and teach her. By the end of s1, she has all 4 elements down plus chi-bending. By the end of the series she's learned from Iroh I and Toph and learned spirit bending.

* ComicBook/SpiderMan started of as UnskilledButStrong due to [[HowDoIShootWeb unfamiliarity with his powers]], but he eventually becomes the most proficient Spider-based hero due to his years worth of experience above his successors.

** Savitar. He's the fastest speedster to ever appear on the show, and being trapped in the Speed Force, Savitar has learned countless tricks of the trade.

** Luke himself is actually also a man with vast martial arts expertise, in addition to his powers, although in his case he has to hold back so much he is reduced to using childishly simplistic movements when fighting non-powered opponents, making him ''seem'' UnskilledButStrong when he really is this trope.

* ComicBook/SpiderMan stated of as UnskilledButStrong due to [[HowDoIShootWeb unfamiliarity with his powers]], but he eventually becomes the most proficient Spider-based hero due to his years worth of experience above his successors.

** Fellow Saiyans, Vegeta and Son Gohan also fall into this. Vegeta was blessed with his Elite Saiyan heritage while Gohan had hidden potential from birth. Both have trained rigorously their entire lives, especially Vegeta who strives to surpass his his rival, Goku. Gohan leans a bit more into UnskilledButStrong though, as he often needs a power advantage to gain the upper hand in a fight.

** Heck, outside of the series' context , almost any character with a degree of proper skill qualifies as this, since even the weaker cast members are still audaciously powerful to most standards. Even early ''Dragon Ball'' villains like General Blue and Mercenary Tao possess incredible superhuman power, speed and secondary abilities on top of their martial arts, and the human heroes that try to keep up with the Saiyans and fail are still planet-busting, alien army-defeating powerhouses in their own right.
* Kirito of ''Anime/{{Sword Art Online}}'' has extremely high stats to use in combat, as well as the knowledge and skill to make the best of them. It gets downplayed in later seasons when he tries new games using his old avatar, where he retains his stats but lacks the experience making him UnskilledButStrong.

* Heck, outside of the series' context , almost any character with a degree of proper skill qualifies as this, since even the weaker cast members are still audaciously powerful to most standards. Even early ''Dragon Ball'' villains like General Blue and Mercenary Tao possess incredible superhuman power, speed and secondary abilities on top of their martial arts, and the human heroes that try to keep up with the Saiyans and fail are still planet-busting, alien army-defeating powerhouses in their own right.

** Fellow Saiyans, Vegeta and Son Gohan also fall into this. Vegeta was blessed with his Elite Saiyan heritage while Gohan had hidden potential from birth. Both have trained rigorously their entire lives, especially Vegeta who strives to surpass his his rival, Goku.
** Piccolo is a GeniusBruiser. While he keeps getting left behind by the Saiyans, he is still able to gain huge power ups along the way. He's also a master tactician whose skill and resourcefulness is boundless. Gohan leans a bit more into UnskilledButStrong though, as he often needs a power advantage to gain the upper hand in a fight.

** Piccolo is a GeniusBruiser. While he keeps getting left behind by the Saiyans, he is still able to gain huge power ups along the way. He's also a master tactician whose skill and resourcefulness is boundless.

** Although he has been UnskilledButStrong for most of his life and afterlife, Frieza is slowly moving towards this direction after CharacterDevelopment begins to kick in. As of the Universe survival saga, he is one of the strongest mortals in the universe (with only Goku decisively beating him out), but also has hand-to-hand skills that can keep up with Goku or Vegeta, incredible energy controlling skills [[labelnote: Example]] He fired and simultaneously redirected ''ten'' Death Beams to kill dozens of moving targets, and hit every last one of them. [[/labelnote]] , the ability to sense energy (even ''Godly'' Ki), enough analytical skill to predict and counter an Instant Transmission expert, and a perfected SuperMode. Frieza can also torture someone for insanely long times without killing them. Lastly, Frieza's actual array of techniques is surprisingly large. [[labelnote: Example]]including but not limited to Telekinesis, Paralyzing techniques, and remote controlled energy attacks.[[/labelnote]]

** Although he has been UnskilledButStrong for most of his life and afterlife, Frieza is slowly moving towards this direction after CharacterDevelopment begins to kick in. As of the Universe survival saga, he is one of the strongest mortals in the universe (with only Goku decisively beating him out), but also has hand-to-hand skills that can keep up with Goku or Vegeta, incredible energy controlling skills [[labelnote: Example]] He fired and simultaneously redirected ''ten'' Death Beams to kill dozens of moving targets, and hit every last one of them. [[/labelnote]] , the ability to sense energy (even ''Godly'' Ki), enough analytical skill to predict and counter an Instant Transmission expert, and a SuperMode that has all it's flaws weeded out. Frieza's prefferred fighting style, which is to torture an opponent for as long as possible as painful as possible, also requires an incredible amount of insight in the body and it's vulnerabilities. Lastly, Frieza's actual array of techniques is surprisingly large, including but not limited to Telekinesis, Paralyzing techniques, and remote controlled energy attacks. And since the Tournament of Power puts him in a position where he has to t Quite tellingly, Frieza had to die ''twice'' to get from relying on pure power advantage to being where he is now.

There are multiple possibilities here. The WeakButSkilled character got an UpgradeArtifact, so now their impeccable poise is impossibly [[GratuitousFrench puissant.]] The StrongButUnskilled character decided to train (maybe using a PowerNullifier), giving their fantastic force a fatal finesse. A character who has TheGift can only use said power by improving their technique. In an interesting twist, HardWorkHardlyWorks is wrong for this character because all of their innate abilities or powers could only be fully accessed with a lot of training. Or the character simply has both skill and strength.

* Slade Wilson from ''Series/{{Arrow}}'', much like his comic book counterpart. This Slade was TheMentor to Oliver Queen, who would go on to become the WorldsBestWarrior. However Slade also became an EmpoweredBadassNormal thanks to being injected with [[SuperSerum Mirakuru]]. He was an extremely difficult opponent due to both his top notch skill and his superhuman strength.
* Eobard Thawne/Reverse-Flash from ''Series/TheFlash2014''. Due to his years worth of experience as a speedster over Barry Allen, Thawne would always have an edge over his nemesis in battle. Even when Thawne was temporarily BroughtDownToBadass by a PowerNullifier TrickArrow, he was still able to fight evenly with Oliver Queen (who at that stage was the WorldsBestWarrior) using hand-to-hand skill alone.

* ''Manga/{{Naruto}}''

* ''Manga/{{Bleach}}''

* ''LightNovel/HighSchoolDXD''

* ''Franchise/DragonBall''

[[folder:Comics]]

[[folder:Film]]

* Captain America of the Franchise/MarvelCinematicUniverse is a SuperSoldier imbued with superhuman physiology and mastery of several martial arts to go with it.

[[folder:Live Action -- TV]]

** BigBad Yhwach has an extreme amount of spiritual energy [[spoiler:even after his death he had enough power to serve as a replacement to the Soul king.]] He also has the skill,knowledge,talent and any other ability of any one who possess a fragment of his soul when they die as well as their Spiritual Power. In addition he has a good number of broken abilities in the form of Schrift which he can flawlessly use.

** Aizen Sosuke is a MasterOfAll, having great skill with raw power. He has twice the reiatsu of an average captain and the skill to employ it almost better than any one. His skill with his reiatsu is so great that he can force Grimmjow Jaegerjaquez (the sixth Espada and a captain level fighter) to his knees by using his masterful control of his vast reiatsu as well as nullify [[spoiler:Soi Fon]]'s Shikai with his control over his enormous reaitsu.

** Son Goku possesses both advanced skill in martial arts and the natural fighting power from his Saiyan physiology. He would continuously ascend the power hierarchy until he was the WorldsBestWarrior of his universe.

[[folder:Live Action TV]]
* Slade Wilson from ''Series/{{Arrow}}'', much like his comic book counterpart. This Slade was TheMentor to Oliver Queen, who would go on to become the WorldsBestWarrior. However Slade also became an EmpoweredBadassNormal thanks to being injected with [[SuperSerum Mirakuru]]. He was an extremely difficult opponent due to both his top notch skill and his superhuman strength.
* Eobard Thawne/Reverse-Flash from ''Series/TheFlash2014''. Due to his years worth of experience as a speedster over Barry Allen, Thawne would always have an edge over his nemesis in battle. Even when Thawne was temporarily BroughtDownToBadass by a PowerNullifier TrickArrow, he was still able to fight evenly with Oliver Queen (who at that stage was the WorldsBestWarrior) using hand-to-hand skill alone.
[[/folder]]

* In ''Manga/RanmaOneHalf'', most of the Nerima Wrecking Crew (Ranma Saotome, Ryoga Hibiki, Mousse, Shampoo, Akane Tendo, etc.) fall into this, all being skilled martial artists who emphasize on both honing skills and physical abilities.
** Ranma himself studies and mastered many different forms of martial arts throughout the course of the series. He has also received special physical training, with the most notable one being the Tenshin Amaguriken which granted him Super Speed to the extent he can throw hundreds of punches in a second.
** Ryoga is roughly on the same level as Ranma in terms of skill (having amassed many fighting styles and techniques in his travels), but his strength and durability are through the roof.

In a videogame they'll probably be ThatOneBoss who has a ''[[ArtificialStupidity good]]'' AI and ungodly stats/powers. For a PC they may go from the JackOfAllStats to the setting's strongest LightningBruiser, bar none.
In anime and comics they are either TheMentor or the TheRival.
Also compare MasterOfAll, who is great at everything, or GeniusBruiser, who is both a thinker and a fighter (but not necessarily a genius ''about'' fighting). SisterTrope to TalentedButTrained.

Then there are characters who are both Strong And Skilled.

The Strong And Skilled character is likely to surprise enemies because YoureNothingWithoutYourPhlebotinum is untrue. They may be weaker but they're hardly useless, much less unthreatening. As an antagonist, they'll be at or near the absolute apex of the SortingAlgorithmOfEvil. As a protagonist, they probably are a ShowyInvincibleHero who takes all fights seriously.

Also compare MasterOfAll, who is great at everything, or GeniusBruiser, who is this trope personified. SisterTrope to TalentedButTrained.

* Aang from ''Franchise/AvatarTheLastAirbender'' is extremely skilled in the use of various techniques of the four elements while possessing the great raw power of the Avater.

* In RanmaOneHalf, most of the Nerima Wrecking Crew (Ranma Saotome, Ryoga Hibiki, Mousse, Shampoo, Akane Tendo .etc) fall into this, all being skilled martial artists who emphasize on both honing skills and physical abilities.

**Ranma himself studies and mastered many different forms of martial arts throughout the course of the series. He has also received special physical training, with the most notable one being the Tenshin Amaguriken which granted him Super Speed to the extent he can throw hundreds of punches in a second.
** Even more impressive would be Ryoga who is roughly on the same level as Ranma in terms of skill (having amassed many fighting styles and techniques in his travels), but his strength and durability are through the roof.

* All Might from My Hero Academia has Super Strength, Super Speed and Super Toughness which he combines with his keen tactical sense and refined punch techniques. The official guide lists him as the only hero who has 6/5 points in every hero category (power, speed, technique, intelligence, cooperativeness). Even though he is way out of his prime, he is still the top ranked hero in the world.

* ''{{Superman}}: [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Superman:_Secret_Identity Secret Identity]]'' has Clark develop amazing technique with the use of his powers, to the point that his twin daughters compliment him over his ability to catch a falling train and twist the fall in such a way that it didn't buckle like an accordion. As his powers fade with age, he becomes a more WeakButSkilled superhero (well, weaker by his own standards).

-->Ben Grimm: Y'know, most folks see me, an' hear my "It's clobberin' time!" and figure I'm just a one-trick pony. But I've picked up a few tricks here an' there, like this hip toss, and fightin' with finesse comes in real handy, lemme tell ya.

* Neo from ''Film/{{Matrix}}''. Along with his FlyingBrick powers, Neo aslo runs a range of programs that makes him a master in various martial arts.

* Aang from Franchise/AvatarTheLastAirbender is extremely skilled in the use of various techniques of the four elements while possessing the great raw power of the Avater.

[[folder:Light Novel]]

[[/folder]]

Also compare MasterOfAll, who is great at everything. SisterTrope to TalentedButTrained.

** [[spoiler:Kakashi Hatake]] becomes this after receiving [[spoiler:Uchiha Obito's]] chakra towards the end of the manga, being able to use his technique with great power behind it and graduating from WeakButSkilled.
** Sauske Uchiha is able to use powerful techniques with great skill and power, especially his Amaterasu technique, which can burn anything with greater skill than his brother Itachi Uchiha using Blaze Release.

**Ranma himself studies and mastered many different forms of martial arts throughout the course of the series. He has also received special physical training, with the most notable one being the Kachū Tenshin Amaguriken which granted him Super Speed to the extent he can throw hundreds of punches in a second.

Some characters are graced with great strength that they never bother to hone: they are UnskilledButStrong. Other characters have little strength, and compensate by with amazing ability: they are WeakButSkilled.

Then there are characters who are Strong And Skilled.

There are multiple possibilities here.The WeakButSkilled character got an UpgradeArtifact, so now their impeccable poise is impossibly [[GratuitousFrench puissant.]] The StrongButUnskilled character decided to train (maybe using a PowerNullifier), giving their fantastic force a fatal finesse. A character who has TheGift can only use said power by improving their technique. In an interesting twist, HardWorkHardlyWorks is wrong for this character because all of their innate abilities or powers could only be fully accessed with a lot of training. Or the character simply has both skill and strength.

Also compare MasterOfAll, who is great at everything. SisterTrope to TalentedButTrained

** Sosuke Uchiha is able to use powerful techniques with great skill and power, especially his Amaterasu technique, which can burn anything with greater skill than his brother Itachi Uchiha using Blaze Release.