History Main / StrongAndSkilled

* WesternAnimation/BlueEyeSamurai'' has [[BigBad Abijah Fowler]]. Fowler has mastered the use of a Japanese katana well enough that Mizu comments on the cleanness of a rose stem he cut, stating that it shows a master's skill. Despite that, he prefers using brute force in a fight whenever he can't use a gun, using speed and strength and whatever is in the environment to give himself every advantage he can, putting Mizu on the ropes several times despite her sword skills being among the best demonstrated in the series.

** While Sonic himself normally prefers to just blitz his foes with SuperSpeed, he's shown himself to be reasonably strong and tough enough to destroy robots with simple kicks and punches, has some skill in hand-to-hand and swordplay, and while rarely using them has the same Chaos powers as Shadow, albeit not as honed or powerful.

* ''WesternAnimation/{{Archer}}'': Sterling Archer, "the world's most dangerous spy", despite his numerous problems, is easily the best fighter at ISIS, emerging triumphant from numerous brawls even against multiple opponents simultaneously. He's likewise strong enough to causally lift a grown man over his head and badly dent a solid metal bucket with a series of quick kicks.

** Ben Tennyson is in possession of the Omnitrix, the most powerful weapon in the universe. One of the reasons he's allowed to keep wearing it is because there's few who can use the Omnitrix as well as Ben can, including its creator Azmuth. In the original series, he's UnskilledButStrong, usually just transforming into one of his strength-based aliens, such as Fourarms and Diamondhead, and simply rushing at the bad guys to beat them senseless. From ''[[WesternAnimation/Ben10AlienForce Alien Force]]'' onwards, he's more tactical with his aliens and also [[BoxingLessonsForSuperman takes martial arts lessons]] to minimize his reliance on the Omnitrix.

** [[UnskilledButStrong Amethyst]] and [[WeakButSkilled Pearl]] focus on ForceAndFinesse, respectively. By comparison, their leader Garnet has a similar level of skill as Pearl, further augmented by [[{{Seers}} precognition]], and can easily overpower Amethyst. [[spoiler:Although by fusion standards, Garnet is closer to WeakButSkilled.]]
** As the [[SuperSoldier Ultimate Quartz]], Jasper is one of the strongest gems alive and is considered the perfect soldier, to the point that she's miles beyond ordinary quartzes like Amethyst. This, coupled with her skills as a fighter, mean that practically no one but Fusions and Lapis [[StoryBreakerPower with access to Earth's oceans]] have been able to match her.
** Rose Quartz, Steven's mother, was said to be a highly skilled warrior and was shown and implied to be incredibly strong and tough by the standards of any normal Quartz, and had a wide variety of powers and knew how to use them to her advantage. [[spoiler:However, she was WeakButSkilled compared to the other Diamonds.]]
** Steven's abilities grow in power and variety over the series, and after Connie becomes Pearl's apprentice, he's inspired to train to actually use them effectively and creatively in combat. By the third season, he's able to match seasoned warrior like Amethyst or Bismuth with technique, not by simply overpowering them. By ''WesternAnimation/StevenUniverseTheMovie'', his powers are likely much stronger than the other Crystal Gems, but he's able to flawlessly defend against Spinel's [[ConfusionFu wild flurry of blows]] just by going hand-to-hand.
** Blue and White Diamond primarily [[PowersDoTheFighting rely on their overwhelming power]], with little knowledge or appreciation for physical combat or active defense. Yellow Diamond on the other hand has both overwhelming power and seems much more familiar with actually fighting, quickly overwhelming Blue Diamond the one time they actually fought. [[spoiler:This is also the reason why Steven was eventually able to overpower White Diamond. White might be far beyond anything else in the series, but as a 'perfect being' she's never needed to change or grow in any way.]]

* Megatron and Optimus Prime in ''Fanfic/CodePrime'' are two of the strongest Cybertronians among the Decepticons and Autobots respectively, and both demonstrate why they are the leaders of the two warring factions.

* Raiden from ''VideoGame/MetalGear'' becomes this full-time in ''VideoGame/MetalGearSolid4'' and ''VideoGame/MetalGearRisingRevengeance'', having years of combat experience from all the conflicts he fought in the past games combined with his new cybernetic body that grants him the SuperStrength needed to lift and throw Metal Gear RAY units into the air and slice Metal Gear EXCELSUS to pieces with its own blades, which are the size of multi-story ''buildings''.

Compare MasterOfAll, who is great at everything; BadassBookworm, who is both a fighter and a thinker, but not necessarily the strongest one of the lot; and GeniusBruiser, who is both a thinker and a fighter, but not necessarily a genius ''about'' fighting. Contrast WellTrainedButInexperienced, a character who may have skills but lacks the real-world experience to use them properly. SisterTrope to TalentedButTrained, the difference being this trope is about a combination of abilities (power and technique) regardless of how they were obtaine.. The goal of BoxingLessonsForSuperman.

Compare MasterOfAll, who is great at everything; BadassBookworm, who is both a fighter and a thinker, but not necessarily the strongest one of the lot; and GeniusBruiser, who is both a thinker and a fighter, but not necessarily a genius ''about'' fighting. Contrast WellTrainedButInexperienced, a character who may have skills but lacks the real-world experience to use them properly. SisterTrope to TalentedButTrained. The goal of BoxingLessonsForSuperman.

* ''Franchise/MarvelCinematicUniverse'':
** [[Film/{{Thor}} Thor]] is 150 year-old Asgardian god with combat proficiency and ShockAndAwe powers. His brother Loki is skilled with magic and [[DanceBattler capoeira]] as well as having some level of SuperStrength due to being a [[AnIcePerson Frost Giant]].
** ''Film/CaptainAmericaTheFirstAvenger'':
*** Captain America took military training in addition to being a SuperSoldier. He can go toe-to-toe with [[BigBad Red Skull]], who also took the serum. ''Film/AvengersEndgame'' takes this UpToEleven when [[spoiler: [[OnlyTheWorthyMayWeild he becomes worthy of Mjolnir]] and used Thor's powers in conjuction with his own training in the FinalBattle against Thanos.]]
*** His best friend Bucky Barnes was already a trained soldier before he became the Winter Soldier. In ''Series/TheFalconAndTheWinterSoldier'', he and Sam can easily overpower the serum-empowered Flag-Smashers because unlike him and Sam, [[UnskilledButStrong they don't have fighting experience.]]
** In ''{{Film/Black Panther|2018}}'', T'Challa has Wakandan combat training in addition to being empowered by the heart-shaped herb. Even when he was BroughtDownToNormal, he still defeated M'Baku, a trained Jabari king, and survived being thrown off a waterfall by the African-American mercenary Killmonger after putting up a fight. Since this led to Killmonger taking the heart-shaped herb too, he also qualifies.
** And of course, there's [[ComicBook/{{Thanos}} Thanos]]. Already having SuperStrength as a Titan, Thanos took years of combat experience way before he was empowered by the Infinity Stones. His EstablishingCharacterMoment in ''Film/AvengersInfinityWar'' has him [[CurbStompBattle easily thrash the Hulk]] with his own combat moves and strength.

* ''Franchise/MarvelCinematicUniverse'':

*** His best friend Bucky Barnes was already a trained soldier before he became the Winter Soldier. In '''Series/TheFalconAndTheWinterSoldier'', he and Sam can easily overpower the serum-empowered Flag-Smashers because unlike him and Sam, [[UnskilledButStrong they don't have fighting experience.]]

** And of course, there's [[ComicBook/{{Thanos}} Thanos]]. Already having SuperStrength as a Titan, Thanos took years of combat experience way before he was empowered by the Infinity Stones. His DynamicEntrance in ''Film/AvengersInfinityWar'' has him [[CurbStompBattle easily thrash the Hulk]] with his own combat moves and strength.

** Harry is very slowly growing into this trope, thanks to BoxingLessonsForSuperman from a variety of mentors (including the previously mentioned Magneto). Though he's UnskilledButStrong in Book 1, as Book 2 goes along he proves himself able to go mind-to-mind in a telepathic duel with one of the most powerful human psychics ever born, then makes an excellent showing against PhysicalGod and VampireMonarch [[spoiler:Dracula]], himself very much an example of this trope.

* ''Franchise/KingdomHearts'': Sora is initially UnskilledButStrong, having no formal training with the Keyblade until the events of ''[[VideoGame/KingdomHearts3DDreamDropDistance Dream Drop Distance]]'', but making up for it with his massive willpower and [[HeartIsAnAwesomePower strength of heart]]. As of [[VideoGame/KingdomHeartsIII the third game]], he's become this; in addition to his massive natural strength, he can use the Keyblade's full range of abilities, allowing him to do things like [[MorphWeapon turn it into a large variety of different things such as drills, claws, and a giant tower raining down death on everything around him.]]

** When he's not using his Grimm powers, Jaune is UnskilledButStrong; he can rarely hit his opponent or dodge an attack, but [[StoneWall he's so ridiculously tough]] [[VictoryByEndurance that he can usually just fight forever until his opponent is worn out]]. However, when he ''is'' using his Grimm powers, he is a LightningBruiser with SuperStrength and SuperToughness above what he has in human form, four CombatTentacles that he uses to devastating effect, and a lot of experience from spars with his sisters (part of his problem with fighting in human form is that [[DamnYouMuscleMemory he actively has to stop from using his Grimm powers]]). When he gets locked in an UnstoppableRage he fights all of Team RYBN at once and nearly kills them, and is only stopped by [[spoiler:Ruby's [[MagicalEye Silver Eye powers]] activating early]].

** While all of Team RWBY are exceptionally skilled fighters, most of are within the physical limits of normal humans in terms of strength and durability. The exception to this is Yang Xiao Long, who has SuperStrength, a powerful Aura, and a Semblance that increases her strength even beyond normal when she takes damage. ''She'', on the other hand, was UnskilledButStrong at first, as she relied too much on her strength and Semblance and had very little defensive skill. She broke out of that trope in Volume 4, when Taiyang explained the weakness in her fighting style and taught her to defend herself properly, and now fits this one; she can fight properly with her gauntlets and defend herself, and her Semblance is strictly a fallback. This is best displayed in the final episodes of the sixth volume, where she [[spoiler:takes advantage of Adam's emotional unraveling and baits him to go all out attacking her, and using the resulting dust cloud to obscure the activation of her Semblance, which allows her to disarm Adam and punch him hard enough to drain his Aura]], leaving him completely defenseless.

** Dante possesses various superpowers as a result of his [[HalfHumanHybrid demonic heritage]], such as SuperStrength, SuperSpeed, SuperReflexes, and a HealingFactor. He's also an expert [[DemonSlaying demon hunter]], MultiMeleeMaster and marksman.
** Vergil, Dante's brother, also counts due to being a demonic IaijutsuPractitioner who's just as strong and fast as Dante. [[spoiler:This is emphasized in ''VideoGame/DevilMayCry5'' when he splits himself into the WeakButSkilled V and the UnskilledButStrong Urizen. The former has plenty of fancy techniques, but lacks the raw power to take on the truly massive demons running around. The latter meanwhile has far less finesse, but the sheer power in his possession lets him overwhelm most foes easily. When Dante finally closes and surpasses the power gap with Urizen, he quickly gets the upper hand in their battle even when Urizen manages to power up even further, whereas the recompleted Vergil, despite likely not being ''too'' much stronger than Urizen due to how weak V was in comparison, can still fight Dante to a draw.]]
** While not as powerful as Dante, Trish is a demon with lightning powers, super strength and skill in martial arts, knives and guns. She is also able to wield the sword Sparda.

* ''Film/Underworld2003'': Viktor is a Vampire Elder, making him stronger than a normal vampire, as shown when he effortlessly lifts a fully transformed [[OurWerewolvesAreDifferent Lycan]] up by the throat and then snaps its neck, all with one hand. He's also a warlord with centuries of combat experience, best shown when he faces off against the newly [[HybridPower hybridized]] Michael Corvin; while Michael is stronger and faster, Viktor's superior fighting skills soon allow him to turn the tide.

* ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZelda'':

* ''Film/{{Underworld}}'': Viktor is a Vampire Elder, making him stronger than a normal vampire, as shown when he effortlessly lifts a fully transformed [[OurWerewolvesAreDifferent Lycan]] up by the throat and then snaps its neck, all with one hand. He's also a warlord with centuries of combat experience, best shown when he faces off against the newly [[HybridPower hybridized]] Michael Corvin; while Michael is stronger and faster, Viktor's superior fighting skills soon allow him to turn the tide.

* In ''WesternAnimation/TeenTitans''

[[caption-width-right:300:[[OhCrap Uh oh.]]]]

** The titular character herself is this being a super humanly strong woman trained in magic, martial arts, firearms and melee weapons.
** Jeanne, Bayonetta's friend and rival, displays power and skill that gives Bayonetta a serious run for her money in all of her boss fights.

* ''VideoGame/NinjaGaiden'': Ryu Hayabusa is a master martial artist and swordsman. He is also skilled in elemental magic and possesses superhuman strength, speed and agility due to his Fiend ancestry.

** [[spoiler: Terra-Xehanort (the self Master Xehanort takes on after possessing Terra's body, is this, combining the immense physical strength and innate darkness of Terra's youthful body with the skill, magic proficiency, and combat experience of the elderly Master Xehanort in one package.]]