History Main / TheWorfEffect

** Ultimate example: Even motherfucking ''GILGAMESH'', the strongest day guy in the whole series, has suffered from this in ''Heaven’s Feel'' [[spoiler: Dark Sakura]] kills him while seriously wounded, confused, and scared. [[spoiler:Then EATS him, taking his power.]]

* This happens in virtually every text in [[Myth/KingArthur Arthurian Legend]]. Every time a new knight is introduced, they prove how great he is by having him defeat a line-up of more established knights. Gawain gets this a lot, as does Percival.
* Nearly every Robin Hood [[Literature/ChildBallads Child Ballad]] is a variation on the plot of a stranger [[DefeatEqualsFriendship defeating Robin in combat and thus earning his respect]] and being invited to join his merry band of outlaws. Read or listened to all at once, they become one long catalog of failure, the great Hood getting his ass handed to him over and over and over. He even loses to Maid Marian.

** Dirk himself becomes a Worf later on when he gets badly beaten by the ascended Caliborn, and has to be bailed out by Jake's Hope bomb.
** [[BigBad Jack]] [[PhysicalGod Noir]]. He's the main antagonist of the first five arcs and the reason why both the kids and the trolls' sessions turned to shit, and is shown to be able to take on people with godlike power as well as destroy two universes. [[spoiler: He gets in a fight with John while in a dream bubble. John manages to beat him back for most of the fight and humiliate him with a silly hat, before PM comes back to chase him across the universe.]]
** Jade Harley is the most powerful God-Tier kid in the series. She has abilities derived from the Green Sun, the power source of the First Guardians, in addition to the normal power increase granted by entering the God Tiers, and can effortlessly shrink planets down to pocket size. As it turns out, [[spoiler:not even the Green Sun can match the [[HeartIsAnAwesomePower fully unleashed power of hope]] from [[TheFool Jake English]] of all people]].

* The [[http://www.rpgnow.com/product_info.php?products_id=3481&it=1 first book]] in the ''Immortal Handbook'' series (an UpToEleven modification of ''TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons'') shows two monsters battling on the cover. If you look, you can see the ''Tarrasque'' cowering on the background.

*** His Gag in the SpinOff ''Anime/CarnivalPhantasm'' is essentially The Worf Effect taken UpToEleven to ButtMonkey proportions.

* In ''Webcomic/GrrlPower'', Concretia makes [[http://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/1303/ an entrance]], complete with stats, an immediately blows away Mr. Amorphous and Achillies to show how bad arsed she is. Then in [[http://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/1304/ the very next page]] she is taken down by Math to show just how [[BadAssNormal bad-arsed normal]] he is.

* In a very unusual setup, WCW had Wrestling/{{Goldberg}} and Meng Worf Effect for each other. Wrestling/{{Meng}} (Haku in [=WWF/E=])would batter Goldberg all over the ring for roughly three-quarters of the match, when Goldberg usually tossed opponents around effortlessly. Then at the point where Meng would usually apply the Tongan Death Grip and win the match, Goldberg would rally back, spear, jackhammer, pinfall. The two of them had surprisingly good chemistry in the ring together, and despite Goldberg winning every single battle between them, the fights were popular enough that Little Caesars [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xypaN3Fvuz0 shot a commercial]] with Goldberg and Meng [[SoBadItsGood putting aside their differences over a pizza]].

** Ares is recognized as the god of war and embodiment of physical power, but tends to lose or get humiliated in nearly every story about him. He gets trapped and humiliated by Hephaestus when Ares and Aphrodite (Hephaestus' consort) are caught in an illicit love affair, is terrified into retreating from the monster Typhon, loses a boxing match to Apollo, ends up wounded by the hero [[Literature/TheIliad Diomedes]] with the aid of Athena forcing him to flee the battle, gets defeated by Hercules twice and stripped of his armor in one instance, is locked in a bronze jar by the Aloadae requiring Hermes to free him, and is defeated in battle with [[GeniusBruiser Athena]] by a rock to the head. Athena had a habit of humiliating him and Zeus generally said he was worthless. His humiliations are usually attributed to the fact that the best preserved and recorded myths came from [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin Athens]], the city of the other major deity of war. This extends to the other good recordkeeping Greeks preferring the more intellectual Athena and Ares being hated for embodying the chaotic and destructive nature of warfare. Oh, and Nike (Victory) usually sided against him--in fact, the only gods who liked him were probably Eris, Aphrodite, and maybe Hades, seeing as deaths caused by war gave him more subjects. He had a much better track record in Roman myth as Mars, whom the Romans venerated as a paternal figure second only to Jupiter

** Ares is recognized as the god of war and embodiment of physical power, but tends to lose or get humiliated in nearly every story about him. He gets trapped and humiliated by Hephaestus when Ares and Aphrodite (Hephaestus' consort) are caught in an illicit love affair, is terrified into retreating from the monster Typhon, loses a boxing match to Apollo, ends up wounded by the hero [[Literature/TheIliad Diomedes]] with the aid of Athena forcing him to flee the battle, gets defeated by Hercules twice and stripped of his armor in one instance, is locked in a bronze jar by the Aloadae requiring Hermes to free him, and is defeated in battle with [[GeniusBruiser Athena]] by a rock to the head. Athena had a habit of humiliating him and Zeus generally said he was worthless. His humiliations are usually attributed to the fact that the best preserved and recorded myths came from [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin Athens]] the city of the other major deity of war. This extends to the other good record keeping Greeks preferring the more intellectual Athena and Ares being hated for embodying the chaotic and destructive nature of warfare. Oh, and Nike (Victory) usually sided against him. (In fact, the only gods who liked him were probably Eris, Aphrodite, and maybe Hades, seeing as deaths caused by war gave him more subjects.)
** Aphrodite was the goddess of beauty and love, and the most beautiful goddess of them all, yet a lot of really beautiful women or demigoddesses were frequently compared to her and proclaimed to either equal to her or even surpass her. For instance, there is Psyche who charmed Eros, Aphrodite's son, or Helen, Zeus's illegitimate daughter, whose beauty exacerbated, if not caused, the Trojan war.

* ''VisualNovel/DanganronpaTriggerHappyHavoc'': When the trapped students of Hope's Peak Academy hope that the police will save them, Monokuma mocks them by saying [[PoliceAreUseless the cops exist just to get overwhelmed]] [[DiscussedTrope to show how dangerous the villains are]].

'''Note''': Please don't use this trope whenever someone loses a fight. It only applies if it serves the purpose described above.

[[folder:Fan Works]]
[[AC:''[[Franchise/AvatarTheLastAirbender Avatar: The Last Airbender/ The Legend of Korra]]'']]
* ''Fanfic/AzulaTrilogy'': Each of the {{Big Bad}}s prove themselves to be threats by being able to match or defeat one of the heroes -- Azun defeats Zuko in ''Heart'', Wei Ming goes toe-to-toe with Azula in ''Path'', and Jian Chin defeats Aang in ''Soul'' (though the latter two were [[DemonicPossession possessed]] by [[TheManBehindTheMan true]] BigBad [[spoiler: Zhan Zheng]] at the time, so this trope more works for him than them).

[[AC:''Manga/{{Bleach}}'']]
* ''Fanfic/UninvitedGuests'': This is ''[[InvokedTrope invoked]]'' by Hitsugaya in order to beat Aizen's PlotArmor. Enter "[[FillerVillain the Dark Lord Wolfington]]," who is [[SuspiciouslySpecificDenial definitely not Komamura in a mask.]]

[[AC:Crossover]]
* ''Fanfic/BlazBlueAlternativeRemnant'' (''Franchise/BlazBlue'' & ''WebAnimation/{{RWBY}}''): In Chapter 14, Pyrrha Nikos ends up subjected to this by Ragna when he starts using his [[YourSoulIsMine Semblance]] during their fight. Thanks to Pyrrha's reputation as an InvincibleHero InUniverse, Weiss expresses outright shock at seeing that Pyrrha can lose.
* ''Fanfic/ChildOfTheStorm'': The Winter Soldier swiftly establishes himself as a OneManArmy and underlines his status as TheDreaded with his entrance. At first, the characters hear the guard animals, a [[Myth/GreekMythology Chimera]] and a Nundu (a gigantic magical leopard), attack something. Then their roars are cut off and the Winter Soldier enters with their heads in his hands. A Chimera's only been successfully slain once in history and a Nundu takes one hundred trained wizards to bring down.
** A later example of this is Gravemoss. In his opening scene, he mentions having once fought in-universe MemeticBadass [[ManipulativeBastard Stephen]] [[TheArchmage Strange]], and this, along with his other heinous actions, establishes him as being very powerful and dangerous. But then they have a rematch during the FinalBattle of Book 1, where Strange defeats him ''while multitasking.'' Then it turns out that this trope was actually being ''invoked'': Gravemoss, knowing he's outmatched, draws on [[GodOfEvil Chthon's]] power [[spoiler: and Chthon pulls a GrandTheftMe, but that makes him vulnerable to getting hit by an Infinite Mass Punch that sends him into Jupiter's orbit]].
** In ''Ghosts of the Past,'' Harry and Carol get KO'd in one shot by [[spoiler: Sinister and Maddie Pryor, who then kidnap them]]. As one is [[spoiler: a teenage SuperSoldier]] and the other a PersonOfMassDestruction with PsychicPowers, including a pretty good PsychicBlockDefense, this neatly establishes just how powerful and dangerous they and [[spoiler: the Red Room]] are - however, [[WorfHadTheFlu it's explained that]] [[spoiler: Harry]] [[WorfHadTheFlu was so surprised that it left him open to being sucker-punched.]] The rematch between [[spoiler: Harry and Maddie]] is much closer, though it's made clear that she ''will'' eventually beat him... which is fine, [[BatmanGambit because actually winning isn't part of his plan.]]
** And then the tables are turned when [[spoiler: Sinister and the Red Room]] get handed a CurbStompBattle by the Avengers and Wanda Maximoff.
** It's made very clear that [[spoiler: Voldemort]] is an AdaptationalBadass, having leeched off some of Harry's magical and psychic powers, and matching Harry in a psychic brawl (though when Harry gets serious in the rematch, he gets flattened). But then he meets [[spoiler: Dracula]]... who suppresses his powers without any sign of visible effort, and makes it clear that if they do team up, they will do so with Dracula in the driving seat, not as [[spoiler: Voldemort's]] lackey or pawn.
* In ''FanFic/{{Fractured}}'', a ''Franchise/MassEffect''[=/=]''Franchise/StarWars''[[spoiler:[=/=]''VideoGame/{{Borderlands}}'']] [[MassiveMultiplayerCrossover crossover]], this happens to the [[Franchise/MassEffect Reapers]] who are set up as TheDreaded in Mass Effect canon. [[JustifiedTrope Justified]] InUniverse since weaponry from the [[Franchise/StarWars Trans-Galactic Republic]] is considered orders of magnitude more powerful and their DeflectorShields are better -- unlike kinetic barriers, they block both energy ''and'' physical weapons.
* ''Fanfic/GuardiansWizardsAndKungFuFighters'' (''WesternAnimation/JackieChanAdventures'' & ''WesternAnimation/{{WITCH}}''):
** It's shown that when [[OracularHead Tarakudo]] is in his [[OneWingedAngel full-bodied form]], he's basically an unstoppable PhysicalGod. The first time he takes this form, he nearly kills [[spoiler: Nimue]] and her two students, only being stopped because the unnamed GreaterScopeVillain intervenes (due to [[CantKillYouStillNeedYou still needing them alive]]).
** [[PantheraAwesome Callisto]] provides Jade with the single toughest fight she's had since [[spoiler: becoming a Shapeshifter]], dominating their fight with such skill and brutality that she's barely able to touch him. She eventually comes to the conclusion that [[JustToyingWithThem he's not even trying, and is just toying with her]].
* ''Fanfic/LostInTheWoods'' (''Series/{{Firefly}}'' & ''Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration''): A literal example of this occurs, as the ''Enterprise'' crew get a taste of how dangerous the Reavers are when a single Reaver stays conscious after multiple phaser blasts set on stun and manages to inflict a dangerous cut on Worf’s stomach that damages his sash before they finally knock it out.
* ''Fanfic/RiseOfTheGaleforces'' (''WesternAnimation/TheIncredibles'' & ''VideoGame/{{Portal}}''): Similar to the ''Franchise/JurassicPark'' examples below, this fic applies this trope to the [[NinjaPirateZombieRobot Turret Raptors,]] who are quickly defeated by even the youngest members of the main cast. Ditto for the local {{Eldritch Abomination}}s, e.g. Dynacide.
* ''Fanfic/TheWeaverOption'' (''TabletopGame/Warhammer40000'' & ''Literature/{{Worm}}''):
** Lelith Hesperax makes her debut by destroying a C'tan shard which had previously annihilated an entire ''fleet'' with [[SingleStrokeBattle a single swing of her blade]] before handily defeating Trazyn. She's also revealed to have previously defeated [[spoiler:Primarch Rogal Dorn]] in single combat and after her duel with Taylor she permanently kills several Daemon Princes.
** Slaanesh manifests in an Avatar and proceeds to dominate a fight against Lelith by simply overwhelming her with sorcerous attacks. This is despite the limitations of working through an Avatar and its recent weakening due to the [[spoiler:raid on Commorragh]].

[[AC:''WesternAnimation/DannyPhantom'']]
* ''Fanfic/FacingTheFutureSeries'': Vlad Plasmius and Dark Danny, two of the most powerful villains in the ''WesternAnimation/DannyPhantom'' series that Danny would normally have problems against are completely overpowered by Danny's feral SuperMode on two occasions. He nearly would have destroyed them both (and himself) if not for Sam talking him down.

[[AC:''Franchise/{{Digimon}}'']]
* ''[[http://www.fanfiction.net/s/7623289/1/ Transcendence: Digital Curse]]'': [[spoiler:Abyssgreymon]] worfs everyone from the first two Digimon adventures plus two other champions without even being touched. He apparently does this without wanting to or trying.

[[AC:''Franchise/{{Disgaea}}'']]
* ''[[https://www.fanfiction.net/s/6984913/ Disgaea: Jewel of the gods]]'':
** Epic is an example. He's introduced by taking out an immortal, giant enemy that Laharl, Adell, and Mao couldn't beat. After that he gets dominated by Etna, a reaper, Baal's minions, [[TheDragon Baal's right-hand man Fried]], Baal, Raiden, and Alex, mixing in some ButtMonkey status along the way.
** [[VideoGame/PhantomBrave Ash]] also gets this treatment. After he and Marona joined the group, he gets taken out fairly quickly in fights, mainly against [[BigBad Baal]], or when he fights one of the item gods.

[[AC:''Franchise/FinalFantasy'']]
* ''Fanfic/TheFifthAct'': Genesis realizes just how obscenely strong Cloud is when he hears him fighting [[TheAce Sephiroth]] and investigates to find the latter going all out, on the back foot, and ''losing''.

[[AC:''Series/GameOfThrones'' / ''Literature/ASongOfIceAndFire'']]
* ''Fanfic/PurpleDays'': After [[GroundhogPeggySue Joffrey]] fully grows from the incoompetent monstrosity he was in canon into TheWisePrince / TheGoodKing, not even Tywin Lannister can intimidate, brow-beat or cow him.
* ''Fanfic/TheRavensPlan'': Each of the "great players" of the Game of Thrones suffer this after [[PeggySue the Remembering]]. To wit:
** Petyr Baelish is killed by Jaime Lannister within ''hours'' of the Remembering. Even if that hadn't happened, Bran made sure Littlefinger ''wouldn't'' Remember, meaning the man was a dead man walking.
** Tywin Lannister is usurped by Tyrion in the same general time frame, and is now a non-entity under house arrest.
** Cersei Lannister is immediately taken into custody by Renly and then tossed into the Black Cells.
** House Tyrell (temporarily) loses control of the Reach to Samwell Tarly, who then engages Dickon to Margaery to ensure he still has some influence there after the Long Night, upon which he'll give back control of the Reach to them.

[[AC:''Franchise/{{Godzilla}}'' / ''Franchise/KingKong'' / Franchise/MonsterVerse]]
* ''Fanfic/AbraxasHrodvitnon'': [[Characters/AbraxasHrodvitnonTitansAndOtherCreatures Skullcrawlers]] are on the lower end from the Many or [[spoiler:a partly-regenerated Ghidorah]]. They, the antagonists of ''Film/KongSkullIsland'', positively flee from these new monsters, which dispatch them with frightening swiftness.

[[AC:''Franchise/HarryPotter'']]
* ''Fanfic/TheOddsWereNeverInMyFavour'': During the second task, Beauxbatons champion Ambre (who was previously injured and sidelined while fighting a cockatrice) proves how effective she is against human opponents by trouncing Eleonora, a champion who excelled during the first task.

[[AC:''WesternAnimation/JackieChanAdventures'']]
* ''Fanfic/ShadowsAwakening'': The first fight between the J-Team and [[BigBad Daolon Wong's]] new [[QuirkyMinibossSquad dark chi warriors]] ends with the heroes being forced to retreat and escape.
** Jade's tribe of [[AmazonBrigade Kunoichi Khan]] inflict this on Won's wizard Shadowkhan in turn, showing just how effective they are as {{Mage Killer}}s.

[[AC:Franchise/MarvelComics]]
* ''[[Fanfic/UltimateSleepwalker Ultimate Sleepwalker: The New Dreams]]'' features an example between the villains Bullseye and 8-Ball when they fight after being hired by rival crimelords who are having a MobWar. In the official Marvel comics, Bullseye is an AxCrazy sadist who's seen as one of the most dangerous street-level villains in New York. 8-Ball, on the other hand, is a classic example of CListFodder. When they fight, Bullseye plays up his supposed A-list status and mocks 8-Ball for his supposed C-list status, but 8-Ball wins the fight and ends it by knocking Bullseye's severed head into a trashcan like a billiard ball.

[[AC:''WesternAnimation/MiraculousLadybug'']]
* ''Fanfic/MiraculousThePhoenixRises'' establishes [[TheAce Nevermore]] as being a far more elite hero than those of Team Arctic. However, upon facing [[KnightOfCerebus The Nightmare King]] offscreen, the next time Nevermore is seen he's been sent to the ER in critical condition while the latter barely broke a sweat.

[[AC:''Franchise/MyLittlePony'']]
* ''Fanfic/PonyPOVSeries'': Deconstructed with [[spoiler:Spitfire. The repeated failures of the Wonderbolts to actually succeed in their heroic attempts begin to take their toll on her confidence and send her into a HeroicBSOD. Rainbow Dash snaps her out of it by reminding her that, even if the Wonderbolts can't do the ''actual'' heroics, they are still heroes because they ''inspire'' ponies who ''can''.]]

[[AC:''Franchise/{{Pokemon}}'']]
* ''Fanfic/PokemonResetBloodlines'': Several of the later battles of Ash's Pokémon have them suffer from this to show off their opponents' strength. Examples include:
** Primeape and Boldore both lose to Blaine's Mega Houndoom rather easily.
** Boldore later loses to a Golisopod after it dodges her [[LimitBreak Z-Move]] [[BoringButPractical using Substitute.]]
** Against Giovanni in the Viridian Gym, Tauros and Kingler go down without scoring a single win.

[[AC:''Franchise/SonicTheHedgehog'']]
* ''FanFic/SonicXDarkChaos'': Zigzagged:
** Tsali manages to defeat Super Sonic one-on-one in the opening scene. However (unknown to Sonic), he was wounded and only barely won. Come Episode 64 when he fights Sonic, Shadow, and Eric in their Super forms, it doesn't take long for him to lose horribly.
** Maledict is quickly shown to be an InvincibleVillain who curb-stomps the heroes into the floor. Then comes in Dark Tails, who grows so powerful that he shrugs off all of Maledict's attacks. [[spoiler: It's a good thing Sonic and friends end up allying with him]].

[[AC:''Franchise/TouhouProject'']]
* ''WebAnimation/DiamondInTheRoughTouhou'': [[spoiler:Flandre is subject to this. She agrees to fighting according to the spellcard rules, but when the Diamondback's beasts start to cheat, she loses because she refused to disobey the rules.]]




[[AC:Dormant/Dead/Unsorted]]
* In ''Fanfic/JonathanJoestarTheFirstJoJo'', Heaven Ascension Dio easily defeats everyone in chapter 10 (sans Jonathan) due to his [[RealityWarper powers]].
* Deconstructed in the ''FanFic/PonyPOVSeries'' [[BadFuture Dark World!]]Spike gets hit with this pretty bad for a while, as his superior strength and flame breath are one way or another made ineffective -- [[{{Golem}} Tom]] is literally MadeOfDiamond, the blackbirds could regenerate near instantly, and by the time [[TheStarscream the Valeyard]] was out of his protective shield, Spike had already been disabled (he lampshades the last one). However, the trope is ironically subverted during the fights with [[spoiler: [[OneWingedAngel Odyne!]][[TheDragon Cruelty]]]] and [[spoiler: [[TrueFinalBoss Nightmare Eclipse/Paradox]]]], the two strongest opponents in Dark World, as Spike manages to be as effective as everyone else.
* In ''Fanfic/TheTrollWar'' series, after Equius Zahhak resigns from the human Starfleet and then explains his reason: "I have been...[[AliensStealCable reviewing your documentaries and the history of your spaceships]], John. And I will not be the 'Worf'." John Egbert convinces Equius to stay, not by telling him that ''Star Trek'' was fictional, but by promising he won't let the fleet "Worf" him.
* ''FanFic/InnerDemons'': Twilight manages to [[spoiler: turn Princess Celestia [[TakenForGranite to stone]]]] by ''accident'' even before her FaceHeelTurn, which gives a good idea of just how powerful and dangerous her [[EnemyWithin Queen persona]] will later be. Which is proven true when one of the first things Queen!Twilight does is [[spoiler: completely [[CurbStompBattle wipe the floor]] with Princess Luna]].
** The first time we see one of Queen!Twilight's lieutenants fight the protagonists, [[spoiler: Scootaloo not only beats Rainbow Dash in a race, but leaves her unconscious in a ditch]]. Said lieutenant goes on to successfully fight the rest of the Element bearers and their allies, and very nearly defeats them, only being stopped by [[spoiler: Rainbow Dash and Pinkie Pie's Elements evolving to armor]].
** Speaking of which, an inverted example -- every time one of the Element bearers succeeds in [[spoiler: getting their elements to evolve to armor]], they easily Worf whatever they're fighting. The only exception is Rarity's offscreen fight with [[TheDragon Trixie]], which she loses, but even then it's implied that the fight was even enough that Queen!Twilight had to step in to end it.
* ''FanFic/ThePowersOfHarmony'': First time we see [[BigBad Cetus]] in action, she [[spoiler: defeats Celestia, and kills Grovi.]]
** Likewise, [[TheDragon Eclipse's]] first fight has her [[CurbStompBattle curbstomping]] Applejack, Granny Smith, Big Macintosh, and their Guards, [[spoiler: even killing Strauss.]]
** And the two of them working together easily defeat all of the remaining Mane Six and all their Guards, [[spoiler: including killing Elo.]]
* ''[[Fanfic/AFutureOfFriendshipAHistoryOfHate A Future of Friendship, A History of Hate]]'': When [[BigBad Ruinate]] gets loose, he quickly overpowers the Princesses and takes the Mane Six (minus Twilight) prisoner. And then, when they actually have a chance to use the Elements on him, he's already attuned himself to them and shrugs the attack off. It takes [[DivineIntervention help]] from [[BigGood Amity]] to give the ponies a chance to defeat him.
* In ''Fanfic/MassEffectHumanRevolution'', the AIA's Blacklight commandos have gotten their arses handed to them easily in three separate encounters with Adam, Johann and Hannibal.
* ''FanFic/JusticeLeagueOfEquestria'':
** ''Mare of Steel'': Rainbow Dash/[[Franchise/{{Superman}} Supermare]]'s first fights with [[DiscOneFinalBoss General Zod]] and ComicBook/{{Brainiac}} both go poorly for her, showing just how dangerous both villains are.
** ''The Princess of Themyscira'': [[Franchise/WonderWoman Diana]]'s first fight with the [[ArtifactOfDoom Alicorn Amulet]]-powered [[GodOfEvil Ares]], while evenly matched at first, still ends with her beaten into unconsciousness and needing to be saved by Soarin'.
* In ''FanFic/ANewOrder'' the first fight after Haruka's awakening as [[Anime/SailorMoon Sailor Uranus]] is also the first operation Jadeite is put in charge of. Haruka is several years older than the other senshi, trained in hand-to-hand combat, and an outer senshi (meaning she's supposedly stronger than the inners). In spite of this, the battle ends with her [[spoiler: near death and in the hospital for several chapters]] though she did manage to kill the youma she was facing.
* In the ''WesternAnimation/JackieChanAdventures'' and ''WesternAnimation/{{WITCH}}'' crossover fanfic ''Fanfic/{{Kage}}'' (part of FanFic/ProjectDarkJade, like ''FanFic/ShadowsAwakening'' below), [[EnemyWithin The Queen]] briefly manages to take control of Jade and uses [[CastingAShadow shadow-based]] CombatTentacles to capture [[BadassNormal Caleb]] and the {{Elemental Power|s}}[=-=]equipped Guardians, with perhaps the only reason they survived being Jade retaking control when she saw her reflection in a puddle.
** She later ends up on the receiving end when Elyon nearly kills her in a fit of rage (note that [[PsychoactivePowers rage makes Elyon more powerful]]).
* In the first chapter of ''Fanfic/WakingNightmares'', one of the Nightmare Dogs (not even a named character) nearly kills [[PhysicalGod Princess Celestia]] with one unexpected strike. In a later scene, Slenderman kills [[=RED=]] Demoman and [[=RED=]] Medic in one hit ''while they're ubercharged''. (For non-''VideoGame/TeamFortress2'' players, that means they're completely invulnerable.) The Doctor is hit by a verbal version when their enemies reveal that they know who he is... and aren't the slightest bit afraid. Until then, everything that has ever faced him and survived has learned to fear The Oncoming Storm.
* The AffectionateParody of common MLP cliches ''[[http://www.fimfiction.net/story/120319/a-series-of-stories A Series of Stories]]'' has the frequency of this happening to Princess Celestia and Luna as one of the first tropes it lampoons. A [[ParodySue Parody Villain Sue]] that is a parody of every MLP villain cliche ever (a black and red Alicorn with a shattered world Cutie Mark and running on ThePowerOfHate named Ruin) shows up with the intention to crush the Princesses. [[OhNoNotAgain The Princesses are more annoyed than threatened due to this being apparently a common occurrence]], and after killing him [[OffscreenMomentOfAwesome in an offscreen battle]] complain about villains always coming after them due to trying to invoke this trope. Worth noting is the author ''loaths'' this trope due to how overused it can be.
--> '''Princess Celestia''': I blame Queen Chrysalis for it. It's annoying; you lose once to [[WorfHadTheFlu a supercharged Changeling Queen in a room crowded with innocent civilians]], and suddenly everypony thinks they can defeat you.
* In chapter two of ''Fanfic/{{Bait and Switch|STO}}'' and [[Recap/StarTrekOnlineFoundryBaitAndSwitch the Foundry mission it's based on]], this happened offscreen; only the aftereffects are shown. To drive home how much trouble Starfleet's having in the Beta Ursae sector block, the USS ''Defiant'' was badly damaged, but not irreparably, by a rogue Cardassian legate playing warlord.
* In ''Fanfic/TheSwarmOfWar'', the Overmind’s first mental battle is against [[http://wh40k.lexicanum.com/wiki/Ahzek_Ahriman Ahzek Ahriman]]. That’s a ten thousand years old Badass with knowledge and power only surpassed by the Greater Daemons and Primarchs… and he barely manages to flee.
* ''{{Webcomic/Nightfall}}'': When Hades shows up he easily lays out Dave and Rose, and overpowers John and Vriska. With only Vriska and Dave managing to hit him. Jade steps in and brings the battle to a stalemate, and he's later whisked off by one of his "allies."
* In ''Fanfic/AAMLDiamondAndPearlVersion'', during Ash’s gym battle with Candice, [[spoiler:Charizard loses to Abomasnow despite the type advantage, with WordOfGod noting that it would be boring if Charizard could make a clean sweep and justifying this loss as Ash hasn’t spent as much time regularly training with Charizard recently in favour of training some of his newer Pokemon]].
* ''FanFic/TheInfiniteLoops'' will usually play this for laughs, showing how a dangerous threat in canon is curbstomped by competent Loopers. It's been inverted on occasion, though, either to show that a Looper has ''no idea'' what they're facing or that things are just that serious.
* ''FanFic/TheEquestrianWindMage'':
** Sombra is the only villain to appear in Season 1 whom Vaati is unable to immediately [[CurbStompBattle curbstomp]]. In fact, Sombra ends up curbstomping ''him'' in their first fight, and their final fight is a draw until Vaati gets his hands on the Crystal Heart.
** Ganondorf [[CurbStompBattle easily wins]] the first battle of Season 2, using the Triforce of Power to overpower Vaati and NoSell the Elements of Harmony.
** Later, Ghirahim hands Daring Do her ass in the special episode that features her.
** [[spoiler: Discord doesn't fair very well against Majora's Avatar. Though unlike the above examples, the CMC ultimately help him turn the tables and beat the Avatar.]]
* In the WesternAnimation/FairlyOddparents fanfiction, ''FanFic/NeverHadAFriendLikeMe'', [[spoiler:Bob]] resists even Norm's genie's magic, and even more terrifyingly [[spoiler:destroys [[AchillesHeel Norm's lamp]], which even Jorgen couldn't do (though that was because of Da Rules)]].
* The ''VideoGame/DevilMayCry''[=/=]''Anime/BloodPlus'' crossover ''[[https://www.fanfiction.net/s/4607000/1/When-the-Devil-dies-the-Diva-cries When the Devil dies, the Diva cries]]'', the antagonist group proves its strength in their first fight to the extent that Dante and Saya end up having to escape rather than continue fighting; Dante is especially irked, because this is the first time that has ''ever'' happened to him.
* ''FanFic/RosarioVampireBrightestDarkness'':
** Apoch and Astreal Ezrana have a reputation as being "the perfect shield and the perfect sword." Said reputation starts to become an InformedAbility as the series goes on, with more and more people proving able to block and survive Astreal's {{Hand Blast}}s and shatter Apoch's barriers.
** In Act II chapter 23, when the gang fights Kiria in the Snow Woman Village, he easily curb-stomps all of them to the extent that Tsukune is forced to unleash his [[SuperpoweredEvilSide inner ghoul]] just to stand a chance. Even then, Kiria ultimately comes out on top, and it's only because Kiria [[IWantThemAlive decides that Tsukune could be useful to his plans]] that they get out alive.
** Jovian and Jacqueline Kikion are set up as {{Invincible Villain}}s with impenetrable barriers and unblockable energy attacks, with their power levels being outright described by Akua as [[ReadingsAreOffTheScale immeasurable]]. Come Act IV, and it turns out the new Apoch's LaserBlade can cut through their barriers and deflect their attacks.
** The first sign of just how tough a [[GiantFlyer rylo]] is in Act VI? Kurumu using her Princess of Hell SuperMode doesn't even faze it.
** The rylo is also on the receiving end of this; in Act VI chapter 25, Astreal uses the [[EnergyBow Artimus Arrow]] spell, which completely obliterates the supposedly NighInvulnerable demon with [[OneHitKill one shot]].
* ''Fanfic/FriendshipIsMagicalGirls'':
** Sunset Shimmer dominates her first fight with the mahoushoujo in Magic 5, only being defeated when the girls activate the Elements of Harmony and use them to weaken her.
** Both fights with [[EliteMooks Royal Changelings]] go ''very'' poorly for the girls, with them only winning by virtue of a new mahoushoujo awakening.
** The first fight with the [[EvilCounterpart Shadowbolts]] in Loyalty 3 only ends because Gilda is enraged by Spike's presence and leaves to plot a new strategy.
** After the mahoushoujo manage to defeat the Shadowbolts easily in their rematch in Loyalty 4, you might start to think they're not as threatening. Come Loyalty 9, this gets flipped on its head, as thanks to [[spoiler: gaining Lunar Seal-powered mahoushoujo forms]], they nearly ''kill'' Applejack, and only lose because [[EnigmaticMinion Starscream]] doesn't fight, and Spike mutually fights Gilda into a bloody mess.
* ''Fanfic/DekiruTheFusionHero'': Several canon characters suffer this to show how powerful Izuku's fusions are. For example:
** The Sludge Villain is nearly obliterated by one explosion from Katzuku (the fusion of Izuku and Katsuki).
** During the Heroes vs. Villains exercise, the hero team of Momo and Izuku was losing badly to the villain team of Tenya and Shoto. Then they fused into Moku, who decimated their opponents in seven minutes, winning the match with twelve seconds to spare.
** [[spoiler:Tsuzuru, the triple-fusion of Izuku, Minoru, and Tsuyu, not only manages to incapacitate ''Nomu'', but also knocks away and captures Shigaraki and Kurogiri as well when rescuing Aizawa. The defeat was so humiliating for Shigaraki that he decided to ditch his plan altogether]].
* In the ''Fanfic/AlternateTailSeries'', Mercator Garten's first introduction has him capture Freed (an S-Class candidate) before the other Fairy Tail wizards could react. Even after Freed escapes and teams up with [[TheHero Gajeel]], he easily handles the two of them and almost defeats them until [[TheAce Mira]] arrives. ''And even then'', a combined attack from all three only breaks his spell-created shield, leaving him unharmed.
* ''Fanfic/AShadowOfTheTitans'':
** Not even ''Superman'' can breach [[spoiler: the Oni's barrier around Jump City]]. Possibly justified by the fact that Superman is often depicted as vulnerable to magic, so it working on him isn't unheard of.
** The [[EmergencyTransformation mutated]] [[spoiler: Kitten]] is so strong that a desperate Jade is barely able to harm her during their fight. Though the fact that this is Jade's first serious bit of combat since [[spoiler: losing the Pig and Dragon talismans]] [[WorfHadTheFlu does play a significant part in that]].

[[folder:Literature]]
* In ''Literature/{{Animorphs}}'':
** [[SixthRangerTraitor David]] subjects [[TheLeader team leader]] Jake to this during their duel. Up until this point, Jake's tiger has been one of the most lethally efficient morphs the team has. Despite having a year's worth of battle experience David doesn't, Jake still loses. Badly.
** Rachel is the TheBigGuy, and her [[BearsAreBadNews grizzly bear morph]] is terrifyingly powerful. She uses it to fight a [[NeverSmileAtACrocodile crocodile]] at one point, and it not only [[CurbStompBattle trounces]] her, but Cassie (as a squirrel) and Marco (as a llama) as well, though the last two admittedly aren't combat animals. The crocodile is itself Worfed, when Ax shows up and [[BewareTheSillyOnes effortlessly]] [[HalfTheManHeUsedToBe cuts the thing in half]].
* ''Literature/BazilBfoketail'': Gog Zagozt shrugs off magical blasts from ''Ribela''. [[WorfHadTheFlu Then again]], the latter was not only just recently released from a dungeon, but lacked the empowerment from one of her mice-using rituals, so she was definitely not fighting him at her strongest.
* ''Literature/TheCrewOfTheCopperColoredCupids'':
** Taken UpToEleven by Emperor Steer's casual mention of having single-handedly destroyed " several unrelated versions of the enchanter Merlin, a number of so-called legions of so-called superheroes, two different Void Armadas, and the Old God Nyarlathotep" while trying to break into the Consistency Imperium.
* In''Franchise/TheDarkTower'', Mordred Deschain, a villain who was recently born (not just introduced, but actually born a few hours earlier) was able to take out Randall Flagg, Stephen King's ubervillain, within about three pages to demonstrate his menace.
* ''Literature/{{Discworld}}'',
** In ''Literature/GuardsGuards'' Carrot goes into the Mended Drum to break up one of their regular bar fights. The other Watchmen with him expect to see bits of him start flying out at any moment. Instead, Detritus (a troll, which on Discworld are made of solid rock) is the first to fly out. Unconscious. Softer targets follow. (It was previously established that Detritus was employed at the Drum as a Splatter. Like a bouncer, but people thrown by a troll tend not to bounce.)
*** In ''Literature/TheFifthElephant'', just to show how dangerous Wolfgang von Uberwald is, he beats Carrot in his turn like a [[IncrediblyLamePun red-headed stepchild]].
** Discworld's Lord Vetinari sometimes gets this. When the baddies hurt him or catch him unguarded and unprepared, you know it's serious. Although when you think about it, he probably gets hurt/poisoned/turned into a lizard/otherwise out of the baddies' way without a handy plan to save himself more often than not. But since both the characters and the readers are still left with the impression that he's a cool badass character who always has everything under control, you could say it works.
*** The lizard incident is a particularly good instance, where you get a solid half-page of exposition about how clever and menacing he is... and then he immediately gets teleported and [[BewitchedAmphibians turned into a lizard]] by wizards who've decided to make a point about who's going to be running things around here from now on. Which is to say, the point of the exposition was really just to contrast with how quickly he's dispatched nonetheless.
** In ''Literature/{{Sourcery}}'', the Sourceror Coin upon entering the Great Hall of the Unseen University asks the wizards who is the most powerful of them, so that he can duel him. Skarmer Billias, an eighth-level wizard, steps up, seeing the challenge as a joke. After displaying his most powerful spell, creating a miniature of Maligree's Wonderful Garden, Coin counters by making the garden life-size and bringing all the wizards with him into it. After this display he incinerates Billias with a single thought.
* Ghost-kicking, Hell-strutting Virgil from ''Literature/TheDivineComedy'' fails horribly to protect Dante from the demons of Dis, creating real suspense that they'll make Dante stay in Hell forever. When all seems lost, the thousand demons scramble away in fear at the sight of one angel. The angel who knocks down all their fortifications with a light push from a stick, strictly establishing that the powers of Heaven are unrivaled by those of humanity and Hell.
* In the ''Literature/{{Dragonlance}}'' series, kender are supposed to be immune to fear. Consequently, they're almost constantly having a strange, new, unfamiliar feeling to let the reader know something is so scary that even they got scared!
* In ''Literature/TheDresdenFiles'', in ''Literature/PeaceTalks'': The [[spoiler: Fomor real leader]] Ethniu show how dangerous she is by Sparta-kicking [[spoiler: Queen Mab, a 5 on the SuperWeight scale and effectively a personified force of nature]] through several walls without using any magic. ''Literature/BattleGround'' continues the trend: an assembly of other supernatural heavies (each one an order of magnitude more capable than the protagonist at ''least'') concludes that the only way to take down Ethniu is by attrition, i.e. having everybody throw everything they have against her while she demolishes them one by one, hoping they'll do enough cumulative ScratchDamage to exhaust her.
* ''Franchise/{{Dune}}'': The Imperial Sardaukar are the most terrifying and deadly warriors in the known universe, and their only real purpose is to establish how much deadlier the Fremen are by getting their asses handed to them at every encounter. When they attack Paul's sietch, they take devastating losses fighting Fremen who are not even warriors. The Sardaukar are never a real threat when Fremen are involved.
* ''Literature/TheEmperorsGift'': Grand Master Joros of the 8th Brotherhood of Grey Knights is a highly experienced warrior who Hyperion describes as one of the Brotherhood's finest duellists, often able to analyse an enemy's next blow before they make it. When he faces the [[ProudWarriorRace Space Wolves]]' Great Wolf, however, Logan Grimnar is able to sprint across a hall and kill Joros with a single blow from his power axe before the Grand Master can get his sword halfway drawn.
* In the later novels of Creator/AlanDeanFoster's ''[[Literature/HumanxCommonwealth Flinx and Pip]]'' series, [[ABoyAndHisX Pip]] suffers from this trope. Any time a serious threat to Flinx presents itself, the very first thing it does is restrain or otherwise deal with his minidrag.
* The ''Literature/{{Goosebumps}}'' novella, ''Attack of The Mutant'', has three ridiculous examples in a row. First, the Galloping Gazelle, an animal themed superhero with SuperSpeed, gets beaten by villain Molecule Man when the latter trips him and morphs into a leopard. The Gazelle runs in fear, while the titular mutant kills Molecule Man in the form of ''a pre-teen girl.'' Finally, the Mutant himself is destroyed when the protagonist Skipper tricks him into becoming a liquid([[RequiredSecondaryPowers he can't reassemble himself in this state]]). And Skipper is ''twelve years old.''
* ''Literature/HarryPotter'':
** Mad-Eye Moody, is touted as one of, if not the, greatest Aurors of all time, responsible for putting more Dark wizards in prison than any other Auror. He has never won a serious fight in the text. Granted he is a RetiredBadass by the time of the books, and his opponents are always either Voldemort's hardest core or Voldemort himself, but you'd think he'd get a chance to beat up on someone, just to make him look good. The first book he appears in [[spoiler:he actually got kidnapped and spends the entire book locked away while a Death Eater is impersonating him]], and in the Seventh book [[spoiler: he is killed in the first few chapters for the sole purpose of showing how ''serious business'' everything now is]]. In one of [[Film/HarryPotter the movies]], we at least get to see him briefly knock over a [[{{Mooks}} random Death Eater]] [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pZWtt1oAPCM&t=1m50s using some sort of magic from his cane]].
** John Dawlish is even worse: he was introduced by Dumbledore [[InformedAbility praising his combat skills]] before warning him that he was no match for him, and since then he has lost every single fight he had. You can't really count [[CurbStompBattle losing to Dumbledore]] against someone, but he also gets summarily manhandled by Hagrid and terrified into helplessness when he beat up a group of Aurors that underestimated him, defeated off-screen by the Order of the Phoenix to lay a false trail, summarily curbstomped by an extra, and when he was sent to take Neville's grandmother hostage...
--> '''Neville:''' Little old witch living alone, they probably thought they didn't need to send anyone particularly powerful. Anyway, Dawlish is still in St. Mungo's and Gran's on the run.
** Tonks, Sirius, and Kingsley were all established to be talented at magic. However, the three are defeated one by one by Bellatrix Lestrange at the end of the fifth book. It doesn't stop there! When Dumbledore joins the fray he rounds up all ten of the Death Eaters in the room in a matter of seconds, with the exception of Bellatrix who is able to deflect his spell and escape.
** Even Harry gets this on occasion. Though he is shown many times to be an advanced duelist for his age, he is completely unable to land a single hit against Lord Voldemort or Severus Snape. He doesn't do much better during his duel with Bellatrix and only survived his first two encounters with Dolohov because the latter got distracted.
** As Rowling herself states, ''anyone'', no matter how badass they are, will be easily outmatched against Albus Dumbledore, as he is both [[WorldsStrongestMan the strongest]] and [[WorldsBestWarrior the greatest wizard]] in the series. He rarely fights, but the few times he takes action Rowling makes it clear he is the best of the heroes. The first time he uses magic in an offensive capacity, he blasts off ''hundreds'' of Dementors with a single Patronus spell... Which isn't even corporeal! In comparison, Harry needed the PowerofLove and some serious trouble even with his real stag Patronus. Then, in the fifth book, he barely bats an eye as he instantly knocks Fudge, Dawlish, Umbridge, and Kingsley out, despite all of them being clearly no slouches, (Rowling even admits that at least Dawlish was an actual competent fighter who just had the misfortune of trying to mess with the world's singular best wizard) and while the Death Eaters seemed to be even with the other heroes in the climax, Dumbledore arrives and within a matter of moments, he has them all beaten and tied up. After that, he casually beats Bellatrix with a single statue and then schools ''Voldemort'' while remaining perfectly cool, making it clear he is hardly giving it his best yet still makes their fight look almost a total curb-stomp rather than a curb-stomp cushion, which is especially astounding as Minerva, Slughorn and Kingsley together could only reach a stalemate even against Voldemort when he couldn't harm them lethally, though in all fairness, they had been exhausted while Voldemort was fresh and he was using the Elder Wand, meaning that he would at least be able to fight with the same level of strength as a normal mastered wand would, if not slightly greater. Even after having his hand maimed, he still thoroughly annahilates Dawlish and after being ''further'' weakened, he takes down an entire army of Inferi with a single large fire spell.
* The Giants in ''Literature/TheHeroesOfOlympus''. Despite being stated to be the greatest threat Olympus has ever faced and often being direct counters to the most powerful Olympians they have all be defeated fairly easily. There is some light justification in that they may not be at full power (for Porpheryion this is explicitly the case). Arguably more important is the fact that defeating a giant explicitly requires a God and a Demigod working together. The fact that the Gods are literally incable of defeating the Giants on their own sounds like a pretty big deal, but there are literally hundreds of Demigods between the two camps (and presumably more outside of them) so it's more or less a non-issue. There might also be a degree of OvershadowedByAwesome, as slaying Giants is a relatively minor bullet point on Percy's list of accomplishments.
* There are many examples in Steve Alten's ''Literature/{{Meg}}'' series where a {{Megalodon}} defeats equally large and dangerous predators, but only the opening scene of the first novel qualifies (wherein Meg eats a ''UsefulNotes/TyrannosaurusRex'') because the marine reptiles are too obscure to the general public to be this trope.
* ''Literature/SeptimusHeap'': Nicko Heap in ''Physik'' is mentioned to be strong enough to tackle virtually anybody, but when he tries to attack Queen Etheldredda, she just swats him out of the way.
* Feral of ''Literature/SoonIWillBeInvincible''. A ferocious tiger-man who's ended the entire careers of supervillains, and his entire plot importance consists of being beaten up by a baseline human, being blown away by a mad scientist, being knocked out by a mad scientist, being beaten up by mecha-insect aliens in a flashback, and being beaten up by a mad scientist again.
* In ''Literature/SpaceMarineBattles'', novel Fall of Damnos, the Ultramarines are on the receiving end of a long string of these, to showcase just how dangerous the Necron threat is.
* ''Franchise/StarTrek'':
** In the ''Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration'' [[Franchise/StarTrekExpandedUniverse novel]] ''Vendetta'' Delcara's planet killer makes very, very short work of the first Borg ships to encounter her vessel.
** ''The Return'', Worf is pwned by, of all people, [[spoiler:the risen Kirk]], using a Klingon's best weapon. Consider who these novels are written by...supposedly.
** Creator/PeterDavid uses this sparingly in ''Literature/StarTrekNewFrontier'', mainly because the Excalibur's version of Worf, Kebron, is a veritable walking landmass. But being used sparingly, it's much more effective: When someone can topple Kebron, you know they're trouble.
** In addition, in David's Starfleet Academy novels, guess which Klingon gets in a fight with which Brikar on their very first day there?
* Franchise/StarWarsLegends:
** The Nohgri, silent-stalking little commando people who are ''very'' good fighters. The same [[Literature/TheThrawnTrilogy trilogy]] which introduces them has them accept Leia as the Mal'ary'ush, the Lady Vader, so some of them become her bodyguards. Very nearly every work set after that has them either inexplicably not present or getting tricked, out-tracked, and out-fought by ''everyone''. [[Literature/HandOfThrawn Shada Du'kal]] even wonders if their reputation is exaggerated, although she at least is a Mistryl shadow guard, only had to get past one of them, and had a very novel way of tricking him. This is taken to ridiculous depths in ''Literature/NewJediOrder''.
** For Karen Traviss, the Jedi are hateful incompetent death-deserving people fit only to [[CreatorsPet puff up her Mandalorians]]; hence they either convert, sit quietly and accept really pathetic {{Hannibal Lecture}}s while being very impressed, or are curb-stomped. Every. Time. A connection to the Force which binds all things, shaves reaction times, oxygenates blood more efficiently, provides telekinetic abilities, enhances strength, and gives battle precognition sufficient to deflect blaster bolts into enemies with the narrow blade of a lightsaber is no match at all for the perfect warrior people with their beskar'gam armor!
** What's the best way to show how strong a villain in the Franchise/StarWarsExpandedUniverse? Make him toss some Jedi around the room with his eyes closed and one hand behind his back. What's the best way to show how serious the situation is? Kill a few Jedi. In books, games, and comics, if a Jedi isn't a protagonist, he's fucked. ''Especially'' if he happens to meet [[ComicBook/{{Legacy}} Sith]], [[VideoGame/KnightsOfTheOldRepublic Mandalorians]], [[WesternAnimation/StarWarsCloneWars Grievous]], [[WesternAnimation/StarWarsTheCloneWars Cad Bane]], or [[Literature/NewJediOrder extra galactic invaders]].
** In ''Literature/LegacyOfTheForce'', they have their villain stab [[VideoGame/DarkForcesSaga Kyle Katarn]] through the chest. Thankfully, this gets reversed, and Kyle's shown much more respect, in the ''Literature/FateOfTheJedi'' books.
** Katarn was on the opposite side in his first game. It was very fashionable in the 90s to have the protagonist of a game go up against Boba Fett and defeat him. Dash Rendar did the same.
** Played rather straight in the ''Revan'' prequel to ''VideoGame/StarWarsTheOldRepublic''. [[spoiler: The Sith Emperor casually kills a number of major supporting characters from ''VideoGame/KnightsOfTheOldRepublic'', disfigures Revan and leaves him as little more than a charred mess. He is then kept alive as a power source for the Emperor, admittedly having some small influence over the Sith's mind which does help end the Great Galactic War, and is rescued during the game. But only so it can happen to him ''again'' at the hands of Imperial characters because his 300 years of imprisonment have driven him mad.]]
** In ''Literature/GalaxyOfFear'', ''Darth Vader'' is this once or twice. But it's used pretty carefully, considering -- he's not part of the regular cast and never actually gets ''defeated'', but he's definitely brought in so the reader can go "Whoah! Vader {{Curb Stomp Battle}}s everyone! This guy must be tough!" In ''Army of Terror'' [[spoiler: Eppon]] holds his own against him in a lengthy fight, countering his best moves but having his countered in turn, and that fight never concludes. [[spoiler: Darth Vader's clone]] is also on nearly-equal footing and is only beaten because he has no lightsaber, but that might be expected.
* In ''Literature/SuperMinion'', a team of elite monster exterminators go into the sewers under E13 trying to rescue prisoners from a puppeteer super. Despite being cleared to use their most powerful and restricted weapons, they get scattered and nearly wiped out just from the native wildlife and barely even encounter the minions of the actual puppeteer. Tofu and Nicole generally have no trouble navigating the sewers, and Nicole can handle almost any of the monsters.
* The [[spoiler:Sons of Progress]] strongman from ''Literature/SuperPowereds''. Despite having a power enhancer increase his strength by a factor of dozens at least beyond what was already superhuman, his most incredible accomplishment is making Titan ''take a step back''. He doesn't even noticably hurt him, although Roy had apparently never seen any strongman make him step back.
* At the end of the second ''Literature/{{Twilight}}'' book. Edward attacks the Volturi to try to keep them from using a psychic attack on Bella and is promptly smacked down to show why they're so feared.
* Possibly lampshaded in ''TabletopGame/{{Warhammer 40000}}'' novel, ''Daemon World''. When a group of Word Bearer Chaos Marines board his ship, [[spoiler: Arguelon Veq]]'s first target is Vrox, an Obliterator (which, for the uninitiated, is a mutated monstrosity twice the size of regular Chaos Space Marines and can spawn weapons and armor from his body). After he kills Vrox with relative ease, he even comments that he was the least threatening of the Chaos Marines on board.
* In the final book of the original story arc in ''Literature/WarriorCats'', [[spoiler: the newly-introduced villain Scourge kills [[BigBad Tigerstar]] when all of the Clans are gathered, for spite, to intimidate the Clans into complying with his demands, and (we learn later) for revenge.]]
* In ''Literature/TheWheelOfTime'' Nynaeve in canon is one of the strongest channelers in the world. When a channeler comes along who is the ''best'' at something, this is often established by noting that they're better at it than Nynaeve. This isn't as egregious as it might be, because she has very little training, and raw power is often shown to not be equal to skill or technique. Be'lal is shown to be a better swordsman than Rand, who is himself a MasterSwordsman.
%%* Anyone Roran is sent to replace in ''Literature/InheritanceCycle''. Especially with [[spoiler: Queen Islanzadi near the end of the final book.]]
%%* [[spoiler:Cato taking out Thresh]] in Book 1 of ''Literature/TheHungerGames'' series.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Music]]
* The title character of [[Music/JimCroce "Bad, Bad Leroy Brown"]] is set up throughout the song as "the baddest man in the whole damn town," complete with packing a gun and razor wherever he goes... but by the end of the song, a bar fight with the husband of a woman he's checking out has left him [[BodyHorror looking like "a jigsaw puzzle with a couple of pieces gone"]].
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Mythology and Folklore]]

[[folder:Web Comics]]

!Example subpages

[[foldercontrol]]

* TheWorfEffect/{{Film}}
** TheWorfEffect/MarvelCinematicUniverse

!Examples:

* Zigzagged in ''FanFic/SonicXDarkChaos'';
** Tsali manages to defeat Super Sonic one-on-one in the opening scene. However (unknown to Sonic), he was wounded and only barely won. Come Episode 64 when he fights Sonic, Shadow, and Eric in their Super forms, it doesn't take long for him to lose horribly.
** Maledict is quickly shown to be an InvincibleVillain who curb-stomps the heroes into the floor. Then comes in Dark Tails, who grows so powerful that he shrugs off all of Maledict's attacks. [[spoiler: It's a good thing Sonic and friends end up allying with him]].
* ''Fanfic/GuardiansWizardsAndKungFuFighters'':
** It's shown that when [[OracularHead Tarakudo]] is in his [[OneWingedAngel full-bodied form]], he's basically an unstoppable PhysicalGod. The first time he takes this form, he nearly kills [[spoiler: Nimue]] and her two students, only being stopped because the unnamed GreaterScopeVillain intervenes (due to [[CantKillYouStillNeedYou still needing them alive]]).
** [[PantheraAwesome Callisto]] provides Jade with the single toughest fight she's had since [[spoiler: becoming a Shapeshifter]], dominating their fight with such skill and brutality that she's barely able to touch him. She eventually comes to the conclusion that [[JustToyingWithThem he's not even trying, and is just toying with her]].
* ''Fanfic/PokemonResetBloodlines'': Several of the later battles of Ash's Pokémon have them suffer from this to show off their opponents' strength. Examples include:
** Primeape and Boldore both lose to Blaine's Mega Houndoom rather easily.
** Boldore later loses to a Golisopod after it dodges her [[LimitBreak Z-Move]] [[BoringButPractical using Substitute.]]
** Against Giovanni in the Viridian Gym, Tauros and Kingler go down without scoring a single win.

* ''FanFic/TheWeaverOption'':
** Lelith Hesperax makes her debut by destroying a C'tan shard which had previously annihilated an entire ''fleet'' with [[SingleStrokeBattle a single swing of her blade]] before handily defeating Trazyn. She's also revealed to have previously defeated [[spoiler:Primarch Rogal Dorn]] in single combat and after her duel with Taylor she permanently kills several Daemon Princes.
** Slaanesh manifests in an Avatar and proceeds to dominate a fight against Lelith by simply overwhelming her with sorcerous attacks. This is despite the limitations of working through an Avatar and its recent weakening due to the [[spoiler:raid on Commorragh]].
* In ''Fanfic/TheFifthAct'', Genesis realizes just how obscenely strong Cloud is when he hears him fighting [[TheAce Sephiroth]] and investigates to find the latter going all out, on the back foot, and ''losing''.

* In Chapter 14 of ''Fanfic/BlazBlueAlternativeRemnant'', Pyrrha Nikos ends up subjected to this by Ragna when he starts using his [[YourSoulIsMine Semblance]] during their fight. Thanks to Pyrrha's reputation as an InvincibleHero InUniverse, Weiss expresses outright shock at seeing that Pyrrha can lose.
* ''Fanfic/TheOddsWereNeverInMyFavour'': During the second task, Beauxbatons champion Ambre (who was previously injured and sidelined while fighting a cockatrice) proves how effective she is against human opponents by trouncing Eleonora, a champion who excelled during the first task.
* ''Fanfic/TheRavensPlan'': Each of the "great players" of the Game of Thrones suffer this after [[PeggySue the Remembering]]. To wit:
** Petyr Baelish is killed by Jaime Lannister within ''hours'' of the Remembering. Even if that hadn't happened, Bran made sure Littlefinger ''wouldn't'' Remember, meaning the man was a dead man walking.
** Tywin Lannister is usurped by Tyrion in the same general time frame, and is now a non-entity under house arrest.
** Cersei Lannister is immediately taken into custody by Renly and then tossed into the Black Cells.
** House Tyrell (temporarily) loses control of the Reach to Samwell Tarly, who then engages Dickon to Margaery to ensure he still has some influence there after the Long Night, upon which he'll give back control of the Reach to them.

* ''Fanfic/MiraculousThePhoenixRises'' establishes [[TheAce Nevermore]] as being a far more elite hero than those of Team Arctic. However, upon facing [[KnightOfCerebus The Nightmare King]] offscreen, the next time Nevermore is seen he's been sent to the ER in critical condition while the latter barely broke a sweat.

* A literal example of this occurs in ''Fanfic/LostInTheWoods'', as the ''Enterprise'' crew get a taste of how dangerous the Reavers are when a single Reaver stays conscious after multiple phaser blasts set on stun and manages to inflict a dangerous cut on Worf’s stomach that damages his sash before they finally knock it out.

* In the ''FanFic/FacingTheFutureSeries'', Vlad Plasmius and Dark Danny, two of the most powerful villains in the ''WesternAnimation/DannyPhantom'' series that Danny would normally have problems against are completely overpowered by Danny's feral SuperMode on two occasions. He nearly would have destroyed them both (and himself) if not for Sam talking him down.
* In ''WebAnimation/DiamondInTheRoughTouhou'', [[spoiler:Flandre is subject to this. She agrees to fighting according to the spellcard rules, but when the Diamondback's beasts start to cheat, she loses because she refused to disobey the rules.]]

* In ''Fanfic/JonathanJoestarTheFirstJoJo'', Heaven Ascension Dio easily defeats everyone in chapter 10 (sans Jonathan) due to his [[RealityWarper powers]].
* Similar to the ''Franchise/JurassicPark'' examples below, ''Fanfic/RiseOfTheGaleforces'' applies this trope to the [[NinjaPirateZombieRobot Turret Raptors,]] who are quickly defeated by even the youngest members of the main cast. Ditto for the local {{Eldritch Abomination}}s, e.g. Dynacide.
* ''Disgaea: Jewel of the gods'':
** Epic is an example. He's introduced by taking out an immortal, giant enemy that Laharl, Adell, and Mao couldn't beat. After that he gets dominated by Etna, a reaper, Baal's minions, [[TheDragon Baal's right-hand man Fried]], Baal, Raiden, and Alex, mixing in some ButtMonkey status along the way.
** [[VideoGame/PhantomBrave Ash]] also gets this treatment. After he and Marona joined the group, he gets taken out fairly quickly in fights, mainly against [[BigBad Baal]], or when he fights one of the item gods.
* Deconstructed in the ''FanFic/PonyPOVSeries'' with [[spoiler:Spitfire. The repeated failures of the Wonderbolts to actually succeed in their heroic attempts begin to take their toll on her confidence and send her into a HeroicBSOD. Rainbow Dash snaps her out of it by reminding her that, even if the Wonderbolts can't do the ''actual'' heroics, they are still heroes because they ''inspire'' ponies who ''can''.]]
** [[BadFuture Dark World!]]Spike gets hit with this pretty bad for a while, as his superior strength and flame breath are one way or another made ineffective -- [[{{Golem}} Tom]] is literally MadeOfDiamond, the blackbirds could regenerate near instantly, and by the time [[TheStarscream the Valeyard]] was out of his protective shield, Spike had already been disabled (he lampshades the last one). However, the trope is ironically subverted during the fights with [[spoiler: [[OneWingedAngel Odyne!]][[TheDragon Cruelty]]]] and [[spoiler: [[TrueFinalBoss Nightmare Eclipse/Paradox]]]], the two strongest opponents in Dark World, as Spike manages to be as effective as everyone else.
* [[spoiler:Abyssgreymon]] in the Digimon fanfic [[http://www.fanfiction.net/s/7623289/1/ Transcendence: Digital Curse]] worfs everyone from the first two Digimon adventures plus two other champions without even being touched. He apparently does this without wanting to or trying.
* In ''FanFic/{{Fractured}}'', a ''Franchise/MassEffect''[=/=]''Franchise/StarWars''[[spoiler:[=/=]''VideoGame/{{Borderlands}}'']] [[MassiveMultiplayerCrossover crossover]], this happens to the [[Franchise/MassEffect Reapers]] who are set up as TheDreaded in Mass Effect canon. [[JustifiedTrope Justified]] InUniverse since weaponry from the [[Franchise/StarWars Trans-Galactic Republic]] is considered orders of magnitude more powerful and their DeflectorShields are better -- unlike kinetic barriers, they block both energy ''and'' physical weapons.
* Each of the {{Big Bad}}s in the ''FanFic/AzulaTrilogy'' prove themselves to be threats by being able to match or defeat one of the heroes -- Azun defeats Zuko in ''Heart'', Wei Ming goes toe-to-toe with Azula in ''Path'', and Jian Chin defeats Aang in ''Soul'' (though the latter two were [[DemonicPossession possessed]] by [[TheManBehindTheMan true]] BigBad [[spoiler: Zhan Zheng]] at the time, so this trope more works for him than them).
* In ''Fanfic/ChildOfTheStorm'', the Winter Soldier swiftly establishes himself as a OneManArmy and underlines his status as TheDreaded with his entrance. At first, the characters hear the guard animals, a [[Myth/GreekMythology Chimera]] and a Nundu (a gigantic magical leopard), attack something. Then their roars are cut off and the Winter Soldier enters with their heads in his hands. A Chimera's only been successfully slain once in history and a Nundu takes one hundred trained wizards to bring down.

* In ''Fanfic/UninvitedGuests'', this is ''[[InvokedTrope invoked]]'' by Hitsugaya in order to beat Aizen's PlotArmor. Enter "[[FillerVillain the Dark Lord Wolfington]]," who is [[SuspiciouslySpecificDenial definitely not Komamura in a mask.]]

* ''[[FanFic/UltimateSleepwalker Ultimate Sleepwalker: The New Dreams]]'' features an example between the villains Bullseye and 8-Ball when they fight after being hired by rival crimelords who are having a MobWar. In the official Marvel comics, Bullseye is an AxCrazy sadist who's seen as one of the most dangerous street-level villains in New York. 8-Ball, on the other hand, is a classic example of CListFodder. When they fight, Bullseye plays up his supposed A-list status and mocks 8-Ball for his supposed C-list status, but 8-Ball wins the fight and ends it by knocking Bullseye's severed head into a trashcan like a billiard ball.

* ''FanFic/ShadowsAwakening'': The first fight between the J-Team and [[BigBad Daolon Wong's]] new [[QuirkyMinibossSquad dark chi warriors]] ends with the heroes being forced to retreat and escape.
** Jade's tribe of [[AmazonBrigade Kunoichi Khan]] inflict this on Won's wizard Shadowkhan in turn, showing just how effective they are as {{Mage Killer}}s.

** Voldemort of all people gets this when he fights Dumbledore for the first and only time. To demonstrate exactly why even in his old age Dumbledore is still considered the greatest wizard in history and why Voldemort fears him, he is on the receiving end of a CurbStompCushion and is only barely able to fend off Dumbledore's attacks while Dumbledore makes the whole thing like more like a show than an actual duel by casually dancing around Voldemort's attacks while being able to comfortably launch his own counters. In stark contrast, Gellert Grindelwald, who was even acknowledged to be only less feared due to Voldemort being much more active in Britain, was able to put up a hell of a fight against Dumbledore that made the name for being the greatest duel ever, even if he ultimately lost and went down fighting while Voldemort could only cowardly fear after realizing he was outmatched by Dumbledore, and afterwards Grindelwald has displayed magical abilities on a different level than that of anything we've ever seen Voldemort do.

** [[NobleBigot Equius]], the strongest of the trolls, (he ''[[TestosteronePoisoning punched the head off an ogre with his bare hands!]]'') is [[spoiler:easily strangled to death by [[MonsterClown Gamzee]] as his first victim]]. This is arguably both a [[PlayedStraight straight play]] and a subversion, since WordOfGod says [[spoiler:he could have easily broken the bowstring with his STRONG neck, but didn't because [[FantasticRacism Gamzee is a highblood]] and therefore had the right to kill him]], [[CombatSadomasochist at least in Equius' mind]].

* One of the cause-and-effect-chain [=DirecTV=] commercials [[https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=vaYqoMgI334 goes thusly]], with lines 5-7 exemplifying this:

* This is a very common way of establishing a new star in wrestling. Have him or her beat an older wrestler that fans know is tough. It doesn't always work, and it can [[XPacHeat backfire]] if fans are unwilling to accept the new wrestler as an equal of the older one. Back in the days when matches against "enhancement talent" (that is, jobbers) was the norm, wrestlers stuck in this role would win against jobbers, but almost always lose against other established wrestlers. This has lead to the [[FanNickname fan-coined status]] "jobber to the stars."

** In ''Literature/GalaxyOfFear'', ''Darth Vader'' is this once or twice. But it's used pretty carefully, considering -- he's not part of the regular cast and never actually gets ''defeated'', but he's definitely brought in so the reader can go "Whoah! Vader {{Curb Stomp Battle}}s everyone! This guy must be tough!" In ''Army of Terror'' [[spoiler: Eppon]] holds his own against him in a lengthy fight, countering his best moves but having his countered in turn, and that fight never concludes. The [[spoiler: literal DarthVaderClone]] is also on nearly-equal footing and is only beaten because he has no lightsaber, but that might be expected.

* Myles Joo from ''Webcomic/WeakHero'' is [[RandomPowerRanking ranked]] as the fourth strongest fighter in the series, and proves it when he makes a surprise appearance and easily beats down a faction of the Yeongdeungpo Union. And yet, in a single chapter, he's effortlessly beaten down himself by the newly introduced Mok-Ha Duo; with all the other fighters in the webtoon already well-established, Myles was left as the sacrifice to establish the Mok-Ha as the newest and greatest threat.

** For Karen Traviss, the Jedi are hateful incompetent death-deserving people fit only to [[CreatorsPet puff up her Mandalorians]]; hence they either convert, sit quietly and accept really pathetic {{Hannibal Lecture}}s while being very impressed, or are curb-stomped. Every. Time. A connection to TheForce which binds all things, shaves reaction times, oxygenates blood more efficiently, provides telekinetic abilities, enhances strength, and gives battle precognition sufficient to deflect blaster bolts into enemies with the narrow blade of a lightsaber is no match at all for the perfect warrior people with their beskar'gam armor!

* In ''FanFic/{{Fractured}}'', a ''Franchise/MassEffect''[=/=]''Franchise/StarWars''[[spoiler:[=/=]''VideoGame/{{Borderlands}}'']] [[MassiveMultiplayerCrossover crossover]], this happens to the [[Franchise/MassEffect Reapers]] who are set up as TheDreaded in Mass Effect canon. [[JustifiedTrope Justified]] InUniverse since weaponry from the [[StarWars Trans-Galactic Republic]] is considered orders of magnitude more powerful and their DeflectorShields are better -- unlike kinetic barriers, they block both energy ''and'' physical weapons.