History Main / WeakButskilled

* [[TheSimpsons Homer Simpson]]: He can't box, but he can beat almost anyone by letting the opponent tire himself out.

* Jesse Custer from {{Preacher}} is this compared to [[UnskilledButStrong Cassidy]], and has notably kicked his ass. As Jesse puts it, "bein' taught how to fight by the guy who murdered your dad tends tends to focus a man."

* Jesse Custer from {{Preacher}} is this compared to [[StrongButUnskilled Cassidy]], who is supernaturally tough but lazy and not always very bright. As Jesse puts it, "bein' taught how to fight by the guy who murdered your dad tends tends to focus a man."

* Jesse Custer from {{Preacher}} is this compared to Cassidy the vampire because "...bein' taught how to fight by the guy who murdered your dad tends tends to focus a man." When he supremely kicks Cassidy's ass, it is a CrowningMomentOfAwesome.
** Tulip also takes him down a peg pretty well. Cassidy's just a lazy idiot.
** Though at least one of Jesse and Cassidy's exchanges subverts this. Cassidy throws a punch, which Jesse (skillfully) stops; the vampired is cowed and leaves. Jesse immediately asks Tulip and Amy to drive him to the hospital, as the punch broke every bone in his hand.

* [[http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/earthnews/3353107/Mouse-bites-snake-to-death.html Mouse wins epic boss battle]] with venomous snake with "barely a scratch on him".

->''"La puissance n'est rien sans ma�trise."'' (without skill, power is nothing)

* Yugi Mutou, from YuGiOh, seems an ineffectual wimp who, in spite of being a gutsy little mite, would be about as much use in a fistfight as a squashed watermelon. But in a universe where [[SeriousBusiness Card Games are Serious Business]] Yugi reigns supreme. (Regular Yugi fits this trope better since the Other Yugi has HardWorkHardlyWorks going for him, whereas Yugi slowly but surely develops his abilities to the point at which he [[spoiler: can and ''does'' actually defeat the pharaoh.]]

* In ''TheWheelOfTime'', Mat Cauthon outfights two stronger and more practiced opponents at the same time...while recovering from a serious illness. He's ''really'' good with the [[SimpleStaff quarterstaff]].
** Female channelers when compaired to male ones in general, too.

** Randy Couture, former UFC Heavyweight and light heavyweight champion, became famous again in a comeback win where he defeated current Heavyweight champion Tim Sylvia, who outweighed him by about 30lbs/14Kg, by simply out timing him and picking apart his opponents weak striking technique. He's come back to the sport a second time and despite being in his 40's is doing quite well by relying on his skill and experience to out strike his opponents, although a noticeable drop in power means he's stopped fighting in the Heavyweight Division. This is all the more impressive when one realizes Couture was originally a wrestler.

** [[BadassBookworm Robin]] would also qualify. While her physical strength is minuscule compared to the majority of foes that come her way, her extensive experience as an assassin as well as having two decades to work out the uses of her powers ensure that she's still very much a serious threat to most people. Furthermore, the nature of her powers allow her to apply what strength she has almost infinitely, limited only by the surface area of what she is grabbing. She has used this to twist a giant's arm behind its back with a giant arm made of other arms.

* Chrono of ''MagicalGirlLyricalNanoha'', who's explicitly mentioned in the first season to be weaker in PowerLevel compared to Nanoha and Fate, a comparison he scoffs at, stating there's more to magic than that. He then proceeds to prove his point during the penultimate episode of the first season where he pulls a OneManArmy in [[BigBad Precia's]] [[StormingTheCastle Garden of Time]] while everyone else needed to charge in as a team, and again [[ComicBookAdaptation in the manga volume set immediately before the second season]] where he efforlessly defeated an improved Fate in record time when she had to battle him for her Mage Exam.

* In ''PokemonSpecial'', Red and Green's main Pokemon have levels that range from the 80s to 90s, while only Blue's main powerhouse Pokemon has the level of 80 and everyone else is around 60-70 (her Granbull is only in its 20s). However, she rarely engages in direct combact as her victories are contributed to her skilled use of the XanatosGambit. This is probably because unlike Red and Green, she actually has hobbies ''outside'' of Pokemon and training.

** Said Girlfriend is the polar oposite of Yukki, but still manages to fit this trope. She is very strong and skilled, but her Diary is the weakest, only being able to predict one persons actions and her own Dead End.

* You, in ''NetHack.'' Your only hope of survival is good tactics, but with proper preperation you can survive the wrath of a GOD.

** Mega Man, himself, at least to begin with in his games. His arm cannon (and later Mega Buster) is vastly inferior in terms of power to his opponents. Only by the end of the game, when he's a walking arsenal of doom, does he go to the other side...and then ''still'' require skill, because he's still just a small robot facing huge massive weapons of destruction.

* The titular ''[[SpongeBobSquarepants]]''. The guy is so weak he can't even lift a barbell with stuffed toys, yet he is an expert in karate, and one training session with Sandy Cheeks had the park cut in half from the practice they had.

--> Wesley Wyndham-Pryce, Angel

** A straight example would be Shirou, who is scorned and mocked for his ineptness in every route, only being proficient in a school of magic that can paralyze him or cause brain damage. However, he works at this one field of study so hard that [[spoiler:he can recreate King Arthur's sword, create his own Reality Marble, which is almost an act of sorcery, take on Gilgamesh at his own game and win, and eventually becomes Archer in one storyline, an incredibly powerful and versatile fighter who kills Berserker half a dozen times and possibly only lost because he didn't know Berserker's abilities beforehand.]]

** Archer's stats are all low except his magical energy, but since his Noble Phantasm [[spoiler:is a Reality Marble and therefore nearly a Sorcery in itself]] he's possibly the strongest Servant in the Fifth Grail War.

* Wesley from ''Angel'' is easily the physically weakest male member of Angel Investigations. Yet he managed to kill Skip, capture and cage up Justine and faced Vail in Not Fade Away.

** For that matter, Neji Hyuuga is one of the most dangerous of the Konoha 12 and the first to make Jonin, despite having relatively low physical strength. His mastery of the [[PressurePoints Gentle Fist]] and [[AwesomeByAnalysis Heavenly Spin]] render him capable of crippling opponents far stronger than him. For instance, he was able to fight on equal terms with Naruto during the Chunin exams and was even favored to win that fight, even though Naruto completely outclassed him in terms of raw power.

->''"La puissance n'est rien sans maîtrise."'' (without skill, power is nothing)

** For that matter, Neji Hyuuga is one of the most dangerous of the Konoha 12 and the first to make Jonin, despite having relatively low physical strength. His mastery of the Gentle Fist and [[AwesomeByAnalysis Heavenly Spin]] render him capable of crippling opponents far stronger than him. For instance, he was able to fight on equal terms with Naruto during the Chunin exams and was even favored to win that fight, even though Naruto completely outclassed him in terms of raw power.

** The most straightforward example is probably Nodoka, who has very little actual combat experience or magical skill, but still does a number on [[spoiler: a RealityWarper who had been erasing people from existance]], simply by skillful use of [[{{Telepathy}} her artifact]].

* Rukia of {{Bleach}} is not an especially good sword fighter, but manages to find ways around her opponents' weaknesses with her zanpakuto and knowledge of kido, from discovering a way to shine light on an opponent whose powers work in darkness to freezing an enemy to prevent him from using a plant-based ability.

* Viral from TengenToppaGurrenLagann. When he first shows up, he's much more skilled and experienced in battle than the protagonists and hands him his ass in a decisive CurbstompBattle. In their rematch, things go much the same way... until Kamina (unwittingly) discovers that the Lagann can fuse with the Gurren to become much more powerful. Viral is still a more skilled fighter than Kamina... [[BiggerStick but that doesn't amount to much when your opponent can literally shrug off your best attacks without a scratch.]]

* {{Batman}}. He's a guy with a funny suit and a bunch of neat toys who runs around with people who can bench press planets. And, whenever there's a conflict, ''he wins'', because he's the most skilled. It helps he's CrazyPrepared and keeps Kryptonite on his body at all times in the off chance Superman is a danger. Let alone his other plans...

** Doesn't hurt that his {{UnstoppableRage}}s are quite possibly the most legitimate in Marvel, next to [[{{TropeCodifier}} the Hulk]] himself.