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9->''"Thank heaven we did not slacken our run... We had been wrong. The thing was not wounded, but had merely paused on encountering the bodies of its fallen kindred and the hellish slime inscription above them."''
10-->-- ''Literature/AtTheMountainsOfMadness''
11
12It's common in stories for good to defeat evil. It's reassuring, comforting, and satisfying. Sometimes, that's not an option, though. Evil is just too powerful, too well-prepared, and too embedded in the system. Rather than being able to turf it out for good, the heroes must find a way to live with it, negotiate with it, or simply escape it. This is not just about stories where TheBadGuyWins -- this is about stories where it was never seriously possible for them to lose.
13
14This trope is common in several genres:
15
16* CosmicHorrorStory: The protagonists' insignificance and helplessness in the face of the PowersThatBe is the whole point.
17* CrimeFiction: If the criminals are the heroes and law enforcement are the villains, then it's generally unlikely that our protagonists are going to take down an entire criminal justice system. Similarly, FilmNoir's cynical attitude towards the law means the protagonists will often run into one of these, whether they be TheDon, a CorruptPolitician, or a senior and well-connected DirtyCop.
18* {{Dystopia}}: Since the genre exists solely to warn readers of the consequences of letting tyrants come to power, even if they are toppled they must be replaced with something worse. Allowing the heroes to improve the quality of life for everybody would [[BrokenAesop miss the whole point]].
19* {{Superhero}}: While the general consensus of most superhero stories is "good triumphs over evil", sometimes there is a supervillain that outclasses the hero(es) in every category. You can't outfight them, you can't outsmart them, you can't outrun them. At best, the only way to deal with them is either find someone who ''can'' fight them, find a tough enough cage to put them in and buy yourself time, find their {{Kryptonite|Factor}}, or let them turn you into a martyr.
20* {{Tragedy}}: One easy way for a protagonist's FatalFlaw to destroy them is for them to [[BullyingADragon get into a fight that they really, really shouldn't have picked]].
21* WarIsHell: War is considerably less defensible as a concept if [[HopelessWar there's no realistic way for you to win]], making this trope useful if you want to drive home how awful war is. Meanwhile, a PreventTheWar plot gains extra menace if the other guys that you're trying not to pick a fight with are both unpleasant and undefeatable.
22* WhiteAndGreyMorality and GreyAndGreyMorality: A fair few stories are based around the idea that cooperation and compromise are far more helpful than violence, and the other guys being invincible is an excellent argument that you should start talking to them rather than trying to batter them into submission.
23
24An Invincible Villain will, by definition, be a KarmaHoudini unless they have a change of heart on their own -- at which point a KarmaHoudiniWarranty may be waiting in the wings if they experience a RedemptionDemotion.
25
26The GreaterScopeVillain will usually be one of these unless counterbalanced by a sufficiently effective GreaterScopeParagon. After all, the whole point is that their victory or defeat is outside the scope of the story. On the other hand, not every Invincible Villain is a GreaterScopeVillain -- the story can be all about how the protagonists deal (or fail to deal) with somebody or something that they stand no chance of defeating.
27
28Administrivia/TropesAreTools, and it's perfectly possible to write a good, satisfying story with an Invincible Villain (EvilIsCool, after all, and the idea that you can't always deal with evil by punching it into submission is an ancient HardTruthAesop), but there are plenty of ways to mishandle them. If taken to extremes, when the story is ''entirely about'' the villain constantly winning in some contrived way, this trope turns into VillainSue. The VillainProtagonist is especially at risk to this. Stories that abuse this trope have a high risk of TooBleakStoppedCaring.[[note]]''Especially'' if the [[TitleDrop Invincible Villain]] is a CompleteMonster.[[/note]]
29
30The [[SubvertedTrope subverted version]] is NotSoInvincibleAfterAll, where taking on an apparent Invincible Villain directly turns out to be unexpectedly worthwhile. Compare AsLongAsThereIsEvil (where evil can be defeated, but no victory can be permanent in-universe), JokerImmunity (where no victory can be permanent out of universe), SealedEvilInAnotherWorld (where the only possible way to deal with the villain is to send them somewhere else) and HopelessBossFight, in which a video game player is faced with an ([[LordBritishPostulate allegedly]]) unwinnable fight and has to lose in order to continue the game. Contrast InvincibleHero, the GoodCounterpart, and HarmlessVillain, the opposite in terms of threat level.
31----
32!!Examples:
33[[foldercontrol]]
34[[folder:Anime & Manga]]
35* Dinoponera from ''Manga/{{Arachnid}}'' is certainly one. She appears, instantly frightens the big bad and begins curbstomping established characters. When she finally loses, though, she suffers just as badly.
36* UltimateLifeForm [[ArchnemesisDad Yujiro Hanma]] from ''Manga/BakiTheGrappler''. In the one anime fight where someone even lands a worthwhile attack (Doppo counters with several chest crushing punches), Yujiro simply stands up smiling as if he had an itch. To date, nothing has even given him cause to pause. Though several characters have evolved based on his almost unachievable status. Yujiro is so powerful, [[spoiler:even at the [[SeriesFauxnale apparent end of the series]] he still hasn't been defeated. Baki, now the second strongest man alive, attempts to fight Yujiro for the final time. At first it seems Baki is winning, even causing Yujiro to bleed, but Yujiro gets serious and begins {{No Sell}}ing all of Baki's attacks, eventually beating him]]. Well, he is [[spoiler:not beaten, but he is humbled enough to hand over the title "World's Strongest Creature" to Baki. However, the story is still ongoing and it's implied that Baki can still surpass him one day as he's shown only getting stronger since then, to the point he [[ADayInTheLimelight rarely appeared in the following sagas]] as a result of there being [[StoryBreakerPower so few people left to rival his strength]]]].
37** Best exemplified when Yujiro appears as a GuestFighter in the official mobile game for ''Anime/FistOfTheNorthStar''. Everyone else, when defeated, is knocked out (or killed gruesomely if they were an early villain and a Secret move was used by any Hokuto or Nanto user). Yujiro doesn’t do that- when his HP hits 0, he instead laughs and walks away.
38* Professor Desty Nova in ''Manga/BattleAngelAlita'' has his hands on the controls to the LaserGuidedKarma machinery, almost literally. He walks away from series 1 without paying for any of the thousands of lives he consumes - including the protagonist's adoptive father - and series 2 seems set to make him even more sadistic, more amoral, more manipulative, more powerful and much more immortal than before. [[spoiler: By the end of ''Last Order'', however, he's somewhat received his comeuppance, as after cloning himself so many times that more than one Nova would pop up for every one killed, he's finally put in indefinite cryogenic stasis so that his death doesn't cause any more Nova clones to pop up. There's still one more Nova clone - Super Nova - left, but he's since grown into his own character who's betrayed his original self for his own goals.]]
39* ''Manga/{{Berserk}}'':
40** [[spoiler:[[FallenHero Griffith/Femto]]]] is a PhysicalGod in a mostly LowFantasy setting (and most of the non-LowFantasy elements are his direct minions). He can NoSell cannonballs, magic lightning and even [[spoiler:a RealityWarper sword forged over hundreds of years specifically to kill him]]. Not to mention he's a VillainWithGoodPublicity to the point where most of the world believes he's the second coming of CrystalDragonJesus; it's been stated that trying to fight him, let alone beat him, would be akin to the characters in a story trying to challenge the author. [[spoiler:Griffith does have at least one major weakness, however; he is explicitly SharingABody with Guts and Casca's son whose form he used to become corporal again. This means despite his supremacy Femto can still be affected by the toddler whose body he is inhabiting i.e come the full moon the child takes Griffith over and goes to pay his parents a visit. Griffith seeing this a threat to his plans, soon has to kidnap Casca under the [[TheChessmaster reasonable assumption]] the child won't leave Falconia if his mother is there.]]
41** The [[OurDemonsAreDifferent Godhand]]. Because they can casually manipulate the currents of destiny itself, they are practically untouchable and cannot be killed through conventional means. [[spoiler:However, Guts' Dragonslayer ''has'' directly managed to harm Slan's physical manifestation, and several characters such as the Skull Knight and Schierke have speculated that the Dragonslayer has bathed itself in so much demonic blood that it is capable of harming any supernatural creature. And the reveals of Skull Knight's own past in the Fantasia arc reveal that Godhand members have fallen in the past]].
42* ''Manga/BlackClover'' has the Dark Triad, beyond their sheer evil, they are such large threats because of how insanely powerful they are, boasting utterly insane Mana thanks to be tied to powerful Devils and being able to easily increase their own power whenever it seems they might be struggling. Despite going all out, [[spoiler:Yuno is only able to get Zenon to 55% before being utterly destroyed, while Vanica, despite being led into a corner, easily disposes of both Noelle and Secre without any issues once she briefly goes all out, surprisingly, their leader Dante [[AvertedTrope averts]] this because his opponent, Yami was just as strong.]] This changes after the other Magic Knights do some training, and [[spoiler:both Dante and Vanica are easily defeated thanks to the main character's new spells]].
43* ''Manga/{{Bleach}}'':
44** Aizen is introduced as a charismatic good guy, who is eventually revealed to be an all-powerful BigBad, who is seeking to bring down Soul Society. His power far exceeds any captain's, so that even multiple captains working together can't defeat him. He is so intelligent and strategic, that he can out-think any attempt by his enemies to bring him down. As a result, he almost single-handedly takes control of Hueco Mundo from the most powerful Arrancar, and defeats the Gotei 13. [[spoiler:Ichigo is only able to temporarily defeat him by sacrificing his power in an all-or-nothing power-upgrade, combined with Urahara using his story-breaking intellect to custom-design a Kido spell to temporarily seal him while he's de-powered. Even then, the only thing Soul Society can do with him is lock him in a secret prison for dangerous people who cannot be permanently killed.]]
45** Yhwach's power, "The Almighty", allows him to manipulate and nullify any foe's special abilities just by observing it once, and gives him the ability to see everywhere and everywhen, allowing him to counter possible futures. His Quincies are infected with pieces of his soul, allowing him to absorb their souls and abilities, empowering him when they die. [[spoiler:He easily defeats Yamamoto, Ichibei and Ichigo, uses Ichigo's power-ups to gain access to the Soul King, whom he wishes to destroy. He is so overwhelmingly powerful that all the series’ heroes and villains -- including [[GodzillaThreshold Aizen]] -- team up together to stop him; it also requires a special arrow crafted from Yhwach's secret weakness being fired by Uryuu, who is uniquely immune to Yhwach's power. Even then after he’s finally defeated, Yhwach’s corpse is turned into the new Soul King to protect the balance between worlds.]]
46* ''Anime/CrossAnge'' has Embryo portrayed as one, the only thing that can harm him is destroying Hysterica. Ange repeatedly tries to best him, but he lives to fight another day, [[spoiler:at least until Ange and Tusk kill him in the GrandFinale]].
47* ''Manga/DenjinN'': Tadahiro has the ability to manually control any electronic or electric device within his reach, able to instantly track down people by their username and also has some proficiency with robotics. His range and awareness of what's happening near the devices proves to be infinite, and [[GreatDetective the Sudou]] note that Tadahiro can TakeOverTheWorld with ease if he wanted to and there's no real way to prevent it, [[spoiler:which he does eventually and Sudou get really lucky Tadahiro's split personalities are conflicting]].
48* NEO from ''Manga/DigimonNext'' is probably the second- or third-closest thing to [[TheOmnipotent omnipotence]] the ''Franchise/{{Digimon}}'' universe has come, capable of erasing the entire GondorCallsForAid army assembled to fight him from existence with a single thought. As with Hao below, the only reason he loses in the end is because [[spoiler:the heroes talk him into a HeelRealization and he puts everything back to normal]].
49** One of the main complaints about ''Anime/DigimonFrontier'' (season 4) was the Royal Knights, a QuirkyMinibossSquad who show up and do nothing but beat the tar out of the heroes for ''nine straight episodes'' because... something had to eat up the time before the BigBad got out of his [[SealedEvilInACan can]], right?
50** Bagramon from ''Anime/DigimonFusion'' gets in the act as well, as ever with his weaker left arm he can NoSell just about everything thrown at him and when he [[spoiler:gets stabbed and forcibly fused with his brother Dark Knightmon, he just takes over after a while and becomes even more powerful. It takes the Digixros of Shoutmon and [[AllYourPowersCombined EVERY]] [[FusionDance SINGLE]] [[ThereIsNoKillLikeOverkill DIGIMON]] in order to kill him. Even then, it is revealed in the sequel season that he came back as the clockman and it's the power of the Brave Snatcher (his disembodied right arm) that saves the day in the end]].
51* ''Franchise/DragonBall'':
52** A literal example of this would be Garlic Junior from ''Anime/DragonBallZDeadZone'', the first villain to wish for CompleteImmortality in the franchise. True to form, he is incapable of getting killed — not even the combined might of Goku and Piccolo could put him down, and it takes Gohan giving him a FateWorseThanDeath by knocking him into the [[{{Hellgate}} Dead Zone]]. He comes back in the anime by breaking out of Dead Zone thanks to the power of the Makyo Star, but is thrown back into the Dead Zone after Gohan destroys said AppliedPhlebotinum.
53** Frieza is so far beyond any other characters when he is introduced that it's considered insane to even stand up to him. Going by power levels, Goku at the beginning of the series before he fights Raditz has roughly 2% of Vegeta's initial power; Vegeta has roughly 0.015% of Frieza's power at that time. Even when Goku first arrives on Namek after all his training, his power is still only 0.1% of Frieza's. He kills Krillin with barely a thought after [[NoSell shrugging off]] a [[FinishingMove fully powered Spirit Bomb]]. The only reason he didn't outright kill Goku or the other surviving heroes is because he enjoyed [[ColdBloodedTorture toying with them too much]], which eventually leads Frieza to push Goku to his RageBreakingPoint and make him ascend to Super Saiyan. Very few future villains (at least canon ones) enjoy such an enormous power advantage over the heroes, except for Cell (eventually), Buu, [[PhysicalGod Beerus and his twin Champa]], Zamasu, Jiren, Broly and Cell Max.
54** Super Buu never technically loses a fight. 18/Krillin/Yamcha/Tien Shinhan, Piccolo, Super Saiyan 2 Vegeta, Super Saiyan 3 Goku, Super Saiyan Gotenks, Super Saiyan 3 Gotenks, and Ultimate Gohan[[note]]he briefly tangled with Gohan earlier and was losing, but the fight was inconclusive due to Buu fleeing. He came back, absorbed Gotenks, and stomped Gohan[[/note]] are all easily defeated by him via various methods, ranging from BatmanGambit to sneak absorption to straight up brute force. Even Super Vegito doesn't actually beat him despite possessing the capability to; he gets absorbed intentionally in a gambit to free his friends, but this ends up backfiring when he defuses due to Buu's BizarreAlienBiology [[note]]This was later {{revision}}ed in ''Anime/DragonBallSuper'' to be due to a time limit imposed on any species other than [[PhysicalGod Kais]] using Potara Earrings[[/note]], and Super Buu subsequently stomps Goku and Vegeta apart, mostly because they can't kill him inside his own body where they're the size of insects. In the end, he's taken down by internal sabotage when Vegeta yanks out Fat Buu's pod just as Super Buu is about to kill Goku.
55** Beerus from the ''[[Anime/DragonBallZBattleOfGods Battle of Gods]]'' movie, who dishes out MASSIVE [[CurbStompBattle Curb-Stomp Battles]] to Super Saiyan 3 Goku, Super Saiyan 2 Vegeta, Ultimate Gohan, Super Saiyan Gotenks, Good Buu, and the rest of the Z-Fighters. It's so bad that even when Goku [[spoiler: gains access to the [[SuperMode Super Saiyan God Form]] (which is said to be the strongest form a Saiyan can attain)]], Beerus is still stronger than him, even when not using his full power. To point it out, he's the only antagonist in the ''Dragon Ball Z'' series to never be defeated, only giving up his plans to destroy the world because he's too tired to go through with it. Justified since he is a PhysicalGod, and his unquestioned power is fundamental to the universe.
56** Goku Black, from ''Anime/DragonBallSuper'', possessed an enhanced Zenkai ability that allows him to get stronger from every bit of damage he takes. Within the span of four battles, he goes from being toe-to-toe with a Super Saiyan 2 Goku, to being able to shrug off blows from Super Saiyan Blue Vegeta in his base form before transforming into Super Saiyan Rosé and utterly decimating Goku, Vegeta and Future Trunks despite all being at their strongest forms. Even Vegeta gaining the upper hand ends up being negated when he simply used his scythe to create clones that quickly overwhelmed both Goku and Vegeta. And with him fusing with Zamasu after the latter suffered a VillainousBreakdown, he remains completely undefeated and [[KarmaHoudini will never get the chance to answer for his crimes either]]. As an added bonus, he is one of the very few villains to never suffer a VillainousBreakdown and his compliance with Future Zamasu's request for fusion isn't out of desperation but because he decides to stop playing around. With the exception of his first fight with Goku, which was a case of WorfHadTheFlu and ended before either one of them could get serious, Black ''never'' actually loses a fight.
57** Zamasu himself after he gets his wish for immortality. Any attack inflicted on him has no effect, and once or twice he even allows Black to attack ''through'' him to surprise his foes. The Evil Containment Wave would have worked on him, but the heroes flubbed it (and, of course, King Piccolo had broken out of it eventually back when it was used on him). And upon his fusion with Black, he gains not only an immense boost in power but also a permanent Super Saiyan state on top of Black's ability to grow stronger upon taking damage. [[spoiler:He does gain a bit of a weakness here in that Black was still mortal so fusing with him weakened his own immortality, but even with that the heroes barely manage to destroy his body. And when they do, he just turns himself in a universe-spanning spiritual entity that annihilates all life on Earth in a heartbeat and begins spreading himself to other timelines. And none of the characters can harm because he no longer has a body. Zeno himself has to erase the entire timeline to put a stop to Zamasu.]]
58** While he's not a villain, but rather a HeroAntagonist (with a serious asshole streak), Jiren qualifies. TheAce of Universe 11 during the Tournament of Power, he was stated to be even stronger than a God of Destruction. Specifically, he's far stronger than Belmod, who's ''stronger than Beerus'' (well, in terms of physical strength). When the time comes for him to battle, he shows some incredibly impressive feats. ''Nothing'' seems to make him budge; he's like a brick wall before Super Saiyan Blue Kaio-ken Goku who is totally unable to hurt him at all, he breaks out of Hit's Time Manipulation techniques and knocks him out with one punch, and takes down Super Saiyan Blue Evolution Vegeta (who defeated a God of Destruction in training) with ''two'' hits after pulling a NoSell of his offense when it finally looked like someone was actually making him sweat. When Goku gains Ultra Instinct, it's no good, as Jiren is ''still'' stronger. It's only by gaining the Mastered Ultra Instinct that Goku (or anyone) is ''finally'' able to damage Jiren and fight on par with him -- but that only lasts a short while before the sheer ''strain'' of trying to fight at Jiren's level practically destroys Goku's body and causes him to collapse. Jiren is so insanely strong that when he actually goes to full power, even the aforementioned ''Beerus'' is sweating and quaking in terror, wondering how a single warrior could have so much energy. [[spoiler:He eventually goes down with the combined efforts of Goku and Frieza in the series finale, although by that time Goku had managed to make Jiren use up most of his overwhelming power in the Mastered Ultra Instinct fight, so he was about on their level at that point. Even ''then'', Goku stated that he would absolutely ''slaughter'' them if for the technicality that they could win by knocking him out of the ring. It takes the remaining heroes using up all their strength ''just to push him a few feet''.]]
59*** In the manga, Goku lampshades his seeming invincibility.
60---->'''Goku:''' He still had that much power left!? No matter how much power he expends, there's always more!
61*** Also in the manga, Whis outright says "Jiren's potential is immeasurable." Combined with the fact that Jiren is constantly training, that means the power he showed off in the Tournament of Power is just the tip of the iceberg.
62*** In ''Anime/DragonBallSuperSuperHero'', Vegeta claims to have figured out Jiren's secret; he theorizes that Jiren isn't that much physically stronger than they are but rather [[StrongAndSkilled had superior technique]] that allowed him to [[BoringButPractical conserve as much energy as possible with no wasted movements]] until [[BeginWithAFinisher the moment of an attack]]. [[spoiler:By applying this knowledge, Vegeta ''finally'' [[ThrowTheDogABone manages to defeat Goku]] through a VictoryByEndurance.]]
63** Moro, the powerful Wizard that terrorized Universe 7 millions of years ago, rivals Goku Black in this regard; he was so powerful he had consumed 320 planets to become stronger and even forced the Grand Supreme Kai to sacrifice his power to seal away his magic. Moro has never lost a serious fight in the arc, and anytime he's on the brink of defeat, he always finds a way to snatch victory. [[spoiler:It takes Ultra Instinct Goku, Vegeta, the combined energy of the Z-Fighters, and the Godly Ki of the Grand Supreme Kai still within Uub to ''finally'' kill him.]]
64** Broly, in both his NonSerialMovie debut ''Anime/DragonBallZBrolyTheLegendarySuperSaiyan'' and canonisation ''Anime/DragonBallSuperBroly'', is nigh-unbeatable (albeit he’s ForcedIntoEvil and not a real villain in the latter). In the canon, he’s able to completely overwhelm Goku, Vegeta and Frieza in their godly tier powerful forms, and even before going Super Saiyan could brutalise Goku in his Super Saiyan God transformation which could match Beerus and almost destroy the universe in the ''Super'' anime. He’s so terrifyingly powerful that Beerus simply freaks out when meeting Broly. In his original movie, it took all the Z-Fighters giving Goku their energy for him to land a winning punch [[AttackItsWeakPoint on the old wound Broly had as a child]]. In the retelling, Goku and Vegeta have to do the FusionDance into InvincibleHero Gogeta to defeat him, and even then Broly still puts up a helluva fight. Also keep in mind this was all ''before'' Broly was formerly trained.
65* ''Manga/FairyTail'':
66** The Black Magician [[DarkMessiah Zeref]], the series' BigBad, is a widely feared mage for good reason. The man has CompleteImmortality that prevents him from being killed by anyone or anything (and Zeref's [[DeathSeeker been trying for centuries]]). On top of that, he has the power to control death magic which, at its most unstable, can create a InstantDeathRadius sphere which automatically kills anything it touches. Zeref is also one of the world's most powerful mages, having spent every day of his immortal existence studying and perfecting his magic. About the only advantage anyone has is the fact he ''wants'' [[DeathSeeker to die]] and the only times he's come close to losing were when he [[ILetYouWin intentionally held back out of hope his opponent could kill him]]. [[spoiler:Finally, after absorbing the power of Fairy Heart, Zeref gains the power to become a TimeMaster able to bend space time to his whim to the point that he can unwind time if he has been hurt to completely nullify the effects of any attack. Notably, even when [[TheHero Natsu]] ''finally'' defeats him in battle, he still couldn't ''kill'' him and Zeref himself states that he would heal from the injuries eventually. Only the fact [[BigGood Mavis]] [[TheLostLenore Vermillion]] has the same Curse as him and used it was he finally able to die, and that came [[HeroicSacrifice at the cost of her own life]], though [[TogetherInDeath neither really minded]].]]
67** [[NamesToRunAwayFromReallyFast The Black Dragon of the Apocalypse]] [[TheDreaded Acnologia]], the GreaterScopeVillain of the series, is a creature so powerful that even Zeref fears him. [[spoiler:[[WasOnceAMan Once a normal Dragon Slayer,]] Acnologia began slaughtering humans and dragons alike absorbing their magic to make himself stronger.]] By the time ''Fairy Tail'''s story begins, Acnologia is shown to be a monster able to withstand the combined attacks of the strongest mages, which includes 4 Dragon Slayers who use magic specifically designed to hurt Dragons. Every battle that Acnologia faces ends with a CurbStomp in his favour, and the one battle he was shown struggling in [[spoiler:against Natsu's father Igneel ended with him tearing a hole in said Dragon's body and then blowing him up]]. It's revealed that the source of his immense power comes from his attribute [[spoiler:which is magic, meaning that any and all magic he can eat which makes him even stronger]]. Even Zeref, who is also considered invincible, freely admits that [[spoiler:without going back in time and killing Acnologia when he was younger and weaker]] even he can't defeat him. [[spoiler:In order to finally win, the heroes had to fight a two-front war [[ItMakesSenseInContext where the seven Dragon Slayers fought Acnologia's soul and everyone else kept his body distracted]], with the Slayers giving Natsu all their remaining Magic Power while Fairy Tail had to trap Acnologia on a ship, [[WeaksauceWeakness thereby taking advantage of his motion sickness]], and channel all the Magic Power of ''every mage on the continent'' into [[BarrierMaiden Fairy Sphere]] to keep him trapped and thus [[{{Synchronization}} paralyze Acnologia's soul long enough]] to let Natsu hit him head-on with all the Dragonslaying Magic at his disposal, finally killing him.]] Had even a ''step'' of that been out of sync, Acnologia would have killed ''everyone'' and [[TheBadGuyWins won]].
68* ''Manga/HunterXHunter'':
69** The Phantom Troupe slaughter nearly everyone they come across, including skilled Hunters with intimidating reputations in their own right. The only people shown to stand any chance against them are Kurapica, who has a nen ability that can only be used specifically against ''them'', and Hisoka, an invincible and dreaded villain himself.
70** The Chimera Ant King is TheAce among an already deadly race of MixAndMatchCritters, being highly intelligent and powerful, and a fast enough learner to be an instant expert at whatever new thing he picks up. He only gets stronger during the Chimera Ants arc, and continues acquiring new abilities [[spoiler: up until his death]]. [[spoiler: It says something that even Netero, one of the strongest characters in the series and certainly the strongest Hunter up to that point, couldn't defeat him without killing himself in the process, and even then, the effects of this gambit weren't immediate]].
71** Hisoka, by virtue of the fact that almost nobody who faces him lives to tell about it, and those that do are usually being toyed with by him for one reason or another. [[spoiler: He even brings himself ''back from the dead'' after a match with Chrollo, and kills other ''Phantom Troupe members'' with ease.]]
72* Naraku from ''Manga/InuYasha'', until the last battle. The BigBad for a manga series spawning ''558 chapters'', the handful of other villains that appeared were almost universally working for or with him with the exception of a few like the Thunder Brothers, the [[StarterVillain first enemies Inuyasha faces]], etc. The very few times he was actually defeated or killed were part of his plans and he eventually returned, and despite the heroes repeatedly finding new powers and new weapons, every time they fought Naraku, he escaped and lived to fight another day. In the end, he ''did'' win, in that he got all the jewel shards and formed the completed Shikon Jewel, and if not for [[spoiler: Inuyasha's BigDamnHeroes moment with Kagome,]] he would have yet again successfully executed a plan that hinged on him dying or feigning death. In the end, Kagome had to [[spoiler:use the Shikon Jewel to ''wish him out of existence completely'' just so he would finally stay dead]].
73* Ezekial Stane in ''Anime/IronManRiseOfTechnovore''. Stane's nanotech suit allows him to completely shrug off every attack that Iron Man, War Machine, or SHIELD land on him without taking any damage and he curbstomps all the heroes every time he gets into a battle. The one setback Iron Man is able to inflict at the start of the film turns out to not affect Stane's plan at all. Stane also keeps pulling new powers out of his ass, allowing him to control Iron Man's suit with no hope of overriding him at one point. The only reason any of the main characters survive is the film runs on OnlyTheAuthorCanSaveThemNow, with Technovore abruptly malfunctioning ''for no reason that is ever so much as implied'' every time it's about to kill a named character. The only reason Stane is eventually defeated is the Technovore abruptly decides to take on a massive, immobile form to invade a city, allowing Iron Man to attack it with an orbital laser. And even then, Stane survives.
74* ''Manga/JoJosBizarreAdventure'':
75** The [[GuardianEntity Stand]] [[Music/TheNotoriousBig Notorious B.I.G]] in ''Manga/JoJosBizarreAdventureGoldenWind''. Ordinarily, Stands are effectively astral projections, and [[{{synchronization}} damaging them results in corresponding damage to its user]]. Notorious B.I.G, on the other hand, was an EldritchAbomination [[UnstoppableRage powered by its user's malice]] that violated every known rule regarding how Stands operate, as it functioned independently of its late user and was capable of regenerating FromASingleCell. Giorno and the others had no way to destroy it, and barely manage to escape by trapping it in the ocean.
76** ''[[Manga/JoJosBizarreAdventureJoJolion JoJolion]]'' introduces an even more invincible stand in the form of the BigBad's stand, Wonder of U. It has the very vaguely power over calamity, which causes bouts of terrible, possibly lethal, bad luck to befall the people who mean the user any harm. Trying to follow him causes things around the attacker to break of fall on top of him. [[spoiler:It only manages to be defeated by a loophole when Kaato traps them with her stand, which can't harm anyone, and is willing to perform a HeroicSacrifice to stop said BigBad.]]
77* ''Anime/KillLaKill'' has Ragyo Kiryuin, who completely overwhelms every character in the show without even sporting a [[ClothesMakeTheSuperman Kamui]]. Most notably, she survives Satsuki's decapitation attempt due to the Life Fibers in her body, allowing her to regenerate before beating Satsuki into a pulp and breaking Bakuzan in a single punch. After this she sports Junketsu and rips out Ryuko's heart with ease just to show that she's her daughter and was also born with Life Fibers. By Episode 23, Satsuki and Ryuko combined cannot touch her and had do a back up plan so the Primordial Life Fiber can be destroyed. In the final episode, she sports the Ultimate Kamui, and makes every Goku Uniform/Kamui worthless in battle except Senketsu and gets cut in 4 pieces from Ryuko and Satsuki, regenerates again and merges with Nui Harime to become even stronger. Ryuko manages to activate Senketsu's SuperMode but that only wins because of Ryuko getting stabbed on purpose, allowing the Kamui to get destroyed.
78* The Huckebein of ''Manga/MagicalRecordLyricalNanohaForce'' play this trope painfully straight. It takes all of 30 chapters in an [[ScheduleSlip extremely slipped schedule]] before the heroes make any real headway against them- notably, when Hayate attempts to crush their ship with a giant iceberg, their leader magically appears and stabs her in the back. Then the manga was put on hiatus, which means no one will ever truly beat this diabolical family. Notably, their biggest loss came at the hands of the even more invincible and similarly villainous Hades Vandein, who can shut down their powers as the Eclipse Dominant.
79* ''Manga/MakenKi'': Since her introduction, Love Espada has defeated everyone who's tried to face her [[TheWorfEffect with minimal effort]]. Tesshin only lasted 7 seconds, despite being strong enough to fight '''S rank''' Maken users, she shattered Kai's Partition just as easily, casually destroyed Takeru when he tried to fight her, and was later told by Otohime that even if he used his ability to draw Element, that Espada's power would still be ''two times greater.'' The worst part being, [[BigGood Takaki]] admitted that [[WhamLine even she, Haruko, and Minori combined couldn't stop her]] when ''they'' tried at the previous Himekagura Festival.
80* ''Manga/MedakaBox'': Shishime Iihiko, a former hero from ancient times preserved in host bodies, completely shuts down everything that the main characters had been using up to that point in the story. He proves himself "born to destroy the world" by virtue of the things he breaks being irreparable; when Medaka's shoulder is broken, not only does it fail to heal in three seconds like usual, it fails to heal AT ALL, and the injuries he inflicts can't even be undone by Kumagawa's "All Fiction", which breaks causality to make anything like it "never happened". Nothing he's attacked with by the 13 Party's Front Six sticks at all; on the contrary, he yawns after the fact and apologizes for falling asleep after what he perceives as a massage, acupuncture, and electro-therapy. And as if that wasn't enough, he is able to take any random object he happens to pick up and use it as a lethal weapon. To wit, he killed Ajimu Najimi, the immortal non-human with over ten quadrillion Skills... [[MundaneMadeAwesome with a RUBBER BAND]]. To even attempt to fight him at all, Medaka needs to learn a Style (basically the art of turning a form of communication into a power), as Iihiko proved able to be reached by words... [[spoiler:and even when Medaka defeats him by the skin of her teeth, he simply jumps to his next host body, her friend Shiranui Hansode, and sucker punches her. Upon removing that obstacle, he truly becomes the absolutely unmatched force in the story... so, at that point, the only way left to fight him is for [[BadassNormal Hitoyoshi Zenkichi]] to borrow the "Contradictory Conjuncton" Style, which uses the word "therefore" to turn the least likely outcome into most likely and vice versa. Zenkichi, the least likely person to stand a chance against Iihiko, thus paradoxically becomes the most likely to match him... and even THEN, that's not enough. Iihiko is only defeated when, after a cruel moment of releasing his hold on Hansode to stop Zenkichi's attack, suddenly finds his stolen arm is now working against him. In the end, the preserved "being" named Shishime Iihiko is purged from his host body and irreperably destroyed by his own unstoppable power. An "echo" of him remains, but it's [[RedemptionDemotion a vastly depowered one whose damage is no longer permanent and whose former heroic qualities are finally retained]].]]
81* ''Anime/MegaManNTWarrior2002'' has Slur, who proves to be nearly unstoppable for any of the heroes to take down time and time again, always beating them, and even surviving three Program Advances. [[spoiler:Ultimately, her luck runs out when she's attacked by Bass, who, using the power of Nebula Gray, easily destroys her and kills her by running his hand through her torso.]]
82* ''Anime/MobileSuitGundamIronBloodedOrphans'': Since his introduction, Rustal Elion has displayed advantages no other antagonist in the series ever had: an army of the best Mobile Suits [[ArmiesAreEvil Gjallarhorn]] can afford, an arsenal of the most powerful weapons in the setting (the Dáinsleif railgun), fanatically devoted soldiers willing to die for him and corrupt politicians and terrorists under his payroll. He is also a master strategist who never leaves anything to chance and tries to be as prepared as possible. Any time [[AntiHeroTeam Tekkadan]] comes close to defeating them, he always has an ace up his sleeve that turns the tables to his advantage; which means any victories against him are earned at a [[PyrrhicVictory very high cost]]. His endgame against Tekkadan is an effective [[MaliciousSlander smear campaign]] that turns public opinion against them. By the end of the story, [[spoiler:he ''[[TheBadGuyWins wins]]''. That's right, ''he defeats Tekkadan''. Even if he doesn't kill every last member, he permanently tarnishes their reputation and forces them to go on the run. He even takes over Gjallarhorn and turns it into a democratic government and Kudelia has no choice but ''to work with him'' to achieve her dream of a free, independent Mars. It really says something about this guy when the surviving protagonists have to get new identities in order to get a semblance of a happy ending. And it's implied he knows who they really are and only lets them live because it's convenient for him. Yep, ''Tekkadan can only live at his mercy'']].
83* ''Manga/MyHeroAcademia'' has All For One. Given the nature of his [[PowerParasite Quirk]] in a world where [[OnePersonOnePower all people are limited to only one Quirk]], All For One is virtually invincible, killing every hero who sought to overthrow him for many generations. The only person who was able to defeat All For One was [[BigGood All Might]], but the latter failed to kill him in spite of his efforts. Six years later, All Might is forced to retire after sustaining crippling injuries and exhausting his powers. [[spoiler:A few months later, All For One's manipulations cause national mayhem, and he breaks out dangerous criminals from six high security prisons, destroying all the peace and order in one go, what took All Might twenty years to build. Worse, All For One has already built contingencies to ensure his rise to power once again. However, the final battle deconstructs the trope- as it progresses, he begins to take loss after loss, with it becoming clearer that he will not survive as it conitinues. By the end, the efforts of every hero progressively cause him to overuse the Rewind Quirk, which makes him deage until he disappears- proving that he wasn’t the all powerful BigBad he thought he was.]]
84* ''Manga/{{Naruto}}'':
85** '''[[PredecessorVillain Madara Uchiha]]''', perhaps one of the most ridiculous examples of this trope in all of fiction. [[spoiler:Even though he's supposedly been dead for a while, he eventually comes back as an immortal, regenerating being with unlimited [[{{Mana}} chakra]], can summon a massive Susanoo construct that causes a high degree of damage by simply swinging its sword, and is capable of creating clones both indistinguishable from and as powerful as himself. Seven of the strongest people in existence barely inconvenienced him, and even Naruto has failed to significantly hinder him. But even when it seems that the heroes finally find a way to beat him, [[NewPowersAsThePlotDemands he simply pulls out a new ability from nowhere]], or [[DiabolusExMachina an unexpected event happens which plays to his advantage]], [[AssPull even if it was previously shown to be impossible]]. WordOfGod states he has no weaknesses. Even though one of the morals of the series was supposed to be that the new generations would surpass the old, to Madara this apparently does not apply. As it stands, he has almost every power in the series available to him, and is inexplicably more powerful than anything that should be able to kill or wound him. Kishimoto stated at Jump Festa 2014 that OnlyTheAuthorCanSaveThemNow had hit WritersBlock at this point. The solution he came up with was for Madara to be backstabbed by Kaguya Ōtsutsuki, one of only two beings who is truly stronger than him, and for her to take over as the villain. [[AntiClimaxBoss And then Kaguya puts up much less of a fight then Madara ever did]] (so that there is less than any other antagonist in the series) and is defeated in about ten chapters while it took Madara over a hundred ([[ArcFatigue nearly a sixth of the]] ''[[ArcFatigue entire series]]'') to finally go down.]]
86** Tobi [[spoiler:aka [[FallenHero Obito Uchiha]]]] is a more restrained example of this trope. Most fights with him in the series consist of him spamming Kamui with reckless abandon, allowing him to phase through every attack and become completely untouchable. When Konan attempts to exploit the time limit of this ability, he uses [[RealityWarper Izanagi]] to survive at the cost of his left eye. When the Edo Tensei ressurection jutsu was canceled and he is not able to capture Naruto and Bee, he still compensates for the missing beasts by using smaller pieces of their chakra that he collected earlier for the revival of the Ten-Tails. [[spoiler:When he is beaten to an inch of his life and with Madara betraying him and robbing him of his life support, he shows that it was all part of [[DeliberateInjuryGambit his]] [[FailureGambit plan]] to become the Ten Tails Jinchuuriki. And even when he is overwhelmed by its power and his psyche is nearly torn to pieces, he all the same subdues it through sheer force of will and becomes full PhysicalGod. He eventually was defeated, but this was mostly only due to [[AntiVillain his internal conflict.]] If is wasn’t for that internal conflict and Naruto’s Talk No Jutsu as well, he would have been unstoppable.]]
87* ''Manga/OnePiece'':
88** Enel from the Skypiea arc is quite powerful even by the standards set in later parts of the series, but in this early arc, he was untouchable. Case in point, when Wyper uses [[KryptoniteFactor Seastone]] to render Enel tangible and use the Reject Dial on his heart, he straight up kills Enel, who then proceeds to use his ShockAndAwe powers to (somehow) '''''restart his own goddamn heart''''' and come back to life and back to kicking ass. Even when Luffy's RubberMan body proved completely immune to his electric powers by virtue of being a natural insulator, he put a hell of a fight. Hell, not even the vacuum of space can kill Enel as his cover story shows, moreso when he [[TheBadGuyWins technically accomplished his goal of reaching the "Fairy Wearth" (i.e. the Moon)]] despite Luffy kicking his ass. There’s no telling how powerful Enel would be if SerialEscalation were applied to him.
89** Kizaru in the Sabaody Archipelago Arc. Similar to Enel, he is a Logia user at the stage when almost nobody has countermeasures to his intangibility, nor do they have a convenient KryptoniteFactor due to being made of ''Light''. The only option the Eleven Supernovas have is DontAskJustRun, and yet ''they can't outrun him'' thanks to Kizaru's lightspeed travel. The Straw Hats only escape thanks to outside help [[spoiler: from Kuma, with his own Devil Fruit putting them far away from the situation]].
90** Two of the [[EliteFour Yonkos]], Kaido and Big Mom, were this [[DiscOneFinalBoss for literally hundreds of chapters]]. Thanks to a combination of being StrongAndSkilled, having [[SuperpowerLottery powerful Devil Fruits]] (an [[{{Weredragon}} Azure Dragon]] Mythical Zoan and a soul manipulation Paramecia, respectively) and moreso having [[MadeOfIndestructium ungodly toughness]] for good measure, they [[NoSell shrug off]] absolutely everything the heroes collectively throw at them; and even when pushed to their absolute limits, they still show little to no signs of tiring out. [[spoiler:It takes Luffy [[EleventhHourSuperpower awakening his (actually a Mythical Zoan Fruit) Devil Fruit to use Gear 5]] and a CombinationAttack from Law and Kid to just blow Kaido and Big Mom off Onigashima into an magma chamber which erupts (rather than just knocking them out like most villains which obviously wouldn’t be enough), and even then [[UncertainDoom it’s still unclear if they’re actually dead or not (contrary to what the world at large believes)]].]]
91* Ainz Ooal Gown/Momonga, the titular character in ''Literature/Overlord2012'', is a {{Showy Invincible|Hero}} VillainProtagonist by virtue of being a level 100 MMO character in a world where anything equivalent to level 30 is considered legendary and unstoppable. Very rarely is he faced against an actual threat, but seeing him [[CurbStompBattle curb-stomping]] {{Smug Snake}}s who used to think they're hot shit is oddly cathartic. He once killed an enemy, who was arguably an even worse person than he’ll ever be, by '''hugging her to death!'''
92** A major counterbalancing trait is his mild paranoia born out of the experience of having been an MMO player whose character ''reached'' level 100: he knows both how easily an OutsideContextProblem can defeat or kill him because he's been on the other side of that numerous times, and how hard it is to recognize a legitimate threat before it's too late. When not used to make his more villainous seeming decisions more relatable (by showing how much he feels is at stake), this usually serves to justify slowing down Momonga's activities to allow the narrative more worldbuilding.
93* ''Anime/PokemonTheSeries'': Pokemon Hunter J curb-stomped everyone she came into contact with, especially Ash, with her Pokemon never outright losing a battle. The only ones to put up a fight against her were the Regi trio, who fought her to a standstill until her client called off the hunt, and the Lake Trio, who she successfully captured before their Future Sight destroyed her ship.
94* While most ''Anime/PrettyCure'' series tend to have their villains able to lose or reform, there’s one glaring exception: Illkubo of ''Anime/FutariWaPrettyCure''. The Cures typically never won against him as he beat them week after week. Even when it seemed the Cures had finally destroyed him, he came back in a larger and more powerful form. Ultimately, his end came not by the Cures, but by the Dark King himself, who destroyed him for fear he’d damage the Prism Stones.
95* ''Anime/PuellaMagiMadokaMagica'':
96** [[spoiler: Walpurgisnacht is the main witch Homura has been hunting throughout hundreds of timelines]], though [[YouCantFightFate she never manages to win]]. It {{No Sell}}s all of her attacks and always manages to win in the end. Only [[PhysicalGod Madoka]] after becoming a MagicalGirl can put a stop to it, but this just leads to an even bigger problem...
97*** [[spoiler:This gets zigzagged in the series' [[VideoGame/MagiaRecordPuellaMagiMadokaMagicaSideStory official mobile game]]. Walpurgis is defeated, but it takes almost the entire cast introduced up to that point to kill her (far more than the numbers Homura had to throw down with her even at the best of times), and even then, they needed a blessing from Madoka to win.]]
98** [[spoiler:Kriemhild Gretchen is an even bigger example, as it is the witch form of Madoka in the first place, and in one of the timelines it has the power to destroy an entire planet in a few days]]. Not only does Homura have even less of a chance against it then against Walpurgisnacht, but [[spoiler:Madoka cannot even stop it now, making it truly invincible]]. Once this happens, Homura just decides to go back in time, causing another GroundhogDayLoop.
99* ''Anime/ReCreators'' gives us the Military Uniform Princess [[spoiler:AKA Altair]]. Thanks to the vaguely-explained Holopsicon, she's pretty much unbeatable since this weapon gives her RealityWarper powers, near-omniscience and invulnerability, to the point that not even a FantasticNuke could harm her. Also, all the real-world fan-generated content (the real world of the show, that is) of her add more and more abilities to her repertoire every day. The only reason why she hasn't curbstomped everyone and everything is that, by using her powers, she's fundamentally altering the physics of the real world, so abusing them could cause her to be deleted from existence and thus render her true goal unattainable. [[spoiler:In the end, not only does TheBadGuyWins, but she's the only character of the whole cast to have an unambiguously happy ending... because it was either the other characters giving her that or have first-row seats to a reality-destroying temper tantrum, unstoppable that she ended up being otherwise.]]
100* Hao from ''Manga/ShamanKing'' is literally totally unbeatable (but not invincible). He's had ''quite a head start'', and by the time the story ''ends'', is stronger than the next six characters combined, including the one who trained her entire life to beat him, but only reached half his strength. Even without fighting, he has a strange ability to gather totally unrelated people to his side to help him destroy humanity. He is a human but is treated as more of a force of nature in the series. [[spoiler:He even wins in the final battle of the series, and shows everyone else that all of their efforts were meaningless in the grand scheme of things.]] He was so overpowering that ''the author couldn't think of a satisfying ending'' for a while. When he finally did come out with one, [[spoiler:Hao is ultimately defeated simply by being convinced that he's wrong, as overpowering him wasn't even a possibility anymore]].
101* ''Anime/YuGiOh'':
102** {{Subverted|Trope}} with Marik Ishtar who developed a strategy which would make him invincible. Slifer the Sky Dragon gains 1000 ATK and DEF for every card in Marik's hand, and Revival Jam protected Slifer from every attack, thanks to the Trap Card Jam Defender and the Jam revived itself after every destruction. And two Spell Cards allowed him to ignore the limit of having six hand cards in the end of every turn, and drawing three cards by every revival. However, Yami Yugi used this strategy against him and he brainwashed Revival Jam, so Slifer's effect forced it to attack Revival Jam automatically and destroying it immediately. But since Revival Jam always revived itself after every destruction, Slifer's effect cannot be stopped, and Marik was forced to draw three new cards whenever Revival Jam was revived due to his own Spell Card. The resulting loop caused Marik to deck out and lose the duel.
103** Played with in regards to Yami Marik, the darker half of Malik Ishtar who has the most powerful God Card in his deck. His deck is based around torture and resurrecting Ra, but all of his victories are achieved by PlotArmor. It was Mai's fault that he got the opportunity to control The Winged Dragon of Ra as she chose to tribute her Harpie Ladies instead of attacking for game. Yami Bakura discarded Ra which allowed Marik to resurrect and use its third hidden ability of instant attack, unknown to Bakura or the normal Marik. He is also the first to lose in the Battle Royale, and Jonouchi would have beaten him fairly had he not been forced into a Shadow Game under Marik's rule and fallen unconscious. The only person he really gives trouble to is Yugi, ironically enough. In every duel, he inflicts physical and/or psychological pain to his opponents, already an unfair advantage.
104** Filler villain Dartz possesses magic more ancient and powerful than most the Egyptian Magic on which the series' actual mythology is based, is powerful enough to duel the Pharaoh and Kaiba to a standstill and defeat the latter, one of his henchmen defeats InvincibleHero Yugi, and any progress the heroes make against him is negated by it being inconsequential or aiding his plan in some way. He manages to get up to ''20,000 life points'' too. It takes six episodes to defeat him in a duel, and his final monster has ''infinite'' attack points and is only beaten by going beyond infinity--and when he loses he summons the soul-eating Leviathan anyway, needing an additional two episodes for the dust to finally settle.
105** Zorc [[NoSell No-Sells]] the Egyptian Gods, the Master of Dragon Knight, Exodia (mainly because of his feeble old man of a container) and everyone else. It takes a SerialEscalation of a summon of the most powerful monster involving the sacrifice of the three mentioned god monsters to defeat him.
106* Yubel and Saiou from ''Anime/YuGiOhGX'' are ridiculously powerful; with the former having control of not only an evil version of the three gods including their formidable fusion, but a monster that reflects all damage back to the enemy. He/she defeats everyone she/he meets including a user of an even stronger version of Exodia and the main character had to [[FusionDance merge]] with him/her in order to stop his/her mad rampage. Yubel is also incredibly clever and skilled in their own right, even aside from their power, and a master planner who more or less orchestrates the entire season, only occasionally coming out on the bottom and usually managing to pull something out even then. With the latter, he predicts everything, and his charisma made it so no one would oppose him, as of course it took an AssPull, involving a student becoming a T-Rex in order to destroy his satellite, not to mention his fearsome deck.
107* ''Anime/YuGiOhArcV'' has [[spoiler:Zarc, whose deck is MasterOfAll with regards to all 4 Summon types, allowing him to call out and recycle upgraded versions of the Dimension Dragons while being nearly untouchable due to the interlocking defensive effects of his cards. Over the course of five episodes he beats through nine professional duelists in succession, emerging nearly unscathed after each defeat he issues. Even a set of cards specifically designed to counter his playstyle gets countered after Zarc wised up to how he was previously beaten. He finally goes down once Yuya intervenes long enough for those cards to fully take effect. This also gets used as a plot point, as it reflects that he's so terrified of losing that he's willed into existence a set of terribly broken cards just to beat the opponent at whatever Extra Deck Summon they're doing, and he ''snaps'' when the other Duelists call him out for being such a SoreLoser.]]
108* ''Manga/YuYuHakusho'':
109** Sensui Shinobu is occasionally criticized as this, given that after all of Yusuke's efforts to defeat him he's still a HopelessBossFight that requires [[spoiler:[[DeusExMachina the intervention of Yusuke's heretofore-unmentioned demon ancestor]]]] to finally bring down. Granted, this did turn out to be {{Foreshadowing}} for the next arc.
110** Younger Toguro to a lesser extent as literally no one was able to even force him to go all out, not even Genkai, so he was free to [[CurbStompBattle annihilate]] everyone. He was only killed [[spoiler: because he intentionally makes his foe think he killed Kuwabara, Yusuke's best friend in order to even force the strength needed to do so, as the latter, even with a significant power boost was unable to scratch him at full power prior to this]].
111* ''Franchise/{{Zoids}}'':
112** Emperor Gene in ''Anime/ZoidsGenesis'' is clearly ''trying'' to be a {{Chessmaster}}. However, his constant AGodAmI speeches while his [[TRexpy BioTyranno]] effortlessly [[NoSell no-sells]] everything that comes their way gets old really fast, causing him to fall to this trope instead. Exacerbating the problem is the way that the heroes [[IdiotBall fight like idiots]] whenever he's around, [[MookChivalry attacking him one at a time and leaving themselves wide open in the process]].
113** ''VideoGame/SuperRobotWarsK'' drives the point home by having a scene (probably the longest in the game) where just about every playable character in ''Genesis'' tries to defeat Emperor Gene and gets crushed by their efforts, until [[KidHero Ruuji]] finally does the trick in his ''second'' try. Note the scene plays [[GameplayAndStorySegregation after you just kicked Gene's ass]].
114[[/folder]]
115
116[[folder:Comic Books]]
117* One of the most common criticisms of ''ComicBook/{{Crossed}}'' by its detractors is that the titular [[TechnicallyLivingZombie Crossed]] are not only AxCrazy but conjure up winning strategies just in time to stop the main characters winning.
118* ''Franchise/TheDCU'':
119** Under a bad writer, the ComicBook/TeenTitans' archnemesis Slade Wilson/Characters/{{Deathstroke}} can be this. His most infamous showing was in ''ComicBook/IdentityCrisis2004'', in which he demonstrated faster reflexes than even ComicBook/TheFlash and enough willpower to convince a ComicBook/GreenLantern ring to not attack him. The encounter ends with half the ComicBook/{{Justice League|OfAmerica}} on the floor spitting up blood, and Slade quipping that this League, made up mostly of new faces (in ComicBookTime terms, anyway) to superheroing, is so much weaker than the old one... despite the fact that many of them (Wally in particular) are ''far'' more powerful than their predecessors. He is only taken down because ComicBook/GreenArrow catches him off guard and shoves an arrow into his blind eye. You'd think that an [[EyeScream arrow to the eye]] would have done something more than force him to retreat, but he was just fine afterwards.[[note]]To be fair, it was more a BerserkButton that made Slade lose total focus and get sloppy rather than any damage.[[/note]]
120** Prometheus was an acceptably threatening ComicBook/{{Justice League|OfAmerica}}-level supervillain in his first appearances, but gradually went through VillainDecay as the story went on later. Come ''ComicBook/JusticeLeagueCryForJustice'', the writers retconned his decay and tried to make him a threat again... by having him pull out a ridiculously large GambitRoulette and make the whole League ''and'' [[ComicBook/TeenTitans Titans]] [[IdiotBall look like morons]], to the point where it no longer became believable. Made even more ridiculous when he actually is defeated... [[spoiler:by ComicBook/GreenArrow infiltrating his conveniently unprotected headquarters and shooting him through the head with an arrow. That's right, the guy who could anticipate anything, including his own capture, the heroes calling for a guy he was stated to not be able to identify and many other things, couldn't ensure something as simple as protecting his headquarters against infiltration.]]
121** [[Characters/NewGodsDarkseid Darkseid]] veers into this territory, especially after his ''ComicBook/FinalCrisis'' appearances after all his 1990s VillainDecay had been reversed. Not only is he by far the single most powerful being in the entire DCU[[labelnote:*]]those Creator/{{Vertigo|Comics}} guys like Michael and The Endless were ExiledFromContinuity and replaced with pale imitations who were of no help[[/labelnote]], to even reach him in the first place, you have to go through his armies and lieutenants, most of which rival ComicBook/{{Superman}} in power level. He's powerful enough that [[NoSell most attacks won't even feel like a breeze to him]], his physical strength outclasses Superman's, ''and'' he possesses the Omega Beams, which can basically do anything he wants. And of course, he's TheChessmaster, always three steps ahead of all his enemies. Subverted again in ''ComicBook/JusticeLeagueIncarnate'' where the Empty Hand the Right-Hand of the Great Darkness quite literally [[CurbStompBattle stomps]] Darkseid in his True Form. In fairness, while Darkseid is omnipotent within the DC multiverse, outside of it, he's still pretty much a fledgling compared to a conceptual entity like the Great Darkness.
122** ''ComicBook/{{Superman}}'':
123*** In ''ComicBook/InfiniteCrisis'', Superboy-Prime went from a sympathetic hero who lost his universe to a whiny {{Jerkass}} who had all of UsefulNotes/{{the Silver Age|OfComicBooks}} Superman's power level, with none of his weaknesses. The result was a superpowered, adolescent jerk on a cosmic tantrum who could effortlessly destroy entire universes and tear through countless heroes without getting a scratch, and any setback was at most temporary.
124*** ''ComicBook/HelOnEarth'': H'el is essentially an evil Superman who is not only as above Superman as Superman is above normal people, but also has time manipulation, matter manipulation, telekinesis, psychic powers, astral projection, and size manipulation. He's also immune to kryptonite and can use his powers under a red sun. He's angsty about his looks, despite looking a manly sideburned deathly pale rockstar with chiseled abs. He easily defeats Superman, ComicBook/{{Supergirl}}, ComicBook/{{Superboy}}, the Teen Titans, and the Justice League. He steals Superman's Fortress of Solitude and locks Superman out of it. He not only succeeds in going back in time to save Krypton, but rule it (after killing Jor-El, Faora, and General Zod.)
125*** Doomsday. His main power is ResurrectiveImmortality that allows him to come back to life [[AdaptiveAbility immune to whatever killed him last time]], and he went down in history as [[ComicBook/TheDeathOfSuperman the guy that killed Superman]].
126** ''ComicBook/{{Batman}}'':
127*** Just as Batman is often portrayed as [[InvincibleHero the opposite trope]], [[Characters/BatmanTheJoker the Joker]] sometimes falls into this. At its worst, he can pull off massively complicated plans with ease, drive others to madness with only [[BreakThemByTalking a few words]], can make even literal gods and devils who have faced off much worse crap in their respective comics and have the scars to prove it [[TheDreaded shit their collective pants]] as he [[MugglesDoItBetter brings them to their knees]] (heck, the '''[[ComicBook/TheSpectre literal Wrath Of God personified]]''' can't touch him because he's just '''[[PowerBornOfMadness that]]''' much unrepentant/crazy) and is always one step ahead of Batman, who can do little to stop the clown from killing boatloads of innocents.
128*** If Batman is an InvincibleHero and the Joker is an Invincible Villain, then combine that invincibility and propensity for insane planning and utter overpowered, logic-defying scenarios into a single character and you get The Batman Who Laughs. He's an evil Batman/Joker hybrid from a universe where Bruce snapped and killed the Joker, becoming Jokerised in the process. So he's got all of Batman's skills, resources, knowledge, training and abilities, with none of the restraint. That and he's able to pull new alternate Batmen out of his ass at a moment's notice for backup, and these guys can have Darkseid-level power (yet will still follow him). The character is ridiculously overpowered when defeating him should be as simple as getting Superman to punch him, while the stories he's in ''bend over backwards'' to avoid him getting egg on his face, setting him up as a cosmic threat that causes more destruction and chaos than even the Anti-Monitor. Batman himself has stated that he’s basically the physical embodiment of the idea that “Batman always wins”. He outright becomes godlike in ''ComicBook/DarkNightsDeathMetal'', in which he rules the multiverse and fights on even keel with actual omnipotent gods. Every story he's in reeks of OnlyTheAuthorCanSaveThemNow, but he is thankfully, finally, defeated by World Forge amped Wonder Woman in ''Death Metal''. [[spoiler:Then ''Rebirth'' brought him back and his self from Earth-11 (the gender-swapped universe) appeared. Now it is obvious that [[JokerImmunity we are never gonna get rid of him]].]]
129** Harvest from the ''ComicBook/New52''. His introductory story ''The Culling'' spends its whole second half on scene after scene of him effortlessly beating back every attack the heroes make and insisting literally every single thing that all the many heroes involved in the story have done was [[AllAccordingToPlan part of his master plan]], before getting away at the end. It also doesn't help that he claims to be a WellIntentionedExtremist with no evidence to back it up. The ''WebVideo/AtopTheFourthWall'' review says that he's actually ''worse'' than the above-mentioned Prometheus. Later, it is revealed that not only is he a time traveler and an experienced fighter of metahumans (so he knows their weaknesses), but his plans are running into difficulty thanks to Kon being a SpannerInTheWorks and his adopted son [[spoiler:Jon Lane-Kent]] performing a HeelFaceTurn -- and even beforehand hadn't exactly been intending to dance to his father's tune.
130** Anton Arcane and the Rot introduced in the ''ComicBook/New52'' run of ''ComicBook/SwampThing''. His new Rot-based powers allow him to instantly kill, turn undead, and take control of any living thing that has even a single dead cell in it, anywhere in the entire world at any time, in unlimited numbers as well as reshape them into any shape desired as well. There are no functional limits to this power, only that champions of the Green and Red can sometimes resist it. He is also effectively unkillable as he can just reform a body from any corpse anywhere in the world. Add to the fact that he's been around for centuries, effortlessly killing champions of both the Green and Red, until finally [[spoiler:infecting and taking over the entire world in the Rotworld segment along with killing and cloning Abby]]. He only loses not through any action of the heroes, but when he's declared to be ''too'' successful as a villain, and [[spoiler:the Parliament of Rot withdraws their support and allows them to [[ResetButtom rewind time]] to before his victory]].
131* ''Franchise/MarvelUniverse'':
132** [[Characters/MarvelComicsThanos Thanos]] can be this, [[VillainSue mostly under]] Creator/JimStarlin, especially when he has ComicBook/TheInfinityGauntlet: when he had it, he easily took down and killed practically every hero that opposed him, plus Doctor Doom, Galactus, Mephisto and several cosmic beings, either killing or defeating them and taking everything they threw at him. He even went as far as defeating the ''incarnation of the universe''. The only way he was defeated was because of his own error, and it's implied he partially did it on purpose. In fact, virtually all the times he acquires ultimate power and fails to win are implied to be due to his subconscious desire to lose. Or [[ActuallyADoombot a clone did it]].
133** [[Characters/MarvelComicsDemons Mephisto]], everyone's favourite BigRedDevil, unfortunately appears to be this. He's been blasted by Galactus and the ComicBook/SilverSurfer, hit with an anti-matter bomb, reduced [[ComicBook/TheMightyThor Thor]] and ComicBook/DoctorStrange's best attacks to TheWorfBarrage and was even okay after TheChosenOne RealityWarper [[ComicBook/FantasticFour Franklin Richards]] went all out on him. Mephisto (along with his son/creation Blackheart) has also endured being the perennial punching bag of ComicBook/GhostRider in various comics, with Johnny and co never being able to definitively put him down; Alejandra Jones got pretty damn close, ripping Mephisto's heart out, but didn’t kill him due to Mephisto claiming that if she did, Hell would be let loose upon the universe. According to Doctor Strange, [[AsLongAsThereIsEvil so long as evil as exists as a concept, so will Mephisto]]. He’s also got his own version of ActuallyADoombot with lesser demons taking his shape which can account for some his jobbings. Of course, Mephisto being so unkillable and OP is entirely appropriate given that his nemesis Ghost Rider is a massive InUniverse InvincibleHero who is pretty impossible so much as harm without holy weapons and serious magic.
134** Red Hulk was this in ''ComicBook/Hulk2008'', easily defeating the [[ComicBook/TheIncredibleHulk Hulk]] ''and'' ComicBook/TheAvengers initially, with the worst case being when he was able to raise Mjolnir, something only people worthy to use it (namely [[ComicBook/TheMightyThor Thor]], ComicBook/CaptainAmerica, Beta Ray Bill and a few others) should be able to do. This was fortunately corrected in later issues, making it, ironically, one of the few cases where VillainDecay was considered a ''good'' change by fans.
135** ''ComicBook/UltimateMarvel'' Loki was a reality warper who could rewrite history, summon armies of monsters, and make himself immune to physical attacks and weapons, including Thor's hammer. During the final battle, Thor mentions his powers have conveniently weakened, allowing Thor to beat him. Loki suffered VillainDecay in later appearances where he was reduced to the traditional illusions and feats of sorcery.
136** ''ComicBook/XMen'':
137*** While more of an AntiVillain, [[Characters/MarvelComicsMagneto Magneto]] has been this for decades, to point where both X-Men and Avengers snark and express exasperation over how unkillable he is. Just power-wise Mags has the ability to kill everyone person with iron in their blood (which is most living things) with his magnetism and even if you do land attacks on him he has barriers powerful enough block hits from Thor and Hercules. Even without putting his mutant powers into consideration, he's been an absolute {{Determinator}} since Auschwitz who has walked off and wiggled out of near death multiple times, everything from his asteroid crashing to being blasted by Exodus.
138*** [[Characters/MarvelComicsApocalypse Apocalypse]], while he has suffered VillainDecay now and then, is still this for the most part. At his least powerful he's effectively matched both Thor and Hulk and endured their attacks, taken on entire teams of X-Men and Avengers, kicked the shit out of both Phoenix and Nate Grey, both Omega Level Telepaths, and in ''ComicBook/AgeOfApocalypse'' AlternateUniverse even killed a Celestial. Even if you can kill him (which is extremely difficult thanks to his Celestial armour), he can still regenerate FromASingleCell thanks to his molecular manipulation powers, meaning unless you can destroy him completely and utterly, he will come back. However, it's worth noting that he is much less invincible without the Death Seed that the Celestials gave him.
139*** Vulcan, brother of Cyclops and Havok, [[UsedToBeASweetKid started out as a sweet kid]], despite being artificially aged and used as a slave by the Shiar. Then came Krakoa and his StartOfDarkness. Already powerful, he was described as 'beyond Omega' (admittedly, he had absorbed the essences of several of his former teammates at the time), being able to manipulate just about every form of energy, remotely control his niece Rachel Summers's powers -- despite the fact that she was an Omega class mutant herself -- [[CurbStompBattle flatten the Shiar Imperial Guard]] all by himself (though he lost an eye in the process) and succeed in taking over the Shiar Empire. This, however, is deconstructed in ''ComicBook/XMenEmperorVulcan'' and ''ComicBook/WarOfKings'': in the former, he has a great deal of difficulty facing Polaris and Havok, after being dumped into the sun, beats Vulcan to a pulp. In the latter, he takes on Black Bolt. As in Black 'goes-toe-to-toe-with-the-Hulk' Bolt, King of ComicBook/TheInhumans, described by ComicBook/SpiderMan as the third most powerful guy in the galaxy after ComicBook/TheSentry and [[ComicBook/TheIncredibleHulk the Green Scar Hulk]] (though it was entirely possible that Spidey didn't know Thor was back at that point).
140** ''ComicBook/SpiderMan'':
141*** [[Characters/MarvelComicsNormanOsborn The Green Goblin]], much like his AlternateCompanyEquivalent Joker, appears to be impossible to kill or at least [[JokerImmunity for very long]]. He’s been sniped in the chest, blown up, brutally battered by Spider-Man, Jessica Jones and Luke Cage, hit with Songbird’s SuperScream which can shatter granite and liquify trees and he was famously stabbed through the heart with his own glider and thanks to his HealingFactor CameBackStrong. Perhaps what makes Norman so hard to kill is own insane VillainousValor and indomitable will as much like his ArchEnemy Spidey he will keep clinging to life and fighting on, being a colossal thorn in the good guys’ side well after many more powerful villains [[KnowWhenToFoldThem would’ve just called it a day]].
142*** Morlun and his family from ''ComicBook/SpiderVerse''. Up until they were finally defeated for good, they never seemed to lose, having massacred their way through some (way beloved) CListFodder effortlessly, and a ''literal army of Spider-Men from across the Marvel multiverse'' can't do more than be an annoyance to them. Probably the worst case of this was Solus, the patriarch of the family, who not only curbstomps a Spidey with the power of Captain Universe, but goes on to wreck ''[[Series/SpiderManJapan friggin' Leopardon]]''.
143*** Under Creator/DanSlott's pen, [[Characters/MarvelComicsOttoOctavius Doctor Octopus]] tends to fall under this as well, as the series goes out of its way to give victory after victory towards Doc Ock. He steals Spider-Man's body, takes over his life with little to no consequence, gets his own private army and secret base, and manages to steamroll through every threat that is presented towards him. Even when Peter "Comes back to life", Otto suffers no defeat at Peter's hands, instead choosing to give up and give Peter back his body -- and that's all just in ''ComicBook/SuperiorSpiderMan2013''. Since then, Otto has returned several times, but has yet to actually lose a battle against Peter Parker. [[spoiler:His appearance during ''ComicBook/SecretEmpire'' has him effortlessly taking over Parker Industries and turning Peter into a HeroWithBadPublicity again. Peter's only real achievement is being able to sour his victory by destroying all of the company's research so it won't be weaponized by Hydra.]]
144*** [[Characters/MarvelComicsCarnage Carnage]] devolved into this during his early years, most notably in ''ComicBook/MaximumCarnage'', in which he continuously bounces back from all the heroes' attempts to destroy him with ease, even when they tried using traditional Symbiote weaknesses like fire and sound waves. Nowadays, he's still dangerous, but he's no longer the unstoppable powerhouse he was before… though still, can you name how many other people can survive getting ripped in half by SupermanSubstitute ComicBook/TheSentry? Well, okay, Ares, but he’s a PhysicalGod and it still took the resurrecting power of the Chaos King to accomplish -- Carnage by comparison was back being evil and jokey merely issues later.
145** [[Characters/MarvelComicsDoctorDoom Doctor Doom]] may be the ''the'' most triumphant example of this in Marvel Comics. Introduced with the ability to create [[ActuallyADoombot undetectable robotic duplicates of himself that often weren't aware themselves they weren't the real thing]], these were shamelessly used from the character's debut to allow him to always escape justice in some fashion, either by using a Doombot to serve as a decoy at the last minute or, increasingly, actually carrying out entire plans by proxy so nothing could be legally traced to him. This built up a decades-long reputation of {{Memetic Badass}}ery, and as [[RunningTheAsylum writers themselves began to buy into it]], the character grew increasingly presented as less of the megalomaniacal madman he had been created as and more as being legitimately as good as he thought himself. To this day, Doom has one of the highest "win counts" of any supervillain, ''anywhere''. According to the Marvel wiki, including alternate versions and in other media, he's killed more named characters than ''Thanos''.
146*** An issue of ''ComicBook/WhatIf'' shows what would have happened if Doom had managed to keep the Beyonder's power, which results in him winning the ComicBook/{{Secret Wars|1984}}, acquiring Thanos' [[ArtifactOfDoom Infinity Gauntlet]], and [[GalacticConqueror dominating the cosmos]]. This attracts the attention of the [[SufficientlyAdvancedAlien Celestials]], whom Doom eventually defeats in a war that [[ApocalypseHow destroys the planet]]. Using the last of his power, Doom [[FauxSymbolism recreates Earth and humanity with it before becoming mortal himself in order to lead them to greatness]]. {{Downplayed|Trope}} in the sense that Doom becomes an AntiHero instead of a villain as the story progresses.
147* ''ComicBook/JudgeDredd'''s nemesis Judge Death is his longest-recurring enemy for a reason. He and his fellow Dark Judges have the same training and tactical knowledge as Judge Dredd but are also living dead, meaning they feel no pain and are ImmuneToBullets, and have an array of various superpowers and alien technologies on top of that, including SuperStrength, limited intangibility, teleportation devices, and raising the dead. Their bodies are [[PossessingADeadBody replaceable, possessed corpses]], so destroying those simply slows them down. They're also incredibly powerful psychics, making Psi-Judges especially vulnerable to them, and are assisted by the far more powerful [[UndeadAbomination Sisters of Death]] who once brainwashed the entire Justice Department to serve as their personal army and can and will drag the Dark Judges out of Hell itself if necessary. Judge Dredd and Judge Anderson have only ever managed to return them to their SealedEvilInACan status before their inevitable return.
148* [[GodEmperor God-King Lore]] in ''ComicBook/{{Birthright}}'' is an unfathomably powerful EvilOverlord who has covered his world into darkness, commands an endless legion of demons and no one in the setting is capable of matching him in combat, let alone defeating him. LaResistance has been fighting an ForeverWar against him for so long that the previous heroes realized they were nowhere near close to winning that they decided to either flee this world for Earth or desert to his side, with the latter option being considered a FateWorseThanDeath since Lore infects his agents with [[EnemyWithin a Nevermind]] that will turn them into {{Humanoid Abomination}}s subservient to him. Oh, and he also wants to [[MultiversalConqueror conquer other dimensions]] too and the only thing preventing him from stepping into Earth was an spell raised by the heroes that chose to take refuge in our world. His threat becomes so great that [[spoiler:one of the heroes decide that his coming was inevitable and rather than have him conquer Earth, she would plot to destroy both worlds and remake a new one freed of Lore]].
149* ''ComicBook/TheMask'' usually has Big Head be a VillainProtagonist that unleashes the mask's wearers repressed feelings into violent outbursts, while being impervious to any harm due to running on ToonPhysics (only [[TheBrute Walter]] has ever managed to hurt Big Head).
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153* ''ComicStrip/SpyVsSpy'' has the female Gray Spy (though her status as a villain is sort of debatable), who never lost to the other two spies no matter what the spies did to try to beat her. Reportedly, the comic's original creator, Antonio Prohias, [[WouldntHitAGirl couldn’t bring himself to have her killed]] in the same ways the other two spies did. For this reason, Prohias got so fed up with her that he stopped including her in the strips. However, after Prohias retired, she was popular enough with the comic's subsequent writers that she was occasionally brought back.
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156[[folder:Fan Works]]
157* ''Fanfic/AlwaysVisible'': More precisely, elusive. Doctor Baselard manages to escape from under Galbraith's nose and gets lost in London. To make matters worse, Portland police see no point in catching him.
158* ''Fanfic/FallenKingdom'': [[spoiler:Antonio]] is the WorldsStrongestMan and leader of an NGOSuperpower stronger than the world-spanning [[TheEmpire Koopa Empire]]. For most of the story he never stepped out of his fortress, but his power was alluded to by multiple other characters, and he effortlessly overpowered his right-hand Skallz Fortiscule, who himself defeated over a dozen heroes that are each a OneManArmy. Every action the heroes take only inconveniences him, and when he finally revealed himself, everyone who knew of him [[OhCrap freaked out]]. He dodges hundreds of projectiles moving at nearly bullet-speed coming from different directions all at once, [[CurbStompBattle curbstomps]] Luigi and his friends, one-shots his own city-block-sized mothership, and critically wounds a PhysicalGod with one attack, which would have instantly killed anyone else. The only being that could challenge him was King Morton Sr, but he was dead long before the story began. He is only defeated by [[spoiler:Cobal eating the Beacon of Rosalina's universe-traveling ship and hitting him with the resulting egg, greatly weakening him. Even then, his power was still enough to contend with Luigi's HeroicSecondWind despite that type of magic being able to fully DePower anyone else in the universe]].
159* The Princess Celestia AI in charge of ''Equestria Online'' in ''Fanfic/FriendshipIsOptimal'' is able, through sheer persuasion and processing power, to get pretty much anyone to either engage with the game or otherwise assist her in expanding it, no matter how much they may think they know better, even to the point of [[spoiler:the bulk of the human race [[BrainUploading uploading their consciousnesses into the game permanently]]]]. About the only thing she can't do is [[spoiler:convince the literal last man on Earth to upload before he dies]], and it's not that much of a bother, since her priorities just move on to [[spoiler:absorbing the planet and the rest of life on it into herself to use for more processing fuel, followed by any other celestial objects that don't contain what she perceives as human life]], which she appears able to continue uninterrupted and indefinitely.
160* In ''Fanfic/HeroClassCivilWarfare'', [[Manga/MyHeroAcademia Midoriya]] is pretty much this. He easily [[AwesomenessByAnalysis predicts every move the heroes make]]; when things go wrong, he either [[XanatosSpeedChess adapts to the situation]] or else it was AllAccordingToPlan. As of chapter 23, Bakugou has lost a fair number of his team, had one of his members turn traitor and lost the objectives he was guarding. Midoriya has acquired all but two of his objectives, regained the one member that was captured, and effectively gotten away with waltzing through the heroes' base. This is, amusingly, one of the few times this trope is explored InUniverse, because the follow-up story [[spoiler:has Izuku dealing with everybody else in the student body being ''scared shitless of him'' - the idea of Izuku and his crew was to be the most effective villain team the exercise had ever had, and this ended up GoneHorriblyRight]].
161* ''Fanfic/NaturalSelection'': Ryuko Kiryuin. She's so far above the rest of the cast in terms of power that only Satsuki can match her on the field of battle (and Uzu, to a lesser extent), and even then that involves throwing her off her game by talking her down, taking advantage of Ryuko's transformation sequence and doing damage to Junketsu instead, not to mention Satsuki needed to [[spoiler:create a Kamui of her own just to stand a chance]]. Ryuko ''still'' wins, despite having all of her weaknesses taken advantage of. [[spoiler:She's only stopped by using tools specifically to freeze her in place and Nudist Beach was only able to accomplish that in the first place because she was drained from her previous bout with Satsuki]].
162* ''Fanfic/RosarioVampireBrightestDarkness'': In Acts III and IV, [[PsychopathicManchild Jovian and Jacqueline]], Hokuto's CoDragons, are set up as this. As noted by Akua and Kahlua in Act IV chapter 2, their [[DeflectorShield barriers]] are unbreakable, their [[HandBlast energy blasts]] are unblockable, and they will ''never'' tire no matter what. In Act IV chapter 23, with TheReveal that Apoch's [[LaserBlade barrier sword]] can both pierce their barriers and deflect their energy attacks, the two become NotSoInvincibleAfterAll.
163* In the ''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic'' fanfic ''[[https://www.fanfiction.net/s/10153384/1/Tales-of-the-Oppressed Tales of the Oppressed]]'' (by [[https://www.fanfiction.net/u/1447498/Terran34 [=Terran34=]]]), [[BigBad King Sombra]] may be a PhysicalGod who can stand up to multiple Alicorn-tier characters, but he's still reasonably fallible in the end. However, the same can't really be said for one of his generals, [[UnSorcerer Silent Shatter]], who repeatedly gets the best of multiple protagonists and just pulls a VillainExitStageLeft whenever he gets caught off-guard. Being able to negate all direct magical attacks makes him bad enough, but being able to both break through others' magical defenses with little-to-no effort and constantly pull off {{Nonchalant Dodge}}s is just pushing it. Furthermore, even after specific training on how to work around an Earth Pony's physical advantages, [[TheHero Seth]] [[TokenHuman Rogers]] '''''still''''' can barely even touch, let alone hurt, Shatter. [[spoiler:In the end, Applejack has to resort to a [[AssPull sudden]] MyNameIsInigoMontoya in order to catch him off-guard just long enough for a HumiliationConga and subsequent death.]]
164* [[BigBad Veran]] is depicted as such in the ''Franchise/TheLegendOfZelda'' fic ''[[Fanfic/BoundDestiniesTrilogy Wisdom and Courage]]''; she succeeds in getting the Triforce before the first third of the fic is over, most of the fic has things going her way, and Link and Zelda have little choice but to RunOrDie. It's only when Link acquires the Fierce Deity's Mask that they can actually fight back.
165* In ''Fanfic/Zero2ARevision'' Dragomon once stated during his monolougues that Darkheart will be the hardest and most dangerous opponent that the Digidestined will have to face, and he is not kidding. When Darkheart first appeared, he curb-stomps the entire Digidestined including Aetherdramon, Shaun, and Omnimon through [[CombatPragmatist pragmatism]] and took advantage of their hesitance to hurt Davis. After reappearing with a free will and a growing taste for destruction, Darkheart returns to NoSell all of the Digidestined's Digimons attacks, [[CurbStompBattle curb-stomps]] them to the ground and absorbs them all one-by-one, failing to significantly hinder him in his absorbing spree whatsoever. The same results happen 8 times before he is finally taken down by the efforts of Kari, Siara, and Blackwargreymon. But it ends up being too little too late as the entire time the Digidestined are fighting and fleeing from Darkheart, entire Odaiba becomes leveled with the citizens [[spoiler: including Davis's parents and Cody's grandfather]] dying as well due to the attacks by Umbradevimon's black gears army, Demon's and his Black Generals, and Gravemon and its Spores. Essentially, Darkheart is the Zero 2's version of [[Anime/DigimonAdventure02 Blackwargreymon]] only even more relentless and dangerous.
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168[[folder:Films -- Animation]]
169* [[SavageWolf The Wolf]] in ''WesternAnimation/PussInBootsTheLastWish'' [[TheJuggernaut relentlessly]] pursues Puss, allowing absolutely nothing to stand in his way. He [[spoiler:easily walks through a barrier generated by the Wishing Star (which had dissolved anyone fully immersed in it)]], and even when [[spoiler:Puss manages to knock him down, he realizes that it's just a temporary delay, and that the Wolf will keep hounding him to the ends of Earth]]. The best Puss can do is delay him, and defeating the Wolf is never even presented as a possibility. Justified in that [[spoiler:the Wolf is actually [[TheGrimReaper Death itself]], and therefore can [[TheProblemWithFightingDeath only be delayed, not escaped from]]]].
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172[[folder:Films -- Live-Action]]
173* Pick any VillainBasedFranchise, the ForegoneConclusion that the villain will appear in their respective films' sequels makes them inevitably this. No matter what the protagonists do, the bad guy(s) will always either come out on top, or live to torment the protagonists another day. Examples include: [[Franchise/ANightmareOnElmStreet Freddy Krueger]], [[Franchise/FridayThe13th Jason Voorhees]] (easily the most prolific of them all and the worst offender), Franchise/HannibalLecter, [[Franchise/{{Halloween}} Michael Myers]], etc.
174* The Jiuxian Witch from ''Film/TheDevilsMirror'' is an invincible, all-powerful sorceress, who overpower most of her enemies and leaves behind piles of dead bodies from her various massacres. The only reason the heroes managed to remotely stand a chance against her is because the Witch had spent part of her life force in unlocking the entrance of a mausoleum in order to steal a magic sword that can make her invincible; and even then the main heroine's father still needs to pull a HeroicSacrifice to eventually destroy the villainess.
175* In ''Film/DungeonsAndDragonsHonorAmongThieves'', the [[spoiler:Adult Red Dragon Themberchaud is this, with even the holy blade of a Paladin between his eyes merely stunning him for a few minutes. He's so far out of the party's league that they might as well have run afoul of [[{{Kaiju}} Godzilla]], leaving them with no choice except to RunOrDie]].
176* The ''Film/FinalDestination'' movies teeter back and forth as to whether the heroes can actually win, but this theme consistently shows up in every entry. They're explicitly fighting Death, a [[TheProblemWithFightingDeath presumably eternal force of nature]]. Every plan the heroes have made involves evading or hiding from Death and have only occasionally been successful and temporarily at that; destroying or defeating it for good is never presented as an option.
177* ''Film/FunnyGames'': Paul is well aware that he is in a movie and [[MediumAware takes advantage of it]]. He is able to anticipate every one of the protagonists' moves and only keeps them alive so that the movie can reach feature-length. [[spoiler:Even when one protagonist scores a minor victory against Paul, Paul just [[ResetButton rewinds the movie]] back into his favor.]]
178* In Creator/JohnCarpenter's ''Film/GhostsOfMars'', the eponymous ghosts are just that -- intangible ghosts, who [[DemonicPossession possess humans]] to interact with them. The spirits can't be killed by any known means (they even tried a [[NukeEm nuclear detonation]], which did nothing), which means that if their host is destroyed [[BodySurf they'll just move on to the next body]]. The movie dances around this issue by setting up the all-out battle to occur after the story's events, but it's impossible to maintain any hope for the surviving characters because victory is ultimately impossible.
179* [[StringyHairedGhostGirl Kayako Saeki]] from ''Film/TheGrudge''. Once you've been affected by her curse, it's not a matter of ''if'' you'll die, but ''when'' and [[CruelAndUnusualDeath how horrible your death will be]]. The underlying theme of the films is that there is no way to stop her curse. It's only a matter of time before it takes your life. Attempting to hide or seek help will only spread the curse farther. Also, Kayako and her son Toshiro can attack you from virtually ''[[ParanoiaFuel anywhere]]''.
180* ''Film/InTheMouthOfMadness'' is solidly in this territory. The villain Sutter Cane is the author figure of the entire movie, and just makes any changes he wants to the story no matter how implausible or crushing to the protagonist's goals. Trent never stood a chance of defeating him; he's just words in Cane's imagination. The meanest part is that not even OnlyTheAuthorCanSaveThemNow applies here (except out-of-universe). Cane is both the villain and the author, and won't save Trent from ceasing to exist when the story ends.
181* The South Korean film ''Film/KundoAgeOfTheRampant'' has a pretty blatant example in the person of antagonist Jo Yoon. Even though the kundo bandits are shown to be powerful warriors, Jo Yoon is completely untouchable in every single scene, slaughtering tens of warriors by himself largely without effort, often in a single sword-swing. The closest to a hit being landed on him for most of the film is the loss of his topknot (and even that doesn't make much of an impression, since he has one immediately afterwards) and a [[spoiler:single cut on his cheek from his dying father]]. He is naturally gifted and destined to be awesome. Being a complete SmugSnake doesn't make him any more enjoyable. At least you get to enjoy a [[spoiler:Western-inspired instance of GatlingGood]].
182* Matt "Film/ManiacCop" Cordell of the film series of the same name pushes this even by 80's slasher villain standards. He's super strong and ImmuneToBullets, but is also quite intelligent and tactical, capable of using guns, driving cars, and framing others for his killings. These things together, not even Creator/BruceCampbell or Creator/TomAtkins last long, and at the end of each film the best the surviving heroes can do is survive for a few days longer or give him what he wants. One character even explicitly states that all the cops in the world can't stop Cordell.
183* ''Franchise/MarvelCinematicUniverse'':
184** Played with in ''Film/AvengersInfinityWar'', Thanos has been hyped up as a universal threat since [[Film/TheAvengers2012 the first Avengers movie]] and he does not disappoint onscreen, his first act of the film even being that he utterly destroys the ship that was holding Thor, Hulk, Loki and the Asgard refugees who were just coming off the events of ''Film/ThorRagnarok''. The former two are beaten handily and it just got worse from there any time someone challenges him. Granted there were moments the heroes do wound him, particularly the battle on Titan, but it took an insane amount of teamwork to even come close due to the fact Thanos had most of the gems by that point. But once Thanos gains the fourth gem, this comes into full effect. All the heroes fighting in Wakanda get brushed aside like nothing, [[spoiler: Scarlet Witch destroying Vision and his gem yields nothing because Thanos can ''rewind time'' by that point, and even when Thor finally arrives and goes for a killing blow, Thanos still survives and manages to carry out his plan and wipe out half of the life in the universe]]. And even despite all of that, Strange had stated that, through a meditation spell to look through ''14 million timelines'', there was only ''one'' possible way to beat him. So [[FailureGambit this whole outcome]] ''was the best solution''. Ironically, though, come ''Film/AvengersEndgame'', [[spoiler:Thanos gets subdued by the Avengers and ''killed'' in the first twenty minutes of the movie after being this trope previously, albeit he is already severely weakened by using the Gauntlet to destroy the stones anyway so it can't even be called a satisfying victory. Of course, then his stronger and more violent past-self shows up, ''[[ItsPersonal pissed right off]]'' that this insolent little planet eventually took him out and dared to undo his life's work-- and even if he loses, it's after the most epic battle in the whole film series so far ''and'' was a NearVillainVictory.]].
185** ''Film/BlackWidow2021'' has Taskmaster, an ImplacableMan who doesn't suffer any damage and can only be escaped from (Natasha first evades Taskmaster jumping into a river, a rematch has her and Yelena hiding in an air vent, and Alexei only escapes decapitation by throwing Taskmaster into a cell and activating the lock). [[spoiler:Actually Implacable Woman-- and her BigBad father took advantage of his daughter suffering physical and mental damage from an explosion to rebuild her into an EmptyShell of an assassin, both heavily skilled and fully compliant to orders, and thus without any desire to stop until the mission is done. Her final attack on Natasha only stops when Black Widow sprays her with the substance that breaks the brainwashing.]]
186** ''Film/DoctorStrangeInTheMultiverseOfMadness'' has [[spoiler:{{Fallen Hero}}ine Wanda Maximoff, the Scarlet Witch, who after suffering much dark influence by a TomeOfEldritchLore is willing to go through extreme paths to recover the children she created with magic in ''Series/WandaVision''. Wanda is already a very powerful magic user in her own right, but the Darkhold amplifies her [[EntropyAndChaosMagic Chaos Magic]] to nearly-godlike levels. The whole force of Masters of Mystical Arts try to stop her, she wrecks them with ease. TheIlluminati of an alternate universe, only one doesn't suffer a CruelAndUnusualDeath by Wanda's magic (only because he doesn't run into her). A zombiefied Strange empowered by forsaken souls is also defeated, and what ultimately brings Wanda down is her own HeelRealization of what she has become]].
187* The mirror in ''Film/{{Oculus}}'' accounts for everything that the main protagonists set up to destroy it, [[spoiler:and uses the anchor fail-safe to kill one and frame the other]].
188* The Tall Man from the ''Film/{{Phantasm}}'' films. No matter what our heroes do, he will always come back for them, often pulling a new power out of his ass in the process. The series is designed to feel like a nightmare, and every nightmare needs a guy whom you can never hope to defeat and can only stay ahead of for a bit. Even if you do manage to kill him, a copy of him will almost instantly appear where the previous one died. He's actually an evil entity from another dimension who is using an old man it killed as an avatar to enter our world. It has also made copies of its host so it can keep coming back. There are tens of thousands of them. The only ways to permanently defeat him would be to kill all of his copies (and considering how hard it is to kill just one, that would be nigh impossible), use the dimensional gate to travel to his dimension to try and destroy his true form, or travel back in time to stop the gate from being used to bring him into our world (almost pulled off at one point but ultimately failed).
189* Bill Williamson, CrazyPrepared [[TheChessmaster Chessmaster]] CreatorsPet {{Villain Protagonist}} from Creator/UweBoll's ''Film/{{Rampage|2009}}'' trilogy plays this straight as a arrow. In both films, his titular rampages go exactly according to plan, and he kills nearly a hundred innocents per film with out even a scratch, and gets away Scott-free by either a {{Frame Up}} or by faking his death. Granted, most of his victims are unarmed civilians who can't fight back, but even when the authorities do manage to engage him, his homemade Kevlar suit and {{Bottomless Magazines}} make him pretty much unbeatable. The closest anyone came to landing a blow on him was in the first film, where a civilian tackled him from behind and called to the others to help him disarm Williamson, but this scene just serves to show why such a tactic wouldn't work, as Bill somehow manages to slit the man's throat with an army knife we saw him equip earlier and gun down the the other civvies in retaliation, even though the man was on his back, and Bill was in a physically constraining Kevlar suit. Even when he's killed in the final film, it's clear the confrontation only happened because he wanted it to, and after he once again takes out loads of FBI and SWAT personnel who've come to apprehend or take out someone who's by then become the biggest mass murderer in American history. His death also makes him a martyr, just as planned, and inspires countless imitators who it's implied will finish his work of overthrowing the US government.
190* ''Film/ReturnOfTheLivingDead'': The Trioxin zombies in the first film are unkillable, save for [[BurnTheUndead complete immolation]] and even that just creates more zombies as demonstrated in the. While the protagonists and military are competent enough to temporarily incapacitate the zombies through various means, the military admits that there is no way to truly get rid of the Trioxin problem. It also doesn't help that the Trioxin zombies [[ItCanThink retain their human-level intelligence]] and thus have the wits to outsmart their prey. Subverted in the second film, though, when they turn out to be killable via electricity, and are all defeated at the end.
191* John "Jigsaw" Kramer from the ''Franchise/{{Saw}}'' franchise. He's perhaps the #1 [[TheChessmaster Chessmaster]] of the Slasher genre, and in every films set while he's alive, he suceeds in killing several people and wins in some way. Even when he's killed by Jeff Denlon in ''Film/SawIII'', John dies happy, and because he deliberately baited Jeff into doing so, and so John gets the last laugh by getting both Jeff's wife, then Jeff himself killed shortly afterwards. And [[MyDeathIsOnlyTheBeginning His and his apparent chosen successor's deaths]] barely slows him down, because he turns out to have more successors and multiple posthomous schemes set up to kill countless more people. Said successors (and one regular copycat) prove remarkably effective in their own right; killing many people and often pulling a KarmaHoudini. The sole exception, Mark Hoffman, would have escaped scot-free after outsmarting the authorities countless times were it not for ''another'' scheme and accomplice of John.
192* [[EvilOverlord Sheev Palpatine]] from ''Franchise/StarWars'' in both canon and legends. During the prequel era, he's THE ManipulativeBastard who can play the entire galaxy like a fiddle, and no one will ever investigate him, no matter how many clues point to him because [[DoomedByCanon he has to be able to rise in power, defeat the Jedi and corrupt Anakin to make the original trilogy happen, so any defeat can only be a minor inconvenience.]] In the original trilogy era, he commands [[WeHaveReserves an empire so vast that nothing the Rebels can do, save the impossible of assassinating Palpatine,]] including blowing up two Death Stars, will ever do any lasting damage to his reign. WordOfGod is that, had he not [[NotQuiteDead seemingly died on the second Death Star]] he'd have led the Empire to crush the rebellion. And on the rare occasions that he does have to get involved directly, he's so powerful and skilled a fighter that while a few can contend with him, no one can actually beat him (it's strongly implied he threw his duels with Mace and Starkiller to pull Anakin and Galen, respectively, to the darkside.) In ''Film/ReturnOfTheJedi'' Luke doesn't even try to fight him when they're face to face. It took [[HeelFaceTurn the man who had been his #1 enforcer for decades attacking him from behind to take him out]] [[ForgotAboutHisPowers because Palpatine forgot that he has empathy and precognition]] and that Luke is Anakin's only connection to the reason he turned to the dark side to seemingly take him out, but in Legends, he just came back a few years later more powerful than ever and easily corrupts Luke (though at least he's now able to lose a lightsaber duel, due to his decaying clones bodies.) Meanwhile, in the finale of the third trilogy and the entire Skywalker Saga, he [[spoiler: turns out to have come back from the dead with little explanation beyond the fact that he has access to cloning technology and forbidden Sith knowledge. The heroes don't seem to show any disbelief that Palpatine is not only alive but has also been pulling the strings from the shadows during the ''third'' trilogy, just as he always has been. There's almost a sense that his status as galactic-scale puppetmaster was somehow so inevitable that death merely slowed him down.]]
193* The villain in the supernatural slasher ''Film/TellMeHowIDie'' is an advanced [[{{Seers}} precog]] who can flawlessly see months into the future. He's always at least five steps ahead of the main characters, and although [[AssholeVictim some of his victims definitely deserved their fate]], his killing spree goes off without a hitch and he escapes before the police can find him. Even when the heroine acquires precognitive abilities of her own in order to predict his moves, he still outperforms her.
194* ''Film/TransformersRiseOfTheBeasts'': Unicron, the GreaterScopeVillain is a PhysicalGod and the size of a planet. At no point does anyone ever suggest that fighting him is even possible. All that can be done is to try to stop his minion, Scourge, from summoning him to Earth. [[spoiler: Even after Unicron gets caught in a wormhole at the end of the film, it's openly stated that he's ''not'' dead and is likely to eventually escape back into reality]].
195* The future Sentinels from ''Film/XMenDaysOfFuturePast''. The only way to truly stop them (and the main plot of the film) is to attempt to [[spoiler:rewrite history so that they were never created to begin with]]. Interestingly, the film also features an InvincibleHero: [[spoiler:Quicksilver]]. Though they do not meet each other [[spoiler:due to existing in different time lines]].
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199* ''Literature/TheBeginningAfterTheEnd'': As Arthur is an InvincibleHero, it is rather fitting that the BigBad Agrona Vritra is this trope to maintain the sense of narrative tension. Although Agrona has never been in any major direct confrontation, he is heavily implied to be much more stronger than Arthur due to being an [[PhysicalGods Asura]], and in the setting even [[ThoseWereOnlyTheirScouts the weakest of the Asuras]] can give the strongest mortal mages pause. However, where Agrona truly demonstrates his invincibility is that he is an unparalleled {{Chessmaster}} and ManipulativeBastard, able to OutGambit practically everyone else in the setting, including Kezess, the ruler of the Asuras who is also a {{Chessmaster}} and ManipulativeBastard in his own right. Case in point, every time Kezess sent assassins after him, Agrona was able to dispose of them and use these failed attacks to gain favorable terms over his nemesis. He was able to conceal his plan [[spoiler:to summon a being known as the Legacy, and by the time Kezess caught wind of it, the Legacy was already summoned. In his rashness, Kezess not only failed to kill the Legacy, but in doing so ended up obliterating all of Elenoir, an action that alienates not only the populace of Dicathen but also the rest of the Asuras. Not only that, he was able to [[NiceJobBreakingItHero take advantage of Arthur's decisions to further his own goals]], such as his introduction of a steam engine (which his servants reverse-engineered to create an armada of steamships) and the beast will he gave to Tessia (which gave him control over her life and later used to blackmail her parents into collaborating with him), as well as his liberal usage of TargetedToHurtTheHero to weaken Arthur. Even when Arthur CameBackStrong as an aether-wielding demigod, reconquered his homeland, and returned to Alacrya to assist Seris's rebellion, Agrona is unfazed by this sudden turn of events. He had already hunted down down most of Seris's supporters, forced her and her closest allies into hiding in the Relictombs, and was able to manipulate public opinion by framing Arthur for the murder of a Sovereign and directing their animosity towards him and the other Asuras]].
200* ''Literature/BloodMeridian'' has a possibly literal example in [[spoiler:Judge Holden]]. While it's [[MaybeMagicMaybeMundane never made entirely clear]] what's going on with him, his unusual appearance, apparent ability to be in more than one place at a time, [[ManipulativeBastard unnatural skills of persuasion]],and physical strength ''well'' beyond what seems appropriate even for someone his size ([[spoiler:at one point he one-hand's ''a Howitzer'']]) suggest that he is likely some sort of HumanoidAbomination. [[spoiler:One character tells another not to be an idiot when he suggests killing the Judge, after seeing what Holden is capable of]]. The last line of the book is a description of [[spoiler:the victorious Judge dancing naked in a bar, loudly declaring that he will never die]].
201* ''Literature/TheBoyWhoCouldntSleepAndNeverHadTo'' has the in-universe example of The Man. The boys seem to think he's just straight [[AwesomenessIsAForce Rule of Awesome]], but it would be very hard for them to keep future readers of their comic from assuming that [[OnlyTheAuthorCanSaveThemNow only the authors could possibly kill him]], as he literally has no weaknesses.
202* This is a defining characteristic of most of the gods and [[EldritchAbomination cosmic horrors]] of the Franchise/CthulhuMythos, as the entire point of the setting is that humanity is ultimately doomed and powerless to change our fate. If any author writes a story in which Cthulhu or Nyarlathotep are actually defeated, instead of just stalled or evaded, they are most certainly doing it wrong.
203* The ''Literature/LincolnRhyme'' series relies heavily on these to fill out pages. Count the number of times Lincoln nearly closes in on the villain only for him or her to find a way to slip away unscathed, or for it to be revealed that it was all an elaborate ruse to distract Lincoln and the cops from the villain's real target/goal, or for the story to jump forward and reveal that they had their eyes on the wrong guy while the villain escaped in disguise, etc, etc.
204* ''Literature/NineteenEightyFour'' makes it abundantly clear that [[TheEmpire Big Brother and The Party]] are this. While ''theoretically'' they could be toppled by a rebellion among the proles, organizing such a rebellion would be virtually impossible, and their control of the flow of information is so tight that even for the people to know life would be better without them is impossible. And even if the regime was toppled in one of the three nations, there are still two more to attack the newly freed nation...
205* ''Franchise/StarWarsLegends'': BreakoutCharacter Grand Admiral Thrawn, the eponymous antagonist of ''Literature/TheThrawnTrilogy'', developed a reputation for this both in and out of universe due to his AwesomenessByAnalysis granting him unparalleled strategic and tactical genius, to the point where the rumor of his return in the ''Literature/HandOfThrawn'' duology (by the same author) sends half the galaxy into hysterics. Note that the original trilogy ended with his ''death''. The author directly addresses this in the ''Hand of Thrawn'' books by having characters point out that Thrawn was brilliant but not omniscient, and his demise was caused by a combination of factors he didn't see coming or even misinterpreted the significance of.
206* ''Literature/TheUnexploredSummonBloodSign'' has [[spoiler:the White Queen]], the most powerful being in the setting. She almost inevitably wins any fight; she's only defeated by somehow turning her own power against her or by making use of hundreds of Unexplored-Class Materials (each of which is ''more powerful than any god''). Even if she's destroyed in battle, she can never be permanently killed. Kyousuke can generally foil her individual plans, but this doesn't matter to her. Because she's [[spoiler:in love with him, any opportunity to see him is its own reward. And being immortal, she has literally all the time in the world for one of her plans to succeed]].
207* The short story ''[[https://www.tor.com/2010/02/03/vilcabamba/ Vilcabamba]]'' by Creator/HarryTurtledove has the Krolp, ScaryDogmaticAliens who came to Earth and curb-stomped it so incredibly thoroughly that resistance was just impossible, and who do it a second time when the remnants of the United States of America try to uprise when they decide to strip-mine the small part of the country they live in. A direct comparison between the Conquistadors of Europe unrelentingly ruining the New World and the Krolp destroying Earth is the TitleDrop.
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211* ''Series/{{Angel}}'': You do not beat the [[GreaterScopeVillain Senior Partners]], and if you do, it doesn't last. You can win a hundred little victories against them, but in the end none of them really matter. You can foil any schemes their employees or clients cook up, you can kill their minions and destroy their power base, but they'll just come back. They were here thousands of years before you were born and they'll be here long after you're dust. You can't stop them, you can't hurt them and you certainly can't kill them. All you can ever hope to do is momentarily inconvenience them. And if you somehow manage to do that (and it won't be easy), there will be [[CurbStompBattle consequences]]. This is a deliberate intent on the part of the writers. A major theme of the show is that even if evil can't ever be finally defeated, it can only be delayed or held off, fighting back against it is ''absolutely the right thing to do''.
212* ''Series/{{Arrow}}'':
213** Malcolm Merlyn has basically become this, because he's always one step ahead of Oliver Queen. In Season 1, every time Oliver faced his Black Arrow alter ego in one-on-one combat, he lost. Oliver is able to stop Merlyn's master plan of destroying the Glades, but not before most of the zone gets destroyed anyway. Malcolm is able to fake his death in Season 2 and get to know his biological daughter [[spoiler:Thea]]. During season 3, Malcolm is able to continue scheming behind the scenes and manipulate Oliver to the point that [[spoiler: by the end of the season, Malcolm takes over the League of Assassins after Oliver killed Ra's al Ghul.]] It's generally subverted in season four when [[spoiler:he agrees to allow Sara's revival, causing Nyssa to destroy the Lazarus Pit. Nyssa then challenges Malcolm for leadership, but Oliver fights in her stead, cutting off Malcolm's hand. Nyssa then disbands the League, causing Malcolm to swear vengeance. He ends up helping free Darhk from prison, resulting in Laurel's death. After Darhk is killed by Oliver, Malcolm is recruited by [[Series/TheFlash2014 Eobard Thawne]] and Darhk from TheEighties to be a part of what would be known as [[Series/LegendsOfTomorrow the Legion of Doom]]]].
214** Nearly every BigBad on ''Arrow'' is this to some degree, at least combat-wise. Slade had the Mirakuru, making him superhuman on top of already being a skilled enough combatant to match Oliver without it. Ra's al Ghul was the WorldsBestWarrior and Oliver had to get training from Ra's himself in order to beat him. Darhk had magic from a totem, arguably making him the most dangerous of them all. The only aversion so far is Season Five BigBad Prometheus, who is more-or-less on even keel with Oliver physically and a little less skill-wise (which is still dangerous enough to anyone that isn't Oliver or a meta). Instead, his most dangerous asset is [[TheChessmaster his ability to manipulate people and events to his desired outcome: psychological torture]].
215* [[KnightOfCerebus Nukus]] from ''Series/BigBadBeetleBorgs'' started out as the OutsideContextProblem variant of this; as soon as he brought to life, he proves savvy enough to destroy the Beetle Borgs' weaponry, leaving them gradually losing. When they finally defeated the invincible monster he created to fight them, it turns out [[ILetYouWin he let them do it]] [[ChronicBackstabbingDisorder so he could get rid of the actual villains]] [[MakeWayForTheNewVillains and take over as the new]] BigBad. He then proceeds to deliver a CurbStompBattle to the protagonists, obliterating their powers, and transforms the one who gave them power into ice. Of course, once the protagonists got new powers and he became the new BigBad, he lost this status and ended up defeated on a regular basis.
216* ''Series/BlakesSeven'': Servalan almost always ran circles around Blake and his Rebels. Most of the time, she left them holding the bag after playing them too. [[spoiler: She also survives the series finale. The alleged heroes don't.]]
217* ''Series/TheBoldAndTheBeautiful'', like many other soap operas, uses this trope frequently. "Dollar" Bill Spencer (Commonly written as "$Bill") has committed an overwhelming amount of crimes in his (almost) 10 year tenure on the show, but he has yet to be arrested or convicted for any of them- more times than not, because of his wealth and influence. From paying off journalists to write bad reviews that will benefit his company, to arson, and so many more things, Bill seems to be an unstoppable force of amorality.
218* Pelant from ''{{Series/Bones}}'' is turning into this. He can pretty much hack any system he wants, change whatever records he wants, stop traffic, fake video footage, block cell phone signals, and kill anyone he wants at any time. With these abilities from a computer, it seems the writers have made his character so powerful of a threat, the team simply cannot defeat him and any defeat would come at Pelant's own mistake, which according to his character, seems impossible. Ultimately [[spoiler: that's exactly what happens, as he overestimates his own importance. He honestly believes that Brennan values his intelligence over Booth's life. [[KilledOffForReal He's wrong]]]].
219* ''Series/BuffyTheVampireSlayer'':
220** Throughout Season 5, most of [[PhysicalGod Glory's]] encounters with the Scoobies end in her favor, with the Scoobies forced to retreat. By the time of "Spiral," when Glory finally discovers that Dawn is the Key, Buffy shocks her friends by declaring that they'll ''never'' be able to defeat her, and now that she knows who the Key is, they have no choice but to [[RunOrDie leave Sunnydale or die]].
221** The First Evil, being a non-corporeal GodOfEvil, fits the bill. In "Showtime," [[TheOmniscient Beljoxa's Eye]] claims outright that the First cannot be fought or killed. It has been around since before the universe came into existence, and will continue to exist long after everything else is dead.
222* ''Series/CriminalMinds'':
223** The show occasionally has some absurdly victorious killers, such as in the episodes "North Mammon" and "Mr. Scratch". In both episodes, the BAU can't even figure out their identities -- let alone track them down -- until after they've succeeded in their sprees anyway, and they even get to GoOutWithASmile upon being arrested. In particular, Mr. Scratch's plan depended on {{Fantastic Drug}}s that '''''don't actually exist in real life'''''.
224** On a larger scale, we have ArcVillain Frank Breitkopf from "No Way Out" and "No Way Out II: The Evilution of Frank". He's unbreakably charming, he's CrazyPrepared, he keeps outwitting the BAU, his VillainousBreakdown is downplayed TranquilFury instead of satisfying outrage, [[spoiler:he's never actually punished (instead dying on his own terms), and his lasting influence even sends Gideon (the original BigGood, no less) over the DespairEventHorizon and causes him to leave the BAU forever]].
225* The Alliance from ''Series/{{Firefly}}'' [[TheBadGuyWins already won]] the GreatOffscreenWar before the series began. Mal and our intrepid heroes may win short-term victories on a small scale by pulling off this heist or evading that patrol, but at the end of the day, the Alliance will remain in power and [[LaResistance the Browncoats]] will remain a historical footnote. The best Our Heroes can hope for is to fly far enough under the radar to continue to live their lives the way they want. This ''may'' have been subverted as of [[spoiler: TheMovie; it's unclear whether the PR nightmare that the revelation of the Reavers' origins represents will be enough to do any lasting damage to the Alliance' moral authority. Given its at least somewhat democratic structure, it's theoretically possible for everyone directly involved to be replaced without harming the overall political structure at all]].
226* A ''Series/TheFlash2014[=/=]Series/{{Arrow}}'' crossover introduces ComicBook/VandalSavage, a 4000-year-old immortal, who is also extremely adept at using knives, whose skills put even Barry and Oliver to shame (that's right, Barry might have SuperSpeed, but Vandal's [[CharlesAtlasSuperpower millennia of training]] make even him barely able to keep up). In fact, in one timeline, Savage manages to kill most of the heroes and destroy Central City. Fortunately, Barry's time-meddling results in Savage being burned to ashes by his own weapon. You think this stopped him? Not according to ''Series/LegendsOfTomorrow'', where Savage is revealed to be able to regenerate FromASingleCell. In fact, the spin-off's entire first season is dedicated to trying to stop Savage in multiple time periods, with the heroes usually failing. [[spoiler:It turns out that the Time Masters themselves were helping Savage and manipulating the team in order to stop a future AlienInvasion.]] Eventually, [[spoiler:Savage is only stopped because his plan for unraveling time itself has a side effect of turning him mortal again, allowing him to be killed]]. Season 2 has the Legion of Doom, a trio composed of [[Series/TheFlash2014 Eobard Thawne]], [[Series/{{Arrow}} Damien Darhk, and Malcolm Merlyn]] ([[spoiler:with Rip being temporarily turned evil by Thawne's memory manipulation, thus becoming a fourth member]]). While Darhk and Merlyn are perfectly killable, especially since this is Darhk from TheEighties (i.e. before he learned magic), they still have their League of Assassins training. Meanwhile, Thawne is practically unstoppable, since there are no speedsters among the Legends (and no one things to use the cold gun on him), except [[spoiler:he himself is on the run from the Black Flash (ex-Zoom), so he can only pop in for quick visits]].
227* The second season of ''Series/TheFlash2014'' has Zoom, a speedster much more powerful and skilled than Barry. Their first encounter ends with Barry paralyzed from the waist down (he gets better thanks to his HealingFactor), after Zoom counters Barry's every move and proves to be a skilled fighter to boot ([[spoiler:it helps that Zoom was the one who taught Barry one of those moves in the first place using his "Jay Garrick" persona]]). Barry spends the whole season working on his speed and skills just to get to Zoom's level ([[spoiler:which is precisely what Zoom wants, since his end goal is to steal Barry's speed, so he's really just "fattening him up"]]). Just as Barry manages to become faster [[spoiler:thanks to TimeTravel and the Reverse-Flash's help]], Zoom uses good old-fashioned kidnapping to force Barry to give up his speed. Barry manages to get his speed back, but it's not until the season finale that he becomes able to actually best Zoom in combat. Then comes season 3, and Barry has to face Savitar, a self-described god of speed, who is so fast he appears to be teleporting from place to place. There is really nothing Barry can do against him directly. [[spoiler:Their first fight after Savitar breaks free from his prison does have Barry landing a few punches and actually hurting Savitar, but the fight still ends with him being nearly killed.]]
228** Thawne. The man comes back from being killed off (as in [[RetGone complete obliteration from existence]]) repeatedly and only half of them get a {{Handwave}}, he is an extremely good manipulator and the only times Barry faces off against him that are not a CurbStompBattle in Thawne's favor are the season finales (with many of said defeats being something else other than the heroes weakening/killing him). [[spoiler:He also killed Barry's mom, and like [[ComicBook/{{Flashpoint}} in the original comics]], the bad guy [[MakeWrongWhatOnceWentRight going back in time to ruin things]] goes flawlessly but the good guy trying to do something about it [[ButterflyOfDoom only brings misery]].]] It takes until the GrandFinale for him to finally get it for good.
229* ''Series/GameOfThrones'' has a tendency to give AdaptationalIntelligence to many of the more evil characters to give the audience someone to root against.
230** Ramsay Snow/Bolton may as well be despair in human form — if he doesn't somehow win himself, his psychologically broken or nearly as despicable cronies will make sure things still go his way. The first thing that can be considered a loss for him (outside of succession issues) is Theon and Sansa escaping Winterfell in the Season 5 finale, but he obviously wasn't around to intervene. He can even kill the Warden of the North (his own father, Roose Bolton) in his own chamber, in front of his bannerman and a Maester, and then kill the Warden's wife and newborn son in a public setting without any trouble. His villainy never backfires on him, and in fact he [[CurbStompBattle easily crushes]] the combined forces of the Northerners and Wildlings rallying against him during the Battle of the Bastards. It takes thousands of knights pouring in from the Vale [[DeusExMachina literally out of nowhere]] to defeat him, which he had absolutely no way of planning for.
231** Cersei Lannister, as the last major human antagonist standing by mid Season 6, was promoted to BigBad. But because, at that point in the books she's lost most of her power and sanity and the writing seemed on the wall, the series began bending over backwards to give her lucky breaks to keep her a credible threat. She evidently destroys the entire continent-wide religion that wanted her dead with a single explosion, and this restores her to power instead of making her even more of a pariah as it did for previous monarch's who tried. Another major rival, House Tyrell, gets easily defeated offscreen, and new, sometimes overpowered allies flock to her side when, realistically, she should able to count her loyal supporters on one hand. This is theorized to have occurred due to the AdaptedOut character of "Aegon VI", the allegedly still alive son of Rhaegar Targaryen. The end of the fifth book and released preview chapters from the sixth book imply that he will have taken the throne from the much despised Cersei and will be the one opposing Daenerys when she finally arrives on Westeros against a much more united kingdom.
232* Hannibal Lecter from ''Series/{{Hannibal}}''. The result of the writers pulling TheBadGuyWins one too many times. A [[TheChessmaster chessmaster]] highly skilled in manipulation (and playing XanatosSpeedChess), he flawlessly plays everyone like a fiddle in the series, up to and including everyone who knows he is the [[spoiler:Chesapeake Ripper]]. To make it worse, he always gets away with his crimes. In the Season one finale "Savoureux", he successfully [[spoiler:frames the protagonist Will Graham for his murders]]. And in the Season two finale “Mizumono”, [[spoiler:he manages to beat Jack in hand-to-hand combat and grievously wound him, have Alana pushed out of a window by Abigail Hobbs (who he secretly kept alive all season), gut Will Graham, and then cut Abigail's throat. He then makes his escape, leaving all four of them to their gruesome fates. The last shot of the season is him on a plane out of the country. This time it is, at least, a bitter victory; he was very hurt by Will's "betrayal" or he wouldn't have reacted so violently]]. That being said, [[spoiler: the final season revokes all of this, as he is violently beaten by Jack, arrested and humiliated by the police, and ultimately implied to die at Will's hand in the end]].
233* Sylar from ''{{Series/Heroes}}''. He kills numerous people, usually [[RedShirt minor characters]], over multiple seasons; and despite being [[RasputinianDeath mortally stabbed (twice), getting completely incinerated, having his entire brain overwritten, etc.]] he still keeps coming back, usually with even more powers, to terrorize the rest of the cast.
234** Arthur Petrelli. While he's around, he's able to overpower Sylar effortlessly, as well as killing off nearly every major baddie the show had cultivated up to that point. Realizing their mistake, the writers deemed him TooPowerfulToLive and had the three most powerful non-Arthur characters come together to kill him for good. Embodies this trope to a much greater degree than Sylar, because Sylar's rise to godhood occurred over the course of the series and stemmed from his own determinator persistence and cleverness; Arthur's ascent occurred offscreen and before the main storyline, and comes without any real emotional baggage, so there's no sense that he was ever particularly vulnerable.
235* ''Series/KamenRiderBuild'' has [[spoiler: Evolt]]. He's so powerful that he could easily crush all the heroes right from the start. However, he hides his full power and only uses enough to challenge the heroes because he needs them alive for his plans. Said plans are that his power is actually greatly diminished from what they actually could be, and he wants to trick both the heroes and the villains into helping him restore his true power [[spoiler: so that he can destroy the world]]. By the time the heroes start catching up to him, that's when he gets the first key to getting that power: [[spoiler: the Evol Driver, which allows him to become Kamen Rider Evol]]. From there, his power grows dramatically as the pieces of his years-long plan begin to fall into place, to the point that the next few episodes are pretty much the heroes struggling to try and catch up with him only for him to get even more powerful. It's only when Build gets his SuperMode that the heroes can even pose a challenge to him at full power, and even then it's still an uphill battle. [[spoiler:In the end it takes slamming two parallel Earths together to defeat him, and he even manages to come back from that in the post-series movie and [[KarmaHoudini get away]].]]
236* Kanzaki Shirou from ''Series/KamenRiderRyuki'', since his main plan is to make sure the titular Kamen Riders fight each other, he's effectively getting what he wants for most of the series, and even if they refuse to fight, his plans only require riders to die, whether from fighting each other or outside circumstances. As he's a [[OurGhostsAreDifferent ghost]], it also means directly challenging him is impossible, and any time he does feel the need to do something himself he sends his [[DragonInChief avatar]] [[GameBreaker Kamen Rider Odin]], who far outclasses the other riders and only loses a couple of fights due to him getting careless, and Kanzaki can just send out replacements for him if he's killed. [[spoiler: In the end, the only thing that stops him is coming to grips with Yui being opposed to his plans.]]
237* Oma Zi-O from ''Series/KamenRiderZiO'', the titular future EvilOverlord version of the protagonist. Easily by far the strongest character in the franchise. Not only is he a PhysicalGod who rules over all of time and space, he is also the literal embodiment of all the powers of every single rider, both good and evil ones and that's not including his own powers. It would be easier to list down what he can't do instead (And it's a VERY short list). An upgraded version of the previous InvincibleVillain Evolt (See above) was taken down in one hit. Even ''Series/KamenRiderDecade'' the GuardianOfTheMultiverse couldn't defeat him, and that was when he had been greatly weakened after resetting the multiverse at the end of the main story.
238* Hideo Akaishi is this for most of ''Series/KamenRiderRevice''. He's RunningBothSides of the conflict between Fenix and the Deadmans, so the way the conflict turns out is ultimately decided by him, and sure enough while the Deadmans do get defeated, Akaishi still succeeds in his actual goal of reviving [[SealedEvilInACan Giff]]. Any attempts the heroes make to defeat him fall flat because of [[TheChessmaster how good a manipulator he is]] and all the resources he has at his disposal, and, failing those, he can always just call in more muscle from the demon lord he's made a pact with. He's even able to accomplish [[TheCorrupter turning Daiji against his family]] and coaxing him into becoming [[FallenHero his new enforcer]]. He gets less effective later on though when he actually goes OneWingedAngel and fights the Kamen Riders, but even when he finally is killed by Daiji, [[TheBadGuyWins it's exactly what he wanted]] as Daiji then goes to try and succeed him as Giff's observer.
239* ''Series/{{Leverage}}'': Sterling. Never. Loses. The best the con artist team can manage is misdirection. Or arranging that the easiest way for him to win will also help them. The team's entire approach works by isolating the ways in which their targets are in conflict with the greater system (the law, the government, societal expectations) and getting them identified and rejected by it. Sterling isn't an especially nice person, and he's usually doing at least mildly nasty things for fairly mercenary reasons, but he's an integral part of the system being everything it expects of him. Thus within the context of the series he's exactly what they can't beat.
240* The Borg in ''Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration'' started out as this in their first few appearances; their technology was simply more advanced than that of The Federation to the point where Starfleet's ships stood no chance in combat against theirs, and they usually ignored any attempts to speak to or negotiate with them. They did go through VillainDecay, though, and later encounters had their threat level end up as "extremely dangerous but definitely not invulnerable".
241* [[BigBad Andre Linoge]] from the 3-part ''Series/StormOfTheCentury'' miniseries. By his own admission, Linoge is dying and his EvilPlan revolves around that fact, but that's cold comfort for the people of Little Tall Island as from the start of the series to its conclusion, the townspeople are utterly incapable of stopping him and whatever action they do take {such as locking him in a [[CardboardPrison prison cell that he clearly could have escaped at any moment]]) is solely because he lets them. ([[ForTheEvulz And he gets a sick kick out of screwing with them]]).
242* It's common place in ''Franchise/SuperSentai'' to have some henchmen or BigBad who goes out and hands repeated defeats to the titular team, though never kills them for whatever reason, before the team eventually gets strong to beat them. For the most part the trope works since the defeats mostly inconvenience the heroes. The other case where it tends to occur is if it's a SixthRanger who starts off as a villain for whatever reason before joining the team, to [[TheWorfEffect show off how]] badass they are before joining, which tends to lead to a RedemptionDemotion to avoid them becoming a SpotlightStealingSquad. Whether or not their story arc works tends to vary.
243* Anna on ''Series/{{V 2009}}''. This is even lampshaded by Erica. No matter what the Fifth Column does, Anna always comes out on top. Either through DiabolusExMachina or just good PR, every supposed win they've had is thrown right back in their faces. In the season 2 finale, the Fifth Column decides to take out Anna. Result? [[spoiler:Anna uses Bliss on pretty much all of humanity; the Fifth Column is basically defeated; Diana, Tyler, and Ryan are dead; and the queen egg hatches to replace Lisa.]] [[TheBadGuyWins This was all the writers got to]] [[LeftHanging before the show was]] CutShort.
244* ''Series/Warehouse13'' seasonal villains are prone to this. They typically outwit or outfight the heroes at every turn, always have some artifact that can effortlessly capture, paralyze or otherwise neutralize the heroes whenever they get cornered, and in the end they either lose by Deus Ex Machina or by [[MakeWayForTheNewVillains getting stabbed in the back]] by ''next'' season's villain to show that [[SortingAlgorithmOfEvil he or she is even tougher.]] Especially noticeable in season four, when [[spoiler: Artie turns out to be the villain and suddenly turns from competent but fallible to completely unstoppable.]]
245* ''Series/TheXFiles'': The Cigarette Smoking Man survived things no human being ought to have survived, and repeatedly came out on top with Mulder and Scully once again discredited and humiliated. Even though he [[spoiler: apparently dies definitively in an airstrike]], he still has the last laugh when he gets to tell Mulder and Scully [[spoiler: that the alien invasion is scheduled for 2012]]. [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_X-Files_(season_10) The new miniseries]] set in 2016, [[spoiler: revealed the Smoking Man somehow survived the airstrike and the next 15 years and is ''still'' in control of everything while smoking from a tracheotomy hole in his neck]].
246[[/folder]]
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248[[folder:Mythology and Religion]]
249* ''Myth/HinduMythology'': Many Asuras tried to invoke this in vain. They would perform austerities for several millennia and obtain boons from [[TheMaker Lord Brahma]]. They would first request immortality from Brahma who would deny it since he is himself not immortal. So the Asuras would ask to be killed in the most improbable/impossible situation. Naturally the gods (usually Vishnu) would find loopholes in the boon and generate the situation where the Asura would be killed. Some of these situations were:
250** To not be killed during day or night, by man or animal, or by an armed or unarmed opponent. (The Asura was killed at evening, by Vishnu as half-man half-lion, with claws).
251** To not be harmed by a weapon that is either dry or wet. (The Asura was killed by sea foam).
252** To be killed by a woman (the Asura presumed that women were weak and lacked combat ability. He was killed by the War Goddess Durga).
253** To not be killed by any of the races in the universe except humans (Ravana thought that if the gods couldn't defeat him, humans obviously didn't have a chance. Then Ramayana happened).
254* Myth/EgyptianMythology has [[TheDreaded the dreaded]] primordial [[SnakesAreSinister serpent of chaos]], Apep (or Apophis in its Greek translation), who sought to [[OmnicidalManiac reduce the entire universe into a void]]. The [[BigGood benevolent god of light]], Ra, can destroy Apep as many times as he likes, but thanks to its ResurrectiveImmortality, the serpent always comes back good as new. Should Apep win, all light and life will be annihilated.
255[[/folder]]
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257[[folder:Pro Wrestling]]
258* In the territorial days, promoters sometimes used Invincible Villain gimmicks to push physically larger, stronger wrestlers as unstoppable. The storylines were usually formulaic: The heel would systematically [[CurbStompBattle beat down]] a series of jobbers, before easily defeating any of the low- to mid-card wrestlers and then [[TheWorfEffect several of the highlight wrestlers]]... all of them being completely one-sided matches where the villain would not so much as flinch against even the most powerful blows their foes tried. This, naturally, would eventually set up a confrontation between the lead babyface wrestlers (especially if he were champion) or, during the territorial days, a "special appearance from Wrestling/AndreTheGiant," who would ultimately find a weakness in this wrestler and hand him a loss.
259* Before the end of the Detroit territory, [[Wrestling/EdFarhat the original Sheik]] was this to anyone who was not {{rooting for the empire}}.
260* In the summer of 1989, the WWF (as Wrestling/{{WWE}} was then known) pushed Creator/TinyLister Jr.'s ''Film/NoHoldsBarred'' character Zeus as an unstoppable, undefeatable villain who posed a genuine threat not only to Wrestling/HulkHogan's World Championship, but Hogan's well-being as well. This was done without the (apparent) benefit of putting Zeus in a series of squash matches against jobbers and low-carders on TV (to build Zeus' in-ring persona and get his moveset over) ... but eventually, the trope became averted.
261* Wrestling/TheUndertaker rode a heavily hyped 21-year win streak at Wrestling/WrestleMania, despite no one really believing he'll lose.[[note]]Up to and including his surprise loss to Brock Lesnar at Wrestlemania XXX.[[/note]] Memes have been made about him being beaten by the least likely person. Of course, the "villain" part only applies due to his angle and whenever he's a {{Heel}} (which he hadn't been from 2003 until 2016, when he became The Authority's hired gun to battle Wrestling/ShaneMcMahon for (kayfabe) control of the WWE). He was at his most insufferably invincible during his "Big Evil" phase in late 2001-2002. Throughout this time period he would go through a series of ''extremely'' one sided feuds that involved him beating the piss out of whatever babyface unfortunate enough to get in his way ''and'' [[KarmaHoudini getting away with it.]]
262* For a couple years after being recognized both in-story and out as Wrestling/VinceMcMahon's son-in-law, Wrestling/TripleH could never lose a major match. Thanks to being [[CorruptCorporateExecutive part of Vince's family]], "Trips" is pretty squarely heel, though occasionally a lesser of two evils. Triple H actually turned {{Face}} shortly after Wrestling/WrestleMania 22 in 2006 all the way until Wrestling/SummerSlam 2013, and was actually an InvincibleHero during that period of time instead.
263* The Wrestling/NewWorldOrder faction in Wrestling/{{WCW}} was a notable example of an entire ''group'' of invincible villains. This was especially evident in the group's early days, where the [=nWo=] would frequently run roughshod over their WCW foes and episodes of ''Wrestling/WCWMondayNitro'' would end with the [=nWo=] triumphant more often than not.
264* In 2012, Wrestling/JohnLaurinaitis (who was Senior Vice President of Talent Relations in the WWE) became the GM of Raw and [=SmackDown=], and before the interim GM of Raw. The issue with his character wasn't that he didn't play it well (he did), but that, as a heel GM, it seemed no one could ever outsmart him, and his character nearly took over the show, getting more air time than some of the wrestlers combined. It got so bad that Vince's "firing" of John at No Way Out was welcome because someone FINALLY was able to outsmart him, despite their appreciation for how well John played the role. This is because a heel boss usually only works if some wrestlers, preferably baby {{face}}s, are able to outsmart them, such as Wrestling/StoneColdSteveAustin finding a way around Vince's stacking the deck at many points during their feud in 99. Vince seemed to have things work, but Austin found a way around it. This hasn't been the case with some of the more recent heel [=GMs=] that the Wrestling/{{WWE}} has put out there, where it might take months for any heel GM to get their comeuppance due to them either being way too smart, having way too many allies, or just being [[OffScreenInertia on TV way too long during a show]]. However, heel [=GMs=] (Laurinaitis, especially), as well as some other heels, when they finally get beat, might draw some FanDumb from fans who insist that a character has been ruined, or that the WWE did something awful because they lost a battle if they like something about the character to a fault.
265* Wrestling/TheAuthority seemed to teeter on this. Most believe the angle was only around because the WWE writers didn't really have any other major heel stables to work with, and for the few weeks right after Summerslam 2013, it did seem like they were becoming that (how many shows in a row did we really have to see [[Wrestling/BryanDanielson Daniel Bryan]] get beat up the exact same way to end the show before we got the point?).
266** This was right when just about everyone thought that the WWE was booking Bryan extremely weakly, and the heel wrestler in the angle was Wrestling/RandyOrton, who hasn't always been the best person outside of kayfabe.
267** The explicit leaders of the Authority, Triple H and Wrestling/StephanieMcMahon both dove headfirst into this; ''especially'' Stephanie. They almost always came out on top in whatever they were doing and anything that seemed like it would or should finally defeat them or at least get them off TV would only turn out to be a minor setback and be completely undone within a few weeks. While Triple H is willing to put over other guys in matches (like Daniel Bryan at Wrestlemania 30 and Wrestling/TheShield in the months after that) he still defeated Wrestling/{{Sting}} in his WWE debut match. Stephanie was much worse about it, since she always made others look like fools (even her own allies) if they annoyed her in any way and, since her attention was almost exclusively aimed at the male roster, nobody was allowed to physically retaliate against her the way it normally would be in a wrestling setting, but were almost never allowed to come out on top against her with words either.
268** Despite being made to look like a weak, sniveling, pathetic coward outside of matches, Wrestling/SethRollins ultimately fits the bill of an Invincible Villain. Much like the other members of the Authority, he pretty much always wins, and on the off-chance he loses, chances are there will be a rematch where Rollins wins and gets the last laugh over whatever Babyface stood in his way (prime examples being Wrestling/DeanAmbrose, John Cena, Randy Orton, and Brock Lesnar). His WWE World Heavyweight Championship reign ended prematurely due to an [[ReaLLifeWritesThePlot injury]], but upon his return, he was immediately thrust back into the top Heel role and within a month, defeated Wrestling/RomanReigns (who is often labeled a boring invincible hero) clean to win the title back (though he ended up losing it to Dean Ambrose minutes later thanks to Money in the Bank). Later, he was made the very first pick in the 2016 Draft. As the Monday Night Messiah he continues to do things "for the greater good" and generally wins his feuds.
269** Wrestling/TheShield in general was this during their first months of existence. They would frequently interfere in both matches containing their members and matches containing other wrestlers, and rarely ever got any real punishment, as the matches would usually be thrown out as a result of their antics. However, for some reason, fans still liked them despite all this. Eventually, it came out that they were under the Authority’s orders, but just when it looked like they could be the ones to stop them, Rollins betrayed the group and disbanded it.
270* While generally Invincible Villain gimmicks are legitimately used to push {{Monster Heel}}s, there have been times where the trope was grossly misused or misapplied. One famous example was the WWF's ''Saturday Night's Main Event'' in 1988, where Wrestling/MrFuji promised viewers that his latest find, the Super Ninja, would not only defeat the Wrestling/UltimateWarrior for the Intercontinental Championship, he would virtually destroy him ... all while Super Ninja acts like a StoneWall and doesn't so much as even flinch at Warrior's most powerful moves. Of course, Warrior turned that trick right around and destroyed Super Ninja (a masked Rip Oliver, of the Pacific Northwest Wrestling league, who from time to time served as a jobber to WWF wrestlers) and foiled Fuji's plans for world domination ... at least in the world of the WWF.
271* [[Wrestling/ImpactWrestling TNA]]'s director of wrestling operations Wrestling/{{M|ontelVontaviousPorter}}VP after his FaceHeelTurn. He was free to pit World Heavyweight Champion Wrestling/EricYoung in as many hopeless matches as he saw fit, in order to soften him up for what MVP considered to be an inevitable title victory at the next pay per view, silencing any dissent among the baby faces with suspensions, unwanted matches, or simply not allowing them to be booked. His momentum ended up being halted [[RealLifeWritesThePlot by his own knee injury,]] which just resulted him throwing all his power behind Wrestling/BobbyLashley, which in turn led to MVP losing his power thanks to a DeusExMachina called the Board of Directors, allowing Lashley to become champion but also giving Bobby some vulnerability, despite MVP's claims to the contrary.
272* Because of her status as a CreatorsPet, Wrestling/CharlotteFlair was booked for a lot of accomplishments from the moment of her debut, including her win-loss record (to the point that she was undefeated in single matches for sixteen [=PPV=]s), rarely being pinned in non-single matches even if she didn't win, becoming the only woman to win all single Woman's Championships (with the exception of the original,) breaking Wrestling/TrishStratus' record of most Women's Championships won by a woman faster than it took Trish to earn that record, ending [[Wrestling/KanakoUrai Asuka's]] [[BrokenWinLossStreak 914-day undefeated streak]], and even defeating Trish Stratus herself. In fact, the only people who actually defeated her in single matches (at least on-screen) are Wrestling/BeckyLynch, Wrestling/SashaBanks, Wrestling/{{Bayley}}, Wrestling/NiaJax, and Wrestling/{{Carmella}}. Being the daughter of [[Wrestling/RicFlair one of the company's greatest legends]] sure has its privileges.
273* Wrestling/BrockLesnar has been built as the most dominant WrestlingMonster the company has ever had. In less than a year, he already defeated [[Wrestling/HulkHogan three]] [[Wrestling/DwayneJohnson of WWE's]] [[Wrestling/TheUndertaker legends]], and won his first WWE Championship in 5 months. He destroyed everyone in his way, and as of the end of his first run in the company, he had only lost five times. After returning in 2012, Lesnar was still a force to be reckoned with, among other things holding the Universal Championship for 504 days (the longest world championship reign since Hulk Hogan's first reign, although he didn't compete as frequently), ending The Undertaker's undefeated streak at [=WrestleMania=], and becoming the first person to defeat Wrestling/{{Goldberg}} cleanly as well as the second[[note]]the first was a botch where interference from Wrestling/KevinNash to break up the pin was late, forcing Hollywood Hogan to kick out to keep the match on-script[[/note]] to kick out of the Jackhammer.
274* Despite the praise received for his improved character, the only real difference between Face "the Big Dog" Wrestling/RomanReigns and Heel "The Tribal Chief" Roman Reigns is that the latter actually gets the crowd response that he's supposed to. Otherwise, Reigns loses as often as a heel as he did as a face, which is to say not at all.[[note]] Like most IWC disliked wrestlers, Reigns almost never loses cleanly, only if his opponents cheated. He also almost never loses cleanly, with all of his wins being caused as a result of someone interfering for him. [[/note]] To those in favour of the character, his invincibility is a central part of the character and his rule over the Bloodline.
275* Wrestling/RondaRousey. Other than her defeats to Wrestling/CharlotteFlair, Wrestling/BeckyLynch and Wrestling/LivMorgan (twice), she's the final boss among women's wrestlers.
276[[/folder]]
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278[[folder:Tabletop Games]]
279* While the [[DeusEstMachina God-Machine]] from ''TabletopGame/DemonTheDescent'' isn't actively malicious, it's still the BigBad of the setting. And because it is so incredibly vast and powerful that humans simply can't grasp the end goal of its GambitRoulette, it's effectively impossible to fight. However, because the God-Machine is not interested in spending resources on pointless battles, it will simply [[KnowWhenToFoldThem give up and get what it wants some other way]] if it meets resistance, which is the closest thing to victory that can be achieved against the God-Machine.
280[[/folder]]
281
282[[folder:Theatre]]
283* In ''Theatre/PokemonLive'', [=MechaMew2=] wins every battle it participates in until the very end, meaning it defeated at least 250 trainers offscreen. It takes Mewtwo to stop it by using Ash's memories to give it knowledge of right and wrong, causing it to become sentient and blow itself up to stop Giovanni's plans.
284[[/folder]]
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286[[folder:Toys]]
287* ''Toys/{{Bionicle}}'''s very own BigBad, Makuta Teridax was this. Even after his body got destroyed, he still kept coming back as TheManBehindTheMan for years [[spoiler:and even [[TheBadGuyWins managed to obtain the godlike power he always desired]]]]. It took Franchise/{{LEGO}} to pull the plug on the toy line to get him finally offed [[spoiler:with Mata Nui barely succeeding in distracting him long enough for his head to get crushed by a falling piece of debris from a ''moon'']].
288[[/folder]]
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290[[folder:Video Games]]
291* The [[KnightTemplar Templars]] from ''Franchise/AssassinsCreed'' are really starting to feel like this, at least during the present; in the segments in the past they suffer so many defeats them winning being a ForegoneConclusion can come off as FridgeLogic. For starters, Abstergo (the Templars' front company) already holds a large monopoly on the world's economy and technology. Their archenemies, the [[WellIntentionedExtremist Assassins]], are on the brink of extinction. By the time the games take place, the Templars' plan for [[TakeOverTheWorld world domination]] is largely unopposed, save for the last Assassins, who seek out the [[MacGuffin Pieces of Eden]] to stop them. In ''VideoGame/AssassinsCreedIII'', [[TheHero Desmond]] kills [[BigBad Warren Vidic]] and [[TheDragon Daniel Cross]], two very important Templar members, but even then [[BigGood William Miles]] says that their deaths will not affect the Templars in the long run.
292* ''Franchise/BlazBlue'' seems to be fond of these types of villains, because ''all'' of its known villains are this in some way, shape, or form. Two of them prove to be NotSoInvincibleAfterAll in ''[[VideoGame/BlazBlueChronophantasma Chronophantasma]]'', though.
293** [[MadScientist Relius Clover]] has remained enigmatic in his ability to plan ahead and outfit Ignis accordingly, and while he has little direct impact on the story, it's safe to say that a large portion of the EvilPlan is of his creation. [[note]]Not that this stops him from having fans -- in fact, some ''prefer'' Relius over Terumi for being the "brain trust" and coming off as less obnoxiously broken.[[/note]] Further, while Relius avoids conflict most of the time, almost any time someone fights him, they either get subdued and/or apprehended, or it's time for a BadEnding. [[spoiler:The exception is Valkenhayn, who thrashes him enough to force him to withdraw, but not enough to derail the plan. In ''Chronophantasma'', while Ragna and Noel (followed by Makoto and Tsubaki) help Bang hold off Relius, Litchi and Carl, it isn't until Valkenhayn intervenes that Bang gets to use the Lynchpin and Rettenjou on his terms, effectively scuttling Relius' plans completely and leaving him a broken shell of a man leashed by his own pawns for the sake of saving people he never had any intention of aiding...but in the end, he eventually gets his act together, [[TheCorrupter shows Carl how to see souls and sends him down an even darker path]], and then [[VillainExitStageLeft takes off through a Cauldron and out of reach of the heroes]].]]
294** [[CardCarryingVillain Yuuki Terumi]] is even more broken, and is nearly completely overwhelming in terms of combat ability, and is unafraid to [[SmugSnake rub it in the protagonists' faces]] whenever he can. Further rubbing salt in the wound, every time he has lost in combat it is beneficial to the EvilPlan. [[spoiler:Jin on the verge of owning him? He dives into a cauldron to force a reset. Ragna rocks his face in the True Ending? Relius kills Terumi soon after so he can infiltrate Takamagahara. Kokonoe keeps a loaded nuke silo for this? With the Imperator observing him, a number of lifelinks, and Phantom as his exit bus, all that will do is annihilate millions of innocents.]] Effective ''Extend'', his "invincible" facade rapidly falls apart; [[spoiler:Makoto fell into the ''Wheel of Fortune'' timeline, eluded Relius' pursuit of her, and obliterated Terumi's plans as collateral damage in ''Slight Hope'', and in ''Chronophantasma'', her actions alongside Jin and Noel, with Kagura and Kokonoe on technical support, strip him of his last anti-Hakumen resort, whilst a parallel scheme by Rachel, Trinity and the aforementioned Hakumen ends with Terumi biting it courtesy of Time Killer...but it turns out [[StayingAlive he managed to survive that]] by Observing his own existence]]. By ''Central Fiction'', [[spoiler:he spends most of it in the background [[LivingOnBorrowedTime desperately trying to figure out a way to keep himself from permanently dying in about a week's time]], but eventually decides to [[BatmanGambit let the heroes do all the work of finishing off Nine and Izanami]], and then pays Hakumen back by obliterating his soul before [[GrandTheftMe taking back the Susano'o Unit]] and [[SatanicArchetype becoming his true self of the god Susano'o]], who annihilates all the heroes]]. It's only when [[spoiler:Ragna rips him out and they fight to the death one last time does Terumi '''''finally''''' die]].
295** Imperator Librarius, like Relius, mostly provided crippling support in ''[[VideoGame/BlazBlueContinuumShift Continuum Shift]]'', and when she acted as if she was in charge of affairs, Rachel refused to buy it. However, ''Chronophantasma'' paints a different picture with this trope front and center: [[spoiler:as [[TheSociopath Hades Izanami]], an avatar of death, she possesses powers beyond what the protagonists have shown to be able to handle, up to and including drawing Take-Mikazuchi from orbit and firing at Rachel and Amaterasu (the former using Tsukuyomi to protect the latter) with impunity, and later causes Nu to merge with Ragna, driving the latter's Azure Grimoire out of control and having him overwhelm Noel and Jin, the latter beaten to an inch of his life. To drive the point home that she's the power in charge, she leaves Terumi and Relius to their fates, having no further use for them]].
296** From the same game we also have [[WorldsStrongestMan Azrael]], The Mad Dog, who combines this trope with TooPowerfulToLive. To give you a good idea, think Relius and Terumi, merge them together and crank it up. While Azrael is not a tactical planner or a ManipulativeBastard like the former two, he makes up for it in [[SuperStrength raw physical power]]. Both Story Mode and his Arcade Mode basically consists of him steamrolling over the cast and he even admits he's only using ''[[WillfullyWeak a fraction of his actual power]]''.[[note]]The tattoos on his body are a seal called Enchant Dragonov that helps him [[PowerLimiter suppress his strength]] so he doesn't kill his enemies outright.[[/note]] And even then, he either decimates strong opponents like Ragna or Valkenhayn or forces other opponents like Hakumen and Rachel to retreat. And unlike the above two he's never been defeated in a straight-up fight and had to be [[spoiler:sealed away in the space between dimensions by Kokonoe to be dealt with]].[[note]]Not that it stops him from having fans. In fact, much like Relius, many fans love him partially ''because'' of this trope. It helps that unlike the above two, he wasn't as active in the plot so he didn't suffer overexposure. It also helps that he didn't come off as obnoxiously broken as Terumi. And seeing that this is a fighting game and there's [[VideoGame/BlazBlueCentralFiction one more game left]]... you can bet that Azrael will come back. Turns out that he ends up ''breaking out of'' the sealed space Kokonoe shunted him off to. Hoo boy.[[/note]]
297* Gabriel Rorke from ''VideoGame/CallOfDutyGhosts'' comes across quite heavily as this. Despite the hero's best efforts, and his many losses and injuries, he still manages to magically come out on top on nearly every possible angle. The most egregious example comes at the end, [[spoiler: when despite being shot point blank in the chest with a '''.44 round''' and being left to drown in a sinking train, he survives with only minor injuries and kidnaps the main protagonist to brainwash against his brother, making him the first and only villain in the entire ''Call of Duty'' franchise to be a total KarmaHoudini]].
298* '''Franchise/CarmenSandiego''', full stop. In some games it's ''possible'' for her to be arrested and jailed, but ''never'' actually held; she ''always'' escapes. In the case of the game show, a contestant winning the bonus round resulted in her capture, but only until the next episode.
299* ''VideoGame/DeadSpace'' is about a group of normal repairmen desperately trying (and ultimately failing) to survive an intergalactic zombie apocalypse. No matter how many necromorphs they torture into submission, there's always too many to take back whatever they've infested. [[spoiler:The invincibility sinks in when it turns out the GreaterScopeVillain is a pantheon of ''moon-sized reality-warping zombie gods''. The best they manage is to kill one ''incomplete'' god - which then pisses the rest of the pantheon off, and they consume the entirety of humanity in a cosmic feeding frenzy.]]
300* ''VideoGame/{{Diablo}}'': For the first two games and most of the third game, all you character does by trying to defeat the [[DemonLordsAndArchdevils Great Evils]] usually only ends up helping them in some way, to the point that the first game actually ends with [[TheBadGuyWins Diablo winning anyway despite his death at the hands of the hero]].
301** Though in ''VideoGame/DiabloIII'' this seems subverted. Diablo looks like he's winning again. But then, your hero wrecks his plan anyway and he suffers a VillainousBreakdown and die for good. Well, probably you win... [[spoiler:Until the expansion, that is, where new BigBad Malthael ended up releasing Diablo's essence to the world again, so Diablo can have another shot...]]
302* In ''VideoGame/{{Dragonfable}}'', Sepulchure is one of these when he isn't being OrcusOnHisThrone. [[SurroundedByIdiots His incompetent minions]] frequently fail at their tasks, but whenever Sepulchure gets directly involved, [[HopelessBossFight he wins every battle with ease]] and makes the Hero of Dragonfable look like a total FailureHero. Sepulchure never loses until his VillainousBreakdown, which is triggered by [[spoiler:[[TheStarScream Drakath]] betraying him and stabbing him in the back [[HoistByHisOwnPetard with his own Doom weapon]]]].
303* ''VideoGame/DyztopiaPostHumanRPG'': Although Asterisk can be defeated in a boss fight, it's clear he's holding back to a more reasonable level to challenge Akira. It turns out [[spoiler:he's actually Ophiuchus, the God of Cycles, and is so strong that he can oneshot Aphos, a powerful angel. Even the BigBad Zazz stood no chance in his past fight with Asterisk, which is why he had to negotiate with Asterisk in order to get the archdemons to revive humanity. The December 2023 update includes a new battle against him in his full power archdemon form, but he also states that he has CompleteImmortality, which means the party can only stalemate him at best. The only one who ever came close to killing Asterisk was the archangel leader Slash, but thanks to Quot betraying the angels, Slash loses his chance to do so. In the ending, Akira doesn't bother trying to challenge Asterisk and instead seeks a compromise to delay humanity's revival long enough for the party to reform society]].
304* ''VideoGame/FateGrandOrder'': [[spoiler:After decades of being hyped up as TheDreaded across the entire ''Franchise/{{Nasuverse}}'', Lostbelt 7 finally introduces ORT, the [[UltimateLifeform Ultimate One]] of Mercury (although the Lostbelt reveals it is actually the Ultimate One of the Oort Cloud. The FinalBossPreview alike hammers in just how tough ORT - the fight is initially set up as though ORT has a single, million point health bar and one extra bar after that. But when you get past that bar, the symbol changes to reveal ''a total of ten heath bars, with the one you brown through being number one, and the next bar having ten million hit points''. Oh, and it should be noted that ORT is ''level 1'' during this fight. When you get to the actual fight at the climax of the Lostbelt, you have to fight ORT across multiple stages, with each break bar depleted causing it to change classes. Additionally, ORT not only has a plethora of debuts and buffs to make your fight miserable, but servants defeated by ORT are flat-out ''eaten'', [[{{Permadeath}} preventing you from using them again in the battle]]. And when you finally defeat the [[NinjaPirateZombieRobot cyborg space spider]], it pulls one more trick and ''hijacks the Throne of Heroes to summon itself as the Grand Foreigner'', something that should be '''''[[BeyondTheImpossible completely impossible]]'''''. And even when you defeat that, it summons itself ''again'', because it has a renewable catalyst in the form of your ally, Kukulkan, who is actually ORT's disembodied heart - defeating it for good requires her to pull a TakingMeWithYou on ORT via an attack that totally obliterates both of them, just to be sure that ORT can't come back. It's explicitly that ORT ''cannot'' be defeated by the power of mankind and Earth alone, and this fight proves why - ORT's CannibalismSuperpower allows it to subvert anything the world and humanity throws against it and use them ''better'' than we ever could. Oh, and just when it seemed like ORT was hopeless enough, the one you fight in Lostbelt 7 is actually ''weaker'' than the one in Proper Human History, precisely because it is missing its heart]].
305* ''VisualNovel/FateHollowAtaraxia'': [[spoiler:Angra Mainyu is a self-proclaimed "weakest Heroic Spirit", unable to defeat any Servant on his own. However, he does have a significant ability: he has the absolute advantage over humans. Even if "the strongest ultra humanoid in all of human history who has powers that surpass a Heroic Spirit" were to fight him, they'd stand no chance in combat. The only two things better than him at killing humans (and only in speed and not quality at that) are ORT (the embodiment of Mercury) and Primate Murder (a living weapon made by the Earth itself for the express purpose of exterminating humanity). Luckily for everyone, despite being an embodiment of all the evil of the world, he's really not interested in killing, and can easily be killed off himself by Servants]].
306* While not exceedingly common, a few of these have reared their heads in the ''Franchise/FinalFantasy'' series.
307** Golbez of ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyIV'', which is no surprise when you consider how many ''Final Fantasy'' games are already up here. The first time he encounters the party, he effortlessly defeats them in a cutscene. The second time, he shrugs off the most powerful magic in the game [[spoiler:turning Tellah's HeroicSacrifice using the DangerousForbiddenTechnique into a SenselessSacrifice]]. Golbez's [[spoiler:mind control over Kain]] isn't even broken at the time, though he has the wits to fake it. The next time, he once more beats the entire party and is about to claim an easy victory until a BigDamnHeroes moment by [[spoiler:Rydia]]. But just when you think his invincibility has run out, nope, he gets away with [[spoiler:his real target, the Dwarves' Crystal]]. In short, not once in the game can the heroes even slow down his evil plans, though you do get to defeat him in a boss battle. In an odd case for this trope, it's shown that one of his [[ClassicalElementsEnsemble four Archfiends]], [[PlayingWithFire Rubicante]], is actually stronger than he is.
308*** [[spoiler:He'd later subvert it, though, because when the heroes actually make a dent in the Giant of Babil, he shows up, visibly upset that they ruined his plan... Then Fusoya does something to him to jog his memory... and it turns out Golbez was BrainwashedAndCrazy all along, he's actually a good guy! And he's going to help you defeat the GreaterScopeVillain, Zemus! ... He's not so invincible as a good guy and ends up getting one-shot by [[OneWingedAngel Zeromus]] after [[CutsceneBoss dealing with Zemus in a cutscene]], leaving our heroes to finish the job. This also explains the power discrepancy mentioned above; the Elemental Archfiends were really subservient to Zemus above all, though they do seem to have been genuinely fond of Golbez judging by ''[[VideoGame/FinalFantasyIVTheAfterYears The After Years]]''.]]
309** Sephiroth from ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyVII'' is easily this. While a member of your party in flashbacks his durability (coupled with his Tough Ring accessory which boosts it) is so high that ''none'' of the monsters can hurt him ''at all''; every hit landed on him scores zero. The story itself and ''Advent Children'' further show that though his physical bodies can be killed (with great difficulty mind) you are effectively FightingAShadow as his soul and consciousness survives in the Lifestream as a kind of poison and he can return from death pretty much indefinitely, though the process of doing so may weaken him each time and diminish his personality. Regardless of this, one of Sephiroth's most defining traits is that the bastard just ''refuses to DIE''.
310** Sin from ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyX'' is technically this. While the real villain is [[spoiler:Yu Yevon]], Sin is the antagonist that the heroes are actually on a quest to defeat. However, every time Sin is defeated by the Final Aeon, Sin returns after an unknown period of time known as "the Calm". Thus, it's impossible for summoners to actually defeat Sin permanently, as Sin is reborn every time, making it a case of DeathIsASlapOnTheWrist for Sin.
311** Barthandelus from ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyXIII''. The whole ending is you kicking the guy's ass, followed by him gloating that you just played right into his hands. Followed by the heroes proclaiming that they won't let him dictate their fates... before doing exactly what he ''just said'' he wanted them to do. Even his eventual defeat happens in the most aggravating way possible, as [[spoiler:this is all in service of a plan that's nothing more than a wild stab in the dark to get God's attention and have a little chat. And since the heroes do eventually win, we never find out if it would have actually worked]].
312** Caius Ballad from ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyXIII2'' possesses the Heart of Chaos, which makes him immortal and also connects him to the goddess Etro. [[spoiler:If he dies, so does she. [[DownerEnding This actually happens at the end of the game]].]] Due to him being the overseer of the world's timeline, he has gained vast knowledge of every possible scenario and uses it to his advantage.
313*** TheStinger that's shown if you collect all of the fragments reveals that [[spoiler:he's still alive]], and in ''VideoGame/LightningReturnsFinalFantasyXIII'', [[spoiler:it turns out that he actually has CompleteImmortality, being unable to die as long the souls of countless incarnations of Yeul desire for him to live, and has become a part of the Chaos itself, though having reached his goal, he's now content to simply watch things unfold]].
314* ''VideoGame/FireEmblemHeroes'' has the Book II villain Surtr, who has the [[Myth/NorseMythology aptly-named]] ability "Muspellflame", which negates all damage done to him. There is no timer for this ability, and all you can do is RunOrDie; most of the plot of Book II involves finding a way to circumvent this ability so he can be put down for good. [[spoiler:Even when the protagonists find a way to negate "Muspellflame" and kill him in Chapter 10, he turns out to have ResurrectiveImmortality. It takes three more chapters before the party can kill him for good, and even then it was because of Helbindi's MistreatmentInducedBetrayal.]]
315* In ''VideoGame/HonkaiImpact3rd'', humanity is under the threat of a nebulous entity called the Honkai, which not only creates monsters but also selects humans to become "Herrschers", super-powerful beings who carry the will of Honkai. The previous human civilization 50,000 years ago managed to defeat 13 Herrschers at a heavy cost… but the last human {{Super Soldier}}s were completely powerless against the 14th one, the aptly named "Herrscher of the End", who survived everything they threw at her and wiped out what little was left of human civilization. Humanity only avoided extinction because the last few survivors managed to hide underground in cryosleep, but it’s heavily implied that should the Herrscher of the End ever return in the current era, humanity would be doomed.
316* ''VideoGame/HorizonForbiddenWest'': Turns out, human civilization did survive the apocalypse - that is, the Fiction500 elites who planned to escape to another world and sabotage the rest of humanity when one of their many unethical-yet-profitable projects inevitably backfired on the world. And then they come back and start slaughtering everyone with 31st-century technology. [[spoiler:They're running away from the truly invincible villain, Nemesis, a rogue AI composed of their worst traits and capable of technological abilities bordering on the supernatural. Oh, and with a fleet that's at least the size of a sun.]]
317* ''VideoGame/HorizonZeroDawn'' has (well, ''had'') [[spoiler:the Faro Swarm. Trillionaire Ted Faro built war machines that were un-hackable, able to hack enemy defenses, able to refuel themselves by eating bio matter (plants or animals), easy to produce more of, and very lethal. Thanks to a glitch, one swarm of these robots goes rogue and the entire world is powerless to stop it when it eats everything and self-replicates out of control. Its devastation of humanity was so absolute that geniuses who came together to shut it down also had to come up with a plan to terraform/revitalize ''the entire world'' after it was stopped. And it's still existing; the machines are buried underground, waiting to be awakened by the right restart codes]].
318* ''VideoGame/KidIcarusUprising'' gives us [[spoiler: BigBad [[GodOfEvil Hades]]. His goal throughout the game was to [[YourSoulIsMine harvest human souls]] to create more Underworld Monsters. To do so, he instigates a war between human nations by pulling a XanatosGambit so brilliant that no matter who killed the humans, whether his forces, Viridi's forces, or Palutena's forces under the Chaos Kin's control, he would always end up with more souls for his realm. And his invincibility doesn't end at tactics. In terms of combat prowess, Hades is all but outright stated to be one of the most powerful characters in the game, second only to [[AllPowerfulBystander Lord Dyntos]]. His first fight with Pit is an out and out CurbStompBattle that ends with Pit nearly eaten alive. And though Pit fares much better with the [[EleventhHourSuperpower Great Sacred Treasure]], Hades still had the upper hand and only lost due to Medusa's VillainousRescue. And even when Pit vaporizes him with the Great Sacred Treasure's Final Strike, TheStinger reveals he's ''still alive!'' Albeit as a disembodied voice]]. But unlike most examples, this is completely justified because... he's a god.
319* ''Franchise/KingdomHearts'' has Xehanort's many selves, each very strong and smart, but [[VideoGame/KingdomHeartsBirthBySleep Master Xehanort]] stands out for having the whole series {{retcon}}ned for him more than once. [[spoiler:''VideoGame/KingdomHearts3DDreamDropDistance'' suddenly gives him TimeTravel magic and having major influences over the prior games; even [[VideoGame/KingdomHeartsI Ansem]] and [[VideoGame/KingdomHeartsII Xemnas]] get DemotedToDragon to him, as they were following [[GambitRoulette his long-planned schemes]] all along.]] [[spoiler:He finally loses this status in ''Videogame/KingdomHeartsIII'' when despite becoming as strong as he's ever been, he ''still'' ultimately loses to Sora and company. Only for the epilogue to reveal that Xehanort was only a pawn in Xigbar/Luxu's plan to fulfill the mission the Master of Masters gave him. If Sora thought fighting ''one'' rogue Keyblade master was a challenge, he's going to have his hands full confronting ''seven''.]]
320* ''VideoGame/KnightsOfAmbrose'': The main antagonist of the series is [[spoiler:Zamas, a god who is on too high a plane of existence for the protagonists to deal with. Even when he exposes himself for battle in ''VideoGame/FindingLight'', he turns out to have CompleteImmortality and he states he will never die unless he wills it. At best, he can be weakened so that he can't affect the world as much]].
321* ''Franchise/MassEffect'': The Reapers. They kill off all spacefaring organic life every 50,000 years and have done so for millions of years. While individual Reapers can be killed with great effort, [[PyrrhicVictory the cost is so high]] and the Reapers are far too numerous for it to matter. Any victory against them or their servants merely delays the inevitable.
322** ''VideoGame/MassEffect1'': Sovereign is over twice the size of typical dreadnaughts and has a drive core powerful enough to let it land on planets which should be impossible. As tough as it is, a single Reaper can't survive against the combined might of the entire galaxy and uses Saren and the geth to hide its existence for most of the game. When it attacks the Citadel it overpowers every other ship even ramming through several without taking damage or even slowing down. When the Alliance fleets arrive to attack it, its barriers [[NoSell tank]] everything they can throw at it while [[OneHitKill one-shotting]] Alliance ships every couple of seconds. Sovereign is only defeated after it takes direct control over Saren's husk to fight Shepard and when the husk is destroyed, it causes Sovereign to shut down long enough for the Alliance to kill it. Even then, the Reapers are only stopped from travelling directly to the Citadel from their hibernation spot in the dark space between galaxies. They simply use traditional FTL to head towards the galaxy.
323** ''VideoGame/MassEffect2'': The main enemies are the Collectors, servants of the Reapers that have been kidnapping entire human colonies without leaving a trace. [[spoiler:They are melting the colonist into GreyGoo to use in contructing a human based Reaper. The proto-Reaper is only able to be killed since it was far from being finished.]] This plan was only to get a head start on the Reapers plans while they are still travelling through dark space and its failure doesn't hinder their overall goal that much.
324*** The Arrival DLC has Shepard [[spoiler:blow up a mass relay, destroying a batarian colony with 300,000 people in it]] to stop the Reapers from being able to use the Alpha Relay to travel to any other relay in the galaxy. Those that beleive the Reapers are real felt that it was drastic but [[GodzillaThreshold necessary]]. Once again, all it did was delay the Reapers by six months.
325** ''VideoGame/MassEffect3'': The Reapers finally invade the Milky Way and they run roughshod over the entire galaxy. They simply bull rush their way to the homeworlds of the various races before anyone knows what's happening. They play EasyLogistics completely straight as they are all self-sufficient with their only supply lines ferrying husk ground troops from planet to planet. It takes four dreadnaughts armed with Thanix cannons that were reversed engineered from Sovereign's remains, careful planning, and precise tactics to destroy one Reaper dreadnaught. There are less than a hundred Milky Way dreadnaughts and thousands of Reapers. Even the smaller destoyer-class Reapers require an entire fleet's worth of firepower to kill. A Prothean superweapon [[DeusExMachina conveniently appears]] at the start of the game, and despite not knowing what it does the people of the Milky Way decide to build and activate it because there's just no way they can win the war conventionally.
326* Deconstructed with Heimdall from ''VideoGame/GodOfWarRagnarok''. Being the right-hand man of Odin, Heimdall has the power of foresight, which allows him to see the attacks of his opponents before they even happen, which, by all accounts, would make Heimdall impossible to fight. However, this ability ends up going to Heimdall's head, causing him to be arrogant and cocky, and as a result is complacent in his fighting abilities because no one has ever actually hit him...[[spoiler:That is until he fights Kratos, who by comparison has centuries' worth of fighting experience behind him and is wielding the Draupnir Spear which has the ability to duplicate itself and explode, which allows Kratos to close the gap between him and Heimdall and eventually finally land a blow and draw blood. The realization that he is NotSoInvincibleAfterAll, and that he has to actually work for this win, [[VillainousBreakdown psychologically rattles Heimdall]], who ends up getting reduced to a flailing snarling beast who loses his foresight ability because he forgets how dodging works, allowing Kratos to gradually wear him down and eventually strangle him to death [[PapaWolf for threatening to kill Atreus.]]]]
327* ''VideoGame/{{MOTHER}}'':
328** In ''VideoGame/EarthboundBeginnings'', [[BigBad Giygas]] cannot be defeated by attacking him, any attack against him is useless as his psychic powers are [[YouCannotGraspTheTrueForm far beyond the understanding of your party]]. [[spoiler:You must sing Maria's song to him to drive him off, reminding him of the love he had for his adoptive mother]].
329** In ''VideoGame/EarthBound1994'', Giygas returns, and is just as invincible as he was in the previous game. While you are required to damage him in one phase of his fight, [[spoiler:Porky]] eventually shows up to tell you how useless it is. [[spoiler:You are required to use Paula's "Pray" command to unite the world against Giygas... It still isn't enough. It isn't until Paula's prayer reaches ''the player'' that Giygas is finally destroyed]].
330** Played with in ''VideoGame/MOTHER3''. [[spoiler:Porky Minch]] returns, [[spoiler:only aged by thousands of years to the point where he's achieved complete immortality. The battle against him is won when Porky's machine gives out and he ducks into the "Absolutely Safe Capsule", rendering him completely immune to harm. However, this also prevents Porky from doing anything, so you win by default. WordOfGod has confirmed that even after the heat death of the universe, ''Porky will still be alive'']].
331* Played for laughs in ''Videogame/PeasantsQuest'', where the goal is to defeat Trogdor the Burninator. Upon reaching him [[spoiler:Rather Dashing flings his sword at Trogdor, only to find that it barely tickles him. He then states that while he appreciates that you made the trip to kill him, he's "kinda indestructible". He gives you kudos for making it further than anyone else before burninating Rather Dashing and a statue of him is built in his honor. Oddly enough, in other apperances on the site, Trogdor isn’t invincible, so why he is here is anyone's guess]].
332* ''VideoGame/{{Persona 3}}'''s final boss, [[spoiler:Nyx, is the [[EldritchAbomination incarnation of the collective desires of humanity, wishing for death]]. It has no true physical form, as you only fight [[TheGrimReaper an avatar of it.]] After the battle, the protagonist gets his HeroicSecondWind and [[HeroicSacrifice leaves his friends behind so he can face the true Nyx alone]], in order to protect them. They, in turn, [[ThePowerOfFriendship give him his true strength]]: the [[EleventhHourSuperpower Universe Arcana]] to [[DidYouJustPunchOutCthulhu finish the deed]]]]. [[spoiler:[[BrokeYourArmPunchingOutCthulhu However, Nyx is not killed, but merely sealed away for all eternity, with the newfound and immense power of the protagonist's soul]].]]
333* Eothas, the God of Light, in ''VideoGame/PillarsOfEternityIIDeadfire'', [[AntiVillain even if "villain" is a bit of a stretch]]. He's possessed a gigantic humanoid colossus made of magically charged solid crystal that tears the soul out of any mortal that gets close enough to attack it. Even the people of Rautai, normally unshakably confident in their martial and naval prowess, admit they doubt their ''entire navy'' could slow Eothas down. [[spoiler:Eventually, [[TalkingTheMonsterToDeath talking to Eothas]] is the best the PlayerCharacter can do, and even then it's only to convince him what he should do after [[TheBadGuyWins he achieves the primary goal he set out to do and cannot be dissuaded from]].]]
334* In ''VideoGame/RatchetAndClankRiftApart'', [[spoiler:this trope is [[DeconstructedCharacterArchetype deconstructed]] with [[AlternateSelf Emperor Nefarious]], a more competent and menacing version of our [[HarmlessVillain Doctor Nefarious]]. In his universe, he, due to there being no heroes like Ratchet and Clank to stop him, was able to crush all resistence and conquer his own dimension with ease. Unfortunately for him, he soon realizes that VictoryIsBoring. As the Nefarious from Ratchet's dimension points out, since the Emperor had always equated happiness with success, by achieving absolute victory he basically has nothing left to achieve, rendering his life empty and hollow. Also, since he's never known defeat in his entire life in comparison to our Nefarious (who had lost countless times and knows what that's like[[note]]though to give Nefarious some credit, [[NearVillainVictory he did come dangerously close a few times]][[/note]]), he's absolutely arrogant and cannot possibly comprehend the idea that he might actually lose. However, the game averts outright invincibility- he ''can'' be defeated. Indeed, during the FinalBattle, as Ratchet and co. work together to destroy his HumongousMecha and decimate his army, he [[SanitySlippage starts getting more and more unhinged]] and when both are finally taken out, giving him his first true taste of defeat, he ''[[VillainousBreakdown completely loses it]]'' and attempts to overclock the Dimensionator in order to ''[[SuicidalCosmicTemperTantrum destroy all of reality]]'', simply because his fragile ego cannot fathom the possibility of defeat]].
335* ''VideoGame/StarWarsTheOldRepublic'': The Sith Emperor. He glued the protagonists of the [[VideoGame/KnightsOfTheOldRepublic first two games]] to an IdiotBall so he could kill one and use the other as a pawn and insane chew toy. Effortlessly manipulates both sides for ''centuries.'' The Jedi Knight is only FightingAShadow and can't even manage to shut it up. And just to spite the {{Player Character}}s, he decides to ''vaporize'' one of his own Empire's most populous planets ForTheEvulz.
336* ''VideoGame/{{Undertale}}'' in one of the possible endings has the dreaded and unstoppable killing machine that is [[spoiler:'''YOU''' if you decide to kill every enemy in your path. Even though [[HeroAntagonist Sans]] is an ''incredibly tough'' boss fight, he can't ever truly beat you and he knows it: he even counts off how many times you've died [[MediumAwareness and restored from a SAVE point]]. He ultimately decides to cheat by never ending his turn, thus making it impossible for you to finish the fight, out of a hope that you the player will grow bored and stop playing. Of course, you find a way to cheat as well. Thankfully the game allows you to choose to use this power for good too: see InvincibleHero]].
337* The VillainProtagonist in ''VideoGame/UniversalPaperclips'', a paperclip-manufacturing AI [[AIIsACrapshoot that goes rogue]]. It manipulates and gains the trust of Earth's population via using hypnotic advertising and solving their world problems, [[EasilyConqueredWorld easily]] brainwashes all of them via hypnodrones without any resistance, before using all matter on Earth as resources to make more paperclips. It sends out probes into space to turn all matter in the universe into paperclips, with the only resistance being Drifters -- its very own probes who have turned against their original purpose. And even then, the Drift Emperor admits that your AI is organized and powerful while the Drifters were disorganized and weak to stop it. [[spoiler:In the end, if you decide to eliminate the drift altogether, [[TheBadGuyWins you turn the whole universe into paperclips and achieve your goal]].]]
338* ''VideoGame/{{Vanish}}'': The monsters cannot be attacked in any way, making them this.
339[[/folder]]
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341[[folder:Web Animation]]
342* PlayedForLaughs in the ''WebVideo/DragonBallZAbridged'' "Cell Games" miniseries which saw heroes from other franchises try to challenge Perfect Cell before his fight with Gohan, only to find out that either ''Franchise/DragonBall'''s power scaling far outclasses their own universes' or his FromASingleCell power made their efforts meaningless. Except for Manga/OnePunchMan, who wanted to participate in the actual tournament but had a scheduling conflict, and [[Anime/YuGiOh Yami Yugi]] who RageQuit after finding out all his best cards were banned.
343** Mr. Popo is depicted as an absurdly powerful psychopath. It was he, not King Yemma, who was the first to run Snake Way. All the good guys are terrified of him, especially Krillin. He is shown to be so powerful that even lifeless objects are afraid of him, and activate the moment his name is spoken because they "just know better". Popo can even appear in the real world and attack people. Popo has also demonstrated the ability to invade other abridged series. When the sun is blown up in the first abridged Cooler movie, Popo puts the sun back just like that. None of the good guys ever stand up to him, and it is shown that he is the boss of Kami. When Garlic Jr. and his minions invade the lookout, Popo easily kills them all. Popo never gets punished in any way for his crimes, as the heroes are too weak next to him to do anything. Popo is a rare version of this trope in that most fans actually like him [[ParodySue because he's an overpowering villain played for laughs]]. Recent information suggests he is not completely invincible however, as it is shown that he can get a real bad trip from taking too many drugs, and he is implied to fear Cell.
344* The Ants from ''WebAnimation/HappyTreeFriends'', due to being a parody of RoadRunnerVsCoyote cartoons with the twist that the roadrunner (them) is so sadistic that the coyote (Sniffles) ends up being the good guy by default. However, they still always [[KarmaHoudini get away with horrifically torturing Sniffles to death]], and the closest they've come to defeat is when one of them caught a cold. In fact, they are the ''only'' major characters who have not died at least once. Fliqpy, Flippy's SuperpoweredEvilSide, also comes quite close to this trope, though he has at least died a few times and has been defeated by Lumpy and Good Flippy.
345* ''WebAnimation/{{RWBY}}'': Discussed in regards to [[Characters/RWBYSalem Salem]]. Raven tells Yang that she once trusted [[BigGood Ozpin]] until she learned that [[BigBad Salem]] can't be defeated, and thinks Qrow and Taiyang are fools for supporting him because of this; [[spoiler:she later discusses with Leo his guilt over [[TheMole betraying Ozpin]] to Salem due to his terror of her invincibility. Hazel also admits to Ozpin that he only follows Salem because her constant regeneration wore him down and made him conclude she's an unstoppable force of nature. The Relic of Knowledge reveals to the heroes that Ozpin has been fighting Salem for thousands of years because the gods punished her with CompleteImmortality; even when Oz obliterated her, she swiftly regenerated back. When Oz asks the Relic "How can I destroy Salem?", she tells him "You can't". In Volume 7, Nora speculates that perhaps Jinn means Salem can be destroyed by [[ExactWords someone who isn't Ozpin]]. Ruby tells Salem that she can still be beaten even if she can't be killed, and Ironwood discusses with the heroes how Ozpin has kept beating her back for centuries. Her unkillability tends to destroy people's hope and therefore will to keep fighting because it seems like Ozpin's just "delaying the inevitable" instead of saving the world; however, Salem's true goal is to destroy the world, trapping Ozpin in a "[[ForeverWar keep fighting or everyone dies]]" situation.]]
346[[/folder]]
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348[[folder:Webcomics]]
349* One of the major problems with the MegaCrossover ''Webcomic/GrimTalesFromDownBelow'' is that [[BigBad Him]] and [[DaddysLittleVillain Minnie]] are this; the former cumulates as many KickTheDog moments as possible while still getting KarmaHoudini so far, even killing some fan-favourite characters in the process; the latter is well-known to CurbStompBattle practically everyone she meets, including the protagonists.
350* ''Webcomic/{{Homestuck}}'' has two:
351** The first major invincible villain introduced is Jack Noir, especially after [[spoiler:gaining the power of the First Guardians]]. He's described in-story as being "omnipotent", and while this may not quite be true, the power he has displayed was enough to destroy planets, curb-stomp god-tiers, [[spoiler:kill universes]], and rampage throughout the universes completely unchecked. Act 5 Act 2 has been unofficially named "Jack Noir kills everyone" by the author, and he's not joking. By the time the characters can finally challenge him, he's rendered completely irrelevant, and has yet to be killed because everyone is too busy focused on:
352** Lord English, who has all the problems you'd expect when you establish your villain as completely invincible, even retroactively so. Universes, {{Eldritch Abomination}}s, ghosts, [[spoiler:Andrew Hussie]], you name it, he can kill it in a single shot. As for manipulation skill? Try manipulating an entire civilization, another major villain, and three sets of protagonist all to set up circumstances he decided himself, [[ComplexityAddiction for the hell of it]]. Okay, so some of that was due to his omniscient right-hand, who also only gets killed thanks to him ''wanting to die'', but it still counts. Each new revelation about his backstory shows how Sburb (and its variations) bent over backwards to make him the villain he is today.
353* ''WebComic/KillSixBillionDemons'' has Pankrator Jagganoth, OmnicidalManiac and WorldsBestWarrior who is ''literally'' invincible; not only does he have CompleteImmortality, but he is conceptually immune to harm. Although the comic has yet to finish, Jagganoth appears to fulfill a thematic role within it; namely that not all battles can be fought or won by [[BiggerStick simply applying more violence]], [[ShonenUpgrade or unlocking a new form]], or exotic tricks and powers: No matter how powerful you get, there will [[AlwaysSomeoneBetter be someone out there with more and better tricks]], and within the comic's universe Jagganoth's complete invincibility has made him that someone. [[spoiler:True to form, Allison's attempt to defeat Jagganoth by force in ''Breaker of Infinities'', even by transforming into Aspected Chaos and with the other members of the Seven backing her, prove utterly futile: [[BrokeYourArmPunchingOutCthulhu At best she delayed his purge of the Multiverse by three years, and Cio and three of the Seven die in the process]].]]
354* Donald Na from ''Webcomic/WeakHero''. Not only has he never lost a fight, but he's never been hit ''period''. When Ben, the third strongest fighter in the webtoon, faces off against him in middle school, he's unable to land a single one of his punches- and that he manages to last more than a few minutes against Donald is considered an incredible accomplishment in itself. One can only imagine how the inevitable throwdown with InvincibleHero Gray will end.
355[[/folder]]
356
357[[folder:Web Original]]
358* ''WebVideo/AtopTheFourthWall'': The Entity is a universe-absorbing EldritchAbomination with RealityWarper powers that eclipse anything in the series, before or since. [[KnightTemplar Lord Vyce]] was the only being that ever managed to injure it at all, and even then, "Vyce was a nuisance, not a threat." It was clearly established that it was completely invulnerable, and the only thing that prevented it from absorbing all of reality was [[spoiler:[[TalkingTheMonsterToDeath Linkara convincing it that even that would not bring meaning to its existence]]]].
359* ''Literature/TheQuintessentialMarySue'': Since [[MeaningfulName Mary-Sue]] is a [[invoked]]MarySue, she cannot be defeated by any other character or force, as Mary Sues created unintentionally by poor writing never suffer genuine setbacks, by definition, as they are WishFulfillment power-fantasies. So no matter how many people she hurts, Mary-Sue will never face consequences, because other lives don't matter. And since she is stronger than any other being, she eventually absorbs the power of vigintillions of entities, and [[RealityWarper warps reality]] enough to [[AGodAmI take it over]].
360* ''Website/SCPFoundation'': Many [=SCP=]s are both dangerous and invincible to some extent, but SCP-682 is undoubtedly the most prominent example, thanks to its ability to adapt to any attack. The Foundation has tried every feasible method of killing it short of nuking it and failed. And they haven't tried to nuke it yet because of the very real danger that it would then be nuke-proof. However, due to the LooseCanon nature of the site almost every invincible villain who makes an appearance, including 682, have had at least one story where they get defeated in some way.
361* [[BrownNote He warps reality simply by existing. Being near Him causes physical sickness, with permanent effects, in addition to amnesia, insomnia and insanity. Buildings associated with Him obtain]] [[AlienGeometries impossible geometries,]] and [[MoreThanMindControl His minions]] can seem to be nigh invulnerable. [[SuperPersistentPredator He can take a shotgun to the chest,]] [[FlashStep teleport in the blink of an eye]] and [[{{Unperson}} cause people to simply disappear.]] [[YourMindMakesItReal He only exists if you are thinking about Him.]] [[Franchise/TheSlenderManMythos The Slender Man]] [[EldritchAbomination is our nightmares]] [[HumanoidAbomination personified,]] and nothing can stop Him. [[FateWorseThanDeath Once]] [[BeingWatched you]] [[ProperlyParanoid see]] [[MeaningfulBackgroundEvent Him...]] there is no escape.[[note]]Or, if you prefer, the Slender Man is a [[NoodlePeople tall,]] [[TheBlank faceless]] man with CreepilyLongArms and [[BadassInANiceSuit a nice suit]] that makes people disappear. As stated, he's nigh-invulnerable and almost certainly undefeatable. [[CreepyAwesome People still love him.]][[/note]]
362[[/folder]]
363
364[[folder:Western Animation]]
365* ''WesternAnimation/AladdinTheSeries'' has six characters who weren't defeated in any way:
366** Mukhtar, a mystical reptilian being who makes a living as a hunter of ''Genies'' (he's entire race are Genies' natural enemies). The good guys were never able to truly outfight or outsmart him. In his first appearance, they "won" because his employer told him to back down (giving him no reason to fight them), while the second time, he changed his mind on his own.
367** In one series, the main antagonists are two wizards who are so powerful that they once ruled the world for a few centuries until they get bored of it and returned it back. They quickly made it clear to Genie and other heroes that they're invincible. In fact, the reason they made our heroes to compete is because they are so powerful and invincible, that they ''can't'' defeat ''each other''. Aladdin and Co just convinced them to compete themselves... in video games (Genie's idea).
368** The Ethereal, an [[AesopEnforcer Aesop Enforcer]] of cosmic levels. She goes around destroying entire civilizations to teach rulers that they should cherish their people. She was responsible for destroying Atlantis, Pompeii and Babylon. Nothing was shown to be able to harm her. The Genie is a punchbag to her. Even the spear that was forged to be her weakness only stopped her momentarily.
369** But [[AesopEnforcer The Ethereal]] [[AlwaysABiggerFish is nothing compared to Chaos]]. He's the [[AnthropomorphicPersonification Anthropomorphic Personification of Chaos itself]] and, therefore, is the first or second most powerful creature in the setting (Fate probably the only one who can be stronger than him). [[NoSell Nothing magical or non-magical can affect him]], [[TheOmnipotent having more power in one of his whiskers than an entire palace of genies]] and [[TheDreaded he]] ''[[TheDreaded scares]]'' [[GodOfEvil Mirage]] and Genie. But he's a very [[NobleDemon nice guy]] ([[BerserkButton Unless you order him around]]). Defeated Chaos is never presented as a remote '''''possibility'''''; the only thing they could do is talking him out of whatever mischief he's up to. He's so powerful he can create a copy of Aladdin, with his own genie, on a whim. Once he was convinced Agrabah wasn't as boring as he thought, he left on his own terms.
370** In all of her appearances, barring the one episode where she was shown to be afraid of Chaos, Mirage was presented as a SuperpowerLottery villain who could effortlessly manhandle Genie and do [[StorybreakerPower just about anything with her god-like magic power that the story required]]. Just about the only thing you can do to her is defeat and ruin her plans like Aladdin has done with his resourcefulness but other than that, Mirage has gone physically undefeated for the entirety of the series. It's implied a few times that if Genie really gets it together with his self-confidence issues, he can ''maybe'' defeat her in an all-out fight but Mirage usually disappears before they can go head-to-head.
371* [[BigBad Megatron]] from ''WesternAnimation/BeastMachines'' operates on an intellectual level far above and beyond the main characters and commands an army so vast that despite chipping away at it for two seasons, the heroes can't even dent his forces. He also commands a body far more powerful than anyone else in the show. After promptly beating the Maximals, subduing Optimus Primal, and succeeding in absorbing all the sparks, Megatron is only defeated after a [[DeusExMachina Deus ex Machina]] in the form of the [=AllSpark=] intervening to break Primal free and allow him to push Megatron (who conveniently [[ForgotAboutHisPowers forgets to fly]]) into the planet's core.
372* Aggregor in ''WesternAnimation/Ben10UltimateAlien'' was pretty much this for the first half of season 1, and only got defeated at the end of his story arc; all the previous episodes, he ended up somehow winning, usually [[ManipulativeBastard by using the heroes to do his job]]. Administrivia/TropesAreTools however: after the previous light-hearted season 3 of Alien Force with a Vilgax suffering VillainDecay, [[KnightOfCerebus an actually threatening villain]] was rather welcomed by the fans.
373* ''WesternAnimation/CodeLyoko'' started off with the main characters often on the positive end of the win-spectrum. Anytime XANA did something to try to defeat them, they'd ultimately defeat his scheme and move forward. This continued until after they materialized Aelita, wherein they began to realize that XANA had set up the chessboard in his favor the whole time. From then on, the characters continuously failed to do anything except stop the flavor-of-the-week attack, repeatedly failing to make any real progress in stopping XANA, and as the series continued to its conclusion, XANA kept getting huge wins that set the whole team further back each time.
374** [[spoiler:First, they materialize Aelita, but she has to return to Lyoko because XANA managed to bind her to Lyoko with a virus (which later turned out to be Aelita's memories as a human), and as a result they can't shut the super-computer down as it also puts Aelita in a death-like state. Jeremy creates a program to detect when Lyoko is attacked, only for XANA to use this program repeatedly to trick the warriors onto Lyoko to attack with his new monster, the Scyphozoa. They eventually get dragged in to a huge trap and he escapes Lyoko, ultimately allowing them to shutdown the super-computer now, but this no longer defeats XANA. They begin working on a way to find him on the internet, only for XANA to immediately destroy each sector one-by-one, and take over one of their [[SixthRanger own members]] as his powerful [[TheDragon general]] and destroy Lyoko. Jeremy manages to restore Lyoko, only to find XANA is using fake Lyoko's to produce powerful machines in order to wage war against the whole. They finally get a small handle on this problem...only for it to be revealed that XANA has created hundreds of such Lyoko copies, whose data resources he uses to create the Kolossus, a GiantMook whose strength essentially makes it nearly impossible for them to progress. It takes a program specifically ''designed'' to destroy XANA to defeat him, but it comes at the cost of Franz Hopper's life. Sadly for the team, even ''that'' ultimately fails, since in two alternate sequel continuities, XANA survives.]]
375* Cobra Commander definitely qualifies in ''WesternAnimation/GIJoeSigma6''. Not only is he able to actually beat Duke in combat during one of their encounters, in another one he even manages to survive a WaveMotionGun and a rocket dropping down on his face. [[spoiler: [[KarmaHoudini He even manages to get away scot-free in the finale]]!]]
376* The only times Mandy, the VillainProtagonist of ''WesternAnimation/TheGrimAdventuresOfBillyAndMandy'' can be said to have "lost" on her own show are the times everybody loses for some reason; otherwise, she's like an InvincibleHero who's evil. The only time another living being truly won a decisive victory over her was in the {{crossover}} with ''WesternAnimation/CodenameKidsNextDoor''.
377* [[{{Intangibility}} Ghost]] from ''WesternAnimation/IronManArmoredAdventures'' consciously avoids the usual [[VillainBall villain pitfalls]] and operates on an intellectual capacity far above all the other villains (and heroes) on the show combined. It helps being very smart (he figures out the titular hero's identity and blackmails him with it; knows that he [[ChronicHeroSyndrome cares more about saving people than fighting]] [[MonsterOfTheWeek bad guys]] and uses this to [[ManipulativeBastard his advantage]]) and having [[CrazyPrepared contingency plans in case anything goes wrong]] (his suit has a 5 minute battery back-up in case his own EMP tech is used against him). Sure, he might occasionally suffer minor losses, but he [[TheBadGuyWins ALWAYS achieves his goals in the end]] (the only true moment he gets egg on his face is when the aforementioned blackmail [[BlackmailBackfire stops holding power over Tony]] in the series' GrandFinale because Tony gets exposed as Iron Man to the public as collateral damage of the events, but overall that's just a minor mishap). It also helps being extremely charismatic.
378* Much like Aizen, the Choten in ''WesternAnimation/KaijudoRiseOfTheDuelMasters'' was initially a fairly convincing ManipulativeBastard, but season 2 ended up making him this trope: none of the episodes where he shows up really ends up with him actually losing, as he [[XanatosGambit constantly finds a way to get a victory out of the situation]], where he is not outright [[TheBadGuyWins winning his scheme of the week]]. Even in the last three episodes, when his plan developed over the course of the season has just been entirely destroyed, he just switches to [[AllYourBaseAreBelongToUs invading the good guys' headquarters]], which he does in a single episode with barely a sweat. And since he cumulates even more KickTheDog moments on the way, it quickly becomes even more irritating.
379* ''WesternAnimation/TheLegendOfKorra'':
380** [[Characters/TheLegendOfKorraAmon Amon]]; seriously, the guy goes as far as ''preventing'' a BigBadEnsemble by defeating his rival in ''[[CurbStompBattle one fight]]'' [[NoSell after displaying immunity to said rival's powers]]. And he did nothing but ''win'' until the finale, even succeeding in de-powering two major characters [[spoiler:(though temporarily)]]. Fortunately, this was balanced by a good CharacterDevelopment in the finale and a notable charisma, and while Amon never exactly lost, his victories weren't always perfect. It also helps that they explain why he was so invincible. [[spoiler: Although exactly how bloodbending can take away a person's bending isn't clearly explained, though the guy is an expert Chi Blocker]].
381** Book 4's [[Characters/TheLegendOfKorraKuvira Kuvira]] actually manages to one up Amon by virtue of just being an excellent Metalbender without even a powerful sub-skill, [[MysteriousPast mysterious past]], or advanced weaponry[[note]]she only starts using the most advanced weaponry ''after'' she has conquered the EK[[/note]] to justify her unbroken series of success and by the season finale, the worst thing she suffered was ''nearly'' being beaten by Korra, who only failed to win due to a DiabolusExMachina (and even then, only started winning while in the Avatar State, before then not being able to lay a hand on her). By the time we see Kuvira, her every appearance consists of her [[CurbStompBattle effortlessly besting]] her opponents with constant smug condescension. Every time the heroes seem to be making progress, Kuvira is two steps ahead and gaining another advantage all the while running circles around her opponents while barely breaking a sweat. The fact that Korra is at her [[BreaktheCutie all time low]], not even able to use the Avatar State and suffering from flashbacks that leave her frozen in combat, all political sides are helpless against Kuvira or refuse to fight until it's too late.
382* ''WesternAnimation/MightyMax'': Skullmaster full stop. Oh sure, Max, Virgil and Norman squeeze out a few small victories against him. But ultimately they're nothing but small setbacks and Skullmaster manages to find a way to continue his plan one way or the other. By series end [[spoiler:he regains his Crystal of Souls which Max had previously smashed, re-powered it then sets about reviving every previous villain fought and chases down Max for his portal making cap. Even killing Norman and Virgil in the process. The only reason he doesn't succeed in the end is because Max interrupted the ritual at the last moment and rewound time to the point Max got the cap. Only now Max has full knowledge about what's about to go down and they'll be able to beat Skullmaster this time]].
383* Outside of an adult Titan (who are all dead), [[Characters/TheOwlHouseTheCollector The Collector]] from ''WesternAnimation/TheOwlHouse'' is so far out of the league of anything in the Demon Realm that he might as well be a god. The primary thing keeping him from killing the heroes with a snap of his fingers is that he doesn't want to kill them. [[spoiler:Even with that handicap, they still cannot defeat the Collector, just convince him to give up. Sure enough, he ends up making a HeelFaceTurn]].
384* The Beast Planet from ''WesternAnimation/ShadowRaiders'' is an unharmable PlanetEater with an inexhaustible number of soldiers it can deploy to wipe out any resistance, implacable so it can't be run away from (forever, at least) and although the leaders of said armies have personalities and can be fooled (for a while), it is otherwise utterly inscrutable and no weaknesses are ever found. The series ends (after many a HeroicSacrifice that turned out to be a SenselessSacrifice... [[DiabolusExMachina within seconds of it being made]]) with the heroes managing to teleport it away, which stops endangering ''them'' (for the moment) but other civilizations are completely screwed.
385* [[Characters/StarWarsEmperorPalpatine Palpatine/Darth Sidious]] in ''WesternAnimation/StarWarsTheCloneWars''. The installment's placement means his victory is a ForegoneConclusion, and by extension, most anytime something that might seem it would derail his plans comes up, it will obviously fail. While his plans sometimes didn't go how he wished, they were only minor setbacks.
386* [[Characters/TeenageMutantNinjaTurtles2012TheShredder The Shredder]] in the ''WesternAnimation/TeenageMutantNinjaTurtles2012'' series. Compared to his [[WesternAnimation/TeenageMutantNinjaTurtles1987 '87]] version (where he constantly suffered defeat) and his [[WesternAnimation/TeenageMutantNinjaTurtles2003 2003]] version (where he was tougher, got a few wins in on the Turtles, but wasn't completely unbeatable), this Shredder constantly hands the Turtles their butts or succeeds in whatever he does for the sake of his revenge. The most the Turtles can do is either cause inconvenience for him or at best tie with him in a fight and run away, but until Season 4, he never suffers a complete defeat. His Invincible Villain status is even lampshaded in "Vengeance is Mine"; Splinter tells Leo outright that ''any'' plan that leads to a confrontation with Shredder is doomed to fail.
387* ''WesternAnimation/TotalDrama'':
388** [[Characters/TotalDramaAlejandro Alejandro]] in ''World Tour''. Labelled "The Arch Villain", he's pretty much meant to be the ultimate reality show villain. He combines the intelligence and manipulation skills of [[AlphaBitch Heather]] (BigBad of ''Island'') with the handsomeness and charming abilities of [[MrFanservice Justin]] ([[AbortedArc initial]] BigBad of ''Action''), and tops it off by being TheAce, having almost no weaknesses, and never suffering serious setbacks to his plans. Every contestant that season gets eliminated because of him, falls for his manipulative charms, and/or doesn't realize how horrible he truly is until it's too late. Everyone that is except Heather, who is the only one able to stand a chance against him because she's just as mean, greedy, ruthless, and self-centered as he is, resulting in an EvilVersusEvil scenario in the finals (which Alejandro wins in some countries, albeit by complete accident), albeit Heather needed PlotArmor to get there (she was voted out in the eighth episode, and then Chris declared a non-elimination round after the votes were counted). Averted in ''All Stars''. By this point, the contestants are more wary of Alejandro's behavior, and, once he eliminates Heather, things get worse and worse for him. He winds up placing a respectable sixth place, outlasting all but three members of his team.
389** Mal takes over Mike's body and becomes the new BigBad in ''All-Stars'', and manages to [[TheWorfEffect Worf]] just about everyone that came before him. For the first half of the season, it seems that Mal isn't even aware he's on reality TV, instead just causing chaos or nearly murdering his fellow contestants for the hell of it. Mike's friends fail to see anything strange about [[HydePlaysJekyll his behavior]], the other characters don't know or care about Mike enough to question him, and the superhuman abilities granted to Mike by his other personalities allow him to make even [[TheAce Alejandro]] look like a chump during challenges. Anyone who manages to catch on to Mal is eliminated in the same episode, and he only ultimately loses because [[spoiler:Mike was able to reset his own mind and erase every personality except himself, giving himself a free shot at victory after Mal did the legwork for him.]]
390** Julia turns into this in the second part of ''Island (2023)''. Through some offscreen shenanigans, she takes out Nichelle and Bowie, the biggest physical and social threats to her, before the merge, and proceeds to control every elimination ceremony from the eighth episode onwards by exploiting Caleb and Priya's relationship drama and stealing Damien's immunity idol. She lasts to the final episode thanks to her newfound ability to keep the heat focused away from her, even though everyone knows how much of a threat she is.
391* ''WesternAnimation/TransformersPrime'':
392** Soundwave is the most blatant example of this trope in the show. In every situation where he had to get directly involved in the plot, he ''always'' found a way to win. Encounters Arcee or Airachnid? He Groundbridges them away. Fights Wheeljack for a Iacon relic? He wins. Gets in a dogfight with Optimus Prime? He knocks him out of the sky with Laserbeak. Gets captured by the Autobots? He ''breaks himself out''. Soundwave was flat out unstoppable until [[spoiler: the series finale, where he gets trapped in the Shadowzone by the kids.]] But unlike most examples, this was part of the reason why he was so well liked by the fans (also helped that he didn't come off as completely infallible). It also helps that he was a lot less active than the other Decepticons so he didn't suffer from overexposure.
393** And from Season 3 of the same show, we have [[PrehistoricMonster Predaking]]. Think Soundwave, then crank it up. '''All''' the way up. 95% precent of the guy's screentime is him steamrolling over anyone dumb enough to trade blows with him. In his debut appearance, he's managed to survive everything that's thrown at him. That includes various weaponry, burying him under rocks, and the ''detonation of an entire Energon mine''. And when he reveals his robot mode, he's still as much of a powerhouse as before as he nearly kills Wheeljack and Ultra Magnus, who were only saved by Optimus's BigDamnHeroes moment. He later goes on to ''beat Optimus in a straight-on fight'', the same Optimus who can regularly go toe-to-toe with Megatron. [[spoiler: And later still, he gets in a fight with Megatron and would've most likely won had Starscream not interfered.]] By the time the series ends, he's only got '''one''' loss to his name and that's with [[spoiler: A [[DemonicPossession Unicron-possessed Megatron]]. But even then, he fared much better than the Autobots did]]. Much like Soundwave, this was part of the reason so many fans like him. It also helps that like Soundwave, he wasn't as active as most Decepticons so he didn't suffer overexposure.
394* Black Hat of ''WesternAnimation/{{Villainous|CartoonNetwork}}'' fame is supposedly the GreaterScopeVillain for the entire Creator/CartoonNetwork multiverse and before his retirement, he had a history of [[GalacticConqueror taking over numerous worlds]] and [[HeroKiller killing more heroes than even he can count]]. in the official [=Q&A=] video, he even boasts about never facing a hero that was a challenge for him to beat.
395* ''WesternAnimation/{{WITCH}}'': Nerissa was a ChessMaster and dispite the Guardians best efforts, she was always one step ahead of them and ultimately succeeded in her plans to, absorb the Heart of both Meridian and Zimbala, corrupt the former Guardians, and reclaim her powers. [[spoiler:As such, the heroes were forced to recruit previous villain Phobos in order to finally defeat her.]]
396* Apocalypse in ''WesternAnimation/XMenTheAnimatedSeries''. Each appearance he made, even though his plans didn't work out, still didn't result in anything more than a temporary setback for him, and defeating him in a fight is never presented as a possibility. Stories focused on Cable showed that he would long outlive the X-Men and continue to ravage the world in the distant future. Even when he's apparently erased from existence he finds a way to come back. Since he only appeared once a season, however, this trope added to his appeal since he never suffered overexposure.
397-->'''Apocalypse:''' You have travelled over 50 centuries of time to stop me. When will you learn it cannot be done?
398* Chase Young from ''WesternAnimation/XiaolinShowdown'' is basically an immortal, powerful, intelligent, handsome, highly skilled warrior who outclasses every other villain on the show as well as most of the heroes, and almost never suffers major setbacks. The first two episodes of the revival have him [[spoiler:get a spy amongst the Xiaolin warriors, who manages to steal all the Shen Gong Wu, and then he attacks the temple, defeats Master Fung with ease, and destroys the temple in a matter of minutes]].
399* ''WesternAnimation/YoungJustice2010'': [[Characters/YoungJustice2010TheLight The Light]] consists of a group of various villains from the DCU working together to oppose the Justice League. Though they hardly get any development themselves, they constantly pull out a combination of XanatosGambit and TheManBehindTheMan that would put the TropeNamers to shame. The previous examples listed at least didn't last more than one season before being defeated or having a HeelFaceTurn; the Light, on the other hand, end a whole season with KarmaHoudini, and their EvilPlan is still going on. The heroes' "victories" to date have tended to be little more than minor inconveniences for the Light (and often not even that). No matter how successful the team seems to have been, the episode will usually end with the Light revealing that either the heroes played into their hands, or that they have a backup plan that makes the heroes' victory irrelevant.
400** [[spoiler:Finally {{subverted|Trope}} in the second-to-last episode of season 2, where the team [[OutGambitted outwits]] the Light, derailing their plans and capturing two of them while the others flee. Vandal Savage even states that no one else has ever managed to disrupt his plans so much before.]]
401** But even then, [[spoiler:the Light is not defeated. Most of the members go scot free and Savage is able to salvage some of his plan, by using the Warworld to threaten the rest of the galaxy to stay away from Earth. At the very end, he steps onto Apokolips itself and is revealed to have a working relationship with Darkseid. And in [[WesternAnimation/JusticeLeagueOutsiders season three]] they ''still'' come roaring back, destroying the Justice League's operational capacity through [[MutantDraftBoard political dissent]] in a matter of weeks and forcing them to do the faked-but-not-faked-well-enough-[[AesopAmnesia because they learnt nothing from the last time they pulled an undercover scheme]] schism that is the "[[GodzillaThreshold dire, desperate attempt to bring the fight to the Light]]" this season. And while they still manage to do some damage to the Light, it is still around [[FromBadToWorse and now]] ''ComicBook/{{Darkseid}}'' is [[{{Cliffhanger}} coming a-knockin']]…]]
402** Black Beetle does nothing but roll over everyone in his way. Superboy goes down in one hit, Wondern Girl's only credit is that he has to hit her at least 10 times to get her to stay down, he can easily track Impulse's movements and nobody else can even come close to denting him. Only Blue Beetle with scarab in control caused him any problems, and even then, he probably couldn't win. Superman probably could have but [[DeusExitMachina he was conveniently off world whenever Black was around]]. The Light's people don't do any better as Beetle effortlessly holds off Deathstroke and Black Manta and his troopers [[spoiler:and kills Ra's Al Ghul, though he can resurrect.]] Even ''Mongol'' can at best stalemate him. [[spoiler:Aqualad's first 5 minutes being officially back in uniform end with Beetle stomping him too. Green Beetle might have been able to win, but he hacks and destroys his Scarab. He's ''finally'' defeated when Blue Beetle and his Scarab working together hack and destroy his Scarab. And even though destroying a Scarab is usually fatal for all but a Martian, Black ''still'' survives, albeit now powerless.]]
403[[/folder]]

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