| 1 | ->''"See, the first wave, that was just the hounds! Categories 1 to 4, it was nothing! Their sole purpose was to aim for the populated areas and take out the vermin: us! The second wave, that is the exterminators, and they will finish the job!"'' |
| 2 | -->-- '''Dr. Newton Geiszler''', ''Film/PacificRim'' |
| 3 | |
| 4 | Heroes and villains are at war. The villain unleashes his greatest WeaponOfMassDestruction, perhaps in an AttackOfThe50FootWhatever. In the case of fantasy setting, it may be a huge monster. The first reaction of the heroes is to [[AttackAttackAttack attack all at once]]; they get easily defeated and the weapon is still undamaged. It's TimeForPlanB. Send an AttackPatternAlpha, ignore the losses and go on, take advantage of good luck, use ThatOneAttack that [[ItOnlyWorksOnce may only be used once]]... and finally, after a difficult and painful battle, the heroes destroy the terrible weapon. They are battle-weary, they are injured and with ClothingDamage, but victorious. |
| 5 | |
| 6 | ...hey, wait, what's that thing coming in the horizon? Another of those weapons? No, it's worse: it's ''a dozen'' of such weapons. OhCrap. It was so difficult to destroy a single one, can the heroes repeat the same thing again... and against a dozen of those things, at the same time? No, they can't. It's clearly the moment to retreat and escape, or to completely change the way to fight the war. |
| 7 | |
| 8 | This trope helps to prevent TheWorfEffect. Even if it was difficult, the heroes ''did'' defeat the big weapon. And when the dozen weapons show up, it's very clear that the hero has no chance and must flee, so clear that the watcher will not think ill about him for doing that (as he would if the hero escaped when the first lone weapon showed up). |
| 9 | |
| 10 | This is the inverse of the ConservationOfNinjutsu. It also averts NoPlansNoPrototypeNoBackup, as the villains do the exact thing any military force would do: produce the weapon in industrial numbers, not head to the battle with a single one. |
| 11 | |
| 12 | Often used on the first installment of a work to allow a victory against a foe, and then hammer the heroes (and the audience) with a warning that the Evil Overlord will not be overthrown today. This puts the last fight in perspective, as what was a relatively easy fight takes on nightmarish proportions if you consider that those troops were not even intended to be fighters in the first place, yet they gave the heroes some difficulty. |
| 13 | |
| 14 | May be justified in RealLife as scouts typically don't carry heavy weapons and favor [[FragileSpeedster lightly-armored fast vehicles]] over [[MightyGlacier heavy and slow ones.]] Not to mention that [[ZergRush quantity has a quality of its own.]] |
| 15 | |
| 16 | Used in basically every SortingAlgorithmOfEvil work (''Franchise/SailorMoon'', ''Anime/RoninWarriors'', etc). If said at the end of a work, a very common SequelHook. |
| 17 | |
| 18 | See also NormalFishInATinyPond. |
| 19 | |
| 20 | ---- |
| 21 | |
| 22 | !!Examples |
| 23 | |
| 24 | [[foldercontrol]] |
| 25 | |
| 26 | [[folder:Anime and Manga]] |
| 27 | * Subverted in the climax of ''Anime/DoraemonNobitaAndTheAnimalPlanet'', when Doraemon and co., with their allies on the animal planet, manage to take down the first wave of Nimuge invaders, including shooting down several units from the Nimuge's FlyingSaucer fleet. The Nimuge commander decides to retaliate by bringing out a ''tank'' to wipe out the whole forest, and the ensuing CurbStompBattle quickly goes in favour of the villains... just as scouts suddenly announce the arrival of a far larger saucer unit in the horizon. When all hope seems lost, [[spoiler:the incoming saucer fleet instead proceeds to extinguish the fire in the forest before dropping reinforcements to help combat the Nimuge, saving everyone in the process. Turns out the second saucer fleet comes from the Galactic Federation and is on the ''side of good'', and they've been investigating the Nimuge for years]]. |
| 28 | * ''Anime/GaoGaiGar'': Throughtout the first 30 episodes, 3G is constanstly dealing with the Zonders/Zondarians who are coming up with deadly trap after deadly trap. This includes trapping [=GaoGaiGar=] in dimension warping space so that it would be destroyed by it's own space warping device, trapping it in a giant constant explosion, using soundwaves to drain the literal life blood out of the 3G Braves, Leveling an entire city with gravity to the point that only [[TheBigGuy Goldymarg]] could stand, dropping nuke level railgun shells, hacking into 3G's computer to lock them down, turning the 3G headquarters into mindless zombies, having the 3G Braves almost be killed trying to stop the 4 Zondarian and being forced to use a power up against their boss Pasdar/EI-01(Who is said to resemble Satan) which at the end temporarily kills the 3G Braves, Gai and Galeon. And all that was coming from the grunts who only focused on a single city. |
| 29 | ** The Primevals are revealed to be far, far worse. Within 1 episode, 3 Primeveals appear and completely destroy 3G Base in an instant, with the cast seemingly dead and [=GaoGaiGar=] left to fight them alone. And unlike previous battles were [=GaoGaiGar=] pulls through, it gets absolutely curbstomped [[Note/The 3 Primevals are as large as Pasdar which [=GaoGaiGar=] was only as big as his hand]]. It was revealed that the Primevals victory came so eaily due to 3G showing their hand during the first 30 episodes. |
| 30 | ** To give an idea of the level of threat compared to the first 30 episodes, the next fight involves a Primeval that is attempting to destabalize Earth's magnetic field. The result in the Sun's solar wind decimating the atmosphere and life being fried by UV Rays. |
| 31 | ** Other attempts include: Having the Great wall of China act as a Zonder designed to extend into space and destroy 3G's Orbit Base using Earth's magma, all while creating an army of mini Zonder Robo's. |
| 32 | ** Having the Machine Primevals invade Orbit base on foot, almost have 3G under their control via brainwashing darts and turn Orbit Base into Zonder Metal Plant and Gai and J struggling to fight them on foot. |
| 33 | ** To make matters worse, it was revealed that even the Primevals were in an uncombined form. The combined Primeval was so powerful and large, even King J-Der, who was as large as a primeval was like [=GaoGaiGar=] to Pasdar, only about as large it's hand. King J-der up until this point was a powerhouse, oneshotting most Primevals and yet it couldn't lay a scratch on the combined Primeval. |
| 34 | ** And then we learn that even the combined Primeval wasn't even the true form. The real form is the Z-Master who is as large as Jupiter. It took going into Z-Masters body fighting through it's defence ''VideoGame/{{Gradius}}'' style to get to the Heart Primveal with which King J-Der had to opt to self destruct in order to destroy it. |
| 35 | ** And after thinking it's all over, Mikoto is revealed to have been carrying an evolving, dormant Zonder Metal spores in her body. This causes her to become a new form of Zonder, a Zonuda which in an instant sublimates all matter into machinery in an instant,something even the Primevals and Z-Master needed time to do. It was so lethal, Goldion Hammer which atomizes anything it comes into contact with was affected by it the matter sublimation. Even after Gai defeats it, Mikoto's Zonuda form still continues to matter sublimate [=GaoGaiGar=] and Gai's Cyborg body, begging Gai to kill her in order to stop her. |
| 36 | * ''Anime/{{Macross}}'': |
| 37 | ** In ''Anime/SuperDimensionFortressMacross'', the human military thinks they will defeat the Zentraedi because they don't realize just how massive the alien armada is. And even then, the only reason they were surviving against the scouts was because the scouts were probing humanity's defenses to learn more about them, rather than just stomping them out of existence. [[spoiler:The Macross Beam that humanity is so proud of on the eponymous ship? ''Half the Zentraedi warships have one.'' They just weren't using them.]] Further, the mighty fleet consisting of over 5 million warships they ''barely'' manage to defeat was the ''114th fleet'': there are many others of comparable size out there, and could show up any time. One of the final lines of the film adaptation ''Anime/MacrossDoYouRememberLove'' is a grim statement by Exsedol that, even though our heroes barely managed to defeat Boddole Zer's and Lap Lamiz's fleets, there are thousands of other Zentraedi/Meltrandi fleets that are just as powerful still waiting. However, later series don't make as big a deal about it; while it's implied that encounters and wars with roving Zentraedi fleets are very common occurrences as humanity expand throughout the galaxy, Zentraedi disunity has been allowing humanity to take them on one by one, with exposure to human culture resulting in entire Zentraedi fleets willingly assimilating into human society[[note]]In the ''Anime/MacrossII'' alternate continuity, Earth itself has been attacked by ''five more'' major Zentraedi fleets; one in 2036, two in 2037 (one Meltrandi and one Zentraedi, which fortunately for Earth got in each other's way), another in 2054, and a fifth in 2082[[/note]]. |
| 38 | ** DoubleSubverted in ''Anime/MacrossII'': the initial Marduk force is ''immediately'' identified as a scouting force, but when the Marduk later attack in force the hundreds of thousands of the first wave are mistaken for the whole force. Both are {{Justified|Trope}}: the initial Marduk squadron is initially mistaken for Zentraedi until they get a good look at them, and by Zentraedi standards less than a hundred ships is a scouting party, and by the time the Marduk attack in force they've been identified as ''not'' Zentraedi, and by non-Zentraedi standards hundreds of thousands of ships are an enormous number. |
| 39 | ** In ''Anime/Macross7'', the 7th Colonization Fleet has a fair amount of trouble with the enemy Varauta fleet's attacks, but they eventually decide to get serious and start blasting the Varauta with Macross Beams. [[spoiler:Then it's revealed that the Varauta soldiers are just mind-controlled pawns of the Protodeviln, just ''one'' of whom could annihilate the entire Colonization Fleet without much effort... or at least, they could if Basara would stop getting in their faces and singing at them.]] |
| 40 | ** In the later series, humanity itself has assumed the trope. The alien antagonists don't challenge the entire UN Spacey: just isolated migrant fleets or individual clusters of star systems at most: |
| 41 | *** In TheMovie version of ''Anime/MacrossFrontier'', when the Vajra face the reinforcements to the Macross Frontier fleet, they flee the battlefield to avoid annihilation by massed WaveMotionGun fire. To add insult to injury, ''these are actually the upper tier of scouts'': the reinforcements come from the Strategic Military Service PrivateMilitaryContractor company, that by New United Nations law has to use reduced-capability fighters and a cap on their ships' firepower, indicating that a ''real'' military fleet from the New United Nations Spacy has more numerous ships and fighters of even higher capabilities. |
| 42 | *** In ''Anime/MacrossDelta'', a plot point is that reinforcements from the NUN Spacy could crush the Kingdom of Wind with ease, but as they're a single planet facing an entire cluster and there's multiple larger threats around Earth Central just doesn't see fit to send in an actual fleet, only sending in a small force from the Galaxy Patrol when the Windermereans temporarily overrun the Brisingr Cluster and before Xaos (the PMC company that supported the Cluster worlds and has a full Macross ship) received additional funding. For the same reason, the Windermereans have to complete their plan to [[spoiler:brainwash the entire galaxy]] before Earth Central catches wind of it and sends in a full fleet, as they know perfectly they couldn't have conquered the Cluster without [[spoiler:the brainwashing Var Syndrome bioweapon]] let alone the actual NUN Spacy. |
| 43 | * ''Franchise/DragonBall'': |
| 44 | ** At the start of ''Anime/DragonBallZ'', Raditz arrives on Earth, effortlessly outclasses Goku and Piccolo, and then reveals that there are two more Saiyans, both stronger than him. After it takes the combined efforts of Piccolo and Goku, some help from Gohan, and even a HeroicSacrifice from Goku to kill him, he uses his last moments to radio them, predicting that they will arrive in a year. |
| 45 | *** Later, after arriving on Namek, they realize that the Saiyan trio were only a small fraction of an entire ''army'', and 6 of Frieza's subordinates were stronger than Vegeta when he reached Earth. |
| 46 | ** In the sixth ''DBZ'' movie, ''Anime/DragonBallZTheReturnOfCooler'', Goku and Vegeta just barely managed to overpower and defeat one Metal Cooler, but are then promptly attacked by a thousand more of them. And as mentioned, ConservationOfNinjitsu is ''not'' in effect, and they are handily curb-stomped. |
| 47 | * ''Anime/DigimonFrontier:'' The team finally faces off with the dark angel BigBad Cherubimon. He throws off their best attacks easily, and after giving each member of the team the opportunity to throw TheWorfBarrage at him so he can laugh it off, he smashes everyone with a single attack. Kouichi, TheAtoner, gets his Digimon forms back, redesigned and stronger, and manages to defeat Cherubimon... only for the voice of Cherubimon to taunt him. That was just a much-weaker projection the real Cherubimon whipped up in order to try and talk Kouichi back to TheDarkSide. The ''real thing'' will be waiting for them when they reach his lair. |
| 48 | * The first enemy robot in ''Anime/{{FLCL}}'' was only part of the hand of a robot. They meet the full version in the next episode. |
| 49 | * In the second volume of ''Barom One'', our heroes finally manage to defeat [[EldritchAbomination Doruge]] only to learn that he's an advance scout of the Doruge ''race'' and he's already called in reinforcements. |
| 50 | * The first Menos Grande seen in ''Manga/{{Bleach}}'' is the first really challenging fight that Ichigo faces. He couldn't even beat it on his own at the time and he and Ishida worked together ''just to make it retreat''. Much later, Ichigo is disturbed when he learns that Gillian-class Menos like the one he fought are mere foot soldiers in Hueco Mundo. |
| 51 | ** After Hitsugaya's group wins against the first group of Arrancars -- although Grimmjow is winning against Ichigo until he's forced to withdraw --, Hitsugaya points out that the ones they killed are most likely not the elites. In another scene, Aizen confirms this by saying those were the weakest of the Arrancar. |
| 52 | ** Played with when Ichigo tries to take down Ulquiorra and is saved by Grimmjow: Ichigo thinks that he must be the top Espada, and if he can kill him then there's nothing to worry about. Ulquiorra, [[NoSell while holding Ichigo's blade in one hand]] reveals that he is only number 4. [[spoiler:Although, it later turns out that he hid his full strength from Aizen, meaning he's probably the strongest after all.]] |
| 53 | * In ''Manga/YuYuHakusho'', Yusuke is horrified when Koenma tells him that Younger Toguro, who at the time was the toughest opponent he had ever fought, was "only" an upper B-class demon, with B-class being the third highest ranking, and that if Sensui opens a portal to the Demon World, even the demons who are otherwise too powerful to enter the world will be able to invade. |
| 54 | * In ''Manga/FairyTail'', Gajeel and Levy are attacked by Yomazu and Kawazu and have a very difficult time fighting them. Gajeel has a major OhCrap moment when Yomazu reveals they are merely the advance scouts of Grimoire Heart. Gajeel orders Levy to run and warn the others of Grimoire Heart's arrival. |
| 55 | * ''Manga/OnePiece'' has an indirect example, as it doesn't involve any fighting or the main characters being involved. After Luffy's defeat of Crocodile, his bounty more than tripled to being 100,000,000 berries; however, that increase was soon followed by a scene in which Shanks, one of the Four Emperors, the most powerful pirates in the ''One Piece'' world, sends a message to another one of said Emperors, [[WorldsStrongestMan Whitebeard]]. The messenger is revealed to have a bounty just below Luffy's, but it's noted that he was only recently accepted into Shanks's crew, and no one in Whitebeard's crew knows or really cares who he is. The scene serves to show that, despite his boost in infamy, Luffy still has a long way to go before he really matters to the truly powerful pirates in the setting. |
| 56 | ** Somewhat more traditionally, the Straw Hats defeat some of Baroque Works' Officer Agents, who are given code names and ranked by strength. However, it turns out that Mr. 3, whom the Straw Hats defeated on Little Garden, is actually weaker than [[DumbMuscle Mr. 4]], and was only given a higher rank because of his intelligence. As a result, the scene demonstrates that [[ArcVillain Mr. 0]], Mr. 1, Mr. 2 and Mr. 4, as well as their partners, are stronger than most of the Straw Hats' previous opponents in the arc. |
| 57 | ** Played very straight during the Sabaody arc when it takes the full might of the Straw Hats crew to take down Bartolomew Kuma... Before it's revealed that it wasn't actually Kuma himself, but one of 'many' Pacifistas, mechanical clones of Kuma created by the governement to hunt down pirates. [[FromBadToWorse Oh and also, an admiral is here.]] |
| 58 | * ''Anime/BakutenShootBeyblade'': The Blade Breakers are taking on the All-Starz in America. Tyson and Ray easily take down two gimmicky bladers. Then Max's mom reveals that those two bladers were some of their weakest, and the purpose of the battle was to gather data. |
| 59 | * In ''Manga/HaruhiChan'', after Asakura is defeated, she suggests this of herself, saying that there are three other members of the Radical Four like her, but all of them are stronger than she is. |
| 60 | * In the first episode of ''Anime/RoninWarriors'', the heroes work together and managed to beat the enemy only to learn it was a foot soldier in the [[EvilOverlord evil overlord's]] army. He wasn't ''quite'' a regular mook, as he was empowered by borrowing one of the leader's weapon, but the original owner certainly puts it to better use. |
| 61 | * Early in ''Manga/{{Toriko}}'', Toriko has to get past a pack of Troll Kongs--giant, four-armed, ''monster apes.'' The first one Toriko encounters is just a scout, and while it's no match for our hero, it barfs on Toriko, leaving our hero smelling like the much weaker, ''far less dangerous'' Troll Kong, which means Toriko can't intimidate the rest of the pack. |
| 62 | * In ''Manga/TheSevenDeadlySins'', Red Demons and Grey Demons, which had previously been depicted as among the most powerful enemies shown so far, are seen as mere expendable grunts by the rest of demonkind. |
| 63 | * In ''Manga/AttackOnTitan'', for the past 100 years, humanity has been besieged by the eponymous titans, almost mindless human-eating giants that can drive humanity to extinction if the Walls are breached. The greatest threats among those titans are the Armored Titan and the Colossus Titan, who broke down Wall Maria, killing many people in the initial invasion and forcing the government to sacrifice a fourth of those who remained to prevent humanity from starving. However, it's said that even the Armored and Colossus Titans are mere "flunkies" in the grand scheme of things. It turns out that [[spoiler:the nation of Marley, a superpower that uses Titans to fight its wars, is behind the attacks. Even after the protagonists take back Wall Maria and kill all the Titans on the Island of Paradis, they'll still have to deal with Marley.]] |
| 64 | * In ''Anime/GearFighterDendoh'' the Galfer initially attack with Rasenjoh, [[BigDumbObject a ship so large that its name, meaning "spiral city", is more an affectionate nickname than a proper descriptor]], and its ''immense'' complement of mechas. This is already a terrifying threat... And then, in the final arc, it's revealed that the Galfer have ''thousands'' of Rasenjoh... And they're all converging on Earth. |
| 65 | * ''Anime/GodzillaPlanetOfTheMonsters'': The protagonists spend the entire film struggling to put down Godzilla once and for all and retake the Earth after twenty-thousand years. After suffering heavy casualties and struggles, they just barely manage to kill Godzilla. The possibility of there being more Godzillas out there is raised but optimistically brushed off because if they can kill one Godzilla, they can kill them again. [[spoiler:Then it turns out they only killed Godzilla's ''kid'', and the ''real'' Godzilla wakes up, having grown much, much bigger and stronger over the millennia.]] |
| 66 | * ''Anime/{{Robotech}}'', owing to being a {{Frankenslation}} of ''Anime/SuperDimensionFortressMacross'' and [[Anime/SuperDimensionCavalrySouthernCross two]] [[Anime/GenesisClimberMospeada other]] series, inherits the Zentraedi example, but the original material in the unfinished [[Anime/RobotechIITheSentinels Sentinel]] series provides one of the most chilling examples during [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BLzlwR2z4yE the Invid's attack on Tirol's capital]], where the fixed defenses and the Bioroid manage to stalemate a horde... Of [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin Invid Scouts]], before they're reinforced by ''[[ZergRush six hundred]]'' [[EliteMooks Shock Troopers]]. [[FromBadToWorse Even worse]], this entire force are ''all'' the vanguard sent in to probe the defenses, the actual first wave hasn't arrived yet. |
| 67 | * At the start of the ''War of the Underworld'' arc of ''Literature/SwordArtOnline'', Alice, an Integrity Knight, repels a Dark Territory invasion in her home village of Rulid, but is painfully aware that this is only a fraction of the massive invasion force that is about to attack the human realm. |
| 68 | * ''Manga/AyakashiTriangle'': A series of [[TheCorruption corrupted]] ayakashi try to kill the ayakashi medium. Not only were they all sent by [[spoiler:the Gogyosen, the human enemies of the medium's first life]], Shadow Mei concludes they weren't meant to succeed. They were actually just test subjects for a {{Curse}} meant to kill the ayakashi medium [[ImmortalBreaker while preventing any future reincarnations]]. |
| 69 | [[/folder]] |
| 70 | |
| 71 | [[folder:Comic Books]] |
| 72 | * In one issue of ''Franchise/{{Superman}}'', Superman has been training for weeks and had to team up with [[OverlordJr the son of one his enemies]] to fight Imperiex. After a hard battle, Superman wins the battle and thinks Imperiex is through and goes home. Sometime later we find out that "Imperiex" was just a probe and that Imperiex Prime was a gigantic version of the thing Superman fought. |
| 73 | * The Celestials once decreed that a planet's population was to be destroyed. [[ComicBook/TheMightyThor Thor]] disagreed, and exhausted himself beating on the Celestial who towered over the world with a downturned thumb and stoic expression. Through it all, the Celestial made no attempt to fight back, and Thor's attacks were laughably ineffective. Already frustrated at his failure to kill his opponent, he then realized that this one was merely the judge and jury of the Celestials-not the executioner. Cue the arrival of the executioner-ten times bigger, stronger, and angry. |
| 74 | * ''ComicBook/UltronUnlimited'' After destroying a whole country, Ultron fights against all of the Avengers (except those he had captured). After a long fight, they manage to destroy Ultron-7. Then, suddenly, Ultron-8 shows up. Iron Man is not sure if they can keep fighting... which disappoints Ultron-23. 23? [[TemptingFate How many of them are there?]] That's a very good question, says Ultron-647. |
| 75 | %%* ''ComicBook/UltimateGalactusTrilogy'': We have seen how deadly the Heather Douglas clone can be. What about an army of them? |
| 76 | * ''ComicBook/PaperinikNewAdventures'' plays with it due {{Genre Savvy}}ness on both sides: |
| 77 | ** When he first encounters the Evronians, Paperinik knows from the start he's just dealing with scouts and commandos sent to soften up Earth, and isn't surprised in the slightest when he finds proof of both that and that the Evronians are too busy due a number of rebellions in their empire and [[PhysicalGoddess Xadhoom]] being out for them to just attack in force, just ''what'' the Evronian invasion force can bring to bear the one time they decide to get serious, or that the Evronian main force is centered around a ''PlanetSpaceship''. The only time he's surprised is when [[spoiler:a ''second'' planet spaceship shows up... And the crew, under the mistaken impression he's an ally, reveals there's ''multiple'' Evronian Empires, all centered around a planet spaceship, and that every time the population of one grows too much they turn a planet into a spaceship and divide their population by half to prevent overpopulation and a civil war]]. |
| 78 | ** When the Evronians first encounter Paperinik they initially assume he's just one of many exceptional individuals that, if they joined forces, could beat back the invasion, as [[TaughtByExperience they have past experiences of this]], and send in a termination squad to kill him and verify if there's others. They eventually realize there's no other Paperinik, but still keep a prudent course of action and [[WeComeInPeaceShootToKill feign peaceful intentions with the US government to try and soften Earth's defenses]] and trying to kill Paperinik with relatively small forces for various reasons, including that humanity's warlike nature and large number of nuclear weapons would cause disproportionate losses compared to the gains, they realize that killing Paperinik with a horde of warriors would turn him into a martyr for Earth's resistance and, if word got out in their empire, he could become a symbol for the rebellions (and he ''does'' when four rebel leaders discover his existence and how he's fighting against the common enemy) and, as revealed in the Paperinik New Era stories, [[spoiler:[[FlyingBrick Super Goof]]]]. |
| 79 | * ''ComicBook/XMen'': In ''X-Men'' Vol 2 #188, this is done with the Children of the Vault, when they attack the X-Mansion. Their leader, Sangre, points out how stupid it would be to send ''all'' their forces to obliterate what they see as a minor nuisance. The handful the X-Men are facing are just scouts. [[spoiler:The bulk of the Children are hiding out in Ecuador.]] |
| 80 | [[/folder]] |
| 81 | |
| 82 | [[folder:Fanfic]] |
| 83 | * ''Fanfic/TheBridge'': A group of Cloud Gremlins take control of a storm cloud and attempt to invade the weather factory of Cloudsdale. Since the storm cloud is protected by dark magic, it takes a bit of teamwork from Rainbow Dash and Rodan to destroy it. Before they can celebrate, a cloud about 5 times bigger than the first carrying the main Cloud Gremlin force arrives, and the first group even mentions they were just the scouts. |
| 84 | * ''Fanfic/EventHorizonStormOfMagic'': Applies to the Company's colonies compared to the lands they're located in. At one point, Fred boasts to the Small Council that their little colony has a higher GDP and industrial output than the rest of the Seven Kingdoms combined. |
| 85 | * ''Fanfic/NierAutomataREBirth'': In chapter 64, the Antarctic command center, called the Maw, is attacked by a dragon-like Goliath that takes everything the military base has to destroy and nearly breaks their shield. Then it's revealed the dragon was the first of twelve, with their scout's defeat used to figure out the base's weakness and overwhelm it. The Maw's residence is forced to flee with their data, while [[GoingDownWithTheShip General Noir stays behind]] and finishes all but one of the dragons off [[DangerousForbiddenTechnique with the Forbidden Ten experimental weapons at the cost of his life]]. |
| 86 | %%* ''FanFic/PurpleDays'': The horrifying truth of the First War for Dawn. |
| 87 | * ''Fanfic/ServantsOfRemnant'': In "Released to Remnant", Artoria Pendragon battles a Goliath Grimm and destroys it after a bit of struggle. While she is catching her breath, a herd of Goliaths approaches her, so she decides to escape. |
| 88 | [[/folder]] |
| 89 | |
| 90 | [[folder:Film]] |
| 91 | %% The following Administrivia/{{Zero Context Example}}s have been commented out and copied to Discussion. Please don't add them back unless you also add context to show how they fit this trope. |
| 92 | %% * The Warg Rider attack in ''[[Film/TheLordOfTheRingsTheTwoTowers The Two Towers]]''. |
| 93 | * The attack of the Army of Anubis in ''Film/TheMummyReturns''. The Medji think they've defeated the army[[note]]which they are rather surprised at since it's supposed to be invincible[[/note]], only to the realize that the REAL army is swarming over the dunes like a monstrous black shadow. |
| 94 | * {{Invoked}} in the ''Film/Hellboy2004'' movie: |
| 95 | -->'''Rasputin:''' Salt, gathered from the tears of a thousand angels, restraining the essence of Sammael, the Hellhound. The Seed of Destruction. This I can promise, Sammael, for every one of you that falls, two shall arise. |
| 96 | * A downplayed example in ''Film/IndependenceDayResurgence''. In the [[Film/IndependenceDay first film]], humanity barely survives the alien onslaught and manages to destroy the alien fleet at great cost. Come the sequel 20 years later, a new, much larger, alien armada is on the way to put down the upstart humans, possibly implying that the first one was just a small flotilla by the alien standards. |
| 97 | * ''Film/TheMalayChroniclesBloodlines'' have the heroes and their ragtag bunch of LaResistance soldiers fighting the Pirate Lord's army, that outnumbers them at least thrice, and they finally won the battle (albeit with less than a hundred of them, including the heroes standing)... only to realize the pirate forces stationed on the beach are merely the scouts, with an even bigger second wave stationed inland. But then, [[TheCavalry cue the arrival of the Roman and Ming reinforcements]]. |
| 98 | * How the climax of ''Film/MagnificentWarriors'' ends; the Kaal militia, despite being outnumbered and armed with crude weapons, managed to take down a larger and stronger Japanese army armed with cannons and trucks [[RockBeatsLaser using guerilla tactics, bows and arrows, and assorted improvised weaponry]]. The Japanese commander who's the SoleSurvivor of the first unit then reveals there's a ''second'' invasion force on the way, far larger than the first and have ''tanks'' in them. Ultimately the Kaal citizens simply [[FailureGambit burns their whole town to the ground while allowing the Commander to return to his army and report that they destroyed themselves and the first invading force in a kamikaze attack]]. |
| 99 | * ''Franchise/MarvelCinematicUniverse'': |
| 100 | ** In ''Film/TheAvengers2012'', Loki manages to successfully summon the Chitauri to attack New York. The Avengers, now united in purpose stand together, joined by a slightly late arriving Bruce Banner, who helps defeat a behemoth no-one else could even dent. And a watching Loki just says "send the ''rest''." And even those are still a fraction of the army on the other side of the portal. |
| 101 | ** In ''Film/ThorTheDarkWorld'', Asgard is attacked by the Dark Elves. Heimdall manages to get into the invading Elf fighter, and disable it. When a dozen fighters appear, he leaves. |
| 102 | * The war film, ''Film/MyWay'' has a battle between a Japanese platoon, whose units consist conscripts and trucks loaded with napalm drums which they've rigged to perform [[ActionBomb kamikaze attacks]], against a Russian unit which is smaller in numbers, but comes with ''tanks''. The Japanese managed to win, albeit sacrificing most of their weaponry and vehicles and sustaining ''heavy'' casualties. The Japanese platoon (whatever that's left) begins to cheer... only to see a ''second'' Russian tank column, even bigger than the first, coming from the horizon. |
| 103 | * Throughout the ''Franchise/StarWars'' sequel trilogy, the First Order is a reorganized remnant of the fallen Galactic Empire that threatened the Galaxy and overthrew the New Republic, and it looks like they won and are done, right? [[spoiler:''Film/TheRiseOfSkywalker'' reveals that the threat the Resistance had been fighting all this time was a shadow of the ''real'' threat, the thought-to-be-dead Palpatine's Sith Eternal, which has far more forces. The First Order's Supreme Leader Snoke was none other than a creation of Palpatine, whose purpose was to destroy the New Republic and groom Kylo Ren to be Palpatine's successor. Once that's all done, the First Order and Sith Eternal would merge under one banner to secure the creation of a new Empire, known as the Final Order]]. |
| 104 | * In ''Film/{{Zulu}}'' the British cheer when they have driven back the Zulus the first time. Boer scout Brandorff informs them that the Zulus deliberately sent men to get killed to find out the British soldiers' range. |
| 105 | [[/folder]] |
| 106 | |
| 107 | [[folder:Literature]] |
| 108 | %% The following Administrivia/{{Zero Context Example}}s have been commented out and copied to Discussion. Please don't add them back unless you also add context to show how they fit this trope. |
| 109 | %% * ''Literature/TheRestaurantAtTheEndOfTheUniverse'''s Frogstar Scout Robots. |
| 110 | * In Literature/AesopsFables, a lion is hit by an arrow, and runs away from the man who shot him. A fox, seeing this, makes fun of him, and the Lion retorts, "Yes, I'm retreating. If he's sending a messenger like this, just think how tough the man himself must be!" |
| 111 | * At the end of the first part of ''The Armageddon Inheritance'', the second book in David Weber's "Literature/EmpireFromTheAshes" series, there is an Apocalyptic space-battle on the fringes of Earth's solar system between human beings and a race of alien {{Omnicidal Maniac}}s. Hundreds of thousands of humans die, and Terran civilization is nearly wiped out, but eventually the good guys win. And its only then, in the last pages of the book, that it is discovered that the invasion fleet humanity nearly lost to was only a scouting force, and the ''real'' invasion fleet (with a thousand times the number of battleships than the fleet that just attacked Earth) is still coming. |
| 112 | * ''Literature/TheBeginningAfterTheEnd'': |
| 113 | ** During the ClassTrip to Widow's Crypt, Arthur discovers the slaughtered remains of a team of soldiers [[spoiler: led by the Lance [[GreenThumb Alea Triscan]], who as a Lance is supposed to be among the strongest mages in Dicathen. Before she dies, Alea imparts onto Arthur a vision of what killed her and her team, that of a black-horned demon. As Arthur finds out once the war starts, this demon is a Vritra Retainer named Uto, meaning he is only among the lower end of the SortingAlgorithmOfEvil. Despite this placement on the hierarchy, when he and Arthur do clash, he is able to stymie Arthur (who at this point has trained with the Asuras for years and has now succeeded Alea as a Lance) and his draconic bond Sylvie and even manages to shatter the Asuran-made sword Arthur has been wielding since his youth. The only reason Arthur and Sylvie make it out of the encounter alive is because Uto is finished off by the Scythe Seris Vritra (the Scythes are higher up in the hierarchy than the Retainers and thus are far more powerful), who has taken an interest in Arthur to let him live]]. |
| 114 | ** After [[spoiler:[[YouHaveOutlivedYourUsefulness deeming his alliance with the Dicathian Resistance as a failure]], [[GodIsEvil Kezess]] sends an lone Asura to the Djinn sanctuary they are taking refuge in to exterminate them all. The Asura in question, Taci, is merely a boy by Asuran standards, having trained alongside Arthur during his time in Epheotus and who has volunteered to carry out the deed as a rite of passage. Despite being young for an Asura, he is able to overpower the remaining Lances (who are only able to be there because Aldir - who had been ordered to kill off the Lances separately - disobeyed Kezess by sending them to the sanctuary to intercept Taci), in the process [[EyeScream blinding]] [[GravityMaster Mica]] in her left eye, [[AnArmAndALeg cutting off]] [[AnIcePerson Varay's]] left arm, and forcing [[CastingAShadow Aya]] to overexert her mana core to create illusions strong enough to trick him into thinking he killed them, [[HeroicRROD causing her to die in the process]] (to say nothing of all the other casualties he caused during his rampage). He is only ultimately stopped by Arthur (who has CameBackStrong thanks to his endeavors in the Relictombs and Alacrya and has just killed off the top Scythe and crippled another in a SingleStrokeBattle), and he ends up having to take Taci back into the Relictombs just so that their fight won't bring the sanctuary crashing down on everyone. As Arthur somberly notes in the aftermath, if an Asura as lowly as Taci could cause that much devastation, then the war against the Asuras is going to be an extremely difficult one for him and his allies]]. |
| 115 | --->'''Arthur''': [[spoiler:Taci]] was just the beginning, Bairon. [[spoiler:The gods themselves]] are our enemies now. And...whatever you all think, I can't fight them all alone. |
| 116 | * In ''Literature/DiamondSwordWoodenSword'', an army of mages has a hard time defending the world of Mel'in from an army of small {{Eldritch Abomination}}s called the Goat-legs. In the sequels, the main army of the critters arrives, and the magical orders are neither unified nor in control now and thus cannot oppose them. |
| 117 | * In the backstory to the William Barton military science-fiction novel ''When Heaven Fell'', a [[AIIsACrapshoot Master Race]] [[SapientShip scoutship]] with only a few hundred [[LizardFolk Kkhruhhuft]] [[SpaceMarine troops]] accidentally stumbled upon 22nd century Earth and decided to try conquering the planet by itself. After millions died, it was only driven away [[RammingAlwaysWorks after being rammed by a relativistic starship]]. The governments of Earth [[LockAndLoadMontage spent the next fifty years gearing up for interstellar war]], and all that bought them was ''eight billion'' humans dying under the [[OrbitalBombardment guns]] and [[PoweredArmor hydraulics]] of a full invasion fleet before the survivors surrendered and were absorbed into the Master Race's empire. |
| 118 | * A variation in Creator/MikhailAkhmanov's ''Literature/ArrivalsFromTheDark''. The first novel, aptly titled ''Invasion'' has a massive [[HumanAlien Bino Faata]] starship arriving to the Solar System in order to establish an outpost on Earth, using humans as slave labor and, possibly, re-engineering them into a new hybrid HumanSubspecies. At the time, humanity is still pre-FTL. When the massive ship finally reveals itself to the human nations, it's surrounded by a fleet of a dozen human warships, whose crews are confident of victory, since they are utilizing a standard "asteroid destruction" tactic (they've never fought an actual space battle before). When the aliens get tired of talking, they launch a ''fraction'' of their on-board combat modules that quickly wipe out the fleet facing them, while the starship's DeflectorShields easily shrug off a nuclear barrage with a combined strength of 140 gigaton. The ship is eventually stopped with the help of a different alien, leaving it to be studied by human scientists. Fast-forward 37 years to the second novel ''Retaliation'', when a newly-created task force of FTL-capable ships is sent to the location of 3 Faata colonies in the Orion Arm (they're from the Pegasus Arm). When a scout frigate is sent to gather intel, they find a shipyard with ''three'' such Faata starships in the process of being completed. The only advantage humans have at this point is surprise, since the aliens still don't know their invasion failed. But three such ships would easily overwhelm even the new human ships that use reverse-engineered tech with sheer numbers and the [[WeHaveReserves willingness to use them]]. Eventually subverted in that humanity quickly gets its ass in gear and starts cranking out new and better ships in the Asteroid Belt, just in time for ''four'' long wars with the Faata. After a century of fighting, humanity emerges as a galactic superpower, while the Faata fade into obscurity. |
| 119 | * In the ''Literature/FormicWars'' novels, the Formics invade with an enormous and powerful starship, which also turns out to be TheMothership to several landers and hundreds of fighters. The invasion is barely stopped with millions dead. Then a girl analyzes astronomical data collected by satellites and realizes it was only a scout ship sent in advance of the real mothership, which is in the process of being cannibalized to build an armada for the real invasion. Of course, since it's a prequel to ''Literature/EndersGame'', the outcome is already known. |
| 120 | * ''Literature/TheLordOfTheRings:'' In ''The Return of the King'', the Dark Lord Sauron sends out a massive army to conquer Gondor, which lays siege to their capital city of Minas Tirith. Gondor and its allies fight off the invading army at great cost, and many of the human leaders are casualties at the Battle of the Pelennor Fields. As the battle is raging, Denethor, Steward of Gondor, looks into his [[CrystalBall palantír]] and sees the full extent of Sauron's military might--of which the army at his gate is but a fraction. Realizing this is a war Gondor can't possibly win, he falls into suicidal despair. |
| 121 | -->"Vanity. For a little space you may triumph on the field, for a day. But against the Power that now arises there is no victory. To this City only the first finger of its hand has yet been stretched." |
| 122 | ** After the battle, Gandalf even agrees that defeating Sauron through strength of arms was never an option. But he doesn't despair, because his (and Aragorn's) plan all along was to have Frodo destroy the One Ring, the source of Sauron's power. So all the battles are intended to [[WeNeedADistraction distract Sauron]] long enough for Frodo to complete his quest. |
| 123 | --->"Hardly has our strength sufficed to beat off the first great assault. The next will be greater." |
| 124 | * In Creator/SergeyLukyanenko's ''Literature/TheStarsAreColdToys'', the mightiest battle fleet of the entire known space is attacked by an unknown aggressor, who deals them heavy damage before being taken down. It turns out, however, that said "aggressor" was a ''mere'' scout of the super-advanced Geometer civilization. |
| 125 | * Two examples from ''Franchise/StarWarsLegends'': |
| 126 | ** Done on both sides in ''Literature/TheTruceAtBakura'': the Ssi-ruuk invasion force attacking Bakura is a scouting force of five cruisers and multiple picket ships (plus some ships carrying the ground troops), sent in to consecrate an Imperial fringe world to use as base for when they'll invade the Empire taking advantage of Palpatine's recent death and suffered moderate losses as they overpowered the Imperial garrison and its outdated ships, while the Rebel force sent to help Bakura's garrison is a single small ''Quasar-Fire'' bulk cruiser-carrier with its fighters, a corvette and five gunships, that is ''still'' outgunned by what the Empire has left. The Ssi-Ruuk, the Rebels and the Imperial garrison realize this, though they don't quite understand what keeps the other side from sending in more ships (the Rebels sent in everything they could spare while they reorganized after their costly victory at Endor, while the Ssi-Ruuk believe that their souls would be BarredFromTheAfterlife if they die too far from a consecrated planet and won't risk too many of their people before consecrating Bakura). Sourcebook sources expand on the aftermath: after the Ssi-Ruuk are driven away, the Rebel Alliance sends their own scouts to their homeworld to either negotiate a truce or prepare a proper counterattack... Only to find that the Empire's own scouts, led by ''Grand Admiral Thrawn'' in person, had already wrecked everything and made ''very'' clear where the Ssi-Ruuk's place on the pecking order was, so when [[TooDumbToLive they were attacked by the remnants of the fleet that had been routed at Bakura]] they just blast their way out and leave. |
| 127 | ** ''Vector Prime'', first volume of the ''Literature/NewJediOrder'', involves an attack on the Galaxy Far Far Away by an alien force called the Praetorite Vong, who wreak havoc on some remote systems in the Outer Rim before the heroes get wise to their tricks and soundly defeat them. Subsequent books reveal that the Praetorite are simply one minor (but ambitious) faction of the [[ScaryDogmaticAliens Yuuzhan Vong]] who started the invasion earlier and with shoddy preparations in order to grab some glory ahead of everyone else (and their leader was a high-ranking ''bureaucrat'' [[ArmchairMilitary playing general]]). The ''actual'' Vong warrior caste, debuting in the next book, are much more dangerous. |
| 128 | ** ''Literature/RoguePlanet'' goes even further, with the planet Zonama Sekot. The CorruptCorporateExecutive investigating the planet finds evidence of severe orbital bombardment done in ways neither he or his underling recognize, lacking all the signs of weapons they do know. Later it's clarified that a group of "Far Outsiders" appeared on the planet and attacked for reasons no-one could ever figure out, until the planet itself drove them off. However, later stories in the ''New Jedi Order'' series make it clear this was the earliest wave of Vong scouts to reach the Galaxy. |
| 129 | * In ''Literature/SuperMinion'', the weapon thinks itself to be an apex predator after it discovers human.exe and begins easily overcoming (or [[ObfuscatingStupidity faking failure against]]) every test the humans throw at it. This overconfidence vanishes remarkably quickly after its escape shows it a triggered tiger it stood no chance against, human soldiers killing that tiger without much difficulty, and a fight between a superhero and a supervillain, all in the span of under 24 hours. |
| 130 | * Creator/RobertSheckley's story ''A Wind is Rising'' has it with weather. A human station with two people is based on a planet where the wind never drops below 70 mph. They barely weather a storm of nearly 200 mph, which leaves them with a severely battered station and a broken vehicle at their hands. Then a local alien (who gives them weather forecasts) says "Sorry for my last forecast not being accurate enough to warn you about this moderate gale. Why is it my last forecast? Well, the summer is over, and now me and my people must leave to hide from the powerful winter storms." |
| 131 | |
| 132 | [[/folder]] |
| 133 | |
| 134 | [[folder:Live-Action TV]] |
| 135 | * ''Series/TheOuterLimits1963'': In "The Invisible Enemy", astronauts battle a powerful [[SandWorm Sand-Beast]]. At the end, the two survivors manage to kill it, but then several more Sand-Beasts emerge. The survivors [[ScrewThisImOuttaHere promptly pack up and leave]]. |
| 136 | * ''Franchise/StarTrek'' |
| 137 | ** This is the Starfleet fear during later seasons of ''Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration'': what if instead of one cube, the Borg send millions? |
| 138 | ** Used in one episode of ''Series/StarTrekVoyager'': the ship managed to defeat a Borg scout without much damage, so Janeway suggests they start an offensive against the Borg. Chakotay reminds her that the outcome would be different had they encountered a larger ship. |
| 139 | ** They try to take on a damaged sphere anyway with a method that should keep them invisible to the Borg, and a meticulously worked-out plan that will let them steal the AppliedPhlebotinum they need and get away in just a few minutes. ...and the Borg Queen reveals to Seven of Nine not only does she know ''exactly'' where they are, she could CurbStomp them ''any time she wished'' and will only keep holding back if Seven of Nine rejoins her. |
| 140 | * The Inpelaizer was one of the toughest foes in ''Series/UltramanMebius'' when it was first introduced. Turns out it's only a {{Mook}} in [[BigBad Alien Empera]]'s army. |
| 141 | * In the miniseries ''Series/{{V 1983}}'', the Visitors refer to the fleet of fifty [[MileLongShip enormous spaceships]] now parked over Earth's major cities as just a small expeditionary fleet. Several human characters express shock that this is what they consider a "small" fleet. |
| 142 | [[/folder]] |
| 143 | |
| 144 | [[folder:Tabletop Games]] |
| 145 | * ''TabletopGame/{{Warhammer 40000}}'' |
| 146 | ** The absolutely ''massive'' Tyranid fleets that have ravaged several sections of the Imperium are said to only be the scouting fleets of the main force. The same applies to the Necrons, whose true war machines are still in storage on their hibernating Tomb Worlds. |
| 147 | ** Same for the Orks. Not only are there a lot more of them living on their own worlds and only rarely going to knock some humies around, they are actually a degenerate form with a degenerate technology, the original being the ''Krorks'', a species which gave the Eldar Empire at its peak a lot of trouble. [[Literature/TheBeastArises The War of the Beast]] had them merely approaching this level again, and the Imperium as a whole was nearly destroyed by it. |
| 148 | ** The Imperium are this to the Tau. The Tau drastically underestimate the true might of the Imperium, thinking that the Imperium's losses against them in battle are ones that would take the Imperium ''decades'' to recover from. In truth, the forces the Imperium sends against the Tau are relatively insignificant -- the Tau survive in large part because the Imperium has other bigger proverbial fish to fry. |
| 149 | * Played quite straight in a scenario outline in the 4th edition ''TabletopGame/{{Champions}}'' supplement ''Mystic Masters''. The BigBad is a dimensional conqueror with the ability to split his awareness between thousands of different bodies of varying power levels, and one of his opening gambits is to test the [[PlayerCharacter [=PCs=]]]' defenses with a single one of his weakest ones -- any damage he manages to inflict is a welcome bonus, but mostly the intent is to find out what this new set of prospective enemies may be capable of. (The scenario explicitly hangs a lampshade on the possibility of the players potentially going "huh, was that all?" after this encounter.) |
| 150 | * The Combined Army that appears in ''TabletopGame/{{Infinity}}'' is explicitly a scouting mission and the EI's actual forces are yet to arrive. Given that the Combined Army that has been seen nearly brought the Human Sphere to its knees, this prospect deeply worries the human command structures...[[WeAREStrugglingTogether although not enough to make them stop running black ops against each other]]. |
| 151 | * ''TabletopGame/{{Battletech}}'': |
| 152 | ** During the Clan Invasion, the Clans that invaded the Inner Sphere and basically curb-stomped their way through a fifth of it were only four of seventeen total Clans, and on top of it three of the invaders [[WillfullyWeak had heavily bid down their total forces to be selected for an Invasion Corridor]]. And then it turns out [[InvertedTrope Those were just the backwater garrisons]], of the Successor States, who kept their best and most numerous forces on their borders with each other as opposed to the Peripherry powers that wouldn't dare openly attacking them anyway, and the invasion grinds into a brutal slog that pits the superior technology and individual skill of the Clans against the vast industrial capacity and tactical cunning of the Sphere, bringing in nine of the Clans and the beginnings of a united front amongst the Inner Sphere. In the end, the Inner Sphere first stall the Clan Invasion in a trial of possession in the form of the Battle of Tukayyid, which forced the Clans to pause their invasion for 15 years, before which the Inner Sphere itself, united as the Second Star League, sent it's ''own'' forces to Clan space, annihilating Clan Smoke Jaguar and then engaging the rest of the Clans in [[FinalBattle The Great Refusal]], which ended in a Spheroid victory and a permanent end to any further Clan invasions of the Inner Sphere. |
| 153 | ** A common joke amongst the fandom is that if you spot four [[TheDreaded Atlases]] wearing Lyran colours, you've run into a Steiner Scout Lance. While not exactly true in-story, The Lyran Commonwealth was the largest and richest Successor State for much of the Inner Sphere's history, and tended to win engagements through WeHaveReserves and overwhelming force. |
| 154 | [[/folder]] |
| 155 | |
| 156 | [[folder:Video Games]] |
| 157 | * The intro to ''VideoGame/Left4Dead'' features this exchange: |
| 158 | -->'''[[ActionSurvivor Louis]]:''' We made it! I can't believe we made it!\ |
| 159 | '''[[OldSoldier Bill]]:''' Son, we just crossed the street. Let's not throw a party until we're out of the city. |
| 160 | * ''Franchise/MassEffect'' |
| 161 | ** ''VideoGame/MassEffect1'' ends with an epic battle against the [[EldritchAbomination Rea]][[SapientShip per]] known as Sovereign, and his fleet of geth cruisers, which are only narrowly defeated by the combined efforts of the Citadel defense fleet and the Systems Alliance Fifth Fleet. However, Sovereign is only a vanguard, left behind by the Reapers to secure their return. There are more where he came from, and they're coming back one way or another... |
| 162 | ** At the end of ''VideoGame/MassEffect2'', a fleet of THOUSANDS of Reapers is headed towards the galaxy, ready to invade. Just ONE nearly wiped out the Citadel Fleet in the previous game. |
| 163 | ** And in the trailer for ''VideoGame/MassEffect3'', [[spoiler: ''at least eight'' of them are attacking London. Who ''knows'' how many others are on the planet?]] |
| 164 | ** The third game also reveals that [[spoiler:there is no possible way the combined forces of the galaxy (geth included) can hope to defeat the Reaper armada, despite reverse-engineering some of their tech. The entire galaxy falls in ''a few months'' with negligible Reaper losses. The only way to stop them is with the Crucible]]. |
| 165 | ** Sovereign's strength comes largely from his alliance with the Geth, and it's their fleet that does most of the damage. Then the second game reveals that they were actually a fairly minor RenegadeSplinterFaction, and their full strength is much greater. It's subverted in the third game, where most of their real fleet is destroyed in a war offscreen; depending on player choice, the substantial force that remains will be either rendered helpless and annihilated before the final battle or join in ''against'' the Reapers. |
| 166 | * Happens in ''VideoGame/SonicChronicles''. The first Marauder that Sonic encounters is only a scout. Sonic expects an easy fight, only for the scout to turn out to be a difficult boss (well, difficult for a first level boss). |
| 167 | * The first few battles against the Shivans in ''VideoGame/FreeSpace'' are completely one-sided, with the Shivan ships being NighInvulnerable, extremely maneuverable, and heavy-hitting in damage. A few upgrades later, the player can fight these monstrosities evenly, and even manages, with a huge amount of effort, to capture what they think is a Shivan command ship. Then it turns out that those were outdated Shivan scouts, and the "command ship" was among the weakest deployed Shivan warships... the actual muscle of the Shivan armada soon arrives and pretty much steamrolls the Terran and Vasudan fleets, no matter what countermeasures they come up with. |
| 168 | ** Also invoked by the tagline of the second game: "The Shivans are back, and they're wondering what happened to their scouting party." |
| 169 | *** And occurs, after the player spends a minor campaign arc hunting down and weakening a juggernaut-class vessel which outguns everything before seen, so that its closest counterpart on your side, the one-of-a-kind superdestroyer ''Colossus'', can go toe-to-toe with it and destroy it. Then it turns out there are more. A ''three-digit number'' more. |
| 170 | * In ''VideoGame/InfiniteSpace'', the Lugovalian fleet that invades the Small Magellanic Cloud is only the vanguard fleet. [[spoiler: And it's still enough to easily conquer the entire galaxy. Then the fact that that the remains of the fleet plus some reinforcement still poses massive problem for the 2nd galaxy, while the main fleet ''10 times larger'' is coming, forces the main character to stage an assassination of the Lugovalian Emperor to end the war.]] |
| 171 | * The heroes manage to defeat the Balmarian fleet by the end of ''VideoGame/ShinSuperRobotWars''. At the end of the Space Route, [[Anime/MobileSuitGundamCharsCounterattack Char Aznable]] sends a message to [[Anime/MobileSuitGundamCharsCounterattack Londo Bell]], whom he expects to be in a festive mood, yet unjustified by what Char is convinced has been a horrific mistake for mankind. He reckons they got lucky with this victory, and points out that Balmar is sure to send a second, or third fleet to Earth, without any shortage of firepower. Just how far will Londo Bell's efforts last, he muses, ostentatiously checking himself and claiming sarcastically that sour grapes weren't the intent of the message. Since Char is worried about mankind too, in his fashion, he has chosen to accompany the aliens returning to their own worlds. Therefore, he is entrusting Londo Bell with all the alien technology he has been able to amass, telling them to put it to good use for humanity. According to [[Anime/MobileFighterGGundam Master Asia]], he had to use the power of the Devil Gundam just on this fleet, and with the coming of the other fleets, he has to return to his home planet, Dug, to get aide from the Dug Interstellar Republic. |
| 172 | ** ''VideoGame/SuperRobotWarsAlpha'', which revised and retold the story of the Aerogaters attacking Earth's fleet ends with with a similar feeling. The Balmarians are in control of most of the alien forces fought, and those that aren't still pose a threat to Earth. In a twist though, when the Balmarians resume their attempts to conquer Earth [[HowTheMightyHaveFallen they lack much of their additional manpower]] and they've been losing fleets offscreen, to say nothing of the meteor storms devastating their home planet. In a way, the "scouts" wound up posing the greatest threat to the Earth Sphere. |
| 173 | * ''VisualNovel/{{Demonbane}}'' has this early in the story. After using Demonbane's immense power to destroy one of Black Lodge's destroyer robots, the heroes are feeling pretty good about their chances against the organization. Then the organization's leader, Master Therion, shows up and takes on Demonbane ''without'' his own HumongousMecha, and [[CurbStompBattle completely trashes it without even trying]]. This serves as a chilling reminder to everyone of exactly what they're up against and how tough a battle this will be. |
| 174 | * The intro to the ''Alien Crossfire'' ExpansionPack to ''VideoGame/SidMeiersAlphaCentauri'' shows two Progenitor ships warping into orbit and proceeding to blast each other to bits, with only their {{Escape Pod}}s making it to the planet. The survivors turn out to be equal to the long-established human colonies. The aliens have an additional victory type, requiring them to build a SubspaceAnsible to call their homeworld for backup, after which a ''massive'' armada warps into orbit and starts to descend. Understandably, the game ends at that point. |
| 175 | * The [[EldritchAbomination Old Gods]] in ''Videogame/WorldOfWarcraft'' who took the combined efforts of the Titan armies to defeat whom could each easily destroy the world if not for [[WorfHadTheFlu being weakened in some way]] are revealed to be the minions of the Void Gods who seek to corrupt the entire universe. |
| 176 | ** The Burning Legion, while dangerous, has been driven off multiple times by the forces of Azeroth, even killing most of its highest ranking commanders. The ''Legion'' expansion aptly demonstrates how little that matters. Not only has Azeroth only ever faced a tiny fraction of the Legion's forces, but none of those commanders were permanently killed: [[PoweredByAForsakenChild having enslaved the World Soul of the Draenei Homeworld of Argus to help speed up the Demons resurrection process]]. And now Azeroth is apparently the ''last'' world left to be conquered so the Burning Legion is focusing all of its forces on them. |
| 177 | ** Illidan makes this point to Kur'talos Ravencrest during the War of the Ancients when the latter calls him out on sacrificing his own men to gain the power to defeat the Legion invading Black Rook Hold. Illidan points out that this single invasion nearly destroyed Black Rook Hold, which would have left Suramar open to attack, and angrily says that all Kur'talos can do is criticize Illidan's methods. After getting a glimpse of the true size of the Legion, Illidan realizes how hopeless the fight is. |
| 178 | --->'''Illidan''': Our eyes... deceive us. The army that marches on Azeroth is but a whisper of the Legion's true strength. Beyond this army is another... and another... and another... Even if we defeat them here, it will mean nothing. We are doomed... unless we find another way to fight them. [[TheAntiNihilist And I will find that way.]] |
| 179 | * ''VideoGame/{{Homeworld}}'': The powerful fleet that destroyed Kharak seems geared for being the final enemy, but prisoners quickly point out it's just a small and unimportant frontier force. |
| 180 | * In the backstory to ''VideoGame/SwordOfTheStars'' Earth was attacked by a Hiver fleet that nearly wiped out the human race but for the launching of Earth's entire nuclear arsenal. But later, as stated in the intro, it turned out that fleet was "only a small nesting fleet, we had yet to see the full power of the swarm." Fortunately, the Hiver Imperium was fighting a SuccessionCrisis at the time and [=SolForce=] made an alliance with the Princess who ended up winning the crown jewels. |
| 181 | * In ''VideoGame/{{Stellaris}}'' the [[HordeOfAlienLocusts Prethoryn Swarm]] is preceded by a vanguard that attempts to establish a foothold in the galaxy before the main force arrives. |
| 182 | * ''VideoGame/XenobladeChroniclesX'': Remember that giant alien warfleet that was shown obliterating Earth as a side effect of its battle against another in the beginning of the game? A portion of which you're fighting on the new planet you're stranded on? Yeah, that wasn't a real army. It was a bunch of criminals. The heroes are rather disturbed to learn that the force that destroyed Earth and nearly drove humanity to extinction is nothing more than a "run-of-the-mill crime syndicate". |
| 183 | * ''[[VideoGame/{{X}} X-Universe]]'': In the backstory, the incredibly advanced Ancient Ones fought a titanic war against beings known as the Outsiders, who are thought to come from another universe and who appeared in massive, solar system-sized constructs that began altering physics around them and eating up resources like nothing ever seen. The Ancient Ones managed to barely destroy ''one'' of these things, which took ''two million years'', which prompted the rest to retreat. The Ancient Ones theorize that those massive things were Outsider scout ships or probes, possibly even non-combative in nature. They're not sure why the Outsiders backed off, and are concerned should they ever make another appearance. |
| 184 | * ''VideoGame/{{Furi}}'': [[spoiler:YOU, the Stranger/Rider, are just one mass-produced scout of the invading aliens, and despite that such a combat monster that Earth's best can't stop you.]] |
| 185 | * ''VideoGame/DevilMayCry4'': After Nero defeats the demon Bael, Bael boasts that he is just the first of many and his brothers will avenge him. Nero looks at the nearby Hellgate's portal and sees an army of demons that look just like Bael approaching from the other side. Nero closes the portal in time, then later on, Dante kills Bael's brothers and destroys the Hellgate. |
| 186 | * ''VideoGame/{{Destiny}}'': One of the major enemy factions is the Cabal, a powerful army that is engaged on multiple fronts throughout the Sol system, who over the course of the game face many setbacks, assassinations, and defeats. Then you obtain information that those armies are "scout legions," and that they've called for reinforcements from the greater Cabal Empire. In ''VideoGame/{{Destiny 2}}'', the [[EliteMooks Red Legion]] shows up at the start of the game, blitzes the Last City, defeats the Guardians, and captures the Traveler. The only reason the heroes have any chance is because Ghaul is obsessed with proving himself worthy to the Traveler, rather than just destroying everyone outright and being done with it. |
| 187 | ** The ''Shadowkeep'' storyline begins when the Hive discover [[spoiler:one of the {{Eldritch Starship}}s that [[HiveMind make up]] the [[GreaterScopeVillain Darkness]]. It’s easily one of the most powerful and dangerous enemies the Guardians have faced so far... and ''[[DeadAllAlong it’s not even alive]]''. It’s a derelict, non-functional scout drone that was critically damaged during [[ApocalypseHow the Collapse]], but it’s ''still'' a nightmarishly powerful threat. The rest of the thousands-strong Darkness fleet is currently heading towards Earth, having realized that Traveler isn’t dead after it awoke to stop Ghaul.]] |
| 188 | * In Chapter 12 of ''VideoGame/FireEmblemAwakening'', Chrom and his allies manage to fight off an invasion force from [[TheEmpire the empire of Valm]], and are painfully aware that this is only the tip of the iceberg when it comes to their enemy's strength, making them a far greater threat than the Kingdom of Plegia. |
| 189 | * ''VideoGame/EndlessSky'' has two separate and very different takes on this: |
| 190 | ** When you first likely to encounter the [[spoiler: Korath]] Raiders, they look like rare and powerful vessels as they are large ships only encountered raiding alone, spawning rarely and more powerful than any human ship, and capable of escaping larger human fleets with jump drives. Then you actually ''reach'' [[spoiler: Korath]] space and it not only turns out they have tons of Raiders, they have also many ''even larger'' ships that lack jump drives (and, as such, can't reach human space). |
| 191 | ** The [[spoiler: Pug invasion]] plays out with them being much weaker than their real capability, as you find out if you ask the Quarg about them (or, later on, provoke them into bringing out one of their ships meant for fighting more advanced civilizations) -- but the 'rules' the invaders operate under has them deliberately hold back in war to be reasonably beatable by whoever they are fighting, so while you effectively only fought their 'scouts', once you beat them they acknowledge their defeat and withdraw rather than follow on with a full-on invasion. [[spoiler: Or so, at least, is the apparent situation. There are hints they only invade to push humanity in a specific direction, with losing part of the plan]]. |
| 192 | * ''Videogame/AIWarFleetCommand:'' Inverted in direction, but played entirely straight otherwise, with the AI. Compared to whatever massive threat it's fighting off-galaxy, you're basically just an infestation in a backwater mine, and the local forces little more than a skeleton crew making sure no funny business happens. The reinforcements thrown at you when you start growing are all the AI can bother with, being extremely busy out there. You and others ''can'' grow out of control enough that the AI decides to send a bit of the '''big''' stuff, but even then the gigantic, hyperdestructive, fleet-chewing Extragalactic vessels are used sparingly, and immediately thrown back outside when they stop being justified. |
| 193 | * ''VideoGame/DarkestDungeon'': Fitting for a Lovecraftian CosmicHorrorStory, the final boss is [[spoiler:a ''redundant'' organ]] that happens to be in charge of the villainous forces surrounding your tiny hamlet, and you get a glimpse of its true, horrifying master before you commit suicide: [[spoiler:the core of Earth itself]]. |
| 194 | * ''VideoGame/SwordOfPaladin'': At the earliest point when the player encounters a Golden Lady and one of her Miasma-corrupted partners, they'll find that she's far beyond what the party can handle, to the point where the the game has [[DevelopersForesight special dialogue]] for winning this early. Several Einherjar [=NPCs=] state that they had to flee from a losing battle with these mysterious foes. The final chapter reveals that the Golden Ladies and Miasma warriors are nothing more than the mass-produced mooks of [[spoiler:Anguis, the source of the Miasma. The Golden Ladies start spawning en-masse in every surface dungeon as roaming encounters, showing that the initial stationary Golden Ladies were merely their advance force.]] |
| 195 | * ''VideoGame/{{Xenonauts}}'': That alien fleet that's been steadily making life ever more of a nightmare for humanity, with you Xenonauts desperately doing all you can to try to counter? [[spoiler:Just a pet project of the High Praetor, who's apparently merely a low-ranking elder of the alien empire allowed to run around with a sliver of their true strength.]] |
| 196 | * ''Franchise/StarCraft'': The United Earth Directorate sent a fleet to subjugate the Koprulu Sector in ''Brood War'', which took the [[EnemyMine combined power]] of the Terran Dominion, Protoss, and Kerrigan's Zerg Swarm to defeat. Said fleet, however, was a single expeditionary force that relied heavily on repurposing local manufacturing to keep themselves supplied, and nowhere near the full weight the UED could bring to bear materially or technologically. |
| 197 | * In Maximillian Roivas' chapter of ''VideoGame/EternalDarkness'', he fights and barely defeats a Lesser Guardian in his chapter, but while hunting his foe, he finds that there's an entire ''city'' of Lesser Guardians and other creatures in service of the [[EldritchAbomination Ancient]] that serves as the main antagonist. Realizing that he doesn't stand a chance alone, he tries to warn the world... and ends up in an insane asylum. |
| 198 | * ''VideoGame/GalaxyAngel'': In the second installment, Moonlit Lovers, after Tact and the Moon Angel Wing defeat Nefuria (who destroyed several systems with her supercarrier, the O-Gaub), Noah makes it clear that she was just ''one'' of the Valfask, and they have to be on the lookout for a much larger invasion. Sure enough, Eternal Lovers has the heroes take the fight into Valfask territory, first to free the EDEN civilization and later defeating their emperor. |
| 199 | |
| 200 | [[/folder]] |
| 201 | |
| 202 | %%[[folder:Web Comics]] |
| 203 | %% The following Administrivia/WeblinksAreNotExamples have been commented out and copied to Discussion. Please don't add them back unless you also add context to show how they fit this trope. |
| 204 | %% * Used in [[http://lfgcomic.com/page/416 this]] page of ''Webcomic/LookingForGroup''. |
| 205 | %%[[/folder]] |
| 206 | |
| 207 | %%[[folder:Web Original]] |
| 208 | %% The following Administrivia/{{Zero Context Example}}s have been commented out and copied to Discussion. Please don't add them back unless you also add context to show how they fit this trope. |
| 209 | %% * The Creator/RoosterTeeth series ''supreme surrender'' is based around this trope. |
| 210 | %%[[/folder]] |
| 211 | |
| 212 | [[folder:Western Animation]] |
| 213 | * ''WesternAnimation/TransformersPrime'': In "Crossfire", [[spoiler:Airachnid]], now wanted by Megatron, controls an Insecticon to get her revenge. The Insecticon really got Meg's on the ropes, but after he defeated it, she realizes that it was only a scout, as she found an entire nest of Insecticons. |
| 214 | * In the episode "Savage Time", the WesternAnimation/JusticeLeague appears in an alternate World War II, where the immortal villain Vandal Savage had sent [[GivingRadioToTheRomans knowledge of advanced technology]] back in time to give himself the opportunity to assume control of the Nazi war machine. Among other things, this allows him to build a near-indestructible war machine bristling with weapons and tall as a building. Normal tanks have no chance against it, and even the Justice League has a hard time destroying it. When several more show up, the League retreats with the rest of the army. |
| 215 | * Played with in an episode of ''WesternAnimation/{{Futurama}}'', where the Omicronians are invading ([[spoiler:to bring back their favorite 20th-century TV show]]). A massive fleet is gathered and is told to attack the alien mothership. Many are killed, but, eventually, the heroes manage to blow it up. Everyone celebrates, [[YourPrincessIsInAnotherCastle until an]] ''[[YourPrincessIsInAnotherCastle ever bigger]]'' [[YourPrincessIsInAnotherCastle ship appears]] and starts blasting everything else to dust. Not only was that first target not the mothership, [[EpicFail it was the Hubble Space Telescope]] ([[SuperPoweredRobotMeterMaids inexplicably well-armed]]). |
| 216 | * This occurs every season in ''WesternAnimation/StevenUniverse''. Homeworld sends some of their forces to Earth, and the Crystal Gems pull out all the stops to fight them and barely manage to handle the threats... only to discover that said forces weren't even there for them, but rather some unrelated task (checking on the Cluster, locating a missing soldier, collecting specimens for a PeopleZoo). The rulers of Homeworld aren't aware that they even ''exist'' until the final season, leaving you with the feeling that the Crystal Gems have only survived all of their recent encounters with Homeworld because they barely register as a blip on the galactic empire's radar. [[spoiler:When Homeworld's rulers come ''[[VillainNoLongerIdle themselves]]'', the Crystal Gems only get out of it by proving that [[AvengingTheVillain the murder the Diamonds are trying to avenge]] never happened.]] |
| 217 | * In the two-part Season Two finale of ''WesternAnimation/Ben10AlienForce'', Azmuth and Paradox inform Ben and the others of the impending Highbreed invasion, with Ben recalling they barely destroyed one of their warships in the series premiere. Azmuth points that it wasn't a warship, but a ''cruiser''; no force on the planet could defeat an actual Highbreed warship, and ''thousands'' were coming. Ben and the others are naturally put off. |
| 218 | * The final season ''WesternAnimation/StarVsTheForcesOfEvil'' focuses on [[SociopathicSoldier Mina]] trying to rebuild the [[SuperSoldier Solarian Soldier program]] so she can use it to invade Mewni and overthrow [[HeroWithBadPublicity Eclipsa]]. In the first part of the finale, a HumongousMecha armor appears and proceeds to tear through most of Star's allies until it's ''barely'' defeated by Eclipsa with the use of the [[GodzillaThreshold Total Annihilation Spell]]: a spell developed originally by Eclipsa's mother [[FinalSolution with the intention of using it to wipe out all Monsters from Mewni]]. Cue Marco arriving and informing them whoever they spent the entire episode fighting ''wasn't'' Mina -- it was just some random mook. The real Mina had succeed in rebuilding the program and is due to arrive in a few minutes with ''an army'' of similar suited soldiers. |
| 219 | * Season 3 of ''WesternAnimation/SheRaAndThePrincessesOfPower'' reveals that the Horde the Rebellion has been struggling to push back for all this time is nothing but a pale imitation formed by a defective clone soldier who landed on Etheria by pure accident. The ''actual'' Horde is an intergalactic empire whom the clone is trying to establish contact with. [[spoiler:Said forces immediately conquer the planet in the fifth season.]] |
| 220 | * ''WesternAnimation/AdventureTime'': [[OurLichesAreDifferent The Lich]], the undead sorcerer and BigBad who tormented the Land of Ooo for the first few seasons? [[spoiler:He’s just one of numerous horrors [[MonsterProgenitor birthed]] by [[EldritchAbomination GOLB]], the AnthropomorphicPersonification of chaos, and is indicated to be a fairly weak and minor one at that, akin to a scholar or priest. When GOLB finally manages to manifest in the real world himself in the GrandFinale, he immediately unleashes a legion of his [[UndeadAbomination monstrosities]] and followers, the majority of whom ''completely'' dwarf the Lich in size and power.]] |
| 221 | * ''WesternAnimation/XMenTheAnimatedSeries'': In "Weapon X, Lies, and Videotape", Wolverine, Beast, Sabretooth, Maverick, and Silverfox investigate the Weapon X facility, but they trigger the security system and a superpowered robot called Talos is activated to deal with them. It takes a lot of effort to destroy it and everybody except Beast is knocked out. Just as Beast is catching his breath, the security system summons another Talos and it is implied there is whole room full of them. Beast is left with no choice but to escape with everyone and blow up the building to prevent Talos from following them. |
| 222 | [[/folder]] |
http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/context.php
FollowingContext Main / ThoseWereOnlyTheirScouts
Go To
- Show Spoilers
- Night Vision
- Sticky Header
- Wide Load
