open/close all folders
N-R
Naruto
- In Black Flames Dance in the Wind: Rise of Naruto
, not only is Naruto S-Rank at graduation, but Anko, Zabuza, and a few others are all S-Ranked as well.- The Forest of Death is changed from a fairly dangerous forest that moderately skilled Genin can traverse without too much trouble to a nightmarish hellhole that even Jounin have to be careful in. Word of God confirms that the forest is filled with demons, mutations, and animals that evolved to eat both.
- Ffreire's NaruFox AU: Since Gaara is less murder-happy in this AU, Temari is the one who single-handedly dealt with the enemy shinobi they came across in the Forest of Death, driving them off entirely by herself. During their preliminary match, Tenten accuses her of being overqualified, suggesting that she's got ulterior motives for participating in the Chuunin Exams.
- in dreams you follow (but I dream in the dark): In order to become a Deep Cover Agent, Kiba learns how to become a Master Poisoner from Genma, turning his Hot-Blooded, cocky and overconfident attitude as a genin into part of his persona while honing his skills to the point where he earns his reputation as an S-rank missing-nin.
- In canon, Kaguya is a joke, an Anti-Climax Boss that was defeated by Naruto's Reverse Harem Jutsu. In Reverse, however, Kaguya is a Hero Killer who caused the extinction of the human race, and Kurama's plan boils down to preventing her from awakening.
- Son of the Sannin does this to Naruto and his peers, and with a justified reason in-story: as a result of the Uchiha clan's uprising, Konoha suffers a major blow to its military manpower, and thus they're forced to up the standards in the ninja academy to ensure that the graduates are better prepared to handle future threats. This includes teaching them chakra control, elemental and medical ninjutsu.
- True Potential: Quite a few, though more as a result of changed circumstances:
- Dosu is rather notable, as his canonical history amounts to curbstomping Lee and then getting one-shotted by Gaara. This time, he's up against the latter in the preliminaries. Gaara is cocky and doesn't take him seriously. Dosu is quick to show that sand can't block sound, giving Gaara a fairly close fight. While he loses, he does go on to defect to Konoha.
- Hidan may turn into one, as the author has stated his belief that he was easily the weakest member of the Akatsuki. As such, after a humiliating defeat at the hands of Naruto, Sakura, and Kiba (for context, a newly minted chūnin — albeit, a jinchūriki, for the strongest biju no less — and two genin, respectively), he vows to train harder. And this happens prior to the Time Skip...
- And when we see him back after the time skip, he made good on that vow. On top of being generally stronger, he can now turn his body into a mass of blood to avoid attacks, use his own blood as a weapon, and summon a trio of zombies with body modifications to fight for him.
- The circumstances that led to Shukaku being removed from Gaara never happens. As such, the latter has access to all the abilities the Tailed Beast could give him.
- While Kabuto still grafts the DNA of various shinobi into his body in order to gain their unique abilities after Orochimaru's death, he adds more, which includes Pakura's Scorch Release and Guren's Crystal Release.
- Naruto is much more adept in using fūinjutsu, which includes using the Adamantine Chains.
- Due to replacing Sakura as Tsunade's apprentice, Shikamaru learns medical ninjutsu during the time skip.
- During the Shippūden part of the story, we see Kurotsuchi being able to use Dust Release.
- Both Hinata and Anko are shown being taught how to use Senjutsu by the White Snake Sage.
- Likewise, Shikamaru has begun learning Senjutsu from the slugs.
- Sakura zig-zags between this and Adaptational Wimp. On one hand, there's nothing to indicate that she's Tsunade's apprentice in this fic. On the other hand, she's shown to be using fūinjutsu during Shippūden.
- All the other jinchūriki have their own versions of the biju cloaks in this story.
- After unlocking the Nine-Tails Chakra Mode, Naruto is shown to use Scorch Release.
- Vapors: Because she was found by the Third Hokage and adopted into the Uzumaki Clan as well as studying under Anko, Karin here is capable of holding her own with Sasuke in combat and is often paired with him on missions.
- In canon, Konan got caught by Jiraiya, acted as support during Pain's attack on Konoha, and got killed by Tobi. Here, she demonstrates exactly why she's The Dragon.
- It's somewhat of a Fandom-Specific Plot to make Shinji (and often other characters along with him) more badass, or at least less traumatized, due to the lack of badassery he has going on.
- EVA Sessions: Someplace Vast and Dry:
- Asuka's father Martin Langley is a former Feldwebel (Sergeant) in the German Army and briefly worked as a security contractor for NERV. He later starts teaching Rei and Asuka martial arts when the girls get tapped to become Evangelion pilots.
- Fuyutsuki is an academic variant; whereas Fuyutsuki in canon was based in a small underfunded lab at Kyoto University and was eventually reduced to working as an unlicensed back-alley doctor after Second Impact, Someplace's Fuyutsuki is a respected bioengineering researcher with the university naming an entire state-of-the-art research building after him.
- Evangelion 303: Several characters are more badass than their canon counterparts:
- Shinji is an adult, seasoned soldier in contrast to his untrained teen pilot canon self.
- Touji, Hikari, and Kensuke are jet fighter pilots rather than average teenagers.
- Neon Genesis Evangelion: Genocide allows Asuka to fully show off the prowess that the original series hinted at and The End of Evangelion gave but a short taste of it. When one of the new "Angels" has sent Rei down for the count and is about to give Shinji Coup de Grâce, she gets a full-on She's Back moment and proves what she is capable of by ripping the Angel apart. She goes on to remain a competent pilot throughout the story.
- In Nobody Dies Kei Ayanami was originally just another one of The Ree with Bond Villain Stupidity as her Quirk. And then The Kei-Files came out, and she was changed into a Manipulative Woobiefied badass girl with dorky and Fragile traits, making her one of the most beloved original characters of the fic.
- Mr and Mrs Gold: While she is still Rumpelstiltskin's Morality Pet and is a force for good, here Belle gains magical abilities from the ritual used to bind her on their wedding day. She earns her own infamous status as "the Caretaker", some rumors speculating that she is even worse than Rumpel, and is one of the few characters aside from Rumpel capable of intimidating Regina.
- Most of the Straw Hats and some of their enemies in Aunt Myself are considerably more powerful due to Robin accidentally traveling thirty years in the past.
- Robin herself, now going by Jaguar Robin, takes down the Buster Call at Ohara then effortlessly drowns Sakazuki. Both she and Kuzan explicitly acknowledge that she let him go, not the other way around.
- Roughly half the crew has at least some ability with haki by the end of Alabasta, though only the two Robins, Yamato, and Brook are "proficient" with it.
- Bartolomeo's friend Desire ate the Dragon-Dragon Fruit, Model: Spinosaurus after Luffy and Yamato kill Page One.
- Charlotte Pudding showed no combat ability in canon, but here is Crocodile's partner and ate the Warp-Warp Fruit.
- Vice Admiral Doll was promoted to Admiral Shirohebi some time in the past after eating Enel's Rumble Rumble Fruit. At Sabaody Archipelago, she barely exerts any effort fighting any of the pirates present with the sole exception of Kuma.
- Luffy is implied to have awakened his devil fruit during the timeskip, making an offhand mention of "how tiring it is when he changes his hair" to Franky.
- All of the "Straw Hats" (Luffy doesn't have the hat so they don't have that name) in Crossed Lines due to all of them coming from the future. Besides all of them having haki and most having some ability with rokushiki, there's also:
- Luffy ate the Fish Fish Fruit: Model Crimson Dragon.
- Nami ate the Soul Soul Fruit and has Conqueror's Haki.
- Usopp fights with a bow as well as his slingshot and has numerous trick shots already made.
- Sanji took his Raid Suit with him before running away from home.
- Zoro gains Enma and Ame no Habakiri early, along with turning Enma into a black blade instantly.
- Brook awakened his devil fruit and takes back his shadow for himself.
- Vivi ate Crocodile's Sand Sand Fruit.
- In a roundabout way, Zeff due to Sanji using Geppo to reach the ocean below while they were stranded, meaning the older man never had to eat his leg to survive.
- The Logia Brothers:
- All three of the titular brothers qualify for a number of reasons. First, Luffy, Ace, and Sabo all ate powerful logia devil fruits at a very young age. Second, Garp got Aokiji to teach them how to actually use their fruits. Third, all three know how to use Observataion and Armament Haki by the time they set sail. Notably, Ace's bounty is nearly double what it was in canon at 1,050,000,000 beri.
- The Straw Hats in general also due to Luffy training them in how to use Haki. By Alabasta, all of them have at least some ability in the two main varieties.
- Thanks to Luffy's training, Vivi is an even more skilled fighter than canon and even learns that she has Conqueror's Haki. She also gets the Sand-Sand Fruit after Crocodile's death.
- In Logia Luffy: Rise of the Dark Emperor, Kuro is given a Zoan Devil Fruit, mostly to keep his fight with Luffy from being too one-sided.
- The Serpent Empress:
- Boa Hancock ate the Snake Snake Fruit: Model Gorgon, knows how to imbue her attacks with Conqueror's Haki, and can at the very least fight Big Mom to a draw.
- Marigold and Sandersonia also at mythical zoan devil fruits: Quetzalcoatl and Yamata no Orochi respectively. In canon, Marigold and Sandersonia were defeated basically instantly when Luffy used Gear Second against them. Here? They both tank his attacks and would have killed them if his burst of Conqueror's Haki didn't convince Hancock to call off his execution. Furthermore, Sandersonia kills Akainu, albeit with a timely assist from Luffy.
- Rather than being still too weak to join the Kuja Pirates, Marguerite and Kikyo are both officers on the crew and each has eaten a Devil Fruit (Jaguar and Dance, respectively).
- Canon Enishida was merely Hancock's lady's maid and never displayed any combat ability. In Serpent Empress, she ate the Lick Lick Fruit some time after Perospero's death and is at least capable of restraining Luffy completely.
- Bacura is from Rusukaina and requires Luffy to use Gear Third to defeat, unlike canon where he easily beat her with a single punch.
- The Kuja Pirates as a whole are far stronger due to Hancock being an Emperor rather than a Warlord, forcing all of them to become stronger to defend their territory.
- Honey Queen was an antagonist from the second movie and the weakest Logia ever introduced, being defeated by Nami trapping her in a jar. Here, she's one of the Seven Warlords and holds her own against Luffy at Marineford.
- Gion is promoted to Admiral after eating the Dark Dark Fruit some time after Blackbeard's death.
- In This Bites!, Hattori is actually a dangerous assassin capable of using the Six Powers.
- Several of the Straw Hats become stronger sooner due to Cross giving them hints regarding their future abilities. Special note goes to Chopper who develops a Jekyll & Hyde personality and creates his own explosives, earning himself a 66 million bounty, and Nami who gained Ohm's Eisen Dial and fried ten battleships at Enies Lobby, making her a Supernova with a bounty of 125 million.
- Gecko Moria undergoes a Traumatic Super Power Awakening during the events of Thriller Bark. The result is that he Awakens his Devil Fruit, taking his already formidable umbrakinetic powers from canon up multiple notches.
- Buggy the Clown, of all people, turns out to be this. Simply put? He wasn't sailing the East Blue because he wasn't a New World Captain level combatant. He was sailing the East Blue because he was a New World Captain level combatant who was sick of the insanity of the Grand Line and decided to leave it behind completely after his captain's death.
- Miss Valentine in Truly Precious has some level of ability with Armaments Haki, making her considerably more dangerous than canon.
- In Watashitachi Wa Roger Kaizoku Desu We Still Stand Proud, Buggy knows both Armaments and Observation Haki with mention that there's no way someone who was on the Oro Jackson for years wouldn't know both. While Crocus genuinely thinks Buggy was trying to kill Luffy, in reality he was just testing the boy, like he does all East Blue rookies.
- Rather than just some civilian woman, Rouge was a pirate captain herself and apparently one of the big names up there with the likes of Roger and Whitebeard.
- Zig-zagged in The Bald and the Esper as Tatsumaki starts off weaker than canon but with far more varied skills (using her telekinesis to create bombs, laser blades, and more) then starts training under Saitama. By the Sea Folk Arc, she's learned how to turn someone's energy against them. While against Saitama, it only nudges his fingers, against a monster, it spins them with so much force they rip apart.
- The Sea King is also more dangerous to counter Tatsumaki's different skill set from Genos. Here, he can split into three equally powerful bodies to overwhelm enemies or act as distractions.
- While we never actually see him in combat, Metal Knight is now S-Class Rank 2. He has an entire army of robots at his command and he is the sole protector of an entire city. Additionally, Dr Bofoi himself is a powerful cyborg, the only clue Word of God reveal of his true power? "Nanomachines, son."
- In canon, Kousaka Kyousuke is the type of person who lets his sister walk all over him. Contrast this to My Life Can't Lose Its Normality where he (as well as Ayase, Akagi, and Miura) are a team of martial-arts mastering, Yakuza-killing vigilantes who pull off stunts normally reserved for paramilitary organizations and special operatives.
- A Blight on Bonesborough:
- Camila becomes this after knocking out Kikimora at the petrification ceremony and she slowly becomes more of one after joining the Bards Against the Throne, especially when she becomes the group's leader after Raine becomes head of the Bard Coven.
- Viney and Harvey Park joining the CATT's puts them in this category, too.
- Even though Eda's stuck in her Owl Beast form after the petrification ceremony and lost her magic, her Owl Beast form's still stronger and able to use her claws and flight ability to make up for it.
- As of chapter 23, Eda has permanently transformed into her Harpy form removing pretty much all of the problems she had with her Owl Beast body.
- Seeing as she's Eda's daughter, Luz is definitely a stronger magic user since her magical abilities are rather potent. Near the end of the story, she gains a harpy form.
- Luz in canon was more of an overzealous kid who usually survived half of the things she did through dumb luck and quick thinking, not really reaching any level of genuine badassness until the first season finale. In A Hero Forged she manages to create a fully-functional Iron Man suit within her first week there and is far less fragile for it.
- In canon, Luz's mother is a veterinarian who finds Luz's willful, though admittedly destructive imagination exasperating. In Witches Among Humans, she raised Luz as a wild witch (which, if the Boiling Isles in the comic is anything like the show, is illegal).
- While Luz in canon was a regular human teenager, in The Amazing Spider-Luz in: Across the Owl-Verse! she's a mutate with Spider-Man's abilities, giving her Super-Strength, Super-Reflexes, wall crawling, a Spider-Sense, organic web-shooters, and a Healing Factor.
Persona Franchise
- Hours 'Verse:
- Minato is able to summon Personas in the real world and cast spells on his own due to having the Universe Arcana.
- Akechi manages to form genuine bonds, resulting in him receiving Mordred, his true Ultimate Persona. He later undergoes training with Minato to harness the full power of the Wild Card.
- During Mementos' merge with reality late in Butterfly Cascade, various non-Persona users help out with their own skills, including Dojima, Nanako, Shinya, Sojiro, Takemi, and Iwai.
- Sumire goes from an ordinary Persona wielder to a Wild Card.
- In Patchwork Hearts, the Phantom Thieves are not struck by the Bag of Spilling like they are in canon.
- In canon, Futaba and pre-Persona Zenkichi are completely unable to fight Shadows. Here, they manage to physically overpower Akane's Cognitive Mona.
- Persona 4 SILVER BLUE:
- Labrys. Unlike in canon, she’s a wild card due to being the main character, and she has better control over her illusion powers to allow her to disguise herself and better blend in with humans.
- Shadow Yosuke. In canon, he’s a Warm-Up Boss and he’s not that hard to defeat. In this story, he puts up a much better fight before going down, and he can take a lot of punishment too.
- In the game, Shiho was a victim of Kamoshida's physical abuse and implied sexual harassment, to the point where she attempted suicide. in The Evil Queen, where Kamoshida was ousted before things got that bad, Shiho is a much stronger individual to the point where she becomes a Persona user.
- With the exception of Maruki, the adult confidant characters in the game were all normal people. In the Persona 5 Adult Confidant AU, on top of being de-aged, the adult confidants (plus Shido) are now all Persona users and take up the role of the Phantom Thieves.
- Due to the result of a Peggy Sue plot, Ashes of the Past has pretty much everyone that Ash has come into contact with become a bonafide badass. This ranges from Ash actively pursuing his Aura Guardian training and fighting Pokémon with his bare hands, to Charizard learning the Poké-equivalent of a tactical nuke, to Squirtle (as a now-Kamina expy) breaking the laws of physics on a regular basis.
- In canon, Ash Ketchum is a rather bumbling, childish, and well...stupid, trainer. In The Chosen One's Journey, all that is replaced with maturity, responsibility, discipline, and pure badass.
- Common Sense is based on a simple premise: what if the TR Trio was actually competent? The answer: this trope. For bonus points, in response to this additional pressure, the "twerps" and their Pokémon are also more formidable than in canon.
- In Pokémon Black 2 and White 2, Yancy was merely a side character who only traded with Nate, the male Player Character, during her respective sidequest. In As Fate Would Have It, she has a full, balanced, team of Fairy-types, defeated all 8 Unova League gyms offscreen, and proves her strength when she effortlessly defeats Hugh, a pretty strong trainer in the original games, in a Pokemon battle.
- In canon, Misty's sisters gave away gym badges due to being lousy trainers who were focused on their water shows. In Legend, they give away badges because they're so strong that they've gotten in trouble with the league for "discouraging trainers".
- Pokémon Reset Bloodlines has this a lot. Bar the characters who have the titular bloodlines and the badass gains from such abilities, a wide variety of characters are much more impressive than their canon selves: The Team Rocket Trio can actually steal Pokémon, Georgia is a militarily trained Dragon Buster whose job it is to arrest corrupt gym leaders and elite four members, Ash's Pokémon evolve earlier and have new, more powerful moves they lacked in canon like Aerial Ace, Brine, and Zap Cannon, and Mabel from the XY anime went from granny to Lumiose Conference winning granny. Badassery isn't even just in physical power: Erika is shown to have sizeable monetary and political power she has never been shown to have in other canons.
- Pokemon: Shadow of Time:
- Professor Oak never was shown to do much Pokémon battling in the anime. Here, he is The Dreaded as the first-ever champion of the modern Kanto Pokémon League, with it being considered suicide to go up against him.
- In the anime, Delia Ketchum has never been shown to be remotely badass. Here, she is a former member of the Elite Four and the sister of Rocket Boss Giovanni, and she hasn't lost any skill by being a Retired Badass. When her husband Grimsley (yes, that Grimsley) was killed by a Shadow Ho-Oh, her Pokémon brutally murdered the corrupted Pokémon in response.
- Ash's Charizard manages to be Strong and Skilled as opposed to the Unskilled, but Strong Pokémon he was in the original timeline. Best shown in the fic's adaptation of Pokémon: The First Movie, where he soloes all three of Mewtwo's cloned Starter Pokémon on his own.
- The Road to be a Pokemon Master:
- Ash only used his Aura powers sparingly. Here, he uses them more often and receives training in how to use them. Also, Serena has Psychic Powers that she didn't have in canon.
- Serena catches many more Pokémon than in canon and is generally a much better battler than her anime counterpart, who only battled sparingly, and rarely won against opponents other than the Team Rocket Trio.
- Due to imprinting on Ash and Serena rather than Misty, Ash actually trains Togepi and grows strong enough to take part in Gym and League matches.
- Some of Ash's Pokémon that never evolved in canon, like Squirtle or Totodile, do evolve here.
- Gym leaders in general have stronger teams than they had in the anime.
- Both Shudo cross Modern Ash: The Trainer who Questions Humanity and Shudo cross Modern Ash: The Professor Who Observes his Charges have an Ash with more evolved Pokémon and farther placement in the leagues he entered.
- Traveler:
- In canon, Ash was an Idiot Hero known to slack off his training and earn half his badges without beating the gym leaders at the beginning of his journey. In Traveler, he's reasonably intelligent, spends most of his waking hours training his team, and wins every badge legitimately. After getting his eighth badge, Ash tours Kanto again and beats each gym leader's real team. Finally, Ash takes second place at the Indigo Conference and gets taken on as an Elite Four trainee.
- The Legendaries. Rather than Olympus Mons that are powerful but can be beaten and even captured by the right strategy, or even just a strong enough opponent, in Traveler, the Legendaries are physical gods whose mere presence empowers nearby Pokémon and create storms that threaten entire nations.
- Bruno is able to use aura to some degree as a form of Charles Atlas Superpower.
- Ace Trainers in the games are merely NPC trainers that are somewhat stronger than most. Here, they're ACE trainers and are essentially the Pokémon Trainer equivalent of special forces like Navy Seals, SAS, and KGB.
- All Elite Four and League Champions (including former ones like Steven) have access to Mega Evolution.
- Hau's Pichu in Pokémon Sun and Moon wasn't impressive at all, at least not until finally becoming his surprisingly brutal Alolan Raichu. In Ultra Eclipse, "Sparky" was born knowing the incredibly powerful Volt Tackle, and he's introduced one-shotting a random girl's Oshawott with it. It doesn't help him against Selene and her Kakuna, but he's definitely powerful enough for her to be concerned by him.
- The version of Razputin from Razputin Vodello AU has lived most of his life at the Motherlobe among psychics and adults willing to teach him how to use his powers. This, combined with lacking the superstitious belief in the Hand of Galochio, led to him being a gifted hydrokinetic.
- Ranma Saotome, Chi Master has the title character arrive in Nerima with greater strength and skill, and an excellent understanding of Chi to boot. Moreover, under his tutelage, Akane becomes increasingly formidable.
- In canon, Claire is only ever mentioned as being in TerraSave in a somewhat senior position. In The Progenitor Chronicles, she’s the leader of TerraSave, only stepping down in favor of Neil around the end of Volume II (~2010).
''Rugrats
- Lou Pickles in canon is, admittedly, a decent fighter due to him being in the navy but is mostly seen as a goofy old man. In What If They Were Competent? he is The Dreaded for all things spooky, scary, and supernatural.
- He reveals that he was in Derry and killed Pennywise
- He is summoned by just saying his name 5 times, causing Candyman and Freddy Kreuger to scream in terror
- Later when Freddy tries to kill Tommy in his dread Lou shows up and brutally beats him up
- He's best friends with Samara.
- When one looks into the abyss sometimes it looks back. When the Overlook Hotel looked into the abyss it saw Lou Pickles' fist
- His brother John "Buckey" Hammond-Pickles commonly calls him to beat up the raptors in his park
- He can see through the Predator's cloaking tech
- The White Fang get this treatment in Black Out The Sky. In the original series they pose a valid threat, but still end up getting foiled by main characters more often than not. In the fic, they manage to effectively Take Over the World and utterly outgun any resistance they still have to face. Adam Taurus in particular goes from being merely a skilled combatant to a One-Man Army capable of wiping out a huntsmen team in a matter of seconds.
- The Commission takes the formidable, but still in training, girls of Team RWBY and makes them The Dreaded. They're the leaders of each of their groups, all acquired via hostile takeovers, and are engaged in their own conspiracy with ruthlessness and efficiency that scares the original show's villains. Heck, those villains appear in this fic as the girls' subordinates.
- Several characters in In the Kingdom's Service get badass upgrades. Cardin, Ciel, Velvet, and Yang are all secret agents while Oobleck is the director of Vale Secret Service. But the biggest change is Penny, who is a weaponized Relic made to kill Maidens.
- A very minor case occurs with Jaune in A More Flawed Gem. While still cheating his way into Beacon, Jaune does have some middling degree of combat training as well as some experience hunting game. Enough to survive an onslaught of Grimm (albeit with a great deal of help from his classmates). That said, he's still woefully behind many of his peers in terms of skill and experience.
- Professor Arc: Student of Vacuo: While a few characters are generally more capable, Jaune and Roman are the two standouts. Jaune is just as skilled as his resume portrays him, rather than the untrained weakling from canon and Professor Arc. Notably, rather than barely dodging Cardin's attacks until the boy tires himself out like in Professor Arc, Jaune and Neo easily trounce the entirety of Team CRDL without taking a single hit. Meanwhile, Roman is changed from skilled enough to take on a member of Team RWBY but not Huntsman level to being stronger than Jaune and Neo combined and good enough to hold his own against Qrow. And rather than not having a Semblance, Roman has some form of Dust manipulation, as shown when he fights Pyrrha and catches one of his own shots to hit her with it.
- RWBY: Reckoning takes the normally bumbling Jaune Arc, a guy who is nothing like his legendary ancestors, and makes him able to build a functioning time bomb with approximately 18 flares, some duct tape, and some scraps. And it's powerful enough to shred the stomach of a very large Grimm.
- War of Remnant: A RWBY Anthology:
- Jaune, while having still sneaked his way into Beacon, is a very capable fighter and didn’t need Pyrrha to train him.
- Yang’s semblance is far more powerful here than in canon. She becomes borderline invincible and burns so hot bullets melt before they can touch her.
S-Z
Sailor Moon
- Beautiful Destroyer Sailor Moon: Pick a main character, any main character. The Senshi are now mid to high-level superhumans that can throw around trains and remain unharmed from being dipped in molten concrete for over a minute. Mamoru can fly and has a sword cane, and his friends are apparently spies with military training. And Naru gets to keep the disguise pen which gives her borderline Cutey Honey level transformations, topping off with turning a fighter jet into a mecha. Shingo Tsukino is Mamoru's apprentice as Moonlight Knight and wields a cane gun.
- Celestial Warrior Moon: Tuxedo Mask, who has been made into Phantom Mask, a Batman-like figure that wields a sword and gets into the thick of things and manages to hold his own. He's thrown no roses and made no cheesy one-liners here.
- Usagi and the other girls count, too. The nature of their powers makes getting up, close, and personal with their opponents necessary, so the fighting is a lot more intense.
- Cosmic Warriors takes the normally cheesy Tuxedo Mask and has him wielding his cane like a real weapon with a hidden sword within. On top of that, his cane seems capable of more tricks, like shooting five rechargeable red thorn darts from the base.
- Of The Stars:
- Sailor Moon's initial power set has been changed to be more effective and consistent - she starts with healing abilities that can repel mind-controlled, energy-drained victims, while the Early-Installment Weirdness Sonic Scream has been removed. The second arc makes it clear that while she's Book Dumb, Usagi is very perceptive in other ways.
- Tuxedo Mask is a considerably effective melee fighter. To the point where he severs the first Youma's hand.
- He outright kills the second Youma! Badass indeed.
- More competence than badassery, but in the third arc Jadeite promptly decides that whoever killed two of his youma must be dealt with immediately. He then sends out a high-ranking youma specifically to find and eliminate the threat, and then plans to deal with the problem personally if that doesn't work.
- Sailor Moon: Legends of Lightstorm:
- Sailor Moon now fights primarily with sonic screams powerful enough to annihilate buildings, her energy disk can slice through almost anything, and her physical strength is great enough to punch through rocket-proof armor.
- Sailor Mercury impales things on gigantic ice spears and can stand up to the toughest of Negaverse drones single-handedly.
- Tuxedo Mask has fighting skills that rival Lightstorm's can cut through virtually any substance with his razor-roses, hits hard enough to knock gigantic drones off their feet, and can withstand explosions strong enough to shred drone armor.
- In SlifofinaDragon's fanfics, starting from chapter 2 part 3 of Let's Endless Party!, Kyogoku Maria, while retaining her cloth manipulation, is a powerful sorceress (if not already) with magic that is almost close to that of traditional witchcraft (i.e. potion-brewing, spell casting) and even has her own workspace at her residence.
She-Ra and the Princesses of Power
- Cat-Ra:
- Catra has the powers of She-Ra, in addition to her own natural Magicat abilities.
- Adora shares Shadow Weaver's ability to manipulate shadows thanks to a magic headband, with her also having a more deadly superpowered form on top of that. She also gains the ability to use them without the headband at the end of Season 1. Her powers become fully innate by Season 4, accompanied by the ability to copy the powers of the other princesses, though only partially.
- Orbko, the story's version of Emily's Kid Sister, is even more powerful with its learning and shapeshifting abilities, plus quickly developing free will, thanks to Entrapta being able to make use of the Kingdom of Snow's resources with Frosta having joined the Horde.
- A Magical Evening:
- While Princess Sofia was already really strong in the series, in the fic she has even more powers with the Amulet of Avalor and eventually becomes a skilled sorceress when she takes away Cedric’s magic.
- In canon, Cedric was mostly a Harmless Villain who struggled to accomplish anything. In this fic, he manages to escape after being discovered and actually does succeed in revealing Sofia and Lucinda’s relationship and nearly gets the amulet from her.
- Chasing Dragons:
- Thanks to being raised and trained by Arthur Dayne and Barristan Selmy, Viserys is an actual Targaryen warrior king rather than a wannabe.
- Robert is every inch the solid, chivalrous, heroic badass twenty years after the rebellion instead of the drunken slob he degenerated to in canon. He is also a much more engaged and intelligent king, taking it upon himself to improve as a statesman after being forced to accept a lopsided peace deal due to his ignorance.
- In canon, Ned Stark was described as a mediocre swordsman who was better at commanding troops then fighting. Here, constant, relentless training means Ned has graduated to a level of mastery he wouldn't achieve in canon. Justified, as Ned was driven to improve his skills after badly losing a duel with Arthur Dayne, despite having Jaime Lannister backing him up. They only survived because Arthur's side was losing the battle and he was forced to retreat.
- Downplayed with Samwell Tarly, but he possesses a little more skill with a blade as he was trained by one of Willas Tyrell's masters-at-arms (one specifically picked for his patience) instead of his father. He is still middling at best and but in battle he can at least defend himself. He also gets a chance to display his talent for logistics and politics, managing the Eastern Expeditions' supplies.
- Theon Greyjoy was already a capable fighter and an excellent archer in canon. Here, he is a veritable One-Man Army.
- Sonic X: Dark Chaos:
- Tails goes from being a weak, shy Gadgeteer Genius into a Magnificent Bastard captain who gains a Lovecraftian Superpower and ends up saving the entire universe from an Eldritch Abomination at the cost of his own life.
- Cream stays with Sonic and friends to the end, even after seeing things that would make most adults break down. In Episode 66, she and her chao Cheese ends up beating Astorath the Prince of Darkness on her own.
- Cosmo saves several planets before becoming acting captain of the Blue Typhoon, and she is also appointed leader of the Metarex during the final battle. And in the rewrite, when Astorath and Beelzebub land on her ship, she runs out onto the flight deck with Venus' demon scythe and rips them a new one.
- Chris Thorndyke goes from being a whiny, dependent brat to a Genius Bruiser, pulls off a Big Damn Heroes and unleashes Death from Above with the Typhoon in the rewrite of Episode 69, and later on fights Beelzebub and Astorath alongside Cosmo during the final battle.
- Tales of Sonic the Hedgehog:
- While Sonic has never really been a wimp, most incarnations suffer from Super Drowning Skills, which media like Sonic X turns into severe hydrophobia to the point landing in a simple puddle of water triggers a Freak Out. Here, while still afraid of water, Sonic is capable of swimming.
- Princess Elise, while still not a combatant, is noticeably more defiant towards Dr. Robotnik, refusing to give him the secret to the Flames of Disaster. She also averts Neutral Female, knowing to stay out of fights when her safety could hinder the heroes and instead actually goes to get help from the other Freedom Fighters. She only gets captured a total of three times instead of five like in the 2006 game due to some unforeseen circumstances on the heroes' sidenote .
- Soul Eater: Troubled Souls: An increasing number of canon characters show more skill or competency than their original counterparts, which is saying something. They are even gifted with more techniques and moves than normal, especially those who lacked them. Here are some specific examples:
- This fic plays up Tsubaki’s abilities as a ninja or assassin. She also seems to be a bit more resourceful.
- In canon, Ox has a pretty limited repertoire of techniques and moves. Here, he has plenty to spare, up to and including a Soul Resonance between him and Harvar.
- Crona receives stronger forms, learns Soul Resonance, can fight Medusa on equal or better footing, overcomes Mad Blood, and is saner. Oh, also, "badass" as in kills Medusa permanently!
- Kim fends off Medusa Gorgon long enough until The Cavalry comes without her Regeneration Magic.
- The Mizunes, specifically their fully combined form. In the original manga, that form of Mizuna is only seen in a fanservice catfight with Blair. Here, this is the sisters' most powerful form, and they absolutely destroy Caius and Tsuji in the Cobra Island arc.
- Aimless: Bianca in the games was a Minion with an F in Evil prior to her Heel–Face Turn, with her spells often backfiring on her. This Bianca is much more competent and capable of holding her own, even managing to fight off the apes attacking a caravan on her own and making it back to Eyria with only a bruise.
- In canon, the Crystal Gems lost the war and Rose, Garnet, and Pearl were the only survivors, the only gem tech they have they had scavenged. Not only did the Crystal Gems in Blue Au-niverse win the war, but they have established their own presence in the galaxy and are still capable of space travel.
- Cackletta wasn't really much of a threat in Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga, being an unimpressive mage with an easy boss fight halfway through her game. In Clash of the Elements, on the other hand, she's a Manipulative Bastard of the highest degree, a two-thousand-year-old remnant of the Dark King's forces who caused the legend of the Shadow Queen just to extend her own life, and a Chessmaster who successfully managed to outwit Big Goods. Implications exist to suggest she has also been able to control the Heartless.
- The Sea Shadow: Vivian, due to being motivated to actually fight, is strong right out of the gate and also wields both a sword and a blunderbuss.
- The original Super Readers don't even fight against their enemies and for the most part either talk to the villains to join their side or run away if things get dangerous. Super Readers in Super Readers' Biggest Adventure receive power upgrades and proceed to kick the butts of the possessed citizens of Storybrook, as well as the Evil Reader and Lexicon's. Special mention goes to Alpha Pig and Wonder Red, since both went up a couple of levels, but as of Chapter 20, Super Why has one-upped them.
- In The Kirita Chronicles Kirita, the Gender Flipped version of Kirito, is more capable of being able to defend herself in the real world than he could. After quitting Kendo, she took up karate classes and is capable of delivering curb stomp battles to bullies and her fellow karate students. In canon, it is assumed Kirito focused solely on computers and video games. After being trapped in the video game, Kirita trains even harder to become stronger because she believes players will consider her vulnerable if they find out she is a female player.
- Sword Art Online Abridged does this for Asuna by cutting out some of her Damsel in Distress moments.
- In the Aincrad arc, Asuna isn't inexplicably afraid of her subordinate Kuradeel in Episode 8, she's manipulating Kirito into putting the creep in his place to avoid guild drama. Then in Episode 9, she doesn't fall victim to Kuradeel's attempt at an I Surrender, Suckers.
- Then in the Alfheim arc, Asuna is a much more defiant captive - she gives Sugou a Spiteful Spit when he comes to gloat, bites his hand when he tries to pet her, and when he threatens Kirito, she delivers such a vicious threat that Sugou's visibly unnerved despite the virtual reality they're in leaving her incapable of harming him. And while she's unable to escape her prison entirely, Asuna is able to repeatedly break out of her cage and traumatize his henchmen as part of a conscious effort to disrupt Sugou's work to mind-control her, to the point that Sugou complains that their "psych bills are really starting to pile up." This culminates in Episode 17, during the infamous tentacles scene - in the Abridged Series, when Asuna is being restrained upside-down by slug monsters, they're the ones panicking, and Asuna is able to intimidate one of her captors into trying to set her free, until another interrupts.
- New Tamaran:
- Scarecrow can normally be easily taken out by Batman, but here he goes toe-to-toe with an Amazon princess and an overpowered half-demon. Of course, he does fight both with magically enhanced fear toxin.
- Zig-zagged with Steve Trevor. While he’s never been a weakling, he tends to be overshadowed by characters with god-like strength. Here, he leads an assault on an invading Tamaranean army, and even after he loses his plane, he still manages to take out several alien attackers before going face-to-face with Wildfire and punching him into the Washington Monument.
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (2012)
- Heroes in the Shadows: Thanks to Dr. Falco using him as an unwitting guinea pig, the Donatello of this version develops Psychic Powers similar to canon!April, including Telepathy.
- Nia in Tengen Toppa Gurren Solvernia, gets an upgrade through character development, since now it's she who's mentored by Kamina. Simon, or rather, Prince Simon Teppelin already starts as a badass, taking on a ganman with only a sword.
- Sodor Fallout: A lot of characters end up stepping up to the plate compared to their canon versions.
- Henry in canon was a well-behaved and friendly engine. Here, is a part of the refugee group looking for survivors. He's now equipped with a shield in front of his buffers and is even given a new nickname: The Knight Walker.
- Sir Topham Hatt in canon was a stern but a fair controller that wasn't afraid to put an unruly engine in their place. In Sodor Fallout, he has no problem beating and torturing one of PT Boomer's men before blowing his head off.
- Mavis manages to survive PT Boomer's attack on the Quarry and escape by running some of them over. Her picture on the wiki even has her cowcatchers covered in blood. Later she's given a shield made from a truck similar to Henry.
- After being rescued by Mavis, Daisy forgoes any of her makeup and now looks like a commando ready for war, complete with black marks under her face.
- Rumia is the lowest of the low in Gensokyo's hierarchy, weak and with a useless power. It's widely speculated however that she possesses a Superpowered Evil Side, meaning most fan works featuring her give her an appropriate power boost, though the degree of the boost varies vastly; Imperfect Metamorphosis for example makes her into a Walking Wasteland and a Fallen Angel, whereas in Touhou Nekokayou she's slightly more powerful but still comic relief.
- Cirno, another canonically weak boss who is a fan favorite due to Awesome Ego, also gets this treatment quite often whenever she's not the Memetic Loser instead. Does this look like a stage 2 boss to you?◊
- Imperfect Metamorphosis:
- Kotohime was a generally ineffectual and totally delusional combatant in her original appearance. In this Fic, she's graduated to the rank of Beleaguered Assistant to Yukari herself, running Gensokyo's first police force, and at one point she delivers a beatdown to Marisa Kirisame for disintegrating one of her officers (she got better).
- Yuuka Kazami in canon is certainly powerful and has aspects of The Dreaded, but there are plenty of characters who could take her in a fight. Yuuka in IM is the most feared being in Gensokyo's history, a nightmare who no one dares confront directly, and who shrugs off all the attacks leveled at her by Yukari and her team she assembled specifically to kill Yuuka, in the process revealing her nature as an Outer God.
- Maiden's Illusionary Funeral takes Yukari and Ran, already ancient sages with near-unsurpassed abilities, and makes them both The Juggernaut who cleave through groups of specialist youkai hunters without a scratch. This in turn makes Yuyuko one as well, given she nearly killed Yukari while still trying to restrain her powers.
- Mokou is already an immortal powerhouse and EX-Boss. Touhou Ibunshu in addition has her possess the powers of a Physical God, giving her the strength to go toe-to-toe with Yukari after creating an army of thousands of kashoyo.
- Cast Swap:
- Sammy, thanks to avoiding early elimination this time, is able to develop into a much braver and stronger competitor able to face the ultra-intelligent Scarlett in the finale.
- Sugar too. While still a villainous character like in canon, she is much more devious, manipulative, and strategic in this story.
- Cody demonstrates himself to be a competent competitor throughout All-Stars and makes it to the final 2 compared to his canon run in World Tour, where he was mostly carried by Sierra and got eliminated shortly after Sierra was because of that.
- A Codette World Tour:
- Team Victory. Infamous in canon for getting completely wiped out by Alejandro before the season's halfway point, the fic makes them much more successful in challenges and more difficult for Alejandro to annihilate with two canonical members reaching the merge. Said two are Bridgette and DJ, who stand out especially as DJ loses his status as The Load due to having no animal curse plot in the story while Bridgette is not the first girl eliminated for the second time in a row, allowing both to really show their skills and win first class more times than in canon.
- A more minor example is Courtney. In canon, Duncan cheating on her severely weakened her emotionally, making her vulnerable to Alejandro's manipulative flirtations. Here, she instead enters an Unstoppable Rage over Duncan's infidelity, exaggerating her aggressive Competition Freak Determinator attitude and making her outright impossible for Alejandro to manipulate at all.
- Despair Island: Justin is a lot more competent and devious than in canon, essentially taking the spot of Heather as the main villainous contestant.
- The Legend of Total Drama Island
- Dawn is canonically a psychic with aura reading and ambiguous additional powers. In the reimagining, she is explicitly a full-fledged sorceress and her "psychic" abilities are actually magical in nature.
- When a monstrous beetle menaces Lindsay, Harold casually tosses a shuriken and neatly skewers the insect. Had he tried this in the Played for Laughs original, he would surely have failed in an amusing way.
- Heather is a significantly better strategist than her canon counterpart, albeit still prone to pettiness.
- Although still a whale, Sadie is tough, smart, and effective, and was generally none of those things in the canon. The pseudo-canonical text bios on the show's website do at least say she is supposed to be smart.
- Tyler is a downplayed example. The canon version fails at every athletic endeavor he attempts, but the reimagined version is an excellent sprinter and extremely strong. He retains his main canonical flaw of poor coordination, though.
- Loud Ed Drama: Heather is still the main antagonist of the story, but she is more socially savvy than she was in canon, where she let herself be openly hated at all times.
- My Ridonculous Race:
- Tom and Jen (originally the 5th team eliminated) last much longer in this story, getting eliminated in India
- The same can also be said of Dwayne and Junior who not only last longer but also win a leg, something they never did in the original work.
- Reality Collides: The Ezekiel Chronicles: The Killer Bass generally gets a major upgrade in the competence department in the fic thanks to Ezekiel's intervention. Allowing them to work together in a tightly-knit group and are far more organized to the point that the opposing team, the Screaming Gophers, have major trouble in the fic compared to canon.
- Total Drama 60 Club: Lindsay, Tyler, and Beth flip from being benevolent nice people into some very powerful manipulators, causing several eliminations. To some, they may be considered OC Stand-ins.
- Total Drama Action: All-In: Although he retains his laziness and primadonna habits, Justin is much more devious and competent in his villainous role compared to his canonical self, even managing to manipulate Heather and succeed at emotionally crushing her.
- Total Drama All-Stars Rewrite: Duncan and Gwen both get this.
- The finale shows Duncan being strong enough to knock down trees and even beating Mal.
- Gwen is an overall more active character, hunting down Chris and Chef during a challenge when Chris pushes her too far, and even making it to the Final Three, winning in the finale.
- Total Drama Island: A New Beginning: Justin doesn't resemble his canon counterpart so much as his canonical expy Alejandro, who was created in canon to be the villain that Justin was meant to be but never really became.
- Total Drama Pahkitew Island Reordered: Zig-zagged with Beardo. In canon, he contributes nothing helpful to the team and is the first one eliminated. Here, Beardo takes Sugar's role as the strongest member of the team, and he makes it further in the competition. However, he's also rather clumsy, which cost his team a couple challenges.
- Total Loud Island: In the canon season, the Killer Bass were the inferior team to the Screaming Gophers, with fewer team members remaining by the time of the merge. Here, the roles have been reversed, thanks to Dawn's mystic powers and Lincoln's natural resourcefulness, meaning the Gophers end up having fewer members than the Bass when the merge rolls around.
- Total Drama World Tour Deluxe: Team Victory is shown as more successful here, winning more elimination challenges than canon and outlasting some players from the other two teams. While they still dissolve in London (albeit due to being reduced to two players rather than losing all their members), it's still a step up from canon where everyone from the team was eliminated before the second Aftermath.
- In Transformers: Animated, Optimus was an Elite Guard washout and was brought online after the events of the Great War, initially not posing much of a threat to the Decepticons. In TFA Kaleidoscope, he's a front-line soldier who fought in the Great War, having killed numerous Decepticons during his time and matches Starscream in their battle.
- At the beginning of the The Other Side series, which adapts Trolls World Tour, Poppy starts off like her canon self, but she takes on more gradual levels of fighting as the series progresses, receiving training on swords (which eventually become her weapon of choice) and firearms in the first fanfic and getting superpowers in the second. It gets to the point that she becomes a Blood Knight whenever she gets to fight, and ends up practically nothing like the Badass Pacifist she previously used to be. Many of the other canon characters fall into this as well, though only Chenille reaches the same sentimental level as Poppy.
- Being a Gumm-gumm in this version, Jim in Son of the Black isn't nearly as spooked by adversity as his canon counterpart. Steve is less of a bully to him and more of an irritant he has no problems decking and reacts to being forced to become the Trollhunter less with fear and more with anger and irritation. While he struggles to wield a sword and has avoided fighting for years, he has enough experience in fighting to defend himself. Not only that, but he had learned basic rules of magic from a mage in his travels and has since learned various other tricks, including removing trolls' natural weakness to the sun and multiple human disguises (his favorite being his canon appearance).
- Aftergore:
- In Undertale, Burgerpants is a disillusioned young adult working at a burger restaurant who has to put up with a Mean Boss and is only encountered as a shopkeeper. II sees him assume Undyne's role, renaming himself Boomstick and taking control of Waterfall as the leader of a gang of Greaser Delinquents.
- Politics Bear, of all characters, serves as the character who takes on Asgore's role in VIII. Keep in mind that he's a minor gag character in Undertale who has no importance whatsoever.
- Inverted Fate has this with several NPCs, such as Bratty and Catty, in that they have joined the Royal Guard, and actually have battles.
- The Snowdin Canine Unit are much tougher than in Undertale proper, giving Frisk a harder time.
- Alphys is captain of the Royal Guard, and while she uses a crossbow and focuses on strategy over strength, she is still the captain of the Royal Guard, and is much stronger than canon Alphys.
- In the fanfic Recursion, the normal Final Boss of the Genocide run, Sans, is actually one of the first bosses Frisk has to fight. The character that takes his place as the last and most difficult challenge before Asgore? It's Napstablook, who, after hearing about both of their cousins Mettaton and Furlablook dying, decides to fight... and gives Frisk a battle that puts Sans to shame.Chara: (After seeing Napstablook's opening attack) "I, uh... wow. I knew Napstablook before. Didn't know they... uh, had it in them."
Frisk: "This is going to be Sans all over again, isn't it?"- For starters, Napstablook's opening move is to transport Frisk into the space that you see during your time in his house... a massive intergalactic space not connected to Earth, where they decide to leave Frisk at first to die of starvation and/or thirst. When Frisk gets them to start fighting, however, Napstablook brings out a massive mix of mechanics from his fight, Sans's, and Mettaton's to give Frisk and Chara a very bad time...
- When the fight begins, Napstablook uses his own version of the Gaster Blasters: magical speakers that blast out sound waves.
- When Frisk manages to survive that, there are mini-Napstablooks akin to the mini-Mettaton's found in the battle with Mettaton EX (which, due to Frisk lacking a yellow soul, can't be targeted and destroyed) that fire musical notes and attack in tandem.
- Napstablook also has the "not really feeling up to it right now" words from his Pacifist fight. Which they use to sucker-punch Frisk when he tries to catch his breath by rushing him with acid tears.
- To top this, there's a "copy" mechanic that saves the positions of Napstablook's attacks at a certain time... which he combines afterwards with a paste mechanic. As in, pasting the attacks he had when he copied onto the field in addition to the attacks already taking place.
- After a while, Napstablook unveils a unique soul-affecting mechanic; a "soul tether", that makes Frisk stay within a certain area or be yanked back into it forcibly, which they can also use to drag Frisk into the paths of their attacks. Later on, it turns out that they can tie Frisk to two different soul tethers, restricting his field of movement even further.
- And the two scariest parts about all this? First, Napstablook is a ghost, and can't be hurt without magic, which Frisk doesn't have, meaning Frisk has to find a way to demotivate Napstablook enough to get them to leave. And second, Napstablook admits during the battle that they're out of practice. And then it turns out the fight is Timed; when they decide that they've warmed up enough, Napstablook makes four soul tethers, forcibly anchors Frisk down with them, and blasts him with speakers until he dies.
- TS!Underswap:
- Asgore puts up a much better fight in his Genocide encounter in the demo than either Toriel or Asgore did against the Genocide player character in Undertale, despite both player characters being about the same LV at the end of the first area. Especially impressive since Asgore is physically older than his counterparts from passing his life energy onto Asriel. As of February 2021, Team Switched plans to give all the major characters Genocide battles, so this trope will probably also apply to characters like Papyrus, Alphys, and Toriel.
- Very downplayed with Froggit. It's still the most basic enemy in the game, but it has a few more complex attacks than it did in Undertale.
- Asgore puts up a much better fight in his Genocide encounter in the demo than either Toriel or Asgore did against the Genocide player character in Undertale, despite both player characters being about the same LV at the end of the first area. Especially impressive since Asgore is physically older than his counterparts from passing his life energy onto Asriel. As of February 2021
- Old Scars takes Sarah, one of the biggest liabilities in the game, and makes her more independent and self-aware, which allows her Take A Level In Badass and become more capable and emotionally stable than her video game counterpart.
- In Worldwar: War of Equals, all of South America, Central America, and Eastern Europe put up much more of a fight than they did in the source material. Human tanks qualify as well. In the original novels, even the best Human tanks of the 1940s could easily be destroyed by a single Landcruiser. Thanks to tank technology advancing in the last couple of decades, our tanks are either equal to or superior to their Landcruisers.
- Quicken: In the original story, Emma was a powerless, cowardly girl. Here she’s a regenerator super-human capable of detecting other super-humans and stealing their powers and memories after killing them, and prone to go berserker.
- Following in Young Justice tradition, Onomatopoeia in With This Ring. In the comics, a guy with a gimmick. Here? A powerful magic user that uses onomatopoeia as the incantations for his spells.
- And also Dark Druid. In comics, he was a villain from the U.K. and thus barely even mentioned. Here, there are hints at him being a herald of the Black Lantern Corps.
- In Young Justice Titans, the Scarecrow gets a serious badass bump. Thanks to becoming a member of the Church of Blood, he's given supernatural powers, and is hinted at being essentially a real living scarecrow now, with impossible flexibility, his Sythe that he pulls out of his mouth, and fear gas in both Gas and solid forms. He's even able to fight a team with powers far beyond him (including a Green Lantern). He's also almost unkillable too.
- All cards used in Arc-Ved Protagonists use their real-world effects to be prioritized over their anime version's effects. As such this trope can apply to some cards while others get the opposite depending on what the effects of the two versions are. Such as Yuto's Phantom Knights, which in the card game, have effects that can be activated in the graveyard by banishing them that they didn't have in the anime. As such, Yuto's deck is capable of more combos and has better consistency here.
- YU-Gi-OH 8th millennium item basically turns Tea from just Yugi's tagalong friend into a skilled professional duelist in her own right, aided by training from Yugi's mother (still alive and regarded as the "Queen of Games" after she defeated Pegasus in a past tournament) and her possession of the titular eighth millennium item, which holds the soul of Atem's queen and grants her a similar transformation and alter ego to Yugi.
