If an advisor says to me "My liege, he is but one man. What can one man possibly do?", I will reply "This," and kill the advisor.
In fiction
Conservation of Ninjutsu is powerful beyond compare. One ninja, or frankly any humanoid, will have no problem taking out an entire army. Unfortunately for the army's leader, they're not
Genre Savvy. Of course the only thing they can think, and thus shout, when seeing the carnage laid out is, "It's just one man!" or, "What can one man do?"
All in all this tends to be a
Stock Phrase used whenever a
One-Man Army appears, or when the battle becomes
One Riot, One Ranger. However this applies to any time a character asks what one person can do, whether it be against his army of Mooks or just his own superior strength. See also
We Do The Impossible. Or perhaps
Tempting Fate.
Not to be confused with
The One Guy.
Examples:
Anime & Manga
- Very common in One Piece, especially during Enies Lobby.
- The most notable instance is when Luffy knocks out 50,000 fishmen with a glare. A Death Glare powered by Pure Awesomeness, but still-a glare.
- Near the end of the Invasion of Konoha arc in the Naruto anime, around 20 Sand Ninjas surround Hiashi Hyuga and remark that he's just one man. Hiashi then defeats them all with a very large Rotation jutsu.
- Repeated with the Tobi/Obito arc after Kakashi kills Rin. Dead chunin and jonin are soon SMEARED on the battlefield.
- In Code Geass, the Lancelot knightmare frame and its pilot Suzaku goes under this trope multiple times.
- Turns up in Dragon Ball, particularly during the Red Ribbon saga, when General Blue is hesitant to attack Goku and company.
Soldier: B-b-but it's just three kids!
Blue: Just one of those kids wiped out both Silver Corps and White Corps! Now I've learned that Squad B was pulverized by the old man and the woman! And they didn't even have to unleash the turtle!
Comics
Film
- The Mask of Zorro (1998)
Captain Harrison Love: After all, it's only one man...
Don Rafael: It isn't just one man, damn it. It's Zorro!
- Batman (who should have learned from all the people who underestimated him) gives this line in The Dark Knight:
Live-Action TV
- The Six Million Dollar Man had this as almost a stock phrase on many episodes. In one episode the same bad guy had a sequence of schemes ruined by Steve Austin, to the point that at the end, he gets a call from some mooks: "What? ONE MAN?... This has a depressingly familiar ring to it."
Real Life
Video Games
- Batman Arkham Asylum
The Joker: Come on boys! He's just one man! One man dressed like a lunatic and armed to the teeth.
- Breen says this about Gordon Freeman in Half-Life 2:
Breen: The man you have consistently failed to slow, let alone capture, is by all standards simply that—an ordinary man. How can you have failed to apprehend him?
- Breen is commenting not only on Gordon Freeman being a One-Man Army, but also on him being a Badass Bystander, "not an agent provocateur or highly trained assassin".
- The bullet-proof hazmat suit Gordon's wearing does help, though.
- When Desmond claims this about himself in Assassins Creed II, Lucy replies with: "Sometimes that's all you need."
- Nicole Horne describes Max Payne this way: "What do you mean, 'he's unstoppable'? You are superior to him in every way that counts. You are better trained, better equipped, and you outnumber him at least twenty-to-one. Do. Your. Job."
- Commander Lockhart says this about Alcatraz in Crysis 2.
- Becomes Arc Words in Modern Warfare 3. Price and Makarov repeat endlessly it against each other.
- You can pick this as a dialogue option early on in The Godfather 2 about the Cuban rebels. Predictably enough, shortly afterwards El Presidente announces his abdication.
- Repeatedly shouted in the FEAR games by assorted human villains as the Point Man and Michael Beckett tear through their troops. Norton Mapes comments on it in the first game while you're blasting through the ATC troops in the Vault ("Come on, he's just one guy? What good are you jackoffs?") and Colonel Vanek berates his men repeatedly while fighting through the labs under Wade Elementary, before finallya dmitting to Beckett's One-Man Army status. The Phase Commanders and other ATC officers in FEAR 3 are Genre Savvy enough to understand how dangerous the Point Man is, and instead of berating them for being overwhelmed, they just order their men to stay in position under pain of dismemberment.
- In Kid Icarus Uprising, towards the end of Pit's rampage through a major installation for Viridi's army, she shouts: "Fight harder, children! He's just one little angel!"
Web Original
- Number 46 on the Evil Overlord List
If an advisor says to me "My liege, he is but one man. What can one man possibly do?", I will reply "This," and kill the advisor.
Webcomics
Western Animation
