History Main / OutsideContextHero

[[.redirect:OutsideContextProblem]]

[[redirect:OutsideContextProblem]]

An '''Outside Context Hero''' is a {{hero}} [[DidntSeeThatComing unlike any that anyone else has ever encountered before]]. They come from a different genre and none of the antagonists have any context to understand them.

They may be a mysterious foreigner from another town or a continent away, with skills, technology, or mystic powers that no one has ever heard of before, much less imagined. Or they may be a {{Time Travel}}er from the future... or [[FlingALightIntoTheFuture the past]], a visitor or orphan from a [[AlternateUniverse parallel universe]], outer space, or [[EldritchLocation even stranger places]]. The hero can also be a result of casting a SummonEverymanHero (or SummonBiggerFish if that doesn't GoHorriblyWrong) or [[NormalFishInATinyPond an ordinary person granted special abilities from the new environment]]. This trope can also overlap with UniqueProtagonistAsset where the hero have perks (such as weapons, clothes, or tools) that gives them an edge over their opponent.

When they arrive, the villains won't have any defenses or offenses in place to stop or counter them. Villains either learn to adapt to this new foe or be utterly crushed by them. More often than not, the arrival of this type of hero will bring forward {{Outside Context Problem}}s to counter them.

If the hero is actually much weaker than the antagonist despite their out of context status, the hero may use their unknown factor to appear more powerful and competent than they are to force the antagonist to stall their actions or current plans to gauge this new threat. Thus, gives the hero time to find and learn the antagonist's weaknesses.

This trope is basically the polar opposite of OutsideContextProblem, where it is the hero that has the abilities and technology that the villains have never seen or heard of before. Frequently found in the {{Fantasy}}, [[ScienceFiction Sci-Fi]] and SuperHero genres.

[[noreallife]]

----

!!Examples

[[foldercontrol]]

[[folder:Anime & Manga]]
* ''Manga/DragonBall'':
** Goku to the Red Ribbon Army. Before him, they were used to dealing with defenseless civilians, other armies, and maybe the occasional martial artist. While searching for the Dragon Balls they run into Goku, a super powered OneManArmy HumanAlien who is practically [[NighInvulnerability indestructible]]. It's clear from the start that they had no clue how to deal with Goku and had to hire a renowned assassin just to have a remote chance against him. By the time Goku came to their base, they had ''nothing'' that could stop him and were basically defenseless. The pure terror that Goku struck inspires Gero to create the androids.
** Goku is this even in the first story arc. He's a character MadeOfIron making him nearly impossible to harm. Yamcha and Pilaf only came close to killing him because he was hungry and he ran out of energy due to it. There is also his transformation into a Giant Ape, something ''no one'' saw coming (not even the narrator in the original Japanese Language, who exclaimed he was also freaked out!) which saves him and the others from being microwaved in Pilaf's special prison. Only by grabbing Goku's [[AchillesHeel tail]] do Yamcha and Puar subdue Goku as a Great Ape at the end of the arc.
** For Frieza's army, they had a hard time dealing with the Earthlings because they couldn't track them. The characters from Earth knew how to hide and suppress their power, so not only didn't they track on the scouters but when they did find them, Frieza's men underestimated them because they showed a low battle power. Almost the entire Ginyu Force got stomped into the ground because they kept assuming Goku only had a power level of 5000. They were also caught off-guard that the Earthlings and Vegeta could read powers without a scouter.
** Trunks manages to be this to Frieza for being a KidFromTheFuture on top of being a Super Saiyan. Until that point, Goku was the only known Super Saiyan in the universe so Frieza had no way to expect Trunks, at all.
** Despite monitoring Goku and his friends for over a decade, the Super Saiyan manages to be this to Dr. Gero. Since he fails to follow the heroes to Namek, [[DidntSeeThatComing he's caught completely by surprise when Goku transforms]]. The only point of reference he has is Goku's Kaioken.
** Goku transforming into a Super Saiyan the first time also counts. Up to that point in the series a transformation like this has never been seen before and Frieza and Gohan are baffled about what just happened. Frieza lampshades this by saying he knew Saiyans turned into giant apes, but he had ''never'' seen anything like this before.
* ''Manga/OnePiece'':
** When Luffy started his pirate career in East Blue, he was an outside context-foe for both pirates and the marines. Devil Fruits in the Blues are so rare that they are often believed to be mere myth and those who do have powers are seen as demons and monsters. So when Luffy, a rubber man, came along able to deflect bullets and absorb blunt blows without taking any damage, most of his early enemies didn't know what to do except for Buggy and Arlong, both who sailed the Grand Line where Devil Fruit users are more common.
** Luffy and the Straw Hat Pirates tend to be an outside context-foe for the pirate-marine conflict as a whole. A key element of the setting is that the world had mostly settled into a political stalemate decades ago ([[TheDarkTimes if not centuries]]), to the point where nearly everyone follows certain rules without even considering other possibilities. So when the Straw Hats come along with no regard for anything but their personal goals, people tend to be taken by surprise. The marines aren't sure what to do about people who aren't afraid of [[GodzillaThreshold Buster Calls]] and the sheer force of the government (not to mention a pirate crew that's relatively altruistic), and pirates have no experience dealing with people who cannot be intimidated or bribed, or will take a personal stake in a conflict that predated them. Even the more chaotic or maverick pirate crews are consistently surprised about what expectations the Straw Hats will betray.
** Luffy does it again during his battle against Eneru. Before Eneru met Luffy, he was completely unbeatable and all of his fights ended in a curb stomp. That is because Eneru had the Rumble Rumble Fruit that made him into living lightning. The fruit is so powerful that it is ''classified'' as unbeatable. However, since Luffy is a rubber man, he is completely immune to lightning. Even better, rubber doesn't even exist on Skypiea, so Luffy is also an out of context material. Eneru had no clue that a foe like Luffy could exist. [[JawDrop The face he makes]] when he realizes that Luffy isn't affected by his powers is priceless.
** Chopper, mostly thanks to his Rumble Balls. Zoan users have three transformations: their default form, an animal hybrid, and a full animal form. Chopper has seven transformations that mixed the strengths and weaknesses of his default three forms, which surprises even people who are used to fighting Devil Fruit users. Then [[SuperpoweredEvilSide there is what happens if he eats three Rumble Balls within six hours]] before the TimeSkip.
** Franky when he was first introduced. The Straw Hats didn't know how to really fight him since he's a cyborg. They actually thought he was a Devil Fruit user. [=CP9=] had a better advantage since half of them lived in Water 7 for five years and personally knew him. Those who didn't know or understand Franky's abilities had a hard time countering him, especially since he's literally MadeOfIron.
* ''Manga/DeathNote'': Light is the definition of a VillainProtagonist and can easily be seen as an OutsideContextProblem. In either case, Light has a huge advantage over his enemies since he can kill them using a notebook if he has their real names and the world at large is ignorant or didn't believe in the supernatural. The early part of the series is L just trying to figure out how Kira is killing people.
* The titular ''Franchise/{{Gundam}}s'' are often this in their respective series, [[SuperPrototype proving that much more advanced then anything else]].
** The original RX-78-2 Gundam from ''Anime/MobileSuitGundam''. Zeon has no doctrine for and no pilots skilled in fighting other mobile suits, which would make it bad enough. But it's also immune to any existing Zeon weapon that can actually hit it and its own weapons are able to penetrate any defense Zeon has available. Many of the early episodes quickly devolve into a MookHorrorShow as the Federation's monster rampages through Zeon troops.
** Expanded material reveals that even the mass produced [=GMs=] were these to the Zeon forces. In one game, prototype [=GMs=] are deployed in battle, armed with machine guns and rocket launchers comparable to those fielded by Zeon troops. A Zeon pilot mocks the Federals, but it quickly turns into an OhCrap moment when they pull out beam sabers and begin cutting through the Zeon mobile suits. Things get far worse once the Federals begin deploying mobile suits armed with mass produced long range beam weaponry, which tears through Zeon armour easily.
** [[AllThereInTheManual Another story]] describes a Zeon ace pilot who is quickly killed after the [=GMs=] begin entering the field in significant numbers. Said pilot was highly skilled when battling fighter planes and tanks, but had no experience fighting other mobile suits.
* In ''LightNovel/ACertainMagicalIndex'', Touma Kamijou started out as a complete unknown who had the unheard of ability of [[AntiMagic Imagine]] [[PowerNullifier Breaker]]. Several villains had never heard of him and were at a complete loss to deal with him and his abilities.
* In ''Literature/{{Gate}}'', the Empire (which resembles a mix of Ancient Rome and the Middle Ages) was completely unprepared for the weapons and technology of modern Japan when they tried to invade it.
* Shu, the hero of ''Anime/NowAndThenHereAndThere'' is a very cheerful and optimistic boy. However, for the denizens of the alternate universe he is thrown into where water is scarce, nearly every child is a soldier, and genocides occur on a daily basis, his extremely different outlook and boundless optimism utterly, utterly catches everyone off-guard. That turns out to his strongest asset when [[spoiler: he finally convinced Lala-Ru that there is some good left in this world]], thus triggering the end scenario.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Comic Books]]
* Dr. Manhattan from ''Comicbook/{{Watchmen}}''. He's the only Super in the world (other "capes" do exist, but nearly all of them are {{Badass Normal}}s who rely on gadgets, martial arts, or a combination of the two with the only one who even [[CharlesAtlasSuperpower approaches "superhuman" levels]] being Ozymandias), and sports godlike powers. World politics are changed forever when he shows up. This leads to moments like him ending the Vietnam War in about a week, and the escalation of the Cold War because the Russians are scared shitless. A noted scientist makes the comment that absolute terror is, in fact, the ''sane'' response to the existence of such a being.
* ''Franchise/{{Superman}}'':
** Giving how long running the comics are, it is easy to forget that Superman was once an out of context hero to the people of Earth. Before him, there was no other super hero, especially one so powerful. When he burst onto the scene, no villain -- not even Lex Luthor -- knew how to deal with him.
** Superman also falls into this when he visits other cities outside Metropolis. Outside maybe the Joker, most of Batman's Rogue Gallery have no clue how to fight Superman.
* ''Franchise/{{Batman}}'':
** Like Superman, there was no hero like Batman when he started off. Here was someone who operates at night, seemingly disappeared into the shadows, and could seemingly dodge bullets.
** In the ''Batman and Superman: World's Finest'' mini-series, Batman becomes an outside-context hero to Luthor. At first, Luthor sees Batman as a nobody. He's a mere mortal while he has been doing battle with a PhysicalGod. By the end of the four-part series, Luthor fears Batman more than Superman. That's because Superman, while powerful, is a big Boy Scout who swore never to do harm to anyone, not even Luthor. Batman, however, has no problem causing physical and emotional harm to his foes. Batman being able to match wits with Luthor is another reason why Luthor is scared of him.
* ''Franchise/TeenageMutantNinjaTurtles'': The turtles across all media are this when they make their first appearance. Most of their early foes have no clue how to deal with mutant ninja who are also giant turtles.
* ''ComicBook/{{Spawn}}'': PlayedWith. Although Spawn is far from out of context in the holy war between Heaven and Hell - he was created to be one of the lieutenants for Malebolgia - he certainly is this for the everyday criminals and bums who unfortunately crossed his path.
* In ''[[ComicBook/CaptainAtom Captain Atom: Armageddon]]'', Captain Atom is out of context to both the Authority and the entire Wildstorm universe. When he shows up, the various "heroes" of the Wildstorm Universe all assume that he is just another colorful super whom they can handle pretty easily. They quickly become aware that he has become infected with something that is going to cause him to blow up and destroy the universe, but they completely fail to understand that he had the power to destroy the universe in the first place. They get the bright idea that killing him will prevent the destruction of their universe, even though they had been warned by a reliable source that it would only bring about the destruction faster. Cap, hero that he is, would have let them kill him had he believed that it would prevent the destruction of the universe; because he knew that it would only bring it about faster, he fought back, beating many of the most powerful members of the Authority and other Wildstorm heroes in the process in a series of fairly one-sided {{Curbstomp Battle}}s. Only at the end did they begin to understand what they were dealing with, at which point [[DespairEventHorizon they gave up]], which proved to be [[spoiler:all to the good]].
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Fan Works]]
* ''Fanfic/ACrownOfStars'': The Avalon army is this to [[BigBad Jinnai]] and the other warlords ruling the post-apocalyptic world. Jinnai is a military dictator, prepared to deal with other warlords armed with conventional weaponry... and then Shinji and Asuka, [[MistreatmentInducedBetrayal two of his subordinates/mistreated puppets]], disappear and reappear backed by an army from another dimension armed with several HumongousMecha and TransformingMecha, {{Powered Armor}}s... Has it been mentioned a good number of their soldiers have PsychicPowers?
* ''Fanfic/FinishingTheFight'', where the capabilities of the Master Chief and UNSC technology are beyond the ability of most of Faerun to combat.
* In ''Fanfic/DungeonKeeperAmi''. [[Anime/SailorMoon Sailor Mercury]] is transported into the World of ''VideoGame/DungeonKeeper'' and has a rather unconventional approach to being a Keeper, as well as the whole evil alignment.
* ''[[Fanfic/GodsAngelsAndKings Hail To the King]]'': NERV was created to fight [[EldritchAbomination Angels]] and Gendo thought he had planned for everything... but a bizarre accident in the ''Franchise/{{Godzilla}}'' universe sent the King of Monsters, several of its {{Kaiju}} and human allies and several of its {{Kaiju}} enemies to the "Evangelion" universe. Oh, and his son Shinji accidentally merges with ''Series/ZoneFighter'' (''Series/{{Ultraman}}'' in the rewrite). As it's quickly proved, NERV has no way to deal with Kaijus, let alone the most powerful of them, and Gendo's attempts to remove Godzilla's presence from his scenario backfire awfully. And he definitely was not prepared for Shinji becoming mentored by a {{Toku}} hero.
* ''Fanfic/LastChildOfKrypton'': In this crossover Shinji is ''Franchise/{{Superman}}''. He is capable of lifting mountains, faster than a speeding bullet, nearly invulnerable, able to fly... He can crush a [[HumongousMecha Evangelion]] or [[EldritchAbomination Angel]] with his bare hands. Gendo and SEELE have no way to counteract his powers and abilities and they have no way to harm him.
* The ''Series/BuffyTheVampireSlayer''/''Series/{{Smallville}}'' fic ''[[http://www.fanfiction.net/s/4299118/1/Stakes_and_Fenceposts Stakes and Fenceposts]]'', where Clark Kent is portrayed this way to the Buffy-verse villains ''and'' heroes. Both sides are completely baffled and terrified at how powerful he is, thinking he's some kind of HumanoidAbomination. [[MookHorrorShow Some of the fights are shown from the villains' perspective]].
* The ''Fanfic/SuperwomenOfEva'' series (an example of it being ''Fanfic/SOE2LoneHeirOfKrypton''; with Asuka Langley Sohryu being ''Comicbook/{{Supergirl}}''): the titular super heroines are this to both [[GovernmentConspiracy NE]][[BigBad RV]] and [[OmniscientCouncilOfVagueness SEE]][[BiggerBad LE]] and their beloved "[[AssimilationPlot scenario]]": a girl (or group of them) with powers beyond their understanding that appeared out of nowhere, has no allegiance to them and is more than capable of single-handedly destroying their giant alien adversaries and the HumongousMecha used to fight them. Much HilarityEnsues as they try to reign in a VillainousBreakdown and race to find ''[[KickTheDog some]]'' ''[[MoralEventHorizon way]]'' to put them out of the way ([[RightHandVersusLeftHand without showing their hand to the other group]]).
* Dante from Fanfic/DantesNightAtFreddys. The animatronics of Freddy Fazbear's Pizza are used to killing security guards like they are nothing, but clearly are in over their heads trying to take on a veteran demon slayer.
* ''FanFic/AManOfIron'' has Iron Man. In a low tech, low magic universe like [[Literature/ASongOfIceAndFire Westeros]], a flying knight that can shoot magic from his hands and is impervious to all known forms of weaponry is a major game changer.
* For ''Fanfic/VandreadHalo'', the [[SuperSoldier Master Chief]] and [[SpaceshipGirl Cortana]] become this to the Nirvana crew. At first, it didn't seem like much when they attacked the Tarak fleet like in canon while picking up the damaged piece of the Forward Unto Dawn. But once the Spartan comes before their eyes and demonstrates his fighting capability, both the men and ImprobablyFemaleCast are stunned by how much of a different world they've come from.
* In ''Venus Flash'', both [[Manga/SailorMoon Sailor Venus]] and Anime/CuteyHoney are this for each others' opponents:
** As it is the manga version, Sailor Venus is ''much'' more powerful than anything Panther Claw has ever imagined, ''and'' NighInvulnerable (enough that [[ImmuneToBullets the firearms of Panther Claw mooks have no effect on her]]).
** Cutey Honey isn't as strong as the Youma. On the other hand, she has modified the Airborne Element Fixing Device to work on everything, resulting in her [[StoryBreakerPower having the ability to disintegrate anything]].
* ''{{Fanfic/Fragmentation}}'' has Executive Outcomes and its owners, the Kyphon. They possess a tech level that surpasses the Clans by levels that far exceed how the Clans themselves dwarf the Inner Sphere. But even more, their philosophy and promotion of BoringButPractical ZergRush tactics to nations in order to counter the Successor States' HumongousMecha supplies baffle the Inner Sphere's HonorBeforeReason tendencies.
* In ''FanFic/TheRiseOfDarthVulcan'', this is ultimately the strategy that the Princesses and Mane Six come up with to deal with Vulcan's status as an OutsideContextProblem -- they can't understand him well enough to fight him, so they summon another human who can understand his mindset and fight back on even ground.
* In ''Fanfic/FateStayNightUltimateMaster'', Ben Tennyson serves as this to the magic community and the participants of the Fifth Holy Grail War. A boy who can turn into various aliens wasn't really on their radar. Even Archer has no idea who he is, even though he's from the future. The only ones who had heard of him were the ones who watched TV like Shirou and Illya (most mages are HopelessWithTech, so they wouldn't do this).
* Literature/HarryPotter in ''[[https://www.fanfiction.net/s/8501689/1/The-Havoc-side-of-the-Force The Havoc Side of the Force]]'' is completely outside of everyone's understanding. Palpatine is wondering how to get his plan's for Anakin back on track once Harry befriends him and the Jedi don't know how to deal with an apparent force user who commits horrible acts but isn't affected by the Dark Side. Neither group has any idea how Harry does what he does except that he actually harms the Force while performing his magic. Though it takes Harry some time to realize that Force users can track him when he uses magic since he's basically sending screaming alarms through the Force.
* In Franchise/{{Metroid}}/''Literature/{{Worm}}'' roleplay quest "[[https://forums.sufficientvelocity.com/threads/hatchling-quest-worm-metroid.22540/ Hatchling Quest]]", Samus Aran is this to the villains and {{Eldritch Abomination}}s of the ''Worm'' universe. She's a genetically-enhanced alien-born human from another dimension and time. Her biology is incomprehensible to them, her technology is literally several thousands of years ahead of their time, and her suit and space-ship's computers can hack any Earth computer, analyze and reverse-engineer any Tinker technology -which was supposedly impossible-, and discover many secrets... And she's fully committed to the protection of the innocent and helpless. The reason she hasn't [[StoryBreakerPower broken the plot]] is because half the plot is about her trying to overcome her issues and interact with other humans. The other half of the plot is about a HiddenVillain bringing things from the ''Metroid'' universe into the ''Worm'' universe...
* ''Fanfic/ThousandShinji'': Shinji, Asuka and Rei are this to NERV and SEELE thanks to the intervention of the ''Tabletop/{{Warhammer 40000}}'' gods. They have powers gifted by dark gods, can tap the power of an alternate dimension made of raw energy and thought, and have access to future technology. Gendo and SEELE have no counter to their abilities and they weren't even aware of them until it was too late.
* ''Literature/AmericasStepbrotherAmericasEnemyTwoPointZero'' is an AlternateHistory story where the United States circa 2014 (just after Barack Obama's election) is thrust into the nightmarish world of George Orwell's ''Literature/NineteenEightyFour'' by an unusual anomaly. The three superstates and their inhabitants can't even comprehend the United States as an entity: Oceania thinks the new Americans are dirty Thoughtcriminals and traitors to Big Brother who all deserve to be arrested and killed, and begin invading. However, these invasion attempts all fail miserably because, as stated in the original book, the Oceanian military is composed of masses of very poorly armed prole conscripts supported with oversized {{Military Mashup Machine}}s designed to simply waste resources and look as flashy as possible for propaganda purposes; [[CurbStompBattle all of it is utterly useless in the face of]] the [[UsefulNotes/YanksWithTanks American military]], which is more modern, efficient and motivated to actually ''winning'' the wars they fight. The utterly corrupt and psychopathic Inner Party [[VillainousBreakdown quickly drive themselves to new levels of crazy]] as they have no idea how to react to this hyper-advanced military juggernaut appearing from nowhere and effortlessly unravelling their carefully-engineered power-preserving status quo.
* In the Rumors arc of the ''Fanfic/PonyPOVSeries'' this trope is ''invoked'' by several of the actions the Pantheon performs to counter [[spoiler:[[RewritingReality Discord's endgame]].]] Justified as [[spoiler:he and his [[GodOfEvil cousin]] rewrote reality to run on horror movie rules, so heroes that run on completely different rules are the best way to counter that.]]:
** Havoc [[spoiler:manipulates things such that Button Mash gets video game PersonalityPowers, which the horror movie based enemies have difficulty dealing with as their victims aren't supposed to be strong enough to fight back and kill them. This gives the CMC a powerful ally to help them survive while they're still inexperienced.]]
** Pandora, the Goddess of Imagination, arranges for [[spoiler:AK Yearling (who in this universe was just a fan of Daring Do) to merge with the Shadow of Existence of Puzzlemint (who she's a {{Reincarnation}} of the Light of Existence of, also making this an example of CameBackStrong when they reform their original soul) and Daring Do's books to become the real deal, now running on action adventure story logic rather than the horror movie logic the world's running on, allowing her to save many lives from the Rumors as well as assist the CMC several times.]]
** The LoveGoddess Venus [[spoiler:helps a mare named Lovestruck perform a FusionDance with her erased, demi-god son Cupid's Shadow of Existence (as she is the {{Reincarnation}} of the G3 pony Cupid turned into during the Wish Spell) to become the new AnthropomorphicPersonification of Sharing Love and a Demi-Goddess. Due to a Demi-God's HybridPower, she's capable of using her full power to save ponies unlike the rest of the Pantheon because her mortal half hides her divine half (unlike the pure deities, who had to use much weaker avatars to avoid detection) and can freely go between the spirit and mortal worlds for quick escapes. The ''big'' reason she qualifies is Cupid was killed DeaderThanDead, so naturally no one would see somepony with his powers coming.]]
** During the [[spoiler:Rainbow Factory chapter]] Scootaloo [[spoiler:manages to get Rainbow Dash to split from the rumors possessing her and become the Mare-Do-Well, now running on comic book logic. This means she's capable of beating her EnemyWithout.]]
* ''Fanfic/CyclesUponCycles'' has the Koprulu Alliance (terrans, zerg, and protoss) in the eyes of the Citadel (turians, asari, salarians, and their associates and neighbors, which excludes humans [[CaptainObvious for obvious reasons]]), as 1) they use [[ArtificialIntelligence AIs]], which are banned in Citadel space, 2) they managed to establish peace between the Quarians (of which the Alliance made FirstContact with) and [[spoiler:''the Geth'']], and 3) while Citadel races' largest (dreadnought-class) ships are limited to 800 meters, ''that'' is the ''minimum'' size for a "capital ship" in the Alliance.
* ''[[https://www.fanfiction.net/s/10090792/11/Zero-no-Tsukaima-Saito-the-Onmyoji Zero no Tsukaima: Saito the Onmyoji]]'' has Saito himself. He uses a magic system very different from what is practiced in the world he's been sent to, so hardly anybody knows what to expect from him or how to deal with him.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Film - Animated]]
* ''Disney/{{Frozen}}'': Elsa is the only magical being in the entire film, which is one of many reasons why she is depressed. She's so out there and powerful that the antagonists have no real means of countering her, except to attack her very human side.
* Beast and all his servants from ''Disney/BeautyAndTheBeast''. The setting for the story is a peaceful and normal, French countryside. We then have Beast's castle where all the humans have been transformed into moving and talking inanimate objects and there's Beast who lives up to his name. Because of Beast's appearance, Gaston uses this to rally a mob to kill him. They're mostly foiled because they never expected the castle's furniture to come alive and beat them up.
* ''Disney/WreckItRalph'': Any character who game hops into another game falls into this. Ralph is completely out of context for the people in ''Super Rush'' since all the characters, save for King Candy, are cute anime girls, while he's a big brute able to shatter jawbreakers, something that is thought to be impossible. Vanellope is quick to take advantage of this.
* Terry becomes this in ''WesternAnimation/BatmanBeyondReturnOfTheJoker'' to defeat the Joker once and for all. Joker is so used to dealing with Bruce's Batman (who is a stoic, honor bound fighter with a strict no kill policy) that he [[VillainousBreakdown loses it]] when Terry mocks him and gives him a vicious TheReasonYouSuckSpeech that utterly deconstructs him. Terry also has no problem [[CombatPragmatist fighting dirty]] and revoking the JokerImmunity.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Film - Live Action]]
* In the film ''Film/TheDarkKnight'', Batman is so beyond anything the mob has ever dealt with that they are on the brink of collapse. They reach out to the [[OutsideContextProblem Joker]] as a desperate act to get rid of Batman and their other enemies. To say that this backfired would be an understatement.
* Multiple in the ''Franchise/MarvelCinematicUniverse'':
** ''Film/IronMan1'': There was nothing like Tony's power armor before he burst out of his captives' hideout using an extremely flawed prototype. When he did perfect the Iron Man design, he easily beat up a gang of terrorists and out-flew the US Air Force. It took someone stealing his technology just to match him. In the [[Film/IronMan2 sequel]], Tony uses his outside context status to deter terrorists and other hostile forces.
** ''Film/{{Thor}}'': Thor himself, being a visitor from another dimension, is nothing anyone has dealt with before. The people he befriends originally consider him a crazy hobo who ''thinks'' he's a mythological character. And in ''The Avengers'', Nick Fury explains how the presence of someone from another world (whose "grudge match leveled a small town") left SHIELD reeling.
-->Not only were we not alone, but we were hopelessly, ''hilariously'', outgunned.
** ''Film/TheAvengers2012'': The Avengers to the Chitauri's invasion force. It is made very clear that the Chitauri were expecting to simply waltz in and easily conquer the human race. Instead, their invasion is repelled in less than an hour by a team comprised of two BadassNormal soldiers, an Asgardian warrior, a guy in powered armour, a super-soldier... and the Hulk. Best summed up in TheStinger;
--> '''The Other''': [[AwakeningTheSleepingGiant To challenge them]] [[HumansAreWarriors is to court death]].
* ''Film/AKidInKingArthursCourt'': Calvin is a everyday 90s kid teleported to the 6th century by the spirit of Merlin to help King Arthur. Although he's far from physically impressive and doesn't have any special powers, what keeps him ahead of Lord Belasco is his knowledge of future technology, [[BambooTechnology which is created by a friendly blacksmith]], along with his knowledge of King Arthur's story.
* By the end of the ''Film/TheMatrix'', Neo evolves into a Matrix-warping super being like none have seen before. He can fight off and even ''kill'' an agent with ease, something that is thought to be impossible. Once he's finished with Agent Smith, the other two agents can only [[ScrewThisImOuttaHere run]]. In the sequels, the agents fare better (and [[spoiler:it's revealed Neo is not the first of his kind]]), but they're still completely outmatched by Neo.
* ''Film/RoboCop1987'': After Murphy is rebuilt into a cyborg, he spends most of the film relentlessly haunting and taking down criminals in Old Detroit. Robo Cop is so beyond anything they have ever experienced that they're completely helpless before him and he takes down the drug lords who murdered him without taking any damage. A newscaster in the movie compared it to a comic book hero coming to life. It takes the criminals gaining access to military weapons and help from the big number two at OCP just to slow Robo Cop down.
* Col. George Taylor from ''Film/PlanetOfTheApes1968''. Despite being captive, enslaved, and thought to be mute, Taylor is out of context to the apes once they realize that he can write, is quite intelligent, and eventually talk once his throat is healed. All the other humans in the film are kept as pets who can't talk or think intelligently.
* ''Film/{{Casper}}'': When the hero is a ghost and the primary antagonists are mortals who didn't even believe in ghosts at the beginning of the movie, it puts Casper firmly in this trope.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Literature]]
* In ''Literature/GulliversTravels'' the title character is a fairly normal human, but because the Lilliputians are only about six inches tall he becomes an OneManArmy (or more accurately a Navy) for them.
* Similar to ''Franchise/{{Superman}}'', John Carter from ''Literature/JohnCarterOfMars'' is an ordinary human soldier born with no super powers. He ends up one of the strongest people on Mars because of that planet's lower gravity, much like how Superman gains his ability from the Earth's yellow sun.
* Merlin Athrawes from the ''Literature/{{Safehold}}'' series. In a world deliberately engineered to be stuck in MedievalStasis, he's an advanced cyborg with superhuman personal abilities, a secret cave full of futuristic technological goodies, and [[GivingRadioToTheRomans a mission to break that medieval stasis]].
* In ''Literature/SixteenThirtyTwo'', a whole West Virginia town is transported to that year in Thuringia during the 30 Years War. The resources of a hardscrabble coal mining town make it an immediate badass player in the war filled countryside. Imagine buckets of napalm fired from a trebuchet to break a castle siege and you get the idea. Also almost everyone in town, man and woman alike, is a hunter and pretty gun savvy. Automatic weapons and long range rifles with telescopic sights vs. wheel lock pistols is not much of a contest.
* Hobbits in ''Literature/LordOfTheRings''. While other races have long history of heroic deeds (and long history in general), hobbits are the youngest folk in Middle Earth, and have never achieved anything noteworthy. They don't travel, so they are practically unheard of on the other side of Misty Mountains. The only one viewing them as potential heroes is Gandalf (and later Saruman, who noticed other wizard's fondness of them). Sauron probably didn't even know that hobbits existed until he got info on One Ring's location from Gollum - and it just so happens that they exhibit extraordinary resistance to its corrupting power. And Frodo even uses his status as Outside Context Hero on Rivendell Council.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Live Action TV]]
* ''Series/DoctorWho'': By the show's basic premise, the Doctor is an Outside Context Hero. The very first episode of the show is about two schoolteachers concerned with the home life of an odd student; they go over to her address and instead find an old-fashioned Police Box with AlienGeometries belonging to a strange old man who turns out to be 'not of this Earth'. The GenreShift from a school-based drama to science fantasy is a phenomenal twist and the episode still packs quite a punch today, although [[LateArrivalSpoiler anyone who watches it is already spoiled for it]]. In the Series 5 finale of the new series a large group of his enemies, none known for working well with others, pool their resources and abilities to trap him in the ultimate prison - as he was known for just 'dropping out of the sky and ending your world'.
* ''Series/TheFlash2014'': When Barry shows up to rescue Team Arrow [[MyFriendsAndZoidberg and Malcolm Merlyn]] from the League of Assassins in Nanda Parbat, dealing with a true superhuman of the Flash's abilities is something they are so ''utterly'' unprepared for. CurbStompBattle doesn't even begin to describe how effortlessly he takes out an entire fortress of highly skilled warriors in about 10 seconds.
* In ''Series/UltraSevenX'', most aliens seem considerably outclassed by the title hero. It turns out [[spoiler:Ultra Seven is the ''showa'' timeline Ultra Seven who learned of the BigBad aliens when they [[MuggingTheMonster attempted to invade his universe]] and crossed over. Ultras don't exist in that universe whereas in his original timeline an Ultra showing up to stop an AlienInvasion amounts to 'oh no! It's the cops!' So even the main villains have little ability to deal with him at his full power.]]
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Video Games]]
* ''VideoGame/ChronoTrigger'': The heroes when they arrive in any time period that they're not native to, especially since they can do magic, something that has been lost for generations, and another member is a robot from the distant future. The main characters being completely out of context is what lead them to defeat the Reptiles in 60 million BC and Magus in 600 AD. Their one big defeat happens because they ''aren't'' out of context to the people of Zeal since they can do magic, have technology that rivals those in Robo's time, and Magus is there to warn them about the heroes before they even arrive in the time period.
* ''VideoGame/SuperPaperMario'': Because of the inter-dimensional aspect of the game, Mario and his team manage to be this to most of the worlds they visit, especially in Chapter 5 where the closest thing to humans are cavemen.
* Lucina from ''VideoGame/FireEmblemAwakening'' is a mild example. [[spoiler: She is a KidFromTheFuture with the exact same legendary sword as her father, which is suppose to be one of a kind and a dragon killer. What makes her out of context, however, is her knowledge of the future. She uses this knowledge to foil Validar's assassination attempt on Emmeryn, stops him from stealing the Fire Emblem, keeps Chrom from being mortally wounded from a sneak attack, and get Validar killed because [[DidntSeeThatComing he saw none of this coming]]. [[OutsideContextProblem If it wasn't for Grima traveling back in time with her]], the BadFuture would have been averted by Chapter 5]].
* Several character classes throughout the ''VideoGame/{{Diablo}}'' franchise are outside the context of their particular games, particularly:
** The Amazon in ''VideoGame/DiabloII'' comes from the Isles of Skovos, best known as "that place adventurers sometimes visit looking for Amazons and never come back". While some of the other classes are very rare, like the Necromancer, Druid, and Assassin, pretty much everyone is stunned to see an actual Amazon in their midst.
** The Witch Doctor in ''VideoGame/DiabloIII'' is from the [[FantasyCounterpartCulture setting's equivalent]] of DarkestAfrica, a place barely alluded to elsewhere in the series, and then only in deep lore that only serious nerds would know about. Witch Doctors are so uncommon that none of the other characters know who they're dealing with, but given the impending end of the world, they mostly take it in stride.
* In ''Franchise/MassEffect'' Commander Shepard is seen as this to the Leviathans and the Reapers. According the the Leviathans, in the billion-year history of the Reaper's cycles, neither they nor the Reapers have ever encountered an opponent like Shepard. In that history, Shepard is the only entity the Reapers have ever feared.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Webcomics]]
* ''WebComic/OnePunchMan'': Saitama is somewhat of an {{Expy}} of ''Franchise/{{Superman}}'', but lives in a WorldOfBadass running on ''Anime''-tropes. This makes him highly overpowered compared to the other characters and is PlayedForLaughs most of the time.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Western Animation]]
* ''WesternAnimation/MegaMan'':
** Just as Vile and Spark Mandrill in "Mega X" are completely [[OutsideContextProblem out of context for Mega Man]], X himself is an out of context foe to Wily and his robots. When they did try to fight him, he catches Cut Man's weapon and crushes it like it's tinfoil.
** Mega Man himself was this when he was still just a robot helper named Rock. When Wily was about to reprogram Roll, Rock made Wily stopped by telling a lie about how Dr. Light build an army of warrior robots and they were coming to stop him. Wily believed Rock because robots couldn't lie. Rock then gets Wily to release him on the promise that he would show him how to stop the warrior robots. Rock used the opportunity to escape along with Roll. Willy could only scream in outraged and confusion that robots couldn't lie.
* ''WesternAnimation/BeastWars'': Tigerhawk. Not only was he far stronger than any Transformer seen in the series, except for maybe Rampage, he has mystical abilities never seen by any Transformer that allows him to curb stomp any foe he ever faced. It took a warship firing maximum weapons at him to take him down.
* ''WesternAnimation/AvatarTheLastAirbender'':
** Toph becomes this after she learns how to metal bend, something no one thought was even possible.
** Aang's Avatar State merged with the ocean spirit, La, at Season 1's finale. It is so out there that they destroy the Fire Nation's entire navy fleet and killed their captain without them being able to do a thing to stop them.
** Aang himself is out of context since, on top of being the Avatar, he is the last air bender, an art thought to be lost for one-hundred years. Aang with air bending alone was enough to take down an army unit since no one had any experience with dealing with an air bender.
* ''WesternAnimation/TeenTitans'': Happens to Cyborg when he is pulled back in time to the Bronze Age by a witch to help save her people from monsters. [[spoiler:{{Subverted}} that the summoning was part of an evil scheme all along]].
* ''WesternAnimation/{{Gargoyles}}'': The titular Gargoyles were under a spell that made them sleep for a thousand years before waking up in mid-90s New York where they are the only supernatural creatures around (at least early on). Outside of Xanatos and Demona, most of their earlier enemies were at a loss dealing with them.
* In ''WesternAnimation/SpiderManUnlimited'', Spidey becomes one after traveling to an alien world where [[BeastMan Beast Men]] rule over humans. Mainly because he's not quite a normal human or one of the aforementioned beast men. The villains are even unable to remove his new {{Nanomachine|s}} costume (which he "borrowed" before leaving Earth) after having StrappedToAnOperatingTable despite the {{Cyberpunk}} setting.
* ''WesternAnimation/CaptainPlanetAndThePlaneteers'': Despite his name being in the title, Captain Planet and to a lesser extent the Planeteers themselves are completely out of context. We have a group of five kids with magical rings that can control the elements and a person's heart, and who can summon a super hero who rivals [[UsefulNotes/TheSilverAgeOfComicBooks Silver Age]] Superman, against regular humans. Even the villains who are mad scientists and mutants don't stick out as much as them and most villains have no clue how to handle the Planeteers, let alone Captain Planet. Gaia is even ''worse'' since she is the spirit of the freaking Earth. Only other god-like beings can even consider challenging her.
* The eponymous ''WesternAnimation/StevenUniverse'', being a HalfHumanHybrid makes him something completely foreign to ''everybody''. This has its ups and downs, mostly the latter in early episodes, but it proves beneficial when it turns out his physiology lets him NoSell the technology used by the the first major antagonists and perform feats previously thought to be impossible, like [[FusionDance fusing]] with a human being.
[[/folder]]

----

* ''ComicBook/{{Spawn}}'': PlayedWith. Although Spawn is far from out of context in the holy war between Heaven and Hell, he was created to be one of the lieutenants for Malebolgia, he's certainly is this for the everyday criminals and bums who unfortunately crossed his path.

* By the end of the ''Film/TheMatrix'', Neo evolves into a Matrix-warping super being like none have seen before. He can fight off and even ''kill'' an agent with ease, something that is thought to be impossible. Once he's finish with Agent Smith, the other two agents can only [[ScrewThisImOuttaHere run]]. In the sequels, the agents fare better (and [[spoiler:it's revealed Neo is not the first of his kind]]), but they're still completely outmatched by Neo.

An '''Outside Context Hero''' is a {{hero}} unlike any [[DidntSeeThatComing nobody has ever encountered before]]. They come from a different genre and none of the antagonists have any context to understand them.

[[folder:Film]]

* ''Disney/{{Frozen}}'': Elsa is the only magical being in the entire film, which is one of many reasons why she is depressed. She's so out there and powerful that the antagonists have no real means of countering her, except to attack her very human side.
* Beast and all his servants from ''Disney/BeautyAndTheBeast''. The setting for the story is a peaceful and normal, French countryside. We then have Beast's castle where all the humans have been transformed into moving and talking inanimate objects and there's Beast who lives up to his name. Because of Beast's appearance, Gaston uses this to rally a mob to kill him. They're mostly foiled because they never expected the castle's furniture to come alive and beat them up.
* ''Disney/WreckItRalph'': Any character who game hops into another game falls into this. Ralph is completely out of context for the people in ''Super Rush'' since all the characters, save for King Candy, are cute anime girls, while he's a big brute able to shatter jawbreakers, something that is thought to be impossible. Vanellope is quick to take advantage of this.

* Terry becomes this in ''WesternAnimation/BatmanBeyondReturnOfTheJoker'' to defeat the Joker once and for all. Joker is so used to dealing with Bruce's Batman (who is a stoic, honor bound fighter with a strict no kill policy) that he [[VillainousBreakdown loses it]] when Terry mocks him and gives him a vicious TheReasonYouSuckSpeech that utterly deconstructs him. Terry also has no problem [[CombatPragmatist fighting dirty]] and revoking the JokerImmunity.

* Terry becomes this in ''WesternAnimation/BatmanBeyondReturnOfTheJoker'' to defeat the Joker once and for all. Joker is so used to dealing with Bruce's Batman (who is a stoic, honor bound fighter with a strict no kill policy) that he [[VillainousBreakdown loses it]] when Terry mocks and gives him a vicious TheReasonYouSuckSpeech that utterly {{Deconstruct}}s him. Terry also has no problem fighting dirty and revoking the JokerImmunity.

* Col. George Taylor from ''Film/PlanetOfTheApes1968''. Despite being captive, enslaved, and thought to be mute, Taylor is out of context to the apes once they realize that he can write, is quite intelligent, and eventually talk once his throat is healed. All the human in the film are kept as pets who can't talk or think intelligently.

** Giving how long running the comics are, it is easy to forget that Superman was once an out of context hero to the people of Earth. Before him, there was no other super hero, especially one so powerful. When he burst onto the scene there wasn't a villain who knew how to deal with him, yes that includes Lex Luthor.

* In Franchise/{{Metroid}}/''Literature/{{Worm}}'' roleplay quest "[[https://forums.sufficientvelocity.com/threads/hatchling-quest-worm-metroid.22540/ Hatchling Quest]]", Samus Aran is this to the villains and {{Eldritch Abomination}}s of the ''Worm'' universe. She's a genetically-enhanced alien-born human from another dimension and time. Her biology is incomprehensible to them, her technology is literally several thousands of years ahead of their time, and her suit and space-ship's computers can hack any Earth computer, analyze and reverse-engineer any Tinker technology -which was supposedly impossible-, and discover many secrets... And she's fully committed to the protection of the innocent and helpless.

The Outside Context Hero is when a hero is something that [[DidntSeeThatComing nobody has ever encountered before]]. They come from a different genre and none of the antagonists have any context to understand them.

* Similar to ''Franchise/{{Superman}}'', John Carter from ''Literature/JohnCarterOfMars'' is an ordinary human solider born with no super powers. He ends up one of the strongest people on Mars because of that planet's lower gravity, much like how Superman gains his ability from the Earth's yellow sun.

When they arrive, the villains won't have any defenses or offenses in place to stop or counter them. Villains either learn to adapt to this new foe or be utterly crushed by them. More often than not, the arrival of this type of hero will bring forward {{Outside Context Villain}}s to counter them.

This trope is basically the polar opposite of OutsideContextVillain, where it is the hero that has the abilities and technology that the villains have never seen or heard of before. Frequently found in the {{Fantasy}}, [[ScienceFiction Sci-Fi]] and SuperHero genres.

* ''Manga/DeathNote'': Light is the definition of a VillainProtagonist and can easily be seen as an OutsideContextVillain. In either case, Light has a huge advantage over his enemies since he can kill them using a notebook if he has their real names and the world at large is ignorant or didn't believe in the supernatural. The early part of the series is L just trying to figure out how Kira is killing people.

* In ''FanFic/TheRiseOfDarthVulcan'', this is ultimately the strategy that the Princesses and Mane Six come up with to deal with Vulcan's status as an OutsideContextVillain -- they can't understand him well enough to fight him, so they summon another human who can understand his mindset and fight back on even ground.

* In the film ''Film/TheDarkKnight'', Batman is so beyond anything the mob has ever dealt with that they are on the brink of collapse. They reach out to the [[OutsideContextVillain Joker]] as a desperate act to get rid of Batman and their other enemies. To say that this backfired would be an understatement.

* ''Series/DoctorWho'': By the show's basic premise, the Doctor is an OutsideContextHero. The very first episode of the show is about two schoolteachers concerned with the home life of an odd student; they go over to her address and instead find an old-fashioned Police Box with AlienGeometries belonging to a strange old man who turns out to be 'not of this Earth'. The GenreShift from a school-based drama to science fantasy is a phenomenal twist and the episode still packs quite a punch today, although [[LateArrivalSpoiler anyone who watches it is already spoiled for it]]. In the Series 5 finale of the new series a large group of his enemies, none known for working well with others, pool their resources and abilities to trap him in the ultimate prison - as he was known for just 'dropping out of the sky and ending your world'.

* Lucina from ''VideoGame/FireEmblemAwakening'' is a mild example. [[spoiler: She is a KidFromTheFuture with the exact same legendary sword as her father, which is suppose to be one of a kind and a dragon killer. What makes her out of context, however, is her knowledge of the future. She uses this knowledge to foil Validar's assassination attempt on Emmeryn, stops him from stealing the Fire Emblem, keeps Chrom from being mortally wounded from a sneak attack, and get Validar killed because [[DidntSeeThatComing he saw none of this coming]]. [[OutsideContextVillain If it wasn't for Grima traveling back in time with her]], the BadFuture would have been averted by Chapter 5]].

** Just as Vile and Spark Mandrill in "Mega X" are completely [[OutsideContextVillain out of context for Mega Man]], X himself is an out of context foe to Wily and his robots. When they did try to fight him, he catches Cut Man's weapon and crushes it like it's tinfoil.

* [[Anime/OnePunchMan Saitama]] is lazy, easily bored, and rarely every puts effort into anything at all. This is because his level of power is so immensely, incredibly, ''ridiculously'' high that he has no challenges on his level ''ever'', to the point of having existential crises at how he can basically end any feasible threat with the ''blowback'' of a punch.

** [[AllInTheManual Another story ]] describes a Zeon ace pilot who is quickly killed after the [=GMs=] begin entering the field in significant numbers. Said pilot was highly skilled when battling fighter planes and tanks, but had no experience fighting other mobile suits.

** The LoveGoddess Venus [[spoiler:helps a mare named Lovestruck perform a FusionDance with her erased, demi-god son Cupid's Shadow of Existence (as she is the {{Reincarnation}} of the G3 pony Cupid turned into during the Wish Spell) to become the new AnthropomorphicPersonification of Sharing Love and a Demi-Goddess. Due to a Demi-God's HybridPower, she's capable of using her full power to save ponies unlike the rest of the Pantheon because her mortal half hides her divine half (unlike the pure deities, who had to use much weaker avatars to avoid detection) and can freely go between the spirit and mortal worlds for quick escapes.]]

* Hobbits in ''Literature/LordOfTheRings''. While other races have long history of heroic deeds (and long history in general), hobbits are the youngest folk in Middle Earth, and have never achieved anything noteworthy. They don't travel, so they are practically unheard of on the other side of Misty Mountains. The only one viewing them as potential heroes is Gandalf (and later Saruman, who noticed other wizard's fondness of them). Sauron probably didn't even know that hobbits existed until he got info on One Ring's location from Gollum - and it just so happens that they exhibit extraordinary resistance to it's corrupting power. And Frodo even uses his status as Outside Context Hero on Rivendell Council.

* * ''Literature/AmericasStepbrotherAmericasEnemyTwoPointZero'' is an AlternateHistory story where the United States circa 2014 (just after Barack Obama's election) is thrust into the nightmarish world of George Orwell's ''Literature/NineteenEightyFour'' by an unusual anomaly. The three superstates and their inhabitants can't even comprehend the United States as an entity: Oceania thinks the new Americans are dirty Thoughtcriminals and traitors to Big Brother who all deserve to be arrested and killed, and begin invading. However, these invasion attempts all fail miserably because, as stated in the original book, the Oceanian military is composed of masses of very poorly armed prole conscripts supported with oversized {{Military Mashup Machine}}s designed to simply waste resources and look as flashy as possible for propaganda purposes; [[CurbStompBattle all of it is utterly useless in the face of]] the [[UsefulNotes/YanksWithTanks American military]], which is more modern, efficient and motivated to actually ''winning'' the wars they fight. The utterly corrupt and psychopathic Inner Party [[VillainousBreakdown quickly drive themselves to new levels of crazy]] as they have no idea how to react to this hyper-advanced military juggernaut appearing from nowhere and effortlessly unravelling their carefully-engineered power-preserving status quo.

** The LoveGoddess Venus [[spoiler:helps a mare named Lovestruck perform a FusionDance with her erased, demi-god son Cupid's Shadow of Existence (as she is the {{Reincarnation}} of the G3 pony Cupid turned into during the Wish Spell) to become the new AnthropomorphicPersonification of Sharing Love and a Demi-Goddess. Due to a Demi-God's HybridPowers, she's capable of using her full power to save ponies unlike the rest of the Pantheon because her mortal half hides her divine half (unlike the pure deities, who had to use much weaker avatars to avoid detection) and can freely go between the spirit and mortal worlds for quick escapes.]]

** Goku is this even in the first story arc. He's a character MadeOfIron making him nearly impossible to harm. Yamcha and Pilaf only came close to killing him because he was hungry and he ran out of energy due to it. There is also his transformation into a Giant Ape, something ''no one'' saw coming which saves him and the others from being microwaved in Pilaf's special prison. Only by grabbing Goku's [[AchillesHeel tail]] do Yamcha and Puar subdue Goku as a Great Ape at the end of the arc.