Rank Scales With Asskicking / Literature

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• In James Thurber's The 13 Clocks, the duke trusts in his captain of the guard, who has only been defeated once. But a minion points out that the prince who is trying to marry his niece was that one defeat.
• Played straight with Visser Three in Animorphs. Though he gained the position due to the mirror trope as much as anything.
• Beowulf, from the epic poem of the same name, is an inversion. He's far more kickass than the local king, and becomes king after his amazing feats of badass in defense of Hrothgar's land. He still dies against a dragon.
• Black Crown has King Valerius fighting in the front lines in 'Black Crown', and likewise the Lords are shown to be able to handle themselves in 'Schism'.
• Justified in The Book of the Named, Clan leaders can be challenged for their position by any Clan member, and thus must be good at fighting to stay the Clan leader.
• Books of the Raksura: The Queen caste of the titular Humanshifting beings are also the strongest, fastest, and most agile — a young queen can tear an enemy's head off its shoulders barehanded, and they grow larger and Stronger with Age. The elder queen Malachite is described as more or less rage incarnate in combat, but is more than capable of forcing powerful enemies into submission with raw willpower alone.
• Captive Prince:
  • Damianos is both the rightful King of Akielos and one of its most renowned warriors — too bad he spends most of the trilogy not being King. The notion that Damianos' skill with a sword somehow makes him a more fitting ruler is part of the reason Kastor resents him so deeply.
  • Prince Laurent first wins his soldiers' respect by utterly dominating Govart in a duel and goes on to prove that he's almost as exceptional a warrior as he is a leader, though he usually hides that so people underestimate him.
• The Cat Who Walks Through Walls has Lazarua Long, who is probably the most important figure in the Howard Families act as a mere soldier to help rescue Mike the sentient computer from The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress.
• C. S. Lewis' The Chronicles of Narnia:
  • Prince Caspian:
    • Peter's one-on-one sword fight with King Miraz lasts much longer than his fight with Lord Sopesian immediately afterward.
    • Earlier in the book, Edmund defeats Trumpkin the dwarf, a seasoned fighter, in a swordfight. While Edmund's intention may simply be to persuade Trumpkin that he (and, by extension, his older brother) are valuable allies to have during a war, the ultimate effect of Edmund's victory, and Susan's similar victory in an archery contest, is to convince Trumpkin that they are in fact the kings and queens of legend.
    • Rank Scales with Asskicking even is in effect when the main characters are children. Trumpkin's confusion stems in part from the fact that Peter, Edmund, Lucy, and Susan returned as they were in England, as schoolchildren, and had lost much of their skill and ability. It returns to them slowly due to the "Narnian air."
  • In The Magician's Nephew, Jadis treats with contempt the notion that Uncle Andrew could be anything but a king: commoners are never magicians. This could be Asskicking Leads to Leadership, in view of her ruthless use of magic for power, but she treats it as this trope.
  • It's stated in The Horse and His Boy that the kings of Narnia and Archenland consider it their duty to be the first in every charge and the last in every desperate retreat, so this would more specifically be "Authority Requires The Ability To Kick Ass".
  • Aslan has demonstrated the ability to crush any opponent, as well, and more than one queen has demonstrated skill in combat.
• The Chronicles of Prydain:
  • The series is full of royals who not only actually fight things, but tend to be totally awesome at fighting them. Of particular note are Prince Gwydion, King Smoit, King Morgant and King Pryderi, all feared and respected war leaders as well as being mighty warriors in their own right.
  • High King Math is a double subversion. He is very idealistic and peace-loving, and far too old to fight. However, in the final book he proves himself to be the most badass man alive by getting out of his deathbed to make a heroic final stand against the Death-Lord's army of undead minions.
  • Subverted with Arawn Death-Lord who, despite being a powerful sorcerer, barely fights (though he does kill someone) before being decapitated.
• Codex Alera:
  • In full force. Alerans have access to "furies," kind of like D&D elementals, which confer power over fire, water, air, earth, wood, and metal. Societal hierarchy is based on the power of one's furies, with Knights typically showing exceptional strength in one area, High Lords possessing amazing abilities in all areas (i.e. capable of causing conflagrations, flying, and possessing super strength and swordfighting skills), and the First Lord, well... he approaches Physical God status.
  • Also you have Canim leaders Varg and Nasaug, two of the deadlist hand-to-hand combatants on the continent, and the Vord Queen, who is far more powerful than any of her spawn. Of course, since the Alerans are practically a Proud Warrior Race, the Canim are definitely a Proud Warrior Race, and the Vord are a Horde of Alien Locusts with a Hive Mind centered in their queen, all of this makes a certain amount of sense.
  • This trope is played with a lot in this series. Alera is in a 20-year succession crisis because the current First Lord has no acknowledged heir and he's getting old, but as we see during the series, he still has amazing power with furies in his own right. Societal hierarchy is not actually based on the power of one's furies, but is strongly influenced by it; for just one example, a bastard will generally have his parent's power with furies but only the status he is born into. The protagonist is considered a freak at first because he is unique in not having access to any furies, (though he gets some slight power at the end of the third book,in the fourth he reaches knight level, and by the fifth he is on par with the first lord) and yet he eventually gets a great deal of authority because he's capable of Awesomeness by Analysis.
• A Court of Thorns and Roses: Mostly played straight in that the High Lord tends to be the strongest fae of their court by design. The only exception being Amren.
• In Currahee!: A Screaming Eagle at Normandy, a memoir from a WWII paratrooper, he recounts how someone sabotaged the parachute chord of a strict drill sergeant during parachute training, which was fortunately noticed before he jumped out of the plane. In response, the sargeant challenged anyone who had a problem with him to fight him. Two large recruits then fought him, but he beat them both. After that he didn't have any more parachute problems.
• Discworld:
  • The Wizards (at least in the earlier books) are an example of this. Progression is by the time-honored "Dead men's pointy boots" system, and the wizards don't usually wait for them to get emptied naturally.
  • Archchancellor Ridcully is possibly one of the most powerful combatants on the Disc (and single-handedly ended the above tradition by being impossible to kill, which made the wizards give up and decide to settle into a more peaceful life), and Vetinari the Patrician is a trained and skilled assassin that got top marks at the Assassins' Guild academy and has effortlessly dispatched several armed men in the blink of an eye.
  • The trope is often mentioned in the Watch books, particularly in regards to Carrot's sword and/or references to the "old" nobility (ie. professional soldiers).
• A lot of the higher-level warlords in the web-novel Domina are also extremely physically dangerous, due to the fact that there's an easy Bio-Augmentation device lying around, so anyone with the money (such as people in charge of a culture) can make use of it. It also goes the other way into Asskicking Leads to Leadership; people who manage to get augmented on their own can carve out their own culture easily.
• In Dragonrealm the Dragon Kings are all the largest, most powerful members of their clans, without exception. The Dragon Emperor (Gold) is even bigger.
• In The Dreamside Road, Councilman Tucker isn’t just colluding with the Liberty Corps and helping their plan. He’s also a former deep cover IHSA operative and powerful Shaper, easily the deadliest antagonist in the early story.
• The Dresden Files:
  • This applies to most factions, groups or organizations in the setting. Knowledge is power, and whoever is in charge almost certainly has the most knowledge. Plus there are a few instance which seem to indicate that having authority over others also translates directly into personal power. For example since Harry put Toot-Toot in charge of leading the other faeries following him, Toot has gone from being about six inches tall to over a foot.
  • Senior Council membership consists of the seven oldest (and as a result most experienced and strongest) wizards on the planet; the youngest, Ebenezar McCoy brought down a decomissioned Soviet satellite on an island full of vampires for revenge at the end of Death Masks, and the Merlin and the Gatekeeper stalled an entire army of Red Court vampires and Eldritch Abominations with a single ward thrown up on the fly during the events of Dead Beat (Harry's comment: "You don't get to be the Merlin by collecting bottle caps"). Similarly the Wardens of the White council generally increase in badassitude as you go up the ranks, they are explicitly a military/police organization and their numbers are quite low, so even the higher ranked ones have to fight.
  • Other examples include the Sidhe queens, the Red King, other similarly powered rulers, and even just people higher in the hierarchy, like Lords of Outer Night from Changes — vampires so old and powerful that they actually are the pantheon of the Mayincatec civilizations of South America. Mostly justified in that these are beings who have been alive for thousands of years or more and have had time to build and consolidate power, although people promoted to some of these positions (such as the Summer Lady) essentially immediately become a Person of Mass Destruction.
  • On the vanilla mortal side of things, we have Gentleman Johnny Marcone, who can hold his own against a Fallen Angel with a Kalashnikov.
  • The very next book, Ghost Story, shows this trope on the light end of the scale, with a smalltime sorceror (someone who has some magical ability but is beneath the notice of the White Council as friend or enemy) pushing around a group of teenage orphans a la Oliver Twist.
• This is an unspoken assumption in Dune. When Baron Harkonnen learns that the guards escorting Paul and Lady Jessica have been killed, he asks who their rescuer may have been and his Mentat replies, "It was a clean, silent killing, my Lord. Hawat, perhaps, or that Halleck one. Possibly Idaho. Or any top lieutenant." Apparently, the Atredies couldn't possibly employ competent assassins without giving them high ranks, and no ordinary soldier would be able to manage a clean, silent kill. Besides, isn't Hawat, like, a hundred?
• In the Enchanted Forest Chronicles, the proper king of the Enchanted Forest inherits an innate ability to channel the forest's considerable magical resources. This makes them at least the equal of any other singular magic-user. They're not quite at One-Man Army level, but that might only be because the kings we see have a sense of restraint, and know that overusing the magic would harm the forest. In Talking to Dragons, we see the transition of kingship: the sword that chooses the king causes earthquakes, as well as spontaneously creating ponds and trees, before its wielder gains any actual control over the power.
• The Fell of Dark: Vivian Duclos, the head of a group of vampires called The League of the Dark Star, is also their most formidable fighter and magician.
• Justified in The Firebringer Trilogy, as the prince/princess of the unicorn herd is also their warleader in times of war (and they have considered themselves at war for over four hundred years).
• King Obould Many-Arrows of the Forgotten Realms series. He becomes even more kickass after he Took a Level in Badass, to the point where he can fight Drizzt one-on-one.
• Glory Road, Her Wisdom Star is the Empress of many worlds, but to retrieve the Egg of the Phoenix she goes on a quest herself, using one of her grandsons and finds Oscar Gordon to help her.
• Harry Potter:
  • Albus Dumbledore, Headmaster of Hogwarts and leader of the Order of the Phoenix, is the only one who could kick Voldemort's ass in a duel. He is also leagues above any other Death Eater who can defeat some of his fellow good guys. It is also revealed that he is the leader of the army that opposed Grindelwald, the first Dark Lord of the time who is even more fearsome than him, and ends up being again the only one who can defeat him.
  • Averted elsewhere in the Harry Potter series, however. Minister of Magic Cornelius Fudge was never shown to be an outstandingly powerful wizard. His successor Rufus Scrimgeour was undoubtedly better, having been the former head of the Aurors, the Ministry's special forces; however, his chronic limp may be a handicap in a fight — and anyway he was killed with relatively little struggle when the Ministry was taken over. Played relatively straight after the war, when Kingsley Shacklebolt is elected Minister, a powerful Auror who actually fought alongside the protagonists a few times and was assigned as personal protection for the British Prime Minister, lest he be magically dominated via the Imperius curse. Dumbledore himself was repeatedly offered the job of Minister, and he always turned it down; it was suggested that Voldemort may have wanted to take up the post earlier in his career, but he never did — though he controlled the acting Minister for most of a year.
  • However, played straight with the Hogwarts professors during the Battle for Hogwarts, when the school's teachers proved themselves more than a little adept at the use of magic in the defense of their students against Voldemort and the Death Eaters. Those who can do, teach, eh?
  • The Death Eaters themselves are an example. Voldemort is the only one in his army who can even give Dumbledore a fight, defeats anyone else, and even can take on 3 other exceptional wizards and witches by himself, though not without serious effort. His highest-ranking Death Eaters also tend to be his most dangerous servants; in fact, most duels between named Death Eaters and any good guy tend to go in favor of the Death Eaters.
  • Justified in the sense that intelligent people (such as Dumbledore and Voldemort) know how to better utilize magic and thus fight using it — though that's not the only quality needed to make a good fighter, as exemplified by the valedictorian yet hysteric Hermione.
• Played straight in the Urban Fantasy environment of the Nasuverse, at least when a character is involved in an organization. The heads of particular divisions in the Magi Association tend to be holding their position due to their overwhelming brilliance. Naturally, this means that the Lords of the Association are scarily powerful. On the other hand, you also have oddities like how the last person on Earth who can use the Unified Language is teaching in a random high school.
• Subverted in the Horatio Hornblower series, in which it is noted that Petty Officers could be Drill Sergeant Nasties, but that would be beneath Hornblower's dignity as an officer as well as above his physical capacity. Hornblower got into much more tough physical confrontations as a midshipman and lieutenant than he did as a commander.
• Kate Daniels:
  • The universe is filled with this, which makes sense, because Post-Shift Atlanta is pretty much ruled by survival of the fittest.
  • The Shapeshifters are the most prominent example of this, since positions of power in the Pack are won by fights to the dead, so all Clan leaders have to survive a bunch of challenges to stay in power. Since they are the strongest and best fighters, they also take the lead in any violent confrontations.
    • Curran is the Beast Lord, the Alpha of Alphas, because he is strong, fast, and lethal enough to utterly destroy them. He won his position by single-handedly taking down a rampaging were-bear that weighed in over 2000 pounds and had killed several dozen people. At age 15. He's not only their leader, he's also their biggest weapon, so he takes point at nearly every confrontation involving the Pack.
    • While not technically a shapeshifter, Kate becomes the Consort of the Beast Lord, which means she has the same position of power as Curran. She earned her position by surviving 22 challenges while wounded, tired and emotionally compromised because of Curran's coma. All shapeshifters are stronger, larger and heavier than Kate when in warrior-form, and yet she killed them all with a six-inch knive.
• In The Keys to the Kingdom series, the higher up you are in authority, the larger and stronger you become. By the end of the series, Arthur was over twelve feet tall and able to destroy everybody.
• The Sequel, Legacy of the Dragokin: Lydia is a Four-Star Badass and more skilled than any of her subordinates despite the fact that she is fifteen and they are full grown adults.
• This is strictly enforced in The Locksmith, with the leaders of the magical guilds being empowered as a result of taking the position.
• In the German booklets series Maddrax there are creatures called taratzes. They are huge, mutant rats, the talk and walk upright (there is a certain similarity to the skaves of Warhammer). A taratze is bigger, stronger, faster and tougher than a human, and can be defeated by a Badass Normal at best, if at all. But taratzes are not very intelligent, compared with humans.
  • However, there is playing straight with taratze-kings. These are namely still bigger and stronger than ordinary taratzes, and have very often a bright or even white fur. And unlike ordinary taratzes they are as smart as humans, or even more shrewd. This makes them to very dangerous enemies, and they lead a pack of taratzes often.
• In The Mortal Instruments is the big villain Johanthan Morgenstern. He created a army of shadowhunters, who are "fall to the dark side". But because it is not merely a shadowhunter but partly also a demon, he is much stronger than the dark shadowhunters, and also much stronger than ordinary shadowhunters.
  • If werewolves there seems to be a common ritual that the werewolf who leads the pack, only one can become "alpha male" if he defeated and kill the previous leader in a fight.
  • In The Infernal Devices but it is inverted. Axel Mortmain is an ordinary human with some magical powers, but he's the leader of some demons and an army of steampunk robots.
• In Necroscope a "vampire feasts" is basically governed by a vampire-lord or vampire-lady. And he (or she) is significantly more powerful than the subordinates; perhaps apart from the rather unintelligent warrior-creatures.
• Nightfall (Series): If a vampire overpowers another and drinks their blood, the loser has to recognize the winner's authority. Prince Vladimir had to resort to this tactic before he could become the leader of all vampires.
• The Sorcerer Kings from The Prism Pentad.
• In Morley Roberts’ short story "The Promotion of the Admiral" (1902) Admiral Sir Richard Dunn, whose squadron is visiting San Francisco, finds himself crimped by an old enemy and smuggled aboard a short-handed three-master en route for Cape Horn. Seaman and fighter par excellence, he fights his way up the ranks, and when the captain succumbs to delirium tremens, he takes command.
• Played straight, subverted and double subverted in the Redwall novels — at least with the good guys. With otters, shrews and other warrior bands, the Skipper or Log-A-Log is mostly the toughest guy around. This is definitely the case with all Salamandastron badgers, even the pacifist Russano. The Redwall Abbot or Abbess, by contrast, is usually the wisest and kindest person there rather than the most ferocious, though double subversions are in place as even the cutest Redwall leader has been known to get primeval if their Abbey is in danger. Case in point — Lycian in High Rhulain. One minute peacefully sipping tea, the next minute spotting an attacking vermin and smashing him over the head with the teapot, which is full of scalding tea. The vermin are mostly Asskicking Leads to Leadership, but as with the orcs example above, it means that if a vermin is leading a band, nine times out of ten it means he or she could beat all the others in battle. If not, expect that situation to be remedied during the book.
• In Return of the Reaper we have both the Reaper and the Doomed King.
• The moredhel (dark elves) of The Riftwar Cycle are tribal, war-like and live in a harsh, cold and barren land. A moredhel isn't considered an adult until they're a hundred years old, and they usually need to live another hundred before they're eligible for the position of clan chieftain — all while surviving in the cold amidst constant bloodshed and starvation, mind you. Thus, if you ever run into a moredhel chieftain, you better believe they're damn hard to kill.
• The Scum Villain's Self-Saving System: Ren Zha Fanpai Zijiu Xitong:
  • Cang Qiong Mountain's Sect Leader, Yue Qingyuan, is extremely powerful, to the point where all of the gathered sects freeze in fear when he lets an inch of his sword out of its scabbard.
  • Huan Hua Palace's leader, the Old Palace Master, is mentioned to have powerful spiritual energy. Even after Luo Binghe cuts off all his limbs, he's able to pour his spiritual energy into his voice and attack through roaring.
  • Luo Binghe gains control of the entire Demon Realm as well as the Huan Hua Palace Sect. In the process of doing so, he defeats powerful demons like Mobei-Jun and makes the Old Palace Master, the previous leader of Huan Hua Palace and a powerful cultivator, into a limbless human stick.
• In Simulated Benjamin, leader of the Vanishing Mansion crew. He steps up and kicks arse along with Sam and isn't afraid to get his hands dirty.
• A Song of Ice and Fire:
  • Frequently the most powerful nobleman leading an army is also its more powerful swordsman. During the First Blackfyre Rebellion, the royal pretender Daemon Blackfyre was considered undefeatable with a sword. During Robert's Rebellion, each side was lead by their strongest fighter: Robert Baratheon and Rhaegar Targaryen. After Robert killed Rhaegar in single combat and won the war, he became king. Also, the most powerful noble families breed most of the continent's best warriors: Loras Tyrell, a great jouster and Jaime Lannister, the greatest swordsman are all members of Great Houses. This is justified, as heirs and leaders of Great Houses they'd receive the most and best training, nutrition, and even genetics, as the need to appear strong is important as vassal houses are known to overthrow them if they appear weak. True choose to slack off. For example, when Jon Snow becomes a member of the Night's Watch and thinks he's better than the other recruits because he can beat them all in single combat. It's pointed out, In-Universe, that he's been trained for years by his master-at-arms, whereas the lower class recruits can't even afford a sword, let alone receive proper training in it.
  • Warriors from the Great Houses are quoted to have been trained to ride and fight from when they could talk and walk. More often than not, their teachers would be experts at combat themselves. As individual fighters, the Heavy Troops (knights) are thought of as the strongest, bar none, and could very well be the most capable individual fighters in the entire world, even more so than Dothraki, pit fighters, and Unsullied. One must remember that Arthur Dayne, Gregor Clegane, Barristan Selmy, Loras Tyrell, Jaime Lannister, and Daemon Blackfyre were all knights.
  • Justified in the case of the Dothraki, who only follow the powerful. Khal Drogo in particular was never defeated in battle and led an incredibly large group of warriors.
  • Subverted quite a few times when it comes to certain noble characters, despite certainly looking and acting the part. This is noted by some characters.
  • The most textbook cases are when a young knight, supposedly much better trained and equipped, ends up being defeated by an older, more lowborn man. The reasons tend to range from the lowborn man being much stronger or the young knight underestimating him to the knight misunderstanding the finer technicalities of battle (e.g. terrain, fatigue, mobility vs. protection) and acting inappropriately, while the lowborn man has much more experience.
• Starship Troopers:
  • Heavily justified. The main principle of the Mobile Infantry is "Everybody drops, everybody fights": all officers are promoted from enlisted ranks, and even generals are expected to be the first soldiers on the ground (although they have bodyguards to help keep the enemy riffraff away). Plus the higher-ups get command suits with both the speed of scout suits and weaponry and gear on par with if not superior to that of standard marauder suits. And to get the highest rank of Sky Marshal, one has to go through the ranks of both the Mobile Infantry and the Navy.
  • Subverted in The Film of the Book, when they find a general hiding in the freezer while exploring an abandoned fort. He's shown to be completely useless; he's probably suffering from shellshock after seeing his men get their brains sucked out.
  • While Klingon Promotions are not supported, an officer is proven to be incompetent if he lets the morale and/or his personal level of asskicking sink so low that his underlings would even think of attacking him and surviving the attempt.
• In The Stormlight Archive:
  • Shardblades and Shardplate belong exclusively to nobles (having one instantly makes its bearer a noble). Many Highprinces are known to be very personally dangerous in combat, often leading the war effort from the front with the help of their Shards. Dalinar's flashbacks in Oathbringer highlight this a great deal, as he personally killed countless enemies (along with many allies) in the war to unite Alethkar.
  • The Knights Radiant basically operate this way as well. They get their powers from swearing magical Oaths, and the more Oaths a Knight has sworn, the higher they go in the hierarchy of their Order. As a result the higher up you are in an Order, the more personally dangerous you're likely to be.
• The Tamuli: Subverted by the King of the Cyrgai Proud Warrior Race, who fancies himself a preeminent Warrior Prince only because none of his sparring partners dare to actually put up a proper fight against him. When he faces Sparhawk, he tries a few flashy moves and goes down like a chump.
• The Thrawn Trilogy: Grand Admiral Thrawn doesn't fight anything. He's The Strategist. He watches everything, plans, and gives orders; he's got to be highly intelligent, but there's no sign of him being physically adept, and no one knows how old he is or if his species is more or less powerful than humans are. Track down the Thrawn Trilogy Sourcebook, a supplement for West End Games' now-defunct Star Wars d6 RPG, and you see that his physical stats are pretty damn good, better than any of the other bridge officers', better than his counterparts in the Rebellion, better than almost any of the others who don't actually, physically, fight. Other parts of the Star Wars Expanded Universe prove him to be really good with a blaster, and he can move in armor. He impersonates Jodo Kast, a Palette Swap of Boba Fett, and actually makes Kast seem cool. In Outbound Flight, we see him board a slaver ship to lead his men into battle. While he has the crew of his ship backing him up, it's pretty obvious that he's cowing his opponents through sheer chutzpah. And once we meet his species (the Chiss), we find out that they're all extremely badass, though more in his "planning ahead" vein than in physical prowess. Thrawn is still portrayed as exceptionally talented even among the very-talented Chiss, though. On the other hand, his stats are probably bumped up to ensure that he survives contact with the average Player Character.
• Quite common in J. R. R. Tolkien's various works:
  • Mostly played straight with the Valar and Maiar, as well as the kings of the Númenóreans, Elves, Dwarves, and other peoples. However, there is also a memorable subversion: Melkor/Morgoth was considered the highest and overall most powerful of the Valar, and Manwë, the Valar's leader after Morgoth went renegade, second to him — but Tulkas, who was not really good at anything except fighting (and feasting) was the only one who could kick Morgoth's ass. In fact, Tulkas came to Arda solely in order to help the other Valar against Morgoth; the other Valar combined could defeat Morgoth and drive him away (but not capture him), but Tulkas was Arda's version of Hercules, and could single-handedly wrestle Morgoth into submission.
  • In particular, the lords of the Elves are the most powerful non-divine beings in Middle-earth; after all, Elves are immortal and have plenty of time to accumulate skills and experience, and their rulers tend to be among the oldest beings in all of Middle-earth. At one point in The Silmarillion, Fingolfin, the High King of the Noldor, decides he's had it with Morgoth and rides forth to challenge him to single combat. He loses the fight, but Morgoth takes such a beating (leaving scars) in the process that he spends the entire rest of the First Age hiding in his lair and letting his minions do all the work.
  • In The Lord of the Rings, the kings and leaders of Men in particular are not only the greatest and noblest warriors (traits that go hand in hand in Tolkien's world), but lines of Kings often descended from sub-races of Men such as the Dúnedain, who are quite literally mightier, fairer, larger of stature and longer of life than the average Man. Aragorn, heir to the thrones of Gondor and Arnor and Chieftain of the Dúnedain, is the best human warrior alive at the time of books, and many of his ancestors were greater still; Elendil was almost 8 feet tall, and he and the Elven King Gil-Galad were able to defeat the Dark Lord Sauron at the end of the War of Last Alliance (albeit at the cost of their own lives), and his heir Isildur was over 7 feet tall, and so terrifying that the orcs fled from him even after shooting him dead. Boromir, heir to the Stewardship of Gondor, is also the hardiest warrior of his people, and his younger brother Faramir is a close second. King Théoden of the Rohirrim proves himself a mighty warrior in the Battles of Helm's Deep and the Pelennor Fields. The one subversion is Denethor, the Steward of Gondor, who's implied to be a mighty figure in his own right, but advocates to Pippin that "wise" leaders should use others to do their fighting for them.
  • Orcs only respect strength, and so those who rule them (whether it be Sauron, the Witch-King, great orcs, etc.) are without a doubt the mightiest of their armies.
• In The Traitor Son Cycle, the Red Company's three best knights happen to be its leader and his pair of Number Twos.
• Trapped on Draconica:
  • Daniar effortlessly defeats mooks, has trouble with The Dragon but can't defeat The Emperor.
  • Her father, King Alister, is a different sort of badass: he raised four super-powered princesses, the last two by himself, despite not having any of his own. He also fights alongside them.
• The Wandering Inn:Relc is the highest ranking guardsman in Liscor, although he has a very quick temper, and prefers to use his fist over his wit to end a conflict, thus making him not suitable to have such a high authority. But being the the strongest guardsman, not only in the city, but probably in the whole world, allows him to get such a high position.
• In the Warrior Cats series, Clan leaders almost always tend to be good fighters. Having nine lives while other cats have only one is definitely an advantage too.
• Watership Down: The main antagonistic rabbit-warren is ruled by General Woundwort, by far the toughest (and most unhinged) rabbit in the story, and possibly the whole world. In the climactic battle, Bigwig, the strongest of the heroic rabbits, tricks Woundwort by casually mentioning that he isn't the chief of his clan — Woundwort assumes this means there's an even more formidable opponent to contend with, making him quite worried because he was barely able to get the upper hand (paw?) on Bigwig. But Bigwig's superior, Hazel, isn't much of a fighter, and is in charge solely for his leadership skills.
• Justified in Antti Tuuri's The Winter War since many high officers of the Finnish army are Jägers trained in Germany before Finland's independence, and conscript leaders have generally been picked by their abilities.
• To be expected in the Wuxia genre; if you're the head of your sect, then you're very likely one of its strongest fighters in addition to being a very competent leader.
  • This is the case with the leader of the Beggars' Sect whenever they appear. In addition to familiarity with the sect's signature "18 Dragon-subduing Palms" technique and competency in leadership, the prospective leader of the sect has to inherit the "Dog-Beating Staff" from his or her predecessor and learn the techniques to use it in order to be qualified for leadership. Oftentimes, the leader of the Beggars' Sect tends to be one of the strongest fighters in the setting, with Qiao Feng from Demi-Gods and Semi-Devils and Hong Qigong from The Legend of the Condor Heroes being very notable examples.

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