History ConservationOfNinjutsu / LiveActionTV

* ''Franchise/StarTrek'': This show is all over this trope. In fact this could be the very basis of their famous {{Redshirt}}s. You see groups of {{Redshirt}}s get vaporized, but Scotty survives into the 24th century! Even in the future, multiple Starfleet personnel get wasted during the course of TNG, but Worf makes it, despite TheWorfEffect. Likewise, while whole armadas of ships get pummeled, single starships win the day. This even applies to the bad guys. A single Borg cube can cause so much havoc, yet every time we seen a bunch of Borg cubes, they're usually destroyed immediately after.

** Somewhat lampshaded in the TNG episode "Contagion" where Riker says "fate protects fools, little children, and ships named ''Enterprise''."

** In the ''Series/StarTrekDiscovery'' season two finale "Such Sweet Sorrow", the ''Discovery'' and ''Enterprise'' are surrounded by Control's highly-advanced Section 31 ships. Thanks to the various shuttles, the two ships outnumber Control's 200 to 40. Then, Control tells them "Count again." and reveals that each of his ships are outfitted with ''dozens'' of ships. It's only some properly-timed BigDamnHeroes moments that allows the ''Discovery'' crew to pull off their objective.

* Perfectly illustrated in ''Series/{{Daredevil|2015}}''. In the first season, Daredevil is nearly killed in a fight with one Hand ninja, Nobu (who is, admittedly, a leader in an organisation in which it seems that AuthorityEqualsAsskicking). In the second season, he faces the whole Hand organization, and initially has a hard time beating them. However, once Stick tells him to listen to the sound of their weapons, Daredevil is able to fight them. In the season finale, he and Comicbook/{{Elektra}} easily cut through dozens of them.

** The final season mixed this trope with a good dose of, ahem, VillainDecay. The first Turok-Han 'uber-vamp' was a nearly unstoppable force very narrowly beaten by the Slayer after several victories. In the finale, however, the Scoobies went up against an army of them, and Xander, Anya, and the slayers-still-in-training were taking hundreds of them down easily. In the DVD commentary, Joss Whedon points out that this was a conscious decision, claiming that "they couldn't all be as hard to beat as the first one," since that would make the last fight unwinnable. No in-universe explanation is given, though each potential Slayer had presumably been trained by Buffy and had just each received powers equal to a fully fledged Slayer, while the first Turok-Han may have been some kind of elite scout, so it isn't entirely implausible. And to be fair, several Slayers die in the battle before [[spoiler: Spike saves the day with a heroic sacrifice]].

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** The Megazords are victims of this as well. A single combined one from every machine available can destroy practically anything, but two or three fighting together usually get knocked around like ragdolls. Subverted in the season 3 Globbor battle, the Ninja Megazord and Shogun Megazord individually fared poorly against it, their finishers not even coming close to defeating it, but at the end, the two Megazords hit him with both their finishers at once and Ninjor delivering the coup de grace.

** The final season mixed this trope with a good dose of, ahem, VillainDecay. The first Turok-Han 'uber-vamp' was a nearly unstoppable force very narrowly beaten by the Slayer after several victories. In the finale, however, the Scoobies went up against an army of them, and Xander, Anya, and the slayers-still-in-training were taking hundreds of them down easily. In the DVD commentary, Joss Whedon points out that this was a conscious decision, claiming that "they couldn't all be as hard to beat as the first one," since that would make the last fight unwinnable. No in-universe explanation is given, though each potential Slayer had presumably been trained by Buffy and had just each received powers equal to a fully fledged Slayer, while the first Turok-Han may have been some kind of elite scout, so it isn't entirely implausible. And to be fair, several Slayers die in the battle before [[spoiler: Spike saves the day with a heroic sacrifice]]. Nothing else left to do but recite [[MST3KMantra the Mantra]] and shrug it off.

** Also, early seasons would sometimes feature battles with multiple resurrected monsters, who would usually go down with just one or two hits. Eventually subverted in the third season premiere where a villain and four resurrected monsters, all giant sized, tear the Megazord to pieces.

* ''Series/BuffyTheVampireSlayer'': Buffyverse [[OurVampiresAreDifferent vampires]] were particularly subject to this trope. Individual [[OurVampiresAreDifferent vampires]] could be fairly respectable opponents, though they still had a bad track record of getting one-stab killed after Season 1. Whenever [[OurVampiresAreDifferent vampires]] gathered in groups, they were cannon fodder. One just hopes they don't have problems with splinters. This is somewhat justified in that each character is constantly improving their fighting skills, and also, some vampires are specifically stated to be tougher than others.

** This also seems to apply to the Shadows and Vorlons - Shadow battlecrabs were notoriously difficult to kill and Vorlons were pretty much invincible. Until the Battle of Coriana, when they started blowing up left and right.
** Marcus Cole explained to a group of thugs why they should tell him what he wanted to know: "Because if you don't, then in five minutes I'll be the only person at this table still standing. Five minutes after that, I'll be the only person in this room still standing. So, who's in?" After he makes good on this threat, he laments that, "Now I have to wait for someone to wake up."

* ''Series/BuffyTheVampireSlayer'': Buffyverse [[OurVampiresAreDifferent vampires]] were particularly subject to this trope. Individual [[OurVampiresAreDifferent vampires]] could be fairly respectable opponents, though they still had a bad track record of getting one-stab killed after Season 1. Whenever [[OurVampiresAreDifferent vampires]] gathered in groups, they were cannon fodder. One just hopes they don't have problems with splinters. This is somewhat justified in that each character is constantly improving their fighting skills.
** The final season mixed this trope with a good dose of, ahem, VillainDecay. The first Turok-Han 'uber-vamp' was a nearly unstoppable force very narrowly beaten by the Slayer after several victories. In the finale, however, the Scoobies went up against an army of them, and Xander, Anya, and the slayers-still-in-training were taking hundreds of them down easily. In the DVD commentary, Joss Whedon points out that this was a conscious decision, claiming that "they couldn't all be as hard to beat as the first one," since that would make the last fight unwinnable. No in-universe explanation is given, though each potential Slayer had presumably been trained by Buffy and had just each received powers equal to a fully fledged Slayer, so it isn't entirely implausible. Several Slayers die in the battle until [[spoiler: Spike saves the day with a heroic sacrifice]]. Nothing else left to do but recite [[MST3KMantra the Mantra]] and shrug it off.
** Applies to Slayers too: Buffy on her own can take any number of vampires, but whenever she's fighting with Faith or Kendra, at least one of the Slayers gets into a position where they need the other's help.

* ''Series/BabylonFive'': Presents a rare good-guy example of this: when there's only one White Star, it's unstoppable. Once there's a fleet, they start getting taken down by mid-level enemies, often with no Vorlon or Shadow support. This is especially bad since the White Stars are meant to be able to learn from each hit they take, so that their armour gets stronger after every battle. Even as late as the fourth series, the White Stars continued to get weaker: in Series 3, it takes three White Stars to destroy a Shadow warship, but by the battle of Proxima 3, four White Stars are needed to deal with a single Earth destroyer, an incredibly simpler ship with far less firepower, which Sheridan stated was weaker than The White Star.