History DidYouJustPunchOutCthulhu / Literature

* And let's not forget that, as a baby, Harry defeated Voldemort - granted, not under his own power, but still.

*** In ''Discworld/TheLightFantastic'', he punches out a dread horror who had taken the form of Trymon, eventually beating it to death while it was trying to retake it original form. He couldn't quite believe it worked, either.

** In fact, early on four such incarnations of the champion fight two true EldritchAbomination from outside the {{Multiverse}} proper.

* In CSLewis' ''{{Perelandra}}'', Dr Ransom acts as the [[GoodAngelBadAngel Good Angel]] when the Queen of Venus is tempted by a literal demon towards falling from grace. With the salvation of the entire planet hanging in the balance, Ransom realizes the demon's [[DemonicPossession possession of an astronaut]] (which enabled it to enter the planet in the first place) was its AchillesHeel -- he could simply pummel the thing into submission.

* In ''ParadiseLost'', Abdiel hitting Satan. Although an Angel, in ''ParadiseLost'' Abdiel is far below in glory the illustrious figures of Lucifer, Michael, Raphael, etc. His only distinction is loyalty, being the one angel to hear and reject Satan's offer to revolt. In the opening salvo of the War in Heaven, mighty Satan appears bedecked in his warrior-king regalia, ready to smite on all sides. Instead, Abdiel pops out of the fray and clocks him on the head, knocking him cold before he can strike a blow.

** On a larger scale, a coven of powerful Dark Others gathers together to destroy a horribly powerful evil Other that is [[GeniusLoci 'the spirit of St. Petersburg city itself']], awakened by the aforementioned wizard.

** On the other hand, [[spoiler:Kronos in Luke's body]] was hit in the eye with a plastic hairbrush, thrown by [[spoiler: Rachel Elizabeth Dare]].

* In ''WarriorCats'', a series where HumansAreCthulhu, [[spoiler: [=SkyClan=] defeating an abusive twoleg]] is much like this.

* The ''YoungWizards'' series is about teenagers fighting an undefeatable being who is basically Satan. Naturally, [[DidYouJustPunchOutCthulhu Punching out Cthulhu]] and [[MomentOfAwesome crowning moments of awesome]] happen on a regular basis.

** I'm not sure Harry actually is mediocre in skill. IIRC, only Snape ever sdaid anything, and said he had "no particular talent." and that was from someone who actively hated him. Harry might not do well in theory, but he is highly skilled in practice.

* In an eventually undone timeline in the third novel of the ''Dragonlance Legends'' trilogy, Raistlin, a mortal man, albeit the most powerful wizard in the history of Krynn, had killed Takhisis, the chief goddess of darkness, whose primary form was a five-headed dragon.

* None of the gods actually die in Dan Simmons's ''Ilium'', but the Greek heroes send several teleporting away with injuries, [[UnfazedEveryman Hockenberry]] tasers Hera with 50,000 volts, and Mahnmut (who is a kind of sentient non-combat android) steals a flying chariot by jumping in kicking out the goddess driving it.

* At the end of the first book of ''Memory, Sorrow, and Thorn'', the protagonist (a 15-year-old scullion with barely any formal training with weapons, noted by several characters as having not stopped growing) kills or at least seriously wounds one of the last remaining dragons in the world, which had already killed two of his much stronger/faster/more skilled/generally better at killing things comrades.

* In the last Black Company book by GlenCook, Croaker kills the goddess Kina by setting off a giant magical explosion in the chamber where she is sleeping.

** Did Gandalf just slay a Balrog? Yes he did, although [[spoiler:[[BrokeYourArmPunchingOutCthulhu it cost him his life]]]]. [[IGotBetter He gets better, though]].

* In the ''{{Warhammer 40000}} BloodAngels'' novel ''Deus Sanguinius'', Rafen manages to kill the Lord of Change Malfallax. However, to do so he had to use the [[AncestralWeapon Spear of Telesto]] to do so and [[spoiler:[[BrokeYourArmPunchingOutCthulhu Broke His Arm Doing So]].]]

* [[HPLovecraft The main man himself]] is (temporarily) thwarted in "The Call of Cthulhu" when he is [[RammingAlwaysWorks run down by a steamship]] (he begins regenerating but becomes stuck in R'lyeh).

* The climax of ''{{Blade of Tyshalle}}'' sees a superhumanly intelligent PhysicalGod [[spoiler:possessed by an even more powerful EldritchAbomination]] come up against a GenreSavvy CombatPragmatist with a magic sword.

* The ''Everworld'' series of novels has several instances of humans attacking gods, with varying amounts of success.

* HarryPotter, a sophomore wizard of mediocre skill defeats [[MagnificentBastard Voldemort]], the most powerful dark wizard of all time in no less than three books: ''Philosopher's Stone'' where he defeats his [[CthulhusWaistcoat human vessel]], ''Chamber of Secrets'' when he destroys his SoulJar and ''Goblet of Fire'' when he beats him in a magical duel although he kind of had the advantage because Voldemort was sort of being attacked by an army of ghosts at the same time. Long story. [[ButtMonkey Neville Longbottom]] destroys another of his SoulJar s [[CrowningMomentOfAwesome right in front of him]] in the final book. Poor Voldemort has a pretty tough time, no wonder he's always so angry.

** In ''Discworld/{{Thud}}'', Vimes' will to not cross the line is so powerful that it manifests as a spectral watchman that proceeds to kick the [[EldritchAbomination Summoning Dark]] out of his mind.

* The ''YoungWizards'' series is about teenagers fighting an undefeatable being who is basically Satan. [[DidYouJustPunchOutCthulhu Punching out Cthulhu]] and [[MomentOfAwesome crowning moments of awesome]] happen on a regular basis.

* In ''TheBookOfTheDunCow'', the final battle is between Wyrm, an enormous, ancient serpent as large as a planet who can easily kill angels, and the dog Mundo Cani, whose only weapon is a cow's horn. [[spoiler: Mundo Cani wins by blinding Wyrm's vulnerable eye, but at the cost of his own life.]]

** Gandalf himself was a maiar, though, essentially an angel and on roughly the same level as the Balrog (though clothed in human form), so it wasn't really anything beyond his ability.

** The Weasley twins unintentionally do this in the first book by enchanting snow balls to fly after Professor Quirrell (who is possessed by Voldemort), bouncing on the back of his head where Voldemort's face is situated, hidden beneath Quirrell's turban, thus [[HumiliationConga beating the Dark Lord in a snowfight]].

* The climactic battle of Paul Kidd's '''Queen Of The Demonweb Pits''' involves a small band of very angry people laying into Lolth (demon-goddess of the Drow) with everything they have. She tries to escape (bruised, bleeding, and badly burned), and falls into a pit of holy water (which burns demons like acid) a few feet from the portal out of the plane.

* In ''WarriorCats'', a series where HumansAreCthulu, [[spoiler: [=SkyClan=] defeating an abusive twoleg]] is much like this.

** Rincewind has done this at least three times. In ''Discworld/TheColourOfMagic'', he accidentally beats Bel-Shamharoth with Twoflower's picturebox's flash.
** In ''Discworld/TheLightFantastic'', he punches out a dread horror who had taken the form of Trymon, eventually beating it to death while it was trying to retake it original form. He couldn't quite believe it worked, either.
** In ''Discworld/{{Sourcery}}'', he challenges a the most powerful magic user on the planet, who himself had just magicked away all the gods. His weapon of choice? A brick in a sock. By the time he got to the Dungeon Dimensions all he had was sand. Luckily, socks come in pairs.

* In TheElenium Sparhawk manages to kill ''two'' gods.

** There's also "The Dunwich Horror". While the horror may not actually be a god (he's a spawn of one of them), the characters manage to banish him. As all three characters neither die nor become cripplingly insane (they're not so bad off as to be locked up), this is probably the only happy ending in the Cthulhu Mythos as penned by Lovecraft.

* In TheElenium Sparhawk manages to kill ''two'' gods.

** Heracles can't really kill Zeus, but since Heracles can only be killed by an arrow and his killer is already dead he's essentially immortal and uses that to turn Zeus into paste.

* In the last Black Company book by GlenCook, Croaker kills the goddess Kina by setting off a giant magical explosion in the chamber where she is sleeping.

* In the ''[=~Magic: The Gathering~=]'' ''Kamigawa'' saga, we have Hidetsugu, an ogre warlord who [[BadAss has every qualification to be categorized as a badass]], including serving a [[EldritchAbomination ancient demon-god with the conspicuous moniker of 'All-Consuming Oni of Chaos']]. Eventually, Hidetsugu [[spoiler:turns on his employer-unspeakable horror for wussying out of an epic fight, and thus proceeds to fist said Oni into submission. In an subversion of [[BrokeYourArmPunchingOutCthulhu breaking his arm while doing so]], he actually merges with the god and takes his place.]]

* None of the gods actually die in Dan Simmons's ''Ilium'', but the Greek heroes send several teleporting away with injuries, [[ArthurDent Hockenberry]] tasers Hera with 50,000 volts, and Mahnmut (who is a kind of sentient non-combat android) steals a flying chariot by jumping in kicking out the goddess driving it.