History Main / GiantEqualsInvincible

* In ''TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons'', bigger monsters tend to be tougher, but not necessarily ''because'' they're bigger. Bigger monsters are also bigger targets.[[note]]-1 AC for being one size category above Medium (e.g. most humanoids), and doubling with each subsequent category.[[/note]]

* ''Franchise/{{Gundam}}'' is all over the place with this trope. The Universal Century series have anti-Mobile Suit infantry tactics being reasonably effective while armies in the Alternate Universes generally don't field infantry against Mobile Suits at all. However one of the series' major conceits is that Mobile Suits can effortlessly take down battleships and Mobile Armors hundreds of times larger than themselves.

Contrast the SquareCubeLaw, which suggests larger things should actually be ''weaker''. However, assuming that the Square Cube Law is still in effect, and they still don't collapse and die, then this trope is justified because the creature [[RequiredSecondaryPowers explicitly needs to be super-strong and massively durable]] simply to withstand their own weight and be able to move with any reasonable efficiency (indeed, beyond a certain size, the body would have to incorporate substances stronger and more durable than anything that exists in real animals). For example, a human-scaled up by merely twice his own height would weigh eight times more. The strength necessary to move his own body weight as fast as normal human would make him incredibly overpowered versus normal-sized opponents. It's also TruthInTelevision to the extent that a massive difference in size between two animals can render the smaller animal [[PunchPunchPunchUhOh largely incapable of meaningfully harming the larger one]] (such as an ant biting a human or a human punching an elephant) without injecting venom, [[AttackItsWeakPoint attacking a vulnerable area]], using a powerful weapon (such as a gun), or otherwise somehow attacking with something other than its own strength (or having [[ZergRush a few dozen friends]] help).

* ZigZagged in the '90s ''Film/{{Gamera}}'' trilogy. Gamera is shot down from flight by anti-air missiles, but they don't seem to actually hurt him all that much, at most seeming to startle or annoy him when it comes to damage. Gyaos also gets bombarded with missiles and. While Legion appears to be much tougher than both of them, firing at her weakest area, specifically the joints on her small claws, allow them to weaken her force field. Iris, however, plays this completely straight, as nothing Gamera or the JSDF throw at it can so much as make it flinch. It takes Gamera literally ''punching'' a hole in Iris with a MegatonPunch made of explosive fire to kill it.

* Every ''Franchise/{{Godzilla}}'' movie ever. (In the [[Film/Godzilla1954 original]], the "Oxygen Destroyer" kills Godzilla. Still, it's not a conventional weapon, but a 'superscience' type. The [=SuperX=] in much later films has some effect.)

** Part of the reason for the hate for the first American ''Film/{{Godzilla 1998}}'' movie is that this is averted. While Zilla is pretty much immune to small arms fire, big guns and bombs are able to hurt him, and late in the movie he is injured and eventually killed by conventional weaponry. ''Gamera'' director Shusuke Kaneko is quoted as saying "Americans seem unable to accept a creature that cannot be put down by their arms".

* Subverted in the '90s ''Film/{{Gamera}}'' trilogy. Gamera is easily shot down by missiles. They don't kill him, but they certainly do their fair-share of damage to the giant turtle. He does grow more durable and powerful in later movies to where anti-aircraft missiles can slow him down somewhat, but don't actually hurt him.

[[folder: Film ]]

** This trait is played with in Film/AntManAndTheWaspQuantumania, but with a twist: [[spoiler: During the final assault on BigBad Kang's citadel]], Scott shrugs off artillery and laser fire like he's Franchise/{{Godzilla}}, smashing tanks underfoot and swatting planes out of the sky. However, given this whole scene plays out [[spoiler: in the [[RecursiveReality Quantum Realm,]]]] the question remains whether he was ''actually'' giant, or just ''slightly less microscopic'' than his surroundings.

* ''[[Fanfic/GodsAngelsAndKings Hail To The King]]'': Subverted. Initially it is played straight: when the [[HumongousMecha Evangelions]], the {{Kaiju}} and the [[EldritchAbomination Angels]] come to blows the army of the Evangelion universe could stay in home for all the good its presence will do. However, the Godzilla universe army has decades of experience dealing with giant, superpowerful and nearly invulnerable monsters, and they are at least capable to provide cover fire, distract or slightly weaken the enemy.

[[folder: Anime and Manga ]]

* The biggest of dinosaurs are thought to have adhered to this trope at least somewhat. At their adult size, animals like ''Argentinosaurus'' would likely have had little to fear from predators, and the few predators that could fight them still had to be careful and couldn't guarantee that their attacks would be effective. In essentially a RealLife lampshading of this trope, one sauropod closely related to ''Argentinosaurus'' was named "''Dreadnoughtus''", which translates to [[AwesomeMcCoolname "Fears Nothing"]].

* ''Fanfic/{{Wonderful}}'': When a house-sized tank attacks the main character's super-hero team, Taylor and her teammates manage to destroy it... but they needed to use giant weapons to do so.

After generations of {{Kaiju}} movies including Franchise/{{Godzilla}}, Film/{{Gamera}} and countless imitators, viewers seem conditioned to accept that any giant monster or robot is completely [[ImmuneToBullets immune to conventional weaponry]]. This can be a problem for filmmakers, either making the military in their films [[WhatAnIdiot look stupid]] for [[RedshirtArmy even being there]] or destroying the audience's SuspensionOfDisbelief when FiveRoundsRapid ''[[{{Anticlimax}} actually]] [[RealityIsUnrealistic works]].'' Not much can be done about this.

There are a few methods for overcoming this, including DepletedPhlebotinumShells and (inexplicably) attaching the very same weapons to another giant robot or monster. On the other hand, simply laying out poisoned bait for these critters and letting their appetites do them in will [[JustEatGilligan never]], ever, ''ever'' occur to anyone[[note]]except in ''Film/GameraVsGyaos''[[/note]].

* ''Manga/MyHeroAcademia''

* ''ComicBook/XMen'': Sentinels aren't invincible (yet), but they are built exceptionally tough because their intended targets can [[ComicBook/{{Cyclops}} shatter you with a glance]], [[ComicBook/{{Wolverine}} cut anything]], [[ComicBook/{{Storm}} throw lightning]], [[Comicbook/{{Magneto}} bend steel with a thought]] or just [[ComicBook/JeanGrey treat matter like tinker-toys]]. As a consequence, we don't often (if ever) see conventional arms used against them.

* Every ''Franchise/{{Godzilla}}'' movie ever. (In the [[Film/{{Gojira}} original]], the "Oxygen Destroyer" kills Godzilla. Still, it's not a conventional weapon, but a 'superscience' type. The [=SuperX=] in much later films has some effect.)

* ''VideoGame/AsurasWrath''

** Played with during the FinalBattle between [[spoiler:Asura and Chakravartin, as the former grows bigger than the planet himself, but this just means he actually has a chance of countering the ''planets and stars'' Chakravartin starts chucking at him and he can die from them. Chakravartin, meanwhile, is so huge (as in, he's attracting ''galaxies'' towards him), that Asura can't actually destroy this form and he needs to get inside it to confront Chakravartin directly (now both of them at a much more reasonable human sizes).]]

* In ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'' "Treehouse of Horror VI", giant advertising mascots go on a rampage. Predictably, conventional weapons are useless, but it turns out that [[YourMindMakesItReal our attention makes them real]] and they'll [[GodsNeedPrayerBadly keel over]] if we just don't look.

[[quoteright:300:[[Film/ShinGodzilla https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/shingoji1_9.jpg]]]]
[[caption-width-right:300:If you think this is going to stop [[Franchise/{{Godzilla}} him,]] you're watching [[WrongGenreSavvy the wrong movie.]]]]

Let's face it - things that are bigger than us are scary, and not just because of their size. A large part of the fear invoked by truly gigantic things is that while they could crush you where you stand, [[PunyEarthlings puny little you]] likely couldn't even scratch them. Instinctually, it seems we know that the bigger something becomes, the harder it is to damage. And in fictionland, things can get [[SciFiWritersHaveNoSenseOfScale very, very big.]]

* ''Fanfic/TheOneILoveIs'': Although he hates fighting, Shinji gets forced to pilot a giant robot because there is nothing else that can damage the [[{{Robeast}} Angels]], and the is the only one who can pilot Unit 01.

* ''Fanfic/{{Wonderful}}'': When a house-sized tank attacks main character's super-hero team, Taylor and her teammates manage to destroy it... but they needed to use giant weapons to do so.
* ''Fanfic/TheBridge'' plays it completely straight on the Terran side, where only high end mecha or extremely rare superweapons have any effect on kaiju and it usually took one of the more heroic kaiju to save the day. On the Equestrian side, it flip flops. Bladed weaponry are obviously useless and magic blasts from an extremely powerful unicorn like Starlight Glimmer might just get a kaiju's attention; but WordOfGod and demonstration show more powerful artifacts like the Crystal heart and potent alicorn magic can do some damage.

** In the [[Film/JurassicWorld fourth movie]] this is zigzagged. The pterosaurs are each taken down by one shot, but it can be assumed it's because they're not really that big[[note]]and, being {{Giant Flyer}}s, they're also more lightweight and built for speed rather than strength, so this may also be a case of FragileSpeedster and/or GlassCannon[[/note]]. Meanwhile the ''[[BigBad Indominus rex]]'' barely seems to notice when she's being shot at and shrugs off a barrage of machine gun and rifle fire through the movie. She does improvise some quick evasive maneuvers when subjected to fire from a helicopter-mounted minigun, though, and is successfully driven away with a rocket launcher. The ''Indominus'' however, appears to have been specifically engineered to be as tough as possible, shrugging off multiple bites to the neck from [[spoiler:Rexie and even the ''Mosasaurus''; it took being drowned by the ''Mosasaurus'' to eventually kill her]].

*** All of this is justified though. The first movie revealed that humans discovered just what type of man-made weapon capable of injuring a Cybertronian, and actively made that the standard issue ammo for all soldiers in the following films.

** ''Film/GodzillaVsDestoroyah'' subverts this. Turns out that too much radiation ''can'' kill Godzilla. The downside is that it'll cause him to go into a meltdown and destroy the world. Granted, nuking Godzilla is a bad idea in the first place, since it'll make him larger and more powerful before it has any fatal effects on him.

* Averted with ''Film/{{Rodan}}''. Both monsters die in a volcano while the JSDF bombs them with an air strike.
* Subverted in the 90's ''Film/{{Gamera}}'' trilogy. Gamera is easily shot down by missiles. They don't kill him, but they certainly do their fair-share of damage to the giant turtle. He does grow more durable and powerful in later movies to where anti-aircraft missiles can slow him down somewhat, but don't actually hurt him.

* Averted in ''TabletopGame/BattleTech''. [[HumongousMecha BattleMechs]] may be the more-or-less official "kings of the battlefield" and heavier designs are tougher than lighter ones, but they're still only glorified ''tanks'' on legs and remain vulnerable to lucky hits and cumulative damage from even 31st century infantry weapons assuming the infantry can live long enough to get into range and exchange fire with them for a while. (Urban combat in particular can become a legitimate nightmare for them.)

** The effective variant tends to rely more on [[AttackItsWeakPoint damaging a vulnerable spot]] via HumongousMecha {{Kneecapping}}. Most of the games where non PoweredArmor-wearing troops fire infantry-scale weapons at 'Mechs don't include this tactic, and examples such as ''Mechwarrior 3'' messily demonstrate why an average human shouldn't be anywhere ''remotely'' near a 'Mech.

* In the ''VideoGame/DragonBallZBudokaiTenkaichi'' series, giant characters will not flinch at most smaller character's punches and almost all rush moves will ricochet off them before they can do anything. This means characters like Hercule and Videl are almost completely helpless against them.

* ''VideoGame/NewSuperMarioBros'' introduces the Mega Mushroom, which transforms Mario into an invincible, screen-filling giant who can plow through even normally indestructible objects like pipes. Some bosses can at least manage to bounce Mario off of them if he walks into them, but if he stomps on them, it's a OHKO.

* Averted in the ''VideoGame/{{Rampage}}'' series where the player controlled monsters are vulnerable to, not only missiles, but small arms fire. Of course it can take a lot to kill them depending on the player.

** Whales can be killed with a simple harpoon, but its not as easy as it seems as they need to nail it at the right spot to make it effective. Then came grenade harpoons.
*** The old harpoons of both early whaling ships and pre-Industrial hunters such as the Inuit did not deal the whale a mortal wound. What worked was the droge, aka drug or drugg, a giant, very buoyant device attached to the harpoon. When the whale dove, it would fight any droges attached to it until it tired, was dragged to the surface, and there finished.

Let's face it- things that are bigger than us are scary, and not just because of their size. A large part of the fear invoked by truly gigantic things is that while they could crush you where you stand, [[PunyEarthlings puny little you]] likely couldn't even scratch them. Instinctually, it seems we know that the bigger something becomes, the harder it is to damage. And in fictionland, things can get [[SciFiWritersHaveNoSenseOfScale very, very big.]]

Contrast the SquareCubeLaw, which suggests larger things should actually be ''weaker''. However, assuming that the Square Cube Law is still in effect, and they still don't collapse and die, then this trope is justified because the creature [[RequiredSecondaryPowers explicitly needs to be super-strong and massively durable]] simply to withstand their own weight and be able to move with any reasonable efficiency (indeed, beyond a certain size, the body would have to incorporate substances stronger and more durable than anything that exists in real animals). For example, a human scaled up by merely twice his own height would weigh eight times more. The strength necessary to move his own body weight as fast as normal human would make him incredibly overpowered versus normal-sized opponents. It's also TruthInTelevision to the extent that a massive difference in size between two animals can render the smaller animal [[PunchPunchPunchUhOh largely incapable of meaningfully harming the larger one]] (such as an ant biting a human or a human punching an elephant) without injecting venom, [[AttackItsWeakPoint attacking a vulnerable area]], using a powerful weapon (such as a gun), or otherwise somehow attacking with something other than its own strength (or having [[ZergRush a few dozen friends]] help).

* ''Fanfic/TheChildOfLove'': After the Angel War Shinji and Asuka are cajoled into taking part in peace-keeping missions. They don’t want to kill anyone but Misato assures them the only thing they have to do is show up and scare them because everyone knows giant robots are invincible.

-->''“Well Sir, I have, so has the First Child and I’m sure very shortly, so too will have the Second [...] In my first engagement, I went up against an Angel that chewed through a Tank Battalion in four minutes flat, destroyed three dozen aircraft and took more firepower then this entire battle group could dish out, right up to the use of Strategic scale N2 weapons. The UN and JSSDF threw everything they had at it and barely slowed it down at the cost of over a thousand lives and half a billion US dollars. [...] With the greatest of respect, Sir, [...] the twin of that toy you are transporting took out that Angel in sixty three seconds, with no civilian casualties, no military casualties and minimal collateral damage to the city it was fighting in.”
* ''Fanfic/TheOneILoveIs'': Although he hates fighting, Shinji gets forced to pilot a giant robot because there is nothing else can damage the [[{{Robeast}} Angels]], and the is the only one can pilot Unit 01.

* ''Fanfic/NeonGenesisEvangelionGenocide'': As soon as new humongous [[EldritchAbomination Angels]] show up, it’s made clear that the army keeps being helpless against them, and the Evas must be deployed again.

[[quoteright:300:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/shingoji1_9.jpg]]

Contrast the SquareCubeLaw, which suggests larger things should actually be ''weaker''. However, assuming that the Square Cube Law is still in effect, and they still don't collapse and die, then this trope is justified because the creature [[RequiredSecondaryPowers explicitly needs to be super-strong and massively durable]] simply to withstand their own weight and be able to move with any reasonable efficiency (indeed, beyond a certain size, the body would have to incorporate substances stronger and more durable than anything that exists in real animals). For example, a human scaled up by merely twice his own height would weigh eight times more. The strength necessary to move his own body weight as fast as normal human would make him incredibly overpowered versus normal-sized opponents. It's also TruthInTelevision to the extent that a massive difference in size between two animals can render the smaller animal [[PunchPunchPunchUhOh largely incapable of meaningfully harming the larger one]] (such as an ant biting a human or a the aforementioned human punching an elephant) without injecting venom, [[AttackItsWeakPoint attacking a vulnerable area]], using a powerful weapon (such as a gun), or otherwise somehow attacking with something other than its own strength (or having [[ZergRush a few dozen friends]] help).

Let's face it- things that are bigger than us are scary, and not just because of their size. A large part of the fear invoked by truly gigantic things is that while they could crush you where you stand, [[PunyEarthlings puny little you]] likely couldn't even scratch them. This has roots in our history- for the first few thousand years of humanity's existence, and indeed, even today, if an unarmed man ran into, say, an angry elephant- that was it. He could punch at it, bite it, claw it, but the sheer difference in scale means that he would never inflict enough damage to take it down. Instinctually, then, it seems we know that the bigger something becomes, the harder it is to damage. And as the monsters in our stories grew from elephants into towering, building-sized forces of nature, their durability was likewise [[SerialEscalation scaled up.]]

Contrast the SquareCubeLaw, which suggests larger things should actually be ''weaker''. However, assuming that the Square Cube Law is still in effect, and they still don't collapse and die, then this trope is justified because the creature [[RequiredSecondaryPowers explicitly needs to be super-strong and massively durable]] simply to withstand their own weight and be able to move with any reasonable efficiency (indeed, beyond a certain size, the body would have to incorporate substances stronger and more durable than anything that exists in real animals). For example, a human scaled up by merely twice his own height would weigh eight times more. The strength necessary to move his own body weight as fast as normal human would make him incredibly overpowered versus normal-sized opponents. It's also TruthInTelevision to the extent that a massive difference in size between two animals can render the smaller animal [[PunchPunchPunchUhOh largely incapable of meaningfully harming the larger one]] (such as an ant biting a human or a human punching an elephant) without injecting venom, [[AttackItsWeakPoint attacking a vulnerable area]], using a powerful weapon (such as a gun), or otherwise somehow attacking with something other than its own strength (or having [[ZergRush a few dozen friends]] help).

** Part of the reason for the hate for the first American ''Film/{{Godzilla 1998}}'' movie is that this is averted. While Zilla is pretty much immune to small arms fire, big guns and bombs are able to hurt him, and late in the movie he is injured and eventually killed by conventional weaponry. ''Gamera'' director Shusuke Kaneko is quoted as saying " Americans [[Eagleland seem unable to accept]] a creature that cannot be put down by their arms".

** Part of the reason for the hate for the first American ''Film/{{Godzilla 1998}}'' movie is that this is averted. While Zilla is pretty much immune to small arms fire, big guns and bombs are able to hurt him, and late in the movie he is injured and eventually killed by conventional weaponry. ''Gamera'' director Shusuke Kaneko is quoted as saying " [[Eagleland Americans]] seem unable to accept a creature that cannot be put down by their arms".

** Part of the reason for the hate for the first American ''Film/{{Godzilla 1998}}'' movie is that this is averted. While Zilla is pretty much immune to small arms fire, big guns and bombs are able to hurt him, and late in the movie he is injured and eventually killed by conventional weaponry. ''Gamera'' director Shusuke Kaneko is quoted as saying "[[Eagleland Americans]] seem unable to accept a creature that cannot be put down by their arms".