History Main / MoreDeadlyThanTheMale

* in ''WesternAnimation/EdEddnEddy, '''every single one''' of the show's main set of female characters are capable of fighting back, ''even Nazz'' (despite being undoubtedly the nicest among them).

* ''WesternAnimation/MeetTheRobinsons'': DOR-15, or Doris, is qualifiable to be considered as such (despite not being technically feminine in the biological perspective) since she's referred to with female pronouns throughout the movie itself, as well as the fact that she's proven herself to be '''a lot''' more dangerous than her [[spoiler:former]] partner-in-crime the Bowler Hat Guy (who is actually [[spoiler:the vengeful Mike Yagoobian, Lewis' old roommate]]). [[spoiler:Just take a good look at the movie's climax.]]

* ''WesternAnimation/MeetTheRobinsons'': DOR-15, or Doris, is qualifiable to be considered as such (despite not being technically feminine in the biological perspective) since she's referred to with female pronouns, as well as the fact that she's proven herself to be more dangerous than her [[spoiler:former]] partner-in-crime the Bowler Hat Guy (who is actually [[spoiler:the formerly vengeful Mike Yagoobian, Lewis' old roommate]]). [[spoiler:Just take a good look at the movie's climax.]]

* ''WesternAnimation/MeetTheRobinsons'': DOR-15, or Doris, is qualifiable to be considered as such (despite not being technically feminine in the biological perspective) since she's referred to with female pronouns, as well as the fact that she's proven herself to be more dangerous than her [[spoiler:former]] partner-in-crime the Bowler Hat Guy (who is actually [[spoiler: the vengeful Mike Yagoobian, Lewis' old roommate]]). [[spoiler:Just take a look at the movie's climax.]]

* ''Series/{{Revolution}}'': Rachel Matheson. She may not look like Action Girl material at all, and in fact seems willing to put up with loads of hardships. But the minute her kids or her life get threatened...well, there's nothing that she won't do to ensure survival. Her former colleague Dr. Bradley Jaffe in "[[Recap/RevolutionS1E9Kashmir Kashmir]]" and Sergeant Will Strausser in "[[Recap/RevolutionS1E10NobodysFaultButMine Nobody's Fault But Mine]]" learned this at the cost of their lives.

** Clark Kent may be a PhysicalGod, but being such a [[TheCape boy scout]], he might just be less dangerous than [[SatelliteLoveInterest Lana Lang]] and [[PlatonicLifePartners Chloe Sullivan]]. Lana enacted a complex and vicious plan of revenge after [[spoiler:Lex Luthor faked her pregnancy, which includes beating up and imprisoning Lionel.]] Chloe delivered an [[IfYouEverDoAnythingToHurtHer If You Ever Do Anything To Hurt Him]] speech to Lana with a very convincing tone; if you are the week's bad guy who tried to expose Clark to the world [[spoiler:and she is under the influence of Brainiac]], ''you won't live long enough to regret it''.

* The TropeNamer exists because male bears are not only absent fathers, but murderous suitors that will attempt to kill any existing cubs on the assumption they belong to a rival. As such, a MamaBear needs to be able to deal with ''any'' threat against her cubs, including aggressive males seeking to mate with her. Other species, such as Lions, are known for wiping out the young of their rivals.

* Female ''Photuris'' fireflies mimics the light-flash patterns of other species' sexual displays to lure in males for lunch. Male ''Photuris'' are far more interested in mating than hunting.

* While male lions are pretty fierce and threatening, and larger and stronger than the females, from an animals point of view (e.g. a zebra) they are actually less dangerous as male lions are used to having the females in the pride hunt for them (though this is something of a misnomer, as it's far from unusual for male lions to hunt, and indeed they are often relied on to overpower and kill especially large prey once the females have caught it). If a male lion is ousted by another and has to fend for themselves, they tend to make poorer hunters because their distinctive manes make it harder to sneak up on prey, and their bulk makes them slower, and may starve to death.

* During the siege of the Hungarian castle and town of Eger (by the Ottomans) in 1552, the men did most of the hand-to-hand fighting, but it was the women who poured the cauldrons of boiling oil, tar, and any other nasty liquid they got their hands on. Demonstrated succintly in a Hungarian musical made from one of the novels written about the siege, where the women of Eger get their own rocking song. The chorus translated goes something like this: "Fire, let there be burning fire, let [our liquids] boil and brew, and the attackers will pay, because I'll chase them off to Hell! Fly on a black cloud, oh hot death, Hellfire awaits them [the attackers], let them run away from here, blood-soaked! No weak missus is she, put the wooden spoon and headscarf away, the brave women of Eger grab swords! We have to act, and not cry, up, to the bastion, to fight, kill the Turks, we have to win here, today!"
* At the ''Red Army Faction (Rote Armee Fraktion)'', a communist terrorist group in Germany, a good half of the full members and around eighty percent of the supporters were women. The police quickly recommended that when they encounter the terrorists, shoot the women first because they are much more dangerous in combat. On the one hand, they would fight as brutally as possible in order to be respected by their male ''comrades-in-arms''. On the other hand, as left-wing extremist terrorists, they have little inhibitions about shooting male police officers because they see non-left men as part of ''the patriarchy''. This has become a well known feature of female terrorists, so much that an entire book (''Shoot the Women First '') was published on the topic.

* Elena from ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyVII'' is the only female member of the Turks, and though she is only ever fought once in the game (in an optional battle to boot), she outstrips her male cohorts Rude and Reno in terms of virtually every stat. This also appears to be true for her ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyVIIRebirth'' counterpart, as her debut trailer shows her depicts her preforming multiple heavy-hitting attacks against the playable party. She is also depicted in the orignal game is being strong enough to punch Cloud down a mountainside in one hit if a certain button prompt is missed.

...well. That death trap was effective. Gruesome, but effective. Wonder where she got the hyenas...?

** In terms of villians however, this trope is subverted. King Sombra, Discord and Lord Tirek are all among the most powerful characters in the show with all of them having PersonOfMassDestruction- level powers and AntagonistAbilities that not even the female Alicorns and the Mane 6 can match. They need the Elements Of Harmony to beat them. Additionally, the female villians of the show are much weaker compared to them as well. Queen Chrysalis is quite powerful in her own right as she was able to defeat Princess Celestia, but she doesn't quite have the destructive capability of the aforementioned male villians. Once she loses her army, her threat level also becomes practically non-existent showing that in actuality she is not too impressive power-wise. Meanwhile, Cozy Glow is just a normal pegasus filly. She is all brains no brawn. Nightmare Moon, despite being a MadGod who is able to bring TheNightThatNeverEnds, was merely the StarterVillian of the series and the Mane 6 took her out quite easily.

** While Shining Armor's power is already impressive in its own right (he was capable of creating a force field large enough to envelop the whole capital and powerful enough to repel an entire alien invasion), his wife Princess Cadance is even more powerful than him, as she's [[DeityOfHumanOrigin a pegasus who became an alicorn]] while he is just a unicorn.

* Female prayers are at least a third taller than males. They are also more aggressive and vigorous. Male praying mantises fear that the females will eat them after mating.

* The final battle in ''Film/{{Avatar}}'' has Sully repeatedly try to kill Col. Quaritch, but he keeps narrowly failing and only managing to inflict superficial injuries. When Neytiri catches up with them both at the end of the battle, [[spoiler:she manages to kill Quaritch almost immediately]]. Though Sully is fighting using a body and weapons he's not too familiar with, whereas Neytiri is an expert archer.

* In Persona 5, while all of the party members are equally powerful in combat, the girls are generally more ruthless and hot blooded.

* In ''Literature/JirelOfJoiry'', the sorceress Jarisme is MoreDeadlyThanTheMale to Jirel’s ActionGirl. When Jarisme threatens a terrible punishment, Jirel thinks briefly on her own torture dungeons but quickly realizes that "It would be a feminine vengeance, and more terrible than anything fire and iron could inflict."

* This is true of the Freelancers in ''WebAnimation/RedVsBlue''. While they’re all expert fighters, the women tend to either be better or plain more ruthless than their male counterparts.
** Carolina is TheLeader and is ranked number one on the leaderboard [[spoiler: until Tex shows up]], and often shows the martial ability to back this up. It’s notable that she was [[spoiler: the Meta’s first victim]] and is still alive into the current seasons.
** Tex is the resident badass in the Blood Gulch Chronicles, and is shown capable of holding her own in a variety of situations. She’s introduced in the Freelancer Saga ''winning'' a one-on-three sparring match against [[TheLancer York]], [[ColdSniper Wyoming]], and [[TheBigGuy Maine]], and later on is able to give Washington and The Meta a run for their money in Revelations.

** Seemingly subverted in the case of CT, who is either at the bottom of the leaderboard or not on it at all. Though, this might be more because [[spoiler: she’s secretly working for the Insurrection]].

* ''WesternAnimation/SouthPark'': From "Moss Piglets" until “Splatty Tomato” Heidi Turner becomes Eric Cartman's DistaffCounterpart after dating Cartman for so long. However everyone seems to fear Heidi more than Cartman (including Cartman himself), since Heidi was much more intelligent than Cartman and could actually follow through with her threats. Luckily, she goes back to her NiceGirl self after breaking up with Cartman, but the fact she could have much more sway than [[TheSociopath Cartman]] is scary to think about:

* ''Anime/NeonGenesisEvangelion'': Ikari Gendo is a MagnificentBastard who commands a force of HumongousMecha. His son Shinji pilots one of these mecha. Gendo's wife and Shinji's mom, Yui? [[spoiler:She is the soul of said mecha that Shinji pilots, prone to UnstoppableRage [[MamaBear in order to protect her son]] and ''[[BewareTheNiceOnes ripping her opponents limb from limb before devouring their organs]].'' It's also likely that she is the actual mastermind behind the whole Instrumentality project and the Evas.]] Gendo really only takes over command because she is no longer able to. By the way, Ikari is ''her'' birth surname, not Gendo's.

* In ''Manga/SailorMoon'' the female characters tend to be more bloodthirsty than the male ones. The best example comes from confronting any version of Prince Demando ([[spoiler:TheDragon of the second group of villains, who believes himself the BigBad]]) with [[spoiler:Sailor Venus]] (a hero): when put having to kill the person they loved, Demando refused (in the manga he ultimately tried it, but that's only in his VillainousBreakdown, and it was merely a collateral effect of [[OmnicidalManiac what he was actually trying to do]]), [[spoiler:Sailor Venus]] ''did it in a heartbeat, '''twice''''' (while the first time she may have been panicking, given it was her first mission, the second time she had just [[DontMakeMeDestroyYou begged him to stand down while holding him at deadly spellpoint]]).

* In ''Literature/JirelOfJoiry'' the sorceress Jarisme is MoreDeadlyThanTheMale to Jirel’s ActionGirl. When Jarisme threatens a terrible punishment, Jirel thinks briefly on her own torture dungeons but quickly realizes that “It would be a feminine vengeance, and more terrible than anything fire and iron could inflict.”

* Madame [=DeFarge=] and Miss Pross in ''Literature/ATaleOfTwoCities.''

* In the ''Franchise/{{Metroid}}'' universe, the {{Space Pirate}}s do not fear the Federation troopers. Samus Aran is their personal NightmareFuel. When EvilCounterpart Dark Samus appears, their response is essentially, “Oh God, there are two of them now.”

* Lord Hater is the BigBad of ''WesternAnimation/{{Wander Over Yonder}}'' until the Dominator shows up. She gets her jollies by destroying every planet in the galaxy. After she's destroyed everything except for a tiny little planet where the heroes are plotting to defeat her, she starts to feel very sad and depressed...because there's nothing left to destroy. She's so evil that during the series finale, Lord Hater teams up with Wander and his friends to defeat her because she's destroyed the galaxy he wanted to conquer. After she's finally defeated, she almost seems to want to be Wander's friend and become a good guy for a few moments, but then she decides she'd rather storm off in a huff instead.

** The word for a male hawk or falcon, "tiercel", means "third." According to some sources, this is because they are roughly one-third smaller than females, though other sources claim it comes from the belief that only one in three eggs hatches into a male.

* ''Franchise/{{Alien}}'': There really isn't much evidence that [[Characters/{{Aliens}} Xenomorphs]] '''have''' genders, being implicitly asexual or hermaphroditic. However, it's common in the ExpandedUniverse to explicitly describe the huge, powerful Queen as a female and the "Praetorians" or Drones/Warriors as males, who mate with the much larger and stronger Queen to help her produce eggs. A Dark Horse novel/comic, ''Rogue'', involves an attempt by a MadScientist to genetically engineer a "King Alien," the titular Rogue, who is mindlessly violent and aggressive, slaughtering every other Xenomorph it encounters -- until it meets the Queen, which is smaller but smarter, quicker and more agile, quickly tearing the King apart.

* The Four Shades Of Awesome on ''WesternAnimation/ElenaOfAvalor'' follow this. Cahu is the leader of the group, and she's also the one who survives the longest. Interestingly enough, she's also [[Main/TheSmurfettePrinciple the only girl]] in the group.
* [[DarkActionGirl Shego]] is easily the most competent villain in ''WesternAnimation/KimPossible'''s mostly male RoguesGallery. The made-for-t.v. movie ''A Sitch In Time'' even has it as a plot point that Kim mistakenly believes the main villain in the BadFuture she is trying to avert is Drakken before being informed that it is actually Shego.

* In an Episode of ''WesternAnimation/TimeSquad'', the heroes have to help henpecked husband Napoleon Bonaparte sneak away from his wife to do some late-night conquering. Eventually they're caught by her and, being the "fiery frenchwoman" that she is, she gets so mad that she singlehandedly obliterates Napoleon's army. They then decide to become conquering partners together.
* Lord Hater is the Big Bad of ''WesternAnimation/{{Wander Over Yonder}}'' until the Dominator shows up. She gets her jollies by destroying every planet in the galaxy. After she's destroyed everything except for a tiny little planet where the heroes are plotting to defeat her, she starts to feel very sad and depressed...because there's nothing left to destroy. She's so evil that during the series finale, Lord Hater teams up with Wander and his friends to defeat her because she's destroyed the galaxy he wanted to conquer. After she's finally defeated, she almost seems to want to be Wander's friend and become a good guy for a few moments, but then she decides she'd rather storm off in a huff instead.

** The word for a male hawk or falcon, "tiercel," means "third." According to some sources, this is because they are roughly one-third smaller than females, though other sources claim it comes from the belief that only one in three eggs hatches into a male.

* ''Literature/{{Barrayar}}'' by Creator/LoisMcMasterBujold:
** Princess Kareen realizes her son is alive and that she's been lied to. Without hesitation, she draws a nerve disrupter in a room full of soldiers and fires at the usurper who told her that her son was dead, the self-proclaimed Emperor.
** Despite Aral being a [[FourStarBadass remarkably capable warrior]], ultimately Cordelia leads the team that [[OffWithHisHead ends the coup attempt]] and changes the fate of the world...''[[IWasJustPassingThrough on the way]]'' to [[MamaBear rescuing her son]], her real mission.

* While the ''{{Literature/Tortall}}'' and ''Literature/CircleOfMagic'' universes of Creator/TamoraPierce tend more towards ActionGirl and SilkHidingSteel, they don’t shy away from this trope either, totaling no less than three female serial killers and even more dangerously ambitious empresses, regents, and assorted female nobles between them. Even the more regressive parts of Tortallan culture consider it the duty of “any delicately reared noblewoman” to defend her fief while the menfolk are away, even to the point of lighting barrels of lard and ordering them catapulted onto enemy ships.

* A recurring villain in the Literature/DrWatsonAtWar novels by Robert Ryan is Ilse Brandt, a psychopathic agent for German Naval Intelligence. She and other women were trained (including a DeadlyGraduation) at the Sie Wölfe school as spies and assassins at a time when women were not expected to kill.

** One of ''VideoGame/Fallout4''s add on ''Nuka-World'' 's raider gangs, the Disciples, is predominantly female, and they are by far the most bloodthirsty of the gangs. [[PsychoKnifeNut Specializing in blades]], the Disciples are known to go against the already shaky peace agreement between the Nuka-World raiders and kill members of the other gangs, with their only rule being to not get caught.

** In''VideoGame/FalloutNewVegas'', any of the female companions classify. Veronica and her power fist are much more dangerous than most of what the Brotherhood has to offer and Cass... Let's just say she one ups her father on that front.

* In ''VideoGame/FalloutNewVegas'' any of the female companions classify. Veronica and her power fist are much more dangerous than most of what the Brotherhood has to offer and Cass... Let's just say she one ups her father on that front. Of note is also the female NCR Ranger, Stella, captured by the Legion. Forced to fight in the arena, she's been tearing up hardened legionaries with her bare hands ever since.

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** Also, female orcs are stated to be stronger than the males.

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