History Main / StrongAsTheyNeedToBe

* WesternAnimation/SpongeBobSquarePants has this bad. At times he can barely lift stuffed animals or a ''straw'' by himself, while at other times he can tear a mailbox out of the ground. There's also his skills with karate; at times he can equal Sandy and even beat her, while at other times he's incompetent to the point where Sandy literally kicks him around like a football.

* [[Characters/GreenLantern1941 Solomon Grundy]], a regular villain in the Franchise/TheDCU, is a justified case. His power explicitly fluctuates due to his ResurrectiveImmortality; every time he comes back, he gets a somewhat different personality and power level. Some forms are able to trade blows with Superman, while others are weak enough for Batman or Green Arrow to take down.

** For a majority of the series, vast differences in power levels were usually portrayed as hard walls. No matter how hard a weaker character tried, they would never be able to even scratch a stronger character. However, around the point after it was stated that Goku had absorbed some of his God powers into his natural state in Battle of Gods, large differences in power levels being portrayed as impossible barriers started to slowly disappear. Characters like Master Roshi, Krillin, Tien, Android 17, and Piccolo began having far better showings against established strong characters than they logically should, especially Master Roshi in the manga who was able to hold his own against Jiren. In addition strong characters like Goku seem to get randomly weaker, such as Goku getting injured by a bullet that he saw coming, even though he got surprise shot in the head as a kid with no injury. And then there's cases where both seem to happen at once, like Goku and Krillin's sparring match, where Goku is portrayed as stronger than Krillin but not nearly to the utterly one-sided no effort curbstomp degree that it logically be at this point. This is sometimes hand-waved with a character implying that they did some training off-screen, to varying degrees of believability.

** For a majority of the series, vast differences in power levels were usually portrayed as hard walls. No matter how hard a weaker character tried, they would never be able to even scratch a stronger character. However, around the point after it was stated that Goku had absorbed some of his God powers into his natural state in Battle of Gods, large differences in power levels being portrayed as impossible barriers started to slowly disappear. Characters like Master Roshi, Krillin, Tien, Android 17, and Piccolo began having far better showings against established strong characters than they logically should, especially Master Roshi in the manga. This is sometimes hand-waved with a character implying that they did some training off-screen, to varying levels of believability.

** It seems that every arc gives a separate explanation for why Ichigo's power is inconsistent. Originally, it was said that he couldn't control his power because he hadn't been properly trained. Later on, it's said that his power levels are linked to his resolve to win. Once he had better learned to control his power, villains learned to exploit his fluctuating resolve by beating down his self-confidence by demonstrating their greater power or revealing a few carefully chosen truths about his friends or family that he didn't know. Eventually, he caught on to this tactic and verbally chewed out the next villain who tried it. Then in the "Lost Substitute" arc, it's revealed [[spoiler:his substitute badge was suppressing his reiatsu, because the high brass of the Shinigami were worried that they couldn't fully trust him, and that the previous substitute would turn him against the Soul Society.]] And finally, [[spoiler:the final arc claims that the real reason his power fluctuated so much is because his "Shinigami" power, known as [[TalkingWeapon Old Man Zangetsu,]] was actually his ''Quincy'' power, secretly masquerading as his Shinigami power and only permitting him to access just enough to survive. When he and Zangetsu confronted each other about it, Ichigo learned that his true Shinigami power was the Inner Hollow that had [[BattleInTheCenterOfTheMind trained him in an antagonistic way.]] Once he had accepted both spirits as his weapon, his power levels stabilised for the final BigBad of the story.]]

* The Characters/{{Incredible Hulk|BruceBanner}}'s level of physical might and durability varies tremendously. This one, however, has a built-in explanation: Hulk's physical might -- and in [[Film/{{Hulk}} the 2003 movie]], his physical mass and size -- is directly related to how angry he gets. Hence the CatchPhrase "The madder Hulk gets, the stronger Hulk gets." For example, Characters/{{Wolverine|JamesLoganHowlett}} has fought him several times -- most of the time to a standstill until he manages to get one good cut in and piss the Hulk off enough that his anger really flares up. At the same time, during the ComicBook/{{Onslaught}} [[CrisisCrossover event]], in the last battle with the titular villain, [[Characters/MarvelComicsJeanGrey Jean Grey]] mentally removed any blocks Banner may have had to restrain himself, and he beat the hell out of the physical form of a being that could [[RealityWarper alter reality with a thought]]. In short: hope your first punch knocks him out. Similarly to Darwin below, in one story Hulk developed the ability to breathe in space by getting angry enough.
** Another factor is ''[[SplitPersonality which]]'' Hulk's shown up, as different Hulks have different strength levels, though even Grey Hulk/Joe Fixit, who's usually considered weaker than his other selves, is still formidable in a fight.

* ''ComicBook/IronMan'': Iron Man occupies this niche in Marvel, being extremely strong, fast, and durable enough to be considered a lower end high-tier or a higher end mid-tier power character. He's powerful but not too powerful as to be unbeatable. However, he's still powerful enough that you'll really have to work for a victory over him if you're beneath or around his power level. And underneath all that powerful armor is still a man with both the physical and psychological weaknesses of a mortal man. Over the years, we've seen Tony get the upper hand over heavy hitters like Magneto, She-Hulk, and Dr. Doom. But alternately, street level to mid-tier power characters like Captain America, Spider-Man, or Shang-chi can also get the upper hand over Iron Man and even defeat him in some cases with the right setup.

** [[http://www.marvel.com/universe/Darwin Darwin, the Evolving Boy]] literally has this trope as his superpower. Whenever placed in a situation he is unsuited for, he will gain a new power capable of dealing with it. Place him in total darkness and he gets the power to see in the dark. Stick him in a burning building and he becomes immune to fire. Trap him underwater and he grows gills. It will not, however, give him an instant 'I Win' button for every fight. An often mentioned example is when they tried to get him to fight [[ComicBook/WorldWarHulk Green Scar Hulk]]: instead of gaining something to match or negate his powers, Darwin's powers instead teleported him to the next state over to get away from the Hulk. His power is to evolve whatever he needs to ''survive'', not necessarily to ''win''. Although he can sometimes maneuver himself into a situation where his power is forced to give him the specific adaptation he wants, he has no direct control over it.

** The ComicBook/{{Juggernaut|MarvelComics}} is subject to this as part and parcel of his powers -- unlike most X-characters he is not a mutant, and his powers are of a mystical nature instead, being granted to him by a malevolent extradimensional being called Cyttorak. Cyttorak is an avatar of death and destruction, so his gift waxes and wanes depending on how evil his chosen Exemplar is at any given time. As a character often caught in the HeelFaceRevolvingDoor, this is used to explain why Juggernaut [[RedemptionDemotion always tends to be weaker as a hero than he ever is as a villain]].

* The ''Creator/ValiantComics'' version of [[ComicBook/DoctorSolar Solar, Man of the Atom]] once stated that he could make himself literally as strong as he wanted to be. Justified, as he was a [[NighOmnipotent Nigh-Omnipotent]] [[RealityWarper Reality Warper]] who was eventually revealed to have [[TheMaker created the entire multiverse]].

** In ''Film/AvengersInfinityWar'' he defeats the Hulk with ease with [[IAmNotLeftHanded his bare hands]] in under a minute. However neither he nor the Hulk's blows in this scene have anywhere near the same effects seen the Hulk's other fights, doing no damage to the environment and not even knocking each other off their feet (contrast, for example, the [[https://forums.spacebattles.com/threads/marvel-cinematic-universe-feat-thread.338412/?post=18728500#post-18728500 Hulkbuster punching Hulk across a city block]], or Abomination [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ACaCOrK-FVQ&t=98s kicking him through a building]]). Later in the team fight on Titan he's fazed by blows from Iron Man and Spider-Man, who are at ''least'' an order of magnitude weaker than the Hulk, and is unable to simply swat them like flies in a single blow as you'd expect of someone who can easily incapacitate Hulk. The same fight has Spider-Man and Iron Man managing to restrain him for several seconds (with some help from one of Star-Lord's gadgets), long enough for Mantis to disable him with mental manipulation. Then at the very end of the film he inexplicably has a bit of trouble with ''Captain America''. Yes, it was just Thanos's fingers versus Steve's whole body, but this is still someone who can ''very generously'' be estimated at 1% of the Hulk's strength.
** In ''Film/AvengersEndgame'', he easily defeats Captain America and Iron Man and overpowers Thor, but not to anywhere near the extent you'd expect of a guy that can casually overpower the Hulk (Thor being a good deal weaker than Hulk in raw muscle); Thor's even able to resist him for over fifteen seconds in a direct contest of strength where Thanos has superior leverage and is visibly gritting his teeth with effort, and this is mirrored earler in the fight where they have a blade clash followed by a pushing match and it's actually ''Thanos'' that gets disarmed. Thor's supposed to be a lot weaker in this film than he is normally, too, due to being an out-of-shape, alcoholic wreck. A near-identical struggle takes place later in the fight, this time with equal leverage, and Thanos actually seems to be ''losing'' when Captain America shows up on Thor's side to lend him some extra strength, even though again, Steve should barely register compared to these two.
** [[Characters/MCULokiLaufeyson Loki]] is another character with next to no feats of his own who we mostly know is super-strong thanks to power-scaling. But like Thanos, said scaling isn't consistent. He has occasionally been shown to give his brother Thor some trouble in a fight, but Hulk and Thanos ''literally'' toss him around like a ragdoll and the latter even rings his neck one-handed like a human would a chicken's, suggesting he's actually pitifully weak compared to people of that tier (Thor has directly contested with both of them and done alright). He is repeatedly suggested to be far physically superior to any average Asgardian and can go through Asgardian-level combatants with ease like Frost Giants and Dark Elves, yet he's also been restrained by regular Asgardian soldiers and defeated in hand-to-hand combat by Valkyrie, who is merely an Asgardian EliteMook. [[Series/Loki2021 His own series]] takes this to new extremes. In the movies, at the bare minimum Loki has at least consistently proven stronger than Steve Rogers, a super-soldier. However in the series, it takes effort for him to subdue B-15, a human Hunter in the Time Theater; an ordinary human Sylvie enchants in Roxxcart mops the floor with him; on Lamentis (which is a Kree world in the comics) drunk Loki figths off AmbiguouslyHuman train guards until two of them throw him out of the window; and in the room with the Time Keepers, Loki is able to defeat yet another two AmbiguouslyHuman guards only after Sylvie tosses her blade to him.

** The powers of Wanda also known as Scarlet Witch seem to vary depending on the moment, in her best moments she is able to sweep the floor with enemies as powerful as Thanos, Doctor Stranger and Wong, but in other cases she has trouble beating the members of the Black order or Captain Carter. She also often [[ForgotAboutHisPowers forgets]] her telekinesis and reality warping powers in favor of shooting slow [[EnergyBall energy balls]] or attempting to mez enemies with a slow spell at point-blank range, both of which are extremely easy to avoid and usually lead to her getting KO'd.

* Literature/TheDresdenFiles has an in-universe example with the Knights of the Cross. Their swords are literally powered by {{God}}, and [[MissionFromGod as long as they stay true to their mission]] they are able to take on literally anything up to a FallenAngel. The reason it is this trope is that they are never empowered enough that victory is guaranteed, merely enough that victory is ''possible.''

* In ''Series/{{Supernatural}}'', [[spoiler:vampirized]] Hunter Gordon Walker was strong enough to rip off two vampire's heads and could even [[spoiler:kill his partner with his bare hands]], but when fighting Sam, his strength appeared to be downgraded.

* ''VideoGame/ResidentEvil6'' has this with the [[ImplacableMan Ustanak]]. Depending on how big of a threat the plot needs him to be at the time, he can either be a {{Nigh Invulnerab|ility}}le OneHitKill machine that Jake and Sherry need to hide and run from, or weak enough that Jake can trade blows with him in close quarters.

** Chou Lee, while often simply a very skilled KungFuWizard, is also the Champion of the Tao. She is occasionally handed a MissionFromGod, and according to her author at these times is empowered such that she can kill ''anything.'' As with Literature/TheDresdenFiles, victory is simply possible but not assured.

* ''Franchise/Ben10'': As it would turn out, the ''villains'' get this more often than the heroes. It was more forgivable when the franchise was in its hayday, but in recent years Ben has gained a reputation for being one of the most powerful characters in Western Animation, if not all of fiction period. This makes it much more noticeable when regular humans wielding alien weaponry can somehow pose a significant threat to him.

*** The Flash's speed and attention to detail were regularly limited to the point where he could be tripped by random thugs or the environment, and couldn't even see himself moving on tape. He eventually does access the upper limits of his power, before it's explained that using ''that'' much could kill him. It's stated that he doesn't use certain applications of his power (destructive resonance, phasing, vortex generation) because of how destructive they are.
*** That, and they're ''really'' hard to do [[BrilliantButLazy and he doesn't have time for that.]]

* [[MadScientist Rick Sanchez,]] one of the two main protagonists from ''WesternAnimation/RickAndMorty'', is very much this. Sometimes he can be seen slaughtering his way through whole armies of [[{{Mooks}}Galactic Federation Soldiers]] without breaking a sweat, other times he can be shown to have met his match in single fights with other scientists or [[ItMakesSenseInContext the President of the United States.]] Due to the series' rather [[TheMultiverse unique]] setting there are also multiple versions of Rick that make up an army of their own with presumably the same intellect and physical capabilities as him. However, they seem to get [[ConservationofNinjutsu slaughtered just as easily as other soldiers.]]

** In ''Film/AvengersInfinityWar'' he defeats the Hulk with ease with [[IAmNotLeftHanded his bare hands]] in under a minute. However neither he nor the Hulk's blows in this scene have anywhere near the same effects seen the Hulk's other fights, doing no damage to the environment and not even knocking each other off their feet (contrast, for example, the [[https://forums.spacebattles.com/threads/marvel-cinematic-universe-feat-thread.338412/?post=18728500#post-18728500 Hulkbuster punching Hulk across a city block]], or Abomination [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ACaCOrK-FVQ&t=98s kicking him through a building]]). Later in the team fight on Titan he's fazed by blows from Iron Man and Spider-Man, who are at ''least'' an order of magnitude weaker than the Hulk, and is unable to simply swat them like flies in a single blow as you'd expect of someone who can easily incapacitate Hulk. The same fight has Spider-Man and Iron Man managing to restrain him for several seconds (with some help from one of Star-Lord's gadgets), long enough for Mantis to disable him with mental manipulation. Then at the very end of the film he inexplicably has a bit of trouble with ''Captain America''. Yes, it was just Thanos's fingers versus Steve's whole body, but this is still someone who can ''very generously'' be estimated at 0.0001% of the Hulk's strength.

** Steve is usually portrayed as a wimp, but every now and then this varies. In "Irregarding Steve," he beat Beauregard unconscious in a fit of rage. In "Family Affair", he tears down the living room chandelier in a fit of rage. In "Bully for Steve," he's so pathetically weak that, according to Francine, he can't even make a fist.

* The Enforcers of ''WesternAnimation/JackieChanAdventures''. In some episodes, Jackie effortlessly curbstomps all three with no effort, and a handicap to boot; in others, just one is enough to give him trouble for no noticeable reason. Hak Foo is the biggest example. While Finn, Ratso and Chow are consistently portrayed as weaker than Jackie (though by how much varies) Hak Foo varies between being a serious threat to the heroes (even besting them a few times) and being only slightly less incompetent than the other three. Whenever Hak Foo is operating alone, chances are he'll be portrayed as much more dangerous than when he's with the other Enforcers.

** Related to this is the fact he used to could shapeshift, which means he could sometimes be very strong, but in later seasons this trait has mostly vanished, getting [=SpongeBob=] stuck in situations where he could have easily escaped via shapeshifting.

** In ''Film/AvengersInfinityWar'' he defeats the Hulk with ease with [[IAmNotLeftHanded his bare hands]] in under a minute. However neither he nor the Hulk's blows in this scene have anywhere near the same effects seen the Hulk's other fights, doing no damage to the environment and not even knocking each other off their feet (contrast, for example, the [[https://forums.spacebattles.com/threads/marvel-cinematic-universe-feat-thread.338412/?post=18728500#post-18728500 Hulkbuster punching Hulk across a city block]], or Abomination [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ACaCOrK-FVQ&t=98s kicking him through a building]]). Later in the team fight on Titan he's fazed by blows from Iron Man and Spider-Man, who are at ''least'' an order of magnitude weaker than the Hulk, and is unable to simply swat them like flies in a single blow as you'd expect of someone who can easily incapacitate Hulk. The same fight has Spider-Man and Iron Man managing to restrain him for several seconds (with some help from one of Star-Lord's gadgets), long enough for Mantis to disable him with mental manipulation. Then at the very end of the film he inexplicably has a bit of trouble with ''Captain America''. Yes, it was just Thanos's fingers versus Steve's whole body, but this is still someone who can ''very generously'' be estimated at 1% of the Hulk's strength.

** [[Characters/MCULoki Loki]] is another character with next to no feats of his own who we mostly know is super-strong thanks to power-scaling. But like Thanos, said scaling isn't consistent. He has occasionally been shown to give his brother Thor some trouble in a fight, but Hulk and Thanos ''literally'' toss him around like a ragdoll and the latter even rings his neck one-handed like a human would a chicken's, suggesting he's actually pitifully weak compared to people of that tier (Thor has directly contested with both of them and done alright). He is repeatedly suggested to be far physically superior to any average Asgardian and can go through Asgardian-level combatants with ease like Frost Giants and Dark Elves, yet he's also been restrained by regular Asgardian soldiers and defeated in hand-to-hand combat by Valkyrie, who is merely an Asgardian EliteMook. [[Series/Loki2021 His own series]] takes this to new extremes. In the movies, at the bare minimum Loki has at least consistently proven stronger than Steve Rogers, a super-soldier. However in the series, it takes effort for him to subdue B-15, a human Hunter in the Time Theater; an ordinary human Sylvie enchants in Roxxcart mops the floor with him; on Lamentis (which is a Kree world in the comics) drunk Loki figths off AmbiguouslyHuman train guards until two of them throw him out of the window; and in the room with the Time Keepers, Loki is able to defeat yet another two AmbiguouslyHuman guards only after Sylvie tosses her blade to him.

* The Enforcers of ''WesternAnimation/JackieChanAdventures''. In some episodes, Jackie effortlessly curbstomps all three with no effort, and a handicap to boot; in others, just one is enough to give him trouble for no noticeable reason. Hak Foo is the biggest example. While Finn, Ratio and Chow are consistently portrayed as weaker than Jackie (though by how much varies) Hak Foo varies between being a serious threat to the heroes (even besting them a few times) and being only slightly less incompetent than the other three. Whenever he's operating alone, chances are he'll be portrayed as much more dangerous than when he's with the other Enforcers.

** The Characters/{{Juggernaut}} is subject to this as part and parcel of his powers -- unlike most X-characters he is not a mutant, and his powers are of a mystical nature instead, being granted to him by a malevolent extradimensional being called Cyttorak. Cyttorak is an avatar of death and destruction, so his gift waxes and wanes depending on how evil his chosen Exemplar is at any given time. As a character often caught in the HeelFaceRevolvingDoor, this is used to explain why Juggernaut [[RedemptionDemotion always tends to be weaker as a hero than he ever is as a villain]].

* [[Characters/YoungAvengersTitleTeam Wiccan]]: When Billy manages to temporarily access his Demiurge potential, he becomes capable of Breaking the Fourth Wall and actually stepping out onto the pages of the comic to change/rearrange panels (i.e. reality), effectively making himself almost as all-powerful as the artists, writers and editors.

* ''ComicBook/IronMan'': Iron Man occupies this niche in Marvel, being extremely strong, fast, and durable enough to be considered a lower end high-tier or a higher end mid-tier power character. He's powerful but not too powerful as to be unbeatable. However, he's still powerful enough that you'll really have to work for a victory over him if you're beneath or around his power level. And underneath all that powerful armor is still a man with both the physical and psychological weaknesses of a mortal man. Over the years, we've seen Tony get the upper hand over heavy hitters like Magneto, She-Hulk, and Dr. Doom. But alternately, street level to mid-tier power characters like Captain America, Spider-Man, or Shang-chi can also get the upper hand over Iron Man and even defeat him in some cases with the right setup.

** The powers of Wanda also known as Scarlet Witch seem to vary depending on the moment, in her best moments she is able to sweep the floor with enemies as powerful as Thanos, Doctor Stranger and Wong, but in other cases she has trouble beating the members of the Black order or Captain Carter.

** Often this is an example of special effects trickery whereby the ''bullets'' are as Fast As They Need To be; it's not that Wonder Woman is fast, it's that the bullets are extremely slow, which is disguised by camera tricks. Sometimes the trick falls apart on close inspection. A noticeable example is in the car chase action scene in ''Wonder Woman 1984''; a bullet with a real-world velocity of at least 800 m/s is stopped [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9wbGonn2DI4&start=55 just a few inches from Steve's face]] by Wonder Woman, but you can clearly see that it isn't going much faster than the cars on the road (when it should be ''dozens'' of times faster) and is even slow enough that Steve himself has the time to react to it and turn the wheel of his car in the time it takes for it to cross a few meters, meaning it's at best about as fast as a thrown baseball. Another blatant example is when Wonder Woman is fighting the terrorists at the beginning of ''Film/ZackSnydersJusticeLeague''; not only are regular humans shown moving (albeit slowly) in BulletTime when they should be completely still, but there's a visible clock in the scene, so you can actually see that it takes ~0.5 seconds of real time for a rifle bullet to cross a room, making it much ''slower'' than a baseball.