History RankScalesWithAsskicking / WesternAnimation

* ''WesternAnimation/{{Amphibia}}'': King Andrias is not just king of Amphibia, he’s also the about three times the size of any other Amphibian outside of the Olms, and is a fearsome combatant who wields a flaming sword and can hold his own against an entire army. [[spoiler: In the final battle, he pilots a suit of powered armor and fights a powered-up Anne to a a standstill, only losing when he loses the will to fight after finding out his old friend never forgot him.]]

* ''WesternAnimation/{{Amphibia}}'': King Andrias is not just king of Amphibia, he’s also the about three times the size of any other Amphibian outside of the Olms, and is a fearsome combatant who wields a flaming sword and can hold his own against an entire army. [[Spoiler: In the final battle, he pilots a suit of powered armor and fights a powered-up Anne to a a standstill, only losing when he loses the will to fight after finding out his old friend never forgot him.]]

* The original ''WesternAnimation/{{ThunderCats|1985}}'' also qualify as to be recognized as a their full-fledged leader, Lion-O faces a series of trials against his comrades and then is sent to kick Mumm-ra's ass by himself.

* A memorable episode of ''WesternAnimation/ThePenguinsOfMadagascar'' pits the Skipper and his crew against a horde of sewer rats in an attempt to retrieve Julien's crown. The rats say they'll hand it over, on the condition that the Skipper fight their leader. Skipper laughs and says he'll try to go easy on the ''mousy'' little guy... who's revealed to be in fact a massive mutated lab rat who resembled M. Bison. Cue the stunned looks of OhCrap! on the penguins faces.

** This seems to be part of the Predacon culture in ''WesternAnimation/BeastWars'' -- Megatron leads by fear and intimidation as much as loyalty. When Dinobot first defects to the Maximals, he first tries to do it by challenging Optimus' leadership by force. [=BlackArachnia=], Terrorsaur, and Tarantalus attempt coups frequently. Megatron's stated policy is that he tolerates treachery but not incompetence.

** Rhinox is no slouch either. He's smart, devious, and strong. He simply lacks ambition and is content to follow Optimus. When he is infected by a Predacon-made virus that turns him into a Predacon, he also gains ambition and, in a short order, nearly takes over Predacon leadership. In ''WesternAnimation/BeastMachines'', when he becomes [[spoiler:Tankor]], Rhinox nearly causes both Megatron and Optimus to kill each other, while he picks up the pieces.

* ''WesternAnimation/{{Arcane}}'': Jayce is an inventor and relatively recently added member to the ruling City Council, but when Vi implores him to hit Silco's [[PsychoSerum Shimmer]] manufacturing plant, he personally leads the [[CopsAndDetectives Enforcers]] with his freshly built hammer and handles himself pretty damn well for his first fight.

* ''WesternAnimation/CodenameKidsNextDoor'': Numbuh 362, the [[{{Leader}} Supreme Leader]] of the Kids Next Door organization, was a top stealth agent before she took command, and she can still kick a very respectable amount of ass when the need arises. This was [[SugarWiki/MomentOfAwesome memorably demonstrated]] in the episode "Operation: I.T." where she [[spoiler:ate her way through a wall of broccoli to take on [[BigBad Father]] and made him break down in tears by threatening to force-feed him the dreaded vegetable]]. Also, in ''WesternAnimation/OperationZERO'' she held her own against a senior-citizombified Numbuh 60. And, just to underline the trope, she is eventually succeeded as Supreme Leader by [[spoiler:Numbuh Five]].

* In ''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic'', pretty much all the leaders seem to be powerful magic users, with Princess Celestia stepping up with laser beams and horn strikes, Princess Luna powerful enough to threaten Equestria with her SuperPoweredEvilSide and Queen Chrysalis proving far more powerful than any of the mooks under her command. The Diamond Dog leaders also proved much more competent than their underlings in a fight. Subverted in Princess Cadance who has never been shown to be particularly powerful in combat, though she manages to be [[BadassPacifist badass]] in other ways. Later on the series has Princess Twilight Sparkle (already a gifted unicorn) who gains the "authority" part when she is crowned the fourth alicorn princess, and still continues to be one of the most capable fighters in the series.

** Nearly all of the main characters qualify. While not a really a major authority at the time of show (being gone for a century while people were suffering does not help to endear) the Avatar is considered a sort of King of World and past ones always seemed able to boss around the other rulers a lot. Sokka and Katara are more or less royalty by virtue of being children of the Southern Water Tribe Chief (even though poverty makes them little better than peasants) while Toph is a definitely noble ranked high up in the Earth Kingdom pecking order. Iroh, Pakku, Jeong-Jeong and even Piandao are also either royalty, nobles, generals or aristocrats. Even Suki, essentially the only member of Team Avatar who can't be construed as anything other than a lowly peasant, is still the commander of her island's warriors by virtue of being [[BadassNormal an asskicker]].

* On ''WesternAnimation/TheOblongs'', the mayor is a professional wrestler in a luchador mask who is always introduced as Johnny "the Mayor" Bledsoe. He doesn't appear to be able to do any actual fighting--the one time he tried, he reflexively started faking his hits.
* In ''WesternAnimation/ThePowerpuffGirls'', the Mayor is usually content to let the Girls be the heroes. ''However'', in one episode, when Fuzzy Lumpkin took over as mayor, and then had the nerve to ''take his hat'', he [[BerserkButton became so angry]] that he wrestled Fuzzy to get his job back - and won.
* ''Franchise/{{Transformers}}'':
** True for both sides. Since promotions for the Decepticons seem to be either through murder or treachery, Megatron tends to be one of [[{{Leader}} the most powerful, charismatic and strategic guys around]]. The same goes for Optimus Prime (and Ultra Magnus in ''WesternAnimation/TransformersAnimated''), although with him it's more that they ''made'' him {{leader}} because he's the best.
** In the animated movie, Hot Rod gets upgraded from a racecar to a futuristic truck when he was promoted to Rodimus Prime by the Matrix. He got about half again as tall, and upgraded from "pathetic" to "successor of Optimus Prime."
** Optimus Prime himself was a small pickup truck type thing when he was Orion Pax, and was rebuilt into the bigger, tougher Optimus Prime. The nice thing about being robots is that you can get an upgrade upon promotion to fit this trope much more easily than with us fleshlings.
** The one time this trope was ''not'' used in ''Transformers'' was a brief period in the 1980's comic series in which the Decepticons were led by ''Ratbat''. Yes, a small purple cassette that turned into a talking bat. He scored the leadership through his popularity and attempted to run the Decepticons with more businesslike efficiency. The comics played it straight aside from that, with leadership landing in the hands of Shockwave, Scorponok, Thunderwing, Bludgeon, and back to Megatron thanks to the superior ass-kicking power of each. The Autobots got into the act, with powerhouses like Grimlock and Blaster trying to take over the Autobots whenever Optimus was absent.
** This seems to be part of the Predacon culture in ''WesternAnimation/BeastWars'' - Megatron leads by fear and intimidation as much as loyalty. When Dinobot first defects to the Maximals, he first tries to do it by challenging Optimus' leadership by force. [=BlackArachnia=], Terrorsaur, and Tarantalus attempt coups frequently. Megatron's stated policy is that he tolerates treachery but not incompetence.
** This seems to be a part of Transformer culture in general. Optimus Primal was fully capable of kicking the crap out of his underlings. Pretty much any given Transformer leader stands head and shoulders above most of his troops, sometimes [[LargeAndInCharge literally]].
** Rhinox is no slouch either. He's smart, devious, and strong. He simply lacks ambition and is content to follow Optimus. When he is infected by a Predacon-made virus that turns him into a Predacon, he also gains ambition and, in a short order, nearly takes over Predacon leadership. In ''WesternAnimation/BeastMachines'', when he becomes [[spoiler:Tankor]], Rhinox nearly causes both Megatron and Optimus to kill each other, while he picks up the pieces.

* In ''WesternAnimation/WinxClub'', Faragonda and Griffin are the headmistressess of Alfea and Cloud Tower, respectively. Both are incredibly powerful sorceresses who can fight if the need arises.
* A memorable episode of ''WesternAnimation/ThePenguinsOfMadagascar'' pits the Skipper and his crew against a horde of sewer rats in an attempt to retrieve Julien's crown. The rats say they'll hand it over, on the condition that the Skipper fight their leader. Skipper laughs and says he'll try to go easy on the ''mousy'' little guy... who's revealed to be in fact a massive mutated lab rat who resembled M. Bison. Cue the stunned looks of OhCrap! on the penguins faces.
* ''WesternAnimation/CodenameKidsNextDoor'': Numbuh 362, the [[{{Leader}} Supreme Leader]] of the Kids Next Door organization, was a top stealth agent before she took command, and she can still kick a very respectable amount of ass when the need arises. This was [[SugarWiki/MomentOfAwesome memorably demonstrated]] in the episode "Operation: I.T." where she [[spoiler:ate her way through a wall of broccoli to take on [[BigBad Father]] and made him break down in tears by threatening to force-feed him the dreaded vegetable]]. Also, in ''WesternAnimation/OperationZERO'' she held her own against a senior-citizombified Numbuh 60. And, just to underline the trope, she is eventually succeeded as Supreme Leader by [[spoiler:Numbuh Five]].
* In ''WesternAnimation/TotallySpies'', [[{{Leader}} Jerry]] was easily able to defeat Clover, Alex, and Sam when they were turned evil by the enemy. And in an episode ''previous'' to that one, he was able to beat another villain senseless, causing Alex -- the only witness, who had been turned into an unwilling pawn by said villain -- to comment that even ''she'' was surprised at how good he was. (As Jerry himself told the guy, "There are a ''lot'' of things my girls don't know about me.")

* ''WesternAnimation/TeenTitans'':
** Starfire and Blackfire are both princesses, and while superstrength seems universal for [[HumanAliens Tamaranians]] (or at least those we see in the palace), the two princessess are apparently the only of their species that can [[{{Flight}} fly]] and shot [[PureEnergy energy blasts]]. (The trope likely applies to all Tamaranian monarchs anyway; seeing as it seems to be legal to assume the throne by defeating the monarch in a fight, one who couldn't fight well probably wouldn't last long.)
** Lord Trogar of the Gordanians in the episode "Go" was able to simultaneously beat Cyborg, Robin, and Starfire in a fight on his battleship. He was also able to take an energy blast from Raven which knocked out his ship and immobilized his guards without flinching. Makes one wonder why he needed guards in the first place...

* ''[[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Super_President Super President]]''.
* In ''WesternAnimation/ThunderCats2011'' this holds true with Thundera's King Claudus and his two [[FourStarBadass best generals]] Panthro and Grune, all of whom sport {{Heroic Build}}s and illustrate the ability to mow down multiple foes in one blow, and in Grune's case, defeat a monster many times his own size.
* The original ''WesternAnimation/{{ThunderCats|1985}}'' also qualify as to be recognized as a their full-fledged leader, Lion-O faces a series of trials against his comrades and then is sent to kick Mumm-ra's ass by himself.

* In ''WesternAnimation/{{Gargoyles}}'' Goliath is the leader of his clan, and also their strongest fighter. Whether all clans play it straight, but it is unknown.

** Seems like being a really strong warrior runs in the family, as his father was also a brave and respected warrior while he was in his prime.

** Starfire and Blackfire are both [[EverythingsBetterWithPrincesses royalty]], and while superstrength seems universal for [[HumanAliens Tamaranians]] (or at least those we see in the palace), the two princessess are apparently the only of their species that can [[{{Flight}} fly]] and shot [[PureEnergy energy blasts]]. (The trope likely applies to all Tamaranian monarchs anyway; seeing as it seems to be legal to assume the throne by defeating the monarch in a fight, one who couldn't fight well probably wouldn't last long.)

* It's easy to forget this, but ''WesternAnimation/SamuraiJack'' is the son of a king, which means he's a prince. And you only have to watch one episode to see that this guy is one heck of a fighter.