History TheWorfEffect / LiveActionTV

** Whenever Luther isn't there, Diego gets delivered this. He's a very cool VigilanteMan with Neo-esque BulletDodgesYou and knife throwing powers but if there's a serious fight more often than not he's getting PunchedAcrossTheRoom or wounded in some way. In Season Diego he is defeated by Christopher, a floating cube and takes it very personally. He's also used to big up the threat of the Guardians with Diego losing two fingers when first encountering them.

** Garp does this to Luffy in the final episode of Season 1. The latter is fresh off stomping Arlong the greatest threat in East Blue yet when he tries doing a Gum-Gum Slingshot to his quite old grandpa, Garp clotheslines Luffy out of the air effortlessly and proceeds to punch his grandson around effortlessly. He only stops after conceding he can’t stop Luffy pursuing his dream and lets his grandson get a headstart.

** Eleven being the PsychicPowers LittleMissBadass among ActionSurvivor cast unavoidably gets worfed hard whenever the plot needs to drastically raise the stakes.

** On a more grounded level Steve the JerkJock turned LovableJock is generally the go to guy for getting the shit kicked out of him is. It got to the point where Dustin in Season 3 makes note of it and applauds him for finally winning a fight when he knocks out a Russian soldier. Steve still hasn’t quite escaped this in Season 4 as Eddie is able to force against a wall and nearly stab him with a broken bottle after Steve startles him from his hiding place but Steve also gets dragged by some of Vecna’s CombatTentacles and savaged by the Demobats — forcing Nancy, Robin and Eddie to save him.

** The general purpose of [[Recap/DoctorWhoS27E6Dalek Dalek]] and [[Recap/DoctorWhoS28E5RiseOfTheCybermen Rise of the Cybermen]] is to have said iconic villains do this to heroes, aiding their reintroduction into the modern era as well as avert any {{Narm}} left over from the classic Who. In “Dalek” we see the one Dalek in question plow an entire army (even making good use of the plunger) and when the fleeing Rose and co gets to some stairs they think they’ve bested the killer pepper pot… only for to have a OhCrap when the Dalek elevates. In the Cybermen two-parter the Cybermen have the Doctor, Rose and Mickey constantly on the back foot by the time they show up and it takes instigating AndIMustScream on the Cybermen for the good guys to win. In “ [[Recap/DoctorWhoS28E13Doomsday Doomsday]]”, the Daleks worf the Cybermen so hard that they have to invoke a rare EnemyMine with the Doctor and co to fight them.

** A unique example comes from “[[Recap/DoctorWhoS28E8TheImpossiblePlanet The Impossible Planet]]”. The Tardis has TranslatorMicrobes that turn any alien words into English… so it’s a serious moment to pause when the Doctor and Rose find ominous writing in that cannot be translated with Doctor claiming the symbols would have to be impossibly old for the Tardis to fail to transcribe them. This also foreshadows that they’re dealing with something terrible here [[spoiler:{{Satan}} himself.]]

** [[spoiler:Victoria Neuman and her MakeYourHeadAsplode powers, which puts the heroes on the run and completely ruins Congres. She’s even able to make Starlight have a PsychicNosebleed.]]

** The eponymous villain of “Inquisitor” of Season 5 is the most extreme example of this in the series, being TheDreaded. He’s a time traveling, reality warping, self repairing and history changing super Simulant who’s a cross between the Terminator and Darth Vader. His first action is casually taking over Starbug and making the crew return to Red Dwarf where he judges all four of the boys and gets them to justify their existence. He’s the first villain to kill two of the crew (Rimmer and Cat) and Lister and Kryten have to pull off a BatmanGambit [[spoiler: by reprogramming Inquisitor [[TrickedOutGloves gauntlet]] so he erases himself instead of Lister, after the latter made Inquisitor think he had won.]]
** “Recap/RedDwarfThePromisedLand” has a two-fold example. The antagonists the Felis Sapiens (cat humanoids) [[spoiler:their leader Rodon being Cat’s brother]] do this to crew especially Cat who is “domesticated” compared to them with a deleted scene showing while they have proper claws, Cat’s claws have been ridiculously manicured down. [[spoiler: However in the climax [[SuperMode Diamond Light]] Rimmer effortlessly takes down their battlecruiser [[CatsLoveLaserPointers with one laser pointer from his finger which makes them crash]].]]

** Eleven being the PsychicPowers LittleMissBadass among a cast of ActionSurvivors unavoidably gets worfed hard whenever the plot needs to drastically raise the stakes.

*** Season Three has Starfleet being used as The Worf. The gathering of the fleet at Frontier Day is just so the ships can be taken over by an AI and have its ass kicked to prove the situation is dire. Exactly the same thing which happened in ''WesternAnimation/StarTrekProdigy'''s finale, and twice in ''WesternAnimation/StarTrekLowerDecks'''s run too. Starfleet is itself The Worf.

** Vanya now Viktor though she’s the most powerful sibling (or maybe precisely because of it), tends to get this in the later seasons. It serves as a OhCrap for the Umbrellas when Lila who has PowerCopying is able down Vanya in her SuperMode. In Season 3 a powered up and twisted Allison almost kills Viktor when enraged.

** The Weeping Angels in [[Recap/DoctorWhoS29E10Blink Blink]] though they suffered VillainDecay in subsequent appearances still provided a titanic example of this in first appearance having essentially defeated the Doctor stranding him and Martha in time and stolen the Tardis ''''offscreen before the story even starts!''''. The Weeping Angels were along with the Midnight entity and Reapers one of the few new-Who monsters whom Doctor was outright helpless against.

** The general purpose of [[Recap/DoctorWhoS27E6Dalek Dalek]] and [[Recap/DoctorWhoS28E5RiseOfTheCybermen Rise of the Cybermen]] is to have said iconic villains do this to heroes, aiding their reintroduction into the modern era as well as avert any {{Narm}} left over from the classic Who. In “Dalek” we see the one Dalek in question plow an entire army (even making good use of the plunger) and when the fleeing Rose and co gets to some stairs they think they’ve bested the killer pepper pot… only for to have a OhCrap when the Dalek elevates. In the Cybermen two-parter the Cybermen have the Doctor, Rose and Mickey constantly on the back foot by the time they show up and it takes instigating a IHaveNoMouthAndIMustScream for the good guys to win. In “ [[Recap/DoctorWhoS28E13Doomsday Doomsday]]”, the Daleks worf the Cybermen so hard that they have to do a rare EnemyMine with the Doctor and co to fight them.

* ''Series/BuffyTheVampireSlayer'': This happens many times in general to Buffy and Angel. Although you occasionally have smart or crafty villains, it seems the writers' first choice is go with with someone who can smack these two around.

** Although at times Spock would serve as a proto-Worf (however, unlike the Klingon the half-Vulcan usually wasn't KO'd, allowing him to strike back).

** And completely averted in ''Series/StarTrekPicard'': in the third season Worf seemingly loses only one fight and appears to be dead, [[spoiler:[[FakingTheDead only to get up a few minutes later]] and [[OneManArmy slaughter 90% of a criminal gang]]. (It was a setup.)]] The rest of the time, the best an enemy can do against him is hold his ground.

* On ''Series/{{Castle}}'', [[TheBigGuy Esposito]] occasionally suffers from this. As a former special forces soldier he should be the most tactically effective member of the team. As a result while he often is shown as the most effective in this regard, he is still fairly often defeated by tougher opponents. In one notable case ActionGirl Beckett is much more successful in unarmed combat than he was. Though in general, it is often justified in that he is the first target because he is a bigger threat.

** Interestingly, in ''Enterprise's'' first encounter with The Borg, Picard orders Worf to stop a drone from interfering with the ship's systems, and Worf delegates the task to a subordinate...who the drone effortlessly throws across Engineering.

* An interesting example from ''{{Series/Firefly}}''. In "[[{{Recap/FireflyE08OutOfGas}} Out of Gas]]", Mal has to rough up his pilot to get him on the bridge (ItMakesSenseInContext), and Jayne, resident tough guy, seems to be visibly scared of Mal, calling for them both to stop fighting during the crisis, but it's then immediately revealed he's actually panicking about how they may soon run out of air and doesn't want them using it up any faster.
** Jayne is also easily knocked out by River during her rampage in the Maidenhead bar in ''{{Film/Serenity}}''. Though to his credit, he did at least manage to get her in an arm-lock for a few seconds, which is better than anyone else in that fight did.

* Series/{{Arrowverse}}
** ''Series/{{Arrow}}''
*** With this show's continued serial escalation, Oliver has just become outrageously skilled at just about everything he tries with such ludicrous speed that it makes you wonder if he isn't actually a metahuman. But , whenever necessary for the plot , he will take a hit from a random street gangster and be knocked out ( When he has already been shown to dodge bullets with ease and get up unharmed when being hit by people with super strength ) , stay burdened with small numbers that even real-life amateur fighters wouldn't have so much trouble dealing with, becoming less efficient at everything they try, etc. Then he gets a pep talk of "you're better than you think you are and you need to fight your own darkness" and instantly reverts to being the world's biggest badass.

** ''Series/TheFlash2014''

** The "Invasion!" crossover showed the wide power/skill/experience gap between Oliver and Barry, and everyone else. Oliver was able to hold off the brainwashed Thea, Diggle, and Sara, with the latter being the only one even capable of challenging him. Barry dispatched the brainwashed Heatwave, Atom, and Firestorm in quick fashion, and the only one who really caused any problems for him was the brainwashed Supergirl, who he manipulated into taking out the MindControlDevice. It's implied that Kara was the only real threat to them (being outside everyone but Barry's weight class) -- the impending alien threat and their own close relationships with those brainwashed meant that Barry and Oliver couldn't use faster but more harmful means to take the others out, otherwise the fight would've ended much sooner.

*** J'onn J'onzz was first described as "the most dangerous man on Earth," something of an InformedAbility. Later, he shows his chops by [[CurbStompBattle crushing]] a BrainwashedAndCrazy Kara and going toe-to-toe with Indigo in the series finale. Throughout Season 2, his skill levels fluctuate, doing well against the White Martians, but getting beaten by a guy with a robot arm. Then, in Season 3, he defeats one WorldKiller in an OffscreenMomentOfAwesome, but otherwise gets curb-stomped by the Worldkillers.

* To show how tough and dangerous the villain Bushmaster is during the second season of ''Series/{{Luke Cage|2016}}'', the man picks a fight with Luke Cage out in public and wins. And it's caught on camera for all of New York to see.

* ''Series/TheOriginals'':
** Regularly, the Witches of the series will display just how much more powerful they are than the ones the Originals faced before in the Vampire Diaries by being able to easily bring them to their knees or cause them a hell lot of trouble, which is something that previously took the power of 300 witches from Bonnie and then the power of the so-called most powerful witch, Esther. Most notably includes Davina, who beat Klaus so badly that he was forced to transform while Elijah had to choke on rivers of the blood he drank from others, and Papa Tunde, who actually physically beats Klaus...
*** But even they pale in comparison to the two "super-witches" of the series, Dahlia and the Hollow, main antagonists of the second and fourth season. Virtually nothing the Originals and their allies try against them work, Dahlia even curb-stomping the infamously unstoppable Mikael along with Klaus and managing to casually render the White Oak Stake, which was bound to be indestructable, into ashes and then use it to nearly kill Klaus, Rebekah, and Elijah, while also casually almost killing Freya, the Mikaelsons most prominent witch ally, with her utterly helpless before her aunt. The only reason Freya and the others aren't a corpse is because Esther had a change of heart and helped them by emotionally reaching out to Dahlia, as straight-up defeating her was impossible. The Hollow meanwhile is so strong Vincent, who is up there, if not even more so, with Freya, can't do anything against her directly, and even Marcel, now a super-vampire who's only slightly weaker than Mikael at best, proved utterly powerless against her.
** Mikael displays just how right Klaus was to fear him in his time looming over his children. His first appearance has him utterly overpower Elijah, who even Klaus as a Hybrid struggled, and he swiftly incapacitates Klaus and Rebekah too. In the second season, Mikael, in a weakened state due to not being properly fed, easily massacres a group of Werewolves using Moonlight Rings and even after being bitten, handily overpowers Elijah. It's only Davina stopping him that keeps him from killing Elijah. And then, after having only had a few days to recover, Mikael overpowers Klaus in a fair fight! Even after getting stabbed by Papa Tunde's blade, which he removes ''himself'' to display just how much stronger he is than Klaus and Elijah, who were rendered helpless by the blade, he still gives Klaus a hell of a fight. Finally, while Klaus is utterly helpless before Dahlia when she attacks him, Mikael was able to actually injure her, a feat that no one else was ever able to achieve without some kind of misdirection. He's never actually defeated in a physical fight, and only dies because he let Klaus kill him.
* ''Series/TheWalkingDead'':

* Episode [[Recap/TheXFilesS03E17Pusher ''Pusher'']] of ''Series/TheXFiles'': We realize that Pusher's CompellingVoice is very, very dangerous when he gets Skinner. It's double-subverted in Skinner's case. Pusher already killed a sheriff deputy and one FBI agent by PsychicAssistedSuicide. Skinner was the only one who could resist him, but he ended beaten up anyway, and by Holly the tiny secretary on top of that.

** Worf is rarely a victim of this trope in ''Series/StarTrekDeepSpaceNine'', as he went from tactical to command, but after he is captured by Jem'Hadar and forced to fight one after another, we see an interesting twist when their commander steps in as his final opponent: The commander ''is'' shown to be pretty [[AuthorityEqualsAsskicking badass]] when he beats Worf after all his subordinates have failed. But the real badass is Worf himself, who despite getting beaten to a pulp [[{{Determinator}} refuses to stop fighting]]. Leave it to the [[TropeNamers Trope Namer]] to use the Worf Effect to cement his place as a warrior of legend.