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#-C
A Certain Magical Index
- A Certain Infinite Possibility:
- Touma. He gains the ability to extend the reach of Imagine Breaker away from his body in the form of a flash of light for an instant, letting him negate attacks that would otherwise be too wide or too fast for him to do so effectively. Though, there is a lapse of two seconds afterward where he cannot negate anything. Also, he finally learns to speak English properly.
- Mikoto. After being pushed to her limits against Juliet she gains the ability to access her Level 6 Shift form by connecting to MISAKA Network without outside influence.
- Shizuri. After feeling like she is falling behind the other Level 5s (when Misaki replaces her as the Number 4), she undergoes experiments to increase her power with great risk to herself and manages to ascend past Level 5 achieving a different form with help from Rikou's ability to control AIM fields.
- Misaki. After inadvertently absorbing Telesma from English knights she took control of, she temporarily ascends past Level 5. She also begins exercising at Touma's insistence.
- Teitoku. He learns of magic and gains the ability to use it through his Dark Matter clones. This enables him to briefly hold his own against Shizuri, even when she has ascended past Level 5. He also manages to ascend by the end of that battle, but then Touma's dragons happen and he is annihilated in a few seconds.
- Ruiko. With help from Jason, she jumps from being a Level 0 to Level 2 in a few weeks. And Jason hints she can go even further, all the way up to Level 5. She also discovers that she has a different power altogether, related to miracles, allowing her to purify the resurrected Saint Peter with words alone. By chapter 122, there are many groups of magicians that seek her because of this, believing her to be the next Saint.
- Gunha. He learns how to utilize ether in his attacks.
- Fiamma. After a humiliating defeat at the hands of Adam, he started pulling his own weight even more than normally. As a result, his flaming sword and light beam attacks from Holy Right, that in canon only slowed Touma down, here are slowly burning through Kamijou's right hand.
- To Aruverse Rewrite Project:
- In-universe, Touma is now considered to be a Level 1 esper. This is not because he's more powerful, but rather because the esper ranking system has been changed to make more sense. On the other hand, he doesn't have a natural knack for picking up street fighting skills like his canon counterpart; instead of being completely self-taught, he takes self-defense lessons like everyone else. Specifically, Krav Maga.
- There are now eight Level 5 espers. In addition, Meltdowner...err, Meltdown is now ranked third, Gunha is now ranked sixth, and in an inversion, Mikoto is now ranked fourth.
- On that note, Mikoto doesn't have her canon hacking abilities. The in-universe explanation is that she needs to know how computers and programming work in detail, and she's not a computer person. The out-of-universe reason is probably to avoid Cast Speciation with Uiharu.
- Index, who in canon was mostly The Load, is now a Guile Hero who makes use of Loophole Abuse to get around the restrictions of her Geas and uses her encyclopedic knowledge of magic to come up with highly unorthodox solutions to her problems, like the creation of a mobile church.
- Maika is now a Playful Hacker...and she says that she's hacked into half the robots in Academy City. Tellingly, Uiharu thinks she might have esper powers.
- On that note, Uiharu is much more confident and level-headed than she is canon. To the point where she and Maika have created an extremely powerful computer that uses Uiharu's temperature control ability to operate at extraordinarily high speeds without needing a specialized cooling system.
- Tsuzuri Tessō, who, in canon, was a meek Anti-Skill officer, is now Saten and Uiharu's teacher and a tough, no-nonsense ACPD/Anti-Skill officer where she chews out Mikoto for causing property damage during the Seventh Mist hostage situation.
- In another inversion, magical grimoires are safe to read, unless they're specifically protected that way.
- Of Science and Magics:
- While Touma is a skilled street fighter in canon, it was mainly Taught by Experience and it would often be a Curb-Stomp Battle for him when facing those who were formally taught in martial arts and have greater fighting experience than him. Furthermore, Touma was also very reluctant to fight unless the situation calls for it. This version of Touma was once a member in Skill-Out, specifically for the Big Spider gang, and used to be infamous for being a dreaded vigilante known as "The Devil of Academy City." Also, unlike his canon counterpart, Touma is able to use the Invisible Thing without having Imagine Breaker severed off in the past.
- Like with Touma, Mikoto also gets an upgrade. Her own experience in the Dark Side and constant matches against the former beforehand as training allows her to control her esper abilities better and use them in more offensive ways than in canon to where she could not only hold her against Teitoku Kakine (the #2 ranked esper) for a brief while, but she also manages to make Kanzaki Kaori get serious while being low on "juice" (at the same time, however, Kanzaki was also holding back as well).
Arifureta: From Commonplace to World's Strongest
- Arifureta: Similar Story, Different World:
- Thanks to Eichirou's natural aptitude for magic, along with inventing new methods of casting it thanks to his deep knowledge of academic subjects, everyone in the group is much more capable than they were in the canon web novel.
- Thanks to Yamamoto's collaborative research on magic and being a sparring partner, Pre-Orcus Nagumo is much more capable than he was in canon.
- When the guests become poisoned from drinking the poorly-prepared pleap juice, Nagumo's job class is the only one out of his classmates to be precise enough in the process of healing the victims.
- In Chapter 8, he fought against Hiyama and his posse on his own and won.
- In Chapter 9, he further uses his "Transmute" skill to create a makeshift printing press to lessen the time it usually takes for handwritten copies of rune magic.
- Absolute Trust: Thanks to Alec's help, the Gaang improves faster than in canon.
- Katara learns of her healing abilities during the events of "The Waterbending Scroll," seven episodes early.
- The Gaang arrives at the Northern Water Tribe far ahead of schedule, and with Alec's forewarning, they have several weeks to prepare for the Siege of the North before it actually happens. Sokka takes the lead in strategizing on the front lines, creating a devastating loss ratio of 12:1 in favor of the Water Tribe.
- With a hint from Alec, Toph learns metalbending the day after they meet her, far earlier than in canon, meaning she's mastered it by the time they leave Ba Sing Se.
- When Aang goes to see Guru Pathik, Alec gives him a piece of advice: "Letting go now doesn't mean letting go forever." Remembering this allows Aang to master the Avatar State, entering it by releasing his feelings for Katara and exiting it by re-embracing them.
- Outside the Gaang, it turns out that Fat, Piandao's butler, is a master spearman, and he passes his expertise on to Alec while Sokka trains under Piandao.
- Jorge Garcia in The Secret Life of the Backyard Kids. He outruns Pablo Sanchez on all fours, gets superpowers, and basically becomes Bricksfield's equivalent of Zorro.
- Security Chief Anderson in the Battle of the Planets:2163 arc gets an upgrade to badass on the grounds that you don't get to be the Chief of Galaxy Security by being a nice person. He carries a gun and isn't afraid to use it, to the consternation of his staff. He's also The Snark Knight which is an extension of some of his better lines in the actual series.
- The Horned King was a Non-Action Big Bad in the movie. (A scary Non-Action Big Bad, but still.) In Hope for the Heartless, in which he's Resurrected for a Job, he gets in several fight scenes, proving in all of them that he's not someone to be trifled with.
- Bleach: The Second Cut:
- Chad goes from a Faux Action Guy to a combatant capable of knocking out Yammy. He gets to properly show himself as a fighter throughout the story.
- Orihime zig-zags between this and Adaptational Wimp. On one hand, her powers have been limited to the point that she can't bring back the dead. But at the same time, she becomes a more capable Action Girl, manages to free herself from Jirobo's grip when he tries to take her hostage, greatly contributes in Byakuya's fight against Barragan, and is able to defeat Moe, a Fullbringer, all by herself. She also bears a fragment of the Soul King's essence within her like Rangiku, which helped her to awaken her abilities.
- Yammy also zig-zags between this and Adaptational Wimp. He actually remains the Tenth Espada, even after unleashing his Resurrección, but actually puts up a better fight than he did in canon, to the point of actually challenging two Captain-level Shinigami. It really says something that Kenpachi actually enjoys fighting Yammy, whereas, in canon, he called the fight against him "boring" and spend more time arguing with Byakuya than fighting Yammy.
- Nel, because of the circumstances behind her transformation into a child being different here, is fully able to recover her strength when she changes back and is able to fight Nnorita to a standstill and kill him.
- Tatsuki becomes a Fullbringer in the Fullbringer arc.
- Karin awakens her Shinigami powers after Ichigo sacrificed his to stop Aizen.
- Force of Souls:
- Tatsuki gains shinigami powers from Ichigo (on accident), unlike canon where she was a Badass Normal who never got involved with the supernatural.
- In canon, Rangiku was a lieutenant; here, she's the captain of 10th Division.
- Panther King of the Shinigami:
- In canon, Ichigo was barely able to hold his own during the Hueco Mundo Arc in quite a few of his battles, even though he had just obtained a Next Tier Power-Up. Here, it started out the same. Then he found out that he could unleash Grimmjow's Pantera.
- Canonically, Halibel was the Tres (Third) Espada. Here, she is the Primara (First).
- Orihime goes from her canon power level to a Stripperiffic Super Mode that can outright tear apart the likes of Yammy with ease.
- A Protector's Pride: Ichigo starts the Arrancar arc with access to his Hollow powers. All of the good guys in general are a lot smarter and more pragmatic than in canon, especially Chad and Orihime, who are not useless.
- Vow of the King:
- Ichigo has better training than canon and can utilize some kido thanks to Nemu's mentoring.
- Tatsuki gains powers of her own and is strong enough to match Ikkaku by the time she joins the others in storming Soul Society.
- Sado has the second form of his Fullbring by the start of the Soul Society arc, something he didn't gain until the Hueco Mundo arc in canon.
- By the start of the Hueco Mundo arc, Orihime has managed to duplicate her fairies, allowing her to use two of each of her abilities at once. She also develops Shiten Kōshun over a year early.
- Aaroniero shows off more powers than canon, where he only used Kaien Shiba's zanpakuto and Metastacia's ability to break zanpakuto.
- White drastically powers up the Espada. Eight of the ten are Vasto Lordes and those who were Vasto Lordes in canon are generally more skilled and/or powerful from training with White/Ichigo.
- Apacci, Loly, and Menoly are each barely weaker than the Ninth Espada due to having eaten Yammy prior to becoming Arrancar.
- Ayon is considerably more powerful (requiring multiple Sternritters to fight) because not only is he composed of five arrancar rather than three (Apacci, Loly, Menoly, Mila Rose, and Sun-sung), but they pull off a full Fusion Dance to create him rather than tear off their arms and combine them.
- Karin awakens Shinigami powers and Yuzu awakens Quincy powers.
- Calvin was always a bit adventurous, but his Character Development in The Calvinverse furthers it, leading to him becoming a Gadgeteer Genius and eventually a Manipulative Bastard.
- Euphie is generally seen as an All-Loving Heroine who is ultimately Too Good for This Sinful Earth, but there are fics that change things up a bit for her:
- A Cold Calculus has her start out as Britannia's exchequer, rooting out corruption and sneaking away resources for her, Cornelia, and Schneizel to use in a planned coup against Emperor Charles. Later, she becomes a political powerhouse in Japan and successfully de-fangs the resistance movements with effective policy changes and hearts-and-minds campaigns, and would have won the country without a fight if it weren't for the EU. And in the second half, after becoming Empress of Britannia, she prosecutes a war of vengeance on the EU that is sure to end in her victory and all negotiations essentially boil down to her asking them "Just how badly do you want to lose?"
- Rise of a New Moon has her as a supporting character, but one who starts out the story as having joined Camelot as a test pilot, having wanted to flex her skills after being taught by Cornelia. When the Blood of the Samurai attack the capital, she takes to the field with Suzaku and defends Ashford Academy.
- C.C. is outright superhuman in The Black Emperor because she can consciously push her body past its normal limits and heal off any damage as it occurs. Likewise, Lelouch is actually fairly athletic and highly skilled with his Blade Below the Shoulder.
- Later chapters show Milly's a skilled marksman and gains a geass for herself in the second chapter.
- Euphemia not only gains her own geass but is also an observant and intelligent commander from her years following Cornelia from battlefield to battlefield.
- In the original anime, Lelouch had plenty of courage and was good with a gun, but him being out of shape was a Running Gag and he didn't stand a chance in a fistfight. In Code Geass: The Prepared Rebellion, he's much more athletic and quite proficient in martial arts.
- Both Sayoko and Jeremiah in Darwin undergo multiple surgeries upgrading themselves with cybernetics. While Jeremiah is a hulking figure with a titanium skeleton and massive muscles, Sayoko had her nervous system upgraded, greatly increasing her speed and reflexes. Both also have bulletproof skin and cybernetic eyes with a plethora of features.
- Kallen gets a cybernetic implant that allows her to directly interface with a Knightmare frame. Rather than using the controls, she pilots the Knightmare with her thoughts.
- In canon, C.C. was a decent Knightmare pilot but nothing special. In Lelouch of the Apotheosis, she is one of the three first Knightmare pilots along with Bismark and Marianne. According to C.C., they quite literally wrote the book on Knightmare combat, as evidenced when she completely curbstomps Cornelia despite using an older model.
- Nunnally functions as Mission Control rather than sitting on the sidelines for most of the series. She also later is the one to kill V.V. and take his code.
- In More than just a Man both Lelouch and C.C. are more physically capable than canon. Lelouch is only slightly better, though with far superior hand-eye coordination (being able to disable a Knightmare by shooting its factosphere with a pistol), due to being a newly turned vampire. Meanwhile, C.C. is far more physically capable given that she's an over two-thousand-year-old vampire who has every Geass ability displayed in canon (here, they're vampiric abilities).
D-K
The DCU
- Dana Tan in the Batman Beyond fic The Bat and the Cat. In the original cartoon, Dana was Terry's Love Interest who was Locked Out of the Loop regarding his secret identity as Batman. This version of Dana becomes Catwoman and her relationship with Selina Kyle mirrors the relationship Terry has with Bruce.
- Minor character Salvatore Maroni gets this in Batman Revisited, as he is the supervillain Firefly here, and considered a dangerous enough threat to be locked up with Deadshot and Killer Croc in a maximum security wing of Blackgate Penitentiary.
- Daughter of Fire and Steel: In the comics, Kara tends to fluctuate between being a standard Kryptonian civilian or having some combat training prior to her planet's destruction. Here, she's a soldier and one of Zod's sub-commanders.
- Stephanie Brown in Macushla. After her father is killed for unknown reasons by the League of Shadows, she's taken to serve under Talia al Ghul. She's a master assassin before she's 18 years old and becomes Damian Wayne's bodyguard/Morality Pet. (After Talia fakes Stephanie's death and sends her away because she and Damian were too close, he leaves the League and asks to join Dick Grayson of his own will).
- Silent Partner, Unfinished Business: Naomi Misora gets to show off why L was considering her as his successor, and why she got the nickname "Massacre Misora". Misa Amane works her way up from The Load to Badass Adorable.
- All Because of Uncle Gary: In the books, Uncle Gary is an unemployed slacker and moocher of little particular accomplishment. Here, he's a practicing black magician and a career criminal who repeatedly pulls off difficult crimes, evades police pursuit, and breaks out of prison.
- Digimon Adventure 02: The Story We Never Told: A fair amount of the cast falls under this umbrella. The older Digidestined take a much more active role in the post-Digimon Emperor arcs. Sora avoided her chickification. Ken built his own anti-Digimon weapons after the death of Wormmon. Kari mastered her powers over light. Dagomon is a threat equal to the Dark Masters. Sora and Matt's fathers (plus Izzy's parents) are revealed to have been the original Digidestined But the crown jewel goes to Yukio Oikawa. In canon, he was nothing more than a pawn of Myotismon. Here he's the Big Bad, a former Digidestined, and comes very close to destroying, or rather merging, both worlds. He not only invented most of Ken's technology, but also proved capable of reprogramming the code of the Digital World, he created the D3s, D-Terminals, AND Veemon, Hawkmon, and Armadillomon. And to cap things off, he manipulated everyone from the Digidestined all the way up to the Digimon Sovereigns and Dagomon himself. From Nobody to Nightmare barely scratches the surface of the difference.
- In Digimon Adventure 02 MaloMyotismon is built up into a major threat only to be swiftly deafeated in the most anti-climactic way possible by Talking the Monster to Death. Zero 2: A Revision on the other hand, builds him up into a major threat thanks to all of his schemes and planning. His power is so great that even the Time Master Xeedmilleniummon and the Guardian Beasts will fall before him. To defeat him, the Digidestined and their Digimons fused together and after a long and tough battle, in the end managed to defeat him.
- It's a Fandom-Specific Plot to have the human characters become stronger, due to them constantly suffering The Worf Effect in canon.
- Everyone in AU: A Saiyan Warrior ends up stronger as a result of Bardock leaving a message in Kakarot's pod before he's sent to Earth. By the time Raditz arrives on Earth, Kakarot is roughly ten times as strong as Goku was in canon. Special mention goes to Krillin as he, not Kakarot, receives training under King Kai and thus becomes one of the Z Fighters' heavy hitters.
- Chaos Theory Z: Abundant, thanks to Kayos’s intervention.
- Yamcha is the one who dies to Raditz when he comes to Earth. Hence, he’s the one who trains under King Kai and learns the Kaio-Ken technique.
- A couple of gentle nudges to Chichi cause her to decide to go with Goku and Gohan in their search for the Dragon Balls. This starts a progressive building of her confidence that leads to her joining the Z Fighters and getting back into fighting shape. And that’s before they learn that her mother was a Saiyan.
- Krillin, following advice from the Scroll of Knowledge, finds a reclusive gentleman who teaches him how to stretch out his usage of ki and make the most of every particle. This conservative technique puts his energy on par with Goku.
- Master Roshi helps the others train, breaking bad habits that Goku and the others had fallen into and getting back into proper shape himself. Then he dies to Nappa, which means he’ll be training under King Kai.
- Tien and Chiaotzu, also following advice from Kayos’s scroll, learn how to fight in tandem, passing energy between each other and even duplicating each other’s techniques.
- Bulma uses her mechanical know-how to support the others, and that’s still her preferred role. But after talking with Kayos, she decides to take active measures by building power armor with electrical weaponry.
- Driven to desperate measures against Vegeta and Nappa, Kayos summons Shenron and wishes for everyone in Goku’s family with Saiyan blood to be able to regrow their tails at will and have perfect control over their Oozaru forms.
- In Dragonball Divergence, Chi-Chi decides to keep training after having a conversation with Kami during her and Goku's wedding reception. As a result, she's a much more capable fighter than in canon, joining the Z Warriors and playing important roles in the defeats of several villains.
- Dragon Ball Z: Dynasty has plenty:
- Chichi, in canon, never fights after marrying Goku, aside from training Goten. Here, she continues her training, learns to use Ki Manipulation from Gine, and even participates in some of the fights.
- The human Z-Fighters are motivated to train and fight more this time, helped by the fact that most of them learned Kaioken during their training with King Kai. Especially notable are Yamcha and Chiaotzu, who managed to defeat their respective Cell Jrs. Yamcha has even developed a variation of Kaioken that can allow him to fight somewhat equally with a casual Super Saiyan 2 Gohan for a brief time.
- King Cold, big time. In canon, King Cold was easily dispatched by Super Saiyan Future Trunks. In this story, he can contend with both Goku and Vegeta simultaneously in their Super Saiyan forms with considerable effort in his base form alone, even incapacitating them at a certain point after they transform into their Golden Oozaru forms. His One-Winged Angel form is strong enough to fight three Super Saiyans and a Great Ape evenly. His abilities have also been overhauled so that he can use his ki to manipulate gravity, lightning, air, fire, and ice. He is also a proficient swordsman.
- Cell as well. In his first form, he was a weakling who spent most of his time running away and didn't actually start fighting until he absorbed hundreds of thousands of humans' worth of power. Here, he starts kicking ass from the moment he shows up.
- Gohan this time around actually chooses to fight Cell on his own after seeing his father being beaten close to death.
- While still a weakling compared to the Z-Fighters, Mr. Satan is able to fight a horde of Galaxy Soldiers by himself, only losing to a war of attrition.
- His Bad Future counterpart is even more awesome, able to one-shot Imperfect Cell.
- In the movie, Zangya only used generic ki attacks and the Psycho Threads. Here, she has truly terrifying hydrokinesis and Prehensile Hair.
- In canon, the Androids effortlessly killed Piccolo in Future Trunks' timeline. Here, Piccolo still falls to them, but only after singlehandedly destroying Androids 13, 14, 15, and 19. Android 18 even suggests that he would've fought better had he not exhausted himself against the other Androids.
- Being among the earliest movie villains of Z, Lord Slug wasn't that strong compared to later threats and was defeated by Goku before he could even become Super Saiyan. Here, he can go toe to toe with Super Saiyan Bardock, and it's implied to be almost as powerful as Perfect Cell.
- Dragonball Z: Legacies:
- Gohan is stronger than in canon since he continued training after the Cell Games. Later in the series, he unlocks Super Saiyan 3 and briefly manages to transform into Super Saiyan God, neither of which was ever done by canon!Gohan. He also manages to accomplish something that even canon!Goku failed to do: defeat a God of Destruction (one that's stronger than Beerus no less) in his Super Saiyan God form.
- Videl starts training with Gohan at a younger age and for a much longer period of time than her canon counterpart. As a result, she achieves a higher power level than a DBZ-era Frieza long before she even attends high school. To be fair, that's not much of a milestone by that point (even Yamcha has reached a similar power level by then).
- Exaggerated with Orthros, an alternate version of Videl from a different timeline. Whereas canon Videl was a normal Earthling who never reached the fighting level of the Z-Fighters, this version is a Deity of Human Origin mentored by Beerus and Whis, defeated Majin Buu in his strongest form, and is capable of destroying multiple universes on a whim. Aside from having the same powers as Othinus, she's Even More Omnipotent than Zeno to the point where she has killed hundreds of different versions of the Omni King.
- Through constant training and years spent fighting by Gohan's side, Zangya grows leagues stronger than her movie counterpart, eventually achieving a Super Mode similar to Super Saiyan and becoming equal in power to an SSJ3 Vegeta by the fic's ending.
- Zig-Zagged with the Planet Trade Organization. In canon, they were Frieza's private empire and nearly collapsed after he died. Here, they're established to be much larger in scope with Frieza merely being a branch leader who operated in the group's fringes. As a result, the PTO does perfectly fine without Frieza and continues to function as a Galactic Superpower long after the tyrant's death. That being said, they don't control anywhere close to the amount of territory that the canon PTO did, only ruling over a small portion of the universe rather than 70% of it.
- Unlike his canon counterpart, Vegeta eventually does learn how to go Super Saiyan 3.
- In Legend of the Monkey God, Goku knows about the Oozaru transformation and spends some time trying to train it. With Bulma's help, he manages to gain almost full control during his first canon transformation at Pilaf's castle. He also displays a (weak) ki attack before learning the Kamehameha and the ability to fly.
- Prodigal Sons: All of the Z Fighters are stronger than canon, with everyone having a power level of around four thousand or more by the time Raditz shows up. In particular, Chi-chi can keep up with Goku in spars.
- The Warrior's Daughter: In canon universes, Bulla/Bra is not interested in fighting or she is an average fighter as of 2021. Here, she is a Super Saiyan.
- The Fairy Mythos Series:
- Lucy is a major case. In Chapter 17 of A New Day, she manifests her Celestial Arm, Meteore. Her fight with Bickslow is more even than the Canon.
- Happy becomes this a little bit by using Lacrima Bombs. He later becomes a full one in Homecoming when he gains the ability to transform into a Lion
- Canonically, Saito was just a regular guy until he was chosen as Louise's familiar. However, in Zero no Tsukaima: Saito the Onmyoji, he was already a fully accredited mage, and being summoned to Halkegenia only made his powers greater.
- Better to Reign in Heaven
- Throughout the "Tranquility Lane" mission in Fallout 3, Braun doesn't use his powers for offence unless the Lone Wanderer directly attacks him and spends most of his time waiting in the park - unwittingly allowing the Lone Wanderer to sneak into his house and use the failsafe. In the fanfic, Braun takes a much more direct role in the story, to the point that he actually stops Mattie from using the failsafe, and even uses his control over his virtual avatar to go One-Winged Angel.
- Canonically, the Lone Wanderer is never given any control over the simulation. In the fic, however, Braun is eventually convinced to share control over the simulation with Mattie as a reward for playing along with the games - eventually allowing the Lone Wanderer to lull Braun into suspicion via a Shapeshifter Showdown and turn the tables on him by hijacking his pain receptors.
- Canonical Dithers is generally too frazzled and confused after all the torture she's endured to be of much help beyond providing advice. In this story, however, Tessa Dithers has more time to recover her composure, so she's able to render some much-needed help to Mattie by keeping Braun distracted. Later, she successfully tricks Braun into sparing Mattie from a Fate Worse than Death, helps Mattie organize a rebellion, and even physically attacks Braun himself during his Worf Had the Flu moment.
- Family Guy Fanon: Peter when it comes to Francis. While he still loves him like in the OG show, he no longer bothers to seek approval from Francis, as he knows already that it's not worth the work. He also stands up against Francis more often, even revealing in "Live in Vegas" that he not only revealed to have blackmailed Francis to get him to come but also got to him with mind games.
- In Pursuit of a Single Ideal: In Fate/kaleid liner PRISMA☆ILLYA, Shirou is Demoted to Extra and is nothing but an ordinary civilian. Here, he got accidentally involved in the Class Card hunt, so between his Saber Install, budging fighting and forging skills, and slow emergence of Projection Magecraft, he becomes one of the best fighters among the cast. Not that this saves him the struggle...
- Fate/Harem Antics:
- Sakura is able to use spells and fire blasts of darkness at will, while in canon, she was never taught how to use Magecraft until after the Holy Grail War ended and could only fire darkness when extremely distressed.
- Caster can summon and control the dragon from her legend. In canon, she refuses to summon it because she fears and has no control over it.
- Path of the King: Here, before he died, Kiritsugu actually gave Shirou proper training in Magecraft (meaning he can use a lot more spells than just Structural Analysis, Reinforcement, and Projection) and warned him about the Holy Grail War. Shirou then took martial arts lessons from Souichirou Kazuki. As a result, this Shirou is much more competent and prepared.
- Kunsel is a normal Second Class with being a well-informed and vaguely gossipy Mr. Exposition as his distinguishing trait and doesn't stand out in a company with the likes of Sephiroth and Zack Fair. In the The Fifth Act, he is shown to match Zack in skill when given the motivation and to be far more perceptive and knowledgeable than people realize. Kunsel is upgraded to being a powerful Knowledge Broker having a vast information network, being everyone's go-to guy for information, and in the Omakes, being better informed than the Turks.
- In one apparently non-AU fic, Tohru is a respected mob boss and cold-blooded killer, for some reason.
- Abraxas (Hrodvitnon): King Ghidorah.
- Comparative to MonsterVerse canon; San's old head can and will indeed regenerate the rest of Ghidorah with time, instead of decomposing to an Undead Abomination skull that retains Ghidorah's Soul Fragment as it did in Godzilla vs. Kong once the film was released; and Ghidorah's Psychic Powers are significantly more intense in this continuity compared to in the MonsterVerse, to the point that San's old head basically causes a Brown Note outbreak of sanitySlippage among Alan Jonah's paramilitary.
- Comparative to other Godzilla movie continuities; Ghidorah in this fic's continuity was indeed originally a Bioweapon Beast for an advanced alien civilization, but unlike before, AbraxasVerse Ghidorah apparently didn't need any assistance to break free of its alien handlers' control, and it Turned Against Their Masters almost as soon as its creators first set it loose.
- Godzilla Neo:
- Garu Garu was only the small (as in, fairy-sized) robotical minion of Belvera in the Rebirth of Mothra trilogy. In Neo, it mutates into a giant dragon Kaiju.
- Megaguirus was able to hold her own with Godzilla in her debut movie but here, she fought both Godzilla III and Rodan.
Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation: Mo Dao Zu Shi / The Untamed
- A Game for the Fool: Unlike in canon, Jiang Yanli is moved to learn how to seriously cultivate and fight. She is still no match for her brothers, but being able to defend herself and use a whip is far from the Non-Action Guy she is in canon.
- The Lost Cause: Variation with Nie Huaisang, who grows into his manipulator role earlier than in canon. He also plays a major role in the Sunshot Campaign as a scout, whereas he definitely took no part in the action in MDZS and was never shown participating in anything other than strategy meetings in CQL.
- Cruciamentum Eternus includes Lucius Malfoy during the time period of the last book. In the canon he was broken, pathetic, weak, and didn't fight Voldemort until it was safe to (and Narcissa pushed him). In this story, Draco's murder has him secretly murdering Death Eaters from almost the moment he's released from Azkaban, while still feigning allegiance to Voldemort's side, with the ultimate plan of killing Voldemort himself. If nothing else that requires at least an epic feat of Occlumency and a strength of will he never shows in the books.
- Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality:
- Severus Snape has been spiking Lord Voldemort's father's grave with every dangerous drug and poison known to wizardkind (and LSD—because it might affect him), as well as every other grave in the cemetery on account of Voldemort might have moved the gravestone, and the graves of every other ancestor of Voldemort's that he and Dumbledore could track down, just in case. Too bad Voldemort foresaw this contingency and, since he couldn't move his father's bones if he wants the resurrection spell to work, moved the entire rest of the cemetery to an entirely different location and memory-charmed the local Muggles.
- Harry Potter, in so many ways. Here's his following plan:"Note to self: overthrow government of Magical Britain at earliest convenience."
- Draco Malfoy went from The Bully to Manipulative Bastard, The Starscream to Harry, and scion of a long, proud line of Men Behind the Man.
- Quirrell in canon is a simpering stutterer who's a host to Voldemort. Word of God says this Quirrell is possessed by Voldemort, which now makes him an Evil Mentor to Harry, a sixth-dan in an unspecified martial art, and he horcruxed the pioneer probe! Oh, and then he went and tricked Harry into breaking Bellatrix Lestrange out of Azkaban.
- Blaise Zabini went from Draco's crony to a quintupple agent in a war with only three sides.
- Harry Potter and the Prince of Slytherin:
- This version of Lockhart is flashy but not just a pompous fraud. Probably because he's not really Lockhart but one of his would-be Memory Charm victims who instead got the better of him.
- Peter Pettigrew is far more intelligent than in canon, closer to a mastermind than a cowardly stool pigeon; he willingly sold out the Potters, framed Sirius when it backfired, and has been steadily working his way into a more advantageous position ever since.
- Slytherin's Basilisk is a lot more powerful. While it lost its killing gaze, petrifying people instead, it also has a Healing Factor, its scales are resistant to magic and it's implied it has Immortality.
- In artemisgirl's New Blood, this is justified in that this Hermione has studied Magic extensively here and regularly levitates heavier and heavier items throughout her first year until she can cast the charm silently. She does this deliberately to appear gifted by Magic Itself eventually killing the Basilisk in her Second Year.
- Higher Power and its sequels create a world where Miley and Lilly's mothers took part in drug trials that resulted in them and their children acquiring superpowers (Jackson is normal because he was born before Susan Stewart underwent the tests). While Susan receives a brain tumour as a result of her power to influence the minds of others, Heather Truscott gains pyrokinetic abilities, Miley is born with telekinesis and later develops telepathy, and Lilly can control her density so that she can either walk through solid objects or gain superhuman strength. After Billy Ray and Heather marry, their new twins have the power to generate ice and heal others, and they eventually face another soldier created by that program who can turn invisible.
- Hazbin Hotel: Lucifer's Folly:
- Lechies in his original incarnation from the Dictionnaire Infernal was no slouch, but here he's depicted as having control over blue flames, is skilled in swordsmanship and has some more rather disturbing but effective powers.
- Ditto with Leonard, who is also capable of controlling flames and can shapeshift.
- Among Demon Hunters, none has gotten quite the upgrade like Father Christmas himself, who went from jovial old man to Alucard.
- Ribesal went from a rather pathetic-looking demon made up of scrap to being a gigantic, towering lobster demon who is able to go toe-to-toe with the likes of Hades and Anubis.
- Holo-Chronicles does this to basically the entire cast of hololive just by nature of introducing a power system, but there are still some distinct buffs to be noted.
- Tokino Sora in hololive is, regardless of her dai-senpai privileges, ultimately just a normal human. Her Holo-Chronicles counterpart is the World's Strongest Woman and is actively compared to Satoru Gojo by Kugeki, possessing 13 small country level Guardian Entities and the ability to cancel most attacks.
- Natsuiro Matsuri, yet another normal human in hololive proper, was amped to the point where she was able to join the Seven Divas by her sheer power alone.
- Outside of the Seven Divas, Amelia Watson's watch in hololive proper doesn't allow for much more than Time Travel and going across alternate timelines. Here, it also lets her briefly stop time and draw power and abilities from her future selves from up to 20 years in the future, with her apparently becoming a full-blown Time Master in 20 years.
- Jackie Chan Adventures: Olympian Journey: In her one canonical appearance, Vanessa Barone was a Dark Action Girl who could go toe-to-toe with Jackie, but ended up being tied to a tree by the JCA equivalent to the Girl Scouts. Here she's now capable of short-range teleportation thanks to absorbing the powers of the Eye of Aurora during that encounter.
- Project Dark Jade:
- Queen of All Oni has the Samurai Khan. While in canon they're Fake Ultimate Mooks, here they're just as strong as they look, serving more as Elite Mooks.
- In Webwork the Samurai Khan get the same treatment, with a Worf Had the Flu explanation: their General wasn't properly bonded to his host, halving the Samurai Khan's power. They were also being poorly managed.
- The Stronger Evil: Tarakudo wasn't known to have conflicted with any of the Demon Sorcerers in canon. In this fic's backstory, he and his army managed to wrestle the control of Ancient Japan from Po Kong, and the Demon Sorcerers deemed his growing influence threatening enough for all eight of them to unite against him. After he weakened himself by getting rid of his physical form, the Demon Sorcerers' combined power was required just to trap him in the Shadowrealm. Tarakudo boasts that his only magical rival was Tiamat, the divine mother of the Demon Sorcerers, and he can go toe-to-toe with Shendu who has grown more powerful from bonding with his Other.
- A Wreath To Safeguard: Holly not only manages to fight off her fever and fully manifest a Stand, but she's the one to defeat Tower of Gray (albeit somewhat by accident) and later extracts the fleshbud from Polnareff.
- In Horseshoes and Hand Grenades, nearly every single character who ever appeared in Kamen Rider Fourze have gone into fighting mode. This ranges from Yuki Jojima using her Hayabusa Plushie as a boxing glove, Chuta Ohsugi fighting off his former love interest, Sarina Sonada and minor characters like the ones in the Amanogawa High Glee Club consist of a sword wielder, a samurai and a ninja.
- In Natural Selection, plenty of characters are way stronger than they were in canon.
- Ryuko, as the ruler of Honnouji Academy, is far stronger than she was in canon. She wears Junketsu at almost all times with no strain and spends much of her time dishing out Curb Stomp Battles to anyone who tries to fight her.
- Mako in this story is a Three-Star uniform bearer and one of Ryuko's most powerful Elite while the most powerful she ever got in canon was a Two-Star.
- Maiko here is a Three-Star uniform bearer and a member of Ryuko's council. In canon, she was at most a Badass Normal who was a Monster of the Week villain.
- Sanageyama, rather than his Three-Star Goku uniform, has a Four-Star Goku Uniform, mastered Shingantsu before the start of the story, and has reportedly defeated Ryuko at least once in a sparring match, which is more than what others can attest to.
- Kingdom Hearts: The Antipode has several examples:
- It is implied in his journal that Xemnas can use the No Name Keyblade but chooses not to due to it being a reminder of the man who ruined his life. note
- Jafar uses his second wish to become the most powerful sorcerer in all the worlds, resulting in a battle more reminiscent of the animated film. As well as summoning Heartless, Jafar magically turns Donald into a rubber duck and Riku's Keyblade into a wooden toy sword, all while spouting awful puns. He also uses his cobra form.
- The Titans are depicted as nigh-invulnerable deities so powerful that the Cyclops alone almost singlehandedly wiped out the entire party, who were only able to win due to the intervention of the Genie.
- Hades counts too. As in the animated film, he successfully entraps the other Greek Gods in ice and gains the power of the entire pantheon, thereby becoming the single-most powerful being in the universe. On top of Nigh-Invulnerability, the rules of Keyblades don't apply to him, allowing him to steal Aqua's Keyblade and turns it into the χ-Blade. Had it not been for Hercules regaining his power thanks to Xemnas's intervention, Hades would very well have won.
- To a lesser extent, the Hydra, which has the additional ability to breathe poison; a callback to the original myths.
- Prince John puts up a fight against the heroes, wielding both a sword and dark magic before succumbing to darkness.
- Non-combat example: On top of being a fashion designer for superheroes, Edna Mode also designs Keyblade Armor.
- The late Captain Flint was a Keybearer whose last action was to stab himself with his Keyblade and connect his heart to the heart of Treasure Planet. His skeletal remains (now his Nobody) arose from a throne of Keyblades to fight the heroes whilst his Heartless (a humongous six-armed skeletal monstrosity) was buried deep within the world's heart, emerging after his Nobody's destruction.
- Hans is not only a proficient swordsman; as a Nobody, he wields enchanted glass powers (a callback to the original fairy tale) that range from amplifying a person's darkest nature to replicating the abilities of his opponents.
- The Princesses of Heart in Stygian Solace. Snow White can hold her dying world together with sheer force of will despite being the only human survivor and all of them together can force Id and Maleficent through a Heart Beat-Down and their powerful light magic. Kairi unintentionally can create life as seen with Yami.
L-M
The Legend of Korra
- While Korra was undoubtedly badass in canon, she is even more so in The Saga of Avatar Korra, accomplishing or gaining abilities sooner than her canon counterpart due to being raised and put through a Training from Hell regiment by the Red Lotus for fourteen years, and delivering Curb Stomp Battles to characters who were more difficult for her to defeat in canon, such as Unalaq, Desna, Eska, and Kuvira.
- In The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, Navi acts as an Exposition Fairy that reminds Link of his objectives and gives him hints on an enemy's weakness. In The Boy Without a Fairy she is much more involved in combat than her game counterpart; she has the ability to unleash a flash of light to blind foes, is willing to ram her entire body into foes as a distraction to take the attention off Link, and can come up with complex strategies on the fly. Her role in combat is especially prominent early in the story when Link is completely inexperienced in fighting and has to heavily rely on Navi's support just to stay alive.
- In the original game, Mila is just a background character at the beginning and a sidequest character at the end. In this novelisation of The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker, she gets off to a rocky start by insulting Tetra, a pirate, but near the end of the novel, she travels all the way to Diamond Steppe Island (which is really far away from Windfall Island in the original game. Even further in this since the novel expands the world dramatically) through unknown ways, climbs up the island and teams up with Link, quickly learns how to swing on a grappling hook before doing it perfectly without assistance and even saves Link's life when he has to jump across a gap and almost falls in. All of this just to escape poverty. She later turns up at Link's house with several others, now wearing normal clothes rather than rags.
- In The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, Gohma is simply a Breather Boss to introduce you to the boss mechanic in the game. In a novelisation of the game, she starts off as a shelled spider that gets corrupted by Ganondorf and becomes a variant similar to the one from Hyrule Warriors with bladed forearms, hooked legs, one massive, red eye that can shoot lasers and change colour, a mouth that can spit acid and very masculine grunts. She even gives Link a run for his money in both of his fights with her, badly injuring him in the first.
- In Ocarina of Time, a novelisation by DragonRand100 there are many examples.
- Navi frequently darts into the eyes of monsters to temporarily blind or distract them enough for Link to recover at crucial moments. She even tries to take on a boss or two (with mixed results).
- The Happy Mask Salesman plays a significant role and handles himself in precarious situations with clever wordplay and his wits.
- Kaepora Gaebora: Instead of just being a voice for exposition, this owl can use his talons to attack minions and drop them from great heights.
- Ingo kills a Gerudo with a pitchfork during a botched raid on Lon Lon.
- Ruin of the Yiga: The Yiga are still pretty silly, but they know much more about the ancient technology than in canon. They've been maintaining the Divine Beasts for thousands of years, they have their own Sheikah Slates, and they're the ones effectively in charge of the excavation projects due to replacing everyone important when necessary. Note that while Ruin is definitely the most competent Yiga, this was all happening before she arrived on the scene.
- Flowing Star: Stella certainly wasn't a fighter in the original show, but this version has an electric bat that can deliver electrified blows.
- Star Spark: Rather than be an average girl, Stella Zhau in the fanfic has a set of special gloves that can channel and emit electricity that she can use whenever fit, even if she struggled at the beginning.
- Contract Labor: In direct contrast to the Extreme Doormat he was in canon, Keitaro actually has some backbone and is far more willing to stand up to and for the Hinata's residents, even managing to defeat Motoko in an honor duel.
- In The Merry Killers, every girl at the Hinata Sou from Haruka to Shinobu is a skilled assassin. Even Kitsune, who specializes in organizing and managing their hits, manages to hold her own against Golgo. While Keitaro isn't an assassin or even really a fighter, he's still Nigh-Invulnerable, even shrugging off Jumping on a Grenade and being annoyed at most upon being hit by a sniper round.
- Game Theory:
- The Jewel Seeds get a serious upgrade in their power and threat level. As the author explains:Aleph: Nanoha showed us that the Monsters of the Week could be a backdrop to the real meat of the plot, the character interaction, but then Madoka came along and showed us that the Monsters can still be legitimately, vividly scary. And Game Theory is very much a post-Madoka story, with the harsher rules and the scarier monsters and so on.
- Pretty much all the characters over the age of about sixteen or so get a significant competence boost. They aren't any more powerfulnote , but they use what they have much more effectively because they employ proper tactics, especially Precia (since the entire premise of the story is that she's only slightly insane instead of full-blown bonkers). The Wolkenritter in particular have received a major upgrade in skill, showing the experience and tactical acumen that would be expected of centuries-old combat constructs.
- The Jewel Seeds get a serious upgrade in their power and threat level. As the author explains:
- The Devil's in the details: Having more experience under his belt than his counterpart (and being raised by a lawyer and vigilante), Peter is less of a doormat here. He is more confident as a solo hero and feels less obligated to put up with the Avengers and SHIELD whenever either of them gives him trouble, outright threatening Nick Fury when he tries strong-arming him into being involved with the Elemental attacks in Europe.
- In letmetellyouaboutmyfeels' MCU Rewrites, Sharon Carter is given more focus that shows her to be a competent fighter. Captain America: Ghosts of HYDRA has her accompany Steve Rogers in his mission to help Bucky Barnes and take down what's left of HYDRA. She mows down numerous HYDRA agents, gets into a fight with Brock Rumlow/Crossbones, and takes on Winter Solder Josef and comes out on top by shooting him in the face. In Avengers: Civil War, she helps Maria Hill bust Scott Lang, Clint Barton, and Sam Wilson out of the Raft Prison and blow it up.
- Laura Barton's maiden name in Security is Laura Howlett. While their powers aren't stated, her children with Clint are also mutants.
- Tingle takes the Spot, a low-level Spidey foe who's basically a joke due to his ridiculous costume and limited use of his power (most of the time), and makes him a serious enough threat that it takes Peter, Yelena, and Kate to stop him and his gang.
- The Spider-Man fic "Jackpot" presents Peter and Mary Jane finding a genie in an alternate post-One More Day and using their third wish to bring Gwen Stacy back to life. After the three of them form a triad relationship, Gwen spends the next few weeks working on a formula that will allow her and Mary Jane to gain Peter's powers without any risk of side effects, transforming her and Mary Jane into new Spider-Women in the prime Marvel Universe.
- This trope is a staple for the villains of Ultimate Sleepwalker: The New Dreams and Ultimate Spider-Woman: Change With The Light. Characters like 8-Ball, the Brothers Grimm, the Chain Gang, and Jack O'Lantern were all C-lister villains, at best, in the original comics. In the Earth-2706 verse, though, they're exceptionally deadly threats, forming the focus of the Fics.
Mermaid Melody Pichi Pichi Pitch
- Mermaid Melody Pichi Pichi Duo: Over the course of the fic, Kaito, Nagisa, and Masahiro get their own personal idol forms, allowing them to fight alongside the Mermaid Princesses.
- Marc Anciel in Marc Being In A Gang Rights is the youngest member of a Parisian street gang. He is perfectly capable of self-defense, is a bit of a Psycho Knife Nut, had managed to talk Nathaniel out of trouble for being in possession of a knife on school grounds (having been the one to give it to him for self-defense reasons), has aided in undoing the mugging and kidnapping of his boyfriend twice and had organized.
- Rise of Paonne and Renard Rouge: Because Gabriel is an experienced Retired Badass hero in this continuity, the Collector is a much bigger threat. On top of having fighting experience, his legitimate corruption (as opposed to simply acting like a victim of akumatization like in-canon) means that he does not hold back, making him a super-effective fighter against all four heroes. Hawk Moth even remarks that he might be one of the best villains he has created given his effectiveness. It takes the combined efforts of Paonne, Chat Noir and what was left of the original Quantic Team to take him down.
- Apex Predator (MHA):
- Thanks to meditation, Izuku starts unlocking the other quirks hidden within One For All shortly after the USJ attack, starting with Float.
- Ochako gets her martial arts training before the sports festival from Aizawa, so she wins against Katsuki and routinely beats him in later spars.
- In the works of Barid (Finale) (including Build Yourself Up (Don't Let Them Break You Down), Crimson and Emerald, Failure to Explode and Sticks and Stones), Inko is a senior partner in the law offices of Akimichi, Nara and Yamanaka. This makes her a force to be reckoned with in her own right, with many actively dreading the thought of invoking her wrath by tangling with her son.
- Izuku in Blood for the Blood God was able to come out of the Heroes vs. Villains Exercise much better than he did in canon completely overwhelming Kirishima and Sero by himself, this version of him having a quirk that he has learned to use his entire life.
- Emerald Furnace - Path Of Storms: Izuku's Quirk allows him to become a mixture of a volcano, snake, and campfire and allows him to control fire in both attack and healing, as well as speak the tongue of snakes. However, society thought of it as a villainous Quirk, forcing Izuku to run and eventually join Nine.
- The Emerald Phoenix:
- Izuku is a psychic who has telepathy, telekinesis, teleportation, and healing flames which he uses to great effect.
- Bakugo can detonate his sweat from anywhere on his body rather than just from his hands.
- Iida's Quirk is changed from a Mutation style to Transformation, allowing him to create different engines all over his body.
- Jirou can create more sounds than just her heartbeat, such as Morse code.
- Momo can further alter objects she creates so long as she maintains contact with them.
- Uraraka doesn't have to touch herself to change gravity on herself and can increase or decrease gravity rather than just negating it.
- Hero Class Civil Warfare: In the Alternate Timeline shown in "Intersection," the alternate Izuku/Kingpin shows the ability to consciously control Black Whip unlike his canon counterpart who, at that point in the series, had never even activated it yet. When fighting his canon self, Kingpin also shows greater skill at using One For All in a way that doesn't injure himself, unlike canon Izuku whom he derides for trying to imitate All Might even though they aren't suited for his fighting style.
- While Inko Midoriya is an ordinary housewife in canon, Kaleidoscope has her as a retired Underground Pro Hero who's extremely skilled in hand-to-hand combat and capable at using her seemingly weak quirk in creative ways to incapacitate her enemies. She's also one who does not take crap towards her family lying down. When her husband Hisashi came home to try and murder Izuku for being Quirkless, Inko erased him from existence him by pulling apart his atoms with her Quirk.
- In My Iron Giant, Izuku has the ability to manifest a Humongous Mecha around himself that only All Might can damage, but he cannot demanifest or leave it. He is considered the guaranteed next Symbol of Peace.
- While canon!Izuku was quirkless, in The Norse Hero: Fenrir he was born with a quirk with the qualities of the beast of Norse Mythology Fenrir. He has Super-Strength, Super-Speed, all of the enhanced senses of a wolf, a Healing Factor, the ability to exude smoke and embers he holds limited control of and a number of werewolf-esq Super Modes he can shift between.
- One for All and Eight for the Ninth:
- Due to having the previous users as spirit advisors, Izuku figures out Full Cowl much sooner, causing him to break All Might's record score at the entrance exam. Plus there's whatever is going on with One For All that's caused it to hit the singularity much earlier than in canon that allowed it in the first place.
- Izuku also figures out a way to keep Full Cowl running all the time without its telltale signs. This allows him to get accustomed to the Quirk and increase its power much earlier, getting Danger Sense the day of the Class President election and Float during the USJ Incident, and reaching Full Cowl 10% before the Sports Festival while Blackwhip is unlocked during the finals against Todoroki.
- Toru manages to come up with an initial version of her Light 'em Up Super Move during her fight with Aoyama, as she learns how to bend Aoyama's light beams to hit him back.
- When Ochako fights Todoroki, she manages to dodge the glacier attack - and then uses her Quirk on the glacier itself, dropping it on Todoroki. The only reason the latter wins is that she drops first from Quirk overuse.
- Due to having the previous users as spirit advisors, Izuku figures out Full Cowl much sooner, causing him to break All Might's record score at the entrance exam. Plus there's whatever is going on with One For All that's caused it to hit the singularity much earlier than in canon that allowed it in the first place.
- The Saint and the Sinner:
- Thanks to his training from Aizawa and his negative qualities being toned down, Mineta is more perceptive and competent in a fight than he was in canon. Case in point, he almost singlehandedly won his team the match in the Hero vs. Villain exercise using careful timing and planning. He also makes it all the way to the two-on-two matches in the Sports Festival. His increased bravery is also shown in his interactions with Bakugo, as he's more willing to call him out on his attitude and disparage him. He even starts learning Balintawak martial arts during his internship.
- Thanks to some advice from Mineta, Midoriya unlocks Full Cowling before the Sports Festival instead of after it in his training with Gran Torino. He also has an overall much better performance during the Sports Festival. He defeats Kirishima without too much damage to his person and fights Todoroki to a stalemate resulting in a double ring-out. Unlike canon, he only breaks one arm instead of nearly all his bones.
- What's in a Hoard?:
- Izuku and his father can both transform into dragons, with Hiashi having once been the number six hero in Japan before losing his arm in what's implied to be a battle against All For One.
- All-Might never received his Game-Breaking Injury so he can use One For All constantly without worry, first evidenced when he spends a full hour chatting with Izuku and Bakugou after saving the former, rather than running off immediately.
- Uraraka earns the most points of anyone in the Entrance Exam and is the one to take out the Zero Pointer by lightening a piece of rubble and throwing it at the robot's head. It's later shown that her Quirk doesn't negate gravity, but allows her to move mass from one object to another. During the Sports Festival, Ochako defeats Mina by pulling weight out of the ground and putting it into Mina's body, leaving her unable to move.
- Bakugou is a fair amount stronger than canon due to his rivalry with Izuku pushing him further.
- Yukino in Perfection Is Overrated. In the original series, her Child was only good for surveillance and left her easily defeated by Shizuru. In this fic, she realizes that while she's not the best in a straight-up fight, she can use her powers to tip the balance of power in her favor at crucial moments, such as when she incapacitates Shiho, enabling Mai to win her battle without Yuuichi dying, and when she, in the final battle, uses her Child's abilities to immobilize one of the last remaining SUEs' Child long enough for Natsuki to finish her off.
- Cadence in canon, while admittedly having some badass moments, is still mainly a supporting character. On the other hand, Cadence from the Blooming Moon Chronicles has wanted to be a soldier ever since she was young, rather than sit back and be a princess. Over the course of the series, she eventually grows more proficient at fighting, being able to utilize both weapons and magic to her advantage. She becomes part of the Orphans, an elite fighting force that keeps the worlds safe from threats. At one point, she takes on Loki himself, and is capable of going head-to-head with some of his strongest forces.
- In Bodyguard AU, Twilight is a princess' bodyguard and is more hands-on in terms of her fighting abilities than in canon.
- A Diplomatic Visit: Comes into play in the sequel Diplomat at Large. In canon, the Storm King wanted the powers of the alicorns to give himself new powerful magic, for storm generation. Here, he already has lightning and wind generation when the fight begins and is set on specifically usurping the magic that makes them Powers That Be.
- Duelists of the Autumn Crown has Flash Sentry. While we don't know how skilled he was in the movie, there he's the best duelist in the school second only to Sunset Shimmer, and with her, there are light implications that she's cheating somehow.
- In the Harmony and Valor series, Flash Sentry and Sweetie Drops are martial art masters who are strong enough to toss thugs around like ragdolls.
- Pony POV Series:
- Mimic is said by Princess Luna to have been the first, and only, mortal pony to injure Discord, by kicking him in the face at supersonic speeds until she knocked his tooth out. He killed her afterwards, but still. Starsong probably also counts, managing to fend off Discord's brother Anarchy for a considerable time.
- While Princess Cadence turned out to be pretty badass in canon, the version of her in this series was able to take on an avatar of Discord's father Havoc and not only survive but it's implied that she won.
- There's also the CMC, who manage to be Badass Adorable in this universe, Minuette and Twinkle Shine, who really get to show off their Gifted Unicorn credentials, Shining Armor, who saved the world from an Imagination Demon, and Trixie who becomes the Sixth Ranger and grows to be able to fight Twilight on fairly even standing (though played with in that regard: she at first avoids and fights her Element of Magic because she hates the idea of being 'back up Twilight' until she eventually realizes she represents magic in a completely different way). Honestly, it's easier to count the characters that don't count.
- Rainbooms and Royalty has Zecora, while still being the mentor to the Mane Six like in canon, also proved personally fantastic repeatedly over the course of the series, with such highlights as saving Rainbow Dash from the Shadowbolts, fighting Nightmare Moon one-on-one, and saving Dinky, Pipsqueak, and Alula from King Sombra's bushwoolie Mooks.
- In Time to Plan, Tech Leader discovers, to her increasing dismay and fear, that several canon characters have become much more powerful after ten billion years passed in her absence.
- Future!Fluttershy became a draconequus named Flutterbold and is much more confident and bolder compared to her past self. After marrying Discord, she wasn't afraid to passionately kiss Discord in public, for starters.
- Future!Rarity became the elder dragoness Rariamat and was able to stop Tech Leader's escape with a well-timed fireball. Spike likewise became the elder dragon Spykoran, though in his case he grew over time as opposed to Rarity who transformed herself into a dragon.
- Future!Shining Armor and Future!Cadence fused together to become the alicorn Love, who embodies Love. It's noted that as Love, they radiate raw power far different from the mundane alicorns that now populate Future!Equestria.
- Future!Applejack became JackAI, a Virtual Ghost who can possess any machine body at her disposal. She just chose to go as a Humongous Mecha version of herself at Magic Incarnate's behest.
- Future!Celestia and Future!Luna were implied to have ascended and transformed into bonafide goddess-queens, though Magic Incarnate notes the nature of their ascension made them isolate themselves as they couldn't live or intermingle with mortals for very long.
- Future!Rainbow Dash became a Windigo named Rainbow Hurricane and has established herself as queen of the Windigos.
- Future!Starlight Glimmer, Future!Twilight Sparkle, Future!Sunset Shimmer, and Future!Trixie Lulamoon were so magically powerful that their minds and souls fused as one, forming the entity Magic Incarnate, the living representation of the planet's life force.
- Rarity is slowly heading in this direction within the Triptych Continuum, and it comes from recognizing her own limitations. She has strictly average field strength, knows no spells for direct offense or defense, her physical abilities are nothing special — and she's been placed in a position where she regularly has to risk her life in direct combat. So how is she dealing with this? Through becoming the single dirtiest fighter anypony's ever seen. Take a telekinetic with exceptionally fine directional control who regularly carries sewing needles with her, then pray she doesn't have a straight shot at your eyes. And in physical combat, she'll go for joints, sensory organs, vulnerable spots, and everything else offered without caring about dignity or the pain of the other party, because all that pales in significance to her goal of coming out alive. Compared to the others, she may not bring much to bear — but what she does have is targeted with terrifying efficiency.
- Xenophilia turns Lyra Heartstrings into a grandmaster of the Still Way, the only Unicorn-exclusive martial art. She's described by Rainbow Dash as "probably one of the five or six most dangerous ponies in Equestria, even counting the Princesses," and the only pony in town other than Twilight who could beat her in a serious fight. Chapter 9 reveals her to be an auxiliary Royal Guard, and we also see her in action.Lero: Wow. I had no idea. She's always been really friendly to me.
Rainbow Dash: [giggling] Yeah, I’ve heard that about her. Total sweetheart, you’d never guess that she could kill you in half a second from, like, three hundred bodylengths away.
