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  • Berserk: When the King of Midland created the Black Dog Knights out of the kingdom's worst convicts, the sadistic Apostle Wyald successfully invoked the trope by persuading the King to make whoever proved himself the toughest the leader of the others. Wyald gave the only guy big enough to challenge him a Cruel and Unusual Death, cowing the rest and giving the King no doubt about who was fit to lead. Subsequently deconstructed in that Wyald has no qualification to lead besides being the strongest fighter, causing his men to die using Leeroy Jenkins tactics and by killing anybody who annoys him.
  • In Haou Airen, Hakuron went up the Triads's ranks via basically kicking all kind of ass to get there. Also, that's how he recruited Di Long into the group.
  • Pokémon: The Series: Whenever Ash faces an Elite Four member, he will lose, no questions asked. And 9 times out of 10, he'll absolutely choke. Finally averted in Journeys, where he's grown enough to defeat Drasna from Kalos, former Hoenn Champion Wallace, and even Raihan, Leon's rival, and a Gym Leader who's said to be even stronger than most of the champions from the other regions. Granted, it helps that by this point, Ash himself has already become the Champion of the Alola League.
  • Naruto:
    • The hidden villages of the Five Great Shinobi Countries are each led by a Kage; candidates are required to be one of the strongest ninjas in the village. However, deficiencies in intelligence and/or character can sometimes disqualify a candidate. In general, this principle of allowing only the best fighters to take the top leadership position seems to apply to any nation/organization run by ninjas and/or samurai.
    • While Hokage candidates also need to be approved by the Hidden Leaf's elite ninjas in order to take office, it's still implied that they won't even look your way unless you've proven yourself as one of the village's best.
    • This principle of requiring both combat and leadership abilities applies to promotions in general; the Chunin Exams themselves function more as secret tests of character, since merely winning all of your fights will not guarantee a rank up.
  • Inuyasha: Bankotsu tells Inu-Yasha that he's the leader of the Band of Seven because he can outfight the other six.
  • Since one of the main, and most important requirements for a person to become a General of the Black Order in D.Gray-Man is to have over 100% synchronization with their Innocence, this is naturally what happens.
  • Bleach:
    • The Gotei 13 is a military meritocracy. The only way to get to the higher ranks is to have the talent to be better at asskicking than everyone lower in rank. The captains of the 13 divisions are so powerful that they're the core strength of the Gotei 13: there are 13 captains and 6,000 soldiers in total, but if the 13 captains are defeated, the organisation falls. The head captain, Yamamoto, is in charge of all the divisions and all the other captains. He got that position a thousand years ago by being the most powerful and dangerous thug of all. He's more powerful than most of the other captains put together.
      • The 11th Division in particular lives and breathes this trope, what with their Captain gaining their position by killing the previous one in combat. Said Captain gains the title of Kenpachi and incorporates it into their name. The current Captain, Kenpachi Zaraki, is the 11th holder of the title, and is said to be the strongest Kenpachi to have ever led the Division in the 1000 years since the foundation of the Gotei 13.
    • The Espada play this even straighter. They're designed to oppose the strength of the Shinigami captains and are therefore designed to be as powerful as possible. While other Arrancar are numbered by creation order, the ten strongest join the ranks of the Espada, who are numbered in order of spiritual power. Nothing else matters; not brains, special powers or even fighting skill: it's just raw power. The ones in charge are therefore the ones who are strong enough to keep their position from any challengers. Prior to Aizen setting up the Espada system Barragan had taken control of Hueco Mundo by conquering part of it and then defeating any challengers to his authority, but now Aizen keeps him and the others in line by being even stronger.
      • Espada who lose their position to someone stronger are demoted to Privaron Espada and given a three-digit number to symbolize this. As Dordoni points out to Ichigo, however, just because they are no longer among the top ten does not mean they aren't capable of kicking ass.
      • That being said, if demoted Espada can somehow become strong enough to reclaim their place, they will be allowed to do so without issue; Grimmjow's first action upon having his left arm restored by Orihime is to kill Luppi, who replaced him as the Sexta Espada. This is further symbolized by Grimmjow having Orihime restore his number 6 tattoo, which had been burned off his skin when he was demoted.
    • The Vandenreich has a similar set-up. They are led by the Sternritter, who are the most powerful Quincies and have been even further enhanced by the Quincy King's special Schrift. Yhwach himself is the most powerful Quincy; in fact, he is so powerful, he created the Quincy lineage and can therefore not only beat down other Quincies, but steal their power whenever he wants and redistribute it among other Quincies or just keep it all for himself.
      • The strongest of the Sternritter are then handpicked by Yhwach to join the Schutzstaffel, his Praetorian Guard. They are strong enough that even their counterparts in the Zero Division (sans Ichibe) are no match for them once they start fighting seriously.
  • Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba:
    • The Hashira get to their position by being goddamn good at their jobs. You either kill a bunch of demons or kill a Lower Rank. Neither are easy tasks.
    • Many of the Twelve Kizuki (especially the Upper Ranks) managed to earn their position by being powerful demons on their own right and thus attracting Muzan's attention.
    • Yoriichi singlehandedly inspired the Demon Slayer Corps to instill a hierarchy system thanks to his absurd skills being so far above anyone in his time, the Hashira ranks were put into place thanks to him after his sword was given the unique “Metsu” (Destroy) graving in its blade, after that all Pillar swords were to have the “Akkimesatsu” (Destroy All Evil) graving in the blades.
  • Raoh's goal in conquering the world in Fist of the North Star is to bring about a society like this, albeit one that is much more united than the Crapsack World that exists after the nuclear war.
  • The Three Kings arc in YuYu Hakusho plays with this. At first, there are three warring countries, each led by the strongest fighter. Eventually, everyone agrees to hold a tournament and crown the winner ruler of all demon world (until the next tournament). The strangest thing is, it works perfectly, even though none of the protagonists made it into the finals. Neither of the two surviving kings win either. Instead, an old sparring partner of the recently deceased third king wins. Somewhat of a subversion in that the winner wasn't necessarily the strongest; the way the match-ups played out, some competitors lost their fights because they were worn out. But all the strongest are Blood Knights who like this method of choosing their leader, so they support the winner.
  • Tenchi Muyo! Word of God states that this is how becoming Emperor of Jurai works. Ordinary Earthling Seina Yamada from Tenchi Muyo! GXP learns that stumbling across a Humongous Mecha with a seed for one of Jurai's space trees catapulted him near the top of the list of potential heirs. The title character, Tenchi Masaki, would be at the top of the list if he had any interest in the job; the creator's semi-official doujin works indicated that eventually he will.
  • Due to general Feudal Future feel in The Five Star Stories, this trope is at full power there. Only Headdliners could manage the Humongous Mecha of their world, and because of this all who exhibit such abilities generally happen to become nobility. All in all, given the general belligerence of the Joker society, it is to be expected. As an example, after that fateful dust-off with Lachesis, Bugle de'Leiser immediately bowed to her authority even though he was initially ideologically opposed to it. It also counts as Defeat Means Friendship, as he later was genuinely friendly to her, despite trying to rape her before getting his ass kicked to the next Friday.
  • Specifically invoked in The Story of Saiunkoku when Rou Ensei explains how he ended up as the Governor of an entire province even though he hadn't passed any of the examinations normally required to qualify for government office: the Sa clan was causing so much trouble in the province that the Imperial court needed to appoint a governor who'd be able to survive their repeated assassination attempts. Ensei was their guy. (That he had The Chessmaster Tei Yuushun supporting him as Lieutenant Governor helped to keep the actual administrative side of things running smoothly as well.)
  • Voltes V: Prince Heinel was selected to lead the Earthern Invasion because he was a skilled warrior and bested the other candidates at the Boazanian Institute of Military Sciences and Warfare. He graduated as their top cadet, and has been revered by many other Boazanians (including Jangal) ever since.
  • Yu-Gi-Oh! GX has North Academy, where new students have to duel through a forty-man gauntlet to find out their rank. Chazz fights his way to the top and is immediately crowned head of the freshman class. Not only that, but they also have to do it with a deck they constructed from scratch using cards found outside the academy
  • The society of Jungle Planet in Transformers: Cybertron is based on this. A variant exists on Velocitron, where the planet ruler is whoever is the fastest.
  • Apparently the set-up of Shibusen in Soul Eater. The more successful the members, the higher their rank of between one to three stars. However, the time the main cast spent as Almighty Janitors would suggest this is less about strict hierarchy than it is about whatever Shinigami feels like putting his students through for his own reasons/amusement.
  • Code Geass:
    • Not really legal — though it is implied that Charles killed his own father to get the position (at which point it became retroactively legal, since the Emperor is an absolute monarch). Lelouch manages to become Emperor by killing his father, and forcing the rest of his siblings to comply through violence and coercion. By which I mean mind control. Head of the Knight Bismarck Waldstein disagrees with the concept... but finds himself coming down with a case of death, with his killer taking Bismarck's place.
    • The Knights of the Round play it very straight, though. While they're technically made up of the best pilots in The Empire, they're shown to be given command responsibility on par with the top brass, if only because they tend to be as effective as most battalions on their own.
  • In Record of Lodoss War, most rulers are semi-retired adventurers of great fame. Kashue, Parn, Etoh, Shiris, and Spark were all adventurers for many years, before they became rulers of their own countries. Fahn, Beld, Ashram, and Ryona were also great warriors as well.
  • Basically the entire premise of the Queen's Blade series. In a nutshell: assorted women of various fetishes fight for the right to become queen for a year. Even has two spinoff series for more characters and more fun.
  • One Piece:
    • Baroque Works, where one's spot in the organization is determined by how much ass you can kick. If lower-ranked members can eliminate higher-ranked ones, they can move up in the ranks. Most of the top ranks are Devil Fruit users.
    • The Marines also play this straight. Captain (now Vice Admiral) Smoker gets to keep his position and often promoted despite being a Cowboy Cop largely thanks to his fighting ability and powerful devil fruit. After the time skip, the Marines have also recruited two new members entirely from outside the organization and promoted them straight to Admirals, because of their power.
    • The Animal Kingdom Pirates led by Kaido have this as part of their crew culture. The ones at the top are the strongest fighters the crew has to offer, and crewmates may challenge them for their spot with Kaido's permission, invoking this trope.
  • Claymore has this. The organization that Claymores work for only has forty-seven Claymores active at any one time. If a Claymore dies, all the Claymores below her are automatically promoted one rank — and if a new Claymore is powerful enough to take a higher rank than #47, all the Claymores weaker than her are automatically demoted. Of course, while Asskicking Equals Authority applies to Claymores while they're on missions, the ones who are actually in charge of the organization seem to have no physical power at all.
  • Invoked by the (probable) Big Bad Naosada Washizu from Gamaran: He has about thirty sons and rules over a region famous for martial arts and full of powerful warriors. His plan? Each of his sons will hire a Ryuu (martial art school), and those Ryuu will fight in the great Unabara Tournament: the heir with the strongest Ryuu will become the new Daimyo, with the members as his vassals.
  • Subverted in Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann: after the Time Skip most of the members of Team Dai-Gurren are put in charge of the newly formed government entirely because they're such huge heroes. But, being for the most part a bunch of rowdy jackasses, the majority of them don't have any talent for or interests in politics and they know it. Until there's ass to be kicked, they're content to just sit back and be figureheads for the ones who actually know what they're doing.
  • In 12 Beast's alternate dimension of Live-Earth, populated by monster girls and monster boys, positions of authority are rewarded to those that defeat their predecessor and/or the competition on the way up there. It really brings a new meaning to "biting and clawing your way up the ranks."
  • Attack on Titan:
    • Attack on Titan deconstructs this. The military system in place makes sense on paper: the best and brightest defend humanity's center (the Military Police Brigade) and the rest either maintain the walls or go on scouting missions (the Garrison and the Survey Corps, respectively). This means ultimately the best soldiers are likely never to be where they're needed most, making them useless to the overall war effort. Few of them ever actually participate in combat. Additionally, any exercises that they do would involve drilling with their guns (as they are responsible for maintaining law and order) so the 3DMG skills that got them to the top are stagnated and see little further use because they're at the top.
    • Played straight with the enemy forces of the Homeland and/or Beast Titan. If you prove yourself better in a fight than your superior, you're the new authority. Challenge him and lose, though...
  • The Vagan in Mobile Suit Gundam AGE has a tendency to promote X-Rounder ace pilots to high-ranking places in its military. This has on several occasions led to putting people in command of things they aren't nearly qualified enough for, such as Desil Galette, a seven-year-old given command of a mobile suit squadron despite having all of the mood swings and tantrums that age would imply, and later, his brother Zeheart, a teenager who somehow keeps climbing the ranks despite not once succeeding in a military operation and getting many, many subordinates needlessly killed in the process.
  • This rule applies to both sides of the conflict in Tokyo Ghoul. Ghoul society is incredibly Darwinian, with leaders of gangs and Wards earning their position through being the strongest around. On the human side, the CCG promotes primarily based on accomplishments in the field. Anyone in a position of authority has earned it, and the elite Special Class Investigators are the best of the best.
  • Vampire Knight: According to Yagari Touga in chapter 52, the president of the Hunter Association is chosen for his ability to dominate the hunters. Zero having become the strongest hunter is therefore chosen as Kaien Cross' successor.
  • Musuko ga Kawaikute Shikataganai Mazoku no Hahaoya: Demons are generally inclined toward direct action than subtlety. As a consequence, many are also inclined to use brute force to keep others in line. This is especially true of the hard-liners resistant to reconciling with humanity among the Self-Administrated Zone. This works out for the protagonists when they get into a fight with hard-liners, as they immediately back down when Lorem, famous for being one of the strongest demons around, fully demonifies in front of them and they fully cooperate with the group's desire to negotiate.
  • Subverted in The Heroic Legend of Arslan. While Arslan is a decent fighter, there are those in his group that are better fighters, such as Daryun, Gieve and Farangis.
  • That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime
    • In contrast to how humans and human-like races (dwarves and elves) maintain their rulership based on their capacity to lead regardless of personal power (there are strong human, dwarf, and elf leaders, but their power is secondary to how well they command their nations), completely inhuman races like monsters and demons maintain hierarchies based on who is the strongest. The absolute rulers of each non-human-based nation are the absolute strongest among them, along with all secondary leaders underneath them being leagues stronger than the regular soldiers. As a result of this power hierarchy, the idea of Royals Who Actually Do Something and Frontline Generals is present everywhere. Additionally, inhuman biology also incorporates Rank Scales with Asskicking, as gaining a higher position in a hierarchy boosts a monster's abilities to make them better asskickers, with more asskicking-earned authority instilling higher amounts of rank-granted asskicking power.
    • Exaggerated in demon society as a whole. As demons are spiritual beings by nature who constantly fight each other in Hell, death leads to reincarnation, but in turn this shaves off some of their magicule supply with each resurrection. Enough losses in a row without recovery will actually result in a demon devolving, and once a demon hits Archdemon, they hit their natural "cap" and must rely on knowledge, experience, and cunning to hold their own. According to Diablo, the only way to reach the next stage of Demon Peer is to ass-kick your way to Archdemon, then maintain an undefeated chain of victories (or at bare minimum avoiding death and resurrection) for at least 2,000 years. It's notable that among confirmed Demon Peers, the only other ones aside from the Primordials are Veyron and Moss, who achieved unbroken win streaks for 4,000 and 10,000 years, respectively.
    • While it's technically a human-dominated nation, the Eastern Empire holds this ideal for their military, complete with official and organized methods of Challenging the Chief to rapidly advance in the ranks. The commanders of the three main divisions of the army are expected to be capable of defeating literally everyone else under them in said division. They also have no issue employing Otherworlders or even certain monsters into their ranks and giving them command positions if they're strong enough; the strongest member of the fourth "division"/Praetorian Guard and head of Empire intelligence is the former while the actual Marshall who is the Command-in-Chief is the latter, being one of the four True Dragons.
  • Played straight and averted in Overlord (2012).
    • Due to how powerful Nazarick and its leader Overlord Ainz Ooal Gown are, many territories surrendered to him either because they were impressed by his almost god-like power, or he threatened them to Join or Die.
    • Within Nazarick itself, Ainz isn't the most powerful; instead the inhabitants consider him a Physical God and are intensely loyal to him, even though they know that some of their members could take him down if they wanted to, they just don't want to.
  • In Armed Girl's Machiavellism combat prowess plays a part in choosing the members of Aiichi's Supreme Five Swords and Hokkai's Six King Swords:
    • At Aiichi the members are appointed by the headmistress at the start of the school year whenever there's a vacancy, and they're chosen among the strongest girls (at times specifically groomed by incumbent members since junior high thanks to Aiichi having both a junior high and high school sections) - though they seemingly need to have perfect grades. Their leader doesn't need to be the strongest (in the lineup during the series Onigawara is the leader, but Kikakujo seems to be the better fighter and Inaba could take on them at the same time). Membership isn't restricted to high school either, though this doesn't usually happen due the strength requirement - thus Inaba being appointed to the Five Swords while still in junior high left everyone outside the Five Swords terrified of her even before her true strength was confirmed.
    • At Hokkai the members aren't appointed by the staff but have won a spot by beating an incumbent member, or even their leader, in single combat - though their leader can appoint someone in case of a vacancy. This is how both the incumbent leader Nonomura and his predecessor Soda got the job, Soda by trouncing the previous leader and Nonomura by crushing Soda's supporters and forcing him to either fight (with the danger of being thrown out of the Six Kings outright) or surrender leadership (and maintaining a spot).
  • Voltes V: Heinel was selected to lead the Earthern Invasion because he was a skilled warrior and bested the other candidates at the Boazanian Institute of Military Sciences and Warfare. He graduated as their top cadet, and has been revered by many other Boazanians (including Jangal) ever since.

Alternative Title(s): Anime And Manga

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