Strong and Skilled

Hulk + Kung Fu = Uh oh.

"Y'know, most folks see me, an' hear my "It's clobberin' time!" and figure I'm just a one-trick pony. But I've picked up a few tricks here an' there, like this hip toss, and fightin' with finesse comes in real handy, lemme tell ya."

— Ben Grimm, Fantastic Four

Some characters are graced with great strength that they never bother to hone: they are Unskilled, but Strong. Other characters have little strength, and compensate with amazing ability and skill: they are Weak, but Skilled.

Then there are characters who are both Strong and Skilled.

There are multiple possibilities here. The Weak, but Skilled characters got an Upgrade Artifact, so now their impeccable poise is impossibly puissant. The Unskilled, but Strong characters decided to train (maybe using a Power Nullifier), giving their fantastic force a fatal finesse. Those characters who have The Gift can only use said power by improving their technique. In an interesting twist, Hard Work Hardly Works is wrong for these characters because all of their innate abilities or powers could only be fully accessed with a lot of training. Or the characters simply have both skill and strength.

The Strong and Skilled characters are likely to surprise enemies because You're Nothing Without Your Phlebotinum is untrue; they can only be Brought Down to Badass. They may be weaker but they're hardly useless, much less unthreatening. As a villain, they'll be at or near the absolute apex of the Sorting Algorithm of Evil. As a hero, they probably are a Showy Invincible Hero who takes all fights seriously.

In anime and comics, they are often The Mentor, The Rival, or just a hopelessly powerful Big Bad. In a video game, they'll probably be That One Boss who has a good AI and ungodly stats/powers. For a PC they may go from the Jack of All Stats to the setting's strongest Lightning Bruiser, bar none.

Compare Master of All, who is great at everything; Badass Bookworm, who is both a fighter and a thinker, but not necessarily the strongest one of the lot; and Genius Bruiser, who is both a thinker and a fighter, but not necessarily a genius about fighting. Contrast Well-Trained, but Inexperienced, a character who may have skills but lacks the real-world experience to use them properly. Sister Trope to Talented, but Trained, the difference being this trope is about a combination of abilities (power and technique) regardless of how they were obtained. The goal of Boxing Lessons for Superman.

Overlaps with Stronger Than They Look if the characters look like they're just Weak, but Skilled.

---

Examples:

• Anime & Manga
• Comic Books

Fan Works

• All For Luz: Unlike Luz and most of the Quirk users in the Humans Realm that are Unskilled, but Strong at best, due to having their superpowers for only over a month at most, the Golden Guard has trained with his four Quirks for about a decade to the point he's awakened two of them, along with being a Master Swordsman, and is powerful enough Lightning Bruiser to challenge Luz as a serious Wake-Up Call Boss.
• Amazing Fantasy has Peter, who has almost all of Izuku's powers and more than 30 years of superhero experience to back them up. This is why he's able to hold his own in a fight against the Prowler while Izuku's couldn't at the start of the story.
• The Bridge often has some of its most powerful cast being both greatly powerful as a base but have training and experience to make them even more dangerous than someone who's Unskilled, but Strong.
  • Godzilla Junior and Monster X are both powerhouses in terms of kaiju due to well above average strength, durability, and energy attacks; but what really makes them so powerful is the fact they know how to fight. Junior due to raw experience and tutelage under King Kong and Monster X is a trained martial artist due to once being an Xilian Super-Soldier.
  • Princess Celestia has more raw magical and physical ability than any other pony in Equestria and personal training from the Founders of Equestria in how to use her powers, then a full thousand years to keep sharp. Princess Luna has similar raw stats but is the weaker of the two due to less experience.
  • This is ultimately the difference between Grand King Ghidorah and Kaizer Ghidorah. Grand King Ghidorah has enormous fire power and abilities, but never trained or got many real battles across his lifetime. Kaizer Ghidorah is very close in terms of power but has all of Monster X's training and knows how to fight.
• In The Butcher Bird, Herman of the Nightmare Pirates becomes this trope over time as he takes up blacksmithing, pairing brute strength and the powers of his Zoan Devil Fruit with increasingly skilled, if straightforward, swordsmanship.
• Child of the Storm:
  • All of the Avengers (bar the Hulk, who's literally the poster boy for Unskilled, but Strong and doesn't really need technique), are this trope. Steve, in addition to being a Super-Soldier, also has years of combat experience, Thor is not just a Physical God and Flying Brick with Shock and Awe powers, but he is an expert in using those powers with 1,500 years of experience, rather than just throwing lightning around here and there, Tony is both a Gadgeteer Genius and excellent pilot of his armor, and so on.
  • Magneto also definitely qualifies for this trope, being both a complete master of one of the fundamental forces of the universe, but having also taken Boxing Lessons for Superman (including multiple science degrees) that allow him to do all sorts of cool stuff with electromagnetism.
  • Harry is very slowly growing into this trope, thanks to Boxing Lessons for Superman from a variety of mentors (including the previously mentioned Magneto). Though he's Unskilled, but Strong by the end of Book 1, as Book 2 goes along he proves himself able to go mind-to-mind in a telepathic duel with one of the most powerful human psychics ever born, then makes an excellent showing against Physical God and Vampire Monarch Dracula, himself very much an example of this trope. By Book III, even when functionally limited to telekinesis and his Cool Sword at this point subbing for a lightsabre - he's pretending to be Obi-Wan Kenobi for reasons that actually make sense in context, he's capable of duelling a pissed off Lobo to a standstill.
• Zarkon was already strong and skilled in his home series, but he’s much more powerful in Code Geass: Paladins of Voltron. In Legendary Defender, he was able to defeat Lance in the Red Lion while on foot, but in Paladins he took on two lions, the Red Lion and Purple Lion, who were being piloted by Kallen and Suzaku respectively, as the two of them are Ace Pilots in their home series.
• Megatron and Optimus Prime in Code Prime are two of the strongest Cybertronians among the Decepticons and Autobots respectively, and both demonstrate why they are the leaders of the two warring factions.
  • When the Black Knights first encounter Megatron at the Battle of Narita, he shrugs off their magnesium rounds, and slaughters a dozen Knightmares before Optimus arrives and fights him to stand still. Then, at the end of R1, Megatron effortlessly demolishes the Excalibur piloted by Charles, a Knightmare made specifically to fight him, due to Charles being a Non-Action Big Bad.
  • The Britannians witness first hand just how powerful Optimus is when he wipes the floor with Cornelia, even as he was holding back throughout the fight. At the end of R1, Optimus is able to fight and defeat Bismark Walden, the Knight of One, even when he used his Geass against Optimus, as the Prime was able to figure out the weakness in Bismark’s Geass.
• Codex Equus: Justified with Canteros. He had been raised by Amareros, who despite his incredible power and age is a very benevolent and heroic god. Because of this, Canteros is a powerful and skilled Love deity who's capable of dealing as much damage as his father, to the point where it's still debated whether he qualifies as a Primeval or Preeminent deity.
• In A Dance on the Mats, Anon is a skilled fighter with the muscle to go with it.
• In Man of Steel story Daughter of Fire and Steel, Kara is a highly-trained soldier with the full Kryptonian powerset. She's also the first of Zod's crew to master her senses without the need for her helmet.
• Defenders of the Universe has Jasper, the strongest soldier Homeworld has ever created. Lotor notes in his fight with her that she doesn't rely entirely on brute strength alone and is a skilled warrior.
• Fate/Harem Antics: Berserker/Minamoto no Raikou is so strong that she can overpower Saber and Rider at the same time. She also has Eternal Arms Mastery, a Skill that allows her to keep her supreme weapon skills despite being Berserker.
• Friendly Foreign Exchange Student Spider-Man! has Peter Parker, who is able to lift a car and crush it with relative ease while also preferring a more acrobatic and skill-based fighting style.
• In From Muddy Waters, Todoroki notices that Izuku's movements with his powerful strength enhancement Quirk are too smooth and practiced to be simply self-taught like most of Class 1-A, inferring that Izuku must have been trained like he was by his father. This connection is what causes Todoroki to see Izuku as a kindred spirit and to quickly try to make friends with him. This makes Izuku feel even more like a fraud, as his "training" mainly consisted of games that he would play with his father as a child and never turned physically abusive.
• Frost: What makes the titular character more dangerous than Frieza is not only his higher power level, but also the fact Frost is much more conventionally skilled at combat than his brother. Frost can control his energy at full power with no issue, sense power levels, and has enough mental and physical discipline to train in a gravity chamber.
• Cyril/Klaus from The Good Hunter. The "strong" part is obvious with the Super-Strength he possesses. The "skilled" part comes from his combat experience accumulated through hunting down beasts and presumably dying to them numerous times in Yharnam.
• Dev-Em from Hellsister Trilogy is a Kryptonian as well as a cop and spy. He knows all of kind of fighting styles.
• In Kara of Rokyn, the titular main character not only won the Superpower Lottery but also learns wrestling moves and martial arts, becoming even more dangerous.
• By the time she's arrived in Thedas, Arturia very much showcases her power and ability in A Knight's Tale as Inquisitor. Having been born with the Dragon Core, a trait that gives her all the power and magical abilities of a dragon, Arturia has FAR more prana than the average magus. More importantly, she's been trained since she was a child in swordsmanship and has learned to use her prana to boost her already practically inhuman strength and expert swordplay, along with revealing other skills that took her years of practice to achieve and master.
• Maidenless No Longer: The Tarnished is level 713 in a world where reaching level 150 is more than enough to clear the entire game, and he has the skills that got him all that power in the first place. He spends most of the boss fights casually dodging every blow with ease, except for the times he decides to tank a few hits for whatever reason.
• The Night Unfurls:
  • The Hunter, naturally. A Lightning Bruiser, Combat Pragmatist, with way more combat experience than anyone else in the story.
  • His four apprentices are trained to become this. Empowered by the Good Hunter's blood aside, the end-game level Bloodborne weapons (or rather, hand-me-downs) they possess provide the bulk of their strength and the damage they deal to enemies.
• Discussed in Pokémon Reset Bloodlines. Ash's Boldore evolves into Gigalith through round trade, and she gets a bit high on her newfound strength. Charizard, who recognizes that attitude (having gone through it himself), decides to knock her down a peg by showing her that power alone can't match power and skill together.
• Star Wars: Lineage has several Jedi such as Yoda, Mace Windu, Dooku, Qui-Gon, and, increasingly, Obi-Wan, who are powerful in the Force and as such can perform amazing feats, but also have decades of combat experience under their belts.
• In Stallion of the Line, Luffy is a sorta reincarnation of Ranma Saotome with all his memories and skills on top of knowing rokushiki and having some skill with haki. Unlike canon Luffy who is forced to flee from Smoker until after the timeskip, here Luffy only has trouble the first time they fight because he doesn't want to resort to haki. By the end of Alabasta, Luffy takes down a Vice Admiral with only moderate trouble.
• Teen Titans Tokyo has a dynamic where almost the entirety of the titular team are this trope — the one exception is Nabiki Tendo, an Unskilled, but Strong Were Dragon... at least, she's Unskilled, but Strong at the start of the series...
  • Ranma Saotome is a teen martial arts prodigy who has been training in Supernatural Martial Arts his entire life. The result is that he is not only an incredibly adaptable and skilled warrior, but many times stronger, faster and more agile than a human being.
  • Shan Pu has the same basic background as Ranma Saotome, but she also gets transformed into a half-gozu, thus boosting her already formidable levels of Super-Strength.
  • Blackfire is a Tamaranean warrior princess with both Super-Strength, Hand Blasts and years of martial arts training across the galaxy.
• The Vampire of Steel has Buffy Summers hijack a Kryptonian body for a short while, meaning a fierce and experienced warrior gained -temporarily- the power to push a planet and move faster than light.
• Voyages of the Wild Sea Horse: What makes the Kamikaze Pirates so dangerous is that in contrast to most pirate crews, which tend to rely on brute force applied through various means, all of its members are firm believers that it is best to be both strong and skilled. Ranma Saotome considers himself almost as much the crew's sensei as its captain, so he is adamant about training the crew up to his standards. When he discovers that Lilith has been coasting by on her Zoan abilities, he forces her to start training as well.
• White Sheep (RWBY):
  • When he's not using his Grimm powers, Jaune is Unskilled, but Strong; he can rarely hit his opponent or dodge an attack, but he's so ridiculously tough that he can usually just keep fighting until his opponent is worn out. However, when he is using his Grimm powers, Juane is a Lightning Bruiser with Super-Strength and Super-Toughness above what he possesses in human form, four Combat Tentacles that he uses to devastating effect, and a lot of experience from spars with his sisters (part of his problem with fighting in human form is that he actively has to stop from using his Grimm powers). When he gets locked in an Unstoppable Rage he fights all of Team RYBN at once and nearly kills them, and is only stopped by Ruby's Silver Eye powers activating early.
  • Adam is one of the strongest characters in the series, and is one of the only people who is able to fight Jaune in Grimm form at an even level. He boasts that raw, uncontrolled strength is worthless, which is why the White Fang will win. Whether he could have actually killed Jaune is unclear, because Jaune wasn't uncontrolled—he was just stalling for Kevin to arrive. And no matter how skilled Adam is, against a giant Grimm dragon he's just a man with a pointy stick.
  • General Ironwood has half his body replaced with cutting-edge cybernetics, and is also able to fight Jaune in Grimm form. Though it turned out to just be a show so that they could fake a war, Jaune does complain that Ironwood hits hard.
• A Whole New Yang: The original Yang was already a skilled fighter, along with her being a powerhouse, but "Yang" fits this even more with her intelligence, constant work ethnic, and two Semblances.
• In the sequel to Yet again, with a little extra help, Take Two Round Two, Naruto firmly establishes himself as this. He has an extensive and versatile range of techniques built off his Seventh Sense technique ranging from illusions, Razor Winds, Flight and a plethora of destructive moves, ranging from his trademark Rasengan to a Rasenshuriken variant that can level a small country. He is also a brutal Combat Pragmatist that makes extensive preparations whenever possible, has mastered the use of Obfuscating Stupidity to act as a form of Confusion Fu mid-fight, and is much more tactical with his clones, using them as scouts and setup for multiple high level techniques mid-battle while always having a few ready for sneak attacks.
• Mary Jane Watson is this in Ultimate Spider-Woman: Change With The Light. Despite her tender years, she was already a third-degree blackbelt when her spider powers manifested. This helped her quickly figure out how they worked.

Films — Live-Action

• Afflicted: Having had several decades to master her vampiric powers, Audrey easily kicks Derek's ass when he tries to kill her during the climax.
• DC Extended Universe:
  • Man of Steel: Zod and his crew get Clark Kent/Kal-El's powers when exposed to Earth's yellow Sun in addition to Kryptonian military training. Kal's not really prepared by comparison, though he does his best.
    Zod: I was bred to be a warrior, Kal. Trained my entire life to master my senses. Where did you train? ON A FARM?!
  • Diana of Themyscira aka Wonder Woman. A thousands year old Amazon demigoddess, Diana is a skilled swordswoman and unarmed combatant which coupled with her godly strength and speed, makes her a formidable opponent to face.
  • Arthur Curry aka Aquaman is an Atlantean-human hybrid who possesses superhuman abilities surpassing all normal humans and most Atlanteans. He has received combat training from his mentor Nudis Vulko since his childhood and is a master of both land and sea combat.
• Colonel William Stuart from Die Hard 2: Die Harder. He's in excellent physical shape and an outstanding combatant who easily defeats John with some impressive Karate, Muay Thai and Taekwondo moves.
• Godzilla:
  • Godzilla vs. Kong: Mechagodzilla was designed to be able to rival and attempt to surpass Godzilla in power, with a 460-foot metallic body that's armed to the teeth with the Proton Scream, missile launchers, thrusters and plasma punches. It's also able to use and maneuver its body in an uncannily human-like manner, and once it gains a mind of its own, it seems to know everything about how to use its body and onboard weaponry against its foes; whilst exhibiting an almost trained-looking humanoid fighting style in close quarters (with Jared Krichevsky commenting that the Mecha has a lot of hand-to-hand fighting moves) – this is especially impressive since the Titan which Mechagodzilla's soul originally came from was a three-headed, winged Armless Biped, with a very different body plan and abilities. Mechagodzilla proves to be one of the more powerful foes that both Godzilla and Kong have ever fought, coming very close to killing both of them even after they team up with each-other against it (albeit partly because Godzilla and Kong were already heavily exhausted in advance of fighting the Mecha).
  • Godzilla vs. Gigan Rex sees its Godzilla be as strong and durable as other Godzillas — but he's not not sorely reliant on that fact as he seen parrying, dodging, and blocking to help create openings for his counterattacks.
• Both Albus Dumbledore and Gellert Grindlewald from the Fantastic Beasts films. Both of them are confirmed by Wordof God to be the smartest and most powerful characters in the Harry Potter franchise. Both men have incredible inherent magical power and have trained/studied extensively.
• The Lord of the Rings:
  • Legolas is an elf, which naturally grants him enhanced physical abilities such as agility, speed, endurance, and precision. However, he's also a master archer with Improbable Aiming Skills and hundreds if not thousands of years of experience.
  • Thorin Oakenshield from The Hobbit trilogy, who is a dwarf and possesses natural strength, but also a skilled swordsman who can take on much larger enemies like goblins.
• Thaddeus the Blacksmith from The Man with the Iron Fists receives exceptional strength after his Painful Transformation. He had already been trained by Shaolin monks and was a talented martial artist as well as being knowledgeable about qi control, part of the reason he can use the titular Iron Fists in the first place. This sets him up against Brass Body, who seems for all intents and purposes to be Unskilled, but Strong until he shows himself as a master of Tiger Style.
• Neo from The Matrix. Along with his Flying Brick powers, Neo runs a range of programs that makes him a master in various martial arts.
• The One has Gabe Law and his doppleganger from another universe, Gabe Yulaw. Due to Yulaw murdering alternate versions of himself from other universes, he and Gabe possess superhuman strength, speed and agility. Both Law and Yulaw are martial arts masters, with Law specializing in Baguazhang while Yulaw uses Xing Yi Quan.
• Star Wars:
  • Anakin Skywalker/Darth Vader. Being The Chosen One, he has the highest potential for any Force-sensitive. But on top of his immensely high raw power, he is also a trained Jedi and later a Sith Lord, who is very skilled and experienced in combat and use of the Force.
  • Yoda, Mace Windu, and the Emperor are all just a few notches below him in raw power (usually due to old age), but make up for that in far more skill with the lightsaber and in Force techniques.
• Underworld (2003):
  • Viktor is a Vampire Elder, making him stronger than a normal vampire, as shown when he effortlessly lifts a fully transformed Lycan up by the throat and then snaps its neck, all with one hand. He's also a warlord with centuries of combat experience, best shown when he faces off against the newly hybridized Michael Corvin; while Michael is stronger and faster, Viktor's superior fighting skills soon allow him to turn the tide.
  • Selene, the main heroine of the films, is no slouch either. She has the standard strength, speed, agility and stamina of a vampire and has centuries worth of fighting experience, with training in martial arts and use of firearms. Selene also hits the Superpower Lottery in later movies, gaining the ability to walk in daylight in the second film and increased strength and speed in the fifth.
• The Janitor from Willy's Wonderland. He's strong enough to fight what are effectively robots hand to hand (robots that, if Willy's any indication, can cleave a person in half effortlessly), and skilled enough to wage a one-man war against them.
• Wolverine from X-Men Film Series. His mutation includes enhanced physiology, Super-Senses, and a Healing Factor that makes him Immune to Bullets. However, he's also an exceptionally skilled combatant with decades of experience as a soldier. Even going up against enemies who are physically more powerful, Wolverine's combat experience allows him to keep up.

Literature

• A Certain Magical Index:
  • Kanzaki Kaori is a Saint, which grants her superhuman speed, strength and durability (able to survive in space and fall from orbit with no issues) that surpasses all but the strongest characters in the setting. She's also an Iaijutsu Practitioner, makes masterful use of Razor Floss to barrage opponents from multiple directions simultaneously and uses a hybrid form of magic that can theoretically kill an angel. The result is someone who can curbstomp a team of Magic Knights while holding back enough to avoid killing them and is only outmatched by serious winners of the Superpower Lottery.
  • Level 5's play with this trope, as they require an in-depth understanding of the physics behind their abilities (and by extension their practical applications) in order to achieve that level of power in the first place and any use of them requires incredibly complex calculations to be done manually to achieve any sort of noticeable effect. However most overlap with Unskilled, but Strong since they mainly apply the most basic use in a fight and are largely content to to simply spam such abilities against opponents.
    • The straightest example is Mikoto Misaka, who makes full use of her electromagnetism for electric and magnetism based attacks and her skill with the latter is such that she is known by her signature railgun. She also displays plenty of nuance with her powers, manipulating 'iron sand' as razor sharp Combat Tentacles, using magnetism for enhanced mobility and when affected with a paralysing drug, showed enough precision to move her body by stimulating the individual nerves.
  • Acqua of the Back of the Roman Catholic Church's God's Right Seat not only possesses the power of Archangel Gabriel, but thanks to a certain Game-Breaker ability he can also use the "normal" magic abilities he possessed beforehand when he should have given up those up to gain said angelic powers, which gives him a large repertoire of magical abilities to fall back on. On top of that, he also retains decades worth of experience as a wandering mercenary and is a Saint, such that he can face off and defeat most foes without relying on his magic. Altogether, this makes him one of the single strongest characters in the series and the second strongest of God's Right Seat, only beaten out by Fiamma of the Right because his specific power is just that broken despite sorely lacking in the physical or experience department.
• There are many examples in The Dresden Files, but the worst is probably the Skinwalker in the eleventh book, Turn Coat. A Native American shapeshifting monster, it can turn into any number of monstrous and clawed creatures and is terrifyingly strong. But it can also use magic, is happy to retreat if the numbers aren't good, and will wait for the right moment to strike. Dresden finally corners it with too tempting a bait and lures it into a knock-down fight, and when he finally catches it in a choking spell, it simply remembers to draw a circle around itself to break the connection.
• In Fate/Zero, we have the Black Knight, who is summoned as Servant Berserker. Normally, Berserkers are Unskilled, but Strong, trading their weapon proficiencies for ungodly boosts in raw power, but the Zero Berserker has a Skill called Eternal Arms Mastery that lets him use his full weapon skills even when berserking, and a Noble Phantasm called Knight of Owner that allows him to wield anything he grabs onto as a weapon at maximum proficiency. Even Gilgamesh can't do much better than slow him down. In the end, Berserker is killed by mana deprivation when his Master can't keep his summoning going — he remains undefeated in actual combat.
• The Hero is Overpowered but Overly Cautious zigzags on this. Seiya has the usual isekai protagonist cheat ability, this time being able to level up faster than usual, and uses this to immediately become both overpowered and very resourceful, allowing him to kill one of the Demon Lord's generals soon after touching down in Gaeabrande. However, he loses the "strong" part when he hits the level cap, only to find that there are still opponents such as the aforementioned Demon Lord who would absolutely crush him in a straight fight, requiring him to dive headlong into the "skilled" part to make any more progress.
• High School D×D: True Longinus user Cao Cao has enough power in his weapons to vaporize an ultimate class devil with ease, his subspecies balance breaker also allows him highly polished techniques for tactical combat. He was so skilled that he developed a subspecies for his balance breaker. He possesses seven techniques in it.
• How Not to Summon a Demon Lord: Diablo is a Genre Savvy Godlike Gamer who has extensive knowledge of how RPGs work and a vast array of magical skills, though his stats are also unbelievably high so that he can triumph over enemies using raw power alone while only exerting fractions of his full strength.
• Sword Art Online:
  • Kirito qualifies during the Aincrad arc. He has extremely high stats to use in combat, as well as the knowledge and skill to make the best of them due to having prior experience as a beta-player. The fact he was granted the unique skill Dual Wielding is proof that he has the fastest reaction time or of all they played in the game. It gets downplayed in later seasons when he tries new games using his old avatar, where he retains his stats but lacks the experience which makes him Unskilled, but Strong. Although even this is up in the air, as he does retain his skill with the sword from previous games which he can use in the new environment of an unfamiliar game. There's also the fact Kirito has an impressive ability to master a new game very early and will quickly ascend the ranks despite only playing for a few days.
  • Asuna started off as Unskilled, but Strong, having never gamed in her life before, but was immediately shown to be exceptionally fast and strong, with speed that even Kirito had trouble keeping up with. However, after the two year Time Skip, her fierce dedication to clearing the game granted her extensive skill and experience, where she ends up as the second/third best player in SAO, being only below Kirito and Heathcliff.
  • Heathcliff/Kayaba is the Game Master of SAO, and thus has OP admin privileges. And since he was the one who created the game, no one understands the game's mechanics better than he does. Even after voluntarily turning off his admin privileges and leveling the playing field, he's still able to hold his own against Kirito and would have beaten him if it wasn't for a combination of blind luck and The Power of Love.
  • Most members of the Aincrad Assault Team are also this, such as Klein and Agil. While falling short of Kirito and Asuna, these players are among the elite and have extensively honed their skills and stats, as well as surviving just as much punishment along the way.
  • Leafa/Suguha is an odd example. In the context of the series, she actually falls into this in real life. She's a national level kendo champion, which gives her impressive physical abilities on top of the combat skill that all her gamer friends possess. Interestingly in-game she's actually Weak, but Skilled as her stats are much lower than Kirito,^note Because of Kirito's previous stats from SAO being integrated into his ALO character. but her real-life talents in kendo completely make up for this. In Ordinal Scale she had to be sidelined for most of the film because she would have resolved the plot immediately compared to her friends who are lacking in physical attributes.
  • Sinon, to a degree. She's a prodigy at Gun Gale Online where she quickly garnered the reputation as the greatest sniper in the game. Her sniper rifle, Hecate II is one of the most powerful weapons in the game and capable of inflicting incredible damage. She's also able to show off her vast knowledge about the game to the then inexperienced Kirito. However, Sinon sometimes falls into being Weak, but Skilled, as she's a Glass Cannon who can dish out a lot of damage, but has little in the way of close-range melee combat. This is especially evident when she starts playing ALO, where she's only had her account for two weeks with flimsy stats to go along with it, but her precision is so exceptional that she has Improbable Aiming Skills with a bow and arrow.
  • General Eugene who is said to be (at the time) the World's Best Warrior of ALO. It is noted that he's equally skilled and strong as Kirito during their duel, however he's able to gain the advantage with his superior equipment. It takes Kirito using several sneaky tactics^note a smokescreen, stealthily grabbing a second sword, and using the sun to impair vision for Kirito to be victorious.
  • Yuuki, who boasts the feat of winning 77 consecutive duels, as well as the only player to best Kirito in combat. This is attributed to her full diving 24/7, therefore having more virtual experience than anyone else, including SAO survivors. Kirito said her speed was so impressive that if she was in SAO, she would have received the Dual Wielding unique skill^note granted to the player with the fastest reaction time rather than Kirito. Even entering a new game, she's so familiar with the mechanics that it's second nature to her, and quickly usurps whoever previously held the title of the strongest player. Proof of her skill comes from her developing the 11-hit Original Sword Skill Mother's Rosario.
  • Death Gun/Sterben. Like Kirito he has the swordsmanship skills from his times in SAO, but overall he's equipped with much better gear due to Shouichi paying an extensive amount of money to fit him with the best, as well as making a crudely-built estoc, which is much more suited to his style than Kirito's Photon Sword.
  • Quinella originally seems to just be Unskilled, but Strong given her preference for using her god-like Administration powers and her mastery of the Sacred Arts over actually fighting, but when she finally decides to throw down with Kirito she proves her mastery of sword combat is nearly as impressive. Throughout the fight she's able to hold her own and even able to thrash him at several points with Sword Skills despite him using her Achilles' Heel, Dual Wielding, and herself down an arm from Eugeo's actions earlier. It ultimately takes him sacrificing one of his own arms to take her remaining one before he can open up a finishing strike.
  • Gabriel Miller. Not only does he have a powerful Incarnation, he's as skilled as one would expect from a modern soldier, as shown in his GGO fights where he's an expert in using knives and firearms. He is also able to see the weaknesses in Aincrad's unarmed combat style, which puts Kirito at a disadvantage when fighting him this way. However, he's less skilled with swords and other weapons that generally aren't used in modern warfare.
• Kuma Kuma Kuma Bear gives Yuna, who has been playing a VR RPG game for a year, the extremely powerful Bear Set before causing her to be Isekai'd to a world based on the game's mechanics. Due to this, her veteran status as a gamer allows her to quickly become known as "The Bloody Bear" and "The Alpha Predator of Alpha Predators".
• Berne in The Acts of Caine novel Heroes Die. He doesn't have as much skill as Action Girl Talann, but he is close enough, and has superior power thanks to Ma'elKoth. She initially holds out, but her inability to close the power gap gets her beaten and killed.
• In the Jack Reacher novels, the main character is extremely strong, highly trained, and has decades of experience in hand-to-hand combat. This is especially notable in the times when he goes up against someone his size or larger, frequently winning due to superior fighting skill.
• The Last Horizon: Varic started the story as extremely skilled and strong, basically the height of power for his Iteration. Then he gains the knowledge and skill of five additional alternate selves, making him more than the sum of his parts and becoming the greatest wizard in the history of the galaxy—even though, in terms of raw power, he's still exactly the same.
  [Varic] strolled up to the barrier spell outside, glanced at it, and then waved a hand. The spell parted as though he'd swept aside a curtain.
  Teranon made a choking sound. "What?"
  That hadn't been a display of raw power. It was skill, but on a different level than anything they had ever seen. It was like watching someone perform molecular surgery with a kitchen-knife.
• The Locked Tomb: Harrowhark is a preternaturally gifted necromancer who's also an obsessive student, shocking millenia-old lyctors with her ability. She also suffers from from severe self-loathing as a result of her parents murdering hundreds of children to grant her this power, which is why she feels obligated to hone her skills to the finest edge.
• In Mistborn: The Original Trilogy, the Lord Ruler is both overwhelmingly powerful and (arguably even more important in allomancy) extremely tricky. The result is terrifyingly effective and allows for some of his most spectacular abilities.
• In The Stormlight Archive, also by Brandon Sanderson, this is true of Kaladin by later in the series. At one point he is ambushed with a Power Nullifier, and a Fused mocks him that Radiants are nothing without their powers. He kills them all anyway.
• In The Princess Bride what the Man in Black aka Westley so impressive was that he not only physically overpowered Fezzik The Giant but he also defeated Inigo who's a Master Swordsman in a duel. He also outwitted an Evil Genius like Vizzini in a battle of wits making him a Genius Bruiser as well, Inigo believes if the Man in Black combined his talent with his own and Fezzik's they'd be an unstoppable trio, which is proved to be correct.
• Horace Altman, of Ranger's Apprentice, has immense natural talent, but also advanced training from experts such as Sir Rodney, Shukin, Gilan, and Selethen, and is tall and well-muscled on top of that. The result? A Master Swordsman nearly unstoppable in personal combat.
• A Song of Ice and Fire:
  • Jaime is considered the Seven Kingdom's hottest Master Swordsman of his era. When numbering the fighters who are physically stronger than him, he can only think of a few names.
  • Robert Baratheon is said to have towered over lesser men, with the physique of a woman's fantasy, and was also one of the best fighters of his era, leading his armies from the front line.
  • When Strongboar boasts that he would like to face Sandor Clegane in single combat, Jaime believes that it's a foolish idea. While Strongboar shares Sandor's enormous strength, he lacks the man's speed, skill and savagery.
  • Gregor Clegane, despite being the Dumb Muscle for the Lannister army, is both the World's Strongest Man as well as a knight and a veteran of many battles. While dueling against the cagier and cannier Oberyn, Tyrion is forced to admit that Gregor still has all the instincts of an experienced fighter, such as moving to put the sun at his back to gain an advantage.
• Zig-zagged in The Wheel of Time with Rand al'Thor, The Chosen One and the world's strongest channeler of the One Power. He alternates between being Unskilled, but Strong, particularly in the early books, and using incredibly advanced techniques courtesy of Past-Life Memories from his previous incarnation in the Age of Legends. With experience and training, he settles into this trope to a nigh-superhuman degree.

Live-Action TV

• Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.: Daisy Johnson after being trained by Melinda May. In Dirty Half Dozen, Daisy killed nearly a dozen Hydra agents, and she didn't even use her powers.
• Arrow:
  • Slade Wilson, much like his comic book counterpart. This Slade was The Mentor to Oliver Queen, who would go on to become the World's Best Warrior. However Slade also became an Empowered Badass Normal thanks to being injected with Mirakuru. He was an extremely difficult opponent due to both his top notch skill and his superhuman strength. He was only beaten by being Brought Down to Badass and leveling the playing field, and even then he put up quite a fight.
  • Roy Harper temporarily became this after he was injected with Mirakuru. Already quite a skilled combatant in his own right due to growing up on the streets, he now had inhuman strength to boot. Then Oliver takes Roy under his wing to help him control his strength. After being Brought Down to Badass he retains his skills but his strength has gone back to standard human level.
  • Vigilante is an incredibly formidable opponent, with hand-to-hand combat skills able to rival Oliver and Prometheus, while being The Gunslinger who has Improbable Aiming Skills. However, in Season 6, it's revealed he doesn't operate on skill alone, as he's actually a metahuman with a Healing Factor that lets him survive his most brutal injuries.
  • Oliver himself would ascend to this in Crisis On Infinite Earths after he becomes The Spectre, making him the most powerful hero in the multiverse. Oliver already being a contender for World's Best Warrior ends up an Empowered Badass Normal when he gets granted the god-like Reality Warper powers of the Spectre, making him a Person of Mass Destruction on multiversal levels. Not only is he able to fight evenly against the Anti-Monitor (the closest the series has to an The Anti-God) but he's able to recreate the destroyed multiverse.
• Black Lightning:
  • The titular character has years of experience as a superhero and mastery of his electricity powers. He is also a trained martial artist and was able to best his Arch-Enemy Tobias Whale in hand-to-hand combat when Whale prepared a countermeasure for Jefferson's powers.
  • The aforementioned Tobias Whale has Super-Strength and is a trained martial artist.
  • Anissa, Jefferson's daughter, has superhuman strength and toughness and is a trained hand-to-hand combatant.
• Buffyverse:
  • Spike is a vampire of 120+ years, and vampires get Stronger with Age. In addition, he's an excellent fighter, having personally killed two past Slayers. While facing off against Illyria, a demonic Physical God, he initially gets knocked around by her strength, but over time, he begins to adapt and dodge her blows and gets a few shots in. Illyria disparages him as being weak for adapting and compromising, to which Spike retorts that it is a strength because he's learning.
  • Buffy Summers is largely Taught by Experience. She has the superpowers that come with being the Slayer, and is the oldest, longest-lived one, having achieved numerous victories over such beings as vampires, demons, cyborgs, and even Physical Gods; by the time of Season 5, she's able to defeat groups of almost 20 vampires by herself.
  • Angel is a vampire of over 200+ years, and is thus stronger and faster than an ordinary vampire. He's also a master martial artist and Multi-Melee Master, once beating a group of over 20 vampires and demons by himself.
• The Flash (2014):
  • Eobard Thawne/Reverse-Flash. Due to his years worth of experience as a speedster over Barry Allen, Thawne would always have an edge over his nemesis in battle. Thawne had dedicated his life to unlocking the secrets of the Speed Force, while also finding means of amping up his speed such as with the Tachyon Prototype. Even when Thawne was temporarily Brought Down to Badass by a Power Nullifier Trick Arrow, he was still able to fight evenly with Oliver Queen (who at that stage was the World's Best Warrior) using hand-to-hand skill alone. However, Barry eventually becomes quite a bit faster than him.
  • Hunter Zolomon/Zoom. Like Reverse-Flash, Zoom is far more experienced as a speedster than Barry and is able to teach him tricks like throwing lightning. His speed is also worthy of boasting, given he has been heavily accumulating it due to abuse of the Velocity speed drug.
  • Savitar. He's the fastest speedster to ever appear on the show, and being trapped in the Speed Force, Savitar has learned countless tricks of the trade that allow him to overpower his opponents.
  • Barry Allen/The Flash himself eventually becomes this, after years of experience as a speedster he's learnt all the tricks of the trade and remains the Fastest Man Alive after several speed boosts.
• Grimm:
  • Nick Burkhardt is a trained police officer and an experienced fighter. He likewise possesses the powers of a Grimm to the point that he's often stronger than most super strong Wesen. This combination means he's next to invincible in a fist fight.
  • Being a half-Zauberbiest, Sean Renard possesses the physical strength of one, making him Nick's equal. He's likewise an incredibly capable fighter, able to casually defeat numerous opponents.
  • Kelly Burkhardt, Nick's mother, possesses enough physical strength to causally pin down Monroe and is outright the best warrior in the show, able to beat even her son.
• Kamen Rider:
  • The original Kamen Rider was a genius with an estimated IQ of 600, as well as a proficient athlete and martial artist, before Shocker turned him into a cyborg powerful enough to survive being at ground zero of a nuclear bomb.
  • Kamen Rider Kabuto is both the strongest of the Riders and by far the most skillful, and he knows it. Very little throughout the show actually challenges him, not even a perfect clone of him.
  • Kamen Rider Gaim and his rival Baron spend long enough low on the totem pole that they develop better fighting skills than everyone else to compensate, and then get more and more power throughout the show so that by the final episode each of them is a Physical God capable of tearing through an army of monsters as nothing but a warmup to their actual final showdown with each other.
  • Kamen Rider Ex-Aid swings between being the strongest and weakest Rider throughout the course of the show due to its Lensman Arms Race, eventually settling on the position of strongest. In all forms, however, he's by far the most skilled fighter of the main Riders, capable of defeating opponents far above his level. The only other Rider with comparable or even better skills is Parado, his Enemy Without, who also commands one of the most powerful forms in the show.
  • Kamen Rider Build is an unusual example, as while his fighting skills are mostly just average rather than pointed to as exceptional, being a Science Hero makes him by far the most adaptable, capable of building whatever tool he needs to deal with the problem in front of him. His closest ally, Kamen Rider Cross-Z, is a straighter example, as he starts out a professionally trained boxer and keeps up with Build's more advanced weapons and armor all throughout the show simply by getting stronger and more skillful. The Big Bad is another example, an alien Planet Eater who hasn't let his status as one of the strongest beings in the universe keep him from developing enough fighting skills that even losing most of his powers doesn't cripple him.
  • Kamen Rider Saber ends with a Boss Rush against the former masters of the Sword of Logos, resurrected as zombies with even greater physical strength than they had in their prime, as well as mastery of every sword technique and elemental ability that the heroes know since they were the creators of those styles. Defeating them requires the modern Riders to come up with numerous new techniques on the spot, and even with that, two-thirds of the party die in the process.
• Legends of Tomorrow:
  • Ray Palmer/Atom was once firmly Unskilled, but Strong, relying on the superior power of his Powered Armor to overwhelm enemies, but skilled enough opponents like Oliver and Thawne were capable of bypassing his suit's powers and disabling it. So he ended up taking Boxing Lessons for Superman and gets rudimentary fight ability even when he's outside the suit.
  • Jefferson "Jax" Jackson, who is one half of the superhero Firestorm. Among the Legends, Firestorm is one of (if not the most) powerful hero on their team with his Flying Firepower abilities. But even without his powers, Jax is quite skilled in street brawling and proves to be a Badass Normal in his own right.
  • Vandal Savage is an immortal, which makes him very difficult to kill. But he's also spent his millennia-long lifespan amassing knowledge in many forms of combat, making him an extremely dangerous enemy. He's also sometimes depicted with Super-Strength although this is a bit inconsistent.
  • Amaya Jiwe/Vixen has been granted incredible physical power thanks to the Anansi Totem, but even without it she is still a Badass Normal with a fifth-degree black belt and expert in handling a wide assortment of weapons.
• Leverage: Elliot Spencer may be the team's Hitter, but his arsenal of skills (cooking, music, relationships with women, among others) is nothing to be sneezed at, either. Likewise for Parker the Thief.
• Smallville: For the first eight seasons of the show, Clark is Unskilled, but Strong, relying heavily on his powers in a fight and being outmatched by more skilled opponents like General Zod. Come Season 9, he begins training with Jor-El and becomes this. Even when Brought Down to Normal by exposure to blue Kryptonite, he was able to hold his own against Alia, a Kryptonian soldier.
• Vecna/Henry Creel from Stranger Things. Henry and Eleven are easily the two most powerful psychics in the series, with Henry easily massacring the other psychics at Hawkins Lab and absorbing their potential. However, while it's implied that Unskilled, but Strong Eleven has greater power and potential, Henry is a self-taught prodigy with far more experience and finesse than Eleven.
• The Mandalorian: Din Djarin/Mando later becomes this trope after acquiring Beskar Armor. He was already very skilled, taking on beasts and opponents far superior to him. But as the story progresses, he becomes a Tank that can deflect blaster-fire and take on Moff Gideon single-handedly.
• True Blood: Tara Thornton becomes this after being turned into a vampire. On top of the usual vampire powers, she was an MMA fighter as a human; this enabled her to defeat Jessica Hamby in a fight despite Jessica being an older and more powerful vamp.
• Wonder Woman (1975): The titular heroine is a super-strong trained warrior.

Multiple Media

• Godzilla:
  • Godzilla vs. Kong: Mechagodzilla was designed to be able to rival and attempt to surpass Godzilla in power, with a 460-foot metallic body that's armed to the teeth with the Proton Scream, missile launchers, thrusters and plasma punches. It's also able to use and maneuver its body in an uncannily human-like manner, and once it gains a mind of its own, it seems to know everything about how to use its body and onboard weaponry against its foes whilst exhibiting an almost trained-looking humanoid fighting style in close quarters – this is especially impressive since the Titan which Mechagodzilla's soul originally came from was a three-headed, winged Armless Biped, with a very different body plan and abilities. The Mecha proves to be one of the more powerful foes that both Godzilla and Kong have ever fought, coming very close to killing both of them even after they team up with each-other against it (albeit partly because Godzilla and Kong were already heavily exhausted in advance of fighting the Mecha).
  • Godzilla vs. Gigan Rex: Godzilla is presented here as being powerful enough to casually handle the Gigans, and skilled enough to dodge, catch and parry their attacks when he wants to.
• Marvel Cinematic Universe:
  • Steve Rogers/Captain America is a Super-Soldier imbued with superhuman physiology and is an expert hand-to-hand combatant as well. Cap also becomes more and more of Combat Pragmatist as the movies go on, Word of God also reveals Steve studied modern martial arts during his time unfrozen in the 21st century.
  • Tony Stark/Iron Man started off as Unskilled, but Strong, relying on the raw physical power of his Powered Armor, but he started receiving Boxing Lessons for Superman so he wouldn't be defenseless outside of the suit. Later films show even outside of the suit he's a Badass Normal capable of putting up a fight against Winter Soldier using his fighting skills and a few gadgets he had on him. Combined with his most advanced suit, he proved to be one of the few Avengers that could stand up to Thanos in Avengers: Infinity War, even making the Mad Titan bleed.
  • Thor: Ragnarok reveals Thor previously didn't have mastery over his Shock and Awe powers and needed Mjolnir to channel it. He eventually learns to tap into his full power, where his usage of lightning is devastating and had him completely demolishing Hela's army. The same movie reaffirms him to already be this in general combat, strong enough to trade blows with Hulk but with millennia of experience fighting superhuman aliens, he was winning until outside forces cheated.
  • From the same movie there's also Hela, who is strong enough to crush Mjolnir in her bare hand and skilled enough to throw her blades with killer accuracy into major Asgardian heroes. Thousand years worth of combat (before Thor was even born) has ensured Hela can't be beaten in a physical confrontation and Thor and co need Surtur to obliterate Asgard to kill her for real.
  • Vision invokes this due to his superior strength, speed, durability, and intangibility combined with a Benevolent A.I. computer intellect. Vision easily overpowers the likes of Hawkeye and even Giant-Man, and even when wounded and depowered Vision held his own and killed Corvus Glaive.
  • Bucky Barnes/Winter Soldier has enhanced physiology and a concrete crushing cybernetic arm in addition to decades of experience as a Professional Killer. It's very telling in his debut movie only Cap could match Bucky in combat while everyone else (including Black Widow and Falcon) get trounced by him. However when faced with genuine superhumans, rather than just Badass Normals in Civil War Bucky does struggle immensely.
  • T'Challa/Black Panther is not only a skilled martial artist and brilliant strategist, but he also ingested the heart-shaped herb that grants him enhanced strength, speed, and durability. In his debut movie, T'challa easily overpowers aforementioned Bucky and relentlessly hunts him down and even manages to defeat Bucky in his Winter Soldier mode, despite not wearing his Vibranium Suit. In his solo movie T'challa when Brought Down to Normal overpowers M'Baku through sheer skill and in the climax T'challa exploits the Vibranium's weakness to sonic frequencies to land the killing blow on his similarly armored and superpowered cousin Killmonger.
  • Thanos in Avengers: Infinity War reveals himself to be this, and according to Word of God didn't even need the Power Stone for it: At the beginning of the movie he completely manhandles Thor after he tapped into his full potential and fights against the Hulk in hand-to-hand combat, completely overwhelming him with skilled moves. Its what you get when you see two burly guys - one an unskilled brawler and the other a martial artist - fight against each other.
  • As of Spider-Man: Far From Home MCU's Peter Parker has finally reached this trope (though he's still learning), prior to Far From Home Spidey relied on his physical strength, agility, and durability to overwhelm foes while leaving his Spider-Sense "Peter tingle" (his best power) undeveloped, due to not trusting it. This led to experienced opponents such as the aforementioned Cap, Thanos, and even The Vulture being able to soundly overpower Spidey once they figured out his movements. However in the Final Battle in Far From Home Peter decides to focus on his senses to bypass Mysterio's illusions, fake environment, and drones. Upon closing his eyes Spidey quickly turns what was a grueling fight, into a One-Man Army Curb-Stomp Battle as Mysterio's More Dakka fails spectacularly to even touch Peter. If that wasn't enough Mysterio uses another illusion to pretend to surrender while he sneaks up behind Peter invisible, only for Peter to sense his presence and grab the gun Mysterio was going to shoot him with at point-blank range.
  • Danny Rand from Iron Fist. Unlike the other Defenders who are either Unskilled, but Strong (Jessica and Luke) or Weak, but Skilled (Matt), Danny has both extensive martial arts training and the raw power to back it up. His Iron Fist technique actually makes him the second strongest Defender after Luke, while his fighting skill is only just behind Matt.
  • Luke Cage himself is actually also a man with vast martial arts expertise, in addition to his powers, although in his case he has to hold back so much he is reduced to using childishly simplistic movements when fighting non-powered opponents, making him seem Unskilled, but Strong when he really is this trope. Subverted in Season 2, when Bushmaster shows him he has a long way to go.

Tabletop Games

• Warhammer 40,000: Psykers are rarely in good physical condition, as their constant struggle against the daemons trying to invade their minds leaves them emaciated. Space Marine Librarians, on the other hand, are seven-foot-tall killing machines in Power Armor just like their brothers that also have devastating psychic powers. And goes even further with the Grey Knights, each of which is an accomplished psyker (though not all have Librarian-level powers).

Video Games

• ANNO: Mutationem: Ann is a highly-skilled Action Girl that excels in athletics combat, strength, speed, along with her handling of swords and usage of tactical weapons, makes her a formidable fighter to face as she battles and takes down a barrage of enemies and even supernatural creatures.
• Bayonetta:
  • The titular character is a super humanly strong woman trained in magic, martial arts, firearms and melee weapons.
  • Jeanne, Bayonetta's friend and rival, displays power and skill that gives Bayonetta a serious run for her money in all of her boss fights.
  • Balder, the penultimate boss of the game, is an incredibly formidable opponent, skillfully displaying abilities such as super strength which he uses to snap Gomorrah's neck and telekinesis which he uses to hurl buildings and satellites at Bayonetta. His younger self in the sequel fights Bayonetta three times, being able to tie with her in the first two encounters and nearly killing her in the third.
• BlazBlue:
  • Bang initially starts out as a case of Weak, but Skilled, having enough skill to hold his own, but not being anywhere near as powerful as most of the cast. As the games went on, he gained enough strength to match himself against the powerhouses of his world (i.e. Ragna, Relius, Azrael), while still maintaining his skill and training.
  • Kagura Mutsuki is the best case of this in the series. Not only is he incredibly strong, to the point where Ragna outright states that he's on the same level as Azrael (and this is while the Embryo is weakening him and the other entitled barring Ragna, Litchi, and Nine, mind you), but he also boasts decades of training and experience throughout his life in the Duodecim, as well as a prolific military career from the Ikaruga Civil War. It's telling that he's the only character with the skill and physical strength to fight Azrael and win.
  • In the later games, Ragna develops into this. He starts out as Unskilled, but Strong, relying heavily on the Azure Grimoire, but after going through an arc of Power Loss Makes You Strong, he comes out of it with far more skill while maintaining his physical strength, being strong and skilled enough to easily defeat Murakumos, stalemate the aforementioned Kagura, and even match Nine, the greatest magic user in the series (and magic is considered pretty overpowered in the BlazBlue world).
• Devil May Cry:
  • Dante's demonic heritage grants him a plethora of amazing powers such as Super-Strength, Super-Speed, Super-Reflexes, and a Healing Factor. He's also an expert marksman and Multi-Melee Master. His various powers and skills have served him well in his occupation as a demon hunter, allowing him to defeat powerful demons such as Mundus and Argosax.
  • Vergil, Dante's brother, also counts; he has similar powers to Dante and is also a Master Swordsman and Iaijutsu Practitioner, having beaten Dante at least once. This is emphasized in Devil May Cry 5 when he splits himself into the Weak, but Skilled V and the Unskilled, but Strong Urizen. The former has plenty of fancy techniques, but lacks the raw power to take on the truly massive demons running around. The latter meanwhile has far less finesse, but the sheer power in his possession lets him overwhelm most foes easily. When Dante finally closes and surpasses the power gap with Urizen, he quickly gets the upper hand in their battle even when Urizen manages to power up even further, whereas the recompleted Vergil, despite likely not being too much stronger than Urizen due to how weak V was in comparison, can still fight Dante to a draw.
  • While not as powerful as Dante, Trish is a demon with lightning powers, super strength and skill in martial arts, knives and guns. She is also one of the few able to wield the Devil Sword Sparda.
  • Lucia, the Deuteragonist from the second game is an artificial demon created by the villain Arius and is also a trained fighter and demon hunter like Dante.
  • Nero was Unskilled, but Strong in his debut compared to Dante, having one style and weapon compared to Dante's small armory. His depiction in Devil May Cry 5 sees more variety in his arsenal as a result of losing the Devil Bringer and gaining Devil Breakers built by his new friend and colleague Nico. He also unlocks an upgraded version of his Devil Trigger allowing him to defeat his father Vergil.
• The Doom Slayer in Doom (2016) is frequently shown having the strength to rip and tear through any demon he encounters, and he clearly knows what he's doing. The Slayer's Testaments written by the demons even state that he's been fighting and killing their kind for eons, so he has more than enough combat experience to qualify. This gets taken further when it's revealed in Doom Eternal that he's the original Doomguy. Meaning that he has all the experience he gathered kicking Hell's ass throughout all the previous games.
• Elden Ring: Most of the scarier boss fights are that way because the boss is both a terrifyingly powerful demigod and an exceptionally skilled fighter.
  • Starscourge Radahn has completely lost his mind to the Scarlet Rot when you fight him, and he's still a good archer, a Gravity Master good enough to affect the very stars, a skilled swordsman, and a near 30-ft giant on top of that. It gives a good indicator of what kind of Magic Knight he was when he could make full use of his mental talents as well as his physical ones.
  • Of course, the crowning example is Malenia, Blade of Miquella. She's super strong, fast, and tough, with sufficient physical strength to swing her 165-pound sword at supersonic speeds (imparting enough energy to slice a light tank in half), generate hundreds of tons of force with her legs to dash at 200+ mph, and meet the much-larger Radahn in a Blade Lock, but most of her threat comes from just how good a swordswoman she is. She has a very diverse moveset that includes several normal attacks, some singularly nasty super moves, and moves that give her hyperarmor, as well as feints, dodges, and deflects, unique among the game's bosses. Her signature move, the Waterfowl Dance, has her expertly throwing several dozen sword slashes in under five seconds, with such dexterity and speed that her sword arm appears invisible to the naked eye. She can also dodge ranged attacks and leap across her arena with both Waterfowl Dance and her standard dashes, just in case you thought you could stay safe by ranging her.
• Given that Muscles Are Meaningful in EXTRAPOWER. World's Strongest Man Zophy gained his Charles Atlas Superpower by sheer virtue of training. Sharkungo and Toyama are professional wrestlers, which is given ritual reverence on Shakun. Kojiro is already an accomplished karate master before becoming Guren Tiger. Similarly for V, his ore heart gives him the power to transform into the beast god Vezerga, but his fighting is honed and he spars with Zophy. Giant Fist introduces the mercenary fighter Wolf who idolizes Zophy and longs to try his patented Wolf Fist against him. Much like his hero, he devoted himself to physical and martial arts training to the point where he can actually stand toe-to-toe against Zophy himself.
• Fire Emblem:
  • Fire Emblem Fates: Corrin initially starts off as Weak, but Skilled, but by the final battle of each route they have defeated armies, completed the Rainbow Sages trials, improved their swordsmanship, gained familiarity with their draconic abilities, and gained access to the empowered forms of Yato.
  • Felix from Fire Emblem: Three Houses both ties for the third-highest Strength cap (79) and second-highest Strength growth (55%). He's also proficent with three physical weapon types, and while he is a bit Book Dumb (as shown by his weaknesses in Reason and Authority), he is at worst neutral with every other weapon type and all movement types. In-story, he's dedicated to improving both his strength and skill rather than rely on his Crest.
• Final Fantasy VII:
  • Sephiroth, thanks to being born with JENOVA cells is superhuman enough to slice gigantic steel cannon barrels apart and effortlessly kill Kaiju-sized sand cobras. But he's also a trained 1st Class SOLDIER, who's an expert in hand to hand combat, magic and of course a Master Swordsman.
  • Cloud thanks to being exposed to Mako and infused with Jenova Cells has superhuman prowess. In remake we see him able to effortlessly smash small Shrina robots with the flat of his BFS, casually lift slabs of concrete and steel without help and in Advent Children carry The Big Guy Barret with one arm as seen and in general slice massive monsters and building-sized rubble telekinetically thrown by Sephiroth apart. This all helped by having Zack's False Memories and 1st Class SOLDIER training. Although even with the basic infantrymen training Cloud was strong and skilled enough to wield to Buster Sword, run Sephiroth through with it and even lift and throw said Big Bad into the reactor (while impaled).
  • Tifa thanks to being trained by Zangan has gained Charles Atlas Superpower, being strong enough to lift and piledrive massive super bosses and in the remake she effortlessly kicks around monsters like Eligor and can support Cloud's entire body weight with one arm. Besides her physical might Tifa is a spectacular martial artist whom can keep up with SOLDIERS and in the remake is able channel her Chi into attacks. In the finale of the remake, Tifa smashes a massive chunk of building in half with a somersault kick to save Cloud and can fight Sephiroth in close quarters, alongside her love interest.
  • Zack is just as strong and skilled as Cloud if not even more so. This was especially seen in the Last Order: Final Fantasy VII, where even without the Buster Sword he takes on a platoon of men, and with just punches and kicks shatter their helmets and armour to pieces all while deftly dodging bullets.
• God of War:
  • Kratos is a skilled warrior, and the former captain of the Spartan army. He's also a demigod capable of throwing down with creatures much larger than himself. In the fourth instalment despite being much older and much less vicious, Kratos as is powerful and skilled as ever thanks to being Taught by Experience.
  • The Norse gods are exceptionally dangerous opponents because, being a proud warrior race, almost all of them are superlative fighters even discounting their divine power. Odin takes the cake for being super-strong, The Archmage, and an excellent wrestler and talented with his spear.
• Halo:
  • Master Chief and the other Spartan IIs are physically enhanced to be stronger, faster, tougher, and significantly larger than a normal human, trained since childhood to be deadly combatants, and equipped with Power Armor that improves their physical abilities even more.
  • The Spartan IVs don't quite match up to the Spartan IIs physically except in size, but the majority of them were trained and experienced combat veterans before getting the physical upgrades; they also possess even better armor.
  • Spartan IIIs, at least the ones we see among Noble Team in Halo: Reach, could give Chief and other Spartan IIs a run for their money, being given similar enhancements and training so that they're more than capable of taking on literally thousands of Covenant forces. The Player Character Noble Six is strong enough to punch an Elite Zealot in the face and is a skilled pilot as well as a skilled soldier.
  • Elites (Sangheili), besides having superior alien strength, are very intelligent warriors, as well as skilled tacticians with a samurai-like disposition to combat. They're certainly this compared to the Brutes (Jiralhanae), who, barring a few exceptions, are mostly savage Dumb Muscle.
• Injustice: Gods Among Us: From the story mode, there's the Mainstream Superman, the Big Blue Boy Scout himself, brought in during the Insurgency's Darkest Hour, which he turns around into a near-Curb-Stomp Battle of the remaining Regime metas in about half an hour. His continued experience battling super criminals on his world, combined with the natural benefits of being....well, Superman, lets him defeat Black Adam, Sinestro (with almost no effort that time) and Doomsday all in a short time before manhandling and defeating his Regime counterpart quite handily. He's especially this compared to Injustice Superman, who's characterised in the prequel comics as something of an arrogant buffoon with his powers, to the point of being outright contemptuous of Batman trying to get him to train and so unskilled as a result that, at least to start with, ANY hero or villain dosed on the special Kryptonian Nanotech Pill had a decent shot at beating him in a fight.
• Kingdom Hearts:
  • Sora is initially Unskilled, but Strong, having no formal training with the Keyblade until the events of Dream Drop Distance, but making up for it with his massive willpower and strength of heart. As of the third game, he's become this; in addition to his massive natural strength, he can use the Keyblade's full range of abilities, allowing him to do things like turn it into a large variety of different things such as drills, claws, and a giant tower raining down death on everything around him.
  • Organization XIII (the original incarnation) were the first-most in the series to fully showcase this, especially in their respective boss fights. Each member wields with great efficiency and might a personal weapon and Elemental Attribute that they combine together during the battle to great effect, displaying abilities no other characters in the series are shown to pull off.
  • Riku, Sora’s best friend and closest rival, is this. He’s shown to be more proficient as a swordsman compared to Sora and also shows proficiency in melee combat and wielding magic. Additionally, unlike most Keyblade wielders, Riku actively calls upon the power of darkness rather than light to aid him in battle, without allowing himself to lose control. In Dream Drop Distance, after finally completing his journey to accept his inner darkness and find his resolve to fight for good, Riku becomes a Keyblade Master. More specifically, the first Keyblade Master to have mastered the darkness as a force for good.
  • Terra-Xehanort (the self Master Xehanort takes on after possessing Terra's body in Birth By Sleep) is this, combining the immense physical strength and innate darkness of Terra's youthful body with the skill, magic proficiency, and combat experience of the elderly Keyblade Master Xehanort in one package.
  • Speaking of the Keyblade Masters, they count as this too, showing they’re not called “Masters” for nothing.
    • Eraqus, despite being about as old as Master Xehanort, remains physically capable enough to keep up with the much younger Terra even after he actively empowers himself with his inner darkness, as well as showing several varied uses of light magic in his boss battle.
    • Mickey was trained by Yen Sid, the same Keyblade Master who trained Eraqus and Xehanort, and it shows. Mickey’s always recognized as an ace as a Keyblade wielder, as well as having unique powers among the cast, including the spells Stopza and Ultima.
    • Aqua became this over the course of Birth By Sleep after being named a Keyblade Master by Eraqus. She fights with a graceful, fluid sword style and manages to, over the course of her story in-game, master spells that neither Ventus nor Terra can learn.
    • Xehanort falls under this, though, among the Masters of the series, he’s closer to Weak, but Skilled, due to old age having gradually sapped his strength and stamina over time. Even so, he remains physically strong enough to grab Ven in his Keyblade Armor and even crack it with a single hand. His arsenal of abilities is shown to be quite vast as well, including freezing people with a touch, telekinesis, and magic strong enough to overwhelm Mickey’s. In III, he officially returns to being this trope by having acquired the χ-blade.
• As people find out in The Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel IV, Giliath Osborne is a Master Swordsman whose strength is out of this world that he makes the resident Physical God of the Trails Series, Arianrhod, look like a chump by comparison. The fact that he uses his BFS one-handed and deliberately tries to lose makes him even more impressive. And if he really wants to, he could put you down without his sword.
• The Legend of Zelda:
  • Ganondorf who was already a powerful Magic Knight, thanks to Triforce of Power is super strong able to create shockwaves with his punches and break stone apart. He's also a Master Swordsman and as far as Hyrule Warriors goes is very skilled with a trident as well.
  • Link is surprisingly strong in multiple incarnations, (especially in Twilight Princess, where he can toss even the Gerudo around) as well as being a Multi-Melee Master who in Breath of the Wild can wield the Great Eagle Bow, which nobody other than Revali (a bird man) can use.
• Like a Dragon:
  • Yakuza 3: Yoshitaka Mine displays borderline superhuman strength, agility, and skill with his Mixed Martial Arts-based fighting style. He's possibly the only opponent to go toe-to-toe with a completely uninjured and unhindered Kiryu and still leave him bruised, bloodied, and exhausted despite still losing against him. It helps that he is one of the only characters who is shown devoting time and effort to training instead of getting by on experience and raw power alone, as he is seen in his personal gym with weights and a heavy bag. This fits his character, having had to work hard his whole life to get anywhere.
  • Like a Dragon: Ishin!: Nagakura Shinpachi, Captain of the Shinsengumi's Second Division, is a wall of muscle and a head taller than the people around him, as well as a fully trained master of Tennen Rishin Ryu. Granted, he tends to prefer brute force to technical skill, but that's just personal preference; he is a very agile and subtle fencer when he puts his mind to it.
• Mass Effect: As part of being resurrected in Mass Effect 2, Shepard had been enhanced with cybernetic implants, giving her/him increased physical abilities in addition to already formidable combat skills. This allows her/him to wield weapons like anti-material rifles and krogan guns that a normal human simply wouldn't be able to use.
• Raiden from Metal Gear becomes this full-time in Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots and Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance, having years of combat experience from all the conflicts he fought in the past games combined with his new cybernetic body that grants him the Super-Strength needed to lift and throw Metal Gear RAY units into the air and slice Metal Gear EXCELSUS to pieces with its own blades, which are the size of multi-story buildings.
• Metroid: Samus Aran was raised by the Chozo when she was a child. In addition to being trained by them, the Chozo also augmented Samus' DNA with their own, which greatly increased her strength, speed, agility, durability, and sensory capacity. Her modular suit enhances her physicality even further.
• The player character in Millika Village becomes both powerful and skilled if enough time is spent helping the Chieftain in the mines and helping Lissara with medicine.
• Mortal Kombat:
  • Johnny Cage is an accomplished martial artist whose fighting styles include Bruce Lee's Jeet Kune Do. He is also descended from a race of divinely-powered warriors and can manifest green energy that boosts his strength and speed. These powers allowed him to defeat the fallen elder god Shinnok.
  • Cassie Cage is Johnny's daughter and thus shares his mystical powers. She is also a trained special forces officer and like her father before her has defeated Shinnok.
  • Major Jax Briggs was a tough and well trained special forces officer even before he got his super strong Artificial Limbs.
  • As a human, Scorpion was one of the best warriors and assassins of the Shirai Ryu ninja clan. After being killed by the original Sub-Zero and resurrected as a demonic specter, he gained the power to teleport to and from the Netherealm and control Hellfire.
  • The first and second Sub-Zeroes qualify. Both are great martial artists who are blessed with ice powers that they have mastered quite well. The first Sub-Zero defeated Shinnok long before either Johnny and Cassie did and the second has beaten Scorpion.
  • All of the Edenian characters would qualify as they have a millennia's worth of fighting experience and mystical abilities thanks to their divine heritage. Special mention goes to Kitana, the princess of Edenia, her friend and bodyguard Jade and Taven, Daegon and Rain, the sons of the Edenian protector god Argus.
  • Goro the prince of the Shokan race is Outworld's mightiest warrior and he became champion of Mortal Kombat after beating the Great Kung Lao, something Shang Tsung failed to do in his prime. Thanks to his incredible strength, speed, and skill he holds the record for the most consecutive Mortal Kombat tournament victories.
  • Liu Kang is a shaolin monk who has trained in martial arts all his life and is the two time Earthrealm Champion of Mortal Kombat having defeated Goro and Shao Kahn. Mortal Kombat 11 has him become the God of Fire and Thunder thanks to Raiden.
• Ninja Gaiden: Ryu Hayabusa is a master martial artist and weapon expert. He is also skilled in elemental magic and possesses superhuman strength, speed and agility due to his Fiend ancestry.
• Prayer of the Faithless:
  • Reyson is a seasoned mercenary with high Power and Skill growth, along with the ability to use almost any weapon type.
  • A lategame boss proves to be highly skilled with a sword while possessing Herculean strength. Vanessa's sword can be obtained after defeating her, and it's so heavy that it comes with a massive Skill penalty. Vanessa has high Skill as a boss and has a high chance of parrying attacks, showing that she has both the strength and technique to use the sword effectively.
• Resident Evil:
  • Big Bad Albert Wesker was a martial arts master long before turning himself into a transhuman capable of punching through walls, dodging bullets and tanking RPG explosions.
  • The Resident Evil Main Characters have become this as the games became more action-packed. Chris Redfield and Leon S. Kennedy display crazy martial arts skills with Chris employing boxing, kickboxing, Judo, and Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu and Leon utilising Taekwondo, Krav Maga, Pro-Wrestling, Jujitsu and Russian Systema. Both Chris and Leon also perform borderline superhuman feats and are very crafty and experienced in combat against B.O.Ws. When they fought hand to hand in Resident Evil 6, they matched each other perfectly and were forced to draw guns on each other.
  • Jill Valentine already had peak human ability with Taekwondo, Tricking and Pro-Wrestling skills. In Resident Evil 5 Jill unwillingly gets a Super Serum which gives her superhuman abilities akin to Wesker. In her fight with Chris and Sheva she gracefully dodges their bullets and effortlessly overpowers Chris and puts him in a chokehold despite being smaller than him.
  • Jake Muller is a mercenary trained in martial arts and guns and possesses an enhanced physiology he inherited from his father Albert Wesker.
• Sonic the Hedgehog:
  • While Sonic himself normally prefers to just blitz his foes with Super-Speed, he's shown himself to be reasonably strong and tough enough to destroy robots with simple kicks and punches, has some skill in unarmed combat and swordfighting, and while rarely using them has the same Chaos powers as Shadow, albeit not as honed or powerful.
  • Knuckles the Echidna has massive Super-Strength, being described as being as strong as Sonic is fast, and is also an expert martial artist.
  • Shadow the Hedgehog; being the Ultimate Life Form, he has a plethora of superpowers: Super-Speed, Super-Strength, Chaos Control, and Chaos Energy attacks yet he's also skilled at vehicular usage, firearms, physical combat and tends to have his head on his shoulders a lot.
  • Blaze The Cat possesses pyrokinesis and a fast, graceful fighting style which makes her an absolutely devastating opponent. She is easily the most powerful female heroine in the Sonic Universe, especially when her Super Mode is taken into account.
• Spider-Man (Insomniac): As per usual, Peter Parker/Spider-Man has the proportionate powers of a spider. In addition, he's at the peak of his skills and abilities, having honed them for eight years. This is shown in his fighting style, which incorporates a lot of wrestling, capoeira, and parkour.

Web Animation

• DEATH BATTLE!: This is the key reason behind Leon S. Kennedy's victory over Frank West. Frank is simply a war correspondent and thus doesn't have the necessary training, instead having to fall back on his arsenal. Leon, on the other hand, not only has both adequate gear, but also proper survival experience learned over his years-long career as both a police officer and government agent.
• RWBY:
  • While all of Team RWBY are exceptionally skilled fighters, most of them are within the physical limits of normal humans in terms of strength and durability. The exception to this is Yang Xiao Long, who has Super-Strength, a powerful Aura, and a Semblance that increases her strength even beyond normal when she takes damage. Yang was originally Unskilled, but Strong, relying too much on her strength and Semblance, and had very little defensive skill. She broke out of that trope in Volume 4, when Taiyang explained the weakness in her fighting style and taught her to defend herself properly; now she can fight properly with her gauntlets and defend herself, and her Semblance is strictly a fallback. This is best displayed in the final episodes of the sixth volume, where she takes advantage of Adam's emotional unraveling and baits him to go all out attacking her, and using the resulting dust cloud to obscure the activation of her Semblance, which allows her to disarm Adam and punch him hard enough to drain his Aura, leaving him completely defenseless.
  • Cinder Fall became this upon stealing the power of the Fall Maiden from its previous host, Amber. As Qrow explains to Ruby and co., Amber lost to Cinder because she was young and inexperienced; while she had great power, she couldn't use it effectively. When Cinder acquires the power, she's able to use it to vastly greater effect than Amber ever could.
  • Raven Branwen is an even more blatant example than Cinder as of "Downfall." She's a trained Huntsman/thief, and is the current Spring Maiden; on top of that, she's far more experienced with her powers than Cinder is. Throughout their fight, the only time Cinder manages to put Raven on the defensive is when she tries to use her Grimm arm to drain Raven's powers.
  • Maria Calavera:
    • She was born during a time when the Huntsmen Academies were only just getting up and running. Her father didn't really classify as one so she only knew him as an "old soldier". She was trained by her father instead of going to the academies, but when she took the Huntsman licensing exam, she got higher marks than anyone else.
    • Despite her considerable abilities, she is eventually targeted because of her rare Silver Eyes power - a danger to the Grimm and thus Salem, the Big Bad of the series. The assassin, Tock, is so focused on completing her mission to destroy the threat of the silver eyes power that Maria possesses that she doesn't take account of Maria's training or Semblance at all. When she blinds Maria, Maria is able to use the gravity Dust built into her twin weapons and her Preflexes Semblance to understand their relative positions. It allows her to recall her fallen weapon back to the weapon she's holding, which impales Tock in the back because Tock is standing in the flight path. Maria is then able to decapitate Tock, despite being completely blind. Maria emphasizes to Ruby that it doesn't matter what she can do with the silver eyes power, Ruby must always think of her training and her Semblance as her most powerful tools — those are what saved Maria's life.
• Red vs. Blue despite having plenty of characters in the cast that are Unskilled, but Strong or Weak, but Skilled, there are a few that manage to fill both roles:
  • Agent Texas is the first example in the series, as she is noted to be an incredibly capable soldier who knows how to use her strength and her brain to her advantage, as she is capable of either making plans to outsmart her enemies or simply power through them. Texas very nearly claims the role of World's Best Warrior within the world's setting. While she is also a Glass Cannon, she's so good at what she does that she's The Ace amongst an already impressive group consisting of one man armies!
  • Agent Carolina is a particular stand out amongst her fellow freelancers in that she's very amazing in combat and is capable of putting together some impressive strategies when she puts her mind to it, but seems to also keep her skills regulated to combat compared to Texas, who has a more broad spectrum of skills. That said, she still can kick major ass when she puts her mind to it.
  • An interesting variation as the Elite Mooks of the Insurrection are both tougher than their freelancer counterparts, and are capable of keeping up with the likes of Carolina and Maine while doing serious damage, but they for the most part aren't quite as skilled as the Freelancers themselves.

Web Comics

• Kill Six Billion Demons: Allicio, the Fusion Dance between Alice and Cio, is Unskilled, but Strong, using Alice's Key of Kings and rudimentary martial arts combined with Cio's power amplification to simply power through anything that gets in her path. Her upgraded form, Aspected Chaos, also includes an Angel in the fusion (somehow), and tempered by the Angel's millennia of martial arts practice is considerably faster, more agile, and fights much more conservatively and analytically.

Western Animation

• Archer: Sterling Archer, "the world's most dangerous spy", despite his numerous problems, is easily the best fighter at ISIS, emerging triumphant from numerous brawls even against multiple opponents simultaneously. He's likewise strong enough to causally lift a grown man over his head and badly dent a solid metal bucket with a series of quick kicks.
• Ben 10:
  • Ben Tennyson is in possession of the Omnitrix, the most powerful weapon in the universe. One of the reasons he's allowed to keep wearing it is because there's few who can use the Omnitrix as well as Ben can, including its creator Azmuth. In the original series, he's Unskilled, but Strong, usually just transforming into one of his strength-based aliens, such as Fourarms and Diamondhead, and simply rushing at the bad guys to beat them senseless. From Alien Force onwards, he's more tactical with his aliens and also takes martial arts lessons to minimize his reliance on the Omnitrix.
  • Gwen Tennyson is a Kung-Fu Wizard. She possesses magic/mana that gives her a wide range of powerful abilities, however, she can still kick ass the old-fashioned way if she chooses to. It's interesting to note that in the context of magic users she's actually Unskilled, but Strong, as her physiology being "made of magic" makes her a natural at spell casting, despite her lack of experience compared to other sorcerers like Charmcaster or Hex.
  • The Highbreed from Ben 10: Alien Force. The Highbreed are not only physically strong enough to beat a Vaxasaurian in a one on one fight, but their technology level makes them a threat against even the Galvan.
• Blue Eye Samurai has Abijah Fowler. Fowler has mastered the use of a Japanese katana well enough that Mizu comments on the cleanness of a rose stem he cut, stating that it shows a master's skill. Despite that, he prefers using brute force in a fight whenever he can't use a gun, using speed and strength and whatever is in the environment to give himself every advantage he can, putting Mizu on the ropes several times despite her sword skills being among the best demonstrated in the series.
• Castlevania:
  • Dracula has centuries worth of experience, scientific knowledge along with supernatural strength and powers. Best showcased in the Final Battle where Dracula fights his own Dhampir son Alucard, Vampire Hunter Trevor and sorceress Sypha in a three on one duel and he wipes the floor with them. At one point Alucard even unleashes his full Super-Speed against Dracula who in response catches his son out of the air mid-Speed Blitz with his Super-Reflexes and slammed him down ^note  Dracula likely figured out where Alucard was going to be and grabbed at the right moment.
  • Dracula's son Alucard also counts. While not as powerful as his father, he still possesses incredible strength and speed. He is also a Master Swordsman and is very good with manipulating his sword as a Flying Weapon. In the battle with Dracula in season 2, Alucard was easily the one who gave Dracula the biggest challenge of the man trio.
• In Class of the Titans, most of the Titans team end up becoming this (Atlanta who has Super-Speed, Archie who is Nigh-Invulnerable, and Theresa who is psychic), inheriting the powers of their godly ancestors, but also being trained in extensive hand-to-hand combat to make the most of them. The only exceptions are Jay (who for the most is a Badass Normal and is Weak, but Skilled), Herry (who remains as The Big Guy and overpowers with brute force), Odie (who's a thinker rather than a fighter), and Neil (who relies on his supernatural luck to get him out of tight spots).
• Rex Salazar in Generator Rex. While most E.V.O.s become rampaging monsters upon their mutation, Rex is capable of using his abilities at will (albeit after training), granting him Super-Strength and Super-Toughness, and the ability to form a variety of vehicles and weapons for a range of options in combat, all while retaining his intelligence and rationality. He supplements his powers with advanced hand-to-hand skills (presumably taught by Six), impressive aim with projectiles and is surprisingly adept at planing and improvisation. Whats more, as the series goes on, his arsenal of 'Builds' expands and he becomes more creative with how he applies them, making him even more of this trope.
• Lucifer from Hazbin Hotel. As opposed to Charlie, who while powerful lacks fighting experience due to her temperament, Lucifer not only is more powerful then her, but also has amazing combat skills, best shown when he runs circles around Adam without even breaking a sweat, utilizing his shapeshifting to avoid Adam's attacks, and his angelic strength to pound him.
  • On a lesser level, Alastor the Radio Demon also fits, being one of the most powerful Sinners in all of Hell and yet skilled enough to deal with a more powerful opponent like Adam in the final battle of the first season with skillful dodges and creative use of Combat Tentacles and summoned minions...until Adam cooks up an attack that can't be dodged that quickly puts Alastor near death. Alastor wisely retreats at that point.
• The Cave Monster from Mao Mao: Heroes of Pure Heart. In addition to its massive size and strength, it easily counters every one of Mao Mao's attacks, and incapacitates Badgerclops and Adorabat with virtually no effort.
• Samurai Jack:
  • While the Scotsman tends to use overwhelming force when fighting his enemies, the fact that he's capable of fighting Jack on an equal level would indicate that his brute force tactics are more a preference than a lack of training.
  • The Guardian, the one being to utterly defeat Jack effortlessly, was not only able to use a versitle aresenal of weapons including a sword, sais, a machine gun, and a rocket launcher, but was also good in hand to hand combat and had immense Super-Strength enough that he was able to break through solid steel and throw the samurai around. Jack himself even admitted that he never faced an opponent with such strength and skill up to then. Unfortunately for the Guardian, it wasn't enough to survive Aku.
  • Aku, the main antagonist of the series, also qualifies. He is a dark creature wielding several dark magical powers and abilities, but also turns out to be quite skilled in hand-to-hand combat, has years of experience to back up his powers, and commands an entire army of monsters. Unfortunately for him, he turns out to be not on the same level of skill than Jack anytime they fight.
• Virgil Hawkins, the main hero of Static Shock. His knowledge of physics comes in very handy when coupled with power over electricity.
• Steven Universe:
  • Amethyst and Pearl focus on Force and Finesse, respectively. By comparison, their leader Garnet has a similar level of skill as Pearl, further augmented by precognition, and can easily overpower Amethyst. Although by fusion standards, Garnet is closer to Weak, but Skilled.
  • As the Ultimate Quartz, Jasper is one of the strongest gems alive and is considered the perfect soldier, to the point that she's miles beyond ordinary quartzes like Amethyst. This, coupled with her skills as a fighter, mean that practically no one but Fusions and Lapis with access to Earth's oceans have been able to match her.
  • Rose Quartz, Steven's mother, was said to be a highly skilled warrior and was shown and implied to be incredibly strong and tough by the standards of any normal Quartz, and had a wide variety of powers and knew how to use them to her advantage. However, she was Weak, but Skilled compared to the other Diamonds.
  • Steven Quartz Universe's abilities grow in power and variety over the series, and after Connie becomes Pearl's apprentice, he's inspired to train to actually use them effectively and creatively in combat. By the third season, he's able to match seasoned warrior like Amethyst or Bismuth with technique, not by simply overpowering them. By Steven Universe: The Movie, his powers are likely much stronger than the other Crystal Gems, but he's able to flawlessly defend against Spinel's wild flurry of blows just by going hand-to-hand.
  • Blue and White Diamond primarily rely on their overwhelming power, with little knowledge or appreciation for physical combat or active defense. Yellow Diamond on the other hand has both overwhelming power and seems much more familiar with actually fighting, quickly overwhelming Blue Diamond the one time they actually fought. This is also the reason why Steven was eventually able to overpower White Diamond. White might be far beyond anything else in the series, but as a 'perfect being' she's never needed to change or grow in any way.
• Teen Titans:
  • Starfire is a Tamarean, and her species is a proud warrior race that emphasize on training and honing combat skills. In addition, thanks to her Tamranean physiology she also has Super-Strength, flight, and energy projection.
  • Raven, who usually gives the impression of a Squishy Wizard, actually displays proficiency in hand-to-hand combat. She incorporates physical attacks into her magic usage, casting force fields while blocking or kicking in between the firing of spells.
  • Slade has both enhanced physical capabilities and immense combat skills (enough to wipe the floor with objectively more powerful beings). He is also one hell of a Magnificent Bastard to boot.
  • Cyborg has superhuman strength and an array of weapons and tools built into his body. He is also a mechanical and engineering genius.
• Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (2003): Hun of the Purple Dragons can get this portrayal when the writers choose to give him a more flattering presentation than a Butt-Monkey villain who can get taken out easily. He can be shown as being so physically strong that he can bend or break solid steel with pure strength and break off building pillars to use as a batting weapon. And at the same time, his fighting abilities will be top notch enough that he can also take on the Turtles and/or Splinter and in some cases, be able to get the better of them through a deadly combination of Charles Atlas Superpower and martial arts.
• Transformers: Numerous characters fit this mold but Megatron and Optimus Prime in particular. They are often among the most powerful if not the most powerful members of their respective factions and have had years of training and experience in war.
• Hawkodile of Unikitty! is both immensely strong and highly skilled in martial arts. His Evil Counterpart Eagleator is also pretty good in both camps.
• Ice Bear of We Bare Bears is not only really strong like you'd expect a polar bear to be, he is also the most agile of the 3 main characters by a long shot. He's also scarily efficient with various bladed weapons.
• Valtor, the main antagonist of Season 3 of Winx Club is this. Having been born from a spark of the Dragon Flame, the very magic that created the Magic Dimension, he's already immensely powerful. But what really makes him a threat is his vast arsenal of varied spells, an arsenal he keeps adding on to over the course of the season by stealing spells from the worlds he ravages.
• Young Justice:
  • Aqualad is an Atlantean and naturally stronger than the average human, but he's an exceptional hand-to-hand combat and a master of sword skills.
  • Superboy started off as being Unskilled, but Strong, given he was a clone of Superman and only a few months old. However after the Time Skip he has undergone extensive hand-to-hand training with Black Canary and has incorporated that into his fighting style, being especially skilled with grappling and takedowns. Eventually he's given the role of training newer recruits.
  • This trope reaches its peak with Black Beetle in the second season. A soldier for the Reach empire, he's simultaneously better-equipped, more experienced and significantly stronger than every member of the Team and takes them on all at once in his first fight without breaking a sweat. He's stronger than Superboy, has better gadgets than the Bat-kids, can outfight Wonder Girl, and figures out how to stop Miss Martian within three seconds of seeing her.

Real Life

• Your typical real life Bare-Fisted Monk aims to be this; to build strong muscles that can punch through bone, and the type of proper technique needed to channel all their muscles into a strike through Kinetic Linking.
• In general, you won't get really far into any professional combat sports career if you aren't this. Just to name one, Mike Tyson, the boxer who has reputation as the single strongest puncher in the game in his prime, was also notorious for his incredible defense which basically involved dodging his opponent's every punch.
• While it is encouraged to be slow and careful in everyday driving, professional racing doesn't only require to press the accelerator pedal until the end of the race, but also to know when to brake. Drifting^note keeping your speed while taking a sharp turn requires a lot of training and a lot of self-control to succeed and come out alive as it implies sacrificing your traction.

---