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One Man Army / Western Animation

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  • Avatar: The Last Airbender:
    • Any fully realized Avatar using their Super Mode is effectively the single most powerful combatant in the entire world. There are several established cases of Avatars fending off entire armies.
    • Pretty much any master of the White Lotus is this trope.
      • Iroh is explicitly described as a "one man army" after he escaped from prison during the Eclipse, fighting off the entire guard, while no one was able to firebend.
      • Likewise, Bumi managed to liberate the city of Omashu by himself. He didn't run from the army. The army ran from him. Not bad for a 112-years-old guy.
      • During the Siege of the North, we see Master Pakku take out scores of Fire Nation soldiers by himself before Zhao captures the Moon Spirit.
      • According to the Word of God, the reason Piandao is so revered as a sword master is because of what happened when he decided he was tired of the military and became a recluse. The military sent a hundred soldiers. Piandao sent them all back. And he's not a bender.
    • Then we've got Ty Lee, the butt-kicking, Genki Dark Action Girl, who takes out an entire group of elite earthbenders by herself in "The Drill".
    • In "The Southern Air Temple", we see Monk Gyatso's skeleton, having been killed by Fire Nation soldiers, but he's surrounded by dozens of Fire Nation corpses, all presumably killed by him. He may be a pacifist, but he definitely didn't go down without a fight.
  • Ben 10: Benjamin Kirby Tennyson. He's technically just a normal kid, but he's also got a super powerful piece of alien technology strapped to his wrist that lets him turn into various aliens, all with incredible powers. At first his selection and mastery of the aliens is very limited, but he slowly gets both better control and a much larger selection.
  • Blue Eye Samurai. Lampshaded and deconstructed in "The Tale of Ronin and the Bride", the first episode to show the title character taking on and killing a large number of opponents, the Thousand Claws gang of Boss Hamata. At the same time, we see a flashback showing the Cynicism Catalyst that enabled Mizu to become the 'demon' she is now, while a puppet theatre serves as the Framing Device.
    Tayū: No one man can defeat an army, but one creature can. How does such a creature come to be?
  • Family Guy: In "The D in Apartment 23", Chris and Meg are confronted at their school cafeteria after Brian posts an offensive tweet, and they proceed to take down the entire student body by themselves (the scene itself being a spoof of the church scene from Kingsman: The Secret Service).
  • The Dragon Prince: Downplayed. Viren utterly obliterates the guards sent to arrest him, but he's only able to do this because Aaravos is channeling primal magic through him. However, since he was able to use his abilities to hold off the king of the dragons, he certainly qualifies.
  • In G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero, Sergeant Slaughter was known to defeat whole squads of Mooks by himself. But that's not all. When he was put in charge of training the other Joes, he challenged them to attack him all at once. They took him up on it, and he won without breaking a sweat. (Of course, his Real Life counterpart likely isn't this tough, but still...)
  • Harley Quinn (2019): In the first episode, Harley Quinn goes against the Joker's gang and — despite being hopelessly outnumbered and outgunned — kicks their asses and walks away unscathed.
  • In Invader Zim, it's shown that apparently a single competent Irken Invader is capable of conquering a planet by themselves. Helps that they do have some impressive technology at their disposal. The main character has even better technology that he's engineered himself, but being a Chaotic Stupid Genius Ditz has no way to use them effectively (though he's still pretty dangerous at times).
  • The Legend of Korra:
    • Lin Beifong manages to free her officers from an Equalist base, doing practically all of the work.
    • Much like the original Team Avatar, the members of the Red Lotus are incredibly powerful, and all 4 combined have come out ahead while massively outnumbered. Their leader is somewhat less powerful, even after becoming an airbender.
    • Kuvira is shown to be one when she curb stomps a group of about twenty bandits single-handedly.
  • Max Steel, who can decimate entire armies thanks to his TURBO energy, and arsenal of weapons thanks to his Ultra-link.
  • Megas XLR. First episode: On one side, Coop and a nameless sidekick mecha. On the other, a large army of alien mooks and their commander.
    Kiva: Look at them all. These odds are awful.
    Coop: You're right, it is kind of unfair. * knocks sidekick out* Now it's fair.
  • My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic:
    • King Sombra was powerful enough to conquer the whole Crystal Empire by himself, pose a threat to Princesses Celestia and Luna combined, and even curse the whole place to vanish through space and time. And in the present, he becomes a Kaiju-sized Living Shadow that's basically a World-Wrecking Wave; and it ultimately takes almost every major protagonist, everyone in said Empire, and the Crystal Heart to put him down for good.
      • In one of the Season 5 finale's Bad Futures, however, he uses an actual army to conquer the rest of Equestria. Albeit out of pragmatism instead of weakness, though; he easily defends himself from any Royal Guards that attempt to attack him directly.
    • Each of the Mane 6 qualify in their own right; together, they were able to take on a good chunk of the changeling army after it invaded an entire city:
      • Twilight Sparkle is the personal protégé of Princess Celestia, perhaps the most well-read unicorn in history, and the Element of Magic. And then she becomes an alicorn princess. She's one of the most powerful characters in the series.
      • Applejack is only an Earth Pony, and not even the strongest one in the series (Maud Pie), but she is tough enough and stubborn enough to defeat hordes of enemies.
      • Rarity is a less powerful unicorn than Twilight, but she's shown martial arts proficiency, and is nearly as fierce as AJ in combat.
      • Fluttershy is normally kind and quiet. But don't make her angry. She's stronger and faster than she looks, and is the group's resident Beast Master. She also has a special ability called The Stare which basically forces whoever she's using it on to do what she wants.
      • Rainbow Dash is pretty much the definition of Awesome Ego, but she has the skills to back it up. She's the fastest flyer in Equestria, is the only pony in history to preform a Sonic Rainboom, and also has a black belt in karate. She's strong enough to apparently lift- and fly around with- a boulder several times her size, and she can smash through a pillar of rock with little problem. As a Pegasus, she can also manipulate clouds and weather to her advantage. She's almost as stubborn as Applejack and is usually the first to resort to violence.
      • Pinkie Pie is pony Deadpool. Enough said.
  • Rick and Morty: In the third season premiere, "The Rickshank Redemption", Rick Sanchez single-handedly brings down the Galactic Federation and the Council of Ricks, the two most powerful organizations in the show, by teleporting the latter's headquarters into a Federation prison, then devastating the Federation's economy.
  • The title character of Samurai Jack, with only a couple prepared traps, single-handedly destroyed hundreds (if not thousands) of Kill Bots in the third episode.
    • Not only that, but the last few Kill Bots actually took a step backwards trying to running away. Jack said "No, there is no escape." and demolished them.
    • At least once, he managed to beat a moderately large army of robots with literally no effort at all.
    • In "Birth of Evil", Aku becomes a literal example, splitting himself into an army of man-sized duplicates of himself in armor. (However, seeing as Jack's father still defeated them all, he qualifies for the Trope here as well.)
    • Ashi, the only surviving Daughter of Aku, takes down an entire army of Orcs, who are after Jack's head, using martial arts and turning their own weapons against them.
  • The Simpsons: Maggie Simpson, despite being a baby, can take out a group of mobsters with a rifle.
  • Star Wars: Clone Wars has varying degrees of this trope. Durge is shown (and explicitly stated in other EU material) to be a one-man arsenal, but "only" kills a few dozen soldiers. General Grievous is similarly able to cut through clones and Jedi with his usual psychopathic zeal, but his body count is relatively low. Anakin and Obi-Wan are better examples, a "body count" of droids well in the thousands, but they have their limits and still rely heavily on the armies they command. Mace and Yoda, however, wipe out hundreds of droids without their lightsabers and tear apart entire legions with little help from their soldiers.
  • Star Wars: The Clone Wars:
    • The special mention goes to Yoda, who gets into a contest with Asajj Ventress over whether a certain planet will join the Republic or the Separatists. If he can escape Ventress' best Separatist droids, the planet will go with the Republic. Yoda barely breaks a sweat. Ventress then tries to attack Yoda in a rage and he casually extinguishes her dual blades using the Force then Force-pulls them from her grasp.
      King Katuunko: You were right, Count Dooku. One Jedi is not worth a hundred battle droids... more like a thousand.
    • Jedi Master Mace Windu, in "Unfinished Business": "My name is General Mace Windu of the Jedi Order. At this point of the Clone War, I have dismantled and destroyed over 100,000 of you type one battle droids. I'm giving you an opportunity to peacefully lay down your weapons, so that you may be reprogrammed to serve a better purpose than spreading the mindless violence and chaos which you have inflicted upon the galaxy."
  • VeggieTales of all shows, has an example. In episode "King George and the Ducky", Thomas is sent to fight the Pie War, and wins singlehandedly, albeit at the temporary cost of his sanity.
  • Alice of Superjail! is the only guard in a demented facility full of the very worst psychopaths not fit for regular prison. And she has no trouble kicking all their asses, and keeping the prison in relatively normal condition.
  • Leatherhead from Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (2012), though he tries to isolate himself to avoid fighting. But should he see or even HEAR the word Kraang, he enters an Unstoppable Rage even he can't control, unleashing a Mook Horror Show on the Kraang that makes even the Turtles feel a miniscule amount of sympathy for them.
  • Teen Titans (2003)
    • Robin, definitely. In "Apprentice", he takes down a whole army of Sladebots by himself, brutally, and in the second part of the season finale, he takes down his entire team. By himself again. When they were all attacking at once. And it's a Curb-Stomp Battle. In fact, in "Winner Take All", the Master of Games literally introduces him as a "One Man Army".
    • Kid Flash in both of his appearances. He spend the first half of "Lightspeed" screwing around with all of the H.I.V.E. Five, a group of villains that even the Titans themselves had trouble beating together. When he and Jinx show up in the final battle against the Brotherhood of Evil in "Titans Together", he proceeds to clean up villains so fast his fellow speedsters Mas and Menos are impressed. Shortly after, Raven notes that the battle got a lot easier. There's a reason Madame Rouge hypes him up as being one of the harder team heroes to capture.
  • The Venture Bros.: Brock Samson, or as he's been referred to by The Monarch, the Swedish Murder Machine.

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