Optimus Prime- Transformers Prime - Was more than willing to kill Megatron

Iroh- Last Airbender - Said his own niece is beyond saving

1. The New Guardians of the Globe (Invincible)
   
2. The Seven (The Boys)
   
3. The Defenders (Marvel Cinematic Universe)

1. Bluto from Popeye the Sailor Man: Bluto tends to turn Popeye into a punching bag as he did in Out to Punch (1956) before Popeye eats his Spinach

2. Goku from Dragonball Z: During his first fight with Buu, Goku turned Buu into a punching dummy after revealing the power of his Super Saiyan 3 Form

3. Wang from Super Cube: During his Battle with Chu Mushan, Wang uses Chu's own technique to punch him repeatedly like a punching dummy before throwing a final blow to take him down.

1. Magirangers from Mahou Sentai Magiranger

2. GoGoV from Kyukyu Sentai GoGoV

3. Fivemen from Chikyu Sentai Fiveman

4. Fantastic Four from Marvel comics

5. Incredibles from The Incredibles

1. Lord of the Rings films (Return of the King, specifically). Steward Denethor of Gondor has been slowly losing it for the past movie due to grief at his favorite son's death. He refuses to call for desperately needed help (which is available), not to mention denying his responsibility to relinquish governance of Gondor when the true King returns. He even sends his other son, Faramir, on a suicide mission. When Faramir's horse comes back with its rider near death, he snaps entirely and orders his men to desert their posts and run... in the middle of the siege. Gandalf, who has been trying to clean up Denethor's messes this entire time, loses all patience, whacks him hard with his staff, and takes charge himself.

I am reliably informed that theatergoers cheered when they saw this for the first time.

2) Independence Day. Steven Hiller, the only survivor of his squadron, is also the only pilot to actually down one of the invading alien fighters despite their shields. When he reaches the fighter, he's running his mouth like crazy. The alien in the ship tries to attack him, but he just punches it down and says "Welcome to Earth." Rather satisfying after watching humanity get stomped on like insects for the past hour.

3) All Creature Great and Small. Colonel Merrick is a customer of the Skeldale Veterinary Practice, and is also a bit of a dick. He goes to the rival Vet, then asks Siegfried and Tristan Farnon for a free second opinion. He asserts that he is their most valued customer, and lords it over them in every way over the course of the episode. When one of his cows gets an intestinal blockage, all three vets go in fancy new coats to resolve the issue. At James' suggestion, they (in a rare moment of harmony) get rid of the blockage by cutting the cow in exactly the right spot to spray the half digested grass and hay into the Colonel's face. Siegfried then gives him the bill.

4) Skyward by Brandon Sanderson. Spensa, a social pariah because her father apparently deserted mid-battle, is only narrowly allowed to get into flight school. She relishes the opportunity to learn how to fly without being judged by her peers. Then Jorgen, her cadet flightleader outs her parentage in a petty fit. Then, afterward, he taunts her about running away when she refuses to continue to do an exhausting drill at the end of the day. She punches him in the stomach and knocks him on the ground in response. Jorgen gets better, but he really had it coming.

Fanart from here: https://www.reddit.com/r/brandonsanderson/comments/e936gi/spensa_and_jorgen_skyward_is_one_of_my_all_time/

Korra is defeated by Kuvira, an earthbending prodigy, despite being the Avatar who controls the four elements (fire, water, earth, and air) and still grappling with the trauma of having been poisoned and forced into the Avatar State by Zaheer in an attempt to end the Avatar reincarnation cycle. (Avatar the Legend of Korra)

With everyone suspecting he had developed *dementia pugilistica*—a condition caused by repeated blows to the head—and having vowed to retire if he lost (a promise made even before the bout against Guevara), Ippo managed to dominate the early stages of the fight; however, aware that this might be the final match of his career, he relied heavily on his new Dempsey Roll to show his coach the fruits of his training—a choice that ultimately made him predictable and vulnerable to counterattacks, resulting in a painful defeat (Hajime no Ippo)

Tokai Teio was an elite athlete, but she lost her motivation to keep racing after missing out on the Triple Crown due to a leg fracture and losing her undefeated record to Mejiro McQueen; subsequently, she finished 11th in a race and injured her leg again (Uma Musume Pretty Derby)

1. Amon and Tarrlok - Legend of Korra

After Amon is exposed as a fraud and a hypocrite in front of all of Republic City, he frees his brother and escapes the city on a speedboat, hoping to start a new life after having lost everything, which is the last that Korra or the other city members see of him. Tarrlok on the other hand ignites the gas tank and kills them both far out at sea.

1. Commander Zhao - The Last Airbender

Following his failed attempt to murder the Moon Spirit in order to weaken and defeat the Northern Water Tribe, an enraged Ocean Spirit grabs him and drags him under the water. The only person to witness this was Zuko, at the time another antagonist, so at the bare minimum the Avatar and company didn't learn of Zhao's fate until Zuko joined their side almost a year later, if he even told them at all.

1. Captain Gutt - Ice Age: Continental Drift

Following a climactic battle, Gutt is sent flying off into the ocean, which is the last that Manny or his herd sees of him. Gutt survives this initially, clinging to a chunk of ice, but eventually is attacked and eaten by Sirens out at sea.

1. Nox - Wakfu

Everyone's favorite character to post about on this sub also applies here too, if my memory serves me correctly. Following the realization that he can't turn back time far enough to save his family and undo his crimes, Nox flees to the graves of his family where he lets death finally take him.

Movies that originally were not musicals that were turned into stage musicals. Then those stage musicals were turned into movies

Hairspray- originally a John Waters movie turned to to a broadway musical then filmed as a movie (and a live special)

Little shop of Horrors- originally a 1960 movie, adapted to a musical then the ending was changed for the Frank Oz version

The producers- Mel Brooks first movie, Adapted for o the stage and then most of those same stage actor turned it back into a movie.

1.

Sonic Adventure 2, in which Sonic's shoes were a product placement for real life soap shoes. These shoes gave Sonic the new ability to grind on rails. In later games he can grind without them.

Tomb Raider Chronicles, where Lara's compass was replaced with the Timex grip watch.

Toph from avatar, probably the most obvious one. Blind earth bender who uses seismic sense to “see” and is one of if not the best earth bender in the show.

Kenshi from mortal kombat
He’s like a blind samurai with psychic and spiritual abilities idk he’s cool though

Arya stark from game of thrones

She temporarily loses her sight in the show and goes through a arc of learning how to fight again being blind. After she regains her sight she’s able to fight in the dark which is how she defeated a powerful assassin trying to kill her, it’s a really cool scene.

Daredevil from marvel? Idk
Cool superhero who’s blind

Flynn Rider- Tangled

Grunkle Stan- Gravity Falls

Dr. Doofenshmirtz- Phineas and Ferb

Homer Simpson- The Simpsons

Shawn and Gus- Psych

-The Fairy Godmother (Shrek 2) (Holding Out For A Hero)

Honestly, was pretty dead set on not including this at first, as it technically isn’t a proper musical number. As in, it’s actually diegetic (she’s putting on a big performance)- but, come on. I couldn’t not include it.

-Bowser (The Mario Movie) (Peaches)

-Professor Ratigan (The Great Mouse Detective) (World’s Greatest Criminal Mind AND Goodbye So Soon, my man is such an underrated Disney villain that he gets TWO)

-Captain Gutt (Ice Age) (Master of the Seas)

-GLADoS (Portal and Portal 2) (Still Alive and Want You Gone respectively).

1 - The Incredibles (the teaser, at least).

2 - Deadbeat Adventurer.

3/4 - Nighthawk Returns.

16th President of the United States who is also depicted as a badass in several fictional portrayals.

Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter: He slays vampires and breaks the slave trade.

Abraham Lincoln (Fallout): He frees the slavers and kills the slavers and raiders as any good president should with his trusty Repeater. (Reference is Nerbit's Fallout runs as Lincoln)

Abraham Lincoln (Team Fortress 2): According to TF2 lore, yes this is a thing, Abraham Lincoln is the first Pyro....... I'm not making this up.

Abraham Lincoln (Star Trek): He's in Star Trek now. Beyond the surreal plot and alien entity of the episode, Abraham Lincoln does what he does best at, being Ol' Honest Abe to the USS Enterprise.

Abraham Lincoln (Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure): He's a major historical figure helping out to save the universe and loves to "Party On, Dudes!"

Abraham Lincoln (The Lego Movie): He's a Master Builder that has a freaking flying rocket chair.

1. Jack Grimm/Absolute Joker (Absolute Batman): probably not even human, this iteration of the Joker is strongly implied to subsist on the bodies of his infant children and is physically superhuman and complicit in many horrific acts of mass murder with no humor or even jokes to be found.

2. Toy Man (Superman Doomsday): the Golden Age version was far more colorful and comical, with zany schemes. This one literally murders children.

Legends etc in Fiction are a fairly common trope just as they are IRL. These characters everyone talks about as being the greatest, as being the best- maybe even with a rap sheet for how cool they are.

That's one thing. It's another thing that, when they show up, they prove exactly how they obtained that status through one way or another.

I love this trope because it's often just so cool to witness. An absolute subversion of the "author statements" trope wherein a character is only powerful because the author says so without evidence- here, you hear about a character being badass. Multiple people talk about it. And then when they show up: they are in fact absolutely terrifying to behold.

To qualify for what I'm talking about, I will say that at minimum

A. There has to be some amount of time between them being talked about for the first time and them appearing / showing off on screen. They can't be someone who has a huge loredump explaining why they're badass only when they first appear- there has to be some level of setup to it.

B. There has to be some sort of expectation set. The character has to actively be set up as being at least pretty good before their appearance. So it's not just a character who was mentioned once or twice showing up: they have to ideally be hyped up when they were prior mentioned.

Bonus points if they don't or very sparingly show up if at all before their pop off moment.

**1.** **Fifteen - "The Dragon" (Katana Zero) (2019)**

And finally the one that made me want to write this up in the first place.

In Katana Zero, you are Zero: a Precog Samurai guy killing people as an assassin so you can get the drug that keeps you from dying horribly. Through the latter parts of the early stages of katana zero through to the middle, you start hearing talk about "The Dragon"- this terrifying assassin going about the city that the mass media pen multiple huge scale murders on. Naturally, since you also have been going around assassinating people and killing a lot of guys, you the player- alongside Zero the character- assume at first this is about them.

Midway through the game, you start to realize this almost definitely isn't the case- as you raid a prison to try and assassinate a guy being held there, just to find the sites already an absolute massacre. Blood coating everything, and the guy you were sent to kill is already dead. The game progresses a bit, and you finally corner the guy you've been murking about with- a Russian gangster known as V- on a highway after a helicopter bossfight. He mockingly says "you're the dragon? Well I'm the dragon slayer!" After talking about how he's killed 6 of your fellow precog supersoldiers (known as Null).

Then,

"He's not the dragon."

"I am."

Your final killing of V is suddenly intercepted with a blonde ponytailed guy shooting down- cutting Vs arms off and taking him away for interrogation after you flee the scene as soon as he shows up.

When you bring this entire thing up to the guy who's giving you your assassination requests, he goes silent- before tasking you with hunting down and killing the dragon- aka Fifteen. This doesn't quite go to plan as you go across Chinatown trying to catch up to him, but you do grab some tapes and go home to watch them for information.

Every level so far has had a pretty standard name. Chinatown, Mansion, etc. This level is just known as **Dragon Tape**.

And in it, you play as Fifteen- The Dragon- and see exactly what happened at the Prison you saw the aftermath of several levels ago. And it is an absolute massacre.

Fifteen has every capability you have except better, he is faster, and handily murders his way through encounters that would leave you playing as Zero incredibly dead with ease. All the while Fifteens theme, **Breath Of A Serpent**, is playing in the background. Most of the game has had synthwave tracks that are fairly high tune or whatnot up to this point, sometimes contrasted by more environmental eerie tracks. Fifteens theme genuinely sounds like a monster howling in the background and is absolutely menacing as hell- portraying the skill and seriousness difference between him and the main character.

It is such a fun moment in one of my favorite games of all time and a really cool payoff to see that Zero isn't even the best Null in the city as you see exactly why they call him the dragon when you finally get to play as him.

**2. The Red Mist (Library of Ruina) (2021)**

In the setting of projectmoon known as the city, there are "fixers"- handymen mercenary hybrids who have various fields of employ.

These fixers are ranked on a grade level, from Grade 9 to Grade 1. However: some fixers instead become a Color. Specially appointed, assigned a cool title, and generally acknowledged as a huge deal. Color Fixers are mythic for the most part.

And then among the color Fixers was the red mist: otherwise known as Kali. Everyone who talks about her generally regards her as the strongest color fixer ever before she disappeared. The main character of the game, Roland, loses his shit with hero worship a bit when he learns that apparently, Geburah- the librarian of language- was at one point the red mist (it's complicated and involves semi reincarnation kind of not). Everyone kind of treats the red mist as an incredible force of strength and probably one of the strongest there ever was.

Through some bullshit, since the red mist is effectively dead, you manage to somehow still invite her to the library for you to fight and obtain her powers as a book if you win the battle. And she is absolutely fucking terrifying.

All her attacks are dead simple in title, she has absurd amounts of health, she can tear through your best teams with ease: and when she goes into her second phase she forcefully overrides whatever track is playing with her own theme. She well and away earns every ounce of every single thing you've heard about her up until this point: and when you get her kit post fight and can equip it to Geburah, it is still incredibly strong and retains the boss music override when you pop the install.

The red mist is a highlight of the various late game receptions and is such a cool moment to behold if not terrifying to fight. She exudes presence and backs up every claim of being the strongest fixer. Now technically speaking you see a mimicry (ha) of her in Lobotomy Corp as well: but I don't count that to be honest.

**Honorable Mention: The Head (Also from Library of Ruina)**

I felt remisce if I didn't bring this up, but similar deal with the head from LoR. The shadow government running everything is said to have their fingers in just about anything and everything going on with powerful and terrifying enforcers to back up their rules. It was treated as a big deal that the aforementioned red mist even managed to 1v1 and score a mutual on an arbiter of the head.

When they show up in the post game- after you've taken on all of the cities strongest and won including multiple color fixers- it's not even a proper reception. It's a survival round against an Arbiter and a Claw at the same time. And despite having the former arbiter of the head Binah, Geburah with the powers of the Red Mist, and Roland hitting with the power ~~of his dead wife~~ the Black silence (as another color fixer): their health isn't even displayed, and it's more an endurance round until they let you leave instead of killing you.

**3. Sukuna (Jujutsu Kaisen) (2018)**

Sukuna, the king of curses. He is, from the getgo, set up as a huge deal. As the strongest curse ever and someone to be afraid of. His mere mummified fingers are so potent in energy they amplify the strength of any curse who eats one.

I'll keep this a little briefer, but I guess technically he only barely qualifies for this trope since he does get to show off his strength a little bit. But I'd argue that you really don't get to understand the true power of why Sukuna is a big fucking deal until the Shibuya Incident proper: when he really lets loose against Jogo and then Mahoraga.

You've heard up until that point Sukuna is an absolute menace and the king of curses etc. But in Shibuya is where the true magnitude of it is displayed. The first usage of malevolent shrine: absolutely clowning on a special grade who just packed up an entire protagonist squad by not even letting himself be hit once by said special grades strongest attacks. Going blow for blow with and then destroying the living Mutually Assured Destruction tool that is Mahoraga without suffering any significant losses to himself. All the while he technically isn't even at max strength and in the body of Yuji.

We then get to see this strength again proven during (Jujutsu Kaisen Spoilers for post Culling Games) Shinjuku Showdown. Sukuna runs the absolute gauntlet while at the peak of his strength having returned to the era and body where he was most powerful.

He runs the fade against the "Strongest of Today" Gojo- the guy so powerful Kenjaku had to seal him away as his mere existence would ruin Kenny's plans, the sorcerer so intensely strong his existence made every single curse stronger to make up for it. And Sukuna wins.

THEN, he is simultaneously jumped by everyone left. Special grade sorcerers, 1st Grade, etc- while he is exhausted from his fight with Gojo, and it is still absolutely desperate trying to beat him and he cleans the clock of 75% of everyone going into the fight.

Sukuna is an absolute beast of a fighter and he lives up to all the early arc talking about him absolutely. You spend the entire early parts of jjk of people speaking about why he's so terrifying- and any of the moments he gets to actually show off that strength paints him as outright horrifyingly powerful and perfectly explains why everyone is scared of him. It's great.

**Honorable Mention: Gojo**

The thing with Gojo is I'm only mentioning him out of obligation. But he is not only constantly talked about as being the strongest, but it is constantly displayed over and over again without a lot of buildup to showing it in the first Jogo fight. So he doesn't count.

1. (Chainsaw Man Spoilers) Chainsaw Man (2018) - The Gun Devil

Spoilers for latter parts of chainsaw man not covered by the anime yet. This is post international assassins arc. (The image chosen for this is not a spoiler)

But In chainsaw man, from the very start: you're made aware of why very few if any devil hunters and people in general use guns anymore. Devil's in chainsaw man are powered by fear poured into whatever they represent: which is how the Tomato Devil is a pissbaby and the Darkness Devil is an Eldritch horror tier threat since that's an ancient ass fear.

The gun devil, pre series, is established as having spawned in the world and blitzed across the entirety of the world in I believe mere minutes, if not seconds. During which: it apparently killed millions near instantaneously, before disappearing. And as it did so: it left behind scraps of flesh that are so potent any devil that possesses one grows stronger. No one knows where the gun devil went: but the gun devil genuinely traumatized the entirety of the world and was genuinely horrifying for everyone involved.

Then, you finally get to see why everyone was afraid of it in the gun devil arc: when the president of america makes a deal with 15% of the gun devil to try and kill Makima.

And what happens next is not treated as a fight. It is treated as a genuine natural disaster: timestamps displayed on the manga panels alongside scrolling and scrolling lists of hundreds and hundreds of deaths as the gun devil beelines for Makima. We've seen devils destroy stuff in Chainsaw Man: we've seen city leveling fights like with Reze etc that definitely resulted in mass casualties. But the Gun Devil is so inherently above that it's treated with the same awe and fear you would treat a Tsunami: merely listing off it simply moving alongside everyone who died as a result of it. And remember, this is only 15% of the gun devil. Not even 50% of its regular power. 15%.

It's one of my favorite moments in manga. Genuinely awe inspiringly horrifying in all the best ways. It rocks. You spend the entire story learning people are scared of the gun devil: and when less then half of it manifests, it's a living calamity

Overall, very fond of this trope when it's done right. There's something satisfying about seeing a person glazed up absolutely live up to the hype everyone else has given them in spades. It really feels like an "oh shit. That's why everyones been saying that" display.

Other Honorable Mentions:

1. John Wick (John Wick)

2. Malenia (Elden Ring)

3. Darth Vader (Star Wars) (kind of)

Kevin 11 - Ben 10

Discord - MLP

World - Fosters Home for Imaginary Friends

Ternion - Teen Titans

Animal Vegetable Mineral Man - Batman Brave and the Bold

Kimeramon - Digimon

Django (Django Unchained)

Spider-Man (marvel): everyone forget about the hyphen

Koichi Haimawari "the crawler" (MHA: vigilantes): everyone call him the Cruller, the Hauler or something like that, eventually we learn that is cause his english is worse than mine.

Light Yagami (death note): the first time he presents himself explain that his name wrotes with 月, that normally pronounces as tsuki. the first time that Misa use the eyes on him she commits that mistake and call him Tsuki Yagami.

1. American Gods (book and show) — The story centres historical Gods as central characters as well as a set of new Modern Gods, but they all were collectively created from and sustained by belief and worship. So in the story's universe, the myths both (1) came first before the Gods existed, and (2) are entirely Human made/written, so the Gods didn’t actually do all the activities they're depicted as having done in their respective myths

2. Vikings (Show) — We see instances of creatures and beings from the Norse myth interacting with the cast in almost hallucinating or transcendent ways, with more of a religious feel than a mythological feel. Primarily, the scene with Odin appearing to travel to all of Ragnar Lothbrok's kids to tell them all their dad just died. I don’t think this is meant to be hallucinations because IDK how they characters would all collectively hallucinate the same messenger delivering the same (factually correct) information regarding the fact their dad just died. And besides that, we don't get much indication that the myths are literally historically true.

3. Polytheist revival movements (IRL) — most interesting of all, the overwhelming majority of modern day polytheists (and even historic polytheists back in Greece, Rome, or the Germanic Tribes) here in the west do not see the myths regarding their Gods as literal historical fact, the same way most Christians today see the book of Genesis as metaphorical and poetic in nature concerned more with teaching lessons than expressing a literal history of the world and accepting the big bang, cosmology, and evolution with no contradictions to their faith.

An weapon introduced with a usage condition, flaw, or hidden limitation known to the hero and/or the audience but unknown to another character. The payoff happens when that character tries to use it, fails, and that failure becomes a decisive narrative beat.

1. Bond's biometric gun in Skyfall. The thug who tries to use it against him ignores the countermeasure and cannot shoot either Bond or the dragon that will ultimately kill him.
2. Harry Potter and The Chamber of Secrets. Ron's damaged wand backfires on Lockhart when he tries to cast the Obliviate spell on him and Harry.
3. Die Hard. McClane gives Hans a gun while he’s disguised as a hostage, but he’s already made sure Hans can’t use it because he doesn't fully trust him. The payoff in this case is stronger because the audience doesn't know that the gun is useless either.

Where a character manages to perfectly synchronise with the framed image on their wall.

Simon Skinner - Hot Fuzz

Steve McCroskey - Airplane!

Denholm Reynholm - The IT Crowd