And she can even lift her horse if she wants to.
So you meet this character. He looks weak somehow. He's either small and scrawny, or meek, peace-loving and/or gentle, not heavily armed, lazy or untrained, frail and/or sickly, or unassuming. Either way, everything that you see about him doesn't strike you as "strong".
But then, said so-called "weak" guy starts lifting something many times his size/weight or breaking something hard without much effort.
This "character" may sometimes not be a person; an animal can be this too. Good chance of being in a Mugging the Monster scenario.
Related to Hidden Badass. See also Badass Bookwormnote , Pint-Sized Powerhouse, Strong Ants, Killer Rabbit, Cute Bruiser and Glacier Waif for the subtropes of this. (Note, examples that fit in the subtropes would be listed there rather than here.)
Compare Badass on Paper, Muscles Are Meaningless and Lightning Bruiser. Contrast Muscles Are Meaningful.
Example subpages:
Other examples:
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Comic Books
- The Flash, whenever the writers don't forget how much it sucks to be punched by someone going that fast.
◊ This has varied over the years, and still varies with the writer. In Wally West's first hundred issues or so, he could usually hit no harder than a typical athlete — his aura absorbed most of the energy. As the editor pointed out, Wally would break his hands with every punch otherwise. When the Speed Force was introduced, it quickly became a catch-all answer to physics gripes; thus Wally's been delivering super-punches again, apparently using the Speed Force to sneak around Newton's third.
- Spider-Man has enhanced strength, reflexes, and agility. Despite that, as Peter Parker he's has been known as "Puny Parker" and treated as a skinny nerd. Most villains and even some heroes write off Spidey as a lightweight to their cost. During Secret Wars (1984) Spider-Man at one point dropped Bulldozer of the Wrecking Crew with a single punch right in front of the Absorbing Man (whose thought bubble acknowledges the "squirt" is trouble) who quickly absorbs some alien steel before he even tries fighting Spidey.
- The Mighty Thor: The Enchantress is, to all appearances, simply a tall, impossibly-attractive woman, usually wearing either expensive, designer outfits in the style of Midgard, or ornate and revealing costumes suitable for the most decadent assemblage of courtly nobility. In neither case is she carrying any sort of weapon, and her bearing is one of elegantly-graceful poise and sensuality, not anything that implies physical danger or even dangerous athleticism. However, she is Asgardian, which means the tall slim woman you and your mugger friends just cornered on that darkened street is significantly stronger than Spider-Man, and has the speed and endurance to chase you down and destroy you with her bare hands, all without even bothering to use her immense array of magical abilities (and also while wearing 6-inch stiletto heels)
- This applies to Asgardians in generalnote . They run to tall by mortal standards and the martially inclined sorts tend to be impressively muscled as well, but a squad of well trained soldiers in proper commando loadout would likely regard an encounter with some ren-faire refugee bringing a sword to a gunfight such as Balder the Brave or Lady Sif as being embarrassingly one-sided. And so it would be, but not in their favor.
- Nth Man: The Ultimate Ninja has been trained as a ninja for most of his life and the deadliest killer on Earth. Though strong, he usually relies on his speed, agility, and expertise to defeat his enemies, preferring more subtle methods.
- Asterix:
- Asterix, a small man who nevertheless is superstrong after having drunk the magic potion.
- While Obelix is a very large man, he's also very fat and not noticeably muscled. However, he's permanently superstrong due to falling into the cauldron of potion when he was a baby.
- Early issues of Marvel Comics' Fantastic Four have Susan Richards as the Invisible Girl, routinely hiding from adversaries and shielding the team when necessary. During John Byrne's run on the series, Susan Took a Level in Badass, and was able to demolish as many Doombots as Ben Grimm. In fact, while she'd been Brainwashed and Crazy by the Hatemonger, she nearly wiped the pavement with her three teammates.
- In recent years, villains who know them are wary of Reed's intellect, Johnny's fire abilities, and Ben's strength and physical toughness. They are utterly terrified of Susan.
- The eponymous lead of Jessica Jones is a short, slender woman, absolutely unimposing and unintimidating, and capable of throwing grown men twice her size across the room with one arm.
- X-Men:
- Wolverine isn't exactly scrawny, however, this trope still comes into effect because of his Healing Factor. One side effect is that it increases the density of both his muscles and bones, allowing them to exert more force than would be possible for an ordinary human being without tearing them off their ligaments, breaking their own bones, or liquefying their muscles from over-exertion. His unbreakable adamantium skeleton removes one of the key limits to the amount of muscle power a normal human can exert.
- X-23 for much the same reasons, though not to the same extent since her bones aren't bonded. However, in her case, it's much more exaggerated since rather than a short but heavily-muscled man, she's a short, slight, pretty teenage girl.
- Nightcrawler is skinny as Spider-Man, yet he can lift an entire woman above his head one-handed and has even given Sabretooth a run for his money in a close-quarters fight.
- Storm is a willowy African woman, who can pull Stonewall (who apparently weighs over a ton) one-handed out of a swamp, even he couldn't believe it.
- The first guardian of the M'kraan Crystal seen during the original Phoenix saga in the X-men looks like a small and fairly weak dwarf, Wolverine quickly learns otherwise after mocking him as with one punch he sent Wolverine into space at escape velocity.
- Rogue is a slim lady, most X-Men tower over her and Rogue's love interest (now husband) Gambit is much more muscly than her. Of course, Rogue is actually far stronger than him and most X-Men to boot being a Flying Brick able to go toe to toe with the freaking Juggernaut.
- Judge Dredd: Judge Death is an armored skeletal Judge who weighs a mere 67 kilos, but is strong enough to throw boulders into the air.
- The author's grandfather in the graphic memoir Mexikid. He gets a bale of hay inside a truck in one easy motion while older brother Noe, who is quite strong, fails. Later, the family witnesses a car hit a deer. The dad and several of the younger kids struggle to get it into the motorhome. Abuelito lifts the deer in one smooth motion and gets it inside by himself.
"It turns out Abuelito is stronger than three boys, one grown dad, and one Alex."
- Super Agent Jon Le Bon!, despite his lanky appearance, tends to catch others off-guard when he unexpectedly shows feats of strength, such as catching a heavy dumbbell Wxt dropped.
- The Beano: Pansy Potter, the Strongman's Daughter, might have Popeye-style bulging arms, but even that wouldn't make you expect a young girl to be capable of bending steel bars and carrying livestock.
Fan Works
- In Everyday Craziness in Pontypandy, Mike, who is lanky and a bit thin, is able to effortlessly lift Bronwyn and Gabby, two adult women, off the ground and onto his shoulders.
- Hero Academia D×D: Mei, the support course student of 1H, is able to drag around Milla despite being only an inventor. She explains this is due to lifting a lot of her "babies".
- Metal Gear: Green: Mei is absurdly strong, despite being an inventor. She is able to give immense difficulty for Akatani (a disguised Izuku) to restrain her when she finds out about Victoria. Taken to absurd degrees where Akatani has to block the doors to the Support Course labs with a metal shelf, one of the tables and a literal block of tungsten, and when Kaminari helps out, the two of them were still struggling to keep her out of the labs.
- In Not Old, Alone or Done For, Wendy is surprised by Peter's strength. He's only twelve but she can't get out of his grasp even as an adult.
- these hands are meant to hold: Marinette, although a small Chinese girl, has very strong hands because of all the seamstress work she does.
- In War of Remnant: A RWBY Anthology, Gianduja is much more explicitly heavy than in canon, with even the massive Yatsuhashi being unable to lift it. Naturally, this being Coco’s weapon, she regularly uses it with no problem. Also, due to her ability to copy weapons, Velvet can lift it as well.
- In The Wizard in the Shadows, Harry moves very fast and happens to be a Person of Mass Destruction as well as doubling as Flying Firepower. Also, Aragorn, from the more mortal side of things.
Films — Animation
- The Emperor's New Groove: Big Bad Yzma is hilariously fit for her age (which may lead viewers to question why she needs Kronk in the first place): among her many feats, she can lift hammers the size of her head, run fast enough to outrun a swarm of bees (possibly because of Rule of Funny), bend a fork with her thumb and even wrestle with Pacha despite being a fifth of his girth.
- The first indication that Disney's depiction of Hercules is abnormally strong comes while Hercules is a mere baby, and his proud parents are showing him off to the other gods on Olympus. Father Zeus strokes the infant with one finger and suddenly finds himself lifted overhead by his newborn son. "Ooh, and he's strong, like his Dad."
- How to Train Your Dragon has the Night Fury, Toothless, easily the fastest dragon in flight, and with one of the most powerful fire blasts. Also, despite being comparatively small, he easily survives hitting the ground any time he gets shot down or loses control of his flight.
- The Hunchback of Notre Dame (Disney): Frollo is a decrepit-looking judge who is at least fifty years old, but he moves and hits like a man half that, turning him into a real threat against both Esmeralda and Quasimodo.
- My Little Pony: Equestria Girls: Applejack looks as slight as the other girls, yet has moments demonstrating she's the strongest of the group. In the first movie, two jocks help Twilight lift a nearby table, then stop and look on slack-jawed as Applejack passes by easily carrying a similar-sized table under one arm. In Rainbow Rocks, she effortlessly catches a random punch from Rainbow Dash. In Legend of Everfree her magic develops into genuine Super-Strength, and she start showing off superhero levels of physical power.
- Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse:
- Spider-Ham looks a harmless cartoon but as Scorpion learned to his cost, this little piggy is badass with a Hyperspace Mallet.
- Miles Morles, Gwen Stacy and Penni Parker are ridiculously strong for their size.
- The first warning sign about the lanky geeky scientist Olivia Octavius is how she effortlessly pushes Peter Parker across half the room and into a chair with a slight move of her palm.
- Spirited Away: The soot sprites, despite having spindly arms and legs, each carry a block of coal for the furnace with ease, barring a few that stumble. Chihiro, a human, visibly strains to carry a block.
Films — Live-Action
- Spider-Man 3: When a bouncer try to throw Peter Parker out for causing a ruckus, and grabbing him, the seemingly weaker looking Peter surprised the bouncer by easily breaking free and grabbed the bouncer back, smashing him into a wall and proceeded to beat him up hard. As the bouncer screamed in pain, two more bouncers rushed in, one by one, tried to seize Peter and stop him, only for him to easily throw them aside like nothing. Only when Mary Jane came in and was smashed aside did everything calm down, and the bouncers were too afraid to go near Peter anymore as he left on his own volition.
- MCU Spider-Man stands a slim 5'8 being a teenager and most other Avengers tower over him, yet he still wiped the floor with Bucky Barnes and The Falcon (two experienced veterans), helped bring down Giant-Man, got Obsidian Cull killed and held his own against Thanos in close quarters and he's still learning.
- The Beast of Kung Fu Hustle is an extremely unimpressive little old balding man with a potbelly, but he's got immense power in his blows and is Made of Iron to boot.
- Serenity: River Tam is a fairly petite and slender girl who has been subjected to experiments that allow her to unleash some surprisingly powerful Waif-Fu.
Wash: Start with the part where Jayne gets knocked out by a 90-pound girl, 'cause... I don't think that's ever getting old.
- Alien Resurrection - The version of Ripley in this film has alien DNA in her genetic code - this translates into enhanced strength, reflexes, agility and endurance than her appearance would suggest. She effortlessly knocks a large man flying with a backhand in one scene for example.
- Dr. Robotnik from Sonic the Hedgehog (2020) looks like the type of guy who relies on robots to do the fighting for him, but he is able to throw a man much heavier than him through a window.
- Star Wars:
- Yoda is a dimunitive 2'2 alien. Despite this, barring Physical Gods like Abeloth or The Ones, and possibly Sidious, he is unquestionably the most powerful being alive during his time.
- Dooku is a somewhat downplayed example, as he is, courtesy of Christopher Lee, 6'4 (though Lee himself is 6'5) and, while not wide as a door, has fairly broad shoulders. That said, he's in his 80s, but while he isn't Made of Iron like Maul or (quite literally) Vader, he's remarkably strong and fast for a man his age, being able to throw Obi-Wan and Anakin and knock out a weequay pirate (weequay being noted for their resilience) with two strikes.
Literature
- Sherlock Holmes counts, making this trope Older Than Television. Holmes is a tall, lanky man who is also a skilled martial artist and much stronger than he looks. In The Adventure of the Speckled Band, a murder suspect tries to intimidate him by bending a fire poker out of shape, but Holmes is not impressed and rather casually bends it straight again after the man leaves.
- The Berenstain Bears Big Chapter Books:
- The Berenstain Bears and the Female Fullback introduces Bertha Broom, who doesn't look any tougher than any other student. However, when she's given a chance to show her skills and tackle the blocking frame, with Mr. Grizzmeyer on it, she drives it fifteen yards down the field before he can call for her to stop. Later, on the football field itself, she's able to plow through a number of bigger cubs with no problem.
- In The Berenstain Bears and the Love Match, Milton Chubb may be hefty, but he's also very strong, which Brother discovers when he sees Milton pitching hay up into the loft of Farmer Ben's barn — a feat Brother admits he'd tried and failed at in the past.
- The Vord Queen in the Codex Alera books is terrifyingly powerful. While she looks a bit like a Cute Monster Girl, she's faster and stronger than Aleran crafters using Bullet Time and Super-Strength, crafts better than pretty much anyone anyway, can run up walls and ceilings, and is generally able to slice you to little pieces. Oh, and balest bolts bounce off her skin. To make matters worse, she's a brilliant commander with a massive, Hive Minded army consisting in large part of lesser Lightning Bruisers.
- Max the Silent from Andrew Vachss's Burke books, despite not looking very powerful at first glance, is death in close quarters. In the event that someone manages to land a blow on him, it becomes apparent that he can shrug off should-be-painful stuff like multiple knee strikes from Muay Thai opponents.
- Not "scrawny", but Durnik from The Belgariad is of medium build and much stronger than he appears. (Working as a blacksmith does that.)
- Big Trouble: Puggy is presented as this, he doesn't look that impressive, but has carried heavy loads for most of his life, as seen in the climax when he removes three weightlifters from someone without visible exertion.
- Ishura: Psianop the Inexhaustible is an ooze with an abnormally powerful physique and martial art skills, enough to defeat two First Party members and two shura. However, as his species typically has frail bodies, he is dismissed outright by two Aureatian soldiers during the Sixways Exhibition evaluation. Psianop shows his strength by casually immobilizing one of them mid-kick just by touching the soldier's leg, forcing him to hold an agonizing pose until he topples. Their general, Qwell the Wax Flower, then steps in to test him in combat, later becoming his sponsor. She shares the same deceptive appearance; despite her delicate frame, she can overpower most Aureatian generals thanks to vampiric genes that make her far stronger than most minia.
- Pippi Longstocking: The titular character is this, being a Super-Strong Child.
- Astra from Wearing the Cape looks like a teenage girl (she's actually just a petite adult) but is classified as one of the strongest Flying Brick Breakthroughs in the world.
- Jace, Isabelle, Alec and Clary from The Mortal Instruments are shadowhunters. They are also teenagers, and do not look very strong, but each of them is superhuman strong and hunts demons. Simon, who is a vampire, also qualifies for it. Actually, it applies to most vampires, werewolves, fairies, and nephilim. Sometimes, however, one is underneath, who looks quite muscular.
- Jaine Austen Mysteries:
- Hank from Death By Pantyhose. He looks like a 90-pound weakling scared of his own shadow and using a workout machine as a coat rack. In reality, he works out often and apparently could have beaten Vic to a bloody pulp if he really wanted to.
- In Death of a Neighborhood Witch, one of Jaine's neighbors is a little older woman, but she can lift up the end of a heavy couch like it was nothing.
- Ryn, the main character of The One Who Eats Monsters, looks like a slightly underfed five-foot tall, sixteen-year old girl who weighs "one hundred and three pounds." She's actually the oldest monster in the world, can pummel a pair of gang enforcers so fast and so hard they literally don't know what happened, and can throw cars at people.
- The demigods in Percy Jackson and the Olympians look like ordinary teenagers. However, each of them is superhuman strong. An exception might be the children of Ares and Hephaestus, who can look very muscular.
- Percy Jackson is implied to be a lot stronger than even the average demigod, particularly in water. His first display of strength was ripping a Minatour’s horn off with his bare hands at age twelve. Even out of water, and without the Achilles Curse, he can still strike fast and hard enough to defeat entire formations of Roman Demigods.
- Princesses of the Pizza Parlor: In Princesses Don't Do Summer School, it's said that the "pale, slender hand" of a "little witch" was "stronger than she looked", having gripped Cassie's arm to keep her from touching a dangerous potion.
- Teen Power Inc.: Girly Girl Richelle takes ballet lessons and, as a result, can kick shins or stomp feet with more strength than anyone expected, although this is rarely, if ever, important to the story.
- Villainess Level 99: Many people refuse to believe Yumiella being Level 99, due to that level being way above anything heard of before and her frail physical appearance. The Second Prince even tried to get her expelled by claiming she was lying. It isn't until she demonstrates how powerful she is that people start to accept that she's telling the truth.
Live-Action TV
- Dexter: Dexter Morgan is mostly a guile (anti)hero, so it's not immediately obvious, but he is very strong. In season 2, when escaping an ambush set by Little Chino, he's able to lift a manhole cover (which likely weighs upwards of 100 pounds), escape down the manhole, and replace the cover, by himself, in a matter of seconds. With his pursuers none the wiser. In the same episode, he's able to move an unconscious Little Chino (who is probably 300+ pounds) to his car, stuff him in the trunk, bring him to the killing chamber, and get him strapped to the table before he wakes up. He is also capable of overpowering Doakes, a very muscular man.
- Star Trek:
- Star Trek: The Next Generation. Data is a Ridiculously Human Robot who looks closer to normal Earth humans than the more imposing Nausicaans and Klingons. Yet, he bent a rod of par steel with a tensile strength of 40 kilobars (stronger than kevlar) with minimal effort in one episode using his bare hands. He also lifted a full size metal anvil effortlessly in another. In one episode, a Klingon tried to headbutt him. Data didn't budge.
- A lot of Vulcans (including Spock, the original) look like slender geeks. While they prefer to use their intellect, they are quite a bit stronger than humans.
- Ferengi are short and rather slender of build, but as Data notes in the first episode they appear in, they're actually fairly strong. One of them even manages to toss the much larger Commander Riker around. In Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, Quark in one episode easily lifts gold bars and casually crushes them with his bare hands (though the effect is rather ruined by them crumbling into dust, making it obvious that they weren't actually gold).
- Babylon 5: Similarly to Vulcans, the Minbari (outside the Warrior caste) don't look that imposing, but Delenn snaps a thick wooden staff with her bare hands, and her rather runty assistant Lennier lifts a grown man by the neck.
- Marcus himself appears to be rather unassuming, however this is the same guy who knocked out all the patrons in a Down Below bar while trying to find a kidnapped Delenn.
Marcus Cole: Bugger! Now I have to wait for somebody to wake up!
- Marcus himself appears to be rather unassuming, however this is the same guy who knocked out all the patrons in a Down Below bar while trying to find a kidnapped Delenn.
- Buffy the Vampire Slayer:
- Buffy looks like an ordinary teenage girl but has Super-Strength. The same goes for most of the vampires, though some of those actually do look pretty strong.
- Caleb (the "priest") is also much stronger than his appearance would suggest being able to throw a Slayer around like a rag doll.
- That probably applies to almost all slayers. They are young girls who have the physical powers of demons.
- You also see three half-demons in Angel, Doyle, Connor and Billy Blim. Each of them does not look very strong or even muscled, yet each of them is superhumanly strong. There's also a half-demon named Groosalugg who looks muscular, but as a half-demon, he's much stronger than he looks.
- An opponent of Buffy, the Hell Goddess Glory, had the appearance of a young woman, but was actually one of the strongest persons in the series.
- Buck Rogers in the 25th Century episode "Cosmic Whiz Kid". Toman the assassin is from a high gravity planet. He looks rather weak but has superhuman strength in Earth-type environments, making him a formidable opponent.
- The childlike and innocent Balki from Perfect Strangers is this. He is sometimes seen lifting heavy things and carrying people around (often his Cousin Larry) with seemingly no effort at all. When asked once about how he got his strength, he said “lifting sheep, I suppose.”
- A unique Real Life example too, knowing that Bronson Pinchot usually just exhibited his own strength in these moments without any help from special effects or stunt actors.
- On Supernatural, Castiel looks like a bookish tax accountant who'd do poorly in a fight, especially when compared to the more obviously muscled Winchesters. One character even comments upon meeting him that Cas is scrawnier than he expected. Castiel can easily lift several hundred pounds and punching him is more likely to break the attacker's hand than hurt him. This trope applies pretty much universally to all angels and demons in human bodies, as well as any monsters with outwardly human appearances, such as vampires or shapeshifters.
- Wonder Woman: Every Amazon on Paradise Island looks like a model, but can bench press a car. And that doesn't get into a fraction of what Wonder Woman does during the series.
Pro Wrestling
- Masato Yoshino from Dragon Gate is a Fragile Speedster minus the fragile. He's the second smallest guy on the roster, but he can press guys his own size over his head, and knock guys much bigger than himself flying across the ring with a dropkick.
- AJ Styles, while looking like an average-sized man, is not only lightning fast and agile, but can casually lift and tackle behemoths like Samoa Joe and Abyss, and can stand up and carry someone who is using a jujigatame (crucifix armbar) on him.
Sports
- Manny "Pac-Man" Pacquiao, at this point the most famous boxer to come from Philippines. He started his career at a thin and wiry 106 pounds, has advanced all the way to 147 (almost unheard of in Boxing). And his KO percentage has risen, while he retains the same blinding hand speed he had at lower weights. Many a fighter in his heyday would find out just how dangerous such a combo can be, be it a withering nonstop onslaught that wears out the likes of David Diaz, or a One-Hit KO just right that ends the night right there for Ricky Hatton. While not as sharp as he once was, his domination of Lucas Matthysse shows he still has a good chunk of that legendary power.
- Mark Recchi is small for a hockey player who plays a physical style (5'10, 180 pounds) but early in his career was nicknamed "The Wrecking Ball" for his propensity to crash into opponents, many larger than himself. Pat Verbeek, also qualifies, earning the amazing nickname "The Little Ball of Hate". Unlike Recchi, he was also known for fighting.
- Mixed Martial Arts
- UFC Featherweight champ Jose Aldo fights at 145 lbs and is known for his amazing knockout power in his hands, feet and knees.
- UFC Middleweight champ Anderson "The Spider" Silva is a tall, skinny fighter at 185 lbs and is known for his one-punch knockout power as well as his effortless evasion on the feet. He's broken UFC records for winning streaks and title defenses.
Tabletop Games
- Dungeons & Dragons:
- Monks were intended to be this. They were meant to have high movement speed and hit very often. Unfortunately, the 3.5 version is often considered to be quite lacking at high levels of optimization. The 4e version does somewhat better as a relatively effective striker.
- Anyone who is naturally weak but possesses or uses a magic/psionic item that grants increased strength. Examples include drinking a Potion of Giant Strength or wearing a Girdle of Giant Strength.
- Old World of Darkness: Vampires grow stronger as they age, and their physical strength is no longer connected to their appearance. An ancient vampire, or one with high level Potence, might look like a slender woman, an old man, or a child and yet have the strength to break every bone in a person's body with one strike, leap such great distances that they appear to fly, and create shockwaves from the force of their hits.
Video Games
- The Battle Cats: The physical appearance of an enemy usually has little to no bearing on how tough they are or how hard they can hit you, which can lead to some absurd situations where an enemy that appears frail and/or unassuming takes enough firepower to white out the screen without even flinching, or that same enemy one-shots an opponent several times their size. Some of the most extreme examples are the enemy counterparts of the Crazed Cats — the enemy Crazed Cat is no bigger than the Basic Cat on your side, but won't even flinch from attacks like a giant burst of dark energy from Bahamut.
- Dragon Age: Origins: For a mage with an Arcane Warrior specialization, their spellpower becomes a limiting factor for available armor and weapons instead of physical strength. Therefore your PC could be a delicate elven maiden in full adamantium plate swinging a zweihander that is longer than she is tall. Also, since the other go-to magical specialization is Blood Magic which requires a ton of HP to cast spells from, said maiden will most likely be secretly beefier than the resident beefcakes like Ogren or Sten.
- Final Fantasy
- The junction system in Final Fantasy VIII allows the player to boost any character's Strength, Stamina, and Speed dramatically by linking the stats to the right kinds of magic, but Zell deserves particular mention; his stat growth is naturally designed to make him hit fast and hard. At higher levels and with good junctions, his ATB speed becomes noticeably faster than the rest of the party's.
- Defying the common expectations of his job class, Zidane Tribal of Final Fantasy IX is a surprisingly hard hitter and has good HP, only balanced by his lack of heavy armor (of which only two characters in the game use anyway). And then he becomes a straight-up nuker in his Super Mode.
- Vaan from Final Fantasy XII, even if he may look scrawny, by virtue of him excelling in all stats.
- EXTRAPOWER: Attack of Darkforce: The demure, taciturn Meido Idea. Also a magical homunculus created to defend Mayard's earthly mansion. Despite her small appearance, she can take hits like a tank and can crush enemies in her hands.
- Sonic the Hedgehog:
- Knuckles is the strongest character in the Sonic universe, even if he's as small as Sonic or Tails.
- In Sonic Chronicles, Sonic is the Jack of All Stats except for being the fastest character in the game. In the usual gaming fare, he's a Fragile Speedster and somewhat of a Glass Cannon but it really just depends on whether you can hold on to a single ring. In Sonic Unleashed, he does indeed play this straight, as he is able to move fast, destroy tough enemies, and lose only 20 rings per hit. Sonic's "Sonic boost" ability also contributes.
- Amy Rose is an adorable pink hedgehog in a cute red dress who wields a large hammer like it's nothing, and has destroyed mechs several times her size with it on many occasions.
- [PROTOTYPE]:
- Alex Mercer of just seems like a guy in a hoodie and jacket. But he can run fast enough to scale buildings and outrun helicopters. And can lift cars above his head, dropkick people to send them flying a block away. And let's not even go into his blades, tentacles, claws, clubs, or shapeshifting powers. It helps that he has a ton of mass hidden beneath that lanky physique, to the point where a four-foot drop to the ground will result in cracked pavement and simply standing on a tank will noticeably slow it down; definitely a hard-hitting speedster.
- The sequel [PROTOTYPE 2] gives protagonist James Heller similar powers, and a comparison between the two reveals that Mercer is stronger, but Heller is much faster.
- Several characters in Resident Evil.
- Jill Valentine stands at a slim 5'5 and weighs at 50.4 kg yet Jill can still push heavy stone blocks around, overpower numerous foes with She-Fu and in RE3 she's strong enough to shove the hulking Nemesis off a bridge and lift a huge portable rail gun (although it took a great amount of effort on her part) in the remake. In RE5 Jill becomes outright superhuman thanks to Bio-Augmentation.
- Claire Redfield clearly isn't as bulky as her brother being 5'6 tall and weighing only 52.4 kg. Regardless Claire is still strong enough to kick zombies around, grapple with monsters and in the RE2make Claire wields the Minigun (the average Minigun weighs over 85 lbs btw).
- Helena Harper from RE6 looks as petite as other RE heroines, but she's strong enough to wrestle zombies and monsters, easily climb a vertical cable wire hand-over-hand and help Leon push a boulder.
- Albert Wesker is a male example, especially Resident Evil 5. He can move faster than a human eye could perceive, yet is able to punch through a metal wall (not mentioning a ribcage and spine), lift and hurl a missile like a dart, and has a Healing Factor on the verge of immortality. He often hides it behind a normal business suit, a labcoat, or a black longcoat. Maybe the most laconic summation of all his Lightning Bruiser features in one move: he can catch a rocket fired at him and hold it still; said rocket then exploding in his hands merely dazes him.
- Leon Scott Kennedy in most games is pretty skinny and looks like a real pusheover, however Leon has strength to kick heads off with one Roundhouse Kick, suplex villains so hard their skulls explode, hold open the jaws of mutated shark, push a boulder over, stagger a Monstrous Humanoid with an ax kick to the head and support the weight of a grown woman and her massively mutated brother while danlging from a metal bar. Even as a rookie Leon walks off getting shot and when he's professional agent, he tank tank direct hits from Tyrants.
- Devil May Cry:
- Dante looks like any other human, as many of the bosses assume. However, his devil heritage gives him both the Healing Factor to shrug off humanly-fatal wounds and the power and speed to tear enemies a new one with ease. At least in cutscenes.
- Trish, unlike Dante is willowly yet she can still lift a mototbike above her head and throw it at Dante.
- Arkham from Devil May Cry 3: Dante's Awakening doesn't look that physically imposing at all, yet he's strong enough to flip-throw a solid wooden desk at Dante with one hand and later on is able to send Lady, Dante, and Vergil all flying with one good kick (granted Dante and Vergil were both worn out from fighting each other).
- Neku and Joshua from The World Ends with You are both cases of this. They are rather scrawny and small in stature but the former has a massive Super Power Lottery array of Psychic Powers at his disposal, ranging from Psychokinesis, to Pyrokinesis and more, and is easily the most powerful Player in the story while the latter can summon holy beams of light to rain down on his foes, as well being revealed to be a Physical God.
- The Big Sisters in BioShock 2 are much faster and more agile than the Big Daddies, and able to dish out a surprising amount of hurt. They are also probably the most terrifying enemy you face in the game...and this is RAPTURE we're talking about.
- From the Wild ARMs series...
- Rudy Roughnight from Wild ARMs 1 is a small, thin fifteen year old who can hold his own in a fight and, in the original, can lug around several guns bigger than he is. A Flashback reveals he's had abnormally high strength since childhood, where he's shown throwing a large crate across the square like it's nothing, and accidently terrifying those around him as a result.
- Wild ARMs 2 has the protagonist Ashley Winchester who fits this trope like a glove. Even though his build is average, he's got a pretty good HP, can insanely be fast even without his Accelerator Force Action, can deal good damage, and yet wields a bayonet that looks like a BFS. And that's not even getting into his Superpowered Evil Side.
- Arch-Viles in the Doom series are fast, can take tons of damage, are resistant to flinching, attack with a deadly line-of-sight fire spell, and can revive or summon enemies.
- The Doomguy in the old games also qualifies. He carries an alarming number of heavy weapons and runs at something approaching highway speeds.
- Shadow Man the robot ninja in Mega Man 3 is similar to Quick Man from Mega Man 2, but faster and tougher, and has the same sliding ability as Mega Man. Catch is, if you know the right sequence, you can use this against him.Explanation
- Yuuto and Etrangers in general function as this in Aselia the Eternal - The Spirit of Eternity Sword which is why they are valued so highly. While Yuuto has basically no skill in combat to start, he's still a match for all but the most skilled and powerful of spirits. Also, Eternals.
- P.N.03's Vanessa Z. Schneider. Just looks like your average female adult protagonist, but with Blackbird suit, unlocked on a New Game Plus, she has all stats maxed out, making Vanessa one of these. To a lesser extent there's the Ultra Fusion, arguably the best non-secret suit.
- In Marvel vs. Capcom 3 (specifically, Ultimate), Phoenix Wright becomes this in Turnabout Mode. Still a normal lawyer through and through, but with all evidences ready, he can access the mode and able to spam highly damaging Finger Poke of Doom, as well as performing the second strongestnote Level 3 Hyper Combo in the game.
- In Buriki One, there're Takato Saionji and Song Xuandao, a skinny young boy and an old man, respectively. Both fighters managed martial arts that specialize in easily defeat fighters more muscular and taller than them by using their strenght against them. Takato uses Aikido and Song uses Tai Chi Chuan, and both manage their martial arts very well, necessary in a game full of Muscles Are Meaningful.
- The titular Bug from Bug appears to look like a small green bug that's decidedly not muscular, and relies on a stinger tail for a physical attack. However, he's capable of pushing blocks that are larger than him — the manual even tells you he's stronger than he looks, by virtue of being an insect.
Game manual: Many insects can lift over 7 times their body weight. Use that muscle! Push blocks to build gangways to out-of-reach areas.
- In Xenoblade Chronicles 3, when the two sides of the Ouroboros first agree to start working together, Sena describes herself in this fashion during their introductions, stating that, despite appearances, she can lift much more than she weighs. Later, when the party first swap their classes with one another, Lanz takes on Sena's class, and, upon picking up her hammer, marvels that she was able to carry it around without the assistance of a power frame.
- It's also established that this goes for Agnians as a whole, notably demonstrated when Mio sends a Moebius several times her size flying with an angry punch to the face.
- The Thief job from Miitopia has mostly Combat Pragmatist skills and an appearance that very much suggests Fragile Speedster. While they are the fastest job in the game, their HP and Defence are high enough to ensure that they can take a number of beatings before going down.
Visual Novels
- My Harem Heaven is Yandere Hell: Sayuri's parents forced Training from Hell on her to make her the perfect society wife. Because of that, and her many crafting hobbies, she is much stronger than her slender frame and white hair suggests. (Physically. On the inside she's a wreck.) When a male peer accompanies her to a sewing store, he's amazed by her ability to carry bolts of fabric that weigh him down.
Webcomics
- Grace in El Goonish Shive. When she really tries and is more or less in her default form, she moves too fast to track, even for experienced martial artists. The first time she fought, without any training, it was much like a rubber cannonball with claws. An opponent with Super-Strength couldn't connect fast enough to make her do more than bounce back and forth and slash again.
- When She Was Bad: Magical girls get super-strength as their default main power.
- In Nerd & Jock, Nerd actually has great muscles as a result of working out with Jock, but he has to actively flex to make them visible. Otherwise, he looks like his normal scrawny self.
Web Original
- Red vs. Blue: Agent Texas and Carolina. Downplayed; like most freelancers, they just look like normal soldiers (albeit in armour) but are exceptionally fast and hard-hitting, even amongst their fellows.
- Kanata Amane of hololive, despite her young age, reportedly below-average size, and a history of underlying health problems, has a reputation of being the physically strongest member of the agency, revealing during a Ring Fit Adventure livestream that she has a grip strength of 50 kg (for reference, the average grip strength for women is around 25-35 kg). Fellow hololive member and real-world roommate Coco Kiryu has repeatedly affirmed Kanata's inexplicable strength and how useful it is around the house, and even her doctor was confused by it relative to her lack of muscle mass.
Western Animation
- Avatar: The Last Airbender: Multiple:
- Both of the Fire siblings Prince Zuko and Princess Azula. They may be young but they're very talented firebenders, especially Azula who can bend lightning.
- The same series also gives us Toph Beifong and Aang. Although you would expect Aang to be more of a Fragile Speedster, mastering all the elements other than just air really helps him with the bruisin'.
- The eponymous character of Bluey (2018) is not bigger or bulkier than her classmates in any way, but she can lift and carry them with no effort at all.
- Female vampire Carmilla in Castlevania (2017) is physically petite and yet she still kicked the muscly Godbrand down a staircase like a soccer ball.
- Droopy: Puny dog who has surprised many of his opponents by beating the shit out of them when you make him mad.
- The Dragon Prince: Callum looks like an ordinary kid, but he's able to climb a tree hundreds of feet tall and later climbed up the leg of a beast that's at least 200 feet long while it was moving. Taken even further in season 2, when Callum is able to hold up his entire group by himself to keep them from falling.
- When The Flintstones neighbors, the Rubbles, decided to adopt a Doorstop Baby, Barney reached out a finger to stroke the cute boy. The babe responded by gripping Barney's finger, and promptly demonstrated Metronomic Man Mashing with him. Barney, glad to have a healthy son, took this well.
- My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic:
- Rainbow Dash, who is a boisterous tomboy and has been shown to not only fly fast enough to accomplish the legendary "Sonic Rainboom" — the only pegasus known to have ever done so, including the two god-princess alicorns — but has since also gained enough control over the ability to manipulate it into a thermonuclear explosion used to utterly demolish a huge old barn. And that's just the tip of the iceberg; on another occasion, she kicked a fully grown dragon in the face hard enough to not only provoke it into going on the offensive, when the entire problem the dragon posed was that it refused to get up from its nap, but actually whine near-tearfully about it afterwards in conjunction with Fluttershy's amazing verbal beatdown.
- Big Macintosh can also be very fast and very strong when he needs to — being towed to a house doesn't even slow him down, when he's on the run. That wasn't even Big Macintosh running at full tilt, he was literally hopping.
- Rainbow Dash, who is a boisterous tomboy and has been shown to not only fly fast enough to accomplish the legendary "Sonic Rainboom" — the only pegasus known to have ever done so, including the two god-princess alicorns — but has since also gained enough control over the ability to manipulate it into a thermonuclear explosion used to utterly demolish a huge old barn. And that's just the tip of the iceberg; on another occasion, she kicked a fully grown dragon in the face hard enough to not only provoke it into going on the offensive, when the entire problem the dragon posed was that it refused to get up from its nap, but actually whine near-tearfully about it afterwards
- Candace Flynn from Phineas and Ferb has demonstrated remarkable strength on few occasions despite being a teenager. These occasions include when was able to cripple an alligator with her bare hands ("Fireside Girl Jamboree") and when she subdued a giant video game boss Buford by smacking him across the face with her in-game life bar ("Gaming the System"). She can perform one-handed push-ups ("I Was a Middle Aged Robot") and she has also been shown to be able to lift and carry her mother with no apparent difficulty.
- The Simpsons:
- Marge Simpson has occasionally been shown to be able to pick Homer up when needed, despite him being around twice her weight.
- Ned Flanders has been shown as quite muscled underneath his clothes.
- In Sonic the Hedgehog (SatAM), easily Sonic. Though in the games he is usually much more a Fragile Speedster, here he can punch and kick robots (kicking makes sense...), and when already running, throw things multiple times his size with his momentum. He is also the only Freedom Fighter to have broken security cameras by throwing junk at them...with ONE hand...
- South Park: Despite a physical disability that prevents him from walking, Timmy Burch is still a strong swimmer, javelin thrower, and once took a bullet to the shoulder and lived with minimal damage.
- Teen Titans (2003): In the first episode when Cinderblock grabs her, Starfire (an otherwise scrawny looking teenage alien) outright states the trope before she gives him a mighty kick to the face that sends him flying back.
- Tom and Jerry: Jerry is able to beat up Tom with a force impossible for someone his size. He has also lifted up other things like golfclubs and the like. Muscles, Jerry's cousin, takes this to an even more extreme degree, being much stronger and can easily defeat cats much bigger than he is.
- Total Drama: Julia may look like your stereotypical phone-obsessed Valley Girl but when it comes to the competition, she is a force to be reckoned with. She whole-heartedly throws herself into challenges and, despite having Priya and Bowie as her biggest competitors, wins three immunity challengesnote to their one and zero respectively without needing to rely on allies or Plot Armour.
Real Life
- Bruce Lee. At 5'7", 140 pounds, he was the epitome of the Pint-Sized Powerhouse. Legend has it that he could hit a leather punching bag so hard that it would tear a hole in it and so fast that a 24-frame-per-second video camera would have trouble following him as anything but a blur.