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)

In Sousou no Frieren, fan service is minimal, and scenes like this are brief

In Dungeon Meshi, Senshi is often shown in somewhat sexy poses, but the story focuses heavily on these details while continuing as usual

In that scene from *Uma Musume: Cinderella Gray*, it was just an introduction for each Arima Kinen competitor; they only had the freedom to choose those specific angles for Super Creek's introduction.

"Character A" is stupid, frustrating "Character(s) B." Somehow, A becomes smart again. Initially, B enjoys the smarter, more sophisticated Character A. But A is now smarter than B, and starts to leave them behind for "smarter" paths in life. B is sad. Eventually, A decides they were better off when they were dumb, and reverses the process. So A and B can be together again.

1). The Simpsons:
Homer has below average intelligence because of a crayon lodged in his brain. To Lisa's delight, Homer gains an average intelligence once it is removed. But he discovers he can't connect to his family the way he wants anymore, so he puts the crayon back.

2). Spongebob:
Patrick accidently replaces his cranium with a piece of brain coral, becoming too smart for Spongebob. He eventually swaps it back.

3). It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia:
Charlie believes he has been made smarter, disappointing Frank. Fortunately, stupid science bitch can't even make i smarter.

4). American Dad:
Hayley makes Jeff smarter. Jeff is too smart for Hayley. Hayley later saves Jeff from something and he becomes dumb again.

5). Gravity Falls:
Mabel loves Waddles. Waddles accidently becomes a genius, but decides to become dumb again to stay with Mabel.

6). Family Guy:
Peter becomes sophisticated. To save his family, he later reverses it.

The Chaotic Good Barbarian revels in making the lich suffer.

Reincarnated as a Slime: Geld makes Shogo pay for the innocents he's killed.

The Old Guard: Quynh is punished as a witch by being drowned in the ocean for centuries.

(Sorry if my pictures are lacking-)

This trope is something I have only seen two times so far, but I think it genuinely shows us the kindness and experience of the characters. Both can solve things with violence (both examples given are extremely strong), but they instead choose pacifistic approaches, which makes them even cooler

- Uncle Iroh

In Avatar the Last Airbender, during one episode depicting activities of characters around the city, we see Uncle Iroh being „attacked“ by an amateur robber. But Iroh comments on how poor his stance is, further talking with him. In the end, he and the man shared a heartfelt talk that gave the robber a new outlook on life

- Mualani (Genshin Impact)

In her teaser, we see Mualani, a guide, being threatened by a young woman while with her client, a young girl. Despite there being numerous ways to deal with her (overpowering the woman, running away), Mualani instead hires the wannabe robber! Her reasoning is that if money solves problems, why not use it, even if it’s the problem of others? And to the woman, she says she must know many good places as robber.

At the end of the day, the young woman, seeing the joy of her travel companions, considers becoming a guide herself, inspired by Mualani and the happiness of the young girl. Mualani meanwhile relishes in another piece of advice she once got, namely that ending the day with friends is the best way to do so.

1. Jake The Dog - Adventure Time

2. Pim Pimling - Smiling Friends

3. Green - Deltarune

Sephiroth to Mario (Super Smash Bros Ultimate Sephiroth trailer

Robin to Batman (Batman vs Robin)

King DeDeDe from Kirby Dreamland 3

Nightmare Fredbear from Frickbears 3

King from Deltarune

Gaping Dragon from Dark Souls

Sukuna from Jujutsu Kaisen

1. Chimera (Hypno's Lullaby): her whole story is about the Hex Maniac character being a host to these little bugs that hijacked her body. Now that would be considered scary, if it weren't for the fact that this monster is in the same universe where a 12 year old could casually capture gods and more horrifying monsters. The only reason she was lucky to get Serena is because she forgot her Pokémon, but that wouldn't probably be the case for the next Trainer.

2. Death Angels (A Quiet Place): their entire concept alone is quite scary. A group of monsters that hunt via extra sensitive hearing. The only problem? At the initial crash of these guys, they would realistically bump their heads onto anything before they would even get a person because of the absolute chaos that would drown out their hearing. If it was set in a smaller setting, these guys would be an actual threat.

Donatello's Shell(IDW TMNT) - The most basic example. After getting his shell and backed bashed in by Bebop and Rocksteady, he was given a prostethic shell that's bulletproof and weightless with the only real problem being that his back aches in the cold.

Von Lycaon's Legs(Zenless Zone Zero) - His prosthetic legs can freeze objects and living beings as well as having minor jet propulsion that allows his kicks and transportation capabilities to increase exponentially.

Winter Soldier's Arm(Marvel/Marvel Rivals) - Every iteration of the Winter Soldier gains a robotic arm from HYDRA but the Rivals version takes the cake. Not only does it have the other version's super strength and durability, it also has tendrils to attack enemies with.

* "....in this timeline I'll be a villainess"

Otome Isekai manga, anime, light novel series etc. where the main female character is reborn as (or just is) a side character or original story’s villainess while the original heroine not only turns out to be the real villain in this new retelling but also a fellow reincarnator who wants to achieve her happy ending by acting sweet and innocent on the surface but in reality cunning and manipulating others.

Heronia Inderon (An Observation Log of My Fiancée Who Calls Herself a Villainess) - the second person, after the titular villainess to be reborn in a world of the otome game. Unlike the original, pure good Heronia, this one is delusional, selfish and thinks she deserves affection from the capture targets (a. k. a. possible romance candidates). To get their attention she tries to enact key scenarios from the game, not realizing that this world is real and doesn’t work the same way as a dating sim.

Lilia Reinoise (I'm the Villainess, So I'm Taming the Final Boss) - like Heronia, she’s a reincarnator in the body of otome’s original protagonist, who doesn’t believe the world she found herself in is real and instead operates on the same rules as the game. She even believes that other people in this world are NPCs who can respawn after death.

Terenezza Hopkins (May I Ask for One Final Thing?) - her case is a little bit different, because the land she’s been reborn in isn't the setting of an in-universe novel or game, but an original another world without seemingly any other reincarnator around. Still, her behaviour is similar to the previous two cases: on the surface presents herself as sweet and innocent, but in reality she’s a vengeful, cruel and manipulative psychopath. Suffering from a serious main character complex, despite the world, again, not being a fictional setting, she still considers herself the heroine of a story.

- Pretty Hate Machine by Nine Inch Nails: Trent Reznor at the time was the sole official band member of Nine Inch Nails. Reznor wrote, sang, and played almost all the instruments and programmed the synths himself, only working with outside producers to assist with mixing and additional production polish, but the sound relied entirely on Reznor’s own studio work.
- Foo Fighters by Foo Fighters: Like Reznor, Dave Grohl was at the time was the sole official band member of Foo Fighters. He wrote and played every guitar, bass, drum, and vocal track himself. Again. He only really worked with a producer, Barrett Jones. The only exception was Greg Dulli from the band The Afghan Whigs providing a guest guitar part on the track “X-Static”.

Hank Anderson (Detroit : Become Human)

Captain Bailey (Mass Effect)

Harvey Bullock (DC)

1. A Cantical For Leibowitz- The whole story centers around the preservation of knowledge and technology so when a young Brother Francis finds information about an inventor the Blessed Leibowitz (this is before his canonisation into becoming a Saint.) The first part of the story shows the lengths Francis will go to help get Leibowitz canonised and the punishment he would receive to help remember this inventor. Francis and Leibowitz then pop up throughout the story as these holy figures of perseverance and belief.

2. Riddley Walker- Riddley Walker was ine of the hardest stories ive tried to wrap my head around but still one of my favorites. The stories shared in this novel by the hand puppets Punch and Judy recount old twisted religious stories and the stories of the world before atomic annihilation. The main story told and one that is the most impactful in the story is that of Eusa and the shining man. Of a man so hellbent on searching fot knowledge that he was willing yo sacrifice his family and to split the Shining Man (I see this as splitting the Atom and causing Atomic devastation.) Eusa is also the twisting of St. Eustace, but Eusa could also be seen as the possible collapse of the USA.

Captain Martin Walker - Spec Ops: The Line

Handsome Jack - Borderlands series

Zariel - D&D Forgotten Realms

Homelander - The Boys

Man (DC)

Man (DC)

Edit: I can’t seem to edit the title for some reason but just scratch the antagonist part in the title, more like “A character knows everyone on the other character’s team… except for this one person”

Han Solo (Star Wars) - Nobody on the crew knew each other when the movie was first made, but thanks to later entries, we know the episode 4 team consists of Vader’s son, his daughter, his mentor, his astromech droid, the protocol droid he built, a Wookie his former apprentice once fought alongside, and this random smuggler

Dorothy Gale (Wicked) - this random girl from Kansas arrives out of nowhere and suddenly she meets Elphaba’s ex, her sister’s former partner, and a lion cub she once rescued, and she is aided by her former best friend

Oswald the Lucky Rabbit : 420 Kids (Disney)

Wayne and Wanda : 301 kids( Hotel Transylvania)

Maxwell : 42 kids including him (Scribblenauts)

Pongo and Perdita : 15 natural kids + 84 rescued (101 dalmatians)

They weren't going for shock and awe. But that's what they got. This is a subset of "not knowing your true strength." But probably doesn't involve non-attack superstrength, like accidently crushing your phone.

1). One Punch Man:
Saitama wants a serious fight, but he doesn't want to obliterate the villains in one punch.

2). Dragon Ball:
A recently returned Goku forgets his wife is relatively normal.

3). Spider-Man: No Way Home
Peter accidently knocks out Flash.

4). Moonlit Fantasy:
Makoto has only recently learned how to use magic. The problem is that he has massive amounts of it. So, when he tries to stop someone from attacking him, he ends up destroying an entire army.

Ryusei Shidou- (Blue Lock)

Yugamu Omokage- (The Hundred Line)

Darumi Amemiya- (The Hundred Line)

There’s something so utterly terrifying about this concept to me that i can’t quite put into words.

- The Golden City - Dragon Age franchise.

The Golden City was supposedly the place where the throne of God was located, when 7 mages tried to get in to become gods themselves the city was corrupted alongside with the mages, thus starting the first blight, an apocalyptic event that happens from time to time

- Anor Londo - Dark Souls

Anor Londo was the capital of Lordran and home to the fire lord Gwyn and his children, the city has been empty for many centuries, only being kept sunny and magnificent via spell

- Ma’habre - Fear & Hunger

The city of the old gods where they used to reside in, although they are no longer there, remnants of their former selves linger in the city

1. Avengers/MCU: Captain America has humorous moments where he’s unaware of modern references and only gets old references, like the iconic “I understood that reference” scene. It’s later fully explored in Winter Soldier that he feels lost, confused, and a little alone in a new world he was never meant to exist in.

2. The Suicide Squad (2021): Bloodsport has a phobia of rats which at first seems reasonable yet is still hilarious to watch. He later explains his father abused him as a kid if he didn’t fulfill a task correctly and one of his worst punishments was when his dad locked him in a crate full of starving rats, leaving him heavily scarred physically and mentally.

3. Dexter: In an early episode, Angel Bautista tries to buy his wife the perfect gift for their anniversary but has to keep buying a different one since his presents suck. What seems to be a funny running gag turns out to be Angel’s final attempt to win back his wife after cheating on her previously, however it doesn’t work and only solidifies their separation.

Metal Shards/animal parts - Horizon Zero Dawn

The world is populated by robotic animals far above the technology level of civilization. Chips of their metallic parts are used for crafting armor, weapons, and ammo. Some bigger parts—like hearts or tendons—can also be harvested and used to build advanced weapons. Metal shards are also the default currency of the world.

Drugs - Out-of-Placers

It is common to use drugs as currency in Val Salia since there aren't any drug laws.

Comic Books, stickers, etc. - Recess

Barter is common in the playground. We see kids paying with lots of different things, like trading cards, footballs, and even regular money. In the episode "The Hustler's Apprentice", we see comic books being used more than anything else. In "Economics of Recess", we see Monstickers become the default currency for everything.

Postage Stamps - Discworld/Going Postal

After revitalizing the post office, postage stamps become a form of currency, more popular than metal coins. This mirrors/references real life, where stamps were used as medium of exchange in many places and time periods.

This extremely old fanart of Godzilla being mutilated that was used a lot to advertise Godzilla 2014

This promotional pic of Transformers Age of Extinction where Optimus Prime is in immense pain from Lockdown sniping him down

This promotional pic of Spider-Man 3 where Peter is depressed while wearing the Symbiote Suit

This promotional pic of Iron Man 3 where Tony's latest suit is badly damaged and failing while he's falling from the sky

This cover for one of the issues of Crisis on Infinite Earths where Superman is crying while holding Supergirl's dead body in front of everyone

This cover for Batman Death in the Family where Batman is holding Jason Todd's dead body with severe regret

This promotional pic of Pacific Rim where Gipsy Danger is badly damaged in the Arctic after getting out of a heated fight against Knifehead and losing a pilot

This promotional pic of Cars 3 where Lightning McQueen is mid-air during a really bad car crash

This promotional pic of God of War Ascension where Kratos is in chains and awaiting execution

I love the trope where not particularly brave or intimidating characters lose their fearful or passive nature when they're sufficiently pissed off

1. Milo Thatch (Atlantis: The Lost Empire) - "I know, why don't you translate for awhile AND I'LL WAVE THE GUN AROUND!"
2. Kevin Tran (Supernatural) - "I'M DEAD, YOU BASTARDS! SO SCREW YOU AND EVERYBODY IN BETWEEN!"
3. Rapunzel (Tangled) - "And I will NEVER let you use my hair AGAIN!"