Authority Equals Asskicking



"Jame: I'm not asking who'd win in a fight,[sic] I'm asking if the Czar outranks the mayor. York: And you don't think those issues are related?"

- Terror Island

"Stilgar: No man recognizes leadership without the challenge of combat."

- Dune

The higher a character is in his hierarchy, the better he is in a fight. This goes double for non-protagonists.

In the real world, soldiers are promoted for their leadership and management skills, not for their fighting prowess. If anything, senior ranking soldiers tend to be worse at fighting than the rank-and-file, because they are generally older and are not expected to personally engage the enemy and thus train less.

And yet, in many works of fiction, especially videogames, the opposite is true. The higher someone's rank, the deadlier he is in personal combat. A sergeant can kick a grunt's ass. A captain can kick a sergeant's ass. A general can kick everybody's ass. The "boss fight" at the climax of a game will often be against the literal boss of the enemy army.

Common recipients of this Trope includes General Ripper, Colonel Badass, the Diabolical Mastermind, the Corrupt Corporate Executive, The Evil Emperor, The Evil Prince and President Evil—but, on the other hand, the Rebellious Princess benefits from this one enough to be a competent mage despite her sheltered life. Similarly for the President Action. The Mad Scientist is more likely to go One-Winged Angel, but he can still invoke this Trope if he's got a large enough cadre of mutants, henchmen, and/or combat robots at his disposal. The Evil Overlord will always take advantage of this.

A strange result of this Trope happens in games with named and similar enemies where more dangerous versions of enemies the player encountered earlier have a higher rank in their name, often resulting in the player fighting entire squadrons consisting entirely of generals near the end of the game with no lower ranked units in sight.

The Almighty Janitor is an inversion, who is far more powerful than his lowly rank would imply. The Desk Jockey is a different inversion, who has been promoted out of the field into authority. Compare You Can Barely Stand. See also Large and In Charge, Izchaks Wrath, and Distribution of Ninjutsu. Not to be confused with Asskicking Equals Authority, though it can explain this trope.

Anime and Manga
""I'm the prince! I'm supposed to be the best by default!""
 * The leaders and other high-ranking dogs are always among the strongest fighters in Ginga: Nagareboshi Gin. Justified by this being how it tends to go in groups of wild animals in real life, too.
 * Every leader of anything in One Piece is always stronger than all their subordinates. Even the seemingly frail criminal masterminds like Captain Kuro suddenly whip out amazing martial arts or devil fruit skills at the last second. The Marines are all more or less ranked in strength, with the generic guys at the bottom always as weak cannon-fodder and everyone at the top made of pure Badass. The only exception to this rule usually comes in the form of Anime-only filler arcs, like the Jabba The Hutt admiral who was so fat he could barely move. The Manga plays it totally straight, though.
 * The Straw Hat crew is somewhat an exception with Zoro being equal to Luffy while Sanji at least pretty much close although the whole crew lives by a different concept of leadership and they consider themselves more like a family.
 * Except in the CP9 Arc, when some of the most powerful government assassins in the world were led by a guy who was weaker than a common soldier. He's simply the one who hands out directives, and is quite cowardly and arrogant. However, he made up for this with his sword-elephant. Yeah. This Manga barely scrapes by not being a Widget Series.
 * In this series it's kinda justified that being a high rank makes you powerful (and remember CP9 technically doesn't 'exist', so its leader has no real strength because of it) since to get that far, you have to bring down an unknown number of pirates, and some of those guys are utter monsters.
 * Subverted by Buggy, who is captain of his crew and a former member of Gold Roger's crew, but is a relatively weak and has many well known and highly dangerous criminals with higher bounties than him serving under him. Out of all the prisoners he recruits from Impel Down, only Mr. 3 sees through his facade.
 * To be fair, he's managed to do just fine on the Grand Line, something that would indicate at least a fair bit of ability. He also has a Devil Fruit that happens to be very powerful in many situations, as it makes swordsmen utterly helpless against him. While he may not be as powerful as some of the other authority-holders in the One Piece world, he certainly has something going for him.
 * Subverted with Iceburg, the mayor and head of the Galley-La company. He is no fighter but he is possibly one of the best shipwrights in the world, which is why so many people respect him.
 * Bleach uses this quite heavily.
 * The Gotei 13 is supposed to be ranked according to capability - the higher the rank, the more Badass the shinigami becomes. Captains are Nigh Invulnerable, unranked foot soldiers are Cannon Fodder. It is possible to become a captain via Klingon Promotion, but that's most likely to happen in the 11th Division and with only two mentioned examples, how common it is even for them is unknown. Even then, these captains have to be good enough to retain that rank. Although this works for the most part, the ranks really only confirm a shinigami's minimum power level as there are a couple of shinigami at least vice-captain level in ability despite not being ranked as vice-captain (Ikkaku and Yumichika).
 * Hollows are also ranked according to power, with the Mooks the Cannon Fodder shinigami fight, and power increasing up to the Menos Grande class, which itself is split into three levels of power. The Gillians are the weakest Menos-class hollow, the Adjuchas are the mid-class and the Vasto Lordes are the most powerful, allegedly even stronger than captain-class shinigami. Somewhere into the Menos-class of hollows are slotted Aizen's espada and fraccion army. Espada are more powerful than both Privaron Espada (former espada) and Fraccion (servants or followers or companions of the current espada). Some of the espada may have been Vasto Lord-level (possibly Espada 1-4, but no real confirmations in the manga for it yet) prior to becoming espada, some used to be Adjuchas-class, and one used to be Gillian-class (number 9, confirmed in manga) - it's hard to know what level the 10th  Espada used to be except that he wasn't a gillian.
 * To have full access to their powers, a Visored has to defeat their inner hollow. Upgrading a zanpakutou is similar, but can be done without combat. Ichigo's test requires him to fight his sword's spirit, but we see other Shinigami just meditating to commune with their blades.
 * Yu-Gi-Oh!, Yami Yugi used to be a pharaoh and Kaiba was his High Priest. In the spin-off Yu-Gi-Oh! GX, Jaden is a reincarnated king.
 * Samurai Deeper Kyo also uses a military ranking within the Mibu Clan: while Red Shirt cannon fodder are unranked, the protagonists have to fight the Five Planets (Goyosei), comparable to Captains, then the Taishirou (the Four Sages or Stars, who order the Goyosei around), comparable to Gods to the rest of the Mibu Clan, and truly possessing godlike powers, to finish with the former Red King, Nigh Invulnerable, possessing a power far beyond that of a Taishirou, and only remaining clan member to know the truth about the clan, making him a Magnificent Bastard and One-Winged Angel. The twelve generals can also be found in this manga, each possessing power slightly under or on par with a Goyosei's, and although they were created by the Mibu, they were given as henchmen to the evil Oda Nobunaga, who is unsuspectingly controlled by the Mibu.
 * Murder Princess uses it fairly straight; the most powerful swordsman in the kingdom, possessing Implausible Fencing Powers, and the only non-Red Shirt member of the army? The crown-prince, of course... as a matter of fact, the only one who can match him blow for blow, is the titular Princess...
 * In Kiddy Grade, is initially believed to be a mere high-ranked administrator and bureaucrat (except for a few hinting flashbacks) until about halfway through the last story arc, she is revealed to possess
 * The Leader of Yamainu is the only one of them who lasts long enough against Akasaka near the end of Higurashi No Naku Koro Ni Kai for him to get serious and reveal his true badassitude.
 * On the other hand, his boss is just a regular woman. She just bought him and his men out.
 * Averted in Hellsing. While Integra is skilled with swords and guns, she's nowhere near as powerful as either of the vampires under her command or her Battle Butler. Enrico Maxwell and Montana Max the Major, despite commanding legions of Church Militant soldiers and Nazi vampires respectively, have little fighting ability at all.
 * Especially the Major, who in one humorous scene is unable to shoot a person standing right in front of him, and when he finally runs out of bullets just tells his underlings to kill the target for him.
 * The Führer, King Bradley, in Fullmetal Alchemist. Justified by the fact that . Also Ling Yao and Mei Chan, children of the Emperor of Xing, are expert fighters, with Ling Yao taking on Bradley one handed while holding someone.
 * And don't forget Olivia Milla Armstrong. Her troops' credo? "Survival of the fittest". While her group is probably the most badass people of all army, she tops all of them became the most badass general from all of the generals in Central circle.
 * All State Alchemists are given the Rank of Major, which is a pretty high rank, and given what they can do, it seems pretty fitting for it to be applied to all of them.
 * And then it gets subverted. All of the chief government officials are pansies who get killed by mooks that patient, trained soldiers can handle.
 * In King Bradley's case the above was true for the 2003 anime version. But in Brotherhood all . His skill, strength, and everything else that made him Badass were things he worked to achieve.
 * The Three Kings of Makai in Yu Yu Hakusho. Raizen, Mukuro, and Yomi control their own parts of Makai, along with vast armies of warriors, and major influence. Strength of the king is strength of the entire kingdom, meaning the kings are the only worthwhile fighters. It was explained at the end of the last season that a single S class fighter would be more that powerful enough to casually take over the Earth, and possibly destroy it. Same goes for the afterlife as well. Guess what, each of the Three Kings makes a normal S class look tame in comparison. No wonder S class fights never happened on Earth.
 * Members of the royalty and nobility in Crest of the Stars are obligated to service in the Imperial Navy. The higher one's rank, the greater one's responsibility; members of the royalty are at the top of the scale with many decades of required service.
 * Code Geass subverts this trope and plays it straight. Humongous Mecha pilots in Britannia are called knights and those identified are always some level of nobility. Also there is Lady of War Princess Cornelia. Subverted however in that the ace pilots of the series (Kallen and Suzaku) hold only moderate rank and are not commanders in any sense.
 * It's most notably subverted with Zero himself. Lelouch is an above-average pilot (with average being Mooks and Red Shirts), but he's physically unimpressive, and ultimately gets his ass kicked by anyone with a name. He turns down the Black Knight's first Super Prototype, giving it to Kallen, noting he's the commander and she's the expert. Even when he does pilot Knightmare Frames, he sticks to ones that focus on long-range bombardment because he knows he doesn't have the skills for close-range fighting. Of course, his long range Knightmares have really big guns, so their kills are roughly equivalent.
 * Same goes for Charles, who generally generally hangs out in the capital, while Cornelia handles the actual fighting. And Schneizel, who is an excellent commander, but never wields a gun (bar a single instance) or pilots a Knightmare Frame. On the other hand, even Pacifist Euphemia can pilot a Knightmare, and in the DS game, is pretty decent at it, especially with one of the best weapons ever built by Britannia.
 * Trinity Blood:You would think a mere Departmental Director would be a middle-aged-man-in-a-suit-with-a-gut type of character. However, if the department in question's the Department Of Inquisition, and the director in question is Brother Petros, that'd be the last mistake you'd ever make.
 * The Meister Otomes (of which the Five Pillars/Columns are a subset) in Mai-Otome are vastly more powerful than the Corals and Pearls underneath them, getting all of the powerful weapons and Robes (and merchandise!). Such positions are usually held by heads of state or members of nobility. Natsuki, headmistress of Garderobe Academy, is also a Meister.
 * Somewhat subverted in the Ruby & Sapphire chapter of Pokémon Special. While the eight element-master Gym Leaders of Hoenn form the "high council"-type organization that rules and protects the region, the guy actually calling all the shots has never been shown to have any battle prowess - or, for that matter, to own any Pokémon.
 * Although there is some confusion on whether the Champion and Elite Four of Hoenn have any political clout, if they are totally independent from the Pokémon Association and the Gym system, or if they are a kind of last-resort peacekeeping squad under the Association's order.
 * Riot Force 6 of Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha operates on this trope, with their highest ranking officers being Persons Of Mass Destruction that hover around the S Rank. However, this trope completely collapses when the entire Space-Time Administration Bureau is taken into consideration, since non-powered individuals such as Regius and are the ones in charge.
 * See also: Lindy, captain of the Asura, is never shown fighting. But when she, it lets her subordinates take care of that.
 * Curren of Huckebein, leader of the selfsame Mage Killer Badass Family. Shanking  In the Back may not be impressive (to some), but Curb Stomping   in a straight fight without even Reacting is an undeniable show of prowess.
 * Lord Genome from Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann manages to give a sound thrashing to and nearly defeats the heroes, something which almost none of his underlings came close to. When his mech Lazengann is ruined, he One of his direct underlings, Thymilph who is himself (itself?) a leader of many, . The  is the one who has a mech large and powerful enough to fight the heroes' final form ridiculously huge mech equally.
 * But deconstructed in the post-Time Skip human government. The officials are primarily old Team Dai-Gurren members, who showed their ability at asskicking in the war, but when it comes to governance they're generally incompetent. Simon in particular hates the job, the political crap, and would rather be back piloting Gurren Lagann. Rossiu is the only one who seems to thrive in the new order, he's actually good at politics and getting his policies implemented. The trouble is, those policies almost lead to disaster (see Alternate Character Interpretation for why). So the best asskickers got the highest authority, but proved to be totally unable to handle it.
 * Averted in Full Metal Panic!!: Mithril is led by military officers who let the privates and NCOs do all the fighting, like in real-life armies.
 * Both played straight and averted in Giant Robo. The heads of the IPO and Big Fire that we see are all enormous badasses, boasting power beyond any of their underlings. However in an ironic twist they are all eventually handed their asses by two characters both less powerful and lower ranked than them, and who turn out to be the real Big Bad's. (A lot can be said for having a bigger gun than everyone else).
 * Also played straight when we meet
 * The exorcists in D Gray Man are led by generals who earn their ranks by achieving a certain level of synchronization with their Innocence. Outside of the generals, however, the exorcists are not ranked by power, and there are also plenty of technical and ecclesiastical personnel with authority but no fighting ability.
 * Dragon Ball is all over the place with this one. On the one hand, Freeza fits this to a T. But then, Emperor Pilaf, Commander Red, Dr. Gero, and Babidi are all aversions to this trope (with the latter 3 being killed off by their most capable underlings. Piccolo and Vegeta are interesting takes. When Piccolo was the "Great Demon King" (and for a little bit after) he was roughly comparable to the protagonist, Goku. Ditto Vegeta during his starkly evil "Prince of Saiyans" phase. But the further assimilated into the hero roster they became, the further from their heritage and titles they got, and the further behind our hero they fell. Piccolo, of course, has a shining moment where he is the strongest fighter present... AFTER FUSING WITH GOD. Vegeta, likewise, recaptures some former glory by magically reinstating his old Saiyan Prince persona.
 * In The Abridged Series by Team Four Star, Vegeta tries to invoke this trope in a moment of sheer frustration.

"If there was a major flaw in 's plan, it would have been that he had completely underestimated the Shogun. He had dismissed the Shogun as an opportunist leader. But even if that was the case, the Yellow Scarves would still have had gathered around the Shogun for a reason - he was a strong fighter. He had probably taken on several gangs single-handedly by now."
 * Vegeta constantly invokes this trope, at least in the manga. Whereas Piccolo doesn't seem that bothered with being relegated back, Vegeta is completely obsessed with the fact that as a Prince he should be more powerful than Goku. There's literally nothing he doesn't try to become more powerful than Goku (including selling off his soul and willfully condemning himself to Hell. It's only in the fight against Little Buu, a few pages before the end, that he finally admits that Goku really is better than him.
 * Vegeta first grudgingly admits that Goku is the superior fighter near the end of Goku's fight with Perfect Cell, not during the Buu Saga.
 * While Piccolo doesn't seem to mind his decline as he becomes more comfortable with heroics, it should be noted that any time he does wish to stand out he has a tendency to invoke his former title (and, thus, this trope) while doing so.
 * The gods of the show don't fair much better. Both Kami, the guardian of Earth, and King Yemma, the judge of the dead, are stronger than Goku when they're first introduced, but he quickly surpasses both of them. Same applies for King Kai, the god of a quarter of the universe. In the anime, the Grand Kai, the god of the Milky Way galaxy, seems to be vastly superior to Goku when he's first introduced, but Goku surpasses him off screen within the span of a few episodes. When Supreme Kai, the god of the whole flippin' universe, is introduced, Goku and many of his cohorts are already superior to him.
 * Actually, King Kai is in charge of the Milky Way, or the Northern Galaexy as it's called in the Other World. the Grand Kai is the superior to all the "lower" Kais. By the time Goku went to his planet, he was already stronger than the Grand Kai, he just didn't let this on (although he did say he's been out of practice for three centuries) The Supreme Kai point still stands. Turns out being capable of killing Freeza with a single blow is no longer enough by his introduction.
 * Utawarerumono is a source of both good examples and aversions. The protagonist and emperor Hakuoro is a badass fighter who can also . Samurai General Benawi is likewise among the best fighters in the series. Kuya, ruler of Kunnekamun, is a little girl with an unstoppable Humongous Mecha. However, the first emperor killed by Hakuoro was a pathetic coward with no means of self-defense.
 * Najica Blitz Tactics generally averts this - most of the time, Najica's target and main opponent is someone's Dragon - a Humaritt - while their 'masters' are utterly helpless in a fight. However, at the very end, they play it straight with a rare Mad Scientist example - Dr. Ren, creator of the Humaritts, displays superhuman physical strength, and goes Guns Akimbo with Golden Handguns! Okay, so maybe she's not on the same level as her Kill Sat-controlling, Gatling-gun-wielding Dragon... or is she?
 * In the Naruto universe, the daimyo theoretically appoints the Kage ("shadow") of a village based on their fitness to lead. In reality, the Kage is almost always simply the most powerful ninja in the village. This is especially odd considering how little fighting a Kage actually does - most of their time is spent behind a desk, sending other ninjas out on missions or doing paperwork.
 * It is implied that a Kage is chosen only from a certain class of ninja (as displayed when Tsunade and Jiraiya were the only qualified ninja for the position), but that this level of power is rare enough that only one or two people a generation are qualified.
 * The in-universe logic behind this seems to be that the Kages are the last line of defense-they're kept away from the front lines except in the most dire of emergencies so the risk of losing their abilities is minimized.
 * It might not be completely true, however. Orochimaru was a great ninja and a good prospect for Hokage, but he was denied it for being too power-hungry for Sarutobi's standards. Whether or not he had started his experiments at this point is another matter entirely. The point is, it's not only required to be the strongest ninja, but the one who will follow all traditions, cause Status Quo Is God for these people, especially the Fire Daimyo. In recent volumes,
 * Possibly subverted with Akatsuki. On the other hand, we don't know how powerful he was before, and he's effortlessly eluded attacks by extremely powerful ninjas.
 * Most fanfiction set in the Naruto universe generally follow this rule of thumb as well; for example, in White Rain (set around seven to eight years after the manga ends), Naruto is the reigning Hokage.
 * None of the civilian mermaids we see in Mermaid Melody Pichi Pichi Pitch ever even get to fight, only the princesses.
 * The manga version of Chrono Crusade both subverts this trope and plays it straight. Duke Daffau is the Leader of the Pursuers (something like a demon military, police and FBI all in one), and renowned for being a powerful fighter—as Chrono says, "The best of the best!" But although he is shown to be very powerful, he's bested by another fighter (albeit partially because of superior tactics), the leader of the Sinners, Aion. There's quite a bit of evidence that Aion is the most powerful demon out there (although Chrono is close, if not equal, in power).
 * There's also a lot of talk of demons having "ranks", which heavily is implied to be both their place on the hierarchy and how powerful they are—basically, demons have a higher position in their government and society when they're more powerful fighters.
 * The Shogun, aka in Durarara!! exemplifies this trope in bad way.


 * Black Jack 21 featured a particularly inexplicable example - a woman who had previously appeared to be nothing more than a trophy-wife with a pretty face, suddenly turned into a crack shot, hitting several small, remote targets with a handgun, under highly unfavorable circumstances. There's no indication that she ever had any combat- or firearms-training, but she DID just take over her father's Ancient Conspiracy Organization, so...
 * Reinhard von Lohengramm of Legend of Galactic Heroes always fights at the frontlines despite being the most important person in the universe. This happens out of his own conviction, but it's also a reason why he's such an incredibly popular leader: He doesn't hide behind his soldiers while giving out hypocritical speeches about the need of sacrifices.
 * Yurippe, the leader of SSS, is one of the most competent fighter in the series. Same goes for Student Council President and the vice president, Angel and Naoi, who is more or less Nigh Invulnerable killing machine and a Guns Akimbo sharp shooter, respectively.
 * from Noblesse, who is a supposedly one True Noblesse, the leader of all Noblesse. He won EVERY FIGHT he got into, which all ended in a Curb Stomp Battle.
 * In Burn Up Scramble, the Director spends most of the series as Mission Control for the Team Warrior Amazon Brigade. When she actually comes out to fight,.
 * The third season of Shakugan no Shana shows us what many of the leaders can do once they get serious.
 * In Medaka Box, Medaka is the president of the 99th Student Council and one of the most powerful characters in the series.

Comic Books

 * Marvel's Kingpin is, on the surface, a tremendously fat man with a head for crime and a mean streak wider than he is. But he's also the Leader of The Syndicate, and a Diabolical Mastermind besides, so he's got heavy-duty Charles Atlas Superpowers - enough to take out low-level heroes (and a room full of ninjas) in hand-to-hand combat; he could crush his nemesis Daredevil with his bare hands. Note that he does, in fact, work out, and some incarnations interpret his portly frame as being solid muscle.
 * In a similar vein, Lex Luthor always keeps himself in excellent physical condition, and can at least competently spar with heroes without super-strength.
 * These days, anyway. When first introduced, and right through the Golden and Silver Ages up until he came up with his first purple-and-green combat outfit, Luthor was overweight. Similarly, in his initial post-Crisis appearances, Lex was suffering the ravages of an over-lavish lifestyle. In both cases, after having his backside repeatedly kicked (literally and figuratively) by Superman, he wised up and shaped up.
 * In a recent Captain America (comics) issue, Cap is sent to a German concentration camp run by an SS Colonel nicknamed "The Butcher", a man missing half his face due to an encounter with a bear when he was thirteen - an encounter which ended with him breaking the bear's neck. He even gives ol' Cap a good run for his money.
 * Not sure what the context on this one is, which may render it inapplicable, but standing by itself this seems to fit the bill.
 * Context is that the "Reagan" getting shot is actually the Martian Manhunter. The real Ronnie enters in the last panel.
 * Played... extremely bizarrely in one Captain America (comics) storyline, in which Cap takes on Reagan. Of course, Reagan has been turned into a lizard-monster.
 * Tsar Alexander III in Assassin's Creed: The Fall manages to utterly annihilate Nikolai Orelov with very little trouble. By the way, Nikolai is a master assassin.
 * Funnily enough, inverted with The Authority. Kicking as much ass as they do (and from an inter-dimensional spaceship, no less) puts them in a position of great power, and makes the actual authorities very twitchy. Given that the team will not hesitate to snuff corrupt officials if it makes the world a better place, you can't blame them.
 * Played up to an absurd degree in the backstories of the G.I. Joe comic book cast, which favorably compares each of the heroic fictional officers who'd go charging first into battle and prove their authority with asskicking to the pansy sort of military officers who'd just sit back and draw up battle plans (even if that's a far more realistic and sensible use of their skills).
 * Darkseid doesn't rule over Apokolips because of charisma, he rules because he's the strongest and most evil god on a planet brimming with powerful, evil gods. Even disregarding his Omega Beams, he has the physical strength to put down pretty much anyone who may dare rise against him. And when Darkseid's father Yuga Khan briefly returned from his imprisonment in the Source Wall, the latter quickly overthrew his son, thus upholding the trope.
 * This is shown perfectly in the penultimate episode of Justice League Unlimited. Darkseid was killed three seasons before and Apokolips is in the middle of a Civil War for who will take his place. After getting resurrected, he returns to Apokolips in the middle of a battlefield, halting the war completely. Usually, on a planet full of starscreams and after being dead for a few years, you would think that someone would try to rebel. In this case however, Darkseid doesn't even have to say anything. He just stands there and everyone immediately bows down to him. Darkseid Is indeed.
 * Also true for Odin, father of Thor and ruler of Asgard who up until his death was always ready to show exactly why he held that position whenever a challenge arose that his son could not defeat.
 * In the generally disappointing, plot hole-ridden Nightcat, heiress/drug lord/real estate tycoon Amanda Gideon turns out to be a better fighter than four ninjas (whom the heroine beats without breaking a sweat) or her bodyguard, Mr. Krak. Also, she fights in what appears to be her underwear for some reason.
 * In Iron Man, Tony Stark runs a multi-billion dollar company, and personally snuffs out bad guys with his suit.
 * In the Planet Hulk story arc, the planet Sakaar is ruled by The Red King, considered the strongest being on the planet due to his use of Power Armor. He's eventually deposed and replaced by the Hulk.
 * In comic books, a surprising number of superheroes and supervillains are also heads of state. Dr. Doom, the Black Panther, Namor, Lilandra, Aquaman...

Film

 * A Bridge Too Far includes a scene in which Robert Redford participates in a dangerous river crossing. Even though he is a Major, he does a great deal of the asskicking personally. In later interviews, Redford would point out that his character would have been directing the maneuver, and would have only actually fired his weapon in an emergency.
 * In Equilibrium, Brandt fails to live up to his Badass Longcoat despite fighting Preston to a standstill in an earlier training match. By contrast,, the real leader of Libria, is a bureaucrat who seems harmless without his complement of bodyguards... but actually has Gun Kata skills almost on par with Preston himself and the ensuing final duel lasts longer than most of Preston's skirmishes with the Faceless Goons. Then again, there was foreshadowing in that
 * In Riki-Oh: The Story of Ricky the toughest opponent Riki fights in the prison is the warden because as everyone knows “The warden of any prison has to be the very best in kung-fu".
 * In the Ultraviolet film, also directed by Kurt Wimmer, the government's leader is the hero's most physically dangerous adversary. Justified or handwaved by the fact that
 * The movie Air Force One, justified or handwaved by the fact that the President was a member of the military with an exceptional record. Being played by Harrison Ford doesn't hurt, either.
 * Skipper, the penguin leader in Madagascar, pulls off some of their most crazy stunts himself.
 * Jack Skellington in The Nightmare Before Christmas is King of the Pumpkin Patch, and thus more than a match for Oogy Boogy, even in the seat of his trap-infested powerbase.
 * Apparently being Secretary of Defense in the live-action Transformers movie provided enough Badass to try blowing away an alien robot with a shotgun.
 * In Sha Po Lang, the Triad boss Wong Po turns out to be even faster and tougher than The Dragon, his personal assassin Jack. Not only can he throw down with the main character, who can literally punch people stupid, and take him and two of his partners at the same time, but he can . Of course, the guy's played by Sammo Hung, who is known for his kick-ass action roles in the Hong Kong scene.
 * Played for laughs in Idiocracy. The President of the USA is a hulking pro-wrestler with a fondness for automatic weapons.
 * Seen in the finale of xXx: State of the Union, where after easily subduing in hand-to-hand combat a few dozen marines, a couple squads of Elite Mooks, and a The Dragon Navy SEAL, the hero finds himself being outmatched by the 60 year old Secretary of Defense.
 * In Men in Black 2, MiB leader Zed, despite being a 70 year old administrator, nevertheless manages to deliver a rapid series of improbable flying kicks to the face of the main villain.
 * Subverted in the climax of the film Wanted. Although  is briefly shown to have the same superpowers as the other master assassins, he's too smart to actually confront the hero directly in a fair fight (the hero, for his part, is also too smart to fight fair).
 * In Curse of the Golden Flower, the Emperor > you. Both in kung fu and magnificent bastardry.
 * In Batman Begins, Batman utterly owns everyone he fights pretty much instantly, including (leading up to the final fight) 4 ninjas in full body armor who presumably have the same training and skills as he does. However, Ra's al-Ghul, the Leader of the League of Shadows and Batman's Broken Pedestal mentor, is able to match Batman blow-for-blow and ultimately "wins" the fight, despite Batman wearing a high-tech suit of hardened combat armor, and Ra's wearing what's essentially very nice formal wear.
 * Quantum of Solace ends with James Bond and Greene doesn't exactly do well, but he puts up a much longer and involving fight than you'd expect a 5-foot tall, physically unimpressive corporate suit to do so against the world's most famous British murder machine, especially considering how Bond dispatches mean-looking, highly-trained professional killers much more quickly on several occasions earlier in the film.
 * Ip Man:
 * General Miura throws down with three guys at the same time in his first appearance and takes them down without much fuss. Ultimately he is the only one who actually manages to land real hits on our hero.
 * Frank from the third film is much more trouble than the thugs working for him, to the point that Ip's confrontation with him isn't even about winning but merely holding out for an agreed amount of time.
 * The fourth film's Gunnery Sergeant Geddes is the highest-ranking fighting man and an even better fighter than the designated karate instructor under him. He easily defeats a roomful of admittedly already injured and tired masters, knocks Master Wan out despite the other man managing to throw him a few times, and ultimately is Ip's final opponent.
 * In Scanners, Revok is not only the leader of the evil scanner underground, but also one of the two most powerful scanners in the world - which is, of course, how he started the underground in the first place.
 * At the climax of Cliffhanger, effete villain John Lithgow (!) proves to be a match for musclebound Sly Stallone.
 * The film version of The Lord of the Rings: In addition to the times the source material uses this trope, the fight with the Uruk-hai at the end of The Fellowship of the Ring shows the Fellowship effortlessly mowing down the Uruks, until the orc chief Lurtz shows up. Lurtz fatally wounds Boromir with his arrows, and he's only defeated after a drawn out, one-on-one fight with Aragorn, King of Gondor. Of course, Lurtz also had the Inverse Ninja Law on his side.
 * Played painfully straight in Red Sonja. Nowhere in the preceding scenes did the Evil Queen show any kind of martial skill, but when she and Sonja face off, it's a battle royale, apparently just because the film needed a cathartic climactic final fight.
 * In Fist of Legend, the Japanese general is an incredibly powerful martial artist.
 * In Avatar Colonel Quaritch has his dropship severely damaged when throws a missile into a turbine. Despite this, and having his shoulder on fire, he climbs into a mech as the dropship spirals out of control, pats out the flames, and jumps out of the dropship to land safely as it crashes in a hulking flaming mass behind him. Half of this he does while holding his breath. Earlier in the film, he kicks open a door without an oxygen mask and unloads an assault rifle and a pistol into an escaping gunship. And finally, in the final battle he fights hand to hand (albeit in a mech) with two Na'Vi and one palulukan, and again a portion of this is done holding his breath.
 * Frank D'Amico in the climax of Kick-Ass, as foreshadowed by earlier scenes of him practicing martial arts, although he also has a couple of factors tipping the balance in his favor, such as the fact that he's, you know, fighting a ten-year-old girl. Hit Girl previously mows down his Mooks by the dozen in a firefight, but she runs out of ammo by the time she faces D'Amico and is forced to resort to kung-fu fighting him, getting completely thrashed in the ensuing fight. It seems pretty likely D'Amico would have readily died if Hit Girl was maybe a bit older or if, say, he was fighting Big Daddy.
 * The main villain is the only one in The Transporter to test the hero in a one-on-one fight.
 * In Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga'Hoole, Metalbeak and Nyra are able to hold their own in battle, and will fight alongside their armies.
 * The Emperor from The Mummy Tomb of the Dragon Emperor was a prodigy in every skill, surpassing all his teachers in elemental magic, martial arts, military strategy and pretty much everything else. How he lost to Brendan Frasier and co is a mystery.
 * In the 1989 film of Henry V, as in the original play, King Henry leads his men into battle at Harfleur and Agincourt. In the film, Henry is shown at Agincourt kicking all kinds of French ass.
 * The Three Musketeers 2011 briefly shows Cardinal Richelieu sparring with three Mooks at once.
 * Resident Evil film series places Badass Abnormal Albert Wesker as the chairman of Umbrella Corp, thus implying that he was given his superhuman abilities at his own order.
 * In Polanski's adaptation of Macbeth the eponymous character just destroys a bunch of mooks trying to kill him.

Literature

 * Mostly played straight with the Valar and Maiar and quite a few Numenorean, Elven and Dwarven kings and other leaders in JRR Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings and The Silmarillion. However there is also a memorable subversion: Melkor/Morgoth was considered the highest and overall most powerful of the Valar, and Manwe, the Valars' leader after Morgoth went renegade, second to him - but Tulkas, who was not really good at anything except fighting (and feasting) was the only one who could kick Morgoth's ass.
 * Morgoth was the greatest of the Valar, and Tulkas came to Arda afterward solely in order to help her other Valar against him. The other Valar combined could defeat Morgoth and drive him away, but not capture him; meanwhile Tulkas was Arda's version of Hercules, and could wrestle Morgoth into submission.
 * At one point in The Silmarillion, one of the last elven princes from the second generation of elves decides he's had it with Morgoth and rides forth to call the devil out. He loses the fight, due to tripping, but Morgoth takes such a beating (leaving scars) in the process that he never leaves his home again, till the Valar come to drag him out in chains.
 * Elven-kings were the most powerful of all the Elves; after all, Elves were immortal, and the kings were the strongest and wisest—particularly the Eldest ones. Also, Morgoth was very much weakened due to his obsession with material things. Elves were not created equal.
 * In Lord of the Rings, those in highest authority are also the greatest warriors. Aragorn is the best human warrior alive, but still he's nothing like Elendil who was almost 8 feet tall, and able (with Gil-Galad's help) to wrestle with Sauron to the death at the end of the War of Last Alliance; likewise, Isildur was over 7 feet tall, and so terrifying that the orcs fled from him even after shooting him dead. Boromir was also the hardiest warrior in Gondor, being Prince of Minas Tirith, and Faramir was a close second. Even Denethor was a fell warrior, greater than his own knights—as was King Theoden, in the Battles of Helm's Deep and the Pelennor Fields. (Tolkien wrote elsewhere that leaders should fight in their own battles; meanwhile Denethor was a subversion of this, as he advocating that "wise" leaders use others to do their fighting for them).
 * the toughest orc is always in charge, and maintains his place by this ability. This is asskicking equals authority, but it also means you always know which orc you need to watch out for
 * The moredhel (dark elves) of The Riftwar Cycle are tribal, war-like and live in a harsh, cold and barren land. A moredhel isn't considered an adult until they're a hundred years old, and they usually need to live another hundred before they're elegible for the position of clan chieftain - all while surviving in the cold amidst constant bloodshed and starvation, mind you. Thus, if you ever run into a moredhel chieftain, you better believe they're damn hard to kill.
 * Justified in The Firebringer Trilogy, as the prince/princess of the unicorn herd is also their warleader in times of war (and they have considered themselves at war for over four hundred years).
 * Subverted in one episode of the Horatio Hornblower series in which it is noted that Petty Officers could be Drill Sergeant Nasties, but that would be beneath Hornblower's dignity as an officer as well as above his physical capacity.
 * In CS Lewis' The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian, Peter's one-on-one sword fight with King Miraz lasts much longer than his fight with Lord Sopesian immediately afterward.
 * Additionally, earlier in the book, Edmund defeats Trumpkin the dwarf, a seasoned fighter, in a swordfight. While Edmund's intention may simply be to persuade Trumpkin that he (and, by extension, his older brother) are valuable allies to have during a war, the ultimate effect of Edmund's victory, and Susan's similar victory in an archery contest, is to convince Trumpkin that they are in fact the kings and queens of legend.
 * Authority Equals Asskicking even is in effect when the main characters are children. Trumpkin's confusion stems in part from the fact that Peter, Edmund, Lucy, and Susan returned as they were in England, as schoolchildren, and had lost much of their skill and ability. It returns to them slowly due to the "Narnian air."
 * In The Magician's Nephew, Jadis treats with contempt the notion that Uncle Andrew could be anything but a king: commoners are never magicians. This could be Asskicking Equals Authority, in view of her ruthless use of magic for power, but she treats it as this trope.
 * Albus Dumbledore, Headmaster of Hogwarts and leader of the Order of the Phoenix in the Harry Potter series, is the only one who could kick Voldemort's ass in a duel.
 * Averted elsewhere in the Harry Potter series, however. Minister of Magic Cornelius Fudge was never shown to be an outstandingly powerful wizard. His successor Rufus Scrimgeour was undoubtedly better, having been the former head of the Aurors, the Ministry's special forces; however, his chronic limp may be a handicap in a fight—and anyway he was killed with relatively little struggle when the Ministry was taken over. Played relatively straight after the war, when Kingsley Shacklebolt is elected Minister, a powerful Auror who actually fought alongside the protagonists a few times and was assigned as personal protection for the British Prime Minister, lest he be magically dominated via the Imperius curse. Dumbledore himself was repeatedly offered the job of Minister, and he always turned it down; it was suggested that Voldemort may have wanted to take up the post earlier in his career, but he never did—though he controlled the acting Minister for most of a year.
 * However, played straight with the Hogwarts professors during the Battle for Hogwarts, when the school's teachers proved themselves more than a little adept at the use of magic in the defense of their students against Voldemort and the Death Eaters. Those who can do, teach, eh?
 * Played straight in the Urban Fantasy environment of the Nasuverse, at least when a character is involved in an organization. The heads of particular divisions in the Magi Association tend to be holding their position due to their overwhelming brilliance. Naturally, this means that the Lords of the Association are scarily powerful. On the other hand, you also have oddities like how the last person on Earth who can use the Unified Language is teaching in a random high school.
 * Heavily justified in Starship Troopers. The main principle of the Mobile Infantry is "Everybody drops, everybody fights": all officers are promoted from enlisted ranks, and even generals are expected to be the first soldiers on the ground (although they have bodyguards to help keep the enemy riffraff away). Plus the higher-ups get command suits with both the speed of scout suits and weaponry and gear on par with if not superior to that of standard marauder suits.
 * And to get the highest rank of Sky Marshal, one has to go through the ranks of both the Mobile Infantry and the Navy.
 * Subverted in The Film of the Book, when they find a general hiding in the freezer while exploring an abandoned fort. He's shown to be completely useless; he's probably suffering from shellshock after seeing his men get their brains sucked out.
 * While Klingon Promotions are not supported, an officer is proven to be incompetent if he lets the morale and/or his personal level of asskicking sink so low that his underlings would even think of attacking him and surviving the attempt.
 * In Discworld, the Wizards (at least in the earlier books) are an example of this. Progression is by the time-honored "Dead men's pointy boots" system, and the wizards don't usually wait for them to get emptied naturally.
 * Of the current cast Archchancellor Ridcully is possibly one of the most powerful combatants on the Disc, and the Patrician is a trained and rather skilled assassin.
 * The trope is often mentioned in the Watch books, particularly in regards to Carrot's sword and/or references to the "old" nobility (ie. professional soldiers).
 * In full force in the Codex Alera series. Alerans have access to "furies," kind of like D&D elementals, which confer power over fire, water, air, earth, wood, and metal. Societal hierarchy is based on the power of one's furies, with Knights typically showing exceptional strength in one area, High Lords possessing amazing abilities in all areas (i.e. capable of causing conflagrations, flying, and possessing super strength and swordfighting skills), and the First Lord, well... he approaches Physical God status.
 * Also you have Canim leaders Varg and Nasaug, two of the deadlist hand-to-hand combatants on the continent, and the Vord Queen, who is far more powerful than any of her spawn. Of course, since the Alerans are practically a Proud Warrior Race, the Canim are definitely a Proud Warrior Race, and the Vord are a Horde of Alien Locusts with a Hive Mind centered in their queen, all of this makes a certain amount of sense.
 * This trope is played with a lot in this series. Alera is in a 20-year succession crisis because the current First Lord has no acknowledged heir and he's getting old, but as we see during the series, he still has amazing power with furies in his own right. Societal hierarchy is not actually based on the power of one's furies, but is strongly influenced by it; for just one example, a bastard will generally have his parent's power with furies but only the status he is born into. The protagonist is considered a freak at first because he is unique in not having access to any furies, and yet he eventually gets a great deal of authority because he's capable of Awesomeness By Analysis.
 * The Senior Council in The Dresden Files. The governing body of wizards is comprised of the seven strongest wizards on the planet; the youngest and weakest, Ebenezar McCoy, and the Merlin and the Gatekeeper (Harry's comment: "You don't get to be the Merlin by collecting bottle caps"). The Wardens are also ranked by badassitude, but since they're a somewhat military organization that needs everyone they can get their hands on, it's more justified.
 * It's probably worth mentioning that the White Council as a whole is portrayed as self-righteous and backwards, so this isn't necessarily a good thing.
 * Other example include the Sidhe queens, the Red King, and other similarly powered rulers. Mostly justified in that these are beings who have been alive for thousands of years or more and have had time to build and consolidate power, although people promoted to some of these positions (such as the Summer Lady) essentially immediately become a Person of Mass Destruction.
 * And on the vanilla mortal side of things, we have Gentleman Johnny Marcone, who can hold his own against a Fallen Angel with a Kalashnikov.
 * Really, this shows up in just about every book. On the heavy end of the scale are the Lords of Outer Night from Changes—vampires so old and powerful that they actually are the pantheon of the Mayincatec civilizations of South America. The very next book, Ghost Story, shows this trope on the light end of the scale, with a smalltime sorceror (someone who has some magical ability but is beneath the notice of the White Council as friend or enemy) pushing around a group of teenage orphans a la Oliver Twist.
 * In James Thurber's The 13 Clocks, the duke trusts in his captain of the guard, who has only been defeated once. But a minion points out that the prince who is trying to marry his niece was that one defeat.
 * The Chronicles of Prydain is full of royals who not only actually fight things, but tend to be totally awesome at fighting them. Of particular note are Prince Gwydion, King Smoit, King Morgant and King Pryderi, all feared and respected war leaders as well as being mighty warriors in their own right.
 * High King Math seems to be a subversion, as he is very idealistic and peace-loving, and far too old to fight. However, in the final book he proves himself to be the most badass man alive by getting out of his deathbed to make a heroic final stand against the Death-Lord's army of undead minions. Unfortunately, as might be expected, he doesn't do too well.
 * In A Song of Ice and Fire, frequently the most powerful nobleman leading an army is also its more powerful swordsman. During the Dance of Dragons, the royal pretender Aemon Blackfyre was considered undefeatable with a sword. During Robert's rebellion, each side was lead by their strongest fighter: Robert Baratheon and Rhaegar Targaryen. After Robert killed Rhaegar in single combat and won the war, he was elected king. Also, the most powerful noble families breed most of the continent's best warriors. Loras Tyrell, the greatest jouster, Jaime Lannister, the greatest swordsman, and Eddard Stark, the greatest tactician, are all members of Great Houses.
 * Justified in The Book of the Named, Clan leaders can be challenged for their position by any Clan member, and thus must be good at fighting to stay the Clan leader.
 * King Obould Many-Arrows. He becomes even more kickass after he Took a Level in Badass, to the point where he can fight Drizzt one on one.
 * Starship Traveller, an interactive novel in the Fighting Fantasy series, has this. When in combat, non-security personnel have a penalty to their skill rating. The exception is you, the ship's captain. "Your own fighting skills are equal to your professional skills, as befits a true hero."
 * Beowulf, from the epic poem of the same name, is an inversion. He's far more kickass than the local king, and becomes king after his amazing feats of Badass in defense of Hrothgar's land. He still dies against a dragon.
 * This is an unspoken assumption in Dune. When Baron Harkonnen learns that the guards escorting Paul and Lady Jessica have been killed, he asks who their rescuer may have been and his Mentat replies, "It was a clean, silent killing, my Lord. Hawat, perhaps, or that Halleck one. Possibly Idaho. Or any top lieutenant." Apparently, the Atredies couldn't possibly employ competent assassins without giving them high ranks, and no ordinary soldier would be able to manage a clean, silent kill. Besides, isn't Hawat, like, a hundred?
 * Grand Admiral Thrawn doesn't fight anything. He's The Strategist. He watches everything, plans, and gives orders; he's got to be highly intelligent, but there's no sign of him being physically adept, and no one knows how old he is or if his species is more or less powerful than humans are. Track down the Thrawn Trilogy Sourcebook, a supplement for West End Games' now-defunct Star Wars RPG, and you see that his physical stats are pretty damn good, better than any of the other bridge officers', better than his counterparts in the New Republic Rebellion, better than almost any of the others who don't actually, physically, fight.
 * Other parts of the Star Wars Expanded Universe prove him to be really good with a blaster, and he can move in armor. He impersonates Jodo Kast, a Palette Swap of Boba Fett, and actually makes Kast seem cool.
 * In Outbound Flight, we see him board a slaver ship to lead his men into battle. While he has the crew of his ship backing him up, it's pretty obvious that he's cowing his opponents through sheer chutzpah.
 * And once we meet his species (the Chiss), we find out that they're all extremely badass, though more in his "planning ahead" vein than in physical prowess. Thrawn is still portrayed as exceptionally talented even among the very-talented Chiss, though.
 * On the other hand, his stats are probably bumped up to ensure that he survives contact with the average Heroic Sociopath Player Character.
 * In Currahee!: A Screaming Eagle at Normandy, a memoir from a WWII paratrooper, he recounts how someone sabotaged the parachute chord of a strict drill sergeant during parachute training, which was fortunately noticed before he jumped out of the plane. In response, the sargeant challenged anyone who had a problem with him to fight him. Two large recruits then fought him, but he beat them both. After that he didn't have any more parachute problems.
 * In The Stormlight Archive, Shardblades tend to be gifted to nobles (assuming the person who won it already has one, of course).
 * In The Keys to The Kingdom series, the higher up you are in authority, the larger and stronger you become. By the end of the series, Arthur was over twelve feet tall and able to destroy everybody.
 * The Sorcerer Kings from The Prism Pentad.
 * In the Warrior Cats series, Clan leaders almost always tend to be good fighters. Having nine lives while other cats have only one is definitely an advantage too.

Live Action TV

 * This seems to be the case in Star Trek. The high-ranking main characters (who, more often than not, are officers in the virtually pacifist Federation Starfleet) all seem pretty handy in a punch-up. Kirk's martial arts "skills" are legendary, and at various times he takes on big lizard guys and genetically engineered supermen. It's very noticeable in Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, where the crew of the eponymous space station regularly kick the asses of Klingons and Jem'Hadar when it comes to a hand-to-hand brawl (Sisko's Q-punch has to rank pretty far up, too). Justified for Dax and Worf, maybe (who at least have the martial arts credentials to back up what we see on screen), and Kira as well (she spent fourteen years fighting for her life in the Bajoran Resistance, what did you think would happen?) and Starfleet training is pretty well-rounded, but where did Sisko learn to use a bat'leth? (Probably from Curzon Dax, the Federation ambassador to the Klingons.)
 * Speaking of Klingons, there's the Next Generation episode where Worf is trying to defend his family honor, and his second is taken out. As a replacement he chooses not a seasoned Klingon warrior, not a fellow security officer, not the clearly able-bodied Riker, but old, bald Captain Picard. Picard never gets in a physical battle in that episode, but Worf was either crazy or trusted him to hold his own if it came to that. And he may be right; in other episodes Picard has displayed capabilities much greater than his age would indicate.
 * "Sins of the Father?" He gets jumped by three Klingons and
 * This may partially be because Patrick Stewart is no slouch himself. Go rent Excalibur, which was a break out film role for both him and Liam Neeson, and check him out in the armor. Or I, Claudius for that matter. The man may have gotten older but he he looks like he could take Riker in a fist fight. Pragmatic Adaptation of the actor, perhaps.
 * Especially egregious in the two-part episode "Chain of Command," where Picard, Crusher, and Worf covertly infiltrate a Cardassian facility. This would be like asking a naval O-6 skipper to do a job normally performed by Navy Seals.
 * One could argue that all Star Fleet officers would be likely to have a myriad of skills because, in Roddenberry's future, you don't "need" to do anything and do what you do in order to improve yourself as a person. If you were given full freedom to do anything, especially with a holodeck, you'd probably be in great shape and know some very exotic martial arts. Sulu was into fencing, Riker was into "Anbo-jitsu" (that blind stick fighting thing he did with his dad), and we see several other officers playing difficult sports. Things like that would make you pretty handy in a fight.
 * Also consider that self-defense was pretty much required training at the Academy. In one of the novels, a class is taught covering not only human but Klingon and Vulcan martial arts (pacifists they may be, but any culture that thought up the Nerve Pinch is pretty dangerous).
 * In Deep Space Nine episode "Blood Oath", for all the guards protecting The Albino, he himself was the only one who put up a fight.
 * In "The Doomsday Machine", Captain Decker, played by 44-year-old William Windom, took down a security guard who looked to be about half his age in unarmed combat. You'd think Security would be a job for the toughest fighters, but...
 * Played straight in an episode of CSI New York. A company had training sessions for its higher ups. Two of them beat each other, two of them got into a fight at a pool hall so heated they were running on the ceiling, and one of them assassinated a man by hanging from a tree and doing an upside down Diagonal Cut through the man's neck. The head stayed on until the cops came.
 * On Heroes, the 12 founders of The Company are described as having been very powerful superhumans, although the show has been very vague as to what the exact power of many of them were.
 * This seems to be the case with the Wraith in Stargate Atlantis. The basic Mook troopers go down just like any human after a burst of P90 fire. The "officer"-type Wraith can take a handful of pistol rounds and keep on coming. The Wraith "General" from Sateda was strong enough to effortlessly toss Proud Warrior Race Guy Ronan around like a rag doll, and the Wraith "Uber Queen" from Submerged ate a full clip of P90 fire and kept on coming.
 * While we're on the subject of Stargate, Colonel Jack O'Neill came out of retirement and promptly went to Abydos and picked up where he left off in personally f'ing up Jaffa.
 * Speaking of Jaffa, Teal'c was the First Prime, translation: the Head Jaffa in Charge for Apophis. Thus it makes sense when as the series progresses he's laying waste to hordes of Jaffa all by himself. And his kills include other first primes as well as System Lords.
 * Colonel Samantha Carter may very well be the Baddest Chick in two galaxies.
 * Well, she did blow up a star that one time.
 * The few times General Hammond ends up in a fight of some kind, he shows exactly why he's in command of the SGC.
 * Then there's Colonel Young from Stargate Universe, who started the series with a limp but recovered and ended up kicking a lot of ass.
 * Ben from Lost seems to have elevated to this status during season 4. Added to the fact he's the Magnificent Bastard he was in Seasons 2 and 3, in Season 4 he.
 * In 24 the villains get deadlier the higher up the villain authority ladder you go.
 * Deka Master/Shadow Ranger from Tokusou Sentai Dekaranger/Power Rangers SPD. Seriously.
 * As an example, the character once deflected machine gun fire. Using a sword.
 * In Super Sentai, the higher the position of the hero or villain in their respective organization, the more powerful they usually are. There are subversion, of course
 * Alias plays this trope fairly straight. While the mooks Sydney/Vaughn/other agent fights are easily deterred, usually the Big Bad/episode mini-Bad has some freaking sweet skills.
 * And in the later seasons, when Jack became, the trope took effect. Check out the episode "Nightingale".
 * Battlestar Galactica. Both Admiral Adama and Colonel Tigh are capable of some serious butt-kicking, as seen in The Mutiny episodes. President Roslin on the other hand, while quite ruthless, only handles a weapon on one occasion. And she manages to miss at point-blank range.
 * On Ultimate Force, Colonel Aidan Dempsey reliably kicks a lot of arse when called upon, most notably in the episodes "Dead Is Forever", "Never Go Back" and - particularly - "Charlie Bravo". In the latter, he strides through a gunfight, casually taking one-handed potshots at rebels, while exhorting his local counterpart to "Pretend you're an officer and get your men in order!"
 * WWE chairman Vince McMahon is frequently booked as a fairly strong wrestler, and is usually the favorite in matches featuring him against anyone below main-event level. Partially justified by the fact that McMahon is actually a very muscular person in real life.
 * Though, it's ultimately inverted in most of Vince's matches with main eventers, as he ends up getting the worse of the beating against them. Keep in mind, that Vince is still the boss of said main event wrestlers, even after getting his ass kicked. When he does win, it's usually through outside interference or dirty tricks, not through McMahon himself winning it on his own.
 * Subverted in an episode of The Sandbaggers where the head of the Secret Intelligence Service, Neil Burnside, "James bloody Bond" - is mugged by some hoods while walking about late at night.
 * Just about every ruler from the 1998 Merlin series, including Uther, Arthur, and most impressively, Vortigern, who is aging and past his prime but still a force on the battlefield.
 * And in the other Merlin, we have King Uther, getting up there but still able to kick butt in the tournaments. Even if Arthur *did* let him win.
 * Arthur kinda fits this too.
 * True Blood plays it straight with Godric, Eric, and Russell Edgington, but totally subverts it with Sophie-Anne Le Clerq, who apparently relies on luck more than anything. In the third season Eric points out that he only lets her kick him around because of his respect for her rank;
 * She is shown to be much stronger than Bill, though, until . Averted with Bill himself, after he is crowned King of Louisiana.
 * In Castle, Captain Roy Montgomery is usually seen in his office calling the shots, but in the season 3 finale, he kicks all kinds of ass. He manages to.
 * Darken Rahl in Legend of the Seeker is a skilled swordsman and a sorcerer. He is also the ruler of the most poweful empire in the world (as far as he knows, at least; the series was cancelled before the discovery of the Imperium) Admittedly, he is not as skilled in magic as Zedd, but he is able to beat Richard the first time they meet in battle. In another episode, he effortlessly kills several Sisters of the Dark, despite them being Elite Mooks (in the books, at least). Averted with most other rulers.
 * In most cases in the Power Rangers franchise, the character who acts as the heroes' mentor is a Non-Action Guy (or girl). The exception is Anubis "Doggie" Cruger from Power Rangers SPD, aka the Shadow Ranger. Exactly how he gets his dog-like muzzle to fit in his helmet is a mystery, but he's a powerful member of the actual team.

Mythology

 * Many of the kings and rulers in Greek Mythology were themselves formidable warriors. One of the most famous examples is The Iliad, where Idomeneus, Menelaus, Ajax, Diomedes, Agamemnon, Achilles, Patroclus, Odysseus, Philoctetes, Hector, in short almost all the major warriors are kings or princes of some sort.
 * Zeus, king of the gods, is the most powerful of the Olympians.

Tabletop Games
"Also available are collector's editions of Bargle's best-selling self-help books. Social Advancement Through the Selective Use of Charm and Disintegrate Spells, [...]"
 * Dungeons & Dragons, being level-based, produces this given half an opportunity.
 * In the setting of Eberron is a religion named the Silver Flame whose leader, Jaela, is a 11-year-old girl (affectionately nicknamed "Loli Pope"). Normally she is a 3rd level cleric, but as long as she stays within the walls of her holy city, she is granted the powers of an 18th level cleric.
 * Breland king and local pimp, Boranel, is a 3rd level aristocrat/8th level fighter, outpowering at least 95% of the population of his country. Karnath vampire king with the complex of "I am my grandpa", Kaius, outpowers 99% of the continent at CR 16, based on 11 levels of fighter, a lot of magic items, being a vampire with magic to remove the flaws, and action boost, a almost-exclusive PC trait. Heck, even Queen Aurala from Aundair is fairly tough compared to some people of the army. And she is a pure Aristocrat.
 * Quite apart from that, it was more or less a standard part of 2nd edition D&D to assume that any feudal lord was at least tenth level because the rule mechanics actually said that was the time to find some permanent holding—to become a feudal lord, head of a local church and so on. It was strangely meritocratic.
 * For that matter, it would be easier to cite Dungeons and Dragons authority figures that did not enact this trope. After all, Money is Power and high level anythings will have lots of money. This in turn buys them lots of shiny magic items, allowing them to kick the ass of those that will invariably challenge their authority thereby getting more loaded and stronger... By contrast, the lower level sorts just won't hold up above their station, because their right to rule only extends as far as their fist. Which means they'll either get into a Curb Stomp Battle with the previous owner or some newcomer will fulfill that role.
 * The Planescape campaign setting occasionally surprised players from other settings when not every authority was extremely high level. Many of the factols were below tenth level, which may be far beyond most mortals but due to typical power creep, many players dismiss this as "low" level. Others, such as Factol Hashkar, are no more powerful than a commoner or two. Some, however, play it straight.
 * And Asskicking Equals Authority usually stands somewhere nearby. As one article of Bazaar of the Bizarre in April Dragon (magazine) put it:


 * In GURPS Goblins, something like this is in place as a game mechanic: according to the rules which govern the late Georgian setting, differences in social status affect combat rolls, to reflect divine favoritism and the natural order of things.
 * In D20 Modern, a character's rank is usually tied to the character's level.
 * For that matter, all skills in d20 games are tied to level - so a well-trained doctor, for example, will automatically be a better fighter than a Marine right out of boot camp.
 * In the pseudo-Japanese fantasy setting of Rokugan, for the game Legend of the Five Rings, for over a thousand years the Imperial dynasty has ruled by divine mandate. And it was not the Emperor's job to be the greatest fighter, but instead to be the wise ruler and source of all honor and authority. And even changes in the ruling dynasty have been only by the will of and with the blessing of the gods, not by either war or combat or anything else. At least, not until now, where the game line has suddenly decided to choose the next Imperial dynasty by having the gods come down bodily just as the chief villain of the setting has finally won and utterly nullify his victory by declaring the Mortal Kombat tournament.
 * And then they subvert the entire point by declaring the winner to be an Empress who couldn't cut her way out of a balsa wood box with a masterwork katana, because she showed "proper spirit". Well goodness, if that was all it took, why hold a tournament in the first place?
 * Exalted. The Solars were made to be the best at everything, and were given the right to rule the world, with the Lunars and Sidereals below them and the weaker but far more numerous Dragon-Blooded below them. In fact, nearly every faction in the setting follows this rule, with the higher-Essence characters being the leaders.
 * Subverted between the factions. The Solars lost their position of power by revolt, and now the setting is ruled by the two "weakest" factions—the Dragon-Blooded and the Sidereals with the odds stacked heavily against the Solars regaining their position.
 * Played straight with the Incarnae. The leader of all gods, the Unconquered Sun, is literally invincible, and his chosen weapon deals infinite damage to anyone in the world. His fellow Incarnae are leaders of their own domains and are similarly powerful.
 * Mostly averted in Autochthon. Although the world of Autochthon has it's own Exalted, who are champions of the people, their superiors and the leaders of any given city or nation are mortal. Still, the cities they live in, though subservient to these mortal leaders, are themselves giant Exalted capable of magically empowering the people inside them.
 * After The Usurpation, the Sidereals came to embody this trope. Though theoretically weaker than Solars, Sidereals use their privileged position in Creation, complete with access to lost knowledge of sorcery and martial arts, artifacts, and nearly infinite wealth, to the point where even a single hostile Sidereal can become a major problem for a Solar circle.
 * BattleTech uses this trope in a surprisingly restrained way. As the Inner Sphere is the feudal system In Space, most Great House leaders are accomplished Mech Warriors. Some aren't, being better at diplomacy and/or magnificent bastardry, but your average Prince, Archon or Coordinator is generally among the most effective Mech Warriors out there. The restraint comes from the fact that 1) aforementioned leaders all get the best of training, equipment and backup, and 2) there are plenty of non-royalty Inner Sphere Mech Warriors who would easily defeat anyone short of a Katrina Steiner, Ian Davion or Takashi Kurita in single combat. And that's not even considering the Clans.
 * Built into the system in the Warhammer Fantasy Battle and Warhammer 40,000 universes - higher-ranking units are always tougher than their basic counterparts, with the Emperor Karl Franz being one of the most nasty heroes in the Warhammer Fantasy Battle universe. With most armies in either game, this is justified with better training, magic or Applied Phlebotinum, but in other cases—like the regular-human Imperial Guard or Empire armies—it's really hard to justify why army officers are better shots than the armies' dedicated marksmen or special ops, and able to absorb more damage than Ork Nobs or Powered Armor-wearing Space Marines.
 * Possibly the king Emperor of this trope is the God Emperor of Mankind, who may or may not be a Physical God and defeated the vessal of all FOUR of the Chaos Gods. Unfortunately, he was mortally wounded and put on a permanent life support system called the Golden Throne, but still literally keeps the Imperium together by maintaining the Astronomican with his own power (and many pskyer sacrifices), a psychic beacon which allows faster than lightspeed travel - without which, the Imperium's worlds would fall into confusion and be easy pickings by a tenacious enough invader (or many other invaders...) with no way to work together. Oh, and the Golden Throne produces a metabolism product which is used to make an Anti-Magic grenade called the Psyk-out grenade. Yes, you heard that right, The Emperor's shit kills psykers.
 * It could be just about justified by the fact that high-ranking Imperial officials do have access to advanced biological and technological upgrades (not of the same order as the Space Marines, but still) and they will have taken part in many campaigns to achieve their rank. Considering the extreme danger of the Warhammer 40,000 battlefields, a soldier who survives long enough to attain high rank probably accrues a lot of combat skills, and a sheer, stubborn tenacity to survive.
 * Ork hierarchy is literally sorted by size, so it's completely sensible for Da Warboss to be the biggest murder machine on the battlefield for that army. Some relatively philosophical Orks (and the bar is very low here) have reflected on how unclear the human chain-of-command is, because we're "all 'bout da same size."
 * Works both ways for Orks: since their culture (for lack of a better word) and chain of command is based on liberal ass-kickings, the physically strongest Orks tend to lead the rest. For a given value of "lead", of course. More like prod them in a general direction. However, because Ork beliefs tend to kick the normal laws of physics in the jollies and reshape them in proper Orky ways, and the belief that "da boss is da strongest an' da meanest" is held by every single Ork in the warband (after all, if he wasn't, he wouldn't be da boss, QED), a high ranking Ork actually becomes taller and stronger over time because they is da boss.
 * This is actually built into the biology of the Orks: The more asskicking the Ork does, the more praise he gets from other Orks. The more praise he gets, the more he physically grows (akin to puberty, but happening every time he kicks ass), which in turn leads to more asskicking. So Orks gain Authority by Asskicking, and Asskicking by Authority. Go figure.
 * Skaven and Ogre hierarchy is determined solely by your ability to kill the former guy to have held the position. In the Skaven's case you have to be sneaky enough to do so, and you are respected (which means feared in Skaven tongue) for being sneaky. Ogres just bash the hell out of eachother. And since food is an important resource in both societies, leaders (who have access to better food and more nurishment) are in better physical health than their underlings. In addition, the positions in the Council of 13 can only be attained by first touching a radioactive stone and survive, then defeat the current placeholder. None of the current Council of 13 has been defeated in 200 years (the average skaven lifespan is 20 years).
 * Similarly, a Dark Elf who holds any title of authority for long will have to be both cunning and strong, to fend off attempts at mutiny or assassination.
 * Magic: The Gathering varies with its use of the trope, usually depending on creature or organization. It's rare for the highest-ranked ruler in charge of a race or faction to be the most physically powerful, but it does happen—the three legendary Slivers, for example, are all much bigger than even the largest of the rest of the species.
 * Although whether they're physically powerful or not, most leaders do have extremely powerful abilities.
 * Let's also not forget Lord Konda, who can become bigger than the average dragon, and can't be killed no matter how much damage he takes.
 * The board-game Stratego exemplifies this, as applied to an army: When two pieces meet, the highest-ranking piece wins. The Field-Marshal is basically unstoppable, unless he runs into The Spy... or steps on a mine, of course.
 * To be specific, the Field-Marshal can only be killed 3 ways: Attacking another Field-Marshal (draw, both die), DEFENDING against a spy (Spy wins - it's the only time that the spy can attack someone and NOT die), or encountering a mine (obvious). Suffice it to say, if the Field-Marshal attacks a piece, the piece it attacks WILL be removed guaranteed.
 * Both subverted and played straight in chess: The King, the most important piece on the board, is capable of little more than the pawn, but the Queen (The Woman Behind The Man, as it were) is the most powerful piece on the board.
 * In the original Chess older versions the Queen was even more useless than the King. She could only move one space and only diagonally. When they gave the Queen unlimited distance in all directions they called it "Madness Chess" because the woman was most powerful.
 * In Yaquinto's Beachhead, a single Japanese commander has four times the firepower of a 10-man squad.

Video Games
"Kirrahe: "You all know the mission, and what is at stake. I have come to trust each of you with my life -- but I have also heard murmurs of discontent. I share your concerns. We are trained for espionage; we would be legends, but the records are sealed. Glory in battle is not our way. Think of our heroes; the Silent Step, who defeated a nation with a single shot. Or the Ever Alert, who kept armies at bay with hidden facts. These giants do not seem to give us solace here, but they are not all that we are. Before the network, there was the fleet. Before diplomacy, there were soldiers! Our influence stopped the rachni, but before that we held the line! Our influence stopped the krogan, but before that, we held the line! Our influence will stop Saren; in the battle today, we will hold the line!""
 * Strategy games often make leader units and campaign characters stronger fighters than regular troops.
 * In Streets of Rage 2, you have to fight your way through Mecha-Mooks, monsters, and The Dragon - Shiva, legendary martial artist - to get to Mr. X. He's just a big dude in a business-suit, but he's nonetheless tougher and more dangerous than any of those preceding him. No small part of this, however, is the fact that he packs an assault rifle, but even close-in, he's no slouch.
 * In John Woo Presents Stranglehold, the final boss is Mr. Wong, the head of the notorious Dragon Claw syndicate. He's a short, balding, wrinkled guy, but that doesn't stop him from carrying around a huge sniper-rifle with one hand—and he can absorb more bullets than Dapang, his hulking, tattooed bodyguard, who was seen dual-wielding shotguns.
 * In the western-themed LucasArts videogame Outlaws (1997 video game), the final boss is, in all appearances, just another desperado. But since he's the leader of the gang, you will need a Gatling-Gun to take him down.
 * In No More Heroes, the bosses are ranked in the UAA according to their ranking as an assassin. While this trope is played straight in both games with the higher ranked assassins, it also tends to be subverted at times: higher ranked assassins like Destroyman and Capt. Vladimir tend to be easier compared to lower assassins like Shinobu, Margaret and Ryuji.
 * Used freely, like most tropes relating to superheroes and supervillains, in the City of Heroes and City of Villains MMO. Leaders of villainous groups are classified as "Archvillains", and because of this, they automatically require a large, well-coordinated team of superheroes to take 'em down.
 * Averted with The Center, leader of the Council. The two missions where he actually appears he doesn't fight... because he's somewhere around 120 years old, and in spite of his rank as the leader of the Council, one of the largest paramilitary groups in City of Heroes, he has no real combat abilities. Instead, he calls down the entire chain of command on you in the first of these, then summons several of his elite guards to fight against a hero ambush in the second. All of this while nonchalantly reading a newspaper.
 * Played very straight with Countess Crey who story-wise is just the CEO of Crey Industries with villainous business practices yet is a legal Karma Houdini. However in a late-game story arc when you finally manage to get a warrant to arrest her, she turns out to have devastating psychic abilities that are never mentioned in story.
 * In Crusader: No Regret, when you finally cross paths with the Corrupt Corporate Executive who's had it in for you since the previous game... surprise, surprise, he seems to have acquired a Humongous Mecha and is blocking your exit. Not that he's particularly good at piloting it, but...
 * In the classic FPS Wolfenstein 3D, several of the final bosses take advantage of this, including Dr. Schabbs (one of the rare examples of a Mad Scientist using this trope), at least one Nazi General, and of course, Adolf Hitler, who naturally takes this to extremes: Not only has he somehow acquired an armored battle-suit mounted with quadruple gatling-guns, once you've blasted it enough, he pops out -- and continues to fight, with Gatling Guns Akimbo, while ignoring the hail of bullets you're throwing at him.
 * Not to mention the fake Hitlers you meet before you face him, which have a unique weapon: Flamethrowers. Nasty, nasty, nasty...
 * The bizarre Japan-made Metal Wolf Chaos has this as its central premise. You play as the president of the United States in a super-powerful Humongous Mecha trying to liberate the U.S. following a military coup led by the vice president who, naturally, also has a Humongous Mecha.
 * In the Halo series, Covenant Sangheili (aka Elites) "Zealot" Ship Masters and "Ultra" Spec Ops Commanders have shielding so powerful that Legendary-difficulty ones can withstand a Plasma Pistol charged shot, which instantly destroys the shields of any lesser Elite. They usually also pack one-hit-kill Energy Swords. This is Justified as Elite promotions are based almost entirely on how many foes they killed and, by extension, how much experience they have on the battlefield, and by the fact that the only thing getting better is their equipment. And supporting mooks (Grunts following the Spec Op Elites) have this nasty tendency to carry around fuel rod cannons).
 * Brutes work the same way, but just more brutal; never mind the kill score, if they topple the pack chief, they get his seat and shiny helmet along with tough shielding (the Elites still stay on top in that aspect), rounded off with a hammer. Yes, a gigantic more-often-than-not OHKO hammer. On higher difficulties, even being licked by its impact shockwave hurts like crap.
 * Given that these are the leaders of combat troops rather that military strategists it's not at all surprising that they're skilled and better equipped than the less elite troops. The Prophets, true leaders of the Covenant, avert this entirely, being frail and barely capable of fighting. A memorable boss fight against one of them consisted of dodging the feeble gunfire from his hoverchair before jumping onto the chair. Where the guns can't hit you.
 * Most of that boss fight consists of fighting wave after wave of his Honor Guard.
 * Emperor Palamecia from Final Fantasy II, the Final Boss, a master sorcerer who ends up They never make clear if he's Emperor because he's badass, or if he's badass because he's Emperor.
 * Final Fantasy IV: The After Years, of the twenty-one main playable characters, eight are royalty, and another is brother to a king. In the world of Final Fantasy IV, Asura and Leviathan rule the Feymarch, Bahamut is King of Eidolons, and Odin is the former King of Baron, so the four highest ranking Summons are all royalty too.
 * In the case of Final Fantasy V, four of your five party members are royalty, and of those four, one is a badass alien king and one becomes queen by default partway through the story.
 * While you never actually fight him, Emperor Gestahl of Final Fantasy VI is able to cast high-level fire spells that are only available to the party at the very end of the game. Unfortunately for him, however, when he actually tries to use them, it is revealed that his Psycho for Hire Omnicidal Maniac Kefka has found a way to make them ineffective. Oops.
 * Later on you discover the personal "secret treasure" he was keeping in reserve, and it turns out to be an item that grants (among other things) most of the high-level fire spells he is shown using earlier in the game.
 * Kefka himself starts out as a subversion. He is a wimp who runs away from you when you face him for the first time. It's only after he starts infusing himself with more and more magic that he becomes a threat beyond his military power and complete lack of morals.
 * On the good side of things, we have Edgar, king of Figaro, Gadgeteer Genius, and all-around asskicker. His brother Sabin counts too, though he had forsaken the throne and fled the kingdom. Celes is a former Imperial general, Cyan is the retainer to a king, and Guest Star Party Member Leo is an Imperial general too.
 * This is the only explanation for Palmer from Final Fantasy VII. An obese and incompetent member of the Shinra Board of Directors, the party gets a memorable fight against him where he survives a good few minutes of being hit by machine guns and giant swords before getting run over by a truck.
 * Rufus Shinra is an exception to this rule, however. He is the President of the Shinra Company but is actually one of the weakest bosses in the game, compared to his Humongous Mecha-riding military directors and his mutating mad scientist.
 * On the other hand, he did manage to fight Cloud (admittedly with help from his pet) while using a double barreled shotgun (with one hand!) and escape with only a few injuries (while grabbing onto a helicopter with one hand, holding the gun, and presumably being injured). His stats are more a matter of gameplay rather than story (Reno also had fairly low stats when you first fought him). And.
 * Sephiroth, the Big Bad of the game, plays this straight as he used to be Shinra's General and was designed to be perfect for the position.
 * Final Fantasy XI has examples for pretty much every single nation. The final mission battles for each of the three starting nations has you fighting alongside a major political figure: Prince Trion, Captain Volker, and minister Ajido-Marujido. Archduke Kam'lanaut is a bit of a subversion, though:
 * Somewhat justified. Prince Trion is portrayed as a warrior-prince, Captain Volker is a captain of a special forces squad and a famous war veteran and minister Ajido-Marujido is the head of the department in-charge of the nation's Orastery (or Department of Magic). The game also takes place during wartime/a post-war period as well so there is understandably a high number of war veterans around the world.
 * In Final Fantasy XII almost any figure of considerable power is a noble:
 * First the Judges Magister. This is justified by the backstory, since they are both the highest-ranking officers of the Imperial Army AND handpicked by the emperor for their martial skills to be his guardians, officers, and advisors.
 * Then, we have Ashe and Vayne, two  with enough backstory to justify their power. Vayne spent his life trying to survive Archadia's murderous politics, led his country's army against two neighboring countries, both of which give him enough experience to be a credible Magnificent Bastard. Ashe has led the Resistance for two years prior to
 * And finally, we have Cid and Larsa: Cid is an impressively dangerous researcher, smart enough to earn . He is the . Larsa, by contrast, is a 13 year old boy skilled both with the sword and interlocking machinations, who uses his talents to stop the  Experimentally-enhanced fighters rising in rank and even gaining political powers is believable, and Cid's abilities can be accepted since they adhere to the rules of the world's magic, but a pre-teen able to outwit  House Solidor must have some interesting genetic material.
 * Larsa was guarded and trained by one of the five aforementioned Judge Magisters. Quite appropriately, he is the only non-Judge character who knows how to Dual Wield.
 * Final Fantasy XIII has.
 * Final Fantasy Tactics plays with this. Non-nobility characters can have high base stats and be just as effective as some of the unique characters, but chances are the characters with the cool, unique classes have a title backing them up. Ramaza's father was a high ranking noble and purportedly a beast in combad. "Thunder god Cid" is of equal rank, and his skills are apparent. Agrias, Beowulf, Ramza's brothers, and others have unique classes to go with their nobility, and Delita only acquires a unique class after he moves up on the social ladder.
 * An in-universe example in Shin Megami Tensei Nocturne, Chiaki wants to reshape the world so that this philosophy (the Reason of Yosuga) is to her liking - where those who are deemed weak are slaughtered, and the strongest are deemed the upper classes.
 * In Fire Emblem, almost without exception, commanding officers are at a significantly higher level than their subordinates.
 * The main characters, all members of the nobility (sans Ike) and the leaders of your army, usually have the potential to become the most powerful characters available.
 * Justified in Path of Radiance for the laguz and Daein. The laguz earn their ranks and respect based on strength, meaning the kings really can kick everyone else's ass. Likewise, Daein's King Ashnard lets any decent warrior become a knight, and promotions are based on talent.
 * Also justified in FE4, were members of nobility had holy blood which gives bonus % growth and the ability to use Legendary Weapons.
 * In FE7 and FE8, the antagonists had Dark Druid and Necromancer as their classes, respectively. However, the antagonist of FE6 doesn't need Dark magic, for he is a King. And he's just as strong as his other GBA antagonists, if not stronger.
 * An interesting version of this trope is present as simply occupying a throne gives out lots of bonuses and makes characters more powerful than a fort ever could.
 * Fatal Fury: Geese Howard, at first, seems to be your run-of-the-mill crime boss. Once you actually fight him, though, you can easily see why he is where he is. After all, he was the very first SNKBoss.
 * Fatal Fury 2 brings us Wolfgang Krauser, Geese's half-brother and the latest in a line of bodyguards to various European nobility. He has his own bodyguard, Lawrence Blood, but Krauser really doesn't need him: he's strong enough on his own.
 * Likewise, Rugal Bernstein has two secretaries, Vice and Mature, who also function as his bodyguards. Like Krauser, Rugal doesn't really need them, as he once took out an entire company of Heidern's troops before beating Heidern himself to a pulp. Then he killed Heidern's family for the lulz. It was also implied at one point that he had beaten both Geese and Krauser one-on-one.
 * Kain R. Heinlein from Garou: Mark of the Wolves. His Super Mode is unlimited, and his bodyguard, Grant, is also an SNK Boss. He's Geese's (and Krauser's) brother-in-law... there's something about that family...
 * And Mr. Big of Art of Fighting ain't no slouch either. He's the head of a Southtown crime syndicate, and wields two Kali Stick-things which he uses to good effect, not only for smashing heads open, but he can create Power Wave-style energy blasts from them. Add a huge, imposing body build to that mix and you have the perfect Don.
 * Years earlier in the Samurai Shodown universe, we have Gaoh, the leader of a rebel army. He is dangerous, wielding a deadly looking polearm. We haven't even GOTTEN to the fact that he can turn into a demon mid battle.
 * In StarCraft, Terran units have ranks going strictly by unit power/tier. Space Marines are Privates, Firebats are Corporals, and so on. By contrast, character units are a lot stronger than their normal versions but their rank is plot-dependant (and not particularly high in most cases).
 * Inverted in Starcraft II. All units start out at some basic rank that increases based on the number of kills they have.
 * Perhaps one of the more ridiculous examples is the videogame adaption of Tomorrow Never Dies. In the movie, the primary villain is merely a Corrupt Corporate Executive and doesn't have any exceptional physical abilities. In the game, though, he's one of the final bosses and is able to take about a dozen grenades to the face before he dies.
 * In Musashi: Samurai Legend, the villains are the Corrupt Corporate Executive Board of Directors of Gandrake Enterprises. All of them, including President Gandrake himself, are endgame-level bosses.
 * Captain Price in Modern Warfare, apart from being literally unkillable for the most of the game, is usually the first one to dash into the next room full of Mooks and clear the way for his team, including the PC. He also does some impressive tricks when subtlety is required.
 * Played straight with General Shepherd in Modern Warfare 2,
 * Also, Price demonstrates his extreme badassitude in MW2 when he shoots down a combat helicopter with an antipersonnel sniper rifle while dodging a minigun ON A FRICKING RUBBER BOAT IN THE MIDDLE OF A MOUNTAIN RIVER. He also has some mad hacking skills, as he
 * Call of Duty is rife with this trope, yet still subverts it with Al-Asad  and Victor Zakhaev
 * The Simpsons beat-em-up video game has this, too, sort of. The final bosses are a bomb-crazed Smithers who can smack you across the screen with impunity, and C. Montgomery Burns in a breakaway huge mecha. Then again, once out of it, he shows his true strength—which is on par with Maggie's.
 * In Lost Odyssey, Prince/King Tolten wields an unusual variant of this. He's a bit of a wuss, and compared to the two Immortal melee-fighters, his stats aren't impressive. However, BECAUSE he's a member of the Royal Line of Uhra, he's got access to unique and powerful accessories, weapons and skills. Including the Ultimate Hit and the Age of The King. Once you put those things together, he actually ends up being a fighter on par with the thousand-years-old main character.
 * Unless the Thousand-Years-Old main character learns the "Royalty" skill and takes the King's sword for his own.
 * Well, it's not that unusual. Rich people having better stuff is a trope, after all.
 * The Star Wars video game Knights of the Old Republic had this in the villain of Admiral Saul Karath, the number two on the evil hierarchy under Darth Malak. When you fight him on the bridge of his flagship, it takes a whole arsenal of high-powered weaponry to take him down. Not bad for a guy whose reputation was as a tactical genius. Of course, Darth Malak himself is difficult and justified in being so.
 * Averted within Front Mission 3. There are commanding officers among your enemies, but that doesn't necessarily make them stronger, although they do tend to have better training. There are even a few battles where the strongest Mecha on the field will be a lower-ranked individual or a non-voluntary test pilot, or even standard enemy pilots. Used straight by the time you get to Front Mission 4, where only higher ranking individuals get a name, and always come with extra abilities.
 * Who could forget Mayor Mike Haggar of Final Fight fame, who took a somewhat more direct approach than most to reducing the city's crime rate? To be fair, he was a wrestler and street fighter before becoming mayor. And after, too...
 * ...Or the crime syndicate leader and boss of the same game, Belger? He has the largest health bar of anybody in the game, and has a rapid-fire crossbow. Oh, and he's invulnerable for most of the fight with him. And he starts the fight in a wheelchair... which is entirely to lower your guard ("would you hit a man in a wheelchair?" style). Once you hit him enough, it breaks and he gets up.
 * In Max Payne 2, the "boss" criminals (Kaffman,, and Big Bad can all survive more bullets than the standard mooks, but the difference is barely noticeable. Kaffman has something like 4x as much health as a standard mook, but that just means he goes down after several shots instead of just a couple. Likewise,  only has somewhat more health than a normal enemy, but you fight him in an elaborate Puzzle Boss arena.
 * Alejandro Sosa from Scarface the World Is Yours, the powerful drug lord Tony has spent the whole game building up to vengeance on, takes multiple rounds from the otherwise-One-Hit Kill Desert Eagle and gives as good as he gets. Enemy gang leaders usually pack better heat than their underlings too. Of course, you as Tony kick far more ass than any of your innumerable Red Shirt Mooks.
 * In Crysis, it takes almost a dozen sniper rifle shots to the face to bring down minigun-wielding North Korean leader General Kyong. Granted, he's wearing a nanosuit, but that still doesn't explain how he can survive headshots without wearing a helmet, or the fact he survives much more damage than regular nanosuit-wearing enemy soldiers.
 * Someone forgets that Kyong can be one-shotted just by throwing a barrel at him...
 * Played straight in Super Robot Wars, but usually justified since higher-ranking officers get more powerful Humongous Mecha to fight with. An example of a good character using this trope, however, is Ring Mao, CEO of Mao Industries. Using a Deadly Upgrade Real Robot? Check. Ungodly stats? Check. Taking on a small army in OG1 single-handedly? Check.
 * The entire Dynasty Warriors series operates off of this trope. Ordinary soldiers are cannon-fodder. Only enemies ranked Lieutenant or higher are any sort of a challenge, while master Strategists like Sima Yi and Zhuge Liang kick ass with the best of them. The Kings of the Three Kingdoms are, of course, packing boss-level HP whenever you meet them on the battlefield. This is particularly noticeable in various scenarios that allow you to face them before they became kings at much lower power. All player-characters are ranked Lt. General at the very least, and their rank increases as they level up. All of the titles you can attain have 'General' in it somewhere, though.
 * Lord British is Nigh Invulnerable in most of the Ultima games. There's usually a way to kill him, though.
 * In Warhammer Fantasy Battle Online, this trope is taken to its logical end point; the ONLY difference between new characters and end game characters is their rank. Naturally rank allows access to better items and skill, but the fact is that a newly minted mage has the same "power" as one who can duel a greater daemon and win.
 * Command & Conquer: Red Alert 3 has
 * Valkyria Chronicles uses this partially. On the side of The Empire, battlefield commanders (probably sergeants or at least corporals) are signified by a red armor, and invariably have more HP and a better chance to dodge bullets. They also hit better, and (somehow) do more damage. However, while your own corporals and sergeants starts out pretty strong - and remain so for the entire game - several of them are eventually surpassed by some of the enlisted troops. Your second-in-command, however, is probably the most powerful unit around, and you yourself (a squadron commander ranked Lieutenant) gets to drive around in a Super Prototype tank. The truest use of this trope, however, falls to the trio of Imperial Commanders leading the invasion under the direction of Evil Prince Maximillian. Two of them pose impressive challenges by having access to unique vehicles, as does Maximillian, and the third, well, she just kicks unholy amounts of ass.
 * In The Witcher both a hunched over old man and a drunk (who in the preceeding cutscene is implied to be able to kill a warrior only because he was sleeping) can take more hits then most of the randomly spawning monsters in the chapter, for no reason other then that they are pillars of the community and (one of the possible) final fight in the chapter. While the fight is not hard by any means, the necessity of this trope is questionable; they are preceeded by a much more climactic boss.
 * This is subverted with the arrival of King Foltest, appearing the macho cavalier as he insists he'll survey his city no matter what a warzone it's turned into. An assassination attempt sends him into a huddle surrounded by his footmen. After being rescued by the leader of a knightly order, who plays this trope straight, Foltest retreats to his palace with all the dignity he can muster.
 * The aforementioned leader of a knightly order counts. Justified in that he is the accomplished swordsman and the source who mastered his own power through the sheer force of will.
 * Regal Bryant in Tales of Symphonia, He fights with his feet while handcuffed and would be more powerful if he fought with his hands, but  Still uses them when it doesn't involve fighting. Case in point: he broke the group out of a prision cell with a Kamehame Hadoken.
 * The faction leaders (one or two special NPCs per race) in World of Warcraft are all boss-level creatures who will mop the floor with your face if you attempt to take them on without an army behind your back. (Well, except the king of Stormwind, but he just happens to be a 4-year-old kid.) Likewise, no instance endboss ever attained his lofty status by virtue of guile, cunning or charisma. It's always a case of having more power than all other pretenders...
 * The king of Stormwind has since been replaced with his father, who easily ranks as among the most badass characters in the game.
 * Odin Sphere has this trope all over the place. Pretty much everyone who kicks ass is, was, or is related to, royalty. The only real exceptions are the Three Wise Men, who are just normal (though powerful) mages, and only actually failed in their schemes because every PC (sans Gwendolyn) and even an NPC or two was gunning for them at them, all at the same time. They really should have tried to make fewer enemies...
 * In Iji, this is justified by the Tasen Commanders and Elites having superior weapons and power armor. In the case of the Komato, it's more Asskicking Equals Authority, since the strongest and most skilled Komato get upgraded to the highest ranks... but they also get equipped on promotion with Berserker cybernetics, Annihilator exoskeletons, or even General Tor's Eidolon exoskeleton, which is the nastiest machine in existence. The only character who invokes this trope without justifying it with superior equipment is Asha, leader of the Assassins, who holds his rank by dint of skill and not gear.
 * Subverted with Playful Hacker Yukebacera, bar none the most powerful Tasen, who's only a Soldier; this is explained by him having illegally hacked himself an arsenal that's fully a match for Annihilator Iosa's.
 * Touhou use this trope straightforward time and time again, except in Subterranean Animism where the bosses of stage 5 and 6 are domestic pets of stage 4 boss (who is also the mistress of the dungeon your character is fighting through).
 * Towards the end of Ninja Gaiden, Ryu faces the two monstrously huge forms of the Holy Vigoor Emperor, the head of state and absolute monarch of his country. While not the toughest bosses in the game, they put up a good show for themselves, and by dimensions, are the largest. The third form is revealed in the DS sequel to have been small, humanoid, and capable of running the day-to-day affairs of the small, militarized land locked Asian monarchy.
 * In Ninja Blade, it is no big surprise that the Master of your Ninja Clan is an asskicker of unsurpassed magnitude. However, it IS somewhat surprising when your Unit Commander, generally a Voice with an Internet Connection (a gray-haired bureaucrat in a pin-striped suit) turns out to be a Jui-Jitsu master powerful enough to kick The Dragon's ass in unarmed combat.
 * Colonel Radec of Killzone 2 shows you how he got that high a rank in his boss fight. Even after you take out his personal guard, he'll be blasting you in the face with a light machinegun, teleporting and going invisible to knife you from behind and being a fricking bullet sponge until you finally defeat him, at which point he commits suicide.
 * In Romance of the Three Kingdoms VII, higher officer classes can command more powerful armies, and higher general ranks get more tactical points. And since officer classes are determined by "deeds," and the quickest way to up your deeds marker (barring exploits) is through kicking ass in battle, while the AI usually assigns general ranks by WAR skill, you can bet that a 1st Class Supreme General will be an absolutely fearsome opponent, whether man-to-man or commanding on the battlefield.
 * Subverted with the ZOE squadron pilots in Ace Combat 2. The Captain gets a F-14, the Major gets a F/A-18E and the Colonel gets a F-22. Seems to be holding up so far, right? Well... the General gets a relatively dinky F-15S. Then the Commander, who would pretty low on the totem pole by Common Ranks, is the Final Boss with the ADF-01 superfighter that is as capable as one would expect a non-Anticlimax Final Boss to be.
 * In Fallout 3, a side quest finds the player scavenging the ruins of a DC museum in search of Abraham Lincoln artifacts. One such antique the player can find is "Lincoln's Repeating Rifle", a gold-plated weapon that fires .44 Magnum bullets and easily outclasses most other weapons in the "Small Guns" category. Honest Abe was packin', folks.
 * Somewhat Truth in Television, Lincoln's family had to hunt for their own food and he always kept himself up to date with developments in ordnance technologies.
 * Also in Fallout 3 is Talon Company's leader, Commander Jabsco, who's armed with a rocket launcher and can survive more damage than a Deathclaw (the toughest "non-boss" mob in the game, not counting the expansion packs), and the truly insane General Jiang Wei, who carries a lightsaber and (depending on player level) can have more health than any other mob in the game, including the 15-foot tall Super Mutant Behemoth.
 * Averted in the game's main plotline, though, as Big Bad President Eden is, and his The Dragon Colonel Autumn turns out to be only marginally tougher than a standard soldier.
 * The original Fallout had Big Bad The Master, an evil mutant head attached to an armored throne armed with dual gatling lasers. His The Dragon, The Lieutenant, was also the toughest member of the Mutant Army.
 * And in Fallout 2 you had Frank Horrigan, who was the toughest member of the Enclave. Although completely averted with the President.
 * In Fallout: New Vegas the player can have the Courier play on this trope, doing the Wild Card main quest will allow the Courier to take control of New Vegas himself/herself, and involves stopping both the NCR and Caesar's Legion from taking control of Hoover Dam and taking New Vegas for themselves, as well as killing, or disabling Mr. House to take control of the Vegas strip from him.
 * Caesar's Legion goes both ways on this trope. Caesar himself is no stronger than his Elite Mook guards. Legate Lanius, his second in command, is one of the strongest things in the game.
 * Sometimes averted, sometimes played straight in the Total War series. Depending on the traits that a leader possesses, he may be a god of war in human form that can charge into enemy ranks and massacre them easily, capable of striking fear into the hearts of enemies and raises his own army's morale through the roof. Or he can be a hypochondriac wimp that can be killed by being surrounded by peasants armed with pitchforks...
 * Every character even loosely associated with the royal bloodline of the Kingdom of Obel in Suikoden games will be, at the very least, a competent fighter. This includes the At some point, it goes beyond being a Warrior Prince; Obel's royal family apparently passes knowledge of warfare through the genes.
 * Subverted, then played straight in BioShock (series):
 * This trope is one side-effect of the way Soul Nomad and The World Eaters handles unit setup. All units in a "room" fight and move together on the battlefield, and one unit is designated as the Leader. The Leader tends to be more powerful than any other unit in the room, because all the other units contribute a percentage of their stats as a constant bonus to the leader as long as they're alive.
 * Played fairly straight in The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion. Although the Emperor himself is a One-Hit-Point Wonder,
 * Dremora may fit as well, as high-leveled character will encounter only Markynaz and Valkynaz-ranked ones (which are considered to be lords and princes of their realm).
 * There is an organization of villains in the Kingdom Hearts franchise who use this trope in various ways. In Kingdom Hearts II the Final Boss is the organization's leader, playing this trope straight. In Chain Of Memories, this is inverted: the Final Boss is the member ranked eleventh out of thirteen, with his superiors being fought earlier in the game. And believe you me, he was no Anticlimax Boss. Maybe that's why he was The Starscream...
 * And on the heroic side, there's Mickey, a keyblade master and the strongest Guest Star Party Member in the game... and, of course, he's also the revered king of the Magic Kingdom. Practically a meta example, as he's also the mascot and leading character of the Disney half of KH's Square-Enix/Disney team-up, and his power and role in the storyline reflects his real-life importance.
 * Both used and averted in Prototype. Elizabeth Greene and are both far more capable than standard Infected, and Leader Hunters are stronger than normal Hunters, but "mere" Captain Cross proves to be tougher than any of the random higher officers Alex consumes, and definitely more badass than the Blackwatch leader.
 * Subverted in the Revenge of the Sith game, where . Played straight later in the level, when the main one (the green grub guy from the first two movies) pilots a spaceship and becomes the level boss.
 * The Metal Gear Solid series had both Big Boss and his predecessor, The Boss. Both initially handled by the storylines as villains, both incredibly powerful warriors, and both far more complex than any of the games' heroes could have guessed.
 * Averted in Fable II, where the end boss after a cut scene is weaker then most random mooks you face and is taken out in one shot.
 * Played straight in the event that the player amasses property wealth in excess of 2.5 million gold, at which point they are named King/Queen. Wielding weapons like the Royal Scepter (A high-power mace with four enchantment slots), wading through bandits, Hollow Men, Hobbes, and Banshees, once the player occupies the position of authority, it most certainly does equal asskicking!
 * Averted again in Wet were after taking out the dragon, there isn't even a gameplay fight against the main boss; it's just a cutscene of Rubi executing him.
 * In Stronghold, the Lord is the most powerful unit, being almost immune to arrows and able to outmatch up to three heavily armored swordfighters simultaneously. Unfortunately, the player cannot make much use of this advantage, since the lord's death equals a Game Over.
 * In The Godfather game, higher-ranking enemy mobsters have more health, deal more damage and must be softened up before you can grab them. On your end, as you gain Respect levels and rise through the ranks of the Corleone family, you also gain health, damage and a variety of other perks.
 * In The Godfather 2 The player starts out almost maxed out. As they advance through the story they are allowed to recruit up to 7 followers, even though they can only have 3 following at once. Followers have 3 ranks:
 * Soldiers are capable of a single specialization, though some rare ones have two.
 * Eventually you can promote up to two of them to become Capos which have double the health of a Soldier and have an additional specialization.
 * Right before the reveal of the obvious villain and traitor you gain the opportunity to promote a Capo to Underboss; these guys have yet another specialization and 3 times the health of a Soldier, the same as the protagonist.
 * Averted with pretty much every other Don, however, who is at most a King Mook, but definitely not a monster in combat like the trope suggests.
 * Ridley from the Metroid series is the leader of the Space Pirates and is a Space Dragon to boot. Being badass is inevitable, as proven by how incredibly powerful he is everytime he shows up.
 * Averted and played straight by Mother Brain and played straight by the rest of the Pirates. Mother Brain can't even attack in the first game, but is protected by indestructible turrets and has immense durability and a Healing Factor. In Zero Mission, she lost the healing factor but gained an attack, and in Super Metroid she is attatched to a Humongous Mecha that can wipe the floor with Samus, requiring a Deus Ex Machina to defeat. For the rest of the Pirates, higher rank usually nets better equipment, like the Pirate Commander's indestructible armor and personal teleprter. Weavil, a Pirate General (the same rank as Ridley, actually), has armor on par with Samus' and wields a miniature nuclear reactor in his crotch.
 * In the Quake games in which they show up, the Strogg have a supreme ruler, called the Makron. The first Makron was the final boss of Quake II (it's said he got the job by destoying any rivals), and his successor was the final boss of Quake IV (who was specifically built to counter the Human counterattack). Justified in that the Strogg are cyborgs, which means giving your leader more guns and armor on the assembly line is doable.
 * In Armored Core: For Answer, the world is pretty much ruled by a group of arms-manufacturing megacorporations which resolve disputes using Humongous Mecha. Guess what two of the CEOs of these corporations do to earn pocket money... yep, that's right. Semi-justified as both of them exclusively use their own respective corporations' products in combat, thus serving as walking (or rolling) advertisements.
 * The Nihilanth in Half-Life and the Combine Advisors in Half-Life 2, both leaders of vast armies and both possessing immense psychic powers. Breen could have been an aversion, though he was a figurehead at best.
 * Naturally General Viggo in Fur Fighters is the final boss and one of the most powerful characters in the game.
 * In Resonance of Fate, the world of Basel is effectively a fundamentalist state, ruled by a group of Cardinals. You get to fight 4 of those Cardinals through the course of the game. (Well, technically only 3, since one of them left his position just before attacking you.) The first one inexplicably possesses Villain Teleportation, wields a grave-marker in one hand and a Sawed-Off Shotgun in the other, preferring to teleport directly behind you and unload an undodgeable combo which can (and will) take you from full health to 0 in one go... but he can be somewhat forgiven for this since he LOOKS the part.
 * The next one, however, is a Mad Artist with a french accent, who dual-wields a golden Luger and... a picture-frame. His bullets are powerful enough to make the roof collapse on your head, and he soaks up damage better than most of the giant mutants you've fought before. The next one is a bald, white-bearded old man who is mostly famous for his huge collection of rare books, and studious inquisitiveness. He wields a BFG and is even tougher. The final boss is
 * Just Cause 2 takes place on a small, east-indian island-state, run by the short, egomaniac tyrant, 'Baby' Panay. He's clearly patterned after real-world dictator, Kim Jong-Ill of North Korea, and seems to compensate for his diminutive size by errecting huge monuments in his own honor - and, of course, by executing anyone he doesn't like. However, after shooting your way through his entire army - tanks, gunships, torpedo-boats and all - he turns out to be virtually invincible on his own, starting out by shrugging off a hand-grenade to the face, and then wielding a supercharged rocket-launcher in one hand while ignoring the hail of bullets you throw his way. In the end,
 * A lesser case is the Colonels - high-ranking army officers you are tasked with assassinating. They all wear nigh-impregnable body-armor, and if using small arms against them, can only be damaged with headshots - of which they can absorb several. Even if you bring in some heavy weaponry - a tank or a missile-armed gunship - you can expect him to take at least one direct hit without dying.
 * In Destroy All Humans!! this is done with varying degrees of justification. General Armquist and Silhouette only pose such a challenge to Crypto because they've kept the best Schizo-Tech for themselves, and President Huffman is originally an aversion, getting killed as easily as any random civilian . . . until his brain's put inside a 50-foot tall robot, at which point he becomes the toughest enemy in the game.
 * However there's no real explanation for why cops can take more volts of electricity than civilians, or why soldiers can take more than cops, or why Majestic agents can take more than anyone else.
 * In the RTS game Seven Kingdoms 2: The Frythan Wars regular soldiers, once out of training, start at level 20. The King(Player) starts the game at level 100.
 * However, it's possible for normal soldiers to equal the King eventually, at least in combat. To hone their leadership though, they need to be promoted and improve it through leading.
 * from Dubloon. Large, tough and has Reality Warper-like powers.
 * Ezio from Assassin's Creed Brotherhood, now a Master Assassin, is a better fighter than any of the Assassins he recruits, and even more kickass than in 2 when he was younger and didn't have the authority.
 * However, he's probably in charge because of his vast amount of experience. He has been an assassin for twenty-three years by the beginning of Brotherhood, so it's not so much that he's powerful because he's leader, more that he's leader because he's powerful.
 * Largely averted in the first Assassin's Creed when it comes to your targets; they're powerful and influential people, but (unless there's a good reason for it), usually (and logically) less difficult to fight than their guards.
 * Played straight with Robert de Sable. Living up his title of the Grandmaster of the Knight Templars, the guy is a monstrous tank on two legs and it takes a lot of time and energy to just even hurt him.
 * One of the Optional Bosses in Skies of Arcadia: Legends requires this trope to explain his very existence. Rupee, the leader of a legendary band of desert-bandits, inherited the position from his recently-deceased father. He's maybe 8 years old, scrawny, cowardly, and wears Nerd Glasses. His hulking bodyguard practically has to DRAG him into battle. But when it comes down to the actual fight, he's got an immense pile of HP and an arsenal of powerful magical attacks (mostly, but not solely, support-spells.) Worse yet, once you wear his HP-bar down past the halfway point he Turns Red, and starts dishing out powerful physical attacks that deal far more damage than anything his aforementioned bodyguard could hope to inflict, virtually always causing a One-Hit Kill. Noteably, those special attacks are prefaced by his Nerd Glasses turning into Scary Shiny Glasses...
 * A more subtle, but nonetheless interesting application of this also occurs in the game - the 'Captain's Stripe' item you receive after winning major ship-to-ship battles. Using it powers up your current ship's stats, including HP, armor and speed. Apparently, the simple act of adding another stripe to your uniform makes your ship tougher.
 * The Kenget Kamulos in Albion make this extremely true by having their current leader become the avatar of the god of war.
 * The nation leaders in Vanguard Bandits each have a Excavated ATAC which is significantly more powerful than the common grunt suits reverse-engineered from them. Being some of the best pilots in the game helps too.
 * In Grandia II, Roan can hold his own in battle alongside a professional mercenary, a robot warrior and a tough beast-man, despite being just a little boy. Why? 'Cause he's a prince, I guess. Later, he becomes a full-fledged king and becomes even more powerful.
 * In Liberal Crime Squad, authority is represented by how many people can work under your liberals. This depends on Juice. Since Juice and also increases statistics (Like Agility and Health]], The better you are at leading, the better your stats. And the current leader of the LCS gets 6 extra recruit slots... And a 75% damage reduction.
 * Averted in Sword of the Stars. Destroyer-based Squadron Command and Control (CnC) ships are poorly armed and best kept far from the fighting, cruiser-based Strikeforce CnCs are not much better, and while dreadnought-based Armada CnC and Flagship vessels are pretty tough they usually lose to proper combat dreads in a straight fight. Played straight with Leviathans in the sequel, which are the toughest craft in the game and have the best command.
 * Partly played straight but mostly averted in Dragon Age games. King Maric Theirin of Ferelden was pretty badass. However, as the novel Stolen Throne indicates, he was a wimp for a good portion of the book before circumstances forced him to grow into a badass. He was officially crowned king later. Inverted with Loghain Mac Tir, who became a nobleman because of his badassery. The novel Calling reveals that Duncan, the head of the Grey Wardens in Ferelden, also earned his position.
 * Averted in Dragon Age 2 with Viscount Marlowe Dumar of Kirkwall, who is a politician, not a fighter. The Arishok, though, is the most skilled and toughest of all the Qunari in Kirkwall. Played straight with Prince Sebastian Vael of Starkhaven, who can handle himself pretty well and is a crack shot with a bow.
 * Mostly played straight in The Last Remnant. If an important character is playable, they will be a leader in battle (as opposed to a common soldier). If they also happen to be high-class or the leader of an organisation, they will usually have more skills and higher stats than the average leader, and often get a Limit Break as well.
 * Both played straight and averted in Saints Row. Some of the various gang and faction leaders are undeniably talented ass-kickers, while others are barely a threat in a straight fight. For instance, the Ronin gang carries katanas on their backs, and it's no surprise their leaders and officers are well versed in their use. Conversely, some of the Vice Kings leaders are no more threat than their Mooks. The player character pretty much becomes one of these in the course of the sequel, being both the leader of the revived Saints and the only one among them with a body count higher than Johnny Gat, the resident crazy violent bastard of the bunch who was once on trial for literally hundreds of murders. In a single case.
 * Mass Effect has numerous examples of this:
 * Krogan chieftains get their rank by being the toughest krogan in their clans (Urdnot Wrex goes one better by trying to unite the clans with his sheer badassery).
 * Miranda and Jacob are certainly handier than the Cerberus Mooks they lead.
 * If you choose to pick Captain Anderson for humanity's council spot, then he definitely counts.
 * Zaeed was the leader of the Blue Suns mercenary gang.
 * After Garrus Vakarian quits the space police, he becomes the space Batman, leading a small team of vigilantes on a Crapsack World.
 * An evil example: Saren Arterius had his own geth arm, a Hover Board and managed to fight Shepard to a standstill on Virmire.
 * Despite being Too Dumb to Live and a Complete Monster, Warden Kuril is pretty good with his Revenant machine gun. He can even fire it one handed and with good accuracy.
 * Spectres have nearly limitless authority within Council space. Of the five we know (Tela Vasir, Saren Arterius, Commander Shepard, Nihlus Krylik, and ) all are definitely badasses.
 * Some Asari Matriarchs are this - Evil Matriarch Benezia and her Elite Mooks being one. On the good side, Matriarch Lidanya, commander of the Cool Ship Destiny Ascension.
 * Aria T'Loak: "I'm the boss, CEO, queen, if you're feeling dramatic. It doesn't matter. Omega has no titled ruler and only one rule: Don't fuck with Aria."
 * Information broker, manipulator and all-round True Neutral the Shadow Broker  He goes to battle with a BFG in one hand and an energy shield in the other..
 * Admiral Hackett spends most of Mass Effect as an unseen Quest Giver.  In the second game, we get to see his face. Boy, has he earned that rank.
 * Captain Kirrahe is a pretty good strategist and a Father to His Men. He does a good line in inspiring speeches:


 * Mordin Solus led a science team, then a mission to Tuchanka to create and release a new version of the genophage. How good is he? He killed a krogan with a pitchfork.
 * Eldritch abominations Sovereign and Harbinger, millions of years old mecha-Cthulhus are scarily competent in directing their indoctrinate servan...I AM ASSUMING DIRECT CONTROL!
 * The setting subverts as well: The Council are pretty normal, Vido Santiago is an accountant playing at war, Fist is useless and needs turrets to help him. The Illusive Man is never shown to be much cop in a fight. Elanos Haliat dies easy. Doctor Gavin Archer is useless in combat. Ass in Ambassador Udina is never shown to be any good at fighting.
 * The reboot of Syndicate seems to follow this pattern. Sergeants are Elite Mooks, the Lieutenant shown in trailers is a miniboss at least and the Colonel in the co-op demo is a boss.
 * Pinnacle from Dead to Rights, the corrupt mayor of Grant City who's like a cross between The Kingpin and an evil version of Mike Haggar. In their Let's Play, Slowbeef and Diabetus ponder why he even needs a security force when he's a "shaved bear in a pinstriped suit."
 * Honkai Impact 3rd: The leaders of the three main anti-Honkai organisations conform to this. Anti-Entropy's Sovereign Welt Yang is the Herrscher of Reason, able to conjure legions of war machines from thin air, create and survive near a black hole, and hold his own against the Herrscher of the Void. Schicksal Overseer Otto Apocalypse has replicas of some powerful Lost Technology weapons. World Serpent Sire

Web Comics

 * Girl Genius is a rare example of this rule being used by mad scientists. Most of the Sparks that have appeared in the comic so far have proven to be quite competent fighters - part of this may be justified by them often having a Death Ray or two in their pockets, but even in unarmed close combat, several Sparks have demonstrated high levels of skill. Gilgamesh Wulfenbach demonstrated an ability to smack a BIG Jäger around while injured (but flipped out). Baron Wulfenbach has also had action hero-level fighting skills, but that may be attributed to his past adventuring with the Heterodyne Boys. The Heterodyne Boys themselves may also, technically, be said to use this, seeing as they were the hereditary rulers of Mechanicsburg. Agatha "doesn't fence", but she's quite the slugger with a 3/17 Occipital Left-Leaning Heterodyne Wrench. Or any heavy wrench, for that matter.
 * There's also the strong implication that the Baron experimented on himself to keep going in his adventures (much like Othar), and there's the possibility that Gil inherited some of those... improvements.
 * Don't forget the Jager generals. On the Castle Wulfenbach one take a crashing plane head-on. When they fight, even the lesser Jagers don't want to be around. Later Oggie thought that being "detatched" is a sufficient reason to disobey Mamma Gkika—see the result on the next page.
 * And then they get to the actual fighting...
 * Opinion is divided as to how much of Tarvek's "spoiled aristocrat" image was Obfuscating Stupidity.
 * Martellus, his cousin and another contender for the Lightning Crown, is good both at open fighting (enough to beat Gil) and Storm Knight training - which was "one of the reasons he was able to make his claim to the title stick".
 * Princess Terebithia - "The Grandmother" (an obvious reference to "Grandfather of Assassins") who keeps this rowdy family working together seems to be still good at this, too.
 * Schlock Mercenary has almost everyone using various forms of Super Soldier "boosts", but there are some clear examples:
 * Captain Tagon is no slouch: a trained, experienced, and highly skilled soldier, he isn't someone you'd want to cross. Still, in a fair fight, he'd probably be creamed by any number of his enlisted beings. Good thing he cheats.
 * Kevyn, the second in command, isn't all that tough physically; but between the antimatter-bomb epaulets and just being the Mad Scientist, everybody reacts like he could kick their asses. Also, he and his sister are good enough at it to surprise the unarmed combat instructor.
 * The trope is used even further when Xinchub, a fat general who is mostly into politics, manhandles a bounty hunter. He explains that he's "boosted" more than she is - obviously, with his clout he had access to the state-of-the-art and secret stuff beyond the reach of most "retired" low-ranked officers or black market. And as it turned out, he used to oversee a closely related project and did indeed have a top secret package of "blood nannies" and boosts (which eventually made his fresh corpse a dangerously valuable item).
 * In Erfworld the higher level your chief warlord is, the higher a bonus your troops get. This means that chief warlords are almost always the most powerful speaking unit around, Which makes people wonder why Parson ever becomes chief warlord
 * In Sluggy Freelance, being promoted to aristocracy makes a normal demon at least larger and much more powerful, and becoming a Demon Lord grants Nigh Invulnerability and a fiery Battle Aura as well as, apparently, Super Strength.
 * Subverted in Order of the Stick, where Roy mistakenly assumes that Lord Shojo is a high-level paladin when he is, in fact, a non-combatant aristocrat.
 * Later played stright with his nephew, Hinjo, who is a very capable paladin
 * It's demonstrated here in The Fancy Adventures of Jack Cannon. Who knew Principals had so much power?
 * It's implied that the General is also powerful, but we have yet to see him in action.
 * Played with in Errant Story. The most skilled members of the Ensigerum, a group of warrior/monk/time-mages, are generally the highest level initiates and newly raised monks as the older members lack recent combat experience and have grown too dependent on magic. The trope is played straight for their leader, Imperatrix Anita, who is without a doubt the deadliest member of the order.
 * MSF High: Any teacher at MSF High has this. Any Legion Queen has this, with access to all ten Legion 'facets'. Principal Kasumi? Don't even ask. Keiri is not to be messed with as well.
 * Justified in Homestuck, as Sburb is effectively a video game and thus needs to provide some bosses for it's players to defeat. The Kings and Queens of Derse and Prospit aren't very strong on their own, but they are all provided with items (rings for the Queens, scepters for the Kings) that provide power boosts which elevate them far above the rank-and-file. Like many things in the medium, these power boosts are tied to the prototyping of the player's Kernelsprites. The Black King of the Troll's session was prototyped a whopping twelve times and proved an absolute monstrosity to defeat.
 * Mr. Verres of El Goonish Shive has shown his raw magical power, though so far demonstrated only identification of a shapechanged subject (his most impressive act involved a wand, and in EGS are mostly powered by the user, but this keeps most of his abilities unknown) and is relatively high up in the local paranormal division of the FBI. Assistant Director Liefeld, his boss, is an extremely beefy man which means he probably has significant physical fighting prowess even if he is not a magic user (which is unlikely).
 * Zokusho Comics: If Clash is anything to go by, Master Byron is quite capable of opening up a rather large can, despite his age.

Web Original

 * Used in Survival of the Fittest. The leaders of the terrorist organization are Danya, and a group of four terrorists directly under his command appropriately referred to as "The Big Four", two of whom are Danya's bodyguards when they're not doing other things. The Big Four play this straight in that they're all elite soldiers, one of them having been the WBA's World Heavyweight champion before retiring from boxing, and Badass Bookworm Jim Greynolds is the only one of them who isn't more or less a master of hand to hand combat. Also used with the group SADD, whose leader Neil Sinclair is probably the best fighter of the bunch (he certainly lived the longest)
 * In the Kim Possible Fanfic "Osama's Last Stand", Osama Bin Laden can
 * Used in the Sonic fanfiction The Mobius Chronicles. The higher in rank Amadeus gets the more ass kicking he does, also the Overlander second in command is one of their most talented fighters.
 * Open Blue's Backstory had the Caesars of the Iormunean Imperium, who had access to an elixer that boosted their lifespan, physical abilities, and Healing Factor, making them fearsome warriors in battle. Second to them was the High Executor, leader of the Praetorian Guard, who was armed with an ancestral sword that could double as a Wave Motion Gun.
 * He's Barack Obama.
 * Xandus, the most powerful villain in the Avatar Adventures universe, doubles as the Prime Minister of Canada.
 * It is revealed in Kickassia that
 * In the Armageddon web-novels, this is how both Hell and Heaven operate - rank and power are equal, with Satan and Yahweh being on the top of the heap. When Michael managed to kill Yahweh with the assistance of his conspiracy, he not only increased in power, he gained the ability to confer power on other angels.
 * Tom Watson, MP for West Bromwich East.
 * * Lord Opticord in Sockbaby.
 * In The Gungan Council, it's either played straight or inverted with Masters and Elites. They are regarded as the strongest characters and usually have or are granted many prestigious titles and responsibilities. Can be subverted or even averted for Padawans, Apprentices, and Trainees that roleplay have a high title.

Western Animation
"Adam: What just happened?!? Jake: A 2-ton rhino just got his butt handed to him by a 6-ounce frog! Where were you for the past 30 seconds?"
 * Avatar: The Last Airbender uses this with Fire Lord Ozai, and King Bumi (and to a lesser extent, Azula and Zuko). The Earth King on the other hand couldn't fight at all, and was being controlled by his Evil Chancellor since he was four (though apparently Earth King authority used to equal asskicking). The warden of "The Boiling Rock"
 * Nearly all of the main characters qualify which makes Avatar pretty this trope incarnate. While not a really a major authority at the time of show (being gone for a century while people were suffering does not help to endear) the Avatar is considered a sort of King of World and past ones always seemed able to boss around the other rulers a lot. Sokka and Katara are more or less royalty by virtue of being children of the Southern Water Tribe Chief (even though poverty makes them little better than peasants) while Toph is a definitely noble ranked high up in the Earth Kingdom pecking order. Iroh, Pakku, Jeong-Jeong and even Piandao are also either royalty, nobles, generals or aristocrats. Even Suki, essentially the only member of Team Avatar who can't be construed as anything other than a lowly peasant, is still the commander of her island's warriors by virtue of being an asskicker.
 * And dare we even mention Toph's daughter? Lin Beifong, chief of police in Republic City, after all of her other metalbending cops are knocked unconcious, still goes after Amon anyways, through use of her metalbending. The only person to aid her was Korra herself - and she saved Korra on multiple occasions throughout the fight. Granted, Amon did get away, but she still lasted pretty long against him - longer than any other character thus far.
 * And her response to the failure? To turn in her badge, and fight Amon outside the legal system. She hasn't given up yet.
 * On The Oblongs, the mayor is a professional wrestler in a luchador mask who is always introduced as Johnny "the Mayor" Bledsoe.
 * He doesn't appear to be able to do any actual fighting—the one time he tried, he reflexively started faking his hits.
 * True for both sides in Transformers. Since promotions for the Decepticons seem to be either through murder or treachery, Megatron tends to be one of the most powerful, charismatic and strategic guys around. The same goes for Optimus Prime (and Ultra Magnus in Transformers Animated), although with him it's more that they made him Leader because he's the best.
 * In the animated movie, Hot Rod gets upgraded from a racecar to a futuristic truck when he was promoted to Rodimus Prime by the Matrix. He got about half again as tall, and upgraded from "pathetic" to "successor of Optimus Prime."
 * Optimus Prime himself was a small pickup truck type thing when he was Orion Pax, and was rebuilt into the bigger, tougher Optimus Prime. The nice thing about being robots is that you can get an upgrade upon promotion to fit this trope much more easily than with us fleshlings.
 * The one time this trope was not used in Transformers was a brief period in the 1980's comic series in which the Decepticons were led by Ratbat. Yes, a small purple cassette that turned into a talking bat. He scored the leadership through his popularity and attempted to run the Decepticons with more businesslike efficiency. The comics played it straight aside from that, with leadership landing in the hands of Shockwave, Scorponok, Thunderwing, Bludgeon, and back to Megatron thanks to the superior ass-kicking power of each. The Autobots got into the act, with powerhouses like Grimlock and Blaster trying to take over the Autobots whenever Optimus was absent.
 * This seems to be part of the Predacon culture in Beast Wars - Megatron leads by fear and intimidation as much as loyalty. When Dinobot first defects to the Maximals, he first tries to do it by challenging Optimus' leadership by force. BlackArachnia, Terrorsaur, and Tarantalus attempt coups frequently. Megatron's stated policy is that he tolerates treachery but not incompetence.
 * This seems to be a part of Transformer culture in general. Optimus Primal was fully capable of kicking the crap out of his underlings. Pretty much any given Transformer leader stands head and shoulders above most of his troops, sometimes literally.
 * Rhinox is no slouch either. He's smart, devious, and strong. He simply lacks ambition and is content to follow Optimus. When he is infected by a Predacon-made virus that turns him into a Predacon, he also gains ambition and, in a short order, nearly takes over Predacon leadership. In Beast Machines, when he becomes, Rhinox nearly causes both Megatron and Optimus to kill each other, while he picks up the pieces.
 * In Kim Possible, Dr. Director from Global Justice and Gemini from WEE are the big cheese and the best fighters of their respective organizations. And they're twins.
 * A memorable episode of The Penguins of Madagascar pits the Skipper and his crew against a horde of sewer rats in an attempt to retrieve Julien's crown. The rats say they'll hand it over, on the condition that the Skipper fight their leader. Skipper laughs and says he'll try to go easy on the mousy little guy... who's revealed to be in fact a massive mutated lab rat who resembled M. Bison. Cue the stunned looks of Oh Crap! on the penguins faces.
 * Numbuh 362, the Supreme Leader of the Kids Next Door organization, was a top stealth agent before she took command, and she can still kick a very respectable amount of ass when the need arises. This was memorably demonstrated in th eepisode Operation I.T. where she . Also, in Operation: ZERO she held her own against a senior-citizombified Numbuh 60.
 * And, just to underline the trope, she is eventually succeeded as Supreme Leader by.
 * Jerry in Totally Spies! was easily able to defeat Clover, Alex, and Sam when they were turned evil by the enemy.
 * M.O.M. in Martin Mystery is extremely acrobatic and good with weapons and gadgets. She was able to pummel a vicious spider monster on one occasion with her bare hands.
 * Charles Foster Offdensen. Excelling in hand-to-hand combat is a must when you're the manager of the most popular band (and twelfth largest economy) in the world.
 * Starfire and Blackfire in Teen Titans are both royalty, and while superstrength seems universal for Tamaranians (or at least those we see in the palace), the two princessess are apparently the only of their species that can fly and shot energy blasts.
 * Lord Trogar of the Gordanians in the episode "Go" was able to simultaneously beat Cyborg, Robin, and Starfire in a fight on his battleship. He was also able to take an energy blast from Raven which knocked out his ship and immobilized his guards without flinching. Makes one wonder why he needed guards in the first place...
 * Played for laughs in an episode of My Gym Partner's a Monkey, when Adam convinces Mr. Hornbill, a lovelorn rhinoceros teacher, to challenge Principal Pixiefrog (who is, well, a pixie frog) to a ring fight to prove his masculinity. It turns out this trope is in full effect as Principal Pixiefrog proceeds to wipe the floor with Mr. Hornbill while shouting "who's your principal, Cyrus?!? I said, who's your principal?!?"


 * Super President.
 * In ThunderCats (2011) this holds true with Thundera's King Claudus and his two best generals Panthro and Grune, all of whom sport Heroic Builds and illustrate the ability to mow down multiple foes in one blow, and in Grune's case, defeat a monster many times his own size.
 * From Family Guy: While most of the comedy in this clip is meant to mock Donald Trump, he sure does manage to put up a decent fight against Peter.

Real Life

 * In ages past it was common for generals to actually lead their troops into battle, but this was really to better direct the troops in an age before radio. The death of a general in battle often ensured his army's defeat, so this tradition was abandoned as soon as distance command became practical.
 * It was common until a few hundred years ago for rulers and heads of state(including the ones that initiated the war despite the cynical cliche about the ones who start wars never being the ones who take risks)to be well within the combat area. Even to this day when that is often impractical, ruling classes often have members taking part in war and if they cannot be there their kin will often be so; in both world wars in both Britain and America fighting was a cross-class enterprise and Kipling's proverbial,"Duke's son, Cook's son, Son of a Belted Earl" could be seen on the line.
 * In Israel much of the government has done military service which makes sense as they have a Swiss-like militiaistic system.
 * In the Yom Kippur War the Israeli commander ordered that casualty names not be brought to headquarters lest staffies who had sons that were fighting be distracted.
 * A significant military career is a handy boost in a political resume even in states with well regulated and dependable electioneering.
 * In times past becoming involved in a duel was a real risk to anyone above a certain social status who wasn't actually a monarch. In some places dueling was a privilege only important people were allowed. Lower class people beat each other to a pulp with fists, sticks, knives, or whatever of course but that did not have the same cachet.
 * Vlad the Impaler; known mostly for his cruel methods of execution, he was also known for personally leading his Wallachian armies against the Turks.
 * "Why do you never get involved in a land war in Asia?" You'd have to go up against Genghis Khan, the man for whom the Genghis Gambit is named. He united the tribes of Mongol and led many of his advances personally.
 * For a long time female ascendency to the throne was denied largely for this reason. This explains Henry VIII's semi-comedic dalliance with six wives which was urged by fear of civil war after his reign. It was in other words motivated by strategic rather then erotic considerations(if Henry just wanted another woman he would have gotten one like almost every other King). Traditionally a ruler had to be capable of being a soldier. Arguably that was obsolete as a woman can master the intellectual side of war as well as a man, and while being a general required being in peril of shot and shell, leaders were no longer normally expected to personally wield a blade. On the other hand just hefting oven-like armor is tough enough. But that argument can(and has) been gone over and over and is little to the point beyond saying that authority was expected to necessarily include asskicking. The actual competence of Elizabeth I was not predicted.