Bullying a Dragon: Difference between revisions

[[The Fettered]] especially have it bad, because they ''choose'' not to fight back, and often protect their tormentors from the Forces of Evil.

 

 

If the [[Break the Cutie|victim snaps]], they ''will'' [[Who's Laughing Now?|turn]] [[Beware the Nice Ones|the]] [[Woobie, Destroyer of Worlds|tables]] (if not [[Chainsaw Good|turn the table into a buzzsaw]], [[Everything's Better with Spinning|set it spinning at hurricane-level speeds]], and shove their tormenters' necks into the blades). Also, don't lie - [[Catharsis Factor|it can be fun]] [[Asshole Victim|when the bullies are killed off]] [[Kick the Son of a Bitch|or else get theirs]]. (And, if they have not done anything remotely objectionable up to this point, this could well be taken as a case of [[Dark Is Not Evil]].) Unfortunately, many of the times a bully attempts to go after someone of this ilk is because they are trying to elicit a response, which in turn, would prove everyone's point about how much of a freak they truly are.

 

{{examples}}

* The [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nyVsHNEBeBk ''Messing with Sasquatch''] commercials for Jack Links beef jerky has the Sasquatch going ballistic and inflicting harm upon people who decide to provoke him for cheap laughs.

* An insurance commercial{{context}} shows a bunch of rabbits laughing themselves sick at a rattlesnake with a pink and white baby-rattle in place of a normal one. Did the writers not know that it's the ''other'' end of a rattlesnake that's venomous?

* A couple of [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xhpjSNfUM1I Stacker 2 commercials] had a man make fun of [[Kane (wrestling)|Kane]], the sadistic monster heel from the WWE. Ends about as well as you'd expect...

 

* ''[[Kenichi: The Mightiest Disciple]]'': Kenichi used to be weak and powerless, and still looks like a little dude due to his training - he also still acts afraid of people who are far, ''far'' weaker than him just because they look scary. This is slightly subverted, as the moment the bullies/thugs find out who he is, they usually back off and immediately apologize out of fear.

** Played much straighter with Natsu Tanimoto (AKA Hermit). Unlike Kenichi, he will ''not'' hesitate to murder you, in a way that makes it look like it was someone else, and leaves you black, blue, and red all over.

* In the first season of ''[[Darker than Black]]'', humans who know about Contractors have a habit of telling Contractor employees how they think they are nothing but murderous scum who should be wiped out. Luckily for them, most Contractors [[Tin Man|just]] [[Lack of Empathy|don't care]], but this can get ridiculous when Huang is not only verbally abusing someone who can kill him instantly by ''touching'' him, but lifting him up by the front of his shirt and screaming in his face.

* Happens to {{spoiler|Robert Haydn}} in ''[[The Law of Ueki]]''. Taunting a small child who can turn his arm into a six-foot cannon is not a good plan.

* This is the whole reason Nagi Naoe in ''[[Weiss Kreuz]]'' is a member of [[Psycho Rangers|Schwarz]] - he was ostracized and tormented as a child due to his [[Mind Over Matter|telekinetic powers]].

* ''[[Tekkaman]]'':

** Temari deliberately trying to provoke [[The Ace|Rock Lee]]. She's lucky he didn't break out the [[Dangerous Forbidden Technique]]s.

** This seems to be how most Jinchuuriki grow up. Maybe people keep doing it because it somehow actually works?

* Subverted in ''[[Slayers]]'' with Zelgadis the chimera. Most regular humans either run away in fear or ridicule him for his appearance (and it's also worth noting that he's [[Nigh Invulnerable]] and a skilled sorcerer-swordsman), but he doesn't do a thing about it; rather, he either makes a snippy reply or he gets depressed. After he meets the other main characters, though, he begins to [[Insult Backfire|take some insults in stride]]. In the novels, it seemed that he played it straight in the beginning (as "Rezo's berserker"), but it's hinted that Rezo was influencing/manipulating him.

** Played straight with most of the [[Exclusively Evil|Mazoku/Monster race,]] as well as a few other creatures, such as Beastmen (the fifth novel and the scuffle between Beastman Dilgear and Zelgadis early on say it all).

*** It's not just pirates, it's a [[Running Gag]]. Or, as [http://www.revleft.com/vb/album.php?albumid=404&attachmentid=11678 that] [[Fauxtivational Poster|poster]] says, "you'd think people would learn that it's a bad idea to piss off short-tempered hurlers of [[Fantastic Nuke|sorcerous tacnukes]]" - seeing how she is infamous exactly for this, you'd expect people who recognize her to exercise common sense and steer clear of her [[Berserk Button]]s, or even cut all the irrelevant chat when dealing with her - just in case, and the sooner she moves on, the better.

* Pretty much the entire plot of ''[[Wolf Guy|Wolf Guy Wolfen Crest]]'' so far if you switch "Dragon" with "Werewolf". To be fair, the people bullying Inugami don't know that he's actually a super powerful werewolf at first. But when the first thing you see a guy do is to make his opponent stab himself with nothing but [[Deadly Dodging]], your first thought should not be to try and gang up on him. When the second thing you see him do is break someone's hand with his face (the guy punching him hurt himself since Inugami is [[Made of Iron]]) and you still want to fight him, you've officially become [[Too Dumb to Live]]. Later, when Inugami ''does'' reveal his true self to [[Big Bad]] Haguro Daoh, Daoh becomes crazily obsessed with him (since Inugami caused Daoh, a bonafide emotionless sociopath, to [[Not So Stoic|feel a real emotion for the first time in his life]]: gut-wrenching fear) and deliberately provokes him in the hopes of getting Inugami to acknowledge him as a [[Worthy Opponent]].

* The nameless extras that populate many parts of ''[[Violinist of Hameln]]'' world are guilty of this trope as charged. You would think that the normal reaction, upon learning, that the dude in [[Nice Hat]] right next to you is supposed to be [[The Antichrist]] and [[Super-Powered Evil Side|single-handedly massacred half a town worth of people when he was only ten]], should be ''fear'' and trying to get away/not to piss him off. Nope, not in this manga.

** For a mon-to-mon example, try the ''Advance Generation'' episode where Ash caught a [[Playing with Fire|Torkoal]]. Prior to being captured, said Torkoal is the target of literal bullying by [[Extra Ore Dinary|Steel-types]], which a Fire-type Pokémon like Torkoal would have [[Kill It with Fire|no problem against]].

* In ''[[Durarara!!]]'', people at Shizuo's school (both middle and high school) were not the most intelligent lot. This is evidenced by the fact that they thought picking on ''[[Super Strength|Shizuo]] [[Hair-Trigger Temper|Heiwajima]]'' was anything less than a phenomenally stupid idea. The high school kids can be partially excused due to being manipulated by Izaya. The junior high kids? [[Too Dumb to Live|Not so much]]

** That's no excuse. Even if they were being manipulated by Izaya, picking on a guy that can [[Super Strength|pick up street signs/vending machines/refrigerators (basically anything) and throw them at you]] and [[Nigh Invulnerability|can not only survive getting shot at point blank range but also act so casually about it,]] [[Too Dumb to Live|is a really bad idea.]] [[Nigh Invulnerability|The guy can even get run over by a freaking truck and emerge unharmed]].

** It's usually [[Mugging the Monster]] when it comes to Shanks and Luffy. People rarely appreciate (or even believe) how strong these two are. Two notable examples, however, are Bellamy in the Skypeia arc and Hody Jones after the [[Time Skip]]. Bellamy assumed Luffy was a weakling because Luffy wouldn't fight back over a simple insult (he didn't see it as worth the trouble). Then Bellamy got Luffy's wanted poster, with a bounty more than double his own meager sum. He ignored it, and proceeded to rob Luffy's friends. When Luffy came back to get what he stole, Bellamy still refused to accept the truth. [[Curb Stomp Battle|Cue getting faceplanted]] [[One Hit KO|with just one punch to the face.]] Hody is an even more egregious example, because not only did he know Luffy had beaten Arlong, but knew his exact reputation right down to recent events and still decided to make an enemy of him. While he arguably ''could'' have beaten "Luffy as advertised" instead of "[[Took a Level in Badass]] Luffy", Luffy's mere reputation alone should have made him think twice. He's the only villain in the entire manga to go down ''before'' his crew as a result. That's just how sad a villain he was.

** Wow Spandam! It sure was a [[Sarcasm Mode|great idea]] to frame [[Secret Police|CP9]], six of the deadliest assassins in the world, for the Enies Lobby disaster. It's not like they will want to go after your blood when they find out what you did to them! Oh.....

** Demalo Black a.k.a Fake Luffy at the start of the second half of the series. The idiot is weak as hell but thinks he can coast by on Luffy's reputation alone to get people to fear him. It manages to attract some high level (and much more dangerous) pirates to him, so that part of the plan went swimmingly. But when he (unknowingly) comes across the real Luffy and tries to threaten him just for simply bumping into him (something Luffy even apologized for), he knocked out flat simply from Luffy's aura. This defeat only makes him even more determined to exact his revenge on Luffy, probably because he's too damn ignorant to realize just what Luffy did to him. Then later during a marine raid he runs straight into Sentomaru, a man who easily handed Luffy his ass two years previous. You can guess how this little encounter ends.

** Inverted, however, with the World Government's bounty on Sanji. His [[Wanted Poster]] specifically states that the bounty is only valid if captured alive, because {{spoiler| Sanji is the son of notorious crimelord Vinsmoke Judge, and while Sanji despises his father, the WG doesn't want to get on insmoke's bad side.}}

* In the ''[[Tales of Symphonia]]'' OVA, at one point, you see [[Small Girl, Big Gun|Presea]] [[Empty Shell|lifelessly]] dragging what used to be a huge tree she chopped down through her village of Ozette as everyone in the village stares at her. All of a sudden, some little kid throws a rock at her and yells "Monster!" Uh, kid? You see that huge tree there? You're a heck of a lot lighter than it is.

* For reasons unknown, people challenge Kenshiro of ''[[Fist of the North Star]]'' even after he's just [[Your Head Asplode|exploded someone's head]]. When the first [[Mook]] or batch of mooks provoke him, that could easily be explained as [[Mugging the Monster]]. When the second batch tries, having seen the first wave get turned into [[Ludicrous Gibs|fountains of blood and body parts]], then it slides right into this trope by virtue of them being [[Too Dumb to Live]].

* Played as [[Flaw Exploitation]] in the second episode of ''[[Death Note]]'': How do you investigate a murderer who can kill you anywhere, anytime with a magic heart attack? Keep annoying him in the hopes he will try to kill you.

** Also Light frequently bosses Ryuk, a God of Death, around. Ryuk puts up with it {{spoiler|for a while}} because he thinks it's hilarious. And even so, Ryuk is only helpful insofar as he finds it hilarious; he outright won't help Light in numerous situations because it would be too easy.

* Many people in ''[[Gamaran]]'' ends up doing this to Gama and are defeated. Shown also with Baian Maki: in a flashback he fights alone against ten swordsmen who mock his use of the naginata. Baian hits their leader in the face so hard that it snaps his neck and kills him.

* It's commonly interpreted that Nanami in ''[[Revolutionary Girl Utena]]'' has so much trouble with animals, and at one point actually [[Baleful Polymorph|turns into a cow]] because she bullied Anthy in episode 3, and as it turns out, Anthy is among other things the proverbial fairytale Witch. An attentive viewer quickly notices that majority of the side-episodes focusing on Nanami's [[Humiliation Conga]] show Anthy taking special interest in something related to the episode theme.

* In ''[[Rebuild of Evangelion]]'', Shinji does this after {{spoiler|Asuka is nearly killed}}. Enraged by Gendo's actions, he begins to attack the headquarters while screaming abuse at his father. Gendo is willing to let Shinji do this until the power runs out... right up until Shinji claims Gendo has never lost anything. Ten seconds later, Shinji is unconscious, without Gendo even moving.

* ''[[Ranma ½]]'': Ranma has his moment with {{spoiler|Pantyhose}} Taro. Everybody briefly joins in on repeating his {{spoiler|embarrassing name}} despite his repeated demands for them to shut up...and the fact that he's got a winged minotaur as a cursed form. Which had been [[Curb Stomp Battle|kicking their butts]] for the last two episodes. Despite the fact that they are in a cave with a waterfall outside. [[Leaning on the Fourth Wall|Guess they knew it was five minutes before the end of the episode so the plot would be resolved somehow]] [[Status Quo Is God|without their pulverization and in a way most likely involving the removal of Taro from their immediate locale]].

 

* Used in the most literal sense of the title in ''[[Fire Breather]]''.

* It was established in Damage's own series that his "parents" were actually employees set to watch him until the superpowers he'd been genetically engineered for showed up. Given that, later retcons that his foster-father physically and sexually abused him make the guy look ''extremely stupid''.

'''Ross:''' And if America's enemies get hold of him?

'''Samson:''' [[Deadpan Snarker|Send condolence cards to America's enemies]]. }}

:* Maybe not as extreme as the other examples (since he has no actual super-powers), but there have been a few times where Frank Castle (AKA [[The Punisher]]) ends up in jail. Since Frank is a known [[Badass]] with a body count nearly as high as [[The Joker]], criminals waste no time in throwing their lives away by trying to attack him. Frank, who is inevitably heavily restrained, adds a few more bodies to the count before the guards show up.

:** To be fair, at least some of that can be considered pure survival instinct, since when the Punisher is locked up he's usually a) allowed it to happen, and [[Cardboard Prison|could escape anytime he wants]], and b) come from the [[Watchmen (comics)|Rorschach]] school of vigilante jail time, where he's not locked in there with them -- ''they're'' locked in with ''him''. There have even been times when he's got himself thrown in prison solely to kill some of the inmates, so you can't blame the inmates for taking some pre-emptive action.

:** Nicky Cavellla. He wanted to eliminate the Punisher, and thought he could do it by making him clumsy. To do that, Nick dug up the Punisher's family's remains, pissed on them while recording him doing so, and sent the video to the local news. His plan worked, and Frank stopped being as methodical as he normally is, but with the trade-off that Frank went into such an [[Unstoppable Rage]] that he {{spoiler|killed several important figures in Cavella's criminal family in one day. The remaining family ditched Cavella, and the Punisher shot him in the stomach.}}

:* [[Iron Man]]/Tony Stark tends to do this a lot, usually in defense of his teammates, due to being a [[Martyr Without a Cause]].

* Beast Boy of the ''[[Teen Titans (Comic Book)|Teen Titans]]'' spent most of his life enduring this kind of bullying, which has had a profoundly negative effect on his self esteem; so much so that he's afraid to let anyone know that he can make multiples of himself.

* A prisoner threatens to kill Rorschach in ''[[Watchmen (comics)|Watchmen]]'' in the lunch line (and is building up to shank him), confident that in prison, he won't be as tough. Rorschach, being Homicidal, [[Ax Crazy]], and a [[Combat Pragmatist]], throws hot grease in his face before he can even lift a finger, burning him horribly. Right after this, he deliberately invokes the trope.

** Something similar happened in another crossover one-shot where they invaded [[Judge Dredd]]'s turf. Either these martians are the type who ''really'' love a challenge or they're just plain dumb.

* Anther villain - or rather, group of them - who do this via crossovers is the [[Predator]], a race of alien hunters who often woefully chooses the wrong prey. In different comic book crossovers, they have tried to hunt [[Superman]], [[Batman]], [[Tarzan]], and again, [[Judge Dredd]], all with disastrous results for the Predator. The last one is especially ironic because Dredd had a partner for this story - [[Action Girl|Judge Schaefer]], as in the great-great granddaughter of Major Alan "Dutch" Schaefer, [[Arnold Schwarzenegger]]'s character from the original ''[[Predator]]''. Yeah, not the best pair of targets.

 

* More Pony-fun. In ''[[Progress]]'', Angel Bunny attacks Princess Luna with [[Why Did It Have to Be Snakes?|baseballs]], knowing full well who she is. She freaks out at first, but after a little therapy with Fluttershy and Applebloom, she tries to keep cool about it until he breaks her glasses. Then she snaps.

** {{spoiler|This comes back to bite Vinyl big time, when Princess Luna [[Incredibly Lame Pun|royally]] chews her out for giving Celestia a huge guilt trip over the incident when it was entirely Luna's fault to begin with and she had no other choice but to banish her.}}

* [[Lampshaded]] in the ''[[Death Note]]'' fic ''[[The Prince of Death]]'' when Naomi hits Light (who in this ficverse has become a literal God of Death) and L fearfully thinks in his [[Internal Monologue]] that she might as well have struck [[The Grim Reaper]] in the face.

 

* The [[Backstory]] of ''[[The Covenant]]'' is that one of the adult warlocks was persecuted and burned at the stake. He was persecuted for being a high-level [[Reality Warper]], lesser members of said species being able to not only fly and throw fireballs but survive head-on collisions with Mack trucks. Exactly how 1600's Massachusetts villagers concluded taking him on was a good idea, let alone succeeded, is never explained.

* The bizarre homoerotic scene in ''[[Powder (film)|Powder]]'' where a bunch of bullies try to strip the main character naked after they [[Ambiguously Gay|catch him checking out other boys in the shower.]] [[Author Appeal|Seems more like a scene from a porno,]] really, but the point is that the eponymous character was established to have electromagnetic superpowers. This scene takes on an even darker and more disturbing tone when you consider that director of the film is a convicted pedophile.

** The anti-vigilante protesters in front of Studio 54. One of them hits the Comedian in the head with [[Grievous Bottley Harm|a beer bottle]] and he [[Berserk Button|flips out]], beating them up and firing tear gas at them ''[[In the Back|as they're trying to flee]]''.

* Portrayed as the South African government's [[Idiot Ball]] in ''[[District 9]]''. Yes, let's confine a million alien refugees with highly advanced weaponry and space-faring technology to a hideous slum, treat them like garbage and deny them basic rights. {{spoiler|It makes you hope that Christopher Johnson comes back with an entire alien armada.}}

* In Ang Lee's ''[[Hulk (film)|Hulk]]'', after Bruce Banner is captured and contained in a purportedly Hulk-proof room, Glenn Talbott, needing a blood sample, enters the room, and shocks Bruce repeatedly with a cattle prod to try to get him to change into the Hulk. At this time, Talbott is wearing a cast and a neck brace, because earlier in the movie, when Bruce changed into the Hulk, he used Talbott as a melee weapon to beat two other people into unconsciousness. Luckily for Talbott, this attempt fails.

* ''[[The Incredible Hulk (film)|The Incredible Hulk]]'': Blonsky, hopped up on super-soldier serum, advances on the Hulk unarmed, taunting him, "Is that all you got?" after watching him tear apart an armored division. Blonksy promptly gets kicked into a tree, breaking about every bone in his body.

* ''[[Harry Potter]]''

** Even after the Dursleys become fully aware of Harry's abilities, they continue to antagonize him at every opportunity. Aunt Marge finally pushes it too far in ''Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban'' when she speculates that Harry's dad was a drunk, causing Harry to freak out and "blow her up."

* In ''[[The Ninth Configuration]]'', a [[Bad Guy Bar|bar full]] of [[All Bikers Are Hells Angels|bikers]] decide that it's a good idea to mercilessly taunt and humiliate a pair of soldiers. One of the soldiers is [[Colonel Badass]] [[Names to Run Away From Really Fast|Vincent "Killer" Kane]], an unbalanced walking death machine from the Vietnam War. After suffering through monstrous indignities, he finally snaps and slaughters the entire gang of bikers, including the women, with his bare hands.

* ''[[Mighty Joe Young]]'' (the original) has a trio of drunkards give the titular giant gorilla alcohol—enough to inebriate him. This clears them out of booze and in retaliation, [[Jerkass|one of them]] [[Too Dumb to Live|burns Joe's hand as he begs for more]]. Joe then bursts out of his cage for a drunken [[Roaring Rampage of Revenge]] through a nightclub.

* ''[[King Kong]]'' post-Skull Island tends to suffer one indignation after another (not that Skull Island was a picnic), so that when he bursts out of his bonds, the audience is usually behind Kong's rampage.

* The [[Tyrannosaurus Rex]]'s death toll in US/Japan Co-Production ''The Last Dinosaur'' might have been less if the [[Great White Hunter]] didn't insist on trying to kill it again and again. Then again, the title refers to the Great White Hunter as it does the Tyrannosaur.

* ''[[Tank]]'': Let's say you're a [[Corrupt Hick|Fat Redneck Sheriff]] who owns your small town. One of your deputies gets out of line with a prostitute and this guy comes to her rescue. Now let's say "this guy" is a tough-as-nails [[Retired Badass|career army sergeant]] who just wants to live in peace with his family. Oh, and he owns a fully operational Sherman Tank. Hey, let's throw his son in jail on trumped-up drug charges and blackmail him! [[What Could Possibly Go Wrong?]]

** Hey, the sergeant actually knuckled under and mortgaged everything he owns to pay you the bribe you demanded for letting his son go! So now's the ''perfect'' time to go back on that deal and keep his son in jail, and then double down by smugly informing the master sergeant that you want to be paid this much money ''every'' year or else his son will die in a tragic prison accident. It's not like upping the stakes from 'Do you want your son to have a criminal record?' to 'Do you want your son ''not to be murdered''' would make his father desperate or anything, would it?

** Loki tries to scold [[The Incredible Hulk]], claiming that he was a god and the Hulk, along with everyone else should bow before him. {{spoiler|The Hulk merely grabbed him and slammed him around like a rag-doll.}}

{{quote|'''Hulk''': Puny god.}}

 

* Subverted in ''[[Kitty Norville|Kitty Goes to Washington]]'', by Carrie Vaughn, wherein the titular Kitty is kidnapped and forced to [[Broken Masquerade|shape shift on TV]], and the only real consequences the SENATOR that set it all up incurs is an off-screen lawsuit and criminal charges.

* Carrie's mother from [[Stephen King]]'s ''[[Carrie]]''. Unlike Carrie's jackass classmates who knew nothing of her {{spoiler|telekinetic powers}}, Ms. White was all too well aware of her daughter's potential, so her persistent abuse of Carrie definitely classifies as Bullying a Dragon bordering on [[Too Dumb to Live|Too Fanatically Pious To Live]].

**** ... by pure luck, because if that hippogriff's attack had landed three inches to the side Draco wouldn't have a brachial artery anymore and would have bled to death before they could get him to the nurse's office.

* In the book '''Benvenuto''' by [[Epunymous Title|Seymour Reit]], the titular dragon, belonging to a boy named Paolo, is bullied by an older boy named Roy Selby. When Paolo tells Roy to lay off Bevenuto, Roy is all too eager to beat up Paolo. And the dragon, despite his small size, starts dishing out firey retribution to Roy for picking on his friend!

{{quote|"How do you bully a ''God?''"

"Very, very carefully." }}

* [[Lampshade Hanging|Pointing this trope out]] is how Zedd drives off a lynch mob after him in the first book of the ''[[Sword of Truth]]'' series. The mob is going after him because they believe he has terrible magic powers, so Zedd asks them to list what some of these powers might be, and once they do, Zedd points out how ''brave'' these men must be to come after a [[Person of Mass Destruction]] with nothing but torches and pitchforks. This is enough to make them back down, though Zedd throws in an additional mind game to make them ''really'' sorry.

* In the [[Mercy Thompson]] books, Jesse Hauptmann is beat up because her father, Adam, is a werewolf (in fact, he's the local Alpha). Luckily for her attackers, she won't tell her father who they are, as she doesn't want them to be killed.

* Averted in ''[[The Dark Tower]] I: The Gunslinger'' by Stephen King. A [[Mook]] approaches [[Badass]] Roland Deschain while his back is turned, intent on harm as evidenced by his hand on his knife. Roland, without bothering to turn around or even look up, advises him to "Do yourself a favor, cully, and go sit down." The [[Mook]] wisely does so, almost certainly avoiding harm or even death. Roland is later {{spoiler|shown to be a Hardcore [[Badass]] when he is [[Zerg Rush|Zergrushed]] by the townsfolk, and kills every man, woman and child in town.}}

* Throughout ''[[The First Law]]'' trilogy by Joe Abercrombie, Bayaz, First of the Magi and Logen "The Bloody Nine" Ninefingers are underestimated, dismissed, or even insulted, threatened, or ignored as irrelevant, always to the sorrow of those who did so.

* Happens in the ''[[Mass Effect]]'' novel ''Ascension'' where one of the kids in the Ascension Project decides to pick on Gillian Grayson. To be fair to the kids picking on her it didn't seem that she had much power but boy was he mistaken.

* In [[The Bible]], a group of young men mock Elisha, one of [[God]]'s prophets. [[Everything's Worse with Bears|Guess what happened next]].

** She also does this somewhat literally when she goes after and takes out a ''Grand Dragon'' 'Mech in the course of ''Hearts of Chaos''.

** Another ''[[BattleTech]]'' example has a bunch of common street punks attempt to provoke a Clan Elemental into a fight during the course of a Halloween celebration. Please note the punks are noted to be nothing more than average teenagers, and an Elemental is a [[Power Armor]] wearing [[Super Soldier]] bred from birth to take on 'Mechs and win, standing somewhere between 7 and 8 feet tall and weighing over three hundred pounds ''without their armor''. While the Elemental was not wearing his armor, he still easily flattens all but one of the punks, who wisely flees the situation.

** In the Big Match Andy and his cohorts commit many acts of [[Unnecessary Roughness]] against the UU team, seemingly forgetting that the UU players are the most powerful wizards on the Discworld. However, whoever poisoned the Librarian's banana must have been outright suicidal.

** ''Snuff'' has a warning about ''Badass Vimes'' from his butler to someone who was tempted to start bullying, or at the very least, to be annoying. The only way to piss off the Dwarfs, the Trolls, Ankh-Morpork AND Überwald at the same time would be by doing this, so it would be.. unwise.

* ''[[Of Mice and Men]]'' has [[Blood Knight|Curly]], a light-weight boxer, picking a fight with [[Gentle Giant|Lennie]]; it ended with Lennie crushing Curly's hand to a near-pulp.

* The [[Big Bad]] of ''[[Warrior Cats]]'' dies because of this. He tries to push around [[Pint-Sized Powerhouse|Scourge]], who gets tired of him and kills him. [[Cats Have Nine Lives|Nine times.]] In one blow.

* Literally done in ''Lord of Chaos'', the sixth book of ''[[The Wheel of Time]]'', when the Aes Sedai attempt to "tame" Rand al'Thor, the [[The Chosen One|Dragon Reborn]], by kidnapping him and transporting him inside a wooden chest, freeing him from imprisonment only for daily abuse. This, despite the knowledge that the Dragon Reborn is the [[Reincarnation]] of the most powerful male [[Functional Magic|channeller]] known to history, and the legends stating that only he can prevent [[The End of the World as We Know It]] (albeit by [[Destructive Savior|breaking it]]); the Aes Sedai are simply so full of themselves that they believe having Rand under their control is more important than the physical and psychological damage done to him in the process. Much carnage occurs on all sides when Rand's allies rescue him, including several Aes Sedai losing their own ability to channel forever.

 

* ''[[Game of Thrones]]'':

** Viserys, in a fit of madness, thinks he can push the barbarian warlord Khal Drogo around by violating his sacred laws and holding his wife hostage with a sword, while surrounded by Drogo's soldiers. It ends about as well as you'd expect.

* On ''[[Chuck]]'', this happens more often than not with Casey in a comedic sense, like when he's filled his daily quotient of stupidity from the Buy Morons, but every so often this trope come into play on a serious issue. In ''Chuck vs. Operation Awesome'', an old oriental woman is bitching at Chuck about the Buy More's lack of customer service, while Chuck is just concerned with wanting to tell someone outside the loop about his being a spy, worrying for Devon's safety (since he's been kidnapped), and his feelings toward Sarah. He finally snaps, flashes on how to speak Korean, and yells at the woman in her native tongue to more-or-less [[Punctuated! For! Emphasis!|Shut the Fuck Up]], surprising everyone around him, including Jeff, Lester, and more importantly Sarah, because he's always been so pacifistic. It's made even more apparent when Chuck Intersect-kicks Lester for trying to mess with him, Bruce Lee-style only moments after telling off the Korean lady, which drops everyone's jaws even further.

* Benjamin Lennox's first meeting with Hyde in ''[[Jekyll]]'' is made of this trope. It starts off with him interrupting Hyde while he's having sex, and it just goes downhill from there... in retrospect, claiming to ''own'' the superpowered psychopath was probably a bad idea.

* In the ''[[The X-Files]]'' episode "Schizogeny," everyone believes that a sixteen-year-old murdered his stepfather. Some of his classmates get in his face and make fun of him for being a "psycho killer." They apparently thought there was no way this could backfire on them.

* ''[[True Blood]]''

** Damon seems to have a major problem with this trope. He also tried to intimidate Pearl, who had a few hundred years on him and responded by gouging out his eyes, Jules, a werewolf, during the full moon, and Elijah, who's an [[The Older Immortal|Original]] vampire and could decapitate him with one punch.

* [[Subverted Trope]] on ''[[Angel]]''. Gwen is a young woman who can electrocute people by touching them with her bare skin; as a child she was sent to a boarding school and is approached by a boy asking if she's "a freak." The audience braces itself...but he's not bullying her, just asking her an innocent question, and follows up with "you don't look like a freak." Unfortunately, he offers to share a toy car with her, and when she reaches out to take it, she ends up electrocuting him to death anyway.

* From ''[[Mighty Morphin Power Rangers]]'' we have Bulk and Skull, who (as [[Atop the Fourth Wall|Linkara]] pointed out) regularly bullied a group of six classmates, all of whom could easily beat the crap out of them (even though they mostly seemed to pick on Billy, the weakest of the group). Luckily for them, the Rangers were far too nice to ever do anything. It is shown in [[Ensemble Darkhorse|Tommy's]] introduction, though: they go to harass the new kid, only for him to pull off an impromptu demonstration of his martial arts skills (never actually touching either bully), which causes them to run away in wide-eyed terror.

* As a villain in a new-series ''[[Doctor Who]]'' episode learned, trying to chain up and experiment on a [[Scary Dogmatic Aliens|Dalek]] is a ''bad idea''. Deciding to capture and torture ''[[Guile Hero|the]] [[The Dreaded|Doctor]]'' is an even worse one.

* Anderson and Donovan on ''[[Sherlock]]'' seemed convinced that Sherlock is a psychopath who will one day commit murder in order to assuage his boredom. This doesn't stop them from endlessly taunting and hassling him, which only leads to him humiliating them by utilizing his [[Sherlock Scan]].

 

* "[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dsd66co9SBE This Moment]" by [[Disturbed]] "You're the one who kept pushing / till I made you bleed."

* ''Batterram'' by Toddy Tee [[Truth in Television|about police using the titular vehicle,]] [[Ramming Always Works|an APC with a battering ram,]] [[Truth in Television|to break into suspected crackhouses]] has a [[Fearless Fool|dealer taunting the cops when its battery craps out in front of his friends]] [[Laser-Guided Karma|then it's fixed and his "living room is in his den."]]

 

* [[Greek Mythology]]:

** Hercules fits this trope. Hercules was normally a nice guy and more than willing to help you out. However, there are several stories of kings cheating him out of payment only for Hercules to sometimes come back years later and kill them for having dared wrong him. The worst offender being King Laomedon of Troy who refused to pay Hercules AFTER he had witnessed the hero killing a sea monster sent by Poseidon. Hercules eventually killed Laomedon and nearly his entire family after sacking the city. What makes Laomedon even dumber? The monster was sent by Poseidon due to Laomedon refusing to pay him for building Troy's walls. The only guy that had any justification was Eurystheus, the guy who gave him his Labours. Because he had Hera on his side/back.

** We also have Jason. His protector was the goddess of marriage Hera, and he had seen his wife Medea (who had been given to him by Hera herself) cutting her own brother into pieces to protect him and killing an unkillable bronze giant with a look (depending on the version, she either hypnotized it into killing itself or [[Driven to Suicide|tortured him into suicide]]). Then Jason decided to [[Too Dumb to Live|dump her for the daughter of the king of Corinth]]. Cue Hera withdrawing her protection and letting Medea destroy Jason so much that [[Cruel Mercy|killing him would have been merciful]] (in latter versions includes killing their own children to destroy Jason's line), burning alive the king and his daughter (she was actually aiming for the daughter, the king just tried to save her and died in the process) and destroying Corinth either as collateral damage or, in earlier versions, for the citizens trying to exact revenge on her by killing her children.

 

* [[Michael Cole]]. After his 2010 [[Face Heel Turn]], he's bullied [[John Cena]], [[Jerry Lawler]] (his arch enemy), [[Jim Ross]], [[Dwayne Johnson|The Rock]] (''twice''), [[Bryan Danielson|Daniel Bryan]], the WWE Divas (''all of them''), and even Jack Swagger ''to their faces''. All of them could easily beat Cole to a bloody pulp if they wanted to, and half of them actually did.

** The WWE Divas deserve special mention here. He seems to save his venom for two very specific Divas, [[Natalya Neidheart]] and [[Eve Torres]]. While most of the Divas are accused of being [[Faux Action Girl]] Eye Candy, he decides to pick on possibly two of the most dangerous of them. Natalya is a veteran wrestler and a member of the Hart [[Wrestling Family]]. Eve is a trained Gracie Jiu Jitsu fighter, and is (in Real Life) dating a member of the Gracie Family. He decides not only to bully the two most dangerous female Dragons, he also chooses the two most-well connected.

* Since the beginning of 2012, [[Cody Rhodes]] has made it his mission in life to mock [[The Big Show]], calling him a fat loser and continuously showing clips of Show's embarrassing moments. No matter how many times Show catches up to him and gives him a [[No-Holds-Barred Beatdown]], he just won't stop. Come ''[[Wrestlemania]] 28'', Rhodes ends up paying the price, as he not only got KO'd by Show, but he lost the Intercontinental Title as a result. And now Show's returning the favor to Rhodes, showing humiliating moments during his matches.

 

* ''[[Shadowrun]]''

** Magic users are looked upon with distrust and fear by a large segment of the population, and many actively discriminate against them, often on religious grounds.

*** Being fair, anti-troll discrimination is usually social and verbal and under circumstances where physical retaliation will rapidly get the troll arrested. The other kind involves entire gangs of racists, often with guns, vs. one troll.

* ''[[Dungeons & Dragons]]''

** There is also half-dragons who are almost always treated badly by humans in ''[[Dungeons & Dragons]]''. Yes, they think it's a good idea to pick of the person with claws and sharp teeth who can breathe dangerous substances and often has a parent that can level the town. The Dragonblooded supplement has a short story at the beginning of the chapter on Spellscales in which the main character encounters a young spellscale girl being bullied by a mob of normal kids, and managing to cast a high-enough-level Sleep spell to knock out eight or ten at once. [[Eberron]] averts this by making the half-dragons considered abominations by the ''dragons''.

* Wizards and Psykers of ''[[Warhammer Fantasy Battle]]'' and ''[[Warhammer 40,000]]'' respectively. The Wizards normally don't give a damn about what peasants think but soldiers love them, and psykers, well, their powers come from Chaos... Considering that psykers are incredibly vulnerable to [[Power Incontinence]], [[Demonic Possession]], and in more than a few occasions having their skull turned into a portal to allow [[The Legions of Hell]] to overrun the planet, this trope becomes even more ridiculous if treatment of them within the Imperium wasn't less "ostracism" and more "immediate execution".

** The Elder Land Wurm's flavor text: "Sometimes it's best to let sleeping dragons lie."

** [http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=222186 Bullying a werewolf is also a bad idea.]

 

** They do wise up by the second act, however, when the Phantom crashes the [[Masquerade Ball]] and says, in effect, "Hey, here's the score for this opera I just wrote; I think you guys will know what to do with it. Oh yeah, that [[Falling Chandelier of Doom]] a few months back? That was me ''being nice''." The managers, albeit ''very'' reluctantly, realize open defiance is not the safest of options.

* ''[[Cyrano De Bergerac]]'': The people in this list know the guy who they are bullying is dangerous, but they did not care. Christian ends well, [[Disproportionate Retribution|but the others...]]

** Act I Scene II, Ligniere brags about his song, where he expose the persecution of Roxane by De Guiche. Ligniere himself admits De Guiche is a powerful noble who is wedded to the niece of [[Man Behind the Man|Richelieu]].

{{quote|Ho! he must rage at me! The end hit home… Listen!}}

 

* The player actually ''can'' bully a dragon in ''[[Zork]] II''. Although truthfully, it's not so much "bully" as "disturb its nap, then annoy it with your puny sword until it incinerates or eats you."

* In ''[[The Witcher]]'' the eponymous Witchers have to take a lot of verbal abuse from normal people. None of them stops to ponder whether it's smart to mock someone who you'll need when you're once again troubled by some undead menace (a common occurrence in this world), and who can break the finest human fighters in half with his superhuman mutant reflexes and [[Healing Factor]].

* ''[[Phantom Brave]]'': The [[All of the Other Reindeer|People of Ivoire]] think main character Marona is "The Possessed One" who can kill them all by summoning armies of the undead. So they hire her to solve their problems, insult her, then cheat her out of payment. They do get better.

* In her childhood, [[Sonic the Hedgehog/Characters/Other Protagonists|Blaze the Cat]] from the ''[[Sonic the Hedgehog]]'' universe was bullied for her pyrokinetic powers.

** The second one is very clearly a useful survival strategy. Most of the time, heroes of a high enough level to mop the floor with a spawn of villains won't get enough XP from it for them to bother, but if the villains went around hitting first...

** "[[Survival Mantra|Just pretend he isn't there,]] [[Enemy Chatter|and he'll go away...]]"

** Really, regular mercs inexplicably trying to kill Shepard at every possible moment fits this trope, regardless of the origin. Harkin, a corrupt cop from 1 and 2 even taunts Shepard by asking if they think they can get him. There are also several small encounters where someone tries this on Shepard, who can sometimes point out either that a)They are Commander Shepard, aka the galaxy's biggest badass and just what the hell do they think they are trying, or b)They may not know they are dealing with Shepard (or may not believe it), but they can surely see how badass Shepard is, so shut the hell up.

*** As Wrex put it - "Anyone who attacks us is either stupid, or on Saren's payroll. Killing the latter is business - [[Too Dumb to Live|killing the former is a favor to the universe.]]"

** In the ''Mass Effect: Redemption'' comic, some shuttle pilots try to get additional "[[Attempted Rape|docking fees]]" from [[Hot Scientist|Liara T'Soni]]. Liara, as it turns out, is a powerful asari biotic who works with Commander Shepard.

* In ''[[Tales of Rebirth]]'', Hilda, a "Half" (Half-Huma[n] half-Gajuma) was always despised when she was a kid (and still is). Which wouldn't make much difference, except that Halfs, despite having a weaker body, have much stronger and harder-to-control magic than both Humas and Gajumas. (Un)Fortunately, she never fought back.

* A literal example in ''[[Breath of Fire]] IV''. [[The Empire]] keeps messing with both Ryu and [[Big Bad|Fou-Lu]] even though they are quite aware of what they are. Needless to say, neither ends well.

** Despite being well known as the Champion of Kirkwall by Act III, the amount of people who try to murder the person who defeated {{spoiler|the Arishok}} ''in single-combat'' is particularly baffling, [[Curb Stomp Battle|especially if Hawke is a Mage.]]

*** Being fair, every person who comes at you in Phase III either has no idea who you are, is already backed into a corner with no way out, is insane, is a fanatic, or is an insane fanatic. The game actually is good about having people stop attacking you for motives of rational self-interest sometime late in Phase II.

** In ''[[Fallout: New Vegas]]'', if you have bad standing with Caesar's Legion, you will attract assassin squads. Said four-man squad (who admittedly tend to be well-equipped for the task) will run up to you and proclaim that Caesar has ordained your death for your crimes against the Legion, before attacking. Said crimes can include killing [[The Spymaster|Vulpes Inculta]], singlehandedly wiping out Cottonwood Cove, Nelson or the Fort, not to mention killing the ''previous'' assassin squads.

** The NCR isn't much better, however. Not only do they also send [[Ranger]]s after you, if at the ending you decide to pull a fast one on them, [[General Failure|General Oliver]] will state that were he in your shoes, he'd have you hung. [[Too Dumb to Live|While he's surrounded by securitrons armed to the teeth who will do anything you say]], though to be fair he's surrounded by his own Elite Mooks and at that point you have the option of getting Yes Man to punch him off of the Hoover Dam.

*** It persists even after you finish the sidequest. You can be publicly known to all provinces as the Dragonborn, slayer of Alduin the World-Eater, Thane of all nine holds, Champion of over a dozen Daedric Princes, Arch-Mage of Winterhold, Master of the Thieves' Guild, Listener of the Assassin's Guild, and Harbinger of the Companions, and rider of dragons. You are universally known as having ''slain a god in single combat''. And you'll ''still'' get random bandits making runs at you at the side of the road.

* A literal example of this is the cause of much of the warring that takes place in ''[[Fire Emblem Akaneia]]''. Humanity mistreated the Manakete race (Dragons who took on human form to escape a plague of mental and physical degeneration), despite the fact that they earlier spared them from annhilation by battling against the rogue Earth Dragon tribe, who went berserk due to their refusal to become Manaketes. Eventually, one of them gets sick of it, and rallies his likeminded bretheren together to put the humans in their place.

** In fairness, if you take that route, [[What the Hell, Player?|you kind of deserve it]], making it less like bullying and more like standing up to the monster wrecking their city for no real reason.

* Due to [[Dude, Where's My Respect?]] similar to other games, in ''[[Pokémon]]'' people with 10 level Magikarp will still try to battle you after you are a Champion (i.e. the best trainer in a region) and single-handedly saved the world from disaster. May be justified as the whole point of this game is to get stronger by defeating more experienced trainers.

* The unarmed generic mooks in ''[[Batman: Arkham City]]'' will actively taunt ''Batman'' if they see him but can't reach him. Made all the more hilarious when you hear prisoners comment about how the last time they met up with Batman he left them with several broken bones.

* In ''[[Red Dead Redemption]]'' during the first mission with Landon Ricketts John Marston is greeted by a trio of Mexican thugs who are hassling him for being an American interfering in the affairs of Mexico. John says that he has no problem with them personally and he is just here in Mexico on official business, he then asks them politely to leave him alone and they can all go home to their families. The trio then continues to harass John and even steals his hat. John then having had enough of their tomfoolery shoots all 3 of them casually and takes his hat back. John by now has killed hundreds of bandits that decided to get in his way so those 3 didn't have any clue who they were messing with. Landon Ricketts lampshades the killings of those 3 idiots and tells John that he becomes like a peasant when he kills peasants and that he isn't exactly endearing himself to the people of Mexico by casually killing men like that. A dragon killing casually when it doesn't need to is just showing off.

* In the beginning of ''[[Baten Kaitos]] Origins'', some low-ranking Dark Servicemen start taunting Sagi after he's overheard musing over the morality of the assignment. They apparently forgot that Sagi is both a spiriter and a talented swordsman. For extra [[What an Idiot!]] points, two of the servicemen start ''another'' fight with him ten minutes later - while [[Badass Automaton|Guillo]] is backing him up.

* [[The Dragon|Araman]] chasing you down after the {{spoiler|battle on the Fugue Plane}} in ''[[Neverwinter Nights 2]]: Mask of the Betrayer''. [[Sarcasm Mode|Sure! Singlehandedly attacking a party of four probably-30th-level characters is a]] ''[[Sarcasm Mode|wonderful]]'' [[Sarcasm Mode|idea!]]

** One troper reported Araman getting blown away on the first round of the fight.

** At the beginning of the original campaign, {{spoiler|Amie Fern}} ends up [[Stuffed Into the Fridge]] after she fires off a ''magic missile'' spell at a [[Scary Dogmatic Aliens|Githyanki]] mage who's giving her master Tarmas a hard time. The Githyanki basically rolls his eyes, then one-shots her.

* In a rare non-willing example, in ''[[Devil Survivor 2]]'', to destroy Alioth's [[Giant Flyer]] warship, [[Hindu Mythology|Kama]] is recruited to shoot an arrow into [[Badass|Shiva]]'s eye, as he did in a certain myth, so Shiva uses his spear Pasupata to strike Alioth. Problem is, Kama remembers ''very well'' [[Wave Motion Gun|what Shiva did to him]] [[Unstoppable Rage|last time he pulled that trick]], and has to be forced into doing it again. {{spoiler|When the time comes, he's also tricked into believing he'd be protected by JP's. Instead, it turns out only ''his memory'' would be protected, and he's promptly elevated into the air against his will to the correct angle so Pasupata's attack destroys both him and Alioth.}}

** Admittedly by this point you're already famous for those multiple Elder Dragon kills, but at least you brought an army along for those. Its just ''possible'' that said random mobs could be thinking that you're largely famous as a commander and that if caught alone, they can take you. But every civilized race on the continent knows that you cut up Balthazar ''by yourself'', the fight had multiple witnesses. And people still voluntarily attack you?

 

== [[Web Comics]] ==

* The first episode of ''[[Minus]]'', and it happens a few times later. Fortunately, it depends on her mood whether she'll retaliate or go do something else. Later on other kids start to realize that it's ''cool'' to have someone who can [[Reality Warper|warp the fabric of reality]] as a friend. Unfortunately, asking her for a favor [[Be Careful What You Wish For|can be just as bad]].

* From ''[[Spinnerette]]'', in [http://www.krakowstudios.com/spinnerette/2011/08/10/08102011/ this strip] Alexis, AKA Evil Spinnerette, is being taunted by some [[Alpha Bitch]]es ... despite the fact that she's a [[Spider People|Drider]], normal human from waist up and giant spider from the waist down (and has 6 human eyes in 2 columns of 3, or 3 rows of 2). Not to mention the fact that it took a super hero to capture and subdue her in the first place.

'''Maxim''': ''Vot?'' Den vhy does dey alvays pick fights? }}

* ''[[Dawn of Time]]'' had [http://www.dawnoftimecomics.com/index.php?id=46 an enthusiastic time traveler] overconfident in [[Historical In-Joke|his ideas about dinosaurs]].

T. Rex confirmed opportunistic predator.

Find better way to test theories. }}

{{quote|But as games evolved, moved to 3d and the enemy stopped being "mobs" to be people with motivations and dialogues you start to also expect them to behave more human-like. So when your Avatar of Death incarnate walk around mounted on a T-Rex while holding Excalibur on one hand and a BFG 9000 on another those street thugs would stop bothering you.}}

 

** Proving that the Whateley authorities are not as stupid as you'd think, Tennyo now has a special order on her. Taunting her, bullying her, starting a fight with her, etc., can now subject you to immediate expulsion!

** There has only been one case where this is not so. Let me just say that it involved the simulators, the reincarnation of the Greek god of the underworld and two hackers. Greek God has issues and wasn't expelled. Those who set it up, however...

** Most of the [[Cosmic Horror|"Class X Entity"]] students fall under this—Fey, for example, is a Wiz-7 -- a mutant/mage so powerful that her special order says that the corrupt Mutant Control Office has pre-approval to use lethal force on her if she gets out of line.

** How about Gotterdammerung? He's a skinny, cute kid who gets picked on a lot. His power is ''mass disintegration''. He isn't going to kill you, so he's easy to bully.

** That bullying happens AT ALL in the Academy qualifies, considering that nine times out of ten the bully doesn't even know the victim's abilities beforehand, and the tenth time the "weakling" victim either has a nasty surprise up their sleeve, has recently taken a level in Badass, or has a pack of really powerful friends just around the corner. Either way it always seems to lead to a brutal curb-stomping for the would-be bully.....

* Bob in SMG4's Bloopers decides to bully a Teletubby by kicking her Tubby Custard bowl. Since Teletubbies in this universe are violent maniacs, this comes back to haunt him when the Purge begins, where the Teletubbies are legally allowed to commit crimes (including murder) over the span of 24 hours.

** Gustave is an even more extreme example. There have been cases where people have tried to pick fights with him, despite being a ''massive'' scarred up, [[Funny Animal|Nile crocodile]] with a major anger management problem. Not to mention, he has several convictions for assault and ''he dismembered someone with his bare hands''.

* This video, featuring an opinion on the [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=22Hpby93seo Top Ten Final Bosses in Video Games], starts with [[Final Fantasy|Sephiroth and Kefka]] complaining [[Medium Awareness|about not being included]] in ''[[Super Smash Bros. Ultimate]]'' or ''[[Kingdom Hearts 3]]'', stopping when a [[Super Mario|Piranha Plant]] notices and starts laughing at them; the scene breaks right before it likely turns ugly...

 

* Disney's ''[[Hercules (1997 film)|Hercules]]'' has kids mocking the title character and calling him "Jerkules", specifically for his superhuman abilities making him a "freak". They were only able to get away with it because it's a Disney movie and Hercules is a good guy. The Hercules of the actual myths was known for letting his anger get the best of him, often with lethal results for the mortals involved (though at least one of these rages was induced by his nemesis Hera, and cost him his family).

* ''[[The Grim Adventures of Billy & Mandy]]'':

* In an odd, "friendly" case, the ''[[Teen Titans (animation)|Teen Titans]]'' episode, "The Beast Within". Specifically, Robin's um, "questioning" of a possibly unstable Beast Boy, and with predictably disastrous results. To be fair, this almost seems have been intentional, by the writers—it seems like the kind of Patton-esque personnel management tactic that a scared, stressed out teenager raised by ''[[Batman]]'' might think was a good idea to try in a crisis.

** In the episode "Troq", Val Yor openly belittles Starfire to her face with a racial epithet directed toward Tamaranians, despite her species' [[Super Strength]], [[Made of Iron|durability]], [[Flight]], [[Batman Can Breathe in Space|ability to withstand vacuum]], [[Energy Ball|energy attacks]] with occasional [[Eye Beams]], and advanced technology being common knowledge. And apparently multiple aliens have this attitude toward Tamaranians. To be fair, however, while us lowly humans would no doubt be threatened by such a line up, Val Yor has powers nearly equal to hers (minus space breathing and somewhat weaker energy projection), so, from his perspective, the dragon isn't all that tough (though this does make you wonder why he treats the [[Puny Earthlings|puny, primitive earthlings]] with respect while the alien princess from an advanced, superpowered society gets treated worse than dirt).

* ''[[Ed, Edd 'n' Eddy]]'':

** Ed is unbelievably strong, yet he allows himself to get bullied by almost everyone. Sadly, he's just too nice to realize he could probably kick Kevin's ass. {{spoiler|(In the movie, he ''does'' wreck the shit of Eddy's much feared older brother.)}} The one episode where he ''was'' in a bad mood, he inspired ''genuine fear'' in his [[Bratty Half-Pint|little sister Sarah]], brought his strength to bear against the same people who usually have no trouble antagonizing him, and in lieu of drumming his fingers impatiently against the tree stump he was sitting on, he ''dug tracks into it with his fingernails.'' Hell, even the ''skies'' darkened over him. Good thing he went back to his goofy lovable self by the end - turns out there was a rock in his shoe the whole time.

* An episode of ''[[The Venture Brothers]]'' combines this with [[Mugging the Monster]]. A random bar owner constantly insults Brock's hairdo, and while he likely did not know that Brock is a secret agent who normally murders people who show him disrespect and has a license to kill (which he likes to use with gusto but had expired at that point), Brock was still twice the man's size (in muscle) and had biceps bigger than the man's head. Combined with his perpetual angry scowl, you'd think he'd know better than to insult the guy who looks like he could bench press an armoured vehicle and is looking for any excuse to blow off steam.

** And of course the first thing Brock does after his license to kill is renewed? Show it to the guy, who insulted him again on the way in. The next time we see the bartender, he's sporting a fancy new eyepatch.

** Another hilarious example, from the trip to Australia where Bart is to apologize for his prank calls. Homer notices the guard at the gate and mistakes him for a British royal guard, making funny faces at him for a few seconds until the guard punches him hard in the face. "US MARINE, SIR!"

*** And then later he starts jumping back and forth across the USA-Australia line in front of the embassy:

** And ''A Sitch in Time'' has Drakken, Monkey Fist, and Killigan go back in time to bully a preteen Kim. When they start on Ron the kindergarten Kim trounces them. Later, [[Too Dumb to Live|Drakken wants another crack at it]].

* In ''[[My Life as a Teenage Robot]]'', the [[Alpha Bitch|Kruft cousins]] take every opportunity to torment and belittle XJ-9 socially, attempting to guarantee that Jenny never, ever becomes anything close to popular. XJ-9, a.k.a. Jenny, is a cheerful, sweet-natured girl who also happens to be a walking, talking, sapient weapons system capable of destroying entire alien battle fleets single-handed. In one episode, with the aid of a more aggressive friend, Jenny finally shows them exactly what she can do to make their lives miserable. Even after she drives them into a breakdown, they don't learn from the experience.

{{quote|'''Terry''': Lay off him, Nash.

'''Nelson''': You think I'm afraid of you, McGinnis?

'''Terry''': [[Badass Normal|I dunno.]] ''(lifts an eyebrow)'' Are you?

'''Nelson''': ''(pushes Willy out of the way)'' He's not worth it. But you are... some day. ''(gets in his car and drives off)'' }}

* This happens to Lucius on ''[[Jimmy Two-Shoes]]''. As a child, he was bullied by his teacher, despite knowing full well that he was the future ruler of Miseryville and that he'd have the resources to fight back one day. Even nowadays [[Wicked Weasel|the weavils]] and the Rodeo Clowns love to pick fights with him despite having an entire army at his beck and call. Even [[Mad Scientist|Heloise]] is guilty of this at times.

** Another example comes after Stan, Kyle and Kenny have watched Cartman take some rather extreme revenge. They decide it would be a good idea if they never pissed Eric Cartman off again. Cartman is not superpowered though, just sociopathic.

* A literal example occurs in the ''[[Gumby]]'' episode "The Elephant and the Dragon". Both creatures work for a storybook king (the Elephant as manual labor, the Dragon as a castle guard), but the Elephant keeps picking arguments with the Dragon. This pisses off the Dragon, who torches people's houses with his his breath. To stop their arguing, Gumby uses a back-hoe to do the Elephant's job just as efficiently and without arguing with the Dragon (and without torched houses). The Elephant takes the hint and apologizes for causing so much trouble.

* Sadlygrove from ''[[Wakfu]]'' has a bad habit of doing this. The worst example of this was when he taunted Rushu, the king of the demonic Shushus and one of the most powerful and omnicidal beings in the setting. Fortunately Rubilax invokes the [[Zerg Rush|Rush]] right before Rushu is about to incinerate Sadlygrove for his impudence.

* On one episode of the animated series of ''[[Street Fighter (animation)|Street Fighter]]'', as Guile and Blanka are in Iraq, some of the people there call him a monster and throw rocks at him. Yes, that's ''[[Sarcasm Mode|exactly]]'' what you want to do to a big green creature with electrical powers and anger issues!

** "Dial Meg for Murder". [[What an Idiot!/Western Animation|Properly described here.]]

* Pops up occasionally in ''[[Avatar: The Last Airbender]]''. When most of the cast are powerful [[Kung Fu Wizard]]s, it's only a matter of time.

* In ''[[The Jungle Book (Disney film)|The Jungle Book 2]]'', Lucky the vulture gets the [[Sarcasm Mode|brilliant]] idea of openly mocking Shere Khan to his face. Once he [[Too Dumb to Live|tells Shere Khan where Mowgli is headed just to taunt him...]] Well, let's just say that Lucky didn't live up to his name shortly afterwards.

* Ling Ling from ''[[Drawn Together]]'' gets abused by the rest of the housemates in some episodes...completely forgetting that the little Asian rat is perfectly capable of ripping them apart easily if he wants to in order to have sex with their skulls. Xander learns this the hard way in one episode.

* ''[[Squidbillies]]'' Early Cuyler's response to being declared a protected species? Get drunk and pick a fight with a jaguar.

{{quote|'''Early''': More like a ''fag''uar!}}

* This tended to happen every time Spike the Bulldog appeared in a ''[[Tom and Jerry]]'' cartoon. Despite being a dog, Spike rarely goes out of his way to antagonize Tom, and was usually trying to take a nap, spending time with his toddler son Tyke, or otherwise minding his own business. But in his efforts to get to Jerry, Tom would eventually annoy Spike ([[Papa Wolf|or worse, Tyke]]) until the dog lost his temper and beat him within an inch of his life. And Tom ''never'' learned.

 

* Any time a small nation intentionally annoys a superpower.

* Fans at [[Professional Wrestling]] shows who jump the rails to attack the wrestlers or interfere in the matches. Professional wrestlers are all either extremely large, extremely muscular, or both. They're also trained and paid to throw their weight around. Not the kind of people you want to mess around with. Even the referees tend to have basic wrestling skills and often beat the wrestlers to the punch.

* Despite some rather obvious problems with this approach, some would-be thieves still try to [[Too Dumb to Live|rob a]] [[Ballistic Discount|gun store]], police station, or a jailhouse.

* A man by the name of Frank "Rocky" Fiegel who lived in Chester, Illinois was known throughout the town for being the local scrapper. One tale mentions that several young men took him out to the woods with the intent of ganging up on him and beating him up. He came back without a scratch while the men out in the woods needed medical attention. To further illustrate this man's fighting ability, he was the inspiration for [[Popeye (comic strip)|a certain cartoon character with a noted love for spinach]].

* The attack on Pearl Harbor in [[World War II]], as noted in the entry for ''[[Tora! Tora! Tora!]]'' above. Yamamoto may or may not have actually said the "sleeping giant" line, but we do know that he mentioned his misgivings regarding this to his superiors:

{{quote|'''Yamamoto:''' In the first six to twelve months of a war with the United States and Great Britain I will run wild and win victory upon victory. But then, if the war continues after that, I have no expectation of success.}}