Curb Stomp Battle/Literature: Difference between revisions

** Another [[Macross Missile Massacre|Manticore Missile Massacre]] in ''Mission of Honor'': {{spoiler|71 Solarian superdreadnoughts versus a handful of Manticoran heavy cruisers with -- the crucial point -- a crapload of Apollo pods. The Solarians surrender after one salvo kills or cripples a third of their fleet, from far outside their own range.}} Also, may apply to {{spoiler|Operation Oyster Bay, which curb stomped Manticore and Grayson's orbital industry. There'll be fewer Manticore Missile Massacres without the factories to make the missiles...}}

** Another example is found in ''At All Costs'' when the Apollo missile is first introduced, and Honor's outnumbered fleet effortlessly trashes three Havenite fleets before reducing the entire orbital infrastructure of Lovat to rubble.

* The opening sea fight of the war in [[The Great Pacific War]] is this, and everybody knows it even before it happens. Modern Japanese dreadnoughts with long-range firepower are going against the smaller and mostly outdated vessels of the US Asiatic Fleet. The US Admiral's pre-battle plan is entirely based on how to lose in the least bad way possible.

* [[Zig Zagged]] in ''[[Redwall]]''. Villains can sometimes be killed by accident or after a really long fight scene. Villains that are experienced fighters (Ungatt Trunn, Cluny the Scourge, Feragho the Assassin) can put up a real fight and sometimes even ''kill'' the protagonist, causing their opponent to invoke [[Taking You With Me]]. Other creatures that are reputed to be great fighters (Princess Kurda in ''Triss'') will normally be killed either by accident or when their skills are actually called upon to be tested. And some, like Gabool the Wild and Mokkan the Marlfox, die by an accident or when they're in a position to not fight back.

* In ''[[The Dresden Files]]'' novel ''Small Favor'', the fallen angel Magog tries to take on Eldest Brother Gruff. Magog gets '''annihilated''' in a single shot, without Eldest Brother Gruff even really trying. Dresden likens it to Gruff swatting him like "an uppity pixie."

** Also, the scene in the first book that pits Harry and [[Magnificent Bastard|Marcone]] against {{spoiler|a traitorous gangster.}} [[This Is Sparta|Not. Even. A. Page.]]

** Michael in ''Small Favor'' vs several hundred hobs (evil Winter fae), some of which are armoured and some the size of Mountain Gorilla's. Michael barely breaks a sweat. Of course, wielding freaking Excalibur helps.

* The first book of the ''[[Safehold (Literature)|Safehold]]'' series pits the island kingdom of Charis against every other naval power in the world. Contrary to what ''everyone'' in the book expected, the fact that Charis's was the only proper Navy combined with the [[Giving Radio to The Romans|technological innovations provided by Merlin Athrawes]] allowed Charis to decimate its foes so completely that two books later they're ''still'' racing to recover.

** Two more examples take place in the fourth novel of the series, ''Dark Skies'', about 250 years after the events of the first novel. The [[The Federation|Earth Federation]] sends a battlegroup to liberate three human colonies from a race known as the Dromi (a cross between [[Lizard Folk]] and [[Fish People]]), believing the occupational forces to be minimal. The battlegroup finds an entire Dromi clan facing them and is promptly obliterated by the [[We Have Reserves|sheer numbers]], despite having superior weaponry (the antimatter weapons [[Imported Alien Phlebotinum|reverse-engineered]] from the aliens in ''Invasion''). The second example occurs at the end of the novel when an entire fleet arrives and [[Dynamic Entry|blasts the Dromi away]].

* {{spoiler|Kelsier}}'s final battle against {{spoiler|the Lord Ruler}} in ''[[Mistborn|The Final Empire]]'' is pretty much this. It's immediately after one of the single most awesome fight scenes in the book, wherein {{spoiler|Kell kills an Inquisitor}}, making it all the more shocking when {{spoiler|the Lord Ruler basically just ''rips his face off''}} without breaking stride.

** {{spoiler|Vin and Zane}} team up for one battle in ''Well Of Ascension'', going up against a heavy force of soldiers and Hazekillers. [[One-Man Army|They kill 3-4 hundred people in under ten minutes]].

* World War III from the Keepers series (or pretty much every battle from WWIII in this series). The Germany-based Apex Empire takes over the world in a year. The Allies were completely outwitted (even for the decade prior to the short war, which was when Germany created its new empire) throughout. For starters, the entire population of the Allies had to be evacuated to North America just so they wouldn't be slaughtered (militarily) right from the outset. Even before the war became global, Germania (Germany plus Austria and the Czech Republic), along with Israel, essentially conquered the Middle East in three days (one of which was spent utterly defeating the combined invasion force of the Middle East against Israel), while killing almost no enemy combatants. The Apex Empire eventually deploys a superweapon that can only be described as an animalistic, small-mountain sized moving fortress/SHOOPDAWHOOP canon/Dakka worship doomsday weapon. To put things into perspective: the Allies, right before the war, designed a moving fortress that was supposed to be huge, like a superweapon. Well, each of the legs of the Juggernaught (the Apex's superweapon) is the size of the Allies' moving-fortress. And it had dozens of legs. Essentially the Real Life version of Flawless Victory, in the form of a WORLD WAR.

* [[Monster Hunter International]]: When Owen, who is a badass, fights Agent Franks, he gets his ass handed to him. Effortlessly.

* In [[The Silmarillion]] the Battle of the Sudden Flame is probaly the greatest curb stomp in the book. The fortress of Angband is surrounded by the combined armies of the high elf lords of the Noldor and friendly tribes of men. Melkor, {{spoiler|the original bad guy of Middle Earth and Sauron's master,}} starts off by covering the fields where the elves are with fire, then lets loose an army he's been spending years building. Led by the Glaurung, the father of all dragons, an awesome tide of orcs spews forth to crush the armies of the elves. {{spoiler|The elves are so crushed by this battle that they never regain the momentum. Kingdom after kingdom falls to the hand of Melkor. The only way to save Middle Earth is to get the gods come and save them.}}

* In ''[[Wearing the Cape]]'', Hope/Astra nearly loses in her first hero/villain fight, against {{spoiler|Brick, a superstrong gang-banger supervillain}}--partly due to inexperience, but also due to {{spoiler|being handicapped by an intruding second supervillain}}. Later she gets a rematch and the fight is so one-sided {{spoiler|Brick}} doesn't land a single hit, as a dramatic way of showing how much she's progressed.

* In the last [[Percy Jackson and The Olympians]] book, ''The Last Olympian'', there is the fight between the Minotaur, fully armoured and leading a legion of demigods and monsters, vs Percy Jackson. {{spoiler|Percy wins. Oh, not just against the Minotaur, but against the ''whole legion'', due to him having the Curse of Achilles}}.

* In the [[Star Trek Destiny]] trilogy, much time is spent on a subplot in which the president of the United Federation of Planets tries to convince every other major nation to aid her against a full-scale Borg invasion. Some refuse, but eventually the combined forces of the Federation, the Klingon Empire, the Romulan Star Empire, the Imperial Romulan State, the Cardassian Union, the Breen Confederacy, the Gorn Hegemony, the Ferengi Alliance, the Talarian Republic and the Orions mass to face the Borg. Then the Borg armada destroys the entire combined fleet in minutes.