Muscles Are Meaningless: Difference between revisions

** Before Alvida ate her Devil Fruit she had decent [[Stout Strength]] (being able to wield a large iron club), but she's still strong after eating even though it made her much skinnier (and more attractive).

** Also, Robin is a tall, slight woman with the strength of an above-average athlete, which is pretty weak compared to some of the monsters of the series. However, she easily makes up for it with her Devil Fruit ability, which allows her to ''break your back'' effortlessly.

* ''[[Yu Yu Hakusho]]'' deals with this a lot. In one of the first arcs, it's specifically shown that physical strength is different (and weaker) than spiritual strength. If you see someone who is muscular in a fight, chances are he'll be relatively weak (with the exception of [[Big Bad|Younger Toguro]]). Particularly addressed in the final Tournament fight, when Yusuke reveals his {{spoiler|Spirit Cuffs, and the flashback to when he got them shows him trying to tear them apart, to no avail. Genkai comments that it measures spiritual energy, NOT physical, so knock it off.}}

** In another sense, as various characters get stronger they don't gain much in physical size; they retain the same basic body style that they start the show with.

* ''[[Miller's Crossing|Millers Crossing]]'': The [[Mighty Glacier|Bruiser]] of a Mook duo rolls up his sleeves to administer a warning beatdown on [[Deadpan Snarker|Tom]], giving him a sporting chance to remove his own coat. Tom uses that chance to [[Trying to Catch Me Fighting Dirty|swing a chair into the bruiser's face]]. The bruiser whimpers and waddles from the room, pathetically nursing a bloody nose. A second later, the [[Not So Harmless|tiny old man]] slams open the door, speed-marches toward Tom, and his fist hardly fills the screen before [[Talk to the Fist|blackout]].

* Justified in ''[[The Matrix]]'' by [[Cyberspace|the obvious]]:

'''Neo:'''...! }}

* The second [[Transformers (film)|live action Transformers movie]] has Optimus Prime dominating Megatron in battle, despite Prime being smaller and getting beat up by the latter in the first film. Justified in that Prime was distracted by his fear of collateral damage in the first film, whereas he can cut loose with no problems in the second.

* First played straight in ''Graceling'', as Katsa's extreme talent, flexibility, and speed make her too [[Badass]] for strength to matter much, but subverted once she meets another Graced fighter ({{spoiler|though of course Po's Grace is a bit more complex than that}}) and realizes her size and relative weakness do disadvantage her.

* The Doctor, in the ''[[Doctor Who]] [[Eighth Doctor Adventures]]'', can easily carry a grown man around, has threatened one of his companions with the fact he could break any bone in said companion's body (he was really stressed out at the time), and once stabbed a guy with his thumb. He's 5'8", "slight", and "bony".

There was silence for a moment. Awkward silence. }}

** The Seventh Doctor in the [[Virgin New Adventures]], while not being as physically active as his [[The Nth Doctor|older counterpart]], is often described as having an uncanny strength, and the grip of a bear, when need be. He's 5'6" and of a small build.

** There was also the soldier who was injected with the [[Super Serum]].

* Elliot from ''[[Scrubs]]'' has "fingers like biceps", and can force a nearly-closed elevator door back open with her pinky finger. Not bad for a gal from an orchard in Connecticut.

** She is also shown to have absurdly strong thighs, to the point that she can break lunch trays with them.

* ''[[Babylon 5]]'''s Minbari, memorably when Lennier picks someone up by the throat and holds them with his arm held straight and level and not bracing himself. All whilst calmly explaining that although looking [[Rubber Forehead Aliens|much]] like a human he really is an alien.