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Muscles Are Meaningless: Difference between revisions
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* [[Bishonen]] + [[Beauty Equals Goodness]]. You can't have your [[Troubled but Cute]] hero grow huge muscles without risking certain death at the hands of the [[Fan Girl|Fan Girls]].
* [[Super Strength]]. Characters may have big muscles in comic books to denote being super strong, but elsewhere this is often an exception. Sometimes even in comics books.
* [[Rule of Cool]].
Note that this trope is specifically about instances in which the person with the seemingly weaker body possesses more actual ''strength'' than a muscle-bound opponent. This does not include characters who only win because of other characteristics that make them superior to their enemies, like speed or weapon proficiency. It's a common occurrence in [[Fighting Game|Fighting Games]] that a [[Fragile Speedster]] is considered superior to the [[Mighty Glacier]] due to their speed and ability to perform [[Combos]], but they only fit here if they are not only faster, but their attacks actually pack more of a punch as well, in which case "What the hell, game designer? Where's our [[Competitive Balance]]?" Say hi to the [[Lightning Bruiser]], or don't.
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** Many of the Dex Holders themselves manage to perform feats of physical excellence, but the majority of them are a result of being drunk on [[Heroic Resolve]]. And then there's Sapphire, whose feats of strength and heroism [[Cute Bruiser|speak]] [[Badass Normal|for]] [[Wild Child|themselves]].
*** Hell, even Blue may be stronger than she appears. At age 11, she once held onto her flying Jigglypuff with one hand while the other arm was hoisting up Red.
* Hareta from ''[[Pokémon Diamond and Pearl Adventure]]'' is absurdly powerful for a kid his age but has no muscles (probably considering he's prepubescent). At one point he flipped a Rhyperior, which is over 600 pounds and a rock Pokemon.
* In ''[[Pretty Face]]'', Rando was in a coma for a year and his muscles shrank for not using them. Strangely enough, despite this, his physical strength didn't go down at all.
* The strongest characters in ''[[Aiki]]'' are pretty muscular... but only on the middle of the size scale. The strongest ''women'' barely have any. The trope itself is invoked when Joukyuu informs [[Hot Amazon]] Hou Mei of why she's doing badly in a fight against an opponent who's much smaller - she's too muscular and it's slowing her down. She leaves for a time to train, returning noticeably slimmer and much faster.
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* ''[[Rurouni Kenshin]]'':We have Sanosuke, a lean hand-to-hand combat fighter. Yet he's strong enough to lift a heavy zanbato and clash with muscular monk Anji. Anti-hero Saito, who can beat Sanosuke into a bloody pulp, and Shishio, who has enough power to send Sanosuke flying, are also quite slender.
** Averted with Seijuro Hiko, Kenshin's master, who seems a tall and slender man... until he takes off his coat, revealing a huge muscled body. [[Word of God]] says that some fangirls were disappointed at him not being a Bishounen.
* In ''[[Ranma ½|[[Ranma
* Averted humorously in ''[[Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex|Stand Alone Complex]]'' when Batou, jokingly, tells the Major she should switch to a male prosthetic body like his because it would give her more strength. She challenges him on the spot and he brings his fists up ready to spar. Knowing that he's ''correct,'' she hacks his brain and makes him punch himself out.
** The joke here being that the Major doesn't need more strength when she has her far more effective brain.
* Pretty much all [[Magical Girl Warrior]] anime, from ''[[Sailor Moon]]'' to ''[[Pretty Cure]]'', give their heroines [[Super Strength]] upon [[Transformation Sequence]] without significant changes to muscle mass or tone.
* In ''[[Rosario
* ''[[Black Lagoon]]'': [[Bald Black Leader Guy|Dutch]], the Lagoon Company's leader, is a fairly muscular guy but gets easily overpowered by the thinner [[Ninja Maid|Roberta]]. Ultimately, the much more trim Revy is the only match for her.
* In ''[[Koihime Musou]]'' very few characters are drawn muscle-bound but some of the smallest characters are among the strongest. Chouhi is only as tall as Kannu's chest but can carry a battering ram [[Up to Eleven|plus the half dozen or so people using it]] with one arm. While suffering from a cold. Kyocho is similarly a very small-sized character with no visible muscle but uses a [[Epic Flail|kendama with a huge metal ball that must weigh as much as she does]] in combat. Both easily qualify as [[Pint-Sized Powerhouse|Pintsized Powerhouses]].
* Just about every single [[Shoujo Demographic]] that involves action, including the male characters and even in series that don't have the supernatural excuse. You can be a pretty boy and still have a good amount of muscle but not in shoujo.
* In ''[[Fairy Tail]]'', size and muscle mass is hardly ever an indicator of strength, barring a few exceptions like [[Badass|Gildarts]]. The incredibly thin Sol was able to overpower [[Heroic Build|Elfman]] with ease, and so could [[Ms. Fanservice|Mirajane]].
* Ivica Tanović, the commander of the Pied Piper Team in ''[[Eureka Seven AO]]'', ''is'' [[The Big Guy|an extremely tall and imposing man]], but still looks awfully skinny for the [[Super Strength]] feats he routinely displays.
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* [[Lampshade Hanging|Lampshaded]] and [[Subverted Trope]] in Robert Asprin's [[Myth Adventures]] - Guido is getting the "size doesn't matter in a fight" lecture from a drill sergeant, and muses that this only works if the little guy is very skillfull while the big guy is very UN-skillful. He then proceeds to break the arm of the drill instructor, who had been planning to use him as a tackle dummy.
* In ''[http://qntm.org/?power Power of Two]'' (part of the "Fine Structure" series at [[Things of Interest]]), it's noted that people who get superpowers don't look any different, and the narrator muses that "We don't even know if you gain anything from working out when you have these abilities".
* Justified in ''[[Codex Alera]]'' by Earth crafting, which is explicitly noted to provide strength but not extra mass, and Air crafting (though if it isn't backed up by [[Required Secondary Powers]] it can be quite painful) which provides speed, meaning one can make like the Flash.
* [[Sherlock Holmes]] is tall and wiry, but he is also extremely strong. After a burly man threatens him in "The Speckled Band" by bending an iron poker, Holmes casually straightens it.
* Ditto [[Erast Fandorin]]. Except that he has the justifying bonus of having been trained in ninjutsu for six years, meaning he can kill pretty much anything with his bare hands while hiding his strength under [[Bishonen|frail, bishie]] looks..
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** 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.
* ''Sisterhood'' series by [[Fern Michaels]]: Yoko Akia. She is 4 feet 8 inches (1.46304 metres) tall, she weighs 90 pounds (40.82 kilograms), and just about everything about her is tiny. She can flatten just about anybody bigger, more muscular and weightier than her in a fight and her fellow Sisters and Vigilantes call her "the 90-pound stick of dynamite"! In the book ''Lethal Justice'', Yoko (who supposedly has a brown belt) spars against Harry Wong, who is likely a [[Bruce Lee]] [[Expy]], has a black belt, is bigger than her, has more muscle than her, and could supposedly flatten her without difficulty. Instead, the little "porcelain doll" (as Harry described her) ended up pinning him to the ground. Harry afterwards admits to Jack Emery that that was the first time he was ever pinned to the ground!
* [[Mistborn]], those who can burn pewter gain [[Super Strength]] but no muscle mass, Vin, a 5 foot nothing skinny girl can beat the living crap out of several large men at once when burning pewter.
* Stated in ''[[The King Killer Chronicles]]'' with the matriarchal Adem culture of warrior-philosophers. The hero's female mentor states that women are better fighters then men because they are more moral and therefore understand their fighting style better. The hero asks about men's superior reach and strength, which the mentor dismisses as irrelevant. Since Adem are far and away the most skilled warriors in the world, their views are apparently justified.
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* In ''[[Friends]]'', Monica is [[Informed Ability|noted]] to be "freakishly strong", despite her size.
* X-5 series transgenic supersoldiers in ''[[Dark Angel]]''. While Zack is fairly bulky, Max and Alec have roughly the same level of enhanced physical prowess.
* In ''[[Chuck]]'', a new version of the Intersect computer can upload martial arts skills into a user's brain, giving guys with [[Geek Physiques]] the ability to beat up trained soldiers without any change in muscle size.
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== Video Games ==
* In ''[[Super Smash Bros.]] Melee'', the [[Fragile Speedster]] Fox is not only possibly the fastest character, he also has two of the most powerful KO-moves in his up-aerial and up-smash, the latter of which is the second-most powerful of its sort in the whole game, easily beating the much slower up-smashes of [[Donkey Kong/Characters|Donkey Kong]] and [[The Legend of Zelda/Characters|Ganondorf]] in terms of raw power. And the strongest up-smash? [[Violation of Common Sense|Pikachu's.]]
* This can be seen in MMORPGs as well. Since character appearances are purely aesthetic, a large muscular character could be defeated with ease by a smaller character.
** Extremely apparent in ''[[City of Heroes]]'' and ''City of Villains''. A player making a Brute or Tanker character can take Super Strength, War Mace, or Battle Axe and the strength of the attacks will be the same whether you're an [[The Big Guy|8-foot high hulking man]] or a [[Cute Bruiser|4-foot tall anorexic-looking girl]].
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** In ''Wind Waker'' Link was about 4 feet tall, one of the smallest characters in the game. Ganon was almost thrice Link's height!
** This part of the series is so odd that even Miyamoto commented on it as peculiar. Of course in many cases it's justified by his possession of a strength-enhancing magical accouterment (in the last two set-top games, you get some in the first dungeon). To give an idea of how powerful these can make Link, by the end of ''[[The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time|OoT]]'', the golden gauntlets allow him to ''[[Cutscene Power to the Max|rip a 5'×5'×30' solid stone pillar from the ground and lob it a hundred feet through the air]]''; with that kind of might and an invincible blade like the Master Sword, he [[Gameplay and Story Segregation|should be able to hew clean through any monster (or dungeon wall!) in a blow]].
* Dante of ''[[Devil May Cry]]'' would definitely count. While is certainly well built (his arms are like tree trunks in ''Devil May Cry 4'') and of a large body frame (though [[Capcom]] changes this every game... all canon material place him to be no less than 6'2'' and as tall as 6'7")... this in no way explains how he can cause a ten foot thick block of concrete to crack into two pieces with a half hearted punch; how he can hit a Demon King which is 40 times his size clean off his feet and back about twenty feet; how he can block a punch from a mile tall stone replica of his father with matching power to boot (meaning those punches probably equal out to be several hundred tons of force); etc. Also, while I'm sure that he has quite a bit of muscle on those legs of his... he still shouldn't be able to clear 100 foot jumps, how his legs can withstand being bulldozed into by a punch from a mile tall stone replica of his father with matching power to boot (Once again, probably equalling out to be several hundred tons of force), how he can launch objects with enough force to clear several hundred feet, etc. Then again, seeing as how he took out the EMPORER/GOD of all demons... I shouldn't be surprised.
** All of his feats and strength are easily explained by the fact that he's supernatural. Despite being a bishonen though, he is actually of above average build (the degree varies from game to game).
** He's not only supernatural but also magical as well. He can after all create a footing in thin air, why not enhance strength with magic?
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** The sniper rifle in question, the [[Names to Run Away From Really Fast|M-98 Widow]], is an ''anti-tank rifle''<ref>"The Widow was never designed to be carried and fired by a human. Although this modified model can be carried, no ordinary human could fire it without shattering an arm."</ref>.
* One of the augmentations the Spartans received in the ''[[Halo (series)|Halo]]'' universe was a thyroid implant that increases their muscular density significantly (tying in to the real life science mention in the description). Spartan II's were "7 foot tall walking tanks" but they became known that way ''before'' their strength enhancing [[Powered Armor]] made them into near unstoppable soldiers. In a story surrounding the augmentation of John-117, at age 14 he already had an adult Olympic-level physique and after recovering from the thyroid implant he was physically far superior to a pair of ODST special forces soldiers, who made the mistake of [[Bullying a Dragon|trying to push him around...]]
* While not as scrawny as some of the other video game characters listed, in ''[[Team Fortress 2]]'', the Scout is able to sending enemies flying with a baseball bat, including the [[Mighty Glacier|Heavy.]]
* Cloud from ''[[Final Fantasy VII]]''. He's 5'7", making him the shortest human male in the cast. Also, while having very well defined muscles, is much smaller than [[The Big Guy|Barret]] or even Cid. Yet he's significantly stronger than anyone else in the party and in ''[[Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children|Advent Children]]'' he ''carries'' Barret ''one-handed'' at high speed.
** If Cloud doesn't count because of all his mako enhancements, then Tifa most definitely does. She looks like a waif, but she can keep pace with Jenova-enhanced [[Super Soldier|Super Soldiers]], and unlike Cloud, she has [[Badass Normal|nothing going for her but]] [[Bare-Fisted Monk|her martial arts training.]]
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* Bun-Bun from ''[[Sluggy Freelance]]'' is a [[Killer Rabbit]] about the same size as a plushy, and about as soft. Doesn't stop him from [http://www.sluggy.com/daily.php?date=980122 kicking] [http://pics.sluggy.com/daily.php?date=991128 serious] [http://www.sluggy.com/daily.php?date=090512 ass].
* ''[[The Inexplicable Adventures of Bob]].'' Molly's alien pet Snookums is about the size of a basketball, but began as a [[Kaiju|giant monster]] before getting [[Incredible Shrinking Man|shrunk.]] He retains all his original mass, so the ground shakes when he hops around, and he can defeat much larger opponents simply by hopping into them.
* [http://adventurers.keenspot.com/d/20020114.html Discussed] in ''[[Adventurers!]]''
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* [[Johnny Bravo]], despite being a muscular [[Top-Heavy Guy]], is regularly shown to be beaten by people at the most half his size.
* [[Dave the Barbarian]] is a very tall muscular guy but he's a total wuss who can't fight worth a damn and always gets his ass kicked by people and animals smaller than him.
* On ''[[Total Drama Island]],'' shrimpy, geeky [[Dogged Nice Guy|Cody]] seems to have super strength. Aside from his [[Crowning Moment of Awesome]] knocking out [[Jerkass|Duncan]] in one punch, in TDDDDI he was hanging off a cliff, holding up himself, the muscular Tyler, the even-more-muscular DJ, ''and'' almost-three-hundred-pound [[Big Eater]] Owen. Shockingly, he was actually able to pull up all of their weight (though the cliff edge couldn't, which is why they fell anyway).
* In ''[[Silverhawks]]'', [[Genius Bruiser]] [[Brother-Sister Team|twins]] Steelheart and Steelwill exemplify this perfectly. Steelwill is huge and brawny, to the point his facemask looks like a ''football helmet''. Steelheart looks like a very athletic woman, but even she looks positively tiny next to her brother. And yet, they're equally strong and evenly matched in any physical contest, making Steelwill's towering bulk look... ''inefficient'' next to his sleeker, more compact sibling.
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