Pint-Sized Powerhouse: Difference between revisions
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* Yugi Mutou, from ''[[Yu-Gi-Oh (anime)|Yu-Gi-Oh]]''. Granted he does have an extremely powerful alter ego in his head {{spoiler|but the final episode of the series proved that he could kick ''his'' ass as well.}}
* Daikichi Komusubi of the [[Eyeshield 21|Deimon Devilbats]] is 4'11. And a lineman. He's regularly holding off, or even pushing back, larger, more intimidating players, and speaks/writes in a language known as "Power-Go", which only 'truly strong men' can comprehend.
* ''[[One Piece]]''
** Luffy
*** To be fair Luffy isn't actually short, his height is about average (172 cm). There are just [[Large and In Charge|a lot]] of big mofos walking around the One Piece world (and that's not even counting the [[Our Giants Are Bigger|giants]]).
*** He would be somewhat average in [[Real Life]] but seeing that he is shorter than almost every other character, there's no way he's average in his fictional world. Thus, he fits this trope to a T.
** Zoro when he was little. [[Posthumous Character|Kuina]] even moreso.
** Played straight with the Tontatta dwarfs, an entire species of this Trope. These tiny people average only about six inches tall but far stronger than the average human. One dwarf can flatten an average sized house with a single punch, while a group of about 20 of them were able to move an entire factory by pushing it.
* ''[[Blame]]!'' has a weapon example. Gravitational Beam Emitter is some of the smallest weapon in the series and really small even in today's standard. The firepower, on the other hand, [[Wave Motion Gun|can put]] [[Lyrical Nanoha|Divine Buster]] [[Weapon of Mass Destruction|to shame]].
* The Power Card in ''[[Cardcaptor Sakura]]''. This card spirit takes the form of a fluffy-looking, pink-clad little girl. (Who can't be any more than 3 feet tall.) But she has the strength of several grown men, and proves to be an immense challenge to Sakura.
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* Young Scrooge in ''[[The Life and Times of Scrooge McDuck]]''. He is only half the size of most other ([[Petting Zoo People|dog-nosed]]) characters, but he fights like a force of nature. And for that matter, also [[Disney Ducks Comic Universe|Old Scrooge]], his [[Donald Duck|nephew Donald]] and some other members of their family show tendencies in that direction.
* Molly 'Bruiser' Hayes from ''[[Runaways]]'' is a superstrong mutant and a preteen girl. Marvel's website actually named her the fourth toughest female on their roster, following [[She-Hulk]], [[Ms. Marvel]], and [[X-Men/Characters/80s Members|Rogue]].
* [[The Fantastic Four|Reed and Sue Richards']] toddler son [[Goo-Goo Godlike|Franklin]] is, according to the Living Tribunal, the most powerful [[Reality Warper]] in the cosmos, although because he ''is'' a child, he has a very hard time controlling it.
* Taken [[Up to Eleven]] by Leezle Pon of the [[Green Lantern Corps]], who is not just small, he is ''microscopic'', being a super-evolved and sentient smallpox virus. Due to the deadly disease he can cause, he can't attend many GLC meetings or gatherings, but he played a pivotal role in defeating Despotellis, [[Evil Counterpart| a similar, evil virus]].
== [[Fan Works]] ==
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== [[Literature]] ==
* In ''[[Discworld]]'' the smaller races (such as the Nac Mac Feegle and the Dwarves) are explicitly stronger than humans because all the same amount of physical strength is focused into a smaller body.
** And then there are the Clan from ''[[
* The Gallivespians in ''[[His Dark Materials]]'' are a few inches high, but they have poisonous barbs on their heels that make them deadly in a fight. You do not want to mess with one.
* Reepicheep and his relatives in ''[[The Chronicles of Narnia]]'', though they teamed up sometimes as well. A common tactic involved slashing various tendons and then, when the taller opponent fell, a quick slash across the throat.
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** We also have the Red King, who is slightly over five feet and is quite possibly the single most [[Badass]] vampire in the world, with the only possible exceptions being the Kings of the other two courts at full power {{spoiler|or rather, he ''was''}}.
** Compared to all of his enemies, Harry (and other Wizards) count as this. He regularly takes on things at the very ''least'' half his (admittedly greater-than-average) height again.
* In this corner, [[Forgotten Realms|Drizzt]], a 5'4 slender elf with a borderline babyface. In that corner, Wulfgar, a hulk of a man closer to seven feet than six, weathered and scarred, whose legs are nearly as thick as Drizzt's torso. Guess who is more dangerous in a fight. ([[Fridge Brilliance|A hint: one has been fighting for about twenty years, and is weathered and scarred. One has been fighting just as often for about sixty years, and...is not...]]) Drizzt also defeated a marilith in one story, a marilith being a high-ranking demonic general who is about seven feet tall with [[Multi-Armed and Dangerous|six arms using magical weapons]] and a wide variety of spellcasting powers.
** And then there's also Triel Baenre, daughter and successor of Old Matron Baenre, the [[Big Bad]] in many of the novels. While elves are not phisically imposing to begin with and dark elves are even considerably shorter, Triel is frequently described as being exceptionally short even by the standards of other dark elves, which puts her, as effective queen of the most powerful nation of an [[Exclusively Evil]] race, at a hight of about 4'7, or 1,45m. In contrast, her younger sister Quenthel is always described as very tall and muscular, but never has attempted to gain a [[Klingon Promotion]].
* In the ''[[Warlock of Gramaraye|Warlock in Spite of Himself]]'' series, the Wee Folk are [[The Fair Folk|to be feared]], Puck especially. And dwarfish Brom O'Berin can outfight nearly any man in Gramarye.
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* ''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 in a fight and her fellow Sisters and Vigilantes call her "the 90-pound stick of dynamite"!
* Jeremiah in ''[[Someone Else's War]]'' may be the youngest and tiniest [[Child Soldiers|child soldier]] in his squad, but he is also the most lethal in combat, partially ''because'' his enemies [[Truth in Television|cannot in good conscience bring themselves to kill a child]].
* From ''[[Harry Potter]]'':
** Harry himself, arguably. He's designed as skinny and scrawny, but well, he's the hero. Emphasized in the movies, as Daniel Radcliffe maxed out at a height of 5'5''.
** [[Cute Witch| Ginny]] is even shorter than Harry:
{{quote|'''George:''' "Yeah, size is no guarantee of power. Look at Ginny."
'''Harry:''' What d'you mean?"
'''George:''' "You've never been on the receiving end of one of her Bat-Bogey Hexes, have you?"}}
:* Dobby. Being a house elf, he's about three feet tall, but push him far enough, and he can use magic capable of knocking a dark wizard with Lucius Malfoy's skills off his feet.
:* Professor Flitwick has goblin blood in his family, and his short height shows it, yet he was a former Wizard Duel champion, and personally defeated Dolohov, {{spoiler| the dark wizard who murdered Remus Lupin.}}
:* Amusingly, Snape might qualify in original novels. He's stated to be shorter than Sirus, who according to ''[[Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows (novel)|Deathly Hallows]]'' is 5'9".
* Nine-year old [[Insistent Terminology|(Ahem! Nine and a ''half''.)]] Pippi Longstocking from [[Pippi Longstocking| the book series of the same name]]; exactly how strong she is varies depending on the book and adaptation, she's at least strong enough to lift her horse over her head with one hand. In one film adaptation, she lifts a large plank with her horse, Tommy, Annika, and several members of her dad's pirate crew on it.
== [[Live-Action TV]] ==
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** Buffy Summers, 5'3", and has fought gods.
** Faith LeHane, another slayer, 5'5", equally badass.
** [[Nubile Savage|Sineya]], the First of the Ones, was shorter than Buffy, but physically stronger.
* ''[[The Sarah Connor Chronicles]]'': Cameron is barely over five feet tall, and looks to weigh in at less than a hundred pounds. [[Robot Girl|And she will punch you through a wall without trying]].
* Djaq from ''[[Robin Hood (TV series)|Robin Hood]]''. A popular icon of her image includes the tagline: "and then I ripped his lungs out..."
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* May from ''[[Guilty Gear]]'' is a cute, child-like [[Pirate Girl]] who stands 4-foot-something, but uses ''her ship's anchor'' (which is as big as she is) as a weapon. Her pet dolphin may qualify too, as he's about the size of a surfboard and used by May as such, meaning it has to carry May ''and'' the anchor.
* The cuccos in various ''[[The Legend of Zelda]]'' games. Dear God, the cuccos.
** Any child variant of Link counts, but special mention goes to [[Wind Waker|Toon Link]]. Even Adult Link tends to be a David to Goliath-sized foes.
** Link takes it further in ''[[The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom]]''. One of the new abilities in this game is Fuse, which he can use to attach almost any item to his weapon; it can, for instance, be used on a boulder. Link can still effortlessly swing a Fused Weapon and use it to batter down certain stone walls.
* The Poison Headcrabs from ''[[Half-Life 2]]'' deplete your heath to one hit-point with a single bite. This is less due to the strength of their jaws and more the strength of their namesake poison, however.
* A metagame example from ''[[World of Warcraft]]''. Smaller character models are harder to select and thus attack. Of the player races, this means the very tiny Gnomes are particular nuisances. And since Gnomes can be both Warriors and Death Knights, they can also be stupidly powerful and durable. Goblins, who will be added in an upcoming expansion, will be much the same. Dwarves aren't nearly as small, but are still pretty shrimpy, and can be Warriors, Paladins, and Death Knights - all the main tanking classes besides Druid.
** That said, since the aforementioned expansion the only race that has ''all'' of the tanking classes available to them are the typically 8 foot tall Tauren.
** The Goblins are Gnome-sized greenskinned creatures who are pretty strong for their size. And insane to boot. ''And'' tough enough to repeatedly survive [[Captain Crash|piloting aircraft that crashes]] and [[Stuff Blowing Up|experiments that blow up in their faces]], both common problems with Goblin technology.
** Vulpera in the ''Battle for Azeroth'' expansion. Survivalists to the extreme, the typical Vulpera is gnome-sized, but can take down a [[Dumb Muscle|Naga brute]] without breaking a sweat. Mecha-gnomes are a sub-class of gnomes from the same expansion that can be even stronger, given their cybernetic limbs.
* Minion Soldier in ''[[Gunstar Heroes]]''.
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* Emilia, of ''[[Blaze Union]]''. She is eleven years old, just barely four feet tall, and is a [[Game Breaker|stupidly powerful]] [[Blood Knight]] who is capable of turning a one-sided battle in her enemies' favor into a complete rout... ''the first time she ever picks up a weapon.'' And that's not even getting into her [[Super-Powered Evil Side]]. At that given point in time, she is essentially the most powerful person in the world--{{spoiler|Gulcasa would be ''stronger than this'' if he ever lost control of his demon blood, but he never does}}.
* ''[[Super Mario Bros.]]'': Mario. He's 5'1" (Unless you go by the crossovers, where he's about 3'1"), chubby, with no visible muscles, but he can lift a castle and throw it to the side without breaking a sweat.
** Toad has always been a short-stack, but in ''[[Super Mario Bros 2]]'', he's the strongest of the four playable characters, able to pick up objects very quickly, and consequently, ''throw'' them very quickly. Unfortunately he's also the worst jumper.
* ''[[The Adventures of Sam & Max: Freelance Police]]'': Max is about three feet tall, but is incredibly dangerous. Hell, he once tore apart a demon in hell...with his bare hands!
* In ''[[City of Heroes]]'' there are a number of 3-foot tall tanks with the [[Flying Brick|Super Strength]] powerset.
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{{reflist}}
[[Category:{{PAGENAME}}]]
[[Category:Badass]]
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