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{{trope}}
{{quote|''"Sometimes the best way to deal with [[The Caligula|a mad]] [[The Nostalgia Critic|man]] [[Shout-Out|is to]] [[Demolition Man|send in]] [[Mad Scientist|another]] [[The Spoony Experiment|madman]]..."''
|'''[[The Angry Joe Show|Angry Joe]]''', ''[[Kickassia]]''}}
[[Sub-Trope|Of course]] there is [[Always a Bigger Fish]], but sometimes they aren't willing to just pop up out of nowhere and get you out of the current mess. That's where this trope comes in. Summon Bigger Fish is when you get another monster/god/whatever [[Let's You and Him Fight|to fight the current one]], and hope once the smoke is cleared the one you just called will leave you alone, or at least be weakened enough by the fight to be taken out with less insane tactics. Sadly, the odds that doing this only makes things worse is actually almost 50/50 -- [[Evil Is Not a Toy]], after all—but then again, once you've crossed the [[Godzilla Threshold]], '''[[Forbidden Chekhov's Gun|anything]]''' is a viable option.
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Named for a [[Running Gag]] in ''[[Darths and Droids]]''.
Since the Bigger Fish is not necessarily very tractable, this may devolve into recursion on [[Swallowing a Spider]], especially in [[Black Comedy]].
Compare [[Awakening the Sleeping Giant]], [[Did You Just Punch Out Cthulhu?]], [[Let's You and Him Fight]], [[Enemy Mine]].
{{examples}}
▲== Anime & Manga ==
* It doesn't seem that way in ''[[Neon Genesis Evangelion]]'' until it turns out that {{spoiler|the Evas are clones of the Angels}}.
* In ''[[Higurashi no Naku Koro ni]]'' the heroes eventually need to {{spoiler|call the Banken, a military group, for assistance against the weaker Yamainu}}.
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** In ''[[Digimon Tamers]]'', Takato orders Guilmon, both enraged by the murder of {{spoiler|Leomon}}, to evolve to the Ultimate form in order to revenge-kill Beelzemon. The result is [[Olympus Mons|Megidramon]], whose very existence threatens to cause the Digital World to collapse... and [[It Got Worse|Beelzemon thrashes him anyway]].
** The fight between Marcus and {{spoiler|Thomas}} in ''[[Digimon Savers]]'', when {{spoiler|Thomas betrays DATS}}, has their partners ShineGreymon and {{spoiler|1=MirageGaogamon}} roughly equal in strength, and so an attempt by Marcus to invoke the more powerful Burst Mode is influenced by his rage at {{spoiler|Thomas' betrayal}}; this results in ShineGreymon Ruin Mode, who runs wild before reverting to a DigiEgg; {{spoiler|1=Thomas and MirageGaogamon}} are forced to retreat.
* In ''[[Hellsing]]'' we have the enslaved vampire Alucard who works for the Hellsing organisation hunting vampires. Since all vampires are a universally psychopathic, obsessive race who commit slaughter for fun and are almost unstoppable to a regular human, Alucard is no exception, except he has the power of a ''[[Physical God]]'', and there is literally ''nothing'' that can stop him, with very few exceptions. In OVA III, he gladly shreds a small army of innocent police officers because they (correctly) thought that he was an insane serial killer. The only thing that differentiates him from a far more dangerous version of what Hellsing is fighting is that he's honour-bound to serve [[
* The World Government in ''[[One Piece]]'' get it in their heads that the only way to compete with the power held by the big wig pirates in the new world is to enlist the Seven Warlords of the Sea, who are essentially government sanctioned pirates, to fight for their side. So essentially, they're privateers. If you'll recall many of the most famous pirates started out privateers and then were retconned into pirates by the governments withdrawing support. In One Piece, that happened backwards.
* [[He Who Fights Monsters|Quent]] in ''[[Wolf's Rain|Wolfs Rain]]'' fights wolves with Blue... Who's a wolf. Well, half-wolf half-dog, but she looks exactly like one. To be fair, he also uses a shotgun.
* Yumi in [[Magical Idol Pastel Yumi]] stops a swarm of bees by creating a giant bee.
== [[Comic Books]] ==▼
▲== Comic Books ==
* When he's not being used as a villain, this is the major role played by [[Marvel Comics]] character Galactus—the [[Fantastic Four (Comic Book)|Fantastic Four]] have summoned him to defeat cosmic villains like the Sphinx, his rogue herald Terrax, Hyperstorm, and Abraxas, and various space-based franchises have used the character for this as well.
** Reed Richards has also [[What the Hell, Hero?|been called out on this a few times]], most notably being put on trial by an alien civilization.
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* In [[Hellblazer]]'s ''All His Engines'', John Constantine is charged with killing several demons. He succeeds by feeding them to an Aztec god.
** Similarly, an early arc has a cult succeed in summoning a truly ancient dragon-god by creating a lesser fear-deity. In this case, the dragon-god summons itself to eat the lesser god.
** John must really like this strategy. In the ''Dangerous Habits'' story arc, he's already pissed off the [[Satan|First of the Fallen]], who's waiting for him to die of cancer, so John summons two ''other'' Lords of Hell and {{spoiler|sells his soul to BOTH of them without the other knowing}}. Which leads to an early CMOA for Johnny, as he gets to [https://web.archive.org/web/20120205031858/http://www.whiterose.org/pete/blog/images/upyours.gif flip off all three of them] and walk away smiling.
* In the Season 8 comic-book continuation of ''[[Buffy the Vampire Slayer]]'', Buffy and her slayers are depowered and must fight against the US Army. When all hope seems lost, Buffy summons the goddesses they had previously given their power to in a (ultimately vain) attempt to hide. The goal is two-fold: to have the ginormous goddesses attack the army, and to get their powers back. The plan backfires, however, as not only do the slayers not get their power back, but the goddesses attack both group indiscriminately. Buffy is finally able to defeat the goddesses after gaining Superman-like powers.
* In one episode of ''De Rode Ridder'' (The Red Knight), goddess of light Galaxa does away with god of darkness Bhaal by summoning what is hinted to be [[Satan]] himself. (Yes, ''De Rode Ridder'' is that much of a [[Fantasy Kitchen Sink]].)
* During the DC's ''Our World At War'' storyline, in order help defeat the forces of Imperiex, Doomsday is released from the can Superman had sealed him in.
* ''Deff Skwadron'' had a mission to catch a [[Instant Messenger Pigeon|squigeon carrying enemy battle plans]]. When it was about to reach the destination despite all their <s>mukkin' about</s> best effortz, [[Smart Guy|Gimzod]] released something much bigger (and uglier) - a "squig-hawk". Of course, there was a reason "why [[The Beast Master|the Runtherdz]] wuz so willin' to give 'im to us"...
== [[Fan Works]] ==▼
* ''[
▲== Fan Works ==
▲* [http://www.fanfiction.net/s/209834/1/Godzilla_vs_Cthulhu Godzilla vs Cthulhu] is a clear example.
* ''[[Nobody Dies]]'' gives us Cthulhu vs ADAM.
* ''[[The Unity Saga]]'' contains an example, when {{spoiler|Thrawn advises the Alliance (or, at that point, New Republic) forces to engage a third (& very hostile) party. He then orders them all to withdraw, at which point a Borg fleet, at his behest, decimates the third party.}}
* ''[[Luminosity]]'' has Bella do this to establish her as a [[Guile Hero]]ine. James is going to kill her, but has enough flair for the dramatic to leave her alive long enough to talk. She convinces him to take her to the Volturi, who rule vampires and don't like being disturbed.
* In ''The Secret Collocation of Alex Mack'', a story that is part of ''[[The Teraverse]]'', [[The Dresden Files|Harry Dresden]] describes a tactic used by Terawatt and Stormburst as "Summon Bigger Fish", and actually [[Conversational Troping|makes a comment in his narration about explanations for the "trope-deficient".]]
== [[Film]] ==▼
▲== Film ==
* ''[[Clash of the Titans]]'', as well as the legend of Perseus, was him using Medusa's head to defeat the kraken.
** Although in the original Greek myths, it's a sea serpent (kraken are from Germanic/Norse myth and legend—they're in the movie because of [[Rule of Cool]]).
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{{quote|'''Aereon:''' ''In normal times, evil would be fought by good. But in times like these, well, it should be fought by another kind of evil.''}}
== [[Literature]] ==▼
▲== Literature ==
* Daine attempts this in ''[[Tortall Universe|Wild Magic]]'' with an enormous kraken. Despite her apprehensions, it works out pretty well.
** To clarify: Daine summoned it knowing that she wouldn't be able to send it away again - it's too powerful and - more importantly - too intelligent to be fully controlled by her wild magic. However, she took a calculated risk, keeping in mind that she had a pair of seriously overpowered magical allies, who were merely out of the game for a while. Sure enough, once they've recovered, they're able to 'convince' the Kraken to go home again.
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** Bonus points because, even though there are strict rules forbidding the spirit of his solution, [[Aint No Rule|they only apply when such spells are cast on humans]].
* [[Jim Butcher|Same author]], different series: In the final book of the ''[[Codex Alera]]'', Tavi has to find a way to deal with the insanely dangerous Vord Queen, while at the same time she's putting a lot of effort into dealing with ''him''. He just plain old ''can't'' face her head-on. So he {{spoiler|flies up to the summit of Garados and deliberately irritates the Great Fury.}} Chaos ensues. {{spoiler|But hey, it did work in the end.}}
* ''[[Discworld]]'':
** In
** This done with confidence tricksters is essentially the plot of ''[[
** Also referred to in ''[[
* Near the end of ''[[Wolves of Mercy Falls Series|Shiver]]'', the protagonists determine that [[Our Werewolves Are Different|lycanthropy]] may be curable through {{spoiler|elevating the victim's internal body heat to extreme levels, comparable to a massive fever.}} They attempt to do this by {{spoiler|injecting two victims with bacterial meningitis}} Results? {{spoiler|Mixed. One character is cured, the other dies from the meningitis.}}
* Used in one ''[[Cthulhu Mythos]]'' story. The protagonists in the story are investigating a series of unusual events, the cause of which turns out to be an avatar of Nyarlathotep. They find some notes left by a professor with experience in the mythos that came to the place before them and was killed. The notes contain instructions on how to perform a ritual to summon the Great Old One Cthugha, so that the two beings (who apparently don't like eachother) will fight, resulting in both being banished. The notes also suggest that as soon as the ritual is complete, everybody should get at least several miles away from the site.
* In ''[[
** When the centaurs are about to turn on Harry and Hermione, [[Always a Bigger Fish|Grawp]] appears, looking for Hagrid, and gets into a fight with the centaurs, allowing Harry and Hermione to escape.
* In [[Stanislaw Lem]]'s ''[http://books.google.com/books?id=NwJbse1KaDMC&printsec=frontcover&dq=mortal+engines&hl=en&ei=Z81ITfOAHMP78AanxbHLBg&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result=2&ved=0CCsQ6AEwAQ#v=onepage&q&f=false The Tale of the Computer That Fought a Dragon]'', a robot king accidentally makes a robot dragon; he gets his battle computer to get rid of it—which, of course, it does by making larger and larger robot dragons. Eventually the computer tries to turn itself into an electrosaur and rule the planet, but the king hits it with his slippers and it accidentally turns itself into electrosauce. So Yeah.
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* The main premise of ''[[Forgotten Gods]]''. The characters ask the [[Fair Folk]] for help, and it [[Gone Horribly Right|goes horribly right]].
== [[Live-Action TV]] ==▼
▲== Live-Action TV ==
* ''[[Primeval]]'' has what has to be one of the most epic uses of this trope: Lester is chased by a future predator. He can't defeat it, so he manages to make his way back to the main room of the ARC and tells Leek, who's commanding it, that since he won't beg for his life, Leek may as well just kill him now. Unknown to Leek, Lester opened the door to the cage holding a giant freaking mammoth. Said mammoth does not like the future predator. [[Curb Stomp Battle|Said mammoth]] [[Impaled with Extreme Prejudice|kills the future predator with extreme prejudice.]]
* Played by the villain Crustaceans in the final episodes of ''[[Big Bad Beetleborgs]]''. In response to the Beetleborgs finally acquiring the giant Roboborg, the Crustaceans respond by creating the equally giant Boron.
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* An inversion occurs in ''[[Star Trek: Voyager]]'' when the Borg ask for Janeway's help in eliminating Species 8472.
== [[Music]] ==▼
▲== Music ==
* The children's song "The Old Woman Who Swallowed a Fly", wherein the woman in question keeps [[Extreme Omnivore|swallowing bigger and bigger animals]] to catch the one she swallowed before. Ultimately, {{spoiler|she swallows a horse. She dies, of course.}}
== Multimedia ==
* Kongu did this in ''[[Bionicle]]'', during the Pit story. He used his Mask of Summoning to summon a giant [[Eldritch Abomination]]-style Rahi to kill a 300-foot Matoran-eating Eel. It was an interesting battle. This is pretty much Kongu's mask power, to summon monsters ... the only problem is he doesn't get to control the monster ... nor can he choose what monster arrives.
** And this ends up biting him and the other Toa in the ass later on, as the Rahi and the Eel team up with each other and the mutated Gadunka during the [[Melee a Trois]] at the end of that arc.
== Mythology ==
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* One Indian folktale was about a king whose palace was constantly infested by mice. The king then orders his servants to send in cats to get rid of the mice, but then the king gets fed up with the cats, and first tries to get rid of the cats with dogs, then tigers, and finally an elephant. When the king becomes annoyed with the elephant, the servants get rid of it with yes, a mouse.
** Made into a [[Looney Tunes]] [[wikipedia:Dime to Retire|short]]
== [[Newpaper Comics]] ==
* In ''[[FoxTrot]]'', Paige is writing a fairy tale where she is a self-insert. Her character comes across a [[Sealed Evil in a Can|trapped troll]] that suspiciously looks like Jason, and is faced with the choice of freeing it or hoping a boar would come along and eat it. The last panel is Paige asking if they make "boar whistles" that work, presumably, like dog whistles.
== [[Tabletop Games]] ==▼
* Pretty much what the whole ''Summoner'' type of wizard is about in ''[[Dungeons
▲== Tabletop Games ==
▲* Pretty much what the whole ''Summoner'' type of wizard is about in ''[[Dungeons and Dragons]]''; note that as such wizards become more powerful, the category "monster" may include summoning intelligent creatures from other planes of existence, such as dragons, angels, demons and genie. A necromancer on the other hand may summon various types of undead to deal with whatever troubles him. The druid can summon giant animals, elemental spirits and dinosaurs to do his bidding.
** As most creatures a summoner can summon are only about half as strong as the caster at best, this is more of a case of summoning a swarm of ''smaller'' fish.
*** Until he learns Gate (one of the most powerful spells in the core game), which allows the summoning of monsters considerably stronger than the ones the players would expect to fight.
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** Thankfully a summoned creature can not summon more creature. However, there is a slightly different form of summoning called "calling", and called creatures can call more creatures as powerful as themselves with the notorious ''gate'' spell. A rules exploit commonly called "chain gating".
** In First Edition ''AD&D'' Pit Fiends were powerful lower-plane monsters (Devils) who among their many abilities included the use of the Gate spell at will, including being able to summon other Pit Fiends with it, with no specific limitations.
* A similar version of this could happen in older versions of ''[[Warhammer Fantasy Battle]]'' and ''[[Warhammer
** This currently possible again in the Storm of Magic expansion with scrolls of binding that allow you call in any monster from the earlier rulebooks, including greater daemons, as well some monsters created for the expansion. These monsters are "biggest fish" available, including stronger version of the greater daemons, a supersized giant, a giant mammoth, and super versions of the dragons, some of which can be made lord level wizards. This is more balanced than old means of bringing out bound daemons since the controlling player has to pay for the monsters in point cost like they do everything else.
** A variation of this trope occurs in the Warhammer40000 background: with [[Horde of Alien Locusts|Hive Fleet Leviathan]] rapidly closing in, the higher-ups of the Imperium decided to divert the swarm into an Ork-held star system as a last-ditch delaying effort. As of the current fluff, they're still going at it, but Imperial generals (rightly) fear that whoever wins will have become ''much'' stronger, and will be coming after them next...
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* ''[[Exalted]]'' Sorcerers can do this as well, albeit in a slow and complicated fashion, by summoning and binding demons. Terrestrial Sorcerers can at most bind First Circle Demons, which are easily on par with most Terrestrial-level fighters one-on-one. Celestial Sorcerers can summon and bind Second Circle demons, the pinnacle of which is represented by Octavian, the Living Tower, who rules a quarter of Hell and is not a Third Circle only by a technicality. Third Circle Demons are, well... One of them is Ligier, the Green Sun (literally). His ''sword'' is an army in and of itself, with its own stats; if you can defeat it, he calls you a worthy foe and offers you a chance to walk away. Anyone foolish enough to actually fight him can explicitly only win by [[Deus Ex Machina|Storyteller fiat]].
== [[Video Games]] ==▼
▲== Video Games ==
* ''[[Scribblenauts]]'' will allow you to put God vs Cthulhu.
** You can also summon an Arapaima if you literally just want a bigger fish.
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** An antagonistic, [[Well-Intentioned Extremist|but not evil]], example occurs for the final battle of ''The Lost Age'', wherein the ''heroes'' are the "Big Fish". So, what Bigger Fish does {{spoiler|the Wise One}} summon to stop them? Why, {{spoiler|a three-headed dragon made from their parents, of course!}} The heroes win, obviously, but the intention was still there.
** Part of ''[[Golden Sun: Dark Dawn]]'' revolves around you hunting down and activating the biggest [[BFG]] in Weyard's history so it can be used to destroy {{spoiler|the Grave Eclipse; which has blanketed half the world in darkness, from which [[Demonic Spiders]] are appearing to kill everything.}}
* In the ending of the normal path in ''[[Soul Nomad and The World Eaters]]'', the heroes face the finalboss, three [[Physical
* In ''[[Monster Hunter]] Tri'', A relatively low-level monster known as the Qurupeco has the ability to mimic the calls of other monsters and summon them to it's aid. In higher-level hunts, this usually involves monsters ''much'' nastier than it is.
== [[Web Comics]] ==
* ''[[Darths and Droids]]'' is the [[Trope Namer]], but the comic itself never actually invokes the trope (except in an out-of-continuity bonus strip).
** And then "Episode 1655: Summon [[Bavarian Fire Drill|Bigger Phish]]".
* In ''[[8-
* ''[[Nukees]]'' Gav, when in the after life and faced with a giant snake, decides to summon the god of alcohol, who has sworn to kill Gav.
* After [[Killer Rabbit|Bun-Bun]] first shows up in ''[[Sluggy Freelance]]'' Torg and Riff try to get rid of him by hiring a grizzly bear to be the new [[Team Pet]], on the condition that he gets rid of Bun-Bun first. Turns out grizzly bear < mini lop.
* ''[[Mezzacotta|Lightning Made Of Owls]]'' has [http://www.mezzacotta.net/owls/?comic=123 Summon Bigger Cthulhu]. As if one wasn't enough.
* When Mike of ''[[
* This happens in ''[[Walkyverse|It's Walky!]]'' when SEMME is attacked by the Britjas (British ninjas; don't ask). After getting fought to a stalemate, they use the Power Booster Rod (a tree branch containing absurd amounts of extradimensional energy; again, don't ask) to summon The Wanderer, a being with god-like power who is ''very'' interested in keeping dimensional travelers ''out'' of his dimension. The Britjas are travelers from another dimension. Guess what happens.
* Done as [[Parody]] in ''[[Nodwick]]'', the heroes are going to make a barbeque for the locals so they go out hunting, first thing they catch is a rabbit, then they use that one and everything they caught to go up to
* Done in ''[[Grim Tales from Down Below]]''. Twice. The first time wasn't so effective and the second time got [[Mega Manning|copied]] and lost the effectiveness of his best attack. Then the monster got [[One-Winged Angel|serious]] {{spoiler|only to be beaten by [[The Power of Love]].}}
* ''[[Dominic Deegan]]'' pulls this off [https://web.archive.org/web/20130424083107/http://www.dominic-deegan.com/view.php?date=2011-02-17 here]
* Done to some interesting effect an early ''[https://web.archive.org/web/20170330180045/http://www.applevalleycomic.com/2008/the-apple-of-chaos-page-17/ Apple Valley]''. In an attempt to counter a giant rampaging Apple of Chaos (evil cousin to The Apple of Discord), Doctor Hubris uses a magic wish to summon Gayzilla from a [https://web.archive.org/web/20181126201349/http://www.theappleofdiscord.com/ sister comic] by the same author. A careful read-through of the archives shows that Gayzilla did
* What do you say to an angry god to keep from getting killed? If you're a character in ''[[User Friendly]]'', the answer is "[[Cthulhu Mythos|Hastur]] [[Speak of the Devil|Hastur Hastur]]."
* ''[[Vexxarr]]'' occasionally does this. At least, when he's desperate (more than usual) or knows how to get rid of the "bigger fish" later. Alas, [http://www.vexxarr.com/archive.php?seldate=101615 Lattroxx Dreadnought]... we [http://www.vexxarr.com/archive.php?seldate=101915 hardly knew ye].
== [[Web
* In ''[[Kickassia]]'', the resistance invoke this trope onto {{spoiler|[[The Spoony Experiment|Spoony]]}}, convincing him to {{spoiler|give into the Dr. Insano inside him}} to combat [[Drunk with Power|the Nostalgia Critic]].
** Note that [[Atop the Fourth Wall|Linkara]] thought it was a stupid plan and asked if [[The Angry Joe Show|Angry Joe]] was high when he planned it. {{spoiler|Also, it didn't work and indirectly caused Santa Christ's death.}}
* ''[[Things Mr. Welch Is No Longer Allowed to Do In An RPG]]'' include this:
{{quote|583. Can't intimidate the evil wizard just by constantly summoning bigger versions of what he's just summoned.}}
== [[Western Animation]] ==▼
▲== Western Animation ==
* In the "Super Best Friends" episode of ''[[South Park]]'' David Blaine has brought the giant stone statue of [[Abraham Lincoln]] to life and it is terrorizing Washington D.C. The SBFs solution: build a giant stone statue of John Wilkes Booth, which sneaks up behind the Lincoln statue and shoots it in the back of the head.
* In the first segement of ''[[Futurama]]'': "Anthology of Interest I", a [[Attack of the 50-Foot Whatever|500-foot Bender]] is attacking New New York City. According to Prof. Farnstworth, the only thing that could stop him would be "an even more ''equally'' big monster", and so he [[Make My Monster Grow|uses his growth ray on Zoidberg]] to battle him.
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* From an episode of ''[[Ben 10: Ultimate Alien|Ben 10 Ultimate Alien]]''. After getting it handed to her pretty well by her crazy, full anodite cousin Sunny, Gwen admits she can't beat her. And promptly calls her ''other'' full anodite relative, her Grandma Verdona, who easily puts Sunny in her place.
** Done in the original series too, during Secret of the Omnitrix. When Vilgax and his giant robots are set to annihilate Ben and his friends, Azmuth unlocks Way Big, Ben's strongest alien form, a giant who throws Vilgax into space like a softball.
== [[Real Life]] ==
* Has happened a few times with invasive species. An example is in Australia, where rabbits had become a serious problem, so foxes were imported to try and kill the rabbits. As often with this trope, the foxes became a problem in themselves, while having little effect on the Rabbits.
** While we're on the subject of rabbits, it's theorized that the reason they [[Cute but Cacophonic|scream bloody murder]] when seized by a predator is because it just might invoke this trope, causing a rival predator to intervene and giving the rabbit a slim chance to get away.
** Also, [[wikipedia:Dinoflagellate|dinoflagellates]] [https://web.archive.org/web/20120510074733/http://www.cracked.com/article/143_8-ingenious-ways-animals-outsmart-predators/?wa_user1=5&wa_user2=Science&wa_user3=article&wa_user4=recommended light up when they are being eaten,] in order to literally summon a bigger fish (that presumably does not eat dinoflagellates) to consume their current attacker.
* Can often happen in geopolitical situations as well. See, for example, the U.S. supporting mujaheddin in Afghanistan.
* A reason a great many people in many nations supported Nazi Germany was because they wanted to build it up to oppose the U.S.S.R.
** The best example that comes to mind if Finland. The Soviets were looking over the border and licking their lips, and soon enough invaded. The
** It also applies later in [[World War Two]] when the Nazis showed their true colors and the US and Britain backed Stalin against Hitler.
* The Aztec and Incan empires were so brutal to the peoples they ruled that many of the lesser Indian nations were more than willing to join the conquistadores in conquering those empires.
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* [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LU8DDYz68kM A very popular video] shows some lions attacking a wildebeest calf near a watering hole. The struggles of the calf in the water attract a crocodile, which tries to fight the lions for their prey and gives the calf a chance to escape. However, the crocodile loses and the lions are about to set upon the calf. Then the entire wildebeest herd masses on them...
* When Kuwait was invaded by Iraq and completely overwhelmed, it resorted to asking the United States to push Iraq out knowing America had interests in it. This mostly worked as intended, with America and its coalition allies [[Curb Stomp Battle|beating Iraq easily]] despite initial fears, though Iraq getting desperate during the coalition air campaign pummeling for weeks sadly resulted in them dumping a large amount of Kuwait's oil into the sea and setting its oil wells on fire in a desperate attempt to force the coalition to attack.
* At the Battle of Jutland action was opened with the two advance battle cruiser forces engaging. Then the Germans made a fighting retreat southward called in legend the [[Exactly What It Says on the Tin|Run to the South]]. The the British ran into the German battlefleet and turned and made-what else-the Run to the North until they met their own battleships. Whereupon the summoning of bigger fish came to an end and they just hammered at each other.
* Anytime someone sues someone else -- especially someone otherwise stronger than they are. Or any victim who calls the police. Basically anyone who tries to use the state in some trouble they have gotten into, is trying to summon bigger fish.
{{reflist}}
[[Category:Bigger Is Better]]
[[Category:Action Adventure Tropes]]
[[Category:Index to The Rescue]]
▲[[Category:Summon Bigger Fish]]
[[Category:Did You Just Index Cthulhu]]
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