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[[Exact Words|The operative words for this trope are "Just as".]]
It seems that there was an intelligence failure on the villain's part and he's failed to consult the [[Sorting Algorithm of Evil]] before attacking. As a result, the heroes have [[Took a Level
As a video game trope, an example would be a [[Final Boss Preview]] kicking your party's ass when you're level 10, but when you come back at level 20 he's a pushover. It can even occur in some games where [[Level Scaling|enemies level up as you do]], as long as there is a ''[[Cap|ceiling]]'' on how powerful they can get. This trope just means that after a certain point in time, you eventually outlevel the villains and curb-stomp them as a result.
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See Also: [[Sorting Algorithm of Villain Threat]]. Compare [[Strong as They Need to Be]] for an aversion, when the heroes are artificially weakened below the villain. Contrast [[Villain Decay]], where a villain becomes less threatening for potentially less well-defined reasons, and [[Lowered Monster Difficulty]]. Might overlap with [[Degraded Boss]], whether on purpose or not.
{{examples}}
== Anime and Manga ==
* When Ryoga finally manages to find his way back to Tokyo in ''[[Ranma ½]]'', he immediately challenges Ranma again. Who has spent the whole time having to fight several extremely strong opponents, most prominently Cologne. So the challenge turns into a [[Curb Stomp Battle]]. Ryoga turns out to be [[Genre Savvy]] enough to just ask Cologne to help him. And since Ryoga wants to marry Akane and Cologne wants to prevent Ranma from marrying Akane so he can marry Shampoo instead, she's quite willing to help rather literally help him [[Level Grind|grind]].
* Viral from ''[[Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann]]'' demonstrates the tendency of the trope to cross over with [[Ineffectual Sympathetic Villain]]. As dangerous as he is in his first appearance, he never goes ''down'' in personal capability (and improves with each appearance, in fact), but the heroes continually push [[Beyond the Impossible]], thus making poor Viral an increasingly weaker threat. {{spoiler|Until his [[Heel Face Turn]], anyway.}} It didn't help that all of his improvements went towards his mechas' swordsman abilities (instead of his ranged attacks), which were completely useless in their first battle.
* ''[[Dragon Ball]]''. Many examples.
** The Otherworld Tournament Saga. Almost every foe Goku had faced caused a riot in Hell. Goku and a green dude who we never see after this saga (AKA Paikuhan) go and beat their asses (Freeza and Cell are actually a threat at this point, but much less than they were when they were [[Big Bad]]s).
** Tao Pai Pai, who went from possibly the strongest human fighter on Earth and the first opponent to hand Goku a solid defeat early in the original ''Dragon Ball'' to a below-average enemy only able to defeat the weakest of the supporting cast before being beaten senseless by a mid-level supporting cast member in the Tournament Arc at the end of the series. When he appears again in ''Dragon Ball Z'' (albeit only in the anime), Goku is so out of Tao's league that he's basically a joke villain who spends the episode engaged in whacky hijinks trying (hilariously unsuccessfully) to outsmart Goku. When Tao realises Gohan is Goku's son (after using his signature move which didn't harm Gohan), he quickly flees.
** Pilaf. This little guy and his halfwit minions first appeared when the series was more gag-oriented. They would appear again when the series beginning to focus on action more, trying to steal Dragon Balls from Goku, right after he had become strong enough to defeat an army of terrorists ''single-handedly''. To say the battle was one-sided would be a bit of an understatement. The trio later invokes [[Cerebus Syndrome]] by releasing Demon King Piccolo, who was the incarnation of Kami's cast-off evil.
** Kwi, Dodoria and Zarbon were all part of Freeza's army and mostly took it easy as they conquered planets. All three were known to either have the same battle power as Vegeta or a far higher reading - that is, until Vegeta's battle on Earth. One by one, Vegeta manages to pick off Freeza's men, especially noting that his powers have gotten stronger as he was in more extreme fights than Freeza's men have been. Zarbon defeats Vegeta with ease once he transforms during their first fight and nearly kills him. After their second fight, Vegeta reminds Zarbon that a Saiyan's battle power increases every time they recover from a near-death situation, ultimately resulting in him killing Zarbon off with relative ease.
** A borderline example is when Freeza comes to Earth, only to be summarily sliced in half on arrival by Trunks - he did gain power due to cybernetic implants, it just wasn't enough.
** Played straight in ''[[Dragon Ball Z: Fusion Reborn]]'' when the forces of Hell break out, which includes a rightfully pissed off Freeza. He encounters Gohan and decides to take revenge on Goku using him as a proxy... only for Gohan to stun him with one punch and finish him with an energy blast.
** ''[[Dragonball GT]]'' has a similar plotline in the Super 17 Saga - while far more villains are actually focused on compared to ''Fusion Reborn'', all of them are killed with no effort whatsoever.
* Every monster from ''[[Claymore]]'' suffers from this. Justified by the fact that while the heroic [[Half-Human Hybrid]] ability increase with time and training, the full monsters are at the top of their power and thus unable to improve. One notable example is when monsters of the same power level are met before and after a long [[Level Grind]] sequence: the first was narrowly defeated after a long battle that took sacrifices, technique and luck, while the second one was defeated very easily.
* Kagura from ''[[Inuyasha]]'' nearly kills the eponymous character in her first two fights, but in the 3rd he's got a new ability that gets around her keeping him from using his best attacks, so he stomps her. Just about every other recurring villain in the series, however, also gets stronger as the series goes on, depending on whether they survive long enough for Inuyasha to get a new upgrade for the Tessiaga.
* Fate's minions in ''[[Mahou Sensei Negima]]'' fall under this pretty badly; in their first appearance, they're perfectly capable of taking on the noncombatants of Ala Alba despite being outnumbered. Unfortunately, the next time Ala Alba shows up, most of the girls have either done additional training or pactio'd and obtained powerful artifacts, leading to an ignominious defeat for the minions, who haven't really improved since last time. Fate himself, while still a legit threat, reveals that the concept of training is quite alien to him. {{spoiler|It shows, too. Every fight he has with Negi has Negi doing slightly better than beforehand until the final fight where Negi is doing a ''lot'' better and obviously has the advantage and WON.}}
* Most recurring villains in ''[[Naruto]]'' play this straight, stomping the cast in their first battle, but losing as the heroes become stronger. Spectacularly averted though, by [[Awesomeness By Analysis|Kabuto]], Orochimaru's [[Bastard Understudy]]. When he first appears he's a Jonin level threat, who could probably give Kakashi a decent fight. But after incorporating some of Orochimaru's remains into himself, and mastering ''[[Necromancer|Edo Tensei]]'' he's become a Kage-level threat with a small army of undead heroes and villains all prepared to [[Boss Rush]] the main cast. Between these moves, his ability to genetically engineer monsters like Manda II, and whatever else he's got up his reptilian sleeves he's gone from [[Combat Medic]], to part of a [[Big Bad Duumvirate]] alongside Tobi, the series' [[Big Bad]].
** And his latest revealed ability, {{spoiler|Snake Sage Mode}} even made [[The Ace|Itachi]] go [[Oh Crap]].
* ''[[Bleach]]'' has an aversion with Grand Fisher, who is barely defeated by Ichigo early in the series. He comes back, explicitly points out how he ''did'' remember to level grind, only to be [[Killed Off for Real]] by {{spoiler|Isshin Kurosaki}} in a [[Single-Stroke Battle]].
** Gillians could also play a straight example. The first one that shows up takes Ichigo and Uryu working together just to wound it bad enough that it runs away. Now the [[Villain Pedigree]] has shot up so many times that when Gillians appear, they're [[Giant Mook]]s and are only considered a threat if they're in large numbers.
* Most of the [[Big Bad]]s in ''[[Digimon Adventure]]'' require someone getting a new form that can beat them. The Dark Masters, however, didn't. In their first appearence, they take turns beating the stuffing out of the Digidestineds' Digimon, Piedmon defeating both their Megas with no effort at all. Well the Digidestineds' Digimon ''don't'' get new forms, so they get more experienced and stronger with the ones that do have. They beat MetalSeadramon and Machinedramon of them by wisely using WarGreymon's Dramon Destroyers, which are super effective on Dramon type Digimon. Puppetmon is downed in one hit from MetalGarurumon but Piedmon gets it the worst. Even though MagnaAngemon played a big role in his defeat, the same two Mega Digimon he effortlessly beat down before back him into a corner and force him to pull out his most underhanded trick. Even without them, the Ultimates in the Digidestineds' arsanal still manage to put up a good fight against him and once his trick is no longer of use, he gets his butt kicked. He saved himself for last but didn't bother getting stronger, so the Digidestined were able to catch up.
* The Pacifistas in ''[[One Piece]]''. Nigh-indestructible cyborgs that shoot lasers. The Strawhats were lucky to take down one of them. Cue the {{spoiler|Timeskip. Luffy one-shots one, and Zoro & Sanji double-team another. Though one hit from either of them would have been enough.}}
** Even moreso when it's revealed that {{spoiler|those two Pacifistas are ''the exact same ones'' the Straw Hats faced prior to being separated, and that more advanced models are now available.}}
** There's also Buggy the Clown. He's the first opponent Luffy actually had to work against (IE, fight lasted more than one chapter), and after an attempt at revenge in Logue Town, pretty much disappeared from sight. When he and Luffy meet again in Impel Down, the only thing that's different is the fact that his town-destroying Buggy (Cannon)Balls are now marble-sized. Since then, Buggy may have [[Took A Level In Badass| taken a ''few'' Levels in Badass]], but the problem is, [[Can't Catch Up|everyone else has taken about fifty.]]
* Actually averted in a case of the [[Pokémon (anime)|Pokémon]] anime, during the Diamond and Pearl season. Ash fights Roark twice; the first time he failed in an attempt to show Paul that he was a good trainer too ([[Failure Is the Only Option|but failed]]) and went for a rematch after an incident with the Pokémon fossils in Oreburgh City. This is especially noteworthy because Roark's Cranidos evolved into Rampardos, and when Ash tried to use a similar attack plan in their first match, Roark managed to easily turn it into his favor. Ash still won, but Roark certainly kept him on his toes the whole time.
==
* Mongul taught [[Superman]] his fighting style during the [[Enemy Mine]] known as ''Our Worlds At War''. During a later fight, Mongul claims that there's no way Supes can win, because Supes is the student while he is the master. Superman wipes the floor with him, explaining that he knows many other styles, like [[Rope a Dope]].
== Film ==
* ''[[The Matrix]]'' : This is a problem for the superhuman Agents after Neo becomes [[Physical God|The One]]. Even the upgraded Agents specifically created to fight The One aren't even able to land a hit on him and are quickly dispatched with minimum effort on Neo's part. Agent Smith also has this to a certain extent, as Neo is able to handily toss the individual Smiths around like ragdolls. It's just that there are more than a hundred Smiths and only one Neo. Also, Smith doesn't realize the [[Conservation of Ninjutsu]] is in effect. Once he wises up, he uses a single Smith {{spoiler|using the Oracle's power}} to fight Neo to a standstill {{spoiler|and eventually overpower - [[My Death Is Only the Beginning|but not defeat]] him.}}
== Literature ==
* In ''[[Worldwar]]'', a race of lizard-like aliens scouts out Earth during [[The Middle Ages|the 12th century]] and spends the next eight centuries preparing for an invasion. Problem is, their technology progresses ''very'' slowly, so they arrive on Earth in [[World War II|1942]] expecting to face knights and archers... and run right into tanks, machine guns, airplanes, and [[Atomic Hate|The Bomb]].
** The aliens actually were prepared for [[Crazy Prepared|ANYTHING]] they could conceive, and brought with them enough troops and weapons to conquer the expected target a thousand times plus anti-tank and anti-aircraft weapons and enough nukes to glass Earth, just in case. As it was, it was barely enough to force a draw after conquering half of the planet.
* At the beginning of ''[[The Wheel of Time]]'', [[The Chosen One|Rand]] is barely capable of killing one [[The Usual Adversaries|Trolloc]]. Fast forward three years and he's annihilating [[Beyond the Impossible|100,000 of them]] [[Physical God|by himself]].
** Myrddraal, the minor [[Humanoid Abomination]]s that act as [[Elite Mooks]] and field commanders for the Shadow get this too. In the first book, they're terrifying and treated as Run or Die, basically. In the next couple of books, they're still really tough, but the protagonists get better at dealing with them. Later in the series, they're only slightly harder to kill than Trollocs. Of course, this was foreshadowed in the first book- Moiraine explicitly points out that any even somewhat skilled channeler can beat them without much trouble, and by the midpoint of the series all the protagonists are either quite powerful channelers or have some other ability to put them on that level.
== Live-Action TV ==
* In the ''[[Star Trek]]'' series, when the Borg appear first they are unstoppable even by an entire fleet of Federation ships. However throughout the series, while the Federation periodically develop new technology designed to defeat the Borg, the Borg themselves don't seem to (despite their very ''raison d'etre'' being to improve technology), making them quite beatable by the time [[Star Trek: First Contact]] comes around.
** The Borg only improve through assimilation. They don't innovate. It's kind of hard to do when you don't allow individual thought.
** Then you have the ''[[Star Trek: Voyager|Voyager]]'' series finale, when the titular ship uses technology from 20 years in the future to [[One-Hit Kill]] Borg Cubes with the Cubes barely able to scratch the paint on the ship. Of course, the Borg have also assimilated the new tech, but haven't had time to implement it yet. Now imagine all Federation ships equipped with regenerative armor a hundred times more effective than shields and [[One-Hit Kill]] torpedoes that can pass through any shield.
* Notable in [[Buffy the Vampire Slayer]]. In the first season, the first [[Big Bad]], The Master, was shown as this terrifying, ancient vampire whose history of atrocities was enough to plague Buffy's nightmares and was able to easily imprison and torture Angel in an alternate universe. By series eight in the comic series, both had progressed to the point that a possessed Angel was able to shatter his skull when he was temporarily revived.
** In the same vein, the Turok-Han were an ancient and feared breed of vampires who were considered monsters even among ordinary vampires. Buffy's first encounter with one Turok-Han in "Bring on the Night" led to her being bashed around like a ragdoll and nearly getting killed. By the final battle with the First Evil, the Turok Hans' have decreased notably in performance. While the first Turok-Han forced Buffy to use every possible resource to defeat it the second time around, the later Turok-Han seem evenly matched against the newly activated Slayers and even normal humans such as Xander and Dawn. This was [[Lampshade]]d by creator [[Joss Whedon]] in his audio commentary for the episode, who acknowledged the continuity issue with the Turok Han's powers.
== Tabletop Games ==
* ''[[Magic: The Gathering]]'' has the skyships ''Weatherlight'' (the heroes) and ''Predator'' (the villains). When the two battle in Rath, the ''Weatherlight'' is outgunned and the heroes only escape through dumb luck. By the time of the Rathi Overlay in the ''Planeshift'' storyline, however, the ''Weatherlight'' had a more experienced crew and upgraded weaponry, and when the two skyships battled again, the ''Predator'' was thoroughly trounced.
* Can be invoked by good [[Min-Maxing|optimization tactics]] in any tabletop RPG that gives the players control over character creation. ''Will'' be invoked by [[Monty Haul]] gameplay. As such, this trope has the potential to be in most any tabletop RPG.
** It's also likely to happen literally. As the players level up monsters that were challenging will become jokes, and monsters that were once too powerful can be crushed beneath the player's heels. And theirs the possibility of evil [[Non-Player Character|NPCs]] either not levelling up as fast as the [[Player Character|PCs]] or not levelling up enough to keep up with the players' new powers. Some [[Game Master|GMs]] invoke this trope for dramatic effect.
== Video Games ==
=== Action Adventure ===
* In the original ''[[The Legend of Zelda (video game)|The Legend of Zelda]]'', a completely unaltered version of the level one boss returns guarding level seven. With the best sword in the
** This happens a lot in Zelda games, though often the boss will bring some of his friends the second time to offset his relative weakness. It still gets played straight sometimes, such as the {{spoiler|giant scorpion}} boss in ''[[The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword|The Legend of Zelda Skyward Sword]]'', which reappears later...after your sword has been upgraded to do double damage, making the boss much easier to kill.
* The ''[[Castlevania]]'' series gives us a few examples of this. Notably, some early bosses in ''[[Castlevania: Symphony of the Night|Symphony of the Night]]'', such as Slogra, Gaibon, Werewolf and Minotaur, [[Degraded Boss|are encountered later in the game, but with the same stats as before, and are considered normal, respawning enemies.]] Of course [[Took a Level
* ''[[A Day in Dracula's Life]]'' riffs on Dracula's
{{quote|'''Dracula''': Fucking useless-ass werewolf! I pay that bitch so much money to take down Belmont—th-that's it! He just lost his boss status; he's now a normal-ass enemy! Just like all those axe armors!}}
* The SA-X in ''[[Metroid]] Fusion''. Justified by the fact that it possesses the thing that can completely screw you (the Ice Beam) if you ever cross paths. Only after you get the Varia Suit (to block the freezing) and the Plasma Beam (to pierce the armor and hit the softer X core) it loses its edge against you and Samus is able to beat it.
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** The Naxxramas bosses go from Level 60 to Level 80 in Wrath of the Lich King (an expansion pack that focuses on the battle against the Scourge, which includes the residents of the dungeon), but in the 10-man versions, some of them have fewer hit points than their original 40-man counterparts. Ragnaros has recently returned at Level 85.
** Kael'thas actually ''devolved'' a few levels, between his appearance in the endgame raid Tempest Keep and his coda as the end boss of five-man Magister's Terrance.
** If you're an Alliance player, [https://www.wowhead.com/npc=139273/rixxa-fluxflame Rixxa Fluxflame] is a Boss you will first encounter in the Molten Core when you are on the questline to recruit the Dark Iron Dwarves. There, she's a [[Hopeless Boss Fight]] where you'll barely be able to scratch her, but doing about 10% damage causes her to retreat. When you meet her in The MOTHERLODE! dungeon - the last leg of the quest chain - she hasn't changed much, ''BUT'' you'll have four other players with you.
* ''[[Final Fantasy XI]]'': Averted in many fights. Instead of having the fights based off of your level, your level is restricted in several missions as well as optional "BCNM" fights. Recently most of the mission fights had this restriction removed, due to the lack of players willing to help as well as the [[Nintendo Hard|difficulty level]].
* In ''[[City of Heroes]]'', Frostfire, [["Wake
* "[[
** Subverted in While Guthix Sleeps and Ritual of the Mahjarrat quests. Despite being only Level 14 in the Temple of Ikov quest, [[Big Bad|Lucien]] becomes immensely powerful and obtains two god-weapons.
* In ''[[Maple Story]]'', normal Bosses play this Trope straight. Early Bosses like Zakhum become laughable easy for high-level characters. Elite Bosses, however, who appear randomly, have their levels adjusted for that of whatever map they spawn in. Meaning, for example, an Elite that appears on Gold Beach is a pushover for level 100 characters, but the same Elite appearing in the Minar Forest would be more than a challenge for the same level 100 character.
=== Puzzle Game ===
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** ''[[Final Fantasy VI]]'': Kefka from is an inversion of this trope. At the start of the game, he's a joke who bails from even the most basic blows Sabin can dish out. He does scale up in power very quickly due to his manipulation of the Espers the Empire controls to the point where he not only kills off the [[Anti-Villain]] and fubars the peace conference in Thamasa, but also overthrows his own boss, fubars the whole world, and rules over it like an [[Evil Overlord]].
*** Played straight with Ultros. The first time you meet him, he can one hit any of your party members. Later, most of your party members will be able to [[One-Hit Kill|one hit]] him.
** ''[[Final Fantasy VII]]'': The Midgar Zolom is a [[Total Party Kill
** In ''[[Final Fantasy VIII]]'', while enemies will level up with you, all the mandatory bosses have a level ceiling, that gradually increases throughout the game to 50. The optional bosses can still go all the way to level 100, though.
** In ''[[Final Fantasy Tactics]]'' the final boss will be a fair challenge if you just follow the story, but if you level grind enough to handle the [[Bonus Dungeon|Deep Dungeon]] you'll breeze right through the final encounters.
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* ''[[Skies of Arcadia]]'': A problem in the [[Directors Cut]] [[Game Cube]] version: The boss villains from the original game don't level with the players. The optional bosses do level, however.
* This is the intrinsic problem with Gym Leaders in [[Pokémon]]. The player has the ability to level grind after being beaten once, then come back and stomp the Leaders flat the next time around; the Leader has to stand there and take it.
** This becomes especially problematic in ''[[Pokémon Diamond and Pearl|Pokémon Platinum]]''; after the Elite Four, the player can explore the island where Battle Tower
** The Rival stands outside this building, where you can fight him on the weekends. His levels are also a little tough at first, but you quickly surpass him. There is a way to make him increase his levels, but you have to beat the Elite Four ''twenty times''.
* Darth Bandon from ''[[Knights of the Old Republic]]'' is such a powerful figure in his first appearance, in the tutorial level, that you aren't even given a ''chance'' to fight him. He appears later on as a not-particularly-tough boss. Calo Nord as well, especially if you count his first appearance, effortlessly stomping three Rodians. And your party, if you fight him in the cantina.
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* The Four Horsemen in ''[[Summoner]]''. You can run across them early in the game in random encounters, but you can't kill them. All you can do is try to survive and get their hitpoints down until they leave for some reason, and that's hella hard. When you reach them in the main storyline, much later, then you can kill them.
* Happens a few ways in ''[[Dragon Age]]''. While enemies level up in scale with you, many of them don't gain any new abilities, while the party does. Those new abilities are often able to even out or overcome the advantages that some of the tougher early-game enemies have.
** The first ogre you meet is a [["Wake
** Also, the Revenant. The first one is, most likely, going to be the toughest one of all. The thing is powerful, tough to kill, and likes to pull ranged attackers to it. Each subsequent one is slightly weaker due to your [[Level Grind]]. While none of them are truly weak, the last one you're likely to encounter will hardly give you any trouble.
** As far as individual characters go, [[That One Boss|Ser Cauthrien]] was an [[Hopeless Boss Fight|incredibly difficult encounter]] that you were meant to lose so that you could ultimately be captured. Fighting her before the Landsmeet, she's a medium difficulty boss that goes down with a minimum of fuss. Note that these can happen pretty close to each other, and in fact she's made physically weaker (and backed up by fewer mooks) in the second encounter.
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* In ''[[Baten Kaitos]] Origins'', you fight [[Recurring Boss|Giacomo]] three times. In the third match, he's no stronger than the second match (only gaining buffing abilities), while you've probably gotten at least two or three levels and new magnus. Extremely satisfying, especially since the first fight is an infuriating [[Early Bird Boss]].
* Barubary in [[Breath of Fire]] inverts this, but then again, the [[Final Boss Preview]] (or rather [[The Dragon]] preview) IS him just picking on a little kid in the prologue. Grown up and come back with a real sword, you stand a much better chance, though it's still possible to die.
* Happens as a result of a "feature" that is
=== Simulation Game ===
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* Very, ''very'' common in many of Nippon Ichi's games such as the ''[[Disgaea]]'' series, due to the insanely high levels you can reach - the plotline fights are scaled on the assumption that you'll mostly only gain levels from plotline fights, and not go gallivanting off to the Dark World or Cave of Ordeals or Land of Carnage. Even fights where you're supposed to be curbstomped by the overwhelmingly powerful boss (Beauty Queen Etna, anyone?) can be won through higher levels and good equipment, although that sometimes lead to a [[Nonstandard Game Over]] due to plot derailment. (Defeated [[Soul Nomad and The World Eaters|Feinne]] too early? Here comes Asagi to ruin everything and forcing you to start all over again.)
** Mild aversion in Phantom Brave, however. Your steal resist is based on your level and class title. If the boss begins the battle unarmed and all you've done is powergrind your WEAPON and not your character...he'll just steal it and slap you with it for a [[One Hit KO]] without batting an eye. Due to their high steal rate [[Fun Guys]] and Bottlemails eventually become among the worst enemies for high-level characters to face down with weapons. So essentially they didn't need to level because you were [[Too Dumb to Live|nice enough to provide them with an alternative means to kill you]].
* In ''[[Fire Emblem:
== Web Comics ==
* In ''[[Kid Radd]]'', this happens to the final boss Gnarl - both while they're both inside the game, and after they both leave.
* In ''[[Freak Angels]]'' {{spoiler|Mark}} doesn't exactly forget to level up, but does ignore the possibility that the Freak Angels might have done so too. {{spoiler|He's just surprised when Kait disintegrates his sword, but totally unable to cope with the Arkady's ability to teleport.}}
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{{quote|'''Crystal:''' ''[playing poker]'' Sweet! Starshine gained a level!
'''Jenny:''' I really need to pick a fight with a PC one of these days... }}
* In ''[[Captain SNES]]'', everyone in the world of ''[[Final Fantasy VI]]'' freaks out when [[A God Am I|Kef]][[Omnicidal Maniac|ka]] is brought [[Back
** Earlier, in the world of ''[[Final Fantasy IV]]'', Edwa...erm, [[Spoony Bard|Spoony]] has a plot to take revenge on Cecil and Rosa with his new Antlion, with over ''twice'' the HP it had before! But since Cecil is topped off at Level 99 with 9999 HP, he one-shots it. {{spoiler|[[Xanatos Gambit|Turns out it was all part of the plan.]]}}
== Web Original ==
* ''[[The Salvation War]]'' has a case of this with the demons. Their tactics haven't changed in centuries, believing that humans could never outdo them. The humans proceed to kill entire armies easily. Later, a character points out that the demons' tactics would have been devastating to humans centuries ago, and they never could have won, but now it's demons with tridents versus humans with guns.
== Western Animation ==
* Averted in ''[[Avatar: The Last Airbender]]'', where Azula remains a threat even as the heroes get stronger.
** Long Feng sort of played it straight, however. Thanks to [[Deus Ex Machina|Appa]] when they fight him for the last time, it was [[Humiliation Conga|absolutely HUMILIATING]].
* ''[[
* [[The Dragon|Cedric]] in ''[[WITCH (animation)|WITCH]]'' has supernatural powers that put him roughly on level with the heroines, a nasty [[Scaled Up]] form, and a lot more experience than his opponents. Unfortunately for him, said heroines start out inexperienced but quickly become much more proficient with their powers, while he never seems to learn any new tricks. By the midpoint of the first season, he's only a threat if he's brought a ''lot'' of [[Mooks]] with him.
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[[Category:No One Respects the Spanish Inquisition]]
[[Category:Video Game Difficulty Tropes]]
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[[Category:CRPG Tropes]]
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