History Main / AwakeningTheSleepingGiant

* In ''Anime/ThatTimeIGotReincarnatedAsASlime'', the Kingdom of Farmus schemed against the Jura Tempest Federation, a country of monsters, because its growing prosperity made them a major threat to the their trade monopoly. Thus, they sent a small group to incite an incident in Tempest so that they could invade with the Imperial Holy Church under the pretext of "subjugating the evil monsters", which would allow him to both eliminate a trade rival and claim their vast riches. However, their plan relied on the monsters being weakened by a magic barrier that would surround the country and their leader being a pushover who would bend the knee to them. Once Tempest gets their act together, not only do they demonstrate that they're an army of evolved monsters perfectly capable of kicking ass ''outside'' the barrier, but Rimuru demonstrates that GoodIsNotSoft and [[spoiler:singlehandedly massacres the entire twenty-thousand strong invading army and uses their souls to become a True Demon Lord in order to send a message and act as a deterent for future invasions]].

* The Flying Pussyfoot arc of ''LightNovel/{{Baccano}}!'' would already have been [[GambitPileup a clusterfuck]]: A {{cult}}, a bunch of AxCrazy [[TheMafia mafia]] goons, and a gang of delinquents were all planning to attack the train, which also happened to be carrying three immortals, the wife and daughter of an influential senator, and a [[BadassBystander surprisingly badass]] agent of ''[[KnowledgeBroker The Daily Days]]''. However, one of those mafia guys made a huge mistake: he killed the elderly conductor Tony, then tried to kill a [[spoiler:younger conductor when he found out]]. Unfortunately for him, his would-be victim was [[spoiler:Claire Stanfield]], a [[CharlesAtlasSuperpower nigh-unstoppable]], AxCrazy ProfessionalKiller and TortureTechnician who did not appreciate someone murdering his mentor. [[{{Gorn}} Carnage ensues]] as the Rail Tracer makes its merry, blood-soaked way up the length of the train.

* The Flying Pussyfoot arc of ''LightNovel/{{Baccano}}!'' would already have been [[GambitPileup a clusterfuck]]: A {{cult}}, a bunch of AxCrazy [[TheMafia mafia]] goons, and a gang of delinquents were all planning to attack the train, which also happened to be carrying three immortals, the wife and daughter of an influential senator, and a [[BadassBystander surprisingly badass]] agent of ''[[KnowledgeBroker The Daily Days]]''. However, one of those mafia guys made a huge mistake: he killed the elderly conductor Tony, then tried to kill a [[spoiler:younger conductor when he found out]]. Unfortunately for him, his would-be victim was [[spoiler:Claire Stanfield]], a [[CharlesAtlasSuperpower nigh-unstoppable]], AxCrazy ProfessionalKiller and TortureTechnician who did not appreciate someone murdering his mentor. [[{{Gorn}} Carnage ensues]] as the Rail Tracer makes its merry, blood-soaked way up the length of the train.

* Kyon of ''LightNovel/HaruhiSuzumiya'' plans to invoke this if Nagato's alien boss tries to harm her. Haruhi, everyone's favorite obnoxious RealityWarper, doesn't even know there ''is'' a conflict. But in ''Disappearance'', Kyon determines a way to convince her aliens exist, and there's little doubt that she would effortlessly annihilate them if she knew they were after one of her club members. This comes dangerously close to happening in a later novel.

* Literature/TheCulture, from the [[Creator/IainBanks Iain M. Banks]] novels. From ''Literature/UseOfWeapons'': "You might call them soft, because they're very reluctant to kill, and they might agree with you, but they're soft the way the ocean is soft, and, well; ask any sea captain how puny and harmless the ocean can be." Or, if that's a bit flowery for you, there's the universal adage of the civilizations which have dealings with them; "Do not fuck with The Culture." See ''Literature/ConsiderPhlebas'' and ''Look to Windward'' for what happens when those civilizations don't follow that advice. Someone phrased it as "The first rule of dealing with The Culture is that you do not fuck with The Culture. The ''second'' rule of dealing with The Culture is that you do '''not''' fuck with The Culture. The last rule is that ''you don't fuck with The [[OhMyGods godsdamned]] Culture!''"

** The actual {{Trope Namer|s}}, featured in the movie ''Tora! Tora! Tora!'', appears to be a case of BeamMeUpScotty, as there is no reliable record of UsefulNotes/{{Yamamoto|Isoroku}} ever saying it. He did, however, express similar sentiments, saying that Japan shouldn't declare war against the United States unless they thought they could dictate peace terms in the White House, which they obviously never would be able to do, America being much bigger than Japan.[[note]]A similar Yamamoto quote: "You cannot win a war against America. Anyone who has seen the oil fields of Texas or the factories of Detroit knows this."[[/note]] Yamamoto also told his superiors that he could "run wild for six months" but couldn't guarantee anything after that -- the Battle of Midway ended exactly six months after Pearl Harbor. Yamamoto only turned towards the Pearl Harbor attack after it became clear that the government was hell-bent on war with the United States.

-->-- [[BeamMeUpScotty Attributed to]] '''Naval Fleet Admiral [[UsefulNotes/YamamotoIsoroku Isoroku Yamamoto]]''', after the attack on [[UsefulNotes/WorldWarII Pearl Harbor]]

* In the WWE story, ''The Return-Remixed'', Wrestling/{{Edge}} is shown as being friendly with the Divas and the members of DEAR when he first returns. When Ashley Massaro (who had been shamelessly throwing herself at him, trying to get a date with him) tried to take out his girlfriend, new Diva Kennedi Korklan, Edge firmly threw his weight behind the Divas, helping them become the Diva Army and bringing in [[Wrestling/CarleneMoore Jazz]] to whip them into shape to fight DEAR.

** ''Film/Godzilla1954'' atomic bomb testing awaken and irradiate a massive marine reptile, named Godzilla by Odo Island mythology, and spur it to attack Tokyo.
** ''{{Film/Rodan}}'' deep coal mining operations open up a hollow cavity filled with giant insects and the eggs of two massive pterosaurs they prey on them.
** ''Film/EbirahHorrorOfTheDeep'': Godzilla is not on any side of the conflict, and is just a neutral third party tucked away in a deep sleep on the island. Once he wakes up, everything goes absolutely haywire for the previously untouchable Red Bamboo as neither they nor their giant crab are equipped to handle the radioactive dinosaur.
** [[Characters/{{Godzilla}} King Caesar]] mostly slumbers by being sealed within a cave, therefore to be awakened to battle an oncoming threat a descendant of the Azumi royal family must summon him by singing a song.

* The [[VestigialEmpire Fallen Empires]] of ''VideoGame/{{Stellaris}}'' are too arrogant to pay much attention to the wider galaxy, so long as the younger races don't press any of their {{Berserk Button}}s, which depending on the Fallen Empire in question can be [[HiddenElfVillage "stay away from our borders,"]] [[VideoGameCrueltyPunishment "don't commit atrocities,"]] [[KeeperOfForbiddenKnowledge "don't research dangerous technology,"]] or [[HolyGround "don't colonize our holy worlds."]] Provoke or attack them, however, and you'll be faced with a highly-advanced fleet that will defeat anything short of a lategame armada. And if a galactic power grows large enough, an endgame Crisis Faction arrives, or somebody goes so far as to [[EarthShatteringKaboom destroy]] a Holy World, the Fallen Empires might Awaken, mobilize and shake off their decline, and start (re)conquering the galaxy. Can get especially nasty if two opposing Fallen Empires Awaken around the same time and declare war on each other, an event called "[[NamesToRunAwayFromReallyFast The War in Heaven]]" that will throw the entire galaxy into conflict, each civilization being press-ganged into joining one side or the other.

* TheOwlHouse: In the fight between Emperor Belos and the citizens of the Boiling Isles, The Collector initially is not involved in this fight. Then, Belos decided to betray The Collector and renege on a deal that they had made. The heroes are overjoyed as The Collector defeats Belos in a CurbStompBattle. [[EvilerThanThou And then learn that there was a VERY good reason that The Collector was sealed away for so long...]]

* Music/{{Thor}}'s aptly named "Sleeping Giant"

** Not just the Romulan involvement in the Dominion War. The entire Dominion War itself could be considered this from the Dominion's perspective, as they ''severely'' underestimated Federation technical prowess and industrial capacity, to the point that Federation engineers became an entire army of {{Memetic Badass}}es in the eyes of the Dominion, who witnessed the Federation turn just about anything they could get their hands on into a starship and cranking their industrial base UpToEleven, to the point that one Vorta claimed a Federation engineer could "turn rocks into replicators". Not to mention the original Dominion contingent had no idea how [[HumansAreWarriors warlike]] humanity could become when the need arose. (Their Cardassian allies were considerably smarter in this regard, however).

* ''Franchise/TouhouProject''[='s=] setting of Gensokyo has too many Sleeping Giants for its own good. Yukari Yakumo is a powerful RealityWarper who's normally too lazy to get involved in anything, but if something is actively threatening Gensokyo, she won't hesitate to get involved, as Eientei learned in ''Imperishable Night'' or Tenshi found after destroying the Hakurei Shrine in ''Scarlet Weather Rhapsody''. It's also implied that should Reimu ''ever'' fail in protecting the border ([[InvincibleHero which is saying a lot]]), the dragon of Gensokyo will swoop down to deal with whatever problem there is. And it's not your standard fire-breathing Western fantasy dragon either: this dragon, when he/she/it appeared once in the past, fille
d the entire sky with his/her/its body. His/her/its presence alone caused extreme rain, enough to flood the entire Gensokyo. The dragon might be ''[[GeniusLoci Gensokyo itself]]''.

* ''Franchise/TouhouProject''[='s=] setting of Gensokyo has too many Sleeping Giants for its own good. Yukari Yakumo is a powerful RealityWarper who's normally too lazy to get involved in anything, but if something is actively threatening Gensokyo, she won't hesitate to get involved, as Eientei learned in ''Imperishable Night'' or Tenshi found after destroying the Hakurei Shrine in ''Scarlet Weather Rhapsody''. It's also implied that should Reimu ''ever'' fail in protecting the border ([[InvincibleHero which is saying a lot]]), the dragon of Gensokyo will swoop down to deal with whatever problem there is. And it's not your standard fire-breathing Western fantasy dragon either: this dragon, when he/she/it appeared once in the past, filled the entire sky with his/her/its body. His/her/its presence alone caused extreme rain, enough to flood the entire Gensokyo. The dragon might be ''[[GeniusLoci Gensokyo itself]]''.

* While not so much neutral as extremely lazy, Saitama of ''Manga/OnePunchMan'' is shown as largely uninterested in finer points of heroism, finding it to be more of a casual hobby than a career. If he doesn't want to go out in search of heroics to perform, he won't do it. Anyone who ''does'' finally get his attention, however, [[CurbStompBattle tends to get obliterated]]. Just ask Boros or the Sea King. [[LudicrousGibs Or what's left of them, anyway]].

* In ''VideoGame/HaloWars2'', the humans need to get rid of the Banished supercarrier. They do so by boarding it and having Isabel activate its glassing canon, firing at the Arc installation. Formerly, the Forerunner defense system had been content to sit back and let the conflict unfold. Now, the supercarrier was a threat to the Arc.

-->-- [[BeamMeUpScotty Attributed to]] '''Naval Fleet Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto''', after the attack on [[UsefulNotes/WorldWarII Pearl Harbor]]

** The actual {{Trope Namer|s}}, featured in the movie ''Tora! Tora! Tora!'', appears to be a case of BeamMeUpScotty, as there is no reliable record of Yamamoto ever saying it. He did, however, express similar sentiments, saying that Japan shouldn't declare war against the United States unless they thought they could dictate peace terms in the White House, which they obviously never would be able to do, America being much bigger than Japan.[[note]]A similar Yamamoto quote: "You cannot win a war against America. Anyone who has seen the oil fields of Texas or the factories of Detroit knows this."[[/note]] Yamamoto also told his superiors that he could "run wild for six months" but couldn't guarantee anything after that -- the Battle of Midway ended exactly six months after Pearl Harbor. Yamamoto only turned towards the Pearl Harbor attack after it became clear that the government was hell-bent on war with the United States.
** Adolf Hitler initiated ''Operation Barbarossa'' against the Soviet Union on the 22nd of June 1941 ultimately because he really, ''really'' hated Communism. And Slavs. And Jews. Which was a really unfortunate combination of prejudices for the Soviet Union, because it contained more than 2 million people who were all three, 160 million people who were two out of three (Slavic Commies), and another 40 million Central Asians who were at the very least quite unarguably Commies. [[AndThatsTerrible Which was bad.]] Given that Germany had a population of fewer than 80 million people, industrial production almost certainly lesser than that of the Soviet Union, war industries ''dependent upon Soviet resources (tungsten, rubber, petrol) to continue functioning'', and that Germany was (politically) unwilling to initiate a total mobilisation of her already lesser aforementioned manpower and industrial resources, there was absolutely no way that this was not a very, very bad idea even given the data available to them at the time. Unless, of course, one assumed that Soviet resistance would be crushed within four weeks and the entire country occupied within six. Or ''maybe'' eight, if there was a bit of rain and mud or something. Hitler compounded the blunder with a second major diplomatic blunder of the War: declaring war on the United States when he was under no obligation with Germany's alliance with Japan. All Hitler gained from that was to enable his navy to attack American ships who were interfering with his U-Boats' campaign to strangle British trans-Atlantic shipping, while US President UsefulNotes/FranklinDRoosevelt was able to join the fight with complete domestic political support. As a result, Hitler picked a fight with another nation too far away overseas to invade with a massive industrial base he could not damage with direct military attack. That means that while the nation fully mobilises, its allies will be well supplied with everything they need until the Americans are ready to directly send their own forces into the fray.
* Throughout the Syrian civil war and the ISIS conflict, Western governments have been reluctant to get involved due to the grueling experience of UsefulNotes/TheWarOnTerror. While France had been doing some bombing runs in the region, they really amped up their efforts after ISIS [[https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/November_2015_Paris_attacks murdered 132 Paris civilians (and injured 352 more)]] on [[ThirteenIsUnlucky Friday the 13th]] of November 2015, invoking Article 42.7 of the Treaty of Lisbon ("''If a Member State is the victim of armed aggression on its territory, the other Member States shall have towards it an obligation of aid and assistance by all the means in their power''"): demanding (and receiving) financial and military assistance from the other EU member states, which is considered to be the final step before the "institutional nuclear option" of Article 46: [[SuperWeaponSurprise merging of all the EU's national armies into a single structure]].

* ''VideoGame/{{Touhou}}''[='s=] setting of Gensokyo has too many Sleeping Giants for its own good. Yukari Yakumo is a powerful RealityWarper who's normally too lazy to get involved in anything, but if something is actively threatening Gensokyo, she won't hesitate to get involved, as Eientei learned in ''Imperishable Night'' or Tenshi found after destroying the Hakurei Shrine in ''Scarlet Weather Rhapsody''. It's also implied that should Reimu ''ever'' fail in protecting the border ([[InvincibleHero which is saying a lot]]), the dragon of Gensokyo will swoop down to deal with whatever problem there is. And it's not your standard fire-breathing Western fantasy dragon either: this dragon, when he/she/it appeared once in the past, filled the entire sky with his/her/its body. His/her/its presence alone caused extreme rain, enough to flood the entire Gensokyo. The dragon might be ''[[GeniusLoci Gensokyo itself]]''.

* The first and final books in the ''Literature/TheVoyageOfTheJerleShannara'' trilogy build up the GeniusLoci within Mephetic castle as a truly ancient, truly badass threat too NeutralSelfish to bother with the cast anywhere but on its own turf. For most of the plot, the spirit's only interest is the grudge it carries against Bek Ohmsford for stealing from it. [[spoiler: In the final showdown with BigBad the Morgwar, Bek tricks the spirit into believing the warlock is him, thus bringing all of its rage down upon the Morgwar and crushing him to death within its walls.]]

** As of ''Knights of the Fallen Empire'' [[spoiler: it's revealed that this was intentional on the Emperor's part; the war was intended to weaken both sides enough to be easy pickings for his ''other'' empire. The thousand year history of the Sith Empire and the massive war with it's layers of plots within plots (set up to be foiled by the Jedi so they think they're winning) was little more than a massive feint.]]

* The [[VestigialEmpire Fallen Empires]] of ''VideoGame/{{Stellaris}}'' are too arrogant to pay much attention to the wider galaxy, so long as the younger races don't press any of their {{Berserk Button}}s, which depending on the Fallen Empire in question can be [[HiddenElfVillage "stay away from our borders,"]] [[VideoGameCrueltyPunishment "don't commit atrocities,"]] [[KeeperOfForbiddenKnowledge "don't research dangerous technology,"]] or [[HolyGround "don't colonize our holy worlds."]] Provoke or attack them, however, and you'll be faced with a highly-advanced fleet that will defeat anything short of a lategame armada. And if a galactic power grows large enough, an endgame Crisis Faction arrives, or somebody goes so far as to [[EarthShatteringKaboom destroy]] a Holy World, the Fallen Empires might Awaken, mobilize and shake off their decline, and start (re)conquering the galaxy.

* In ''Fanfic/HowTheLightGetsIn'', [[Series/{{Supernatural}} Dean]] was a happily a stay at home dad, (semi)content to leave the vigilante life to his wife [[Series/{{Arrow}} Laurel]]. Then Damien Darhk murdered her. Dean then quickly demonstrated that angering a Winchester is the absolute ''last'' thing you should ever do; and not only destroyed Darhk's organization (with [[spoiler:Nyssa's]] help), but let hell, particularly [[TortureTechnician Alistair]], back into his dead to properly punish Darhk for it.

** HYDRA doing this ''again'' towards the finale proves to be key to their downfall. With careful preparation, they manage to divide and conquer the Avengers (the Avengers plus a ReformedButNotTamed Loki), picking them off one by one, with only Clint and Natasha escaping. This causes Fury to activate the Shadow Initiative, a contingency group of much more ruthless and dangerous superheroes, who spearhead the counterattack which ends up bringing down HYDRA.

* In ''Fanfic/WhatAboutWitchQueen'', [[HufflepuffHouse Tampere Empire]] is the largest country on the continent, but generally it focuses more on the Far East than Inner Sea (the region where Arendelle and Weselton are). However, the Royal Council of Arendelle fears that if [[spoiler:Drachner will manage to take over the entire Inner Sea region]], Tampere will end up steamrolling them to stop this.

** ''Film/EbirahHorrorOfTheDeep'': Godzilla is not on any side of the conflict, and is just a neutral third party tucked away in a deep sleep on the island. Once he wakes up, everything goes absolutely haywire for the previously untouchable Red Bamboo as neither they nor their giantcrab are equipped to handle the radioactive dinosaur.

* In the backstory episode of ''Series/BabylonFive'', "[[Recap/BabylonFiveFilm01InTheBeginning In The Beginning]]," Londo is pressured to provide info on the mysterious Minbari for Earthforce so they could do an armed probe of their territory. Londo agrees, but pointedly warns them that the Minbari are not to be underestimated, and comments that "I hope you do not wake the Dragon." Of course, the Human force is led by a trigger happy idiot who does precisely that, and suddenly Earth is in a crushing HopelessWar against an overwhelmingly superior foe on a genocidal crusade against Humanity.
** For a bit of backstory, humans have only recently entered the galactic stage and have shown their mettle by turning the tide in the Dilgar War. What they didn't understand was that the Dilgar were small potatoes compared to the ancient and powerful Minbari. Londo's suggestion to send a single ship is brushed aside, and they decide to send a commander with a poor FirstContact track record.

* The [[VestigialEmpire Fallen Empires]] of ''VideoGame/{{Stellaris}}'' are too arrogant to pay much attention to the wider galaxy, so long as the younger races don't press any of their {{Berserk Button}}s, which depending on the Fallen Empire in question can be [[HiddenElfVillage "stay away from our borders,"]] [[VideoGameCrueltyPunishment "don't commmit atrocities,"]] [[KeeperOfForbiddenKnowledge "don't research dangerous technology,"]] or [[HolyGround "don't colonize our holy worlds."]] Provoke or attack them, however, and you'll be faced with a highly-advanced fleet that will defeat anything short of a lategame armada. And if a galactic power grows large enough, an endgame Crisis Faction arrives, or somebody goes so far as to [[EarthShatteringKaboom destroy]] a Holy World, the Fallen Empires might Awaken, mobilize and shake off their decline, and start (re)conquering the galaxy.