History Main / JustToyingWithThem

* ''Franchise/StarWars'': The duel between Luke Skywalker and Darth Vader in ''Film/TheEmpireStrikesBack''. Luke is a half-trained apprentice and Vader is an experienced Sith Lord who's killed countless Jedi in the two decades since he fell to TheDarkSide. The reason he doesn't kill Luke is because he wants him alive so [[WeCanRuleTogether he can convert him as well]]. The gap between their abilities during that time period becomes apparent when Vader's playing around allows Luke to land a glancing blow; this causes Vader to [[TurnsRed fly into a momentary rage]] and end the duel with two quick swings, maiming Luke.

* In ''WesternAnimation/TheLegendOfKorra'' BigBad Amon makes a show out of tying up [[ElementalPowers bending]] members of a crime syndicate (and one of the heroes who got mixed up with them) and [[spoiler: permanently removing their powers]] in front of a huge crowd of [[AntimagicalFaction Equalist]] sympathizers. This trope comes into play when, as part of his show, Amon lets the crime boss loose and offers him the chance to fight to protect himself. It's all the more impressive when Amon wins. [[CurbStompBattle Rather easily]], in fact. [[spoiler:His psychic bloodbending gives him a nigh unbeatable advantage.]]

** In "Hell Train: The Hidden Floor", the virtual younger version of [[GodEmperor Zahard]] never fights anyone seriously because he's so overwhelmingly powerful. Usually he doesn't even move. Even when an opponent promises to be entertainingly powerful, he only escalates his use of power to stay a few steps ahead of his opponent.

** ''Discworld/MenAtArms'' posits that it's actually ''preferable'' to be at the mercy of an evil person because he/she will indulge in this trope, giving their victims more time to turn the tides. [[GoodIsNotSoft Good people finish off their enemies without a word.]]
** ''Discworld/TheFifthElephant'' gives a creepy example with a traditional werewolf game: Some poor soul tries to make it from out in the woods to the safety of the town. If he wins, he'll get a bunch of money, otherwise he's dinner. According to the Ankh-Morpork copper and werewolf Angua, a group of werewolves can pretty much get you anytime they want, but in the traditional version a very strong, trained man has a chance of winning -- indicating that part of the game is for the werewolves not to use their full powers. [[spoiler: Angua's brother Wolfgang has a sadistic twist on it: he holds himself back 'til the last moment, then pounces the human just before he makes it to safety.]]

!Examples:

[[folder:Films -- Live-Action]]

* The duel between Luke Skywalker and Darth Vader in ''Film/TheEmpireStrikesBack''. Luke is a half-trained apprentice and Vader is an experienced Sith Lord who's killed countless Jedi in the two decades since he fell to TheDarkSide. The reason he doesn't kill Luke is because he wants him alive so [[WeCanRuleTogether he can convert him as well]]. The gap between their abilities during that time period becomes apparent when Vader's playing around allows Luke to land a glancing blow; this causes Vader to [[TurnsRed fly into a momentary rage]] and end the duel with two quick swings, maiming Luke.

[[folder:Web Comics]]

* ''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic'':
** Discord, an evilly mischievous RealityWarper who displays the power to easily destroy the main characters, challenges the ponies to play a game to regain the Elements of Harmony, the only thing capable of defeating him. During play, he approaches each of them and manipulates them into abandoning the Element each of them represents before magically hypnotizing them into a bizarro version of themselves -- if his attempt fails, he simply brainwashes his victim with brute force, and even "wins" by brainwashing one character to break the rules. The result of this is that [[spoiler:he can just hand them the Elements, so he can watch and laugh as they prove powerless, and breaks the heroines' hope entirely. Unsurprisingly, this arrogance leads to his undoing later.]]\\\
Ironically, Discord [[WhatTheHellHero implicitly criticizes]] BigGood Celestia for sealing him in stone at one point. Her [[GoodIsNotSoft decisiveness]] in dealing with her enemies brings to mind Creator/TerryPratchett's quote about how it's better to be at the mercy of an evil man, as he wants his enemies to know they have lost.
** In "The Return of Harmony", besides Discord, we also see Rainbow Dash flying in circles around her much slower aerial pursuers.
** In "The Super Speedy Cider Squeezy 6000", the Flim Flam brothers challenge the Apple family to a contest of who can make more cider in an hour, with the winner getting to run all the cider business in town. They're so confident in their magical-mechanical means of production, which is initially going three times faster than the Apples are doing, that they casually agree to let [[TrueCompanions "honourary family members"]] help their competitors as well -- which they soon see was a mistake when they actually fall behind in speed as a result. Since in this case they were letting their competitors get an extra advantage rather than just holding back themselves, they can't just take back the advantage easily, and in trying to do so, they end up compromising the manufacturing process. Ultimately, though they win by quantity, the sacrifice of quality renders their efforts null; the result can barely be called cider at all and is unsellable.
* ''WesternAnimation/BatmanTheBraveAndTheBold'': In "Darkseid Descending", {{ComicBook/Darkseid}} agrees to Batman's challenge to a fistfight without using his "godlike powers" because he finds the idea interesting. It doesn't make a whole lot of difference in terms of power levels, because he's still got physical abilities on par with Franchise/{{Superman}}. [[spoiler: Batman manages to keep him busy for a moment, in which time one of his allies pushes the "villain loses" button that sucks Darkseid and his army back away from Earth.]]

* In SequelSeries ''WesternAnimation/TheLegendOfKorra'' BigBad Amon makes a show out of tying up [[ElementalPowers bending]] members of a crime syndicate (and one of the heroes who got mixed up with them) and [[spoiler: permanently removing their powers]] in front of a huge crowd of [[AntimagicalFaction Equalist]] sympathizers. This trope comes into play when, as part of his show, Amon lets the crime boss loose and offers him the chance to fight to protect himself. It's all the more impressive when Amon wins. [[CurbStompBattle Rather easily]], in fact. [[spoiler:His psychic bloodbending gives him a nigh unbeatable advantage.]]

* ''WesternAnimation/StarWarsTheCloneWars'' has [[BigBad Darth Sidious]] do this to [[BigBadWannabe Darth Maul and Savage Oppress]]. He begins the battle by telekinetically slamming them into a wall, and the only reason there's a fight at all after this is because Sidious releases them. He could have simply choked or crushed them right there, or at any other point, but chooses to fight them [[BloodKnight because he feels like it]]. [[spoiler: Savage is killed shortly after Sidious separates him from Maul, and Maul only survives because Sidious needs him alive to lure out Mother Talzin.]]
* In ''WesternAnimation/SamuraiJack'', the Guardian of the time passage in "Jack and the Traveling Creatures" boasts that Jack can't beat him because he's ''not'' TheChosenOne [[spoiler:not yet anyway]]. When Jack challenges him anyway, the Guardian humors him at first by drawing a sword to match Jack's. Throughout the "fight", Jack is struggling for his life while the Guardian is laughing and grinning and clearly [[BloodKnight enjoying himself]]. Until Jack deflects his own rockets back at him, [[MyFavoriteShirt ruining the Guardian's favorite suit in the process]]. The enraged Guardian stops holding back and viciously beats Jack unconscious with nothing but his bare hands. He is moments away from finishing off Jack [[spoiler:when the time portal itself shows him a vision of Jack's FutureBadass self. The Guardian spares Jack, believing that one day Jack will become strong enough to defeat him.]]

** Q towards Picard in ''Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration''. Q was an omnipotent being who appeared periodically in TNG, starting with the first episode. He and the rest of his race (the Q Continuum) had decided the human race was dangerous and needed to be destroyed, but then some humans saved the lives of some other aliens, and the Q stopped observing and started interacting directly with humans, particularly Picard. Why didn't they just destroy the human race immediately when they decided people were too dangerous? Q doesn't stay in a very adversarial position towards Picard, but he isn't all that kind, either.

* BlindWeaponmaster Hunter from ''VideoGame/ZenoClash'' starts out his BossFight holding an arm behind his back, and is still a match for a hardened BloodKnight like Ghat. [[spoiler:The fight becomes a HopelessBossFight once Hunter stops playing around; only [[{{Golem}} Kax Teh]]'s [[BigDamnHeroes timely intervention]] saves him.]]

* ''Fanfic/GuardiansWizardsAndKungFuFighters'': [[PanthreaAwesome Calisto]] gives [[ActionGirl Jade]] the toughest fight she's had since [[spoiler: becoming a [[CanisMajor shapeshifter]]]]. But despite that, she gets the impression that he's not even trying, and is deliberately holding back.

* Saitama from ''Webcomic/OnePunchMan'' does this with anyone who doesn't die immediately when fighting him [[spoiler:(which so far has only been two characters)]] since all he's really looking for is to have a good fight.

** Q also picks a fight with Capt. Sisko of ''Series/StarTrekDeepSpaceNine'', provoking Sisko to punch him and knock him down. Again, Q seems to be pulling his punches, given what he can do.

* It's sometimes thought that Franchise/SonicTheHedgehog does this with most of his enemies; for example, how else would a [[VideoGame/SonicAdventure2 humongous truck]] be able to keep up with a hedgehog who can break the sound barrier?

* Similarly, Anime!Pride spends his climactic battle with Mustang basically toying around, even letting the alchemist [[KillItWithFire incinerate him]] once on purpose just to test [[GoodThingYouCanHeal the regenerative powers he's never needed to use before]] just to see if they were actually working. [[spoiler:Only the convenient delivery of Pride's AchillesHeel saves Mustang.]]

* At one point in ''Webcomic/TheOrderOfTheStick'', among an evil adventuring party, Malack points out (rather angrily, given the circumstances) that Tarquin was doing this in order to test the skills of one of the enemies he was fighting. Tarquin apologizes and promises not to do it again.

* In ''WesternAnimation/SamuraiJack'', the Guardian of the time passage in "Jack and the Traveling Creatures" boasts that Jack can't beat him because he's ''not'' TheChosenOne [[spoiler:not yet anyway]]. When Jack challenges him anyway, the Guardian humors him at first by drawing a sword to match Jack's. Throughout the "fight", Jack is struggling for his life while the Guardian is laughing and grinning and clearly [[BloodKnight enjoying himself]]. Until Jack deflects his own rockets back at him, [[MyFavoriteShirt ruining the Guardian's favorite suit in the process]]. The enraged Guardian stops holding back and viciously beats Jack unconscious with nothing but his bare hands. He is moments away from finishing off Jack [[spoiler:when the time portal itself shows him a vision of Jack's FutureBadass self. The Guardian spares Jack, knowing that one day Jack will become strong enough to defeat him.]]

** ''Discworld/TheFifthElephant'' gives a creepy example with a traditional werewolf game: Some poor soul tries to make it from out in the woods to the safety of the town. If he wins, he'll get a bunch of money, otherwise he's dinner. According to the Ankh-Morpork copper and werewolf Angua, a group of werewolves can pretty much get you anytime they want, but in the traditional version a very strong, trained man has a chance of winning -- indicating that part of the game is for the werewolves not to use their full powers. [[spoiler: Angua's brother Wolfgang has a sadistic twist on it: he holds himself back till the last moment, then pounces the human just before he makes it to safety.]]

* ''PaperMario64'' begins with a HopelessBossFight, in which you not only deal less and less damage with each successive blow, but the finishing blow deals damage equal to your ''full'' HP.

* ''Franchise/DevilMayCry'': The third and fourth games have Dante's fights against Lady and Nero respectively. While Lady and Nero are trying their hardest to kill him, Dante is having fun and treating it like a game.

--> ''Dante:'' What's the matter? Why the glare?
--> ''Nero:'' You look as if you've just been playing me from the beginning...

* Kakashi pulls the same thing off in ''Manga/{{Naruto}}''. For bonus points, it's {{Ecchi}}.

[[caption-width-right:350:"Do you mind? I just [[EnlightenmentSuperpowers achieved enlightenment]] earlier, I'd rather not act violent."]]

[[folder:Anime and Manga]]

[[folder:Film]]

** In the fight between Inigo Montoya and the Man in Black, [[MasterSwordsman Inigo]] starts fighting with his off-hand just because he can't find a decent challenge anywhere any more. It quickly turns out that the Man in Black is good enough that Inigo has to [[IAmNotLeftHanded switch to his right hand]] to regain the advantage. [[spoiler: Then it turns out that the Man in Black was ''also'' fighting with his off-hand...]]

--> '''The Man in Black''': Look, are you just fiddling around with me or what?
--> '''Fezzik''': I just want you to feel you are doing well! I hate for people to die embarrassed.
* ''Literature/{{Discworld}}''

* In the {{Novelization}} of ''Literature/RevengeOfTheSith'', [[TheDragon Count Dooku]] does this against [[StudentAndMasterTeam Anakin and Obi-Wan]], thinking that two Jedi Knights are no match for a Sith Lord. That, and ThePlan isn't to kill both of them--just Obi-Wan, and use his death to turn Anakin to TheDarkSide. Things fall apart for him, however, when the two Jedi suddenly [[IAmNotLeftHanded switch to the lightsaber styles they're most proficient in]], and Dooku realizes [[UnderestimatingBadassery just how badly he's underestimated them]].

[[folder:Live Action TV]]
* Q towards Picard in ''Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration''. Q was an omnipotent being who appeared periodically in TNG, starting with the first episode. He and the rest of his race (the Q Continuum) had decided the human race was dangerous and needed to be destroyed, but then some humans saved the lives of some other aliens, and the Q stopped observing and started interacting directly with humans, particularly Picard. Why didn't they just destroy the human race immediately when they decided people were too dangerous? Q doesn't stay in a very adversarial position towards Picard, but he isn't all that kind, either.

** ''Literature/TheQContinuum'' series of novels shows what Q-level beings can do to mortals when they aren't holding back so much. An entire empire was wiped out when the main antagonist 0 ''triggered a supernova'' out of pure spite. When the AxCrazy 0 appears on the Enterprise, he easily murders a young crewman who got in his way, and nothing the rest of the crew tries can stop him. The crew is completely helpless against this MadGod.

[[folder:Newspaper Comics]]
* ComicStrip/BeetleBailey is sometimes shown as such a better runner than Sarge that he can annoy him further by reading a newspaper while being chased by him.
[[/folder]]

[[folder: Tabletop Games]]

** This is generally true in ''Touhou'' with the nonlethal spellcard system which allows the weak to have a fair chance of defeating the obscenely strong. This is the only way anyone can have any chance at defeating [[RealityWarper Yukari]], [[WorldsStrongestMan Yuuka]], [[NukeEm Utsuho]], [[OneHitKill Yuyuko]], [[{{Immortality}} Mokou/Kaguya]], or the rest of the Gensokyan SuperpowerLottery winners. This also means that the difficulty of beating a character can vary wildly depending on how much they even feel like fighting - the aforementioned Yuyuko was the FinalBoss of ''PerfectCherryBlossom'', where she was the BigBad. She returns in a later game as a stage 1 boss, where she's fighting very halfheartedly instead of giving all she has to see her plan to fruition.

--> '''Android 21:''' I'd actually like to try this time.

[[folder:Webcomics]]

** Discord, an evilly mischievous RealityWarper who displays the power to easily destroy the main characters, challenges the ponies to play a game to regain the Elements of Harmony, the only thing capable of defeating him. During play, he approaches each of them and manipulates them into abandoning the Element each of them represents before magically hypnotizing them into a bizarro version of themselves -- if his attempt fails, he simply brainwashes his victim with brute force, and even "wins" by brainwashing one character to break the rules. The result of this is that [[spoiler: he can just hand them the Elements, so he can watch and laugh as they prove powerless, and breaks the heroines' hope entirely. Unsurprisingly, this arrogance leads to his undoing later.]]\\
\\

-->'''Sokka:''' Wait, I '''''know''''' you're a better fighter than this!
-->'''Azula:''' Oh, I know, I'm just wasting your time until the eclipse is over. And it looks like my Firebending is back!

* In ''WesternAnimation/GravityFalls'' episode ''Dreamscaperers'', Mabel and Soos [[BattleInTheCenterOfTheMind enter Stan's mind]] to foil [[DreamWalker Bill Cipher]]'s plan to recover the code to the Mystery Shack deed vault for Gideon Gleeful. When they succeed, Bill - [[RoaringRampageOfRevenge seemingly enraged]] - quite literally TurnsRed and unleashes his RealityWarper abilities against them. When Dipper's [[BigDamnHeroes timely appearance]] reveals that ''anyone'' can be a RealityWarper in the mindscape, the gang appears to turn the tables on the dream demon, but as they try to banish him once and for all... surprise surprise, Cipher counters their attempt with nary a blink of his eye. Turns out Bill is way more powerful than expected, and he only lets the group live because they might prove to be "{{i|tAmusedMe}}nteresting".

* Cats do this with mice in real life, in order to teach their kittens how to hunt, and on their own because it's the safest way for the cat to kill [[http://jennifercopley.suite101.com/why-cats-play-with-their-prey-a86865 without risking injury to themselves]]. By catching and releasing their prey over and over, they wear out their prey to the point where they're too tired to fight back.
** Cats who missed out on this teaching from their mothers may be toying with their prey because they're not actually sure what to do with it now they've got it.
[[/folder]]

* In ''WebComic/TowerOfGod'', "Hell Train: The Dallar Show", Khun and Rachel face in one of the Tower's endless tests, where the winner is the one who catches a fish. Khun does a TheReasonYouSuckSpeech, as part of which he suggests that Rachel can try to catch the fish first since it's obvious he's going to win anyway. He's right, too, since the fish is not as harmless as it looks.