History Main / MilesGloriosus

* ''Series/StarTrekDeepSpaceNine'': "The Valiant" has Jake and Nog rescued by the title ship which is almost totally made up of cadets after the main officers were killed. The self-promoted Captain Watters is taking stimulants to keep awake and clearly dismissing Jake for not being in Starfleet. The rest of his crew idolize him as he has taken their orders to merely find out about a new Jem'Hadar battleship and now plans to destroy it. Jake is the only one who sees this is suicide as even his father wouldn't try this, let alone with a crew of raw cadets and Watters just wants glory rather than go back to being a cadet. But everyone (including Nog) is totally on board as Watters even gives a RousingSpeech on how great Red Squad is and can do anything. They approach the battleship, fire off their super-slick weapon...and it doesn't so much as scratch the enemy vessel. In one instant, Watters goes from a confident and charismatic leader to a scared punk who's in totally over his head and can't even gather his thoughts to order a retreat. The Jem'Hadar ship attacks and the "elite" Red Squad are swiftly exposed as the inexperienced and terrified kids they really are, completely unable to handle real combat. The crew, including Watters, are killed as only Jake, Nog and another crewmember manage to escape and be rescued. Nog admits he got caught up in the hype of Watters but the other crewmember insists he was a great man and the blame lies with them, ignoring how Watters' ego and need for glory killed all her friends.

''Series/StarTrekVoyager'': It's almost a guarantee that any skill Neelix claims to possess will be proven to be a lie as the episode plays out. Until his very last appearance on the show, where we're reminded that he's actually a CrouchingMoronHiddenBadass (we also have to remember that he not only survived reasonably well on his own in the Delta Quadrant, but also saved Kes and won her love). During his last appearance, he goes direct into LetsGetDangerous mode when he fights to save a Talaxian colony, nearly has a LastStand when he fights alone to save them, and chooses to stay to protect them.

* ''Series/StarTrekDeepSpaceNine'':
** The second season's opening trilogy of episodes features the character Li Nalas, whom the Bajoran people view as a war hero who killed a notorious Cardassian officer after a long struggle. The real story is that Nalas had a lucky shot and the corpse happened to fall on him. Nalas didn't even know who the Cardassian was until afterwards. Despite this, he became a legend and many victories were attributed to him. Eventually he had to run away to exile to get away from the hassles of his fame.
** "The Valiant" has Jake and Nog rescued by the title ship which is almost totally made up of cadets after the main officers were killed. The self-promoted Captain Watters is taking stimulants to keep awake and clearly dismissing Jake for not being in Starfleet. The rest of his crew idolize him as he has taken their orders to merely find out about a new Jem'Hadar battleship and now plans to destroy it. Jake is the only one who sees this is suicide as even his father wouldn't try this, let alone with a crew of raw cadets and Watters just wants glory rather than go back to being a cadet. But everyone (including Nog) is totally on board as Watters even gives a RousingSpeech on how great Red Squad is and can do anything. They approach the battleship, fire off their super-slick weapon...and it doesn't so much as scratch the enemy vessel. In one instant, Watters goes from a confident and charismatic leader to a scared punk who's in totally over his head and can't even gather his thoughts to order a retreat. The Jem'Hadar ship attacks and the "elite" Red Squad are swiftly exposed as the inexperienced and terrified kids they really are, completely unable to handle real combat. The crew, including Watters, are killed as only Jake, Nog and another crewmember manage to escape and be rescued. Nog admits he got caught up in the hype of Watters but the other crewmember insists he was a great man and the blame lies with them, ignoring how Watters' ego and need for glory killed all her friends.

* Neelix from ''Series/StarTrekVoyager''. If he claims any skill rest assured that as the episode plays out he will slowly and deliberately prove that the opposite is actually the case until he's shown to be completely incompetent in whatever he claimed expertise in. Until his very last appearance on the show, where we're reminded that he's actually a CrouchingMoronHiddenBadass (we also have to remember that he not only survived reasonably well on his own in the Delta Quadrant, but also saved Kes and won her love). During his last appearance, he goes direct into LetsGetDangerous mode when he fights to save a Talaxian colony, nearly has a LastStand when he fights alone to save them, and chooses to stay to protect them.

* The ''Series/StarTrekDeepSpaceNine'' episode "The Valiant" has Jake and Nog rescued by the title ship which is almost totally made up of cadets after the main officers were killed. The self-promoted Captain Watters is taking stimulants to keep awake and clearly dismissing Jake for not being in Starfleet. The rest of his crew idolize him as he has taken their orders to merely find out about a new Jem'Hadar battleship and now plans to destroy it. Jake is the only one who sees this is suicide as even his father wouldn't try this, let alone with a crew of raw cadets and Watters just wants glory rather than go back to being a cadet. But everyone (including Nog) is totally on board as Watters even gives a RousingSpeech on how great Red Squad is and can do anything. They approach the battleship, fire off their super-slick weapon...and it doesn't so much as scratch the enemy vessel. In one instant, Watters goes from a confident and charismatic leader to a scared punk who's in totally over his head and can't even gather his thoughts to order a retreat. The Jem'Hadar ship attacks and the "elite" Red Squad are swiftly exposed as the inexperienced and terrified kids they really are, completely unable to handle real combat. The crew, including Watters, are killed as only Jake, Nog and another crewmember manage to escape and be rescued. Nog admits he got caught up in the hype of Watters but the other crewmember insists he was a great man and the blame lies with them, ignoring how Watters' ego and need for glory killed all her friends.

* The [[ForumSpeak Internet Tough Guy]] is essentially this. They'll go on spectacularly long rants and speeches about how they'd kick their opponent's ass if they met in person, than crumple like wet paper the second something potentially dangerous or scary appears - see the aforementioned Navy SEAL copypasta.

* Joffrey Baratheon in ''Series/GameOfThrones'' is a coddled RoyalBrat who pretends to be a warrior prince, but actually got beaten up by a girl with a stick, and whenever actual danger nears, he cowers. In "Blackwater", he vows to give Stannis "A red smile". When it actually comes to fighting, he hides with his mother, leaving the defence to his uncle Tyrion. This is perhaps best exemplified by his MonumentOfHumiliationAndDefeat, a statue of him killing the symbol of one of his enemies with his crossbow, while their defeat actually came about by an act of vicious treachery that he didn't even have anything to do with arranging, and happened while he was hundreds of miles away. The real orchestrator was his {{Chessmaster}} grandfather, [[DragonInChief Tywin Lannister]].

Compare SmugSuper, NominalHero, LegendaryImpostor, and PhonyVeteran.

* Professor Gilderoy Lockhart in ''Literature/HarryPotterAndTheChamberOfSecrets'', to an extent. It's not explicitly confirmed that he's an inherent coward, but he's ''admitted'' he didn't do the things he has claimed to have done. On an interesting twist, he is actually a somewhat accomplished wizard... being an expert in [[LaserGuidedAmnesia memory charms]] to make the people who ACTUALLY did the things he claimed forget they ever did it.

* ''ComicBook/TheUltimates'': Abomination boasts his strength and that he's so superior to Hulk, but when the actual fight starts, he just manages to land a couple of hits before the Hulk gets the upper hand. He is then instantly turned into a coward pussycat begging for his life.

** [=SpongeBob=] becomes one in the episode "[[Recap/SpongeBobSquarePantsS5E14BlackenedSpongeMermaidManVsSpongeBob Blackened Sponge]]". After he gives himself a black eye by accidentally hitting it with a monkey wrench, he tries to save face by telling heavily glorified tall tales about how he got it while fighting a villain from his dreams named Jack M. Crazyfish. Once he discovers that Crazyfish is RealAfterAll, he drops the facade immediately, tells the truth about his black eye, and begs for mercy.

* The [[BlatantLies deadly, unstoppable]] [[http://www.survivalistboards.com/showthread.php?t=79487 Mall Ninja]] lands squarely in this category. The term "mall ninja" is a pejorative term for someone who is boastful about their abilities in martial arts, military experience, and/or hand-to-hand weapon skills (especially [[InternetJerk online]]), but who never has any experience in an actual fight. [[http://lonelymachines.org/mall-ninjas/ Here are the exploits of one example of the species]] who was delusional in how much he wanted to be seen as a badass, but just came off as pathetic.
-->'''From the page:''' The Mall Ninja is easily distinguished by an abundance of "tactical" gear, such as fatigues, a thigh holster (with, of course, a Glock), combat boots, bandolier and other accouterments that you’d usually only see on a SWAT operative. Median age is usually 19-25, and they tend to boast about their various exploits with certain Special Forces units, all of which they’re too young and idiotic to have joined (real Special Forces types don’t brag). They typically have opinions on ''everything'', regardless of expertise, they are uniformly poor shots, and they tend to exhibit a frightening lack of safety training.

* Dan Bilzerian, son of jailed '80s corporate raider Paul Bilzerian, [[https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-intersect/wp/2017/10/03/what-a-macho-gun-packing-instagram-star-did-when-he-was-caught-in-the-las-vegas-shooting/?utm_term=.a02effe3b4dd exposed himself as one of these]]. A washout from Navy SEAL school, he ran a popular Instagram feed showing off, in addition to things like sports cars and attractive women he was allegedly dating, his vast gun collection, with captions like "My biggest fear is that someone will break in and I won't be able to decide which of my guns to shoot them with." He might not have been joking. Caught in the middle of the 2017 Las Vegas mass shooting, the deadliest in U.S. history, he started running back to his house, ostensibly to pick the right gun out and go back to save the day, passing many mortally wounded victims along the way, only to stop at a police car when he realized the shooting was over. And then he ''posted a video of this to his feed''.

* The [[BlatantLies deadly, unstoppable]] [[http://www.survivalistboards.com/showthread.php?t=79487 Mall Ninja]] lands squarely in this category. The term "mall ninja" is a pejorative term for someone who is boastful about their abilities in martial arts and/or hand-to-hand weapon skills (especially [[InternetJerk online]]), but who never has any experience in an actual fight. [[http://lonelymachines.org/mall-ninjas/ Here are the exploits of one example of the species]].

* Lucius Lavin from ''Series/StargateAtlantis''.

* Neelix from ''Series/StarTrekVoyager'' more than qualifies. If he claims any skill rest assured that as the episode plays out he will slowly and deliberately prove that the opposite is actually the case until he's shown to be completely incompetent in whatever he claimed expertise in. Until his very last appearance on the show, where we're reminded that he's actually a CrouchingMoronHiddenBadass (we also have to remember that he not only survived reasonably well on his own in the Delta Quadrant, but also saved Kes and won her love). During his last appearance, he goes direct into LetsGetDangerous mode when he fights to save a Talaxian colony, nearly has a LastStand when he fights alone to save them, and chooses to stay to protect them.

** He actually managed to beat Pansage after a bit of encouragement from Ash, however.

* ''WesternAnimation/SpongebobSquarepants'': [=SpongeBob=] becomes one in the episode "[[Recap/SpongeBobSquarePantsS5E14BlackenedSpongeMermaidManVsSpongeBob Blackened Sponge]]". After he gives himself a black eye by accidentally hitting it with a monkey wrench, he tries to save face by telling heavily glorified tall tales about how he got it while fighting a villain from his dreams named Jack M. Crazyfish. Once he discovers that Crazyfish is RealAfterAll, he drops the facade immediately, tells the truth about his black eye, and begs for mercy.