History Main / TheWorfEffect

** The most consistently Worfed thing in ''40k'' has to be the Avatar of Khaine. The Avatar is a fragment of Khaine, the Eldar god of war, placed into an enormous mech that burns with his divine power. Its might inspires fear and awe amongst the Eldar, and it is only summoned in the most dire of circumstances. So naturally an Avatar of Khaine is most commonly found as a pile of rubbish at the feet of whoever Games Workshop wanted to look badass that week.

* ''Manhwa/{{Veritas}}'': Anichella was supposed to be a genius, and Vera's rival, yet she was killed in a fight with [[MadeOfIron Guhoo]], who isn't really all that impressive, and seems to be one of the weakest peaple in the student council. Rud even lampshades, how unbelievable that is.
** Averted with [[spoiler:chapter 75. Turns out, Guhoo had some help and Anichella was just as tough as everyone thought she was.]]

** [[spoiler:Averted with chapter 75. Turns out, Guhoo had some help and Anichella was just as tough as everyone thought she was.

[[folder:Music]]
* The title character of [[Music/JimCroce "Bad, Bad Leroy Brown"]] is set up throughout the song as "the baddest man in the whole damn town," complete with packing a gun and razor wherever he goes... but by the end of the song, a bar fight with the husband of a woman he's checking out has left him [[BodyHorror looking like "a jigsaw puzzle with a couple of pieces gone"]].

Compare BadassInDistress and TheWorldsExpertOnGettingKilled, both of which can overlap. Killing off a RedShirt or two is a slightly different method for achieving a similar effect. If the character beats up a whole ''army'', ConservationOfNinjutsu is probably at work. HopelessBossFight, when the Worf Effect is shown in a form of BossBattle. Contrast FightDracula, in which a writer has a pre-established character (as opposed to a new one) demonstrate their awesomeness by fighting Dracula (but not necessarily winning). See also [[Analysis/TheWorfEffect the analysis page]] for some side analysis of this trope. Also see HorrifyingTheHorror when a monster is scared by an even worse monster.

*** Hercules is actually a strange case of WorfHadTheFlu. The Berserker class is generally regarded as a trap option, as while it greatly strengthens servants summoned under it, it ALSO tends to remove their capacity for critical thought, and disables most of their strongest abilities. The only real exceptions to this rule are people like Beowulf, who aren't truly insane but are "berserkers" in combat, or people like Kiyohime, SF!Jack, and Spartacus, who are inherently insane and must be summoned under Berserker to show their strength. Archer Hercules in ''Literature/FateStrangeFake'' demonstrates perfectly how much more powerful he is when he's allowed thought.

** Oasis sometimes falls victim to this, as while she is a deadly assassin, she also loses against [[spoiler:Clone!]]Aylee, and previously lost to [[SuperPoweredEvilSide demon-possessed Gwynn]].

* In Episode 21 of Project Mouthwash's ''WebVideo/BleachSAbridged'', Urahara directly references the Worf Effect by explaining it to Chad as a reason for not training him. He subsequently agrees to help Chad train after being amused by Chad's comment that the Worf Effect applies perfectly to Renji.

* Zulenna is shown to easily wipe the floor with Agatha in a fencing match, with Agatha only getting in a hit once Zulenna had already called off the fight. [[spoiler: During the escape from Castle Wulfenbach, she stays behind to stall Von Pinn and fight off the heroes' pursuers. It works pretty well... [[https://www.girlgeniusonline.com/comic.php?date=20040901 until Captain Dupree shows up and casually kills her in less than a single page,]] establishing her credentials as one of the top BadassNormals in the entire comic.]]

* Throughout the early [[Literature/TheBible Bible]] stories (those also in the Torah) the big, powerful empire around is Egypt. Several times the Israelites prove the superiority of their God over this greatest early empire, either by saving it from future famine (Joseph) or freeing an entire subjugated ethnicity despite all of Egypt's might (Moses).

* Wrestling/BoboBrazil basically said this when the ''Body Press'' magazine was interviewing the opponents of Wrestling/PamperoFirpo, saying you had to beat him to have any kind of future.

* ''Wiki/SCPFoundation'':

* This would apply to the way Tex dominates Maine, Wyoming, and York in Season 9, Episode 10 of ''Machinima/RedVsBlue'' were it not for the fact that we're already well aware of Tex's badassery. To the other Freelancers, however, this is exactly what's going on. The show does a good job of averting this for the most part, however. Those that are skilled all appear completely competent even next to the absolute badasses, but the most badass of them still show clear superiority.