The Ace

"I am very smart. I went to the best Medacad in Osiris, top 3% of my class, finished my internship in 8 months. "Gifted" is the term. So when I tell you that my little sister makes me look like an idiot child, I want you to understand my full meaning. River was more than gifted. She... she was a gift. Everything she did, music, math, theoretical physics—even dance—there was nothing that didn't come as naturally to her as breathing does to us."

— Simon Tam, Firefly

The Ace is someone who is ridiculously good at what they do, whatever that happens to be, and everyone knows it. People look up to them, envy them, and are in awe of them. They have a reputation for doing the impossible, and may be Shrouded in Myth, as people are unable to separate their real accomplishments from unfounded rumors.

In a work revolving around a specific activity, any kind of Serious Business, the Ace will be the best at it. Other characters may refer to the Ace as "the best of the best" at this activity. In works lacking that sort of focus, they'll probably be extremely talented at everything.

The Ace is rarely The Protagonist^note the one exception is video games, since many games require the Player Character to win every fight to progress the storyline, often turning them into this from the perspective of the NPCs, typically acting as the living embodiment of Always Someone Better. They'll drive the protagonist to greater efforts either out of envy or by inspiring them. As such, if they're a main character, expect them to be either The Rival or The Mentor. If they're a minor but reoccurring character, then they'll almost certainly be Hero of Another Story.

However, The Hero typically evolves into an Ace by the end of their story by virtue of having the most potential to unlock. By the time this happens the original Ace will likely be hit by The Worf Effect a few times or both will be standing on equal ground. However, The Hero starting the story as an Ace is not unheard of, and it can serve as a reconstruction.

The Ace is common in the Romance genre, but what they are good at usually has little effect on the romantic plot (other than making them appear more attractive). Some Dystopian settings feature an Ace, though they tend to be the victim of Tall Poppy Syndrome to show they're also good at dying. Protagonists in role-playing video-games are almost always Aces.

If the Ace's talent is operating combat vehicles, then they're an Ace Pilot, but note that not all ace pilots are an example of this. If the Ace's private life isn't nearly as great as it seems from the outside, then they're a Broken Ace. Though this trope is often played for comedy, Ace's impossible talents being the joke. If (s)he isn't really that amazing, then see Feet of Clay or Fake Ultimate Hero. If their talent is due to intelligence instead of simple awesomeness, see Impossible Genius. If they perform exceptionally well within a specific field but are hopeless anywhere else, see Graceful in Their Element. In a High School setting, they're typically the Big Man on Campus.

Related to the Renaissance Man, who is capable of a myriad of seemingly unrelated talents, and the Master of All, who is a master at every skill or ability. See Ultimate Life Form for a character that is literally perfect. See World's Best Warrior where this is solely about combat success. Compare Master of All and Broken Ace. Contrast Loser Archetype and Classical Anti-Hero. Has nothing to do with asexuality ("ace" also being a common shortened form of "asexual"), or Playing Card Motifs (though a character directly associated with the Ace card will sometimes overlap with this trope).

noreallife

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Example subpages:

• Anime & Manga
• Comic Books
• Films — Live-Action
• Literature
• Live-Action TV
• Professional Wrestling
• Video Games
• Western Animation

Other examples:

Advertising

• Tennessee's Farm Bureau Insurance has Charlie, a farmer who can do open heart surgery, answer any question, an even helped the Titans win a game after getting a call from the coach.
• The Most Interesting Man in the World from the Dos Equis beer commercials, who is a master pool player, fisherman, surfer and more - he's revealed to have arm wrestled Fidel Castro and refused a drink from the Fountain of Youth because he wasn't thirsty. For more of his exploits, see the other commercials here.

Asian Animation

• While Wolf of Pleasant Goat and Big Big Wolf is viewed as such by other wolves due to his ability to capture and eat goats nearly every day; the rest of the wolves aren't even able to keep a goat captured for long enough to be able to cook them fully.

Comic Strips

• Dilbert character Topper at least claims he's an ace and he's never been successfully called on it. It doesn't matter what you've done whether its recycling, building a time machine, or giving birth, he claims he's done it better.
• FoxTrot gives us Grandma, Andy's mom, who has apparently traveled the world, is a world-class chef and well-informed in most all subjects. However, she deconstructs the trope when Andy finally reveals that living under her and her Monty Oum levels of awesome has made her almost unable to connect with her and feel seriously inferior to her.
• The Phantom, or rather, all twenty one of them. Every Phantom is trained since their childhood to be physically powerful (to Charles Atlas Superpower extents), skilled in both armed and unarmed combat, genius tacticians and capable leaders.
• ''Peanuts: While Charlie Brown fails at almost everything he does, his dog Snoopy is pretty much the opposite, being able to do anything ... HOWEVER, this is zig-zagged as his imaginative adventures display him being quite unskilled. He usually is shot down by the Red Baron, he fails every time in court as an attorney, his stories are constantly rejected and as Joe Cool never manages to attract any girls.

Fan Works

• Always Visible: In the first and second acts of the story, Galbraith uses his position as a police inspector to impress people (by scaring them with his ID, of course)..
• All Mixed Up!: Otto is this when it comes to word problems. He can solve them with absolutely no effort at all and in record time, much to the amazement of his partner. This ends up becoming a Chekhov's Gun for when he becomes the only one capable of defeating the Big Bad at the climax.
• Children of Remnant: With Pyrrha out of the world for fifteen years, Yang takes a similar role. She's the vaunted fighter with the powerful Semblance, to the point that she even performed Pyrrha's canon feat of beating all of team CRDL at once. She's given the nickname "Unbreakable," and is the leader of team YRRN. This is all largely due to Summer's influence getting her past her Unskilled, but Strong and immaturity faster than in canon.
• Pyrrha in The Commission is this compared to the Broken Ace she is in canon, thanks to her interactions with Weiss and Cinder, with the former even encouraging the girl to refer to her on a First-Name Basis. Aside from her more balanced humility, her combat prowess grows to the point where she easily scores win after win in the Vytal Festival, even single-handedly defeating Team CFVY after the rest of her team gets downed.
• In The Concubine Mo Chronicles, Wei Wuxian effortlessly answers any question and test the eunuchs throw at him in the hopes to discredit a male lunatic about to become an Imperial concubine.
• The Dimensional Drifter: Judai Yuki is hailed as a "Fusion expert" and an incredibly skilled duelist. He really deserves both titles, but a number of people doubt the first part because the duelists in Standard have really low understanding on what expertise is.
• By the time she's 28 in Don't Lose Your Heart, Ryuko is regarded as an acclaimed and legendary Keyblade Master, having decimated armies of Heartless and leaving Maleficent utterly terrified of her. She even becomes highly respected by those who oppose her as well.
• Kate Kane is the reigning super-lightweight champion of a nameless East Coast boxing league in Eight Count, and has won more championships than any other female boxer there. She's also a very popular draw for crowds.
• Fairy May Cry:
  • After Dante joins Fairy Tail he immediately gains this reputation, due to his arsenal of Devil Arms, his demonic abilities, and years of experience hunting demons. Nearly any fight he's in will be in his favor, defeating the likes of Natsu, Gray, Gajeel, Erza and Mira, the latter two being aces themselves, and managing to fight Laxus to a draw.
  • After the Time Skip, Dante's brother Vergil becomes this for Sabertooth.
  • Dante and Vergil's father Sparda was one himself, gaining a reputation for defeating entire armies of demons by himself, on top of countless other acts of justice he committed throughout his life.
• Fate of the Clans:
  • Lugh is supposedly good at everything. Cú Chulainn is Lugh's mortal incarnation, so the same applies to him, but only as a full Heroic Spirit. As one from the Holy Grail, most of his skills are missing.
  • Reisi has always been talented, from school work to athletics. In school, he used to lecture his teachers.
• Fate Revelation Online:
  • Shirou is considered this due to his skill when it comes to the game's magic and combat systems, as well as discovering how to make steel early on. Shirou's reputation grows to the point that some of his exploits are told jestingly because they're too outrageous to believe, such as essentially soloing a field boss and later soloing a floor boss.
  • Ilya also gets this treatment, because of her knowledge and ability to use Alchemy to make the Sorcery Trait for Mystic Eyes of Binding when it hasn't been unlocked yet. Diabel notes she's not really better than a lot of the players in combat; she simply doesn't hesitate when attacking.
  • They're actually so strong and knowledgeable about magecraft it leads to suspicion among some players that Ilya and Shirou are alpha testers, in league with Kayaba, or even outright AI. For Ilya, one, if not two, of those rumors is even true.
• Subverted in The Fifth Act. Cloud is adored throughout ShinRa for his skill, known to match Sephiroth and being a good mentor to those willing to seek him out. He falls off this when they find out that he essentially planned a murder-suicide for himself and Sephiroth. This ends up being for the best as they can finally help Cloud and truly befriend him.
• Fist of the Moon: A lot of Rei’s sniping comes from the fact that Usagi wasn’t this, despite being more powerful and experienced (as well as her leader the Princess). When Usagi starts growing up, Rei gets a lot more complimentary, though they’re still Vitriolic Best Buds.
• A Fool Named Fortune has Roy, who is good at what he does in almost any situation.
• In A Force of Four, Power Girl takes up the mantle of world's greatest protector after the death of the Golden Age Superman, being the mightiest hero of Earth-Two by far and Justice Society of America greatest asset when a trio of Kryptonian criminals comes along.
• Yukihana from A Growing Affection has the skills of an S-Rank Jonin but chooses to remain is a Genin. During the Demon Fox attack she hurt the demon enough to save the lives of the original Ino-Shika-Cho, and then proceeded to help Minato with his plan to seal the fox. All only day after giving birth. She was lethally wounded in the process.
• Forum of Thrones has multiple examples:
  • Elias Tyrell is one of the most famed knights in the Reach. At a rather young age, he is incredibly gifted in combat and openly embodies the virtues of a knight, at least in public.
  • Orys Baratheon is one of the few genuine examples of a Knight In Shining Armour this story has, as well as a highly skilled tactician. His polite and chivalrous behaviour makes it easy to forget that he is also one of the most deadly fighters in Westeros.
  • Aegon Targaryen himself proves himself to be one. He is a great commander, brave in battle, handsome as all Valyrian's are, as well as an actually inspiring leader with a strong vision of uniting the continent and ruling justly over a peaceful realm.
• Harmony Theory has Rainbow Dash, Applejack, Rarity, and Pinkie Pie. This is due to their vast amount of innate magic, which the ponies of future Equestria have little of. Twinkle Shine even comments that Rainbow Dash was a phenom even by pre-Schism standards.
• Hazbin Hotel: Lucifer's Folly: El Bandito; he's so badass, witty, skilled and Crazy-Prepared all the time. Whenever it seems like all hope is lost, El Bandito will typically show up to save the day, such as that one time he managed to trick and scare Mephisto out of the Hotel by dressing up as Lucifer.
• Hellsister Trilogy: In absence of her cousin, Supergirl is the Legion of Super-Heroes's strongest, fastest and most powerful member, as well as one of the smarter Legionnaires.
• Zorro from Latias' Journey. Berry Stoo and Mariah Susanson might also count, but are more a case of Parody Sues. Likewise, Auron from the sequel, Brave New World.
• Sara Nelson-Shimazu from the Lyrical Nanoha Fanfic series called the Deva Series. Although now a Posthumous Character and thus subjected to pre-emptive Deus Exit Machina, in the backstory she was said to have sealed two Lost Logia on par with the canonical Book of Darkness by herself — remember how much trouble the Book of Darkness gave the canon characters — as well as being a highly accomplished mage who invented the eponymous system of magic, which has spells of both destruction and utility far beyond anything existing systems had to offer.
• Several characters from The Night Unfurls fit the bill.
  • Vault fits the "charismatic leader" archetype of this trope, regarded as a Hunk In-Universe (deep voice, herculean physique) with the look of a hero of old. A good sword arm, and The Leader of the Black Dogs, he is famed for pulling victory from the jaws of defeat during his career as a mercenary, working closely with the Seven Shields during the Forever War against Olga. This trope is the main reason why he amasses a lot of supporters to fight for the Black Dogs and their ambition to build a Sex Empire.
  • Olga is considered one of the most talented sorceresses in the land, as well as the one who rivals Celestine, the Goddess Reborn in terms of magical prowess. Her good looks aside, it is implied that the dark elf community used to hold a great deal of respect for her because of her role as the community's representative and dark elf queen when the dark elves have been threatened with enslavement for a long time. There's a reason why the people of Loraine hate her guts after she "repaid" their loyalty by sacrificing the city to the orcs.
  • As for Celestine, the only noteworthy feat of her arcane talent is the power to see future visions. Other than that, she has yet to perform a feat considered exceptional at least In-Universe via her magic, making this an Informed Attribute^note For example, Soren claims that Celestine could "just simply blast him into oblivion without lifting a finger", yet there is not a single moment that depicts her using any offensive magic at all. Nevertheless, she is definitely a really talented ruler, capable of running her country for centuries and is beloved by many. Being able to see the future helps out a lot.
  • Played With for Kyril. He gradually develops into a straight example not because he becomes better at doing something over time — he's already way up there in terms of strength, combat, and other eldritch tricks. Rather, it's his reputation that improves. At the beginning, he's a Terror Hero feared by all, but later on, he consistently brings results by culling the traitors in the country so effectively that his soldiery and the common folk lionise him. Several character POVs observe that Kyril is gradually gaining a legendary status as a result of earning authority via asskicking, stopping the Black Dogs from doing harm to the people, and getting rid of the traitorous aristocrats that extort said people. His status as The Dreaded doesn't change, of course.
• The Fire Emblem works of Naryfiel Lilith deconstruct this trope. A Thief's Legacy, chronologically the earliest entry in the Elibe saga, sees the Legendary Heroes of the Scouring seeing themselves coming to be viewed as divine beings and recognizing the dangers of this (while also using this to their advantage to make sure that their corrupt leader gets his comeuppance), and by A Tactician's Legacy, the FE6 novelization, the heroes of FE7 have been placed on a similar pedestal, again with warnings about the dangers of this.
• In Origins, a Mass Effect/Star Wars/Borderlands/Halo Massive Multiplayer Crossover, Commander Samantha Shepard actually ends up averting the trope once the story moves into and past the Mass Effect 2 canon. She suffers from a (justifiable) Heroic BSoD into Broken Ace territory and subsequent Face–Heel Turn, leading to other characters openly wondering if she's fit for duty anymore or even if she should be killed. In spite of this, the people in charge assume she will simply return to being The Ace once she snaps out of her depression, and treat her accordingly. This only makes it worse and Shepard's psychologist indirectly calls them out on this during Sam's therapy. Ultimately a downplayed Double Subversion as she returns to duty as combat-proficient, diplomatic, and creative as ever, though she spreads The Chains of Commanding around by deferring to Garrus on occasion.
• Alexend from the French Pokémon Fanfic/Parody "Pokémon D/P: Plus qu'un jeu" (Pokémon Diamond/Pearl: More Than A game). Seemingly invincible, uses a sword rather than fight with his Pokémon, although he sometimes does so; always appears to help the main character, Zeronos (not related to Zeronos from Kamen Rider Den-O except his name which was taken from there, it's his ACTUAL NAME), when he's facing an opponent too strong for him, such as Drakness, or simply to destroy something too stupid for him to deal with normally (such as facing the Teletubbies in a Pokémon fight, Alexend just jumped in and killed them all in one slash of his sword before the fight even started, stating that it wouldn't have been funny to fight them anyway.). He have a tendency to show up (and go away when he's done) in an unnecessary cool looking fashion (includes Dramatic Wind, sparkles, lens flares and whatnot when he's in a good mood, but he his more likely to just pop up in a breeze of wind behind Zeronos and disappear the same way). Can be considered as a mix between Sidekick Ex Machina, Hypercompetent Sidekick and a bit of Parody Sue.
• The Persona 5 Adult Confidant AU portrays Sae Niijima as this among the Phantom Thieves, to the point that her Code Name outright is "Ace". Not only is she one of the best students among them, but she's also the team's best physical fighter.
• Pokémon Master: Ash Ketchum is the best and most powerful Pokemon Master in this setting... to his chagrin.
• In Fire Emblem story Queen of Sorrow, both Ike and Zelgius are portrayed this way, as well as being a One-Man Army each. Subverted in that despite all their strength and charisma, they end up being defeated by clever strategy.
• Republic City Chronicles: Asami, even more so than in canon. On top of being a great engineer, martial artist, and driver, she's her father's second-in-command in their criminal enterprises, the lead engineer of Future Industries, and an absolutely lethal combatant.
• In Reverse RWBY, Mercury takes Pyrrha's place as a world-renowned skilled fighter.
• Sir Gilver Bluehide in Son of Sparda D×D is widely considered to be the strongest Paladin of the Church and is shown to be the World's Best Warrior. He's one of the few that can challenge, if not outright win against, Dante, was a Child Prodigy and Master Swordsman at an early age, and is respected even by former exorcists who became disillusioned with the Church. Considering that he's actually Vergil, it really isn't a surprise.
• In Ten Versus Blight, Daylen is an extremely talented mage who spent his childhood with the Hawkes before being captured by templars (the human mage main character from the original game has never met their relatives). Malcolm Hawke taught Daylen so much that Daylen had to hide some of his powers from the other mages and templars in the Circle.
• Victory at Ostagar has Adam Hawke, to his brother's constant consternation. He is both talented and very, very lucky.
• Vulpine:
  • All of Team Seven have shades of this at the beginning, and as the story goes on they all progress to full Ace status.
  • Even in this alternate universe, Minato and Itachi are still considered leagues above everyone else. Minato achieved Nirvana as a teenager using Seals, and even half dead and blind Itachi is considered a Paragon of ninja skill.
• Wings to Fly: Do you want to invent an entirely new style of beamsaber combat that's better than the existing one? Lock Duo Maxwell in a room for three months and slip pizzas under the door. The room won't hold him though, you really do need the pizzas for that. Need an expert in salvage equipment? Duo's got your back. Diagnose Zero System exposure psychosis? He's got a checklist in his back pocket. Ironically he'll elaborate at length on his terrible childhood and why he ought to be a Broken Ace. But isn't.
• The Hunter in With Strings Attached. At least, Jeft is desperately trying to show the four that he's the Ace and they're feeble jerks. Unfortunately for him, the four force Character Development upon him, and he turns into quite a decent guy.
• The Italian remake of Battle Fantasia Project has a few, but they tend to be Broken Aces. On the other hand Sunset Shimmer plays it straight (to the point her character sheet describes her special talent as "completing and exceeding all her goals"), and Twilight Sparkle and Trixie are implied as such by the fact they were Sunset's rivals (especially Twilight, as she's the one Unicorn more powerful than Sunset herself).
• Some examples in Pokémon Reset Bloodlines include:
  • Erika of Celadon City. She's an excellent gym leader, the head of one of the largest department store chains in the world, and a major player in Kanto politics. And she carries a lot of respect in all three fields.
  • Elite Four member Lorelei. She's a beautiful woman with plenty of smarts, charisma, determination and one strongest trainers of her region.
  • Steven Stone, full stop. The regional Hoenn Champion, heir to the Devon Corporation, and a well-respected researcher.
• Reacting to The Loud House: In Toads and Tiaras, it's pointed out, to his bashfulness, that Lincoln Loud is a pageant coach, great planner, good at drawing, great at video games, intelligent and good at chess, great magician, great ghost hunter, secret agent, good musician, good with the drums, has an angelic singing voice, and is a Chick Magnet.
• A very common attribute of Princess Celestia in My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic fanfiction, due to her nature as an immortal alicorn (combining the traits of all three types of ponies) who raises the sun in the morning and puts it to bed at night.
• Among the various cooks in the Magic Chef competition in Harry Potter and the Lack of Lamb Sauce, Arjuna Belaji is the best in every category and gets through most rounds without any criticisms, usually being ranked the best each time. This results in a fair bit of Tall Poppy Syndrome from the other competitors, especially since most of them have sympathetic reasons for entering^note Cho wants to commission a memorial for Cedric, Bridget's family business is struggling financially, Astoria is trying to move out of her parent's house before it becomes a headquarters for Voldemort, etc, but Arjuna is only in the competition for the sake of winning it. Eventually becomes deconstructed when Arjuna's refusal to practice with the other competitors causes her to start struggling, especially during a round where use of magic is forbidden, and Arjuna eventually is disqualified for cheating due to letting her competitiveness overcome her common sense^note The round she cheated in required she use beef as an ingredient in her dish but as a Hindi, Arjuna is forbidden from cooking or eating beef. Rather than ask for a different required ingredient or not use it and explain her reasoning to the judges, Arjuna switches her dish with another's but gets caught by the anti-cheating jinxes.
• White Sheep (RWBY): Team WJRP (Weiss, Jaune, Ruby, and Pyrrha) are the favored team to win the Vytal Festival tournament. Or more specifically, Pyrrha, a world-famous championship tournament fighter with a Semblance that makes her especially dangerous against enemies with metal weapons, is the favorite. The rest of the team is just along for the ride. When Blake asks Ruby what their plan for a difficult enemy is, Ruby just says "throw Pyrrha at them." It genuinely takes Blake a minute to think of any flaws in that plan.
  Blake: Ah-ha! What if the enemy has a Semblance that can take her out in one hit? What's your plan then?
  Ruby: Have her hide behind Jaune, letting him tank the hits.
  [beat]
  Blake: Your team is stupid.
• At one point in Zim the Warlord: Irken Reversion, Zim readily admits that Tenn was always the best of all the Invaders (and considering that Zim is a narcissistic egomaniac, it really says something that he would say this). And post-Reversion, she's the only one able to beat Zim in a fight, when he'd previously been wiping the floor with all the other Reverted.
• By the time Izuku makes it into his first class of UA in The Norse Hero: Fenrir, Izuku already won the Superpower Lottery with his Fenrir quirk, but he has also learned how to use it by two long-accomplished Pro-Heroes (one of which being the Number 2 Hero Endeavor) and has an emergency hero license.
• A Hero's Wrath:
  • While Asura is registered as the No. 4 Hero in Japan, it is strongly implied that he is so powerful that All Might would not be able to beat him in a straight fight, his number being a result of his abrasive personality and lack of care in public opinion.
  • Having trained to use his wrath mantra by his father since he could start walking as well as possessing an affinity for Primordial mantra, by the time Izuku takes the entrance exam he is an unstoppable juggernaut that dwarves all of his fellow contestants in terms of points.
• Weiss in Schnee: Hero or Huntress is this, due to her semblance and being older than she looks giving her a leg up on her apparent peers.
• In When Reason Fails, Shoto Todoroki is such a talented Initiate that he completes the entire Black Course which should have taken five years in two years instead, and commands enough respect among the student Initiates that the Warlords are willing to at least hear him out.
• Ranma Saotome in Voyages of the Wild Sea Horse is accepted as the greatest fighter amongst the Kamikaze Pirates, despite their ranks being made up of super-martial artists, Cute Monster Girls, and cute monster girls who practice supernatural martial arts. He started out Strong and Skilled and only got more as he survived the Grand Line.

Film — Animation

• Aladdin disguises himself as the completely over-the-top Prince Ali to woo Princess Jasmine, and he's introduced with a preposterously epic song that's one long hymn to his awesomeness.
• Hercules: Once he defeats the Hydra, Herc's rise to fame and fortune is meteoric, and the Zero to Hero song states outright that he doesn't lose. Throughout the song, the Muses talk Herc up as an unbeatable yet Humble Hero, a Nice Guy and a Chick Magnet who is Loved by All, all while we see him beating some of the most famous monsters from Greek mythology handily- including some who were faced by other heroes!
• In Barbie in a Mermaid Tale and its sequel, Merliah is a champion surfer.
• The Book of Life:
  • Manolo Sanchez. When it comes to bullfighting, Carlos states that Manolo is destined to become the "greatest Sanchez bullfighter ever", and he probably would be the greatest if it weren't for his unwillingness to deliver the finishing blow on a bull. He also has a talent for thinking up song lyrics on the spot.
  • Maria Posada is easily the best fighter of the series, and is able to give an epic encouraging speech to all of San Angel to fight Chakal and his bandits.
  • Joaquin Mondragon, or so it seems, but he is actually using The Medal of Everlasting life, making it impossible to kill or even hurt him. Though by the end he decides to earn his reputation honestly.
• Encanto has a deconstruction through Isabela. Using her gift of a Green Thumb, she's hailed as the beauty of her and her sisters' Beauty, Brains, and Brawn dynamic. This becomes the source of Mirabel's Sibling Rivalry with her. However, her "I Am Becoming" Song shows that she's sick and tired of being perfect and wants to be herself.
• In The Fantastic Mr. Fox, Ash's cousin, Kristofferson, is a fox kit who seemingly can do no wrong, although he tries not to make a big deal of it. Regardless, young Ash feels belittled by him, but eventually both achieve a mutual understanding and become friends.
• A Cut Song from Frozen named "More Than Just A Spare" has Anna refer to her older sister Elsa as an "athlete, scholar, poet". The song was written from an earlier script when both sisters weren't forcibly introverted. Elsa having athletic skills in the final product is unlikely due to her upbringing, however she most likely was well-educated as a part of her education towards being the future queen of her country.
• Subverted with Captain Sternn of Heavy Metal. Outwardly he looks to be the typical Ace, with the heroic clothes, the swagger, the lantern jaw, etc., but we soon discover he's really a despicable character despite his outward charms.
• Kung Fu Panda: Legends tell of their awesomeness.
  • Po, despite getting off to a... rocky start in his training, soon proved to be The Chosen One that Master Oogway always knew he would be. As the series goes on, he only gets better, stronger and wiser. By the time the film series ends, he's defeated Tai Lung, ended Lord Shen's conquest and found inner peace along the way, destroyed General Kai, mastered chi on pretty much the same day and wholly united the Valley of Peace as he was always destined to.
  • Master Oogway is the Old Master who taught the old masters, he literally invented Kung Fu and was considered the greatest warrior in history and even possessed the Hero's Chi before he passed it down to Po, easily handing the likes of Tai Lung, Kai and Fenghuang their asses. He was the wisest and most patient and understanding of any Kung Fu master whose influence on the world is felt long after his death.
  • All of the Furious Five qualify, being the most renowned heroes in the Valley of Peace and the greatest masters in their branches of Kung Fu.
  • Shifu taught the Furious Five, Po and Tai Lung and demonstrates time and again he's Oogway's best student for a DAMN good reason.
  • Tai Lung was a prodigy in Kung Fu who easily surpassed his mentor Shifu (he's even stated by Po to be the first student in history to master all the Thousand Scrolls of Kung Fu!) and gave one hell of a beating to the Furious Five upon their only encounter. His escape from Chorh Gom Prison (which must be emphasised a prison designed specifically for him) is a prime example of why even his mentor was scared of him, it has to be seen to be believed. Too bad he was too jaded from the events of his past to put it to good use.
  • A darker example, but Lord Shen definitely qualifies. He's an exceptionally intelligent and charismatic warlord who invented a powerful cannon strong enough to potentially destroy Kung Fu with an army of wolves at his back and while he's not the physically strongest, he's a terrifyingly skilled martial artist with a mastery over weaponry that few can match, so much so that he absolutely mopped the floor with Master Storming Ox and Master Croc at the same time and even gave Po a genuinely hard time in a on-to-one duel. Ultimately it was his own hand that ended his life, rather than any warrior. Of all the series' titular antagonists, Lord Shen's actions had by far the most far-reaching effect and he's also the one who came the closest to killing Po.
• The Lion King: Mufasa, who is a strong lion, capable king, and good father.
• Subverted by Metro Man in Megamind. While otherwise fitting the trope to a tee, he really doesn't want to be a hero and fakes his own death in order to retire.
• My Little Pony: Equestria Girls: As a pony, Sunset Shimmer was one of Celestia's best pupils and apparently only second to Twilight in magical power and knowledge. As a human, she not only continues to excel at academics, but is also a skilled musician, athlete, artist, and (following her reformation) is one of the popular students at Canterlot High. This is all in addition to her knowledge of Equestrian magic and potentially having the strongest magic among the Equestria Girls.
• Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse: Peter Parker/Spider-Man I from Miles Morales' timeline was written by Word of God to be the ideal version; a wealthy man who's been able to keep his relationships healthy (he's Happily Married for one thing) and loved by the public. Even his Alternate Self Peter B. Parker refers to him as "perfect". Naturally, none of this can last thanks to his tragic demise at the (literal) hands of Kingpin, leaving a void that Miles, the New Spider-Man, has to fill.
• Turning Red: Mei's quite academically skilled and talented^note She's getting As in all of her classes, she's musically talented and is also fluent in French and has the ego to back it all up.
• Wreck-It Ralph: Felix is adored in-game as a perfect hero, and he's never seen losing a game.

Music

• In "Weird Al" Yankovic's song "CNR", Charles Nelson Reilly is The Ace.
  Charles Nelson Reilly won the Tour de France with two flat tires and a missing chain
  He trained a rattlesnake to do his laundry, I'm telling you the man was insane

Myths & Religion

• Beti-Pahuin Mythology
  • Akoma Mba frequently figures as a deus ex machina to resolve battles that have escalated too far. He mastered all forms of magic during the battle on the moon and was recognized as a great warrior before he was even a man yet. Akoma’s very name means “Creator of Mba” who is his own (albeit step-) father.
  • Oveng Ndoumou Obame was a utopian ruler that managed to awe the Ekang from his first appearance. His skill in battle was so great that they even compared him to Zong Mebegue the God of evil. He was beloved by every girl who saw him and possessed enormous occult power since he was a baby.
  • Obame Andome was begged to become ruler of humanity by many different tribes due to his gift for warfare, diplomacy, and great charisma.
• Classical Mythology:
  • Achilles and Odysseus of The Iliad and The Odyssey are this trope to different degrees. Achilles borders on Invincible Hero while Odysseus is one of the earliest known examples of a Guile Hero.
  • Hector as well; since antiquity, it's been common to note that Hector is in many ways the better of the two between him and Achilles, being more loyal and conventionally virtuous than Achilles, who can be selfish and vindictive. He's immensely respected by friend and foe alike, and without Achilles fighting with them, Hector pushes the Greeks back to their ships after a series of running battles. He's also fighting to defend his country, compared to the Greeks who are invading; when he's killed, the whole city erupts into mourning for their coming doom.
  • Diomedes, a Greek commander who, while also badass, is much more mature and wise. Also, he manages to defeat (and even wound) Ares and Aphrodite in a fight.
  • Heracles was a great athlete, warrior, general, sailor, explorer and trickster among other things.
• Celtic Mythology:
  • Lugh Lámhfhada was, despite being half-Fomorian, allowed to join the Tuatha Dé Danann because while the gods had a master smith, warrior, bard, sorcerer, and harper, they did not have among their number someone who excelled at everything simultaneously. Lugh was otherwise known as "Samhildánach", the Skilled-in-everything.
  • Cú Chulainn, hero of the The Cattle Raid of Cooley and a good many other stories, had a reputation of being awesome at everything, be it fighting, sports, chess, crafting and solving riddles, chariot-riding, being ridiculously good-looking, or turning into a horrific, bloodthirsty, Lovecraftian monstrosity and going on killing-sprees.
• Gilgamesh of The Epic of Gilgamesh was such an Ace, his bored fits caused his people to beg the gods to send him a friend.
• Norse myth makes every god but one into the butt of many jokes, including Thor for being such a dumb meathead. Odin, however, gets away with being an unstoppable warrior, leader, maker of the world with the bones of Ymir, who knows all the charms and has the wisdom of Mimir as well as literally irresistible (as in, they are magically compelled) charm for the ladies.
• Hindu Mythology has a few, especially in the Ramayana and Mahabharatha:
  • Krishna. Whether it comes to war, statesmanship, love, philosophy, or religion, Krishna is peerless. Yes, he is an avatar of one of the Hindu pantheon's most active gods, but even among the avatars, he is pretty awesome. Rama from the Ramayana fits the bill as well, being described as possessing all the attributes that man aspires to, but can never attain. Both are also All Loving Heroes who are Loved by All to boot.
  • The son of Ravana, Meghanada, later called Indrajit for his feat of defeating Indra, defeated Rama and his brother in battle more than once, and they only survived because of various interventions. He also mastered the art of sorcery, something that very few could claim, and on top of all that he was the only human who once possessed the ultimate Astras of the Trinity. The trope is subverted when Lakshmana calls out Indrajit for being a dirty fighter. Indrajit used to spread darkness, make himself invisible and fight people. Lakshmana promptly kills him.
  • Krishna's friend Arjuna from the Mahabharata is the legendary archer who can slaughter thousands of enemies from a moving chariot. He is also well-versed in the use of supernatural missiles. He vanquished the gods and other inhabitants of the three worlds and subjugated all the kings of the Earth after the Kurukshetra War. The only time he got defeated in a duel was against Shiva, the God of destruction who taught him the Pashupatastra as a reward. He was also Drona's favorite pupil, is favored by the elders and others around him and many beautiful women fell in love with him. Arjuna is famous for his discipline.
• The tall tales of Pecos Bill catalogue his many outlandishly improbable accomplishments, such as eating dynamite and lassoing a tornado.
• Sun Wukong from Journey to the West borders on Canon Sue. He is so capable and has so many powers and so much prowess, he is able to tell both Heaven and Hell off, defying first the various Hells to avoid punishment, and then Heaven when he was given a low-ranking posting for a god. The Monkey King has strength, speed, superior fighting prowess, magic transformations, and knows many magics. After defeating 10,000 warriors of Heaven by himself, he is finally bound by the Buddha. He eventually brokers a deal to get out by accompanying a monk, and on the pilgrimage earns nothing less than full Buddhahood.
• Zhuge Liang of Romance of the Three Kingdoms is a gifted prophet, thinker, inventor, strategist, poet, musician, and statesman. He is so cunning, he kills a man with a sternly worded letter. Guan Yu also qualifies, as he is a brilliant general, sage, and scholar whose sheer badassery lets him keep playing calmly playing Go as surgery is done on his arm. Cao Cao is an example of the Ace as an Informed Ability, because after a few episodes of sheer mind-blowing brilliance, he quickly turns into General Failure

Podcasts

• The Thrilling Adventure Hour: That cloud-ropin', river-drinkin', barbecuin' Cactoid Jim. The ultimate Space Western hero, he's the best at everything he does, and usually ends up playing Hero Antagonist to leading man Sparks Nevada.
• The Batavia episode of Relative Disasters features Wiebbe Hayes, a soldier on board the ill-fated Batavia who ended up leading the resistance to Cornelisz's attempt to establish himself as a petty tyrant.
• You're Dead To Me: Desiree Burch is the all-time champion of the quizzes, with a success rate of 100%! According to Greg, the production team refer to a 10/10 score on the quiz as "Burching it"

Roleplay

• In There is no GATE; we did not fight there, Kytheus Rhavenfell excells at almost anything he puts his minds to, and learns terrifyingly quickly. He is most well known for his incredible martial, magical, and musical prowess. Subverted when it comes to swimming, which he struggles with. He's getting better, though.
• The Armory Master of Einsteinian Roulette. Fiery and incredibly beautiful, she is capable of impressing feats of crafting and combat, going unscathed through several high-risk missions without having so much as a scar to show. Before being put under the service of the HMRC, she worked in a bakery. She was good at that too.
• Ace from The Insane Quest of Unfathomable Randomness was (fittingly) one of these at first, but as time went on his team began to lose respect for him when he started becoming less of an ace and more of a traditional Marty Stu. Lori could also be considered a female example. This has given Mortal enough basis to accuse them both of being too OP for the story's good. Though the author is trying to fix that.

Theatre

• Cesare - Il Creatore che ha distrutto — Cesare Borgia can do everything, even at 16 years old. He can diffuse a fight — or win the fight if it comes to that. He's the smartest person around, and solves mysteries. He's also as beautiful as Donatello's David.
• Joey Percival of George Bernard Shaw's Misalliance is a daring, intelligent, handsome pilot who shows up in Act 2 to steal be pursued by another man's fiancee and generally outshine most of the rest of the cast, although arguably he himself is outshone by the even more daring Lena Shc Sch Szcz the Polish Lady.
• Electra the Electric Engine in Starlight Express, who shows up in the railyard and promptly outdoes even the local Jerk Jock Greaseball. His component/assistant cars sum make it very obvious that he's the best around:
  "Electra is cool. Electra is hot. Cool. Hot. A megastar. A megawatt. Rich, hot, powerful. Rich, hot, cool."

Tabletop Games

• BattleTech has Kai Allard-Liao. There are other great MechWarriors in the setting, of course, but after getting over his initial self-esteem issues Kai is just about universally acknowledged as essentially unbeatable in a 'Mech, period, with the main mitigating factor simply being that even he can only be in one place at a time. When he finally died in combat, his opponents openly acknowledge that the only reason they won was because he ran out of ammo. They put a homing beacon on his mech and left it otherwise undisturbed so that his allies would have no trouble finding it and recovering his body.
• Anyone on the miraculous Aspect Arc known as "The Ace" in Chuubo's Marvelous Wish-Granting Engine is just plain better than you at doing skill-based things, especially after 3+, to the extent that eventually they gain the ability to surf sound waves and punch characters out of comic books. Of course, the other Miraculous Arcs offer options such as control over large areas, becoming a fairytale monster, control over elements, blasting things out of existence, reality warping, binding powers to various pacts and injuries, or the ever-popular turning into a giant snake, so it's not a guaranteed "I Win" button all that often. It's also balanced by being an incredible MP hog when used too often.
• Allison Carter in the Costume Fairy Adventures demo playset, The Big Pie Caper. It's hinted that she may be the rightful queen or something similarly heroic. She also has a massive 15 Stress in a game where non-player characters only rarely get more than 10 (putting her on par with the toughest of player character types, the pixies), has higher stats than them, and wins ties. Successfully pranking her is considered to be a harder achievement than rebuilding the village if fae shenanigans burn it down.
• In basically any field of human endeavour, the Solar Exalted are better than any ordinary human than they have any right to be, and they are the most powerful of the Exalted. Abyssals and Infernals share a similar power level (give or take) but are Broken Aces and just plain weird respectively.
• Games Workshop games:
  • In Blood Bowl Griff Oberwald, Star Blitzer and captain of the Reikland Reavers, is said to be the most talented human to ever pick up a Blood Bowl ball with a plethora of awards, good looks and a massive fan following. Griff’s game rules represent this by giving him the best overall stats and skills of any human player but at the cost of him being the second most expensive individual Star Player in the game.
  • Warhammer 40,000: Most of the Primarchs are the best of the best there is, and are quick in learning what they are taught, as they are all genetic clones of the God Emperor. Most notably Roboute Guilliman of the Ultramarines who was a great statesman and powerful warrior. Then there's Fulgrim, he had the looks, the skills, and in his quest for perfection, he ended up corrupted by Slaanesh. The Ace of Aces however, was Sanguinius. Sure, he may not have had Guilliman's statesmanship skills, Fulgrim's passion, or the physical prowess of, say, Russ or Vulcan, but he was widely considered the best blend of all of the Emperor's attributes, and he was a Nice Guy and All-Loving Hero of the highest caliber. He was also probably the most skilled fighter of the Primarchs, though not necessarily the strongest — just look at how he single-handedly held the gates of the Imperial Palace against literally everything the Forces of Chaos had. To top it off he was the prettiest Primarch.
    • Guilliman suggested that if anything ever happened to the Emperor then Sanguinius should assume the role of commanding the Imperium. Warmaster Horus himself admitted that he felt Sanguinius was a more appropriate choice for Warmaster. That is just how well-regarded Sanguinius was among his brothers.
• The Hero System's ''Dark Champions'' proved that this trope can show up in any genre with The Harbinger of Justice, aka "The Blue Moon Killer." The creator swears that he developed naturally, not as an example of Min-Maxing; still, he's an amalgam of the most powerful versions of The Shadow, Batman, and The Punisher with the additional power of weapon summoning and a moral code slightly less merciful than Walter Kovacs.
• Popular players in The Splinter are this, especially if they’re player academy graduates. They have to be or else they would have died long before getting recognition.
• Red Dwarf: Ace Rimmer, as in the source material. He comes with excellent stats and skills in multiple fields because he's......well, Ace.

Visual Novels

• Miles Edgeworth of Ace Attorney may initially come across as this — handsome, rich, extremely intelligent, cultured, and a living legend at his job. Subverted though, he's got a whole heap of personal problems stemming from his childhood trauma, struggles with social skills, and starts out as somewhat of an Amoral Attorney when Phoenix and Maya encounter him in the first game.
• In Double Homework, the protagonist and Tamara have both been seen as this, both by each other and by everyone else. Because of this, they formed a special bond, and would constantly and simultaneously push and compete with each other.
• Fate/stay night:
  • Rin Tohsaka is the star of her high school: great at academics, great at sports, possibly the most beautiful girl in school, and always classy and elegant. All the boys want her but know she's out of their league (except for the arrogant Shinji, whom Tohsaka takes down a peg when he tries to sweet talk her); All the girls think she's the coolest, but also find her to be hard to approach. Unbeknownst to her muggle classmates, she is also heir to the rich and venerable Tohsaka family of mages and has prodigious skill in magic. Rin's father wanted her to compete in the Holy Grail war when she grew up, and from an early age she was motivated to work harder and achieve more than anyone else. When asked what wish she wants granted by the Holy Grail, she says "nothing": she wants to beat the other mages and win the Grail purely to find out if she can become the best through her own talent and hard work. And you'd think that if anyone can do it, she can: the development of her magic circuits and ability to control her servant are far beyond what Shirou is capable of, she can perform all kinds of advanced magic with the help of her family crest and jewels, and she is extremely savvy about the tricks and subterfuges of the Grail War. At the same time, Rin is only human and is often frustrated by her limitations: she accidentally botches her summoning ritual by getting the hour wrong, summoning a snarky, amnesiac archer servant instead of Saber as she had intended, and feels kind of miffed that the clueless Shirou managed to summon Saber instead of her. Even as she repeatedly criticizes Shirou for his lack of training and reckless behavior, she also acknowledges that Shirou has something she doesn't: Rin can push herself to the limit for something she knows is extremely difficult but still possible, yet because she's conditioned to think about things rationally she lacks Shirou's capacity for Achievements in Ignorance and pushing himself Beyond the Impossible.
  • While all Servants are heroes of myth and legend, possessing powers far surpassing those of mortal humans, Saber stands out as an ace even among Servants, which is why Rin was trying to summon her. Her A-rank magic resistance means that in practice, no magi of Shirou's time are able to hurt Saber; her riding ability allows her to ride most vehicles and mounts with above-average skill; her Instinct level A gives her a sixth sense in combat that borders on precognition; and her A-level magical energy burst provides something like magical jet propulsion that increases the power of all her movements, while ensuring that her magical energy-fueled attack can destroy any weapon in one blow unless it has strong divine protection. Furthermore, her noble phantasm has an attack that is almost impossible to avoid or withstand. The reason that Shirou doesn't get the full benefit of Saber's power is that the unintentional summoning was imperfect, failing to create a proper magical connection between master and servant. All of Saber's stats including Strength, Agility, and Magical Energy are about one rank less than what they should have been, and because Shirou cannot refill her magical energy she is struggling to conserve a finite supply, which severely curtails her combat options since her strongest abilities absolutely guzzle magical energy. It's shown that with a different master Saber would be able reach her full potential, and perhaps even be able to defeat Illya's Berserker in a straight up fight.
  • Shirou starts off as a loser among mages, and has serious issues with Survivor Guilt and Chronic Hero Syndrome, but particularly in Unlimited Blade Works and Heaven's Feel he Takes a Level in Badass and performs feats that aren't supposed to be humanly possible. The epologues imply that he may have an illustrious future as a mage.
• Each in their own way, both Shizune and Lilly from Katawa Shoujo deconstruct this trope. Shizune (representing the anime heroine archetype of the willful, energetic, "super charismatic" club/student council president most iconically depicted by Haruhi Suzumiya) is so naturally excellent at everything she does that (perhaps combined with her deafness making it hard for her to relate to other people) she doesn't seem to fully realize that some people may not be as good as she is, considering them lazy or lacking sufficient drive if they fail to match her (impossible) standards. Meanwhile, Lilly (who represents the perfect, princesslike, motherly, borderline saintly character) means well when she takes care of those she believes need her help, but is so unbelievably good at everything that she inadvertently only causes them to feel even less sure of themselves because they can never hope to be as good as she is.
• Little Busters!:
  • Kurugaya is good-looking, athletic (to the point where she can Flash Step), intelligent enough to have one of the highest scores in maths despite constantly skipping and having no bad subjects, charming, and more than able to take care of herself in a fight. This actually leaves Riki feeling a bit insecure during their route, feeling that she's helping him out much more than vice versa.
  • Also, Kyousuke. A charismatic, intelligent Bishounen that pretty much all of the characters look up to. He even has his own 'advice service' that is really just random students fawningly asking him for details about all the impossibly incredible things he's done. Of course, it's hard to say what is and isn't a result of him manipulating the fake world, and by Refrain he's turned into one hell of a Broken Ace.
• Shouichi "Capt" Kazama from Majikoi! Love Me Seriously! possesses ungodly good luck and is blessed with good looks, popularity, charisma and general skill in everything he tries. Howevever, he's not without his flaws.
  • From the same game, Momoyo Kawakami is stunningly beautiful, popular with both men and women and stronger than almost every living thing. However, like Capt, she has a major flaw.
• The protagonist of Melody can play a wide variety of musical instruments, he’s socially adept, and he’s good with the ladies.
• Tei in Nameless quickly become the most popular guy in school, is considered the most attractive of his already very attractive friend group, succeeds at everything he tries, and constantly takes care of and solves problems for his less mature friends. Ultimately subverted.
• Grisaia Series:
  • In The Fruit of Grisaia Yuuji is codename 9029, a number that is reserved for the best agent. Indeed he is probably their best sniper, not to mention excelent martial artist, master of being on the run, infiltration and other covert operations.
  • In The Eden of Grisaia we see Sachi from The Fruit of Grisaia show up to Mihama. She's a straight A student, athletic enough to almost match a former basketball club member about six inches taller, pretty, diligent, friendly and a good cook, though not at Amane's level. She's referred to as an honor student, which the class doesn't really understand until they learn that she's actually obsessive about fulfilling responsibilities and orders so that she can be a 'good girl.'
• Hope's Peak Academy in the Danganronpa series is a school made for those who are talented in a specific skill. The exceptions are the "Ultimate Lucky Students", Born Lucky high school students who are accepted from a random lottery. However, the students of Hope's Peak Academy didn't all get to where they are without their scars.
• Jupiter of We Know the Devil is athletic, smart, and generally the golden girl, but it's noted by the narration that she has a tendency to screw things up when it really counts — like 'blanking on the last question' or 'missing the winning goal'. She has issues stemming from being put on a pedestal.

Web Animation

• Helluva Boss: Striker in the episode "The Harvest Moon Festival" is good at everything in the farm-and-rodeo context at the Ring of Wrath. Specifically, too, he's better than Moxxie, whom he mocks. When Striker has won the games and Moxxie tries saying he's better at other stuff, like singing, Striker sings a song about how awesome he is and charms all the women in passing. Striker must also be a pretty esteemed Professional Killer since he gets hired to assassinate royalty. Almost ironically, Blitzo is shown to be a match for Striker (he even shares the victory in the games), even though people usually don't take him seriously, which lays the groundwork for Striker's We Can Rule Together speech to Blitzo. Anyway, Striker's song shows he definitely thinks of himself as this trope, too:
  Sweet victory, I smell the smell
  From up in stakin' heaven to the rugged rocks of hell
  Sweet victory, with everything I do
  With every talent, I'm so much more talented than you
  Every time I try, I crush it and succeed
  Every first attempt of every single deed
• From Turnabout Storm, there's the murder victim Ace Swift, an Equestrian pegasus athlete known for winning every event he's ever compited in. It's subverted in the end, as he blackmailed everyone that had a chance to beat him.

Webcomics

• Jack Fortinbras, of Academia. A running joke about his character is the unanswered question of how he has time to captain the school's rugby team and get straight As in his Physics program.
  Jack: I couldn't possibly do my research without my team.
  Stephen: Nice to hear there are things you can't do.
  Jack: That's not fair. There's lots of things I can't do.
  Stephen: Name three.
  Jack: I can't fly an airplane. I can't carve stone especially well. I can't think of a third thing.
• Bob from Bob and George is an interesting case, as he is actually the main antagonist. The things that he can do are hilariously ridiculous, like how he can kill a hologram, because "he's just that good". He also always gets himself up by doing a back-flip, because he's that cool, and not because the author couldn't find any good sprites of him standing up.
• Ariel from Bugged Run, as the stand-in for the canon player character, breezes through every challenge she encounters, starting with beating Gary Oak in a Funny Background Event while having a conversation with someone else.
• Fred from The Chapel Chronicles never loses a board or card game. Never. Since games are one of Chapel's obsessions, she finds this astonishingly unfair.
• In City of Reality, newcomer Hawk thinks that SUEPR Team Five leader Todo is this: idealistic and generous to a fault, skilled enough to defeat any challenge, and recipient of general acclaim and affection. However, as the entire story is a Deconstruction, Todo's idealism is sorely challenged by the world outside Reality.
• Commander Kitty has an ace named Ace. His crew is almost a Mirror Universe version of CK's, but better looking and more capable.
• Possibly Nanase from El Goonish Shive. She is a black belt in Anime-Style Martial Arts, can currently bench-press 160 pounds before her burnout she could press 200, has "insanely potent" magic, and is trilingual in Japanese, English, and French.
• Will from Fanboys. Made sixty-thousand-plus a year in prize money from gaming tournaments, can hold his own in a fight against Berserk!Lemmy, has "hacked" a board game, and now he's apparently a Bond-style government agent.
• The Korean webcomic Fluttering Feelings gives us Baek Seol-A, a girl who is as intelligent as she is pretty, and when asked if she knows how to surf she responds by telling the person she can ride any type of board.
• Girl Genius has Othar Tryggvassen (Gentleman Adventurer!) who's always willing to swashbuckle and ham it up like nobody's business, and who's somehow able to survive all manner of ridiculous dangers (plummeting to his death and turning up unharmed a few pages later is his specialty). He's also dangerously insane, but since he firmly believes he's the dashing hero in a thrilling scientific romance, being insane doesn't get in the way of him playing the Ace role to the hilt. He also has a rather large amount of charisma, though for a Spark it's normal.
• Payet Best of Guilded Age became a destined hero when The Call suffered a case of mistaken identity and chose him over the real hero, who was mere minutes late. He'd then go on to become a widely-renowned adventurer, slaying wicked monsters and bedding eager women as a talented musician, unbeatable combatant, and master of the Indy Ploy. This has led to some minor issues with hubris, however, which often makes him impossible to approach among his peers who do not, in fact, believe the world revolves around him.
• Gunnerkrigg Court has a female example — Jones. She's both medium instructor "among other things" and embodiment of some sort of perfection which includes beauty (she's the single character consistently drawn with more details than the protagonist, just to make a point) and godlike toughness with undercurrent of deadpan "Seen It All". There is also Robox, who is the Yin to eternal Butt-Monkey Boxbot's Yang. The comic has yet to say what exactly either of them do, beyond the fact that "Everybody likes Robox" and "Nobody likes Boxbot".
• Homestuck:
  • Bro Strider, elder brother of Dave Strider, by far surpasses any of the Kids or the Guardians in combat ability, and trumps Dave for sheer irony.
• In Jupiter-Men, Daejung is the billionaire CEO of one of the largest and most advanced tech companies in the world. By all indications he was highly popular and his disappearance is a cause for major concern in the media. He also moonlights as the Star Guardian defending Earth from extradimensional threats almost single-handedly, becoming a local legend christened "Jupiter-Man".
• Magick Chicks: Faith and her boyfriend, Ash, are the respective alphas at Artemis and Apollo Academy.
  • In addition to being multi-talented, Faith has been noted as the most powerful esper in her school's history and already possesses numerous abilities even though her powers are still developing. And is said to be formidable even without them:
    T Campbell: "Layla's not exactly a pushover, but she's had a relatively easy life, and has never before even faced a slayer who consistently wanted to kill her. Even if Layla were well-trained for combat, the odds would heavily favor Faith. As it is, anything resembling a fair fight was going to more or less end like this."
  • Ash has been shown capable of fighting Faith on even ground, despite having no powers of his own. Instead, he relies on speed and agility along with extensive martial arts training and careful preparation.
• The Princess's Jewels: Princess Ariana is presented as this in episode 3, when she successfully disarms Sir Belloque in sword training.
• Dora of Questionable Content has serious issues with her brother Sven due to his being an Ace. Sven himself has serious issues with him being an Ace. He becomes a Broken Ace when he starts to realize he doesn't really have much to his personality besides picking up hot chicks, using wacky situations to get out of uncomfortable ones and writing music he hates.
• Aviatar in Realm of Owls travels, fights and meditates so confidently that he obviously knows what he is doing.
• Carlyle from Sam & Fuzzy, a very humble form as he does not seem to want to be identified — he is The Faceless and shows up on several points to dispense Koans to the characters (who never realize it's him); most of his heroic deeds happen off-screen and are referred to by others. The first major arc of the comic kicks off when Sam tries to take on one of Carlyle's assignments and ends up in a spat of trouble with the Ninja Mafia.
• In Sheldon, Flaco is a former cosmonaut, a gold medalist in the modern pentathlon, read several hundred books over the course of one summer, and — according to one strip — will eventually become an admiral in the Bulgarian navy. Did we mention that he's a foot-tall lizard who talks in squeaking sounds?
• Skela And The Oddstrange has Horrors of unimaginably nightmarish powers, but Skela seems to take care of them with ease.
• The main character of Too Much Information (2005) is named Ace. He doesn't even have a last name. And while he does make mistakes on occasion, he seems to fall into this quite often, especially where women are concerned — practically every female in a 5-mile radius seems to automatically fall for him (including lesbians and ghosts), and he had racked up 7 marriage-proposals before he turned 18. His foot-rubs are internationally renowned. He's a whiz at hapkido. His cooking is not 'inedible', it's just so ultra-spicey you have to be that manly to eat it, and only Ace is that manly. His favorite ice-cream flavor is 'Habanero'. At a charity Bachelor Auction, he brought in $5.000, which resulted from one woman bidding 2.500, and two others pitching in 1.250 each, while agreeing to 'share'. The two who are sharing? A grandmother and granddaughter. The granddaughter is a supermodel. The high bidder? A vampiress who thinks he's hot. Recent evidence also suggests that he has 'spiritual power' on par with a Demigod or a Seraphim. And that his former 5-mile radius of seduction has been extended to the point where girls in Korea are committing suicide to be with him. If this man isn't stopped soon, his aura will extend to Babeatron IV, and then we'll be facing an invasion of Green Skinned Space Babes...
• Weak Hero:
  • Ben is incredibly powerful, emotionally strong, down-to-earth and always confident, loved by his friends and respected or feared by his foes. That he's such a great guy makes it suck all the more that he's so often targeted by the many jerkasses and bullies of Yeongdeungpo.
  • Not only is Jake Ji one of the strongest fighters in the series, second only to Donald Na himself, but if Eugene is to be believed then he's also loyal, kind, talented, and just overall perfect.
  • Stephen Ahn is incredibly smart, even if he keeps it hidden, and he's constantly given awards at school for his achievements in various events. He donates the prize money from said events back into the school, which makes him extremely popular with the teachers. On top of that, he's deeply kind and good-looking. However, this backfires on him horribly when a fellow student grows envious of him and leads to him being bullied until he ends up comatose.
  • Despite being second-in-command, the incredibly calm and efficient Juwon was a candidate to lead Cheongang and is acknowledged as Cheongang's best fighter even by its leader.
• Yamara:
  • Ogrek the Undisciplined. Irredeemable Munchkin? Check. Has a big bonus to spot ladies whom he deems "cute" even if they are hiding? check. "Heroic" scar and "veteran parade" uniform? Right here. Evading compromising situation with grace? check. Comment on having 20,000 hobgoblings as neighbours? "Nice, quiet professionals". Crazy-Prepared while carrying almost nothing and remembers her birthday no matter what's going on? check. And let's not start on his other wife.
  • The "official" Ace is Ultima Thule. She's "eidolon of humanity" and as such has all stats at the Human racial maximum. Since it includes Intelligence and Wisdom, she's not an adventurer (high-risk waste of time!) but a banker.
    Fea: Now she's reading Socrates and Tao Te Ching.
    Joe: Perhaps she's trying to improve herself.
    Fea: —Simultaneously.

Web Original

• The Clickhole quiz How Well Do You Know Johannes? will say you know Johannes if you click on the many extremely elaborate and dramatic answers, but if you click on anything remotely normal or boring, the quiz will insist you're thinking of Frank, cause Johannes is just too cool to be 53.
• Whateley Universe:
  • Chaka, whose instinctive ki mastery lets her pick up more than just wire-fu martial arts tricks within moments and who's certainly prone to hamming it up. Or going after half-demonic hybrid weres with a rolled-up newspaper.
  • Heck, Team Kimba has so many of these that the one who OWNS MARVEL COMICS, is a density manipulator who can instant-KO anyone without a force field, and is trying to become the new Batman^note Oh, and also trained under David Xanatos...considers himself the weakest link.

Web Videos

• In Dimension 20, Fabian Seacaster generally comes out on top whenever he is asked to do physical feats.
• Captain Hammer ("the Hammer is my penis") from Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog is a parody of an Ace-type superhero in his public persona, but is more of a Smug Super privately.
• Downplayed with Luke of Hobo Bros. In some games (particularly Super Mario 64), he is very knowledgeable of most of the levels, and usually knows what he's doing. But there are other games where he does... not so well, particularly Super Mario Maker, where he gives up constantly, and Five Nights at Freddy's: Sister Location, where he goes Lovable Coward.
• In the Noob franchise, Fantöm, Amaras and Spectre for their respective factions. Fantöm is that in the overall game because the creator has been getting his avatar illegally enhanced behind his back. Amaras becomes number one once the whole thing is discovered.
• Party Crashers:
  • Out of the four members of the group, Brent tends to be this in most of the games the group plays, often using the best strategies possible to win, something that is commonly seen during their Mario Party sessions. It's gotten to the point where Brent winning a minigame, if not the whole game, is a Foregone Conclusion to the rest of the group, who will waste no time in (humorously) calling him a "try-hard".
  • The GameCube games that the group plays from time to time tend to be Sophist's area of expertise, having crushed them on Mario Kart: Double Dash!!'s Bob-omb Blast Battle Mode, dominated the competition on Metroid Prime 2's multiplayer mode, and (most notably) completely annihilated them on Mario Party 6's Snowflake Lake with a whopping 10 Stars.
• ProtonJon of The Runaway Guys by being the best at everything, except for luck. For example, in the Super Smash Bros video they did, it came to a point where all three of them were facing each other. Jon had to use a controller he wasn't used to, but still managed to beat both Chugga and NCS at the same time, while still having 2 stock out of 5 left. In the New Super Mario Bros Wii LP, while everyone else was having problems with their lives, Jon had reached 99 lives while still screwing everyone else (mostly Chugga) over.
• Summoning Salt makes mini-documentaries about video game speedrunning. Some speedrunners are mentioned to be far above any other player in their respective game. Their record might stand for an amazingly long time, or they may hold the top spot in many categories at the same time, but either way, they're shown to have earned the respect of their speedrunning community (as well as Summoning Salt's).
  • In Super Metroid the player known as "hotarubi" used to hold the world record by a large margin. At the time his run was first posted his level of play was so above his competition many claimed he was cheating and his video was held for verification for weeks. Others thought he could only be beaten by doing a segmented run^note Playing one section of a game over and over until you do it perfectly, then doing the same for the next section, and so on, then finally editing all of the clips together into one complete "perfect" run. instead of a single-segment run. It took many years until people finally caught up to his skill and beat his run.
  • Matt Turk for Mike Tyson's Punch-Out!!, who had once held the record for every fight in the game. An entire video was dedicated to detailing how people beat his times. It took the combined efforts of some of the best players in the entire world and then some, just so people would have a chance of beating his times. To quote the video itself: "Matt Turk's skill level was way, way beyond any other player in the world. And there was pretty much no hope in anybody else beating some of them." In Salt's later video covering Contra, he mentions that Turk had also held the record in that at one point as well, and that he set it in the middle of setting all of those Punch-Out!! records, apparently just to take a quick break in between. This gave Turk a reputation as a Memetic Badass among Salt's viewers, able to effortlessly dominate any game he so much as looks at.
  • Matthias Rustemeyer, the subject of "Mario Kart 64: The Quest for World Record Perfection". Matthias holds the world record on most of the non-shortcut categories ^note There are 16 tracks, and each track has two categories: fastest single lap, and fastest three laps, for a total of 32 categories, and the video chronicles his attempts at holding every single number one spot at the same time. Several high-level runners had to band together to form an alliance dedicated to stopping him from achieving 32/32, and on several occasions, they just barely manage to snatch one record away from him a short time before he gets what would otherwise have been his last missing top spot. Needless to say, no other player comes close to being as dominant as Matthias.
• Tom Fawkes is this in Mario Kart 8. Not even Matt Bragg of Achievement Hunter is safe.
  • Speaking of Achievement Hunter, Michael is this in Mario Party. Unlike ProtonJon above, Michael actually has luck on his side (which Gavin once called "The Luck of the Jones".
• The Law from Video Game High School is recognized as one of, if not the best player In a World… where video games have become Serious Business. He's popular, intelligent and a Chick Magnet to boot. He is also a Bitch in Sheep's Clothing that only cares about himself and torments people that get in his way or show him up (like the protagonist did in the first episode.)

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