History Main / BigFishInABiggerOcean

** Exploited in "[[Recap/DeathBattleS06E15DeadpoolVsMask Deadpool vs. The Mask]]". Deadpool had already won two death battles[[note]]kind of, "[[Recap/DeathBattleS03E14DeadpoolVsPinkiePie Deadpool vs. Pinkie Pie]]" ended with them befriending each other[[/note]] with his HealingFactor making him hard to kill conventionally and lack of a fourth wall making him impossible to trick. However, he's hopelessly outmatched against The Mask, a RealityWarper with limitless powers. The hosts specifically picked this unfair matchup to [[TheThingThatWouldNotLeave finally get rid of Deadpool]].

* The Creator/HarryTurtledove story "The Road Not Taken" features different parties doing this to each other in two ways: humanity has just mastered the ability to send crewed ships across the solar system (over a period of years) when an alien invasion fleet takes the same journey in a matter of days. Once the aliens land, it turns out [[InsufficientlyAdvancedAliens they only have black powder weapons]], which are obsolete next to a 21st-century Earth arsenal.

* ''FanFic/TheBoysRealJustice'': In the universe of ''Series/{{The Boys|2019}}'', the Seven are its premier superhero team. However when both they and Billy Butcher and his team crossover into the Creator/DCComics universe, Homelander and the other members of the Seven are on multiple occasions shown that they can't compete with Superman and his Justice League teammates like Batman, Wonder Woman, The Flash, and Aquaman.

** "WesternAnimation/StevenUniverse [[Recap/DeathBattleS08E07StevenUniverseVsStarButterfly vs.]] [[WesternAnimation/StarVsTheForcesOfEvil Star Butterfly]]": [[spoiler:While Steven is the single strongest being in his home series, Star proves ''that'' much more powerful than him that he couldn't win. [[WesternAnimation/StevenUniverseFuture At full power]], he struggles to adjust to a peaceful world where there's nothing left for him to fight and ultimately ''becomes'' his own show's FinalBoss. This puts Steven at a disadvantage against Star, who has always had something to fight until the final credits of her own show]].

* In the ''WesternAnimation/{{Futurama}}'' episode "[[Recap/FuturamaS6E5TheDuhVinciCode The Duh Vinci Code]]", it's revealed that Creator/LeonardoDaVinci originated from a planet of HumanAliens who are a ProudScholarRace, the Planet Vinci being described as [[{{Scienceville}} a giant STEM University]]. While Farnsworth is excited at first, he quickly grows to hate the inhabitants because while he's an OmnidisciplinaryScientist in the rest of the universe, he's seen as an idiot and is ridiculed by the locals. It's also revealed that da Vinci himself deliberately [[InvertedTrope inverted]] the trope--he was the stupidest person of all on Vinci, so he fled to Earth, knowing that the lowest-ranking Vincian would be considered Earth's most brilliant mind ever.

* ''WesternAnimation/StarWarsTheCloneWars:'' While General Grievous, a lightsaber wielding FullConversionCyborg may be terrifying individual to face as a regular clone trooper, or a Nightsister, but whenever Grievous goes up against seasoned Jedi like Kit Fisto and Obi-Wan, he's often sent on the retreat.

* In the ''WesternAnimation/{{Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles|2012}}'' episode "[[Recap/TeenageMutantNinjaTurtles2012S4E11RevengeOfTheTriceratons Revenge of the Triceratons]]", Donatello (TheSmartGuy of the group) begins to feel useless compared to Professor Honeycutt (a space-faring scientist with many years of advanced, interplanetary data to work off of), a problem only made worse when he's "3,000 years behind" on transdimensional concepts in physics by virtue on being from a non-spacefaring world like Earth.

* ''Literature/ThatTimeIGotReincarnatedAsASlime'': Upon his reincarnation as a slime and being named by [[DragonsAreDivine True Dragon Veldora]], Rimuru Tempest was already an A Rank monster capable of fighting and [[CannibalismSuperpower absorbing]] just about any monster, and once he got out into the Jura Forest itself, he quickly amassed a small nation and a diverse suit of new powers from absorbing weaker monsters. When he defeated and absorbed the Orc Disaster, a monster well on the way to becoming a [[MaouTheDemonKing Demon Lord]], Rimuru was already twice as strong as the minimum power requirement to call himself one and the [[AsskickingLeadsToLeadership strongest being in the Jura Forest]]. The thing is, that's still not an insurmountable threat to the other nations of the world who have champions capable of fighting on that level, and "self-proclaimed" Demon Lords are often killed off by the current ten Demon Lords, to the point the human nations often expect it to happen before they have to worry about anything. When Milim Nava, contender for the title of ''[[WorldsStrongestMan strongest]]'' Demon Lord, shows up to see what all the fuss about this slime is, [[BenevolentAI Great Sage]] warns Rimuru she's so much stronger than him he would ''never'' defeat her in a fight. [[spoiler:He has to [[FoodAsBribe use honey]] and her flighty nature to get in her good graces instead]]. Rimuru later goes up against the Demon Lord-level threat Charbydis and can only break even with the beast despite having his whole nation backing him up [[spoiler:before Milim one-shots it with a single restrained attack]]. [[spoiler:The tipping point comes when Tempest is attacked by the Kingdom of Falmuth, and Rimuru is unable to help in the initial attack because he is nearly killed by the Saint [[ThePaladin Hinata Sakaguchi]], who despite being human is strong enough to have killed ''two'' Demon Lord tier fighters. These events, coupled with the desire to revive those killed in Falmuth's attack, are what motivate Rimuru's decision to undergo the ascension to become a ''True'' Demon Lord by [[YourSoulIsMine slaughtering and taking the souls of the Falmuth army]] and take his seat at the table of the Demon Lords as an equal, as only with that level of power and respect will he be able to achieve his dream of a peaceful nation.]]

* ''Literature/ThatTimeIGotReincarnatedAsASlime'': Rimuru Tempest runs into this realization soon after being named chancellor of the Jura Forest. Upon his reincarnation as a slime inside the Sealed Cave and being named by [[DragonsAreDivine True Dragon Veldora]], he was already an A Rank monster capable of fighting and [[CannibalismSuperpower absorbing]] just about any monster inside of the cave, and once he got out into the Jura Forest itself, he quickly amassed the loyalty of various inhabitants and gaining new powers from absorbing other weaker but skill-wise diverse monsters. After he defeated and absorbed the Orc Disaster, a monster well on the way to becoming a [[MaouTheDemonKing Demon Lord]], he himself was already twice as strong as the minimum power requirement to call himself one and the [[AsskickingLeadsTOLeadership strongest being in the Jura Forest]]. The thing is, twice as strong the minimum requirement or not, that's still not an insurmountable threat to the other nations of the world who have champions capable of fighting on that level, and "self-proclaimed" Demon Lords are often either killed off by any of the existing current ten Demon Lords simply as a way of "newbie crushing" to the point the human nations often expect it to happen before they have to worry about anything. When Milim Nava, contender for the title of ''[[WorldsStrongestMan strongest]]'' Demon Lord, shows up to see what all the fuss about this slime is, [[BenevolentAI Great Sage]] all but tells Rimuru she's so much stronger than him he would ''never'' defeat her in a fight. [[spoiler:He has to [[FoodAsBribe use honey]] and her flighty nature to get in her good graces instead]]. Rimuru later goes up against the Demon Lord-level threat Charbydis and can only break even with the beast despite having his whole nation of Tempest backing him up [[spoiler:before Milim one-shots it with a single restrained attack]]. [[spoiler:The tipping point comes when Tempest comes under attack by the Kingdom of Falmuth through the machinations of several other parties and he himself is unable to help in the initial attack because he is attacked and nearly killed by the Saint [[ThePaladin Hinata Sakaguchi]], who despite being a human is strong enough to have killed ''two'' Demon Lord tier fighters when she herself was in a comparatively weaker state. These events, coupled with the desire to revive those killed in Falmuth's attack, is what motivates Rimuru's decision to undergo the ascension to become a ''True'' Demon Lord by [[YourSoulIsMine slaughtering and taking the souls of the Falmuth army]] and take his seat at the table of the Demon Lords as an equal, as only with that level of power and respect he'll be able to make his dreams of a peaceful nation possible.]]

* The Creator/HarryTurtledove story "The Road Not Taken" features different parties doing this to each other in two ways: humanity has just mastered the ability to send crewed ships across the solar system (over a period of years) when an alien invasion fleet takes the same journey in a matter of days. Once the aliens land, it turns out they only have black powder weapons, which are obsolete next to a 21st-century Earth arsenal.

** This trope is also why [[Recap/DeathBattleS09E13JasonVoorheesVSMichaelMyers Jason Voorhees bested Michael Myers]]. Michael's series never does crossovers and he is uniquely only one of his kind in it. He never had to face another slasher and isn't used to his targets not going down once he lands a hit. Meanwhile Jason not only has far superior endurance to Michael, but had gone against [[ComicBook/JasonVsLeatherface Leatherface]], [[Film/FreddyVsJason Freddy Krueger]], [[ComicBook/FreddyVsJasonVsAsh Ash Williams]] and even [[ComicBook/FridayThe13thJasonVsJasonX himself]] and clearly [[TaughtByExperience learned a bit]].
** It's also why [[Recap/DeathBattleS10E14RickSanchezVSTheDoctor Rick lost to the Doctor]], this one being somewhat self-inflicted. The Rick's in the Citadel have created the Central Finite Curve to wall off the section of TheMultiverse where Rick is the smartest person to exist from everything else. As such there are very few things that can challenge him and he's not used fighting smarter opponents. The Doctor not only is as smart or even smarter than Rick, but has been having adventures not unlike Rick for hundreds of years and has a lot of experience facing opponents of equal or greater intellect and coming on top.

** One of the many District 6 tributes to share the name Chevy over the decades of Games is voted into the First Quarter Quell and confidently expects to win the Games due to his experience in the drug gangs. He forgets that Career volunteers aren't the only participants; The kinds of people who tend to get voted into the arena include tough, mean kids who fight dirty and, in some cases, had months to guess that they'd be voted into the arena and took that time to prepare for it. Chevy is not the Victor the trumpets sound for that year.

* ''[[https://archiveofourown.org/works/26698570/ Strange Potter]]'': While many wizards of Harry Potter are powerful, it's quickly made clear that this is only within the scope of their secluded society. Once MCU Dr. Strange and his sorcerers get involved, they find themselves outclassed easily by the knowledge and magic they wield, as well as the technology and combat skills like those of the Avengers. Harry states that had Voldemort attempted to take over the muggle world, he'd have received a massive curb stomp in retaliation. Blaise also explicitly points out that Dr. Strange; "Makes Albus Dumbledore look like a squib!" The man himself is horrified as just how powerful Thor and Wanda are, and even Natasha would've killed him by [[IfIWantedYouDead putting a knife into the wall next to his head before he could even react.]]

* ''Film/{{Bloodfist}}'': In the second movie, John (the third-rated heavyweight contender in the world) and Bobby (an Army Rangers unnamed combat teacher) both put up fantastic fights against the SuperSoldiers they are pitted against, but their styles of combat aren't the best to use against drug-enhanced, far more murderous people with greater resistance to pain than some of the other fighters who hold their own better.

** One of the many District 6 tributes to share the name Chevy over the decades of Games is voted into the First Quarter Quell and confidently expects to win the Games due to his experience in the drug gangs, but he forgets that, in addition to Career volunteers, the kinds of people who tend to get voted into the arena include tough, mean kids who fight dirty and, in some cases, had months to guess that they'd be voted into the arena and took that time to prepare for it. Chevy is not the Victor the trumpets sound for that year.

* ''Fanfic/HuntersOfJustice'': At the beginning of the story, Salem, the most powerful being on Remnant, is curb-stomped by Braniac when he invades her planet with the intent of "preserving" it like he has with so many others, and the ''only'' reason she survived is because of her immortality. [[spoiler:Later on, when she arrives on Earth, she gets a visit from Ares, who plainly spells out that she's nowhere near the most powerful being on her new planet, let alone the rest of the universe, and the Spectre, who crushes her heart and admits that the only reason he isn't killing her is that he's not the person meant to end her life. The whole encounter rattles her, and when they're gone, she's forced to accept that she can no longer expect to be top dog anymore]].

** In the ''Anime/DragonBallSuper'' [[Recap/DragonBallSuperUniverse6Arc Universe 6 Arc]], it's established that the denizens of [[Characters/DragonBallUniverse6 Universe 6]], while holding a lot of similarities to Universe 7, pale in comparison to the Z-Fighters and are taken down easily despite being their universe's best fighters. This is best illustrated when Frost -- Universe 6's answer to Frieza -- [[TheGlovesComeOff agrees to fight Vegeta unrestrained after holding back]], only be defeated with a swift kick from the disgusted Saiyan.

* ''Manga/MyHeroAcademia'': The root cause of [[Characters/MyHeroAcademiaKatsukiBakugo Katsuki Bakugo's]] InferioritySuperiorityComplex is based around the fact that he was born with an exceptionally powerful Quirk that grants him the power to [[HavingABlast emit explosions from his hands]]. As a result, he was seen as the most likely to become a successful Pro Hero compared to his peers. This, combined with the fact that his childhood friend, Izuku Midoriya, was willing to do the same despite [[UnSorcerer having no Quirk of his own]], led to Bakugo viewing anyone else striving to equal him as a personal attack. When he finally makes it into [[HeroAcademy U.A.]], his raw talent is matched against other students who can do the same with their intelligence, strategies, and power. While Bakugo is still exceptional, he doesn't get the same level of reverence that he did in middle school or when he was a child, and much of his blustering is dismissed by his peers (except for Midoriya, who always admired him despite the bullying). His time as the golden child has also proven to stunt his heroic character, as his inability to empathize with others leads to him winning the Entrance Exam with 0 Hero points, the League of Villains kidnapping him in an attempt to recruit him, and later failing the Provisional License Exam because he was docked too many points for yelling at the pretend hostages to "save themselves" [[JerkassHasAPoint which was technically true since they weren't actually injured enough to require outside help]] (and were in fact docking points from the students who wasted too much time trying to help them while neglecting other more injured "victims"), showing he actually possesses accurate situational crisis awareness but absolutely no tact in handling citizens.

** [[Characters/SpiderManTrilogyOttoOctavius Otto Octavius]] is an absolutely brilliant scientist to the standards of any world, but he comes from a world that was more mundane than the Franchise/MarvelCinematicUniverse, two decades in the past at that. As such, the new world he finds himself in is rife with geniuses that develop technology similar to or better than Otto's own. The Iron Spider's nanotech rather easily overrides the operating system of his tentacles [[spoiler:and at the end of the film, he marvels at the pocketwatch-sized Arc Reactor, which is more or less a perfected, safer alternative to his own nuclear fusion device]].

* ''Franchise/TouhouProject'': Sanae Kochiya was raised on Earth. Due to having divine ancestry and power over miracles, she was worshiped as a diety. When she moves to Gensokyo, where dieties are a dime a dozen, she finds that most of the locals are much more powerful than her.

* ''Franchise/TohouProject'': Sanae Kochiya was raised on Earth. Due to having divine ancestry and power over miracles, she was worshiped as a diety. When she moves to Gensokyo, where dieties are a dime a dozen, she finds that most of the locals are much more powerful than her.

** This happens to the heroes themselves in the jump from ''Dragon Ball'' to ''Dragon Ball Z''. Goku and Piccolo, the strongest fighters on earth, are both significantly weaker than Raditz, the weakest antagonist in the series by a wide margin. However they push themselves to be the strongest in the universe in the span of about two years when Goku defeats Frieza, emperor of Universe 7, as a Super Saiyan. At that point they became the Bigger Ocean and kept training to hold onto to the title. Almost every other challenge were threats artificially created to be stronger than them (the Androids), achieved their seemingly invincible power through artificial means like wishes on the Dragon Balls (Zamasu, Moro, Gas, Granolah), or straight up had to steal the heroes' powers (Cell, Buu, Copy-Vegeta, Goku Black, Moro again). Even in the Tournament of Power against the strongest fighters of 12 other universes Goku rose to be stronger than Jiren, the top competitor, in about 40 minutes. And these are all threats that push them in [[WillfullyWeak one-on-ones]] when they're fighting for glory. If they use their full arsenal including fusion just to win, Gogeta and Vegito are always untouchable. By the end of ''Dragon Ball Super,'' the heroes are the strongest mortals in their Universe and at least 11 others, besides constantly level grinding to keep up with a revived Frieza. The only Bigger Ocean is the realm of the Gods. The Angels are still said to be on an untouchable tier above the Z Fighters, though they may be in striking distance of God of Destruction level.

** The same thing happened earlier when Shin and Babidi both were shocked to find out that the earth Saiyans were far and away stronger than they could've expected. Both Goku and Vegeta outclassed Dabura, the strongest of the dark side of the universe. Goku himself stated if he went all out at Super Saiyan 3 he could've defeated both Fat Buu and Kid Buu.

* ''[[https://archiveofourown.org/works/26698570/ Strange Potter]]'': While many wizards of Harry Potter are powerful, it's quickly made clear that this is only within the scope of their secluded society. Once MCU Dr. Strange and his sorcerers get involved, they find themselves outclassed easily by the knowledge and magic they wield, as well as the technology and combat skills like those of the Avengers. Harry states that had Voldemort attempted to take over the muggle world, he'd have received a massive curb stomp in retaliation. Blaise also explicitly points out that Dr. Strange; "Makes Albus Dumbledore look like a squib!" The man himself is horrified as just how powerful Thor and Wanda are, and even Natasha would've killed him by [[IfIWantedYouDead putting a knife into the wall next to his head.]]

* WesternAnimation/StarWarsTheCloneWars: While General Grievous, a lightsaber wielding FullConversionCyborg may be terrifying individual to face as a regular clone trooper, or a Nightsister, but whenever Grievous goes up against seasoned Jedi like Kit Fisto and Obi-Wan, he's often sent on the retreat.

* ''Series/{{Jeremiah}}'': WastelandWarlord Theo starts out as the leader of an organized, gun-totting gang that preserved some valuable infrastructure, runs a mid-sized town with a thriving marketplace, and has techies building an electric generator. After her HeelFaceTurn, she is more of TheFriendNobodyLikes at Thunder Mountain than a respected shot-caller (at least until she proves herself under new circumstances) due to how her new ally has running water, scores of military weapons, a lot more manpower, and more potential allies in dozens of groups from across the country who have done things like build fish farms and hydroelectric generators, have a YeOldeNuclearSilo nearby, or have got cars working again.