History Main / BigFishInABiggerOcean

* ''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.