"The marvel is not that the bear dances well, but that the bear dances at all."
— Russian proverb
Every now and then, there is a test, challenge, or feat that is just plain impossible to succeed at. Every person who has ever attempted it failed miserably, and one might think the narrative would naturally make The Hero an exception. But this time around, they are no exception — despite all that effort and progress, they fail just like everyone else... and shockingly enough, they are met with praise rather than scorn or disappointment. As it turns out, no person has ever gone as far as the hero did in tackling this trial. Because the challenge is nearly impossible to begin with, the very fact that a person actually managed to make any progress at all is acknowledged as a genuine achievement in itself.
One common case of this is the Unwinnable Training Simulation: the proctors of such a test generally aren't interested in seeing the trainee win, but rather in seeing how they fail. This may also happen in a Normal Fish in a Tiny Pond situation, where whatever unimpressive thing the normal fish does, everyone in the tiny pond finds it cool anyway.
To count, the difficulty of the task and the progress made towards it must receive In-Universe acknowledgment: this is not a trope for external commentary.
The inverse of this trope is Epic Fail, which is a failure that is noted In-Universe to have been impressively unsuccessful. May overlap with Curb-Stomp Cushion, where the loser of a Curb-Stomp Battle still gets a couple of good licks in, especially if the winner was meant to be unbeatable. Compare to Achievements in Ignorance, for when a character achieves something everyone else thinks is impossible because they didn't realize it was supposed to be; Snipe Hunt, where a character is set a meaningless task as a prank; Uriah Gambit, where a character is set a dangerous task with the intent of getting them killed. Compare Graceful Winner, where the victor isn't obnoxious about winning; We Win, Because You Didn't, where you have success not because you win, but because you didn't lose. Contrast Pyrrhic Victory, where you technically succeeded but it wasn't worth it. If there is an actual winner, they may see the loser as a Worthy Opponent.
In-Universe Examples Only:
open/close all folders
Anime & Manga
- The 100 Girlfriends Who Really, Really, Really, Really, REALLY Love You: In Chapter 89, Mei and Iku undergo an ascetic training regimen described as being so hellish that only one person was able to complete it. The two of them are the only ones to make it to the end, and even though Iku defies the instructor in helping Mei through the final exercise, he decides to pass them anyway due to their spirit reminding him of the one person who completed the regimen: Rentarou.
- Attack on Titan: Eren is shown to struggle during the training to use the Omnidirectional Movement Gear. No matter how much he practices, he can only stay balanced in the training gear for a short time compared to his peers before falling. However, it turns out that his training equipment was broken: he starts doing amazingly well on the test as soon as his gear is switched out for a set in better condition, and his instructor points out how impressive it is that he managed to stay balanced for that long under those circumstances.
- Hunter × Hunter: Chairman Netero challenges Gon and Killua to take a ball from him during their blimp ride. As Netero is one of the most powerful beings on Earth and a master of Nen, they don't even manage to make him use both arms and legs. Eventually, Gon makes him use his right arm, and Gon views this as a victory.
- Kagurabachi: Iai White Purity Style is a well-hidden and incredibly difficult blade technique which involves a rapid slash imbued with Spirit Energy from a sheathed position to instantly cut down foes. Chihiro, having witnessed the technique extensively from two of its only known users, tries his hand at mimicking it against his foe Kuguri. He gets blocked and it was noted to be far too slow by Kuguri, but the fact he managed it at all excites him as a Blade Enthusiast, as it should be impossible without formal training.
- During the second end of semester exams in Kaguya-sama: Love Is War, Kaguya challenges Ishigami to try and place in the top 50 of his grade in order to impress his crush Tsubame. He manages to go up from 177th to 152nd, which she notes is legitimately impressive even if it's still far below his goal. Despite this praise, Ishigami is left frustrated over the results as he feels like he let Kaguya down after all the effort she put in to help him study.
- One Piece does it a lot when it comes to fights, with the Straw Hats and others being praised for even giving infamous people pause. The most explicit examples are:
- Luffy and the Straw Hats don't beat Big Mom in Whole Cake Island. However, they go far enough for Luffy to be considered the Fifth Emperor because they still escape her, also beating the almost as dreaded Katakuri and rescuing Sanji and his family.
- Kaido introduces himself by being unable to get more than a headache from jumping from a sky island. Both Oden and Zoro are praised by Kaido himself for scarring him, even if they don't beat him. Luffy drawing blood from him with Advanced Armament for the first time is also treated as a big moment.
- When Rocks D. Xebec is properly revealed, he has a lot of feats shown to show how impressive he was. The one that establishes him was his downfall, which still cements him as terrifying In-Universe because Roger and Garp had to team up against him. There is also a case that cements him as really ambitious and dangerous even though he only gave someone else a few threats because that someone else was Imu.
- Pokémon the Series: Diamond and Pearl: In the semi-finals of the Sinnoh League, Ash faces a Trainer named Tobias, who had defeated every one of his opponents to that point using only one Pokémon, a Darkrai. Ash is the first and only person to defeat Darkrai, though it costs him half his team, and Tobias then reveals he also has a Latios, another Legendary. Ash defeats Latios as well, but it takes the other half of his team and ends in a double-K.O. With Tobias still having four unknown Pokémon, Ash loses; regardless, everyone is impressed that he managed to knock out even one of Tobias's Pokémon, let alone two.
Comic Books
- Guardians of the Galaxy: At the time of Secret Invasion, Star-Lord has a fight with Ronan, which he loses, handily. Before being banished, Quill quips that at least he managed to get Ronan to work up a mild sweat.
- Nova (2007): After Robert nearly gets himself killed by Zenith (a Corrupted Character Copy of Supergirl), Rich consoles him that he managed to hold a psychotic Flying Brick prisoner for a considerable amount of time, longer than Rich himself could do, and he has both years of experience and far more raw power than Robert does.
- Valhalla retells the story of Utgarða Loki, and as in that story the challenges are magically impossible but the heroes' failures are impressive nonetheless. Udgårdsloke is notably concerned when Tor manages to lift one of his cat's legs (since it is actually the Midgard Serpent), he congratulates Tjalfe on almost being as fast as Hug (actually Thought itself), and Loke actually reaches the middle of the large eating trough before his opponent Loge (actually Fire), but loses because he didn't eat the trough itself.
Fan Works
- Belonging
: Beast Boy fights against Malchior, who, as an ancient dragon, No Sells all his attacks. He manages to use his newfound power of throwing energy blades to give the dragon a small nick that heals right away, to which Malchior states it is a rare achievement, and would be enough for him to remember this fight forever. Then Beast Boy starts throwing poisonous blades and scores a clean victory.
- A Darker Path: On multiple occasions, Master-type capes enter Winslow in search of Atropos, and are startled to find just how difficult it is to get the students to talk about her. Valefor, in particular, is able to get her name from a student who has heard rumours — but only by giving the student an order a second time, which is unprecedented for him. Valefor then tracks down Emma to learn where Taylor is, and again it takes two tries before she'll co-operate. The PRT later questions the students and is equally impressed that they didn't fold on the first try.
- Infinity Train: Seeker of Crocus: Chloe Cerise is pressured by her classmates to fight Ash Ketchum, Alola League Champion in a trainer battle. Chloe, at this point, only knows that Yamper can use Spark and has only had him fend off a Gengar oncenote , with Ash having said Gengar who has since had more training. The fight ends as you expect and her classmates, who already bully her, use this as a reason to bully her further, eventually leading to her on the Infinity Train. Everyone else at school who hears about it is impressed that Chloe made the challenge at all, as fighting someone like that is something few people get to do, and Chloe ultimately managed to get one strike on Gengar through some quick thinking, and what doesn't impress them is the bullying pressure to cause it, not that Chloe lost.
- Kirby: Right Back at Ya! Odyssey of Dreams: In Chapter 10, Kirby and his friends join the Sand Canyon Arena to prove their strength and get the key to Citrine Citadel to find more Dream Stones. Dedede, in particular, joins the Juggernaut Bracket, a gauntlet where he has to face the group of opponents before facing the Juggernaut himself, a Nigh-Invulnerable Big Metalun with a body made of orichalcum. Defeating the Juggernaut is regarded as impossible, so even leaving a dent on his body is regarded as a victory, so when Dedede manages to actually leave a dent, it was enough for the crowd to cheer and Juggernaut himself to start regarding him as a Worthy Opponent, even though the battle ended with Dedede getting pounded into dirt.
- The Universe Doesn't Cheat: Kanril Eleya finds herself playing Xanatos Speed Chess against the computer that runs the Kobayashi Maru scenario by rapidly changing tactics to confuse the computer. She still fails, but she makes the computer work so hard for it that she realizes mid-stream that it's Moving the Goalposts to make her fail, impressing the proctors (though they still chew her out when she loses her temper afterwards). Her (Vulcan) operations officer then points out that allowing the test to blatantly cheat undermines its purpose, since it can no longer determine how someone would react in a real situation.
T'var: Any simulated scenario relies on the participants' willing suspension of disbelief in order to be an effective assessment... the simplest explanation is that the simulation program cheated. Kanril and I discovered this, deduced that the simulation was unwinnable, and our willing suspension of disbelief was broken. Ergo, the accuracy of this simulation as a personality test is questionable.
- With This Ring:
- The Renegade arranges a demonstration of his Divine Awakening technique by having Green Arrow compete in target shooting against the empowered Celestial Archer. Green Arrow shoots at ten targets in a row, hitting most of them but missing some — and then Celestial Archer fires a single shot that magically hits every target at once, in the bullseye, while doing a backflip. However, the Renegade is impressed by how well Green Arrow performed, given the long range, slight breeze, and being only mortal.
"Eight hits out of ten, the furthest at three hundred metres. Perhaps you are number two after all, sir."
- Lawrence Crock Sr never had a chance to actually win his push-up competition against a Danner enhancile, but Paul is quite impressed by the fact that he made it to somewhere around two hundred before his wife made him stop. Especially since he's over eighty years old.
- The Renegade arranges a demonstration of his Divine Awakening technique by having Green Arrow compete in target shooting against the empowered Celestial Archer. Green Arrow shoots at ten targets in a row, hitting most of them but missing some — and then Celestial Archer fires a single shot that magically hits every target at once, in the bullseye, while doing a backflip. However, the Renegade is impressed by how well Green Arrow performed, given the long range, slight breeze, and being only mortal.
Films — Animation
- Puss in Boots: The Last Wish: Puss, despite having a very big win ratio in his battles, has his greatest success and triumphant climax of the movie be a draw. Specifically, he manages to disarm Death, who by nature is invincible, and declares to him that while he can't beat him, he won't stop fighting for his life. His enemy, even though he could have won if he persisted, respects him enough to stop fighting, making Puss the moral victor.
Films — Live-Action
- Avengers: Age of Ultron: Thor's hammer Mjölnir can only be lifted by the "worthy", making it functionally immovable by anyone other than Thor himself. As a party game, Thor challenges the other Avengers to try and lift it. They all fail, but Steve Rogers manages to jolt it a little, eliciting a look of shock from Thor. Note that a few films later, Steve does wield the hammer, suggesting that he could have done it all along and was just playing along in Ultron, or that he was close to being worthy and just had to work a little harder.
- Real Steel: The final battle, which makes Atom the People's Champion. Zeus usually was knocking his opponents out from the first round, but Atom manages to last all five. And while he has been losing in the first four rounds, Atom had started winning in the fifth one to the point of knocking the unbeatable champion down once, only for Zeus to be saved by the bell. This means Zeus wins on points, but Atom wins over everyone among the crowd. Among the users, Atom's is proud of himself and richer, while Zeus' is angry.
- Rocky (1976): Rocky realizes that Apollo Creed can't be defeated, and sets his goal at simply making it through the entire fifteen-round bout without getting knocked out. (None of Creed's prior opponents had made it more than three rounds. Rocky is also the first person to ever knock Creed to the mat.) Rocky succeeds lasting all fifteen rounds, and both he and everyone else consider it a huge accomplishment, although Rocky does lose on points. (Later films in the series avert the trope as Rocky becomes increasingly invincible himself.)
- Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan: The famous Kobayashi Maru scenario is intended to test a Starfleet officer candidate's reaction to an unwinnable situation: the proctors aren't interested in seeing you succeed, they're interested in seeing how you failed, as Admiral James T. Kirk explains to Lieutenant Saavik in the opening scenes. In Kirk's case, the result famously was him hacking the computer between attempts to make it winnable, which earned him points for ingenuity.
Kirk: How we deal with death is at least as important as how we deal with life, wouldn't you say?
Literature
- Ascendance of a Bookworm: At the end of Part 2, Myne has a Power-Strain Blackout after having launched a blessing invoking all seven main gods at the same time. As she's losing consciouness, she considers this proof of how Pathetically Weak she is. When the viewpoint switches to one of the adult nobles who witnessed her doing it, it turns out that much older and more experienced people who try what Myne has accomplished have a track record of dying from the strain it puts on them.
- Chrysalis (RinoZ): Anthony is defeated, cast out, and nearly killed by Rammon the phoenix guardian — but the city is in an uproar afterward, because Anthony pushed so hard that the phoenix had to draw on the stored energy inside the city's HeartGold, a limited resource, to reincarnate.
- From Old Country Bumpkin to Master Swordsman: Part of the test to become a Knight of the Liberion Order is for the candidate to spar with one of the Order's instructors. The candidates are not expected to actually win, just to make a good showing and demonstrate they can get even better. Allucia Citrus, the current Knight-Commander, was one of the few who ever actually defeated an instructor.
- Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban: When Professor Lupin first teaches the Patronus Charm to Harry, he anticipates that it might be extremely difficult for Harry especially to learn because of the trauma of facing a Dementor, and reliving the experience of his parents being killed. Harry struggles for most of the book, but Lupin praises these steps as a huge achievement since the spell is tough for even experienced wizards. Harry does master it in the end, and uses it very effectively.
- A House Inside Out: According to the woodlice who live under the plughole of the bath, the purpose of life is to climb up the side of the bath, from inside. All have failed, but the attempt to do so is an important rite of passage. When it is the turn of a young woodlouse called Nat, he completes this impossible mission with the help of a passing spider who lowers him a line, but he keeps it to himself that he has been where no woodlouse has been before.
Chief Woodlouse: Try hard, and fail magnificently, and we shall be proud of you.
- I'm the Heroic Knight of an Intergalactic Empire!: The narration in volume 1 notes that Emma's first flight in the Atalanta, her Ace Custom Humongous Mecha, is hardly perfect, but the mere fact she's got the Flawed Prototype even marginally under control in the first place is impressive: none of the test pilots could handle it even half as well.
- Isles of the Emberdark: From the Eelakin's perspective, their planet is being slowly but inevitably pushed towards total capitulation by the Malwish Empire, with no hope to maintain autonomy or control save through a Leonine Contract under laws they don't even know. From the broader Cosmere's perspective, the Eelakin's tenacity to trap the Empire in negotiations for years is nothing short of astounding. In the end, the Eelakin make a better deal with a third party that protects their independence.
Ed: Those folks have rebuffed the most important and powerful forces in the cosmere for years. Not biting on gifts, not bending to threats. Instead, they unified under a central government and began making demands.
- Keeper of the Lost Cities: Sophie manages to get to the finals against Fitz, who is unbeatable, in a contest of telekinesis. During the clash, both get knocked out for a while, resulting in a draw. However, the whole crowd considers Sophie the winner because she is a rookie against the champion.
- Lord Darcy: In Too Many Magicians, Lord Darcy is given a gun, a bullet, and told to shoot at a target in order to demonstrate how the Empire's new non-lethal superweapon works. After countless attempts, his shot misses by about two feet... to which the wizard handling the device looks in shock and states no one else ever managed to load the gun in the first place.
- The Lord of the Rings:
- Boromir's sacrifice. While he dies and fails to protect the Hobbits, he is flat-out praised for his efforts and the casualties he inflicts on the enemy. He also reveals important information about Saruman and the Uruk-Hai by slaying some of the latter.
- Frodo was wisely chosen to be the Ringbearer out of all the Fellowship. Many of the previous bearers, including Isildur and especially Smeagol were easily corrupted, but Frodo resists, as heavy as the Ring is becoming, up until Mount Doom itself. But according to Word of God, holding the Ring for this long and getting it this close to its true master at the same time would corrupt almost anyone. Besides, while Frodo directly fails in the very end, his efforts have caused enough progress so an actual success is doable with a couple of outside factors, which is what happens.
- The Odyssey: When Odysseus finally returns to Ithaca incognito, he learns that his queen Penelope has been trying to fend off numerous powerful suitors who have erroneously assumed him dead. Together with their son Telemachus, they secretly devise a test for the suitors: whomever can string Odysseus's bow and then fire an arrow through a row of twelve axe-heads, gets to marry her. None can manage it, but Telemachus himself comes closest to stringing the bow, symbolizing that the young man is nearly ready to be king himself. (Why he was taking a test where the prize was his own mother is best left unquestioned. Maybe he wanted to show them up regarding their skills.)
- Reign of the Seven Spellblades: In volume 2 (episode 9 of the anime), Pete takes on Chela's cousin Stacy Cornwallis in a classroom sparring match and gets his ass kicked without scoring a single point. His friends (and in the anime, Tullio Rossi) try to reassure him that, considering Stacy is a mage Blue Blood and Pete didn't even know he was a mage until less than a year ago, he still did better than most would have against her: he even managed to surprise Stacy with a Hero's Charge from the Rizett Style, which she barely dodged in time.
- Saintess Summons Skeletons: Even after weakening the Unstoppable Dimmerion with rot, and then launching the largest [Angel's bolt] she is capable of — which is effectively a Fantastic Nuke — Sofia isn't able to do more than slightly char the plant (which it's capable of quickly recovering from) and expose its roots, until an angel turns up and kills it. Nevertheless, Ihuarah is very impressed by how much impact she had.
Ihuarah: And once again, the name 'Unstoppable Dimmerion' is no overstatement. That you could affect it to this extent is already an achievement in itself.
- The Silmarillion: The elf lord Fingolfin challenged Morgoth himself to a duel in a fit of rage. Fingolfin was killed but managed to wound Morgoth seven times, most seriously in the foot, and Morgoth walked with a limp for the rest of his life. No other non-Valar came this close to beating Morgoth in a fair duel, and the only other elf to ever make a fool out of him was Luthien through trickery and beating his underlings... which is also impressive.
- The Thrawn Trilogy: In The Last Command, Luke Skywalker escapes capture by Thrawn's flagship by detonating a bomb on a freighter and using the debris to block the Chimaera's Tractor Beam long enough to jump to hyperspace in his X-Wing. The tractor beam operator explains to the admiral afterward that he tried some technobabble to clear the debris and get a lock, but all it did was crash his computer. Thrawn promotes the operator and reassigns him to developing a solution to this tactic, noting that even though no known countermeasure exists, he was nonetheless impressed by the man thinking on his feet and then taking full responsibility when it didn't work. (This is in contrast to another tractor beam operator who had failed to capture Luke in Heir to the Empire, who didn't follow his training and then tried to pass the buck to his supervisor. Thrawn summarily executed that guy.)
Live-Action TV
- Andor: In the finale of the first season, there is an example among the antagonists. While the riot is a disaster for the Imperials and even Dedra Meero is unable to stop it, Syril Karn, who until then was not taken seriously by his colleagues and superiors, including Dedra, is the only Imperial to actually mitigate the disaster to the point he saves Dedra's life. In the second season, he is actually in a higher position because of that and even lives with Dedra afterwards.
- A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms: Ser Arlan, while not exceptional enough to ever win a jousting tournament, is mentioned to still "have never been shamed". Once, he manages to last long enough against Ser Baelor to the point they broke four lances. This is treated as important because Baelor himself remembers it, and him, with fondness, allowing the main character Dunk to confirm he was a knight's successor and become a knight himself. In The Hedge Knight, the source material, it plays the same way.
- Star Trek: Deep Space Nine: In "Take Me Out to the Holosuite", Captain Sisko gets into it with Captain Solok, a Vulcan-supremacist officer who was in his class at Starfleet Academy. Thinking to prove once and for all the superiority of Vulcans to humans, Solok challenges Sisko to a baseball match, Sisko's favorite sport. Between the Super-Strength of Vulcans and Solok having trained his crew members for the match beforehand — whereas nobody on the "Niners" team besides Sisko had ever played before — the "Logicians" win 10:1, but Sisko et al. celebrate anyway, because they scored a single run and Solok got himself kicked out of the game for laying hands on the umpire (Odo) while arguing with him about a call.
Myths & Religion
- "The Tale of Utgard-Loki" from Norse Mythology, where the heroes are told to do some seemingly easy task and fail, only to be told it was actually an illusion, and the extent of the success is very impressive. For example, Thor is challenged to lift a cat, but can only get one of its paws off the ground. He was actually trying to lift the World Serpent. He wrestled an old lady and was forced to one knee, only to be told she was Old Age. He also barely manages to make a dent in the contents of a drinking horn... connected to the sea. Loki, meanwhile, loses an eating contest... against fire.
Roleplay
- Embers in the Dusk:
- Even the washouts of the Last Hunter program are in high demand by other special forces.
- One omake has a group of Alpha Plus psyker trainees being lectured on High Magic. One student is given a fragment of a spell to try and sustain it, only to have it unravel after five seconds. The rest of the students aren't impressed... until they try the same, only to learn that a hundred milliseconds is a far more common time until failure during first attempt. The first student's figure suggests deliberate meddling by the World.
Tabletop Games
- BattleTech: Young, untested Trueborn of Clan Hell's Horses are sometimes sent to carry out a rite called the Branding. Their mission is to find a Hell's Horse, restrain it, and put a special brand on it without causing it any other harm. What they're not told before the rite is that actually succeeding is extra credit; the real point of the rite is to see if they're willing to cut and run from a nearly impossible mission rather than violate their orders. Survive the attempt and return to base and you pass. Likewise, the real failure state is if any of the warriors injure or kill a Hell's Horse during the rite - this is considered an unacceptable failure, a sign of inability to follow orders, and the warrior responsible is punished with the Mark of Hell tattoo on their forearm.
- Deathwatch: The Rites of Battle supplement says that, while the Trials for Space Marine aspirants are always very difficult, some chapters assign Trials consisting of intentionally Impossible Tasks (at least by the standards of unaugmented humans) and only expect the aspirant to make the attempt and live to tell about it. For example, the "Challenge Trial" style requires aspirants—uniformly pubescent boys—to fight and defeat a full-fledged Space Marine—a two-meter hulking Super-Soldier with Super-Strength, Super-Senses, Super-Speed, and Super-Toughness among other things. The Space Marine usually fights unarmed and unarmored to give that test even a fig leaf level of fairness.
Video Games
- Chronicles of the Wolf has Ending C. Go to the Beast (which is considered invincible by most people) unprepared, then defeat it. It only wins by regenerating. Thus, even though Mateo fails and dies, he is still praised for his bravery and inspires successors.
- Final Fantasy IX: Kuja takes a direct hit from Bahamut and seemingly emerges unscathed... except for a small trickle of blood from his forehead. When Kuja notices this, he praises Bahamut for being able to hurt him even a little, before seizing control of the Eidolon for himself and using him to lay waste to Queen Brahne's fleet.
- Mass Effect: Even merely qualifying for the N7 program, which trains the Systems Alliance's special forces, is a very impressive achievement, even if you fail the courses.
- Happens in the ending of Peasant's Quest. Playing as Rather Dashing, you sneak into the lair of Trogdor the Burninator and attack the dragon in his sleep. Trogdor just wakes up, completely unharmed, and explains that he's "kinda indestructible" and can't be killed. But before he burninates you to a crisp, Trogdor says he's impressed that you've come closer to hurting him than anyone else ever has. The nearby village even celebrates your "accomplishment" by building a statue in your honor.
- Sunless Sea: The Presbyterate Adventuress opts for an Honorable Warrior's Death in a one-on-one fight against the Vake, a legendary alien monster that's fundamentally beyond humanity. Although she falls, she leaves it with a nasty scar, which amazes the warrior nuns of Abbey Rock enough that they plan to bury her in state and name their next initiate after her.
Visual Novels
- In Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney, Manfred von Karma is The Dreaded even among prosecutors, having won all of his cases for forty years straight. Granted, he was cheating, but even then he was hardly getting caught. Yet one defense attorney got him penalized once by exposing forged evidence that for once weren't his, and this made said defense attorney famous. It also irritated Manfred enough for him to resort to murder out of spite.
Webcomics
- Surviving the Game as a Barbarian: The protagonist Hansu joins a group of people who, like him, beat the video game Dungeon and Stone only to be transmigrated into the game's universe. When one of them brags that they beat the game on "only" a 50x XP and loot multiplier, he learns that everyone else played a modded version with cheats. Hansu, who worked for nine years to win fairly, seethes internally.
Pinkguy: Oh, I heard that the person who founded the community cleared it at 15x. Most people beat it at between 60x and 80x. Isn't that incredible?
Western Animation
- Avatar: The Last Airbender:
- Katara faces Master Pakku to prove his misogyny wrong. She loses because he is still way more experienced than her, but she fights so well she does succeed at discrediting his prejudiced views.
- Sokka against Piandao. Like with Katara against Pakku, Sokka is facing a mentor way more experienced than himself, and so he loses. But because he was using the environment in increasingly smart ways and only lost when Piandao did the same for the first time, Piandao respected him and let him pass the exam.
- Batman: The Animated Series: Sid the Squid is a low-level criminal, considered a joke by the few people who are even aware of his existence. All he ever wanted was to be somebody, and got his wish when he appeared to kill Batman. This led to an episode's worth of problems for Sid, as being "The Man Who Killed Batman" brings with it the attention of others who would want to beat him up to prove their own toughness, or earning the ire of the Joker. It's eventually revealed that Batman was fine, and Sid got the reputation he actually wanted as the man who almost killed Batman.
- In the Doug episode "Doug's Big Feat", Doug is put on his school's football team, who ends up getting clobbered. However, thanks to Doug, they still manage to score a single touchdown; the fact that they even managed to score at all (and not get shut out for once) is treated as a massive victory.
- The Ghost and Molly McGee: In "Let's Play Turnipball!", Brighton ends up losing at the titular sport to their town rival Perfektborg, but the town still celebrates the fact that they actually managed to score any points at all this time.
- Metalocalypse: The Doomstar Requiem: In a flashback, Dethklok was searching for a new guitarist after firing Magnus, and Skwisgaar put the auditioners through a guitar duel to determine who would join them. None of them could beat him, though. Then Toki showed up late, and at his pleading, Skwisgaar gave him a chance. And while Toki ends up making a mistake and losing in the end, Skwisgaar allows him to join because nobody had ever kept up with him that long before.
- Ned's Newt: In the episode "Broken Record", Ned sets out to break a record to uplift the spirit of Friendly Falls after their long-standing record was broken. However, Ned's every attempt ends in failure, making him think he let everybody down. However, officials determined that no one else had attempted and failed as many records as him, so they award him the record for most failed attempted records.
- She-Ra and the Princesses of Power: In "The Battle of Bright Moon", Hordak at first feels like punishing Catra for her failure to take Bright Moon, but relents when he rationalizes that Catra managing to nearly secure the Horde's victory at the Rebellion's capital is far more of an accomplishment than anyone has ever done before and instead promotes her to General.
- The Simpsons: Played for Laughs in "Cape Feare". Homer fantasizes about himself as John Elway in the Super Bowl, managing to score a single touchdown for the Denver Broncos. They still lose 56-7 against the San Fransico 49ers, but Homer is satisfied with himself.
- South Park: Played for Laughs in "Something You Can Do with Your Finger", where Butters puts up a rather underwhelming music audition. After he leaves, Cartman vents his exasperation at how awful he was, to the other boys' surprise, since he was still pretty much the best they had seen so far, including themselves.
- Star Trek:
- Star Trek: Lower Decks: Subverted and discussed in "Envoys". When Ens. Sam Rutherford is mulling a career change, he decides to try Security after failing catastrophically at Command and Medical. Lt. Shaxs puts him into a simulation called "Smorgas-borg" which has Rutherford facing multiple simulated Borg drones. Initially panicking because he doesn't know how to fight, Rutherford uses his implant, which gives him the advantage and allows him to singlehandedly defeat all the Borg. Lt. Shaxs is undoubtedly impressed.
Shaxs: In the name of the Prophets! I put people in that simulation so they can learn how to deal with defeat! Ensign, you are a natural-born warrior!
Rutherford: Oh! Okey-dokey! - Star Trek: Prodigy: In "Kobayashi", Dal R'el discovers the Kobayashi Maru simulator and decides to try and win at it to prove to the others he's captain material, not realizing that the simulation is not meant to be winnable. He tries numerous times to win and actually nearly gets close to winning before he makes a blunder that costs him his ship. The hologram of Spock tells him the purpose of the simulator, allowing Dal to realize he isn't ready to be captain just yet.
- Star Trek: Lower Decks: Subverted and discussed in "Envoys". When Ens. Sam Rutherford is mulling a career change, he decides to try Security after failing catastrophically at Command and Medical. Lt. Shaxs puts him into a simulation called "Smorgas-borg" which has Rutherford facing multiple simulated Borg drones. Initially panicking because he doesn't know how to fight, Rutherford uses his implant, which gives him the advantage and allows him to singlehandedly defeat all the Borg. Lt. Shaxs is undoubtedly impressed.
- Tiny Toons Looniversity: Babs and Plucky take Daffy Duck's anvil class as an elective, thinking it will be an easy A. Then Daffy reveals that it's actually the hardest elective at ACME Loo. Despite studying really hard, Babs and Plucky only get a C- on their test, which Daffy tells them is the highest grade anyone has ever gotten in the class.
- The Venture Bros.: Henchman 21 challenges Brock Samson to a one-on-one fight, thinking his intensive martial arts training will be sufficient to beat him. He ends up losing the fight in the end, but Brock congratulates him for holding his own and managing to get a few good hits in.
Real Life
- After the 1799 Battle of Trebbia, where the French lost almost the entire Army of Naples, the French commander Étienne Macdonald reportedly said that the disaster should have damaged his military career considerably, except that his opponent was none other than Field Marshal Alexander Suvorov — to this day, considered one of the finest generals of all time and then at the peak of his ability. As it stood, the fact that Macdonald, who had four decades' less experience and had only made general two years prior, even managed to save a third of his army already counted as a success, and he was put back in command by the next year and made a Marshal of the Empire by Napoleon a decade later.
- The sentiment behind the pilot's saying "any landing you can walk away from is a good one." Usually followed by the phrase, "a great landing is one where you can use the airplane again", the point is that the alternative may well be a violent crash that is fatal to pilot, passengers, and bystanders alike, and a pilot shouldn't feel bad about managing to pull off a landing in which no one was killed, however rough.
- This happens often in sports where a side considered to be way inferior to their opponent still manages to put a good challenge and perform well, even if the result is a defeat. When ties are possible, underdogs managing to lock such a score against the elite will often consider the result as equivalent to a win. Sometimes, even scoring a single point or goal in a total defeat can be considered a success by someone who never even managed to score any ever.
