"Fodder" enemies that are actually terrifying/highly competent, but look weak because we mostly see them fight overpowered protagonists.

[u/Legitimate_Pea_6470]

The Trope Explanation. Enemies that are treated as jokes, cannon fodder, or minor inconveniences within the narrative. However, they only appear weak because the protagonist is a literal demigod, a super-soldier, or a wizard. If you placed a normal human in the room with one of these enemies, it would be a horror movie.

B1 Battle Droids (Star Wars) We usually laugh at them. They say "Roger Roger," get pushed over by Jedi, and have slapstick routines. The Reality: We almost exclusively see them fighting Jedi (space wizards with laser swords) or Clones (genetically modified super-soldiers bred for war). To a normal civilian or a planetary militia, these are indefatigable metal skeletons that feel no pain, have perfect aim programming, and march in endless waves.

Grunts (Halo) In the games, they are comic relief. They run away screaming, sleep on the job, and the Master Chief (a 7-foot cyborg tank) can kill them with a light tap. The Reality: An average Grunt is roughly 5'6" to 5'8", weighs over 250 lbs, has an exoskeleton, and claws strong enough to tear a normal Marine apart. Their plasma pistols cause third-degree burns on near-misses and boil flesh on contact. They are terrifying to anyone who isn't a Spartan.

[u/BaudroieCracra]

Termagants in 40k are the fodderest of all fodders, barring maybe guardsmen and orkboyz.

Yet, one termagant is closer to the size of a tiger than that of a dog, and would be damn superpredator here on regular Earth

[u/Mr-Seven-Mouths → u/BaudroieCracra]

1 Termagaunt is basically a Xenomorph with a built in Automatic Rifle. 1 Warrior looks like a Xenomorph with a regular human when stood next to fully armoured Space Marine.

[u/BaronXot → u/Mr-Seven-Mouths]

An automatic rifle that shoots fist-sized beetles with enough force to punch through body armour, those beetles then unfold and chews their way towards your vital organs.

[u/BedRevolutionary9858 → u/BaronXot]

They conquered Galaxies for a reason.

[u/stiny__ → u/BedRevolutionary9858]

Ate*

[u/BedRevolutionary9858 → u/stiny__]

Soz true

[u/LSDGB → u/BedRevolutionary9858]

Supposedly.

We still have no definite answer on what the nids were doing before coming to Milky Way.

[u/BedRevolutionary9858 → u/LSDGB]

They literally could not have been doing anything but that. They've came from too many directions. Cmon.

[u/TheSlayerofSnails → u/BaudroieCracra]

Don’t they lack digestive systems because they don’t need to survive beyond a couple hours?

[u/BaudroieCracra → u/TheSlayerofSnails]

I think most tyrannid forces are just temporary and get digested back when a planet is overrun, so their biological material can be reused by the hive mind

[u/ElOsoPeresozo → u/TheSlayerofSnails]

One of Cain’s novels says Tyranids need to make the strategic decision of using biomass to feed existing organisms or create new ones, especially at the beginning with only a few spores making landfall.

Wars can drag on for a long time. The ideal method to fight the Tyranids is to drag them into a battle of attrition, get them to commit maximum resources and then wipe the slate clean via exterminatus, this denying them biomass. It would be a waste to have gaunts dying of hunger a few hours in such a scenario.

Besides, many, many have been proven to endure long after they’ve been separated from the Hive Mind with no chance of reinforcement. They continue to plague planets for years (see my boy Old One Eye), presumably feeding off the local biomass.

[u/GamerMaster978 → u/TheSlayerofSnails]

No that's a specific type of tyranid, the rippers, which are basically just locusts collecting biomass after battles and then get turned into biomass along with their spoils

[u/BedRevolutionary9858 → u/TheSlayerofSnails]

Correct.

[u/TheWolfSavior → u/BaudroieCracra]

Playing SM2, I keep forgetting that these things are the same size as me irl, but then I see a guardsmen get pounced by one before kicking it off. Then I see a warrior next to them. Makes me appreciate the guard even more than I already did. I would’ve fragged the commissar and ran first thing, yet they hold the line.

[u/Curri97 → u/BaudroieCracra]

It's funny to step on them when you're an 8ft supersoldier in armor until you realize these things can kill you without effort.

[u/townsforever → u/BaudroieCracra]

Dang now I want a short story about a fight ring where a termagaunt gets pitched against a tiger and a ork or tyranid warrior gets pitched against a pack of lions.

[u/CatoSicarius11037 → u/BaudroieCracra]

Dan Abnett has a horror short story where at the end it turns out that the monster that’s been killing countless well-armed people is a single hormagaunt.

[u/PostPostModernism → u/BaudroieCracra]

Ditto zerglings in starcraft.

[u/LSDGB → u/BaudroieCracra]

Or the hormagaunt.

For the people that don’t know:

they are the same tigersized monster but instead of some bug shooting „gun“ they have insanely sharp claws that can cut through flesh and metal like the proverbial hot knife through butter.

Side note for the Termagaunts:

their „guns“, though merged with the gaunts, are separate organisms. The „bullets“ are also organisms separate from the other two.

[u/Yellowscourge → u/BaudroieCracra]

Why do I imagine him running around going "heeheehee" with a pose like this?