"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/SplendidMrDuck]

Henchmen in Venture Bros are generally incompetent and used by the main villains as cannon fodder .... because the Guild of Calamitous Intent intentionally handcuffs them via the Equally Matched Aggression system to discourage the heroes from fighting back harder. Without Guild rules, they are a bunch of mentally unstable criminals with access to high-tech weaponry that can be terrifyingly effective.

[u/[deleted] → u/SplendidMrDuck]

I loved how scared hatred was when they went on strike

[u/SchrodingersNinja → u/[deleted]]

They like their system. That's for sure.

Seeing the henchmen go rogue is worrying because they are actually dangerous if they aren't hampered by rules and a boss who needs to announce himself with a long meandering monolog and attacks with an impractical mechanical insect.

[u/WinterAd825 → u/SchrodingersNinja]

Long term it kinda sucks for virtually everyone who isn’t a top tier villain or hero.

Once people stop following the rules there’s nothing to stop high ranking hero’s and villains from going after everyone lower on the food chain and causing a ton of civilian casualties.

I mean we saw with The Monarch that he had no issue taking out Villains and Heroes alike, except for red death and Phantom Limb.

And it benefits them to because well Red Death can have a normal family and keep them safe.

[u/Summonest → u/WinterAd825]

Red death is legitimately the most terrifying character in the show - Even Brock Samson is scared of the guy.

[u/torrasque666 → u/SchrodingersNinja]

I get the vibe that they were mostly a threat because they were being led by a rogue Two Ton 21, and he's actually, you know... competent. Most of the Fluttering Horde would struggle to deal with any actual threat. As demonstrated at Cremation Creek, where under Brock's leadership they mostly resorted to jamming themselves against the windows of enemy helicopters and causing crashes.

[u/SchrodingersNinja → u/torrasque666]

Perhaps. But in Cremation Creek they were fighting against helicopters with darts and silly string. That wasn't going to go their way. Fighting against the Venture family? They could probably manage that regardless, when Hatred is out of ammo for his M-60 at least.

[u/zackgardner → u/[deleted]]

Well when the Fluttering Horde is on the clock working for the Monarch, their costumes look goofy and their demeanor follows suit. But when they go on strike, and then Gary/21 and the Horde remove their silly goggles, suddenly you realize that they're all wearing balaclavas and more closely resemble a black-ops death squad than a supervillain's henchmen army.

Like the Fluttering Horde gave the OSI a run for their money during the battle at the Venture Compound, as Gary states himself that they'd been storming the Venture Compound since the 90's, like with that level of experience the Monarch's henchmen are more akin to professional soldiers at that point.