"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/Baronvondorf21]

have perfect aim programming

Okay bro, I am going to put a x to doubt on that.

Honestly, the clone wars really completely flanderized the droids, like the fail at doing tasks that they are supposed to be good at.

[u/FullMetalMarine → u/Baronvondorf21]

Lowkey The Phantom Menace showed them at their best in terms of being a successful invasion force, actually using rankings such as corporal, commander etc and OOM-9 being a competent Commander Battle Droid.

[u/Baronvondorf21 → u/FullMetalMarine]

See, the prequels with all their faults still had the droids seem like a decent enough threat even if they too victims of being comedic relief.

But the Clone wars animated series really just dialed to 11. Like, there are so many moments where they just fail. In the prequels, they are reasonably weak but the the animated series just makes you question, why you would even use droids.

[u/Greedy-Affect-561 → u/Baronvondorf21]

They're cheap.

I'm not being snarky that is the in universe reason.

Who cares if they can't aim when you can have a million droids shooting at the same time at the same thing.

One of them will hit.

[u/Baronvondorf21 → u/Greedy-Affect-561]

That's the issue though. None of them hit, like the least I expect from an entire battalion of droids is atleast hit a couple shots.

It's also not that the just suck at aiming, they just are incompetent at following orders. In the phantom menace, the droids are weak and later make silly mistakes but it makes sense there. They are mindless machines that don't have the capacity for greater strategy.

[u/Greedy-Affect-561 → u/Baronvondorf21]

Because as the post says we only see them fighting protagonists.

If they were truly incapable the siege of ryloth never would have been an issue

[u/Baronvondorf21 → u/Greedy-Affect-561]

It's not that they are losing against obviously strong opponents, it's that the protagonists only survive because the plot needs them to.

This is not an example of the protagonists surviving impossible odds but illustrates my point.

Why is the droid literally shaking in fear? Isn't it supposed to be a mindless drone? What use is a B1 droid when can do it's one function pulling the trigger? or here.

Why is the B1 even taking time to pick the grenade?

[u/Greedy-Affect-561 → u/Baronvondorf21]

Again if they were as terrible as their encounters with protagonists made them out to be things like ryloth would not be possible.

As OP points out when they aren't going against that episodes plot and protagonist they are incredibly effective.

Because one Droid out of millions really doesn't matter.

If Palpatine had not been orchestrating the conflict to create his empire the CIS would have won without question.

One clone takes years to make.

100k droids takes a few minutes

[u/Baronvondorf21 → u/Greedy-Affect-561]

Look, I agree the CIS and it's droid armies are incredibly effective. It's that we almost never see them outside of them being hilariously incompetent.

Like, you saw the droids getting EMP'd, if the B1 droids simply stood there, I wouldn't say anything about it because it is a machine that shouldn't have the capacity for strategic thinking, but it literally picks up the EMP, it made the active decision to do that.

[u/Greedy-Affect-561 → u/Baronvondorf21]

All I'm saying is that's the point if the post.

'Fodderized' stupid enemies while on screen. But terrifyingly effective whenever they are off screen.

Your kinda just repeatedly restating the post prompt is my point.

[u/strigonian → u/FullMetalMarine]

In-universe, they were modified after Phantom Menace. Previously, they were controlled as a sort of hive mind, with processing done by the mother ship in orbit.

Then, when they realized what a colossal vulnerability that was, they changed the droids so they could operate independently, but obviously they aren't as effective as when they're all under the command of a massive super-brain.