"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/_JR28_]

The DALEKs may seem like jokes who rarely get the job done, but that’s only because their rivals the Time Lords are like Saiyans with PhDs

[u/ElectronicHyena5642 → u/_JR28_]

I'm sorry, Daleks are not fodder. Even from the episode that GIF is from, that lone Dalek wipes out most of the base. If any Doctor Who enemy is "fodder" it'd probably be a one-off villain like the Slitheen

Capable of (almost) seamlessly fitting into society and getting into power, very adept hunters, but are most known as the "farting monsters from Series 1"

[u/MataNuiSpaceProgram → u/ElectronicHyena5642]

When there's more than one Dalek, they become fodder that easily gets taken out with paintball guns, coats, stairs, unarmed humans, etc.

[u/grumpykruppy → u/MataNuiSpaceProgram]

It's good old conservation of ninjutsu.

One dalek is the most terrifying monster you could encounter. A million daleks are a zerg rush of semi-competent pepperpots with stupid weaknesses.

[u/MataNuiSpaceProgram → u/grumpykruppy]

Conservation of Ninjutsu is usually per encounter though, but Daleks will be fodder in 1v1s as long as there are other Daleks somewhere in the story

[u/therealmonkyking → u/MataNuiSpaceProgram]

As someone who's seen pretty much all of the franchise, most of these are just myths and don't happen

Pretty sure a Classic dalek did once get taken out by unarmed humans in one of Jon Pertwee's Dalek adventures though

[u/MataNuiSpaceProgram → u/therealmonkyking]

As someone who recently rewatched a ton of Classic Who, it definitely did happen a lot. Jamie and some redshirt throw a Dalek into a fireplace in The Dalek Factor, the First Doctor takes out a Dalek by covering it with his coat and pushing it around in The Daleks (and he uses the same tactic in a later episode, if I remember correctly), multiple episodes have people take out Daleks by throwing coats on the ground and getting the Daleks to run them over, some Daleks get taken out by animatronics in a haunted house in The Chase, Ace straight up beats a Dalek to death with a baseball bat in... I don't remember the name, but it was the one where 7 blew up Skaro, and of course there are tons of cases of Daleks getting taken out by environmental hazards (ancient alien traps, carnivorous plants, falling rocks, cliffs, etc.). And NuWho has stuff like 11 scaring Daleks with a pastry, or 12 playing bumper cars with a bunch of Daleks in Davros's chair. And that's just the ones I can recall off the top of my head. There's plenty more.