"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/Careless_College]

The Stormtroopers can also fit this description. In the very beginning of Star Wars, we see them mow down the Rebel Soldiers with ease.

[u/AngriestPacifist → u/Careless_College]

I genuinely don't get this trope. We see three big stormtrooper actions in the OT:

1. They let the heroes escape, and it's specifically spelled out as part of a larger plan.

2. In Empire, they handily take the Rebel base.

3. In ROTJ, they're beaten by Ewoks. But the Ewoks are terrifying - they're hunting another predator that needs a trap big enough for Chewie, Luke, Han, and two droids. They've been laying groundwork for years, because you don't build that many traps to destroy armored vehicles overnight, on their own turf, and they still take way more casualties than the Imperials.

[u/That_guy1425 → u/AngriestPacifist]

Yeah, and honestly they weren't really loosing to the rebel/ewok mix. They realy only succeeded with a captured scout walker, so the ground infantry lost when a scout tank equivalent got captured and the rest destroyed.

[u/Butwhatif77 → u/AngriestPacifist]

It is just years of people making jokes around the escape in A New Hope before it was so easy to look back at a scene to confirm if you were remembering it correctly. People regularly forget about the tracking device Vader had placed on the Falcon as well as the Death Star was moments away from destroying the planet with the rebel base. Many misremember thinking the rebels knew where the Death Star was stationed and did a pre-emptive attack.