Stories where the MC is weak

[moonfly7]

I'm looking for suggestions for stories where the main character isn't just weak, but is clearly and inordinately out classed by everyone else, especially his own friends and/or love interest. I'm not asking for a whiny crybaby main character(midorya I'm looking at you) in fact I despise those. I'd prefer suggestions where the protagonist is creative and smart and makes themselves useful in spite of their inherent ability gap.

[Vinyadan]

Frodo, I guess.

[EggKookoo]

For some reason the 80s movie Lucas comes to mind.

[Peelee]

Frodo, I guess.

I was going to say The Hobbit.

[moonfly7]

I was going to say The Hobbit.

I 100% agree. But I've already read the hobbit so it doesnt help me too much.

[Zarrgon]

Well, for TV Shows, this is the basic plot of the show Chuck.

For the female version in a movie you have: The Spy that Dumped Me.

Ant-Man, even more so Ant-man and the Wasp, has this.

[Dienekes]

I'm looking for suggestions for stories where the main character isn't just weak, but is clearly and inordinately out classed by everyone else, especially his own friends and/or love interest. I'm not asking for a whiny crybaby main character(midorya I'm looking at you) in fact I despise those. I'd prefer suggestions where the protagonist is creative and smart and makes themselves useful in spite of their inherent ability gap.

Lies of Locke Lamora might count.

The MC himself is the best damn thief in the business. And since the plots of the books revolve around thieving you might think they don’t fit. But in a world of mages, warriors, and crime lords he does not have magic, has few allies, and it’s repeatedly set up that he is a terrible warrior.

[Dire_Flumph]

A few multi-protagonist stories come to mind like Tyrion in A Song of Ice and Fire as well as Glokta and Jezal in the First Law books (Glokta is an incredibly cunning cripple, Jezal is a talented duelist with almost no capacity for life and death combat and it shows every single time he gets into a real fight). Those are balanced by much more physically capable cast members though.

Memory, Sorrow and Thorn by Tad Williams follows the "orphan lad drawn up into grand adventure", but I don't think Simon ever gains more than a modicum of competence in fighting anything even by the end.

And of course there's Rincewind from the Discworld books, whose only real talent is running away (As well as being able to scream for help in multiple languages).

[Kitten Champion]

Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials series has an adolescent girl and boy for its protagonists, while each have special abilities neither are what you'd refer to as "strong" especially compared to their allies and enemies. They get by on their wits and gumption, for the most part.

I would say this is also a defining feature of Farscape. John Crichton isn't incapable - he's an astronaut after all - but the point is made repeatedly that we vanilla humans are outmatched in most areas by the various alien species in the main cast and beyond. His strength is mostly that he has a balanced psyche and is capable of empathy, it lets him unify individuals who tend towards chaos and self-interest for their collective survival. John Crichton is a master cat herder, basically.

Another one I recall enjoying was Mx0 a manga series by Kano Yasuhiro in... I believe it was Shounen Jump. MxO is about Kuzumi Taiga who accidentally finds himself in a secret high school for wizards in contemporary Japan, possessing no magical ability. It's about how he has to BS his way through the increasingly dangerous circumstances of each new magical test and class activity with some help from a reluctant co-conspirator teacher who would be fired if they found out Taiga was magic-less. Taiga does get a quasi-power, in the sense that magic in this universe functions only in certain pockets and he gets a special plate that nullifies this supernatural energy in a small area around him, but most of his success comes from sheer bravado and determination.

[Grey_Wolf_c]

And of course there's Rincewind from the Discworld books, whose only real talent is running away (As well as being able to scream for help in multiple languages).

You're selling him short. He can scream for mercy in nineteen languages and just scream in another forty four. And the latter is not that easy - why, if one is not careful with one's "Arghh!", one might find oneself telling the Howondish tribe placing you in a pot "Quick! Extra boiling oil!"

---

Harry Potter is an obvious answer to the OP - he is already outclassed by Hermione, but they are both hilariously outclassed combat-wise by almost every adult in the books they encounter.

Going for less obvious picks, similarly to Lies of Locke Lamora, Moist von Lipwig in Going Postal gets ahead by cleverness, speaking quietly, and employing a golem with a big stick.

Grey Wolf

[Peelee]

You're selling him short. He can scream for mercy in nineteen languages and just scream in another forty four. And the latter is not that easy - why, if one is not careful with one's "Arghh!", one might find oneself telling the Howondish tribe placing you in a pot "Quick! Extra boiling oil!"

Dangit, I was just about to claim that I can just scream in dozens of languages!

[Tvtyrant]

Vlad Taltos is a Rogue with some witch powers whose best friend is nearly deific and lives in a society of sorcerers.

[moonfly7]

You're selling him short. He can scream for mercy in nineteen languages and just scream in another forty four. And the latter is not that easy - why, if one is not careful with one's "Arghh!", one might find oneself telling the Howondish tribe placing you in a pot "Quick! Extra boiling oil!"

---

Harry Potter is an obvious answer to the OP - he is already outclassed by Hermione, but they are both hilariously outclassed combat-wise by almost every adult in the books they encounter.

Going for less obvious picks, similarly to Lies of Locke Lamora, Moist von Lipwig in Going Postal gets ahead by cleverness, speaking quietly, and employing a golem with a big stick.

Grey Wolf

A few multi-protagonist stories come to mind like Tyrion in A Song of Ice and Fire as well as Glokta and Jezal in the First Law books (Glokta is an incredibly cunning cripple, Jezal is a talented duelist with almost no capacity for life and death combat and it shows every single time he gets into a real fight). Those are balanced by much more physically capable cast members though.

Memory, Sorrow and Thorn by Tad Williams follows the "orphan lad drawn up into grand adventure", but I don't think Simon ever gains more than a modicum of competence in fighting anything even by the end.

And of course there's Rincewind from the Discworld books, whose only real talent is running away (As well as being able to scream for help in multiple languages).

I definitley need to read Discworld at some point but I can never find them at my library and buying books isn't always easy for me.

Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials series has an adolescent girl and boy for its protagonists, while each have special abilities neither are what you'd refer to as "strong" especially compared to their allies and enemies. They get by on their wits and gumption, for the most part.

I would say this is also a defining feature of Farscape. John Crichton isn't incapable - he's an astronaut after all - but the point is made repeatedly that we vanilla humans are outmatched in most areas by the various alien species in the main cast and beyond. His strength is mostly that he has a balanced psyche and is capable of empathy, it lets him unify individuals who tend towards chaos and self-interest for their collective survival. John Crichton is a master cat herder, basically.

Another one I recall enjoying was Mx0 a manga series by Kano Yasuhiro in... I believe it was Shounen Jump. MxO is about Kuzumi Taiga who accidentally finds himself in a secret high school for wizards in contemporary Japan, possessing no magical ability. It's about how he has to BS his way through the increasingly dangerous circumstances of each new magical test and class activity with some help from a reluctant co-conspirator teacher who would be fired if they found out Taiga was magic-less. Taiga does get a quasi-power, in the sense that magic in this universe functions only in certain pockets and he gets a special plate that nullifies this supernatural energy in a small area around him, but most of his success comes from sheer bravado and determination.

I'll have to read that manga then.

[TeChameleon]

The Discworld books are, by and large, wonderful. Do read them- a sharp sense of humour, excellent command of the English language, and a keen eye for human nature and all its foibles made the late Sir PTerry (Terry Pratchett) a writer to be reckoned with.

Also, if you like genre literature, may I recommend the Vorkosigan saga, by Lois McMaster Bujold? The lead character of the majority of the books was the victim of a poison gas attack in utero, and was born with bones so brittle that an incautious movement can shatter them. It's the sci-fi spacefuture, so he gets medical care to get him back on his feet fairly quickly, but it's not an easy or fun process for him. And he comes from a quasi-feudal planet (in terms of sociopolitical structure, not technology) with a high emphasis on warrior culture.

The first book (Shards of Honor) details how Miles Vorkosigan, our brittle protagonist, attempts to go to the military academy and through a combination of weird circumstances, a genius for tactics, a gift for thinking on his feet, and whoooole lot of lying, somehow becomes a mercenary captain instead, despite not even being able to throw a punch without shattering his hand.

[Grey_Wolf_c]

I definitley need to read Discworld at some point but I can never find them at my library and buying books isn't always easy for me.

I understand libraries can be asked to request books from other libraries and/or put a hold on books that they do have but are lent out at the moment?

Grey Wolf

[Tvtyrant]

I definitley need to read Discworld at some point but I can never find them at my library and buying books isn't always easy for me.

I'll have to read that manga then.

I don't know where you live, but the libraries here let you check out ebooks. That might increase your chance of getting them, the books on tape are also good.

[Rynjin]

World Trigger is the rare shonen manga with this kind of protagonist where it doesn't seem as though it will ever change.

This is a setting where your raw source of power is fixed at birth and can't be changed to any significant degree through training or willpower or whatever. Our main character has the raw power of a random foot soldier scrub (maybe even a bit lower) and is outclassed by everybody else in his squad, save in the arena of tactical acumen.

If you like web serials, a lot of the most popular ones trend toward this. Wildbow's stories (particularly Worm and Twig) feature guile protagonists far outclassed in the arena of raw might, and The Wandering Inn is about a girl who is I suppose "overpowered" at what she does best (making friends, basically) but in terms of ability to physically impose her will via force, she's on the lower end of the totem pole.

[Aeson]

Artemis Fowl might count; the titular character is easily physically outclassed by his bodyguard/friend, and if he's not physically overshadowed by his opponents and sometime-allies then they at least have magic whereas he's just a mundane genius.

[Dire_Flumph]

I don't know where you live, but the libraries here let you check out ebooks. That might increase your chance of getting them, the books on tape are also good.

I've been going through some audiobooks to listen to with my son on longer drives, and was thinking of picking up some of the Discworld books on Audible. Most seem to be read by Nigel Planer or Stephen Briggs (a very few by Celia Imrie), do you have a recommendation for a favorite reader?

[Tvtyrant]

I've been going through some audiobooks to listen to with my son on longer drives, and was thinking of picking up some of the Discworld books on Audible. Most seem to be read by Nigel Planer or Stephen Briggs (a very few by Celia Imrie), do you have a recommendation for a favorite reader?

I think Planer is the best reader, but Briggs gets my favorite books. Imrie is stuck in the twisting nether as the audio quality was a little worse and I don't like the Witch stories as much. I'm not a huge aficionado though, some of the other people in the thread will be much better judges.

[ben-zayb]

Dr. Stone Mad scientist Senku's pretty weak physically and his only advantage over everyone is utilizing his encyclopedic knowledge of anything based on humanity's scientific progress. He had to rely on other people for backbreaking manual labor, tasks that require strength and endurance, social finesse/manipulation, investigation/reconnaissance, physical combat of all sorts, fine-detailed craftsmanship/engineering, navigational skills, etc. His most impressive feat of mental fortitude consists of counting every second for a span of about 3000 years while his body is petrified, in addition to whatever mental multitasking he was doing at the time.

Steins;Gate Hououin Kyōma is also a mad scientist, or at least a self-proclaimed one. He's physically average, broke as a college student can be, incompetent in combat, smart to a degree, and still has to heavily rely on his otaku hax0r bestfriend and his neuroscientist genius love interest when it comes to developing the lab's future gadgets. He also relies a lot on his friends for financial support, emotional support, intel, and protection against his enemies. His most impressive feat of mental fortitude can be described (to avoid spoilers) as enduring the pain of waking up after a long coma, repeated for about at least 3,000 times. Some of these involve literally reliving traumatic experiences.

Dororo The titular character is a young street-rat who follows the deuteragonist Hyakkimaru on his journey to retrieve what's stolen from him. Because, of course, why would the titular character not be the main character?

[PoeticallyPsyco]

The titular protagonist of the Mercy Thompson series definitely fits the bill. In a world where just about everything magical has super strength, a healing factor, and often powerful magic at its disposal, she can... turn into a normal coyote. She makes do, with wits and words. The writing is also really good, equal parts hilarious and dramatic. The cover art leaves something to be desired, though. The spinoff series, Alpha & Omega, may also count.

A more borderline case is Alex Verus. He's an incredibly competent guy, a skilled fighter, and potentially the best in his field of magic. However, his magic is divination, seeing into the branching future, and has little to no direct effect in combat with people who can light the entire room on fire with their minds, shrug off being run over by a truck, heal or kill with a touch (or at range in some cases), or control minds. Practically speaking, he is always relying on fast thinking, forethought, and generally knowing more than his enemies, rather than brute force.

House of Stars is a completed webtoon about an ordinary girl in a fairy world, challenged to complete three tasks for the evil queen. Her strengths are determination and being a good person. A charming story, relatively short and simple but well told.

Boyfriend of the Dead is another webtoon, this time an ongoing comedy. N is a zombie, but he's also a gourmet, and he refuses to eat most of the disgusting humans he's seen so far in the apocalypse... until he meets Alex. But what if she's diseased or something? He has to wait at least three days to be safe, convincing her he's on her side while keeping her safe from the other zombies who lack his refined taste. And he has to be subtle about it, because if it ever comes down to a direct fight, she's an absurdly competent zombie slayer while he's a gourmet chef; she will kill him dead(er) without so much as breaking stride. The name of the comic is probably enough to tell you what happens to this exceptionally well-laid plan.

Wilde Life probably counts, too. The main character is just some guy, but he seems to have a knack for getting caught up in the supernatural happenings in his community. Ghost children getting violently jealous, surly werewolf teens getting kidnapped, turns out the reason his house was so cheap is because it's totally haunted...

I'll probably think of some more that haven't already been posted at some point, but right now I need some sleep. Adieu.

[jayem]

Children's/Young person's stories might be a good start.
The Silver Sword is probably the best I can think of

__On the borderline but accessible__
Narnia might count (and for that matter The Space Trilogy, though that's a bit hit and miss)
Harry Potter and war of the worlds, I'd also through in the mix.

[comicshorse]

In the first series of 'Farscape' the protagonist Crichton is hurled into a society he doesn't know, with technology way ahead of his and discovers that actually humans are pretty poorly designed compared to most of the alien races he meets. He still is useful tot he crew through use of his cunning and being able to lie and deceive his way out of some of the horrible situations he finds himself in

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0187636/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_0

[Grey_Wolf_c]

Dangit, I was just about to claim that I can just scream in dozens of languages!

Yeah, well, it's Pratchett. As you hopefully are about to discover, he does tend to be ahead of the reader when it comes to the jokes.

Grey Wolf

[moonfly7]

World Trigger is the rare shonen manga with this kind of protagonist where it doesn't seem as though it will ever change.

This is a setting where your raw source of power is fixed at birth and can't be changed to any significant degree through training or willpower or whatever. Our main character has the raw power of a random foot soldier scrub (maybe even a bit lower) and is outclassed by everybody else in his squad, save in the arena of tactical acumen.

If you like web serials, a lot of the most popular ones trend toward this. Wildbow's stories (particularly Worm and Twig) feature guile protagonists far outclassed in the arena of raw might, and The Wandering Inn is about a girl who is I suppose "overpowered" at what she does best (making friends, basically) but in terms of ability to physically impose her will via force, she's on the lower end of the totem pole.

Gonna have to look at trigger then

The titular protagonist of the Mercy Thompson series definitely fits the bill. In a world where just about everything magical has super strength, a healing factor, and often powerful magic at its disposal, she can... turn into a normal coyote. She makes do, with wits and words. The writing is also really good, equal parts hilarious and dramatic. The cover art leaves something to be desired, though. The spinoff series, Alpha & Omega, may also count.

A more borderline case is Alex Verus. He's an incredibly competent guy, a skilled fighter, and potentially the best in his field of magic. However, his magic is divination, seeing into the branching future, and has little to no direct effect in combat with people who can light the entire room on fire with their minds, shrug off being run over by a truck, heal or kill with a touch (or at range in some cases), or control minds. Practically speaking, he is always relying on fast thinking, forethought, and generally knowing more than his enemies, rather than brute force.

House of Stars is a completed webtoon about an ordinary girl in a fairy world, challenged to complete three tasks for the evil queen. Her strengths are determination and being a good person. A charming story, relatively short and simple but well told.

Boyfriend of the Dead is another webtoon, this time an ongoing comedy. N is a zombie, but he's also a gourmet, and he refuses to eat most of the disgusting humans he's seen so far in the apocalypse... until he meets Alex. But what if she's diseased or something? He has to wait at least three days to be safe, convincing her he's on her side while keeping her safe from the other zombies who lack his refined taste. And he has to be subtle about it, because if it ever comes down to a direct fight, she's an absurdly competent zombie slayer while he's a gourmet chef; she will kill him dead(er) without so much as breaking stride. The name of the comic is probably enough to tell you what happens to this exceptionally well-laid plan.

Wilde Life probably counts, too. The main character is just some guy, but he seems to have a knack for getting caught up in the supernatural happenings in his community. Ghost children getting violently jealous, surly werewolf teens getting kidnapped, turns out the reason his house was so cheap is because it's totally haunted...

I'll probably think of some more that haven't already been posted at some point, but right now I need some sleep. Adieu.

I think I've had Alex Verus suggested to me before, so I'll check it out definitely, I've read Boyfriend of the dead, I love it actually, And now I want to check out Wilde Life really bad.

[Silfir]

The Goblin Emperor. A half-elf, half-goblin exiled prince of barely eighteen years suddenly finds himself in the unenviable position of succeeding to the throne of the elvish Empire after the previous emperor and the rest of the line of succession are extinguished in a mysterious airship explosion. He has neither fighting skills nor any practical experience at the court, and barely anyone takes him seriously. Can he hold on to the throne and his life, not necessarily in that order?

[Caledonian]

Tavi, from Jim Butcher's Codex Alera series, probably counts. In a world where anyone of higher rank than a slave can command one or more elemental spirits called furies, Tavi can't call any. So he has to rely on his wits and his allies to survive.

[SerTabris]

The Discworld books are, by and large, wonderful. Do read them- a sharp sense of humour, excellent command of the English language, and a keen eye for human nature and all its foibles made the late Sir PTerry (Terry Pratchett) a writer to be reckoned with.

Also, if you like genre literature, may I recommend the Vorkosigan saga, by Lois McMaster Bujold? The lead character of the majority of the books was the victim of a poison gas attack in utero, and was born with bones so brittle that an incautious movement can shatter them. It's the sci-fi spacefuture, so he gets medical care to get him back on his feet fairly quickly, but it's not an easy or fun process for him. And he comes from a quasi-feudal planet (in terms of sociopolitical structure, not technology) with a high emphasis on warrior culture.

The first book (Shards of Honor) details how Miles Vorkosigan, our brittle protagonist, attempts to go to the military academy and through a combination of weird circumstances, a genius for tactics, a gift for thinking on his feet, and whoooole lot of lying, somehow becomes a mercenary captain instead, despite not even being able to throw a punch without shattering his hand.

They're all good books, but the one you're describing is The Warrior's Apprentice. Shards of Honor is the one set decades before that which introduces his parents.

[JeenLeen]

Brandon Sanderson's Rithmatist is this. It's been years since I read it, but I think the main character is basically (to borrow the Harry Potter term) a scrub, incapable of using magic. Or just bad at it, despite really wanting to use the mathemacy of the books. (Rithmatist is based on the word arithmetic.)

His hero trilogy is also this, insofar as it's a mundane taking out evil superheroes. Steelheart is the first book in the series.

I can think of some other books (book 1 of Codex Alera sounds like this to a degree), but in most of those the character starts out weak/ignorant and ends up powerful by the end (or middle).
EDIT: saw someone already mentioned Codex Alera. In retrospect, I think book 1 fits your description well, and maybe the first few books.