History Main / AttackItsWeakPoint

** The Empire learns from the first Death Star when building the second. Instead of having a small number of exhaust ports big enough to shoot through, it has lots of tiny ones across its surface, all too small to be targeted. Unfortunately for them, the Battle of Endor takes place before the outer shell is finished, allowing the Rebels to fly starfighters straight into the reactor as soon as the planetside shield generator fails. [[{{Irony}} (Really, they should have known better from Hoth than to depend on those things....)]]

* ''WesternAnimation/CodeLyoko'': All of XANA's monsters in the game-like [[{{Cyberspace}} virtual world]] have "XANA Eye" symbols (sometimes actual eyes) somewhere on their bodies. Hitting this spot will usually de-rez the monster instantly. With the exception of Aelita's Energy Fields, which normally kill no matter where they hit the monster. [[CutscenePowerToTheMax Unless she's supposed to lose, of course.]]

* In ''WesternAnimation/CodeLyoko'', all of XANA's monsters in the game-like [[{{Cyberspace}} virtual world]] have "XANA Eye" symbols (sometimes actual eyes) somewhere on their bodies. Hitting this spot will usually de-rez the monster instantly. With the exception of Aelita's Energy Fields, which normally kill no matter where they hit the monster. [[CutscenePowerToTheMax Unless she's supposed to lose, of course.]]
* The red circle on Zod's belly in ''WesternAnimation/ChallengeOfTheGoBots''.
* Parodied in ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'', when Homer and Bart enter ''Series/BattleBots'', and discuss how to beat Professor Frink's giant killing machine. Bart mentions it has a weak point, [[DescriptionCut only for him to notice]] Frink welding [[RemovedAchillesHeel a comically large sheet of spiky metal over it]].

* In ''WesternAnimation/SouthPark'', punching Mecha-Streisand's nose will drop the Diamond of Pantheos allowing Robert Smith to defeat her.

* In an episode of ''WesternAnimation/MyLifeAsATeenageRobot'', Jenny faces a member of the Cluster who Tuck and Brad were using as a snow fort before he regenerated...who has an off switch on his back, very much like the trope picture.
* In ''WesternAnimation/AdventureTime'', at episode 'Tree Trunks' the gang goes into '[[{{DarkIsEvil}}The Evil Dark Forest]]' in order to achieve the plot-device for the eponymous Tree Trunks. At the forest the group catches up with a monster of no vulnerabilities...Except it's [[http://i49.tinypic.com/znvpjt.jpg/giant gem weak spot.]]
* In ''WesternAnimation/RandyCunninghamNinthGradeNinja'', the only way to destank a monster made by the sorcerer is to destroy a item they most held dear, aka their weak spot.
* Tuma in ''WesternAnimation/{{Bionicle}}: The Legend Reborn'' has a brightly sparking wound on his back which he never covers despite wearing giant, movable armored blades on his back. He even spends much of his fight with Mata Nui facing away from him, standing still while bathing in the cheering of his supporters. He's defeated under seconds.
* The ''[[WesternAnimation/TheAdventuresofJimmyNeutronBoyGenius Jimmy Neutron]]'' episode, "Ultra Sheen" has Sheen defeat Robo-Fiend in level one of the Ultra Lord video game by pressing the off switch on his back.
* During Comicbook/BlackPanther's first encounter with the team in ''WesternAnimation/TheAvengersEarthsMightiestHeroes'', he manages to take down [[Comicbook/AntMan Giant-Man]] by striking the portions of his anatomy that are vulnerable.
* In one episode of ''WesternAnimation/TeenageMutantNinjaTurtles1987'', Shredder decides to build the ultimate combat robot to finally destroy the turtles once and for all and does this by building the robot out of indestructible material. He runs out when he's almost done and has to use ordinary steel to finish, leaving a weak spot at the small of the robot's back. [[IdiotBall He and Krang then mention this several times in front of April.]] Guess what happens.
* ''WesternAnimation/TheAntAndTheAardvark'': in "Mumbo Jumbo," the Ant is being protected by an elephant as part of a brotherhood lodge pledge. The Aardvark sets a booby-trapped scale for the elephant, citing an elephant's vanity being their weak spot. The Ant suspects it's a trick, so the elephant plants a tree trunk with the Aardvark in it on the scale. Boom goes the Aardvark.
* ''WesternAnimation/{{The Mask}}'' episode title “They came from within”. There is a muscular robotic villain called [[https://robotsupremacy.fandom.com/wiki/Warmachine "Warchine",]] like his chest, there is also a small door handle on his back. After opening, any person(especially dogs) can enter the machine through the passageway (can be regarded as a design flaw). Inside there has a "Fail Safe Box", Milo pee on the device, it makes the robot short-circuit.
* ''WesternAnimation/{{Quack Pack}}'' episode title “Return of the T Squad”. The alien leader ZOD released the [[HumongousMecha giant robot]]. Although this [[KillerRobot killer robot]] has no specialized self-destructing button, there are levers and buttons inside his Main Control Room obviously when Dewey enters the robot's head. Dewey pushes all levers, switches and button on the robot head that makes him overload and cause his head explodes.
* ''{{WesternAnimation/Arcane}}'': Sevika's Shimmer-powered mechanical arm has an injector on the shoulder that pumps the drug into her and increases her strength. Unfortunately, this leaves her with a glaring weakness and when the injector comes up for her final blow, Caitlyn snipes it, disabling her arm. When she upgrades the arm she takes this weakness into account and her new arm has to be manually reloaded (and can take 2 vials of Shimmer compared to her last that could only do one). While the manual reload presents a new weakness (as she now has to occupy her good arm with the reload whilst the last one could do it automatically) she's skillful enough to not let it become a problem.
* ''WesternAnimation/{{Ninjago}}'': The Great Devourer has one on its forehead. [[spoiler:Lord Garmadon ultimately defeats it by attacking this point with all four Golden Weapons.]]

* A downplayed example in ''ComicBook/DarkGuard''. Villain Collapsar wears PoweredArmor that doubles as ContainmentClothing for his energy powers. The heroes initial attacks seem to be a NoSell until Motormouth's enhanced vision spots the tiny flaws they've left in his armor. The next round of attacks then focus on those flaws, to great effect.
* In ''ComicBook/{{Megalex}}'', the Undergrounders, especially Adamâ, have an uncanny ability to hit the robotic Shock Troopers right in the control chip, through a tiny gap in their armor.
* ''ComicBook/{{Supergirl}}'': Subverted in ''ComicBook/Supergirl1982'' #21 when Supergirl swoops down on several thugs and their leader commands his goons to shoot at her until they find her weak point because she HAS to have one. However, [[ShootingSuperman Shooting Supergirl]] works just as expected.
* ComicBook/{{Deadshot}} quite regularly abuses the fact that [[ImmuneToBullets bullet immunity]] does not usually extend to your [[EyeScream eyes]].
* ComicBook/AntMan (Scott Lang) once found himself facing off against the Grizzly, a criminal who gimmick was an armored exoskeleton that made him look like a bipedal grizzly bear. Grizzly dismissed Lang as a weaking, telling him that all shrinking power was good for was letting him run away and hide. Lang said "okay!" and jumped right at the Grizzly, shrinking as he did so. When the Grizzly asked him what he was doing, he replied "hiding." Lang then ran inside Grizzly's ear and switched his helmet to Public Address Mode, and started yelling at the top of his lungs while beating the Grizzly's eardrum like a rented mule. Grizzly ended up on the ground ''crying'' while begging Lang to stop.
* In most ''Franchise/XMen'' adaptations, the only true weakness of the villain the ComicBook/{{Juggernaut|MarvelComics}} is his helmet; while physically the Juggernaut is powerful enough to go up against the Hulk in a straight fight, his mind is still vulnerable to psychic attacks, but his helmet is made of a rare material that deflects such assaults, so most fights against him focus on trying to get the helmet off so the available psychic can stop him.
* ''ComicBook/ZodiacStarforce'': Emma does this to the monster in the first issue , pointing out that the glowing gem seemed pretty obvious.
* In ''ComicBook/SonicMegaDrive'', Sonic [[ShoutOut quotes the trope namer almost word-for-word]] before invoking said trope. All, of course, while fighting a giant enemy crab.
-->'''Sonic:''' [[ShoutOut Hit the giant enemy crab in its weak spot for massive damage, huh? Timeless.]]

* In the ''WesternAnimation/LaffALympics'' special "The Man Who Stole Thursdays," Dynomutt's arch nemesis Mr. Mastermind is behind the disappearance of Thursday from the calendar using a computer at his lair. Dynomutt tries to shut it off but the machine is tamper-proof. Captain Caveman manages to defeat Mr. Mastermind...by simply unplugging the machine.
* "Spy in the Sky," a ''WesternAnimation/DastardlyAndMuttleyInTheirFlyingMachines'' story (Gold Key, Hanna-Barbera Fun-In #3) has Dastardly sending Muttley on a mission to find out Yankee Doodle Pigeon's weakness. When the pigeon suspects he's being spied upon, he makes Muttley think he's afraid of lightning. The squadron prepares accordingly, but naturally FailureIsTheOnlyOption.

* ''ComicBook/XMenRed2022'': Orrdon the Living Star is a superhuman Arakkii mutant, a FlyingBrick who claims to be totally invulnerable while using his powers. He also talks a lot, which allows Isca the Unbeaten to send a perfectly placed arrow [[AttackTheMouth into his open mouth]], up through his palate and into his brain. Apparently his invulnerability didn't include that.

If the boss is particularly large, it might require [[ColossusClimb a difficult trip to get there]]. Sometimes, the weak point may not be exposed right away, meaning it may require [[PuzzleBoss a little ingenuity]] on your part to get it out in the open. Sometimes the target will be reachable [[TacticalSuicideBoss only when the boss does a certain move]], in which AIRoulette or ArtificialStupidity must be in play to keep the game winnable. This is particularly true for {{Platform|Game}}ers, ActionAdventure games, and {{Third Person Shooter}}s.

* This is the main point of fame of the Prince Rupert's Drop--essentially, what happens when you spool a drip of molten glass into cold water and it solidifies. Due to the circumstances of their formation, the resulting drops are incredibly durable, especially for something made of glass, but they have a long "tail" of thin glass filament left over, and if you so much as snap the tail in half with your fingers, the entire drop shatters.

* Dragons [[OurDragonsAreDifferent almost always]] have a weak spot on their neck or chest, this goes back at least as far as Fafnir. In turn, [[BloodBath bathing in Fafnir's blood]] rendered Sigurd/Siegfried invulnerable. Apart from a spot on his shoulder where a leaf had stuck to him. Woe to TheDragonslayer who attempts this tactic on an Eastern dragon, however -- touching the "reversed scale" on their neck drives one into an UnstoppableRage, usually making it ''harder'' to kill.

* In ''WebAnimation/DeathBattle'', [[spoiler:[[Franchise/StarWars Luke Skywalker]] invokes this by exploiting Literature/HarryPotter's scar as a shatterpoint.]]

** The Molotov Cocktail was devised as an anti-tank weapon by Guomindang troops fighting the Japanese the UsefulNotes/SecondSinoJapaneseWar... or possibly by Spanish Republicans and Nationalists fighting the [[UsefulNotes/SpanishCivilWar Spanish Civil War]], though the name was given to it by Finns fighting the Soviets in the 'Winter War' of 1940-41.[[note]] Soviet Foreign Minister [[AssInAmbassador Vyacheslav Molotov]] claimed that Soviet planes weren't dropping bombs, [[BlatantLies they were dropping food supplies]]. The Finns developed a drink to go with the food.[[/note]] Tanks of the time could be disabled by pouring a flammable liquid over the (outside of) engine and setting it alight, so it was only a matter of time before someone got the bright idea of filling a bottle with petrol or spirits and putting a burning rag in the mouth. Even if the fire didn't spread into the tank itself and set its ammunition off, the fumes and smoke were would force the crew to choose between suffocating and bailing out.

** Digimon under Devimon's control can be freed by destroying the large Black Gear sticking prominently out of their bodies.

** And speaking of Star Destroyers, ''Film/TheRiseOfSkywalker'' reveals an entire fleet of Sith Star Destroyers, each one armed with its own planet-busting cannon. (Essentially, a fleet of miniature Death Stars.) It turns out, however, that the cannon is also the Star Destroyer's biggest weakness -- destroying the cannon destroys the ship itself. When LaResistance attacks Exogol before the fleet can deploy, a single Y-Wing is enough to take out a Destroyer.

* Dragons [[OurDragonsAreDifferent almost always]] have a weak spot on their neck or chest, this goes back at least as far as Fafnir. See the above examples from ''Literature/TheHobbit'' and ''Beowulf''.
** And speaking about Fafnir, [[BloodBath bathing in his blood]] rendered Sigurd/Siegfried invulnerable. Apart from a spot on his shoulder where a leaf had stuck to him.
** Woe to TheDragonslayer who attempts this tactic on an Eastern dragon, however -- touching the "reversed scale" on their neck drives one into an UnstoppableRage, usually making it ''harder'' to kill.

* Parodied in ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'', when Homer and Bart enter ''Series/BattleBots'', and discuss how to beat Professor Frink's giant killing machine. Bart mentions it has a weak point, [[DescriptionCut only for him to notice]] Frink welding [[RemovedAchilliesHeel a comically large sheet of spiky metal over it]].

* Parodied in ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'', when Homer and Bart enter ''Series/BattleBots'', and discuss how to beat Professor Frink's giant killing machine. Bart mentions it has a weak point, [[DescriptionCut only for him to notice]] Frink welding a comically large sheet of spiky metal over it.

-->'''Bart:''' Uh-oh. The weakpoint is now its strongest spot.

** Although a [[JustForPun safe]] bet is to turn the safe on its side and try and crack the bottom.

* In the movie version of ''Film/ScottPilgrimVsTheWorld'', the third and fourth of the League of Evil Exes Scott needs to fight are way out of his league combat-wise and initially wipe the floor with him. Todd Ingram utilizes vegan-derived psychic powers so Scott [[spoiler:tricks him into drinking coffee that had half-and-half put into it rather than soy milk to sick the Vegan Police on Todd and remove his powers]]; [[SmurfettePrinciple Roxy]]'s ninja skills are way above Scott's but Ramona tips him off that [[spoiler:touching the back of Roxy's knees essentially turns her on, and one touch is enough to defeat her]].

* ''Film/BattleLosAngeles'': the squad dissect one of the alien troops (while it's still alive) in order to find its weak spot.

Compare TacticalSuicideBoss; Contrast FakeWeakness. See also FantasticFragility, ShatterpointTap, and UntouchableUntilTagged. Compare and contrast SituationalDamageAttack; while any attack will become stronger if they hit weak point, SDA's damage is variable by itself. See also MonstersFavoritePettingSpot. Often overlaps with AttackTheInjury.

* ''ComicBook/TheLegendOfZeldaALinkToThePast'':

* There is actually a whole class of legendary heroes who achieved invulnerability by almost but not quite total immersion or exposure to something except for one small spot. Achilles had his heels and Siegfried had his shoulder. The Persian Esfandyar had his eyes closed while bathing in a pool of invulnerability and the Indian Duryodhana, after bathing in the Ganges, protected his groin from his mother's gaze, which was the very thing that gave him invulnerability. You can probably guess how well that worked out for any of them.
* Freya, the mother of Norse god Baldur, had a dream in which he was killed. She made every object on Earth swear not to kill him, except mistletoe, which was considered too unimportant. Loki heard this, made a spear out of mistletoe, and gave it to Baldur's blind brother, who threw it at him as a joke, and Baldur was killed. [[/folder]]