History Main / PowerfulAndHelpless

* ''Manga/JujutsuKaisen'': Downplayed by Satoru Goro. He's an [[StoryBreakerPower impossibly]] [[WorldsStrongestMan powerful]] Jujutsu Sorcerer, capable of easily curb-stomping even the most powerful enemies in the series. However, his real goal is to reform the Jujutsu System, the hierarchy that governs the Jujutsu Sorerers. He takes a lot of issue with the Elders who control the system, often ideologically clashing with them. He muses that, given how powerful he is, he could just kill them all and wrest control away from them... but concludes that doing so would be counterproductive to the long-term reforms he wishes to implement. So instead, he became a [[BadassTeacher teacher]] and is working on a bottom-up [[InternalReformist reformation]] of the Jujutsu system by raising up a generation of powerful students who can stand with him as equals.

* Morgoth in ''Literature/TheSilmarillion''. The most powerful being in the universe, and most of his power is beyond his reach, having spread it in the matter of the world.

** Twice in the episode "[[Recap/BuffyTheVampireSlayerS2E11Ted Ted]]". When Buffy's mother falls in love with a man named Ted, Buffy quickly finds out that he's cruel and manipulative when no one is looking, but [[BitchInSheepsClothing acts polite and friendly when others are around]]. To Buffy's dismay, she's forced to just let Ted insert himself into her family, as any use of violence would just make her look like the villain. Buffy's actually thrilled when Ted punches her, as she finally has an excuse to pummel him using her SuperStrength... only for Ted to get knocked down the stairs and have no heart beat after. Buffy then has to deal with a police investigation (where her [[HealingFactor increased healing rate]] makes it hard for the police to believe it was self defence), and when she narrowly escapes any charges, she still has to deal with the guilt of having killed someone and the huge toll it takes on her relationship with her mother, at least until [[spoiler:it's revealed that Ted is actually a robot]].

** ''Series/JessicaJones2015'': Jessica's superstrength isn't useful against Kilgrave since he uses mind control to get others to do things for him. Not to mention, for most of season 1, Jessica is trying to keep Kilgrave alive in the hopes of exonerating Hope. Only once Hope dies do the gloves come off.

* One episode of ''Series/{{Castle|2009}}'' traps some of the core cast in the basement of a burning building. Castle and Beckett are allowed on the scene, but there's helpless to save their friends in the face of a monstrous blaze set by the VillainOfTheWeek, a serial arsonist.

-->'''Samuel Hayden''': "All your strength, all that rage, and you couldn't save this world from itself. But this time, Earth will be different...."

[[quoteright:298:[[ComicBook/GreenLantern https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/green_lantern_3.png]]]]

* In ''ComicBook/{{Watchmen}}'', Dr. Manhattan laments that despite all his vast power, he is just a puppet of a deterministic universe who can see the strings and cannot alter the future even if it ends in the destruction of humanity.
* In the ''Franchise/XMen'' franchise, ComicBook/{{Magneto}}'s immense magnetic powers can defeat almost any threat to himself, but can't do anything to make people stop hating mutants (which is one of his reasons for often taking it to extremes).
* ''ComicBook/MegaManArchieComics'' has this in "Prisoners of War", Issue 49: after defeating every robot master thrown at him & salvaging their I.C. Chips (the robot equivalent of a soul / personality), Mega Man helped rebuild them, intending to give them a 2nd chance & purpose by reprogramming the battle robots for [[MundaneUtility more mundane uses]]. However, some masters saw [[BrainwashingForTheGreaterGood modifying their core programing]] to be the same as [[DeathOfPersonality erasing their true selves]], choosing to [[DyingAsYourself be shut down as themselves]] instead. Needless to say, [[BreakTheCutie this devastated Rock]], whom Dr. Light told: "We can't save everyone, and not everyone wants to be saved."

* An issue of ''ComicBook/GreenLantern'', "The City That Died!", features Hal Jordan attempting to handle a city that has suffered a total electrical blackout. While handling the crisis, Hal laments that despite being the most powerful man in the world, he's powerless to counteract the catastrophe.

** The continuation comic book ''Comicbook/TheLegendOfKorraTurfWars'' provides us with the fact that the Earth Kingdom is very strongly heteronormative, and Avatar Kyoshi (one of, if not ''the'', strongest Avatars we've seen on-screen (other than maybe Wan), and TheWomanBehindTheMan in the E.K. government) never could do anything to stop this intolerance (which affected her personally, being revealed to be bisexual) no matter how hard she tried.

* PlayedForLaughs in ''Manga/OnePunchMan'': Saitama is the most powerful man in the universe and the only thing in said universe that can survive his strength is not [[BloodKnight the mighty enemies he curb-stomps with a single punch]], but [[FlyCrazy the extremely annoying little mosquito that occasionally pops up to bite him]].

* One episode of ''Series/{{Castle}}'' traps some of the core cast in the basement of a burning building. Castle and Beckett are allowed on the scene, but there's helpless to save their friends in the face of a monstrous blaze set by the VillainOfTheWeek, a serial arsonist.

* The Djinn from Film/WishMaster. He's an evil demon with godlike omnipotent power, but he can only use it in the service of granting wishes. His main goal is to get the person who unleashes him to ask for 3 wishes, so he can then unleash the rest of his race, and be able to use his power whenever and however he wants.

* The Djinn from "Film/WishMaster". He's an evil demon with godlike omnipotent power, but he can only use it in the service of granting wishes. His main goal is to get the person who unleashes him to ask for 3 wishes, so he can then unleash the rest of his race, and be able to use his power whenever and however he wants.

* The Djinn from "Film/Wishmaster". He's an evil demon with godlike omnipotent power, but he can only use it in the service of granting wishes. His main goal is to get the person who unleashes him to ask for 3 wishes, so he can then unleash the rest of his race, and be able to use his power whenever and however he wants.

* ''Series/{{Arrowverse}}'':

* The Hero in ''Literature/{{Maoyu}}'' is a PersonOfMassDestruction and the [[TheChosenOne only one]] powerful enough to defeat the Demon King... but when he actually meets the Demon King and talks things over, he realises that humans and demons should make peace instead. Unfortunately, "millenia-long racial tension" turns out to be the first enemy that he has no idea how to fight. While Hero does eventually grow into a capable diplomat and GuileHero (and his combat skills still see use on occasion), in early arcs he's pretty much limited to teleporting his more politically-savvy allies around.

* ''Literature/ACertainMagicalIndex'': Accelerator falls into despair and goes mad when despite all his world-shaking power, he can do nothing when his adoptive daughter Last Order falls seriously ill. Fortunately, Touma and others eventually lend a hand.

* ''VideoGame/IHaveNoMouthAndIMustScream'': As mentioned under the Literature folder above, the BigBad of the story is AM, an [[AIIsACrapshoot evil supercomputer]] with godlike power that's been torturing the five survivors of World War III for over a century. One day, AM decides on a new "game" for them to play--he entraps each survivor in a simulation that [[IKnowWhatYouFear reflects their worst fears and insecurities]], hoping to break their spirits. But for all of AM's omnipotence, he can't stop the group from [[WhatYouAreInTheDark making moral choices]], leaving him helpless as he watches them win his games and overcome their flaws. [[spoiler: This directly leads to an even bigger example of the trope in the endgame: one of the survivors is able to enter AM's mainframe and discovers the three central components of the supercomputer, represented by a literal FreudianTrio. To get the GoldenEnding, the player must invoke a LogicBomb on each component, destroying AM's sanity; the one for the Superego is "Clarity," which forces AM to realize that he'll eventually rust away into a pile of inert junk, and not a single one of his abilities can prevent it.]]

* ''VideoGame/DoomEternal'': The Doom Slayer, despite essentially becoming a force of nature, couldn't prevent the fall of his newfound comrades the Night Sentinels and their planet Argent D'Nur due to treachery from their leadership and from within their own ranks, in the form of secret deals with hell, conflicting allegiances and ideals, and even being sold out by their own friends.

* ''VideoGame/DoomEternal'': The Doom Slayer, despite practically becoming a force of nature, couldn't prevent the fall of his newfound comrades the Night Sentinels and their planet Argent D'Nur due to treachery from their leadership or from within their ranks. This took the form of deals with hell, conflicting aliegances and ideals, and even being sold out by trusted friends.

** Twice in the episode [[Recap/BuffyTheVampireSlayerS2E11Ted Ted]]. When Buffy's mother falls in love with a man named Ted, Buffy quickly finds out that he's cruel and manipulative when no one is looking, but [[BitchInSheepsClothing acts polite and friendly when others are around]]. To Buffy's dismay, she's forced to just let Ted insert himself into her family, as any use of violence would just make her look like the villain. Buffy's actually thrilled when Ted punches her, as she finally has an excuse to pummel him using her SuperStrength... only for Ted to get knocked down the stairs and have no heart beat after. Buffy then has to deal with a police investigation (where her [[HealingFactor increased healing rate]] makes it hard for the police to believe it was self defence), and when she narrowly escapes any charges, she still has to deal with the guilt of having killed someone and the huge toll it takes on her relationship with her mother, at least until [[spoiler:it's revealed that Ted is actually a robot]].