History Main / PowerfulAndHelpless

* In the ''Series/{{Supernatural}}'' season finale ''Recap/SupernaturalS11E23AlphaAndOmega'', Amara who is God's sister and equal and opposite in power is unable to prevent her own demise along with the rest of the universe because she delivered a fatal blow to her brother and everything goes with him if he dies - a fact she is very aware of.

If a powerful character loses to a still more powerful character to demonstrate the second character's greater power then it's the TheWorfEffect. If a character's power takes the form of wealth but they can't pay for a solution like buying their way off a sinking ship, then it's a case of MoneyIsNotPower. If a character literally loses their powers and/or abilities and has to find a way to succeed without them, then they're BroughtDownToNormal. Compare also KungfuProofMook.

* In the ''Franchise/XMen'' franchise, the villain[[note]]And sometimes hero[[/note]] SelfDemonstrating/{{Magneto}} has the mutant power of complete control over the electromagnetic force, but usually that means full telekinetic control over any kind of metal. It's quite common for the writers to put him in situations where there simply is no metal to manipulate, making his powers worthless.
* 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. One of the messages of the story as a whole is that the "superheroes" can't really achieve anything long-lasting with all of their abilities.

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* MegaManX6: Gate's special armor makes him NighInvulnerable, making whatever you use to hit him fail to do damage. The only way to beat him is to [[TennisBoss deflect his attacks towards him]].
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** In "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS35E10FaceTheRaven Face the Raven]]", the Doctor is lured into a trap street (a hidden alien refugee camp) in London because his capture will buy it protection from the outside world. Alas, the method of luring him in threatens the life of a friend of Clara's, Rigsy, and in hopes of saving him she rashly decides to [[spoiler: take on his death sentence]], figuring that if worst comes to worst she'll be rescued by the Doctor himself. Problem is that he can't undo what she's done or stop what's now coming for her, so [[spoiler: she'll be dead in in eight minutes]]. The Doctor loves Clara dearly, and proceeds to threaten [[spoiler: Ashildr]] and the entire trap street with destruction, declaring he'll call on his allies and even his worst of the worst enemies to do so, if ''she'' does not fix this situation, even as she pleads that she cannot. Clara declares YouAreBetterThanYouThinkYouAre and he is forced to realize that if he makes a RoaringRampageOfRevenge against helpless innocents, he will break her heart with the knowledge that her mistake turned him into a CompleteMonster. All he can do now is [[spoiler: watch her die]] and allow himself to be handed over to his enemies...

* In the ''Series/DoctorWho'' episode ''Recap/DoctorWhoS35E11HeavenSent'', the Doctor is trapped in his on private prison/torture chamber/hell, being endlessly chased by a creature that will kill him if it ever catches up to him. He spends the whole episode trying to think his way out of the prison until he finally realises that all his genius won't help him. There are only two ways out: one is to give up, admit defeat and confess a secret he knows must never be told; the other is to endure a four billion year cycle of torture, death and resurrection while [[CherryTapping endlessly punching a wall harder than diamond to grind it down]] so he can reach freedom. He laments the worst part of it all is that all his genius and determination might make him succeed, but it won't matter because his companion Clara is still dead and will remain so.

* In ''Film/DoctorStrange2016'', Dormammu is the all-powerful GreaterScopeVillain from the Dark Dimension who could consume our universe with ease, and is in the process of doing so when the titular hero confronts him. Doctor Strange realises that for all his infinite power, Dormammu has no control over time which doesn't exist in his domain. Strange defeats him by bringing time to the Dark Dimension via the Eye of Agamotto and locking them both in a GroundHogDayLoop where all he can do is kill Strange repeatedly for all eternity. This effectively makes Dormammu a helpless prisoner in his own dimension until he accepts Strange's request to leave Earth alone.

* ''IHaveNoMouthAndIMustScream'':

* In the series ''Series/OnceUponATime'', the character of Rumpelstiltskin becomes cursed as an immortal nigh-omnipotent sorcerer called [[NamesToRunAwayFromReallyFast "The Dark One"]] at the cost of slowly being twisted and corrupted by dark magic. His son Baelfire discovers a magic bean which will open a portal to another realm without magic where he and his father can live in peace. Rumpel who has become addicted to power, refuses to go and loses his son through the portal. Unfortunately for him, his vast powers don't include [[DimensionalTraveler dimension hopping]], so he is completely helpless and unable to bring his son back. He does discover another way to reach the other realm, but it requires centuries of planning, manipulation and dirty deals. This is how he evolves into TheChessmaster of the series, and his greatest power becomes his mastery of the XanatosGambit.

If an opponent is simply much stronger than the protagonist, it's the TheWorfEffect. If a character's power takes the form of wealth but they can't pay for a solution like buying their way off a sinking ship, then it's a case of MoneyIsNotPower. If a character literally loses their powers and/or abilities and has to find a way to succeed without them, then they're BroughtDownToNormal. Compare also KungfuProofMook.

* In ''Film/DoctorStrange2016'', the GreaterScopeVillain Dormammu is rendered completely helpless by the titular hero. He is all-powerful in his home dimension and was in the process of devouring our universe when Strange faces him on his own turf and uses the Eye of Agamotto to lock them both in a GroundhogDayLoop. This works because all of Dormammu's vast powers don't include any control over time which doesn't exist in his domain, the Dark Dimension. Dormammu kills Strange repeatedly in increasingly violent and creative ways to force him to break the time loop, but literally can't do anything else. Eventually he gives up and does what Strange asked for, which is to bargain for Earth's safety.

If an opponent is simply much stronger than the protagonist, it's the TheWorfEffect. If a character's power takes the form of wealth but they can't pay for a solution like buying their way off a sinking ship, then it's a case of MoneyIsNotPower. If a character literally loses their powers and/or abilities and has to find a way to succeed without them, then they're BroughtDownToNormal.

* ''Film/TheNeverendingStory'' has the Rock-biter, a giant made of stone who eats (of course) rocks. At the end of the movie, we see him sitting alone when {{deuteragonist}} Atreyu meets him. The Rock-Biter explains that when The Nothing (a huge vortex) appeared, he tried to protect his small, human-sized friends from it, but the Nothing just ripped them right out from his fingers. So, the Rock-Biter sits and waits for the Nothing to come back and take him too, repeating the MadnessNantra: "They look like big, strong hands...don't they?"

-->-- '''ComicBook/TheJoker''', '''Film/TheDarkKnight'''

-->-- '''The Joker''', '''Film/TheDarkKnight'''

* ''Music/IronMaiden'': The titular song of Powerslave delves into the thoughts of a god (or god-like being) which, for all of its power, is a "slave to the power of death" — meaning that it can die, just like any other being, and it is afraid of this.

Often though, it winds up being a case of FailureIsTheOnlyOption and we all need to KnowWhenToFoldEm; MiseryBuildsCharacter, and tragedy makes for good drama.

* In ''Film/StarTrekTheMotionPicture'', the machine entity known as V'ger has knowledge that spans the universe and is in many ways, one of the most powerful beings ever seen in the Trek franchise. And none of it matters to V'ger because it has reached its limits and needs to find a way to evolve into something greater. It even throws a tantrum when Kirk refuses to acquiesce to its demands.

Unlike an OutsideContextProblem which a character cannot anticipate, but might still overcome through MoreDakka or ExplosiveOverclocking their powers, this is a moment which could just as easily be caused by a regular antagonist or circumstance and WhenAllYouHaveIsAHammer just won't solve the problem or the InverseLawOfUtilityAndLethality has come back to bite a character hard. This is the moment when a character can see that using their power will gain them nothing and get them nowhere.

Unlike an OutsideContextProblem which a character cannot anticipate, but might prevail through MoreDakka or ExplosiveOverclocking their powers, this is a moment which could just as easily be caused by a regular antagonist or circumstance; the point is that WhenAllYouHaveIsAHammer just won't work in this situation, or the InverseLawOfUtilityAndLethality has come back to bite a character hard. This is when a character can see that using their power will gain them nothing and get them nowhere.

Unlike an OutsideContextProblem which a character cannot anticipate, but might prevail through MoreDakka or ExplosiveOverclocking their powers, this is a moment which could be caused by a regular antagonist r circumstance; the point is that WhenAllYouHaveIsAHammer just won't work in this situation, or the InverseLawOfUtilityAndLethality has come back to bite a character hard. This is a situation where they can see that using their power will gain them nothing and get them nowhere.

Unlike an OutsideContextProblem where a character might prevail through MoreDakka or ExplosiveOverclocking their powers, this is the moment where WhenAllYouHaveIsAHammer just won't work, or the InverseLawOfUtilityAndLethality has come back to bite a character hard. This is a situation where they can see that using their power will gain them nothing and get them nowhere.

If an opponent is simply much stronger than the protagonist, it's the TheWorfEffect. If a character 's power takes the form of wealth but they can't pay for a solution like buying their way off a sinking ship, then it's a case of MoneyIsNotPower. If a character literally loses their powers and/or abilities and has to find a way to succeed without them, then they're BroughtDownToNormal.