History Main / RedemptionDemotion

* Aki of ''Anime/YuGiOh5Ds'' suffers from this. When she first appears, she tended to utilize intelligent and tactical moves that allowed her to dominate most of her fights, took blows without flinching or breaking stride, and had enough psychic power to destroy city blocks. Even against [[InvincibleHero Yusei]], she manages to keep her matches almost frighteningly close. Then she gained control of her powers and turned good. Upon this, she spent most of her Duels struggling against opponents she would have decimated, screamed whenever she got hit or lost, and seemed all too content to sit on the sidelines. She also largely dropped the Token combos, Field Spell use, and Burn tactics that had once defined her strategy, in favor of simply [[WhenAllYouHaveIsAHammer using Black Rose Dragon as a beatstick.]] This [[DesignatedVictim wasn't helped]] by the decision to [[BroughtDownToNormal remove her powers outright]], nor by the general switch to a Duelling format which she (almost inexplicably) had no experience in.

* ''Franchise/{{Batman}}'':
** During the ''ComicBook/DCRebirth'' event longtime Batman villain Clayface belatedly decided that BeingEvilSucks and accepted an offer from Batman to help stabilize his powers and personality in exchange for working for him. As an ally to the Batfamily Clayface was decidedly useful, but as a ''combatant'' he was somewhat less effective due to now having to hold back his powers.
** Damian Wayne the [[LegacyCharacter fifth]] ComicBook/{{Robin}} got this when he became a good guy, since he was raised and trained as an assassin by his mother and Batman's strict adherence to ThouShaltNotKill renders most of his former strategies moot; though he's still as strong and smart as he's always been, he's still a ten year old who ''will'' have issues against supervillains like say, Killer Croc and Bane.
** Much like Clayface above, ComicBook/PoisonIvy generally sees her efficacy as a character take a nosedive during the periods when she's on the face side of the FaceHeelRevolvingDoor she loves so much.

* ''Franchise/SpiderMan'':

** Juggernaut was literally [[TheJuggernaut an unstoppable force]]. Basically the only way to defeat him was to trick him into going away (or to remove his telepathy-blocking helmet, but getting the thing off generally necessitated a battle royale). After going through a [[ItsAWonderfulPlot Wonderful Life]] montage, he repented his evil ways and joined the good guys' side. Despite formerly being able to take out entire teams of superheroes by himself, he was now having trouble taking on solo villains as 'part' of a team. (When Juggernaut was at his most evil he could go toe-to-toe with Hulk or Thor, when he was at his most good with New Excalibur he got his ass handed to him by the Wrecking Crew, a C-list group of super thugs.) {{Justified|Trope}} in that the evil god who gave Juggernaut his powers was displeased by his servant's kinder, gentler personality and was slowly removing his powers. He later made a FaceHeelTurn and scaled back up to his full power. He was hit with this again due to the events of ''ComicBook/UncannyXMen2018'' and the subsequent mini-series.
** Long-time adversary ComicBook/{{Magneto}} is one of the most powerful mutants in the Franchise/MarvelUniverse... except when he switches sides. He's still impressive, but 'standard team member' strength rather than 'guy who has curb-stomped the lot of them ''repeatedly''' strength. Justified, up to a point, by the fact that [[WithGreatPowerComesGreatInsanity using his powers at high levels messes with Magneto's brain chemistry and makes him act crazy]]. In other words, when he's on the hero side (and therefore at his sanest) he needs to hold himself back to avoid going over the edge again.
** The few times that Magneto's daughter, the ComicBook/ScarletWitch, has gone insane and became evil, she turned into a force of nature. When she's a hero, her abilities wax and wane DependingOnTheWriter.
** It must be a genetic thing. When Magneto's other daughter, ComicBook/{{Polaris}}, first showed up as a BrainwashedAndCrazy villain, she was as powerful as Magneto himself. After she snapped out of it and joined the X-Men - not so much.
** ComicBook/{{Quicksilver}} gets the short end of the stick powers-wise among his family, but he was a match for entire teams during the time that [[ComicBook/TheInhumans Maximus]] was screwing with his mind (and even managed to take down the amazingly powerful Exodus after being powered up with [[SuperSerum Isotope E]]). As an Avenger, it's hard to imagine. (However, in his early appearances, he ''wasn't'' that powerful as a member of the Brotherhood.)
** In her first appearance, a villainous ComicBook/{{Rogue}} took on the Avengers all by herself and was a major force in her early encounters with the X-Men. Then she joins the X-Men and is thereafter [[TheWorfEffect beaten up by all subsequent villains to show how tough they are]] (okay, slight exaggeration). Justified (a bit) by her being less willing to use her [[BadPowersBadPeople increasingly dangerous absorption powers]].

* In ''ComicBook/MightyAvengers'' this happend to ComicBook/{{Ares|Marvel}}. As a villain, he'd been a major threat who'd killed more people than nearly the entire rest of the Avengers' foes combined. As an Avenger, despite being described as "like ComicBook/TheMightyThor and ComicBook/{{Wolverine}} combined," he never accomplished anything except to get [[TheWorfEffect embarassingly beaten up]] by whatever the latest foe they were facing was, and he was ultimately KilledOffForReal as a means of showing that ComicBook/TheSentry had finally snapped and gone into full villain mode.

** As the BigBad in ''Film/{{Thor}}'', ComicBook/{{Loki}} nearly kills his brother and plans on destroying a planet with all inhabitans, and in ''Film/{{The Avengers|2012}}'' heroes come together to stop him from conquering Earth. He is imprisoned or bound for most of ''Film/ThorTheDarkWorld,'' though he still uses magic and trickery to achieve his ends. In ''Film/ThorRagnarok'' where he makes a HeelFaceTurn, ComicBook/DoctorStrange humiliates him, he loses a fight to the Valkyrie, and Thor sees through his illusions. [[spoiler:In ''Film/AvengersInfinityWar,'' he attacks Thanos with a plain dagger and is easily killed off]]. Justified because he initially uses a lot of external sources of power (the Casket, the Destroyer, the Bifrost, the Tesseract, the Scepter, alien army) which he later stops relying on, and Thor wisens up to his tricks.

** Bucky Barnes, TheHeavy of ''Film/CaptainAmericaTheWinterSoldier,'' still retains all of his skills and superhuman abilities even without his Winter Soldier programming "On", but regaining his old self and conscience comes with the cost of reduced efficiency, {{Justified|Trope}} as he's lost the ruthless efficiency he has when brainwashed and tends to hold back, not to mention also lacking the weapons he used to have as HYDRA's top assassin. Shown during the airport clash in ''Film/CaptainAmericaCivilWar'': Fighting opponents who could compare even to Captain America who have no reservations about fighting him seriously makes him less of a help to Steve's team, needing to be saved by Falcon and Winter Soldier. Black Panther specifically has no intention of holding back, even as Bucky tries to.

* Meanwhile in ''Series/BuffyTheVampireSlayer'', Spike's fall was so severe that BadassDecay was originally named after him. Eventually Buffy tells him "I want the Spike who's dangerous, the Spike who tried to kill me when we first met." She more-or-less gets him for the remainder of the series, as by then the SortingAlgorithmOfEvil has rendered him barely effective.
** Similarly, Anyanka becoming human and eventually good obviously cost her her demonic powers [[spoiler: which she gets back in the sixth season and uses in the finale to help defeat the BigBad]].

* ''Series/{{Glee}}'':
** Both Blaine and Unique are hyped up as one-man juggernauts who can single-handedly lead a show choir performance that would wipe the floor with the One Directions (until they inevitably rediscover ThePowerOfFriendship and succeed against all odds). Once they actually join the ND? Relegated mostly to background status and barely getting more voice time than the (canonically much less skilled) average Joe in the New Directions, with Rachel still being worshipped as the true coming of show choir-Jesus by all characters.
*** Subverted somewhat in that Blaine did get some credit for being a high-tier performer in Seasons 3 and later, though nowhere near the level implied by his absolute lead-man status as a Warbler.

** Theo Raeken at the end of season 5 successfully absorbed the powers of his two packmates and was able to produce electricity and venom. In season 6, he's resurected without his powers and forced to team with the heroes.
* In ''Series/TheBoys'', Queen Maeve starts as a jaded antagonist who, while not as bad as the rest of the Seven, at ''very'' least enables them by inaction while enjoying the perks of being on the team. Over the course of the series, having to [[MistreatmentInducedBetrayal put up with Homelander]] and being [[EvenEvilHasStandards appalled by the truth about Stormfront]] slowly push her towards AntiHero territory. By Season 3, she has better intentions, but [[IDidWhatIHadToDo her methods are still problematic]], alignings herself with and enabling [[spoiler:[[WellIntentionedExtremist Butcher]]'s worst instincts, rather than helping Annie]]. However, once she [[spoiler:pulls an outright HeroicSacrifice to save everyone else at Vought Tower, she survives her fall with Soldier Boy, but his radioactive blast burns all Compound V in her body. In other words, once she regains her morals and does the right thing, she's also BroughTownToNormal permanently]].
* ''[[Series/TheFlash2014 The Flash]]'': Briefly played straight with Caitlin Snow/Killer Frost, but subsequently averted. At first, after pulling a HeelFaceTurn and rejoining Team Flash, Caitlin is weary of her SuperpoweredEvilSide and does her best to keep it tightly in check, acting as only the TeamNormal [[TheMedic medic]] of the team. She later embraces Frost when, through CharacterDevelopment and ThePowerOfFriendship with the rest of the team, she turns into more of a heroic SuperpoweredAlterEgo. As Frost grow as her own person separate from Caitlin's consciousness, the two start communicating and working together, with Caitlin lending control of the body for Frost to go do heroics, until she becomes a LiteralSplitPersonality. In this capacity, she's every bit as effective and as big an asset to Team Flash as she was to Savitar during her heel days.

* ''VideoGame/RadiantArc'': [[spoiler:Derek joins the party after the events of Chaos Tower, but due to losing Seperus's evil sword, he's nowhere near as strong as he was in his DuelBoss battle with Linky.]]

* Inverted in ''Franchise/MortalKombat'' when a number of the heroes die and are brought back [[FallenHero revenants]]. As heroes they all have their share of victories thanks to the player controlling them. But because the player only fights the revenants and never actually plays as them, it means as villains the lose every fight they take part in. It doesn't matter what victories they had a heroes, as revenants they cannot win a single fight, even against characters they were established as being stronger than while alive. This gets especially egegrious in ''VideoGame/MortalKombat11'' where the heroic counterparts of the revenants return and continue to get more victories while their revenant counterparts still can't win a single fight.

* In ''Franchise/{{Transformers}}: WesternAnimation/BeastWars'', Blackarachnia was notably less effective as a Maximal than she was as a Predacon, though more because of inner emotional distress than any explicit depowering.

* In ''WesternAnimation/StarVsTheForcesOfEvil'', before becoming Marco's friend, it took ''sixteen years'' for Marco to defeat Hekapoo (or just blow out her flame). Since than, she's fought Toffee, the Truth or Punishment Cube, and Meteora and lost every time. And that was when she had a fair amount of backup with her.

* Justified in ''WesternAnimation/TheOwlHouse''. Hunter is an UnSorcerer who is entirely dependant on a MagicStaff to cast spells, and he loses access to his artifical one just before his HeelFaceTurn, forcing him to rely on his [[{{Familiar}} palisman]] (which had already been shown in several prior episodes to be less powerful). While his actual combat ability remains about the same thanks to the fact that he already favored close-range combat, all of his spells are a lot weaker than they used to be. Most prominently, the range of his teleportation magic is reduced to a few yards per jump when it was previously measured in ''miles''.

* ''[[Series/TheFlash2014 The Flash]]'': Briefly played straight with Caitlin Snow/Killer Frost, but subsequently averted. At first, after pulling a HeelFaceTurn and rejoining Team Flash, Caitlin is weary of her SuperpoweredEvilSide and does her best to keep it tightly in check, acting as only the TeamNormal [[TheMedic medic]] of the team. She later embraces Frost when, through CharacterDevelopment and ThePowerOfFriendship with the rest of the team, she turns into more of a heroic SuperpoweredAlterEgo. As Frost grow as her own person separate from Caitlin's consciousness, the two start communicating and working together, with Caitlin lending control fo the body for Frost to go do heroics, until she becomes a LiteralSplitPersonality. In this capacity, she's every bit as effective and as big an asset to Team Flash as she was to Savitar during her heel days.

** Vegeta in ''Anime/DragonballZ'' had destroyed dozens of planets, but when he turned good, he was left permanent second-banana to Goku. At one point, he willingly becomes a minion of the current BigBad, pointing out that as a hero, he could only ever be second-rate, but he was a ''damned good'' villain. That Vegeta is a better villain than hero is further highlighted by the fact that shortly after this he makes a ''second'' HeelFaceTurn, in which he attempts to save the world via a HeroicSacrifice. And fails. While he never really loses any power per se, he simply CantCatchUp to Goku's increasing power.

** ComicBook/{{Quicksilver}} gets the short end of the stick powers-wise among his family, but he was a match for entire teams during the time that [[ComicBook/{{Inhumans}} Maximus]] was screwing with his mind (and even managed to take down the amazingly powerful Exodus after being powered up with [[SuperSerum Isotope E]]). As an Avenger, it's hard to imagine. (However, in his early appearances, he ''wasn't'' that powerful as a member of the Brotherhood.)

** Damian Wayne the [[LegacyCharacter fifth]] Comicbook/{{Robin}} got this when he became a good guy, since he was raised and trained as an assassin by his mother and Batman's strict adherence to ThouShaltNotKill renders most of his former strategies moot; though he's still as strong and smart as he's always been, he's still a ten year old who ''will'' have issues against supervillains like say, Killer Croc and Bane.

* Namor the ComicBook/SubMariner was technically an AntiHero at first but once he was brought into UsefulNotes/{{the Silver Age|OfComicBooks}}, he was a villain for a few years. As a villain, he could single-handedly defeat the ComicBook/FantasticFour and was dangerous enough that Comicbook/TheAvengers would go out on patrols looking for him. As a hero, he often ends up in [[TheWorfEffect Worf Effect]] situations and is usually [[BadassDecay not as powerful]].

* In the original ''ComicBook/{{Runaways}}'' series, Alex was TheChessmaster, brilliantly playing his friends against their own parents as part of a plot to make him and his family rich and powerful. In ''ComicBook/PowerManAndIronFist'', he managed to play two gangs against each other. In ''ComicBook/RainbowRowellsRunaways'', he cons his way back onto the team... and mostly ends up babysitting Molly or attempting poorly-planned betrayals. Possibly justified in that most of Alex's talents require that he be in a position of leadership, whereas none of the other Runaways are willing to listen to him anymore.

* In the ''[[{{Literature/Bloodline2006}} Bloodline]]'' series, this is invoked when [[spoiler: Quincey]] makes a HeelFaceTurn. As part of his “redemption”, he attempts to resist the desire to drink human blood. Unfortunately, this leaves him weakened and vulnerable, and even his appearance suffers. Ultimately this was AllForNothing- by the end of the book, he [[spoiler: is forced to resume drinking human blood]], in order to keep himself strong for the battles to come.

* During the Legion of the Damned campaign in ''VideoGame/{{Disciples}}'' ''2'', the demon general Asteroth is pretty beefy in the mission you control him -- about 500 hitpoints, and the ability to attack twice for 99 damage a pop each turn. [[spoiler:In the next mission, Uther stops pretending to be Bethrezen and [[YouHaveOutlivedYourUsefulness decides he doesn't need you anymore]], and Asteroth sides with Uther.]] As an enemy Asteroth has twice as much health and attack power and is able to lead a couple other units in his party. In both situations Asteroth remains evil. Too bad being evil doesn't mean you're on the same side.

* ''VideoGame/FateGrandOrder'' is a pretty textbook example. If you fight a Servant, chances are that they'll have at five-digit HP as a baseline, hit just as hard as your Servants, charge their LimitBreak by themselves, and may have a few extra boss skills on top of that to fit their lore. Many of them require a coordinated team of six powerful Servants to deal with. When they join you as a GuestStarPartyMember, they function like any other Servant, tend to have around a tenth the HP, and are often OverratedAndUnderleveled. When you summon them to add them to your team permanently, they join at level 1 and require a metric ton of investment just to bring them up to par with their guest-star selves. This is somewhat justified, though: the protagonist of the game is a very weak Master, and when they switch sides, the Servants tend to now be running off your pitiful mana reserves instead of whatever was fueling them before.

* [[VillainProtagonist Perspective flipped]] in ''VideoGame/{{Overlord II}}'' with Queen Fay. In her appearances as a hero she possesses magical powers such as teleportation, but shows no magic whatsoever after becoming your mistress following her FaceHeelTurn. [[JustifiedTrope Justified]] in that turning evil was a side effect of you draining her powers to recharge your Tower Heart, and the Tower Heart has also consumed every drop of magic in the entire Sanctuary, so that by the time Fay is converted she's ''literally'' out of juice.
* In ''VideoGame/{{Persona 4}}'', Personas are created out of [[TheHeartless Shadows]] when the person in question accepts their "true self". While the transformation makes the spiritual entity loyal and controllable, it also decreases their stamina at least a hundredfold, eliminates all their cool attacks, reduces them in physical size, ''and'' decreases their attack power. This is justified by Teddie's explanation that a strong-willed Shadow draws others to it to form a big mass of Shadows, and they make up the form you fight in the boss battle. So you're really fighting several Shadows combined in the boss battle, whereas when the character gets his Persona, it's only made up of a single Shadow.

* In ''VideoGame/{{Persona 5}}'', TheMole [[spoiler:Goro Akechi]] is far more powerful as a two-stage boss fight than they are as a playable character, even when they become playable again as part of an EnemyMine in the UpdatedReRelease. While they were explicitly holding back their capabilities before betraying the party, no explanation is given for their weakness after rejoining it.

* Inverted in ''[[Videogame/StarCraftI Starcraft: Brood War]]'' in the Zerg mission where you betray and kill Duke and Fenix. Since you're playing as the bad guys here, this technically means you are the one being "un-redeemed" rather than your former friends. In any case, someone who was previously on your team is now your enemy, and Fenix in particular has much stronger stats than when you controlled him.

* Every ''VideoGame/{{Touhou}}'' game, in which player characters only have access to a small number of their available [[BulletHell Spell Cards]], which are also drastically reduced in both power and duration compared to when they were antagonists. The regular games are more a case of [[MyRulesAreNotYourRules mechanic asymmetry]]; the "boss version's" hit points are traded for mobility and evasion, and the variety of spell cards are replaced by supercharged regular attacks and a couple of equally upgraded cards (you can theoretically dodge any boss's attack or spell card; they generally can't avoid any of yours). The fighting games, however, play this trope straight for any character you have to unlock, as most of the challenge in the single-player story mode is learning how to dodge and shut down the various unlimited-duration, amped-up spell cards the AI characters invoke and spam between bouts of regular fighting.

* Inverted in Franchise/MortalKombat when a number of the heroes die and are brought back [[FallenHero revenants]]. As heroes they all have their share of victories thanks to the player controlling them. But because the player only fights the revenants and never actually plays as them, it means as villains the lose every fight they take part in. It doesn't matter what victories they had a heroes, as revenants they cannot win a single fight, even against characters they were established as being stronger than while alive. This gets especially egegrious in VideoGame/MortalKombat11 where the heroic counterparts of the revenants return and continue to get more victories while their revenant counterparts still can't win a single fight.

[[folder:Web Comics]]

* Ben 10's EvilCounterpart Kevin 11 undergoes this following his between-series HeelFaceTurn between ''WesternAnimation/{{Ben 10}}'' and ''WesternAnimation/Ben10AlienForce''. In the original series, he was a deadly enemy with the powers of Ben's 10 original aliens plus his own energy absorption powers (which he'd once used on the Omnitrix.) After the TimeSkip, he is inexplicably not evil anymore, and his powers have just as inexplicably changed: he now absorbs matter, turning into any material he touches, Absorbing Man-lite. In this form, he suffers TheWorfEffect to the point that we'd be calling it The Kevin Effect if the series had come along earlier. Waaaay later, we get the explanation: he can do matter and energy, but absorbing energy warps his mind. He has to stick to matter or he'll go evil again.

* Dark Heart from ''Franchise/CareBears''. Before the {{Heel Face Turn}}, he was a bad ass {{shapeshift|ing}}er. Some [[ThePowerOfLove Power of Love]] and ClapYourHandsIfYouBelieve later, he's a weak human with no powers. [[PinocchioSyndrome Becoming a real boy]] is overrated.

* In the first episode of ''WesternAnimation/YoungJustice'', Superboy easily defeats Robin, Aqualad and Kid Flash. He's consiberably weaker after joining the team and loses against Aqualad alone in season 2.

* ''Film/DiamondsAreForever'': The main Bond girl is Tiffany Case, a professional diamond smuggler. In the first half of the film, she's shown to be a seasoned pro, good at her criminal work, with enough authority to even have her own henchmen. Late in the film, she successfully (and cleverly) eludes a crowded auditorium loaded with CIA agents ready to arrest her. After she turns good, her brains go south, particularly over a mix-up with cassette tapes. This prompts both Bond ''and'' Blofeld to make snide remarks about [[WhatAnIdiot what an "idiot" she is.]]

** Slight example in ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyIX'' with WorthyOpponent Beatrix, who proves to be [[HopelessBossFight more than a match for your party as you battle her time and time again]]. When she realizes the ruler she has sworn fealty to has gone mad, she joins your party, and proves to be every bit as powerful as she was when you fought her. (Sadly, [[GuestStarPartyMember she doesn't stay long.]]) However, her [[ManaMeter MP]] seems to take a nosedive upon joining you, meaning that she can't use her frighteningly powerful sword skills as often as she could when she was against you. And said sword skills have been downgraded from "TotalPartyKill" to "slightly better than Steiner's" [[HealthDamageAsymmetry when used against monsters instead of your party.]] On the other hand, you learn that she did not use ''all'' of her spells against you, such as Full-Life or (thankfully) [[LightIsGood Holy]].

[[folder:Film]]
* One of the worst examples of this is in the Film/JamesBond film ''Film/DiamondsAreForever''. The main Bond girl is Tiffany Case, a professional diamond smuggler. In the first half of the film, she's shown to be a seasoned pro, good at her criminal work, with enough authority to even have her own henchmen. Late in the film, she successfully (and cleverly) eludes a crowded auditorium loaded with CIA agents ready to arrest her. After she turns good, her brains go south, particularly over a mix-up with cassette tapes. This prompts both Bond ''and'' Blofeld to make snide remarks about [[WhatAnIdiot what an "idiot" she is.]]
* ''Franchise/{{Godzilla}}'' villain King Ghidorah, despite significant VillainDecay over the years (it used to take 2-3 monsters just to stand a chance against him), still generally managed to put up a good fight against Godzilla (even in the Hesei film, he managed to strangle Godzilla until soap suds came out). But in ''Film/GodzillaMothraKingGhidorahGiantMonstersAllOutAttack'', he was one of the good monsters, and got profoundly curbstomped. Then he came back from the dead stronger, and got curbstomped, AGAIN. Then he came back, even stronger, and he got curbstomped a third time. Originally, lower-tier monsters were supposed to be used in place of Ghidora and Mothra, but [[ExecutiveMeddling Toho execs wanted to use their most popular monsters]].
* ''Film/HellboundHellraiserII'' presents an extremely glaring example. Near the climax, the heroine talks the four main Cenobites of the previous film- including Pinhead, the series' most popular villain- into a HeelFaceTurn by reminding them they were once human. Minutes later, they are unceremoniously {{Curb Stomp|Battle}}ed by a newly-converted and thoroughly evil Cenobite. The screenwriter received so much hate mail over this, he wound up invoking WorfHadTheFlu.
* ''Franchise/MarvelCinematicUniverse:''
** As the BigBad in ''Film/{{Thor}}'', ComicBook/{{Loki}} nearly kills his brother and plans on destroying a planet with all inhabitans, and in ''Film/{{The Avengers|2012}}'' heroes come together to stop him from conquering Earth. He is imprisoned or bound for most of ''Film/ThorTheDarkWorld,'' though he still uses magic and trickery to achieve his ends. In ''Film/ThorRagnarok'' where he makes a HeelFaceTurn, ComicBook/DoctorStrange humiliates him, he loses a fight to the Valkyrie, and Thor sees through his illusions. [[spoiler:In ''Film/AvengersInfinityWar,'' he attacks Thanos with a plain dagger and is easily killed off]]. Justified because he initially uses a lot of external sources of power (the Casket, the Destroyer, the Bifrost, the Tesseract, the Scepter, alien army) which he later stops relying on, and Thor wisens up to his tricks.
** In ''Film/AvengersAgeOfUltron'', Wanda Maximoff (aka Scarlet Witch) is able to take down every member of the Avengers (except Hawkeye) by using her telepathic abilities to induce fear and visions of longing or foreboding. Once she joins the team and is fighting alongside [[spoiler: Team Cap]] in ''Film/CaptainAmericaCivilWar'', she never once uses this power and instead restrains herself to using telekinesis. Justified given that she's horrified when she realizes that the conflict in ''Age of Ultron'' was indirectly her fault. Her capabilities caused cracks on the team and [[spoiler: lead Tony to create Ultron out of fear and paranoia]]. Using them again would be highly immoral and could lead to unpredictable results. [[spoiler:However, when she comes BackFromTheDead in ''Film/AvengersEndgame'', she nearly tears Thanos a new one in rage and sorrow and is only stopped when Thanos commands an aerial bombardment on top of him.]]
** Bucky Barnes, TheHeavy of ''Film/CaptainAmericaTheWinterSoldier,'' still retains all of his skills and superhuman abilities even without his Winter Soldier programming "On", but regaining his old self and conscience comes with the cost of reduced efficiency, {{Justified|Trope}} as he's lost the ruthless efficiency he has when brainwashed and tends to hold back, not to mention also lacking the weapons he used to have as HYDRA's top assassin. Shown during the airport clash in ''Film/CaptainAmericaCivilWar'': Fighting opponents who could compare even to Captain America who have no reservations about fighting him seriously makes him less of a help to Steve's team, needing to be saved by Falcon and Winter Soldier. Black Panther specifically has no intention of holding back, even as Bucky tries to.

* Zuko lampshades this in ''WesternAnimation/AvatarTheLastAirbender'' when he joins [[FanNickname the Gaang]] and briefly loses his firebending, speculating "I bet it's because I changed sides". He turns out to be ''right'', as firebending is fueled by rage and desire, which for him previously revolved around capturing Aang. He then learns the ancient, original firebending technique which ''isn't'' powered by rage, and [[RedemptionPromotion it makes him even stronger]].

* Onix in ''VideoGame/PokemonRedAndBlue'''s sole purpose was to be ThatOneBoss to people who picked Charmander or were playing ''[[UpdatedRerelease Yellow]]'', to the point that it was the exact reason Charmander was able to learn Metal Claw in the [[VideoGameRemake remakes]]. By the time the player is able to catch their own, they soon discover that its abysmal Attack stat, [[MightyGlacier massive Defense]] with [[OneHitPointWonder no HP to back it up]], and mediocre Speed makes it effectively useless. It isn't until it received an evolution in ''VideoGame/PokemonGoldAndSilver'' (and a [[SuperMode Mega Evolution]] in ''VideoGame/PokemonOmegaRubyAndAlphaSapphire'') that it became worthwhile.

* A series-wide example occurs in ''Videogame/MightAndMagic'' games. In most of them, Minotaurs are HP hogs with high strength that allows them to hack your party to pieces with their axes in short span of time. The strongest of them usually can [[OneHitKill oneshot]] your party members with regular attacks, or have a ranged spell that can do the same. When you get to play as them in ''VIII'' they're probably the worst class in the game, being unable to learn the magic of self past Expert, having only two skills or so which they can Grandmaster, and unlike most hybrid classes they don't even have special that Vampires or Dark Elves have.

** Vivio in ''[[Manga/MagicalGirlLyricalNanohaViVid ViVid]]''. In ''[=StrikerS=]'', she goes toe-to-toe with Nanoha, an experienced solider wielding latest in technomagical hardware. When she gets her own series, she's struggling against juvenile civilians in martial arts tournaments. It's explained that Nanoha damaged her Linker Core when they fought but it comes across as a blatant nerf to stop Vivio from curbstomping everyone.

* In ''Manga/{{Naruto}}'' there is a [[ZigZaggingTrope zig-zagged example]]: Gaara. A psychopathic villain who would kill without a second thought, he severely injured one of the main characters, and it looked like he was about to kill Sasuke. After losing to Naruto, he becomes an ally, and loses the drive/ruthlessness/insanity that let him be so completely over the top in a quest to justify his existence with destruction. Even then he was doing better against Kimimaro than Naruto and Lee in DrunkenMaster mode - they could barely even hit him even when his curse mark wasn't active, and Gaara was mostly winning against him even when his curse mark reached Level 2. He lost to Deidara due to sacrificing offence in order to protect his city (leading to him [[spoiler:actually getting ''killed'' having his sealed beast extracted, only to be revived by another character at the cost of her life]]). He also became a ''Kage'' at age ''14'', beating Naruto to the punch, and when his rematch with [[spoiler:Sasuke]] started, he clearly had the upper hand due to [[spoiler:his sand absorbing the Amaterasu]]. Ultimately, [[spoiler: he becomes ''more powerful'' then when he had his sealed beast, and even powerful than the sealed beast itself]].

* Carol Malus Dienheim in ''Anime/SenkiZesshouSymphogear GX'' was a borderline InvincibleVillain who required the entire cast in SuperMode to make her sweat. When she returns in ''XV'', she was nowhere near as strong, had to retreat to Elfnein's subconsciousness after major displays of power, and was completely outclassed by [[GreaterScopeVillain Shem-Ha.]] Fairly well-justified in her case: Carol's powers are based on [[CastFromLifeSpan burning through her memories]], and she had almost completely exhausted her reserves in the later parts of ''GX''. Consequently, she's running on fumes during ''XV,'' on top of not wanting to drive herself (more) insane.

* Happens in ''record'' time in ''Series/KamenRiderDecade.'' [[Series/KamenRiderKuuga Yuusuke]] is BrainwashedAndCrazy and upgraded to Rising Ultimate Kuuga. He floors several Riders just by gesturing in their general direction. When he's restored to normal, [[Series/KamenRiderBlack Shadow Moon]] soon attacks and schools him and Decade easily.

* In ''ComicBook/MightyAvengers'' this happend to ComicBook/{{Ares}}. As a villain, he'd been a major threat who'd killed more people than nearly the entire rest of the Avengers' foes combined. As an Avenger, despite being described as "like ComicBook/TheMightyThor and ComicBook/{{Wolverine}} combined," he never accomplished anything except to get [[TheWorfEffect embarassingly beaten up]] by whatever the latest foe they were facing was, and he was ultimately KilledOffForReal as a means of showing that ComicBook/TheSentry had finally snapped and gone into full villain mode.

** It must be a genetic thing. When Magneto's other daughter, ComicBook/{{Polaris|MarvelComics}}, first showed up as a BrainwashedAndCrazy villain, she was as powerful as Magneto himself. After she snapped out of it and joined the X-Men - not so much.

** Inverted with Broccoli Guy, Rage Mage, and Masker Mind. Like the Gulper, these Bosses have no way of attacking, but they all come with enemies to attack you and get enhanced. Hoowever, the bosses actually gain an attack when you play as them.
** Finally this trope is actually subverted with the final boss, [[spoiler:Kaos,]] despite the fact that he is a MarathonBoss who is also ThatOneBoss with three phases, healing between each of them and shredding through skylanders like wet tissue paper. [[spoiler:Kaos]], when redeemed, has very powerful attacks, but nothing near the level of his boss counterpart. Not only that, but he still has the disadvantages of most trappable villains. How does this trope not apply? Well, he has an elemental circle attack, that summons a circle of elemental magic with effects dependant on the element. Then, you realize the magic element allows you to heal yourself up to full. Therefore, with propper use of it, [[GameBreaker you literally can be immortal, having basically infinite HP]]

** Golden changes this around thanks the new abilities and new chances to give abilities to party members, making them skillwise, eventually as powerful as their shadows (Yukiko gains a variation of the exclusive fire attack her shadow had, Rise can shield all party members from damage for a turn like her shadow could, Naoto gets Heat Riser, and 3rd level element skills like their shadow etc) Their HP is still much lower, but it's a significant improvement.
* In ''VideoGame/{{Persona 5}}'', TheMole [[spoiler:Goro Akechi]] is far more powerful as a two-stage boss fight than they are as a playable character. Justified since they were deliberately holding back their true strength since using it would conflict with their story that they only recently got their Persona.