History Main / RedemptionDemotion

** [[Characters/MarvelComicsBuckyBarnes 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 and support he used to have as ComicBook/{{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. This is further emphasized in ''Series/TheFalconAndTheWinterSoldier'', where he's seen effortlessly slaughtering opponents in a flashback to his time under mind control, but in the present struggles against the Flagsmashers (though, to be fair they are enhanced superhumans just like him.)

-->-- '''Black [=Gryph0n=]''', ''[[WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic Bronies React:]] [[https://youtu.be/xZ8KQEXC46I?t=2437 Season 6 Premiere]]''

[[folder:{{Anime}} and {{Manga}}]]

** Classic Spidey villain the Sandman also found himself afflicted by this during the (respectably lengthy) period when he was trying to reform as a reserve member of the Avengers.

** Characters/{{Juggernaut|MarvelComics}} 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.

** Connor personified this trope. As a conflicted character, he was [[HeelFaceRevolvingDoor constantly switching sides]]; when fighting at his father's side he was a bit slower than Angel and not as agile, but when he fought ''against'' the good guys he was like Franchise/SpiderMan with a cause, decking multiple foes with each blow and always one step ahead.

** Nico Robin won almost all of her fights easily, had one of the highest bounties in the series, and was the second highest ranking member of Baroque Works before joining the Straw Hat Pirates. Afterwards, she can't keep up with the stronger characters anymore. She never really got depowered or less effective, she just doesn't get any one-on-one fights like the other Straw Hats tend to, having only really been in two in the considerable time since her HeelFaceTurn. The problem is that Robin has a StoryBreakerPower, leaving just about any encounter with her to end in one of two ways: either she [[{{Anticlimax}} she kills her opponent the instant she feels like doing so]], or her opponent is [[NoSell completely immune to her tricks]]/[[HoistByHisOwnPetard can turn her efforts against her]], rendering her useless.

* Particularly bad in ''VideoGame/{{Castlevania III|DraculasCurse}}'' when you must fight two of you possible allies - [[spoiler:Grant and Alucard]] - before they join your party. Not only do they take more hits and do more damage when you fight them, but they're significantly larger in size as well. Justified in the case of [[spoiler:Grant]] as he's been turned into a ghoul when you fight him.
* ''VideoGame/CastlevaniaSymphonyOfTheNight'':
** Justifying this trope makes up the opening to the game. Alucard, having chosen to renounce Dracula's ways prior to the start of the game, storms the castle with a few extremely powerful weapons, obliterating every single one of the first enemies in a single hit. The moment he meets Death and it's revealed what's going on, Death [[BagOfSpilling steals all of his weapons]] and in the next room, the character who was mowing through giant beasts in a single sword swipe is now resorting to ''punching a slow, weak zombie to death'' just for a short sword.
** Inverted with Richter, whose powers as a vampire hunter would seem to prove very useful against Alucard when he's under the control of Shaft, but Richter is not particularly powerful or difficult as the DiscOneFinalBoss. When unlocked as a playable character, however, he becomes a DifficultButAwesome LightningBruiser who has an array of extremely powerful moves that can be chained together at speeds much greater than he ever pulls off during the boss fight.
* Magus in ''VideoGame/ChronoTrigger'' was an incredibly badass boss, but when he joins you, he has significantly less HP (going from 6666 to ''at most'' 999), and he has to relearn all but three of his spells. This is explained by having his powers weakened by a Masamune beating and drained by [[BigBad Lavos]], since if you choose to fight him again he only uses the three spells he starts with if you recruit him. Meanwhile, the discrepancy in the stats are explained by simple game mechanics and ratios: [[HealthDamageAsymmetry enemies and bosses have more HP, but the main characters do more damage]].

* ''VideoGame/CubeColossus'': When you fight Loki, it has 999999 Shield, but when you use it, it has the lowest Shield of any A.M.U, even at Shield Level 99, being half of the Azarel, which is the starting ship.

* ''VideoGame/{{Disgaea|HourOfDarkness}}'':
** Kurtis is a ruthless boss (with a matching level), but when he eventually joins your team, he becomes much less effective. Probably because [[spoiler:dying and coming back as a Prinny takes a lot out of you]]. On the other hand he does have all of the abilities he previously had, as well as Pringer Beam, and like any character he can be built back up to his old level.
** Maderas and Hoggmeiser have considerably more HP as bosses.
* Justified in ''VideoGame/{{Disgaea 2|CursedMemories}}'', where such a HeelFaceTurn was the ''result'' of a loss in power by pseudo-antagonist Etna. Even then, she only hangs around the protagonist and his entourage until she regains her former power (descriptions of which are rife with [[NoFourthWall fourth-wall breakage]]).
* Present in ''VideoGame/{{Disgaea 3|AbsenceOfJustice}}'' DLC characters. You're prompted to fight them before they actually become playable, and while facing them as enemies, they sport very strong and rare weaponry, have the strongest weapon skills at their hand and have between 10.000 to 25.000 HP to boot. Once they become playable, they lose all their equipment, lose all of their weapon skills and their HP is cut down to an average of 3.000. Though as in the prior two games, once the character in question is yours, you can train the character back up and give them equipment that far outranks whatever they had as a boss. And when you eventually cycle back through the game and acquire them again, they'll be at the same level with all their gear.
* HotBlooded Matsu from ''[[VideoGame/DotHackGU .hack//G.U.]]'' is an Adept Rogue, with the ability to use Broadswords and Steam Guns, the former being his preferred weapon from his Player killing days. However, when he joins Moon Tree, he becomes a pacifist and stops using it. When you get his member address to call him into your party, he can still only equip Steam Guns. The problem here is that Adept Rogues learn moves for their chosen weapon classes at a slower rate because their actual strength is their ability to use multiple weapons, so Matsu is essentially an extremely weak Steam Gunner in comparison to your other, ''actual'' Steam Gunner (though he has the ability to equip heavy armor, something steam gunners can't do).
* In ''VideoGame/DragonQuestVI'', [[spoiler:Terry]] takes a lot more of a beating when he fights the party than he can when he becomes a party. {{Justified|Trope}}, as [[spoiler:he had made a DealWithTheDevil that the party had just defeated]].
** This also applies to [[spoiler:Psaro]] in the DS remake of ''VideoGame/DragonQuestIV'', since [[spoiler:he doesn't have the Secret of Evolution]]. [[GameBreaker Not that it makes much of a difference]].
* Averted in ''VideoGame/DragonQuestXI'' Jade ends up momentarily BrainwashedAndCrazy against you thanks to Booga's spell that can turn humans into monsters. When you save her, she actually ''keeps'' the ability to go into her super-mode, and it's one of her most powerful abilities.

* ''[[VideoGame/FreeSpace Descent: Freespace]]'' does this with a ship: Dragon-class fighter is notorious for being [[DemonicSpiders an absolute nightmare]] to fight against due to it's ridiculous speed, maneuverability and small size. In one mission, you get to fly a captured Dragon... except it's been gimped to the point of being rougly equivalent (or arguably ''worse'') to the Terran's own Apollo, a rather unimpressive JackOfAllStats fighter which has been made mostly obsolete by more specialized craft at this point of the game.
* Variation: One of the drama [=CDs=] of ''VideoGame/GuiltyGear'' depicts an AlternateUniverse in which the character Dizzy -- a sweet, innocent FriendToAllLivingThings in the games -- inherits the title of BigBad from her mother. In the games, she's more or less toe-to-toe with the rest of the characters ([[GameplayAndStorySegregation sort of]]), partly because she's trying to ''suppress'' her powers so she doesn't hurt anyone -- although this doesn't seem to change drastically when she goes berserk in the third game. In the AlternateUniverse, she ''single handedly destroys a fleet of airships using one move''.

* ''VideoGame/AdvanceWars'': Sturm is an unlockable CO upon completion of the campaign. In the campaign, his units have 120% attack and 90% defense, while his CO power is to call a meteor down from the sky, doing up to 8 or 9 damage to all enemy units in the blast radius. The dev team (perhaps understandably) found this grossly overpowered, so in multiplayer, his units have 90% atk/120% def, and the damage from his meteor power is cut in half. Averted in ''Advance Wars 2'' though where Sturm becomes even more powerful, and isn't nerfed at all in multiplayer. If you choose his character, your friends will hate you.

* In ''VideoGame/Persona4'', 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.
** 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/Persona5'', 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.

* 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, [[StoneWall 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.
* ''VideoGame/PokemonMysteryDungeon'':
** Pretty much every legendary you can recruit. By hacking the data it is possible to see that you actually get a copy of the recruitable boss upon defeating it. The boss version has higher stats in all areas, but most notably HP. They have 500 to 900% more HP than the playable copy you get.
** The most egregious example in the first pair of games is Rayquaza: the climax hinges on Rayquaza having a Hyper Beam attack strong enough to [[spoiler:''destroy an incoming meteorite big enough to [[ColonyDrop destroy the Poképlanet]]'']], but doesn't know Hyper Beam yet when you recruit it.
** In ''VideoGame/PokemonMysteryDungeonRescueTeam DX'', you can recruit the Legendaries after a rematch, but their upgraded moveset such as Zapdos' Rain Dance + Thunder combo, which [[AlwaysAccurateAttack guarantees the latter attack to hit]] when it rains, will be replaced with less powerful moves.
** Common recruitable Pokémon also suffer this: as enemies they have 300 to 600 IQ points, but once recruited they lose all the IQ points and all the IQ skills learned.

* In [[{{VideoGame/Skylanders}} Skylanders Trap Team]], this trope applies to most of the bosses. While, as bosses, they have a large health bar. When they are playable characters, their health bar recharges when not in use. However, said health bar is usually much smaller in health and takes damage over time. There are a few exceptions to this trope .

* ''VideoGame/TalesOfDestiny'' pits you against Leon Magnus, a genius swordsman who is tasked with kicking the snot out of the hero and his party. Given that this happens within the first few hours of the game, the party isn't even near the level needed to wear down his 9999 health points and survive his attacks. However, once he joins you, his level and stats are barely any higher than those of your other characters. [[spoiler:And of course, when he turns against the party halfway through the game, he suddenly gets a whopping five digit health and access to moves that the party member version didn't]]. The Remake gives this more of a realism by reducing the boss version's HP and statistics to around what they should be when he joins the party, and instead just made him literally unbeatable.
* ''VideoGame/TalesOfSymphonia'':
** [[spoiler:Kratos, Sheena and Regal]], with the former happening in reverse order. What makes it strange is that he's fought both in a normal and solo fight, and when fought solo, Lloyd tells him not to hold anything back, but he not only has only 1/4 the HP he has in the normal boss fights, but appears to have taken considerably more damage when the fight is over.
** Potentially worse is [[spoiler:Zelos; if you choose the Kratos path, you end up in a boss fight against Zelos]]. Despite that he was in your party ''two minutes ago'', he's suddenly got five-digit HP and tons of kickass moves. A {{handwave}} is attempted by the fact that he's now using angel powers, which he doesn't do with the party, but it's still jarring.
** [[spoiler:Sheena]] loses the ability to use the various guardian summons that made her boss battles so difficult. It's implied in one cutscene that she had a very limited number of those guardians, and has used them all up by the time she joins the party permanently.
* ''VideoGame/TalesOfVesperia'':
** [[spoiler:Flynn]] is an odd example -- although he's not evil in the slightest. In the one instance when he [[GuestStarPartyMember joins you in combat]], he has somewhere around 5000 HP and a paltry amount of Artes. Approximately ''one day later'' in the game's timeline, he and Yuri [[DuelBoss duke it out]] -- and he's suddenly gained ''six-digit HP'' and a repertoire of deadly Artes, including Holy Lance and a [[LimitBreak Mystic Arte]], Radiant Dragon Fang. He must've done a ''buttload'' of LevelGrinding in that one day. This is downplayed in the UpdatedRerelease, where his boss version still has the advantage in HP and combo-breaking mechanics, but his playable version gets access to all of his Artes while his boss version is unable to use Altered or Burst Artes.
** Captain Schwann exemplifies both this trope and EvilIsCool. As a boss, he's incredibly difficult (although most of the difficulty comes from the fact that both your healers are absent from the party), has six-digit health, and extremely powerful techniques. He's missing most of those techniques and is back down to four-digit health when [[spoiler:he rejoins the party not much later as Raven]]. Justified in that he's using his DangerousForbiddenTechnique ([[spoiler:his blastia heart]]) during the battle, ''and'' [[IAmNotLeftHanded wielding his sword in the other hand]].
** In the [=PS3=] remake the final team arena battle pits you against the party members you don't currently have with you. Not only do they have boss class hp and stats now, but they break the party size limit to attack you with ALL unused members making the match 4 against 5. The party seemingly puts more effort in friendly arena match than against the guys that want to destroy the world.
* ''VideoGame/TalesOfXillia2'' gives BagOfSpilling to the previous Xillia cast, of course, but also allows [[FinalBoss Gaius]], and Muzét, to join your party now. Both used to have five-digit HP or more, but are now reduced to 9.999 HP at most. Though both of them still retain skills that put them close to GameBreaker status.

** Seymour, to a degree; a while after you see him shredding all of those fiends with Anima, he'll join your party for a single bossfight. While very powerful, more so than your characters will be at this stage, he can't summon Anima and isn't nearly as powerful as when [[spoiler:you fight him for the first time not too long afterwards. So he loses power when joining the good guys, it just happens he does this before being revealed as a bad guy]].

** ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyX'' has Seymour to a degree; a while after you see him shredding all of those fiends with Anima, he'll join your party for a single bossfight. While very powerful, more so than your characters will be at this stage, he can't summon Anima and isn't nearly as powerful as when [[spoiler:you fight him for the first time not too long afterwards. So he loses power when joining the good guys, it just happens he does this before being revealed as a bad guy]].
*** Anima itself inverts this trope. It appears as a boss and is not particularly hard. When obtained for the player to summon, admittedly much later, it's much more powerful with its Overdrive dealing over 100 times the damage it did as an enemy.

** Subverted with the Rhino, who attempted to hang up his horn for a time and go straight after falling in love. Unfortunately, a new criminal took up the Rhino identity and killed his wife purely ForTheEvulz, driving Rhino to suit back up and KickTheSonOfABitch.

* Zelgadis from ''LightNovel/{{Slayers}}'', to a certain extent. While shown to have impressive powers while he still opposes the group and/or is in the plot's spotlight, once he joins the party he becomes close to useless combat-wise. Whenever he attacks, [[TheWorfBarrage the attack usually accomplishes nothing, if only to show how powerful their adversary is]]. Also, his demonic ability to move faster than the eye can track seems to be largely forgotten, as it never allows him to dodge out of the way of incoming cannon blasts or spells while the rest of the party are unable to. The times when he ''does'' accomplish something in battle, it's usually something another character could've done just as well, be it shield or levitation. However, his decreasingly important role in battle is somewhat redeemed by the sheer variety of his skills, the hardiness of his stony skin (which enables him to take a cannonball to the head only to have it ''bounce off'') and the fact that he's pretty much the only mature one in the group and often makes important discoveries and observations that the others had missed.

* [[spoiler:Accelerator]] in ''LightNovel/ACertainMagicalIndex''. Five minutes after deciding to stop being a jerk BAM! Brain damage. [[color:white:He got better alright and is even stronger than before!]]

*** This trope was actually deliberately invoked by the designers of said supplement, who ''hated'' the idea of monsters as Player Characters, and thus [[WriterRevolt deliberately sabotaged the rules]] by setting the Level Adjustments for most monsters excessively high, resulting in them being [[TierInducedScrappy underpowered to the point of unplayability]].

* Sturm from the ''VideoGame/NintendoWars'' game ''Advance Wars'' is an unlockable CO upon completion of the campaign. In the campaign, his units have 120% attack and 90% defense, while his CO power is to call a meteor down from the sky, doing up to 8 or 9 damage to all enemy units in the blast radius. The dev team (perhaps understandably) found this grossly overpowered, so in multiplayer, his units have 90% atk/120% def, and the damage from his meteor power is cut in half. Averted in ''Advance Wars 2'' though where Sturm becomes even more powerful, and isn't nerfed at all in multiplayer. If you choose his character, your friends will hate you.

** Zero from the ''VideoGame/MegaManX'' games is at his most powerful when he's fighting against the player: he even has access to moves that the playable Zero is never able to use. In ''X2'', [[spoiler:he was rebuilt with the ability to charge his saber and both busters]]. He remains this powerful throughout ''X3'', and [[spoiler:"loses" power in X4 in exchange for not, y'know, needing to charge his guns up every time he wants to fire]]. In ''X5'', [[spoiler:Zero is empowered by the Maverick Virus, as he is the original carrier of the virus and designed to be at his most powerful under its influence]]. The player finally gets to use Zero's boss moves after defeating BonusBoss [[VideoGame/MegaManZero Omega]] (oh, [[BraggingRightsReward and clearing the game]]) in ''VideoGame/MegaManZX''. It is GLORIOUS.

* Sam in ''VideoGame/MetalGearRisingRevengeance'' is a HopelessBossFight when he's first encountered, and in his second fight he zooms around the battlefield dishing out quick strikes and powerful combos while taking all Raiden's attacks without flinching. When he's playable in the ''Jetstream Sam'' DLC he's DifficultButAwesome, capable of amazing feats but without any access to the moves you can be on the receiving end of, with vastly reduced health.

** [[Characters/MarvelComicsBuckyBarnes 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 ComicBook/{{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. This is further emphasized in ''Series/TheFalconAndTheWinterSoldier'', where he's seen effortlessly slaughtering opponents in a flashback to his time under mind control, but in the present struggles against the Flagsmashers (though, to be fair they are enhanced superhumans just like him.)

** 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 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. However, when she returns 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. This trope is also inverted in ''Series/WandaVision'' and ''Film/DoctorStrangeInTheMultiverseOfMadness'', [[spoiler:where she is the cause of strife in both works and consequently grows to RealityWarper levels of power, far beyond anything she had ever previously displayed.]]

** 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 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. However, when she returns 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. This trope is also inverted in ''Series/WandaVision'' and ''Film/DoctorStrangeAndTheMultiverseOfMadness'', [[spoiler:where she is the cause of strife in both works and consequently grows to RealityWarper levels of power, far beyond anything she had ever previously displayed.]]

** 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.]]
** [[Characters/MarvelComicsBuckyBarnes 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 ComicBook/{{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.

*** In this game, the Flame Emperor is the main antagonist of the first half of the game, but one circumstance allows you to get them and their subordinate the Death Knight to join your party[[note]]in the case of the Flame Emperor, they actually ''re''-join the team[[/note]]. The Flame Emperor loses their unique class (though their canonical[=/=]default post-timeskip class is basically a [[PaletteSwap differently dressed version]] of that one) and a couple of [[SecretAIMoves unique enemy-only skills]], while the Death Knight loses Counterattack and Poison Strike as an allied NPC and has to get them back once under your control.

** The debut of Yamcha. While initially posing a threat to Goku, then turning good, and saving everyone from the final threat (Goku in a Were creature form ironically), Yamcha often takes a backseat afterwards, [[TheWorfEffect losing to the Big Bads of the tournament storyline]], eventually rapidly fading from relevance.

* Dark Heart from ''Franchise/CareBears''. Before the HeelFaceTurn, 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.

** Which is more than can be said for Chaozu, who didn't even win a single fight at all. That said, Tenshinhan, Yamcha and Chaozu ''do'' get a bit of redemption in a {{Filler}} episode where King Kai makes them go up against the Ginyu Force as a means of testing their training. And what's more, they '''win'''.