History Main / WeaksauceWeakness

* Static himself gets completely shorted out if he is hit with water while powered up. He doesn't have this weakness in the comics.

* The short-lived hero Gunfire had the power to turn anything into a weapon by charging it with explosive energy. ''Anything''. Enter the Comicbook/{{Hitman}} story where Tommy defeats a future version of Gunfire by causing him to turn his own ass into a living grenade. [[HilarityEnsues Good times were had by all]].

** He was used as a one-shot villain in BatmanTheBlackGlove and was defeated by throwing shrimp scampi sauce on his hands.

* When Baldr/Balder, the son of Odin, was born, his mother Frigg made all living things vow not to be able to hurt him. The only living thing that didn't make this promise was mistletoe, which would be fatal to him. So Loki, the trickster god, goes and gets an arrow tipped with poisonous mistletoe and shoots it at Baldr, killing him. Baldr's death would start a chain of events that led to Ragnarok (see further below for the ''VideoGame/DevilSurvivor'' example).

* In ''Manga/RosarioToVampire'', vampires are considered the high end of the monster scale, but the fact that you can take a vampire down with a glass of water kinda puts a [[IncrediblyLamePun dampener]] on that idea. Though, you'd have to be of werewolf speed to even ''consider'' hitting them with the stuff in the first place.

* Shiina from ''Anime/AngelBeats'' is [[RanmaOneHalf Ranma]] turned Up to Eleven: a ridiculously hypercompetent ninja, but when she sees a puppy about to go over a waterfall she instinctively does a StupidSacrifice, getting them both killed...and it was a ''stuffed'' puppy. The puppy trap was actually meant for Angel, so it's possible she has the same weakness.

** More recently, FrankMiller parodied this in ''ComicBook/AllStarBatmanAndRobinTheBoyWonder''. Before confronting Green Lantern, Batman and Robin paint a house, and everything in it, yellow. Then they put on yellow costumes. Then they paint their exposed faces yellow. When GL comes over, Batman goes so far as to offer him a nice refreshing glass of lemonade, while Robin eats some lemon ice cream. Hal was not amused. Readers were.

* One version of Ocean Master, Comicbook/{{Aquaman}}'s arch nemesis, gets his powers from a magical trident he traded his soul for, and when he isn't holding it he feels intense pain. Even SelfDemonstrating/TheJoker says that this is a pretty WeaksauceWeakness:

* MartianManhunter has a ridiculous amount of powers, yet he had weakness to fire, making it quite easy to disable him. This because he saw his entire family--and species as a whole--die in a psychic plague that manifested itself as fire. He then buried the bodies of everyone on the planet. This makes his pyrophobia a form of post-traumatic stress disorder. The first attempt to remove this weakness accidentally unlocked his SuperpoweredEvilSide.
** Though technically, it's not a weakness of fire, it's a fear of fire.

* [[ComicBook/TheMightyThor Thor]] ''used'' to have a debilitating weakness: If he let go of Mjölnir for more than a minute, he turned into doctor Don Blake, who has a crippled leg (and presumably an acid tounge a dry wit), and Mjölnir turns into a walking stick. Basically, Series/{{House}}. This was removed several years ago, which now makes Thor virtually invulnerable.

** PostCrisis it's a self-imposed weakness. In the SilverAge and BronzeAge, it was a natural aspect of fifth dimensional beings that saying their own names backwards sent them home. In the GoldenAge, ''anyone'' (human or imp) who said Mxyztplk's name backwards would end up in the Fifth Dimension... or the Fifth Dimension attached to Earth-2, anyway.

* ComicBook/{{Venom}}. Weaknesses? Fire and loud noise. At one point, he's defeated with nothing more than a ''lighter'' (which raises the question of why {{Spiderman}} doesn't just carry a $1.98 Bic lighter with him at all times). This varies DependingOnTheWriter. Carnage shares some of the same weaknesses.

* Marvel's Valkyrie, in her early [[TheDefenders Defender]] years, was unable to fight against any foe that was feminine, even if she was alien or a robot.

* Despite having an incredibly powerful sonic scream, gagging BlackCanary could effectively disable it, despite the fact the Canary Cry theoretically should be able to break through any cloth. That too, has decreased in recent years, although Comicbook/{{Deathstroke}} found an, “[[DoesThisRemindYouOfAnything interesting]]” way to silence her in an issue of GreenArrow.

* The sword in, umm, ''TheSword'' grants whomever touches it serious SuperStrength, enough SuperSpeed to run on water and deflect bullets, and a powerful [[GoodThingYouCanHeal healing ability]] that can close gaping chest wounds and reattach limbs. Unfortunately, these only last for as long as the user maintains physical contact. Put it down to eat a sandwich or go to the bathroom and you're mortal again. At one point, protagonist Dara drops in the middle of a super-strength high jump (a natural reaction to being shot) and suddenly finds she's not landing, ''she's falling''. Worse, [[spoiler:go too long without touching the sword and any injuries it healed come back all at once.]]

* In ''Fanfic/ChristianHumberReloaded'', Vash, a GodModeSue with countless superpowers, multiple super modes, and an arsenal of high-tech and legendary weapons, who can take on entire armies and the main villains of several works of fiction without breaking a sweat, is vulnerable to Paralysis, a UselessUsefulSpell in RPGs that rarely affects anything stronger than a common enemy.

* ''Film/TheSpiderwickChronicles'' provides a literal weak''[[IncrediblyLamePun sauce]]'' weakness: Tomato sauce is corrosive to goblins. (This was not in the original book.)

** Voldemort's inability to understand Love, and ThePowerOfLove, proves to be his ultimate undoing. However, this is less of a WeaksauceWeakness than a FatalFlaw. Harry does not beat Voldemort because of some mystical aspect of love, but because having reliable friends and allies ultimately gives him an advantage over Voldemort, who underestimates the capacity of others to behave selflessly because he would never even consider doing so himself.

* In the ''[[VideoGame/CastlevaniaIISimonsQuest Simon's Quest]]'' volume of the ''WorldsOfPower'' series, Dracula's vengeful spirit can be driven off by bad jokes.
* In Fred Saberhagen's ''BookOfSwords'' and ''Books of Lost Swords'' series, [[InfinityPlusOneSword Shieldbreaker]], the Sword of Force, can defeat any weapon, and as such is the only thing that can defeat, even destroy, one of the other Swords, but is powerless against an unarmed man.

* The kids in the ''Literature/{{Goosebumps}}'' book ''How To Kill A Monster'' have to figure out exactly how to do that. Falling three stories doesn't stop him nor does poisoning a pie. Luckily, there's a DeusExMachina way out. [[spoiler: the monster dies after they confirm they're humans, as he's allergic.]]
** In another ''Literature/{{Goosebumps}}'' book, there's a subversion of the trope that's invoked to then play the trope straight. Specifically, the young male protagonist is facing an enemy supervillain who has the ability to change into anyone and anything. The boy knows in advance that if the supervillain were to change into a liquid, he'd get ''stuck'' that way and be defeated, which is the ''supervillain's'' Weaksauce Weakness. Since the villain is under the impression that the boy is a superhero, the boy pretends that ''his'' Weaksauce Weakness is that he's vulnerable to acid. So the supervillain changes into a wave of acid, and after the boy hastily jumps out of the way, the supervillain gets stuck in his liquid-acid form, thus ensuring his defeat.

* The Hunter from the ''ColdfireTrilogy'' is one of the most powerful beings in the series, but also fatally flawed in his nature. As part of his DealWithTheDevil to stave off death, the Hunter surrendered his power over life, creation, and light. He can no longer use healing magic without dying, sunlight burns him horribly, and he is completely unable to manipulate ordinary fire. A villain in the first book took advantage of these weaknesses by luring him into a cave filled with crystal and used a mirror to reflect what little sunlight there was back at him, with the light magnified by the crystal. Then he was rendered helpless by being placed in an ordinary bonfire.

* In ''Literature/TheDresdenFiles'' all illusion has the problem that anyone capable of using the Sight can simply activate it and no matter how skilled the illusionist, they'll be able to see what's really going on. While most people avoid using the Sight due to the potential for seeing disturbing, unforgettable things with it, the ability for the most marginally skilled caster to counteract any illusion means that the Council doesn't consider it an especially useful discipline.
** All Fae in the DresdenFiles universe are vulnerable to iron. So much so that Queen Mab, one of the most powerful magic users, is scared of an iron nail.

* The Masters in ''{{Literature/The Tripods}}'' had a huge weakness to alcohol. Granted, so does anyone or anything else that drinks too much of it, but in their case, just a small drink of alcohol-laced water was enough to knock them cold and paralyze them.

** "Blink" has creatures that can, when no one's looking, move faster than Jack Harkness confronted with a twelve-step program. When seen, however, they can't move. The episode plays this up for NightmareFuel, as you have to blink ''sometime'' ... On the other hand, their ''biggest'' weakness is [[spoiler:being tricked to look at each other.]]

*** It also doesn't do deadlocks, and can be deactivated by some hairdriers.

* In ''Series/{{Smallville}}'', Aquaman's guest appearance explained that he needed to be constantly wet or otherwise have a glass of water or he loses his immense strength and begins to wither. Considering he has had plenty of his own [[WhatKindOfLamePowerIsHeartAnyway superpowered problems]], this is especially glaring.
** In the show, [[KryptoniteIsEverywhere Kryptonite is so common]] that Clark would almost be better off powerless. Especially problematic in the earlier years when his "monsters of the week" got their powers FROM kryptonite.

* In the '80s series ''{{V}}'', aliens are vulnerable to certain inoffensive bacteria that live in human digestive tract. [[spoiler:It backfires later on.]]

* Sportacus, the superhero of ''LazyTown'' becomes helpless if he eats things with '''sugar''', like candy. However it may be that he's actually weak to chemicals ''added'' to sugar, as he can eat (and in fact gets stronger) from eating '''fruits''', which contain ''natural'' sugars.

* The ''VideoGame/MegaMan'' series has plenty of bosses who had a weakness to unlikely-looking weapons and questionable moves.

* [[OurVampiresAreDifferent Vampyres]] in ''{{Runescape}}'' avert this somewhat. When they were first introduced, Juvinate or higher ranked vampyres could only be harmed by weapons made of silver.... all of which are weak because silver is a soft metal. So it was more like they were just immortal against everything else, and silver worked as well against them as it did against normal monsters. And then the player learns about the [[KryptoniteFactor Blisterwood Tree]].....

** There's also Paras and Parasect, who in the first generation had ''three'' [[AttackItsWeakPoint Super Effective]] weaknesses (Parasect is also incredibly slow). One of their new abilities in the fourth generation gives Parasect what is essentially a ''five'' fold weakness to Fire. Parasect also gets a 100% accuracy sleep move, which is potentially the most powerful status-inducing move in the game, so the WeaksauceWeakness was likely added to keep it from being a GameBreaker.

** [[GameBreaker Volcarona]] is widely considered one of the most badass Bug-type Pokemon. It and its pre-evolved form (Larvesta)naturally lose half their health from [[ThatOneAttack Stealth Rock.]] Just from switching in. Same with other Pokemon with double weaknesses to Rock, notoriously Charizard.

* Franchise/{{Sonic|TheHedgehog}} [[SuperDrowningSkills is extremely weak to water]]. Not only can he not swim, he also moves at an extremely slow pace when under. In ''Anime/SonicX'' he can't even move while underwater, and he can't move while on ice. There was an episode of ''WesternAnimation/SonicUnderground'' and ''Anime/SonicX'' devoted to Sonic's aquaphobia. Also, in ''VideoGame/MarioAndSonicAtTheOlympicGames'' Sonic wears a life vest whenever he participates in a swimming event, in ''Comicbook/SonicTheComic'' he has originally like the other Sonics cannot swim and he also moves at an extremely slow pace when underwater but unlike the other Sonics he learns to swim removing one of his WeaksauceWeakness.

* ''VideoGame/{{Okami}}'' monsters can have some pretty weaksauce weaknesses:

* An odd case in ''VideoGame/TalesOfPhantasia'', which isn't a conventional weakness, but more of a developer’s oversight. The BonusBoss of the BonusDungeon, Pluto, only has physical attacks, and one ridiculously long charging special attack, all of which have insane amounts of damage behind them, but must be used at close range. The first skill the main character ever learns is a long range, one SP cost move called Demon Fang', which ''instantly pushes pluto back and flinches him''. Hence, a BonusBoss battle where the heroes stay on oneside and nuke the poor guy and the lead constantly pelts him with Demon Fangs, while the boss sits on the other side of the screen defenseless.

* Apparently there is a [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=esuv4x-Cxb0 reviewer]] that can be [[ForMassiveDamage destroyed]] by [[EdutainmentGame edutainment games.]]

* [[WebAnimation/ASDFMovie "Kitten Fight!" "No wait, I'm allergic to adoreableness!"]]

* When Buttercup wanted to become a better superhero in ''WesternAnimation/ThePowerpuffGirls'' episode "SuperZeroes", she became Mange, a knockoff of DarkerAndEdgier comic book {{Anti Hero}}es -- Comicbook/{{Spawn}} in particular. However, when the time came for her and her sisters (both of whom also assumed their own "better superhero" identities) to go out and fight a monster destroying Townsville, Mange was the only one who stayed behind, saying it's too bright and that she only travels at night. Mange then spent the rest of the day sitting on the couch with Professor Utonium until night fell, arriving too late at the scene as the monster had already left (her sisters were also late for reasons of their own). The three girls spent the night under a tree. When the monster came back to face the girls again, Mange sits out the fight, preferring to stay under the tree's shade. This attitude led the monster to eventually call her "Little Miss Darkness who’s afraid of a little sun".
** Being kindergarteners, the girls have plenty of weaknesses of their own any other time--they have been shown to be deathly afraid of "cooties", cockroaches, and broccoli. The episodes these weaknesses show up in usually involve some sort of super-powered or evil version of it, so it's not always so silly...

** The original incarnation of their DistaffCounterpart enemies the RowdyRuff Boys [[spoiler:are so grossed out by the girls' kisses that they explode.]]

** Oberon's Children, like other portrayals of TheFairFolk, are all vulnerable to iron. Iron can disrupt their magic, actually ''hurt'' them, and imprison them. In his [[spoiler: not really]] first appearance, Puck is forced to obey Demona after being bound with iron chains. The Weird Sisters are also coerced into doing a favor in exchange for being released from an iron chain. Later, the TricksterGod Coyote is trapped in the ''robot'' Coyote's latest body which was constructed with iron from a magical cauldron. Their ruler Oberon, while not immune to iron, is powerful enough to withstand being ''impaled by an iron harpoon'' though it does cause him to wither in appearance for a short time. [[spoiler: (An Iron bell on the other hand, can easily kill him.)]]

* In ''WesternAnimation/KimPossible'', Felix Renton's CoolChair is one of the most advanced pieces of technology in the series. It can hover and has CombatTentacles. But it can be hijacked by a ''wireless game controller''.

* ''WesternAnimation/TheFairlyOddParents'': All that fairy magic is neutralized when they are under a butterfly net.
** There's also all the various "Da Rules" which prevent them from undoing some of the more disastrous wishes, but do nothing to stop them from getting into these situations to begin with. One thinks an "I wish that no wishes that will somehow prevent me from ''undoing'' those wishes can be cast" wish might save a lot of trouble.

* Desiree from ''WesternAnimation/DannyPhantom''. Her main weakness is that she has to grant ''every'' wish she hears, including wishes like "I wish you were defeated."

* If ''[[Animation/SheZow [=SheZow=]]]'' gets her hair mess up, she loses her power -- she has a can of hair spray in the Beautility Belt to fix this.

* British sailors in the 19th century hated eating fish or any food from the ocean for that matter, preferring weevily biscuits and gruesome salt pork or beef to fresh fish. Sailors hate the sea, pilots hate the wind, and retailers hate customers--WeaksauceWeakness in its truest form.

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* Mighty Ray of ''WesternAnimation/{{Hero 108}}'' has the ability to shoot lightning from his eyes. The drawback is that he has to eat a banana to do it...and he ''hates'' bananas.

* Comicbook/{{Static}}'s nemesis Hot-Streak had the ability to conjure powerful fireballs which he could hurl at his opponents. The catch? His powers were friction-based, so he could only use them after running around and building up heat energy from his feet. Once Static realized this, he simply attacked from behind and lifted Hot-Streak off the ground, rendering him completely helpless.

* If [[Animation/SheZow "[=SheZow=]"]] get her hair mess up, she loses her power -- she has a hair-spy in the Beaulitity Belt to fix this one.

* ''Any'' human being, no matter their condition or how healthy they are, are at risk of [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Commotio_cordis Commotio Cordis]] (agitation of the heart). This requires being hit in the chest over the heart at the right point of a heartbeat. Only a few dozen cases are reported per year, but victims are almost ''guaranteed'' to die if it happens (survival rate is 35% ... if the victim is treated in three minutes). Even a gentle blow that doesn't bruise the skin can trigger commotio cordis--[[ParanoiaFuel which means every time you get hit in the chest, you're playing Russian Roulette]].

* The aliens in ''Film/{{Signs}}''. It's [[NightmareRetardant hard to feel threatened]] [[FridgeLogic (retrospectively)]] by creatures which will dissolve in an April shower or corrode in a particularly humid breeze.

** The original incarnation of their DistaffCounterpart enemies the RowdyRuff Boys [[spoiler:blew up for being grossed out by the girls' kisses.]]

* The almost unknown film ''ROTOR'' is about a robotic policeman gone mad. He's almost unstoppable except for being paralyzed by loud noises. This might not sound '''that''' dumb until you realize he's repeatedly frozen by people honking their car horns at him.

* ''TheSpiderwickChronicles'' provides a literal weak''[[IncrediblyLamePun sauce]]'' weakness: Tomato sauce is corrosive to goblins. (This was not in the original book.)

* This was once parodied in the British comic, ''TheBeano'', in which the character Calamity James is rescued by a superhero and offers him a Jelly Baby by way
of thanks. Guess what the hero's one weakness is!

* ComicBook/{{Venom}}. Weaknesses? Fire and loud noise. At one point, he's defeated with nothing more than a ''lighter''. This varies DependingOnTheWriter. Carnage shares some of the same weaknesses.

* If [[Animation/SheZow [=SheZow=]] get her hair mess up, she loses her power -- she has a hair-spy in the Beaulitity Belt to fix this one.

* Vampires In ''Manga/JoJosBizarreAdventure are seen as nearly invincible gods among men...unless the sun is out. Or you punch them with sunlight-infused martial arts. Or you hit them ''really'' hard in the brain and screw up their ability to control their own bodily functions (though not many beings out there ''aren't'' immune to that). Or just have a Pillar Man (essentially super vampires) so much as touch them, which will cause them to be instantly absorbed.

* Saiyans, a race of savage and brutal warriors from ''Manga/DragonBall Z'' can be easily neutralized by grabbing their tails. They can be trained to overcome this weakness though.

* In ''Series/LostGirl'', as a wolf-Fae [[TheBigGuy Dyson]] is very strong with excellent senses. These senses can be thrown off by ''kitty litter''. Bo is appropriately incredulous.

** His evil counterpart Captain Pollution has an even lamer weakness: ''clean water.'' Yes, any remotely clean source of drinking water sprayed in his face will make him bow down and crawl helplessly. This seriously deters his ability to establish himself as a credible threat.

* Birdman from the old Creator/{{Hanna-Barbera}} cartoons had the powers of flight, energy beams that shot from his hands, enhanced strength, and a personal force field -- and drew his powers from the light of the sun. Fair enough, there are plenty of other solar-powered heroes out there (Franchise/{{Superman}}, Comicbook/{{Cyclops}} ([[DependingOnTheWriter sometimes]]), [[ComicBook/TeenTitans Starfire]]). Unlike those heroes, however, Birdman apparently had ''no'' energy reserve; he became weak as a baby after being removed from sunlight for ''less than a minute''. As it was implied that being out of the sun for an extended period of time ("extended" apparently being something like five minutes) was fatal to Birdman, it's a wonder he didn't spontaneously drop dead at night. [[WesternAnimation/HarveyBirdmanAttorneyAtLaw No wonder he became a lawyer.]] After he became a lawyer, he developed a new Weaksauce Weakness; he's completely worthless if he loses the Birdman insignia that he keeps on his forehead.

* WesternAnimation/WordGirl isn't so much defeated by a cute little kitten, but rather easily distracted by one. She also compensates for her language abilities by showing a complete lack of competence in art, poetry, and dance.

** There are lots of things that can kill. [[HumansAreWarriors Humans have tried most of them]].