History Main / WorfHadTheFlu

* In ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyVII'' and its spinoffs, Cloud's first victory over Sephiroth can be chalked up to this. Despite his overwhelming physical superiority and experience advantage, [[spoiler:he was in the midst of a psychotic breakdown, he had already been worn down by a duel with Zack Fair, Cloud took him completely by surprise and dealt a devastating sword blow to his midsection to open the battle, and he fatally underestimated Cloud's resolve to defeat him]].

** ''VideoGame/GodOfWarPS4'': In contrast to the previous games, Kratos, the warrior who once flipped over Titans the literal size of mountains now visibly strains and struggles against Trolls no bigger than the Cyclopses he once casually knocked out, and most tellingly is visibly winded and exhausted after his bouts with The Stranger in spite of once not even breaking a sweat beating the life out of Hercules and Zeus himself. While it seems a case of FeelingTheirAge, he's still able to push building-sized objects with his bare hands, and WordOfGod hints that it's more because he's just [[WeHaveBecomeComplacent out of practice]].

* In ''Film/KingsmanTheGoldenCircle'', while Kingsman and Statesman are the British and American counterparts to each other, Statemen agents initially do much better when they initially fight with Kingsmen operatives due to neither side being initially aware of the other. However, this can be justified as the only surviving Kingsmen are Eggsy, Harry Hart, and Merlin, and Harry is recovering from a year of relative inactivity after being nearly killed, Eggsy is the newest known Kingsman, and Merln is the organisation's quartermaster and thus doesn't get out in the field much. During the final fight, as Harry and Eggsy fight [[spoiler:Stateman agent Whiskey who wants the villains' plans to succeed and kill millions of drug users, Harry is still recovering from his past injuries and Eggsy has just endured a brutal fight with Charlie, his old rival who now had an artifical arm]].

* ''Fanfic/TheWeaverOption'': Taylor establishes her status as a [[spoiler:Living Saint]] by dueling and besting the Bloodthirster Ka'Bandha. Years she comes to the conclusion that the Daemon was most likely weakened by the nature of his summoning at the Death Star, which is the only reason she won. The next time they fight he will almost certainly be at full strength.

* ''Fnafic/TheWeaverOption'': Taylor establishes her status as a [[spoiler:Living Saint]] by dueling and besting the Bloodthirster Ka'Bandha. Years she comes to the conclusion that the Daemon was most likely weakened by the nature of his summoning at the Death Star, which is the only reason she won. The next time they fight he will almost certainly be at full strength.

* Early in Super Bowl XXXIX, Terrel Owens caught a pass from Donovan [=McNabb=] and had an open-field run to the endzone. Unfortunately for the Eagles, Owens was still recovering from a leg injury, allowing a defender to tackle him after a big play that would have probably been a touchdown had he been healthy. The Eagles proceeded to turn the ball over a few plays later and would eventually lose to the Patriots by 3 points.

** Two NBA examples: The Spurs in 2000 and the Celtics in 2009 were defending champions but late in the year lost their best player (Tim Duncan for the Spurs, Kevin Garnett for the Celtics) for the entire playoffs and suffered an early playoff exit to an otherwise inferior team.
*** There is an argument to be made about the Pistons beating the 1989 "Showtime" Lakers team because of this, as well as the 2019 Toronto Raptors beating a Golden State team missing two of their three best players. That same Raptors team probably wouldn't even have made the finals if the Philadelphia 76ers' star center Joel Embiid hadn't been suffering from a virus throughout the series.

* In ''VideoGame/WarriorsOrochi'', this is how the Orochi beats the Tokugawa. They arrive and launched their attack on Edo castle just in time when Honda Tadakatsu is away scouting the area. Considering Tadakatsu is often considered ''VideoGame/SamuraiWarriors''' [[VideoGame/DynastyWarriors Lu Bu]], the battle might have a different outcome if he is ever present.

** Malos [[spoiler:was crippled in the backstory, he get his power back during the plot, and pilots Aion as the FinalBoss.]]

** In [[WesternAnimation/StarWarsCloneWars the previous Clone Wars cartoon]] Grievous repeatedly {{Invoked}} this: not being a Force user, he's been instructed by Dooku to always make sure he has "fear, surprise and intimidation" on his side before fighting the strongest Jedi and retreat otherwise. Thus his introduction has him face ''six'' Jedi, killing three and leaving the others wounded and traumatized, after throughly wiping out their army and taking multiple steps to scare them to throw them off their game, and every time he appears he takes care to be as intimidating as possible and try and get his Jedi opponents tired by his Magna Guards while also riding on the reputation he built by killing Jedi... But when he faces Mace Windu his opponent is ''not'' intimidated at all, and [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M0gnwyYRHu8 Grievous is crippled in an instant]].

* The [[UsefulNotes/{{Iran}} Sassanid Empire]] fell to the Arabs because of this trope. Before the rise of Islam, Persia was an regional power with their emperor Shapur II winning a decisive campaign against several Arab nomadic tribes in 325 A.D. However, a series of conflicts with the [[UsefulNotes/ByzantineEmpire Eastern Roman Empire]] had weakened it over the decades. By the time of Muhammed, the Persians and Romans were engaged in a [[ForeverWar war that lasted nearly 30 years]] and no substantial gains where being made for either side. When both empires were too exhausted to continue fighting and decided to call it quits, a ''{{civil war}}'' erupted in Persia which left it [[OutsideContextProblem completely vulnerable to the rising Caliphate]].

* This was arguably the case for the entire 2021 ''season'' for the Cleveland Browns, after quarterback Baker Mayfield suffered a partially torn labrum (an injury that can only be corrected with a surgery that would have been season-ending) in his non-throwing shoulder in the team's home opener, as Mayfield would notably regress in his passing in that season compared to his breakout 2020 season, which in turn led to a regression for the team as a whole. While some believe that this down season speaks to Mayfield as being perpetually inconsistent, Mayfield's defenders have been quick to point out that he was clearly hampered in his mechanics by both the injury itself as well as the protective equipment he had to wear to prevent further damage.

* In ''ComicBook/MarvelVersusDC'', one fight that attracted particular opprobrium from fans was ComicBook/{{Lobo}} -- a character who can go toe-to-toe with Franchise/{{Superman}} and at the time [[FromASingleCell could regenerate from a single drop of blood]] -- losing to ComicBook/{{Wolverine}} (who at the time didn't even have his adamantium skeleton, though his healing factor ''was'' significantly boosted as a result). This was explicitly down to PopularityPower -- the results were voted on by fans -- but the match-up was so uneven the writers had to have Wolverine's victory take place off-panel. A little while later Lobo mentioned that he'd actually been bribed by "some bald guy" (Professor X? Lex Luthor?) to take a dive in the fight.

*** Part of Goku's poor performance against Kid Buu was because he was no longer used to having a living body. He had grown accustomed to the near endless endurance and power of his dead body.

* [[ComicBook/{{Batwoman}} Batwoman's]] first encounter with Wolf Spider goes largely as expected: she, the more experienced fighter, quickly gets the upper hand and starts pummeling the crap out of him. However, he [[ISurrenderSuckers pretends to surrender]] and tosses a pair of hallucinogenic darts into her face. As she starts tripping out, Wolf Spider uses the opportunity to crack her across the jaw and kick her out a window into a dumpster. Needless to say, after Batwoman recovers she's rather pissed at being beaten by such cheap tactics.

* ComicBook/DoctorStrange lost to [[Comicbook/IncredibleHulk Hulk]] during ComicBook/WorldWarHulk because he was channeling the powers of a demon that was too powerful for him to properly control, and because the Hulk tricked him and broke his hands to prevent him from properly casting spells.

** When ComicBook/{{Supergirl}} first returned in [[ComicBook/TheSupergirlFromKrypton 2004]], [[ComicBook/Supergirl2005 she was shown outperforming Superman]] to the point where it was speculated by Batman that she might actually be more powerful. Later, Batman thought it might be that Superman had been holding himself back all these years out of fear of causing death or destruction (which Supergirl in fact does in the early issues because she [[DoesNotKnowHisOwnStrength doesn't know her own strength]].)

** Each of the [[EldritchAbomination Old Gods]] are considerably weakened when players encounter them. C'Thun and Yogg-Saron were heavily weakened by their imprisonment by the [[{{Precursors}} Titans]], while Y'Shaarj had already been killed in the backstory with players only facing remnants of his power. The only Old God to avert the trope and be fought at his full power is N'Zoth, who is explicitly stated to be the weakest of the four, having only survived as long as he did due to being a patient ManipulativeBastard.

* Comicbook/DoctorStrange lost to [[Comicbook/IncredibleHulk Hulk]] during ComicBook/WorldWarHulk because he was channeling the powers of a demon that was too powerful for him to properly control, and because the Hulk tricked him and broke his hands to prevent him from properly casting spells.

** Also in ComicBook/WorldWarHulk, Hulk defeated ComicBook/BlackBolt. Next year, ''ComicBook/SecretInvasion'' revealed he was actually a Skrull impostor. Possible subversion, as apparently Skrulls impostors were as powerful as the originals.
* Doomsday has had this trope most every time after Dan Jurgens stopped writing him. His first appearance had him take out the ENTIRE Justice League of the time singlehandedly and fight Superman to a standstill to the death of both of them. He would later nearly kill Darkseid in another match and wipe the floor with Grant Morrison's Justice League. After his death and resurrection post-''ComicBook/OurWorldsAtWar'', his flu is that he gains intelligence and as a result becomes so scared shitless of dying again that he becomes unable to fight with reckless abandon and even later learns compassion, both resulting in Doomsday becoming much weaker and getting beaten by opponents that otherwise wouldn't be able to scratch him.

* In ''ComicBook/MarvelVersusDC'', one fight that attracted particular opprobrium from fans was ComicBook/{{Lobo}} -- a character who can go toe-to-toe with Franchise/{{Superman}} and at the time [[FromASingleCell could regenerate from a single drop of blood]] -- losing to Comicbook/{{Wolverine}} (who at the time didn't even have his adamantium skeleton, though his healing factor ''was'' significantly boosted as a result). This was explicitly down to PopularityPower -- the results were voted on by fans -- but the match-up was so uneven the writers had to have Wolverine's victory take place off-panel. A little while later Lobo mentioned that he'd actually been bribed by "some bald guy" (Professor X? Lex Luthor?) to take a dive in the fight.
* [[ComicBook/TheMightyThor Thor]] is said to only use about a fifth of his full strength when fighting humans, even insanely strong ones like the Hulk, out of fear of accidentally killing them. One of the few exceptions (he specifically noted he wasn't holding back) was when he fought ComicBook/IronMan after ''Comicbook/CivilWar'', and even after Iron Man's numerous upgrades in the past few years [[CurbStompBattle Tony didn't last thirty seconds.]] He didn't kill him or severely hurt him, though. He just turned his suit of armor into scrap metal parts, while verbally abusing him and [[WhatTheHellHero calling him out on his recent misdeeds.]]

* When ComicBook/{{Supergirl}} first returned in [[ComicBook/TheSupergirlFromKrypton 2004]], [[ComicBook/Supergirl2005 she was shown outperforming Superman]] to the point where it was speculated that she might actually be more powerful. It turned out, this was meant to show that Superman [[LetsGetDangerous had been holding himself back]] all these years out of fear of causing death or destruction (which Supergirl in fact does in the early issues because she [[DoesNotKnowHisOwnStrength doesn't know her own strength]].)
** So when the yellow-clad Weapons Master does fight the flu-ish Superman, this ironically makes Big Blue that much more dangerous. As he tries to explain to the bad people, he doesn't know if he can stop his punches from taking off heads.

* This usually happens on Franchise/{{Superman}}'s part whenever he fights Franchise/{{Batman}}. For example, In Frank Miller's ''ComicBook/BatmanTheDarkKnightReturns'', Superman was not only weakened by his age, as indicated early on in the story, plus being at ground zero of a nuke so powerful it caused a nuclear winter by itself just a few days before ''and'' said nuclear winter limiting the amount of sun rays he could receive, but he was also holding back because Batman is his friend. [[spoiler:This even gets confirmed in the sequel comics, where it's revealed that Superman was indeed holding back all along and when Batman realizes this, he has a [[OhCrap most appropriate reaction]].]]
* Played in advance in the ''Franchise/{{Superman}} vs Franchise/{{Predator}}'' mini-series. Under normal circumstances the Predators would have posed no threat whatsoever -- so the story had Superman catch alien flu just as he arrived in the jungle where they had landed.

* In ''ComicBook/SupermanVsTheAmazingSpiderMan'', Spidey initially holds his own because ComicBook/LexLuthor and Doc Ock had unknowingly (to him) sprayed him with a blast of Red Sun Radiation. Superman is about to use a full powered punch when he realises that the impact would subject Spider-Man to the ChunkySalsaRule and stops it short, the sheer blast of the punch knocking Spider-Man through several buildings ([[SuperWindowJump through their windows]].) Spidey gets angry and charges Superman, only to have the Red Sun Radiation wear off just as he lands his first blow. As he puts it a couple of panels later:
-->'''Spider-Man''': Oboy. Oboy. I think I just broke my hands...
* Retroactively done to every single Superman vs. The Flash race. Superman tries to convince Barry Allen not to return to the speed force and states that he's been able to keep up if not win in all their races. Barry simply tells him "Those were for charity, Clark," and leaves him in the dust instantly. Fastest man alive indeed. This is an odd case; Superman really was about as fast as Barry back when those issues were actually written, but Superman was powered down substantially in 1986. Even if a lot of that power has returned he is not back to [[UsefulNotes/TheSilverAgeOfComicBooks Silver Age]] power levels, so when those Silver Age stories became canon again, this explanation became necessary.

* Omnipresent in ''VideoGame/DarkSouls'' where your character shouldn't even beat half the bosses and monsters if they weren't hollow, insane or weakened by other means (Seath the Scaleless takes the cake with being an insane blind dragon with a terminal disease). Most of the boss fights could be considered MercyKill.

* ''Manga/OnePiece'': Luffy and the rest of the Straw Hats are initially unable to defeat the [=CP9=], and while they are not yet using the techniques they use to defeat their opponents in later battles, Nami suggests that they weren't fighting at their full potential because they were still unsure whether Robin had betrayed them. Once they realize that she did what she did for their sake, they are able to fight to their full power to rescue her (strangely enough, Sanji knows Robin's reasons and still is unable to defeat Blueno, but later defeats the far more powerful Jyabura). Luffy also admits he wasn't at his fullest because he [[{{Pun}} wasn't full]] and just fought Wanze, who was a relatively weak enemy but managed to thrash Sanji a fair amount before he started using knives.
*** Blueno's own poor showing against the Straw Hats compared to his collegues is attributed to his cover identity of the past ''five years'' being a purely non-combat/physically demanding job of barman.

** In ''Literature/GoingPostal'' Reacher Gilt [[spoiler: hires Mr Gryle, a male banshee hitman, to kill Moist. Mr Gryle's supernatural fighting skill and awesome killing physique are talked up hugely, so why are Moist and Stanley able to beat him? Simple. Mr Gryle made the mistake of snacking on an Ankh-Morpork pidgeon before the fight, which gave him food poisoning]].

* In ''FanFic/{{Fractured}}'', a ''Franchise/MassEffect''[=/=]''Franchise/StarWars''[[spoiler:[=/=]''[=Borderlands=]'']] [[MassiveMultiplayerCrossover crossover]], the [[BigBadDuumvirate JVLN Alliance]] (Cerberus combined with pro-human forces from another galaxy) actively [[TheChessmaster exploits]] this trope by setting up "Worf" (RNS ''Revenant'', a [[MileLongShip huge]] [[TheBattlestar Star Dreadnaught]]) with the "flu." Specifically, by analyzing information about other ships like it, they know exactly how to AttackItsWeakPoint after ensuring it is PointDefenseless due to being unable to fire on friendly [=IFFs=] stolen through old-fashioned spycraft. Further, a fake attack caused any other defensive weapons to initially fire in the wrong direction. Finally, the ship is experiencing a PhlebotinumBreakdown (out of fuel) anyway, so is already weakened.

* Thor in ''Film/AvengersEndgame''. Thanos beats Thor in round 3 of their fight (the first two coming in ''Film/AvengersInfinityWar''). However, Thor isn't the chiseled fighter he usually was and while he obviously retains most if not all of his physical strength, he hasn't done any fighting for five years, whereas Thanos is at the peak of his abilities. If Thor had been at his peak, he would have demolished Thanos and his forces like he did previously in Infinity War's climax...

* ''Film/{{Predators}}'': This happens when [[spoiler: the "Classic" Predator similar to the ones from the old films faces the lead "Berserker" Predator from this movie. The Classic Predator has been tied up for a while and has poorly maintained equipment allowing for leeway when the new predator wins the fight, but even with this, he still puts up a hell of a fight]].

** In the novelization for ''Film/AttackOfTheClones'', it's mentioned that Count Dooku is rested and fresh while Obi-wan is exhausted from the Battle of Geonosis, which explains why the Jedi loses so badly to Dooku.
** In ''Film/StarWarsTheForceAwakens'', [[spoiler: Rey is able to hold her own and seriously injure Kylo Ren due to Ren's [[{{BFG}} boltcaster]] wound slowing him down, his shoulder wound from Finn, and his mental turmoil over having just killed his father]]. In ''Film/TheLastJedi'', Snoke admonishes Ren for the latter factor causing this.

* ''Literature/TheDresdenFiles'': In Literature/BattleGround, [[spoiler:the Battle of Chicago takes place near midsummer, where Mab is at her weakest and thus isn't as powerful as she normally would be. She's still the most dangerous combatant on the side of the Accords who is engaged in the entire battle, and her apparent impending death after she is taken out by the FantasticNuke the other side is using turns out to be a gambit to take their opponents by surprise with the rest of the forces of Winter ''and'' Summer.]]