History StoryBreakerPower / WesternAnimation

** The Elements of Harmony are explicitly stated to be the most powerful magic in Equestria, and swiftly defeated every villain they've been used against. Thus the conflict of many two-parters revolve around actually getting to them, and then making sure they work properly (as they effectively weaponise ThePowerOfFriendship). In the Season 4 premiere, the Mane Six sacrifice the elements by returning the items to its source, the Tree of Harmony, rendering them no longer usable... but then the season finale has them replaced by the even ''more'' convenient Rainbow Power that when used was an InstantWinCondition for that two-parter conflict. Then it turns out that Rainbow Power OnlyWorksOnce. Later, Season 9 has King Sombra personally [[JustEatTheMacGuffin remove the Elements from the picture]].

** Toph, who is easily the most powerful Earthbender in either series. Earth is already an extremely versatile element; aside from its obvious use in crushing people, Earthbenders can use rock to trap their opponents, create large tunnels and blast holes through stone walls, and shield themselves with large slabs of rock or crystal armor. Toph's DisabilitySuperpower lets her use the earth as a form of quasi-echolocation, where she can sense anything as long as it's touching earth, which also makes her nigh impossible to sneak up on. In her debut episode, she creates a sandstorm to blind her opponents while she can still see them through the earth. She can also detect changes in people's physiology this way, which -among other things- makes her a LivingLieDetector. Once she creates metalbending, she becomes capable of breaking out of prisons and destroying tanks and airships singlehandedly. And by the time she returns in ''The Legend of Korra'', she's found a way to channel her seismic sense through the vines of the Foggy Swamp, allowing her to observe ''everything on the planet simultaneously''. All-in-all, she is a very powerful character. For the most part, the show handles this by having Toph occupy herself with {{mooks}}; she rarely fights the major antagonists directly outside of a few group battles against Azula's crew and an encounter with the Combustion Man. A few episodes such as "The Boiling Rock" write her out entirely to keep her from being able to solve the plot in two seconds.
** In Season 3 of ''Korra'', [[BigBad Zaheer]] showed how broken airbending truly be, if someone decided to fully cut loose with it. With only Airbender philosophy and mental training to guide him, Zaheer steamrolled multiple master benders and was nigh-unstoppable (up until he took on [[BigGood Tenzin]]) and even held his own vs. an enraged Korra in the Avatar State.
** Korra herself had this problem in the second season. A fully realized Avatar, in the prime of their youth, with unlimited access to the Avatar State is, more or less, unbeatable. The only things that could challenge her are the [[EldritchAbomination Rogue Spirits]] introduced early on and even then they stopped being a problem once she learned how to just purify them with a special form of waterbending. The conflict of this season was mostly political, so her strength couldn't help very much. Probably to make her easier to write for.

** Ben is the wielder of the Omnitrix, an alien device that can potentially turn him into more than ''one million'' aliens, several of them with their own set of super-powers. This would, in theory, allow him to handle any possible situation as long as he chooses the right form. So of course, this power is balanced by most alien forms being locked, Ben's tendencies to go for the IndyPloy and [[{{Troll}} the Omnitrix constantly giving him the wrong alien or turning him back to normal at the wrong time]]. There ''is'' the Master Control that allows to transform at will into any alien with no time limit, but it's extremely hard to unlock and Ben hasn't figured it out... and whenever he does, the device reconfigures itself within the next few episodes ([[StatusQuoIsGod if not by the end of the episode]]), setting him back to square one. Several episodes show that by adulthood in the classic continuity, [[FutureBadass Ben has permanently unlocked it]] and ended up becoming so effective that he made police and other heroes obsolete.

** Franchise/TheFlash, period. Like the comics, the writers had to find a way to nerf his powers to better maintain tension in the story. When the writers finally have him go all out, Flash completely [[CurbstompBattle curbstomps]] [[DidYouJustPunchOutCthulhu Brainthor.]] In another episode, the completely unfettered Lex, [[FreakyFridayFlip given control of Flash's body]], showed just how deadly the Flash could be if he didn't hold himself back.

** Franchise/{{Superman}}, like his comic counterpart, qualifies. The writers admitted they had to find ways to get him out of the way to ensure the other members had something to do. In the first season, he would end up getting knocked out a lot and the show was criticised for this. In later seasons, the writers found other ways to deal with it such as having the foes be magical or alien. They also had different objectives be far apart so that the League would need to split into teams to deal with all of them simultaneously. Even as far back as Superman: The Animated Series which is based in the same universe, the writers put clear limits on his powers so he isn't as powerful as he is in the comics. They stated that having a hero who can move planets makes it really hard to come up with interesting threats and so in the DCAU, Superman can conceivably be killed with an extreme application of force without having to use kryptonite at all.

** Ron has his own Story Breaker Power in the form of [[SupernaturalMartialArts Mystical Monkey Power]]. He learns the skill in Season 2, but is unable to consciously use it because of his phobia surrounding, well, monkeys. Seeing Kim get defeated in the second finale gives him the motivation to push past his fear and finally use the power to its full potential.

* The titular heroine's WorldHealingWave in ''WesternAnimation/MiraculousLadybug'' could easily become this if used to its full potential. Since it can canonically reverse any damage dealt by Ladybug, Cat Noir, or the akumas, up to ''and including'' death, it would logically allow the heroes to simply ShootTheHostage, and then bring that hostage BackFromTheDead after defeating the villain. It does have limits, though, as it can't reverse anything done by events completely unrelated to use of the Miraculous, and it can only be used once by sacrificing a Lucky Charm object, which is itself a limited use power. As such, Ladybug is careful about when she uses the Miraculous Ladybugs.
** On the same note, Cat Noir's Cataclysm is a NoSavingThrow OneHitKill. If used against any enemy other than the [[DemonicPossession akumas]], it would be an absurdly easy road to victory. Although, it turns out that it won't necessarily kill someone, especially someone empowered by at least one Miraculous of their own, as Monarch gets off with only a permanently, heavily bruised arm when he sacrifices it to Cat Noir's Cataclysm to escape the heroes in "Destruction." However, Cat Noir is still somewhat traumatized that Monarch had literally forced his hand to use it on him.

** [[GodEmperor Princess Celestia and Princess Luna]] are magnitudes more powerful than all but a handful of beings [[note]]And only Luna's SuperPoweredEvilSide and Discord surpass them on their own merits; Chrysalis, Tirek, and Twilight all absorbed energy from others; and it took both Sisters just to temporarily defeat Sombra -- and even then, he was still able to cast a backup curse -- an instance that leaves the full extent of his power unknown.[[/note]], and their political clout could solve many of the interpersonal issues the cast faces, thus they frequently pull a DeusExitMachina or are otherwise unavailable. And the few times Celestia does show up she falls victim to TheWorfEffect.
** Presumably this is the reason Spike was absent from "The Cutie Map." He has four general abilities: Fire breath, being a living fax machine, near NighInvulnerability, and a track record for [[LetsGetDangerous being surprisingly competent]] when under pressure. And none of these abilities could be neutralized by Starlight Glimmer's cutie mark removal spell, since he's a dragon that naturally lacks one. Having a character handy who could have just called for reinforcements or torched Starlight's cutie mark vault while she stood by and screeched at him not to would have cut the two-parter into a one-parter.
** [[GreatGazoo Discord]] is a RealityWarper so powerful he almost seems [[TheOmnipotent omnipotent]]. The Elements of Harmony are initially the only thing that threaten him, and his powers [[WrongContextMagic are so divergent from everyone else's]], that it's almost funny. He undergoes a HeelFaceTurn in the third season after he comes to value his friendship with Fluttershy too much to risk angering her by returning to his villainous ways, but as a being of chaos he generally isn't likely to help out in ''solving'' problems, sitting back to play TricksterMentor at best. On the two occasions he did agree to help, he was [[spoiler:manipulated back into villainy before being backstabbed]] ("Twilight's Kingdom") and [[WorfHadTheFlu fell prey]] to an AntiMagic field that completely negated his abilities ("To Where and Back Again"). The fact that he wasn't in ''[[WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyTheMovie2017 The Movie]]'' (except for two small cameos) speaks volumes.
** Deconstructed with Starlight Glimmer, a unicorn whose magic is one of the most powerful in the series. She's so used to brute-forcing situations with magic that she often doesn't learn anything or get to really know anypony unless it blows up in her face, whether by backfiring, making other ponies afraid of her, or worse. So while she ''can'' solve many plot problems with magic, her major character development is learning when she should and shouldn't, such as "solving" her anger by magically putting her angry emotions into bottles or performing activities with all of Twilight's friends via brainwashing everyone into doing the activities on autopilot.

* ''WesternAnimation/RickAndMorty'': PlayedForLaughs. Rick Sanchez C-137, considered the absolute smartest man in the Central Finite Curve, of unbelievable resourcefulness and guile, able to essentially do anything on a whim and is CrazyPrepared about getting himself and his company of people out of any situation and is essentially immortal because of his Operation Phoenix technology and endless cybernetic enhancements in his body. However, several episodes conveniently give Rick several hiccups in certain events just to pad out the 20-minute running time of the episode and to raise the stakes. For instance, Rick's portal gun, the only thing that takes him across the multiverse, runs out of juice, Rick's ego and FatalFlaw prevents him from thinking things rationally, making situations worse, and suffering from ComplexityAddiction. Or the show simply gives an EvilerThanThou antagonist that even he cannot defeat, such as a version of himself who murdered his wife and Beth, or a vile version of his grandson who wears an eyepatch.

** In "Unmortricken" [[spoiler: Evil Morty gets his hands on the Omega Device, a Weapon Too Cool For A Name that can wipe out all variants of the same person in the multiverse if used on one variant. Due to his PragmaticVillainy and not wanting to end up like Rick Prime, whom he helped Rick kill, Evil Morty uses it as just a deterrent should Rick come after him, as he can erase him from existence should he intrude his isolated life.]]
* The final season of ''WesternAnimation/SamuraiJack'' introduces Ashi, one of the Daughters of Aku who eventually befriends and falls in love with Jack. She doesn't learn that she inherited her father's powers until the penultimate episode, and it was only in the final episode when she realises she could simply create a PortalToThePast for Jack, allowing him to return to the point where Aku was at his weakest and finish him off, thus finally undoing the future that was Aku ([[HeroicSacrifice at the cost of Ashi's existence]]). Of course, only Jack's sword or the gods that forged said sword were still the only means that can kill Aku, so even his own power still paled in comparison.
* ''WesternAnimation/SouthPark'': Parodied in "Good Times With Weapons", when the kids are pretending to be ninjas, and Cartman [[NewPowersAsThePlotDemands keeps making up new powers for his character]]. Kyle eventually has enough of this and says that he is only allowed to have one power. The power Cartman picks? [[LoopholeAbuse The power to have all the powers he wants]]. Kyle immediately declares that doesn't count, and bans Cartman from having any powers, at least until Professor Chaos (Butters) attacks, and Kyle lets Cartman have his powers back in order to help fight him. At which point, Cartman immediately [[ForcedTransformation turns Kyle into a chicken]].
* ''WesternAnimation/StarWarsTheCloneWars'': By WordOfGod, this is the reason why [[BigGood Yoda]] rarely got DayInTheLimelight episodes or was shown fighting in the titular wars. Other than [[BigBad Sidious]], who [[DoomedByCanon canon dictates Yoda can never meet]], there just aren't any antagonists capable of posing a threat to him. The two story arcs that ''did'' feature Yoda[[note]]the pilot and the sixth season finale[[/note]] both sidestepped this issue, the first by treating his victory as a ForegoneConclusion, and the second by delving into the mysticism of the Force rather than trying to put him in a physical conflict.

** The one time Sidious is shown fighting he goes out of his way to demonstrate that he could have won through telekinesis alone without his opponents being able to do anything about it. He then fights a hilariously one-sided lightsaber duel against [[spoiler:Maul and Savage]] simultaneously just for fun.

** According to WordofGod, Ahsoka Tano by the time of the Rebellion is this, with her having dramatically improved since the Clone Wars in which she was already a legitimate badass to where she is specifically said to be the only one who could challenge the Sith Lord antagonists. With the fact that the enemies of the seasons where she was around were either droids, troopers, or Inquisitors, all of whom are threats to the rest of the Ghost but nothing compared to Ahsoka, who is effectively a Jedi Master in terms of power now, and only second at the time to Yoda and Kenobi when it comes to raw power, both of whom get little time in the show, Ahsoka was only shown to fight against 2 Inquisitors simultaneously, which was a complete CurbStompBattle, whereas Ezra and Kanan would have lost at that time against them, in the first season, when she was most direly needed. In the second season, apart from a brief fight with three Inquisitors, she only fights Maul and Vader, who are on the same weight class as she is, and she not only easily stalemates Maul, with the indication that she could have won against him had the fight continued, but she even gives Darth Vader one of the hardest challenges he's ever been through, during which Ahsoka is taken out of the picture along with Vader as she was too powerful and would have given the Ghost dominance over the enemies they faced in the third season. WordofGod even admits they had planned for her to never show up again, and though her popularity saved her, she ultimately appears only when ''Sidious'' himself shows up, so the developers could justify her appearance by having someone who's obviously more powerful than her, and she's the only reason why Ezra is able to escape and prevent the godly powers of the World Between Worlds from being exploited by Sidious, with no more participation in the affairs of the heroes, which effectively allowed the tension of the final episodes to occur.

* ''WesternAnimation/StevenUniverse'' has the title character discover he has healing powers in "An Indirect Kiss", which destroys pretty much any tension from Gems getting hurt or damaged, provided that aren't killed outright... at least until a few episodes later, where confidence issues cause his healing powers to cease working for two seasons. Even then, they can't completely recover Gems from being corrupted, an issue Steven learned about in the intervening time.

** Garnet has future vision, an ability that allows her to predict events before they happen. You'd think that most of the story arcs of the series could have been solved simply by preventing them from happening, but Garnet's powers are more akin to calculating the probability of various timelines, so her powers are not always reliable. Despite that, she makes a lot of correct predictions through the series, such as locating [[spoiler:Pearl and Amethyst's cells' positions in Peridot's spaceship]] (in "Jail Break") and preventing some {{Bad Future}}s (in "Winter Forecast"). In addition, she can transfer this power to Steven by kissing him on the head. She could have prevented one of the most important arcs in the series if she would have told Steven what would happen if he tried to visit [[spoiler:Pink Diamond's palanquin]]. She said that the reason that she didn't say exactly what she saw is that it would make him more interested, but she could have kissed Steven to show him that [[spoiler:Blue Diamond would be visiting the palanquin, and then he would not have put his father in danger by taking him there]]. This ability is also tempered by her own preconceptions of people, with a season 5 episode having her realize that she's been failing to have accurate visions recently because she still viewed Steven as the same TagalongKid he was at the start of the show.
** Before [[HeelFaceTurn joining the Crystal Gems]], Peridot had prosthetic limbs that gave her various cool and useful abilities like flying, a TractorBeam, and a powerful energy shot. They were also hinted to have the information that they needed to stop the Cluster from destroying Earth. However, after she was bubbled by Garnet, Amethyst threw those Limb Enhancers in the ocean, so she could't use these abilities after joining the Crystal Gems, which could have been helpful in the Cluster mission, and [[spoiler:finding Jasper]]. [[spoiler:She later gains a limited control over metal as a trade-off, though.]]
** Lapis Lazuli is another example. Her power is absolute control of water, with a later episode directly stating that her race's purpose in the Gem hierarchy is terraforming entire planets. In "Ocean Gem", she is able to control the entire ocean, even with her gem cracked. In the same episode, she is able to create water clones that can easily defeat the main characters. When Steven repairs her gem with his previously mentioned healing powers, she also gets the ability to create water wings to fly, which she can summon even without a nearby water source. In general, the series counterbalances this by making Lapis a flighty PTSD sufferer who has no interest in the overall conflict, and [[DeusExitMachina tends to leave the scene whenever possible.]] When she finally properly joins and aligns herself with the Crystal Gems, she manages to give [[spoiler:Blue Diamond]] some trouble. Even as an official member of the Crystal Gems, she is basically never around when there's a fight to be had. Tellingly, the only serious fight she gets into in ''Future'' is against two other Lapis Lazulis, and even then, she's shown to be far more powerful than them.

** White Diamond. [[spoiler: In addition to being a giant diamond with all the raw strength and other abilities that entails, she can take direct control of any gem which obviously brings an abrupt end to any conflict in a show where all of the characters even remotely powerful enough to stand up to her are gems. It's pretty telling that the only way they resolved the "final battle" was by Steven finally convincing her that he wasn't Pink Diamond anymore, which made her decide she'd rather bring her family back together peacefully. If she wanted to win through force anyway, it's very likely that [[TheBadGuyWins she would have wiped everyone out pretty much immediately.]]]]

** Another story-breaker was introduced in the movie with the Obsidian Orbs. These {{Magitek}} {{Trick Bomb}}s releases a gas that [[TakenForGranite turns anyone caught in the blast into obsidian statues]], and [[NoSavingThrow are able to bypass magic shields]], including those of ''[[BarrierWarrior Cadence]]''. Tempest Shadow used them to easily capture three of the powerful princesses, with Twilight only escaping by sheer luck. Conveniently for the heroes, Tempest Shadow and the rest of Storm King's forces never use them again while hunting them down until the movie's climax. [[HoistByHisOwnPetard No points for guessing]] who gets killed by the last one.

** The Rabbit Miraculous with its power of time travel also easily counts. Ladybug and Bunnix are responsible enough to only use its power when absolutely necessary. [[spoiler:However, once the BigBad, now calling himself Monarch, manages to steal most of the Miraculous including the Rabbit, he naturally uses it right away. He even had a chance to fix his own past mistake that would've rendered the entire show's plotline meaningless had he not been [[StatusQuoIsGod too fixated on defeating Ladybug and Cat Noir instead. Naturally, Ladybug is able to retrieve the Rabbit Miraculous from Moanarch soon after.]]]]
** Second Chance, the Snake Miraculous' special ability, which provides its user with unlimited mulligans provided they aren't divested of the bracelet before it goes off, although it has to be manually set in advance and only has a single memory point that can be used at any one time. Some very one-sided battles are turned around by clever (and sometimes very liberal) use of this ability. Lampshaded by Ladybug in the Season 3 finale, when she surveys the mind-controlled Miraculous holders and identifies Viperion as ''by far'' the most dangerous.

* In ''WesternAnimation/IronManArmoredAdventures,'' Tony's Extremis upgrade lets him take control of anything electronic, and most of his enemies are as tech-based as the heroes. It is ''not'' nerfed, forgotten, or given a counter, and we learn just why most characters in most works ''do'' have this happen to any over-the-top ability: pretty much every battle after he gets it goes thusly: "Tony shoots a couple repulsor blasts at it, and when that doesn't work, remembers Extremis is a thing, and instantly wins literally just by thinking about it." Say bye-bye to any excitement in his fights.

** Rhombulus, one of the members of the Magic High Commission, has one of the most simple but useful powers in the series. His crystal beams are capable to trap anyone in a crystal cocoon from which they can't escape, while preserving them alive and unaltered. The only ones capable of break or melt the crystal are Rhombulus himself and [[spoiler:Eclipsa, and the latter needed the help of Queen Moon to do it]]. Since the victims of this spell are still alive (though [[AndIMustScream and they can be imprisoned for an inhumane long period of time]]), there aren't any moral problems at using it indiscriminately against enemies, using it to ShootTheHostage without killing them, and interrogate enemies after capturing them. On the other hand, Rhombulus is a DumbMuscle that sometimes fights his enemies physically rather than use directly his powers. Moreover, nobody thought that he could have crystallized Toffee and his monster army, and he is nowhere to be seen during [[spoiler:the battle against Meteora]].

** Garnet has future vision, an ability that allows her to predict events before they happen. You'd think that most of the story arcs of the series could have been solved simply by preventing them from happening, but Garnet's powers are more akin to calculating the probability of various timelines, so her powers are not always reliable. Despite that, she makes a lot of correct predictions through the series, such as locating [[spoiler:Pearl and Amethyst's cells' positions in Peridot's spaceship]] (in "Jail Break") and preventing some {{Bad Future}}s (in "Winter Forecast"). In addition, she can transfer this power to Steven by kissing him on the head. She could have prevented one of the most important arcs in the series if she would have told Steven what would happen if he tried to visit [[spoiler:Pink Diamond's palanquin]]. She said that the reason that she didn't say exactly what she saw is that it would make him more interested, but she could have kissed Steven to show him that [[spoiler:Blue Diamond would be visiting the palanquin, and then he would not have put his father in danger by taking him there]]. This ability is also pampered by her own preconceptions of people, with a season 5 episode having her realize that she's been failing to have accurate visions recently because she still viewed Steven as the same TagalongKid he was at the start of the show.

* The BigBad of ''WesternAnimation/ShadowRaiders'' is an indestructible PlanetEater which, anywhere else, would end the story in moments. The only way the heroes can triumph is by [[spoiler:teleporting said planet eater away, and even that just causes it to change targets]].

** Special mention goes to Lloyd Garmadon's [[EleventhHourSuperpower Golden Ninja form]], which he obtains in what was intended to be the show's GrandFinale. When the series was UnCancelled, Lloyd had to be separated from the action for much of the third season and almost immediately has his powers stolen when he returns. It's also shown early on that the [[MechaMook season's villains]] are immune to his power, just for good measure.
* ''WesternAnimation/{{Reboot}}'': The final season has Hexadecimal pull a HeelFaceTurn. Hexadecimal is so powerful in-universe that even legions of brainwashed Guardians are not remotely a threat to her. She doesn't even have to kill them- she can non-lethally group them up via her powerful telekinesis powers and simply throw them back through the portal they came in in the first place. ''Daemon Rising'' resorts to depowering her [[GodzillaThreshold until the very last moment]] to keep any semblance of tension, and she commits a HeroicSacrifice in the end so that ''My Two Bobs'' can happen at all.

* ''WesternAnimation/SouthPark'': Parodied in ''Good Times With Weapons'', when the kids are pretending to be ninjas, and Cartman [[NewPowersAsThePlotDemands keeps making up new powers for his character]]. Kyle eventually has enough of this and says that he is only allowed to have one power. The power Cartman picks? [[LoopholeAbuse The power to have all the powers he wants]]. Kyle immediately declares that doesn't count, and bans Cartman from having any powers, at least until Professor Chaos (Butters) attacks, and Kyle lets Cartman have his powers back in order to help fight him. At which point, Cartman immediately [[ForcedTransformation turns Kyle into a chicken]].

** The Rabbit Miraculous with its power of time travel also easily counts. Ladybug and Bunnix are responsible enough to only use its power when absolutely necessary. [[spoiler:However, once the BigBad, now calling himself Monarch, manages to steal most of the Miraculous including the Rabbit, he naturally uses it right away. He even had a chance to fix his own past mistake that would've rendered the entire show's plotline meaningless had he not been [[StatusQuoIsGod too fixated on defeating Ladybug and Cat Noir instead. Naturally, Ladybug is also able to retrieve the Rabbit Miraculous from Moanarch soon after.]]]]

** On the same note, Cat Noir's Cataclysm is a NoSavingThrow OneHitKill. If used against any enemy other than the [[DemonicPossession akumas]], it would be an absurdly easy road to victory. Although, it turns out that it won't necessarily kill someone, especially someone empowered by at least one Miraculous of their own, as Monarch gets off with only a permanently, heavily bruised arm when he sacrifices it to Cat Noir's Cataclysm to escape the heroes in 'Destruction.' However, Cat Noir is still somewhat traumatized that Monarch had literally forced his hand to use it on him.

* The titular heroine's WorldHealingWave in ''WesternAnimation/MiraculousLadybug'' could easily become this if used to its full potential. Since it can canonically reverse any damage dealt by Ladybug, Cat Noir, or the akumas, up to ''and including'' death, it would logically allow the heroes to simply ShootTheHostage, and then bring that hostage BackFromTheDead after defeating the villain.
** On the same note, Cat Noir's Cataclysm is a NoSavingThrow OneHitKill. If used against any enemy other than the [[DemonicPossession akumas]], it would be an absurdly easy road to victory.

*** About halfway through ''Omniverse'', Ben was granted access to a form called Atomix, ILoveNuclearPower personified, and second in raw power only to Alien X. The only reason Ben didn't almost automatically win every subsequent battle is, again, the Omnitrix itself deciding otherwise.

* ''WesternAnimation/SouthPark'': Parodied in ''Good Times With Weapons'', when the kids are pretending to be ninjas, and Cartman [[NewPowersAsThePlotDemands keeps making up new powers for his character]]. Kyle eventually has enough of this and says that he is only allowed to have one power. The power Cartman picks? [[LoopholeAbuse The power to have all the powers he wants]]. Kyle immediately declares that doesn't count, and bans Cartman from having any powers, at least until Professor Chaos (Butters) attacks, and Kyle lets Cartman have his powers back in order to help fight him. At which point, Cartman immediately [[BalefulPolymorph turns Kyle into a chicken]].

* ''WesternAnimation/WanderOverYonder'': Major Threat was the most menacing and powerful GalacticConqueror who [[BigBad Lord Hater]] idolized, and for good reason too! He has an array of [[MindOverMatter psychic powers]], such as telekinesis which, according to Peepers, is strong enough to crush ''planets!'' He also has mass brainwashing and technology manipulation, and in a show filled with villains who use Mooks and spaceships, this is huge. [[spoiler: It's a wonder how he didn't just solo Lord Dominator in 'The End of the Galaxy'.]] The thing that holds him back is [[AllLovingHero Wander]] having helped him go through a HeelFaceTurn, so he is now a NewAgeRetroHippie who only uses his powers to help people.

** Garnet has future vision, an ability that allows her to predict events before they happen. You'd think that most of the story arcs of the series could have been solved simply by preventing them from happening, but Garnet's powers are more akin to calculating the probability of various timelines, so her powers are not always reliable. Despite that, she makes a lot of correct predictions through the series, such as locating [[spoiler:Pearl's and Amethyst's cell's position in Peridot's space ship]] (in "Jail Break") and preventing some {{Bad Future}}s (in "Winter Forecast"). In addition, she can transfer this power to Steven by kissing him on the head. She could have prevented one of the most important arcs in the series if she would have told Steven what would happened if he tried to visit [[spoiler:Pink Diamond's palanquin]]. She said that the reason that she didn't say exactly what she saw is that it would make him more interested, but she could have kissed Steven to show him that [[spoiler:Blue Diamond would visiting the palanquin, and then he would not have put his father in danger by taking him there]]. This ability is also pampered by her own preconceptions of people, with a season five episode having her realize that she's been failing to have accurate visions recently because she still viewed Steven as the same TagalongKid he was at the start of the show.

** White Diamond. [[spoiler: In addition to being a giant diamond with all the raw strength and other abilities that entails, she can take direct control of any gem which obviously brings an abrupt end to any conflict in a show where all of the characters even remotely powerful enough to stand up to her are gems. It's pretty telling that the only way they resolved the "final battle" was by Steven finally convincing her that he wasn't Pink Diamond anymore, which made her decide she'd rather bring her family back together peacefully. If she wanted to win through force anyway it's very likely that [[TheBadGuyWins she would have wiped everyone out pretty much immediately.]]]]
** In the final season, Steven himself. Of course there are the healing and resurrection powers mentioned above, but after [[spoiler:gaining complete control over his powers as a diamond he can also turn his nearly indestructible barriers of force into powerful weapons, fly and enter into a super speed state where he's fast enough that time practically stops around him. He starts to slip into PersonOfMassDestruction territory when having an emotional breakdown and is strong enough that he effortlessly shatters Jasper (previously shown to be one of the strongest non-fusion gems around, despite being just a quartz soldier) on accident when he fully loses control. It makes sense then that most of his role in the season is spent [[VictoryIsBoring learning how to live in a peaceful universe where there is nobody left to fight]] since any new villains would have to get some pretty serious power creep to be a believable threat. Case in point, when the time comes for the show to have a fight against the FinalBoss, ''Steven himself'' fills the role, with his power growing so far out of control that he transforms into a sort of gem kaiju that can only be defeated with ThePowerOfFriendship.]]
* The Sword of Omens from ''WesternAnimation/ThunderCats'' kept getting new powers so it could be the solution to so many plots as the series wore on that it became this. Even when it was destroyed, they just reforged it again.

** In effect, Loki's Mask could potentially be this, but with it being an ImaginationBasedSuperpower, could render the episode over in a few seconds, but because it's dependent on who's wearing it, e.g. {{Nice Guy}} Stanley Ipkiss, in his persona as an AttentionDeficitOohShiny {{Jerk with a Heart of Gold}} AntiHero {{Troll}} The Mask, there's things that even ''he'' cannot solve. Some individuals who wear it, like Pretorius, the BigBad of the series, have no imagination and are complete sociopaths, while others, like NoCelebritiesWereHarmed version of Ross Perot, known only as Government Guy, seen in a TimeTravelEpisode, have a lack of understanding of the powers it grants. Other Mask personas tend to have different problems such as Eve is love crazy, Masked Peggy Brandt is egotistical and Masked Dr Neuman is psychotic.

* ''WesternAnimation/XiaolinShowdown'' has several game breaker Shen Gong Wu, most of which are dealt with in the same way: lock it away in the temple vault for the benefit of the world, just in case it somehow ends up in the wrong hands. Naturally, despite the villains often breaking into the vault, they apparently never manage to steal any of these powerful Shen Gong Wu.
** Zigzagged by the Golden Tiger Claws, which lets their user slash open a portal to anywhere the user wants to go. When [[ClassyCatBurglar Katnappe]] got a hold of them she [[CurbStompBattle curb-stomps]] the Xiaolin Dragons without much effort. [[TheHero Omi]] stops her by using the claws to slash a portal to the earth's core and then throw them in [[NoMacGuffinNoWinner so neither side can use them]]. They eventually got retrieved when the Xiaolin Dragons have to use them to defeat [[ImplacableMan Mala Mala Jong]] but after that point [[SoLastSeason both teams became powerful and skilled enough where the claws don't make as much of a difference in battle]].
** The Shard Of Lightning - which essentially stops time entirely for a short period - gives Jack the ability to not only curbstomp the heroes within seconds, but totally humiliate them at any given time, steal the Shen Gong Wu whenever he wants, and basically defeat any opponent without needing any help whatsoever. As he would have become totally undefeatable if he had held onto it, he manages to lose it pretty quickly and it gets locked away in the vault.

** The Sands of Time. TimeTravel. Need we say more? It was quickly removed via Omi's future self taking it to his own time. Like the Golden Tiger Claws, it was later retrieved, but then flat-out destroyed soon after when Omi found himself in a BadPresent. 1500 years ago. [[TimeTravelTenseTrouble Whatever.]]
** Wuya at full strength is so powerful, she trounces the Monks with little to no effort, conquers the world in like, an hour and is only beaten by being placed back in Dashi's puzzle box. When she's brought back to life a second time, Chase Young explicitly limits her powers so that she doesn't just invalidate every other villain.

** In "Steven and the Stevens", Steven gets a portable time traveling device, similar that the one seen in the pilot. He tries to use it to create a music band with [[MesACrowd Stevens of various timelines]]. However, a war starts between the Stevens, forcing the original Steven to break the machine to make [[NoOntologicalInertia all the other Stevens disappear]]. That kind of technology is never mentioned again.

** Korra herself had this problem in the second season. A fully realized Avatar, in the prime of their youth, with unlimited access to the Avatar State is, more or less, unbeatable. The only things that could challenge her are the [[EldritchAbomination Rogue Spirits]] introduced early on and even then they stopped being a problem after she could just purify them with a special form of Water-Bending. The conflict of this season was mostly political, so her strength couldn't help very much. Probably to make her easier to write for.

** Ben is the wielder of the Omnitrix, an alien device that can potentially turn him into more than ''one million'' aliens, several of them with their own set of super-powers. This would, in theory, allow him to handle any possible situation as long as he choses the right form. So of course, this power is balanced by most alien forms being locked, Ben's tendencies to go for the IndyPloy and [[{{Troll}} the Omnitrix constantly giving him the wrong alien or turning him back to normal at the wrong time]]. There ''is'' the Master Control that allows to transform at will into any alien with no time limit, but it's extremely hard to unlock and Ben hasn't figured it out... and whenever he does, the device reconfigures itself within the next few episodes ([[StatusQuoIsGod if not by the end of the episode]]), setting him back to square one. Several episodes show that by adulthood in the classic continuity, [[FutureBadass Ben has permanently unlocked it]] and ended up becoming so effective that he made police and other heroes obsolete.

** In ''WesternAnimation/Ben10Omniverse'', Ben often has to suffer from ForgotAboutHisPowers so he doesn't win every single fight easily. This includes being too inattentive to check if he's actually picking the right alien, not to mention not using the ones with obvious Breaker powers like [[GravityMaster Gravattack]]. This trope is probably also the reason why none of the Ultimate forms from ''Ultimate Alien'' carried over to ''Omniverse''.

** Franchise/TheFlash, period. Like the comics, the writers had to find a way to nerf his powers to better maintain tension in the story. When the writers finally have him go all out, Flash completely [[CurbstompBattle curbstomps]] [[DidYouJustPunchOutCthulhu Brainthor.]] In another episode, the completely unfettered Lex, given control of Flash's body, showed just how deadly the Flash could be if he didn't hold himself back.

** [[GreatGazoo Discord]] is a RealityWarper so powerful he almost seems [[TheOmnipotent omnipotent]]. The Elements of Harmony are initially the only thing that threaten him, and his powers [[WrongContextMagic are so divergent from everyone else's]], that it's almost funny. He undergoes a HeelFaceTurn in the third season after he comes to value his friendship with Fluttershy too much to risk angering her by returning to his villainous ways, but as a being of chaos he generally isn't likely to help out in ''solving'' problems, sitting back to play TricksterMentor at best. On the two occasions he did agree to help, he was [[spoiler: manipulated back into villainy before being backstabbed]] ("Twilight's Kingdom") and [[WorfHadTheFlu fell prey]] to an AntiMagic field that completely negated his abilities ("To Where and Back Again"). The fact that he wasn't in ''[[WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyTheMovie2017 The Movie]]'' (except for two small cameos) speaks volumes.

* ''WesternAnimation/{{Reboot}}'': The final season has Hexadecimal pull a HeelFaceTurn. Hexadecimal is so powerful in-universe that even legions of brainwashed Guardians are not remotely a threat to her. She doesn't even have to kill them- She can non-lethally group them up via her powerful telekinesis powers and simply throw them back through the portal they came in in the first place. ''Daemon Rising'' resorts to depowering her [[GodzillaThreshold until the very last moment]] to keep any semblance of tension, and she commits a HeroicSacrifice in the end so that ''My Two Bobs'' can happen at all.

* ''WesternAnimation/StevenUniverse'' has the title character discover he has healing powers in "An Indirect Kiss", which destroys pretty much any tension from Gems getting hurt or damaged, provided that aren't killed outright... at least until a few episodes later, where confidence issues cause his healing powers to cease working for two seasons. Even then, they can not completely recover Gems from being corrupted, an issue Steven learned about in the intervening time.

** Before [[HeelFaceTurn joining the Crystal Gems]], Peridot had prosthetic limbs that gave her some cool and useful abilities like flying, a TractorBeam, and a powerful energy shot. They were also hinted to have the information that they needed to stop the Cluster from destroying Earth. However, after she was bubbled by Garnet, Amethyst threw those Limb Enhancers in the ocean, so she could't use these abilities after joining the Crystal Gems, which could have been helpful in the Cluster mission, and [[spoiler:finding Jasper]]. [[spoiler:She later gains a limited control over metal as a trade-off, though.]]

** In the final season, Steven himself. [[spoiler:Of course there are the healing and resurrection powers mentioned above, but after gaining complete control over his powers as a diamond he can also turn his nearly indestructible barriers of force into powerful weapons, fly and enter into a super speed state where he's fast enough that time practically stops around him. He starts to slip into PersonOfMassDestruction territory when having an emotional breakdown and is strong enough that he effortlessly shatters Jasper (previously shown to be one of the strongest non-fusion gems around, even though just a quartz soldier) on accident when he fully loses control. It makes sense then that most of his role in the season is spent [[VictoryIsBoring learning how to live in a peaceful universe where there is nobody left to fight]] since any new villains would have to get some pretty serious power creep to be a believable threat. Case in point, when the time comes for the show to have a fight against the FinalBoss, ''Steven himself'' fills the role, with his power growing so far out of control that he transforms into a sort of gem kaiju that can only be defeated with ThePowerOfFriendship.]]

* ''WesternAnimation/XiaolinShowdown'':
** The Golden Tiger Claws lets its user to slash open a portal to anywhere the user wants to go. When [[ClassyCatBurglar Katnappe]] got a hold of them she [[CurbStompBattle curb-stomps]] the Xiaolin Dragons without much effort. [[TheHero Omi]] stops her by using the claws to slash a portal to the earth's core and then throw them in [[NoMacGuffinNoWinner so neither side can use them]]. They eventually got retrieved when the Xiaolin Dragons have to use them to defeat [[TheBrute Mala Mala Jong]] but after that point [[SoLastSeason both teams became powerful and skilled enough where the claws don't make as much of a difference in battle]].
** The Shard Of Lightning - which stops time entirely - gives Jack the ability to not only curbstomp the heroes within seconds, but totally humiliate them at any given time, steal the Shen Gong Wu whenever he wants, and basically defeat any opponent without needing any help whatsoever. As he would have become totally undefeatable if he had held onto it, he manages to lose in the end and it's locked away in the vault where no one can abuse its power. This is basically how the show gets rid of every game breaker Shen Gong Wu: lock it away for the benefit of the world, just in case it somehow ends up in the wrong hands.
** The Reversing Mirror, mostly due to its having a myriad of uses and little downsides. It can reflect attacks magical or otherwise, it can cause attacks to have the opposite effect, it can override the effects of near any Shen Gong Wu just by being in the vicinity, it can change things that have nothing to do with Shen Gong Wu to their opposite, and can be used in conjunction with Shen Gong Wu most famously by ''bringing a ghost to life''. Pretty much every time it's used by someone with a bit of cunning, the results are extreme: more usage in the series might have brought about some very interesting techniques, but it also would have likely resulted in its user(s) being basically impossible to attack. So it was only brought out when the plot called for it specifically.

** The Sands of Time. TimeTravel. Need we say more? It was disposed of when Omi's 80 year old self took it with him to his own time. Like the Golden Tiger Claws, it was later retrieved, but then flat-out destroyed soon after. 1500 years ago. [[TimeTravelTenseTrouble Whatever.]]