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6
7->''"I swear to God, they only call me when there's trouble at a dock. Or a river, or a lake, canal. A jetty."''
8-->-- '''The Deep''', ''Series/TheBoys2019''
9
10A situation where a hero's relatively useless abilities turn out to be phenomenally useful because [[PlotTailoredToTheParty everything's contrived specifically in order]] to ''make'' them useful, even though realistically there's no reason to expect everything to be so convenient. Often involves LockingMacGyverInTheStoreCupboard. May be used regularly or as a one-off as part of ADayInTheLimelight. If the Aquaman character isn't seen on a regular basis anyway, the day-in-the-limelight version may involve a substantial [[ContrivedCoincidence stroke of luck]] in the events that lead up to Aquaman just happening to be around at the right time when there's an opportunity to use his powers.
11
12Take ComicBook/{{Aquaman}} [[TropeNamers himself]], for instance, since he mainly swims and talks to fish. But wait... the villain's [[CripplingOverspecialization doomsday machine is powered by telepathically controllable sea plankton]]? Wow, this guy's a great addition to the team!
13
14A subtrope of PlotTailoredToTheParty, where the same contrivance is used to make all the members of a team useful with their own time to shine. BenevolentArchitecture overlaps with both, such as when the Evil Overlord's fortress has a crocodile moat or other highly specific barrier for the Aquaman equivalent character to circumvent.
15
16If the character constantly uses a power to solve all his problems, but it generally makes sense (if you have a big sword, and fight monsters, it's not exactly contrived that a lot of monsters can be hurt by a big sword), it's WhenAllYouHaveIsAHammer.
17
18The opposite is KryptoniteIsEverywhere, when a hero's obscure weakness comes up much more frequently than would intuitively make sense, rather than a hero's obscure strength. Compare HighlySpecificCounterplay, which only counters a specific thing or a small number of specific things, and HeartIsAnAwesomePower, when the power seems uselessly specific but turns out to be useful in many situations. Compare and contrast WhatKindOfLamePowerIsHeartAnyway, HandyShortcoming, LethalJokeCharacter, NotCompletelyUseless.
19
20----
21
22!!Examples:
23
24[[foldercontrol]]
25
26[[folder:Anime & Manga]]
27* ''Manga/BlackClover'':
28** Although Dark Magic is far from being useless, it's slow to cast and Yami usually uses it more as a supplement for his swordsmanship. However, because the attribute is the polar opposite of light, it becomes highly effective when he fights against Licht, with his magic absorbing his spells by creating small black holes. It's also highly effective against devils due to its power to affect the underworld. His magic is very useful in the fight against Zagred, whose Word Soul Magic can't block it, and when the Black Bulls fight Dante.
29** AntiMagic is recognized in-universe as an [[WrongContextMagic overly broken]] power that allows a simple peon like Asta to stand a chance against mages with years of training and experience. But amusingly, [[spoiler:Liebe]] comes to realize that it's absolutely pointless against Asta himself, due to him being deprived of magic to begin with, and relying solely on his swordsmanship, ki-reading and guts.
30* A villain in ''Manga/BoboboboBobobo'' is specialized in fighting stop moving trains. Even he admits it's an extremely niche skill.
31* In ''Manga/CellsAtWork'', a series that [[CastOfPersonifications personifies human cells]], the chapter that introduces Eosinophil culminates with a fight against an ''Anisakis'' nematode, allowing her to show off her true skill-- her CripplingOverspecialization means that while she's not very good at fighting bacteria or viruses, which are more common invaders to the human body, she makes short work of multi-cellular parasites. Seeing as how the series is based on medical science, this carries over to real life as well.
32* Season 2 of ''Anime/DarkerThanBlack'' has the character April, who in the first season used her ability (essentially to make it rain) primarily as support for her partner who can [[AnIcePerson freeze things]], gets a freak chance to use her ability offensively. [[spoiler:She happens to fight a FragileSpeedster with SuperSpeed and none of the RequiredSecondaryPowers, which made each raindrop impact with the force of a bullet. Like running through a shotgun blast of buckshot.]]
33* Submarimon from ''Anime/DigimonAdventure02'' can only used in water because he's... a submarine. However, he has flight abilities, but they were utilized only one time outside of water, during the GrandFinale.
34* ''Manga/DragonBall'':
35** Yamcha is one of the weakest members of the Z-Fighters, so he retires from martial arts and becomes a professional baseball player in the timeskip between the original and ''Anime/DragonBallZ''. When Champa challenges Universe 7 to a baseball match in episode 70 of ''Anime/DragonBallSuper'', guess who Universe 7's star player is?
36** The Kinto'un/Flying Nimbus was a cloud Goku could ride on in the original ''Dragon Ball'', but was rendered pretty much pointless once Goku had learned how to fly under his own power in ''Z''. One episode of ''Super'' involves Goku having to keep his power level very low so that he can't be found by a group of enemies. This required him to ride the Nimbus once again, since flying would reveal his ''ki''.
37** During the Tournament of Power, the other Universes have fighters that rely on enormous stamina to fight. For one reason or another, they end up dealing with Android 17 and Android 18, the infinite energy cyborgs with unlimited stamina.
38* Subverted in ''Literature/FullMetalPanic''. When Mithril initially gets the mission to infiltrate a Japanese highschool to covertly monitor and protect a seemingly OrdinaryHighSchoolStudent, they quickly remember that one of their soldiers is a sixteen-year-old Japanese boy and move to exploit this convenience immediately. So immediately, in fact, that they forget [[ChildSoldiers just]] [[SacrificedBasicSkillForAwesomeTraining what]] [[CrazySurvivalist sort]] [[ConditionedToAcceptHorror of]] [[ShellShockedVeteran background]] produces a sixteen-year old combat savant and don't realize how absolutely unsuitable he is for the mission until he comes back from his first day of school dragging the folding chair Kaname had handcuffed him to.
39* In ''Manga/FullmetalAlchemist'', Winry Rockwell's only real skill is working on automail, so she's only ever useful when Edward needs his automail limbs repaired, upgraded, or replaced. Fortunately for her, this happens numerous times throughout the series, ensuring she at least occasionally has a productive role in the story.
40* While Borma in ''Anime/GhostInTheShellStandAloneComplex'' is a [[JackOfAllTrades decent all-rounder agent]], his specialty is explosives, and he only gets one shot out of both seasons to show his stuff when he needs to disarm a bomb in ''2nd Gig''.
41* ''Anime/GirlsUndPanzer'': For the big team-up in [[Anime/GirlsUndPanzerDerFilm the movie]], the constantly strapped for cash Anzio team show up in a Carro Veloce 33 tankette. Their three-man team can barely fit in the two-seater machine, it has guns that can't stand up to any kind of armor, and everyone else brought actual tanks that they can't do anything to. The closest they get to a cool moment happens when their ride gets flipped upside-down and [[{{Ramprovisation}} used as a ramp by another tank]]. But when the FinalBattle ends up taking place in an empty amusement park, they become the MVP of the coalition, running a spectacularly effective intel and recon operation after it turns out the [=CV33=] is small enough to fit on the roller coaster tracks without attracting too much attention.
42* In ''Manga/HunterXHunter'', Komugi has the power to be extremely good at gungi, a fictional chess-like board game, and to improve further every time she faces a tough opponent. This proves to be an essential power when Meruem, the Chimera Ant King, takes over her country and [[SmartPeoplePlayChess challenges the best board gamers in the country to face him]]. He quickly beats the others, but the fact that he cannot beat Komugi, no matter how hard he tries or how many games he plays, causes him to focus exclusively on playing gungi with Komugi. This results in Meruem being distracted for days, possibly weeks, and allows the heroes to stand a fighting chance against Meruem and his overwhelming power and intellect.
43* While there are lots of techniques and skills that can fit in ''Manga/{{Inuyasha}}'', none is more blatant than Sesshomaru's [[HealingShiv Tenseiga]], the brother sword to Inuyasha's [[SwissArmyWeapon Tetsusaiga]]. Inverse to the Tetsusaiga that can slay 100 demons with one sweep, the Tenseiga can revive 100 beings with one sweep. While the base ability only rarely gets used in the series and the sword itself can't even cut, the characters are quick to realize that [[ReviveKillsZombie as a sword of healing and life, it's actually quite deadly when used against the un-dead and malevolent spirits]] which, while still a rare situation, has come up frequently enough to justify Sesshomaru holding onto it.
44* ''Manga/JoJosBizarreAdventure'':
45** In ''[[Manga/JoJosBizarreAdventureStardustCrusaders Stardust Crusaders]]'', Iggy is called in as the SixthRanger of the team late in the story. Iggy's Stand, The Fool, allows him to control sand. Normally, this would be a very situational power since it's useless when there's no sand around, but given how the protagonists' destination is in Egypt, he's much more powerful in the desert environment.
46** ''[[Manga/JoJosBizarreAdventureGoldenWind Golden Wind]]'' has Squalo’s Stand, Clash, a ThreateningShark that can teleport from one body of liquid to another, sizeshifting to match. This would limit his effectiveness if he didn’t fight Bucciarati’s crew in Venice, where there are plenty of large bodies of water to unleash his full potential.
47** ''[[Manga/JoJosBizarreAdventureStoneOcean Stone Ocean]]'' has Survivor, which was said to be the weakest, least useful stand in existence by [[GreaterScopeVillain Dio]] and [[AvengingTheVillain Pucci]]. [[HatePlague Its power is to cause a weak electric impulse which stimulates the parts of the brain responsible for aggression]], and allowing those affected to see their opponents' weak points, turning those affected into expert, relentless fighters who attack anyone they see. The reason why it's so useless is because it affects everyone in range indiscriminately, meaning that the user's enemies become expert fighters, while his allies turn against him. The only situation where it could be useful is if you have someone you really want dead, and they're trapped somewhere with other strong fighters who could probably kill your target if a big fight started. Like say, a maximum-security prison full of dangerous criminals...
48** ''[[Manga/JoJosBizarreAdventureSteelBallRun Steel Ball Run]]'' has a more literal example in Blackmore's Stand, Catch the Rainbow, which has enough versatility and power to be among the most dangerous Stands in the series... but ''only'' if it's raining out. If it isn't raining, it does nothing at all.
49* In ''Literature/KonoSuba'', despite being a PhysicalGoddess, Aqua is almost useless; she's [[TheGodsMustBeLazy lazy]], [[LeeroyJenkins impulsive]], and [[TooDumbToLive dumb]], and her divine powers cause more trouble than they're worth. So she is overjoyed when she finds a quest on the guild job board that perfectly matches her skill set: purifying a corrupted lake.
50** In the spinoff crossover ''Anime/IsekaiQuartet'', Aqua shows exactly how dangerous she is to the undead: with one cast of TurnUndead, a low-level spell, she makes [[InvincibleHero Ainz Ooal Gown]] shout in pain, and causes Shalltear (a vampire) to pass out just from being nearby.
51* ''Manga/MyHeroAcademia'': Froppy is a hero with all the powers of a frog. While she has the ability to jump and use a long tongue, she is at her best in the water. When the Academy was attacked by a horde of villains, she was teleported into pool designed to replicate underwater rescue situations. Deku {{lampshade|Hanging}}d this trope, pointing out that if the villains knew what Froppy's powers were they would've teleported her somewhere without water. Later, when the students are seeking internships, Froppy went to work with the coast guard to make the best of her aquatic abilities. The other coast guard heroes also have water-related quirks, indicating that the Aquamen of this world go out and find jobs that suit their aquatic abilities.
52** Note that Froppy herself is an aversion of this trope, as while she has greater capabilities in water, her skillset is very diverse. Overall her powers mirror ComicBook/SpiderMan, as she has a long tongue that allows her to grapple objects, can stick to walls, and has superhuman strength and speed that allows her to smash concrete or dodge bullets
53* ''Manga/OnePiece'':
54** In Skypiea, [[PsychoElectro Enel]] has {{curbstomp|Battle}}ed everyone who has challenged him, his [[ElementalEmbodiment Logia powers]] making him invincible. Cue Luffy beating the tar out of him, his RubberMan powers [[ElementalRockPaperScissors nullifying]] Enel's [[ShockAndAwe lightning]].
55** In Enies Lobby, Spandam is leading Robin to the ship which will take her to Marineford, but Luffy is stuck fighting Rob Lucci and the rest of the Strawhats are on the other side of a wide channel. The only person who can delay Spandam until Franky arrives is Usopp, who proceeds to snipe Spandam's Marines. {{Invoked|Trope}} by Sanji, who explicitly tells him to go do what only he can do after he starts feeling useless.
56** In Thriller Bark, Perona ate the Hollow-Hollow Fruit, which allows her to generate ghosts that cause whoever touches them to become extremely negative and emotionally hollow. This power has been shown to bring down even the 'Monster Trio' of the Straw Hats, Luffy, Zoro, and Sanji. Usopp, on the other hand, is so pessimistic that the ghosts have no effect on him, and in fact contact causes ''Perona'' to become negative!
57** In Impel Down, [[PoisonousPerson Magellan's poison]] means [[TouchOfDeath no one can even touch him]], and [[MadeOfIron he's strong enough to tank most ranged attacks]]. Much to everyone's surprise, Mr. 3's [[WhatKindOfLamePowerIsHeartAnyway Wax-Wax Fruit]] allows him to [[HeartIsAnAwesomePower completely block Magellan's poison]], which Luffy exploits by encasing his limbs in wax to fight Magellan to a standstill... at least until [[TheGlovesComeOff Magellan breaks out a poison so toxic it can even infect inorganic matter]].
58** In the Dressrosa Arc, the situation of the Funk Brothers is pretty much tailor-made to make Kelly Funk's Jacket Jacket Fruit powers actually useful. Kelly can transform himself into full-body jacket that, when worn, allows him to take over the wearer's body, though that method makes it unlikely for him to take over someone who wasn't already willing. Bobby Funk is inexplicably strong and durable but has no fighting ability, and Kelly Funk is extremely aggressive but also relatively weak, with that combination allowing Kelly's ability to take over his brother's body to make them more formidable that way rather than simply fighting separately.
59** Also in the Dressrosa arc, Sugar has woken up after having the scare of her life, and is preparing to turn Luffy and Law (both of whom have never met her before) into [[UnPerson toys]] right as they are preparing to fight [[ArcVillain Doflamingo]]. The only one who notices this is [[SuperSenses Viola]], who is half a country away and unable to warn them in time. Instead, she warns [[RuleOfThree Usopp]], who with Viola's assistance snipes a perfect shot that makes Sugar pass out again. Bonus points because Usopp's NightmareFace from eating the [[BlazingInfernoHellfireSauce Tatababasco]] grape [[TraumaButton is the reason Sugar passed out the first time]], and he shoots a doll in its likeness towards her position.
60* ''Webcomic/OnePunchMan'':
61** Mumen Rider is a C-Class hero who has all the heroic drive in the world, but lacks any actual powers besides being in decent shape and owning a bicycle. Not peak physical shape, just on the level of a guy who bikes everywhere, and not a CoolBike, a regular bike. He'd be stretching the definition to even qualify for BadassNormal status. But that sheer inexhaustible HeroicResolve ultimately proves critical in [[HoldTheLine Holding The Line]] against the Sea King, preventing him from massacring a shelter full of bystanders until Saitama can arrive.
62** King's only known skill is to be able to play many video games at a world-champion level. This doesn't see any use as a superhero--at least until [[SmallNameBigEgo Fubuki]] attempts to forcibly recruit all of the main characters into her gang unless they can beat them in a fight. Knowing that her group have no chance in an actual brawl against [[InvincibleHero Saitama]], [[FakeUltimateHero King]], [[OldMaster Bang]] and [[ArmCannon Genos]], she makes it a ''video-game fight'', banking on the fact that she has a professional gamer in her squad. Saitama has played the game and could beat a few of his adversaries but is ultimately overcome. Most of the others have never touched a video game in their lives and, despite their colossal powers, are quickly defeated. Up steps King, who proceeds to demolish all of Hellish Blizzard's other goons - including the pro - all by himself and without breaking a sweat. This comes up again in an OVA, when King demolishes [[HeroKiller Garou]] in a VR fighting game simulation, solidifying his legendary status as the [[WorldsStrongestMan World's Strongest Man]].
63* ''Anime/PokemonTheSeries'': Ash's Pidove is the [[ComMons Unova regional bird]], [[DemotedToExtra not used often]], and isn't very smart. She also happens to be female, meaning that she's the only one on Ash's team not affected by Snivy's [[EmotionBomb Attract]]. This allowed her to fight Snivy and let Ash catch her. Funnily enough, [[SlidingScaleOfGameplayAndStoryIntegration a regular Trainer probably would've used Pidove anyway]] due to the {{Elemental Rock Paper Scissors}}.
64* In ''Anime/SDGundamForce'', the Gundivers were only good for underwater missions, and as such were only useful whenever something important fell into the sea. By the final battle of the series they were upgraded with flight capabilities, becoming the Gunchoppers.
65* In ''Manga/TokyoMewMew'', while Mew Lettuce's powers are less useful than those of the other Mews, she is useful on a few occasions. In one filler episode, she, being a bookworm, can resist falling asleep as a Chimera Anima made from a book reads aloud, and can counterattack. In another, when the Mews get bound in silk by a spider-like Chimera Anima, she can still use her castanets, which only require her fingers, and defeats the monster.
66* In ''Anime/YuGiOh5Ds'', Crow's Black-Winged Dragon [[CCGImportanceDissonance (though hyped up a fair bit)]] is considered to be by far the weakest Signer Dragon by players in the actual game, because its only effect is being able to stop Burn damage - a strategy that is niche at best in real life, and it's not even especially good at it. However, nearly every time it appeared in the anime, the opponent played a deck that utilized Burn in some capacity, and the arc after he got it featured the card Speed World 2 (which had a Burn effect) in almost every Duel.
67[[/folder]]
68
69[[folder:Comedy]]
70* Comedian Dara O'Briain had a bit about various actors who'd played the Milky Bar kid (one of whom actually was in the audience, or so they say). He asked the audience what superpower a hypothetical Milky Bar kid superhero might possess, to which they provided a series of bizarre answers such as "super-taste", "the ability to turn people into chocolate", etc. O'Briain promptly mused that, if the hypothetical superhero possessed such a superpower, each episode of the hypothetical TV series would consist of this (and then provided an example of how absurd a crime for which "super-taste" would be necessary to solve it would be).
71[[/folder]]
72
73[[folder:Comic Books]]
74* ''ComicBook/AllStarComics'': In the issue in which Dr. Mid-Nite joins the ComicBook/JusticeSocietyOfAmerica the villain orchestrating everything runs into a pitch dark building. The other JSA members stand back to have Mid-Nite run in and fight him, since he is the only one who can see in the dark.
75* ''ComicBook/{{Aquaman}}'': The {{Trope Namer|s}}'s older stories are notorious for featuring obstacles that were specifically designed to make his less than impressive abilities look useful. Future writers have generally attempted to upgrade or play up Aquaman's powers to avert this (particularly his SuperStrength), but his old ''ComicBook/JusticeLeagueOfAmerica'' appearances seemed to have a random giant octopus or artifact buried in the ocean or water planet every other issue just so that he could have something to do.
76** In his {{Creator/Filmation}} ''WesternAnimation/{{Aquaman}}'' cartoon, Aquaman becomes an astronaut specifically so a water planet can be studied.
77** This trope is parodied in ''ComicBook/{{Shadowpact}}'' where, after having his magical trident thrown into the middle of the Pacific Ocean by ComicBook/TheSpectre, ComicBook/BlueDevil reappears with it to fight the unleashed SevenDeadlySins. Someone asks him how he got it back, and there's a one panel flashback of Aquaman retrieving it for him before going off to deal with [[ComicBook/InfiniteCrisis his own problems.]] Instead of admitting he needed Aquaman's help, he just says "I'd rather not talk about it" and keeps going.
78** In an issue of JLA, as part of the WorldWarIII storyline kickoff, [[EldritchAbomination Mageddon]] initiated a riot at a super villain lockdown and the Justice League were sent in to contain it since the warden and all guards had gone cuckoo as well. While the rest of the team was handling things elsewhere in the building, Aquaman all by his lonesome busted into a room filled with about fifty bad guys with light-based abilities. [[PreAssKickingOneLiner He just stared them down and said,]] "Most of your powers are dependent on light. My eyes are adapted to see at six thousand fathoms. ''Think about it.''"
79** In the original ''ComicBook/TeenTitans'' books, Bob Haney clearly had a hard time figuring out how to make Aqualad seem useful, so he'd often throw in contrived water-based set pieces to give him something to do (such as a swimming pool in issue #4, a high dive tank in #6, and sewers in #8). He was PutOnABus and replaced by Speedy in issue #19, and after eventually rejoining the team, he ended up resigning in issue #51 precisely because he'd developed an inferiority complex over his perceived uselessness.
80* ''ComicBook/{{Chew}}'': The series involves a detective who gets psychic impressions from whatever he eats. Fortunately, he works for the FDA, and thus encounters a lot of food-related crimes. And since he can eat things besides food, he's quite useful to other agencies too.
81* ''ComicBook/FantasticFour'': Before she got her [[ImaginationBasedSuperpower incredibly versatile]] [[BarrierWarrior force fields]], the Invisible Woman (then Invisible Girl) was often subject to this because her only power was {{Invisibility}}, so the team was put into situations where stealth was required so her power could come off as being useful.
82* ''ComicBook/GIJoeARealAmericanHeroMarvel'': In his first appearance, Barbecue the firefighter is disdained by Shipwreck, who doesn't see the point in a combat unit having a fireman attached to it. Shortly afterward, Barbecue justifies his position with the team by ably dealing with several fires caused by a Cobra surprise attack.
83* ''ComicBook/MarvelTwoInOne'': ''And There Shall Come... A Champion!', the issue that introduced the Champion of the Universe, does this for Characters/TheThing. His SuperStrength and rocky skin are by no means underpowered, but in the pantheon of Marvel's heavyweights, he's always been quite a distance from the top. But in his quest to face the WorldsStrongestMan, the Champion refuses to fight anyone who cannot match him in the ring as a boxer. As it turns out, all the other really strong characters out there lack the discipline to make decent boxers ([[Characters/MarvelComicsBruceBanner The Hulk]], ComicBook/WonderMan, Doc Samson, ComicBook/SubMariner), don't have the raw durability or determination to slug it out ([[Characters/XMen70sMembers Colossus]], Sasquatch), or have weaknesses preventing them from boxing fairly ([[Characters/MarvelComicsThorOdinson Thor]]). This leaves Ben Grimm, who has long been established as [[StrongAndSkilled an experienced boxer]] who [[HeroicWillpower refuses to give up]], as the only character in his weight class capable of fighting the Champion and going the distance long enough to convince the guy to back off.
84* ''ComicBook/MegaManArchieComics'': One arc dealt with an {{EMP}} disabling most of the world's technology, including the friendlier Robot Masters and Mega Man himself. This meant that Plant Man, mostly seen as one of the lamer Robot Masters due to his flower motif and weak weaponry, got ADayInTheLimelight: it turns out he actually really is part plant, and therefore part-organic, making him resistant to the EMP.
85* ''ComicBook/MisterMiracle'': The number of villains who think that it's a good idea to put [[ComicBook/NewGods Mister Miracle]] in [[BondVillainStupidity some elaborate deathtrap]] is pretty astonishing, given that his primary selling point is being the universe's greatest escape artist. You'd think sooner or later someone would come up with a plan that did ''not'' involve confining him in something he was sure to escape from.
86* ''ComicBook/MoonKnight'': [[Characters/MarvelComicsMoonKnight Moon Knight]] is at full power during the full moon, due to his powers having come from a moon god. Usually, DependingOnTheWriter it makes him slightly below, the same level, or slightly above [[Characters/MarvelComicsSteveRogers Captain America]]. During his stint as a ComicBook/{{West Coast Avenger|s}}, they entered a pocket dimension to fight a villain, but he easily repelled both ComicBook/IronMan and ComicBook/WonderMan together. Then the night fell, revealing '''''several thousand full moons'''''. Cue Moon Knight going OneWingedAngel and beating the tar out of the villain.
87* ''ComicBook/MyLittlePonyFriendsForever'': Thestra is a pony with a unique and highly unusual (even for MLP standards) ability of [[spoiler:making skin and muscles invisible. This skill turns out to be perfect and extremely convenient to fight a [[MonsteroftheWeek giant flying orca made entirely of mirrors]] that showed up out of ''nowhere.'' Thanks to this encounter, Thestra is convinced that her talent can be useful, though it ended up being a BrokenAesop - ''that'' level of contrivance being required to make it seem useful is Exhibit A for the idea of it being use''less.'' It's been pointed out by fans that it ''would'' be of great use in medicine]].
88* ''ComicBook/NewMutants'': Cypher had his powers being to [[{{Omniglot}} know any language]]. Nowadays, he's a big HeartIsAnAwesomePower recipient, due to the broadness of "language" being extrapolated into more versatile tricks, but the writers of the original run favored this trope much more heavily: every other issue would have some visit to a foreign country or alien conqueror or long-lost hidden code for him to unravel. What made this one conspicuous was that pretty much every other superhero comic treats language barriers as a nonissue. Any other story would just casually [[HandWave reveal that the hero is bilingual]], use TranslatorMicrobes, or show AliensSpeakingEnglish, which made it seem like it was just the New Mutants who had the bad luck to keep running into monolinguals.
89* ''Franchise/RudolphTheRedNosedReindeer'': As blogger Chris Sims [[http://www.comicsalliance.com/2012/12/28/ask-chris-134-the-dubious-continuity-of-rudolphs-shiny-new-y/ points out]] (with a reference to ''Knight Boat'', no less), DC's annual ''Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer'' comic ran on this trope.
90* ''ComicBook/SubMariner'': While Namor the Sub-Mariner has ''some'' useful abilities on land (flight and super strength), he generally needs to spend some time in the water to keep them optimal. In one early issue of ''ComicBook/FantasticFour1961'', where [[Characters/MarvelComicsDoctorDoom Doctor Doom]] teamed up with him to try to eliminate the Fantastic Four, only to betray him along with them (since Doctor Doom wanted no super-powered competition from the Submariner either), Namor was only able to power up enough to pull everyone's fat out of the fire because the Fantastic Four happened to have a big tank of water handy in their building for him.
91* ''ComicBook/{{Superman}}'':
92** In ''Franchise/MastersOfTheUniverse'' crossover "ComicBook/FateIsTheKiller", when summoning Mer-man to order him to retrieve the Power Sword from "the deepest trench of the Dark Sea", Skeletor points out that he seldom has need of his aquatic soldier's services.
93** Before he was given his signature "all the powers of Superman but only one at a time" deal, Ultra Boy of the ComicBook/LegionOfSuperHeroes only had the power of "Penetra-Vision", which worked the same as Superman's "vision" powers (EyeBeams, XRayVision, telescopic/microscopic vision, etc), except that unlike Superman, his vision could penetrate lead. Cue Ultra Boy being confronted by people firing lead bullets, falling lead-lined boulders, and killer robots made of lead. Even after, this is how he dodges the Legion's "[[SuperheroSpeciation no two people with the same power]]" clause; technically, his only unique power is being able to see through lead.
94** Subverted in ''ComicBook/NewSuperMan''. The Justice League of China is made up of imitations of the American heroes such as Batman, Superman, and Wonder Woman of China, created by Dr. Omen to have similar powers. When investigating a scientist, the man panics and sends out an enormous xiangliu sea serpent.
95-->'''Superman of China:''' A giant sea monster! Shouldn't we call the Aquaman of China?!\
96'''Wonder Woman of China:''' There is no Aquaman of China.\
97'''Batman of China:''' Dr. Omen didn't see the point.
98* ''ComicBook/XMen'': The comic ''ComicBook/XMenLegacy'' was a particularly egregious abuser of this trope for a stretch of issues: It seemed like every single crisis could only be solved by two peoples' powers at once, or one person's power with another person's knowledge. Good thing [[Characters/MarvelComicsRogue Rogue]]'s power is to absorb the powers, skills, and attributes of anyone she touches. It got to seem like less of a team than a bank of power donors and one person who ever actually does anything, blurring the line between this trope and PlotTailoredToTheParty... This Looks Like a Job For Aquaman Tailored to the Party?
99[[/folder]]
100
101[[folder:Comic Strips]]
102* In one ''ComicStrip/TheFarSide'' comic, the town's karate club are excited to see a group of plank-shaped and wall-shaped aliens invading Earth.
103[[/folder]]
104
105[[folder:Fan Works]]
106* In [[https://www.fanfiction.net/s/1544685/1/Unleash_the_Fury_of_the_Djinn Unleash the Fury of the Djinn]], [[VideoGame/GoldenSun Lunpa]] is surrounded by a type of energy field [[AntiMagic making all the protagonists' Psynergy inaccessible to them.]] Since their Djinn's innate unleashes aren't based in Psynergy, they're the only creatures who stand a chance against Lunpa's guards and defenses. [[spoiler: There's a second layer of this trope as well: Rime, [[CripplingOverspecialization a Mercury Djinni whose only power is sealing Psynergy,]] feels incredibly useless next to Djinn whose powers let them do damage, and spends most of the story just following everyone else as they sneak through the town, either just kicking things or creating diversions... until they run into magical suits of armor sustained by Psynergy. The next time a Djinni finds him, he's waging a one-Djinni NoHoldsBarredBeatdown against them, hundreds of dispelled suits of armor lying in pieces on the floor, filling the hallway.]]
107-->A totally new concept was slowly growing in [[spoiler: the Mercury Djinni]]'s mind. For the first time in centuries, he was actually the most dangerous fighter in the battle.
108* ''Fanfic/TheGreatAlicornHunt'': While a perfectly respectable cutie mark talent, hairdressing is not usually particularly helpful in battle... unless you're going up against a monster made entirely of hair (plus a pair of sneakers).
109* In the ''Series/{{Heroes}}''/''[[Literature/TheTwilightSaga Twilight]]'' crossover "[[https://www.fanfiction.net/s/12045706/1/Dark-Days Dark Days]]", former Volturi guard Alec's power to shut off others' senses initially seems to be useful only as a means of torture and intimidation. However, when Mohinder and Carlisle need to [[spoiler:operate on Claire to remove the other half of the superpower-granting formula from her brain, since conventional anaesthetics don't work on Claire due to her ability and neither will agree to torture, Alec volunteers to use his ability on Claire, as he can be selective in his use of it so that he just shuts off Claire's sense of touch and pain while still leaving her able to see and hear what's happening around her]].
110* ''Fanfic/CNAkumas'': The sole power of Mr. Clean basically amounts to "super-cleaning"; while not the handiest in a fight with the heroes, Hawk Moth finds it useful because he wants to get out of Townsville ASAP, and doing that involves cleaning up the currently-quarantined airport.
111[[/folder]]
112
113[[folder:Films -- Live-Action]]
114* For the cliffhangers in ''Film/TheMasterMystery'', [[NonActorVehicle Harry Houdini]] constantly ended up imprisoned, handcuffed, tied up, locked in a crate thrown into the ocean, or otherwise [[LockingMacGyverInTheStoreCupboard captured in ways that his escape artist skills fit perfectly]].
115* The murder case in ''Film/LegallyBlonde'' seems tailor made for someone like Elle Woods to solve. What comes in handy during the proceedings isn't her law training, or her studying and work at Harvard Law, but the fact that she's sorority sisters with the defendant, and knows enough about fashion and hair maintenance to see through a witness's alibi.
116* Parodied in the superhero comedy ''Film/MysteryMen'', in which the "Invisible Boy" can become invisible only when absolutely nobody is looking at him, including himself. After spending most of the movie without finding any use for his powers, he becomes invisible to disable an automated security system which cannot detect him in his invisible state.
117* Creator/FredAstaire's gambler character in ''Film/SwingTime'' runs into an inordinate amount of problems best solved by gambling and/or dancing.
118* Not superpower-related, but improbably convenient, is the climax to ''Film/GIJoeTheRiseOfCobra''. The organization has a huge (like the size of Lake Huron) underground water tank and probably spends at least 80% of its annual budget on submarines. And not the big, slow-moving submarines that real navies use; we're talking about two-seat submarines that have the speed and maneuverability of fighter jets because they're imported from [[Film/ThePhantomMenace Naboo.]] And then it just so happens that Cobra's main base of operations is underwater.
119* ''Film/TeamAmericaWorldPolice'' parodied this trope with Gary's acting talents, to the point where DaChief says that sending his agents off to an aerial dogfight without an actor was like lambs to the slaughter.
120* Graham's son in the Creator/MNightShyamalan film ''Film/{{Signs}}'' is [[spoiler:saved from the aliens' poison gas]] by his ''[[DisabilityImmunity super asthma]]''.
121%%* It's the entire plot in ''Film/LadyInTheWater'', and it was caused by fate.
122* ''Film/SkyHigh2005'': At the end, [[spoiler:all the kids with "lame" powers such as melting, glowing, and turning into a guinea pig work together to thwart the villain and save their parents]].
123* In ''[[Film/Bloodshot2020 Bloodshot]]'', in a group of cybernetically-enhanced ex-soldiers whose abilities include various artificial limbs, KT's only enhancement is a respirator that controls her breathing. While the only clear advantage this gives her over a regular soldier is that she can tolerate otherwise potentially toxic environments, [[spoiler:this allows her to force Harting's staff to evacuate while she destroys his databases using gas grenades in the final confrontation]].
124* ''Film/{{Zoolander}}'' is a comedy thriller that revolves around male modeling. At one point, the main characters meet up with a mysterious informant (played by Creator/DavidDuchovny) who reveals that throughout history male models have been brainwashed into becoming assassins. Why male models? They are always in peak physical condition, can gain entry to the most secure places in the world (i.e. VIP exclusive parties) and most importantly have low intelligence and tend to do as they are told. All characteristics of the perfect assassin.[[note]]But why male models?[[/note]]
125* Richard B. Riddick in ''Film/PitchBlack'' had escaped a life sentence from a prison where he was told he'd never see the light of day. So it made sense that he had his eyes surgically altered to see in the dark. Fortunately for him, [[spoiler:the ship transporting him after he escaped crashed on a planet that happened to plunge into darkness during an extended eclipse. Coincidentally, this was the only time light-phobic monsters swarmed from underground caves to feed. Guess who leads the survivors to safety?]]
126* ''Film/PercyJacksonAndTheOlympians'': Sea of Monsters begins to feel like at points with Percy. [[spoiler:Have to escape from cages in the bottom of a ship? Percy can control the sea to rock the boat until the literal deus ex plot device falls within reach. Percy needs to escape his archnemesis and reach the lifeboat his friends have stolen? Call up a wave and start surfing that bad boy (and also use it to fling the villain into the ocean when he attempts to follow him). Gotta save yourself and your friends as well as a reluctant ally after you've all been swallowed by a sea monster? Take control over the water inside the monster's stomach until it belches you back to the surface again. There's rarely a problem that gets solved in the film by Percy, up until the final boss battle that doesn't somehow require him to use his mystical water powers.]]
127* ''Film/JamesBond'': The eponymous character always seems to find himself in a situation that requires the use of whatever gadgets Q has presciently seen fit to supply him with. The early movies tended to give him rather generic items that could be used for any number of things (like a briefcase that contains some concealed weapons and a stash of bribe money), and some films had Q specifically join him in the field to provide relevant equipment (a mini-helicopter, a car that can travel underwater) but as the series went on, the tools got more and more unusual and specific-purpose, but still somehow managed to be just what he ended up needing (an explosive pen,[[note]]To be fair, this would serve a broad purpose of allowing Bond to carry what was effectively a hand grenade anywhere he liked without arousing suspicion. It's just in the movie the pen coincidentally finds itself in the very specific situation of winding up in the hand of a villain with a habit of mindlessly clicking pens.[[/note]] a jacket that can produce a giant inflated sphere, etc.). The films reverted back to a limited supply of general-purpose tools in the Creator/DanielCraig era.
128* Franchise/DCExtendedUniverse:
129** ''Film/{{Suicide Squad|2016}}''. Killer Croc is really good at swimming and fighting underwater. Unfortunately, almost all of the mission takes place on dry land. However, during the battle against the Enchantress's brother, the team needs an explosive device to be detonated in an underwater tunnel to blow up the brother. Killer Croc actually insists on participating in this task because he realizes how useful he will be during it. This is spoofed in ''WesternAnimation/TheLegoBatmanMovie'' where Killer Croc's only role in the ActionPrologue is to press a single bomb's button underwater, after which he cheers: "I did something!"
130** ''Film/{{Aquaman|2018}}'': While all Atlanteans have most of Arthur's powers, he is the only one who can [[SpeaksFluentAnimal speak to fish]]. He first uses this to hide himself and [[Characters/AquamanSupportingCast Mera]] inside a whale's mouth, and later [[spoiler:is able to talk down the [[RentAZilla gigantic sea monster]] guarding Atlan's trident. Speaking of Atlan, he was the original king of Atlantis, and he had this power as well. His trident amplifies it so that its wielder can control all the creatures of the ocean at once]].
131** ''Film/TheSuicideSquad'': While rats can be found damn near anywhere, Ratcatcher II's powers are significantly enhanced by the fact the Squad is operating in a WretchedHive BananaRepublic, the exact kind of place that would have a ridiculous rat problem. Were they somewhere cleaner, she may well have been considerably less useful.
132[[/folder]]
133
134[[folder:Literature]]
135* ''Literature/ThePoseidonAdventure'': As the survivors try to reach rescue, there's a need to get a rope across a submerged passageway that's too long to swim across. Oh, wait: as a young woman, Belle was a champion swimmer who once crossed the English Channel. On the other hand, that was when she was young, and she's years out of practice and out of shape. [[spoiler:She succeeds in getting the rope across, but the effort kills her.]]
136* Subverted in the ''Sidekicks'' series with [[WhatKindOfLamePowerIsHeartAnyway Exact Change Kid]]. Just when they actually ''need'' exact change for a bus ride to the villain's lair, it turns out he left his utility belt home (with all his change) and they have to go on foot.
137* ''Literature/JourneyToTheWest'':
138** Xuanzang can sit perfectly still for up to three years and he's very proud of this fact. It only came in handy that one time the group was challenged to a meditation duel on their journey.
139** Played straight with Sha Wujing a.k.a. Sandy, who is a river demon and the party's best swimmer, so he gets called on to fight water-based foes, which is rare (and even then, Wukong is often the one who winds up finding a solution to their problem)
140* Alexey Pekhov's ''Peresmeshnik'' (Mockingbird). The protagonist's special ability is [[VoiceChangeling to copy any other person's voice]], which, by the measures of his world, is a weak and useless superability (most of nobility there can do much stronger things). This proves useful as he fights the FinalBoss, though.
141* ''Literature/TheUltraViolets'''s Cheri has the ability to talk to animals and superhuman math skills. Where would the latter come in handy, you might ask? [[spoiler:A poker game.]]
142* The main character of ''Literature/TheCasterChronicles'', Ethan Wate, is a Wayward - a mortal whose destiny is essentially intertwined with that of a specific Caster. Waywards are also essentially a guide or compass for their Caster, and instinctively know where they need to go and what they need to do, especially when Casters are about as lost as the next person in the room. Needless to say, this only ever comes in handy when all other options have been exhausted. Comes with plenty of LampshadeHanging that explicitly references Aquaman and his usually useless powers.
143* ''Literature/TheLordOfTheRings'':
144** Frodo isn't the smartest, strongest or bravest of his companions and is constantly overshadowed even by his fellow hobbits. However, his inherent purity and tenacity make the most capable person to carry the ring. While he [[spoiler:eventually fails]], it's noted that no other person could [[spoiler:carry it as far as he did.]]
145** This could also be said of Hobbits in general - their overall contentment/lack of ambition is why the One Ring is less able to affect them than other races.
146* In the ''Literature/{{Xanth}}'' series, no matter how obscure or specialized a main character's magic talent is, you can bet they'll get a chance to use it to save the day. For example, in ''The Source of Magic'' a character whose magic talent was turning boulders into pebbles was able to help his group escape a cave-in by shrinking the boulders. This is often justified. In many cases, a character trying to solve puzzles to gain entrance to Good Magician Humphrey's castle will have to solve puzzles designed specifically to require a creative use of their magic talent. Other times, a character will be sought out to go on a quest specifically for his/her magic talent, which will have been foretold by Humphrey to be vital for the quest. However, sometimes it just kind of happens.
147* In ''Literature/DontCallMeIshmael'', the debate team, whose star debater unfortunately isn't there, have to argue that fantasy and science-fiction are relevant in RealLife. They are convinced they have already lost, when suddenly the resident geek Bill, who's usually TheQuietOne, launches into a passionate speech full of [[GeekyAnalogy geeky analogies]] about why fantasy and science-fiction do matter and are important to many people, providing them with lots of arguments.
148* In ''Literature/{{Worm}}'', [[spoiler:Khepri]] dismissed the [[{{Shapeshifting}} Changer heroes]] as useless during the final battle with [[spoiler:Scion]]. During the last stretch, she realized the best chance to win was by [[spoiler:reminding Scion of Eden's death]], a perfect role for the Changers.
149* {{Downplayed|Trope}} example in ''[[Literature/{{Fablehaven}} Secrets of the Dragon Sanctuary]]''. The unicorn horn the heroes need to steal is protected by alert centaur guards, a maze of invisible walls, a mountain troll, and magic that afflicts any would-be thief with crippling guilt. Seth has just been turned into a [[BadPowersGoodPeople shadow charmer]]. Among other powers, shadow charmers turn invisible in dim light, can see the invisible, can communicate with and easily befriend dark creatures, and are immune to magic that affects emotions.
150* ''Literature/ACertainMagicalIndex'': Touma Kamijou is an odd example in that [[AntiMagic Imagine Breaker]] is useless for fighting anything that is not magic or an esper ability. True to Aquaman form, though, [[AnthropicPrinciple he lives in an environment where he's surrounded by espers and gets harassed by magic users]]. As some viewers note, [[WhenAllYouHaveIsAHammer he only ends up looking good at street combat]] because his opponents aren't very good at it either. Whenever he goes up against someone who has martial arts training, they tend to wipe the floor with him. It's eventually revealed that [[spoiler:this was deliberately invoked by Aleister Crowley. Aleister founded Academy City as a city of espers specifically to draw in the user of Imagine Breaker]].
151* ''Literature/RudolphTheRedNosedReindeer'' and all its derivatives- nobody liked Rudolph until his biologically-improbable bioluminecent nose was suddenly exactly what was needed to save Christmas.
152* Marasi in ''Literature/WaxAndWayne'' is a Pulser, and has the power to create bubbles of time that move slower than the world around her. She thinks it's a useless power at first, fit only for [[MundaneUtility shorter wait times at the theater]], especially compared to Wax flying and shooting metal like bullets, or Wayne's HealingFactor. Her uncle wanted her to keep her powers a secret, partially because he thinks they're useless, and partially because it's embarrassing that his [[spoiler:legitimate]] daughter Steris isn't an Allomancer and [[spoiler:his bastard daughter]] Marasi is. Marasi's powers are instrumental in taking down Miles Hundredlives, whose HealingFactor negates any damage. After the crew takes down all of his Mooks, Marasi traps Miles in a time bubble long enough for the police to arrive and arrest him.
153* Most witches on the ''Literature/{{Discworld}}'' cure the sick by presenting simple cures as magical (called 'Headology'). For example, "walk to a distant pool and appease its nymph" is really "take regular exercise." New witch Magrat is a trained herbalist who meticulously prepares remedies, and is frustrated when senior witches like Granny Weatherwax get better results with placebo magic potions (i.e. sugar water). Magrat's reliance on herbs and artifacts is gently mocked for a few books, until Granny finds herself with a comatose patient in ''Literature/LordsAndLadies''. Granny instantly goes to Magrat because even though she's the better witch, Magrat is the better doctor.
154* ''Literature/ThePoetAndTheLunatics'': {{Justified}} via the AnthropicPrinciple. Gabriel Gale is a painter by profession, and as such has no reason to get involved with crimesolving except when it intersects with his interest in lunatics.
155[[/folder]]
156
157[[folder:Live-Action TV]]
158* {{Parodied|Trope}} on ''Series/ThirtyRock'' episode "I Heart Connecticut", with the fictional NBC show "''Who Nose?''" about an investigative reporter who must compensate for a lack of ''smell''.
159-->'''Reporter:''' You underestimated me, Congressman, because I can’t smell. But you made one mistake: You let me ''see'' the documents.
160* It seemed that every villain in ''Series/{{Airwolf}}'' had access to a missile-launching helicopter(s), which allows the hero to fight them with ''his'' helicopter.
161* Comically {{subverted|Trope}} in the pilot episode of ''Series/ArrestedDevelopment.'' Buster's EstablishingCharacterMoment tells us that he has graduate degrees in a number of apparently useless subjects, including cartography, so when his family attempts to escape the police by boat, they look to him to decipher the map. Unfortunately, he thinks the blue parts are land.
162* In ''Series/AuctionKings'', some of the experts have very narrow specialties, but Paul is always glad to know them when that one piece comes in that is in that specialty.
163* While all versions have had this to some extent, ''Series/Batman1966'' cranked it up to eleven with [[CrazyPrepared the specifically useful things Batman has in his utility belt at any given time]]. Bat Shark Repellent is a perfect example. Admittedly that was actually on the aquatic landing helicopter rather than his own utility belt but the point still stands.
164* ''Series/TheBoys2019'': {{Discussed|Trope}}. Deep complains that The Seven only send him in for things in or around water. It turns out that the rest think he's pathetic and a joke, to his annoyance. When it finally is his job to stop the the Boys while they are on a boat he screws it up by grandstanding in the way on a whale rather than simply overturning their boat. The result is one very dead whale.
165* ''Series/BrooklynNineNine'':
166** The season six finale has the team working to expose Commissioner Kelly for using a Stingray to illegally spy on the people of New York City. In order to expose him, they plan on staging a kidnapping of a high-ranking NYPD official and planting a bug on Kelly in order to record him ordering the deployment of the Stingray. The only catch is that the kidnap victim needs to be someone who is simultaneously high-ranking enough that Kelly would deploy the Stingray, but also someone whose absence would not impair the ability of the NYPD to function. [[TheLoad CJ]] just so happens to fit that bill perfectly.
167** In a later Season 7 episode, Jake needs to know the name of a particular hot dog vendor in order to catch an assassin and save Holt. Unfortunately, they know literally nothing about the guy other than that he's a hot dog vendor and that he keeps his cart on a particular street corner. So their only hope is to find someone with an encyclopedic knowledge of every hot dog cart in New York City. Enter: Hitchcock and Scully.
168* ''Series/BuffyTheVampireSlayer'': Xander got in a fantastic shot on Glory using a wrecking ball, shortly after being derided for being a construction worker.
169* Almost every episode of ''Series/{{Community}}'' has [[GuileHero Jeff]] use his [[ManipulativeBastard lawyer skills]] (usually in the form of the [[RousingSpeech 'Winger Speech']]) to save the day.
170* Each episode of the 1970s live-action Saturday-morning show ''Series/ElectraWomanAndDynaGirl'' would begin with the titular heroines being given a newly developed module for their wrist "Electro-comps," giving them a new (and sometimes seemingly useless) power. Later in the episode, the duo would inevitably encounter a villain whose evil plot can only be thwarted by an imaginative use of the new power...which would then never be mentioned again in subsequent episodes.
171* In ''Series/GoodOmens2019'' (and the [[Literature/GoodOmens original book]]), [[spoiler:Newt's WalkingTechbane "ability" ends up preventing WorldWarIII. When he finally reveals his curse to Anathema, she realizes what must be done and tells him to "fix" the computer programmed to launch the nukes all over the world. A few keystrokes later (apparently, he tries to defragment the drive), the whole system shuts down]].
172* ''Series/KamenRiderFourze's'' powers revolve around using Astro Switches to have attachments on his four limbs, with each of those 40 Switches having different uses. At one point after another, each of those Switches (as ridiculous as some of them may be) found some explicit use during the course of the show. An egregious example, however, is when the Musca Zodiarts is treated by everyone as unstoppable unless Fourze uses the [[InescapableNet Net Switch]], which just happens to have been confiscated by a teacher.
173* ''Series/KnightRider'' remake.
174** The show seems to take this backward, in that due to how incompetent most of the characters are other than KITT, the plot always seems contrived to happen in basements and otherwise deep inside buildings more than you would think.
175** Considering that in the pilot episode KITT smashes right through a wall to rescue Michael, adopting basements and elevated floors as hideouts may be savvy on the villains' part.
176* ''Series/{{Lost}}'':
177** Charlie possesses musical abilities, but is generally useless to the other survivors. However, during the season 3 finale the only way to turn off the jamming equipment set up by the Others is with a number combination, which happens to be the tune to "Good Vibrations."
178** Likewise, the otherwise useless Shannon pulls her weight with her ability to speak French, when French transmissions, maps and documents turn up.
179** Juliet and Bernard were, respectively, a fertility specialist and a dentist. These skills came in handy when somebody at camp needed their appendix removed - that somebody just so happened to be [[TheMedic Jack]], who would have performed the procedure himself if it was anybody else. Bernard's line of work gave him knowledge of anesthesia, and Juliet's medical background, although not specific to surgery, gave her the necessary skills to perform the procedure without incident.
180* In teen spy drama series ''Series/MIHigh'' every time the agents are given a new gadget a scenario will always occur in that very episode where the gadget is needed, regardless of how unlikely the scenario is.
181* Garry, the ButtMonkey of ''Series/ParksAndRecreation'', is known as a screw-up, and while he can't handle the big, flashy, complicated jobs, he not only handles but ''rocks'' at all the small, everyday stuff, like filing, licking envelopes and sending letters, and taking phone calls. Not only that, he's downright chipper about doing it, not even minding if a screw-up requires him to start the whole long, boring process over again. As Ben points out, Garry can't do much, but the things he ''can'' do are all things an office needs to have happen in order to keep the place functioning so the big, flashy, complicated jobs can go off without small things getting in the way. Therefore, there are times when Garry's help is absolutely necessary.
182-->'''Ben:''' Oh, you wanna photocopy? You wanna do all the mindless work? Yeah, didn't think so. ''[over intercom]'' Get me Garry Gergich.
183* On ''Series/{{Psych}}'', Gus's expertise in prescription drugs from his ''actual'' job as a pharmaceutical salesman comes up a lot more than you'd expect during his investigations. Gus also uses his [[TheNoseKnows "Super Sniffer"]] to uncover crucial evidence and can open safes. However, that's a downplayed example, as he's mostly useful as Shawn's minder, as the one who has a steady job and can pay for things, and is a surprisingly decent detective.
184* Dr. Johnson from ''Series/{{Scrubs}}'' occasionally got his moment in the sun as a dermatologist (one had him confirm a melanoma diagnosis), which annoyed the shit out of Dr. Cox, who considered it a mostly useless specialty. Whether it is or not, dermatology is one of the highest-paid medical specialties in the U.S.; dermatologists make almost $400,000 a year.
185* In the pilot for an Aquaman series from the creators of ''Series/{{Smallville}}'', the villain had A.C. at her mercy, cornering him on land while he's dry (he has to be wet to use his strength). So she knocks him out and puts him on a boat and drags him out to sea so that he can fight and defeat her. Of course, he's inside the boat, so he still isn't strong yet. Fortunately there's a pitcher full of plain tap water lying around in the cabin for some reason for him to dump over his own head. Also played completely straight in the ''Smallville'' episode "Justice", where the Justice League (Clark/Superman, Green Arrow, Cyborg, Impulse/Flash, Aquaman) attacks a [=LuthorCorp=] facility that just so happens to be by the docks.
186* Can happen occasionally on ''Series/StargateSG1''.
187** Dr. Elizabeth Weir is assigned as the new commander of the Stargate Program based apparently on her expertise as a diplomat. Everyone (especially her) questions how this qualifies her to run the Stargate Program, which is primarily a military operation. In the Season Eight premier "New Order", she gets to use her skills during a negotiation with the Goa'uld, before leaving to head the [[Series/StargateAtlantis Atlantis expedition]]. It's explained that the whole point of putting a civilian in charge is that the Stargate program shouldn't be a military operation, and since a large part of it involves meeting and trading with other civilisations a diplomat is the perfect person for the job. If anything her appointment inverted this trope, since everyone involved previously lacked this obviously necessary expertise and frequently got in trouble as a result.
188** The Asgard, during their war with the Replicators, tend to request the help of Earth, mainly due to the [[KineticWeaponsAreJustBetter crude projectile technology of their weapons]], and their ability to come up with very simple, at times reckless, yet very effective plans that the Asgard are apparently ''too'' smart to come up with.
189* ''Series/ThatMitchellAndWebbLook'' parodied this trope with a series of sketches about superheroes [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sbzUfV3_JIA&NR=1 Angel Summoner and BMX Bandit]]. As [[ConversationalTroping discussed in each episode]], poor BMX Bandit's abilities are rather [[CripplingOverspecialization overspecialized]] and contrived (he tended to come up with complex plans that involved a lot of BMX tricks) in comparison with Angel Summoner (who would just [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin summon angels]] to resolve the issue).
190* In ''Series/{{Thunderbirds}}'', Alan and Thunderbird 3 are specialized for space rescues; Gordon and Thunderbird 4 for marine rescues. When these situations don't turn up, these craft aren't used. Gordon rarely plays a significant role when the rescue isn't at sea, but Alan (either because or in spite of the fact that space rescues are the rarest type) often goes on other missions (but not as the prime character, though). Played with depending on the vehicle in the [[WesternAnimation/ThunderbirdsAreGo 2015 remake]]. Thunderbirds 3 and 5 have much greater use compared to the original due to the increase of space missions. In particular, Thunderbird 5 has various modules to allow John to tackle missions close to the space station. Thunderbird 4 still plays this straight but can launch from Tracy Island if Thunderbird 2 cannot be used to transport, and is even adapted for a couple of non-aquatic rescues due to its ability to handle extreme pressure.
191* ''Series/{{Warehouse 13}}'' has these crop up every so often.
192** One was a television related issue that only Pete could solve.
193** Pete's archery expertise has come in handy more often than you'd expect i.e. it has been useful at all.
194[[/folder]]
195
196[[folder:Tabletop Games]]
197* In the ''TabletopGame/{{Pokemon}} Trading Card Game'', this is the card designers' standard response to when some particular cards run rampant in the competitive scene. Notable examples include:
198** [[https://bulbapedia.bulbagarden.net/wiki/Heatmor_(Dark_Explorers_19) Heatmor (Dark Explorers)]], who has one attack, Hot Lick, that does a measly 10 damage but does 60 damage if the target is Durant--and was released at a time the [[https://bulbapedia.bulbagarden.net/wiki/Durant_Mill_(TCG) Durant Mill]] deck was making short work of most other decks. In particular, Hot Lick needs only 1 Energy of any type to use allowing Heatmor to fit into any deck, including other Durant Mill decks. Unlike most other examples, this did absolutely nothing to stop the deck, and the splashability of the card meant it fit in Durant Mill decks for the mirror matches and merely left other decks slightly better off than before.
199** Not long afterward, the major force in the tournament scene were Pokémon SP, Basic Pokémon with decent strength that were augmented by a pretty large amount of supplementary cards. The result was decks centered around Pokémon SP having blinding setup speed and maneuverability, able to shift and adapt to anything any non-SP Pokémon can throw at it. Anything except for [[https://bulbapedia.bulbagarden.net/wiki/Machamp_(Stormfront_20) Machamp (Stormfront)]], who has an attack that will [[OneHitKill immediately KO]] any Basic Pokémon it targets. Machamp decks aren't designed to do much except end Pokémon SP decks, but there were so many Pokémon SP decks at the time that Machamp decks became an equally common scene in tournaments.
200* ''TabletopGame/YuGiOh'': Chain Burn is a deck based on foregoing a lot of traditional strategies in favor of simply stacking up on heavy-duty direct damage cards like Chain Strike, Just Desserts, and Secret Barrel and attempting to slice chunks out of the opponent's LP. Most of the time, the deck is considered more annoying than effective, as while it can steal games, it lacks any kind of field presence and is reliant on drawing a lot of cards just to keep its damage coming. However, in early 2017, the deck became famous for having a great matchup against Zoodiacs, of all things, generally considered one of the best decks in history. This is because Zoodiac is a deck that generally focuses on building up an extensive field (which meant cards like Secret Barrel and Balance of Judgment, which become more effective if the opponent controls more cards, prove far more potent), use of LP as a cost (obviously problematic against a deck that focused on attacking LP above all else) and interrupting the opponent's strategy through the effect of Drident to snipe cards mid-combo (Chain Burn doesn't really use combos that can be interrupted like this)--effectively, Chain Burn turned Zoodiac's strong points into weak points.
201* In tabletop roleplaying games like ''TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons'', this can be a tough balancing act. Some abilities are so specific that the DM has to go out of their way to include it into the game, and not doing so makes the player feel like their character has a bunch of useless skills. On the other hand, putting scenarios which utilize these skills can feel so contrived and pandering that the result can feel like the best way to overcome that particular challenge is by ''not playing a character of that class in the first place''. For example, if a DM only places traps into their game when there's a Rogue in the party, the solution is for there to not be a Rogue in the party and have someone else useful in more situations instead (of course, a good solution for the DM is to have traps in the game regardless so the [=PCs=] will ''wish'' they had a Rogue, but possibly putting more traps in if they have one). The worst offender for this issue is probably the Ranger, who has a whole plethora of skills for challenges in the party (tracking creatures long distances, gathering food, obscuring your own tracks to keep others from following you, managing the weather and travel, etc.) that likely won't come up in games that aren't heavily simulationist. Wizards of the Coast made an attempt to correct this with Tasha's Cauldron of Everything that broadened the Ranger's skills to more generally applicable ones like standard fighting and movement.
202[[/folder]]
203
204[[folder:Video Games]]
205* ''[[VideoGame/NintendoWars Advance Wars]]'':
206** The series has maps that, while normally quite the challenge, become ridiculously easy when the right CO steps up to the plate, and that's NOT counting [=COs=] already established as {{Game Breaker}}s. The map Megalopolis is a prime example: There are no less than 6 Comm Towers on the map, and Javier dominates any map when four or more are in his control.
207** Sonja is widely considered to be the worst [=COs=] in the game considering her strengths are extended vision in FogOfWar (which isn't present on all maps) and [[ConfusionFu preventing the opponent from seeing her HP, funds, or loaded units]] which [[TheAllSeeingAI has no effect on the computer]]. Her weakness is [[BornUnlucky overall bad luck]], meaning that most of the time she's basically Flak (the weakest Black Hole CO) without his ability to score lucky critical hits. However, on a FogOfWar map and against a human opponent, Sonja becomes a borderline GameBreaker and the deadliest threat in the game if she activates her Super CO Power which boosts her vision, lets her see in forests and reefs, reduces her opponent's defense (In Dual Strike only), and ''lets her attack first when counterattacking''.
208* Most playable civilizations in ''VideoGame/AgeOfEmpiresII'' have Unique Units, which have certain bonuses or extra abilities which diversify their militaries and encourage particular playstyles (ranged attacks on infantry or cavalry units, unrivaled speed or range bonuses, and so on). The Japanese unique unit, however - the Samurai - faces tough competition from Japan's other top-tier infantry (generic) unit, the champion. Samurai are only slightly more powerful than champions in their general stats, and they cost more gold to produce, which is a finite resource and makes samurai less cost-effective. However, if you're fighting civilizations which heavily rely on their own unique units, samurai gain an attack bonus against them, which turns them into terrifying killing machines capable of defeating all but the toughest unique units one-on-one.
209* ''[[VideoGame/AirForceDelta Airforce Delta Strike]]'': The titular squadron features one element that is all about [[AirstrikeImpossible special]] [[ViolationOfCommonSense missions]]. Future warfare sure needs a lot of slow, fragile prop fighters to [[EscortMission protect trains]] and clear out [[AbsurdlySpaciousSewer absurdly spacious subways]].
210* ''VideoGame/AncientEmpires'': Lizards and Elementals are a literal example. Though great in water, and essential for maps with a lot of water, on land they're no stronger than Soldiers despite being twice as expensive.
211* ''VideoGame/{{Arknights}}'' has enough examples of this trope to warrant [[ThisLooksLikeAJobForAquaman/{{Arknights}} its own page]].
212* The [[UsefulNotes/SuperNintendoEntertainmentSystem SNES]] EdutainmentGame ''VideoGame/CaptainNovolin'' tells the story of a superhero whose superpower is the fact that he has Type-1 diabetes, and apparently he's the only one who can rescue the mayor of his town (who casually also has diabetes), from a bunch of aliens which have taken form of cookies, doughnuts, cans of soda, ice cream cones, among other sugary junk foods.
213* ''Franchise/{{Castlevania}}'':
214** In the original ''VideoGame/CastlevaniaI'', the axe sub-weapon is hard to use effectively, as it travels in an overhead arc, which is ineffective at hitting enemies in front of you. It is, however, ''perfect'' for the first boss, a giant bat which spends most of the fight floating above you, out of range of any other weapon, and only descends to attack. Without the axe, it's a decently challenging fight. With it the bat falls squarely into WarmUpBoss territory. (Luckily, the game is nice enough to hand you the axe just a couple screens beforehand, so you're highly likely to have it, barring a SelfImposedChallenge)
215** In ''VideoGame/CastlevaniaPortraitOfRuin'', one of the sub-weapons you can get is the Cream Pie, which is about as effective as you expect on most enemies, due to the weapon being Dark-elemental which most enemies, being all manners of undead or otherwise infernal creatures, resist. However, it suddenly gains massive utility when fighting the Whip's Memory, which is ''weak'' to Dark damage, meaning you can easily defeat [[spoiler:a simulated [[VideoGame/CastlevaniaRondoOfBlood Richter Belmont]]]] just by tossing pies at it.
216* In ''VideoGame/CrashTeamRacing'', the "beginner" class of racers are [[LowTierLetdown typically seen as worthless]] because their only strength, superior handling, comes at the cost of having low max speeds and actually makes it harder for them to get power slide turbo boosts which are ''the'' way to win races. However, they completely and utterly dominate Battle Mode owing to their ability to maneuver around opponents and dodge projectiles, and their low speed making it difficult to come up behind them and line up an attack without overtaking them. Even when playing Adventure mode you'll notice that, while you're struggling to win races and get even Sapphire Relics (where other racers can casually get a Gold with little problem) you'll be dominating the [[ThatOneLevel normally difficult]] Crystal levels with a solid 30 seconds to spare.
217* ''VideoGame/DiscoElysium'':
218** The Fairweather T-500 thought gives the Detective a +2 to hit targets wearing T-500 armor. It's an ultra-specific, niche skill that won't be useful anywhere [[spoiler:until the mercenary Tribunal in the late-game]].
219** Buying and reading a book on Moralism leads into a pop quiz, which gets Encyclopedia very excited that it's finally his time. [[spoiler:Unfortunately, all of his advice on answering the questions is either irrelevant to topic at hand, or just plain incorrect.]]
220* In ''VideoGame/DoomEternal'', the Full Auto mod for the Shotgun and the Microwave Beam for the Plasma Rifle are generally deemed the least useful weapon mods in the game. ''The Ancient Gods'' DLC added new enemies that are explicitly weak to these weapon mods — especially in the case of the Spirit, which can ''[[KungFuProofMook only]]'' be harmed with the Microwave Beam, and is a {{Demonic Spider|s}} to boot to encourage you to whip out that mod the instant it’s vulnerable.
221* The prequel tie-in video-game for ''Film/PitchBlack'', ''VideoGame/EscapeFromButcherBay'', reveals that Riddick's unique night-vision eyes are actually [[spoiler:supernatural in origin, so this might also a literal DeusExMachina]]. However, in any case, it's rather convenient that a killer whose modus operandi is to stalk enemies from the shadows should be granted the uncanny ability to see in the dark.
222* EMP weaponry in ''VideoGame/EventHorizon'' disables any [[DeflectorShields Energy Shield]] the enemy has. This is of little relevance in normal gameplay since most of enemies aren't shielded at all, but starbases of several factions rely on powerful shielding as their only form of defense and become laughably easy to destroy after it is disabled.
223* ''VideoGame/{{Fallout}}'':
224** In ''Videogame/Fallout3'', with the Broken Steel DLC Fawkes, RL-3 and Charon's radiation immunity finally comes into play and they can be sent to turn on the irradiated water purifier without any problems.
225** In ''VideoGame/Fallout4'', many perks seem useless and have very specific uses but you'll be damned glad to have them when you do. For an almost literal example, the Aqua Boy/Girl perk makes you immune to radiation from swimming and wading in water sources - the many irradiated rivers which criss-cross post-apocalyptic Boston suddenly turn from difficult barriers to inviting avenues of approach, and you can also easily fish goodies out of flooded basements.
226* In ''VideoGame/FateGrandOrder'', a number of characters are pretty useless for either wiping out mobs in farming missions or defeating difficult enemies in story missions, but are incredibly strong at handling "[[BrutalBonusLevel challenge quests]]" or certain boss battles.
227** Angra Mainyu is generally considered a JokeCharacter. His LimitBreak is Verg Avesta, an AttackReflector that allows him to take the damage he takes in a turn and send it back at double strength (increasing when upgraded). Ordinarily, a mix of HealthDamageAsymmetry, his poor survivability, and the likelihood of the enemy not targeting him makes this ability pretty useless. However, in one challenge quest, the enemies are giant hermit crabs with an irremovable buff that grants them pretty hefty damage reduction, such that even teams built to do massive damage struggle with taking them down. Since Verg Avesta ''always'' does double the damage Angra took, this means it bypasses the crab's defenses and lets him finish them off in only a few turns.
228** Euryale is a fairly common and cheap Archer, with a kit designed to disable male enemies with Charm while she charges up her Noble Phantasm, then fire it off with [[SituationalSword extra anti-Male damage]] and another Charm stuck on top to buy her the time to do it again. While she's helpful in her niche, she tends to suffer from CripplingOverspecialization, as her damage output and utility against anything that isn't male tends to be kind of bad, and other single-target Archers can put in similar work. However, there's a very specific boss battle regarded as ThatOneBoss: namely, the fight with Gawain in Camelot. Gawain is [[DamageSpongeBoss dripping with durability buffs, has high health to begin with]], and [[SpamAttack charges up his hard-hitting Noble Phantasm very quickly]]. Against most teams, he shrugs off all damage and fires off a HerdHittingAttack every two turns that will probably kill the entire lineup. Gawain is male and has class disadvantage against Euryale, so she does double damage and takes half. Also, Euryale has a skill that drains enemy NP charge. Also, if Gawain is stunned by Charm, he can't charge. With her whole kit in play and some team support, Euryale can make an absolute mockery of Gawain, trapping him in a CycleOfHurting with Charm as she fires off shots that take off a quarter of his health bar each and never lets him get his big attack off. It's not uncommon for players to raise up Euryale ''just to kill Gawain.''
229*** Delight Works [[ObviousRulePatch started making Archer-weak male bosses in later chapters immune to charm]]. It hasn't stopped players using Euryale for those bosses anyway, because the anti-male damage on her Phantasm is enough to carry a battle even without the charm-lock strategy.
230** Mata Hari, generally regarded as one of the game's worst characters for her miserable stats, short-duration debuffs, and laughable damage, saw some use being pressed into service against the final boss of Part 1, Goetia. This is because one of her abilities is to seal skills, and Goetia always starts off his fight with a gigantic personal buff (which counts as a skill). On top of that, being an Assassin gives her super-effective damage against him in the meantime. Similarly, Mephistopheles can inflict a multi-instance Buff Block on him with the skill Clown’s Laughter and also deals super-effective damage.
231** Ryougi Shiki is generally considered rather good, but one part of her kit that doesn't get much respect is her Instant Death abilities, which [[ContractualBossImmunity never work on enemies you'd actually want to kill.]] However, in the event where she was first available, every enemy had a significantly reduced resistance to instant death effects, meaning Shiki usually had about an 80% chance of killing whatever she could hit with her Noble Phantasm. This is particularly evident in one sidequest where her Void Shiki counterpart is available as a support Servant: it consists of three enemies that all have [[NumberOfTheBeast 6,666,666]] HP, in a game where the hardest bosses tend to have HP in the 1-2 million range. Void Shiki is pretty much the only thing that can kill them in a somewhat timely fashion, and she's very likely to wipe them out in one turn.
232*** Similarly, one of the last battles in the Babylonia chapter is against a horde of about 20 BossInMookClothing Lahmu enemies. Your story support for this battle is [[spoiler: [[HellYesMoment Grand Assassin Hassan-i-Sabbah]]]] who can inflict Instant Death with their regular attacks, but any Servant with high chance to inflict Instant Death, like Shiki, Void Shiki, or Nitocris, works just as well.
233** Prototype Arthur's mix of a HerdHittingAttack, a Saber class, and a significant damage boost against Giant enemies means he often got knocked for not being able to bring all his buffs to bear properly: Giant enemies aren't common, Giant enemies that are weak to Sabers are rarer, and Giant enemies that are weak to Sabers and frequently come in groups is basically just the Jotuns. Coincidentally, the Giant Demon Boar challenge quest in Chaldea Summer Memory's rerun fits all these criteria, and [[SlidingScaleOfGameplayAndStoryIntegration even makes sense in-lore]] (Arthur has [[MythologyGag experience with these things]]).
234** Notably, this was infamously attempted in the Orleans singularity, which is full of strong dragon enemies, and towards the end, has you obtain Siegfried (a character with hefty damage boosts when fighting dragons) as a GuestStarPartyMember. As it turned out, though, Siegfried was not well-designed to kill dragons at launch, owing to his StoneWall statline and lack of class advantage over the Rider-class dragons, meaning this instead became a Job for Sasaki Kojirou, who, despite being a one-star, was the cheapest character to boast class advantage over Riders and the only one to have an evasion skill at base level. This resulted in Kojirou becoming something of a MemeticBadass. Later on, Siegfried was RescuedFromTheScrappyHeap by significant buffs to his damage that made him more able to kill dragons even without class advantage, and there have been a few events that actually ''do'' seem tailor-made to take advantage of his skillset (such as one Valentines event node which was nothing but Lancer-class dragons).
235** The infamous [[ThatOneBoss Nerofest First Hassan Exhibition Battle]], particularly in its bugged American incarnation, is often seen as the hardest challenge the game ever produced, due to being a MarathonBoss with lots of damage and tons of instant-death attacks that bypassed defense and evasion. This resulted in Irisviel, at the time the only character capable of giving the whole party Guts (a status that lets an ally survive an attack that would kill them with reduced health) on a regular basis, and who also boasted class advantage over Hassan, abruptly becoming very desirable as the only way to make sure your team survived when Hassan was almost guaranteed to kill at least one every two turns.
236** Penthesilea is only one of many SR single target Buster Berserkers, with her unique personal skill granting damage to Greek mythical figures. Not a terrible gimmick, but situational at best... except in Lostbelt 5. As it turns out, a chapter about Greek mythology has a lot of Greek mythical figures in it.
237** Another "anti-X bonus damage" gimmick: At the release of the game, Rider Boudicca's anti-Roman bonus damage skill saw her relegated to the lowest tier of the metagame, as it applied to all of five Servants and no non-Servant enemies. [[LowTierLetdown Some fan sites created a whole new bottom tier just for Boudicca]]. After two upgrades for herself and two alternates for Nero, she was ''still'' incredibly niche. What finally turned things around? The release of Romulus-Quirinus, who can turn enemies Roman.
238* ''Franchise/FinalFantasy'':
239** The WhiteMage class in general when used for offensive purposes. For most of the game they are pure support characters whose contribution to the party's offensive might is functionally non-existent. However, bringing a White Mage to a dungeon with a large amount of undead turns their healing magic [[ReviveKillsZombie into a powerful offensive weapon]].
240** In the base game of ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyII'', the InfinityPlusOneSword super-spell Ultima has a damage formula that either is bugged and doesn't work (in the original) or is based on the combined levels of all the spells you've learned (in the remake). It's normally the definition of AwesomeButImpractical, since the damage formula is not a forgiving one, and it takes hours to grind up the five or six spells you probably use enough for it to dish out damage on par with your standard attacks. But in the BonusDungeon of the remake, you have Minwu, a CrutchCharacter who starts with dozens of spells already at low-mid levels -- meaning he is perfectly suited to abuse Ultima's damage formula and becomes the party's heavy hitter.
241** ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyIII'':
242*** The very much subpar "Scholar" job has the primary function of using the Scan ability to find an enemy's weakness and the Peep ability to find their HP. The latter is basically useless and the former is only truly useful in the fight against Hein (and his recolored counterpart in the BonusDungeon) who can [[BarrierChangeBoss change his weakness]]. The [[VideoGameRemake 3D remake]] downplays this by buffing the Scholar to be more generally usable: "Scan" and "Peep" are combined into "Enemy Scan" (which throws in [[DispelMagic Erase]] for good measure), the Scholar is given access to low-level magic, which their stat growths can finally use, and most importantly [[ItemAmplifier an item used by the scholar during battle will be twice as effective]].
243*** The Dark Knight/Magic Swordsman job has the primary skill of being able to negate any kind of [[AsteroidsMonster "spawn more enemies on death"]] ability. For most of the game, this is pretty situational, but in the Ancient Ruins area, just about every enemy has that ability, meaning a party of Dark Knights can shred their way through it. The remake gave them a more generally useful skill of [[CastFromHitPoints sacrificing HP]] to deal damage to a group of enemies, but they're still most in their element in the ruins.
244** In ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyIV'': Edward is easily the most useless character in the game. As a bard, his weapon is a harp with weak normal attacks. His two talents are songs and hiding. He songs often fail to work on regular enemies, and most bosses are immune to them. His hiding serves no purpose other then self-preservation. However, there is one moment where his musical talent saves the entire team, although ironically that happens when he's no longer a member of the main party. He uses his harp to disable the magnetic field in the dark elf's cave, which had been preventing the party from using most of the their weapons, saving the team from certain defeat.
245** ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyV'' features a ClassAndLevelSystem. While many jobs are very useful from the get-go (such as Monk or Ninja), others, like Bard, don't get to do much... but the Bard does very well against the two {{Optional Boss}}es (as Romeo's Ballad can temporarily stop Omega, and Apollo's Harp deals lots of Damage to Shinryu). He can also do a lot of damage to Undead enemies with Requiem. Many strong enemies are undead, some very surprisingly so.
246** ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyVI'':
247*** Shortly after receiving Celes, the party - consisting of just Celes and Locke at the time - goes up against the Tunnel Armor. This boss exists pretty much to demonstrate Celes' Runic ability, in which she blocks a spell with her sword and absorbs the MP rather than taking damage - no other enemies use magic spells so frequently, and few are fought when magic is so disproportionately devastating. However, Runic simply blocks and absorbs the next spell cast, be it an enemy spell, your own offensive spell, or even your own ''healing'' spell. Outside Tunnel Armor and maybe a few other bosses with predictable attack patterns, Runic is worse than useless. It's rarely even useful for replenishing Celes' MP, since Osmose is so overpowered in this game.
248*** During the [[DiscOneFinalDungeon Floating Continent]], you may have the misfortune to run into Wirey Dragons (Platinum Dragons post-SNES). These critters have high stats across the board, usually attack in groups of 3, and have almost no weaknesses - except for, of all things, Relm's generally worse-than-useless Sketch. Sketching a Wirey Dragon casts Cyclonic, doing 90% of their hitpoints in damage and laying absolute waste to them.
249** ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyIX'' has Vivi's Doomsday spell, the ultimate black magic that causes shadow damage to all enemies ''and'' all allies at once, making it very likely to cause a TotalPartyKill. There's equipment that can nullify or absorb shadow damage, but they quickly get outclassed by better gear later on and there's no random encounter or boss encounter where shadow damage even happens. On top of this, you can cause just as much damage to enemies with Flare or abusing the ElementalRockPaperScissors and spending less MP to boot. The OptionalBoss, Ozma, has Doomsday in its arsenal and it will cast it while disregarding its own safety. Remember the equipment that could protect you from shadow damage? They're quite useful here.
250** ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyXIV Endwalker'' has side quests where the nations of the Eorzean Alliance are beset by great monsters called "Blasphemies". Each Blasphemy has skills that demand a specialized fighter in the DamagerHealerTank dynamic to fight it.
251*** The Blasphemy in the Black Shroud is using hit-and-run tactics to poison its victims and escape. A tank is needed to withstand the innitial attack and retaliate.
252*** The Blasphemy in Vylbrand has kept to the deep waters, only coming to shore briefly. A melee fighter is needed to deliver the critical blow quickly when it makes landfall.
253*** The Blasphemy in Gyr Abania has left a swaft of injured in its wake. A healer is needed to tend to the wounded.
254*** The Blasphemy in Ishgard takes the form of an airborne dragon. An offensive spellcaster is needed to balance out the martial fighters combating it.
255*** The Blasphemy in Othard is capable of flight and stays out of range of Doma's samurai and ninja. A ranged fighter is needed to shoot down the beast.
256* The ''Frenetic Five'' game series is based entirely around this trope. The protagonists are a team of superhero temps with lame superpowers that turn out to be exactly what's needed to save the day each time.
257* Just get a new player character in a ''VideoGame/GoldenSun'' game? Expect a dungeon revolving around some trick that only they can perform. Likewise, old characters learning new tricks frequently leads to a dungeon in which that skill is required above all else.
258** The most obvious offender in ''Dark Dawn'' is in the lead-up to the final dungeon. A gate can only be opened by walking a very specific path that is only [[EditorialSynaesthesia "visible"]] by use of Sveta's [[TheNoseKnows Track Psynergy]], a power that is needed NOWHERE ELSE IN THE GAME (not even in her debut dungeon when she demonstrates it, that one focuses more on her Slap Psynergy).
259** Eoleo's Thermal is up there too: He knows it...for the hell of it, as otherwise he's a carbon copy of Tyrell, it takes a while for it to get used, and then it's only used for a short bit. Sure, he joins late, but Himi joins later and her Search psynergy gets way more plot and mileage!
260** In Craggy Peak's Zodiac-themed dungeon, there is a very confusing puzzle involving moving around statues of goats. The nearby stone tablet is cryptic ("The goat leaves no trace behind."). Looks like a job for [[AnnoyingVideoGameHelper Insight Psynergy!]]
261* ''VideoGame/HearthstoneHeroesOfWarcraft''
262** Sacrificial Pact is a no-cost Warlock spell that kills a Demon minion to restore 5 Health to your hero. While healing is very useful on a class revolving around CastFromHitPoints, it was rarely used not only because it was too low-impact of a card to make it worth taking a deck spot, it was also too situational. Finding the time to sacrifice a weak token Demon was difficult, there were no good Deathrattle synergies to combo it with (For reference, Dark Pact costed more and healed less and saw much more use), and while it could insta-kill enemy Demons, they were a tribe of minions mostly used by only one out of nine classes. Then, ''Ashes of Outland'' introduced the game's first new hero class, the Demon Hunter, who were straight-up overpowered at launch and [[GameBreaker overwhelmed the meta]]. They were also the only other class to use Demons, and Sacrifical Pact was ''the'' best way to get rid of their powerful mid-to-high-cost Demons. This didn't last, as the spell was nerfed to target only friendly Demons, but for that brief moment it was one of the best tech cards in the game.
263** Bolf Ramshield is a Legendary minion from ''The Grand Tournament'' that has an effect which redirects any damage your hero takes towards himself. He is considered to be one of the worst Legendaries ever printed, as his effect makes him worse than a regular Taunt minion because the opponent's minions could just hit your hero to kill him without taking damage from trading into him, meaning his 3/9 body was more of a 0/9 in practice. He can tank direct damage to your hero from spells and such, but he was still hideously inefficient since he costs 6 Mana. 7 years later, a new card finally gave players a reason to use Bolf: The Jailer, who makes all your minions Immune for the rest of the game, meaning if your opponent doesn't have an indirect hard removal effect to kill Bolf, you were unkillable.[[note]]Though the much more useful Mal'Ganis can basically do the same thing, he costs 9 Mana and is Warlock-exclusive.[[/note]]
264* In ''VideoGame/HorizonZeroDawn'' Aloy snarks that it seems like motherhood is an odd qualification for leadership within the Nora tribe. Matriarch Teersa's ability to deal with a snarky and sulky teenager turns out to be extremely useful when dealing with her, which is vital to saving the world.
265* ''VideoGame/IWasATeenageExocolonist'': Nomi-Nomi has a few talents, but none of them are useful for the colony. However, the yearly Vertumnalia Festival has trivia contests in which the colony's teens can participate if they wish. Do to memorizing information about various media being one of their talents, Nomi-Nomi is quite good at them, to the point of being the person who wins if the PlayerCharacter doesn't.
266* In ''VideoGame/KanColle'', certain quests and branching rules require you to use some ships that, due to not being particularly powerful, would normally be ignored by most players.
267* ''VideoGame/KingdomHeartsII'': The [[UpdatedRerelease Final Mix version]] introduced a new SideQuest with friendly monsters that imitate the members of Organzation XIII. The majority of their tasks are specifically designed to make use of [[SuperMode Wisdom Form's]] quick-but-weak attacks and sliding ability.
268* ''Franchise/TheLegendOfZelda'': Link collects a wide variety of tools and weapons. Most are useful. Others...not so much. But you can expect that the new shiny toy you just got will be used in the same dungeon you found it in, often to defeat the boss.
269* ''VideoGame/LegoAdaptationGame:'' In every game there's usually a specific ability limited to one character alone.
270** In ''VideoGame/LegoBatman 2'', in certain areas, Joker-faced/Two-Face-faced/Riddler graffiti can only be removed by [[spoiler:... [[BrickJoke AQUAMAN]]]].
271** ''VideoGame/LegoDimensions'' has many examples, including (naturally) Aquaman himself, who is the only character capable of summoning items from special pools, Chell (only person with an Aperture Science Portal Gun), Scooby-Doo (only character able to follow trails underwater), Cragger (only character able to use CHI-points underwater), ''Teen Titans Go'' Raven (only character able to open purple portals).
272** ''VideoGame/LegoTheIncredibles'': Russel is the only character in the entire game who possesses the "Tracking" skill, and given the frequency of Tracking puzzles, you'll either have to go out of your way to unlock him... or create a custom Super with the Tracking ability, which is the only other way to get that skill.
273** ''VideoGame/LegoPiratesOfTheCaribbean'' has "Cursed Objects" which only Blackbeard can manipulate. While [[RedAndBlackAndEvilAllOver Dark Magic items]] also appeared in ''VideoGame/LegoHarryPotter'', there was a less limited set of who could use them as there were plenty of unlockable evil wizards.
274* For the most part, the ''Firestarter'' Battlemech of the various ''VideoGame/MechWarrior'' and ''VideoGame/MechCommander'' games where it has appeared has rarely ever been more than a heavy scout--too light to fight in the main line of battle, too poorly armed to be a threat to anything other than infantry, and too niche in its focus: flamethrowers and machine guns, neither of which are sufficient to bring down a HumongousMecha. However, ''Mechwarrior 5 Mercenaries'' introduced the 'Demolition' mission type, where you are tasked to attack a building complex and reduce it to rubble. As it turns out, flamethrowers and machine guns do double damage to buildings... so the ''Firestarter'', with its dual machine guns and quadruple flamer array, is now ''the'' go-to 'Mech when it comes to speedrunning Demolition missions.
275* ''[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X36RHC53tH8 Mega Man Day in the Limelight 2]]'' has Bubble Man as a playable character. He's the only character that can swim, but you aren't likely to use him much outside the water.
276* ''VideoGame/LittleKingsStory'' have chefs. They're generally useless, in combat and out, are usually not worth bringing and are expensive as hell, but they are also capable of one shotting Cockadoodledoos, one of the strongest random enemies in the game, so keeping one around is generally a good idea when you can.
277* ''VideoGame/MegaManPoweredUp'' (an EnhancedRemake of the original ''VideoGame/MegaMan1'') allows you to play as any of the six original Robot Masters (and two new ones, given the proper conditions), so all of the stages from the original game were redesigned to allow them to make it to the end without getting stuck, with each stage having an alternate route exclusive to one of them. The boss weaknesses are also rebalanced, so that one weapon is effective against the boss, another is weak, and the rest do average damage (for example, Super Arm deals six units of damage to Cut Man, but Hyper Bomb only deals one unit, and the other special weapons only deal three).
278* The update to ''VideoGame/MegaManRockForce'' that made the Rock Force playable after you rescue them has Dive Man. None of the Robot Master stages have enough water for his underwater maneuverability to be worth using and his Dive Missiles are fairly weak on land, but he excels during the first stage of [[spoiler:Justice Man's fortress]] -- it is almost entirely underwater and the boss is weak to his attacks.
279* ''VideoGame/MegaManZX'':
280** Vent/Aile's human form in the first game is completely useless outside of two situations: When they need to talk to civilians (since they're too freaked out by the Biometal forms and just tell them to go away) and when they need to climb through holes (since none of the Biometal forms can crouch). Rescuing civilians from a burning building is an objective in Area G (civilians who are conveniently TooDumbToLive and ''still'' refuse to cooperate unless they return to your unpowered form) and there are plenty of crawlspaces connecting certain areas and acting as one-way passageways. Model LX is also the least practical form outside of its Item Scanner ability (it has a powerful melee weapon, but no ranged options that don't consume Weapon Energy and it can't attack while moving), but gains god-like maneuverability in water, which comes in handy in Area J, a place almost completely underwater and loaded with SpikesOfDoom, and conveniently can only be accessed after gaining Model LX.
281** In ''Advent'', Chronoforce is essentially a more armored Model L (which you get again) who's even ''more'' crippled outside of water (Model L can at least fight and move on land, Chronoforce is dead weight unable to move). ''[[LethalJokeCharacter However]]'', Chronoforce's armored shell can still protect from attacks coming down from above, making it a useful impromptu shield, and its [[TimeStandsStill Time Bomb]] can still be used, even if you switch to another form to take advantage of the slowed time.
282* The whole universe of ''Franchise/{{Metroid}}'' is like this. Why, when their sworn enemy's most unique ability involves rolling up into a little ball, the Space Pirates persist in building their bases and ships with little passageways that can only be navigated by a ball-shaped object of exactly that size, no one knows.
283** In ''VideoGame/MetroidPrime'', the Wavebuster is usually considered the worst of the Charge Combos... [[spoiler:except in the BossBattle against the Cloaked Drone, which usually can't be targeted by Samus' weaponry.]]
284* ''VideoGame/{{Minecraft}}'' has the Wandering Merchant, a character who randomly appears and sells things to you. The problem is, is the stuff he sells is common stuff like saplings in low quantities and for exorbitantly high prices. He ''might'' sell you the rare Nautilus Shell or Blue Ice, but he's rarely, if ever, got anything valuable and you're better off killing him to plunder his leashes. However in ''Skyblock'' and ''One-Block Skyblock'', two popular mods that put you in a void in the sky with ''incredibly'' limited resources, Wandering Merchant becomes a godsend since the normally common trash he sells is now otherwise unobtainable. In Skyblock, he goes from being a honking nuisance to a gift from the gods.
285* In ''VideoGame/PaperMario'':
286** Sushie is a literal FishOutOfWater whose main gimmick is MakingASplash attacks. The first dungeon after she joins you is a volcano where most of the enemies (including the boss) are weak to water, making her very useful here. But once that's done, fire-based enemies are relatively uncommon, so even though she does learn some powerful moves like Tidal Wave, there's not much reason to use her when other partners can do the same thing and tend to have better utility on top of that.
287** To a lesser extent there's Kooper. He's useful when he first joins since he can attack multiple enemies without an upgrade, but his inability to do ''anything'' against aerial enemies makes him less desirable once you get more partners, and neither his Super or Ultra Rank moves are particularly useful...until you get to the Shiver Region, where most of the enemies are weak to fire, so the otherwise forgettable Fire Shell suddenly becomes ''very'' useful.
288* ''VideoGame/Persona3'':
289** Ken is usually considered a LowTierLetdown due to his MasterOfNone tendencies. The last Tartarus guardian, the Jotun of Grief, is immune to everything but Pierce attacks, which makes him one of the better members for the fight.
290** Chi You, the ultimate Tower Persona, is nothing special, since he excels in Physical skills, has no innate immunities, and can only resist Slash and Pierce. That said, he's at Level 86, has ''really'' good stats, and only one weakness (Elec in this case), so customize him, cover his weakness with Resist Elec (or the Resist Elec skill card in ''Portable'' and ''Reload''), and he's good to go against Elizabeth.
291** Saki Mitama and Decarabia are these in ''[[VideoGame/Persona3Reload Reload]]'' for the same reason as Chi You: They lack any innate immunities and are only weak to one physical-based skill, which is a ''also'' good thing because the Resist Phys passive skill not only acts as a three-in-one version of Resist Slash, Strike and Pierce, but also takes away their innate weaknesses.
292* ''VideoGame/Persona5'' ''[[UpdatedReRelease Royal]]'' has Violet, who [[LateCharacterSyndrome only joins in the 3rd semester.]] Most enemies in the final dungeon happen to be weak to Bless, her main element, and her final Persona evolution gains resistance to one of the [[FinalBoss Final Boss']] attacks. Where she ''really'' fits this trope though is during the 3rd Semester NewGamePlus exclusive {{Superboss}}: one phase of the fight will inflict an unavoidable TotalPartyKill if you don't get at least one CriticalHit per turn, and Violet is a CriticalHitClass with the ability to buff the rest of the party's critical rate.
293* ''VideoGame/{{Pikmin}}'': The Blue Pikmin have no powers on land and are the primary target for enemy attacks. However, you won't be able to get all the ship parts/treasures without them, because they're the only Pikmin that can survive in water. Keep in mind that there are quite a bit of watery areas, especially in the Distant Spring/Perplexing Pool where the majority of the area is in water.
294* ''VideoGame/PlantsVsZombies2ItsAboutTime'': Fire attacks have rather situational advantage (fire peas' SplashDamage from [[VideoGame/PlantsVsZombies the first game]] has been removed) and can be a detriment since they neutralize the very useful slowing effect of Ice plants and are no-sold by Imp Dragon Zombies. Frostbite Caves makes them useful since they can not only quickly thaw frozen plants but are also immune to freezing. Fire attacks also cause zombies to turn to ash when killed, preventing Big Wave Beach's Surfer Zombies from [[TakingYouWithMe dropping their surfboard on death]], which is otherwise a OneHitKill on any plant.
295* ''Franchise/{{Pokemon}}'':
296** In ''VideoGame/PokemonBlackAndWhite'', your first gym battle is against an opponent whose team is specifically designed to counter your part of the ElementalRockPaperScissors triangle. However, due to events you'll do before the fight, you'll end up with a Pokémon who directly counters ''their'' part, turning the odds in your favour. The Pokémon themselves are pretty mediocre statistically and will probably only serve you for this one battle and not much else.
297** In ''VideoGame/PokemonBlack2AndWhite2'', Elesa still retains her difficulty level if your own {{Mon}}s are underlevelled... unless you use a Sandslash with Rock Tomb and Dig. Sandslash's ground typing locks Elesa's {{Mon}}s out of Volt Switch, and allows Sandslash to keep on attacking.
298** In competitive battles, several Pokemon are only useful for one situation or to counter one thing. Quagsire is only used to counter enemy stat boosts for stall teams, while Aerodactyl is used to quickly get Stealth Rock on the field for of heavy offensive teams. Half the [[OlympusMons Uber meta game]] revolves around countering Kyogre.
299** Shedinja is a particularly extreme example. It's a perpetual OneHitpointWonder immune to any moves that aren't Super Effective or residual damage. It just so happens that [[KryptoniteIsEverywhere those moves happen to run rampant in most of the tiers]], regulating it to uselessness... except, ironically, in the ''Uber'' tier, as it turns out most OlympusMons [[CripplingOverspecialization forgot to pack a move that can hit it]]. Especially Kyogre.
300** In the first generation's competitive scene, Porygon. Porygon is completely terrible at first glance: its highest stat is a middling 75 Special, it's slow as hell, and its offense is pathetic. However, it happens to be one of the only Pokémon that can counter Snorlax, one of the most powerful choices in the game.[[note]]This is because it has just the right combination of traits (typing, stats, movepool,etc.) to be able to stall out the most common Snorlax sets unless they [[TakingYouWithMe use Self-Destruct]], which is [[PyrrhicVictory definitely better for the Porygon's trainer than the Snorlax's.]] [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mix4hThfvY4 This video by Big Yellow goes into more detail.]][[/note]]
301*** Unfortunately for Porygon, in an [[IKnowYouKnowIKnow ironic recursive version of this trope]], this actually caused an increase in the usage of the [[LethalJokeCharacter less common but not unheard-of]] [[StatusBuff Amnesia Snorlax]], [[BriarPatching which will gladly take Porygon switching in as an opportunity to buff itself into the stratosphere.]]
302** Nosepass, in its debut, was a FakeUltimateMook in the same vein as Onix with piss-poor attacking stats that, most of time, make its massive defense go to waste. However, it has the coveted Magnet Pull ability to trap Steel-types, so it becomes exceptionally good at beating Skarmory, one of the premier {{Stone Wall}}s.
303*** Before evolving in Gen 4, Magneton was this for Gen 3. Magneton's stats and typing were not ideal for the metagame before or during Gen 3, but with Magnet Pull it was the ultimate Skarmory counter, since it could keep it trapped, shrug off anything in Skarmory's arsenal bar the rare Hidden Power Ground, and then blow it up with Thunderbolt. That was the main use for it, and one of the few it did well, but Skarmory was so big in the generation that such a role was worth using. As mentioned though, the evolution to Magnezone upgraded it to a more general usefulness.
304** Poison and Steel Mons have always been rather lame; both are notorious for having the worst offensive Mons in the series [[note]]Previously, Poison was only super-effective against Grass, and Steel was only super-effective against Ice and Rock. All three of those types have enough weaknesses that Poison or Steel attacks are almost never needed to hit them hard. In the metagame, the only times they're used are to take advantage of STAB bonuses, make use of the [[ActionInitiative priority move Bullet Punch]], or when there are no other options.[[/note]], but they fill this role in ''VideoGame/PokemonXAndY'' where Fairy-Types are the new powerhouses, and players will need to be packing Mons with good Steel and Poison attacks to deal super-effective damage to the Fairy-type Pokémon, who can hit ''hard''. This is even more pronounced in ''VideoGame/PokemonSunAndMoon'', which introduced the Island Guardians, a quartet of Fairy-types who generate field effects in their favor when deployed. If you don't have a super-effective move ready, they will annihilate your Pokémon.
305*** The move Steel Roller was introduced in ''VideoGame/PokemonSwordAndShield'''s Isle of Armor DLC expansion. It's a very powerful Steel-type move that can only be used when said Island Guardians' field effects are in play and also ends those field effects. While the Island Guardians were not available yet, people quickly realized that any Pokémon with Steel Roller can destroy any Island Guardian that comes up.
306** Grass is also similarly a weak offensive type, with a whopping 7 types resisting it and the things it does hit super-effectively overlapping with more generally useful Electric and Water attacks. However, Game Freak introduced powerful Water / Ground type Pokémon such as Swampert whose sole weakness is Grass (and being a 4x weakness, nearly guaranteed to take them out in one blow), ensuring Grass attacks have a role as an anti-meta call against such threats. Starting in Generation VI, Grass-types are also immune to all moves involving powder and spores, moves that normally inflict nasty standard StatusEffects and can otherwise cripple an entire team. In particular is [[MushroomMan Amoonguss]], a StoneWall made even tougher to defeat by access to an otherwise guaranteed Sleep-inducing move...who, thanks to that immunity, crumbles in the face of any Grass Pokémon that can withstand Poison-type moves.
307** The starter trio in ''VideoGame/PokemonSwordAndShield'' have Hidden Abilities, stats and movepools that do really well against each other in the same direction as their type advantages. While Cinderace is more usable than the others, it can change its type to adapt to anything Rillaboom can throw at it while never losing STAB, and its wide arsenal of moves means it has plenty of anti-Grass options outside of Pyro Ball. Inteleon is slightly faster than Cinderace and its type shoots through the few holes in its movelist, allowing it to keep the rabbit under control on even terms. And Rillaboom's Grassy Surge allows it to outpace Inteleon with Grassy Glide, its monster HP can help it soak up the one Snipe Shot the lizard will get off, and Rillaboom's monster Attack versus Inteleon's weak Defense means that engagement can only end one way.
308** Wigglytuff is an overall unremarkable Pokémon in battle and is really known only as Jigglypuff's final form. However, not counting Mega Evolutions, it's also the only fully-evolved Pokémon immune to both of Dragapult's and Giratina's types, two Pokémon that have proven very tough to beat.
309** During [[VideoGame/PokemonXAndY Generation VI]], Aegislash was tearing through opposing teams all by itself, with very little that could counter it--but it was quickly put in check by, of all things, Diggersby, one of the region's early-game ComMons. Looking past its low stats reveals Huge Power, which lets it deal double physical damage; and looking past its weird Normal/Ground typing reveals that standard Aegislash moves, Ghost and Steel, cannot deal even neutral damage to Diggersby. This means Diggersby can withstand any attack Aegislash throws at it, then [[OneHitKill one-hit KO Aegislash]] with a well-timed Earthquake. It's even more so now that Aegislash got a {{Nerf}} in ''Pokémon Sword and Shield''...with Bunnelby, and by extension Diggersby, ''also'' being an early game Com Mon in Galar. Granted, Diggersby has to be worried about any Aegislash carrying "Sacred Sword" as that will one shot it without issue.
310** Lapras has seen a surge in usage in online battling in ''VideoGame/PokemonSwordAndShield'' thanks to its new SignatureMove, G-Max Resonance, which does Ice-type damage and sets up Aurora Veil, a condition that reduces all damage done to Lapras and allies. [[CharlieChaplinShoutOut Mr. Rime]] directly counters this strategy via Screen Cleaner, a passive Ability that removes conditions like Aurora Veil the moment it enters battle. In addition, its typing allows Mr. Rime to withstand anything Lapras can throw at him, meaning Mr. Rime can undo all of Lapras's work just by showing up in battle.
311** Picture this; Zacian-Crowned, the strongest Pokémon introduces in ''Sword and Shield'' thus far. So powerful was this monster that until it was banned the unholy realm of Anything Goes (Mega Rayquaza's domain). It has a grand total of ''one'' reliable counter, and that total has not increased with the National Dex version of Anything Goes. That Pokémon? Unaware Quagsire. Against this doofy-looking salamander with lower base stats than Tangela, Behemoth Blade is ''at best'' a five-hit-KO and Play Rough is three or four. Both these moves have low PP, and Quagsire can easily outlast them with Recover. It also gets STAB on Earthquake, and thanks to Unaware, Zacian cannot even power up to break through.
312** Mega Rayquaza itself was somewhat infamous for being somewhat checked by, of all things, Golduck in its debut generation. Golduck is a generic Water-type with no particularly good stats that has never been high-tier, but it boasted the ability Cloud Nine, which shuts down weather while it's out. One of the main things that made Mega Rayquaza so notorious is its ability to create Strong Winds, which removed its Flying-type weaknesses (meaning that a potentially crippling Achilles heel of a x4 Ice weakness was now a rather manageable x2 weakness instead), but Golduck could bypass that and fire off an Ice Beam that would typically bring down the ruler of the skies in a single shot. This didn't pan out nearly as well as Quagsire, though, as it wasn't fast enough to outspeed or durable enough to tank a Dragon Ascent a lot of the time.
313** Cherrim is a Grass type with weak to middling stats and an ability in Flower Gift that, under sun, boosts all allies' Attack and Special Defense by 50%. Why such an odd stat pairing that does little to help Cherrim itself? Because it's meant to pair with Groudon, increasing its already behemoth Attack while patching up its weaker Special Defense. Still, Cherrim tends to get passed over by competitive players because it offers little else outside this specific interaction. This trope was attempted in ''VideoGame/PokemonBattleRevolution,'' where the game's {{superboss}} uses the Groudon + Cherrim combination in one version of the fight, except the other version uses the far better Kyogre + Manaphy combination where Manaphy's ability removes status in rain and thus can Rest to fully heal. However, Cherrim does play this trope straight in ''VideoGame/PokemonGo,'' where it is one of the few Grass types blessed with the excellent Fire-type Weather Ball that offers good coverage paired with Grass attacks.
314** The moves Helping Hand and Follow Me are completely useless in Single Battles. In Double Battles however? These moves are specifically tailored for them, with Helping Hand boosting the user’s partner for a more powerful attack, and Follow Me redirecting all attacks to the user, allowing the partner to safely set up.
315** Avalugg would be a physical powerhouse, boasting monstrous defense and respectably high HP and attack, but it's saddled by its horrible mono-Ice typing. However, it did have a moment where it would prosper in competitive battling as its high Defense lets it shrug off a Z-Power Subzero Slammer coming off Kyurem-Black and even tank hits from Zygarde and chase it off.
316* It makes sense that the actual test chambers in ''VideoGame/{{Portal}}'' can all be solved using portals, as they were specifically designed with this purpose in mind. However, [[spoiler:the maintenance corridors and so on were ostensibly not designed as such, and yet they are all perfectly suited to navigation via portals. This lends a certain credence to a popular fan theory that TheGameNeverStopped]].
317* ''Franchise/ResidentEvil'':
318** In ''VideoGame/ResidentEvilZero'', Rebecca Chambers' only special talent is her ability to mix herbs. This is only a vitally important skill because she's teamed up with Billy, who is the only character in any ''Resident Evil'' game who can't do this.
319** In ''VideoGame/ResidentEvil5'', the very few moments in the game where [[ArtificialStupidity Sheva]] [[TheScrappy Alomar]] is actually of critical use are for tasks tailor-suited to make a partner necessary, like holding a gate open while you run through, carrying a lantern that is inexplicably too heavy to carry with a weapon readied, or reaching a ladder that Chris could probably reach on his own just by jumping. The rest of the time you'll be screaming at her to stop fricking dying, stop wasting your curative items and ammo, and standing at a jammed gate repeatedly mashing the button that makes Chris yell "COME ON!" over and over again while Sheva runs around in circles half a level away repeating "[[BlatantLies I can't right now!]]" over and over.
320* This is the case in many RTS games, such as those in the ''Command and Conquer'' and ''Supreme Commander'' series, where they introduce a new unit, building and power each level.
321* Castle Rush mode in ''VideoGame/SevenKnights'' pits you against one of the titular knights. The majority of the knights deploy some annoying ailments that you need some units just to protect you from them. In particular, you need Victoria to counter Eileene's Electrify, Yui to counter Dellons' Silence, Lania to counter Spike's Freeze, and either Karin or Leo to counter Kris' Death. With the exception of Victoria, this is the only part of the game where these units will ever be used.
322* ''VideoGame/SonicAdventure'': While the other playable characters have cool powers and weapons, Big the Cat has only a fishing pole. While the other characters have exciting, action-packed levels, Big's levels all have Big's [[LivingMacGuffin Froggy]] conveniently end up in some body of water, and the level is spent fishing Froggy out of it (though Big can destroy small {{mooks}} with his fishing pole.) It even works this way for Big's ClimaxBoss. [[spoiler:Chaos, the water BlobMonster, absorbs Froggy into its body.]] To beat the "boss," Big just has to fish Froggy out of [[spoiler:Chaos' body]]. He doesn't really fight [[spoiler:Chaos]], but the game still treats this as a victory.
323* {{Lampshade|Hanging}}d in ''VideoGame/SpiderMan2''. When someone tells Spidey that a ship is sinking near off the coast, he says something like: "This looks like a job for...some kind of swimming superhero! ...But since none are around, I guess I'll have to do."
324* There are a few weapons in ''Franchise/{{Splatoon}}'' that are lacking in multiplayer battles, but find new usefulness in the [[MultiMookMelee Salmon Run]] mode.
325** While the Explosher has long range and terrific ground-inking capabilities, it is weakened by its slow firing speed and high ink consumption, and there's little utility to its rounds being able to pass through players in online multiplayer battles. However, this lets it damage lots of [[ZergRush massed]] [[{{Mooks}} Lesser Salmonids]] in a single throw, but its greatest talent lies in making quick work of [[DemonicSpiders Flyfish]]. Normally, players must [[InsertGrenadeHere toss a Splat Bomb into both of their missile pods]] to defeat them, which can be thwarted by other Salmonids throwing off players' aim, and always takes more than a full tank's worth of ink to accomplish. However, the Explosher's rounds can directly demolish them both in seconds, and with a fraction of the ink consumption. Come ''VideoGame/Splatoon3'', and they can also directly [[FeedItABomb give a Mudmouth severe indigestion]] in a similar fashion, with its shots piercing through the Lesser Salmonids that they [[MookMaker barf up]].
326** Rollers are capable of running into opponents to instantly splat them[[note]], except for the Carbon Roller and Big Swig Roller[[/note]], but a competent player can easily backpedal while firing at the roller-wielder, making this maneuver very hard to pull off, and often not worth the trouble. However, Salmonids don't think to do that, and thus rollers become an effective tool for mopping up Lesser Salmonids. Of particular note is the Dynamo Roller, whose rolling speed is the slowest of all, making it very hard to squish a player while rolling. However, it's the only kind of roller that can bowl over a [[GiantMook Cohock]] in one hit, and can quickly make mincemeat of [[MetalSlime Goldies]] in a Goldie Seeking wave. Additionally, any kind of roller is a huge boon for Rush waves, where the frenzied Chum ZergRush can be flattened beneath any roller's column. They also shine in Griller waves; while they're not really useful against the Griller itself, they will crush the perpetual flow of [[MiniMook Smallfry]], thus enabling your team to fire upon the Griller itself in peace.
327** The Wave Breaker, a special weapon available in ''VideoGame/Splatoon3'', ''is'' useful in multiplayer combat: it sends up to three circular waves across the ground, and any opponent who hits one is damaged and marked for all allied players to see, even through walls. However, players can counteract it by either jumping over the waves or directly attacking the device to stop it prematurely, but the Salmonids never do either of these things. Thus, a Wave Breaker becomes a crucial tool to deal unavoidable damage to all grounded Salmonids for a few seconds, clearing out Lessers and tacking on damage to Bosses. This effectiveness is increased at [[TideLevel high tide]] when the waves are more likely to cover the entire stage, and even more so during [[ThatOneLevel Rush waves]] to stem the furious ZergRush.
328** The Undercover Brella has the lowest damage-per-second output of any main weapon, but has an odd quirk that no other [[ParasolOfPain Brella]] has: it holds its canopy in front of the player while shooting -- all other Brellas merely shoot once, then hold up the canopy, when firing. This [[LuckilyMyShieldWillProtectMe shield]] functionality is useful for getting rid of Chum and Smallfry, which is ''especially'' useful when fighting Grillers -- a player with the Undercover Brella can both shoot at the Griller and be safe from Smallfry, at the same time!
329* In ''VideoGame/StarCraftII'', a lot of the new units are introduced in missions specifically designed in such a way to make the new unit obscenely useful. The worst example of this is the Diamondback--it's a unit that can attack on the move and does bonus damage to armored targets, and just so happens to be introduced in a mission where you need to chase down fast-moving armored trains. After this mission you'll never build them again because they're rather expensive and simply aren't very useful in comparison to more versatile, cheaper units like the Goliath and siege tank.
330** Though the game justifies it fairly well by explaining that your ship's engineer can only prepare new hardware so fast and he makes a point of working on stuff that is specifically going to be useful for the next mission.
331** In Multiplayer, there exists a 'Hard Counter' mentality, where the standard response to "Unit X is Overpowered!" is "Make more of Unit Y." While there are indeed quite a few units ''designed'' with such purposes in mind, higher level play has shown that with sufficient skill anything can hard-counter anything else barring targeting limitations (air-only or ground-only).
332** ''VideoGame/StarCraftIIHeartOfTheSwarm'' has a justified example with a mission showcasing Dehaka and his Primal Zerg, which are immune to the anti-Zerg weapons they are facing. Since similar weapons had been used throughout the series, Kerrigan had been keeping them around for that very reason.
333* In (the [=GameCube=] version of) ''[[VideoGame/SoulSeries Soulcalibur II]]'', GuestFighter [[Franchise/TheLegendOfZelda Link]] is, [[CharacterTiers tier-wise]], the weakest character in the game, but some Weapon Master objectives are easily achieved through his few strengths (read: ring outs and air combos).
334* ''VideoGame/SuperMario64'':
335** In the DS rerelease, Wario is one of the new playable characters. He's generally the least useful character, being slow with low jumps in a 3D platformer, but he is the only one able to break black bricks.
336** To a lesser extent, Yoshi. He's really not required for much, beyond being your starting character. The only thing he can really do that no one else can is melt ice, which is used even less than black bricks. He can't even break normal bricks, and so is outclassed by both Mario Brothers. The only gimmick Yoshi has going for him otherwise is that, once you've freed a Mario brother, you can automatically select their hat when starting a level, but the human characters can't turn into Yoshi, so Yoshi's the only character of the four who can access all four movesets and power-up sets in every level (apart from Bowser in the Sky and some of the secret bonus areas in Peach's Castle.
337* Tank units in ''VideoGame/SuperRobotWars'' series ([[Manga/GetterRobo Getter 3]], [[Anime/{{Daitarn3}} Dai Tank]], [[VideoGame/SuperRobotWarsOriginalGeneration Gust Lander]], etc.) are overshadowed by their base and speedster counterparts because they lack movement and damage output. However, they suddenly are very effective in water combats, especially in some maps that there are nothing but water in it, since they don't suffer a terrain penalty and get a natural protection against beam rifles. The underwater stage in Stage 26 of ''Third VideoGame/SuperRobotWarsZ: Tengoku-hen'' has a pre-battle convo where Benkei is really excited that they're finally fighting in a water-based area.
338* ''VideoGame/SuperSmashBros'':
339** Ganondorf has a special move called the Warlock Punch, which in each game is one of the most powerful attacks any character has access to, and the flatout most powerful of any attack that doesn't have variable power. The catch? It has massive start-up lag with limited reach, so it's nigh-impossible to land on an opponent that isn't incapacitated. It additionally has massive ending lag, ensuring Ganondorf will eat a heavy punish if he doesn't actually land it. This combination of nigh-impossibility to land while having very high risk to use makes it considered one of the more impractical moves. However, in the Home-Run Content minigame, Warlock Punch becomes the absolute best move any character could ask for. See, the Warlock Punch is so powerful, it's more powerful than the [[OneHitKO Home-Run Bat]] at high damages, as well as stronger than any other move. And since it's a move that executes with just a single press of a button, Ganondorf can wait until the last millisecond to use it, allowing him to rack up as much damage as possible in the time limit before using his finisher. Ganondorf himself can also rack up among the highest damage on the Sandbag within the time limit, so when combined with the Warlock Punch, he is the Home-Run King in every iteration of the Home-Run Contest, being able to send the Sandbag ludicrous distances exceeding 10,000 feet, far beyond what any other character is capable of.
340** Palutena from the ''Wii U'' and ''3DS'' games has a custom move called Heavenly Light, where Palutena casts a giant beam of light from the sky around her. The light causes damage to anything under it, but it does only a little damage at a time and opponents don't even flinch to it. However, much like the Warlock Punch, while the move is garbage in actual fights, it is amazing in a mini-game; this time it's Trophy Rush. The range and damage are enough to break dozens of boxes at once as they rain down from the sky, racking up a huge combo meter easily. In addition, in Time battles with 3 or more players, Palutena can use Heavenly Light to steal KO credit from other people, as the game gives the KO points to whoever last dealt damage to the [=KOed=] character, not who actually sent them out of bounds.
341* Each hero in ''VideoGame/SuperheroLeagueOfHoboken'' has one main power, which can range from necessary mobility (being able to swim), combat-worthy (induce rust, put animals to sleep, raise cholesterol) and always useful; supportive (see through pizza boxes, clean almost any mess, vanquish baked goods) and nice to have along when the need calls for it; and highly specific (eat spicy food, fold road maps) which are called for once, maybe twice in the whole game, to complete a very specific challenge. (The hostel is buried in old, unfolded roadmaps! This looks like a job for Princess Glovebox!) There is precisely ''one'' power which never sees ''any'' use: the [[CantDropTheHero undroppable]] Crimson Tape's ability to Create Organizational Charts (though it ''might'' explain why he is the designated leader of the League...).
342* ''VideoGame/TeamFortress2'':
343** The Demoman can change up his whole focus by swapping out his grenade launcher and sticky bombs for boots and a shield and equipping a sword or axe in the melee slot. This turns him into a "Demoknight," with [[LightningBruiser a blindingly fast charge, free crits, and a lot of damage resistance]] - but no ranged capability whatsoever, including the loss of all his bombs. Demoknights tend to be fairly hit-or-miss as a result... except on Medieval Mode, where the majority of ranged weapons are deactivated. On that mode, the Demoknight effectively gives up none of his prowess and everyone bar Snipers and Medics have to fight on his turf, and consequently, he becomes the most powerful character in the game.
344** In that same game mode, the Sniper's Huntsman bow and the Medic's Crusader's Crossbow go from being somewhat-viable alternatives to ungodly powerful. This is because they're the only primary ranged weapons to be unaffected by Medieval Mode, and ''any'' ranged weapon becomes a lot more effective when everyone else is in melee. By that same token, you'll also see a lot more Snipers using back-shields and Medics using the Amputator - the Sniper, because it's basically something for nothing, the Medic, because the Amputator's group-heal taunt becomes one of the few effective healing sources.
345** The Cleaner's Carbine is usually seen as one of the worst Sniper weapons out there; it takes an already ineffective weapon (the SMG) and then makes it worse at shooting people, in exchange for an ability that requires you to shoot lots of people, and said ability (eight seconds of minicrits for you) is directly outclassed by Jarate's ability to make people in an area take minicrits from everyone for ten seconds. But in Mann vs. Machine, one of the primary enemies is the Tank, a StoneWall DamageSpongeBoss with ridiculous health, ContractualBossImmunity, and no offense; the challenge being to simply do lots of damage very fast. Jarate is useless, and so are your usual headshots, but the Carbine can effortlessly build up the damage needed to charge its ability. Add in the Bushwhacka, a knife that turns mini-crits into normal crits, and suddenly, unloading the Cleaner's Carbine into a tank and then charging in with melee out can do thousands of points of damage without using any upgrades or canteens.
346** The Hitman's Heatmaker, another Sniper weapon, has the downside of taking a penalty to bodyshot damage, and the upside that, after getting kills, you can activate Focus, which lets you stay scoped while reloading and increases your charge rate by 25%. In standard gameplay, this is seen as none too great; the inability to drop certain classes with a fully-charged bodyshot is irritating, and most of the time, you don't want to ''stay'' scoped after making a shot because it kills your field of vision and the target is probably dead already. But in [=MvM=], there are Giant Robots that have so much health that they can survive multiple headshots, and the Explosive Headshots upgrade deals substantial damage to all bots in a short radius when the Sniper hits a headshot. A Sniper with the Heatmaker and good aim can keep shooting a Giant Robot without pause, dishing out massive damage while killing every bot in the area and staying Focused forever.
347** The Gas Passer for the Pyro is insanely underpowered; it takes a really long time to recharge, requiring 750 fire damage or ''a full minute'' to use, and doesn't start out ready unlike most similar weapons. When thrown, it leaves a gas cloud that applies a debuff where enemie take afterburn damage from any damage source. In other words, it does what the Scorch Shot or other Flare Gun alternatives do but on an extremely lengthy cooldown for a slightly more persistent afterburn source. The only way for the Gas Passer to be good is to have a group of enemies brainlessly walk through the gas cloud and have teammates coordinated enough to deal damage to gassed enemies to apply the afterburn... which makes it perfect for [=MvM=]. It also gets extremely useful upgrades in [=MvM=]. Faster recharge time lets you fill up a new canister quickly after throwing one and Explode on Ignite basically turns it into a high-power grenade. [=MvM=] turns the Gas Passer from one of the worst weapons in the game to one of the best crowd control tools in the game.
348* In ''VideoGame/TerraBattle'', thanks to status ailments being UselessUsefulSpell, Remedy characters (which specializes in curing and causing ailments) are situationally useful at best, used more for their secondary buffs/heals rather than their ailments. However, there's the [[ThatOneBoss Lamia]] battle, where most enemies (including the boss) takes next to no damage from both physical or magical attacks, and can only be killed with Poison. And the enemies has ailment spells with 100% success rate, so the Remedy characters' ailment curing and immunities are going to be vital.
349* In the ''Franchise/TouhouProject'' series, [[VideoGame/TouhouKoumakyouTheEmbodimentOfScarletDevil Flandre Scarlet]] doesn't really get to use her ability to destroy anything and everything much as such an ability is [[InverseLawOfUtilityAndLethality useless in Spell Card Duels]]. However, come ''VideoGame/TouhouGouyokuIbunSunkenFossilWorld'', [[spoiler:Due to Yuuma Toutetsu's ability to absorb enemies' attacks being countered by the nature of Flan's ability, and Flan's childish mind meaning Yuuma cannot talk her out of fighting, this makes Flandre the perfect counter to Yuuma, and this is likely why Okina sent Flandre to go fight Yuuma in the first place]].
350* In ''VideoGame/WorldOfWarcraft'':
351** The one person scenarios required to gain each artifact weapon is designed in such a way that it'd be incredibly difficult, if not outright impossible, for another class to do.
352** Some of the scenarios to unlock the class mounts (Demon Hunter and rogue in particular) would be impossible for other classes to complete.
353** The warlock questline to gain fel-tinted fire spells requires numerous warlock exclusive abilities such as enslaving demons and using the Eye of Kilrogg to find safe passage around invisible traps.
354* ''VideoGame/XCOM2'' has a somewhat downplayed mission in the DLC, "Shen's Last Gift", where your chief engineer ends up going along on a mission to investigate a transmission. Very few missions outside base assaults involve any major quantity of mechanical units, but in this one, it's all robots. And Lily is a very powerful anti-mechanical unit, with the ability to control 'Mechs or do massive amounts of damage to otherwise strongly damage-resistant machines. ''And'' they have cooldowns instead of being limited to one use per mission.
355* In ''VideoGame/YuGiOhTheFalseboundKingdom'', Mako's marshal ability, which makes his team move fast if all of his monsters are Aqua-type, is near-useless... unless the enemy has both anti-air and anti-ground cannons. Since swimming monsters don't fit either traveling style, Mako's teams can bypass the cannons and attack very quickly.
356[[/folder]]
357
358[[folder:Webcomics]]
359* ''Webcomic/CursedPrincessClub'': Frederick is not a great athlete/warrior like his older brothers, having instead graduated from military academy with a specialty in administrative support. His father King Leland [[TheUnfavourite finds this wimpy specialty very disappointing]], and even his generally kind and understanding older brothers [[DamnedByFaintPraise have trouble finding ways to praise him for it]]. However, when Gwendolyn admits to feeling overwhelmed with a dinner party she needs to hold as a school project, Frederick gladly offers his administrative support skills to assist. Not only does this help Gwen plan the dinner party much more easily than she had been before, but [[spoiler:the planning session they have finally gives Frederick the opportunity to make a LoveConfession to her after many chapters of interruptions and misunderstandings that prevented him from doing so.]]
360* ''Webcomic/{{xkcd}}'':
361** Invoked in the AltText of "[[http://xkcd.com/1010/ Etymology Man]]", wherein they pedantically dissect the etymology of "tidal wave" until they are surrounded by the rising water.
362--->"I can't believe I'm saying this, but I wish Aquaman were here instead--HE'D be able to help."
363** And who better to deal with rampaging windmills than... [[Literature/DonQuixote HIM]]. At long last, [[https://xkcd.com/556/ he's proven right]].
364* [[LampshadeHanging Lampshaded]] in the infrequent Supers theme of ''Webcomic/IrregularWebcomic'', when the GM complains that it's really hard to come up with an ''un''contrived [[PlotTailoredToTheParty Eigen Plot]] to fit Dino Boy, Captain Spatula, Refractive Man, and Worm-Master. Hilariously, outside of the one strip where he managed it, Worm-Master is [[TheLoad an aversion]] - his loyal worm hordes are ''never'' any use.
365* Possibly due to being the daughter of fishermen, Dame Lien from ''Webcomic/TheOrderOfTheStick'' is a paladin with a shark mount, a harpoon, and a magic ring that lets her breathe water. So, during the battle of Azure City she gets tasked with guarding the docks. Becomes much more important when the battle worsens and the Azurites have to evacuate by boat, and she is a major combatant for the chapters while they are at sea. (Though it's worth noting that, later, when she's miles from the ocean, she still finds a way to [[https://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots1250.html put her mount to good use]]).
366* ''Webcomic/{{Oglaf}}'':
367** In one strip, [[https://www.oglaf.com/overbite/ some townsfolk beg a wizard]] to stop a rampaging beast. He protests that he only knows dental magic, but fortunately [[AndroclesLion he's able to subdue and befriend the monster]] when [[RampageFromANail it turns out to have an impacted molar]].
368** A man is cursed by a spirit to be "the best at blowjobs in the world", with the spirit claiming that he either has to keep his gift to himself forever, or make use of it and only ever be known as "the blowjob guy." Shortly after, the city is besieged by a barbarian who demands they "send out your best fuck to defeat me, or we will lay your town to waste!" The obvious happens, and the man becomes a national hero and is crowned King Blowjob, who proceeds to [[WhenAllYouHaveIsAHammer solve as many governing problems as possible through really good blowjobs.]]
369* ''Webcomic/TheSecretKnots'': Parodied in "The very brief adventures of the Circle of the Salamander", where the French government recruits a group of surrealist artists to combat the 'surrealist vortex' that is threatening to destroy the world.
370[[/folder]]
371
372[[folder:Web Original]]
373* ''WebAnimation/DSBTInsaniT'': Fire Guy has his uses, like being a great campfire.
374* Parodied in ''WebAnimation/DrBees''. After the titular superhero goes about making everything worse with his bees, we finally see a situation clearly tailor made for him to solve (a bee convention that has no bees). Dramatic music swells... [[BaitAndSwitch and Dr. Bees doesn’t show up]]. [[spoiler:Smash cut to his corpse in the middle of the desert.]]
375* ''WebVideo/SolidJJ'':
376** Parodied in "Classic Aquaman", where the Justice League sounded the alarm to enlist his help... unclogging the toilet. [[DudeWheresMyRespect He was not at all pleased]].
377** In "Everybody Loves Aquaman", the Justice League were about to embark on a mission in Flint, Michigan, where they felt that the pollution in the water would not be suited for Aquaman, when all the sudden Lex Luthor announced that the Legion of Doom is building a new underwater base and planning to kill all fish. Aquaman was excited hearing that it's a mission that he can do, [[spoiler:but as it turns out Lex Luthor is only really doing the plan to humor Black Manta, which is the villainous version of this trope. Lex thought it was stupid and ultimately decided to back out]].
378* ''WebVideo/TwitchPlaysPokemonRed'': All Terrain Venemoth was the lowest-level of Red's endgame team, but it proved vital to one defeat of Lance after all the other party members had fainted. The Dragonite it was facing was far above its level, but the gen 1 AI has a quirk wherein AI pokemon will always use moves that are super-effective against your pokemon... even if these moves are harmless status buffs that just happen to have the right type. Lance's Dragonite knew Agility and Barrier, which are Psychic (super effective against Venemoth's Poison type) but deal no damage. Venemoth's moves did very little damage, but since the Dragonite wasn't attacking, it had all the time it needed to inflict DeathOfAThousandCuts.
379[[/folder]]
380
381[[folder:Western Animation]]
382* {{Lampshade|Hanging}}d in ''WesternAnimation/The13GhostsOfScoobyDoo'' when the villainous Nekara is introduced, who has the specific-to-the-point-of-being-worthless power of being able to [[LovePotion charm]] a warlock, and ''only'' a warlock, and only on [[ThirteenIsUnlucky Friday the 13th]], and ''then'' is able to [[PowerParasite drain their power with a kiss]], but is otherwise no more powerful than an average human woman. Shaggy actually comments on how lame her powers are compared to the other ghosts, though Vincent Van Ghoul points out she is a genuine threat to them because [[PlotTailoredToTheParty he happens to be a warlock and it happens to be Friday the 13th]].
383* ''WesternAnimation/ActionLeagueNOW'':
384** Meltman, with the power to...[[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin Melt!]] However, since he is only observed melting in the opening, this is more of a [[WhatKindOfLamePowerIsHeartAnyway What Kind of Lame Power is Melting Anyway?]] He ''did'' manage to get them tickets to a Music/{{KISS}} concert, though.
385** Fellow member The Flesh has two powers, one of which ("He's super strong...") is of obvious usefulness. However, contriving a situation where his other power ("... and super naked") came in handy was apparently too much of a challenge for the writers.
386* ''WesternAnimation/TheAvengersEarthsMightiestHeroes'' has ComicBook/AntMan's ability to communicate with bugs turn the tide of a few battles in the Avengers' favor.
387* ''WesternAnimation/BatmanTheBraveAndTheBold''
388** Downplayed by the show's version of Aquaman, which plays up his SuperStrength and adds [[MakingASplash overt hydrokinesis]] to his arsenal, as well as giving him a general BoisterousBruiser persona, which makes him a valuable ally in just about any environment. However, episodes featuring him do tend to involve aquatic setpieces, so that he can make use of his telepathy: for instance, one episode has Clock King holding someone hostage right in front of a lobster tank, and another has Ra's attempting to defend his lair with a giant sea monster. Other times, Aquaman keeps his powers useful through AchievementsInIgnorance.
389--->'''ComicBook/TheAtom:''' Silverfish? But... they're insects!\
390'''Aquaman:''' A fish is a fish, even if it's a bug.
391** Subverted in the episode "Night of the Batmen!" Aquaman, filling in for an injured Batman, fights The Penguin. Penguin makes a daring escape on his submarine, but then quickly steers the sub onto land and cuts through the city streets.
392* ''WesternAnimation/Ben10'': Ben's aquatic alien Ripjaws, due to being slow on land and always needing water but being a LightningBruiser while submerged. Due to the sometimes random nature of the Omnitrix, Ben occasionally has to use Ripjaws on land even though he isn't the best alien for the job (and the threat of fatal dehydration). Luckily, Ripjaws' razor-sharp teeth come in handy anywhere. Subverted in his later years, as it's shown that Ripjaws' species becomes less dependent on water as they age and by ''WesternAnimation/Ben10UltimateAlien'' this weakness is gone.
393* In ''WesternAnimation/CaptainPlanetAndThePlaneteers'', Gi can only use her Water ring to affect a nearby source of water. Fortunately, there always happens to be one available when she needs it, even if it is just a bucket of water lying around for no reason. Wheeler, whose ring can reasonably have the same limitation, doesn't have to worry about it, as his ring can create fire at will. Ironically it is the fire ring that the series has to come up with increasingly contrived uses for (there aren't that many non-violent ways to use a flamethrower); in quite a few episodes Wheeler is just sort of present without using his powers at all.
394* ''Franchise/DCAnimatedUniverse'':
395** ''WesternAnimation/JusticeLeague'': ComicBook/GreenArrow in his first mission with the League. The enemy is a giant unstoppable robot and the only way to deactivate it is to insert a carbon rod in a small opening in its chest cavity. However, none of the team members can get close enough because the robot is on fire. This was resolved of course, by Green Arrow turning the rod into an arrow.
396** Said almost word for word by Gear in ''WesternAnimation/StaticShock'' when Static and Gear fight a water-using [[DifferentlyPoweredIndividual Bang Baby]]. Static's response? "He'll have to get in line."
397* By season two of ''WesternAnimation/DinoSquad'', the writers were apparently at a loss as to why vain, fashion-obsessed Caruso was still a member of the team. The result was an episode devoted to his battle against the BigBad's guards and a horde of voracious giant ants -- both of which helpfully turned out to be terribly vulnerable to yoga and scented hand cream.
398* In ''WesternAnimation/DragonsRidersOfBerk'' episode "[[Recap/DragonsRidersOfBerkS2E13FreeScauldy Free Scauldy]]", the Dragon Riders are only able to tame and help the Scauldron 'Scauldy' because Ruffnut uses fish oil in her hair (to give it "this greasy unwashed look"), causing her hair to smell like fish and prompting Scauldy to listen to her efforts to calm him down and keep him distracted while the other Riders free Scauldy's trapped wing.
399* ''WesternAnimation/TheFairlyOddParents'':
400** In the episode "Power Pals" Timmy wishes for SUPERFRIENDS and gets a whole team of superheroes. One of them is a blatant {{expy}} of Comicbook/{{Aquaman}} who is only useful in water. When Timmy tries to get rid of them by sending them to a planet in another galaxy:
401--->'''A.J.:''' ''(When asked for coordinates)'' It's a planet filled with water.\
402'''Wet Willy:''' I say we go!!
403** The SuperheroEpisode dealt with Timmy wishing for a world of Superheroes after being shafted by ordinary job folks in time of need (fireman, milkman, postman, etc). These ordinary people wind up helping Timmy defeat the Nega-Chin after he and his friends are stripped of their powers.
404* ''WesternAnimation/{{Futurama}}'':
405** Fry has no superpowers[[note]]Well, barring specific episodes where he gets actual superpowers[[/note]], but he also has no Delta brainwaves, making him the only organism more advanced than a tree who can battle the Brain invasion. (Not ''[[TheDitz much]]'' more advanced, mind you.) He has also saved the planet with his knowledge of 20th century television, and his 20th century garbage making skills. Among other things.
406** Dr. Zoidberg is an abysmal physician (most of the time), but being a crustacean-looking StarfishAlien means that he has all kinds of strange tricks that come up. For example, in "Mother's Day," when Leela gets him to open a tin can with his claws. "Hooray! I'm useful! I'm having a wonderful time!" Naturally, he's also shown to be considerably more capable underwater, where he is able to gather food and avoid predators effortlessly, construct a rather nice underwater home, and even ''track Fry by his scent like a bloodhound'', where on land he spends most his time starving, homeless, and being worthless.
407** Bender was built initially designed as a "bending unit". In other words, a robot whose sole purpose was to bend objects. Not just objects, but ''specific'' ones, namely girders. Not just girders, mind you, but ''specifically'' girders used for making suicide booths. This is all explained in the {{Pilot}}, in which he later gets "deprogrammed" to bend universally, but his primary function remains throughout the series, where he and his fellow employees frequently find themselves in situations where the solution just happens to involve bending an object. Though being Futurama of course, it's subverted quite often. Where Bender would declare some tasks as "primitive, degenerate forms of bending" and just do them anyway.
408** It's also surprising how many things Hermes has to limbo under to save the day. The skill was introduced in "A Flight to Remember", which has a lowering door that stops with just a foot of clearance space, and since then, there have been an unusual number of similarly low gaps.
409** The episode "Zapp Dingbat" establishes that Leela's mutant father Morris is a sewer-surfing aficionado. In the episode's final moments, the characters' ship is attacked by aliens whose laser blasts form enormous waves, and after main navigation is knocked out, the only remaining controls are a surfboard-like device with twenty buttons in a keyboard-like arrangement. To top it off, Morris reveals for the first time that he has ten toes on each foot…
410* An episode of ''WesternAnimation/GarfieldAndFriends'' has some X-Men [[{{Expy}} Expies]]. Our Gambit expy had...[[WhatKindOfLamePowerIsHeartAnyway Super Cottage Cheese control powers]]... Fortunately, Jon, being a complete moron, had been scammed into buying a very expensive yogurt-dispenser with a warranty (Well made, just priced the same as a mansion). Fortunately, those Cottage Cheese powers end up working on the yogurt.
411* ''WesternAnimation/HarleyQuinn2019'':
412** Downplayed with Clayface, as while his powers can be used in several instances, it's his disguise ability that has the most trouble as he tends to go LargeHam and blow his cover. However, the only person he can perfectly masquerade as is ComicBook/{{Aquaman}}, as both have hammy dialect and manages to perfectly fool two Atlantean guards.
413** PlayedForLaughs with Kite Man, who's "superpower" is wearing a kite-based flight suit. Lame aesthetic aside, flight actually is a reasonably useful power, but since it's the ''only'' thing he can do, his main contribution is just carrying around more powerful characters. Even then, it has to be a fairly dire situation for most of the cast to agree to ride him rather than just taking a car or something.
414* ''WesternAnimation/HeManAndTheMastersOfTheUniverse2002'':
415** There was an episode devoted to Mekaneck complaining about his relatively useless power. Almost every obstacle in the episode (a maze of long narrow corridors, toxic gas that remains low to the ground, and the villain holding the Artifact Of The Week from a high altitude) seemed tailor-made for a person whose neck extends.
416** The show also had a subversion during a later episode, by giving the villain Stinkor - a humanoid skunklike character with the power to, well...[[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin stink]] - an upgrade that turns his rotten B.O. into directed jets of corrosive gas. As such, what was a laughably weak villain that the original series' creators swore they would ''never'' introduce to the series became such a big threat to He-Man and gang, that - during his debut episode - Skeletor not only recruited him as a minion, but also excluded from his usual punishment to failed minions. It helped that his abilities were clearly more geared for support rather than straight up attacking like the rest of Skeletor's forces. He would use his gas to disable the heroes by making them too sick to properly fight, giving the other minions a window of opportunity to take them out. If the rest of Skeletor's minions STILL couldn't take down the heroes after Stinkor's efforts to disable them, then it was hardly his fault if they failed.
417* In an episode of ''WesternAnimation/KimPossible'', Mr. Stoppable, the Actuary, spends an entire episode trying to be a hero to his son. He finally succeeds when his number-crunching skills turns out to be very useful against a one-shot villain with a very specific gimmick:
418-->'''Kim:''' Did you know your dad had it in him?\
419'''Ron:''' No, but who knew we’d be facing a math-crazed villain?\
420'''Kim:''' Yep. [[LampshadeHanging So convenient]].
421* In an episode of ''Series/TheLateShowWithStephenColbert'' the politics of climate change are parodied with [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tW6F4os-KdU animated clips from Aquaman cartoon shows]] re-voiced to claim that Aquaman is now the best superhero.
422* ''WesternAnimation/LegionOfSuperHeroes2006'':
423** In the episode "Karate Kid" -the titular hero earns his place in the Legion not because he's a BadassNormal who can keep up with the rest of the Legion on a usual mission but because the villain of the week happens to obtain a way to nullify superpowers.
424** To a lesser degree 'Phantoms' had Phantom Girl save the Legion from being trapped in the Phantom Zone by using her {{intangibility}} (though Brainiac 5 and Lightning Lad helped amplify it to phase everyone out).
425* Downplayed in ''WesternAnimation/MiraculousLadybug''; while none of the Miraculous powers are useless, the various {{Guest Star Party Member}}s tend to only be called in when Ladybug and Chat Noir have need of them (such as requiring Rena Rouge's [[MasterOfIllusion Mirage]] ability to distract the Sapotis, or Pegasus's [[ThinkingUpPortals Voyage]] to bring the Startrain back to Earth).
426* In ''WesternAnimation/TheLionKing1994'', [[TokenFlyer Zazu]] is too small and light to be useful physically to a bunch of lions; during the Elephant Graveyard scene he gamely covers Simba and Nala with his wings in an attempt to protect them from the hyenas, but even as cubs the lions are obviously better fighters and Zazu accomplishes nothing while Simba at least draws blood. However, Zazu is exceptionally good at moving fast and finding help, so he's able to bring [[CubCuesProtectiveParent Mufasa]] to Simba's aid at critical junctures like the graveyard and the stampede. Despite his inadequacy as a fighter, without Zazu, Simba may not have survived cubhood.
427* ''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic'':
428** In the episode "[[Recap/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagicS4E24EquestriaGames Equestria Games]]," one of the [[TrickArrow ice arrows]] is misfired into a cloud, creating an iceberg that is about to fall on the stadium full of sports fans. The unicorns have been [[PowerNullifier rendered powerless to prevent cheating]], and it's too heavy for Celestia, Luna, and the pegasi to safely guide to the centre of the field. Their only hope is a fire-breathing dragon, and Spike is the only one at the Games. The show actually has an oddly amusing habit of writing off Spike's fire-breath, shown to be capable of melting iron and stadium-sized blocks of ice in seconds, as a "relatively useless ability" in spite of countless episodes where it [[CouldHaveAvoidedThisPlot could have saved the day in seconds]].
429** In the [[WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyBestGiftEver 2018 holiday special]], a rampaging winterzilla can only be calmed down by Fluttershy, who can speak to animals. Discord admits he set it to rampage on purpose as a present to Fluttershy. Just as Rainbow Dash is starting to tear into him for doing something so dangerous, Fluttershy admits it ''was'' nice to be the hero for once. [[OpinionFlipFlop Rainbow Dash says the present was from both of them]].
430* The ''Westernanimation/PawPawBears'' episode where the Paw Paws realise they rarely need Totem Turtle's help is the one where Dark Paw decides to attack from under water.
431* ''WesternAnimation/{{The Powerpuff Girls|1998}}'' episode "Three Girls And A Monster" has Blossom and Buttercup unable to dispose of a giant lizard monster. Mainly because it's too big and strong, but also because the two sisters are arguing over whether brains or brawn are more effective. This leaves Bubbles. With her sweetness, innocence and politeness, she... [[MundaneSolution asks it to leave]]. And it does.
432* ''WesternAnimation/RobotChicken'' had a [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2OzeVKVV7X4 go job for Snow Job]]. But it was just his fellow [[Franchise/GIJoe G.I. Jerks]] pranking him (they apologize for it later).
433* ''WesternAnimation/{{Rugrats}}'':
434** One episode has the babies imagining themselves as superheroes from Phil's favourite TV show. The first adventure they go on utilise every baby except Chuckie (whose power is to drive their van). So Chuckie comes up with the next adventure that makes him the hero. This time everyone except Kimi get used so it was her turn for the next adventure.
435** "Mega Diaper Babies" has Tommy, Chuckie, Phil and Lil pretending to be their favorite heroes, the Mega Hyper Heroes. While Tommy, Phil and Lil have useful abilities,[[note]]ShapeShifting, rapid fire spitballs and being a dotted line armed with an airplane[[/note]] Chuckie only has "the smell of two babies". However, it's that power that defeats Angelitron[[note]]Angelica basically playing along, though she stole their toys[[/note]] and wins the day.
436* In ''WesternAnimation/SabrinaTheAnimatedSeries'' when they end up getting sucked into Harvey's comic book world, Sabrina has the seemingly useless power of making squids shoot out of her hands. Harvey's power is to make anything he draws come to life and when he runs out of ink seconds away from defeating the BigBad, Sabrina suddenly remembers what squids can make...
437* Played for laugh in ''Series/SaturdayNightLive'' TV Funhouse's ''Kobayashi the Hot Dog Eater'' short, in which Takeru Kobayashi, whose only power is eating hot dogs, saves a bunch of school kids from a burning school by eating the back wall of the building, which is inexplicably made of hot dogs.
438* ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'': The parody of ''Series/KnightRider'' shown (called Knight Boat, the ''crime solving boat'') contrives to always have some kind of canal, inlet, or similar body of water handy for Knight Boat to use to pursue foes heading inland.
439-->'''Michael:''' Oh, no! They're headed for land. We'll never catch them now.\
440'''Knightboat:''' Incorrect: Look! A [[BenevolentArchitecture canal]].\
441'''Homer:''' Go, Knightboat, go!\
442'''Bart:''' Oh, every week there's a canal.\
443'''Lisa:''' Or an inlet.\
444'''Bart:''' Or a fjord.
445* ''WesternAnimation/StarTrekLowerDecks'': "[[Recap/StarTrekLowerDecksS1E10NoSmallParts No Small Parts]]": Subverted; despite spelling out in detail how the current crisis is ''exactly'' tailored to suit the skills of the new-in-this-episode character Peanut Hamper, she chooses to bail rather than be a hero.
446* ''WesternAnimation/StevenUniverse'':
447** Most Gem-made security systems are made to target a Gem's unique physiology, and will aim straight for the [[HeartDrive Gem]] if they find one, while ones simply meant to contain will damage the Gem's light-based physical form. With that in mind, these systems are highly ineffective or just plain don't work at containing organic creatures. As such, when [[spoiler:Lars finds himself on Homeworld]], he quickly becomes a hero to [[spoiler: the Off Colors]] by using this to his advantage. [[spoiler:Specifically, by blocking Gem-searching beams with his own body.]]
448** Padparadscha is a defective [[{{Seers}} Sapphire]] that can only see into the recent past. This is usually a crippling SuperpowerDisability (she has a hard time seeing the ''present,'' and ''thinks'' she's seeing the future when seeing the past. This means you're often having to drag her out of the line of danger she hasn't noticed yet or wait for her to catch up with what's going on.) but it comes in handy a few times. She used it to figure out that Emerald specifically meant to miss her shots at the ship, and at another time to catch that the captain was pressing the wrong button.
449* Aquaman on the ''WesternAnimation/SuperFriends'' show.
450** Happens in every single episode of the original 1973/74 season, usually in the form of a villain-caused problem occurring on, under or near a body of water. In addition there were several water-based opponents on the show, such as the episodes "Dr. Pelagian's War", "The Weather Maker" and "The Watermen".
451** [[AudienceColoringAdaptation In fact the TV series is where most of the notion of Aquaman's uselessness comes from, due to the writers not being allowed to show him hitting anyone, so they were left with "being good at swimming" and "can ask fish for help."]] (Several episodes have him, humiliatingly, using a ''jetski'', which makes even the first one irrelevant.)
452** The series' version of [[Characters/AquamanRoguesGallery Black Manta]] has the same problem, with his character and ability set being reduced to "he owns a boat". In several episodes of the Legion of Doom era he and Aquaman have no purpose on their respective teams except to counter each other.
453* An episode of ''WesternAnimation/TheTick'' had Arthur and the Tick follow the normally useless Sewer Urchin on a mission into [[AbsurdlySpaciousSewer the sewers]] where it turns out his abilities are phenomenally useful, he has a cool hideout, he is respected and feared by the natives, and he is unflappable in the face of the sewer's [[CashLure strange and horrifying]] obstacles. He describes himself as "the apotheosis of cool" in his realm.
454* ''Franchise/{{Transformers}}'':
455** Several characters have vehicle modes that are only useful in a severely limited number of situations. Seaspray's watercraft mode basically limits his usefulness to situations that take place on or around water [[note]]His actual vehicle mode was a hovercraft, so he could still function on dry land as long as it was flat enough terrain, but his skills were based on naval engagements[[/note]], much like Aquaman. Even more limited is Perceptor, whose alternate mode is a microscope, thus limiting his effectiveness to situations where things are found that need a microscope for evaluation. Every once in a while, they do get their opportunity to shine. Perceptor is also a scientist, not a warrior, so he's not very upset by his lack of a combat-oriented altmode. Later stories tend to point out that he's actually a Triple Changer; like his original toy, he can also become a tank (which basically just looks like the microscope with its scope pointing upward and treads folded out, but still). Several other characters avoid this trope by being able to ignore the limitations of their altmodes somehow (for instance, characters with train modes can drive around on flat ground).
456** Overlapping with ForgottenPhlebotinum, characters tend to forget certain powers or abilities to create these situations. For instance, in the second episode, all the Autobots could fly without assistance. In the third episode, only Sideswipe (whose toy bio gave him a rocket pack) could fly, so he could lend the rocket pack to Optimus and help save the day. On a similar note, the Decepticons can usually fly through space unassisted... except when Astrotrain (who turns into a space shuttle) is around, in which case they pile into him.
457** ''WesternAnimation/BeastWars'''s third season featured four different episodes involving water-based setpieces, after the previous two seasons took place almost exclusively inland. Coincidentally, this was right after bounty hunter and aquatic specialist Depth Charge joined the team. By a similar coincidence, Depth Charge's rival Rampage had also picked up an aquatic altmode the season prior, giving them a lot of room for grudge matches. Like some modern Aquaman incarnations, Depth Charge wasn't by any means incompetent out of water, but his skillset would have been an InformedAbility otherwise.
458* ''WesternAnimation/{{Young Justice|2010}}'':
459** Lagoon Boy lacks Aqualad's weapons and electrical abilities, so he usually only gets used in missions near bodies of water. The HeroesUnlimited nature of the second season makes this far less obvious, though. This does get a lampshade when Lagoon Boy whines about being "stereotyped as the water guy" but it's at least as much because he's obnoxious and annoying and no one really likes working with him unless the situation absolutely requires it.
460** One episode features a villain plot to split the world of adults from the world of children (they've been essentially shunted into two separate dimensions). [[ComicBook/{{Shazam}} Captain Marvel]]'s otherwise-useless (in this continuity, at least) OlderAlterEgo becomes a way to bridge the gap and coordinate efforts between the adults and children.
461* ''WesternAnimation/ZakStorm'': The Eye of Zite is Zak's least used Eye of the Seven Seas because it's power only work against foes from the Sea of Zite. Case in point, an attack by it that dissolves celestial monsters and banishes spectres back to the Sea of Zite is just a harmless light show when employed against anyone or anything else.
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