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%% NOTE TO EDITORS: Please, PLEASE stop treating main pages like a conversation! It was obnoxious enough when tropers were adding sub-examples to this page casually referring to the whole article as a forum and referring to examples as "threads." If you see something wrong in an example, EDIT THE EXAMPLE. Don't REPLY to it.
%% Read the Administrivia articles "Conversation in the Main Page" and "Repair Don't Respond" for reasons why.
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[[quoteright:350:[[ComicBook/CaptainEnviro http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/weaksauce-weakness_captain-enviro_3760.png]]]]
[[caption-width-right:350:[-[[KillItWithWater Dihydrogen monoxide claims another victim.]]-] ]]

->'''Raj:''' I like Franchise/GreenLantern, I'm just saying it's pretty lame that he can be defeated by the color yellow.\\
'''Sheldon:''' Only the modern Green Lantern is vulnerable to yellow.\\
'''Leonard:''' Golden Age Green Lantern was vulnerable to wood.\\
'''Raj:''' Great. So I can take them both out with a number 2 pencil?
-->-- ''Series/TheBigBangTheory''

Being a SuperHero ain't easy. Most of the original {{Flying Brick}}s have the good [[AchillesHeel Achilles heels]] covered, and the pharmacy is even out of PsychoSerum to give you a cheap {{Backstory}} gimmick to explain your powers.

What's left for the modern hero and villain to do? Make do with a Weaksauce Weakness. It's great for comedic effect, but just as often it ends up being an AchillesHeel that makes your average MundaneSolution seem [[DramaPreservingHandicap perfectly reasonable]] by comparison.

The weakness isn't a common household cleaning agent like MundaneSolution, but something so incredibly, stupidly embarrassing you'd think the SuperHero would never use his power out of shame in the off chance someone found out about it, or because it [[KryptoniteIsEverywhere shows up regularly]] in the course of their super heroing. The "weakness" might come in the form of the fuel for the super power, a humiliating TransformationSequence or activation phrase, or just a set of restrictions on the powers that really are begging to get laughed at. Therefore, this is one of the most popular ways to [[BlessedWithSuck Bless your hero With Suck.]]

If the weakness is a LogicalWeakness, it can be pulled off. If not, it can seriously stress the WillingSuspensionOfDisbelief, unless it's PlayedForLaughs.

Especially cruel writers will have clever villains make it a WeaponizedWeakness. However, a KryptoniteProofSuit can even the odds.

Related to WhyDidItHaveToBeSnakes. See also WeakenedByTheLight, KryptoniteFactor, and EasilyThwartedAlienInvasion (where BizarreAlienBiology is probably to blame). If played for laughs, the one so harmed may FightOffTheKryptonite. In extreme cases, the character will defend themselves from the weakness with a CrossMeltingAura. For the inversion, of being at risk from a ''lack'' of something, see PhlebotinumMuncher.
----
!!Examples:

[[foldercontrol]]

[[folder:Fiction in General]]
* Vampires, the badass creatures of the night who always want to suck your blood, tend to have a ''lot'' of weaknesses. Popular tradition holds that you're fine as long as you stay in the sunlight, have some garlic, stay inside your house and refuse to let them in, or even wield a simple cross.\\
\\
The multitude of fiction involving vampires, though, has led to a [[OurVampiresAreDifferent multitude of differing weaknesses]]--including varying degrees of effectiveness. In some settings, vampires are weak to silver, and other religious symbols affect them as much as Christian ones. Then there's the older, more obscure, and even more restrictive weaknesses such as [[CannotCrossRunningWater inability to cross running water]], or obsessive-compulsive disorder causing the need to count piles of beans or other small objects, inability to stand constant bell ringing, and even the need to be invited to enter houses.\\
\\
On the inverse, many of the works that tend toward "non-standard" portrayals of vampires also go at length to [[YourVampiresSuck mock]] the traditional weaknesses.
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%% NOTE TO EDITORS: If you have an example involving vampires from a specific work, please put them in the folders below, not in the Fiction In General section.
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* TheFairFolk are terrific--as in terror-inducing--beings of legend and myth ... and yet, they can be beaten by a stick of iron, a horseshoe, a length of rowan wood, clothes worn inside-out, or a ''stick of bread''.\\
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A popular explanation for the weakness comes from Victorian Era archaeologists, who held that this is all just symbolism for the bronze and stone-working cultures being conquered by iron-working ones. More recent academics (like Dr. Diane Purkiss) have shown there's no archaeological or historical evidence for this.
** This is an especially big problem for the Nuckelavee of Orcadian folklore. Widely considered the most malevolent elf in all of Scotland, the Nuckelavee is an eldritch horror that resembles a man on horseback, if the man was fused to the horse and both had all their skin flayed off. It rides through the countryside destroying crops, killing travelers, causing floods and plagues and generally being a harbinger for all things bad. How do you defeat this monstrosity? Fresh water, and burning seaweed. The Nucklavee fears freshwater, so much so that it cannot cross a stream, and hides in its oceanic lair during the winter storms. Likewise, it finds the smell of burning seaweed intolerably offensive. However, don't provoke the Nucklavee, especially with taunting or burning seaweed, as whenever the Nucklavee is offended, it tries to kill all of the horses in the Orkneys with a hideous disease called "Mortasheen."
** The Irish/Celtic Dullahan, a fearsome headless fairy that rides at night (either alone or accompanied by banshees) to splash buckets of blood into people's faces -- to announce the recipient of a face-full will soon die. They're also a mean shot with a whip, and sometimes drive horse-drawn carriages decorated with human skulls and femurs. There's no known way to actually kill a Dullahan, and the only way to ward one off is to exploit its intense fear of... gold. That's right; the Dullahan, possibly one of the most pants-wettingly scary portents of imminent death, can easily be warded off by one of the metals most commonly used to make jewelry, and which also used to be a standard monetary metal before paper money was widely adopted. Please remember this is more [[CheapGoldCoins weak sauce in real life than fiction though]].
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%% NOTE TO EDITORS: If you have an example involving fairies or fae or elves from a specific work, please put them in the folders below, not in the Fiction In General section.
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* Werewolves have their share of weaknesses, too; earlier legends provide ones such as having an iron bar thrown over their head - although hitting somebody with an iron bar is pretty incapacitating for most creatures - drawing three drops of blood, or having their name announced one to three times.\\
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The popular weakness to silver [[OurWerewolvesAreDifferent is a relatively new invention]]. It often comes with an immunity to anything not made of silver. Most werewolves that don't have the silver weakness can be killed by any type of weapon, including silver.
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%% NOTE TO EDITORS: If you have an example involving werewolves from a specific work, please put them in the folders below, not in the Fiction In General section.
%%
* Basilisks. Okay, they can kill you if you look directly at them, or hear their voice, or if you touch them, or it breaths on you, but guess what? They can be killed instantly by the crowing of a rooster, and their powers don't work on [[IAmNotWeasel weasels]].\\
\\
In some legends, Basilisks are also weak to themselves. There are stories of men killing a basilisk by wearing ''mirrors sewn into clothing''.
* [[AllTrollsAreDifferent Trolls]]. Yeah, they can rip you limb from limb with their bare hands, but a little sunlight turns 'em into inanimate rocks.\\
\\
One good way to trick a troll into watching the sunrise is to challenge them to a game of riddles: no troll can resist such a challenge. But beware--according to the legends trolls are extremely good at riddles, and if you decide to give up before dawn then they celebrate their victory by eating the loser.
* Many of the oldest portrayals of {{Satan}}, the ostensible antagonist to {{God}}, has him easily outwitted by peasants and driven away by holy symbols (such as a scapular).
%% The whole bit about the iron chariots from the Bible is already addressed in the Literature section.
* How many mighty gods/beings have been defeated by a mere [[LogicBomb logical quibble]] with their own rules? Ditto for evil ArtificialIntelligence.
* When Baldr/Balder, the son of Odin, was born, his mother Frigg made all living things vow not to be able to hurt him. The only living thing that didn't make this promise was mistletoe, which would be fatal to him. So Loki, the trickster god, goes and gets an arrow tipped with poisonous mistletoe and shoots it at Baldr, killing him. Baldr's death would start a chain of events that led to Ragnarok (see further below for the ''VideoGame/DevilSurvivor'' example).
* Achilles was the greatest of the Greek Heroes. When he was born, his mother dipped his body in the river Styx (or into a fire, depending on which version of the story it is) so that he would be invincible. The only part of him that wasn't affected was his heel, which was where she held him. Given that the trope AchillesHeel is [[TropeNamers named after him]], you can guess what happened to him eventually. However, some of the myths indicate that he was shot with arrows poisoned with hydra venom, the same ones that killed Hercules, which deflects the weaksauce bit. (If he can only be killed by shooting him in one really hard-to-hit spot with arrows dipped in a poison that, even diluted, could bring down a demigod, then that's... actually a very minor weakness and not weaksauce at all!)
** Homer's depiction of Achilles does not appear to include the tradition of limited invulnerability. When Achilles takes the field in the later books of ''Literature/TheIliad'', a spear (thrown by a mid-level mook) grazes his shoulder and draws blood.
* In folk tradition, salt is often used to repel evil. It was said a circle of salt could protect one from witches, that salt over your doorstep would ward off ghosts and evil spirit. Salt was often seen as a symbol of purity, especially in its uses: Salt is a conversation agent after all, and salt-cured meats don't spoil. Salt as a purifier appears in Shinto (Where it is used as a ritual purifier and small mounds of salt can be used to repel evil spirits) and Christianity (where it is used before mass and to consecrate a church).
* In Arabic legend, a ghoul could be killed with a single kick. However, there's an up-side--kick the ghoul again and it immediately springs back to life.
* In a great many works, robots or anything else with electronic components get destroyed by water being thrown on them.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Anime and Manga]]
* Tobor, the ''Anime/EighthMan'', recharged his powers with an inhalant stored in small, thin, white tubes that he carried in a cigarette case. When the bad guys allowed him "one last smoke" before executing him, this was great; when he was having a fight where kids could see him, he worried about setting a bad example by appearing to smoke.
* Vampires In ''Manga/JoJosBizarreAdventure'' are seen as nearly invincible gods among men...unless the sun is out. Or you punch them with sunlight-infused martial arts. Or you hit them ''really'' hard in the brain and screw up their ability to control their own bodily functions (though not many beings out there ''aren't'' immune to that). Or just have a Pillar Man (essentially super vampires) so much as touch them, which will cause them to be instantly absorbed.
* In ''Manga/OnePiece'', anyone who's eaten a Devil Fruit gets amazing powers, but they all share one weakness; the inability to swim. ''At all.'' If they are so much as half-submerged in water of any kind, they become paralyzed (and for many, their powers stop working). Which is ''kind of a problem'', seeing as how many of the encountered Devil Fruit users are '''pirates or marines''' in a world that's '''''[[OceanPunk ninety percent ocean]]'''''.
** Though this is more of a subversion in that this weakness very, very rarely becomes an issue, especially considering how many Devil Fruit users are in the series and how four of them are in the main cast. This is even lampshaded in the Enies Lobby arc; when two members of [[QuirkyMinibossSquad CP9]] are trying to decide whether or not to eat Devil Fruits that had been provided to them, [[DragonInChief Rob Lucci]] mentions that being unable to swim isn't much of a problem(then again, all members of [=CP9=] have the ability to DoubleJump, so there's that).
** Depending on the situation, basic hypnosis (such as Jango's ring or Ms. Goldenweek's emotion-altering paint) serves as one of the weaknesses for Monkey D. Luffy, the protagonist. Due to his simple-minded nature, he just won't have to sense to turn away, which makes him helpless and left to the devices of his enemies.
** Water is actually a much greater weakness to [[DishingOutDirt Sir Crocodile]], as he is a man who can turn into sand; if water strikes him, the sand "sticks together," and he is rendered unable to turn into sand at all, thus leaving him fully open to attack. He has a natural defense in that his sand powers extend to causing alarmingly fast dehydration with direct skin contact. In addition, he has the [[DangerouslyGenreSavvy good sense]] to not only do his villainous business on a relatively large island, but on a ''desert island.''
*** And to use the Dance Powder, not only to frame the king in an effort to overthrow him, but also to stop it from raining in the town he was using as a base.
** Blackbeard has one of the most powerful abilities in universe. He can wipe out entire towns in seconds, shoot the debris out like cannon, and negate Devil Fruit powers. But he can't dodge ''anything.'' While most Logia-fruit users can have attacks pass right through them, Blackbeard is quite the opposite, making any physical attack super-effective.
* The specialists, the Paper Sisters in ''Anime/{{Read Or D|ie}}ream'' can telekinetically manipulate paper... unless it's ''wet''. This was not a weakness for Yomiko Readman, who ''is'' shown on camera manipulating paper while underwater. This is actually [[JustifiedTrope explained in-universe]]. The Paper Sisters' powers are essentially imperfect clones of Yomiko's, artificially created by Dokusensha; which is why they are weaker and more specialized/limited. Water naturally disrupts the structural integrity of paper, and their inferior powers are not sufficient to maintain it the way Yomiko can.
* ''Anime/SuperDimensionFortressMacross'' has an alien attack force made up of gigantic ScaryDogmaticAliens who are a [[ProudWarriorRaceGuy proud warrior race]] do a mass MookFaceTurn because of... singing. And souvenirs. In fairness, it does make sense in the story (at least as much as ''Literature/TheWarOfTheWorlds'' Martian's being vulnerable to Earth's diseases) and is perhaps one of the best logical conclusions to a typical alien's PlanetOfHats treatment. The aliens have no culture to speak of other than fighting, so when exposed to humans and their culture in the form of songs and interacting with the other gender after sending a team of spies to the SDF-1, typical Zentradi start feeling emotions, questioning their purpose, and [[WhatMeasureIsANonHuman becoming similar to humans.]] Because of this, their entire fleet gets deemed "contaminated" by the unexposed Zentradi and programmed for destruction. In the face of this EnemyCivilWar, they wisely choose to ally with the humans. Still, it doesn't quite wash away the faint air of ridiculousness when Minmay's singing becomes an ''offensive weapon'' to unbalance the unexposed Zentradi in their attack.
** Those who consider Minmei TheScrappy half-jokingly argue the Zentradei were distracted by her singing because [[DreadfulMusician it was so bad]] in the ''Anime/{{Robotech}}'' dub.
*** Taken to even greater extremes in Macross 7 where the spirit draining Protodevilins's only weakness is actually the ''energy'' produced by music. It produces a spiritual energy "too pure for them to absorb" and regenerates the lost energy in those drained by them.
** The use of Minmei's voice as a weapon is actually short-lived: while the Zentradi were initially too distracted to react, as soon as the heroes opened fire they started firing back. The real decisive weapon in that engagement was Minmei kissing Kaifun: the Zentradi were so disgusted they stopped fighting effectively, trying absolutely anything to erase the image from their minds, including firing in the middle of nowhere (a Zentradi heavy cruiser was observed doing exactly this as Hikaru locked his nukes on it) and listening Minmei's songs. Incidentally, Macross 7 shows us that Minmei's registered songs have absolutely no effect on unexposed Meltrandi (the FEMALE Zentradi) that just ignore them (partly because they had the common sense to just jam the frequencies used to broadcast them), but BASARA's songs made them groupies the very moment he managed to get them to hear him. It baffled a [[GeneralRipper UN Spacy higher up]], who had assumed the Meltrandi would just jam the broadcast (both times the Minmei tactic had been seen used had been with broadcasts the enemy didn't jam for a reason or the other).
** They could also be paralyzed by ''kissing.''
* In ''Manga/RosarioToVampire'', vampires are considered the high end of the monster scale, but the fact that you can take a vampire down with a glass of water kinda puts a [[IncrediblyLamePun dampener]] on that idea. Though, you'd have to be of werewolf speed to even ''consider'' hitting them with the stuff in the first place.
** Vampires are ironically said to have the most weaknesses compared to any other monster. Things like silver would also do them in.
* The titular hero[[GenderBender (ine)]] of ''Manga/RanmaOneHalf'' can be incapacitated by [[WhyDidItHaveToBeSnakes the mere sight of a cute little kitten]]. However, those who attempt this should note to apply said weakness quickly and forcefully -- prolonged, intense exposure has a tendency to [[UnstoppableRage backfire]]. Thanks to his GenderBender curse, [[KillItWithWater cold water]] can also count as a weakness. Technically. Ranma's female form has less strength and reach than his male form (though the anime is explicit that Ranma's speed is boosted in this form, so it's more of a trade), but s/he can still pull off all of his/her normal attacks. Based on a character with an identical curse, it's also possible that being in female form weakens his KiAttacks.
** His [[AccidentalMarriage fiancee]] [[CuteBruiser Shampoo]] and his main rival Ryoga Hibiki have an even worse case of the water weakness than Ranma does; Jusenkyo made them become a [[BalefulPolymorph little kitten and miniature pig]] respectively when splashed with cold water. So they go from incredibly powerful fighters to harmless little animals whose only recourse is to run or hide until they can get some hot water. Genma Saotome, Ranma's father, subverts it; his panda form loses little, if any, speed and agility while gaining in strength and toughness due to the increased [[StoutStrength bulk]]. Mousse, meanwhile, seesaws between subverting this trope and playing it straight with his duck curse; while it is much smaller, weaker and can't use his physical attacks, it can fly and he's still capable of throwing barrages of knives, darts and bombs in it.
*** And a non-water version applies to [[OldMaster Happosai]], who is such a DirtyOldMan that his perversion becomes his own Achilles heel. If there is a fight serious enough, or a reward great enough, that he can't be immediately distracted from whatever he was doing by the sight of girls in skimpy clothing, bare cleavage or a bra, it hasn't come up in the series. He can even be lured right into dangers simply by tossing a bra in the right place.
** SpoiledPrince Saffron has incredible fire magic powers, the ability to fly and regenerate so fast that he can tear off his own wings to use as throwing weapons and grow them back in seconds, but because of his lax and pampered upbringing he can't take any sort of physical blow and in a world full of martial artists that's a big problem
* From ''Manga/CromartieHighSchool'':
--> My name is Yutaka Takenouchi, and I have only one weakness ... I am ''very'' susceptible to motion sickness!
* Natsu from ''Manga/FairyTail'' is MadeOfIron, he can breathe fire and cause [[PersonOfMassDestruction massive property damage simply by punching someone]], but he too suffers from the ignominious susceptibility to ''transportation''. At least once it was actually exploited to defeat him in battle.
** This motion sickness seems to extend to being carried by people, as well. He's perfectly fine being taken to flight by Happy the cat, however, reasoning that Happy isn't a vehicle. [[FridgeLogic So Lucy is?]]
*** According to Rogue, ''all'' Dragon Slayers suffer from this.
* In ''Manga/{{Bleach}}'', Espada #9 Aaroniero can't use his shapeshifting when in sunlight. Though he can still use any of his other 30,000+ powers (not that he does before getting killed, but he had the option).
** To make matters worse, he lives in Hueco Mundo, which has no natural sun. His boss builds a fake one for no discernible reason.
* ''Manga/FullmetalAlchemist'': In the manga and second anime, Pride can project razor-sharp tentacle-like [[LivingShadow shadows]] from his body. But he can only project them where ordinary shadows could be cast; complete darkness renders him unable to attack and bright lights can cut off his tentacles. Granted, he is still near immortal even when he can't attack; in a way he is both the most powerful and the most vulnerable homunculus.
** A common mistake for people in the series is to assume that Flame Alchemist Roy Mustang is useless when wet (or without his gloves). This is only true to a certain extent, and let's just say he [[ColonelBadass earned his rank]].
** A combination of this and BerserkButton: Insulting [[PintSizedPowerhouse Ed's]] height, while entertaining, has a tendency to impair his judgement as he blindly charges the enemy. This is mostly PlayedForLaughs, although [[CreepyChild Pride]] uses it once to get an edge in combat.
---> '''Pride''': Appearances can often be deceiving. Isn't that right, little alchemist?
---> '''Ed''': Grk!
---> *Pride attacks*
* In ''Manga/{{Naruto}}'', Konan of the Akatsuki is, like all members of that group, very powerful. Yet her [[PaperMaster paper-based techniques]] can be completely nullified by spraying oil on her to make her stick together (a technique one human ninja and some summoned toads have), although water can release her.
* Adam Blade from ''Manga/{{Needless}}'' has a weakness for little girls, and usually ended up getting his butt kicked because of this. Though later in the manga his weakness had developed from mere lolis to naked lolis. In the other hand, his love for lolis can temporally boost his strength and saves him from a LotusEaterMachine, so it's subverted.
* Emperor Nightmare, the leader of Nightmare Enterprises (Holy Nightmare Co. in the Japanese version) in ''Anime/KirbyOfTheStars'', is weak against AND afraid of [[spoiler:one weapon that Kirby can take control of by swallowing his Warp Star: the Star Rod.]]
-->[[spoiler:'''Nightmare''': Aaaah! How did Kirby discover the secret?! That pitiful little Star Warrior has found my only weakness! I am helpless against the power of the Star Rod! [[DeathCryEcho WAAAAUUUUGGGGHHH!!!!]]]]
* The Dai Gurren in ''Anime/TengenToppaGurrenLagann'' is a walking battleship...that is not designed to go on water. A ''battleship'' that ''isn't designed to go on water''.
* In ''Manga/AhMyGoddess'', Urd is put to sleep by Enka music, traditional Japanese ballads. When someone tries to take advantage of this fact, [[MundaneSolution she just pops in earplugs]].
** Mara is weak to rock music; it causes her to dance uncontrollably.
* Saiyans, a race of savage and brutal warriors from ''Anime/DragonBallZ'' can be easily neutralized by grabbing their tails. They can be trained to overcome this weakness though.
** The only way to defeat Chaozu's psychic attacks is to break his concentration. Krillin does this by asking him ''extremely difficult math questions.'' Like 9 - 1.
*** After that his teacher the Crane Hermit immediately [[MundaneSolution gave him remedial math lessons]].
** Apparently, whistling around Piccolo, or any Namek can really incapacitate them. This becomes a plot point in the DBZ movie ''Lord Slug'' where Piccolo [[spoiler: asks Gohan to start whistling after [[BodyHorror ripping off his own ears]] in a desperate attempt to stop Lord Slug.]]
* In the manga FukashigiPhilia, the villain Shidow is extremely fearful towards water to the point if he gets in contact with it, he will go berserk and have his abilities neutralized.
* From ''Manga/KenichiTheMightiestDisciple'', we have Akisame Koetsuji, the Jujutsu Philosopher. Master martial artist, a doctor so skilled he can raise the recently dead, and [[TheAce master of a bazillion and six other fields]]. He's one of Kenichi's six super-powerful masters... and green peppers make him so ill that he can be held at bay simply by hanging one outside his door.
* ''Manga/{{Kinnikuman}}'' is weakened by milk. Though after he goes insane during his match against Curry Cook and ''drinks'' the stuff, it becomes apparent that he just thinks it's disgusting.
* Fairies from ''LightNovel/JinruiWaSuitaiShimashita'' are killed by EM waves, a.k.a. light, the most ubiquitous thing in the universe. If the setting wasn't AfterTheEnd they'd be screwed. And they still have problems with it anyway.
* Shiina from ''Anime/AngelBeats'' is [[RanmaOneHalf Ranma]] turned Up to Eleven: a ridiculously hypercompetent ninja, but when she sees a puppy about to go over a waterfall she instinctively does a StupidSacrifice, getting them both killed...and it was a ''stuffed'' puppy. The puppy trap was actually meant for Angel, so it's possible she has the same weakness.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Comic Books]]
* Almost every Franchise/GreenLantern from TheSilverAgeOfComicBooks onward had yellow as his main weakness. Any criminal could waltz past him by wearing a yellow suit and stealing only gold, and shoot yellow painted bullets from gold plated guns. That being said, a clever person could find a way around it. Such as using the ring to pick up something not made of yellow, and hitting the criminal with it. There have been various explanations such as programming bugs or a deliberately-induced FantasticFragility, but the currently-accepted explanation is a combination of yellow representing fear, the enemy of the HeroicWillpower energy the Lanterns wield, and the fact that a yellow fear monster had been imprisoned in the Central Battery, tainting the power source. The weakness can now be recognized and overcome, and adaptations tend to downplay it into almost nothing.
** More recently, FrankMiller parodied this in ''ComicBook/AllStarBatmanAndRobinTheBoyWonder''. Before confronting Green Lantern, Batman and Robin paint a house, and everything in it, yellow. Then they put on yellow costumes. Then they paint their exposed faces yellow. When GL comes over, Batman goes so far as to offer him a nice refreshing glass of lemonade, while Robin eats some lemon ice cream. Hal was not amused. Readers were.
** The original Green Lantern was almost as bad -- his weakness was wood. Since so few people knew it as later Green Lanterns became famous, however, he in many cases seemed ''more'' powerful than the new Green Lanterns because, for example, the Sinestro Corps yellow power rings couldn't even make him flinch.
*** This was parodied in the ''WesternAnimation/JusticeLeague'' [[TheGoldenAgeOfComicBooks Golden Age]] AffectionateParody episode "[[Recap/{{JusticeLeagueS1E16-17Legends}} Legends]]", with his [[CaptainErsatz stand-in version]] "Green Guardsman", who had a weakness to aluminum. Either way, you've got a superhero who could appear on the news after having been beaten to death with a baseball bat -- and considering that one of his foes was the Sportsmaster, who ''did'' wield a baseball bat... it's pretty darned weaksauce.
*** It didn't hurt that wood, while very common when Alan Scott first hit the scene, had become rarer in civilization by the time TheSilverAgeOfComicBooks hit. Villains in Franchise/TheDCU tend to decorate in metal, plastic, and ZeeRust by then, which means even less to block that strange ring with.
*** This actually becomes a problem for him in the Elseworlds story ''ComicBook/KingdomCome''. Like most of the other original heroes, Franchise/GreenLantern Alan Scott's powers have progressed to a ludicrous level - he keeps watch over the Earth in a massive emerald SpaceStation, constructed himself a suit of impressive armor, and carries around a sword made out of pure energy - all from his power ring. None of it helps very much against GreenArrow in the final battle, since this Oliver Queen's arrows are made out of wood.
*** This was the main reason that Solomon Grundy was such a threat to Alan. Being drowned, soaked in and resurrected in a swamp, his body was filled and covered with plant matter, rendering the ring all but useless in directly affecting Grundy (Comicbook/SwampThing even explained that Solomon Grundy was now a plant-based elemental of sorts like he was).
** The {{Elseworld}}s story ''SupermanAndBatmanGenerations'' {{Handwave}}s the odd Green Lantern weaknesses by having the Guardians explain that all weaknesses are mentally-imposed. Alan was weak to wood because a thug surprised him with a baseball bat and he ''assumed'' the ring didn't work against wood, while Hal was told that the rings were ineffective against yellow and thus added the weakness himself. Kyle, who gets his ring without hearing the explanation, lacks any weaknesses. (This is not, to be clear, how it actually works in continuity.)
*** Another story, detailing the ring's story and Alan Scott's backstory (for readers in TheNineties, at least), the guardians, in a long story involving one of Earth's first Green Lanterns, {{retcon}} the weakness. Because he was almost killed by a yellow monster, the weakness was removed from his ring. He became mad with power, so the Guardians gave him the wood weakness so primitive humans could club him to death. However, instead of dying, he put his soul into the power ring and battery, which collided with a Meteorite, becoming the Starheart. Alan Scott got his ring from the Starheart. Seriously.
** One Green Lantern story subverts this, however. A yellow robot attacks the Justice League. GL responds by picking up mud from a nearby swamp and dropping it over the robot's body, completely coating it. With the yellow hidden, he quite easily rips it open.
** The yellow weakness was especially weaksauce in TheSilverAgeOfComicBooks because of the fact that [[KryptoniteIsEverywhere every other villain seemed to emit some kind of "infra-yellow radiation", contain a "yellow compound", be surrounded by "invisible yellow" or have some other completely ridiculous piece of pseudoscience in place to stop Green Lantern destroying them in five seconds flat.]] For those curious: "infra-yellow", in a sane world, translates as ''[[spoiler: orange]]''.
** This was a very situational weakness, as sometimes Hal's constructs interacted with Sinestro's yellow ones, creating a blue haze that negated both. Other times, Lanterns responded by using variations of CarFu with whatever they could throw at an opponent, or even remembering that an opaque construct around a target meant only green light got through -- and turning any yellow inside the construct into green due to reflective properties of the color yellow.
** And then there's the Blue Lanterns, who are incredibly powerful even by Green Lantern standards, but can't use anything but the bare minimum of their powers unless a Green Lantern is in the vicinity.
** [[FridgeLogic Isn't green partly yellow?]]
*** Only when dealing with pigment. When mixing different colors of light together, a combination of Green and Red is perceived as yellow. However, the yellow band in a rainbow is light of a completely different frequency/wavelength than either green or red.
** According to WordOfGod from Creator/GregWeisman, Green Lanterns in ''WesternAnimation/YoungJustice'' ''do not'' have a weakness to yellow and original Green Lantern Alan Scott did not have a weakness to wood either.
** The absurdity of the Silver Age and Golden Age GL weaknesses was lampshaded in an episode of ''WesternAnimation/BatmanTheBraveAndTheBold'':
---> '''Guy Gardner''': You're supposed to be one of the most powerful Lanterns ever, but your ring is vulnerable to wood? What happens if a guy comes at you with a pointy stick?
---> '''Alan Scott''': The same thing that happens to you if he paints it yellow!
** The yellow weakness was used in a clever fashion in "Ganthet's Tale", a Green Lantern graphic novel by Larry Niven and John Byrne. Hal Jordan's opponent in this one was a renegade Guardian, who could wield Green Lantern energy himself. The solution was for Hal to fly away from the Guardian at near-light speed, and while flying fire a bolt of energy from his ring. By the time the energy bolt connected with the Guardian, it red-shifted, its visible light wavelengths compressing down the color scale, from green to yellow.
* Echo from ''{{Daredevil}}'' and ''Comicbook/NewAvengers'' possesses photographic muscle reflexes which makes her nearly unbeatable in hand-to-hand combat. She's also deaf, which means she is unable to hear her opponents. Daredevil takes advantage of this by fighting her in a locked, darkened room, rendering her helpless.
* One version of Ocean Master, Comicbook/{{Aquaman}}'s arch nemesis, gets his powers from a magical trident he traded his soul for, and when he isn't holding it he feels intense pain. Even SelfDemonstrating/TheJoker says that this is a pretty WeaksauceWeakness:
---> "Sounds like the deal of the century, Flipper! And everyone says ''I'm'' the crazy-"
* In the earlier Comicbook/{{Aquaman}} comics, the King of the Sea himself, for all his prowess in the ocean, could not be out of the water for more than an hour or he'd dry out and die. He probably got this from [[Comicbook/SubMariner Namor the Sub-Mariner]], whom he was initially a CaptainErsatz of.
** Aqualad has a less-extreme version of this weakness in ''WesternAnimation/YoungJustice''. There isn't any set time limit, but he succumbs to exhaustion and dehydration far quicker than his teammates after they get lost in the desert.
* PowerGirl went through a single-issue DorkAge where she could be hurt by any "natural, unprocessed material", including the proverbial sticks and stones. This for a character who's on par with Superman. The negative reaction from readers caused it to [[CanonDisContinuity never appear again]]. It was just that weak.
** During her JLE days she was also allergic to diet soda, causing fits of anger.
* ''Comicbook/{{Empowered}}'' is a self-admitted FanService exploration of this. The main character is a curvy babe who derives her powers from an [[ClothesMakeTheSuperman extremely skintight suit]], that's [[ClothingDamage laughably easy to rip]] and weakens her powers when damaged. Her tendency to end up naked (or nearly so) makes her the laughing stock of the local superhero community. Her tendency to get BoundAndGagged while doing so makes her living FetishFuel.
** The suit's ability to be torn seems to fluctuate with Empowered's confidence level. Since she has ''zero'' self-confidence anyway and the regular humiliations related to her crappy suit only compound them, it is ''very'' rare that she has the confidence to use her powers properly. But when she does, she's a one-woman army.
** Emp doesn't get the distinction of the weakest-sauce weakness, either... That honor goes to The Lash, a supervillain with a debilitating phobia of fabric stores due to childhood trauma. (He likens it to being put in a sensory deprivation tank.) Also, while not a weakness per se, on two separate occasions a supervillain has shown themselves to be unable to tie a knot, which is a vital career skill in this setting.
*** Think about it. Being the only villain in the world not being able to tie up the one superhero with a reputation for ''always'' ending up bound and gagged by the lowliest of thugs.
* The Daxamites in Franchise/TheDCU are almost exactly like Kryptonians when under a yellow sun. However, exposure to lead is fatal to them, even in trace amounts, and (especially true in the Silver Age) being moved away from lead doesn't cure them. Once the poison is in their system, it's not going anywhere. A notable instance of this example was when one of Superman's recurrent enemies/reluctant allies, Paragon, took out three Daxamites ''with a machine gun'' while they were distracted by their JerkAss AGodAmI power trip.
** [[ComicBook/{{Legion of Super-Heroes}} Brainiac 5]] invented a cure for the lead weakness that's been given to both multiple heroic Daxamites and stolen ''several'' times by the villainous ones. Apparently dying by being in the mere presence of bullets makes a character less than credible.
* MartianManhunter has a ridiculous amount of powers, yet he had weakness to fire, making it quite easy to disable him. This because he saw his entire family--and species as a whole--die in a psychic plague that manifested itself as fire. He then buried the bodies of everyone on the planet. This makes his pyrophobia a form of post-traumatic stress disorder. The first attempt to remove this weakness accidentally unlocked his SuperpoweredEvilSide.
** Though technically, it's not a weakness of fire, it's a fear of fire.
%% Don't natter about how this is not a Weaksauce Weakness just because it's a Logical Weakness. The two are not mutually exclusive.
* Prism, a member of the ''Comicbook/{{X-Men}}'' villain group the Marauders, is a truly pitiful example that combines this trope with WhatKindOfLamePowerIsHeartAnyway. His mutant ability is that he is made of a crystal that can absorb and redirect light energy (like a prism) and is no more durable than glass. Yes, he is made of ''glass''. His weaknesses include any sort of impact. Two of his four deaths (yes, he has died often) involve being thrown into a wall and being shattered by bullets.
* [[ComicBook/TheMightyThor Thor]] ''used'' to have a debilitating weakness: If he let go of Mjölnir for more than a minute, he turned into doctor Don Blake, who has a crippled leg (and presumably an acid tounge a dry wit), and Mjölnir turns into a walking stick. Basically, Series/{{House}}. This was removed several years ago, which now makes Thor virtually invulnerable.
* Perun from ''TheUltimates'' is essentially a [[Comicbook/TheMightyThor Thor]] wannabe...without the superhuman strength most Asgardians possess. Despite having a powerful hammer similar to Mjölnir, Perun is killed after an enemy sneaks up on him and quietly snaps his neck.
* The greater the power, the weaker the sauce! Marvel's latest and most prominent Superman [[CaptainErsatz pastiche]] is TheSentry, a "golden guardian of good" who's as powerful as he lets himself be. However, he's also agoraphobic--he can't stand being outside. If you also so much as ''remind him'' of his little DarkSide problem, he'll fly off to Saturn and cry. Or revert to human form. Or, if he's ''really'' unlucky, let the Void out--and suddenly things will look a whole lot better for the bad guys.
** One fancomic actually has him carrying around his entire living room whenever he wants to go anywhere.
** Comicbook/IronMan once defeated him by forwarding his mail, more or less.
* This was once parodied in the British comic, ''TheBeano'', in which the character Calamity James is rescued by a superhero and offers him a Jelly Baby by way of thanks. Guess what the hero's one weakness is!
* Mr. Mxyzptlk is [[RealityWarper so powerful]] that he has no natural weaknesses. To make his fights with Franchise/{{Superman}} more challenging, [[SelfImposedChallenge he gives himself one]]. Which one does he choose? Saying his own name backwards.
** [[Funny/SupermanTheAnimatedSeries Used hilariously]] in the animated series, with an episode consisting of Superman using clever and creative ways of exploiting Mr. Mxyzptlk's "weakness", often without having to use any sort of super powers at all.
** PostCrisis it's a self-imposed weakness. In the SilverAge and BronzeAge, it was a natural aspect of fifth dimensional beings that saying their own names backwards sent them home. In the GoldenAge, ''anyone'' (human or imp) who said Mxyztplk's name backwards would end up in the Fifth Dimension... or the Fifth Dimension attached to Earth-2, anyway.
*** Mxy's biggest weakness is that he's a gullible idiot.
* ComicBook/{{Venom}}. Weaknesses? Fire and loud noise. At one point, he's defeated with nothing more than a ''lighter'' (which raises the question of why {{Spiderman}} doesn't just carry a $1.98 Bic lighter with him at all times). This varies DependingOnTheWriter. Carnage shares some of the same weaknesses.
** Fan-favorite (yet sadly not used, ever) Toxin, Carnage's "child" however doesn't, what it does have is being very child like, (one point it refused to help it's host because he yelled at it.)
*** All Symbiotes are vulnerable to intense heat and sound. The amount of their resistance varies depending on the Symbiote in question (Carnage's resistances dwarf Venom's) and, on a more meta-note, as mentioned DependingOnTheWriter.
*** Though it's actually {{justified|Trope}} in that the symbiotes come from a world with no atmosphere, and thus have no natural resistance to extreme temperature or noise because they'd never naturally encounter them. Even a few generations with them around and the weakness is bred away quickly.
*** Perhaps in response to claims of how silly his weaknesses are, the {{Ultimate|Marvel}} version of Venom lacks the vulnerability to fire and sound. Instead, the only real threat to him is electrocution.
* Marvel's Valkyrie, in her early [[TheDefenders Defender]] years, was unable to fight against any foe that was feminine, even if she was alien or a robot.
* [[Franchise/MarvelUniverse Marvel's]] TheInhumans, genetic superhumans who have advanced technology and a civilization predating ''regular'' humans' by millenia, are done in by... pollution and germs.
* ''Comicbook/TheDarkness'', phenomenal [[EldritchAbomination cosmic/demonic power]]. But can't operate under a 60 Watt light bulb.
* Comicbook/{{Static}}'s nemesis Hot-Streak had the ability to conjure powerful fireballs which he could hurl at his opponents. The catch? His powers were friction-based, so he could only use them after running around and building up heat energy from his feet. Once Static realized this, he simply attacked from behind and lifted Hot-Streak off the ground, rendering him completely helpless.
** He was a much bigger threat in the [[WesternAnimation/StaticShock cartoon adaptation]] precisely because the writers ditched the friction weakness.
* Static himself gets completely shorted out if he is hit with water while powered up. He doesn't have this weakness in the comics.
* Franchise/TheDCU also had {{Firestorm}}, whose weakness is organic materials. ''All'' of them. He can't affect them with his power, or he'll suffer painful consequences. So...he could be foiled by a stick. Or a leather wallet.
** The [[AffirmativeActionLegacy second]] Firestorm was once beaten because [[WhatAnIdiot he published a scientific paper on how his own powers worked]]. And Lex Luthor read it. "Oh no" indeed.
** Firestorm needs to merge with someone in order to use his powers. If the merge happens too long, his powers ''eat'' his partner.
** In one of his appearances on ''WesternAnimation/SuperFriends'', he was rendered helpless after being sprayed with ''plant food''. Even ''their'' version of Aquaman wasn't as lame.
** In Firestorm's case, his weakness was probably imposed to prevent the implications of his powers being used on living people and animals. Since ''Comicbook/BlackestNight'' eventually provided us with a very memorable example of just ''how scary'' his powers could actually be, maybe it was for the best that [[ThinkOfTheChildren writers watered him down early on]].
** Commentators both in-universe and out have pointed out that Firestorm's real weakness is being an idiot. He can simply turn the air around someone to steel, yet his infamously lame villains have included a powerless albino dwarf and a guy with a rope.
* The short-lived hero Gunfire had the power to turn anything into a weapon by charging it with explosive energy. ''Anything''. Enter the Comicbook/{{Hitman}} story where Tommy defeats a future version of Gunfire by causing him to turn his own ass into a living grenade. [[HilarityEnsues Good times were had by all]].
* Although it's since been removed, Eclipso - DC's god of darkness - could be dispelled from his human host by a camera flash.
* [[http://marvel.wikia.com/Kallark_(Earth-616) Gladiator,]] [[FlyingBrick Praetor]] of the Shi'ar Imperial Guard. [[SuperStrength Strong]] enough to shatter planets. Able to fly at [[FasterThanLightTravel many times the speed of light.]] Can withstand the heat of a star or the blast of a supernova. Has EyeBeams of unimaginable heat, and they can see particles on a subatomic level. Truly a being of such infinite power can only be defeated by...making him feel bad about himself.
** Somewhat justified in that his powers are explicitly psionic/mental in nature. If he believes that they won't work or that he can't complete a task with them, they won't work and he won't be able to complete that task. This means you don't actually need a weapon powerful enough to beat him, only something which you can convince him is a weapon powerful enough to beat him, which Rocket Raccoon exploited.
* Another parody--Super-Ace, an alternate Ace Rimmer from a superhero universe appeared in one ''Series/RedDwarf Smegazine'' comic strip. While he had the full array of FlyingBrick powers, his one weakness was ... human flesh. So an ordinary {{Mook|s}} could ''punch'' him.
* {{Storm}}, of the Comicbook/{{X-Men}}, has complete control of the weather almost pushes her into GodModeSue territory: in practice it gives her flight, superspeed, and the command of electricity, water, cold, and wind. So what's her weakness? {{Claustrophobia}}. If a writer wants to take her out of a battle, all they need to do is drop some rubble on her--and sometimes not even that much. In her early years, she had a HeroicBSOD when a villain only mentioned a word that made her ''think'' of enclosed spaces. (These days, trying to stick her in an enclosed space just makes her [[UnstoppableRage mad.]])
* The laughably silly [[TheSilverAgeOfComicBooks Silver Age]] DC villain Ten-Eyed Man was a guy whose "[[WhatKindOfLamePowerIsHeartAnyway power]]" was being able to see through his fingertips. Every single battle involving him ended with him being ''tricked into grabbing something'' rendering him completely helpless.
** ''WesternAnimation/BatmanTheBraveAndTheBold'' {{lampshade|Hanging}}d this by having Batman defeat him by chucking a cactus at him.
** He was used as a one-shot villain in BatmanTheBlackGlove and was defeated by throwing shrimp scampi sauce on his hands.
* {{Zatanna}} is one of the DC Universe's top magic users, but, because she needs to verbalize her spells, [[SquishyWizard she can be rendered helpless if she's made unable to speak]], which led to her being frequently (especially in her early days) BoundAndGagged. Recent comics have come up with creative ways to work with this, such as a Batman comic where the Joker shot her in the throat so she couldn't talk, but she managed to write a spell in her blood. Perhaps due to the frequency with which she finds her sorcery rendered useless, Zatanna eventually started working out and taking combat lessons. She was even briefly able to hold her own in a fight against Comicbook/{{Catwoman}} after the villainess duct-taped her mouth shut.
* Despite having an incredibly powerful sonic scream, gagging BlackCanary could effectively disable it, despite the fact the Canary Cry theoretically should be able to break through any cloth. That too, has decreased in recent years, although Comicbook/{{Deathstroke}} found an, “[[DoesThisRemindYouOfAnything interesting]]” way to silence her in an issue of GreenArrow.
* Siryn from ''Comicbook/{{X-Factor}}'' has a similar gag weakness. However, it's handled [[DependingOnTheWriter very inconsistently]]; in one case she was able to shatter a metal gag with low-frequency sonics, while a later story had her effectively neutralized by a strip of [[DuctTapeForEverything duct tape placed over her mouth]].
* Venus from ''Comicbook/AgentsOfAtlas'' possesses the same above-mentioned gag weakness. Luckily, she also has superhuman strength to compensate, so it takes a pretty powerful opponent to muzzle her in the first place.
* Songbird (formerly Screaming Mimi) from ''{{Thunderbolts}}'' is another vocal-based heroine who is rendered completely useless if she's gagged.
* When he first appeared, ComicBook/{{Loki}} had one-he couldn't use his powers when wet/in contact with water. Against Thor, who could easily make it rain. No wonder this is ignored now.
** Plus, Loki's a ''Frost Giant.'' A race that lives on a snow-covered world and fights with ice. This weakness became FridgeLogic after that came to light.
** His frequent cohort the Enchantress is one of the most powerful sorceresses in the Marvel Universe. Unfortunately, she needs her hands and voice to cast spells most of the time. Sturdy bonds and a gag are enough to do her in, as both the Frost Giants and Comicbook/DoctorStrange's partner Clea have demonstrated several times.
* The sword in, umm, ''TheSword'' grants whomever touches it serious SuperStrength, enough SuperSpeed to run on water and deflect bullets, and a powerful [[GoodThingYouCanHeal healing ability]] that can close gaping chest wounds and reattach limbs. Unfortunately, these only last for as long as the user maintains physical contact. Put it down to eat a sandwich or go to the bathroom and you're mortal again. At one point, protagonist Dara drops in the middle of a super-strength high jump (a natural reaction to being shot) and suddenly finds she's not landing, ''she's falling''. Worse, [[spoiler:go too long without touching the sword and any injuries it healed come back all at once.]]
* The first story of the 2011 relaunch of ''Comicbook/SwampThing'' features a kid villain named William Arcane. William's connection to the forces of Death (or The Rot) allow him to control all dead or decaying matter. This gives him immense power. The only problem is his fatal allergy to ''[[KryptoniteIsEverywhere chlorophyll]]''.
* The story "The Day Red Turned to Green", in issue #85 of ''Tales of the Unexpected'', featured giant mushroom-like aliens that could be harmed by anything red. The main character found one of their "absorbo-sponges" while spelunking, and anything red that he passed while carrying it turned green.
* Billy Batson/Captain Marvel says "Comicbook/{{Shazam}}!," the name of the wizard who granted him his powers, to [[HenshinHero change between his hero and civilian forms]]. This isn't really that bad, but his friend Freddy Freeman/Captain Marvel Jr. has to say "Captain Marvel!" to transform--meaning that he not only has to be careful talking to Billy, but he can't even tell people ''his own code name'' without becoming powerless. He started going by "[=CM3=]" to fix this.
* Pick someone, hero, villain, or somewhere in between with electricity based powers, chances are their weaknesses are, among other things, rubber and [[KillItWithWater water]].
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Fan Works]]
* How do you defeat your own author? Well, if you're a character in ''FanFic/YouGotHaruhiRolled'', just show him a disgusting {{Doujinshi}}. He'll be so {{Squick}}ed out that he will be unable to resist you forcing him back through the dimensional portal whence he came.
* In ''FanFic/QueenOfAllOni'', a ''WesternAnimation/JackieChanAdventures'' fanfic, Jade gains the weakness to onions Oni have in canon after EATING an Oni mask.
* ''Fanfic/MyLittleUnicorn'': Because he is a LivingShadow, Mysterious gets hurt by standing in any form of light.
* In ''Fanfic/ChristianHumberReloaded'', Vash, a GodModeSue with countless superpowers, multiple super modes, and an arsenal of high-tech and legendary weapons, who can take on entire armies and the main villains of several works of fiction without breaking a sweat, is vulnerable to Paralysis, a UselessUsefulSpell in RPGs that rarely affects anything stronger than a common enemy.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Films]]
* ''Film/TheWizardOfOz'' gives the trope-codifying example: the Wicked Witch of the West [[KillItWithWater melted when splashed with water]].
* [[Franchise/ANightmareOnElmStreet Freddy Kreuger,]] the nigh-unstoppable HumanoidAbomination that can kill you in your dreams has a weakness to ''[[ClapYourHandsIfYouBelieve people not believing in him]]''. This becomes far funnier when you realise that his weakness is the same as ''[[Literature/PeterPan Tinkerbell]]''!
* The aliens in ''Film/{{Signs}}''. It's [[NightmareRetardant hard to feel threatened]] [[FridgeLogic (retrospectively)]] by creatures which will dissolve in an April shower or corrode in a particularly humid breeze.
** In Shyamalan's earlier film, ''Film/{{Unbreakable}}'', he also used water as a weakness for the main character. In that case, though, it wasn't that he was especially vulnerable to water, but rather he was just as susceptible to drowning as a normal person. If he drank something too quickly he would choke and if he was submerged he would succumb to drowning just like everyone else--though it was theorized that the dense bone and muscle that made him ''unbreakable'' also made him ''unfloatable'' (or the character simply couldn't swim).
*** It was also a psychological weakness: he had almost drowned once as a child (probably due to the aforementioned bone density), an event so traumatic he blocked it from his memory. That would make anyone nervous around water, even if they couldn't remember why.
*** There was also a complicating factor in the scene where he ends up almost drowning in a swimming pool. He's tangled up in a big piece of fabric, which would give anyone a bad time while in water.
* Shyamalan probably got the weakness idea for ''Film/{{Signs}}'' from ''Film/InvasionOfTheSaucerMen'', whose aliens were melted by ''light''. There is nothing lamer. Especially considering they were done in by [[spoiler: the headlights of teenage hot rodders...!]]
* The Bioraptors (also called 'Demons') of ''Film/PitchBlack'' had a similar weakness to light. Though this actually worked, as most of the movie was during a solar eclipse and they broke their flashlights. Oddly enough, the creatures are shown moving about in the light, albeit cautiously, before the eclipse. Compare this to later on, when a lighter is enough to make them run away...
* The same thing appeared in ''Film/AttackOfTheEyeCreatures''. Although, in this case, it was more because TheyJustDidntCare (and because it was an almost word for word remake of ''Invasion of the Saucer Men'').
* Also happens in ''Film/TheMolePeople''; in which a lost colony of ancient Sumerians living BeneathTheEarth had adapted to their lightless conditions to the point where our heroes could kill them with a ''flashlight''.
* In the movie version of ''Film/TheDayOfTheTriffids'', the titular monsters were melted by sea water. Nearly as lame. In the original novel, ironically, [[KillItWithFire flame-throwers]] are among the most effective anti-Triffid weapons.
* The Tenctonese in ''Film/AlienNation'' (the movie as well as [[Series/AlienNation the series]]) are harmed by ''salt water''. Seawater is like acid to them. They live mostly on the Californian coast; while they do develop a tolerance to it, though direct exposure is still harmful to them.
** There is a slightly funny moment when the police find the partially-dissolved body of a Newcomer washed up on the beach. When asked how they were able to identify him, they simply shrug and show his soaked wallet. All his clothes were, naturally, fine too.
* In the Creator/DisneyChannel movie ''Up, Up, and Away'', the weakness of the superhero family is aluminum foil.
* In ''SYNGENOR'', the titular creatures were created to be the perfect soldiers for a war with the Middle East. They don't need to eat or sleep, are immune to most weaponry, and reproduce every twenty-four hours. Their only weakness? Water is like acid to them. It's somewhat hard to be afraid of a super soldier that can be defeated with a super soaker. Or, if worst came to worst, by peeing on them.
* In the Dead Gentlemen Productions (of ''The Gamers'' fame) running ''Demon Hunters'' series, Duamerthrax the Indestructible is a walking brick that is, well, all but indestructible. He's an "earthwalker", a demon said to have been kicked out of hell for being ''too mean''. Unlike other monsters and demons in the mythos, he's not susceptible to ordinary injury. He can eat the round of a large-caliber revolver jammed in his mouth ("Mmm! Nice 'n' leady!") casually regrows limbs after being dismembered, and generally shrugs off what few injuries he even takes while making terrible puns. So what's the convenient balance? We're told that every earthwalker has a weakness to some substance, "a plant, metal, anything". Duamerthrax's turns out to be ''mint''. Being shot repeatedly at close range with numerous handguns does little more than inconvenience him, but the breath of someone having just used breath spray causes him intense pain, water-guns full of mouthwash can inflict serious harm and [[spoiler:mint dental floss can do even worse things]].
* ''Film/MarsAttacks''. The Martians' weakness is hearing high-pitched yodeling, such as in the song "Indian Love Call" by Slim Whitman, which [[YourHeadAsplode causes their heads to explode]].
* The Tomatoes in ''Film/AttackOfTheKillerTomatoes'' had the same weakness, in the form of a song called "Puberty Love".
* Imhotep in his incomplete form ''Film/TheMummyTrilogy'' was immediately chased away when a cat is in his presence, because they guard the Underworld. Naturally, the heroes never did anything to exploit this weakness, such as by putting cats in the room full of the people he needed to kill to stop being vulnerable to cats.
** Rendered especially silly by the fact that if you've ever been to Egypt, you'll know that there are stray cats absolutely EVERYWHERE, meaning that all the heroes had to do was go downstairs and grab some.
** Rick ''did'' place a cat in Evey's room, thought it seems to have slunk away to a corner where it wasn't much use. Still, when Imhotep came to call, all Rick had to do was hold it up in a pseudo-menacing fashion. This was enough to drive Imhotep away. Soon after, the mummy regained his powers completely and lost that particular weakness. This still doesn't explain why the other people he had marked out as victims hadn't kept cats on hand.
* From 1966 superhero parody ''RatPfinkABooBoo'': "Remember, Boo Boo, we have only one weakness... bullets."
* Like the Dalek example given below, in the 1987 movie ''Franchise/{{Robocop}}'', the killer robot ED-209 chasing the titular character was taken out of play simply by trying to chase [=RoboCop=] down stairs that its chicken-walker legs were ill-suited to negotiate.
* In an {{Homage}} to ''Film/TheWizardOfOz'', Death in ''Film/SixStringSamurai'' is killed when squirted with water.
* Derek Film/{{Zoolander}} can't turn left until his BigDamnHeroes moment. (Though continuity nitpicks will note that he does turn left (relative to himself, though not the camera) while in disguise while trying to retrieve Maury's computer.)
* ''Film/TheSpiderwickChronicles'' provides a literal weak''[[IncrediblyLamePun sauce]]'' weakness: Tomato sauce is corrosive to goblins. (This was not in the original book.)
* [[WesternAnimation/YellowSubmarine The Blue Meanies]] are repelled by positivity in any form. This doesn't work out so badly, though, since their entire arsenal is built around the proliferation of depression and despair, but it does still leave them vulnerable to [[ThePowerOfRock music]].
* ''Disney/{{Bolt}}'', of the movie of the same name, ''thought'' his super-weakness was styrofoam.
* ''Film/MysteryMen'': [[{{Invisibility}} Invisible Boy's]] weakness was anybody looking at him while he was invisible. [[spoiler:(Machines, like motion detectors and cameras, didn't trigger this.)]]
* The SuperCop in ''Super Fuzz'' has super speed, super strength, invulnerability, telekinesis and so on, but he completely loses his powers when he sees the color red (probably a nod to GL and his vulnerability to yellow): a red traffic light, a red flower, a red ribbon, and he's harmless.
* The Psychlo homeworld of ''Film/BattlefieldEarth'' can be blown to (relatively) tiny bits with a nuclear explosion. You'd think that a nuclear bomb is substantial enough to bypass the Weaksauce bit, but remember that this is a ''[[ScifiWritersHaveNoSenseOfScale PLANET]]''. It'd be like a human exploding in a smear of gore after stubbing their toe. The given reason is that the planet's atmosphere ignites upon the slightest exposure to radiation.
* ''Film/{{Sleepwalkers}}'' had monsters that were MadeOfIron, except when scratched by house cats.
* In ''Film/MontyPythonAndTheHolyGrail'', the Knights Who Say Ni can't stand to hear the word [[spoiler: it]].
* As is the usual with horror movie monsters, the 1973 {{Blaxploitation}} movie titular character Blackenstein was ImmuneToBullets, fists, and blunt objects--traits which, when added to his SuperStrength, seemingly made him all but unstoppable. What is it that finally laid the mighty monster low? The primal forces of nature themselves or divine intervention? No. The police sicced the hounds on him. That's it. Doberman Pinscher fangs trump bullets, apparently.
* ''Film/MadMax Beyond Thunderdome''. Blaster is the immense Dragon to Master. According to people who want him dead and have been hunting for the right assassin to get the job done, "He can kill most men with his breath." His weakness: he can't stand high pitched noises. Max discovers this when the car alarm on his vehicle renders Blaster into a writhing, screaming, mess- and promptly figures out that his old [[ChekhovsGun police whistle]] can have the same effect.
* The [[NinjaPirateZombieRobot undead mutant warrior things]] from [[TheEighties the 80's]] flick ''NeonManiacs'' are virtually invulnerable except, like many other things on this list, they can be [[KillItWithWater dissolved with a squirt gun.]]
* The goblins from ''Film/{{Troll 2}}'' are defeated when Joshua eats a double-decker bologna sandwich in front of them during the film's climax. They can't come within 20 feet of you after you eat 2 bites of bologna.
* [[spoiler:{{Subverted|Trope}}]] in ''WesternAnimation/{{Megamind}}'' when Metro Man has a [[spoiler:completely fake]] weakness to copper as part of [[spoiler:his plan to retire]]. This is even lampshaded by Megamind:
-->'''Megamind''': Your weakness is ''copper''!? You're kidding, right?
** [[KryptoniteIsEverywhere Copper is pretty common]], so Megamind really ''should'' have realized [[spoiler:it was a fake weakness]]. Especially since he grew up with Metro Man and would have seen him handle things like pennies or batteries.
* In ''WesternAnimation/TheIncredibles'', the superheroes of the world were driven into hiding by lawsuits. The creators were deliberately going for a mundane downfall.
* ''Film/ErnestScaredStupid'''s titular monsters are these trolls, who legend speaks of them being weak to... milk.
* In ''Film/TheLairOfTheWhiteWorm'', a vampire's natural enemy is the mongoose due to vampires in this universe being snake-people. [[spoiler: The mongoose ends up getting killed anyway but it's still enough to make the BigBad retreat for a while.]]
** Also, playing the bagpipes puts them in a trance. [[spoiler: Unless they have earplugs.]]
* In ''Film/{{Hook}}'', the Lost Boys exploit Captain Hook's fear of the sound of ticking clocks, which they attribute to Hook's memories of being pursued by a clock-swallowing giant crocodile. Subverted when Peter points out that Hook can't really be afraid of the crocodile, [[spoiler: which he killed years ago; rather, Hook is afraid of ''time'', as he's become an old man beneath his wig and make-up, and old age is hardly a fear that can be dismissed as Weaksauce.]] Counts as FridgeBrilliance, as the original Literature/PeterPan could never have made that connection before he had the chance to grow up himself.
* ''Film/SupermanIVTheQuestForPeace'' brings us the horror that is Nuclear Man who, for reasons unknown, is powered solely by the sun. The minute he is out of direct sunlight he stops dead. Even if he's in a well lit room but slightly in the shade then he's next to worthless. This is especially pathetic when you consider that, in canon, Superman's own powers are ultimately derived from sunlight, but *he* doesn't power down in the shade.
* In TheTraveler, the only way to counter Mr Nobody is actually by[[spoiler: letting him hear his real full name]], which will make him lose powers and become vulnerable to physical attacks. Kinda makes sense for him to conceal his identity throughout the film.
* Played for laughs in ''Film/{{Evolution}}'', where the aliens' critical weakness is to dandruff shampoo.
* ''Film/{{Hancock}}'s'' only weakness? His real wife. Any attempt to live a loving, fulfilling life with his wife of ''3,000'' years will cause them to both become mortal in order to die together. Unfortunately, Hancock has a hero complex to save people. Which attracts bad guys who attack them in their weakened state. They argue, he leaves, they meet again and the whole cycle starts again. His wife says the gods who created them gave this as a gift. So that they could find love and be happy, and not have to see everyone they care about die as they remain [[WhoWantsToLiveForever unchanged and alive]].
* The almost unknown film ''ROTOR'' is about a robotic policeman gone mad. He's almost unstoppable except for being paralyzed by loud noises. This might not sound '''that''' dumb until you realize he's repeatedly frozen by people honking their car horns at him or playing a radio a little too loud.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Gamebooks]]
* The Darklords of the ''Literature/LoneWolf'' gamebooks are [[spoiler:(were, as of Book 12)]] crippled by ''clean air'' and can only unleash their full strength in toxic habitats. Half the reason they waged a centuries long campaign ruining Magnamund (the other half being that they are AlwaysChaoticEvil embodiments of evil) is [[spoiler:(was)]] to make the world a paradise for themselves. Even in their weakened state they can still put up a good fight with their mastery of BlackMagic and immunity to conventional weapons. In one story arc, the Darklords develop a magical engine that allow them to retain their full strength outside their realm. [[spoiler:About a dozen of them are on the frontlines of their war when the protagonist smashes the engine, singlehandedly ending their reign of terror.]]
* In one Literature/ChooseYourOwnAdventure book, ''The Enchanted Kingdom,'' your character visits a mystical land populated by fairies. You find out that they have the standard folklore aversion to iron, but when some ghouls break your sword, you find out the ghouls are weakened by the presence of ''plastic'' when you pull out the only blade you have left, your Swiss army knife.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Literature]]
* The Wicked Witch of the West from the ''Literature/TheWonderfulWizardOfOz'' was done in by a pail of water. This was explained in the book (but not in the movie) as due to her being "dried up by years of evil" but no indication was ever given that water would kill her. The book does mention that the Witch would never go near Dorothy when she bathed because she hated water.
** This makes said Witch ''giving'' Dorothy a bucket of water to do chores with a rather stupid move. Though the fact that the movie is made AllJustADream allows for a convenient justification.
** The Wicked Witch is not the only one afraid of water: while Tin Man doesn't melt, he rusts to the point of total immobility - even though he shouldn't.
** Another [[Literature/LandOfOz Oz]]-related Weaksauce: the Nome King was an extremely powerful, nigh-invincible subterranean fairy who had armies of nomes... all of them, including him, could be weakened to the point of being killed by ''eggs''. This doesn't look as bad as it seems at first, because there's only one chicken in Oz, and even that one was brought there from Kansas.
** ''Film/OzTheGreatAndPowerful'' seems to suggest that she's vulnerable to water because she's a fire witch.
* ''Literature/{{Wicked}}'', a parallel novel based on ''Literature/TheWonderfulWizardOfOz'', explores the Wicked Witch of the West's weakness to its entirety, explaining that since birth, exposing her skin to water hurt her, so she had to clean herself with oil and find creative solutions for things which normally involve using water. When she cries, it's like acid flowing down her face. Weakness to water could be the result of the unexplored concept of being "a daughter of the dragon". Its also implied that if Elphaba had ever come into the fullness of her powers, water would cease to be a true threat to her (at one point she instinctively freezes a lake, allowing her to cross it unharmed).
** TheMusical [[Theatre/{{Wicked}} adaptation]] openly mocks the entire idea of water melting the Witch. [[spoiler:Elphaba uses this urban legend about herself to fake her own death at Dorothy's hands.]]
* The weakness from ''TheWonderfulWizardOfOz'' is spoofed in the ''Literature/EnchantedForestChronicles'', where evil wizards can be melted with water--but only with soap and lemon juice added. The good witch Morwen, on the other hand, explicitly does not melt. It is later theorized that this might be because the wizards never shower while Morwen is something of a neat-freak. Eventually, the heroes refined this into a one word spell with the same effect. One very memorable word, too: [[spoiler: Argelfraster]]!
* The aliens in ''Literature/TheWarOfTheWorlds'' were killed by [[spoiler:a common disease. The aliens were so advanced and germophobic that they wiped out all microbial life on their native planet. Which meant they had nothing to develop immunities to when they invaded Earth]].
* The Martians, in Creator/RayBradbury's ''Literature/TheMartianChronicles'', are killed ''en masse'' rather early in the book by a human-induced plague of chicken pox. It's a [[ShoutOut knowing reference]] to both American history and ''Literature/TheWarOfTheWorlds''.
* The Boggart in ''Literature/HarryPotterAndThePrisonerOfAzkaban'' seems to be almost an incarnation of this trope. A Boggart will materialize in the form of a person's worst fear (though exactly what that means is debatable). The way to repel one is to forcibly imagine the fearsome thing as something ridiculous, and then laugh at it.
** Alternatively, the Boggart can't handle trying to frighten more than one person at once, as attempts to materialize into more than one person's fear results in things such as the "half a slug" incident. This is why Lupin advised his students not to face a Boggart alone (combined with the above reason).
** Voldemort's inability to understand Love, and ThePowerOfLove, proves to be his ultimate undoing. However, this is less of a WeaksauceWeakness than a FatalFlaw. Harry does not beat Voldemort because of some mystical aspect of love, but because having reliable friends and allies ultimately gives him an advantage over Voldemort, who underestimates the capacity of others to behave selflessly because he would never even consider doing so himself.
* In the ''[[VideoGame/{{Diablo}} Sin War]]'' trilogy, Diablo, the Lord of Terror and one of the three most powerful evil things in existence, is defeated by a reflective surface. Diablo appears as things you fear, and if it's bad enough to scare Diablo, it's pretty bad.
* Eddings' ''Literature/TheRedemptionOfAlthalus'' featured both one protagonistic and one antagonistic FiveManBand, both with similar power arrays. The villains included the evil mind-leech Koman, with telepathy and mind-warping abilities... who was defeated when Althalus thought about random numbers. ''Fractions'' of numbers, even.
* ''Literature/{{Discworld}}'' examples:
** The Auditors in ''Discworld/TheScienceOfDiscworld III: Darwin's Watch''. There are very logical and clearly worked out reasons why chocolate kills them in ''Thief of Time'', due to some peculiar circumstances. In ''[=SoDIII=]'', though, it just ''does''.
*** Non-incarnated Auditors can be killed by getting them to say "I", "me", or otherwise admit individuality. [[InsaneTrollLogic Since it's widely]] [[RuleOfFunny known that]] (a) only living things have individuality, (b) all living things die after some amount of time and (c) any living thing's lifespan is practically no time at all compared to the universe's, any Auditor who admits individuality instantly dies. By the perspective of the rest of them, this isn't much of a loss, since there are more Auditors than there is ''anything else in the universe'' and, by definition, any given one of them is supposed to lack any defining characteristics.
** Much of the plot of ''Discworld/CarpeJugulum'' concerns a group of "modern" vampires attempting to subvert this trope by developing resistances to the traditional vampire weaknesses. [[spoiler: They ultimately fail to do so.]]
*** Discworld vampires play this trope in a weird, AllMythsAreTrue way. ALL weaknesses you might have ever heard of apply to SOME vampire, but you may have to do trial and error to find out which ones apply to the particular one who's trying to eat you right now. There are also a few with psychological problems that compel them to do things that directly address their particular weakness (such as the vampire flash photographer who works for The Truth, who has a weakness to bright light, and the one who worked at such jobs as pencil maker, garlic stacker, and whole-sale holy water clerk).
** Discworld bogeymen are incredibly strong, reasonably nasty, and some of them can teleport to some extent. Their vulnerability is that they're ridiculously susceptible to ClapYourHandsIfYouBelieve. If you can get your head under a blanket, then you believe you're safe from the bogeyman and therefore you are. If you can get the ''bogeyman'''s head under a blanket, he goes into "existiental shock", since he no longer believes he exists.
* In ''Literature/ArtemisFowl'', fairy magic can be completely stopped by animal fat. That's right, magic that can make you invisible, hypnotize people, heal nearly anything, and in some cases ''travel through time'' can be stopped by ''lard''. [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ry0TyIJXgoU Praise the Lard!]]
** Some of the laws that (most) fairies have to adhere to thanks to some very old, powerful magic-- the most commonly seen are the Ritual for restoring magic (has to be done with an acorn, at the full moon, under an oak next to a bend in the river... or at least to start with. By the second book that's already been thrown out as mere myth.), the 'fairies cannot enter human houses without permission' rule, and by extension, the 'fairies cannot disobey a direct command given by a human eye to eye' rule. [[spoiler: These are handwaved away by No1 in the 6th book.]]
* ''The Haunter in the Dark'', the titular monster in a story by Creator/HPLovecraft, is an avatar of the god Nyarlatothep. It's a huge winged and tentacled mass of darkness with a three-lobed burning eye, whose touch will burn the flesh from your bones. However, it's extremely vulnerable to light. Even little light will hurt it, and strong light will banish it. So you can temporarily defeat an avatar of an ancient and evil god with ''a flashlight!''. Temporarily. As soon as the lights are out, it can come back, just as nasty as before.
* In ''Literature/{{Worldwar}}'', the invading reptilian aliens called 'The Race' had an immense weakness to ... ginger. Not only was it an incredibly addictive narcotic, but it also made the females produce sexual pheromones outside of the normal fertility cycles, turning exposed members of The Race into crackheaded sex fiends. When the humans attacked Race-occupied Australia, they used missiles armed with warheads ''packed with powdered ginger''.
** Even before they discover ginger's effect on the Race females, they find that not only does is it extremely addictive to the lizards, but it also causes them to temporarily feel nigh-invincible - not a good trait for an infantryman, a tank crew commander, or a fighter jet pilot.
* In [[LisaJaneSmith L.J. Smith's]] ''Night of the Solstice'' series the Fair Folk-like race known as the Quislai have many advantages, such as immortality, invulnerability, extreme beauty, the ability to throw lightning bolts, the power to travel to places quickly using secret pathways through space, and freedom from nearly all physical limitations. They can't be imprisoned by normal means, as doors and windows will unlock themselves for Quislai, and they can travel through dimensional gateways between worlds without preparation while everyone else requires a special magical amulet to use them. However, the one thing that can restrain them is a thornbranch tangled in the hair. Unfortunately, most Quislai seem too ditzy to think of cutting their hair short or at least avoiding rosebushes.
* Literature/{{Judges}} 1:19 in Literature/TheBible is often taken by unbelievers and skeptics to argue that ''iron chariots'' are a weakness of God; as the King James Version translates it, it reads ''"And the Lord was with Judah; and he drave out the inhabitants of the mountain; but could not drive out the inhabitants of the valley, because they had chariots of iron."'' Needless to say, this interpretation is [[http://www.apologeticspress.org/apcontent.aspx?category=6&article=301 not generally accepted by believers]].
** The great Samson got his SuperStrength from [[ConditionalPowers Nazirite rituals]], and breaking them was his big weakness. He attempted to mask this by making up a bunch of equally weaksauce fake weaknesses, only to kill anyone who actually tried them. He was still stupid enough to tell his true weakness to Delilah, despite her being the only one who knew of his "weaknesses" and therefore the only one who could have told them to his enemies. By the time he'd cut his hair (famously thought to be his ''sole'' weakness), he'd already violated other parts of the Nazirite rituals, such as drinking alcohol and handling dead bodies. Cutting his hair was the last straw, so to speak.
* The DeathWorld creatures of ''Literature/{{Fragment}}'' are averse to salt water and avoid it (it's toxic to them for some reason), which is presumably what's kept them confined to Henders Isle. This is discovered accidentally by a lucky fool who blunders into a saltwater pool while fleeing the orgy of death chasing him, and is later adapted as a defensive measure against Henders creatures.
* The main weakness of vampires in PeterWatts's ''Literature/{{Blindsight}}''-verse is '''geometry'''. If right angles take up too much of their visual field, they have massive, frequently fatal seizures. Right angles are very rare in nature, but once humanity developed architecture the vampires went extinct until later humans reconstructed them and developed "anti-Euclidean" drugs to counter the special vampire weakness (and keep the vampires dependent).
* In the ''[[VideoGame/CastlevaniaIISimonsQuest Simon's Quest]]'' volume of the ''WorldsOfPower'' series, Dracula's vengeful spirit can be driven off by bad jokes.
* In Fred Saberhagen's ''BookOfSwords'' and ''Books of Lost Swords'' series, [[InfinityPlusOneSword Shieldbreaker]], the Sword of Force, can defeat any weapon, and as such is the only thing that can defeat, even destroy, one of the other Swords, but is powerless against an unarmed man.
* In ''Literature/TheWheelOfTime'', channelers are people and therefore are vulnerable to all the things that squishy humans are (though they can do things to help offset that). However, they are particularly vulnerable to Forkroot tea. In normal humans, it's harmless, if at most a mild sedative. In channelers it cuts off their ability to use their magic and knocks them out.
* In NickPerumov's novel ''Diamond Sword Wooden Sword'', magic-users are vulnerable to the herb swamp crower. Its smoke makes everybody cough, but magic-users also temporarily lose their powers.
* In ''Literature/{{Bystander}}'' Lucretcia won the SuperpowerLottery. But, she has two big weaknesses. First, she is weak against hot weather. A warm summer day means she can't leave the air-conditioned car, or she'll blister instantly. Two, she sucks at using her powers. Especially fighting. Being as strong as Superman isn't much use when you can't HIT the opponent!
* The kids in the ''Literature/{{Goosebumps}}'' book ''How To Kill A Monster'' have to figure out exactly how to do that. Falling three stories doesn't stop him nor does poisoning a pie. Luckily, there's a DeusExMachina way out. [[spoiler: the monster dies after they confirm they're humans, as he's allergic.]]
* Iron against the chaos mages in the ''SagaOfRecluce''. Even the strongest bolt of chaos fire can be stopped cold by a thin sheet of iron, and the more powerful a chaos mage is the more they're hurt by iron, to the point that what for anyone else would be OnlyAFleshWound will be a OneHitKill for an experienced chaos mage.
* Bram Stoker's ''Literature/{{Dracula}}'' averts most of the popular traditional weaknesses; for example, he can't be killed by most conventional means, and can use his shapeshifting powers during dawn, noon, and dusk. However, he does have unique weaknesses; he can only cross running water during high or low tide (this amounts to 12 hours and 25 minutes per day), needs to keep a small amount of Transylvanian soil in his home, and needs to be invited inside before he can enter a building (considering this is Victorian era England and he is a noble, this is a non-matter).
* Creator/MercedesLackey has fun {{playing with|ATrope}} the iron weakness of fae; in her [=SERRAted=] Edge book series, the good elves not only use their skills as ''race car mechanics'' to work up a tolerance to iron, but also gladly use the metal to shield themselves from enemy elf attacks. Also, elf magic goes haywire in the presence of iron. \\
\\
In fact, the good elves have noticed that iron makes their magic go haywire in extremely predictable and repeatable ways, so they have incorporated it into their defenses and can use it to, for example, negate their enemies' magic while delivering their own with deadly accuracy.
** In the same series, however, she plays the Trope straight in that her elves have a powerful vulnerability to caffeine.
* The Hunter from the ''ColdfireTrilogy'' is one of the most powerful beings in the series, but also fatally flawed in his nature. As part of his DealWithTheDevil to stave off death, the Hunter surrendered his power over life, creation, and light. He can no longer use healing magic without dying, sunlight burns him horribly, and he is completely unable to manipulate ordinary fire. A villain in the first book took advantage of these weaknesses by luring him into a cave filled with crystal and used a mirror to reflect what little sunlight there was back at him, with the light magnified by the crystal. Then he was rendered helpless by being placed in an ordinary bonfire.
* ''Literature/{{Animorphs}}'' has one book where the group finds out the Yeerks' BizarreAlienBiology allows both them and the hosts to treat ''instant maple oatmeal'' as an addictive drug on par with heroin. While they plan on dumping a bunch of Quaker Oats' finest into the pool the Yeerks use to rejuvenate, they don't end up using it as a weapon because it plays merry hell on the hosts as well.
* Literature/CaptainUnderpants loses his powers when he's subjected to spray starch. [[spoiler:Actually, he doesn't, but he ''thinks'' he does, in an inversion of the PlaceboEffect.]]
* In the ''Literature/CodexAlera'', all of the various crafters' fury-granted ElementalPowers can be countered by their opposing element (i.e. dripping water on a [[PlayingWithFire firecrafter]] prevents use of fire furies, putting a [[GreenThumb woodcrafter]] in a metal cage nullifies wood furies, etc). [[BlowYouAway Windcrafters]] have greater difficulty using their wind furies closer to earth, and being covered or surrounded by earth renders their furies impotent. However, they also have another weakness: salt, when it comes into contact with their furies, causes them great pain and disrupts them. As a result, anyone expecting to fight a windcrafter carries bags of salt with them to disrupt their BulletTime, flight, and other powers. Salt-tipped arrows are a specialist weapon against hostile wind furies, and a salt-tipped arrow is [[spoiler: what Bernard uses to critically injure High Lord Kalarus]] in ''Cursor's Fury'' by [[spoiler: disrupting his wind furies in mid-flight, causing him to take a nasty plummet into a forest and introducing him to Newton's laws in a most painful and crippling manner.]]
* In ''Literature/TheDresdenFiles'' all illusion has the problem that anyone capable of using the Sight can simply activate it and no matter how skilled the illusionist, they'll be able to see what's really going on. While most people avoid using the Sight due to the potential for seeing disturbing, unforgettable things with it, the ability for the most marginally skilled caster to counteract any illusion means that the Council doesn't consider it an especially useful discipline.
** All Fae in the DresdenFiles universe are vulnerable to iron. So much so that Queen Mab, one of the most powerful magic users, is scared of an iron nail.
* The Nazgûl from ''Literature/TheLordOfTheRings'' are vulnerable to sunlight and fire, and will not cross running water if they can at all avoid it. The first two are actually a LogicalWeakness- as creatures of darkness and cold; it makes perfect sense that they wouldn't like light and heat - but Tolkien never explains (either in the books themselves or WordOfGod) why they feared water.
** Tolkien was famous for using existing legends to establish the reason why certain myths are the way they are. The fact that they fear running water is a reference to many mythic demons, who could not cross running water.
** Probably because running water was thought to be more pure than lake water, which is somewhat true.
** One could infer that it's because their cloaked robes are the only things keeping their wraith-forms contained in any semblance of physical form. Trying to cross rapidly moving water would run the risk of their cloaks being swept away, meaning they'd become intangible and useless until they found replacement clothing to allow them to reconstitute themselves. This also gives them a second reason to want to avoid fire.
* In the first book of Creator/AnneMcCaffrey's Literature/TowerAndTheHive series, ''The Rowan''[[note]]Technically the second, after ''To Ride Pegasus'', but most fans consider The Rowan the first of the series proper[[/note]], Prime-level [[PsychicPowers Talents]] could not travel off-planet, due to Travel Sickness - a severe form of vertigo. They later found out that this wasn't the case - one of their own imprinted her own physical condition on the rest. So now the older Primes consider it a phobia, rather than a medical condition.
* All types of the fae in ''Literature/TheNameOfTheWind'' are susceptible to iron.
* A secondary canon Star Trek novel (World Without End) describes Vulcans as being extremely vulnerable to cold, sufficient exposure to Earth's winters can kill them much faster than the exposure can kill a human. When staying on Earth briefly with his mother's family as a boy, Spock has to be completely bundled up whenever he is walking outside in the snow.
** Also in the StarTrekNovelVerse, the Saurians. They're immensely strong, can breathe almost anything, have incredible stamina...but being nocturnal and having huge, sensitive eyes, they can be rendered helpless by shining a bright light. Saurians serving in Starfleet wear protective lenses.
* In Vadim Panov's ''SecretCity'', Nav' are [[TheAgeless non-aging]] {{Magic Knight}}s who will survive anything short of ChunkySalsaRule. Unless the offending item is made of or covered with obsidian. This was successfully weaponized by both Lyud' in sniper bullets and by Chud' in obsidian sword coatings. The only record of an inter-Nav' war also tells of Nav' warriors wielding obsidian blades.
* Leto II, the ''God Emperor of Literature/{{Dune}}'' who lived a few millennia, was vulnerable to [[spoiler: water due to his sandtrout symbiosis, which was how he [[HeroicSacrifice set himself up to be killed]]]].
* Grettir of the Old Icelandic ''Literature/TheSagaOfGrettirTheStrong'' was considered the strongest man on Iceland, but after being cursed by a revenant, he was afraid of the dark for the rest of his life.
* The Masters in ''{{Literature/The Tripods}}'' had a huge weakness to alcohol. Granted, so does anyone or anything else that drinks too much of it, but in their case, just a small drink of alcohol-laced water was enough to knock them cold and paralyze them.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Live Action TV]]
* ''Series/{{Supernatural}}'' has ghosts who don't like salt.
** "TruthInTelevision", or as close as you can get: A book on ghosts states that they actually can't stand salt. If you sprinkle some on your doorstep, they can't get in your house. It's supposed to be pure.
** TheFairFolk are ''also'' weak against salt, sugar, or any granular substance. If some is spilled, they have to stop and count each piece. After losing a fight against one, Sam simply says "Why didn't I do this earlier?" and opens the capsule of salt he had on him.
** For some reason the Leviathans [[spoiler: are harmed by borax, a chemical you can find under the kitchen sink]].
*** Interestingly, this might be one of the reasons why the Leviathans targeted America first, since [[spoiler: Borax]] is also used as a common food additive in every country ''except'' America. So in other words, the rest of the world is ''literally'' TooSpicyForYogSothoth!
* ''Series/DoctorWho'' is renowned for ending its episodes either by [[ReversePolarity Reversing The Polarity]] or exploiting the latest MonsterOfTheWeek's Weaksause Weakness. The most famous example is the Cybermen and their allergy to gold, which underwent a PowerCreepPowerSeep, slowly going from "gold ''dust'' can gum up the works" to "touch gold, die screaming." It eventually lead to ''[[Recap/DoctorWhoS25E3SilverNemesis Silver Nemesis]]'' and the hilarious scene of Cybermen being stopped by gold coins and a slingshot. At the time a popular joke was that in their next appearance, just saying the word "gold" to one would kill it. This was quietly ignored in later episodes, since those Cybermen came from an AlternateHistory (though a ContinuityNod was made in a tie-in website which stated that said AlternateHistory Cybermen did initially have an "allergy" to gold, but it was eliminated by R&D). No one has actually tried using gold on them yet...
** As of ''[[Recap/DoctorWhos33e12NightmareinSilver Nightmare in Silver]]'' it is revealed that the weakness to gold wasn't due to hardware but, somehow, software problems!
** The new Cybermen don't have it much better. Their weakness is being given back their emotions; they fry when the humans they're made from enter WhatHaveIBecome mode. The Doctor really hates doing this because it's turning them back into real people who promptly suffer DeathByDespair at the horror of their situation. What makes it weaksauce is that it gets easier and easier to do: "emotions removed" seems to mean "everyone's emotions suppressed by a single Emotion Suppress-O-Tron." If you point a sonic screwdriver at the right doohickey in a Cyberman-run facility - and getting into position to do this takes less fuss with each encounter - an ''entire invasion force'' winds up clutching its heads and falling dead. At least with the old ones, you'd run out of coins to slingshot eventually.
** "Image of the Fendahl" had the monsters defeated by ''rock salt''.
** Daleks are famed for their inability to climb stairs, though this was never established in the show. However, they could be blinded by obscuring their rather obvious eyestalks, or incapacitated by pushing them over. In their very earliest appearance they could only operate by absorbing static electricity, preventing them from leaving their city. This was later ignored, even in ''Genesis of the Daleks'', which was set earlier. Over time, they became far more credible foes. They were actually shown climbing stairs in 1988's "Remembrance of the Daleks" (much to the Doctor's horror). In the new series, they cannot only hover but swoop around like crazy ("'''[[CrowningMomentOfAwesome EL-EV-ATE!!]]'''"), remove foreign substances from their eyestalk lens (much to Wilfred's chagrin), and ''incinerate humans on touch''. Their main weakness now seems to be stupidity, given that the Doctor convinced them a Jammie Dodger was a TARDIS self-destruct device.
*** This only worked because the Doctor threatened to "use it" if the Daleks present tried to scan it to verify his claim. Considering Daleks probably haven't got any clue about Earth biscuits, it's more a case of uninformed cautiousness.
** The Slitheen, due to their bodies consisting mostly of calcium, messily explode if acetic acid comes into contact with their skin, no matter how little. Cue the squirt guns filled with vinegar.
** "The Fires Of Pompeii" has the Doctor fighting seven-foot rock beasts with a water pistol... and winning. Well, irritating them into backing off, not killing them.
** The Sensorites from the classic-era first season. Afraid of darkness and loud noises. They panicked if you turned out the lights (we're not talking pitch-black darkness, either - half-lit darkness a person with modest night vision could navigate was enough) and could occasionally be cowed into submission by raising your voice.
** "Blink" has creatures that can, when no one's looking, move faster than Jack Harkness confronted with a twelve-step program. When seen, however, they can't move. The episode plays this up for NightmareFuel, as you have to blink ''sometime'' ... On the other hand, their ''biggest'' weakness is [[spoiler:being tricked to look at each other.]]
*** Apparently, a video recording of an Angel is an Angel in itself. The problem is, if you keep staring at it, it'll eventually download into your brain. That weakness? ''It's just another trap.'' Everyone knows to keep their eyes on them, but if you stare into the abyss long enough...
** When an episode of ''Series/{{Extras}}'' featured the filming of a mock ''Series/DoctorWho'' episode, this very trend was parodied with a giant slug who was vulnerable to table salt--which he conveniently kept on his desk, just within reach of the Doctor. It's a reference to Colin Baker's first serial, ''The Twin Dilemma'', where the Doctor really ''does'' fight a giant slug. In the novelisation, the Doctor briefly wonders where he could find a lot of salt, before dismissing the idea.
** The Doctor has one of his own: aspirin.
** The Doctor's sonic screwdriver "doesn't do wood" ([[HehHehYouSaidX Hee hee hee]]!) in that it can't help much against wooden latches and other such things.
*** It also doesn't do deadlocks, and can be deactivated by some hairdriers.
* Sylar of ''Series/{{Heroes}}'' could be reduced to a writhing, quivering lump with the use of a ''tuning fork'' after acquiring Dale's super hearing (though Dale was the same way). This no longer affected him after [[spoiler: he lost almost all his powers in the second season.]]
** Similarly, Elle possesses powerful electrical powers, but because of them can be incapacitated by a bucket of water, which shorts the circuit and fries her with her own powers if she tries to use them.
* In ''Series/{{Smallville}}'', Aquaman's guest appearance explained that he needed to be constantly wet or otherwise have a glass of water or he loses his immense strength and begins to wither. Considering he has had plenty of his own [[WhatKindOfLamePowerIsHeartAnyway superpowered problems]], this is especially glaring.
** In the show, [[KryptoniteIsEverywhere Kryptonite is so common]] that Clark would almost be better off powerless. Especially problematic in the earlier years when his "monsters of the week" got their powers FROM kryptonite.
** This (unbelievably large amount of Kryptonite on Earth) even made Ultraman flee his own reality because ''everyone'' had it and wouldn't hesitate to use it against him.
* The [[Series/StarTrekTheOriginalSeries classic]] ''Franchise/StarTrek'' episode "Day of the Dove" features an {{Energy Being|s}} which feeds on negative emotions, and so causes total chaos on the Enterprise by provoking conflict in order to feed on it. Kirk eventually figures out that the alien can be driven off by ''peace''.
* In an episode of ''Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration'', the crew deals with a hostile silicon based lifeform that draws its energy from light. They subdue it by turning the ship's interior lighting off.
** In another episode the Captain finds an ancient Vulcan artifact believed to be some kind of superweapon. By that time he has realised its critical weakness--it can only kill people who have violent thoughts. Remaining calm renders it ineffective--even Worf is able to counter it using this method.
* On ''Series/AllThat'', Superdude... is lactose-intolerant. Even throwing milk ''on'' him will send him to the ground, disabled. [[ThematicRoguesGallery The bulk of his rogues' gallery is dairy-related]]: Butter Boy, Yo-Girl, Cow-Boy, the Dairy Godfather, & his ArchNemesis Milkman. [[spoiler:His one foe without quick access to lactose, the Evil Superdude, gets a NiceJobBreakingItHero moment when confused bystanders use a pitcher of milk to SpotTheImposter.]]
* In the '80s series ''{{V}}'', aliens are vulnerable to certain inoffensive bacteria that live in human digestive tract. [[spoiler:It backfires later on.]]
* The alien "Gua" in ''Series/FirstWave'' turn out to be badly affected by salt. It affects them roughly like heroin affects humans. One episode featured renegade Gua hiding out in a derelict building snorting packets of UsefulNotes/McDonalds salt. This is the same series where the hero fought the alien invasion using the lost diaries of Nostradamus, so...
** Technically, we never see an actual Gua. They're husks - cloned human/Gua hybrids. it's possible that actual Gua are immune to salt but happen to be crappy genetic engineers.
** Nostradamus was actually [[spoiler:a psychic alien]]
* Sportacus, the superhero of ''LazyTown'' becomes helpless if he eats things with '''sugar''', like candy. However it may be that he's actually weak to chemicals ''added'' to sugar, as he can eat (and in fact gets stronger) from eating '''fruits''', which contain ''natural'' sugars.
** Also, candy is made from refined sugar which is simple glucose molecules that the human body metabolises, and thus runs out of, much faster than more complex fructose. This is a real problem for people with hypoglycemia.
* Turned on its head by [[Series/BuffyTheVampireSlayer The Gentlemen]] who die instantly upon hearing a human scream. Because of this they steal everyone's voice, making themselves essentially invincible and all the creepier - [[AndIMustScream they're cutting your heart out and you can't scream!]]
* "The enemy of all magic" for the ''Series/WizardsOfWaverlyPlace'' is...wait for it...''plastic!'' The [[MonsterOfTheWeek villain of the week]] even manages to take over [[WizardingSchool WizTech]] by filling the place with plastic balls. [[FridgeLogic Considering how ubiquitous the stuff is in the mortal world, it's a wonder magic works at all]]. In later seasons, all spells can work ''through phones''. Explain that.
* A villain of the week on ''Series/{{Misfits}}'' turns out to be allergic to peanuts, which gets cranked up to MundaneMadeAwesome levels and treated as a KryptoniteFactor in the confrontation.
* In ''Series/KamenRiderDouble'', the Utopia Dopant [[EmotionEater draws upon peoples' positive emotions]], granting him incredible power and making him able to suck the life out of an opponent effortlessly. Inanimate objects, however, ''have'' no emotions to drain, meaning that the series' BigBad gets manhandled by the same cute and [[MerchandiseDriven Toyetic]] {{Robot Budd|y}}ies that have been hanging around since Episode 1. In fact, one of the show's copious [[CrowningMomentOfAwesome Crowning Moments of Awesome]] is protagonist Shotaro blocking Utopia's powers with nothing more than his [[ItWasAGift dead mentor's]] CoolHat.
* The new version of the Putty Patrol in season two of ''Series/MightyMorphinPowerRangers'' were stronger than their predecessors... but the Z logo on their chests is their power source, and hitting it causes them to ''fly apart.'' It is also ''honking big.'' This rendered the new Putties the weakest grunts ever. In one episode, ''children'' (only some of which were de-aged Rangers) dealt with them using a ball.
* In ''Series/{{Farscape}}'', Sebaceans are slowly incapacitated by higher temperatures; by higher temperatures, we mean "sweaty but bearable" by human standards.
* One episode of ''Series/TheTwilightZone'' features aliens that can't stand the harmonica.
* The alien "Frogs" (who despite the name look more like humanoid EnergyBeings) in ''Series/{{Raumpatrouille}}'' are immune to hard vacuum and the beams of the human protagonists' energy weapons pass right through them when they're encountered for the first time on the space station MZ-4 in the pilot episode. What kills them in short order once their unprotected bodies are exposed to it? [[spoiler: ''Oxygen'']]. What keeps this weakness from being completely ridiculous in at least that episode is that [[spoiler:[[GenreSavvy they've already vented the station's entire atmosphere into space and wrecked the life support system beyond repair]]]], so the two ''Orion'' crewmembers trapped with them have to improvise (and get them all right the first time, too, because the same trick might well not work twice).
* In ''Series/LostGirl'', as a wolf-Fae, [[TheBigGuy Dyson]] is very strong with excellent senses. These senses can be thrown off by ''kitty litter''. Bo is appropriately incredulous.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Parlor Games]]
* In RockPaperScissors, Rock's ultimate weakness is ''Paper'' (which covers Rock). The other two (Rock breaks Scissors and Scissors cut Paper) at least make sense.
** This was mocked in an episode of ''Series/CornerGas''; Davis chooses rock, while Karen chooses paper. Davis declares he won. When Karen says that paper beats rock, Davis counters with this: if you cover a rock with paper, ''it's still a rock'' - you can break a window with it.
*** It always seemed like Rope (which could suspend Rock) would be a better choice than Paper.
** Also mocked in an American commercial where two guys play the game over the last Bud Light. On 3, one guy chooses paper...and the other guy hits him in the head with a rock and takes the beer.
--> '''Guy 1''': I threw paper!
--> '''Guy 2''': [[{{Pun}} I threw a rock.]]
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Tabletop Games]]
* A demilich from ''TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons'' has gained such power in magic that it barely has a physical body anymore, only a portion, usually the hand or head, loaded with tiny gems which contain bits of their old body and act as anchors for their soul. They can absorb anything's soul by simply touching it, by definition have mastered lots of nasty spells, and are immune to all magic except heavy-duty holy magic. The one exception? A simple little 2nd level spell called Shatter, that '''destroys crystalline objects.''' Whoops.
** Not as good as it sounds: At the Demilich scale of power, Shatter deals very little damage. Besides, demiliches are both very powerful spellcasters and extremely intelligent, so it's very likely that it'll just whip up a spell that offers protection from sonic damage.
** Persistent Spell and Globe of Immunity (both easily learnable by anyone capable of becoming a demilich) renders this tactic completely impossible. It renders the caster completely immune to Shatter (along with any 4th rank or lower spell) for 24 hours per casting. Any caster is going to have numerous methods of defending against Dispel, so removing this spell might end up being more difficult than just directly killing him.
* In ''TabletopGame/HeavyGear'' the advanced ''Black Mamba'' Gear - one of the more powerful designs in either of the two superpowers' armies - had exceptionally weak rear armour. The result is that Black Mambas could be (and routinely were in gameplay) easily defeated by lightweight ''Cheetah'' scout Gears. While the fluff text initially ignored this, the game's designers eventually acknowledged and lampshaded this weakness by having Mamba pilots clamouring for a solution to the "glassback" problem.
* Most of the monsters in [[HeroSystem ''Lucha Libre Hero'']] take extra damage from ''lucha'' combat maneuvers. And since the [=PCs=] are by default ''technico'' luchadors, there's a lot of these showing up in the fight scenes. But then, the sourcebook was inspired by Mexican ''lucha'' films, and "every problem can be solved with a good wrestling hold" was standard in those films.
* In TabletopGame/{{GURPS}} the disadvantage Supersensitive makes having any other sort of sentient creature with 20 meters a serious weakness. With Combat Paralysis your greatest weakness is being put in any sort of danger. Naturally such disadvantages are not recommended for Player Characters.
* TabletopGame/D20Modern has a table of random weaknesses... including some really stupid ones, such as: Clowns, the number 8, math, and books written by William Blake.
* In the ''TabletopGame/TheDresdenFiles RPG'', all creatures who take some sort of supernatural toughness, regeneration, or physical immunity must take something called "The Catch", which, when used against them, will take out their ability to shrug off damage. The more common/easily accessible the ability to fulfill "The Catch" (so, something everyone knows about and can get easily), the more points you can get back. So, Catches like "Swords Of The Cross", "Wizards Born Under Special Circumstances", "Soulfire", and "Nuclear Detonations" don't really offset the power, while more common and known substances (like iron vs Fey, holy items vs Black Court Vampires, or physically attacking magically immune creatures with [[Literature/{{Discworld}} a brick loaded sock]]) will give you more points to potentially work with.
* In ''TabletopGame/{{Deadlands}}'', there are some creatures and villains who are immune to anything except one weakness. For example, a Hangin' Judge is vulnerable to a weapon held by a legitimate lawman on duty, a Tummy Twister to hot chili peppers, and Jasper Stone to suicide.
** That last one is technically correct, but it's so much more. The conditions are actually "Stone can only be killed by a gun fired by his own stone-cold hands", so suicide counts... but so would redirecting his shot before it hit its target. [[spoiler:So would having Young Stone and Old Stone shoot each other.]]
* ''TabletopGame/ChangelingTheLost'' has the concept of "frailties", little weaknesses that certain fae (and overly-powerful changelings) are prey to. Some of them are the classic faerie weaknesses, others can be as odd as "must drink alcohol instead of water" or "cannot cross lines of ants". The only universal weakness is iron, which isn't as dangerous as you think because pure iron is rare... and ''steel'' does nothing. These weaknesses differ from subject to subject; the fiction for one book has a GenreSavvy mortal invoking every bane she knows from the old tales in an attempt to scare off one of the Gentry. None of them work.
* ''TabletopGame/{{Rifts}}'' has a little fun with the concept of fae weaknesses. Among the ways to protect yourself from Faerie Folk is to turn your clothes inside-out or backwards when traveling through their territory, or by tying colorful ribbons all over you and your gear. But this is less a matter of them being unable to approach you as it is them being too busy ''laughing'' to trouble you.
* It's possible to give a character in ''TabletopGame/{{Champions}}'' such a weakness via the Susceptibility Disadvantage. Water, for example, could be worth quite a few points depending on how many dice the character takes from it since it's one of the most common substances in practically any game world. This would make it impossible for your character to do such simple things as bathe or shower, and any kid armed with a [[DepletedPhlebotinumShells Super-Soaker and/or a bucket of water balloons]] would become a credible threat.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Theatre]]
* In Gian-Carlo Menotti's opera ''Help, Help, the Globolinks'', the invading Globolinks are repelled by music.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Video Games]]
* Razputin in ''VideoGame/{{Psychonauts}}'' cannot go into deep water because of a family curse. Any time he goes near deep water, [[EverythingTryingToKillYou a hand made of water tries to drag Raz in and drown him.]]
* The ''VideoGame/MegaMan'' series has plenty of bosses who had a weakness to unlikely-looking weapons and questionable moves.
** The final boss of ''VideoGame/MegaMan2'' can only be damaged with the most useless and most difficult-to-hit-with weapon, Bubble Lead. [[spoiler: The boss is a hologram; other ammo refills its energy (somehow), while the bubble lead shorts it out.]]
** Metal Man just takes this UpToEleven. Most bosses laugh at you when you use their own weapons against them. [[OneHitKill Metal Man explodes in a single hit like an overripe can of sardines being hit by a chainsaw.]]
** The final form of Wily in ''VideoGame/MegaMan3'' can be one-shotted with a proper application of Top Spin, a glitchy and hard to aim attack that often damaged you and would drain the entire bar if mistimed. (Thankfully, Search Snakes also work on it--which has much the same movement pattern as the aforementioned Bubble Lead and would be this game's hardest-to-hit-with weapon if not for the Top Spin.)
** In ''VideoGame/MegaManX 1'' and ''2'', the final boss forms of Sigma were weak against the Rolling Shield (a hard to aim attack that generally did less damage than a charged shot) and the Strike Chain (a pathetically short ranged attack).
** Wave Man of ''VideoGame/MegaMan5'' was essentially vulnerable to being kicked.
** This comes up in the series so often that the GenreSavvy veteran of the series will, upon reaching the final boss, immediately switch to the hardest-to-use weapon to try fighting Wily. The cases where this isn't ''strictly'' true are [[spoiler: ''Mega Man 1'' (Wily is vulnerable to two different GameBreaker strategies), ''Mega Man 4'' (vulnerable to an easy-to-use weapon that is slightly prone to abuse), ''Mega Man 5'', and ''Mega Man 6'' (in addition to fulfilling this trope in those two games, Wily was also vulnerable to GameBreaker Beat, which is why Beat was subsequently {{nerf}}ed).]]
** Now we have ''VideoGame/StreetFighterXMegaMan'', where one of the weapons is ''a watermelon''. Since this is a Mega Man game, there's going to be somebody from Street Fighter who's weak to it. [[spoiler: It's Rose.]]
** RomHack ''VideoGame/RockmanNoConstancy'' makes [[Manga/JoJosBizarreAdventure Za]] [[ShoutOut Warudo]] / [[TimeStandsStill The World]] (which isn't even offensive) a OneHitKill (at least on Normal mode) towards [[DubNameChange Clash/Crash Man.]]
* [[OurVampiresAreDifferent Vampyres]] in ''{{Runescape}}'' avert this somewhat. When they were first introduced, Juvinate or higher ranked vampyres could only be harmed by weapons made of silver.... all of which are weak because silver is a soft metal. So it was more like they were just immortal against everything else, and silver worked as well against them as it did against normal monsters. And then the player learns about the [[KryptoniteFactor Blisterwood Tree]].....
* Don't even get us into how this applies to multiple-typed ''Franchise/{{Pokemon}}''.
** Poor Shedinja. Its ability, ''Wonder Guard'', is great (invulnerable to all direct damage moves except for the types it's weak against), but it only has ''one'' hitpoint, and its type (Bug/Ghost) gives it ''five'' weaknesses--including types and common moves that only an ''idiot'' would build a team without. That means it's only good against [=AI=] opponents that you know don't have those type moves (or any of the environment moves that would defeat it as well). Moreover, while it's invulnerable to direct damage moves, status ailments could affect it normally. Shedinja could simply be confused, and it would effectively commit suicide. Good luck leveling the poor guy without Exp Share.
*** Inversely, Shedinja is an extremely viable option in the Legendary/Uber arena, in that most of the commonly used Legendary Pokemon have no moves that can penetrate Wonder Guard. For example, the near-almighty Kyogre will be generated most of the time with no powers that can hit Shedinja, letting the tiny bug [[DeathOfAThousandCuts cut him to death]]. If you can take out the one or two (at most) Pokemon that could beat Shedinja, you've practically assured yourself a victory.
** There's also Paras and Parasect, who in the first generation had ''three'' [[AttackItsWeakPoint Super Effective]] weaknesses (Parasect is also incredibly slow). One of their new abilities in the fourth generation gives Parasect what is essentially a ''five'' fold weakness to Fire. Parasect also gets a 100% accuracy sleep move, which is potentially the most powerful status-inducing move in the game, so the WeaksauceWeakness was likely added to keep it from being a GameBreaker.
** The Electric type is half-composed of cute little rodents (and a grinning sphere, too, [[VideoGame/EarthBound but those are actually dangerous]]). You'll wind up with one-foot-tall squirrels and mice taking down Gyarados--a 21 foot long sea monster known for destroying entire towns in fits of rage--in one hit.
** Several moves and other things introduced in the fourth generation of the games can cause examples of this trope. One of the most hilarious: a Grass-type move called Grass Knot that is said to work by tripping the opponent, and does more damage the heavier the opponent is. The result of this is that the heaviest Pokemon in existence, the Ground-type [[http://bulbapedia.bulbagarden.net/wiki/Groudon Groudon]], can often be ''tripped to death in one hit'' by something as small as a [[http://bulbapedia.bulbagarden.net/wiki/Pichu Pichu]].
** Dragons are weak to Ice-type moves. This means that pseudo-legendaries like Salamence and Garchomp can be taken out in one hit by an Ice Beam from a Cloyster.
*** Averted with Kyurem,though,as Ice is its scondary type.
** [[GameBreaker Volcarona]] is widely considered one of the most badass Bug-type Pokemon. It and its pre-evolved form (Larvesta)naturally lose half their health from [[ThatOneAttack Stealth Rock.]] Just from switching in. Same with other Pokemon with double weaknesses to Rock, notoriously Charizard.
** All Pokemon that are weak to Water probably count, especially the double-weak ones. Using these critters in battles ''on the ocean'' is a common source of FridgeLogic.
* Somewhat in keeping with the game's theme, the BigBad of ''VideoGame/{{Spore}}'', [[spoiler: the Grox]], is weak against... Life! They can only survive on barren planets; creating a life-sustaining world kills them (although their spaceships can still bomb you from orbit).
* [[NobleDemon Laharl]] in ''Franchise/{{Disgaea}},'' being a young demon who makes a big deal out of being evil, is violently allergic to women with sexy bodies and expressions of optimism or hope. In one battle he has to fight a bunch of half-naked [[HornyDevils succubi]] and [[CatGirl nekomata]] with his stats halved. During one of those chapters, [[LoveFreak Flonne]] nearly kills him by yelling "eternal love!" (her favourite words).
** This appears to be largely psychological, however. Laharl learns to accept [[spoiler:that he is capable of love]] by the end of the game, and while he makes a few comments about not wanting [[MsFanservice Jennifer's]] body near him, her presence has no effect on his stats. In ''VisualNovel/DisgaeaInfinite'' you can even use MindControl to make him ''love'' sexy bodies, and glomp Jennifer.
** The fact that the Prinnies explode when thrown is an unfortunate weakness, as well. It doesn't matter how high the level and/or stats of a Prinny is, a simple toss is all it takes to do it in. Unless it's one of ''[[BonusBoss those]]'' Prinnies...
*** In the Prinny games, said weakness can be exploited ''[[HilariousInHindsight by a Prinny]]'' against some particular enemy Prinnies.
* In ''VideoGame/EliteBeatAgents'', an alien species known as the "Rhombulans" come to Earth and ban music because they're scared of it. Then the agents come and get everybody in the world to dance to Hoobastank and the Rolling Stones.
* Franchise/{{Sonic|TheHedgehog}} [[SuperDrowningSkills is extremely weak to water]]. Not only can he not swim, he also moves at an extremely slow pace when under. In ''Anime/SonicX'' he can't even move while underwater, and he can't move while on ice. There was an episode of ''WesternAnimation/SonicUnderground'' and ''Anime/SonicX'' devoted to Sonic's aquaphobia. Also, in ''VideoGame/MarioAndSonicAtTheOlympicGames'' Sonic wears a life vest whenever he participates in a swimming event, in ''Comicbook/SonicTheComic'' he has originally like the other Sonics cannot swim and he also moves at an extremely slow pace when underwater but unlike the other Sonics he learns to swim removing one of his WeaksauceWeakness.
* The final boss of ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyTactics'', [[spoiler: St. Ajora]], is incredibly weak to [[spoiler: the Oracle spells of Drain and Osmose, the two easiest spells to acquire for the class]]. The AI even actively hones in on characters using it [[spoiler: by outright killing them if able, or depleting all their magic if not]]. However, even a single Chemist is enough to counter these effects, and you can merely have the rest of the party wail on the final boss without it even bothering them for an easy victory.
* In ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyVI'' the irritatingly durable Wirey Dragons (Platinum Dragon in the retranslation) have no elemental weaknesses and high offense and defense. However, Relm's generally useless Sketch ability triggers a monster spell called Cyclonic when she sketches a Wirey Dragon, and it knocks out 90% of their hitpoints.
** The Atma Weapon on the floating island is extremely powerful and has a lot of HP, but dies when it runs out of MP, which it doesn't have nearly as much of. The spell Osmose absorbs a neat chunk of an enemy's MP and adds it to yours, while the spell Rasp destroys a ''large'' amount. Rasp, rasp, rasp, dead.
* Two of the three final bosses of the ''VideoGame/{{MOTHER}}'' series are established as ridiculously powerful, perhaps even immortal, up until the final fight. [[spoiler: Giegue/Giygas from Mother is forced to retreat because of the emotions of song, and Claus/Masked Man from Mother 3 dies by killing himself due to brotherly love.]]
** Using the Jar of Fly Honey on Master Belch will make him stop fighting and focus on just eating it where you'll be given the whole time to drop his HP to 0.
* In ''[[VideoGame/BaldursGate Baldur's Gate II]]'', the extremely powerful liches rely entirely on magic in combat. There is a relatively low-level spell that allows you to polymorph into a 100% magic-immune and thus undamageable-by-liches creature: The Terrifying Mustard Jelly. GameBreaker ensues.
** Also, [[ReviveKillsZombie all healing spells have reverse effects on undeads]]. The mid-level spell that heals someone back to max HP? It reduces ''any'' undead to one HP. Including an epic dracolich.
** Taken even further with BonusBoss Kangaxx. While he is definitely one of, if not ''the'' strongest enemy in the game, his death resistance is piss poor. There are so many ways of taking advantage of these, along with GoodBadBugs, that someone wrote the song parody "Fifty Ways To Kill Your Kangaxx." ("Use Protect Against Undead, Fred.")
* Cole from ''VideoGame/InFamous'' has the standard "electric super" Weaksauce Weakness of water... but also has one in chain-link fences. The metallic mesh absorbs his shots and dissipates them harmlessly. He has to go around to shoot whatever is on the other side -- since every last chain link fence in the game is capped with razor wire and can't be climbed. [[http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2009/5/27/ Penny Arcade didn't let this go without comment.]] It's even Lampshaded in the sequel -- you can now climb over chain link fences, and there's a ''trophy'' for doing so for the first time, celebrating this amazing achievement.
** He has another weakness: areas without flowing electricity. If there isn't an active power grid where he is, he suffers from severely blurred vision and is said in dialog to be generally impaired, though this doesn't really show in gameplay.
* In ''VideoGame/{{Prototype}}'', Alex Mercer and the Infected have a Weaksauce Weakness in water. Their biomass is too dense to float. Alex and Hunters will just jump back out of any body of water they fall into after a brief pause. The Infected [[SuperDrowningSkills not so much.]] However, it takes place on Manhattan Island, so besides the surrounding water that makes it an island, there's not a lot of water to use. Makes the quarantine easier to keep, though.
* In ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyX'', using [[UselessUsefulSpell Provoke]] on Defender X will force him to use an attack that halves the target's current [=HP=] for the remainder of the fight (unless the Provoker switches out of battle). Therefore, the fight becomes a ForegoneVictory.
** Many other bosses have some exploitable weakness (some more obscure than others), making a "level one" run easier than you might expect.
* ''VideoGame/{{Okami}}'' monsters can have some pretty weaksauce weaknesses:
** The "Bloom" technique, that causes flowers to sprout from trees, will also open bud-based enemies and reveal their weak point.
** Umbrella-wielding and flying enemies are weak to "Galestorm" which most of the time isn't any more powerful than a moderate breeze.
** The Tengu can be calmed down from going berzerk by causing it to rain.
** The BigBad is weak to [[spoiler: sunlight]], but then again, [[spoiler: he ''is'' a god of Darkness]].
* The {{Bonus Boss}}es of ''VideoGame/ManaKhemiaAlchemistsOfAlRevis'' are ''very'' powerful, to say the least. However, they all share a common monster trait that renders them vulnerable to a certain character's ''normal physical attack''. Said character is one of the highest physical attackers of the game (plus, he also has a skill that increases his attack power ''even more''), and abusing the weakness will quickly increase the LimitBreak meter, allowing faster access to the uber-powerful [[FinishingMove Finishing Bursts]]. This is a saving grace, however, since one BossBattle has you fighting ''three Bonus Bosses at once''.
* In ''VideoGame/DevilSurvivor'', the Nigh-Indestructible enemy Beldr is only harmed by Devil's Fuge [[spoiler: AKA Mistletoe, which the only thing made of said plant you can get your hands on is a ''cellphone strap'' that is only made in the image of mistletoe]]. Makes up for it by being ThatOneBoss of the game, but still a rather undignified weakness--but {{justified|Trope}}, due to [[NorseMythology the boss's background origin]].
* An odd case in ''VideoGame/TalesOfPhantasia'', which isn't a conventional weakness, but more of a developer’s oversight. The BonusBoss of the BonusDungeon, Pluto, only has physical attacks, and one ridiculously long charging special attack, all of which have insane amounts of damage behind them, but must be used at close range. The first skill the main character ever learns is a long range, one SP cost move called Demon Fang', which ''instantly pushes pluto back and flinches him''. Hence, a BonusBoss battle where the heroes stay on oneside and nuke the poor guy and the lead constantly pelts him with Demon Fangs, while the boss sits on the other side of the screen defenseless.
* In ''VideoGame/CastlevaniaPortraitOfRuin'', there's an optional battle with the spirit of [[spoiler:Richter Belmont]], one of the most powerful vampire hunters ever to walk the Earth. The easiest way to beat him is to keep [[PieInTheFace throwing pies in his face]], as the downward arc of the Cream Pie sub-weapon lets you safely jump and toss them while staying out of range of his whip and axe. Also the pies are Darkness elemental and boss is weak to Darkness, but that actually doesn't make much difference since the pies [[DeathOfAThousandCuts still aren't very damaging]].
* It seems that human(ish) enemies in the ''Franchise/ResidentEvil'' series are more vulnerable to melee attacks than they are to heavy firepower and ordnance. Krauser from part 4 is weak against Leon's knife, and in part 5, the first two fights with Wesker can be considerably shortened by clobbering him with as many [[ActionCommands QTE]] combos as possible.
** In ''VideoGame/ResidentEvil4'', the Plagas that hatch out of the various Ganados are either DemonicSpiders or GoddamnedBats, depending on your opinion. However, once "popped", they can be killed instantly with a single flash grenade... yes, that's right, the otherwise useless blue grenade you've probably been selling off for upgrades and beefier guns.
* In ''VideoGame/{{Diablo}} II'', a Paladin using the skill Blessed Hammer (commonly known as [[FanNickname Hammerdins]]) are capable of throwing dozens of high-damage hammers at a time, even into the highest difficulties. Their weakness? ''Walls''. Since the hammers arc in a circular pattern, it can be extremely difficult to defeat certain monsters who are positioned in a difficult spot. There's a reason why the most effective equipment for a Hammerdin has an item that provides the Teleport spell: because there's quite a few mandatory sections of the game that are best served [[TeleportSpam teleporting around, avoiding enemies, grabbing the one item you need, and getting out of there]].
* [[NamesToRunAwayFromReallyFast Ormagodden]] from ''VideoGame/BrutalLegend'' was killed by being doused with mud.
* ''VideoGame/PennyArcadeAdventures'' features a literal example: the special-attack weapon "Double-Mild Weaksauce" is such a wimpy hotsauce that it actually makes enemies wimpier and more vulnerable when you shoot it at them.
* Although not a flaw of the units themselves, ground units in ''VideoGame/{{X-COM}} Apocalypse'' can only travel on roads and if the road square they are on is destroyed so are they. Especially galling with the Assault Tank which is pictured as having huge caterpillar treads but still can't go off-road.
* In ''Franchise/FinalFantasy'' games in general, ReviveKillsZombie, so even undead bosses can be easily killed as long as you have a Phoenix Down in your inventory.
* In ''VideoGame/TheSecretOfMonkeyIsland'', BigBad Le Chuck is destroyed by [[spoiler: root beer]].
* In ''NellyCootalot'', there's El Mono, who guards the gates to the mine[[spoiler:/spoonbeaks' prison]], with some pretty powerful (as AdventureGame standards go) magic. So what is an ordinary PirateGirl to do? After doing a few more errands, the answer will come in the form...of an orange.
* [[VideoGame/{{Kirby}} Meta-Knight]] isn't afraid to get bloody in battle...but he ''is'' afraid of losing his mask. Every battle with him ends with his mask coming off, revealing that he's every bit as cute as the rest of the inhabitants of Pop Star. He immediately wraps himself in his cape and leaves.
* Scarabs are somewhat easily beaten in Franchise/{{Halo}} wars, stick an infantry unit too close for it to hit and send your army after it while it's stuck. They tend to die quick [[ShootTheMedicFirst unless they have engineers]].
** While we're on the subject of Franchise/{{Halo}}, in the first game, the [[EliteMooks Hunters]] were enemies who could easily ruin your day. The best way to kill them, other than a rocket, was ''a single Pistol round'' to the unarmored area in their back. That's right, [[OneHitKill just one Pistol bullet.]] Bungie nerfed this ability of the pistol in the games later in the series.
*** This is especially jarring since the Hunters are supposed to be not a single being but colonies of hundreds of small worms with a HiveMind. So shooting a few with a bullet should only feel like a pinprick to the overall being. Granted, it could be a hollow-point round that bounces around in that armor, but that seems unlikely.
* Kanbari in ''VideoGame/ShinMegamiTenseiStrangeJourney'' is weak to physical attacks, and each hit against him generally results in a cooperative attack with your allies. To be fair, he's the god of the toilet, so players are right not to expect much. Be careful, however - Kanbari ''does'' know Tetrakarn (which reflects physical attacks).
* The most likely candidate for the BigBad of ''VideoGame/BlazBlue'', Terumi, is, story-wise, one of the most powerful beings alive...and he is allergic to cats. Horribly allergic. So allergic that [[spoiler: his joke ending has him reduced to a sniffling sneezing chew toy of the Kaka kittens.]] It's hinted to be canon too; in one scene he mentions that he hates the smell of cat. It's possible that Relius Clover, a {{Jerkass}} in his own right, added those allergies when he created Terumi's current body as a twisted joke.
* Kratos from ''VideoGame/TalesOfSymphonia'''s weakness is tomatoes.
** Every playable character in the game has a least favorite food in the same way - Kratos' is just the only one that became {{memetic|Mutation}}, probably because he's so stoic as to become TheComicallySerious. It's not like they can ever get used against him in battle or anything.
* VideoGame/CaptainNovolin is weak against junk food. It makes him sick when he gets near it.
* Hooktail, the boss of Chapter 1 in ''VideoGame/PaperMarioTheThousandYearDoor'', has a weakness to things that start with "cr" and end with "icket". [[spoiler: This is because she ate some crickets a long time ago prior to the game's events, and the sound of crickets became so unbearable to her that she never wanted to eat a single cricket again. Equipping a certain badge that makes a cricket sound lowers her attack power and her defense drastically, making her easier to defeat.]]
-->'''Hooktail''': Bleck! That awful sound! It... sounds like a [[spoiler:cricket]]! How did you know?
* In ''VideoGame/SimCity 4'', most buildings and infrastructure will crumble to pieces if you move the ground ''near'' them.
* Master Belch from ''VideoGame/EarthBound''. [[spoiler:Use the Jar of Fly Honey on him, and will cause him to do absolutely nothing for the entire battle except get his ass handed to him.]]
* The Pork Trooper in ''VideoGame/MOTHER3'' has a weakness to [[spoiler:DCMC stuff, which makes him waste turns staring jealously at it.]]
* ''VideoGame/{{Touhou}}'': In ''Immaterial and Missing Power'', Patchouli tells Youmu that she ought to be weak to fire since she's (half) an undead. Youmu replies that it doesn't apply to ghosts. In the end her '''human''' half turns out to be weak fire, but then again who isn't?.
** In her scenario, Patchouli ends every fight by listing her opponents' weaknesses that often turn out to be weaksauce (although the validity or application are doubtful):
*** Reimu: Wasabi.
*** Marisa: Eel.
*** Sakuya: Asian ginseng, bitter melons.
*** Alice: Chili peppers.
*** Youmu: Bitter melons.
*** Remilia: Lots of weaknesses....
*** Yuyuko: Fire.
*** Yukari: Dried plums.
*** Suika: Fried beans.
** Youkai are said to be able to regenerate physical damage very fast, but are weak to ''faith''.
** Finally Oni (which in this verse includes devils and vampires) are believed to be vulnerable to boiled beans, but apparently this is only because humans think so.
* In the SNES ''TheWizardOfOz'' game, the Tin Woodman is normally useless, since he can't crouch or jump, but his attack is apparently the only one that can hit the WickedWitch.
* In ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaALinkToThePast'', Mothula is generally considered by far the most difficult fight in the game, since it's meant to be [[KillItWithFire killed with the fire wand]] but most players don't have enough fuel to get the job done. However, you can deal massive damage if unleash a bee on him... (It's worth noting that this is the only boss fight this tactic will work for, so perhaps the game designers realised how disproportionately difficult it was normally).
* ''VideoGame/{{Minecraft}}'''s final boss, the enderdragon, is extremely difficult to defeat with a sword, and arrows take a long time to bring it down. However, they can be damaged with snowballs, which usually just knock mobs back without hurting them. Since snowballs can be stockpiled easily in a snow biome, and can be thrown much faster than arrows can be shot, they're probably the easiest way of winning the fight, and most people would never think to use them since they're harmless when used against 95% of the other mobs.
* ''VideoGame/WorldOfWarcraft'' is rife with such weaknesses to make otherwise impossible encounters winnable or just for amusement value. One great example is a quest where you have to get an artifact to defeat a pack of imps. The effect of this awesome weapon? It creates beautiful rainbows... cue sound of heads exploding.
* ''VideoGame/CastlevaniaIISimonsQuest'' features the easiest fight against Dracula in the entire series. There are two weapons [[spoiler: the golden knife and the sacred flame]] which cause Dracula to completely freeze in place. All Simon has to do is repeatedly spam those weapons, and he'll win before Dracula can even move.
* In ''VideoGame/SuperRobotWarsZ 2: Saisei-Hen'', The [[DemonicSpiders DAMON]] are affected by [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=awAi36JjFiQ Basara's singing]]. They even take damage, making [[ManOfKryptonite Basara]] [[DepletedPhlebotinumShells a viable choice for fighting against the DAMON]].
* In ''[[VideoGame/AssassinsCreedRevelations Assassin's Creed Revelations]]'', the [[EliteMooks Janissaries]] are the toughest enemies in the game by far. Able to survive normally insta-kill kill chains, multiple stab and gunshot injuries, can pull [[BeatThemAtTheirOwnGame pull out a pistol and shoot you in the face]], players learn to loathe them quickly. [[NeverBringAKnifeToAFistfight The fists of an elderly man]] are the bane of their existence, since chaining 4 unarmed attacks will take them out of commission. Quite depressing when a soldier trained from childhood meets his end from Ezio [[GroinAttack kicking his nuts twice]].
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Web Comics]]
* ''Webcomic/CheshireCrossing'' (by the creators of ''Webcomic/CaseyAndAndy'') delves into the weakness from the ''Film/TheWizardOfOz'': The WickedWitch of the West explains that ''all'' witches are vulnerable to water (while in Oz, at least)--she was keeping the water on hand should Glinda the Good Witch launch a surprise attack. (In a later scene, the bucket is labeled "In case of Glinda".) She just never expected her enemy to bully a little girl into doing the deed.
* Another spoof of ''Film/TheWizardOfOz'' comes from ''[[Webcomic/DarthsAndDroids Magicians & Munchkins]]''; the WickedWitch simply [[http://www.darthsanddroids.net/magiciansandmunchkins/episodes/0050.html took this disadvantage]] to get a few additional levels in magic.
** It's more of a tribute than a spoof, but in ''{{Namesake}}'', the Wicked Warlock of the West has the exact same weakness as his predecessor.
* Toothgnip the goat in ''Webcomic/{{Goats}}'' gets his KavorkaMan powers from "The Panties of Potency". This had nothing to do with the artist having trouble drawing Toothgnip standing on all fours, honest!
* Parodied in [[http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0607.html this strip]] of ''Webcomic/TheOrderOfTheStick'', where, since Haley always has her sandwiches without pickles, Crystal thinks they're toxic to her. [[spoiler: They're not.]]
* In one ''Webcomic/BobTheAngryFlower'' strip, Bob thinks that a superhero has the Weaksauce Weakness of '''''bacon'''''. He turns out to be wrong, but we never find out what the weakness actually is.
** Another one has Bob running a hot peanuts stand, recognizing a customer and his friends as a band of supervillains, and [[StrangeMindsThinkAlike instantly and correctly deducing]] that they are actually buying ammunition for an attack on Anaphylactic Man's fortress. (He sells it to them anyway.)
** Yet another has Bob defeating an evil skeleton with the obscure knowledge that skeletons have a fatal weakness to raisins. Yeah, it's that kind of comic.
* [[http://www.qwantz.com/index.php?comic=1582 This episode]] of ''Webcomic/DinosaurComics'' claims to have been inspired by this trope. More specifically, it's about the dangers of peanut allergies, orange juice, and the [[SuperDrowningSkills water that takes up 70% of the earth's surface]].
* ''Webcomic/TalesOfTheQuestor'' subverts this with the fey. General belief is that they are vulnerable to "Cold iron" but this proves to be false. Research into why the iron did not work reveals that the ancient documents that the information was obtained from were actually misprinted versions found in an ancient garbage dump and that the symbol for cold and the symbol for north are very similar. Turns out the weakness is not cold iron but "north seeking iron" (lodestone), they are vulnerable to strong magnetic fields. Unfortunately only the weakest fey have this vulnerability, the strong ones can shrug it off (though with immense pain).
* ''Webcomic/BobAndGeorge'': Tomahawk Man is lethally allergic to Plant Shield, something Mega Man considers to be the crummiest power in the series. However, what really takes the cake is Ran Mark II, a monstrosity so intimidating it makes [[TheAce Bob]] virtually shit his pants. However, he is vulnerable to one of the most common substances in the ''Bob and George'' setting: [[DeathIsCheap Ran Mk I corpses]]. Bob, a demigod of fire, is flat fucking terrified of Franchise/{{Pokemon}}.
* In ''Webcomic/{{Goblins}}: Life Through Their Eyes'', Klik, a sentient metallic being able to fly, morph into anything, and absorb genetic information from flesh-based life-forms, is corroded when coming into contact with blood.
* In ''Webcomic/SequentialArt'', the Denizens (little black [[LivingShadow shadow creatures]]) are dependent on their leader when they try to conquer the Earth. [[DecapitatedArmy When he is killed]], they just mill around the house, helping out or watching soap operas. And this leader can brandish a chainsaw, but just like the rest of them was small enough to be placed in a drinking glass and thrown out a window. Also, [[spoiler:apparently Kat's evil former teacher's life is somehow linked to the ruler she waves at her students while yelling at them. When Kat breaks it in a fit of anger, the teacher has a heart attack and dies. AndThereWasMuchRejoicing]].
* This trope and the classic superhero Twinkie advertisements are brilliantly parodied in [[http://www.superstupor.com/sust01042008.shtml this]] ''Webcomic/SuperStupor'' comic.
* ''Webcomic/SluggyFreelance''
** At one point, the bad guys have robotic water-coolers that [[http://sluggy.com/comics/archives/daily/20020625 short circuit on contact with water]]. Yeah, someone really didn't think that one through.
** The Evil, a litter of kittens made invincible, bloodthirsty fiends by Satan still suffer the psychological limitations of being kittens: give them milk, balls of string, or some toy mice, and they'll be too distracted and contented to murder you.
** The demons of the Dimension of Pain can't stand the smell of flowers. This means that they can't enter the sewers in the Dimension of Lame, that place being a ''real'' SugarBowl.
* In ''Webcomic/AGirlAndHerFed'', the agents with the [[CyberneticsWillEatYourSoul Pocket President chip]] installed get incapacitating migraines when exposed to really bright light. It's why they all wear the CoolShades.
* Webcomic/CharbyTheVampirate: "Classic" vampires have all the classic weaknesses of the vampires, while "elites" possess none of the weaknesses, save one... Obsessive Compulsive Disorder. If they come across a pile of identical objects (a pile of rice, beans, the beads from a woman's dress that had accidentally come apart), they have to count it, regardless of the circumstances. For classic vampires, this can cause them to count until the sun comes up, and they die. For elites, trying to use this on them just ends up pissing them off, since the sun has no effect on them.
** And Elites can still go around that with mathematics: Charby is seen weighting both a small sample and the whole heap on pocket scales, and deducing the total number from the sample size.
* Liz's beast-man of a boss in ''Webcomic/DeadWinter'' doesn't really know how to fight, yet is still able to take on [[{{Badass}} Monday]] pretty effectively due to his sheer giganticness and indestructibility. Monday stabs him in the shoulder, [[GroinAttack kicks him in a certain area]], etc. but never really fazes him; the heroes end up ''smashing him in the head with a metal pole attached to a fast-moving car'', but this only stuns him temporarily. His weakness? Germs--the imaginary kind. He's such a hypochondriac that slapping him in the face with a dirty mop will [[FreakOut give him a panic attack.]] He gets over his fear of [[ZombieApocalypse zombie infection]] pretty quickly, though...
* Webcomic/AxeCop's weakness is being surprised. [[http://axecop.com/index.php/acepisodes/read/episode_72/ He melts.]] And his second weakness is [[http://axecop.com/index.php/acepisodes/read/xmas2010/ cherry rainbow]].
* Sydney in ''Webcomic/GrrlPower'' has seven orbs that grant her powers. But she has to hold an orb in her hand to use it, so she can only run two powers at a time. When asked what her weakness is, she said:
-->'''Sydney:''' So yeah. Mittens are my kryptonite.
* The robots in ''Webcomic/GunnerkriggCourt'' have the strength and speed of a machine, and some are safe even against Kat's electro-disruptor. But they have a big red button on top of their heads. Yep, they have a large, highly visible, easy-to-reach off switch.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Web Games]]
* ''[[MinotoSeries Monkey and Secret Army 2]]'' ends with the monkey becoming a superhero to battle the GiantEnemyCrab. [[spoiler:He's going to beat the crab when it distracts him with bananas. He flies off and is not seen again until chapter 5.]]
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Web Original]]
* In the ''Literature/WhateleyUniverse'', TheFairFolk (and mutants who are turning into Fae) are vulnerable to cold iron. Wrought iron benches, cast iron skillets, and so on. But Fey is also vulnerable to synthetic fabrics which give her a burning rash. She could be incapacitated by rayon lingerie! (Or TheSeventies.)
** Phase subverts this trope by getting a ''fake'' weakness put on his powers testing results. Dark chocolate, administered orally. So now she can have enemies try to stop her by bringing her delicious desserts.
* Apparently there is a [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=esuv4x-Cxb0 reviewer]] that can be [[ForMassiveDamage destroyed]] by [[EdutainmentGame edutainment games.]]
* In the Franchise/StarWars fan film ''Pink Five Strikes Back'', Rebel pilot Stacy realizes that [[FridgeLogic since the walkers attacking Hoth only had forward-facing guns, the Rebels could've just shot at them from behind]]. While being chased by a scout walker in ''The Return of Pink Five'', [[BrickJoke Stacy remembers this train of thought]] in the nick of time - and causes the walker to lose its balance and crash by running in between its legs.
* In the ''GlobalGuardiansPBEMUniverse'', plastic, a substance unknown to the Ancient Greeks, is completely opaque to the Mask Of Justice's vision powers. Thus, he can't even see through Saran Wrap (tm) while wearing his mask. (This weakness extends to other substances unknown to the Ancient Greek magicians, but plastic is the one that keeps coming up.)
** Mongibello, a "geokinetic" who can control and move earth and stone, can be rendered powerless simply by ''picking him up'', or otherwise prevent him from touching the ground.
* ''WebAnimation/{{Eddsworld}}'': In one of the early Christmas specials Edd is saved form death when he finds the Grim Reaper's one weakness: Gravy.
* The Centaurians in ''Literature/ThePentagonWar'' are cold-blooded. They automatically hibernate whenever it gets too chilly.
* In FanFic/GroupOfWeirdos, the Iron Knuckles are completely invincible, unless tag-teamed and attacked repeatedly by Link, the hero of time, and Ganondorf, a dark wizard with great power. Or you can just slash them a few times with a Deku Stick.
* [[WebAnimation/ASDFMovie "Kitten Fight!" "No wait, I'm allergic to adoreableness!"]]
* In ''WebVideo/YuGiOhTheAbridgedSeries'' video "Marik Plays ''Videogame/{{Slender}}''", Marik theorises that Franchise/{{The Slender Man|Mythos}} has a weakness against bathrooms, since he doesn't show up in the tiled corridor:
-->Maybe going to the toilet is like his kryptonite. "I'm going to kill you! Heh heh heh... what's that, you need to go Number 1? Here, I'll just wait outside while you deal with that, OK? Make sure you wash your hands, OK, I don't want it to be gross when I kill you. Well, I do, but not like that."
* In ''WebVideo/UltraFastPony'', Rarity thinks she's allergic to water. Applejack calls her out on the stupidity of this, but Rarity points out [[InsaneTrollLogic that every time she hangs out in the rain for extended periods of time, she gets a cold]]. [[spoiler:[[TheCuckoolanderWasRight Then Rarity develops a nasty rash all over her face.]] "I ''told'' you I was allergic!"]]
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Western Animation]]
* This trope appears as a pastiche in ''Disney/{{Bolt}}''. The titular dog believes he has superpowers because he never leaves the set of a TV show. When he is accidentally shipped across the country his powers "mysteriously" vanish, and he blames the Styrofoam packing peanuts he was shipped with.
* The titular character of ''WesternAnimation/InvaderZim'' is a member of a hyper-advanced, [[GeneticEngineeringIsTheNewNuke genetically engineered]] race of aliens for whom {{Humongous Mecha}}s are a mundane occurrence and whose sole purpose seems to be conquering the entire universe. His main weakness? Water (possibly just polluted water) and ''meat''.
* ''[[WesternAnimation/CaptainPlanetAndThePlaneteers Captain Planet]]'', being a paragon of clean Earth, is weak against your usual forms of pollution (smog, toxic waste, etc.), as well as Hitler-level hatred, apparently. You might consider these not particularly weaksauce, but it suggests Gaia went seriously wrong in the design stage: the things he was created to fight against are the things that do him the most damage. It's like J'onn J'onnz deciding to be a firefighter or Alan Scott deciding to only fight evil loggers.
** His evil counterpart Captain Pollution has an even lamer weakness: direct sunlight, lack of pollution, and ''clean water.'' Yes, any remotely clean source of drinking water sprayed in his face will make him bow down and crawl helplessly. This seriously deters his ability to establish himself as a credible threat.
** Namor the Sub-Mariner of Creator/MarvelComics is similarly affected by pollution (though not by hate, which is good, since he seems to run on it), but that makes sense, as he's a water-breather. Because he's a HalfHumanHybrid, he's also subject to insanity and fits of rage if he stays submerged for more than two weeks. Or emerged for more than two weeks. So he needed to switch environment every week to stay sane. Until authors simply forgot the issue.
* The only thing that prevents Brother Herman from [[TakeOverTheWorld taking over the world]] in ''WesternAnimation/YinYangYo'' is the fact the he's allergic to panda fur. As long as Master Yo, [[LastOfHisKind the last panda on the planet]], is around, [[FailureIsTheOnlyOption failure will be his only option]].
** His brother Carl, The Evil Cockroach Wizard has been shown to be a very powerful villain capable of [[TakeOverTheWorld global domination]] himself, he has one glaring weakness: self-esteem. He's been defeated by insults and peer pressure, and his own low opinion of himself keeps him from going full-tilt against the heroes and his brother.
* Stitch of ''Disney/LiloAndStitch'' is unable to swim due to his extremely high molecular density, making him vulnerable to any body of water large and deep enough for him to be unable to claw his way out of before he drowns. Other than that he is one of the most powerful creatures in his continuity. One reason falling in water is so damaging is that Stitch tends to ''panic'' when he's underwater. Reasonable enough, but it often results in him flailing around helplessly until rescued rather than doing something to help himself. One episode (the theme of which was conquering your fears) had him fall into a swimming pool, but he manages to keep calm, hold his breath, and climb out without issue.
* WesternAnimation/{{Birdman}} from the old Creator/{{Hanna-Barbera}} cartoons had the powers of flight, energy beams that shot from his hands, enhanced strength, and a personal force field -- and drew his powers from the light of the sun. Fair enough, there are plenty of other solar-powered heroes out there (Franchise/{{Superman}}, Comicbook/{{Cyclops}} ([[DependingOnTheWriter sometimes]]), [[ComicBook/TeenTitans Starfire]]). Unlike those heroes, however, Birdman apparently had ''no'' energy reserve; he became weak as a baby after being removed from sunlight for ''less than a minute''. As it was implied that being out of the sun for an extended period of time ("extended" apparently being something like five minutes) was fatal to Birdman, it's a wonder he didn't spontaneously drop dead at night. [[WesternAnimation/HarveyBirdmanAttorneyAtLaw No wonder he became a lawyer.]] After he became a lawyer, he developed a new Weaksauce Weakness; he's completely worthless if he loses the Birdman insignia that he keeps on his forehead.
* In an episode of ''WesternAnimation/{{Ben 10}}'', it turns out that the leader of the Galactic Enforcers (an alien superhero team, said leader an obvious parody of Superman) has a devastating weakness to chocolate, which [[LampshadeHanging Ben himself points out]] is a lame superweakness.
* The members of the ''WesternAnimation/SushiPack'' are rendered powerless by any kind of heat, but even worse, they feel compelled to announce this every time a villain pulls out a heat lamp.
* WesternAnimation/WordGirl isn't so much defeated by a cute little kitten, but rather [[CutenessProximity easily distracted by one]]. She also compensates for her language abilities by showing a complete lack of competence in art, poetry, and dance.
* Parodied in ''WesternAnimation/{{Futurama}}'': "The human was impervious to our most powerful magnetic fields, yet in the end he succumbed to a harmless sharpened stick!"
** [[Film/TheWizardOfOz "Who would have thought a small amount of liquid would ever splash on meeeee!?"]]
* An episode of ''WesternAnimation/MartinMystery'' had an alien fungus monster that had taken over a small town and replaced the inhabitants with clones. Both it and the clones could be killed with salt. As luck would have it, the small town just happened to be in [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Salt_Lake northern Utah.]]
* [[BigBad Mumm-Ra]] from ''WesternAnimation/{{Thundercats}}'', with a weakness to ''his own reflection''. The writers eventually realized this made Mumm-Ra too lame, so they had him get over it. The Thundercats had a harder time dealing with him after that. Even more so when he got an InfinityPlusOneSword of his own.
* When Buttercup wanted to become a better superhero in ''WesternAnimation/ThePowerpuffGirls'' episode "SuperZeroes", she became Mange, a knockoff of DarkerAndEdgier comic book {{Anti Hero}}es -- Comicbook/{{Spawn}} in particular. However, when the time came for her and her sisters (both of whom also assumed their own "better superhero" identities) to go out and fight a monster destroying Townsville, Mange was the only one who stayed behind, saying it's too bright and that she only travels at night. Mange then spent the rest of the day sitting on the couch with Professor Utonium until night fell, arriving too late at the scene as the monster had already left (her sisters were also late for reasons of their own). The three girls spent the night under a tree. When the monster came back to face the girls again, Mange sits out the fight, preferring to stay under the tree's shade. This attitude led the monster to eventually call her "Little Miss Darkness who’s afraid of a little sun".
** Being kindergarteners, the girls have plenty of weaknesses of their own any other time--they have been shown to be deathly afraid of "cooties", cockroaches, and broccoli. The episodes these weaknesses show up in usually involve some sort of super-powered or evil version of it, so it's not always so silly...
** There's Antidote X which was used in only one television episode ("Slumbering With The Enemy", on the girls themselves) and in the movie (on Mojo Jojo).
* In ''WesternAnimation/{{Gargoyles}}'', the titular creatures [[TakenForGranite turn into immobile statues]] during the day, which leaves them extremely vulnerable. They try to work around this in various ways (working a deal with humans in exchange for protection, magic spells, etc.) However, this is actually a bit of a double-edged sword. Though vulnerable as stone statues, they are COMPLETELY healed of almost ANY wounds (even potentially fatal ones) when they return to flesh and blood. Hudson, being the most experienced of the main cast, uses this to his advantage, defeating the better armed and fitter Demona while protecting an injured Goliath by simply keeping her at bay until dawn. When the sun sets, Goliath is healed and they easily dispatch her together.
** Oberon's Children, like other portrayals of TheFairFolk, are all vulnerable to iron. Iron can disrupt their magic, actually ''hurt'' them, and imprison them. In his [[spoiler: not really]] first appearance, Puck is forced to obey Demona after being bound with iron chains. The Weird Sisters are also coerced into doing a favor in exchange for being released from an iron chain. Later, the TricksterGod Coyote is trapped in the ''robot'' Coyote's latest body which was constructed with iron from a magical cauldron. Their ruler Oberon, while not immune to iron, is powerful enough to withstand being ''impaled by an iron harpoon'' though it does cause him to wither in appearance for a short time. [[spoiler: (An Iron bell on the other hand, can easily kill him.)]]
* In ''[[WesternAnimation/TeenageMutantNinjaTurtles2003 Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Fast Forward]]'' Sh'Okanabo's first attempt to infect Earth with his [[TheVirus progeny]] is thwarted by...sunlight. Although this is handwaved as a particular, unexpected feature of Earth's, and Sh'Okanabo himself is not normally affected, dealing with his weakness is the thrust of his character arc throughout the remainder of the season.
* In one episode of ''WesternAnimation/TheBOTSMaster'', the BigBad uses a special alloy to make his MechaMooks {{Nigh Invulnerab|ility}}le. The good guys think that they're screwed, until the inventor of the alloy tells them that the alloy can be dissolved by...''citrus acid''. In the end they use ''lemon juice'' to defeat the new MechaMooks.
* In ''WesternAnimation/KimPossible'', Felix Renton's CoolChair is one of the most advanced pieces of technology in the series. It can hover and has CombatTentacles. But it can be hijacked by a ''wireless game controller''.
** One of [[MadScientist Dr. Drakken's]] schemes was to create an army of [[EvilKnockoff Kim Possible clones]]. The scheme failed when Wade figured out that the clones were chemically unstable and would melt if exposed to carbonated soda.
** In ''[[WesternAnimation/KimPossibleMovieSoTheDrama So The Drama]]'', Drakken created a synthodrone that could [[RidiculouslyHumanRobots pass for human]]. It [[NearVillainVictory blocked Kim's last-ditch attempt to stop Drakken]]... until one bite from Rufus drained its synthogoo and destroyed it.
* Not exactly canon for ''WesternAnimation/DarkwingDuck'''s mythos, but when he retells his origins in "The Secret Origin of Darkwing Duck," he describes meeting another hero whose weakness is Coo-koo Cola. She winds up falling into a vat of the stuff at a factory and, well ... adds to the Disney series' death count.
** There's also Comet Guy (SuperWeight: 3), whose AchillesHeel is that every time he hears the sound of a bell, he starts dancing mindlessly until he hears a whistle. His intellect might also count, but frankly it probably can't even do 2+2.
* ''WesternAnimation/TheFairlyOddParents'': All that fairy magic is neutralized when they are under a butterfly net.
** There's also all the various "Da Rules" which prevent them from undoing some of the more disastrous wishes, but do nothing to stop them from getting into these situations to begin with. One thinks an "I wish that no wishes that will somehow prevent me from ''undoing'' those wishes can be cast" wish might save a lot of trouble.
* The alien jellyfish in the ''WesternAnimation/SpongebobSquarepants'' episode, "Planet of the Jellyfish", dissolve into puddles of goop upon contact with mayonnaise.
** One of Mermaidman and Barnacleboy's antagoinsts is the Dirty Bubble, who is... a bubble. Go ahead, guess a weakness.
* ''WesternAnimation/CodenameKidsNextDoor'': The Kids overcome Father's pyrokinesis by drenching him in ice cream.
* Desiree from ''WesternAnimation/DannyPhantom''. Her main weakness is that she has to grant ''every'' wish she hears, including wishes like "I wish you were defeated."
** The Fright Knight is also stupidly vulnerable. If his sword gets sheathed in a pumpkin, he is instantly defeated. His worst nightmare is probably somebody using an ordinary pumpkin as a shield.
* Although not a fatal weakness, WesternAnimation/TheTick's mind is... frequently ineffective, as well as being easily distracted by shiny objects. If it wasn't for more competent sidekicks and fellow superheroes assisting, he'd have serious troubles with any supervillain more intelligent than a grape. Like being mind-controlled by Mr. Mental.
--> '''The Tick''': "And that's just it, Doc - my mind has always been my Achilles' heel!"
** Also if you can get rid of the feelers on his head (As The Terror was able to do with his Wish Machine) The Tick completely loses his equilibrium and can't even keep his balance.
* Mighty Ray of ''WesternAnimation/{{Hero 108}}'' has the ability to shoot lightning from his eyes. The drawback is that he has to eat a banana to do it...and he ''hates'' bananas.
* Several characters from ''WesternAnimation/CatDog'' refer to this trope as "Porkfat", named after the weaksauce weakness of the in-universe movie character, Mean Bob.
* ''WesternAnimation/BureauOfAlienDetectors'': When making an unstoppable zombie army, it's a good idea to ensure that the one thing that will kill them doesn't exist naturally in the atmosphere. [[spoiler:Oxygen.]]
* ''WesternAnimation/JimmyTwoShoes'': According to WordOfGod, Lucius actually has some pretty terrifying powers, including RealityWarper abilities. The sole reason he doesn't use them is because his {{pride}} would be wounded if he admitted he needed them. Without them, he becomes a rather HarmlessVillain.
* According to ''WesternAnimation/GodTheDevilAndBob'', Satan can't stand Tony Orlando songs. This comes in handy the one time he actually tries to knock off the comedy routine and physically attack Bob.
* ''WesternAnimation/Ben10UltimateAlien'' features in [[MonsterOfTheWeek one episode]] an otherwise-invulnerable plant monster that ''dissolves'' on contact with... peanuts. No explanation is given beyond "it's allergic".
* The Imperium, White Martian expys in ''WesternAnimation/JusticeLeague'' have an even greater weakness than the usual fire. Direct sunlight causes them to burn and evaporate near instantly. One would think they'd be moving along planet systems ''away'' from suns, but no.
* Vampires in ''WesternAnimation/LucyTheDaughterOfTheDevil''. Not only is their weakness to sunlight so great that they can be turned to dust by UV fluorescent lights, but they're deathly afraid of ''balloons''.
** And when Senator Whitehead turns into a [[AttackOfThe50FootWhatever giant monster]], his weakness is beatboxing.
* The second act of the ''WesternAnimation/MrBogus'' episode "[[Recap/MrBogusS2E6TotallyBogusVideo Totally Bogus Video]]" showed that the Dirt Dudes are vulnerable to fruit punch, as it causes them to melt when it comes in contact with them, a la [[Film/TheWizardOfOz the Wicked Witch of the West]].
* The controversial ''LooneyTunes'' short "Wagon Heels" features [[BraidsBeadsAndBuckskins Injun Joe]], [[BadassNative The Superchief]] as its villain. Injun Joe is a powerhouse: he shatters mountains and laughs at gunfire. But Porky Pig's sidekick Sloppy Moe knows Injun Joe's secret weakness. He's ticklish!
* If [[Animation/SheZow "[=SheZow=]"]] get her hair mess up, she loses her power -- she has a hair-spy in the Beaulitity Belt to fix this one.
* In ''WesternAnimation/BatmanBeyond'', the assassin Inque is vulnerable to: water, electricity, severe cold, and dehydration. Despite this, she's likely the strongest villain in the series (in terms of physical power), who has likely come closer to killing Terry than anyone else (even his ArchEnemy Blight), and while he has defeated her, he has ''always'' needed help from someone else to do so.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Real Life]]
* Life as we know it is remarkably fragile; [[http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/dehydration/DS00561 too little]] or [[http://health.howstuffworks.com/diseases-conditions/death-dying/water-intoxication.htm too much]] of any one thing can kill. In fact, except for (parts of) the surface of one small planet, there is no known place in the universe where an unprotected human could survive more than a few minutes.
** There are [[ThousandWaysToDie lots of things]] that can kill. [[HumansAreWarriors Humans have tried most of them]].
* ''Any'' human being, no matter their condition or how healthy they are, are at risk of [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Commotio_cordis Commotio Cordis]] (agitation of the heart). This requires being hit in the chest over the heart at the right point of a heartbeat. Only a few dozen cases are reported per year, but victims are almost ''guaranteed'' to die if it happens (survival rate is 35% ... if the victim is treated in three minutes). Even a gentle blow that doesn't bruise the skin can trigger commotio cordis--[[ParanoiaFuel which means every time you get hit in the chest, you're playing Russian Roulette]].
* Allergies. Nuts, animals, shellfish, ''bananas''...
** Some people suffer from [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aquagenic_urticaria Aquagenic Urticaria]] (water allergy). That's right, there's people who were unfortunate enough to be born allergic to a substance they can't live without. Any moisture build up on their skin aggravates the condition, so they must carry umbrellas with them at all times, avoid heavy clothing/exercise to prevent sweating and prefer to remain indoors in well ventilated surroundings. For all their precautions, though, they still have to [[FailureIsTheOnlyOption wash themselves with water regularly]].
* There's a lot of stuff that can incapacitate a human. Tickling is a lot of peoples' weaknesses and a lot of people have a sound that 'goes through them' like the sound of plastic folders being rubbed or nails on a blackboard.
* British sailors in the 19th century hated eating fish or any food from the ocean for that matter, preferring weevily biscuits and gruesome salt pork or beef to fresh fish. Sailors hate the sea, pilots hate the wind, and retailers hate customers--WeaksauceWeakness in its truest form.
* The [[BrownNote right pattern of flashing lights]] can cause nausea in any human, people with epilepsy simply have a more severe reaction. This has since been [[http://www.technologyreview.com/computing/19142/?a=f weaponized]] And now you can [[http://www.ladyada.net/make/bedazzler/ build your own]].
* Tropers: Little do some know it, but the wiki they created is ''eating'' their spare time. [[TVTropesWillRuinYourLife And if you do know, knowing doesn't help a bit]].
* Gastropods, especially slugs and snails, are composed mostly of water. So what defeats them? The anti-water: Salt. Water-based gastropods like sea-slugs have gills while land-based slugs and snails have lungs. Land-based snails have very thin skin and the salt attracts the water in their bodies so strongly that it erupts through the snail's skin. Imagine if human blood was highly magnetic and someone waved a powerful electromagnet in front of you. The sea-slugs survive the salt water because they have the weight and pressure of an ocean on them.
* Giraffes can easily suffer fatal neck and head injuries just from ''falling over''. Don't believe it? Just imagine the whiplash with a neck that long... This is true of most large animals--the bigger you are, the worse falling over is for you. That's why, for example, elephants keep at least 3 legs on the ground when running (rearing up on their hind legs, as is sometimes seen in circuses, is ''not'' a natural behavior). Gravity is a bitch.
* Most electronic devices can be damaged irreparably by brief contact with water.
** It isn't the water that kills it. All electronics are only good up to a certain voltage or current. Go beyond the specification of a given part for either and it goes boom. Water simply provides a method of short circuiting the gadget, thus bringing the current over what the electronic likes, usually. If you dunked a cellphone (without the battery) in water and let it dry for a day or two, it could still operate. Wouldn't recommend you try it though.
*** In fact, the best way to clean your keyboard if it can take the abuse? '''Run it through the dishwasher.'''
**** When an electric device has become wet it can be dried quicker by first dunking it in another fluid (that may or may not be able to shortcircuit the electronics by conducting electricity itself) with a lower boiling point. This fluid will replace most of the water in the device and afterwards evaporate quicker, leaving the device dry and ready to use sooner.
*** Static electricity can do this as well if you touch electronic components directly while carrying a charge in your body. Your desktop can be ''murdered by your carpet.''
* The transport infrastructures of many countries (such as the UK) are vulnerable to ice and snow. That includes roads, rails, and airports.
* Aircraft that employ stealth technologies can very easily lose their stealthiness to the most mundane of things.
** The F-22 "Raptor" is one of the most advanced stealth fighters in the world. Yet the radar-absorbent coating can be easily damaged by water, significantly increasing its visibility to radar.
** The F-117 Nighthawk, the world's first stealth fighter, had a radar-absorbent coating that would be ruined by just leaving ''fingerprints.''
* Irrational fears can be constituted as weaknesses. If you're lucky enough to catch one of those {{Maury}} episodes, you can see fears of mustard, butterflies, lettuce, and so on.
* Some people with PTSD have UsefulNotes/{{trigger}}s of the NightmareRetardant variety that, out of context, seem laughable to those who aren't triggered by them, but remind them in some way of their traumatic experience and can trigger anything from an uncomfortable sensation to a full-blown flashback of the event. To make things worse, people with this kind of trigger will sometimes experience belittlement if they dare to disclose it.
** Worse is the way KryptoniteIsEverywhere; people could understand if a loud bang causes someone who'd been in a war zone to flash back to a bomb strike, but what if a certain enemy vehicle sounded a lot like a certain civilian one, or someone was holding a cup of UsefulNotes/McDonalds coffee just before the worst attack they'd lived through? Suddenly a car in need of a tune-up or a cup of coffee on a table is Kryptonite to a ColonelBadass who eats nails for breakfast. One could also easily imagine a person who has suffered abuse needing to, say, not watch ''Series/LawAndOrderSpecialVictimsUnit'' if they'd been molested. But some could watch it all day, and then the mailman comes by wearing the same brand and color of shoes their abuser preferred.
* Going a night or two without sleep can severely weaken you, both physically and mentally.
* Diabetics have sugar. Too much AND too little.
* Albinos have sunlight.
* How about fear of ''relationships'' when society as a whole tells you that you're worth nothing if you're single?
* The RIAA came up with a brilliant new method for encrypting data on [=CDs=], which works fine on PC computers, but rapes Macintosh's with a hand blender. [[http://news.slashdot.org/story/02/05/14/0040215/post-it-notes-vs-copy-inhibited-cds It can be negated by drawing a circle on the CD with permanent marker.]]
* Doctors have a working understanding of the entire human body, and require the cognitive capacity to make fairly accurate life-or-death decisions with a scant amount of information. But ask them to print legibly...
* [[http://phobialist.com/ Phobias]] in general can be like this for those who suffer from them; they cause crippling, irrational panic at the slightest indication of the feared objects. Worse, being irrational after all, the object doesn't even have to be objectively frightening. Most of us can probably understand why people would be afraid of spiders, or snakes, or heights, but imagine having a phobia of flowers, buttons, or peanut butter? (Imagine it too hard and you'll get [[ParanoiaFuel phobophobia]]...)
[[/folder]]

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