-->''"You must punch him in the center of his right buttcheek."''
-->-- '''Doctor McNinja''' [[http://drmcninja.com/page.php?pageNum=4&issue=5 ]], ''TheAdventuresOfDoctorMcNinja''

Any seemingly NighInvulnerable character (particularly TheDragon) will inevitably have some key weakness that can and will be [[FlawExploitation exploited.]]

In any show where the main character is superpowered in some way, an AchillesHeel is essentially mandated, otherwise they would never be able to get into any kind of personal peril to drive a story. For example, the ''[[GeminiMan Gemini Man's]]'' 15-minute limit on invisibility (any more and he dies), or ''TheGreatestAmericanHero'''s utter ignorance of the full capabilities of his supersuit.

Aliens and monsters that are ImmuneToBullets will usually have a fairly [[MundaneSolution mundane]] AchillesHeel that only surfaces/gets discovered completely by accident when things look the bleakest. The archetypal example is the Martians from [[HGWells H. G. Wells]]' ''War of the Worlds'' who shrugged off everything the armies of the world could muster, and then [[WeaksauceWeakness died from the common cold.]]

Other versions and variations of the Achilles Heel include:
* FatalFlaw: A psychological weakness, not a physical vulnerability.
* ForMassiveDamage: For video games, this is [[AttackItsWeakPoint the spot the player has to hit]].
* DavidVersusGoliath.
* DramaPreservingHandicap: A method to give some sort of weakness to a character who normally doesn't have one.
* KryptoniteFactor
* {{Oubliette}}: A prison designed to contain a specific character, often accounting for their weakness.
* WhyDidItHaveToBeSnakes
----
!!Examples

[[foldercontrol]]

[[folder: Anime ]]

* In the (1st) anime version of ''FullMetalAlchemist'', the homunculi are pretty much immortal, but can be killed if one gets anywhere near the remains of the human body they were created from. Also, Alphonse is bound to his armor by his blood seal, and should that be destroyed, he's a goner.
*In the manga Of ''FullMetalAlchemist'' and the anime ''FullMetalAlchemist:Brotherhood'' the homunculi are pretty much immortal, but can be killed if you keep attacking and don't give them time to regenerate and/or their core is destroyed. If it isn't chances are they WILL be back(Take Greed as an example). Alphonse's situation stays the same.
* The Zentraedi and Protodeviln of {{Macross}} and Macross 7 are both weakened by music - the Zentraedi because they haven't been exposed to "culture" for so long, and the Protodeviln because Basara possesses the Anima Spiritua.
* Virtually any character in ''GetBackers'' have fantastical abilities but with very heavy handicaps, more often than not forcing the characters to pull near-fatal trump card moves. The best example is one character of the main duo, Mido Ban, who can [[LotusEaterMachine subject people to dreams]] with his Jagan (Evil Eye) for exactly one minute in reality, but indefinitely in the dream itself, making it an ultimate twink move. The catch? He can only use it once on a person and three times total a day. Needless to say, a lot of antagonists find ways to avoid this or force him to use his Jagan needlessly until he's helpless.
* ''DeathNote'''s Shinigami, being {{grim reaper}}s, are practically immortal...with two notable exceptions. First, a Shinigami's lifespan is extended by writing names in a Death Note: if a Shinigami forgets to write names, they will actually run out of time and die. Second is the fact that a Shinigami who intentionally uses their Death Note to protect a human - extending someone's lifespan rather than cutting it short - will die instantly. There are also a number of rules they have to follow while in the human world if they don't want to get on the bad side of the Shinigami King. Also, Ryuk is addicted to apples, and goes through some awkward withdrawal syndromes if he goes for too long without eating any.
* In ''ScienceNinjaTeamGatchaman'', the team's main vehicle, The God Phoenix, has a rather poorly thought out weakness in that all the team's sub-vehicles have to be docked for the God Phoenix's weapons systems to work. While that kind of weakness would make sense to create the plane's Fiery Phoenix effect since it's an exotic weapon system, to have it affect the regular weapons seems too much. Even worse, Galactor learns about this weakness and the visual clues for it and wastes no time to take advantage of it.
* Although pretty much almost completely ImmuneToBullets, the cyborg assassins of ''GunslingerGirl'' are pretty much vulnerable as any little girl when they are not focused. Furthermore, shooting them in the [[spoiler: eyes]] should be enough to kill them.
* Many times on ''SaintSeiya'', more than one character suffers from this. Shiryu's main means of attacking leaves his heart wide open to attacks for a fraction of a second, something a few people notice over the course of the story. Krishna likewise was only defeated when Shiryu struck his hidden "Star Points", and the Pope of Sanctuary's astral projection attacks left his body wide open to attack.
* Probably one of the most gag-inducing Achilles Heels in modern media, the BigBad of ''{{Digimon Adventure 02}}'''s only weakness was the Power of Dreams.
* In one of the earliest episodes of ''{{Inuyasha}}'', a human artist gains the power to make his [[ArtInitiatesLife art come to life]], and starts creating some of the most horrible creatures imaginable as an army to obliterate his enemies. However, once Inuyasha destroys the artist's inkwell--which actually turns out to be a ''magic'' inkwell--he's down and out.
* Subverted in Legend of Lemnear. The Big Bad transforms himself into a 50 foot demon cyclops, and the male hero: The warrior of Bronze declares [[spoiler: "You may be tough, but I know your weak spot! Your demon eye!" Then through a crazy set of acrobatics, lands on the demons face to plunge a sword into its eye. Only to have his sword shatter on contact. btw: Don't watch the movie, it's terrible]]
* Goku of DragonBall survives a bullet and an axe to the head (relatively) unharmed, but if you grab his tail, he'll pretty much pass out. Eventually he trains himself to not be so affected by it.
** Goku and Piccolo themselves exploit this weakness in the battle with Raditz. After that attempt failed, Goku didn't bother going for the weakness again, because he remembered that Saiyans could also manually detach the tail from the body. Attempted against Nappa and Vegeta, although Piccolo finds out rather brutally that the Elites aren't stupid enough to not train that weakness.
* Makoto Shishio from RurouniKenshin is a ''very'' powerful swordsman, but can't fight for more than 15 minutes straight. If he does, [[KarmicDeath he will overheat to death]].
* Nagi Springfield of ''MahouSenseiNegima'' is described as invincible with no weaknesses. Except for the fact that he's an [[IdiotHero idiot]] who needs a cheatsheet to remember spells. He also has trouble pronouncing latin.
** Alternatively, his commerade Eishun is a more serious character who for his strong focus on his training means a lack of human contact, and therefore a difficulty with women. This seems a common trait in Shinmeiryuu swordsman if Setsuna is any indication. [[StalkerWithACrush Tsukuyomi]] takes this weakness [[PsychoLesbian too far in the other direction]].
*All Devil Fruit users in ''OnePiece'' have the common fatal weakness of becoming completely immobile and useless in deep water. Other fruits have more specific weaknesses; for example, Luffy's Gum Gum fruit makes him immune to blunt force, and can only be damaged by being slashed or pierced. On the other side of the coin, Buggy the Clown's fruit makes him immune to being cut, so his weakness is blunt force.
** In perticular, the Logia Fruits, easily the [[GameBreaker most powerful]] of all the Devil Fruits, all seem to have a single weakness that negates their great power or their [[MadeOfAir perfect defense]]. For example; Sir Crocodile, eater of the Sand Sand fruit, becomes solid when wet. And [[AGodAmI God Enel]], eater of the Rumble Rumble fruit, which gives him lighting powers strong enough to destroy the entirety of Skypeia, is made completely helpless when pitted against Luffy, who is made of rubber and doesn't conduct electricity.
* The Yato of Gintama have immense physical strength, but are sensitive to the sun and carry around umbrellas (which double as guns, shields (bullet-proof?), and are very durable, used something like swords) to protect themselves during the day. On one occasion a character died from being exposed to the sun only briefly, after years of being underground.

[[/folder]]

[[folder: Comic Books ]]

* Perhaps the most well-known AchillesHeel is Comicbook/{{Superman}}'s weakness to [[KryptoniteFactor kryptonite]]. He's also perfectly susceptible to magical attacks.
** It's also generally accepted that Superman would lose all of his powers while exposed to red solar radiation, since the yellow sun is the source of his power.
* The unstoppable Juggernaut from ''Comicbook/{{X-Men}}'' is susceptible to a mental attack once his helmet has been removed.
* MartianManhunter (and indeed his species) was, then wasn't, deathly afraid of fire, which did, then didn't, and now does again melt him into a puddle.
* The UltimateMarvel version of IronMan can't touch anything with his bare skin, even dust, without causing himself excruciating pain--hence the suit.
** So how does he touch the inside of the suit?
*** Beg pardon. Hence all the ''drinking''.
* Traditionally, {{Green Lantern}}s have had trouble with the color yellow--except the first of them, whose power came from a different source, and was instead vulnerable to wood. Parodied by the parallel-universe "Green Guardsman" in an episode of the JusticeLeague TV series.
* The alien symbiotes, from the MarvelUniverse, that created such creatures as black-suit {{Spider-Man}}, Venom, Carnage, and Toxin, are vulnerable to "sonics"--essentially, ''extremely'' loud or high-frequency noises. Extreme heat is also a notably unpleasant weakness of theirs.
* {{Inverted}} with the supervillain Doomsday. If you kill him, he comes back, ''immune to what killed him last time'' (so, if you tossed him into space, he'd come back probably able to survive sudden changes in pressure; if you did it again, he wouldn't need to breathe the next time; and if you did it a third time, he might--[[ConvectionSchmonvection eventually]]--[[SpaceIsCold freeze]], or burn up, and come back immune to that).
* The brilliant, amoral Thanos from the MarvelUniverse has a particularly strange weakness: ''self-defeatism''. As Adam Warlock points out in a HannibalLecture in ''The Infinity Gauntlet'' [[CrisisCrossover crossover]], he subconsciously knows he doesn't deserve victory, and thus arranges his defeat without realizing it.
** ''Best. Achilles. Heel. EVER.''
* ''Rising Stars'' features a character completely immune to physical damage. However, he still needs to breathe, and is killed by someone sneaking up behind him and throwing a plastic bag over his head.
** More generally, in the third story arc, [[spoiler:it is discovered that the resistance to damage that, by this point, all specials have, does not guard against radiation. Thus, a special who has spent the last 10 years stealing and hiding nuclear weapons gets radiation sickness, and any special can be temporarily weakened by an electromagnetic pulse.]]
* The Gladiator, one of Marvel's many {{Superman}} expys, is exactly as powerful as he thinks he is, so he can be defeated by denting his confidence.
* Norman Osborne, the current BigBad of the MarvelUniverse, has one rather serious AchillesHeel: he's a nutcase. As Osborne he's a twisted and brilliant MagnificentBastard -- and a sociopath. As the Goblin he's so batshit crazy he makes his Osborn side look well adjusted. As a result, it doesn't take much effort to get a VillainousBreakdown out of him. At one point [[spoiler: due to some "nudging" by imprisoned psychics]], just being ''reminded'' of SpiderMan lead to Osborne pacing around in his office naked and ranting. And this is ''still'' saner than his Goblin persona.

[[/folder]]

[[folder: Film ]]

* The mother of all Achilles Heels is the exhaust port on the Death Star in ''StarWars'', through which an invincible planet-destroying space station can [[EarthShatteringKaboom explode into an enormous fireball]] because of a couple torpedoes from a small one-man fighter spacecraft.
** Admittedly, [[ForMassiveDamage knocking out its reactor core]]. Or, given that there was an explosion, instead of the station just going dead, knocking out the reaction ''controls'', started a chain reaction (heh) which destroyed the station.
* Possibly the silliest Achilles Heel in film history was in ''Signs'', where the powerful aliens who had been wreaking havoc turned out to have a fatal weakness to... water. Possibly, they shouldn't have invaded a planet two-thirds covered in water without protective suits. Just maybe.
** Which is why [[WildMassGuessing some people think]] they were actually doing some kind of ritual hunt or adulthood rite.
** An especially silly weakness given that H[-2-]O is the second most common molecule in the universe, after H[-2-].
** Aliens being [[KillItWithWater vulnerable to water qualifies as its own trope]], given the sheer number of times it has been used in sci-fi, especially old short stories. Extra points if someone says, "How ironic, the unstoppable aliens were vulnerable to so common a substance!"
* ''Independence Day''. Not only is the alien mothership compatible with Mac OS, but despite millions of years of technological advancement, they don't have even the most rudimentary form of a firewall.
* ''WarOfTheWorlds'' and ''Horrible Tom Cruise Movie with the Same Name'', the aliens are entirely vulnerable to Earth bacteria and viruses. Which actually kinda makes sense. In the way it makes sense for you to be affected by the Tobacco mosaic virus. The idea that aliens would be bothered by our diseases is even less likely than that. (In ''LeagueOfExtraordinaryGentlemen'' Volume 2, the virus was specially tailored by Dr Moreau. Yes ''that'' Dr Moreau.)
** To be fair, they are trying to stay faithful to source canon, which was written in an age where less was understood about bacteriology.
* A blink-and-you'll-miss-it "Achilles Heel" of sorts appears in the Jim Carrey movie ''Liar Liar'', where, faced with the prospect of "doing The Claw to [his ex-wife]", main character Fletcher Reed says, "You've found The Claw's only weakness--[[IceQueen sub-zero]] temperatures!"
* The ''Wicked Witch of the West's'' vulnerability to water.
* Parodied in ''ScaryMovie 3''. The aliens are fighting the group (though just because strangling is how they say hello), when Mahalik decapitates one with a shovel and says:
-->'''Mahalik''': I found their weakness. They're powerless without their heads!
* Also parodied in HaroldAndKumarGoToWhiteCastle, during a psychedelic dream sequence.
-->'''Officer Palumbo''': Bullets! My only weakness! How did you know?
* {{Lampshaded}} and overdone ad nauseum in ''{{Mindhunters}}''. The plot of the movie rests on a FBI profiler killer killing other FBI profilers by presenting them in situations where they will have to fall for traps he's devised, because said trap is their weakness. [[spoiler: In the end, he dies by getting shot in the head, causing LL Cool J's character to quip "I guess we found out his weakness. Bullets."]]. However, the killer's true AchillesHeel is [[spoiler: time. Everything has to happen on his schedule.]]
* In ''{{Attack of the Killer Tomatoes}}'', the titular tomatoes are defeated by playing the fictional artist Ronny Desmond's new hit song "Puberty Love," which causes them to shrink and become vulnerable to crushing.
* Similarly, in Tim Burton's ''MarsAttacks!'', the Martian attackers are defeated by playing Slim Whitman's "Indian Love Call," which causes their heads to explode.
* Talos the Titan in ''Jason and the Argonauts'' has a near-literal version of this trope.
** That's the way it was in the original.

[[/folder]]

[[folder: Literature ]]

* The [[TropeNamer name]] for this trope, and what makes this OlderThanDirt, is the Greek hero [[{{Homer}} Achilles]], whose mother, the nymph Thetis, dunked him in the River Styx to make him immortal. However, she wasn't able to dunk the foot she held him with, since as a goddess, she could not bear the touch of the Waters of Styx. Quite naturally, he was killed by a poisoned arrow to the heel, courtesy of the "cowardly" [[StraightArrow Prince Paris]]. Incidentally, Achilles is wounded in ''[[{{Homer}} The Iliad]]'' at least once; he just can't ''die'' from wounds anywhere else.
** Making him literally, a OneManArmy who threatens to kill all the Trojans by himself [[GameBreaker before the Gods restrain him]].
** In some versions, he was her LAST son by a mortal man, and she held him over a fire to burn off his mortality ( a process that had killed his brothers, but he was apparently stronger). She was holding him by his heel. Then his father showed up, pulled him away, and drove Thetis out, preventing her from finishing the process.
**Actually, Homer never mentions Achilles's invulverability, and as noted, Achilles takes a minor wound in the ''Iliad''. The earliest known source to talk about the invulnerable-except-the-heel thing is Statius, writing in the 1st century (900 years after Homer)--a case of AdaptationDecay, perhaps?
* Also from Greek myth, the Gigantes were the children of Gaia and only had their supernatural powers when they were touching the ground. Heracles defeated at least one of them by picking him up with one hand and beating him with the other.
** Antaeus is not labeled among the Gigantes. The true Gigantes did have a weakness though. They could only be killed by weapons of a mortal being. Hence, the gods invited Herakles (or perhaps that was the entire point about their affairs with mortal women). Some Gigantes were defeated by gods, but not killed - one is still alive, breathing fire under Etna.
*Mythology loves this one. In the Persian epic ''Shahnameh,'' the Persian prince Esfandyar bathed in a pool of invincibility, but kept his eyes closed as he submerged himself. When he picks a fight with the hero Rostam, he gets killed by an [[EyeScream arrow through his eyeballs]].
* In the Biblical Book of Judges, Samson loses his SuperStrength when Delilah [[RapeOfTheLock cuts off his long hair]]. Notice that this is hinted to ''not'' be a 100% Achilles Heel. HotBlooded as he was, Samson had broken all of the other rules God gave him to keep his SuperStrength and telling Delilah about his hair (and how he was consecrated to God) was figuratively the last straw.
* Leto Atreides II, the titular ''God Emperor of {{Dune}}'', who combines his body with a sandworm to extend his life by thousands of years and gain immunity to almost every form of physical damage, also inherits the sandworms' vulnerability to water.
* When Balder (of NorseMythology) started dreaming of his own death, his mother went around to every single thing in existence and made them swear an oath to never harm Balder. Presto, invulnerable god, right? Not quite: she forgot to ask mistletoe, since it seemed too small and shriveled to be a threat. When the rest of the pantheon decided to make "Let's throw things at Balder" into their favorite party game, Loki (who was [[GreenEyedMonster jealous]] of the attention accorded Balder) tricked the blind Hoder into shooting a Mistletoe arrow at Balder...
*In the ''Chronicles of Chrestomanci'' by DianaWynneJones, the Chrestomanci are powerfully magic characters who are nearly invincible due to their powers, [[spoiler:and their nine lives.]] However, every Chrestomanci has one particular weakness.
* In the German myth of ''Das Nibelungenlied'', the hero Siegfried bathes in the blood of the dragon, Fafnir, after he's slain it, and becomes invincible as a result. However, a leaf had stuck to his shoulder, and thus left a small spot there untouched by the blood... and yes, the similarities between him and Achilles have been noted before.
* In David Eddings' ''The Belgariad'', it appears the Achilles Heel of the [[BigBad ancient and evil god Torak]] is to tell him nobody loves him. As everything he'd done through his existence was to force people to love him, this throws him into an UnstoppableRage... which causes him to drop his guard. Cue impalement.
* Although it can vary, werewolves are typically weak to silver, touching it causes severe burning.
* In ''TheLordOfTheRings'', Sauron is incredibly tough, but if the [[ArtifactOfDoom One Ring]] he created is thrown into Mount Doom, he will lose ''all'' of his power, so that all he becomes is a little formless evil spirit incapable of affecting anything around him forever. [[FateWorseThanDeath Arguably, that's worse...]]
* While we're on the subject of Tolkien, there's Smaug, from ''TheHobbit''. With his armoured scales he is [[NighInvulnerability well nigh invulnerable]] - except for one missing scale in his belly, unknown even by Smaug himself until Bilbo discovers it.
** An unarmored spot or weakly-armored belly is a common feature of many dragons in Western legend. (See "Fafnir" example, above.)
* Generally a SoulJar is '''the''' weakness for anyone who uses it.
* It's stated in the ''HarryPotter'' series that Voldemort's weakness is his inability to love.
** And his [[SoulJar horcruxes]].
* One of the 'Demon Headmaster' books featured a super logical computer which was defeated by all the children in the world yelling pointless anti-logic.
* In Dan Simmons' ''Illium'' and ''Olympos'' the Trojan war is being deliberately recreated. Part of this involves Achilles being given a sort of quantum invulnerability that ensures he will only every be hurt by an arrow intentionally fired at his heel by Paris, which probably takes the cake for most specific and most inevitable Achilles Heel.
* Fairy folk in the ''ArtemisFowl'' series are all susceptible to animal fat. Being exposed to animal fat will suck out all of their magic.

[[/folder]]

[[folder: Live Action TV ]]

* In ''{{Angel}}'', where Angelus figures out the Beast's weakness rather cleverly:
--> "I mean, look at this guy, hm? Pretty much the only thing that could do damage to that thick, stony hide...is himself. Or, maybe, I don't know, a piece of himself."
* ''DoctorWho'' does this ''a lot''.
** Cybermen were given an AchillesHeel in the story "Revenge of the Cybermen": gold dust would asphyxiate them. This was not a tremendously damning weakness, since gold is neither common nor easy to form into an effective weapon. In "Revenge of the Cybermen", the cybermen were almost indestructible even on a ''planet made entirely of gold'', because the locals didn't have the technology to make an effective delivery system for the gold. As the series progressed, gold was promoted to kryptonite status: in "Earthshock", the Doctor injures, but does not incapacitate, a cyberman by grinding a gold badge into its chest, but by "Silver Nemesis", cybermen can be killed by lobbing gold coins at them, or shooting gold-tipped arrows. Gold tipped arrows are very effective against cybermen, but, of course, totally ineffective against anything else. It is sometimes joked that had the original series gone on, it would eventually have been possible to destroy a cyber-war-fleet just by ''saying'' "gold" at them. While not mentioned in the new series, [[AllThereInTheManual a fake website connected to it]] hints that the Cybermen seen in "Rise of the Cybermen" and later episodes had the gold weakness worked out in the prototype stage. It was showed on a computer screen in that episode that the weakness had been worked out.
** The Sontaran's 'probic vent'. "Back of the Neck!" Of course [[spoiler:bullets work perfectly well too...]]
** The Slitheen, being composed largely of calcium, can be killed with acetic acid. Similar to the ''Signs'' aliens, this makes them look not all that bright for repeatedly invading England, the land of putting vinegar on everything.
** The Daleks were originally vulnerable to [[DidNotDoTheResearch turning off the static electricity]].
** The Macra were helpless without their special gas (which made one wonder how they managed to force humans to start making it in the first place).
** The Ice Warriors are vulnerable to (what else?) heat.
** The deadly sea weed of ''The Fury from the Deep'' were vulnerable to Victoria screaming (luckily, she was good at it).
** In addition to the gold allergy mentioned above, the Cybermen have been vulnerable to emotions in several appearances, and solvents in others.
** Autons are also vulnerable to solvents and, later, anti-plastic... which sounds a lot like solvents, but now with new, improved, cooler name!
** The "Seeds of Death" are vulnerable to water, WATER! (Not to be confused with the "Seeds of Doom", which are vulnerable primarily to large explosions, which doesn't qualify for this trope.)
** The evil computer in the Green Death was vulnerable to [[LogicBomb logical dilemmas]].
** Mandragora energy is vulnerable to being conducted away.
** The Fendahleen are vulnerable to salt.
** The giant octopus Kroll was vulnerable to... a small stick. Okay, a ''special'' stick.
** The Mara is (are?) vulnerable to mirrors and happy thoughts.
** The Sea Devils and Silurians are helpfully vulnerable to a deadly gas which is blatantly introduced at the start of "Warriors of the Deep", then conveniently forgotten about until the climax.
** The Destroyer in "Battlefield" is vulnerable to silver.
** Fenric is vulnerable to puzzles.
** The Master leaves himself vulnerable to happy thoughts in "Last of the Time Lords". In addition, his biggest weakness throughout the series is... the Doctor, the one person he's never fully understood. (One episode of the classic series shows that his worst fear is a room full of the Doctor, laughing at him.)
* In ''SixMillionDollarMan'' and ''TheBionicWoman'', extreme cold could make the bionic heroes' parts stop working until they warmed back up.
* In ''Series/{{Heroes}}'', Claire Bennet has a Wolverine-class healing factor that can repair her body to brand new after taking the [[GoodThingYouCanHeal unrealistically extreme amount of punishment]] that always comes her way. However, if an object is stabbed into a certain spot in the back of her head, she's rendered [[NotQuiteDead "dead"]] until it's removed, and the same goes for anyone who [[PowersAsPrograms copies her powers.]] It's implied ([[spoiler:and confirmed in an alternate future episode]]) that if this part of her brain was removed or destroyed, she would die permanently.
* Sheriff Lucas Buck's vulnerability in ''AmericanGothic'' is his third eye--if stabbed there, he could be killed. What makes this a particularly [[TVTropesWikiDrinkingGame egregious]] example is that not only is there no indication of this vulnerability until the next to the last episode of the show, but what could have been a very cool mythologically resonant plot point is instead wasted twice over: the person who reveals and exploits this weakness is [[WallBanger a throwaway character we'd never met until the previous episode]] and [[WeaksauceWeakness the stabbing doesn't even take, since Buck is revealed alive in his grave at the end of the episode]].
* In ''StarTrekDS9'', Founders are almost absolutely immune to physical damage, vulnerable to BIG amounts of radiation or phaser weapons... [[spoiler:and can be killed by specific virus.]]
** They also have to go into liquid form for 8 hours a day, much like humans need to sleep. In one episode, Odo was prevented from doing so, and started physically falling apart as a result.
* Although not one related to the villain itself, the Goa'uld of {{Stargate SG-1}} have force shields that can be bypassed by slower-moving objects. (Bullets won't work, but a thrown knife will). Later, the Replicators can only be destroyed with projectile weapons. Yes, their only weakness is ''getting shot''. [[ItMakesSenseInContext It makes sense in the show.]]
* The Borg are near unstoppable forces of nature that assimilate and adapt to everything they come across, but ''StarTrekVoyager'' reasoned that if they can't assimilate it then they can't adapt to it, which is why they were so vulnerable to Species 8472. The Voyager crew, on the other hand, used scientific investigation and creativity, which allowed them to design a weapon to use against 8472.

[[/folder]]

[[folder: Tabletop Games ]]

* Many {{Dungeons and Dragons}} monsters have specific weaknesses that either do more damage than normal, or are necessary to even be able to kill them. The most famous is arguably the troll, which in most editions can't be killed with just standard weapons, but that also needs to be burned with acid or fire for it to permanently die. Unconventional tactics can also exploit certain weaknesses, or at least find other ways to kill them.
** Also included are demons/devils vulnerability to certain metals such as cold iron and silver
* Virtually any named enemy in ''{{Deadlands}}'' will be NighInvulnerable, except for one weakness somehow obscurely related to [[spoiler: its past]]. The list goes on: Stone, Raven, the Bishop, [[BigScrewedUpFamily prominent Whateleys]], [[spoiler: Grimme, [[BigBad Death, War, Pestilence, Famine]] ]]... In fact, it's so common that one of the most coveted abilities of arcane characters is the rare ability to intuit these weaknesses. (That's part of why the BadAssNormal [[{{Nakama}} posse]] keeps the bookworms around.)
* The Vulnerablity disadvantage in ''{{GURPS}}'' gives characters an attack that does multiplied damage to them. Skeletons are especially vulnerable to crushing attacks, fairies to iron, werewolves to silver, ice elementals to heat and so on.

[[/folder]]

[[folder: Video Games ]]

* Just about any [[AttackItsWeakpoint glowing spot]], on any [[BossBattle boss]], in any video game. Sometimes just does [[ForMassiveDamage extra damage]] if hit, but is often (in {{Platformer}}s especially) the only place where the boss is not [[NighInvulnerability Nigh Invulnerable]].
** This is particularly anvilicious in ''{{Shadow of the Colossus}}'', in this troper's opinion.
* In many [[FirstPersonShooter First Person Shooter]] games, enemies may have strong body armor, but can be killed faster by shooting them in the head (i.e. headshots).
** For example: HouseOfTheDead, where not only do headshots take down enemies faster, but each boss has a specific weakpoint, and cannot be damaged (or only take minimal damage) if shot anywhere else. The best one is the one with a huge gaping hole in it's chest that opens to reveal it's heart every time it beats (How...not easy...).
* The superhero MMO ''CityOfHeroes'' balances all classes and powersets by giving them strengths and weakness, but only the Peacebringers and Warshades have a specific crippling weakness, Quantum Energy damage, which only [=NPCs=] with Quantum Weapons can deal. The problem was that the developers overdid it and made the weapons available to every enemy group in the game, essentially distributing kryptonite bullets, and it many cases it was powerful enough to kill the player in a single hit. As this was a major gripe about the two classes, eventually the developers responded by reducing the effects of the weapons to make it simply a danger rather than an overwhelmingly crippling threat.
** Furthermore, many defensive sets have AchillesHeels in the form of damage types they offer only minimum protection against. Ice Armor melts under fire damage, Fiery Aura is susceptible to cold, Dark Armor has only minor protection against energy and so on. Only two or three armors in the game offer appreciable protection against psychic attacks.
** Ironically the Quantum Energy problem almost exactly mirrors a problem encountered by Superman.
* ''[[TheLegendOfZelda Legend of Zelda]]''. In this case, it's nearly always the eye or another insufferably obvious 'weak point'.
** Usually an eye in an odd part of their body.
** Ganon/Ganondorf usually has a spot on his chest or his weakness is his tail. And of course, the Master Sword also counts.
* Arcueid Brunestud, and presumably all the True Ancestors from ''Tsukihime''. Normally Arc in particular is all powerful, but thanks to the protagonist Shiki cutting her to pieces early on in the game she's usually pretty weak. We finally see her true abilities at the end of the Ciel route, when [[spoiler:she goes batshit crazy after finding out that Shiki has chosen Ciel over her. Shiki only wins when he remembers that True Ancestors get their power from the earth itself, so he kills the earth beneath her to cut her away from her power source.]]
* In the later editions of the ''ResidentEvil'' series, bosses began to show certain specific weak points. For example, all of the Uroboros creatures in ''[=RE5=]'' have glowing weak points which can be shot to expose bulbous body parts that can then be targeted to kill the creature itself.
* Gilgamesh in FateStayNight has the two most broken Noble Phantasms in the game. One of them is beamspamming Noble Phantasms and the other is some spinny drill sword thing that absolutely dominates Excalibur. Oh and he can use them both all he likes. Weakness? He's an Archer, not a swordsman, so all he can do with those swords is beamspamming them instead of using them properly. Much more importantly, he has an ego so larger that it's even bigger than his ''ego.'' Wait. But anyway, he never takes any fight that he's in seriously until he's in mortal peril. Or pieces.

[[/folder]]

[[folder: Webcomics ]]

* In ''SluggyFreelance'', Aylee's crab-like transformation ([[spoiler:actually a clone of Aylee]]) is nearly invincible. Her shell can take just about anything the characters can throw at her, but she ''can'' be hurt along her extendable neck.
** Horribus is also only vulnerable on certain parts of his body. Even when Torg uses a magic, kill-anything sword, he can still only take Horribus down by either decapitating him or stabbing him right through his soul (located roughly in the center of his chest).
* Frans Rayner in ''TheAdventuresOfDrMcNinja'' is vulnerable on only one place on his body (his right butt cheek). However, the protagonist (who witnessed his defeat as a boy) strikes the same place 25 years later and fails... Rayner had moved it to his left eyebrow.
* From ''EightBitTheatre'', "A spear? Through my ''brain''? My...only...weakness..!
** Parodied similarly much earlier on when Black Mage is left to deal with a zombie orc. After an explosion propels him back in front of the team:
--->'''Black Mage:''' I found out what zombies are weak against.
--->'''Red Mage:''' Oh?
--->'''Black Mage:''' Point blank annihilation.

[[/folder]]

[[folder: Western Animation ]]

* You'd think, with the [[BlackBox Omnitrix]] making him able to transform into an alien of his choice at will, that Ben Tennyson of ''{{Ben 10}}'' would be pretty much invincible. He isn't though, for several reasons, including but by no means limited to: the seemingly random time limit (possibly based on some measure of energy expenditure, as the Omnitrix generally needs to 'recharge' for an equally random amount of time afterward), the Omnitrix's glitches turning him into an alien other than the one he chose, his own lack of knowledge of the forms hidden in the Omnitrix and the full extent of each one's powers, and, perhaps most dangerously, having the mindset of a [[KidHero ten-year-old boy]].
* When Alex O'Hirn becomes the [[SuperStrength superstrong]] Rhino in ''TheSpectacularSpiderMan'', he goes on a destructive rampage and appears completely unstoppable. His AchillesHeel turns out to be the same thing that makes him so [[NighInvulnerable tough]]: Because his [[ClothesMakeTheSuperman suit]] is completely impenetrable, he can only perspire through his exposed face. Spider-Man is able to defeat him by trapping him in a steam-tunnel in the [[AbsurdlySpaciousSewer sewers]], which causes the [[TheBrute giant thug]] to overheat and collapse.
*In ''JusticeLeague,'' the forge god Hephaestus says that ''all'' of his creations are given one weakness so no one can become all-powerful. When Wonder Woman asked him what Ares' HumongousMecha is vulnerable to, he doesn't tell her, saying she wouldn't want him going around telling the weakness he'd placed in ''her'' items. She does ''not'' look happy the revelation that she has any.
* In ''AvatarTheLastAirbender'', Firebenders have no powers during the solar eclipse. [[spoiler: However the good guys launch a daring but small assault on the capital of the Fire Nation during the eclipse and they are unable to find the [[EvilOverlord Firelord]], as he is wisely in an underground bunker hidden far away from them, and the majority of good guys are captured, having failed to accomplish anything.]] Likewise, Waterbenders are powerless without a source of water close by, although sweat has been used, water was drawn from the moisture in the air, and with the full moon behind them they can also bend blood (there are moral implications to that though). It would be expected that tears and saliva could be used too. Earthbenders are powerless if separated from earth, sand or stone, unless you can [[spoiler: bend metal, like Toph]]. The only Avatar race that's mostly invulnerable are the Airbenders since air is always around. And yet they were the ones that ended up getting wiped out. Go figure.
** Possibly justified: the Airbenders were almost all peaceful nomads, so the Fire Nation took them out first, possibly because they were the most versatile in their bending.
** Or it could have something to do with the fact that they knew the next Avatar in the cycle would be born an airbender...
*** or maybe both
** It was explained in the first season that airbenders have unlimited source to their element, but since it is ''air'' they don't have much power behind it, unlike waterbnding or earthbending. Aang was once shackled with chains and no amount of airbending could break them.
* The concept was portrayed hilariously in the [[ShowWithinAShow movie Fry and Leela watch]] in the ''{{Futurama}}'' episode "Fear of a Bot Planet". Taking place on a planet where humans are considered monsters, and the citizens are all robots:
-->'''Robot Army Officer''': "How ironic; the Human was immune to our most powerful magnetic fields, yet, was vulnerable to a harmless sharpened stick."
** Also [[LampshadeHanging lampshaded]] in ''Bender's Big Score'', during the battle against the Scammers' fleet of gold-plated Death Stars. One of them is destroyed in classic "[[CrowningMomentOfAwesome fly-in-and-blow-it-up-from-the-inside]]" style, with access being gained via a hatch labelled the '''Achilles Port'''. By ''Al Gore'' of all people.
* The members of the SushiPack lose their powers and strength if they're exposed to heat. They also tend to announce this whenever it happens. "Heat! Our only weakness!"
* In a ''{{Simpsons}}'' Harry Potter themed Treehouse of Horror Montymort's (Mr.Burns) only weakness was his enchanted shin.
* The Omnodroid in TheIncredibles could only be harmed by its own weapons.
* From {{Gargoyles}}, [[EvilSorcerer the Archmage]] during the "Avalon" three-parter has gone from a formidable but [[SmugSnake very overconfident]] mortal sorcerer to a demigod powerful enough to command the allegiance of three of the most powerful [[PhysicalGod Children of Oberon]] in the series. The catch? He can only control his incredible new powers by using the [[ArtifactOfDoom Eye of Odin]], and when [[TheHero Goliath]] manages to get it away from him... well, let's just say he sufferes PowerIncontinence so bad ''it kills him''.

[[/folder]]

[[folder: Real Life ]]

* Being one of the most famous memes ever, Achilles' heel had a body part named for it, namely, the Achilles Tendon.

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