A plot carefully constructed to use all the character-specific skills or abilities of the ensemble.

For example, if your team plays ElementalRockPaperScissors, they're going to have to face a water trap, a fire trap, an air trap, and an earth trap.

As a plot, it's a double-edged sword; don't do it, and someone gets left out. Do it too often, and it looks like the bad guys conspiring with the good guys to tailor their defenses to the heroes' strengths. Also, when one of the heroes has a [[WhatKindOfLamePowerIsHeartAnyway lame power]], there has to be a really bizarre obstacle in there to require his ability.

Most often occurs in series with heavy SuperHeroSpeciation. Can be the result of a ThematicRoguesGallery. A good hypothetical example is if the Justice League had to destroy a nuclear threat. Superman and other flying members would take out the strategic bombers, the un-launched missiles would go to the grounded members, such as Batman, and the sub-launched missiles would go to Aquaman.

As a variation, this may apply to multiple abilities or items which a single character has; each item or ability will always find some contrived use.

Named for a concept in linear algebra. If you speak Math, the people at [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eigenvector the Other Wiki]] will share their thoughts with you on the topic. If you speak less Math, ''IrregularWebcomic'' [[http://www.irregularwebcomic.net/2011.html may help more.]] In English: For each person on the team, there will be one and exactly one problem that calls for that person's specialty.

Compare ThisLooksLikeAJobForAquaman, which is when the plot improbably makes use of a ''single'' character's abilities. Frequently comes up in a TournamentArc, where the heroes will have to pair off against their [[ThePsychoRangers equal and opposite villains]].

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'''Examples:'''

[[foldercontrol]]

[[folder: Anime and Manga ]]

* The manga version of the Mew Aqua arc in ''TokyoMewMew'' had the aliens taking a mew aqua into the realm of each of the girls' influences (for example, Mew Mint, whose power is air, had a chapter with a mew aqua floating above TokyoTower), as they tried to use it to fuel a DeathTrap for both the girls and the rest of the city. It never ended up working. In the anime, though, this was abandoned and Ichigo got every single mew aqua, ignoring the other girls' elemental advantages.
* ''{{Digimon}}'' is often using it in a not too direct example, but still. In the first series (and second, and pretty much any) the Digimon would only evolve when their [=DigiDestined=] proved their specific most remarkable trait like love or honesty.
*The nightmarishly depressing mecha series ''Bokurano'' has a few examples. [[spoiler:When the kid who's good at solving problems is chosen as the pilot (against his will, mind you), he happens to face a particularly strategically inclined opponent and is perhaps the only one able to unravel its tactics while successfully defending against them. Later, the emo kid chooses not to fight his opponent, which would doom the planet, but his opponent intentionally kills itself.]]
* ''OnePiece'' uses a fair number of these to drive home the theme of relying on friends. Every arc will have several fights and situations that will show off the varied skills (combat and otherwise) of the protagonists. At first, this took the form of individual fights for each member of the crew, but in recent times, especially the Thriller Bark arc, it has also started to include situations where the Straw Hat Pirates hat to pull off massive, elaborate combo moves to fell extremely powerful opponents.
** Tactics 15!
* In the second-to-lass mass battle of RurouniKenshin, Kenshin's {{Nakama}} are pitted against the {{Elite Mook}}s of the BigBad, so four one-on-one battles ensue. It quickly turns into a [[SubvertedTrope subversion]] when it turns out that it was the ''mooks'' who picked their opponents based on each man's specialties.
* ''YuYuHakusho'' does these nearly constantly. The plot arcs of the show rely heavily on [[TournamentArc Tournament Arcs]], so this is to be expected, but except for [[spoiler:Kuwabara sitting out the final arc]], the core group members who actually do any fighting got to make major contributions in every arc of the show.

[[/folder]]

[[folder: Comics ]]

* [[DoubleSubversion Double-subverted]] in an issue of ''FantasticFour'' - Cosmic beings conduct an experiment on the team, suppressing their primary characteristics (Reed's intellect, Johnny's temper, Ben's courage and Sue's compassion.) Lo and behold, each one is presented with a challenge that is suited to a ''secondary'' characteristic - a monster protecting her child stirs Ben's compassion, an illusion suppressing Johnny's powers causes him to demonstrate surprising smarts, a battery of laser cannons forces Sue to summon up her courage, and an airtight cell forces Reed to tap his normally sublimated aggression to break free.
* Again with one of Doctor Doom's death traps for Reed, a simple corridor that keeps getting narrower and narrower, doors progressively sealing the way back. Reed is forced to push his stretching abilities to their limits in order to keep going... only to find a dead end.
* Often the most limiting when dealing with any character whose power is water (especially underwater) based.
* Sometimes [[LampshadeHanging questioned]] by characters who have the same powers as another, wondering the point in doubling up in powers. Best questioned by Elongating Man to Plastic Man in the miniseries ''Justice''.

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[[folder: Film ]]

* Parodied in ''MysteryMen'' and ''SkyHigh''. In the climax of {{Sky High}}, a situation arose for each one of "sidekick" characters to show off their fairly useless powers. Zach, whose only ability was to glow in the dark, had his moment when he was used as a human flashlight by the protagonists escaping through a dark tunnel. Ethan used his ability to turn into a puddle to get the drop on a bully through a clever use of misdirection. Magenta, who could shapeshift - but only into a purple guinea pig - used her power to crawl through a small ventilation shaft and and disable a bomb.
*''Zoom: Academy for Superheroes'' (which regrettably came out about the same time as ''Sky High'') shows the skeleton of its plot a little too often. The worst example of this is in the ClimacticBattle, which isn't so much a battle as a recital. The BigBad talks big for a few minutes, then gets hit by every main character's power exactly once, which puts him exactly where he needs to be so they can FinishHim.
* In the first ''HarryPotter'' movie, the sequences of killer plant, flying keys, and life size chessboard allow Harry, Ron and Hermione to demonstrate their abilities. In the book, there were several other challenges, such as an angry troll that was supposed to be a guard, but was knocked out by the previous entrant, that made this fact less visible.
* Justified in ''Paycheck'' the movie, as the main character was part of a team of [[spoiler:researchers who reverse engineered a machine for viewing the future]] he was able to fill his pockets with just the right random crap to get himself out of the series of perilous booby traps, assassination attempts, and relationship problems that plagued he the rest of the film. Note that this was the only thing [[AdaptationDecay justified about this movie.]]
*The JamesBond movies feature a variant type; whatever [[ShoePhone inventions]] Q cooks up for 007, they're always [[ChekhovsGun precisely what he needs for the mission]]. He never finishes the movie with an unused gadget, and he never needs more than one copy of a given device.
* Parodied by EddieIzzard: "Bond never gets back and goes 'Q, I had a lot of shit I didn't fucking use! The watch that turns into a hamster, what was the point of that?' "
* Perhaps unintentionally (and definitely ''annoyingly'') subverted in ''Goldeneye,'' where Q spends some length describing Bond's new ride, a BMW Z3, in which Q proudly proclaims has Stinger missiles behind the headlamps. What pivotal role does this vehicle play? About 30 or so seconds of James Bond driving in it before he exchanges it with Jack Wade for a plane.
* The animated series, ''JamesBond Junio''r, did the above in practically every episode. Though the gadgets were received from IQ, not Q.
* Terry Gilliam's film ''The Adventures of Baron Munchausen''.

[[/folder]]

[[folder: Folk Lore ]]

* The Russian folk tale ''The Fool of the World and the Flying Ship'' follows this model perfectly, making this OlderThanPrint. On his way to win a princess' hand in marriage, the Fool is obligated to pick up anyone who asks to come along with him. Each person he meets has a different bizarre skill, and each one saves his life once when he reaches the Czar and is subjected to various death traps and {{Impossible Task}}s.
** Similar situation: the fairy tale ''The Seven Simons'' is about seven brothers named Simon, each of whom has one skill at which he excels -- building an unbelievably fast ship, for example, or retrieving a piece of game no matter where it fell. Very specialized brothers, they are, and each skill just ''happens'' to be essential to winning the hand of a princess.
** As well, ''The Seven Chinese Brothers'' tells about seven brothers who are all identical, and each of whom has a powerful ability (hearing, strength, [[WhatKindOfLamePowerIsHeartAnyway weeping]]) or immunity (to fire, to cold, etc.) All of these powers allow them to evade execution and live happily ever after.
** Yet another variation on this theme is the Grimm Brothers' tale ''The Six Men Who Went Far in the World'', where an unemployed soldier teams up with a [[SuperStrength strong man]], a [[TheGunslinger keen-eyed sharpshooter]], [[SuperSpeed a super-fast runner]], a man who can blow gale-force winds out his nose, and a man who can generate a field of cold by straightening his hat to con a king out of a warehouse full of treasure.

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[[folder: Literature ]]

* Frequently arises in ''ASeriesOfUnfortunateEvents'', most obviously in ''The Vile Village''. Reversed in ''The Miserable Mill'', where the protagonists are each forced into situations best-suited to their siblings' specialties.
* Played with in China Mieville's ''Un Lun Dun'': when the heroine learns that the apparently random and pointless series of quests she was supposed to follow were actually carefully designed so that she would end up [[spoiler:with exactly the right set of items to deal with]] the final challenge. It occurs to her, a little too late, that [[spoiler:skipping most of the quests to save time]] might not have been such a bright idea after all.
* Phèdre nó Delaunay, the main heroine of JacquelineCarey's ''[[KushielsLegacy Kushiel's Legacy]]'', is a professional courtesan. Among the challenges she faces, you would be surprised at how many of them she manages to solve by having sex with the right man or woman.
* There's an interesting play on this in the ''Alex Rider'' books. Yes, there are some similarities to Bond (by which I mean, it's a blatant homage to Bond at times), but there are a few exceptions; for one thing, a lot of the gadgets are pretty generic, so it's not that difficult to think of somewhere to use them. The biggest subversion, though, is his metal-corroding zit-cream. He got it in the first book, where it was extremely handy- and then continued to use it every so often for the next few books in the series, until it ran out...

[[/folder]]

[[folder: Live Action TV ]]

*Subverted and played straight in BuffyTheVampireSlayer. Sometimes all the scoobies do is get in each other's way, and often their powers or special skills only mess thing sup more. But in the climatic battle of season four, Xander, Willow and Giles used their specific personalities to help Buffy.
* ''MissionImpossible'', in which the characters tailored their abilities to TheCaper at hand
* ''TheATeam'' (though, to be fair, the entire show was intended to be one giant EigenPlot-slash-spoof)
* Claire from ''Series/{{Heroes}}'' can recover from almost any injury, [[GoodThingYouCanHeal which is good]] because she's prone to accidents like linebackers ''running offsides, crashing into her, and breaking her neck''. In what may be considered an inversion, recent episodes have sent her up against villains who's powers work around her healing abilities, [[spoiler:like creating black holes or turning people into puppets.]]
* ''StargateAtlantis'' usually has pretty blatant examples (a typical episode usually involves [=McKay=] having to come up with some insane plan using HollywoodScience which needs a sneaky plan to pull off that only Sheppard can come up with that involves a lot of violence which is of course Ronon's specialty.) The episode "Quarantine" [[SubvertedTrope subverted]] it when every one is locked in various rooms and each person has a part of the skills that they need to get out of the situation. Except no one is in a situation where they can use those skills, [=McKay=] TheSmartGuy doesn't have a computer so Sheppard TheHero has to do all the technical stuff, Ronon TheBigGuy is forced to do nothing, and Zelenka, another SmartGuy, has to do the dangerous air vent crawl that is pretty much Sheppard's trademark.
*The CrisisCrossover ''DoctorWho'' story "Journey's End" is carefully designed so that the resolution requires the [[spoiler:TARDIS to be linked to the [[{{Torchwood}} Cardiff Rift]] via [[TheSarahJaneAdventures Mr Smith]]]]. Something similar happens in the previous episode "The Stolen Earth", when [[spoiler:Mr Smith, the Rift and the Subwave network are all used to contact The Doctor]].
* Played with slightly in the Season Finale of {{Sanctuary}}: the characters are faced with a series of Eigen Deathtraps. Unfortunately one of the people they need is slightly... dead. So they find his daughter who has the same power. She suffers from a similar deficiency. [[spoiler: Her daughter, however, is just terrible at using the power.]]
* Parodied on {{Kablam}}! in the ShowWithinAShow, ''ActionLeagueNow!'' with Meltman - with the power to...melt!
-->'''Chief:''' Okay you guys, listen up. The president's in town next week. Thunder Girl, I'm gonna need your super flying power, Flesh your super strength, Stinky your super sharp shooting, as for Meltman...um...um...well...um...
-->'''Stinky Diver:'' [[YouGetMeCoffee He can get the donuts!]]
-->'''Stinky, Flesh, Thunder Girl:''' Donuts, donuts, donuts! Ha, ha, ha, ha, ha!

[[/folder]]

[[folder: Table Top Games ]]

* Considered something of the "ideal" adventure plot in a tabletop roleplaying game like ''[[DungeonsAndDragons Dungeons & Dragons]]'', where each character advances in a [[ClassAndLevelSystem class]] that [[AnAdventurerIsYou defines his or her talents]]. A smart GameMaster keeps in mind the characters' capabilities and tries to include something for everyone. Published adventures try for this as well, but not every player group has the standard [[FighterMageThief fighter/rogue/wizard/cleric]] dynamic these adventures are written for, and so multiple solutions for critical moments are necessary, making it possible for one character to steal the spotlight from the others by solving nearly everything through the solutions meant for his character type (the answer that works no matter what is usually "bash it apart"). That, or every important plot point is decided by either a fight (which all classes are designed to be able to take part in), or a simplistic puzzle (which doesn't rely on class abilities at all, but the players' ability to figure the puzzle out).
** Classic tournament adventure C1 has a puzzle specifically designed for the 3-man (Fighter, Wizard, Thief) party (what's it's doing in a bunch of ancient Maya/Aztec-type ruins is best left unasked).

[[/folder]]

[[folder: Videogames ]]

* In the game ''ZorkGrandInquisitor'', you find three totems, a griff (small, less powerful dragon), a brogmoid (a small, strong creature), and Lucy Flathead (a human woman with telepathy). And where are the {{Cosmic Keystone}}s located? A sleeping dragon archipelago, a cave behind a strongly boarded door, and a casino. Any of the three creatures can visit any of the locations, but if they're not the right ones, they're next to useless (though Brog can't reach a mailbox in front of the White House, and Lucy or Griff will have to go there to send mail).
* Common in videogames, for example, in the ''TheLegendOfZelda'' games, each dungeon in sequential order is tailor-made with obstacles that require the treasures from the previous ones that the hero had access to. Apparently one can only get around dungeon D with a hookshot (or grappling hook, or magnet gloves) that is ''only'' found in one chest in dungeon C. You typically also need dungeon D's item to beat dungeon D's boss.
** Another method of dungeon design in the Zelda series is to make half of the dungeon inaccessible until you find the right tool ''in the same dungeon''. I'm thinking specifically of a dungeon in ''Majora's Mask" where you can't access the upper levels of the dungeon until you find the bow and arrow in the lower level, but it is common enough in any of the game's incarnations.
** Also, the final boss battle in Twilight Princess is an example. [[spoiler: Each part of the match forces you to make use of different fighting techiques. Possessed Zelda forces you to fighting defensively, spending the entire battle using your shield, dodging techniques, and deflection of her attacks. Pig Ganon forces you to fight as Wolf Link and make use of techniques like the grab and bite and the pushing technique used earlier against Gorons and goats.. Horseback Ganondorf requires you to fight on Epona, with horseback sword fighting and arrow shooting. And finally, the last portion of the fight requires you to engage Ganondorf in a straight-up sword fight that mostly takes away the techniques that the Hero's Ghost taught you, forcing you to stick with the techniques you learned when you first got the sword.]]
*In the ''MegaMan'' series, and the following ''MegaManX'' games, all of the end level bosses have specific weakness to weapons that you get from other bosses. This ensures that even the most useless weapons for fighting through the stages have a specific use. However, since bosses in some games are selectable in any order, they CAN be beaten without the specials. It's just a lot harder. Playing Megaman 2 for the first time and thinking "I'll try going against ''Quickman'' first." is a sobering lesson in ''NintendoHard'' level design. Messed with in Megaman X, wherein the bosses had a particular order of weaknesses, but the special items (boots, armor, etc) had a ''different'' optimal order. To get all the armor pieces without backtracking, you had to completely disregard the boss' vulnerabilities.
* ''TheLostVikings''. The whole game (and its sequel) are based around this trope.
* Many, many, ''many'' console [=RPGs=] have at least one door that cannot be opened unless a set of switches are pressed simultaneously, where the number of switches is precisely equal to the game's ArbitraryHeadcountLimit for no adequately explained reason.
* The entire point of ''Superhero League of Hoboken'', where there's at least one puzzle that requires any given superpower... [[spoiler:except for the main character's, which is never of any use at any point in the game]].
* In the various {{Lego}} games, in order to get every last item, you need to through the levels in Free Play mode, where the game gives you at least one of every type of character.
* Subverted in both ''City of Heroes/Villains and Champions Online''. Especially in the latter game, due to the ability to take almost any combination of powers, there's really no 'default' team setup or even default set of powers that designers can rely upon.

[[/folder]]

[[folder: Western Animation ]]

* ''CaptainPlanet'' is probably the most blatant and obvious one. Each of the Planeteers had a ring for a specific element: earth, fire, wind, water, and [[WhatKindOfLamePowerisHeartAnyway heart]].
* The ''WinxClub'' ep "Truth or Dare" had the Winx Eigen-ing up a simulacrum out of their fundamental powers.
* {{Aquaman}} of the {{Superfriends}} gave rise to an infinite number of such plots. {{Superman}} is a member of the ''{{Superfriends}}'', and arguably pretty much every plot which involves him is an Eigen Plot, as they have to use Kryptonite or otherwise disable him somehow to give everyone else something to do.
* Lampshaded in an episode of ''{{Teen Titans}}''. Control Freak, a teenage TV addict super villain comes up with an Eigen Plot featuring a trial for all of the Teen Titans. He is upset to find that they're out of town and a secondary team is in their place. As the challenges were tailored to the exact limits of the main cast, the secondary team easily manages them. He has a temper tantrum and then returns with specific challenges for the substitutes.
* Usually justified in the animated series ''[[{{MASK}} M.A.S.K.]]''. Each episode began with the leader choosing which team members to bring based on the mission at hand. Therefore all characters in an episode had a legitimate reason to use their specialty. For example, if a mission was in the middle of a desert, they just didn't bring along the underwater specialist. This still resulted in a lot of lucky guesses as to who would just happen to be needed, though.

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