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Explaining Your Power to the Enemy

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It's only fair, right?

Baron von Helsingard: I see not only through the senses built into my own armor, but those of my every soldier.
Atomic Robo: You know what I've always liked about you, Helsie? You keep telling me how to beat you!
Atomic Robo and the Fightin' Scientists of Tesladyne

It's no surprise that villains love to gloat, but this gloating isn't necessarily limited to villains, or even explaining secret plans — sometimes a character (usually one with special powers) will take a time-out during combat to explain for their opponent's (and the audience's) benefit exactly how their powers work, even if leaving said abilities a mystery would give them a strategic or tactical advantage in the fight.

Sometimes this Info Dump is because the character is confident that their opponent doesn't actually pose a threat, so they can afford to spend time chatting about what they're going to do next. Sometimes it's a way to psych out the enemy, letting them know how utterly screwed they are. Or maybe they don't realize they're being Genre Blind (or they do, but don't care).

In less serious examples, the explanation may extend from merely how their powers work to exactly what can counteract and defeat them.

This is sometimes related to Viewers Are Morons, and can also be used as an Exposition for a character the viewer has never seen before. It is very commonly found in shonen titles, where it is not uncommon for the character to explain their powers repeatedly, even after it's been established how those powers work.

Also a subtrope of Inaction Sequence, with the extra bonus that the character is making a glaring mistake. Additionally, a close cousin to Luckily, My Powers Will Protect Me, but the person explaining their powers is doing it to the absolute LAST person they should be.

See also Evil Gloating, Trash Talk, Opponent Instruction, Saying Too Much, Talking Is a Free Action, Bond Villain Stupidity, and Calling Your Attacks.

Contrast Power Misidentification and Fake Weakness, which may involve the power user lying about their powers.


Examples:

Works with their own pages:

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    Anime & Manga 
  • In Berserk, Guts is fighting a regenerating demon whose wounds heal as fast as they're inflicted. The demon taunts him by saying that it can regenerate endlessly as long as its head is intact. Guts immediately chops the demon's head in half and thanks it for telling him.
  • A Certain Magical Index:
    • This is frequently subverted. While many people will happily explain how their power works, this is usually either unhelpful (Espers explain how they're doing something, but this rarely reveals what they can't do) or deliberately false (as magicians can have their spells countered if the source of their magic is revealed).
    • Spoofed with the 7th Level 5, Gunha Sogiita. He often tries to explain how his powers work, only for someone nearby to say "That's completely wrong!", prompting him to respond "Well, then what the hell did I just do?" He actually has no idea how his powers work... and neither does anyone else (which frustrates the scientists studying him to no end).
    • Played straight by Fiamma of the Right, who will happily explain the powers of his Holy Right to his opponents. In his case, it's because he's absolutely confident they can't do a damn thing about it and considering what its power is (anything involving the right hand, up to and including divine miracles), he's pretty well justified.
  • Darker than Black:
    • Hei encounters a contractor who uses his own blood as a medium to destroy his opponents. Despite this contractor having every reason to suspect that Hei is also a very dangerous contractor, he quickly explains how his powers work before getting into a fight. Potentially justified as this particular character is a Psycho for Hire who loves fighting for fighting's sake, and as such might have explained as a combination Badass Boast and way to make the battle more entertaining. Still seriously Underestimating Badassery, though.
    • Inverted with most other Contractors: They don't explain their powers, but they do explain their remunerations. Oddly, Contractors are surprisingly compassionate regarding each other's remunerations, so this is usually a good idea. Telling your captors you need a cigarette nets you a cigarette. This is usually a case of Pragmatic Villainy, as contractors who don't get their remuneration suffer Power Incontinence and become dangerous to everyone (and the Masquerade) very quickly. Contractors who really have it in for each other have no shame in exploiting the other's remuneration to catch them off-guard.
  • Dragon Ball Z:
    • Gohan has proven that Cell is no match for him as a Super Saiyan 2. After a brutal beatdown in which Cell loses his perfect form, Cell decides it is best to cut his losses and self-destruct and take the planet with him. The process takes about 60 seconds, in which time Cell explains exactly what he is doing and helpfully adds that attacking him will make him explode faster. This gives Goku enough time to figure out what to do with Cell and even say a few goodbyes before teleporting Cell and himself off-planet.
    • Cell has a really bad habit of this. After thinking he has Piccolo at his mercy since he disabled his arm, he goes into detail about who he is, how he has the ability of several past characters, and his end goal. Piccolo promptly thanks him for the information before regrowing his arm and proceeding to stomp him.
    • Gohan himself gets into this during the fight with Cell. He doesn't like to fight, let alone kill, and reveals his hidden power and how it only comes out when he's angry. While Gohan told Cell this in the hopes that it would get him to back down, it does the exact opposite; now that Cell knows about Gohan's hidden power, he, being a big-time Blood Knight, is determined to see it for himself.
    • Vegeta goes into detail about how Saiyans can become Great Apes at the sight of a full moon and how certain elite Saiyans like himself have been trained to create artificial moons if the natural one is missing. In Vegeta's case, he assumes Goku knows most of this information since he's a Saiyan himself.
    • While fighting Super Buu, Gotenks ends up revealing that the Fusion Dance only lasts for half an hour, and Trunks and Goten have to wait an hour after it ends to fuse again. After being curb-stomped by Ultimate Gohan, Super Buu uses this to his advantage by self-destructing and laying low for an hour before coming forward and baiting the two into fusing again so he can absorb Gotenks and turn the tables on Gohan.
    • For the most part, this practice is generally avoided. Most of the explaining happens with the side characters if they have knowledge of the technique being used or by the character themselves when they're talking to their friends after the battle. However, most techniques are demonstrated by some unlucky bastard being hit or nearly hit by it, like Tenshinhan's Taiyouken, Kuririn's Kienzan, Dabra's Super Spit, Boo's candy ray, and Gotenks's Kamikaze Ghost Attack.
    • It's parodied in Super, where Dr. Rota tries to do this, but he gets interrupted both times.
      Vegeta: [firing Galick Gun at Rota] Nobody cares!
  • Kenshiro of Fist of the North Star is quite prone to this, though unlike his successors, he'll usually wait until after he's hit them with whatever technique he's used to explain to them what the technique will do to them, as they are already dead at this point.
  • In Gamaran this trope is played but only for the sake of the audience: usually it works like this: character performs a seemingly pointless or very fast attack and, a small explanation of the technique is given. Other variations include the user "mentally explaining the attack" and the witnesses commenting on it.
  • High School DĂ—D: Spoofed when Issei's own teammate Koneko warns some female opponents about his Dress Break technique, causing them to be wary. Issei scolds her and points out that was supposed to be his secret weapon. She says she hates him for being the enemy of all women.
  • Hoshin Engi:
    • Yozen at one point explains in detail how his shapeshifting powers work and how they allow him to use nigh-perfect Power Copying. He isn't doing this to give an advantage to the enemy, just to explain to him how broken this ability is and why his opponent has no chance of winning.
    • Much Like Yozen, Fuugen Shinjin explains during his fight against Entenkun how his powers allow him to manipulate atoms. In this case he is doing it to warn the enemy while politely asking him to stop fighting, as he doesn't like conflicts. Entenkun refuses to stop, cue the Curbstomping.
  • Hunter Ă— Hunter:
    • People in the series can make techniques with self-imposed restrictions on them (for example, only being usable at certain times or against certain people); the harsher the restriction, the more powerful the technique becomes. The Mad Bomber in the Greed Island arc (Genthru) made his restriction be that he'd have to explain how his ability worked before using it. His explanation had to include that he had to tell his opponent the explanation for the technique to work, which he did at the very end of his speech. A brilliant case of Lampshade Hanging, since at first it looked like a major mistake, as the information was even more useful to defend against the technique than usual. It also helps that he can plant the bombs first without explaining. The first time he's shown using it, by the time he started explaining his powers, it was already too late to avoid it.
    • This series generally averts it: Unless they're just allies sparring (and even in those cases sometimes), characters will try their hardest not to explain their powers, including purposely using them in misleading ways or using only a narrow selection of their moves. Knowledge of someone else's powers is a frequent key to winning battles and can be used as a bargaining tool outside of combat.
    • Played straight by Hisoka. By the time you're close enough for him to tell you that his power, Bungee Gum, possesses the qualities of rubber and gum, you are too close for that knowledge to save your life. To clarify, he can make the Battle Aura he uses as his main weapon and armor stretchy and/or sticky, which is such a simple, versatile power that knowing how it works doesn't actually provide you with much (if any) useful information.
    • Kurapika explains to Uvogin how his Nen works and what the restriction of his Nen is. He only does it when he has already confirmed that it's in fact working and when Uvogin is helpless and unable to break out from Kurapika's chain by himself. Because of the explanation, Uvogin doesn't bother to fight back anymore and asks to be killed. It also helps that they are fighting in an isolated area where no one finds them.
      • While Kurapika refuses to explain his abilities to even his allies, he still is willing to explain it to his closest friends, even when his friends already realized that knowing that information would put him and themselves in danger. The Power of Trust is the reason why he explains it to them and it shows that there's still good in him. He also reveals details that he didn't tell to Uvogin earlier. The information also serves as a crucial plot point because of Pakunoda's ability to read minds of people she touches, which becomes very important at the end of the arc.
    • When Chrollo Lucilfer finally faces Hisoka, he explains all of his many powers in depth before their fight, two of which are effectively a One-Hit Kill if Chrollo is able to touch him. Since Hisoka's fighting style revolves around psychological manipulation, Chrollo's infodump effectively places him on the back foot for the entire battle, forcing him to play defensively and keep his distance as Chrollo wears him down.
  • JoJo's Bizarre Adventure largely averts this; 99% of the time, when we learn how someone's powers work, it's either because their opponent just figured it out or the user is thinking about how to use their powers. The page picture is a rare exception, where both sides are honorable men who want a fair fight. Other exceptions include Ringo Roadagain (who insists that both sides know each other's Stand ability before the duel begins) and Steely Dan (whose Stand ability forces Synchronization on the target, making it a perfect tool for trapping the target's allies, and therefore works best when the opponent knows exactly what it does).
    • Subverted at one point in Stardust Crusaders by J. Geil, who lies about how his powers work: he claims his Mirror Monster stand inhabits a "mirror world", while it actually moves from one reflection to another.
    • Deconstructed by most of the events of Stardust Crusaders, insofar as it wasn't even really an established trope at the time. Constantly showing off their abilities puts the Crusaders at a massive disadvantage against the various villains of the week who show up prepared and ready for everything thrown at them. In DIO's case in particular, the majority of the final fight is a mad scramble to work out what the hell his power even is.
    • Diavolo in Golden Wind, much like Tousen from Bleach above, subverts this by explaining his powers to enemies who by definition cannot possibly be listening to his explanation due to his powers affecting them. His power makes every person besides himself skip 10 seconds in time without experiencing them, so they will never remember anything they hear. In universe, it showcases his confidence in his power. Out of universe, it explains his stand's memetically confusing powers.
    • Double Subversion in the case of Kenzo from Stone Ocean. While Kenzo gives a detailed explanation on how he makes people drown in their own bodily fluids, he tries to keep the powers of his Stand, Dragon's Dream, a secret. However, Dragon's Dream is a sapient Stand, and it has the personality of a fair and neutral arbiter; as a result, it explains its own powers to the enemy to keep things fair, much to Kenzo's annoyance. In this case, powers explain themselves.
  • Jujutsu Kaisen: Invoking this trope has special benefits in this universe. Every jujutsu sorcerer can call upon a contract that boosts the effectiveness of their abilities, at the cost of giving away the nature of their technique. An opponent managing to figure out before you can explain it negates the contract, however. It should be noted, that one doesn't have to explain their entire technique and they can also use vague wording to still trick their opponent. Todo, for example, explains that his Cursed Technique, Boogie Woogie, works by swapping himself with someone else when he claps his hands. However, he leaves out him clapping his hands doesn't activate it unless he wills it to or that it even has to be both his hands, and leaves out it can also work on objects with enough Cursed Energy. He proceeds to exploit this because his opponents think he's explained everything. In the manga, this is done by handy textplosions.
  • The fourth episode of Katanagatari was basically one long string of this, with four characters involved in the fight. Though in Nanami's case, it's justified in that she's basically invulnerable and has absolutely nothing to lose by taunting her opponents with her powers. Also, she's a Death Seeker on top of that, though those opponents aren't even remotely capable of killing her.
  • The Law of Ueki loves this, either by Calling Your Attacks or just by plain showoff. But that's only for very powerful or very minor enemies. Figuring everybody else's powers and limitations often becomes a minor plot point. It certainly helps that Ueki is very good at figuring out their opponents' powers, and that equals victory.
  • During the Finals in Mobile Fighter G Gundam, George de Sand and Chibodee Crockett demonstrate their new Finishing Moves to Domon before their official match, which lets him figure out how to counter them, including his developing three new attacksnote  expressly intended to counter those moves. In this case, the Alliance is a team of Fire-Forged Friends (and Domon's their leader), so to them giving him a fair chance is the right thing to do even if it means they lose. It also helps that being defeated by Domon doesn't eliminate them from the tournament. The exceptions are Sai Saici (also the only member of the band who fought Domon to a draw instead of losing to him in the Preliminaries), who keeps his ultimate technique a secret until their match, and Argo, who didn't go out of his way to show Domon (Domon instead saw him using it in a different match before their own).
  • My Hero Academia:
    • Generally avoided in this series, as the character's Quirks are typically relayed to the audience by the narration rather than the characters themselves. If a character gives a detailed explanation of just how their powers work, it's usually to other characters that they're about to be working alongside as teammates (such as Tsuyu Asui in USJ and Hitoshi Shinso in the Joint Training Arc).
    • Characters from rival classes and schools actively make a point of avoiding this, deliberately keeping their Quirks hidden until they have an opportunity to blindside the main characters with them. However, in the Provisional Hero Licence exam, Aizawa points out that this seemingly Genre Savvy tactic is thinking a bit short-term in the My Hero Academia universe. After all, any reasonably successful hero is going to have their Quirk publicly known sooner or later, so anyone who relies on opponents not knowing what their powers are is only going to get so far.
    • When Tomura Shigaraki first shows up, he constantly expounds on Nomu's many powers and how he was specifically designed to counter All Might. It's only after that All Might realizes Shigaraki didn't say a word about his own abilities; the whole thing ended up looking like a kid bragging about his cool new pet.
    • The Eightfold Cleansers include someone with a Quirk called "Confession," forcing them to answer his questions fully and honestly. He uses it in combat to get the full details on their Quirks, robbing them of any ability to take the Cleansers by surprise.
    • Gentle Criminal actually uses this to his benefit. As he bounces on a steel beam at a construction site, which he made elastic with his Quirk, he briefly explains how his Quirk will affect the beam, in order to force Midoriya to catch the beam before it can fall on a man below. Midoriya does that, enabling Gentle to escape, although Midoriya uses what he's learned about Gentle's Quirk to ricochet an attack off the projectiles Gentle used for his escape, striking Gentle down and allowing Midoriya to catch up.
  • Naruto has some of this as well (such as Sakon and Ukon explaining their powers to Kiba) as well as some subversions (like Kakashi lying to Zabuza about how the Sharingan works). Most of the time though, it's subverted: though there is an awful lot of exposition about how various powers and attacks work, its usually done inside someone's head as they study an opponent's attacks and strategies or as dialogue between teammates sharing info on an enemy's technique.
    • Averted during the battle between Rock Lee and Gaara. Naruto, who eventually goes on to fight Gaara, asks Gaara's teammate (and brother) Kankuro if Gaara's armor has any weaknesses. Kankuro refuses to admit that it does, but thinks to himself that as it takes a considerable amount of chakra and weighs Gaara down, Gaara must be desperate if he has resorted to using it.
    • Most of Akatsuki averts this, too, and most of the time it becomes a plot point where the good guys have to figure out what their powers are and how to beat them. It's usually played straight after the good guys have guessed the villain's powers right, and then the villain commonly has an exposition including any details they left out.
    • Pain, in particular, didn't say a goddamn thing about how his powers worked and Konoha had to figure it all out on their own. Tobi, as much as he likes to talk about his plans, was also pretty mum on how exactly his powers work.
    • An interesting variation occurred in the Sasuke vs. Danzo battle, where Sasuke, after a few minutes of fighting, exposited the weaknesses of Danzo's technique, the reality warping Izanagi. Danzo replies with "So you figured it out", to which Sasuke, in turn, responds that, yes, now that Danzo has confirmed that Sasuke's guess was correct, he has figured it out.
    • Kabuto, however, explained the Edo Tensei no Jutsu in detail to Tobi. Of course, Kabuto's generally pretty savvy, so his explanation might be wildly inaccurate; at the very least he almost certainly left out a few critical details. Kabuto didn't really volunteer the information, either; Tobi threatened not to meet his end of the bargain if Kabuto refused to tell him how the technique worked.
      • Kabuto didn't have a problem with explaining it to Tobi, because there was nothing Tobi could do with the knowledge. Even killing Kabuto on the spot wouldn't stop the technique; the zombies would keep carrying out the last order they'd been given, or acting independently if they'd been allowed to do so. The only way to stop it was to know the specific deactivation sequence.
    • Justified when some of the reanimated ninja, their personalities still active, describe their abilities to their enemies, as they want their enemies to win. Unfortunately, due to a combination of being unable to control their actions and being too awesome, it doesn't quite work.
      • The most hilarious example is Gengetsu Houzuki, the second Mizukage. His explanation of how his power works and how it can be stopped is too confusing to the shinobi he's fighting. And in the end, he figures out that he's too strong to be beaten by regular guys.
  • Played with in NEEDLESS villains who do this usually get their asses kicked in a hurry. It actually takes the heroes quite a while to figure out how Saten's power works, even to the point where Blade can't use it after he memorizes it. On the other hand, Uten's entire tactic is based on outright lying about his powers (which is to make things invisible but he pretends he is a Reality Warper) and goes down the moment Eve figures it out.
  • Powers are generally only explained in Negima! Magister Negi Magi after they have successfully kicked the opponent's ass, or by spectators. It was also once turned on its head when Negi's opponent Jack Rakan takes time out to explain the exact mechanics of Negi's new lightning form. Negi, of course, already knew all of this; Rakan was just showing off his analysis skills. He also mentions that because he's explained how it works on national TV, plenty of potential opponents also know how to counter it now. Later, Fate is able to counter Negi's ability and says he was watching his fight with Rakan, causing Negi to be annoyed.
  • One Piece characters will either have this, a sideline character, or a handy-dandy side panel to explain new Devil Fruit abilities.
    • Even parodied in-series with Kalifa and Nami. Kalifa brags that she is keeping her Devil Fruit name a secret... only for Nami to guess it right away. Played straight later in the battle (and very necessarily, because that was one weird power): to wash away others' powers, curves, and other distinguishing features, such as fingers for holding weapons.
    • One minor Baroque Works member tries to explain her "Kilo Kilo" weight-altering ability and how she uses it in combat, but no one pays her any attention.
    • Crocodile was confident enough to explain his sand powers to Luffy, adding that he's spent years refining his abilities and figuring out the creative uses for it. Justified as he was fighting Luffy in the desert, where Luffy had zero chance of winning, and he has mastered his abilities to the point he can "dry" anything with his left hand, causing almost immediate death and is capable of creating another desert. Luffy was lucky to have lived long enough to figure out his weakness, much less beat him.
    • Another fight against Crocodile has a character explain to Vivi the Deadly Upgrade Crocodile's opponents used... within Crocodile's earshot, leading to a humiliating death for them as Crocodile simply retreats to a higher platform and waits for his opponents to die.
    • The "handy-dandy side panel" sees heavy use in Impel Down, which sees characters that hadn't been seen for a long time return, to provide quick refreshers on their powers.
    • When Luffy fights Blueno for the second time, Blueno is all too eager to explain his Devil Fruit powers.
    • Downplayed during Luffy's first fight with Blueno, in which he provides a basic explanation of the Six Powers that the CP9 agents use. Kalifa explains the Tempest Kick ability (basically, kicking strong enough to send a blade of air at the target), while Kaku explains the Finger Gun (striking someone with a finger that has the same piercing power as a bullet) after they've used those moves on their enemies...
    • One Piece is also a less egregious example than most, as Devil Fruit powers provide one-of-a-kind and/or incredibly unusual powers, and it's unlikely that a person will know about any given Fruit's powers without either having it themselves or knowing of the person who does already. Also, such characters tend to explain their powers by stating the vague concept behind those powers (Kuma's power "To push anything" being a good example), but don't explain the various creative applications they've figured out to weaponize that vague concept until the enemy has already gotten a good taste of them.
      • The only time this didn't pan out so well was when Sanji, who researched an invisibility-granting Fruit extensively in hopes of gaining its power to use for perverted reasons someday, had to fight Absalom, who got it (for the same reasons) first. Sanji knew the power's strengths and weaknesses and easily kicked Absalom's ass.
    • Luffy and Chopper will sometimes ask the enemy to explain their powers, and the enemy will often oblige.
    • Parodied in Luffy's fight with God Enel: Enel's in a bit of a pickle because of Elemental Rock-Paper-Scissors against a substance he's never even come across (rubber), much less met a Rubber Man. Being Enel, after regaining his composure, he immediately figures out that Luffy is a Paramecia-type Fruit user, unlike his Logia-type. So he reforms his staff into a trident and pierces his skin. He then boasts that he's worked out that Luffy still has physical weaknesses like being stabbed, to which Luffy replies, "Yeah". Nami gets annoyed that he told him this, and couldn't be bothered to bluff.
    • Gecko Moria plays with this trope by only revealing information that is already evident or that can be used to mess with his opponents. For example, at one point he gloats to Luffy that even if he beats him, the shadows inside his zombie troops will not be freed. He's not lying, but he neglects to mention that feeding salt to a zombie will free the shadow inside it; or that, if Moria takes some shadows inside himself, then beating him will free those shadows.
    • Averted with Trafalgar Law. Having quite possibly the strangest power in the series, it, of course, needs to be explained to the audience, but Law isn't the type to adhere to this trope. Fortunately, Vice-Admiral Smoker figures it out and explains it to his troops, and by extension, us.
    • One Piece has finally started to stray away from the trope since shortly before the Time Skip. The more serious-minded or dangerous villains, like Magellan, Monet, and Doflamingo, have their powers explained by other characters, not by themselves. There's also Akainu who is so much of a No-Nonsense Nemesis that he would never waste time on explaining his power, and people around him probably don't have time for it either, as they are either being killed by him or struck by fear. Due to this, Oda completely forgot to mention his Devil Fruit's name in the actual manga and only revealed it when a fan asked him in the question corner.
    • Nami's battle against Miss Doublefinger justifies it, since Nami had never used the Clima-Tact (a Weather-Control Machine that Usopp invented for her previously) before, and spends half the fight dodging attacks and the other half reading the manual to figure out how it works.
    • Cracker, in his first confrontation with Luffy shows him his power to make extra arms. This turned out to be a lie, when Luffy breaks his body in half, revealing the real Cracker inside. And then he proceeds to explain, that he has the power to create and control biscuits, and his armors are made of them and designed to look like real humans, down to using jam to imitate Blood from the Mouth; all this as a way of outlining how fucked Luffy is since he can just keep making these ultra-powerful biscuit warriors endlessly. Naturally, this comes back to bite him, when Nami realizes that water can make biscuits softer. Then it bites him again, literally, when Luffy, a Big Eater, starts eating all of the biscuit mass he creates, forcing Cracker to fight directly.
    • Due to neither Katakuri nor Kaidou explaining how they utilize their Haki, Luffy has to figure them out himself, and when he tells them that he has figured them out, the opponents don't deny that he's right.
    • Most Zoan Devil Fruits are very straightforward, since it's just transforming between three different forms, and it's obvious what kind of animal they're transforming. Chopper, however, explains to Chessmarimo that the Rumble Ball he just ate gives him four additional forms on top of the three he already has within the span of 3 minutes. King, Queen and Sasaki simply tell their enemies that the bizarre things their dinosaur powers can do is because dinosaurs used to hunt like that in ancient times, with the enemies actually believing them.
      • When Zoro asks if pteranodons also used to have burning flames on their backs, King replies that they didn't — Zoro eventually figures out the significance of the flame, which causes him to win.
    • Blackbeard is very prone to this, explaining to his enemy how his Yami Yami no Mi works, how it differs from other Logia and he also likes to demonstrate what it can do before actually doing something with it to the enemy. Yet the method of how he manages to steal Devil Fruit powers from dead people is a secret he keeps to himself. In fact when he does it for the first time, he actually lets nobody see what he's doing.
  • One-Punch Man:
    • Sent up by the Ancient Lizard King when he encounters Tatsumaki. He brags that only a meteor falling from space would have the power to kill him. Tatsumaki replies, "Okay, I'll do that, then." and uses her psychic powers to drop a meteor on him. One-Hit KO.
    • Boros does this a lot against Saitama. Mostly he's just bragging about his strength because he's excited that he's finally got someone powerful enough to use said strength against without instantly winning. Of course, Saitama really doesn't care, at one point telling Boros to shut up and start fighting already.
  • In Rave Master, this happens quite a bit in the manga, mostly when new moves are introduced to the audience. Possibly deconstructed during the fight with Doryu when Ruby, explaining to the heroes how innate magical alignments work, accidentally reveals the alignments of the heroes to the bad guy. His saving grace was that he changed their alignment to Dark earlier, making the information rather useless.
  • Rosario + Vampire has just about every big bad of the week explain their own powers. This also applies to most of the Main Characters. The setting adds a slight layer of justification to many of the examples, as often rather than individuals with unique special powers they're monsters hiding their actual species and nature, and a lot of the early antagonists are basically bullies whose motivation is to openly display their powers rather than maintain an edge against anybody already more powerful.
  • In Shaman King, the X-Laws go to great lengths, sacrificing many of their numbers, to figure out what medium Hao is using to channel the Great Spirit of Fire so that they can destroy it. When Hao realizes what they're after he says they could have just asked — he's using the oxygen in the air around him (since "a fire needs air to burn"). At which point the Crazy-Prepared X-Laws trap him in a barrier and detonate a grenade to use up all the oxygen in the enclosed space, suffocating the Spirit of Fire. It doesn't work, as the Spirit of Fire changes into Water.
  • Talentless Nana: While chasing Nana, Yuuka Sasaki (who has powers of necromancy) casually reveals a key limitation of her power: to animate a person's corpse, she needs an item belonging to them. For example, she needs the necklace she's wearing to keep her zombie bodyguard active. Partially subverted, though, as Yuuka is lying: even though the limitation is real, the necklace is not the item in question. She's just trying to trick Nana into getting close to her.
  • In Yu-Gi-Oh!, Pegasus explains the abilities of his "Millennium Eye" to Yugi, including the ability to read minds. This gives Yugi the chance to come up with a counter stratagem.
    • Let's just say this series uses this trope all the time when it comes to card effects and stop there.
      • This is actually a reversal from the real card game, in which you must allow your opponent to look at your in-play cards if they ask to do so, and you cannot prevent your opponent from looking in your graveyard either should they ask. Cards in your hand, deck, and face down are exceptions to this, however. A number of the villains' gambits count on the hero not knowing how the cards work.
      • This actually turned out to be rather helpful in the dub version, as instead of re-editing each scene involving cards to change the Japanese words into whatever language it's being dubbed in, the editors simply erased everything on the card and have the characters themselves explain what it does. (This was done because US law prohibits a TV show from directly advertising its own merchandise. Since the same cards seen on the show are also sold in real-life stores, they can only be shown in altered form). While it does provoke some Fridge Logic, it does make some of the character's surprises more genuine (since they literally do not know what cards outside of their deck do).
  • YuYu Hakusho:
    • In the anime, Yusuke is forced to fight someone in complete darkness. His opponent has a helmet-type device that allows him to perceive and alter the flow of energy around and inside him, letting him A) see in the dark (which Yusuke has no way of doing) and B) strengthen parts of his body temporarily. He explains all of this during the fight. The viewer is left screaming at the television for the opponent to just beat the shit out of Yusuke, which he can do with impunity thanks to the Night Vision Helmet.
    • Elder Toguro explains his powers several times during his fight with Kuwabara, despite being able to win near-instantly if he wanted to. Justified in that Elder Toguro A) knows how easily he could win and B) is one of the most unhinged characters in the series.
      Sakyo: Your brother is something of a fool.
      Younger Toguro: Yes, it's a bad habit of his.
    • Subverted in the Chapter Black arc when Yusuke keeps insisting that, had he known of Kido's powers, he could have taken him out easily. Genkai berates him for this, telling him that not all of his enemies will be stupid enough to hand over valuable information like that.
    • For the most part, this is actually an averted trope. While making utterly no sense in-universe, it is mainly used so the reader/viewer can understand the ability being used. In the anime, the narrator explains the abilities or items characters are using most of the time.

    Comic Books 
  • As the page quote indicates, Atomic Robo's nemesis Lord Helsingard has a tendency to do this. In the first issue, Robo meets Baron von Helsingard right after Helsingard uses the Vril Organ to become an Energy Being. After effortlessly regenerating an arm, Helsingard brags while pointing to the organ implanted in his chest. As Robo puts it, he should change his name to "Baron von Blabs About His Only Weakness." (Notably, though, the scene with the page quote wasn't entirely a straight example... Helsingard gave Robo just enough information to goad Robo into a trap.)
  • Empowered tells Thugboy how her suit works (NOT!) when they meet first.
  • Green Lantern: So you have a cosmic gadget that has a singular Weaksauce Weakness. Okay, no big deal, just avoid those situations. Oh crap, something's come up that just happens to match... Okay so since you're going to have to think something up anyway, at least make that you're just improvising, not that — Oh no! My ring is useless against the color yellow! Hal, you idiot... Although it's not like the rest of the Corps are any better, you'd think that as a group of "interstellar super cops" they wouldn't go around telling everyone what color to paint their bullets.
  • In one of the infamous Hostess Cakes ads (shown here), where Asgard gets attacked by space hillbillies, two of them explain aloud how their invulnerability powers work, and helpfully inform Thor how exactly can he defeat them (by distracting them. With delicious Hostess cakes, of course).
  • In Invincible, the Flaxans are a race of extradimensional aliens who can't exist for long in our universe due to a Year Outside, Hour Inside effect that ages them rapidly. In their second attack on Earth, their leader explains to Mark that they learned English from his father and figured out how to circumvent the aging issue with special bracelets, which are then immediately destroyed by Rex Splode and they're forced to retreat.
  • Justice Society of America member Hourman does this with his very name. His power comes from a Super Serum that gives him Super-Strength and Speed for a limited amount of time. Guess how long that time limit is?
  • PS238: Accidentally done by Power while fighting the Flea. He certainly doesn't expect just mentioning the name of the nanotech armor he is wearing to be any risky, but when you're facing a super with psychic control over insects...
    Flea: The Flea stops for no one, especially not someone dressed as a stink bug.
    Power: The Mantiloid Empire's symbiotic CHINTINMECH Technology does not stink!
    Flea: Symbiotic? Like alive?
    Power: Mostly.
    Flea: And it was built by bug people?
    Power: They hate being called that.
    Flea: Most of my friends are bugs.
    Power: I believe it.
    Flea: That's just because there's millions of 'em.
    Power: Any last words for them?
    Flea: Yep! "Pillbug mode."
    Power: Wha—? [his suit morphs into a sphere, imprisoning him]
    Flea: A suit that's basically a bee colony has small flaw for someone who's got a set of these [points at his antennae] and a charming personality.
  • Robin (1993): Blue Devil lampshades this tendency in villains when Cenotaph loudly explains the source of his powers while trying to choke him.
  • Superboy (Kon-El version) was originally very prone to explaining how his tactile telekinesis worked because it had no visible effects that showed what it was and the writers wanted to emphasize that his powers weren't just a carbon copy of Superman's. Unusually for this trope, this didn't cause him many defeats, but it did cause his Young Justice teammates to make fun of him a lot.
  • In Transformers: Devastation, Sixshot taunts the Autobots by telling them about the upgrades that make him Nigh-Invulnerable. His boasts don't impress Hardhead and Optimus Prime, who prove strong enough to damage him regardless.

    Comic Strips 
  • Here's an example that's not about powers, but still fits the trope. In the Dick Tracy story "Crewy Lou", crime boss "The King" hides records of his activities in a watertight compartment under a filled water tank. Tracy susses this out when he finds photographs of the King standing by his tank with the water drained out. Now, why exactly did he take those photos?

    Fan Works 
  • Played for Laughs in Dragon Ball Z: Dynasty. During the first round of the Grand Kai festival, Torbie explains the South Kai's Megaton technique that he uses out of sheer confidence. And after Yamcha points out the dynamics of the West Kai's Thunder Flash Step that Tapkar uses, he and Mijorin of the East Galaxy explain the Kaioken and Stockpile techniques respectively. While the quadrant Kais are horrified that their techniques are being shared with the competition, the Grand Kai is impressed that the warriors are sharing their skills and experience with each other.
  • Fate Genesis: Caster shows off Rule Breaker to Shirou after stealing Saber from him, completely confident he can't do jack shit to her thanks to her power and the Chaos Emerald in her possession boosting her powers even further. Shirou later Traces it to break Caster's mind control on Taiga, and then uses it directly on Caster herself to take Saber back.
  • Fate/Harem Antics:
    • Saber and Avenger fight each other and Avenger gets the advantage. Avenger decides to gloat and explains that her Dragon Witch ability is weakening Saber because Saber is part dragon.
    • When Ruler and Berserker fight, Illya gloats to everyone about Berserker's Mystery Slayer ability.
  • Fate/Long Night: Illya waits until after Brandon Stark and Arturia are already getting pummeled to explain that Robert Baratheon's strength gets multiplied by the number of opponents he is fighting. She does it mostly to make Rin and Shirou squirm.
  • It's probably easier to count the villains in My Brave Pony: Starfleet Magic that don't tell the heroes everything about their own powers. As expected, this often leads to the heroes coming up with ways to beat them based on their exposition. And even then, it still takes some time for Starfleet to realize how to defeat the bad guy.
  • The Red Dragon's Saber:
    • While fighting the Fallen Angels, Artoria Pendragon asks if they can survive without their wings. They gloat and explain that their wings hold a great percentage of their power, they cannot be damaged by ordinary weapons, and they eventually grow back. This in part because of their ego and because of Artoria's Charisma skill persuading them. This explanation proves to be their undoing as Artoria has Excalibur, a weapon far from ordinary, and she chops off their wings, incapacitating them.
    • In the same fight, the Fallen Angels repeatedly ask Artoria to explain her origins and abilities, but she does not say anything.
  • Reenacting a legend: When Shirou Emiya fights Cao Cao, Cao Cao keeps pulling powers out of his Spear of Longinus. He explains them each time he does this. Shirou uses the time he talks to rest and calls him an amateur for revealing his powers, then kicks his ass.
  • Downplayed subversion in Remnant's Bizarre Adventure, where Josuke tells Buccarati that his Stand Crazy Diamond can restore anything, to make the gangster more cautious by bluffing that he can heal himself. He is forced to reveal he can fix everything but himself when he is wounded by Neo.
  • RWBY: Epic of Remnant: During a Bar Brawl, Lancelot uses improvised weapons and his Knight of Owner ability transforms them into Noble Phantasms. When a shocked Yang, Melanie, and Miltia ask what is happening, he gladly explains how Knight of Owner turns anything he holds into super durable weapons.
  • Justified in Split Second (My Little Pony). By explaining her power, Twilight gives Sunset a small advantage, which further empowers the Conditional Magic of her warhammer.
  • Suzumiya Haruhi No Index: Terra of the Left egotistically gloats about his powers to Kyon, knowing that he can't take advantage of this knowledge since he has no fighting skills or powers. Fortunately, Kaori Kanzaki was eavesdropping and uses this knowledge to defeat him.
  • Vow of the King: Candice not only refuses to ever explain how her powers work, she mocks the very idea of doing so. At one point, she thanks an opponent for explaining his power and its limitations because it told her how to counter it with minimal effort.
  • What would have happened if Goku fell into the world of Shuumatsu no Valkyrie: Out of respect for a Worthy Opponent, Gohan demonstrates his transformations to Hercules and explains them as he does. Vegeta thinks Gohan is stupid to do this.

    Films — Live-Action 
  • Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness: Mr. Fantastic (of Earth-838's Illuminati) tells 616-Wanda that Black Bolt could obliterate her with a single word coming from his mouth, in the hopes that this would dissuade her from attacking the Illuminati. This is quickly proven to be a very bad idea, as Wanda uses her magic to remove Black Bolt's mouth and swiftly kill him, and the rest of the Illuminati follow suit.
  • In the Kim Possible Live-Action Adaptation, Drakken gloats after capturing his foes in an array of energy beams:
    Drakken: That forcefield is one hundred percent inescapable. Why? Because the off switch is all the way up there! (He indicates a Big Red Button mounted high on the wall)
    Shego: (annoyed) Don't tell them where it is!
  • In The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, Dorian Gray plans to betray the titular League. During a private conversation with Mina Harker, he mentions his one weakness in an unguarded moment. After his treachery is revealed, Mina eventually kills him by exploiting the fact that he cannot look upon the portrait that grants him immortality, or he will die.
  • In Man of Steel, when Superman's fighting General Zod in Smallville, Supes knocks Zod's helmet off which causes him to be overwhelmed by his enhanced senses. Superman then tells Zod how to overcome this while they are still fighting.
  • In The Mask, Stanley (under duress) explains how the mask works to Dorian: "You just... put it on!"
  • X-Men Film Series:
    • In X2: X-Men United, Pyro explains how his powers work to Magneto. That's right, tell the guy who controls magnetism that you're useless without your metal lighter. He does switch sides later on, but it still is pretty stupid to tell anyone how your powers work.
    • In X-Men: First Class, Shaw's nice enough to explain his energy-absorbing powers to Colonel Hendry (and the audience), even noting how they make him ageless, before promptly using them to turn Hendry into a human firecracker.

    Literature 
  • Goosebumps: Played with in Attack of the Mutant. In the climax, main protagonist Skipper Matthews is facing the villain "The Masked Mutant", but then claims that he's not a normal human - he's actually a superhero, the "Colossal Elastic Boy", and quite happily explains the only thing that can destroy him — sulfuric acid. The Masked Mutant quickly thanks him for revealing this, and prepares to kill him. The catch? Skipper was lying, or so he thinks. His real motive was to take advantage of a weakness in the Masked Mutant's own powers — the Mutant can rearrange his molecules and become anything solid. Skipper changed him into becoming a liquid, which he can't turn back from.
  • In Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Ron suggests that the reason the Elder Wand has such an air of intrigue about it is that at least two masters of it haven't been able to shut up about having it. The original maker of the wand, Antioch Peverell, had his throat slit in his sleep because he bragged about it. Gregorovitch, the continental European wandmaker, got it taken from him by Grindelwald after he went around blabbing about trying to copy its power. The fact that Dumbledore himself was its master for over fifty years (the longest anyone knows of) without anyone knowing adds credence to Ron's theory.
  • Worm:
    • Armsmaster, a major superhero, has a habit of telling his opponents about the combat style simulator in his helmet as a component of his Trash Talk.
    • Tattletale, on the other hand, lies about how her abilities work, telling people she's a psychic. This can greatly intimidate and confuse people because the only real psychic in the setting is a nigh-invulnerable monster responsible for millions of deaths.

    Live-Action TV 
  • Angel: In the Grand Finale, Angel is getting smacked around by Marcus Hamilton, an Artificial Human created by the Senior Partners with massive Super-Strength. Hamilton takes the opportunity to gloat that his blood is filled with the Partners' ancient power, and Angel can't beat him. As you may expect, gloating that his blood is imbued with their power to a vampire of all beings wasn't exactly a smart move; Angel even lampshades it before biting Hamilton and drinking his blood, getting a supercharge that lets him overpower and kill Hamilton.
    Angel: Can you pick out the one word there you probably shouldn't have said?

    Myths & Religion 
  • Norse Mythology: Baldr's mother, Frigg, had everything except mistletoe promise not to hurt him. Then, she told Loki (who was in disguise) about this weakness. After this, Loki had the blind god Höðr throw a mistletoe arrow at Baldr, killing him.
  • Samson and Delilah: Samson has Super-Strength because of his hair; but Delilah is a really hot Philistine chick. She asks him what his weakness is. He lies to her and she immediately tells her family who try this on him and it doesn't work. Then she pouts and tells him that she's upset he lied, and he lies again. She again tells her family who tries this and it doesn't work. She makes doe-eyes at him a third time, failing again. She keeps complaining about his dishonesty, and with such nagging she prodded him day after day until he was sick to death of it and tells her the truth, she tells her family and they weaken him and capture him. Samson wasn't very bright... To be more specific, his hair wasn't the source of his power, it was his having taken Nazarite vows (seen here), one of which was 'don't cut your hair'. By that point, Samson had broken every other vow he'd had, so the hair was the last straw and God depowered him.
    • He didn't cut his hair though, that was Delilah (and without his knowledge or consent no less), unless God had preprogrammed his powers to work using his hair as a sort of "activation key" God probably got angry punished him not for oathbreaking, but for being Too Dumb to Live.

    Podcasts 
  • On The Red Panda Adventures, one of the cardinal rules of crime-fighting is: Never explain your powers to the bad guys! Invoked and lampshaded in the episode "Stop the Presses"; when the Red Panda and his Arch-Enemy The Mad Monkey, pushed into an Enemy Mine situation, discover that their respective mental powers can be combined for great effect, the hero begins monologuing about the normal limits of his abilities. This prompts The Mad Monkey to ask, "Are you explaining your powers to the bad guy?"

    Video Games 
  • In Crash Twinsanity, when you fight Cortex before the Enemy Mine starts up, it's played as a joke birthday party where the presents are bombs and missiles. When he gets to the attack that must be reflected to defeat him, he goes so far as to tell you "Here's one gift you can return!"
  • In Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance, the Black Knight tells Ike of both the source of his Nigh-Invulnerability and of a sword, conveniently already in Ike's possession, that can get around it. Earlier, he'd offered that same sword to Ike's father Greil for use in their duel, though Greil declined to use it. In this case, the Black Knight has no practical reason for doing so, he's just a Blood Knight who likes to have interesting fights against people he judges to be Worthy Opponents.
  • Honkai Impact 3rd: In Anti-Entropy Invasion, a Welt Joyce clone boasts of his ability to manipulate the gravity of anything within his eyesight to Fu Hua, so she exploits this by creating an illusion of herself to distract him.
  • In Kao the Kangaroo: Round 2, an octopus boss begins the battle by describing the exact method in which to defeat her, step by step, and only at the end does she go "How stupid of me -- why am I telling you that?!".
  • A variation occurs in Kid Icarus: Uprising: Viridi doesn't explain her own power, but that of one of her mooks:
    Viridi: That's a Jitterthug. Melee attacks won't hurt him at all when he's red. And when he's green, shooting him won't work! What are you gonna do now?
    Pit: Uh... I guess I'll just melee him when he's green and shoot him when he's red.
    Viridi: But... Oh, darn it!
    Palutena: Thanks for the advice!
  • Some enemy COs in the Advance Wars series will explicitly state what they will do and how their actions work. This is usually for the player's benefit where they are likely experiencing those elements for the first time. An example of this can be seen in Dual Strike where the player sees a black crystal for the first time and the enemy CO Koal explains that any of his units that are within two spaces of it will regain ammo, fuel, and recover 2HP per day.
  • In Portal 2, the Final Boss goes on an extensive rant near the beginning of the fight explaining precisely how he will not repeat the mistakes made by his predecessor, along with his new brilliant plan to defeat you. There is also a subversion of the trope because his plan has a fifth part that he doesn't tell you.
  • Thief: Deadly Shadows: In the Hag's lair, you find a glyph that gives Garrett the ability to destroy the Big Bad's stone golem minions. Right next to it you find the Big Bad's notes, in which they describe exactly what the glyph is, how can it help Garrett, and how should Garrett use it... and how much they hope that Garrett will never find this glyph. Justified, since the Big Bad doesn't expect that Garrett would ever find their lair.

    Visual Novels 
  • The Heroic Spirits from Fate/stay night (except Berserker) are all responsible for doing this in one way or another and posture about their powers or how they know what the enemy's powers are (even Archer is guilty of this), but Gilgamesh really takes the cake. He freely explains his name, origins, his powers, and his magic weapons to his enemies, simply because he is so ridiculously overpowered that it doesn't even matter whether or not people know his abilities. This gets turned around on him in the Unlimited Blade Works route when Shirou counters his Gate of Babylon with Unlimited Blade Works, forcing Gilgamesh to try to take him down with Ea, the one weapon Shirou cannot Trace. Unfortunately for Gil, Shirou gets to him before he can draw the weapon and takes off his arm.

    Web Animation 
  • Cell explains his abilities to Corla in the DSBT InsaniT episode "Beach Brawl", although she had already partially figured it out.

    Web Comics 
  • Axe Cop attempts to kill using psydrozon (a sword wielding robot). It fails, and Evilfatsozon explains he built psydrozon. Evilfatsozon begins to explain his weakness, "A uni—", but Axe Cop throws Uni-Man at Evilfatsozon, and defeats him before he can finish.
  • In an episode of Tempts Fate, the sub-comic of Goblins, a very ill-advised dwarf does this, explaining in detail the nature of his curse as he's introducing himself. It doesn't take long for Tempts Fate to exploit this weakness.
    Dwarf: I have spent my life mastering combat using household items! For if I were to don a single piece of armour or grasp a single weapon, my god's personal avatar would personally descend from the heavens and destroy me! Just as it is stated in my terrible curse!
    Tempts Fate: Catch. [throw him a weapon]
  • Grrl Power:
    • Invoked when Sydney decides that a battle royale is too confusing and calls "Silver Age rules", demanding that the villains announce their names and powers before attacking. The villains comply, while Harem notes that that's not actually a thing that happened excessively in the Silver Age; Sydney was just looking for an excuse.
    • Vehemence indulges too, and Sydney lampshades it, but he's doing this after a thorough fight that has supercharged him in vehemic energy, so he's convinced it's way too late for ARCHON to do much of anything with the information.
  • The Order of the Stick: In Strip #182, Vaarsuvius explains their plan to defeat a black dragon, by casting multiple Suggestion spells at him until one of them succeeds, to the dragon, mid-battle:
    Vaarsuvius: You will still roll a natural 1 eventually. Suggestion! I have a ring of wizardry, no other spells above 3rd level prepared, and nothing better to do with my actions. The laws of probability dictate that you will fail a will save before I run out of Suggestion spells. Suggestion!
    Dragon: Clever. However, there's one number you've failed to include in your analysis. Your Hit Point total. *Chomp*

    Web Original 
  • Superheroes and (especially) supervillains in the Whateley Universe generally avoid this trope, with huge amounts of effort put into misinforming your enemies about your abilities — which makes those who do fall into this trap stand out even more:
    • UltraMax has done this several times now, each time when the Cadet Crusaders have run into Jadis Diabolik and her crew. Each time, the person he's blabbed to had used this newfound knowledge to gain an edge in the fight. He's apparently so bad for this, he has (or had) a website with a listing of his powers and how he uses them. He might start to get better about this, as of Jadis' last trip to New York with Jobe.
    • A stupider example happened when two supervillain wannabes explained their power sets to the whole town while asking for directions to the drug store (which they state they intend to rob). This allowed the weakest member of a visiting group of students from nearby Whateley Academy to take them out.

    Web Videos 

    Western Animation 
  • Adventure Time:
    • The Ice King should probably be more careful in fights.
      Ice King: FOOL! Your powers are no match for my magical crown!
      [Jake knocks off his crown]
      Ice King: My powers!
    • In "Jake vs. Me-Mow", Me-Mow boasts that she has injected Jake with enough poison to kill a dog fifty times his size. Which prompts Jake to use his size-shifting powers to grow his liver fifty-one times its normal size, allowing him to safely metabolize the poison.
  • Batfink: Once per Episode, he would tell his foes, "Your bullets can't harm me! My wings are like a shield of steel!"
  • Hilariously inverted in an episode of Ben 10: Omniverse when Ben unlocks a new alien, Gutrot, while fighting a time-traveling version of Dr. Animo. Because he knows about aliens that Ben unlocks in the future, Animo is rather happily goaded into explaining Ben's new powers to Ben, letting Ben bypass the usual case of How Do I Shot Web? and immediately douse him in a cloud of sulfur dioxide.
    Dr. Animo: Now, is there anything else you'd care to know before I crush you?
    Ben: Oh, no, no thanks. That might've been TOO much information!
  • Chaotic: Peyton plays it straight by explaining a key tactic mid-battle and Eddy immediately uses it against him. He later subverts it, by explaining his own key tactics after the battle.
  • From time to time, the DC Animated Universe would get some of this to bring us up to speed on a character who is introduced without showing their origin. More and more as it went on, culminating in Justice League Unlimited.
  • Gutierrez, from Freakazoid!, tries three items (kryptonite, the color yellow, and water) on the hero hoping each will be Freakazoid's weakness. None of them work, and when Gutierrez gets impatient and asks Freakazoid what his weakness is, prompting a cut to this:
For the record, Freakazoid's weakness is graphite bars charged with negative ions. And "poo gas". Then again, no one likes "poo gas".
  • This is a recurring theme in The Perils of Penelope Pitstop. The Hooded Claw seems compelled (for some odd reason) to explain every little detail of each deathtrap to Penelope. This is probably the biggest reason they always fail; either the delay that the explanation causes or some information she gains from it helps her escape.
  • In the "Menacing Family Affair" episode of the 1981 Shazam! animated series, an alien gives Dr. Thaddeus Bodog Sivana and his kids a jewel that gives them the same powers as Captain Marvel and the Marvel Family. While the heroes are reeling, Dr. Sivana brags about the "magic alien jewel", and from there the Marvels defeat the Sivanas in a few seconds by simply grabbing the jewel and throwing it away.
  • Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: In "Return to New York, Part 3," while the Turtles are fighting Baxter Stockman, they try to put down his cyborg armor by cutting its fuel lines... but Stockman thought ahead, and proceeds to gloat to the Turtles that every single component of his armor has its own internal backup power source. This leads Donatello to realize that the Arm Cannon they previously chopped off still works; Stockman has just enough time to go Oh, Crap! before Donnie blasts him out the window using the arm.
  • In X-Men: The Animated Series, after taking a few hits from Gambit's exploding cards, Bishop explains his mutant ability is to absorb energy from other mutants' attacks and transform it into energy bolts, which he then uses on Gambit. Wolverine, who's been tasked with keeping the two from killing each other, shuts down the fracas by holding his claws up to Bishop's face:
    "How'd you like to try absorbing these?"

 
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Alternative Title(s): Explaining Your Powers To The Enemy

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Parasite 1.0

Dr. Ivo's Parasite 1.0 armor grows larger and changes form as it absorbs more energy from Superman.

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