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Forgot About His Powers
aka: Plot Induced Stupidity
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"Now why didn't he do that before? Did he forget he can do that?"
When a character has the Idiot Ball slipped into their pocket while they weren't looking, causing them to forget to properly use their abilities, intelligence, or powers to stop a bad guy or get out of a situation, even though they may have used the ability in similar situations before (often many times). This happens often with Superheroes and within the filler episode of Shōnen anime.
This is used quite a bit when characters have extremely useful or increasingly powerful abilities or equipment, and some unfortunates tend to have this inflicted on them all the time, turning a Genius Bruiser or Badass Bookworm into a garden-variety Bruiser or Badass. Only some lines of technological jargon or displays of useless gadgetry will remind the reader that they have more brains than they normally use. Some might consider this a form of Informed Ability, with the "ability" being genius-level intelligence.
Amnesia Danger is a variant of this trope, when it's justified using convenient amnesia. The heroic version of Why Don't You Just Shoot Him?, except while at least villains don't have to answer to their actions, heroes should be obligated to stop evil-doers or disasters as quickly and efficiently as possible.
See Fridge Logic for when it occurs to the viewers a little later what the character could've/should've easily done. See Remembered I Could Fly when it occurs to the character Just in Time what he should've done long before.
Plot Sensitive Snooping Skills is a particular variant/sub-trope. If a device is discovered once, never becomes part of a character's standard bag of tricks, and is forgotten that is Forgotten Phlebotinum. Hollywood Tactics are a usual result. Compare Drama-Preserving Handicap.
As mentioned, this is a sister trope to Idiot Ball, the distinction being that Idiot Ball is when a character does something stupid to further the Plot, while with Forgot About His Powers the plot depends on a character failing to take an action they would normally take or that would make the most sense to solve the current crisis.
Compare Reed Richards Is Useless, where a character with superhuman abilities or ridiculously advanced technology reserves it for equally advanced problems and never applies it to mundane difficulties.
Examples:
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Anime & Manga
- Usagi often used her disguise pen in the first season of Sailor Moon to get into areas where access was forbidden otherwise. In later seasons, it was completely forgotten... except for one odd season three episode when Minako borrowed Usagi's pen to act as an Identity Impersonator for Sailor Moon. Note that Minako actually had her own disguise compact in the Codename Wa Sailor V manga and in the Sailor Moon manga, although the fact that it was never shown in the anime may mean it simply doesn't exist in this continuity. Additionally, in the manga, both Usagi and Minako have devices (a mask and a compact respectively) that can reveal the disguised enemies' true forms; these conveniently get forgotten when it comes to fighting Witches 5 or the Dead Moon Circus, who do disguise themselves as normal people in areas that are known to have connection to the enemies...
- Sailor Moon hated the mask (Even more so after she saw Naru getting hurt through it) and casually flings it off after transforming. After she gains a new transformation it never appears with her hinting that she just plain lost the ability to use it.
- ...Except for a single instance during the Black Moon series, where Sailor Moon uses her mask to reveal the disguised droids; this happens after she gains a new transformation. Minako is also shown to still have her compact on an occasion during the Infinity series.
- In the first episode we see that she has super hearing through the gems in her hair and we never get to see her use them again ... ever.
- Her scream/cry is also shown to be some sort of sonic weapon which she also uses only once.
- Most Dragon Ball Z movies are also guilty of this, during which all Saiyan characters will magically forget to become Super Saiyan for the duration of the movie, or until then end. Averted slightly during the Frieza saga when Tenshinhan declares Goku has an ace up his sleeve with the kaiohken technique, and North Kaioh responds that Goku had been using it the entire time.
- Captain Ginyu completely freaks out when Goku shows him the true extent of his power. A few moments later, he apparently realizes that he still has his body switch technique.
- Ginyu freaked out because he thought Goku was the Super Saiyan (turns out Ginyu was right). When Goku offers Ginyu and Jeice a change to escape, Ginyu immediately declares Goku to simply be powerful and then he hatched the body-switch plan.
- In one filler scene during the Goku vs. Freeza fight, Freeza opens the ground under Goku, who hangs for the edge as the lava rises from underground. Goku... tries to climb, fails and gets his butt burnt by the lava in a comical manner. Except that Goku, like damn near everyone in the show, can fly.
- Many of the characters in DBZ have the ability to summon an extremely deadly energy disk that can instantly end a fight by cutting their opponent into pieces. Despite how potentially powerful this technique is, it is seen very rarely in the series, despite the fact that its use could allow our heroes to defeat all those superpowered villains they seem to always come across.
- In the original Dragon Ball, as part of a martial arts tournament, Krillin fought an enemy who never bathed, and who used the resulting stench as a weapon against his enemies, as they were so overwhelmed by the smell that they couldn't focus clearly. Krillin was losing badly, until Goku reminded him that he didn't have a nose, and thus couldn't smell his opponent.
- This happens countless times with Tsuzuki from Yami No Matsuei. Even though he's supposed to be one of the most powerful ancient Gods of Death, he is rendered completely helpless when Muraki is around. He's not even able to throw a decent punch at the guy, and is made into a whining and crying wimp in his presence just for plot's sake. Example: Muraki is flying away on a helicopter, and Tsuzuki forgets that he can always summon or cast a spell that could blow the helicopter down. Stupid or... has a self destructive streak TEN MILES HIGH.
- Along with Heroic Second Wind, this is probably the #1 reason anyone gets beaten in Bleach. Bad guys fighting the main heroes, or the Shinigami, will usually get killed because they suddenly forget that with the several seconds of warning they receive from their screaming opponents, they could have just Flash Stepped out of the way. It get's just plain ridiculous in the anime version because all fights take several times longer. The only time this is seemingly avoided is when Soifon decides to stop wasting time Obfuscating Stupidity and just Two hit KO her opponent with a Flash Step attack while he's doing his power up sequence.
- Probably the most blatant example of this is when Kenpachi fights Tousen. Tousen uses his bankai and then proceeds to lecture Kenpachi about his worldview/how his victory is assured because of his abilities/how his abilities work/etc. rather than finish the fight giving Kenpachi enough time to figure out a winning strategy. Now that sounds pretty standard and while dumb, isn't egregious, until you remember that Tousen's bankai removes all of Kenpachi's senses including sight and hearing, rendering him completely ignorant to the fact that he's getting a lecture in the first place, never mind hearing or comprehending it.
- Well, it's somewhat justified if you remember that Tousen is secretly a vengeance-obsessed sociopath and a traitor. He has a habit of justifying his actions in long-winded speeches, as he does to Grimmjow and later Konamura. In other words he's pretty definitely deranged, and it's part of his character. That Kenpachi couldn't hear him didn't mean he couldn't he was going to be robbed of a chance to rant at the guy who represented everything he loathed. This is also presumably why he basically tortured Zaraki first rather than just kill him- he's just that sadistic.
- Aizen is the patron saint of this trope. His shikai is far and away the most broken in all the series, and 95% of his opponents are already under its spell; he can trap nearly every member of the Gotei 13 in an illusion at will, and that's without his bankai. Such a power would make his battlefield strategy with the powerful Espada he brought along completely unbeatable...so of course Aizen doesn't use his shikai, lets his two star players and Tousen get massacred, and kills Harribel personally just because, using his godly illusion power only to make attacks that wouldn't have hurt him much anyway miss. Later, when Ichigo has completely outclassed him in combat, it never once occurs to Aizen to try and use his shikai or bankai to even the odds, and as such he gets his ass handed to him.
- Although, it's subtly implied that some to a lot of the fights do take place in or heavily use Flash Step and we're just seeing it from their perspective, as in the two moving at roughly the same super speed appear almost normal to each other.
- Orihime has a spectacular example in the Bount filler arc. One of the Bounts manages to control Rukia. Orihime subsequently panics and spends a whole episode angsting, then eventually removes the control with her healing powers. The sad thing is that near the start of the show she had done almost exactly the same thing when Tatsuki was controlled by a hollow.
- A more minor example is our beloved Byakuya Kuchiki. Remember Senka, the technique that deprives individuals of their spiritual power by attacking it's very source? Apparently, he doesn't. Arrancar have been noted by Uryu to have similiar physiology, therefore, the moment he stepped onto the battlefield with Zommari, he could have done this and spared both himself the injuries he would recieve, the Narm we had to endure from that battle, and Rukia being controlled by a freak.
- Zommari himself. Instead of showing Byakuya he can control a body fully by using Amor on the head (after he aimed for Byakuya's limbs) he should have done that from the start. It would have won him the battle.
- Happens all the time in the Pokémon anime. The Team Rocket trio manages to capture Pikachu (and ONLY Pikachu) nearly once per episode, and Ash forgets half of the time that he has FIVE OTHER POKEMON that he could use to just blast Team Rocket's balloon halfway to Jupiter.
- The fact that they're never able to recognize them even when they're all wearing a Paper-Thin Disguise is also an example of this. A talking Meowth and hair like Jessie's apparently is easy to forget.
- In the 13th movie, Ash forgets that he has arguably the strongest team he's ever had in a movie. Aside from one instance with Infernape in the beginning and Pikachu in general, he never uses any of them. The sheer raw power they packed would have made a huge difference against Kodai.
- In the third episode of the Best Wishes series, there is a scene with a group of Pokémon stranded on a disintegrating island in the middle of a lake of boiling water. Some of these Pokémon are Flying-types. They're birds that remember they can fly when they are persuaded to cross a bridge the heroes make so that they can get to safety and that then proceed to FLY AWAY.
- In the same episode, he almost orders Pikachu to use Thunderbolt on a grounded Sandile, who has Iris' Axew in its mouth. The only thing that stops him from going through with this plan is Iris reminding him that the attack would hurt Axew, not the fact that the Ground-type Sandile is outright immune to electricity. Sometimes, when actually remembers them, the kid forgets how to properly use his powers.
- In the 12th movie, Ash and co. are thrown into a cell. A simple, no-tech cell. They wait around in it for god knows how long for a Pokémon to retrieve the key when they could've, I dunno, used their Pokémon to bust their way out. And because of this stall, Arceus gets killed. Not permanently, though.
- In Detective Conan, one episode featured Conan attempting to stop a murder by "Shocking" the murderer into giving up. He shows up Just in Time and shows a plant that holds sentimental value to the murderer, causing her to break down and cry, saving the intended victim. What our diminutive detective seems to forget is that he wears a watch that shoots tranquilizer darts! Why risk the killer ignoring this when he could just tranq her?
- To be fair, if he had done that, there wouldn't be anything stopping the would-be killer from trying again the moment she woke up, and the secret of the tranquilizer dart gun would have been blown.
- Come to think of it, he never seems to use that watch for anything but setting up the solution to the Murder of the Week...
- He's only got one shot in it and he doesn't have a place on his normal clothes to keep spares on him. Therefore he always saves it for when he needs to drug Kogoro to wrap up the case otherwise the killer might get off. He does indeed use it as a weapon when he's not solving a case, such as when he's going against the members of the Black Organization or Kaito Kid.
- Lina, Ameria, and Zelgadis all know Ray Wing, spell that lets them fly, faster than they can run. Yet they will frequently run away from enemies (including ones who can't fly), or stand around watching flying opponents as if they could not reach them.
- In the New Vestroia season of Bakugan Battle Brawlers, our BBEG King Zenoheld wielded a Giant Mecha Bakugan called "Farbros" which could merge with more parts and become virtually unstoppable. So what does he do when the good guys arrive to confront him halfway through the series? Blow up his own machine. Without fusing to the special parts. For no adequately explained reason...
- Blue Gender is one giant Wallbanger for many viewers because of this. Humanity knows The Blue can't swim or fly very well. (Hello there, aircraft carriers!) Humanity controls at least one giant orbiting space station. (Colony Drop!) Humanity also has literal Blue-detecting radar. And nukes. Does humanity use any of these advantages to fight the Blue? Nope! They'd rather take the Blue on in catastrophically designed, weaponless mechs.
Comics
- Nearly any situation should be easily solvable by the Flash, since he can move hundreds and hundreds of times faster than anything else on earth. Yet he constantly forgets to use the full potential of his superpowers until it's time to end the story. Abilities the Flash consistently forgets he has: Running faster than light, Speed stealing, Infinite mass punch, etc.
- ... and it gets worse. On one occasion the villains have destroyed a bridge. The Flash runs to a university, teaches himself civil engineering, rushes back to the site of the collapsing bridge, scavenges for parts and builds an entire new bridge to replace the old one, all in the blink of an eye. This trope is the only reason anyone is able to beat him.
- Lampshaded in an episode of Justice League Unlimited, since it's revealed that while the Flash can do all these things and more, he doesn't phase through things because it's fairly dangerous, and he can't approach his upper limits because the plot says it would kill him. Luthor, on the other hand, isn't so worried about it when his mind ends up in Flash's body.
- It becomes even more ridiculous given the fact that at one point the Flash was able to (within a small fraction of a second) save a city from nuclear annihilation by carrying its half a million person population to a hill miles away one person at a time. And yet Central City's banks still get robbed on his watch.
- In the 4 issue alternate universe DC tale, Kingdom Come, The Flash does become an unstoppable one man war on crime, where he never slows down and has made Keystone City a crime-less utopia.
- To the point where he moves so fast, not only can he run through the air, he simultaneously exists in the physical and metaphysical planes.
- Most of the above points also apply to other speedsters in the DCU. Heck, to most comic book speedsters, period.
- Obviously, Superman suffers from the same forgetfulness both in the comics and in Smallville.
- Marvel's Vision has occasionally fallen victim to similar attacks (though it's rarer). In one issue of What If?, he was killed by a parasitic alien vine that grew into his bodily systems. A fan wrote in to ask what was up; the editors eagerly latched onto his suggestion that "the plant in question isn't entirely tangible itself, and that's why the villain used it".
- An Avengers comic had Vision, along with Thor and Iron Man, taken out by knockout gas. Hmm, a Physical God who can control winds, an unbreathing android, and a guy in a sealed combat suit? No problem. The criminal masterminds who took them out so easily?... Well, you've got to see this one for yourself.
- The Essential Silver Surfer is full of this. When he meets a scientist who invents a device that might let him leave Earth but needs money to make it, the Surfer decides to get a job. He can't (because he doesn't have a Social Security number, he's not in the union and he's funny-looking) so almost robs a bank in desperation, forgetting he can manipulate matter and could just make the scientist's gear for him. He spends about eight comics looking for someone who won't hate him for being "a silver-skinned freak" before he remembers that the Fantastic Four were quite friendly... need I go on?
- In Marvel Zombies, the zombies are attacking Doctor Doom's castle and the Scarlet Witch is infected by the Punisher. Gee, Scarlet Witch, did it never occur to you you could just teleport him and the other zombies away like you did with Ash earlier? Or teleport Enchantress away earlier so Dazzler wouldn't be infected? It is also never explained why Doom didn't just kill Enchantress in the beginning like he did later.
- I assumed Doom kept Enchantress with the hopes of experimenting on her to find a cure.
- Most of the whole Marvel Zombies line was stupider than most readers and even the writers seem to realize. For example, if Nick Fury was definitely in the "food" category, him being powerless — how the hell did Iron Man and the Punisher, among others, end up infected? Neither of them has a single power, and Iron Man's "Extremis" stuff only happened within the last year or so.
- On the other hand Marvel Zombies runs on two things: zombie movie tropes and Rule Of Cool. None of it makes much sense.
- Iron Man's zombification at least was explained in Marvel Zombies: Dead Days: at Zombie Reed Richards' urging, the other zombies deliberately held back when infecting him because his technological expertise could prove useful in finding them more food.
- Green Lanterns have been variously shown as being able to warp time, move faster than light, contain supernovas, fight toe to toe with Superman, alter their own DNA, read minds, find subatomic aliens... Scratch that, if it's a superpower of any sort any given GL has used it at least twice. Now here's the thing. There are creatures other than Gods that bother them. Funny huh?
- It's somewhat justified in their case as their power require willpower and concentration to make anything happen. A GL who is having a bad day, is unfocused or demoralized will be less effective and the GL's are essentially human without their rings (or at least the human ones are.) Plus, their rings require a periodic recharge and anything yellow or anyone whose fast enough or crafty enough to remove a ring is a threat. Still, the idiot plot is somewhat less excusable in the case of veterans like Hal Jordan (or really, any of the Earth based GL's these days) as he is both experienced, and extremely strong willed.
- A plausible explanation is that a ring is only as good as its bearer. Theoretically they can do anything, but practical use is limited by their wearer's individuality. For example half of the feats mentioned above have never been attempted by any of Earth's Green Lanterns, and even among these each has his own area of specialisation with his ring. Kyle has the most diverse constructs (he's an artist), John's constructs are strongest (architect) while Hal (a pilot) just sticks to basics, like boxing gloves, plasma beams and energy bubbles.
- The chronic and widespread amnesia over the Iron Queen's Magitek is one of the main causes of the Idiot Plot that is The Iron Dominion Saga; the Freedom Fighters are constantly clueless to the fact that their enemy can control machines with her mind, and wind up being shocked each time one of their cyborg or mechanical allies gets turned against them by her. They also keep forgetting that they have a counteragent to her spell right in their own backyard. And in case you're wondering, there's actually a time in the saga where the Iron Queen herself forgets that she has this power, and has to be reminded that the Freedom Fighters are holed up in a Gray Goo city that she can manipulate...after she successfully infiltrated and messed up said city with her powers.
- One More Day only "works" because of this trope, but it contains one interesting mundane example: Doctor Strange is unable to help cure Aunt May's gunshot wound. That's "Dr. Strange" as in Stephen Strange, M.D., former neurosurgeon.
- Speaking of the Sorcerer Supreme, he is repeatedly in situations where his virtually unlimited mystic abilities could resolve the plot, or at least make it much simpler. Alas, the good Doctor's imagination is often limited to that of those who write him.
Fan Works
- In Getting Back On Your Hooves Trixie is feeding animals as part of a job working for Fluttershy, ending up falling down a steep bank and getting the list of animals she needed to feed muddy, resulting in a run in with a skunk. As she's getting cleaned up, this trope is lampshaded;
Spike: Uh, Trixie, one thing.
Trixie: Yes, what?
Spike: Why didn't you just use your magic to float the food down to the animals?
- This is also subverted in other places. Trixie's special talent is stage magic, so she's frequently frustrated when Spike asks her why she didn't do something Twilight (whose talent is magic itself) is capable of, but she's not.
Films
- The Mobile Infantry in the Starship Troopers movie have rifles that come with underbarrel shotguns and nuclear rocket launchers, yet they seem to rely almost entirely on their rifles' regular firing mode — even when faced with instances where such weapons would be most effective, such as close combat with the Bugs or when facing a horde of thousands of bunched-together aliens charging their fixed positions.
- Averted in the book by having the Mobile Infantry be equipped heavily enough to be said tanks, and said artillery, and said air support all rolled into one. And you don't use orbital weapons on planetary targets unless you don't want there to be a planet there any more...
- Also in the book, it was explained that they could easily just glass the planet if they wanted. The point of the Mobile Infantry was, basically, to tell the enemy, "Fuck you, we're taking this planet and we're holding it just to show you that we can." (That, and that although the humans developed even nastier weapons as the war went on (e.g. 'planet-crackers'), the MI were still deployed on worlds where the bugs were holding human prisoners - the MI does not leave men behind.)
- Another example of this from the film would be when they first go down into the Arachnid tunnels. You see a huge swarm of aliens like in the first battle scene, and then 2 aircraft fly overhead and carpetbomb them, killing all the aliens. Why the hell didn't they just do that to begin with??? Also, why is it that the only weapons the MI has are assault rifles and briefcase-sized tactical nukes with seemingly nothing in between?
- The movie is basically a Title Jack - they jacked up the title and put a whole different movie under it.
- In The Return of the King, Gandalf rescues Faramir and his retreating troops by using his staff to shine a bright light at the Nazgűl, which scares them away. One might wonder how come he doesn't do that every other time the Nazgűl are around...
- Commented by several cast members on the audio commentary. Ian McKellen mentions bringing the trope up to Peter Jackson, who shrugged and told him he used up all the batteries when he saved Faramir, and the shops in Minas Tirith were all out.
- This is probably the reason why, in the extended edition, Peter Jackson had the Witch-king destroy Gandalf's staff shortly afterwards; something that could not have happened in the book.
- This happens in the book, as well. The narrator's explanation implies that this was essentially a battle of wills, and the Nazgűl backed down because it wasn't the time yet to challenge Gandalf in all out battle — their leader wasn't present and they didn't have an army behind them, and their quarry wasn't that significant at this point. Basically, Gandalf intimidated them to leave, but they could have chosen to resist if they had a good enough reason. It's possible to speculate that this beam of light had approximately the same strength as a stream of running water, which the Nazgűl also fear, but can overcome if they really must.
- It's the Witch King's will that gives the other eight their fortitude to overcome their fear of water and light. Note that he wasn't present when Gandalf saves Faramir.
- In an indirect way, it's actually Sauron's Greed and Malice that fuels the Witch King, which then gives him the Will to overcome the Nazgul's weakness to water and light, who then inspires the Orc's to be useful. Sauron doesn't ALWAYS just stay up in his Tower, he does most of his work indirectly. Hell, the Darkness was actually created by Sauron himself to nerf Gandalf heavily and buff the Nine. That's mostly explained in the books though.
- In The Neverending Story 2 Bastian has to save Fantasia with the help of the Auryn, which can grant him any wish he wants. He never thinks to wish for weapons, or an army, or even that Fantasia just be saved. Instead he wishes for things like a can of spray paint and individual steps to climb a wall.
- This happens two notable times in the Prequel Trilogy of Star Wars, in both cases this stupidity is what ends up saving Obi-Wan's life when he should have died in both cases.
- In The Phantom Menace, Darth Maul is depicted as an agile and powerful Sith Lord, who is able to take on Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan both at the same time with no difficulty whatsoever, eventually mortally wounding Qui-Gon, disarming Obi-Wan and kicking him down into a shaft. Maul probably knows that Obi-Wan is dangling on the edge, which is why he keeps hitting the ground and creating sparks... which is not as effective as say, using Force Push or Force Lightning to make sure he falls. And worse: Obi-Wan then jumps out of the pit over Maul's head while using the Force to telekinetically grab his dying master's lightsaber, ignites it and then cuts Maul in half who then falls to his death in the shaft Obi-Wan just jumped out of. Being the agile duelist Maul is he should have been capable of igniting his lightsaber as Obi-Wan was jumping out of the shaft and cutting him into pieces, or kill him once he lands on solid ground. They made Maul an idiot for that short span of time just so Obi-Wan could survive to become Anakin's master.
- Even worse is that Obi-Wan didn't have to be separated from Qui-Gon after getting up,he could've used Force Speed to get catch up to Maul and Qui-Gon
- It happens once again in Revenge of the Sith during the duel on Mustafar between Anakin and Obi-Wan. Anakin is in control for most of the duel, constantly pushing Obi-Wan back and leaving little room for him to defend himself. At the climax of the duel Obi-Wan decides to end the duel by jumping off the floating platform and retreats to the shore alongside the lava river. Obi-Wan then proceeds to tell Anakin: "I Have the High Ground", Anakin in response takes this revelation as an insult to his power and tries to jump over Obi-Wan who having learned to attack the guy jumping over you unlike Maul cuts off Anakin's legs and one arm (the other was prosthetic) in two swift strokes. After a brief exchange between master and student Obi-Wan ditches Anakin stealing his lightsaber as he watches him graphically burn alive, death seemed like a sure thing for Anakin at that point (which doesn't occur as the Emperor arrives and cybernetically repairs Anakin to become the dark figure we know as Darth Vader). What makes this stupid is that Anakin didn't need to jump over Obi-Wan to continue the duel, he could have thrown his lightsaber, used any of his various Force powers (a part of the fight had them both Force-pushing each other), or simply jump anywhere but right into Obi-Wan and his blade.
- Admittedly, telling Anakin that he couldn't make it might have been what goaded him into trying the jump in the first place - it's not like the boy has shown much judgement regarding his limitations before.
- This is a combined double whammer of Forgot About His Powers and What the Hell, Hero? moment, when you also consider how Obi-Wan decided to leave Anakin to cook slowly to death next to searing lava. He had good reasons to kill Anakin right there, both due to compassion for the man he once was and to ensure that he wouldn't pose any further threat. Nope, Obi-Wan leaves him only because the plot says so.
- This is due to the fact that Obi-Wan was a firm believer in the Will of the Force in that he wanted to leave the outcome up to destiny. In the exact same way Obi Wan stood by and let the force decide the outcome of his battle with Anakin.
- The prequels retroactively introduce this trope to the original trilogy by establishing that R2-D2 has the ability to fly and torch his opponents, something he never does in the original trilogy even though it would have been useful to do so.
- That one was quickly justified by Word Of God: The jets ran out of fuel, and when R2 got memory wiped, there was no one left who remembered he had them.
- Technically, Episode 3 only mentions wiping the memory of C-3PO. "Have the protocol droid's memory wiped."
- Artoo never got memory wiped. In the EU books, he shows Luke a hologram of Anakin choking Padme.
- It happens a LOT more than just twice. The Jedi seem to be almost chronically prone to forget that they have telekinetic powers, even as the Sith use their own in almost every fight.
- The droideka are heavily-armed and have shields that protect them from blaster fire, including that deflected by Jedi with lightsabers. Yet Jedi who encounter them seem to freeze in place and stand there trying to deflect the droideka's blaster fire rather than, say, jumping to a different position and then telekinetically grabbing the droideka and throwing them off a cliff or something.
- The ability to open shackles using telekinesis is apparently a very advanced technique. Anakin uses it to release the Chancellor during the battle over Coruscant, but neither he nor Obi-Wan seemed to even attempt it when they were chained up on Geonosis in the previous movie..
- As to the above, Anakin cut the Chancellor's shackles off with his lightsaber (with a very well-acted flinch on the part of Ian Mc Diarmid) in that scene. In fact, the Chancellor is the only person who ever removed shackles by Force, doing so when Luke was brought before him on the second Death Star. So, this particular power seems to be a subversion in that it really appears that only the most powerful ever do it.
- Obi-Wan's fighter is covered in buzz droids that are quickly cutting it apart. Does he do the smart thing and simply rip them off and toss them away telekinetically? Of course not. He is too busy flying and arguing with Anakin.
- Rather than simply hurl General Grievous around into the walls as soon as he whips out all four of his lightsabers, Obi-Wan instead waits until they are in the middle of a pitched duel. Then he gives Grievous the shove just once. He does not use his telekinetic abilities again in this fight even when Grievous flees.
- This is averted by the Sith, who employ telekinesis extensively during fights. Darth Vader rips things off the walls and throws them at Luke during their first fight. He remote controls his lightsaber with telekinesis in their second. Count Dooku actually grabs Obi-Wan and hurls him across a room with his telekinesis, all while still battling Anakin.
- Everyone who isn't a part of the Fire Nation suffers from this in the live-action film The Last Airbender. Unlike the series, Firebenders (who aren't masters) need an available source of fire in order to bend it. This is all well and good, except none of the other characters ever put them out! Taken to truly ridiculous extremes when several Firebenders are literally bending from a single source they could not conceivably protect.
- The apex of idiocy is reached during the Water Temple invasion, where the characters are told point blank that they NEED to put out the flames and torches in order for them to have a chance to survive. They never do this, and leave hundreds of lit torches out during the invasion.
- Generally speaking, this happens all the time in George Romero's zombie films. Since Romero's zombies are slow, easy to stop, and don't pose much of an active threat if the Living are intelligent about their defenses, the living tend to mentally snap when in well-defended areas, ignore the nearby store filled with more bullets than one could count, or decide to be a loner and die instead of working with others and surviving. To be fair, that's sorta the point of Romero's films (that Humans Are Bastards), but the more of them you watch, the more you see people forgetting their 'powers'.
Literature
- Harry Potter has some examples, which are discussed in its Headscratchers page.
- Lampshaded at least once: "HAVE YOU GONE MAD?" Ron bellowed. "ARE YOU A WITCH OR NOT?"
- Which is a rare justified example: after all, Hermione was a Muggle-born first-year who had started to panic.
- Actually, in this instance, it isn't. She was actually a seventh-year trying to find out how to get past the Womping Willow in order to reach Voldemort. The quote was referring to her lamenting how Crookshanks wasn't present to press the root needed to paralyze it. And while she could have been panicking due the ongoing war, it certainly doesn't justify it.
- Actually, it does justify it. In DH it was Ron panicking, not Hermione. It's justified in Book 1, but certaintly not in Book 7
- Flinx of Alan Dean Foster's Humanx Commonwealth series gets hit with this a lot in the novels after Flinx in Flux. Having been established as: (a) streetwise, (b) adept at survival, (c) having a ton of money, (d) being able to defeat just about any enemy with a combination of his Emotion Bomb and Superpower Meltdown powers; at least half of the scrapes he gets himself into are caused by a combination of him deliberately walking unprepared into lethal environments or conveniently forgetting about one or more of his Psychic Powers in order to allow a different character to get a Big Damn Heroes moment. There's also at least one scene in Trouble Magnet where he does rely on his Emotion Bomb power to get himself out of a scrape, only to have it not work on him thanks to Power Incontinence... a fact he really ought to have taken into account considering how frequently it happens to him.
- In the Mallorean, Belgarath does this. He, Belgarion, and Zakath have to fight a dragon, which is immune to direct sorcery. He makes Garion and Zaketh immune to fire to face the dragon, and has no doubts that this will work, demonstrating that indirect sorcery can be used. Despite this and 7000 years of experience, the idea of translocating large rocks above the dragon's head, or something similar, never occurs to him.
- Easily half of the entire content of any book written by David Eddings exists only because the protagonists don't make simple and forward use of the god-like (and we mean sometimes very literally godlike) powers they have. There is sometimes a flimsy reason given for this (and not used anymore when the plot dictates) but most of the time they just don't use a simple possibility they have - and rather go for an incredibly contrived method that somehow seems like a genius idea.
- In Artemis Fowl: The Lost Colony, Minerva walks up to the Not Quite Unconscious villain to taunt him and kick his shin in the middle of a firefight, costing Butler four precious seconds and allowing the henchmen to strap a bomb to Holly. That's what being the Designated Victim can do to you.
- Grand Admiral Thrawn, of Star Wars EU fame, has two despite being an overall extremely Genre Savvy character. The first is his reliance on Captain Ferrier, a ship thief and overall bigmouthed dumbass. Ferrier at various times nearly screws up Thrawn's plans, and gets an entire squad of Imperial troopers killed, in addition to uniting all the major smugglers against Thrawn. Instead of writing the whole thing off as a bad job (especially after he loses a nearly-completed Star Destroyer in the bargain), Thrawn tries one more time to neutralize the smugglers using Ferrier. It doesn't go well. The second is with Mara Jade; Thrawn has just betrayed Mara Jade by tricking her into revealing Talon Karrde's location, leading to his arrest by the torture-happy Imperials, and then smugly mouths off to her face about it. Mara predictably goes berserk and attempts to attack Thrawn, at first physically then through the Force. Both of these fail, leaving Thrawn with the question of what to do with a still visibly enraged and always emotionally unstable Jade. Who by the way knows everything about the safehouse on Wayland, which until then had been Thrawn's superweapon-in-the-hole. Instead of killing her, he allows her to live, and then allows her her unsupervised liberty aboard his ship. Jade then immediately hacks into the computer network of Thrawn's ship and escapes. The next one-and-a-half books can be accurately described as Jade sticking it to Thrawn which eventually leads to his plans collapsing and his death.
- Thrawn's decision is defensible; Mara Jade is the only other Force adept he has access to, and he needs another ace in the hole to restrain the unstable C'baoth with. She is worth taking a risk on recruiting. And so he's testing her loyalty by letting her run free and seeing what she does. He doesn't know that she's aware of Wayland's location that she has a hardwired Emperor's Eyes Only backdoor access code to any Imperial mainframe computer...
- In Time Cat, Jason and Gareth are often captured and held somewhere against their will. Despite having the power to travel to any point in space or time, Gareth never uses his magic to allow them to both escape.
- This happens many times in The Vampire Chronicles series:
- Lestat is a skilled computer hacker in Tale of the Body Thief, but doesn't know how to use email when it becomes a plot point in Blood Canticle.
- It's possible that this is actually a case where the author Did Not Do the Research... on her own characters. Anne Rice decided she was too great an author to make use of an editor as anything other than a spellchecker.
- When Louis falls improbably in love with Merrick, it never occurs to David that something supernatural is going on, even though he's an expert in magic and he knows she's a witch.
- Used in a subtle and clever way in The Dresden Files novel Small Favor. Harry has a small arsenal of magical tools on him (staff, shield bracelet, force rings, blasting rod, and various other odds-and-ends), and he has a wide range of spells he can draw from (bursts of flame, blasts of force, lighting bolts, wind, etc). Therefore, unless the reader is paying very close attention, they'll miss something important: Throughout the novel, Harry uses most of his gear and most of his spells, but he doesn't use either fire magic or his blasting rod beyond the initial brawl in the first chapter. It isn't until later on that the reason becomes apparent: Mab, queen of the Winter Court, took his blasting rod and put a lock in Harry's mind that kept him from using fire magic, so that the fire-based Summer Court couldn't track him down and kill him.
Live Action TV
- Hiro Nakamura of Heroes is one of the most powerful characters in the series with the ability to stop time and teleport; he's just too much of a dork to think of using it when he needs to defend himself. This was even given a nod in the series when his friend, Ando, deliberately antagonized a group of peeved gamblers, assuming Hiro would use his power to put them all down. Hiro, not comprehending the situation, was almost immediately KO'ed by a punch to the face.
- Admittedly, this is because the acrimonious conversation is occurring in English, which Hiro does not speak at that point in the show.
- What about the time that Hiro and his friend have to find out what's in a safe, finally get it open, only to have the document stolen by a woman with super-speed powers? Hiro then spends several episodes trying to chase her so they can get the document back and see what it says. It never occurred to Hiro that he could have gone back yesterday and opened the safe and read the document before the thief stole it. He then could have replaced the document if he didn't want to cause a paradox or even replaced the document with a fake if he were really smart. This is also immediately after Hiro spent some time idly making time pass forward and backwards just to see a clocks hands move. So the speedster is so fast that, even when time is "stopped" she moves at normal speed. What about when time is rewinding?
- Peter Petrelli is far worse than Hiro when it comes to being handed the Idiot Ball. But I guess they have to make him stupid to avoid having him fall into A God Am I status. By comparison, at least in the first season, Sylar usually used most of his arsenal to deadly effect.
- Example in case: In the final episode of Season 2, Peter is using up immense amounts of telekinetic energy to break into a vault with a solid 24-inch thick riveted steel door. As impressive as this may have been for the special effects, Fridge Logic would note that he can walk through solid objects and could have saved himself a lot of time and exhaustion.
- The best example comes in season 3. In a Mexican-standoff hostage situation, rather than using telekinesis or time-stopping, he uses newly acquired super-speed to attack one of the enemies. The fact he attacked the most harmless enemy is a whole another Idiot Ball...
- Can't forget the fact that he wouldn't even know he had super speed, as he just absorbed it subconsciously. And he should've known about stopping time or his telekinesis, since the character who he learned telekinesis from was shouting at him to teleport! Teleporting and stopping time were learned from the same guy, and given that stopping time would have enabled him to save the hostage...
- Hiro still is perplexing at times. Like in Season 2 when he deliberately has an affair with Takezo Kensei's girlfriend in spite of knowing it will mess up the time/space continuum and knowing that Kensei is a drunk who's been turned into a hero only through The Powerof Love / The Powerof Friendship. Not to mention that he could have avoided the situation in the first place by going forward in time earlier.
- It gets even worse, in a more recent episode Hiro has to go after a precog who naturally knows he's coming. Attempting to catch the precog he gets himself knocked out by a shovel, he then tries going back in time to intercept his ambusher only to get knocked out again by the same guy (who hadn't time traveled). Sure the precog has to power to co-ordinate this but Hiro can FREEZE TIME so that the ambusher would be unable to intercept his interception (less confusing when you watch it). Anyhow Hiro decides to give up using his powers that he barely even used deeming them useless (when they blatantly aren't), the precog eventually reveals that this was a test and Hiro passed by not depending * bang* on his * bang* powers * bang* OH FOR CRYING OUT LOUD HIS PROBLEM IS HE HARDLY USES THEM NOT THE OTHER WAY ROUND... my head hurts now. At least it was funny.
- Hiro has proven repeatedly that he can stop time and manipulate things around for as long as he likes before setting time forward again... so aside from massive stupidity, what's stopping him from freezing time and using a hacksaw to decapitate Sylar and gleefully start time again while Sylar's head is now relocated 12 feet away from his body? With time stopped, Hiro's clothes wouldn't even get stained because there'd be no time flow to make Sylar's neck gush out while he's cutting.
- Hiro isn't that cruel - he only twice attempted to kill someone, Sylar (because it was his destiny) and Adam (who disappointed/pissed him beyond belief). And outside interference saved both.
- In contrast, in Season 4 Hiro expends considerable time and effort using his powers to solve a problem that he easily could have solved without them. He meets a distraught cubicle worker on the roof, who wants to jump because he was fired for photocopying his butt. So Hiro travels back in time to sabotage the copier, only for the guy to do it again at the next opportunity. And again. And again. While it was a Crowning Moment of Funny, one wonders if there was another way Hiro Nakamura could have saved the guy's job at Nakamura industries.
- In the end of Season 1, Sylar is stabbed by Hiro suddenly teleporting behind him. This wouldn't be so bad, if he hadn't stopped BULLETS fired BEHIND him one minute earlier.
- Pretty much any story where the characters have access to some kind of beaming technology or the equivalent uses this to some degree, and really has to given the immense versatility of being able to teleport anything at will. Stargate SG-1 does this less than many shows, having beamed nukes into other ships, beamed a skyscraper into orbit before it exploded, and beaming people out of ships into space, but they have yet to beam an enemy ship in half.
- This is attributable to how the beaming works. The beaming requires that the target have a beacon on it that the technology can lock on to, for a start. For another, they usually have to do some techy stuff to get the nukes and such through the shield, so no doubt the shields will usually block attempts to just rip the ship apart, making just moving smaller objects, like nukes, a much more viable and reliable option.
- One early episode does show the Asgard using their transporter as a very impressive weapon, beaming Goa'uld troops and entire buildings to nothingness in a surprise attack (while simultaneously using the same technology to safely beam a friendly native to their ship and back).
- Beaming aside, SG-1 is very good about actually remembering alien technology they've previously encountered that could help them on their current mission. (Or could solve the current mystery.) The best example being zaat guns, which actually became standard equipment.
- In Hogan's Heroes, Carter wavers between Genius Ditz and flat-out The Ditz. He's the group's demolition expert and blew up his school's chemistry lab, but he doesn't know enough scientific terminology to instruct Lebeau in how to pretend to know chemistry.
- Justified in that one doesn't need an advanced knowledge of theoretical chemistry in order to knock together household chemicals to make explosives.
- The various Star Trek series regularly did this. It's the 23rd or 24th century, yet the crew is frequently in peril from threats that even 20th century technology could handle. They repeatedly forget that their own warp drive, shields, transporters, phasers, replicators, holodecks, sickbay, etc., etc., can perform miracles.
- This is especially jarring in episodes in which transporter failure ("The Enemy Within") drives the plot. No one seems to recall the shuttles, the shuttles' transporters, or the cargo bay transporter system.
- In any scene where there is a man-to-man on the ship/station, they could put the transporter to work, simply beaming the enemies into the brig or even just erasing their patterns without bothering to reconstitute them.
- Another Deep Space Nine example, in the second season finale (which introduced the Dominion formally, with the Jem'Hadar and the Vorta), a Vorta is able to use a powerful psychic telekinetic attack in combat and to escape from a holding cell. No mention of these abilities are ever made again, let alone actually used by a Vorta, even in situations where it could have been a huge advantage for them.
- The variable effectiveness of phasers is a common plot hole in Star Trek, especially the later series. In the Star Trek: The Original Series a small handheld phaser the size of a smart phone could potentially disintegrate a person or blow the side off a building. In Star Trek: The Next Generation Data once vaporized all the water in an aqueduct system stretching miles up a mountain using one. But in Deep Space Nine Federation troops fighting the Dominion are lugging around these huge phaser rifles that fire little bullet-like pops of energy that can barely put a hole in a wall, leading to many combat scenes distinctly similar to their major competing franchise.
- Cloaking technology is a major source of tension, particularly between the Federation and the Romulon and Klingon Empires, who both use it extensively. The fact that the Federation could potentially counter the utility of cloaking devices by simply recruiting more members of telepathic races such as Betazoids into Starfleet seems to have somehow escaped their thought processes entirely.
- In Fringe an episode pertaining to a flash forward tries to portray Olivia Dunham as having mastered her abilities by showing off her telekinesis. Dunham, a generally already battle hardened cop with lightning reflexes and an inexplicable penchant for headshots (before any brainwashing) is confronted by Walternate, brandishing a gun, and is promptly shot in the face after failing to react.
- In Quantum Leap, there are several episodes in which Sam has to keep someone from being kidnapped, and the obvious solution — have Al stay with the victim at all times until something happens — rarely if ever occurs to them. Generally speaking, Al's potential for spying is greatly underused.
- Possibly justified in that Al only thought about spying on women in the shower and Sam had that whole "Swiss-cheesed brain" thing going on...
- In Smallville, Clark Kent is awfully easy to sneak up on for someone with super-hearing.
- Justified in that while teenage Clark Kent may have most or all of the adult Superman's powers, he doesn't yet have the street smarts to be the Man of Steel—which is kind of the point of the series.
- When the Charmed Ones become powerful, they keep on forgetting about their powers. Like when a criminal was holding a gun at Phoebe's head and ordered Paige to cast a spell to disguise him. Rather than just orb the gun, Paige killed him by demon. Piper didn't use her freezing powers several times because she just didn't try. And Phoebe stopped using her premonition powers to help innocents and just focused on herself.
- In the noted example, Phoebe was only tolerating this criminal in the first place because he had effectively kidnapped and hidden a friend. Phoebe's logic was put up with him until he gave her the necessary information. Of course, at this time, Phoebe had empathic powers, which she never bothers to use here. It's not quite mind reading, but she used it in other situations before to help figure something out.
- In No Ordinary Family Stephanie seems to constantly forget that she has superspeed and could solve their problem in a fraction of a second. It doesn't help that when not using her powers she doesn't seem to have any kind of Super Reflexes, and terrible normal reflexes, so she's been hit by attacks that even most non-speedsters could dodge. One particularly notable example comes in the finale, when they're encircled by men with guns and after about 30 seconds of them talking and trying to find another way out, she remembers that she can just punch them out before they do anything, and does.
- In True Blood Sookie has the ability to read most people`s thoughts. There are many times where a character is able to trick her or give her false information, because she doesn`t seem to remember this ability.
- Somewhat justified in that she tries to tune people out deliberately, and only picks up very strong stray thoughts when she's not actively listening. Also, she has great trouble reading supernaturals.
- Warehouse 13 has the Character Jynx who is supposed to be able to detect when people are lying to him. Soon he begins to get lied to as much as the other characters without detecting anything.
- Knight Rider tended to both play to and avert this trope. There were lots of things demonstrated that were used only once or twice and then never used again that would have been very helpful (usually involving scanning something, sensing something, or nearly-telekinetic power). On the other hand, sometimes functions would be brought back after a couple seasons and suddenly used again.
- A few functions were explicitly mentioned as removed, such as the laser and water hydroplaner, but by and large KITT's functions were a fluid thing and you never knew which new thing might pop up.
- In the episode of the Twilight Zone, "Escape Clause", Walter Bedeker is given immortality and is unable to feel pain. Instead of setting out to have a long and happy life, he defrauds several businesses and confesses to killing his wife, which he didn't do. In court, he works to get himself convicted so he could try out the electric chair, but is then given life in prison instead, although it's not explained what he would have done after going to the electric chair. It is at this point that he uses the "Escape Clause" which causes his own death rather than face life in prison. At this point, he has apparently forgotten that in addition to being ageless, he is also invulnerable. How easy would it then be to escape from prison if he doesn't have to fear injury or death? He could wait for an opportunity and make a break for the barbed wire or electrified fence and just climb over it. What are guard dogs or gunshots to someone who is invulnerable? In the very least, he could wait it out.
Video Games
- The railroad ending options of Fallout 3 have this trope in spades. No matter what, someone has to die from radiation poisoning, either the player or an innocent secondary character. This is despite the fact that the player has three optional companions who are immune to radiation damage — Fawkes (good players only), Charon (any player alignment), and Sergeant RL-3 (Neutral alignment). To add insult to injury, by this point in the game most players will have collected both a very high rad resistance through perks and a huge number of anti-radiation chems, and could probably stay in the chamber for weeks if necessary.
- Broken Steel changes the fate of the both the player character and Paladin Lyons to being Not Quite Dead, no matter who went in and pressed the button. Also it allows you to send in one of your radiation-immune companions to activate the purifier instead.
- Though to reiterate, the fact that 4 of your companions should enter for you is explained away by it being "your destiny" or it not "being in their contract".
- In Ace Attorney, Phoenix Wright and Apollo Justice both have methods of detecting when someone is lying. Phoenix only ever uses his outside of court, and Apollo only ever uses his inside court. Even then, they only show up in certain circumstances, not every single time someone lies.
- Phoenix cannot detect lies; he can detect and break psyche-locks. A casual lie doesn't form a psyche-lock unless there's a massive amount of guilt and/or trauma surrounding it.
- Surely the only explanation for Cutscene Incompetence.
- Like in Chrono Trigger when the characters are disarmed. Ayla fights with her fists, so she can fight. But Robo can also use inbuilt lasers that are unlikely to have been removed, and the rest of the party can use MAGIC.
- Lancer in Fate/stay night. Granted, it's not entirely his fault considering he's actually been ordered not to just kill everyone. But he never actually does net a kill with his Noble Phantasm — the only time he kills someone (Shirou in the intro, himself and Kotomine in UBW) is when he's doing regular stabbing.
- He tried it against Saber at the beginning of the game. It didn't work because her Luck stat was too high. (Considering that, the only ones his skill would work against are Archer, Rider, True Assassin and Dark Saber.) And he clearly beat Archer in UBW with the stronger version of it but didn't finish him.
- Gilgamesh is of course the king of this trope, but it's justified due to his massive pride: He just never considers anyone 'worthy' of going all out on.
- How many times can the dragon Spyro forget he can breathe flames at the start of a new game in his series?
- Valkyria Chronicles plays with this one in places throughout the game, but the most glaringly obvious and stupid one is when Alicia comes to Welkin, distraught and nearly in tears over her Valkyria powers and the huge responsibility that's been dumped on her, seeking his help. Welkin, despite being a genius and in love with her, chooses this moment to casually ignore Alicia, and she runs off fighting tears because obviously if Welkin doesn't sympathize with her problems, she's just whining. The only reason he does this is to set the next major scene, when Alicia tries to kill herself because Welkin wouldn't acknowledge her pain and he rushes in for the last-second Cooldown Hug.
- In God of War II, Kratos starts the game off by deliberately draining his godly powers into a sword, just because Zeus tells him to. A guy who hates the gods and has no reason to trust ANY of them falls for a blatantly obvious trap, only to justify the game's Bag of Spilling.
- Silver Surfer in Silver Surfer for NES. The guy obviously forgets that he has cosmic powers, and tries to attack the bad guys normally. And is a One Hit Point Wonder. The result is legendary even among the Nintendo Hard games of the era. It's almost Bullet Hell with none of that genre's saving graces.
- This can occasionally happen to players in any game that gives them a large enough set of abilities or items to lose the overview of it and therefore sometimes not instantly thinking of one of the lesser-used tricks in a new situations. Examples would be the enormous set of spells one can assemble in The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion or people carrying around a lot of tools in Deus Ex.
- Daikatana: "You can't attack me, this is the same sword from two different parts of time and will destroy the universe!" "Damn, if only I had some other weapons on me..."
Webcomics
Web Original
- In Pooh's Adventures, if Pooh has anyone with superpowers, expect them to forget about those when the time is right.
Western Animation
- When's the last time Daffy Duck flew under his own power?
- This was Lampshaded in the short The Million Hare, as Bugs Bunny witnesses Daffy plunging off a cliff, which was recycled so John Madden could make the same observation in Big Game XXIX.
Bugs: "I wonder if Daffy will remember that he can fly." (crash) "Nope, I guess not."
Madden: "That's a good observation by Bugs. Why isn't Daffy using his God-given abilities?"
- To move the Idiot Plot of a typical episode of The Fairly OddParents, either Cosmo and Wanda's magical wands are stolen, or more commonly Timmy has to stupidly forget that he is enabled to alter reality on a whim. Naturally this has been Lampshaded quite a few times. For example, the quote from above comes from the episode "Where's Wanda", in which Wanda goes missing. Timmy proceeds to turn the world into Film Noir and become a detective in order to track her down... when he could have easily just wished her back.
- Also lampshaded in "Nectar of the Odds": Timmy unsuccessfully tries to make his lemonade taste better using cheese, taco sauce, peas, and chocolate laxatives. While Timmy goes to the bathroom (after trying the laxatives), Wanda wonders why he doesn't just wish for sweeter lemonade.
- In Timmy's defense, every single attempt he ever made at simply wishing the plot of the week to be magically resolved was always blocked by some arcane and obscure magic rule that would forbid magic from undoing his previous stupid wish. "Not Using Magic to Break True Love" came up a lot in this regard. By this point, Timmy may simply be assuming that wishing things back to normal will bring up the freaking rulebook, so he's saving himself the aggravation and solving things the hard way from the start.
- Similarly, there are too many times to count in Danny Phantom where Danny seemingly forgets that he has the ability to become invisible or intangible at will. Early on it made sense due to it being clear he was still getting used to his abilities, and sometimes it was played for humor, but it seemed strange he would still sometimes forget this fact even in the later episodes.
- In the first season of Justice League, characters would regularly forget their powers. In the season finale, Brainiac is holding everyone in an iron grip with tentacles. They struggle for an unreasonable time before Martian Manhunter remembers that he can turn intangible at will.
- The Martian Manhunter is the king of this trope. He has the ability to transform into whatever Super Strong forms he can imagine — an ability he uses three times in the entire series. He'll stare at incoming projectiles with a surprised look on his face instead of turning intangible, or super solid or transforming into a form that cannot be so easily hit.
- In the Silver Age comics, he had even more powers, with new ones popping up all the time. Somehow, he just never used them with the slightest tactical sense. As my high school guidance counselor said many times, "You have so much wasted potential!"
- On the other hand, with powers ranging from Super Strength to making ice cream with your mind, it's hard to create conflict.
- Well duh; why would any villain fight someone who'll give them free ice cream?!
- Let's not forget the many, many instances where Superman would be felled by an electrical field, despite the fact that he is supposed to be invulnerable. This got to be so bad that in the second season the writers actually started to show less of Superman getting taken out by a electrical shock or something along those lines, and more of his invulnerable side.
- That's hardly PIS - it's not like he forgot electricity can't hurt him if it actually does hurt him. Given how often it happens it seems that in this universe Supes also has a vulnerability to electricity, though it's not like we are told just how many millions of volts he's being hit with, including on alien planets with alien electricity.
- The reason Supes was made so pathetic in the first season of JLU was because the writers of the show knew he could handle 99.9% of all threats to the world by himself if he was depicted at his true power. The in-universe explanation for his weakling status was that he was holding the vast majority of his strength back after the incident where he nearly conquered earth as a brainwashed pawn of Darkseid. Also, he claimed to actively take more hits from opponents that would have otherwise hit his teammates.
- Also to allow Batman to do something other than sit at the Batcomputer. Let's face if the various superheros go all out Bats is useless. He can handle his own villains but Bizzaro, Sinestro or Grodd? Going all out they swat him like a fly and move on.
- Probably more relevant to Superman: The Animated Series, but how many times has Superman come up against a kryptonite wielding enemy and never thought to keep his distance and use his heat vision to melt the kryptonite or fry the evil robot (ahem, Metallo) who's holding it?
- And if you think the above examples are bad, you should watch the old Superfriends some time. "Gee, Jayna, here we are trapped under the foot of a giant space monster, touching each other. If only we had, I don't know, some kind of superpower that would allow you to turn into a small animal and me into something which could flow through the claws, we could escape!"
- All of Superfriends was made of this trope. It was parodied openly in a sketch on The State, Superman orders the other heroes to basically cleanup duty and then says "I'll stop the missiles... all by myself!" And then grabs his crotch with a smug look on his face.
- In the Teen Titans animated series, Raven is easily the most overpowered of the five, which is made glaringly obvious in season 4 (though one could Fan Wank this as her emotional state boosting her powers for the duration, given what was happening). As such, PIS is the only way to keep the entire team necessary. Raven often conveniently forgets that she can fly, teleport, and become intangible in situations where those powers would be highly useful. She also rarely uses her telekinesis to restrain opponents or hurl them away from the scene of a battle, rather than just tossing debris at them. She's done it before, to both allies and enemies, so it's not an issue of being unable. There's only one episode where she concentrates and simply cuts the baddie's armour with her power. One.
- She states she has to "put a bit of herself" in everything she moves or uses her powers on while her powers are active. It's possible it's harder to do this on living things, especially hostile living things in the middle of a battle, then it is to do it to inanimate objects.
- No matter how many missions the characters in Code Lyoko go on, they always seem to forget that, first and foremost, while on Lyoko one cannot die from lasers and swords, they can only be devirtualized. They will also forget their most important abilities at the worst times. For example, Aelita could use her Creativity power to create terrain barriers around herself, but even in dangerous situations where she has enough time, she quite often forgets that she can do this. She is the most obvious offender, but the others are often guilty as well.
- Aelita also forgets that XANA will NOT kill her starting with Season 2, despite this being proven in the first third of the season.
- The "dying" thing is somewhat justified. While they do just devirtualize, it's implied they can't go right back into Lyoko.
- This seems to be a staple of Drawn Together, especially in regards to Captain Hero, who takes this to Ralph Wiggum levels. More often than not though, he is just sociopathic.
- In the Mighty Hercules cartoon series of the 1960's, Hercules had a magic ring that would endow him "with the strength of ten ordinary men" (according to his theme song). Along with invulnerability and superhuman reflexes. In each episode, Hercules would go to fight the episode's monster and get the snot beaten out of him. And then he would remember he has the ring...
- Let's not forget Popeye, who waited until he was virtually in traction at the hands of Bluto/Brutus before he whipped out his can of spinach.
- This could be justified in that most episodes that showed Popeye discovering his spinach powers also shows Popeye doesn't like to eat it. Also, Popeye's plenty strong without it, so maybe he just likes to test himself.
- Also, especially in the older cartoons, Popeye would usually be winning (or at least even) until Bluto started cheating to get the upper hand. He didn't whip out the spinach until he explicitly needed it.
- The Ben 10 Alien Force Grand Finale had this in spades. On two separate occasions, the heroes decide to launch a suicide run to get to the Highbreed's headquarters — first on Earth, which costs them Kevin's beloved (and phenomenally tricked-out) car, then in space, which almost KILLS the technomorph Ship. Too bad they didn't have Paradox around, because he could have instantly moved them around through time and space to get wherever they wanted without risking assets or friends... Oh, wait, THEY DID. And he just stood back with super-genius Asmuth and watched!
- Might not be PIS, since Paradox is something of an unhelpful Jerk Ass at times. The series in general, however, plays this straight because Ben is regularly too stupid to remember he has aliens whose powers could solve the entire plot in five minutes. Even accounting for the unreliable nature of the Omni/Ultimatrix, there's no reason why he shouldn't have at least tried some of them. A particularly egregious case occurs in "Where the Magic Happens", where Ben never thinks to use Terraspin, an alien immune to mana, in the dimension made entirely of mana' and against the opponent whose only weapon is mana.
- Rule Of Cool applies at times, when it comes down to wanting actual action battle or Ben subduing someone quickly. Some PIS can be accounted to Ben's outside the box thinking, which backfires on him.
- As to the comment about Paradox, it's not that he's a Jerk Ass that he doesn't use his powers to help more, it's that there are limits to what he can do. He made this clear awhile ago.
- The Planeteers in Captain Planet. They control the elements (and Heart), and yet they almost ALWAYS fail to use them in any useful way. Though this may be more "Kids' Forgot About His Powers".
- It's not that they'd fail to make use of their powers - it's that their powers were incredibly weak individually. There was even an episode that lampshaded how the planeteers were sick of not being able to save the day without calling on Captain Planet. Then a mysterious figure shows up and offers them to trade their relatively weak rings in for gauntlets that had the power to raise mountains, create hurricanes and tidal waves and unleash firestorms. Your standard "power corrupts" episode that failed to resolve the whole Good Is Impotent issue.
- Apparently Bloom forgot about her healing powers in the 24th episode of the fourth season of Winx Club, since she didn't do anything to try to save Nabu.
- The Winx get backed off a cliff in the Omega Dimension in season three. No explanation is given for why they don't use their wings!
- There's also an episode in the first season (towards the end) where the girls go to Domino/Sparx. At the end of the first part (it's a two-part episode), Bloom, who's currently powerless, is about to fall into a chasm. Stella was transformed at this time and could've easily flown over and grabbed Bloom, yet she didn't!
- Star Wars: The Clone Wars. All too often the Jedi Knights seem to forget that they have the ability to lift anything as heavy as a spaceship without touching it, jump high distances, control minds and possess lightning quick reflexes. Curiously these bouts of stupidity come up when they're fighting a Badass Normal character such as Cad Bane, whom you think a Jedi could reduce to a pile of disembodied limbs within seconds. And of course it is not a coincidence that this always happens when around the series' original characters. Justified, as the Jedi were deliberately underpowered as a story choice (the Jedi were arguably too badass in Star Wars: Clone Wars, though even they had their PIS moments), but this fails to address the fact that even these underpowered Jedi regularly forget to use things like telekinesis, even when others around them don't.
- Parodied on The Powerpuff Girls when the townspeople chase Buttercup. She starts running from them before reassessing the situation and flying away.
- In one episode of Spider-Man: The Animated Series, Doctor Octopus kidnaps Felicia Hardy and J. Jonah Jameson and holds them for ransom. Despite Super Strength explicitly being one of his powers, Spider-Man tries to untie the ropes instead of just breaking them, giving Doc Ock time to step in and stop him.
- Snapping ropes than bind someone can be harmful to him, as you tight them for a while. In a life-or-dead scenario, on the other hand...
- Some of The Land Before Time sequels have this problem, neglecting the fact that Petrie can fly.
- The 70s Fantastic Four series had Magneto unable to use his magnetic powers against a (fake wooden) gun. He suddenly concludes that his powers are gone. This is stupid enough itself, but he fails to use them even after being told it was a trick and the cops are arresting him. Cops with real guns, handcuffs and police cars.
- My Little Pony Friendship Is Magic has a moment of this in the episode "Feeling Pinkie Keen". Twilight Sparkle is forced to take a leap of faith off a cliff to escape a Hydra when she mysteriously forgets she can teleport, as has been seen in at least two previous episodes, including the pilot.
- To be fair, it's implied that doing certain magic tricks take a lot of concentration. She may not have had the time or concentration to teleport far enough.
- In "Look Before You Sleep", Twilight has another Idiot Ball handed to her. She's so hung up trying to have the perfect slumber party, she decides to just go with it when a giant tree branch falls into her window, while Applejack and Rarity have to set aside their differences. She doesn't do anything about it because the book doesn't say so. She apparently forgot she can simply move it out of her house, given her magical powers.
- I think the point wasn't moving the tree, she was trying to figure out if a tree falling in the window was normal for a sleepover. She didn't want to risk moving the tree and then find out that things like that are SUPPOSED to happen in sleepovers.
- A common fanon explanation is that she was somewhat concussed from the branch landing on her head.
- This happens to a number of characters in X-Men: Evolution. The worst offender is Kitty, who seems to forget that she can become intangible with some regularity. One especially egregious instance has her running through a series of barriers in the danger room seemingly without problem...until she runs into the last one and is knocked unconscious. Xavier also seems to forget that he has telepathy sometimes
- Possibly justified in that many of the characters in the show are much younger than usual and could be still learning to harness or use their powers. Of course, the show never really says that Kitty (for example) has trouble staying intangible. And this doesn't really make sense for Xavier, who is not appreciably more inexperienced than usual.
- The episode "No Good Deed" in season four has Kitty try to phase a train through another train to prevent a crash. About half way through, she can no longer keep it up and the train becomes solid again. So whilst yes, the example is a bit extreme, it still shows that Kitty has trouble sometimes with her powers.
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