History Main / CursedWithAwesome

* Clark Kent on ''{{Smallville}}'', constantly whines and angsts about how terrible it is to be an alien "outsider" with such and awful secret. Yep, an outsider with: two unbelievably loving parents, some awesome best friends who are totally supportive when they eventually learn his secret (and one's a hottie that's totally in love with him to boot), an acceptable level of baseline popularity in school, gets to looks like Tom goddamn Welling so most chicks think he's hot-as... oh and the small matter of developing a [[ComboPlatterPowers wide array]] of earth-shattering superpowers that make him a virtually unkillable demigod. Yeah, boo-frikkety-hoo, Clark; cry me a river... If it weren't for [[KryptoniteFactor kryptonite]] it would be win-win-win.

* ''{{Pathfinder}}'' has the Oracle class, divine spellcasters who all are cursed with disabilities. The good news is, these curses come with matching benefits, which get more powerful as you level.

** On the subject of Pokémon, the hero in ''PokemonMysteryDungeon'' never seems to find being turned into a Pokémon really awesome (seeing all the cool powers and stuff they have). However, the hero also rarely ever mentions a desire to go back to human form. [[spoiler:Subverted in the first PMD games, as the player character chose to become a Pokémon, though they do not remember their past. The ''Explorers'' games play this straight, as the main villain was behind the transformation.]] Averted in the [[NoExportForYou Japan-only]] WiiWare games, as the player character is not a transformed human in those.

* In ''EmilyOfNewMoon,'' Emily Starr considers her imprecise and very rare psychic manifestations as awful, never-to-be-spoken-of incidents, when these powers only ever are shown as helping people. However, Justified when one considers ValuesDissonance -- psychic powers were classified under "insanity" in the Victorian era.

**** I know of at least two Daedra princes (Hircine and Nocturnal) who can get a claim on your soul. Ironically though, the main character really isn't human(oid), being a dragonborn implies you have the soul of a dragon aka an aedra. Meaning you are one of the (weaker) world-bound counterparts of the princes. Should make for a rather interesting death.

* In AllStarSuperman, LexLuthor [[BatmanGambit endangers a space fight]], forcing {{Superman}} to fly too close to the sun in the process of rescuing them. The damage to his body leaves him with one year to live. On the upside, it boosts his powers and intelligence, and renders him immune to kryptonite, which helps him deal with all his final year's problems.

* The goddamned ''{{Batman}}''. Yes, it's so hard to be one of the richest, most attractive, most intelligent men in the world with fighting abilities rivaling most Special Forces, and hi-tech gizmos that NASA would need a decade to reverse-engineer. The Burton/Shumacher movies actually have characters calling out Bruce Wayne on this.

** In the {{DLC}} "Legacy" it's revealed that Hawke's father Malcolm felt that his magic was a burden and that he hoped his children would not be mages. When at least one of his children did turn out to have magic he took great pains to teach them that with great power ComesGreatResponsibility . This despite the fact that he was a very powerful and skilled mage who could have done very well for himself if he had stayed in the Circle.

*** [[WesternAnimation/TheLegendOfKorra Korra]] on the other hand was more than willing to JumpedAtTheCall, and she already has control over 3 out of the 4 elements.

* [[BladeOfTheImmortal Otono-Tachibana Makie]] is subject to much RealityEnsues related [[DeconstructedTrope deconstruction]] and [[BreakTheCutie general misery]] in relation to her curse of being the [[WorldsMostBeautifulWoman jaw-droppingly gorgeous]] [[PrecisionFStrike mothereffin']] [[UpToEleven absolute]] [[TheAce pinnacle]] of [[TheGift natural talent]] [[WorldsStrongestMan in the world]]. To elaborate: When she was no more than ten years old she, without having taken so much as a single lesson in how to ''hold'' a sword, much less ''use'' one, defeated her five years older brother, the HeirToTheDojo, in a sparring match. This [[DrivenToSuicide drove her brother to commit]] {{seppuku}} out of shame; dishonoured the dojo and left it heirless as she, [[ValuesDissonance being a woman]], was not allowed to become its heir ''and'' made her father disown her and her mother and forced them to join a whorehouse. Which, according to her mother, wasn't so bad because [[HookerWithAHeartOfGold it's much better to spend one's life comforting others rather than taking lives]]. Around this time Makie also saved the life of her second cousin, the aspiring BigBad of the series, Anotsu Kagehisa. [[RescueRomance Love was born at first sight.]] Only, to Makie [[KissingCousins it was the birth of true love of Anotsu]], but to Anotsu it was nothing but [[InLoveWithYourCarnage love of Makie's unbelievable skill with the sword]]. Many years later this leads him to attempt to recruit her for his dojo of CombatPragmatism, putting her wish to be loved (or at least be with the man she loved) and have a handful of happiness in her life in direct conflict with what her mother had taught her about being a decent human being... So Makie's nigh-superhuman battle prowess lead to the complete destruction of her entire family as well as making the love of her life want her as nothing more than a sword in his army, her beauty lead her to a "successful" life in prostitution and her awesome curse filled her life with nothing but [[BrokenBird self-loathing and more pain than any human should ever have to go through]].

See also to the contrapositive, BlessedWithSuck, where the ability given is supposed to be good, but isn't. Contrast SuperLoser. May result in a CurseIsFoiledAgain or LivingForeverIsAwesome. Both this and BlessedWithSuck may connect with MuseAbuse. If a character actually gets over it by refusing to be tormented any longer by the downsides of their "curse", they usually result in a case of SweetAndSourGrapes; as the "curse" is merely their own displeasure at their condition, then by moving past it they become purely Awesome.

Polar opposite to BlessedWithSuck. Contrast SuperLoser. May result in a CurseIsFoiledAgain or LivingForeverIsAwesome. Both this and BlessedWithSuck may connect with MuseAbuse. If a character actually gets over it by refusing to be tormented any longer by the downsides of their "curse", they usually result in a case of SweetAndSourGrapes; as the "curse" is merely their own displeasure at their condition, then by moving past it they become purely Awesome.

* The Thing in ''Comicbook/FantasticFour''. Super-strong & nigh invulnerable. Sure he's not the best looking guy around, but despite this he's had several women attracted to him, Alicia Masters, Thundra, the second Miss Marvel, heck even Tigra seemed interested with him. Boo-hoo, poor Ben.

* A variant (Rewarding Punishment?) appears in ''Film/{{Star Trek IV|The Voyage Home}}'', where Kirk is "punished" (wink-wink) for disobeying orders (and SavingTheWorld) by being demoted from Admiral to Captain (which is the job he always wanted anyways). Basically an inversion of KickedUpstairs.

* [[BladeOfTheImmortal Otono-Tachibana Makie]] is subject to much RealityEnsues related [[DeconstructedTrope deconstruction]] and [[BreakTheCutie general misery]] in relation to her curse of being the [[WorldsMostBeautifulWoman jaw-droppingly gorgeous]] [[PrecisionFStrike mothereffin']] [[UpToEleven absolute]] [[TheAce pinnacle]] of [[TheGift natural talent]] [[WorldsStrongestMan in the world]]. To elaborate: When she was no more than ten years old she, without having taken so much as a single lesson in how to ''hold'' a sword, much less ''use'' one, defeated her older brother, the HeirToTheDojo, in a sparring match. This [[DrivenToSuicide drove her brother to commit]] {{seppuku}} out of disgrace; dishonoured the dojo and left it heirless as she, [[ValuesDissonance being a woman]], was not allowed to become its heir ''and'' made her father disown her and her mother and sell them to a whorehouse. Which, according to her mother, wasn't so bad because [[HookerWithAHeartOfGold it's much better to spend one's life comforting others rather than taking lives]]. Around this time she also encountered (read: saved the life of) her second cousin, the aspiring BigBad of the series, Anotsu Kagehisa. [[RescueRomance Love was born at first sight.]] Only, to Makie [[KissingCousins it was the birth of true love of Anotsu]], but to Anotsu it was nothing but [[InLoveWithYourCarnage love of Makie's unbelievable skill with the sword]]. Many years later this leads him to attempt to recruit her for his dojo of CombatPragmatism, putting her wish to be loved (or at least be with the man she loved) and have a handful of happiness in her life in direct conflict with what her mother had taught her about being a decent human being... So Makie's nigh-superhuman battle prowess lead to the complete destruction of her entire family as well as making the love of her life want her as nothing more than a sword in his army, her beauty lead her to a "successful" life in prostitution and her awesome curse filled her life with nothing but [[BrokenBird self-loathing and more pain than any human should ever have to go through]].

* [[BladeOfTheImmortal Otono-Tachibana Makie]] is subject to much RealityEnsues related [[DeconstructedTrope deconstruction]] and [[BreakTheCutie general misery]] in relation to her curse of being the [[WorldsMostBeautifulWoman jaw-droppingly gorgeous]] [[PrecisionFStrike mothereffin']] [[UpToEleven absolute]] [[TheAce pinnacle]] of [[TheGift natural talent]] [[WorldsStrongestMan in the world]]. To elaborate: When she was no more than ten years old she, without having taken so much as a single lesson in how to ''hold'' a sword, much less ''use'' one, defeated her older brother, the HeirToTheDojo, in a sparring match. This [[DrivenToSuicide drove her brother to commit]] {{seppuku}} out of disgrace; dishonoured the dojo and left it heirless as she, [[ValuesDissonance being a woman]], was not allowed to become its heir ''and'' made her father disown her and her mother and sell them to a whorehouse. Which, according to her mother, wasn't so bad because [[HookerWithAHeartOfGold it's much better to spend one's life comforting others rather than taking lives]]. Somewhere around this time she also encountered (read: saved the life of) her second cousin, the aspiring BigBad of the series, Anotsu Kagehisa. [[RescueRomance Love was born at first sight.]] Only, to Makie [[KissingCousins it was the birth of true love of Anotsu]], but to Anotsu it was nothing but [[InLoveWithYourCarnage love of Makie's unbelievable skill with the sword]]. Many years later this would lead him to attempt to recruit her for his dojo of CombatPragmatism, putting her wish to be loved (or at least be with the man she loved) and have a handful of happiness in her life in direct conflict with what her mother had taught her about being a decent human being... So Makie's nigh-superhuman battle prowess lead to the complete destruction of her entire family as well as making the love of her life want her as nothing more than a sword in his army, her beauty lead her to a "successful" life in prostitution and her awesome curse filled her life with nothing but [[BrokenBird self-loathing and more pain than any human should ever have to go through]].

* In ''[[MassEffect Mass Effect 2]]'', Miranda Lawson complains that she was genetically engineered from the ground-up to be perfect. This means that her intelligence, physical prowess, beauty, and deadliness far surpass that of any normal human. Said modifications were done by her father, who took his own DNA and modified it with select gene sequences from dozens of sources. Miranda also notes that she wasn't his first attempt to create a daughter, and that he never saw her as his child, merely part of his "dynasty." There's also the fact that any time she's praised she can only think that it's her father's modifications that are being praised, not her as a person, whereas all of her failures are hers alone -- if her genes are "perfect", the only thing that can be at fault is her.

** Not just during the World Wars. People with eyes on Russia like the Teutonic Knights and Napoleon Bonaparte also got caught up in the winters, to the point that it was almost expected for a Russian Army to used a Scorched-Earth strategy - wherein they'd evacuate and then raze all the villages in the invaders' path [[NoKillLikeOverkill to keep them hungry and exposed to the elements]]. Napoleon's failed invasion is considered (one of) his greatest failure(s).

* In its early history, the ''Comicbook/{{X-Men}}'' themselves tended to have attractive heroes who felt awkward about their powers, while villains who reveled in their powers were ugly. This trend was reduced with the introduction of the Morlocks, who were bizarre but kind, plus the general escalating public fear of mutants ''because'' they could look just like anyone else.

*** The real problem is that too many times when a new writer gets brought into the Fantastic Four, they immediately begin yet another story about how the Thing hates being a monster, even if he's spent the last 10 issues going on about how great his life is. It's been flanderized to death.

** Also according to WordOfGod the Beast is slowly losing his humanity the longer he's trapped in that form. If Belle hadn't come along or would not have returned, he would be a beast in body as well as mind.

* A variant (Rewarding Punishment?) appears in ''Film/{{Star Trek IV|The Voyage Home}}'', where Kirk is "punished" (wink-wink) for disobeying orders (and SavingTheWorld) by being demoted from Admiral to Captain (which is the job he always wanted anyways).

* Crops up a few times in the MarvelCinematicUniverse:

* ''Manga/{{Bleach}}'': Tousen claims that Komamura's zanpakutou is a huge weakness because damaging the zanpakutou automatically damages Komamura. Later on, Mayuri confirms that it's true that this is a huge weakness of Komamura's bankai, but it also gives Komamura an advantage no other bankai-user possesses: if his bankai breaks, it can be fully restored. If a bankai breaks for any other bankai-user, the bankai (and the shinigami's power) is permanently damaged and reduced.