History Main / ExplainingYourPowerToTheEnemy

Also a subtrope of InactionSequence, with the extra bonus that the character is making a glaring mistake. Additionally, a close cousin to LuckilyMyPowersWillProtectMe, but the person explaining their powers is doing it to the absolute LAST person they should be.

* Invoking this trope has special benefits in the ''Manga/JujutsuKaisen'' 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, one doesn't have to explain their ''entire'' technique and they can also [[ExactWords 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 [[spoiler: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.

* During the Finals in ''Anime/MobileFighterGGundam'', George de Sand and Chibodee Crockett demonstrate their new {{Finishing Move}}s to Domon before their official match, which lets him figure out how to counter them, including his developing three new attacks[[note]]the God Shadow, God Slash Typhoon, and God Field Dash for the curious[[/note]] expressly intended to counter those moves. In this case, the Alliance is a {{team}} of FireForgedFriends (and Domon's their leader), so to them [[HonorBeforeReason 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).

** Cracker, in his first confrontation with Luffy shows him [[MultiArmedAndDangerous his power to make extra arms]]. [[spoiler:[[SubvertedTrope This turned out to be a lie]], when Luffy breaks his body in half, revealing the real Cracker inside. [[DoubleSubversion And then he proceeds to explain]], that he has the power [[FoodBasedSuperpowers to create and control biscuits]], and [[ActuallyADoombot his armors are made of them and designed to look like real humans]], down to using jam to imitate BloodFromTheMouth; 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 BigEater, starts eating all of the biscuit mass he creates, forcing Cracker to fight directly.]]

* Justified in ''Fanfic/SplitSecondMyLittlePony''. By explaining her power, Twilight gives Sunset a small advantage, which further empowers the [[ConditionalPowers Conditional Magic]] of her [[DropTheHammer warhammer]].

* In one of the infamous [[Advertising/HostessFruitPies Hostess Cakes ads]] (shown [[http://www.seanbaby.com/hostess/v2thor05.htm here]]), where [[MakesJustAsMuchSenseInContext Asgard gets attacked by space hillbillies]], two of them explain aloud how their invulnerability powers work, and helpfully inform [[Characters/TheMightyThorThorOdinson Thor]] how exactly can he defeat them (by distracting them. With delicious Hostess cakes, of course).

** "Characters/{{Batman|TheCharacter}} vs. Characters/{{Deadpool|WadeWilson}}": Before they fight, Deadpool boasts about his inability to die and [[SelfMutilationDemonstration even demonstrates by shooting himself in the head]]. Naturally, this backfires because it means Batman doesn't have to hold back.

** "Characters/{{Wolverine}} vs. {{Characters/Wonder Woman|TheCharacter}}": Wolverine is forced to do this by Wonder Woman's magic lasso, revealing he has an indestructible skeleton and HealingFactor to her.

** Crocodile was confident enough to explain [[DishingOutDirt his sand powers]] to Luffy, adding that he's spent ''years'' refining his abilities and figuring out the creative uses for it. {{Justified|Trope}} 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 [[TouchOfDeath "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.

** Cracker, in his first confrontation with Luffy shows him [[MultiArmedAndDangerous his power to make extra arms]]. [[spoiler:[[SubvertedTrope This turned out to be a lie]], when Luffy breaks his body in half, revealing the real Cracker inside. [[DoubleSubversion And then he proceeds to explain]], that he has the power [[HeartIsAnAwesomePower to create and control biscuits]], and [[ActuallyADoombot his armors are made of them and designed to look like real humans]], down to using jam to imitate BloodFromTheMouth; 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 BigEater, starts eating all of the biscuit mass he creates, forcing Cracker to fight directly.]]

** ''Manga/OnePiece'' is also a less egregious example than most, as Devil Fruit powers provide [[SuperpowerLottery one-of-a-kind]] and/or [[HeartIsAnAwesomePower 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 [[SemanticSuperpower the various creative applications they've figured out to weaponize that vague concept]] until the enemy has already gotten a good taste of them.

* In ''Manga/HunterXHunter'', people 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 MadBomber, [[spoiler:Genthru]], in the Greed Island arc 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 LampshadeHanging, 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.

** 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 [[WidgetSeries one weird power]]): to wash away others' powers, curves, and other distinguishing features, such as ''fingers'' for holding weapons.

* In ''Manga/SoulHunter'':
** Youzen at one point explains in detail how his [[VoluntaryShapeshifting shapeshifting]] powers work and how they allow him to use nigh-perfect PowerCopying. He isn't doing this to give an advantage to the enemy, just to [[BadassBoast explain to him]] how broken this ability is and why his opponent has no chance of winning.
** Much Like Youzen, 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 [[CurbStompBattle CurbStomping]]

* The fourth episode of ''LightNovel/{{Katanagatari}}'' was basically one long string of this, with four characters involved in the fight. Though in Nanami's case, [[spoiler: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 DeathSeeker on top of that, though those opponents aren't even remotely capable of killing her]].

* Powers are generally only explained in ''Manga/NegimaMagisterNegiMagi'' '''after''' they have [[AvertedTrope successfully kicked the opponent's ass]], or by [[CombatCommentator 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. [[LampshadeHanging 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.]] [[BrickJoke Later]], Fate is able to counter Negi's ability and says he was watching his fight with Raken, causing Negi to be annoyed.

-->'''Vaarsuvius:''' You will still roll a [[EpicFail natural 1]] eventually. [[CallingYourAttacks 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!\\

* Powers are generally only explained in ''Manga/NegimaMagisterNegiMagi'' '''after''' they have [[AvertedTrope successfully kicked the opponent's ass]], or by [[CombatCommentator 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. [[LampshadeHanging 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.]]

* Hilariously inverted in an episode of ''WesternAnimation/Ben10Omniverse'' when Ben unlocks a new alien, [[ChemistryCanDoAnything Gutrot]], while fighting a time-traveling version of [[InsufferableGenius Dr. Animo]]. Since he already knows everything about aliens 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 HowDoIShotWeb and immediately douse him in a cloud of sulfur dioxide.

* Myth/NorseMythology: Baldr's mother, Frigg, had everything except mistletoe promise not to hurt him. Then, she told [[TricksterGod Loki]] (in disguise) about this weakness. After this, Loki had the blind god Höðr throw a mistletoe arrow at Baldr, killing him.

** Parodied in Luffy's fight with [[AGodAmI God Eneru]]: [[PsychoElectro Eneru's]] in a bit of a pickle because of ElementalRockPaperScissors against a substance he's ''never even come across'' (rubber), much less met a RubberMan. Being Eneru, [[GetAHoldOfYourselfMan 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.