History Main / HoldingBackThePhlebotinum

** An infamous trend in the original series was Ash releasing or leaving behind his Pokémon immediately or shortly after they evolved into their final stage for random reasons, starting with Primeape.

** Similarly, the writers used Ash's insistence on building up a new party per region from Hoenn onwards as an excuse to keep him from using his previous Pokémon League-level Pokémon at the beginning of each sequel series.

** Similarly, the writers used Ash's insistence on building a new party per region from Hoenn onwards as an excuse to keep him from using his previous Pokémon League-level Pokémon at the beginning of each sequel series.

* ''Anime/Pokemon'':

* [[InfinityPlusOneSword Ragnell]] in ''[[VideoGame/FireEmblemTellius Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance]]'', in which Ike had apparently been carrying Ragnell since [[spoiler: his father's death]] but doesn't pull it out until encountering the Black Knight. The same sword is held back again in Radiant Dawn, but you get it earlier and there's a reason Ike doesn't have it up to that point.

* Uatu the Watcher is an embodiment of this trope. He is theoretically capable of using his vast power to intervene in just about anything, but refuses to do so for the sake of his vow of [[AlienNonInterferenceClause non-interference]]. (Not that he hasn't bent and broken his vow numerous times.)
* This is the reason why ''ComicBook/SuperiorSpiderMan'' dragged on for so long--''ComicBook/AvengersVsXMen'' deprived the heroes of a few good telepaths, the Fantastic Four were off on a time-traveling romp and ComicBook/IronMan was off in space. [[spoiler:That last one came back to bite Ock, though.]]
* ''Comicbook/FantasticFour'': Franklin Richards, son of Reed and Sue, has absolute omnipotence as his top range. At first he was deliberately held back--a psychic PowerLimiter kept him from rewriting the universe at age five and his AstralProjection powers he had when he was in ''Comicbook/PowerPack'' were all that seeped through. Using his total power later has burned out his powers completely, giving him the angst of being the only {{Muggle|s}} among the Richards family. In the ''FantasticFive'' possible future, a similar overtaxing of his powers reduced him to the level of your average psychic character. Apparently something like this happening to him falls under YouCantFightFate: the ''Days of Future Past'' and ''Fantastic Force'' versions of adult Franklin are at a similar power level.
* ComicBook/{{Cable}} has a techno-organic virus that his powers are constantly engaged in holding back, lest it overtake his body. The little left to him is enough to occasionally summon [[SuperheroPackingHeat his oversize futuristic rifle]] back to him. Occasionally he boosts his powers with a staff called a Psimitar, but that just brings him up to normal PsychicPowers level (again, see Franklin). His ''full'' power is about the same as [[PhysicalGod Jean in Phoenix mode.]] Naturally, he only gets to use it on rare occasions before whatever's stopping the TO virus proves not to be foolproof, or using his power this way burns it out, reducing him to familiar levels. His ''ComicBook/AgeOfApocalypse'' counterpart ComicBook/XMan got to use this full power more often, but writers clearly didn't know what to do with someone at that power level, so he was often half-burnt out power-wise, presumed dead, etc. Recently they played the "overtaxed his powers and is semi-permanently at a more manageable level" card. As of 2018, though, he's back, and if anything, stronger than ever - though also possibly insane. [[spoiler: It turns out that a) his powers were restored and boosted by the Life Seed, b) he's dying. Again.]]
* In John Ostrander's writing of ComicBook/TheSpectre, the eponymous character and his partner Nate Kane were taking a train. Nate asks why don't they just take a plane because it would be a lot quicker. The Spectre responds, "If speed is your concern we can always do the mirror trick again." to which Nate Kane responds "Forget about it!"
* Take a look at Franchise/{{Batman}} who has access to space alien technology. He could use it to easily subdue criminals in Gotham. But no, whenever Batman is in Gotham, he is restricted to real world-level technology (or not too far away from).

* ''Comicbook/TeenTitans'': As for the kid superhero Impulse, who could run at supersonic speeds, the reasons that normal-speed villains could give him a hard time was that Impulse was such an impulsive thinker and was often his own worst enemy.

* ''Anime/SonicX'': At the beginning of the second series, the [[PowerCrystal Chaos Emeralds]] gets scattered across the galaxy, preventing Sonic from using them to transform into [[SuperMode Super Sonic]] and stomp the Metarex's forces when they invade his home planet. Then the heroes spend the rest of the saga gathering them in order to defeat the Metarex and restore their planet.

** Mikoto Misaka, one of the heroines of the series who's also the protagonist of her own spin-off ''Manga/ACertainScientificRailgun'', almost never uses her full powers in a fight. This is due to the fact that her full powers are pretty much inescapably lethal, and she isn't about to kill people. But on the rare occasions she does let loose on something that isn't human.

** ''[[Anime/AfterWarGundamX Gundam X]]'' had the various Satellite Cannons, which couldn't be used without a laundry list of right stuff.

*** Moonlight Butterfly, which everyone was frightened over. While probably the most powerful weapon in the entire franchise, it also can't be used without absolutely titanic levels of collateral damage: if activated, it wipes out ''everything'' in range except the suit that activated it.

* ''MagiLabyrinthOfMagic'': Sinbad has captured no less than seven dungeons, thus possessing seven metal vessels with djinni. All of these get stolen ''in his very first appearance'', thus stopping him from steamrolling the plot.

* ''Comicsbook/TeenTitans'': As for the kid superhero Impulse, who could run at supersonic speeds, the reasons that normal-speed villains could give him a hard time was that Impulse was such an impulsive thinker and was often his own worst enemy.

** You're not thinking fourth-dimensionally. That's the same time machine... the flying circuits had already been destroyed when it was struck by lightning in 1955. Doc left it in the cave so his 1955 counterpart could help him retrieve it. There ARE two Deloreans in 1885 after Marty comes back (the one he brought, and the one in the cave), but Doc would have drained the fuel from his Delorean to prevent corrosion, so it's no good to them either.

** Mr Popo counts too. When introduced at the end of the King Piccolo saga he far surpasses Goku (his lack of help in the fight against Piccolo Daimao is lampshaded by Goku) and later he is shown to be as fast as Goten and Trunks in their Super Saiyan states and unharmed by either of them. This is hand waved by his inability to leave the lookout as he is its custodian who helps the Guardian of Earth perform their duties. In ''WebVideo/DragonBallZAbridged'', he's a JerkAss who simply chooses not to. Makin' toast!

* Angol Mois of ''Manga/SgtFrog'' is The Lord of Terror, capable of destroying entire planets with her powers. Hence, despite the fact that she could be a big help(And considering the multitude of giant, planet destroying things they face, it would be a big help) she rarely uses her powers to fight. If she does, she'll either use the most miniscule amount she can, or get nerfed by a GenreSavvy villain.

* ComicBook/{{Cable}} has a techno-organic virus that his powers are constantly engaged in holding back, lest it overtake his body. The little left to him is enough to occasionally summon [[SuperheroPackingHeat his oversize futuristic rifle]] back to him. Occasionally he boosts his powers with a staff called a Psimitar, but that just brings him up to normal PsychicPowers level (again, see Franklin). His ''full'' power is about the same as [[PhysicalGod Jean in Phoenix mode.]] Naturally, he only gets to use it on rare occasions before whatever's stopping the TO virus proves not to be foolproof, or using his power this way burns it out, reducing him to familiar levels. His ''ComicBook/AgeOfApocalypse'' counterpart ComicBook/XMan got to use this full power more often, but writers clearly didn't know what to do with someone at that power level, so he was often insane, presumed dead, etc. Recently they played the "overtaxed his powers and is semi-permanently at a more manageable level" card. As of 2018, though, he's back, and if anything, stronger than ever - though also possibly insane.

* ComicBook/{{Cable}} has a techno-organic virus that his powers are constantly engaged in holding back, lest it overtake his body. The little left to him is enough to occasionally summon [[SuperheroPackingHeat his oversize futuristic rifle]] back to him. Occasionally he boosts his powers with a staff called a Psimitar, but that just brings him up to normal PsychicPowers level (again, see Franklin). His ''full'' power is about the same as [[PhysicalGod Jean in Phoenix mode.]] Naturally, he only gets to use it on rare occasions before whatever's stopping the TO virus proves not to be foolproof, or using his power this way burns it out, reducing him to familiar levels. His ''ComicBook/AgeOfApocalypse'' counterpart ComicBook/XMan got to use this full power more often, but writers clearly didn't know what to do with someone at that power level, so he was often insane, presumed dead, etc. Recently they played the "overtaxed his powers and is semi-permanently at a more manageable level" card.

** Index has all of the Church's forbidden magical knowledge stored in her functional memory but is not herself capable of actually casting magic... not that that stops her from [[spoiler:taking down a golem using distracting phrases and ''[[CrowningMomentOfAwesome safety pins]]'']]. Of course, the end of the first arc [[spoiler:makes it clear that she ''can'' use magic, and only everyone around her keeping her LockedOutOfTheLoop prevents her from essentially becoming a story-breaking PersonOfMassDestruction]].
** Mikoto Misaka, one of the heroines of the series who's also the protagonist of her own spin-off ''Manga/ACertainScientificRailgun'', almost never uses her full powers in a fight. This is due to the fact that her full powers are pretty much inescapably lethal, and she isn't about to kill people. But on the rare occasions she does let loose on something that isn't human, [[CrowningMomentOfAwesome it's awesome]].

-> ''"You talk big, Bo-Starr, but you're no match for my '''legion of invincible deathbots!''' ... Which I'm '''not''' going to be using!"''

* The ''Series/BabylonFive'' spin-off show, ''Series/{{Crusade}}'' featured a brand new class of ship with an [[WaveMotionGun extremely powerful main weapon]]. So as not to make the ship all-conquering, firing this main weapon drained the ship of its power, leaving it vulnerable for up to a minute, thus ensuring it was only used as a last resort.

* Over on ''Series/{{Angel}}'', the reason why Willow (basically god-like in her powers by the end of ''[=BtVS=]'') doesn't step in during the Illyria arc and help Fred, previously established as a good friend of hers, is that she's "on another astral plane". The (insanely stupid and out of character, but guest-star-availability-motivated) reason Giles doesn't bother trying to contact her is that Angel now works for Wolfram & Hart, and the Scoobies fear he's turned evil. Again. Some more.
* ''Series/StargateSG1'' and ''Series/StargateAtlantis'' frequently did bring back old phlebotinum, but occasionally it's shown that various political organizations and red tape often make it difficult to pull them out quickly, as a lot of it is being examined or stored by other organizations at Area 51. Whenever they get something ''truly'' shattering and usable, it tends to get blown up eventually [[spoiler:culminating in the destruction of Area 51 ''itself'' during the Atlantis finale]].
** There was also an interesting case, in which the cast had to trick the Goa'uld into believing that they are doing this, when in fact ItOnlyWorksOnce, as they'd be defenseless to an outright attack at the moment.
** Probably the most egregious case is the Kull warrior armor that made it's wearer {{Nigh Invulnerab|ility}}le. Even after building a weapon they could use to kill the supersoldiers without damaging the armor, by [[spoiler:stopping the effect of the ancient healing device used to give them life]], no effort is made to collect armor sets for SG teams.
** This trope is used sometimes to provide variation on recycled plots. For example, "Arthur's Mantle" rehashes the plot of the much earlier "Crystal Skull" when Cam and Sam are transferred to an alternate dimension. They immediately remember "Crystal Skull" and run off to find Daniel who should be able to see them since he has also been to an alternate dimension. It turns out that they are in a different alternate dimension, so Daniel can't see them and they have to find a different way to communicate.
* ''Franchise/PowerRangers'':
** This was actually given a HandWave pretty early in the first season, where Zordon explains that one of the core rules of being a Ranger is to never be the one to escalate a battle. Only use more powerful weaponry as necessary to defeat the MonsterOfTheWeek.
** Many [[SixthRanger additional rangers]] were supposedly more powerful than their teammates, so as a counter, they were often given some kind of limitation to prevent them from swooping into the fight and running rings around the others. The most common excuse is that they are kept in reserve for when things go bad. Or they were busy doing something else. (Particularly, when Tommy becomes the White Ranger, he spends a lot of time fighting Goldar somewhere far from where the other Rangers are battling. Part of this is due to RealLifeWritesThePlot; Power Rangers uses stock footage from its Japanese counterpart, and when five of you use ''Zyuranger'' suits and one of you uses a ''Dairanger'' suit, there's no footage of everyone versus the same foe.)

* In the remake of ''Series/{{Battlestar Galactica|2003}}'', season 3, much fuss is made over how Cylons aboard some ships were completely wiped out by a space object that carried a virus that can instantly infect every single humanoid Cylon in the universe thanks to their Downloading ability. The Cylons run away, leaving the human fleet to find it later. Turns out the virus is just a childhood disease like measles, but the Cylons don't have the antibodies to fight it. There's some worry that Sharon will die (she doesn't). Now the human fleet holds a weapon that can completely destroy their enemy completely if just used. And what do they do? Chuck it out the airlock! Admiral Adama isn't comfortable with using bioweapons. So that entire arc is basically pointless filler, and a trump card that could possible save humanity if the Cylons attack (as they often do) is lost forever.

** In the episode "Darmok," the command crew learns that the two words "Darmok" and "Jalad" both refer to a particular body of myths and legends. They learn this by querying the ship's computer. So who does nobody think to say "Computer: Cross-reference: Darmak, Jalad, Tanagra?"
** Early in the series it was established that the Federation had the technology to erase specific events from a sentient being's memory. This is almost never used to solve a problem, because each time it would be useful (e.g. "Suddenly Human," "Homeward"), the process was handwaved as simply not working on the brain structures of the aliens of the week.

* ''Series/{{Heroes}}'':
** They had to do this ''permanently'' to Peter. His power is the ability to use the powers of whoever is around him. Eventually he learns to ''retain them,'' meaning his power is ''every power ever,'' making him so all-powerful, so invincible that... using him would solve the problem in a second and utterly wipe out the special effects budget. Therefore, he'd spend most of the season with a king-sized IdiotBall shackled to him, and his moments of cutting loose tended to be [[OffscreenMomentOfAwesome flashing lights seen from offscreen.]] So to make him usable at all, they had him run afoul of a power-stealing BigBad, and when his powers were restored by SuperSerum later, they were much weaker: he can only store one power at a time, and must actually touch you to '[[PowersAsPrograms download]]' it. This put him back in the same weight class as the rest of the cast, resulting in a much more usable character.
** Hiro, too, in that being able to go back in time to fix things every time something goes wrong could be a bit of a GameBreaker. They first tried using a variant of MindOverManners, with time travel instead of telepathy, but eventually nerfed him, too.
* In ''Series/TheFlash2014'' and ''Series/LegendsOfTomorrow,'' ComicBook/{{Firestorm}} is able to fly and shoot energy blasts, but his main power from the comics - the ability to transmute any kind of matter into any ''other'' kind of matter - is a later-discovered ability and something that takes a lot of time and concentration to use, because if he could just turn anything into anything else with a wave of his hand, you'd have a guy who's arguably as overpowered as Franchise/{{Superman}} on a team with much more down-to-earth powers. ''Even so,'' he's the most powerful member of the team, and events often conspire to keep Jax and Professor Stein in different places so they can't [[FusionDance fuse into Firestorm]] right away.
** ''Legends'' has the ForgottenPhlebotinum version in Damien Darhk. (He was less bad about it on Arrow, as he wasn't directly confronted as often.) He'll slaughter {{Redshirt}}s en masse with a few gestures, but never uses his full power against named characters. At one point, the Legends have their hands full with a super-powered enemy... who Darhk casually kills when he walks in. He then tells the Legends it's time to die... only to pick up a sword and fight hand-to-hand. There's been serious fan discussion on why he might ''not want to win,'' given his refusal to just magically snap everyone like twigs (it'd work on even the super-powered team members, except for steel-skinned Nate, who he could probably still life-drain) and claim easy victory.

** Xander also gains a level in badass by the mystical implantation of military fighting prowess. Seasons later, he explains it comes and goes and has mostly just gone.

* ''Manga/MissKobayashisDragonMaid'': [[{{Weredragon}} Kanna]] could have easily won several of the events during the sports festival by herself (most notably in tug of war), but held herself back to the abilities of a normal 8 year old girl since she was more interested in competing alongside her classmates than actually winning. The only time she went even a fraction above that was in the relay race because she didn't want Saikawa to feel like she cost their class victory.

* ''VideoGame/CopyKitty'''s framing device is that the game takes place inside of a computer simulation as part of main character Boki's training to hone her PowerCopying ability for use against the opposing [[KillerRobot Construct army]]. In the hard mode campaign (which is canonically Boki's second run through the simulation with tougher enemies,) the Burst Krijyl boss is replaced with a Hyperspace Krijyl, stated by Savant to be one of the most powerful Constructs in existence, and what Boki is fighting is a toned down version because even after going through the entire simulation once, Savant believes she's not yet ready to face one at full power.