History Main / HoldingBackThePhlebotinum

* This has become a recurring complaint about Wrestling/FinnBalor's [[SuperMode Demon King form]]. In KayFabe it makes no sense for him to not use it against someone like Wrestling/BrockLesnar, only to throw it away on someone like [[PokeThePoodle Baron Corbin]]. The closest thing to an explanation dates back to his first feud with Wrestling/BrayWyatt, who challenged Finn to face him [[ThisIsSomethingHesGotToDoHimself without using the Demon.]] From that point on Finn mostly wrestled as himself, save when someone ''really'' [[BerserkButton pisses him off.]] (The ''actual'' reason Finn doesn't use it much most likely comes down to how [[ExecutiveVeto WWE]] [[StoryBreakerPower books underdog stories]].)

* 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). He's also had access to both a Franchise/GreenLantern power ring and a [[EvilCounterpart Sinestro Corps]] ring, but turned down both for varying reasons. This gets lampshaded in ''[[Comicbook/JLA1997 JLA: Classified]]'' where he reluctantly opens his "sci-fi closet" and mutters that he hopes the GCPD never finds out about it.

* In ''Film/PiratesOfTheCaribbean'', the cursed Aztec gold from the first movie. While it does come with some downsides, it provides those who steal it with [[StoryBreakerPower immortality]], and lifting the curse doesn't come with an excessive cost. Logically, one would expect the heroes to go temporarily get themselves cursed before fighting the various villains in future movies. Conveniently though, the island containing the Aztec gold sunk to the bottom of the sea after the events of the first movie, preventing them from obtaining it.

* One episode of ''Series/GoGoSentaiBoukenger'' had Natsuki (Bouken Yellow) charge Ultimate DaiBouken into battle while the other Boukengers are fighting mooks. She proceeds to help her friends by trying to attack the mooks ''with'' DaiBouken, sending friend and foe flying, showing why this trope is sometimes a good idea.

[[folder:Visual Novel]]

** Another example of this trope in the second movie are the [[spoiler: [[strike:lasers]] [[FanNickname Death Blossoms]]. Extremely powerful and capable of ending any confrontation but they can only be used once]].

* The reboot of ''RolePlay/CampusLife'' has this in effect for the students on Campus. Being a MassivelyMultiplayerCrossover, many characters can do magic, shoot energy beams, teleport, etc, etc... However, doing so will get them in serious trouble with the Campus staff. To a more meta extent, this is also why [[PhysicalGod Planet-Busters]] such as [[Franchise/DragonBall Goku]], [[Manga/OnePunchMan Saitama]] and the like are banned from the RP. The only ones allowed to reach the power scale are usually the {{Big Bad}}s of the respective arcs, and usually they end up being the FinalBoss of said arc.

* 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). He's also had access to both a Franchise/GreenLantern power ring and a [[EvilCounterpart Sinestro Corps]] ring, but turned down both for varying reasons. This gets lampshaded in ''Comicbook/GrantMorrisonsJLA'' where he reluctantly opens his "sci-fi closet" and mutters that he hopes Gordon never finds out 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). He's also had access to both a Franchise/GreenLantern power ring and a [[EvilCounterpart Sinestro Corps]] ring, but turned down both for varying reasons.

* 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.

** 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.

If there aren't even such explanations, see ForgottenPhlebotinum. If they're ''actually'' holding back and not using the phlebotium until they need to, see IAmNotLeftHanded. Sometimes, though, holding back may have bad consequences, one of which is that [[PentUpPowerPeril the power will burst out like a balloon if it's held back for too long]]-- but expect this to happen when it's most dramatic to do so.

** Similarly, the Egyptian God Cards have a tendency to end up out of Yugi and Kaiba's reach when they would really help out. When possessing Jonouchi for a duel against Yugi, Marik forces Yugi to remove Slifer/Osiris from his deck lest Jonouchi immediately die; when Yugi and Kaiba end up trapped in the Virtual World, they lose access to their God Cards because they don't exist in the Virtual World's card database; and in the Doma arc, the God Cards are immediately stolen, turned into energy sources for the ArcVillain's plan, and only recovered when the plan goes to hell at the end of the arc.

** The gun's sheer power was also a problem. The first time the crew fired it, they'd been trying to destroy an enemy base. Instead, they blew up ''an entire continent'', and the ship itself was nearly caught in the resulting shock wave (no power, remember). They quicly realized that they needed to be careful with the weapon, otherwise they could easily wipe out a planet and/or ''themselves''.
* 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 villain.

* ''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.

* In ''Roleplay/DinoAttackRPG'', the Einstein Device, being an InstantWinCondition, had to be held back until the very last moment. This has been justified since the Einstein Device was largely experimental, leaving it unfinished and untested by the time of the FinalBattle. Most of the later stages of the battle were devoted to finishing the device, which was also dangerously close malfunctioning at the time, and it could not be fired until Viper had a clear shot at Dr. Rex.

** As Vaarsuvius [[LinearWarriorsQuadraticWizards grows more and more powerful]], [[AmbiguousGender (s)he]] gets held back more and more for the same reason. Even with his/her absolutely crippling personality flaws and with conjuration, one of the most useful schools of magic, [[CripplingOverspecialization chosen as a forbidden school]], there is too much risk of him/her overshadowing the rest of the Order. As a result, (s)he is increasingly disabled, separated, or otherwise removed from the action as a the story progresses.

* The android AMAZO as seen in the ''WesternAnimation/JusticeLeagueUnlimited'' episode "Return" and "Wake the Dead". Here is a being with the powers of a god (think Dr Manhattan) who defeats the entire Justice League and shifts the Green Lanterm homeworld of Oa to [[ThereIsNoKillLikeOverkill another dimension]] in one episode, has a HeelFaceTurn and is later called in to defeat a resurrected Solomon Grundy in another episode. However, this Grundy ended up being able to absorb AMAZO's power, rather than be instantly obliterated. AMAZO realizes his very presence is making him stronger, so he departs the Earth and is never seen again in the series. The writers may have wisely concluded that his presence would for the most part, render the Justice League completely irrelevant.

This is why extreme power comes in small packages. Expect explanations about the BalanceBetweenGoodAndEvil, crossing the GodzillaThreshold, [[MindOverManners not abusing your powers]], or how YouAreNotReady to justify why we can't use the thing that would solve all our problems, and why the AllPowerfulBystander can't be bothered to lift a finger. Whatever the in-story reason, the writers [[JustForFun/HowToStopTheDeusExMachina are protecting the plot]] by [[TitleDrop Holding Back the Phlebotinum.]]

If there aren't even such explanations, see ForgottenPhlebotinum. If they're ''actually'' holding back and not using the phlebotium until they need to, see IAmNotLeftHanded. Sometimes, though, holding back may have bad consequences, one of which is that [[PentUpPowerPeril the power will burst out like a balloon if it's held back for too long]]--but expect this to happen when it's most dramatic to do so.

** Early in the series the heroes discovered an ancient superweapon on the planet below. To prevent it from being misused, one of their allies took charge of it, but promised to help out whenever he could. He was then conveniently absent whenever the weapon would have been useful. The forgetfulness was {{lampshade|Hanging}}d later when, needing power to boost a LaResistance broadcast, Franklin suggests to Ivanova they use the super weapon on Epsilon III to help. Ivanova then realizes that only an idiot would not realize the obvious, and beats a hasty path to the planet below.
** On at least one occasion it was mentioned that they tried to contact the him but their transmissions were being jammed by the forces attacking the station.

** Other attempts at justifying this were set up. Amongst other things, when a large group of Shadows attacked, they purposely moved very close to the station, so that the weapon couldn't fire. Oh, and in the payoff for the Chekov's gun, it's used to solve a Time Paradox.

** During season five Buffy comes into possession of a powerful magic hammer, which is completely ignored up until the final episode, where it is suddenly pulled off the shelf and used to quite handily beat the villain, a frigging ''god'', into submission. After this impressive display, the weapon is never seen or mentioned ever again.
** Xander also gains a level in badass by the mystical implantation of military fighting prowess. Seasons later, he explains it fades over time and has mostly just gone.
** A justifiable example occurs when the Scoobies [[AllYourPowersCombined used an Enjoining Spell]] to destroy the BigBad of Season 4. The following episode showed there were magical consequences of using this spell, as the First Slayer tries to kill them in their dreams.
** 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/DoctorWho'': In [[Recap/DoctorWhoS28E4TheGirlInTheFireplace "The Girl in the Fireplace"]], when the main characters discover a spaceship filled with {{time portal}}s which its repair droids are using to stalk Madame de Pompadour until she's a specific age, the Doctor offers a vague explanation that they've become part of events as to why he can't just use the TARDIS and they have to rely on the portals. The real reason is that the TARDIS could easily solve the conflict, to say nothing of negating the tragedy of the ending.

** ''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.

** 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.

** 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.

** 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.

** By the way, if this is another holodeck-gone-wild episode, don't expect the holodeck's built-in safeties to work. Either the computer's not taking orders today, or the villain of your favorite holodeck adventure still knows how to trap you in a dungeon or force field when the safeties keep his ray gun from destroying you. There's also a good possibility one of your enemies is at the controls ''trying'' to get you killed, having successfully locked out all of your teammates who are trying to rescue you.

** In the [[Series/StarTrekTheOriginalSeries TOS]] episode, "Patterns of Force", introduced the subcutaneous transponder which can lock onto the landing party and beam them up if they are out of communication for an established period. You'd think it would be standard issue for every landing party given how often communicators get taken away. Not only is it never mentioned before or after, it's not used for that purpose in the episode. It's used to make a laser out of light bulb to escape a cell.

** There's also the fact that, as the third and fourth movies showed, the Klingon Empire was none too thrilled to see the Federation have a planet-killing weapon. Had the Federation been able to salvage the research, there could easily have been a war.
** A non-phlebotinum example: in "Whom Gods Destroy", a shape-shifting impostor captures Kirk and copies his appearance to escape the asylum planet where he is imprisoned, only to be stopped due to Scotty refusing to beam up the Captain without saying the proper response to the code phrase "Queen to Queen's Level 3". The code phrase had never been mentioned before and would never be mentioned again, even in situations featuring impostors running around (such as "[[Recap/StarTrekS3E24TurnaboutIntruder Turnabout Intruder]]" where the omission is quite glaring) Not to mention Garth's shapeshifting power itself, which he was "taught" by the natives of Antos IV. If the skill can be learned, why doesn't the Federation send its intelligence agents to Antos IV to acquire shapeshifting ability themselves?

* In Doc's letter to Marty in ''Film/BackToTheFuturePartIII'', he mentions that the [=DeLorean=]'s flying circuits had been destroyed by the lightning strike that sent him to 1885 in the previous film, meaning that the car can never fly again. Later, when Marty himself goes back to 1885, he accidentally tears the fuel line, and Doc and Marty spend much of the movie thinking of a way to get the [=DeLorean=] up to 88 miles per hour. Presumably, the flying circuits got destroyed so that they couldn't immediately go back to 1985 and that Doc could stay in 1885 long enough to fall in love with Clara.
** You're not thinking fourth-dimensionally. It's the same time machine. The flying circuits were destroyed when the Delorean was struck by lightning in 1955. After being sent to 1885, Doc left the in the cave so his 1955 counterpart could help Mary retrieve it. Mary then drove it back to 1885 as well to prevent Doc's murder. At that point, there ARE two Deloreans in 1885 (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. (Technically, they're both the same car, but from different versions of the timeline.)

** Also, if Erek King (a powerful robot in human disguise) could fight, the war would be over in about a week. Unfortunately, while he recognizes the necessity of the kids' cause, he himself finds violence to be too horrific to participate in (largely because his memories of the experience ''never'' fade - as a robot, every single thing he's experienced remains day-one fresh; not a good combination with humanlike emotions) and is programmed to never commit any violent act. After having that prohibition removed once, he horrifically slaughters hundreds of enemies with his bare hands, and... is utterly distraught, puts the prohibition back, and tells the others he's ''never'' doing anything like that again. After seeing the fruits of his work, nobody protests.

Compare TheWorldIsNotReady, ItOnlyWorksOnce, or ReedRichardsIsUseless. See also LimitBreak and DramaPreservingHandicap. If the all-powerful force is a character instead of an object, you've got DeusExitMachina. If you try to use it again, you'll usually find that it was SoLastSeason. If not justified well this becomes an IdiotPlot. If the reason for holding back is a good chance of hurting yourself or leaving yourself vulnerable after use, you're looking at a DeathOrGloryAttack. Could possibly be a result of TooAwesomeToUse. If the power is rejected or discarded, rather than merely unused, it may be NoManShouldHaveThisPower. If two distinct forces that are used separately sound like they would be even powerful together, but a HandWave prevents the combination, it's an ObviousRulePatch.

Compare TheWorldIsNotReady, ItOnlyWorksOnce, or ReedRichardsIsUseless. See also LimitBreak. If the all-powerful force is a character instead of an object, you've got DeusExitMachina. If you try to use it again, you'll usually find that it was SoLastSeason. If not justified well this becomes an IdiotPlot. If the reason for holding back is a good chance of hurting yourself or leaving yourself vulnerable after use, you're looking at a DeathOrGloryAttack. Could possibly be a result of TooAwesomeToUse. If the power is rejected or discarded, rather than merely unused, it may be NoManShouldHaveThisPower. If two distinct forces that are used separately sound like they would be even powerful together, but a HandWave prevents the combination, it's an ObviousRulePatch.

* 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.

* ''{{Anime/Pokemon}}'':

* ''Comicbook/BirdsOfPrey'':

* ''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 ''Fantastic Five'' 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/TheMightyThor Thor]] and the Comicbook/IncredibleHulk have clashed many times through the years, with the majority of their fights ending in draws. Just before a memorable clash in Creator/PeterDavid's ''Incredible Hulk'' run, Thor revealed that he had intentionally held back during all of those past encounters, as he was worried unleashing his full strength would cause him to lose control.
* In the ''ComicBook/ArchieComicsSonicTheHedgehog'', there was the problem of [[KryptoniteIsEverywhere Chaos Emeralds Are Everywhere]], where Robotnik or Sonic had the means to grab a bunch of them to use in a superweapon/go [[SuperMode Super Sonic]]. When Creator/IanFlynn took over writing duties, he fixed that problem by bringing about the seven normal Chaos Emeralds.

* ''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.

* In ''FanFic/SonicXDarkChaos'', Maledict explicitly holds back from using the ''Galaxy Crusher'' because he wants to [[PragmaticVillainy conquer the Milky Way Galaxy rather than destroy it]] and because he's utterly terrified of the prospect that it could be hijacked by his enemies. Indeed, it's only [[EldritchAbomination Dark Tails]] and hordes of Shroud devouring the galaxy that [[GodzillaThreshold convinces him to reactivate it]].

* In ''Videogame/IMissTheSunrise'', when the crew finds a strange Lesser that seems to recognize Tezkhra, but who Tezkhra says he's never seen before, it should be easy to confirm who's telling the truth through a simple trip to the Typelog archives. However, Tezkhra apparently ''deletes files he deems "unnecessary"'', so, even if he did know the Lesser once, it could be impossible to tell.
* In ''VideoGame/{{Touhou}}'', the Spell Card Rules of Gensokyo restrict the ways in which magical powers can be used for combat, explicitly to give super-powerful youkai and squishy humans more even footing.

* In the ''Blade of Galadriel'' DLC of ''Videogame/MiddleEarthShadowOfWar'', Eltariel has the same Ring of Power as Talion and thus has the power of [[HeelFaceBrainwashing Domination]], but refuses to do so since enslaving Orcs goes against her personal morals. She instead recruits willing followers by helping them out and earning their respect.

* ''Literature/{{HarryPotter}}'' has the Time Turners, which are used for ''Literature/{{Harry Potter And The Prisoner Of Azkaban}} and never again in the original series. The plot of the play, however, revolves around them.

* ''Franchise/XMen'': Almost every [[RealityWarper omega level]] mutant on the map is insane, either [[WithGreatPowerComesGreatInsanity permanently]] or [[DependingOnTheWriter as the plot dictates]], that way none of them can [[StatusQuoIsGod change the status quo]] in any meaningful way. ComicBook/{{Magneto}} is also only allowed access to the full scope of his powers as a villain; whenever he joins the X-Men he suffers some kind of RedemptionDemotion that keeps him from making the rest of the team useless[[note]]though it's [[JustifiedTrope Justified]] in his case since his powers are explicitly more than his [[GlassCannon completely normal]] physiology can handle without degrading his body, starting with his nervous system. Thus, the more he uses his powers, the more insane he becomes. So it's less RedemptionDemotion than [[InvertedTrope DemotionRedemption]]. Given how other Omega–level mutants seem to degrade in sanity as they power up, this may be something of a common problem.[[/note]].

* ''Franchise/XMen'': Almost every [[RealityWarper omega level]] mutant on the map is insane, either [[WithGreatPowerComesGreatInsanity permanently]] or [[DependingOnTheWriter as the plot dictates]], that way none of them can [[StatusQuoIsGod change the status quo]] in any meaningful way. ComicBook/{{Magneto}} is also only allowed access to the full scope of his powers as a villain; whenever he joins the X-Men he suffers some kind of RedemptionDemotion that keeps him from making the rest of the team useless.

* In the ''ComicBook/SonicTheHedgehog'' series, there was the problem of [[KryptoniteIsEverywhere Chaos Emeralds Are Everywhere]], where Robotnik or Sonic had the means to grab a bunch of them to use in a superweapon/go [[SuperMode Super Sonic]]. When Ian Flynn took over writing duties, he fixed that problem by bringing about the seven normal Chaos Emeralds.

** In ''Severed Dreams'', Sheridan specifically stated that he wanted to keep Draal secret (although he used Draal's holograms openly in the same episode.)

** In the [[Series/StarTrekTheOrignalSeries TOS]] episode, "Patterns of Force", introduced the subcutaneous transponder which can lock onto the landing party and beam them up if they are out of communication for an established period. You'd think it would be standard issue for every landing party given how often communicators get taken away. Not only is it never mentioned before or after, it's not used for that purpose in the episode. It's used to make a laser out of light bulb to escape a cell.

** In the [[StarTrekTheOrignalSeries TOS]] episode, "Patterns of Force", introduced the subcutaneous transponder which can lock onto the landing party and beam them up if they are out of communication for an established period. You'd think it would be standard issue for every landing party given how often communicators get taken away. Not only is it never mentioned before or after, it's not used for that purpose in the episode. It's used to make a laser out of light bulb to escape a cell.

** In [[StarTrekPicard]], Seven has apparently forgotten from [[StarTrekVoyager]] the several times they used nanoprobes to bring people back from death.

Compare ItOnlyWorksOnce or ReedRichardsIsUseless. See also LimitBreak. If the all-powerful force is a character instead of an object, you've got DeusExitMachina. If you try to use it again, you'll usually find that it was SoLastSeason. If not justified well this becomes an IdiotPlot. If the reason for holding back is a good chance of hurting yourself or leaving yourself vulnerable after use, you're looking at a DeathOrGloryAttack. Could possibly be a result of TooAwesomeToUse. If the power is rejected or discarded, rather than merely unused, it may be NoManShouldHaveThisPower. If two distinct forces that are used separately sound like they would be even powerful together, but a HandWave prevents the combination, it's an ObviousRulePatch.

** Similarly, the writers used Ash's insistence on building up a new party from scratch (Pikachu aside) for every new 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.

* Most Anime/MobileSuitGundam series have a weapon or two that are used only once or sparingly.

This is why extreme power comes in small packages. Expect explanations about the BalanceBetweenGoodAndEvil, crossing the GodzillaThreshold, [[MindOverManners not abusing your powers]], or how YouAreNotReady to justify why we can't use the thing that would solve all our problems, and why the AllPowerfulBystander can't be bothered to lift a finger. Whatever the in-story reason, the writers [[JustForFun/HowToStopTheDeusExMachina are protecting the plot]] by [[TitleDrop Holding Back The Phlebotinum.]]

* This has become a recurring complaint about Wrestling/FinnBalor's [[SuperMode Demon King form]]. In KayFabe it makes no sense for him to not use it against someone like Wrestling/BrockLesnar, only to throw it away on someone like [[PokeThePoodle Baron Corbin]]. The ''real'' reason Finn doesn't use it much mostly comes down to [[ExecutiveVeto booking]].