History Main / MagicFeather

** In a later episode, Stan does not feel comfortable in his non0suit clothes so Roger utilizes a fashion designer persona to help only to then reveal that he can't design clothes and Stan's newly gained confidence was within himself all along. Although it could be subverted since Roger admits he can actually sew good clothes.

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** "The 30% Iron Chef": After Bender wins a cooking competition using drops from a crystal flask filled with "the essence of pure flavor", Professor Farnsworth runs a chemical analysis and announces the mystery liquid is "''Water!'' Ordinary ''water''!" Immediately after Fry concludes that all Bender needed to cook well was confidence, the professor adds, "Yes, ordinary water, [[spoiler: laced with nothing more than a few spoonfuls of LSD."]]
** "I Second That Emotion", in which Bender is given the emotion chip, so that he feels what Leela feels. At the end of the episode, after Bender saves Nibbler due to his feeling compassion for him, the Professor removes the chip and says, "The chip shorted out! That emotion you felt was your own... no, wait, I'm wrong. It was actually running at triple capacity." Bender responds, "And I still barely felt anything! Good night, losers!"
** "The Devil's Hands Are Idle Playthings": Fry loses the robot hands that allowed him to play the holophoner so well. Dr. Zoidberg shouts, "The beauty was in your heart, not your hands!" Fry attempts to continue playing, but does horribly. Dr. Zoidberg shouts, "Your music is bad, and you should feel bad!" Played with in that when Fry turns to leave, Leela (the only remaining audience member) asks him to play anyway. Though he needed the robot hands to play well, he still has the ability to win the affection of Leela (which is what he wanted in the first place) even without them.

* In ''Film/SpaceJam'', after seeing how much they lack in self-confidence, Michael Jordan fills a bottle with water, labels it as "Michael's Secret Stuff" and tells them is what he uses to win his games. They gulp it down and nearly wipe the floor with the Moonstars for a while. After a while the Moonstars get back on top, so Daffy asks Michael for more of his "Secret Stuff". Michael reveals it was just water and the ability was with them all along. Without the slightest change in reaction Daffy asks for a bit more anyway.

* ''Webcomic/ElGoonishShive'': Tedd created a glove that lets him enchant watches so they can cast spells. Pandora [[http://egscomics.com/comic/2017-07-03 reveals to him]] he's doing it under his own power.

* Minor MarvelUniverse hero Blue Shield originally needed a micro-circuitry belt to power his super-strength, stamina, and force field projection powers. Eventually the belt altered his genetic structure so he no longer required it.

* ''WesternAnimation/MovilleMysteries'': In one episode, a slacker believes he's gained talent playing the guitar by inadvertently selling his soul to the Devil, disguised as an old musician. He becomes increasingly paranoid from various supernatural happenings that [[YourSoulIsMine Satan is coming to collect on his debt]], with his sister trying to help him,. In the end, it's revealed he actually gained his skill through practice and hard work; [[spoiler:his sister, however, sold ''her'' soul and [[CainAndAbel has been trying to set him up]] [[SiblingMurder so the Devil will claim him instead.]]]]

* ''WesternAnimation/MovilleMysteries'': In one episode, a slacker believes he's gained talent playing the guitar by inadvertently selling his soul to the Devil, disguised as an old musician. He becomes increasingly paranoid from various supernatural happenings that [[YourSoulIsMinwSatan is coming to collect on his debt]], with his sister trying to help him,. In the end, it's revealed he actually gained his skill through practice and hard work; [[spoiler:his sister, however, sold ''her'' soul and [[CainAndAbel has been trying to set him up]] [[SiblingMurder so the Devil will claim him instead.]]]]

* In ''Miss Ellicott's School for the Magically Minded'', the walls encircling [[CitadelCity the kingdom of Lightening Pass]] is strengthened by sorceresses performing an annual spell called "the Buttoning." Chantel and her friends eventually deduce the walls are impenetrable without magic, and the real annual enchantment is a [[GettingSmiliesPaintedOnYourSoul contentedness spell cast over the citizens]].

* In ''Manga/DragonBall'', the Sacred Water gives you super strength according to legend, but first Goku must climb the StarScraper that is Karin's Tower, which takes several days, and then he spends three more days snatching the jug from the very agile Karin. Upon drinking it however, Goku finds that he doesn't feel any different: Karin reveals that Goku's exertions climbing the tower and getting it from him were all that was needed[[note]]hinted at when Karin tossed Goku's Four-Star Ball off the tower: it took Goku only a few hours to climb down and then back up, compared to several days just getting up the first time[[/note]]. Crosses over with SecretTestOfCharacter when Tao Pai-Pai visits: Karin can tell immediately that he's not a good person and just gives him the tap water without any fuss, and even gives him a dark Nimbus cloud for the trip down, so that he doesn't become any stronger.
** Later on, Karin reveals that [[spoiler: there really ''is'' a magic water, the Ultra Divine Water, that can increase one's strength, which is possibly the source of the original Sacred Water legend. However, it isn't actually this trope since it legitimately ''does'' give the drinker a power boost; it's just killed anyone who drank it (and in the anime most people die before they even get that far).]]
** In the film ''Anime/DragonBallZBattleOfGods'', the Super Saiyan God transformation is a subversion. It does indeed make Goku stronger, but when the transformation burns out, it has still given Goku enough determination that he can continue fighting Beerus (who had treated him to a CurbstompBattle earlier) without it.

** In ''Literature/GoingPostal'', Moist is given a dangerous test to get into [[ItMakesSenseInContext a secret society of postmen]]; vicious guard dogs. However, Moist recognizes these are Lipwigzers; a rare breed from his own homeland, whom are all taught various commands from birth, and of whom only the males are exported, to prevent breeding and keep the prices high. Realizing this, he simply shouts commands at the dogs, pacifying them and passing the test. However, it is then revealed to him that they aren't purebreds at all; they are mixed breeds, and were never taught the commands. Apparently the dogs were just shocked to have an unfrightened human shout at them.

** In ''Literature/OnAPaleHorse'', while fighting {{Satan}}, [[TheGrimReaper Death]] realizes that he doesn't actually need his scythe and cloak to use his powers, reasoning that if that had been true, Satan would have attacked him earlier while he was off duty. (The course of the series suggests his reasoning was actually wrong about that but his intuition was correct - while the scythe and cloak are in fact highly enchanted objects that would permit almost anyone to carry out the minimum of job performance as Death, it's the actual officeholder's adjustment to the office and intent to fill it which really matters.)

* In Creator/GeneWolfe's ''Literature/BookOfTheNewSun'', the Claw of the Conciliator. The trope is subverted, however, in that it is likely that all Severian's 'miracles' were orchestrated by the Hierogrammates to make him ''think'' he has divine powers. The Claw may even more more of a TrackingDevice.

** Headology, the main branch of Witch magic relies mostly on the application of common sense with a light sprinkling of Magic Feathers, once handily supplied by the patient himself.

* A ''ComicBook/MickeyMouseComicUniverse'' story called "Topolino e la spada invincibile" ("Mickey and the Invincible Sword") stars WesternAnimation/MickeyMouse as the son of a famous swordsmith, who is tasked with forging the perfect sword for the king's nephew, Prince Pete. Pete imprisons the swordsmith in a tower in his castle, but unknownst to him Mickey has smuggled himself into the tower. Once the sword is finished, Pete reveals that he never intended to release the swordsmith, and Mickey, furious, swears to defeat Pete and rescue his father. His father claims that this would require an even more formidable sword, which would take at least two years to create and must then be dipped in a magic spring. Mickey spends two years practicing his skills, then escapes the tower with the newly forged sword. Taking up apprenticeship with the aging swordsman [[TricksterMentor Ben Longo]] (Goofy), he passes several difficult tests and finally finds the magic spring. Returning to the city, he easily defeats Pete and is knighted. Upon protesting that it was all thanks to the invincible sword, his father and Ben reveal that the sword and spring are wholly mundane - Mickey just needed the time to grow, both physically and mentally.
* The Molecule Man in Creator/MarvelComics fits the super-power version; he was originally said to be able to control molecules with a wand, but was later said to have the power innately. Which fits his character, as Molecule Man's one weakness is he is a high school drop out with the power to rearrange atoms on the sub-atomic level. He has absolutely no clue as to how his powers work, because he doesn't know any of the science behind it. He also has major self-confidence issues and a variety of neuroses. He used to see a therapist. And this is [[RealityWarper one of the most powerful humans in the universe]], folks...

* ''WesternAnimation/KungFuPanda`'':

* In ''WesternAnimation/{{Rugrats}}'', Chuckie is outfitted with a super hero "costume" by the other babies, including a towel-for-a-cape, saying that it would give him super powers and be a real hero. However, when he loses the cape and ''still'' defeats Angelica, who had stolen away his globe beach ball, the babies realize it was all in him.

* ''WesternAnimation/TheSmurfs'': The same "doping jelly" plot as in ''The Olympic Smurfs'' was carried over in an episode of the Creator/HannaBarbera animated series, where it is used on Weakly Smurf to make him stop thinking he really is weak. He ends up saving the village from a collapsing bridge during a storm and being crowned a hero as a result.

** In ''Literature/TheWayOfKings'', Shallan's overarching goal is to steal her teacher Jasnah's Soulcaster and learn how to use it to work magic, as the one owned by her family had stopped working. [[spoiler: She eventually successfully steals it and replaces Jasnah's with her broken one, but for a long time, is unable to figure out how to use it. Finally, in a climactic moment, she figures out the secret, using it to save her own life... and then discovers that Jasnah's Soulcaster was a fake: Jasnah was Soulcasting without needing a Soulcaster (widely believed to be impossible), and Shallan just did the same thing.]]

* Smash Ogre finds one in the Literature/{{Xanth}} novel ''Ogre Ogre''. He is affected by an "Eye Queue" vine that renders him intelligent and articulate, in contrast to most ogres, who are dimwitted and can only speak in rhyme. Eventually it turns out that Eye Queue vines do no such thing, they merely make the user ''think'' they have become more intelligent. Smash has human ancestry, and the belief that he could think and talk like a human just allowed him to realize he could always do so.

* In the episode of the original ''[[Series/StarTrekTheOriginalSeries Star Trek]]'' "Mudd's Women", three women are supposedly given a "Venus drug" which made them irresistibly beautiful, but it revealed at the end that they didn't need the drug to make themselves beautiful -- it was self-confidence all along. The on-screen moral being: apparently self-confidence can [[BrokenAesop give you an actual makeover]] -- complete with makeup and a new hairdo!

* In the ''Series/{{Charmed|1998}}'' episode "That Old Black Magic", the girls use a courage potion on the chosen one, which turns out to actually be plain water. The evil witch they're facing knows the potion is fake, but the chosen one believes it and finds the strength to defeat her.

* In the original ''WesternAnimation/{{Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles|1987}}'', Splinter performs an impressive feat of magic with three tiny white spheres, shrinking three inflated turtles back to normal. He explains the spheres were given to him by a wise Sensei for use in an emergency, but they aren't made of anything magical:

-->-- ''WesternAnimation/KungFuPanda''

* ''WesternAnimation/KungFuPanda'':