History Main / WillfullyWeak

*** This is further implied with Vegeta's statement that when Goku is finished training Uub, he'll fight him again, and "need an entire planet as the arena".

** In ''Dragonball'', Goku's fighting in a tournament and reveals suddenly that he's wearing extremely heavy clothes, as part of his training. Is suddenly a ''lot'' faster once he gets rid of the extra weight.

* Zaraki Kenpachi from ''{{Bleach}}'' intentionally handicaps himself by wielding a (willfully) dull zanpaku-to (sword), tying bells to his hair to signal his advance, and wearing an eyepatch that not only inhibits his field of vision but also significantly drains his spiritual pressure. Even with all of these impediments, he can fight on-par with other Captain-level opponents, even when they release their zanpaku-to in either shikai or bankai form. And he does all this just so the fight will contain the slightest hint of a challenge, [[BloodKnight so the fight can be satisfying]].

** To the point where, when the modern Kara Zor-el (Supergirl) arrived on earth, it was thought she was actually more powerful than Superman. Superman had been holding back so long it seemed that even he forgets what he can do when he lets go. She caused a lot of property damage in the early issues. (It seems she does still have the edge in flight speed, whereas he has an edge in strength and toughness.)

* [[TheMightyThor Thor]], the Norse god of thunder, has to intentionally hold himself back when fighting due to him not wanting to kill his enemies, make his friends feel weak in comparison or harm a lot of innocent byastanders and cause huge collateral damage.

** Not to mention [[RealityWarper Yukari Yakumo]], who {{Word of God}} has stated has enough power to "easily" destroy Gensokyo, and is quite possibly the most powerful being in the Universe, yet manages to put up challenging yet doable fights in the games.

*** As an example, one character's unique power is to destroy anything, while another can freeze time. The former doesn't use the power at all when you fight her, and the latter uses it to instantly fill the area with throwing knives rather than just flying over and stabbing your character while they can't react.

* Oro from ''StreetFighter III'' is stronger than the rest of the cast, possibly combined. He keeps one of his arms in a sling in order to even the odds. Series {{Badass}}[=/=]ArrogantKungFuGuy Akuma/Gouki challenged him once with neither holding back thier power, and they were equally strong.

* In ''Warbreaker'' [[spoiler: Vasher suppresses his Returned Breath so that he can pass as normal.]] He can, of course, unleash it whenever he wants. He's pretty badass even without it, though.

* In [[Warbreaker]] [[spoiler: Vasher suppresses his Returned Breath so that he can pass as normal.]] He can, of course, unleash it whenever he wants. He's pretty badass even without it, though.

** In a season two episode of {{Yu-Gi-Oh GX}}, Shou Marufuji/Syrus Truesdale removes Power Bond (a spell card that doubles a Machine-type Fusion monster's attack power, then [[PowerAtAPrice cuts the user's life points by that monster's original attack]]) from his deck to prove he can still win without it. [[supersecretspoiler: He does.]]

May be caused by {{Normopathy}}. May lead to a WorldOfCardboardSpeech or to the discovery that IAmNotLeftHanded when the crossing of the GodzillaThreshold means it's time to [[LetsGetDangerous get dangerous]] and show their true power. Rarely (if ever) leads to ItSeemedLikeAGoodIdeaAtTheTime, because when they choose to limit their powers for mundane reasons, they can just make an exception, and in cases where their reasons are more dire, well, losing the fight is better than blowing up Main Street. In videogames, compare CherryTapping.

** Not to mention [[RealityWarper Yukari Yakumo]], who [[Word of God]] has stated has enough power to "easily" destroy Gensokyo, and is quite possibly the most powerful being in the Universe, yet manages to put up challenging yet doable fights in the games.

* RurouniaKenshin is this throughout the series. Several opponents try to get him to revert to being the Battousai and unleash his full power, but he is very resistant to this. The closest we see to his pull power is in the fight with Shishio.

** In ''Dragonball'', Goku's fighting in a tournament and reveals suddenly that he's wearing extremely heavy clothes, as part of his training. Is suddenly a ''lot'' faster once he gets rid of the extra weight. Also yet another DBZ example: during Cell Games, Gohan turns out to be holding back ''big time'' out of respect for life (or something like that).

* {{UsefulNotes/Germany}} may be an example of this considering it's population could support a much larger army, and it could have [[AtomicHate nukes]] in a week if it wanted to.

* Myke Tyson, of all people, could have been this as a child. The book "Momentos Trágicos del deporte" (tragic moments in sports) describes him letting people push him around and going home crying for being bullied. That, until the day somebody taught it was a good idea to mess with his pigeons and made him burst into a fighting machine.

** Kyoraku, apparently of the 'collateral damage' variety, at least with regards to his bankai. He's warned by Ukitake not to use it where others can see, and his explanation to Starrk of Katen Kyokotsu's abilities would indicate this is because the 'games' would affect anyone around Kyoraku. The rest of the stuff he pulls with Starrk are down to a Martial Pacifist being Brilliant But Lazy.