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** Elena "Yo-Yo" Rodriguez is a step above the rest of the Secret Warriors. Her power lets her move at superspeed for a single heartbeat before snapping back to where she was when she activated her power. While that's far less destructive than her teammates, it's far more useful, and she can use it to do everything from stripping the weapons from an entire corridor of soldiers to scouting a base in minutes. It should be noted that this is a heavily nerfed version of her comics powers (which was more traditional "move fast as long as you want" super speed), and she's still arguably the most powerful person on the team. She spends a lot of time away from the plot for various reasons because she would break the story too easily.
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** Elena "Yo-Yo" Rodriguez is a step above the rest of the Secret Warriors. Her power lets her move at superspeed for a single heartbeat before snapping back to where she was when she activated her power. While that's far less destructive than her teammates, it's far more useful, and she can use it to do everything from stripping the weapons from an entire corridor of soldiers to scouting a base in minutes. It should be noted that this is a heavily nerfed version of her comics powers (which was more traditional "move fast as long as you want" super speed), and she's still arguably one of the most powerful person people on the team. She spends a lot of time away from the plot for various reasons because she would break the story too easily.
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** Supergirl herself has this problem during her crossovers with other shows. She's so much more powerful than basically anything else they've got that she'd solve their problems easily. The first crossover event thus had her immediately brainwashed and turned against Flash and Green Arrow making her a liabilty in the first episode, then asked to stay out of it by Oliver until the very end of the finale, with the middle episode having her and Barry take down in about a minute a villain that would otherwise take Team Arrow a whole episode to deal with and showing why she needed to be sidelined. Subverted in the second event, Crisis on Earth X, where she's given an equally powerful opponent to keep her occupied.
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** Supergirl herself has is capable of having this problem during her crossovers with other shows.shows, especially in the ''Invasion!'' event. She's so much more powerful than basically anything else they've got that she'd solve their problems easily. The first crossover event ''Invasion!'' thus had her immediately brainwashed and turned against Flash and Green Arrow making her a liabilty in the first episode, then asked to stay out of it by Oliver until the very end of the finale, with the middle episode having her and Barry take down in about a minute a villain that would otherwise take Team Arrow a whole episode to deal with and showing why she needed to be sidelined. Subverted Averted in the second event, Crisis on Earth X, where she's given an equally powerful opponent to keep her occupied.
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** The sonic screwdriver and its ability to basically do anything the Doctor needs it to (except wood and deadlock seals - perhaps, its DependingOnTheWriter a lot of the time) is a classic example of this trope, and ironically enough, the writers realised this during Peter Davidson's run and had it destroyed for the rest of the classic series, only for it to return in the modern series more broken than it had ever been before. And the icing on the cake is that unlike the Fifth, Sixth and Seventh Doctors who apparently had no means to replace it, nowadays the TARDIS can manufacture new and improved ones for him in hours, meaning that it is now impossible to deprive him of it permanently.
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** The wide beam setting on the hand phaser would have ended two thirds of every firefight we've ever seen on this show immediately if the characters actually bothered to use it.
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* ''Series/{{Arrow}}'': the main criticism of Damien Darhk's character is that he was far too powerful of a villain for Team Arrow to be as big of a problem to him as they were, being telekinetic, able to kill people by touching them, and ''freaking teleport.'' You could make a drinking game out of the number of times Darkh could have slaughtered all of the heroes but takes his sweet old time.
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* ''Series/{{Arrow}}'': the main criticism of Damien Darhk's character is that he was far too powerful of a villain for Team Arrow to be as big of a problem to him as they were, being telekinetic, able to kill people by touching them, and ''freaking teleport.'' You could make a drinking game out of the number of times Darkh Darhk could have slaughtered all of the heroes but takes his sweet old time.time.
**The same goes for his few fully-powered appearances in ''Series/LegendsOfTomorrow.'' Once, he slaughters a whole platoon of nameless time agents in moments... and then toys with the heroes before leaving.
**The same goes for his few fully-powered appearances in ''Series/LegendsOfTomorrow.'' Once, he slaughters a whole platoon of nameless time agents in moments... and then toys with the heroes before leaving.
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** Supergirl herself has this problem during her crossovers with other shows. She's so much more powerful than basically anything else they've got that she'd solve their problems easily. The first crossover event thus had her immediately brainwashed and turned against Flash and Green Arrow making her a liabilty in the first episode, then asked to stay out of it by Oliver until the very end of the finale, with the middle episode having her and Barry take down in about a minute a villain that would otherwise take Team Arrow a whole episode to deal with and showing why she needed to be sidelined. Subverted in the second event, Crisis on Earth X, where she's given an equally powerful opponent to keep her occupied.
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--->[[spoiler:'''River Song:''' He's interacting with his own past. It could rip a hole in the Universe.]]
--->[[spoiler:'''Amy Pond:''' Yes, but he's done it before!]]
--->[[spoiler:'''Rory Williams:''' And in fairness the Universe did blow up.]]
--->[[spoiler:'''Amy Pond:''' Yes, but he's done it before!]]
--->[[spoiler:'''Rory Williams:''' And in fairness the Universe did blow up.]]
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** Made absurdly blatant in Season 3's finale "My Name is Oliver Queen". [[Series/TheFlash2014 Barry Allen]] was called in by Malcolm Merlyn and easily defeats the League of Assassins, breaks out the group, and makes utter chumps of the entire complement of League members left at Nanda Parbat in the space of less than 5 minutes after an entire season of Team Arrow trying to accomplish the same thing.
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** Made absurdly blatant in Season 3's finale "My Name is Oliver Queen". [[Series/TheFlash2014 Barry Allen]] was called in by Malcolm Merlyn Oliver and easily defeats the League of Assassins, breaks out the group, and makes utter chumps of the entire complement of League members left at Nanda Parbat in the space of less than 5 minutes after an entire season of Team Arrow trying to accomplish the same thing. And then he doesn't join the final battle for the rest of the episode with the excuse that he's got his own problems he's dealing with right now.
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*** Data also has superhuman strength and should be able to effortlessly deal with any situation that can be solved with hand-to-hand combat or an application of brute force. This would be out of character for him but that still isn't an excuse for it almost always being ignored as a solution.
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* ''Series/{{Supergirl}}'' has Martian Manhunter, but unlike in ''Series/{{Smallville}}'' he is allowed to stick around as a main character. He can supposedly [[{{Telepathy}} read minds]] and yet this is almost never put to good use and is barely even mentioned except for occasional excuses that even ordinary humans are [[HandWave 'blocking him somehow']]. Not only that but he is a FlyingBrick with no weakness to kryptonite, no dependence on a yellow sun, {{Shapeshifting}} abilities and secret agent skills to rival anyone on earth. Why he is constantly outperformed by the title character is a mystery.
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** Misty Day is a gifted witch whose main power is her [[HealingHands ability to resurrect the dead by touching them]]. She can do this to ''anything'' dead, from birds, to alligators, to people, [[HealingFactor to herself after she was burned at the stake]]. Moreover, she can heal ''serious'' damage inflicted upon the corpses of those she revives - she undoes completely burnt off skin and partial bodily decay with contemptuous ease. Misty has resurrected not only herself but two other members of the main cast, and it's gotten to the point where the characters just come to her when someone dies, [[LampshadeHanging lampshading]] it as they go. In order to balance this, two characters have taken to destroying the bodies of their victims in order to keep them from being revived.
** Possibly why Madison was [[spoiler:killed off in episode three]] - her telekinesis and fire-starting powers would make short work of the zombie army attacking their house, and would stunt Zoe's arc about her necromancy powers.
** Possibly why Madison was [[spoiler:killed off in episode three]] - her telekinesis and fire-starting powers would make short work of the zombie army attacking their house, and would stunt Zoe's arc about her necromancy powers.
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** Misty Day is a gifted witch whose main power is her [[HealingHands ability to resurrect the dead by touching them]]. She can do this to ''anything'' dead, from birds, to alligators, to people, [[HealingFactor to herself after she was burned at the stake]]. Moreover, she can heal ''serious'' damage inflicted upon the corpses of those she revives - -- she undoes completely burnt off skin and partial bodily decay with contemptuous ease. Misty has resurrected not only herself but two other members of the main cast, and it's gotten to the point where the characters just come to her when someone dies, [[LampshadeHanging lampshading]] it as they go. In order to balance this, two characters have taken to destroying the bodies of their victims in order to keep them from being revived.
** Possibly why Madison was [[spoiler:killed off in episode three]]- -- her telekinesis and fire-starting powers would make short work of the zombie army attacking their house, and would stunt Zoe's arc about her necromancy powers.
** Possibly why Madison was [[spoiler:killed off in episode three]]
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** Earlier in season one, Angel manages to acquire the Gem of Amarra, a mystical ring described as the equivalent to the Holy Grail for vampires, from Spike in a {{Crossover}} episode from ''Series/BuffyTheVampireSlayer''. This artifact would grant the vampire wearer increased abilities and complete invulnerability to all their usual weaknesses, as demonstrated by [[TortureTechnician Marcus]] earlier when he shrugs off a bow-to-the-heart from Oz and the ability to walk in direct sunlight without erupting in flames. At the end of the episode Angel, who had remained doubtful about keeping the ring or not, decided to destroy it, preventing the show and Angel's fights from being [[ImmortalHero a lot less suspenseful]].
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** Earlier in season one, Season 1, Angel manages to acquire the Gem of Amarra, a mystical ring described as the equivalent to the Holy Grail for vampires, from Spike in a {{Crossover}} episode from ''Series/BuffyTheVampireSlayer''. This artifact would grant the vampire wearer increased abilities and complete invulnerability to all their usual weaknesses, as demonstrated by [[TortureTechnician Marcus]] earlier when he shrugs off a bow-to-the-heart from Oz and the ability to walk in direct sunlight without erupting in flames. At the end of the episode Angel, who had remained doubtful about keeping the ring or not, decided to destroy it, preventing the show and Angel's fights from being [[ImmortalHero a lot less suspenseful]].
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** Made absurdly blatant in season 3's finale "My Name is Oliver Queen". [[Series/TheFlash2014 Barry Allen]] was called in by Malcolm Merlyn and easily defeats the League of Assassins, breaks out the group, and makes utter chumps of the entire complement of League members left at Nanda Parbat in the space of less than 5 minutes after an entire season of Team Arrow trying to accomplish the same thing.
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** Made absurdly blatant in season Season 3's finale "My Name is Oliver Queen". [[Series/TheFlash2014 Barry Allen]] was called in by Malcolm Merlyn and easily defeats the League of Assassins, breaks out the group, and makes utter chumps of the entire complement of League members left at Nanda Parbat in the space of less than 5 minutes after an entire season of Team Arrow trying to accomplish the same thing.
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** So many stories would be a lot shorter if the Doctor remembered he can ''read minds'' - any of the [[MysteryFiction Whodunnit]] stories, any stories where someone turns out to be backstabbing the Doctor...Of course, MindOverManners is probably in play here, as is the fact that he seems to be able to use TouchTelepathy only.
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** So many stories would be a lot shorter if the Doctor remembered he can ''read minds'' - -- any of the [[MysteryFiction Whodunnit]] stories, any stories where someone turns out to be backstabbing the Doctor...Of course, MindOverManners is probably in play here, as is the fact that he seems to be able to use TouchTelepathy only.
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** In the first season, Peter Petrelli can permanently gain anyone's power simply by being near them. It doesn't take long for him to rack up flying, time control, teleportation, and healing. With all of his powers, he should be able to achieve just about any conceivable goal. To keep him as a viable character, he's given amnesia in season 2, loses his powers briefly, and then regains them at a significant downgrade.
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** In the first season, Peter Petrelli can permanently gain anyone's power simply by being near them. It doesn't take long for him to rack up flying, time control, teleportation, and healing. With all of his powers, he should be able to achieve just about any conceivable goal. To keep him as a viable character, he's given amnesia in season Season 2, loses his powers briefly, and then regains them at a significant downgrade.
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** Castiel. Angels are among the most powerful beings in the setting, even "grunt" angels like Castiel effortlessly dispatching most demons and monsters, heal fatal wounds, and even resurrect the dead. While this was fine for {{Story Arc}}s where he was fighting other angels who were equally powerful or even stronger than he was, it trivialized the MonsterOfTheWeek episodes as Cas could just locate the monster and zap it in two seconds. Thus, the writers were forced to continuously include [[DeusExitMachina excuses and storylines which explained why he couldn't help]] the {{Badass Normal}}s. In the seventh and eight seasons, the writers continuously toy with the idea of killing or permanently incapacitating Castiel, but they won't because [[BreakoutCharacter he's one of the most popular parts of the show]], and his episodes get the best ratings. Also, he's funny and arguably [[TheHeart the show's heart]], so his other attributes make the show more enjoyable. The writers just need to figure out how to depower him. [[spoiler:Indeed the season eight finale ends with Castiel's grace being taken from him, effectively [[BroughtDownToNormal turning him human]].]]
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** Castiel. Angels are among the most powerful beings in the setting, even "grunt" angels like Castiel effortlessly dispatching most demons and monsters, heal fatal wounds, and even resurrect the dead. While this was fine for {{Story Arc}}s where he was fighting other angels who were equally powerful or even stronger than he was, it trivialized the MonsterOfTheWeek episodes as Cas could just locate the monster and zap it in two seconds. Thus, the writers were forced to continuously include [[DeusExitMachina excuses and storylines which explained why he couldn't help]] the {{Badass Normal}}s. In the seventh and eight seasons, the writers continuously toy with the idea of killing or permanently incapacitating Castiel, but they won't because [[BreakoutCharacter he's one of the most popular parts of the show]], and his episodes get the best ratings. Also, he's funny and arguably [[TheHeart the show's heart]], so his other attributes make the show more enjoyable. The writers just need to figure out how to depower him. [[spoiler:Indeed [[spoiler:Indeed, the season eight Season 8 finale ends with Castiel's grace being taken from him, effectively [[BroughtDownToNormal turning him human]].]]
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** WordOfGod admits that in hindsight they made angels too powerful and have had to come up with numerous {{Drama Preserving Handicap}}s to keep them from solving everything single-handedly, hence the proliferation of angel-killing blades and the angels' tendency to [[ForgotAboutHisPowers Forget About Their Powers]]. In season 7 they introduced the Leviathans, who were supposedly even stronger than angels, and unlike the angels were [[AlwaysChaoticEvil all villainous]], but a direct comparison of the Leviathan's abilities versus the angels' was still hilariously one-sided in the angels' favor. Season 9 had to issue a species-wide {{Nerf}} by [[spoiler:casting the angels out of Heaven and burning off their wings, removing their ability to teleport and weakening their other powers.]]
** The biggest problem with the angels is the trivial ease in which they can resurrect the dead. Despite the show's DeathIsCheap reputation, just about every character who isn't Sam, Dean, Bobby, or Castiel tends to stay dead when they die -[[spoiler:and even Bobby was eventually KilledOffForReal in season 7]]- and originally this was justified as resurrection having a high cost such as selling your soul or the victim [[CameBackWrong Coming Back Wrong]]. But once the angels were introduced, they were granted the ability to resurrect the dead with absolutely no drawbacks whatsoever. This has caused all sorts of problems as the show continues to kill off the heroes' friends and allies, and nobody ever seems to consider asking Cas or another angel to bring them back. Occasionally there will be a HandWave explanation as to why it can't be done, but more often than not the writers just pretend the angels don't have this ability unless the plot calls for it.
** The Colt, a supernaturally powered gun that can supposedly OneHitKill anything. Originally it was limited by the number of bullets it had - any old regular bullet wouldn't work, they had to be enchanted like the gun - so the heroes had to save them for kills that really mattered. In season 3, however, the heroes figured out a way to make new bullets for the gun after extinguishing the original supply. Without the limited ammo, the gun quickly became story-breaking as Sam and Dean no longer needed to figure out [[AchillesHeel monsters' weaknesses]] and could just kill anything they came across by shooting it. Once they realized this, the writers had Sam and Dean lose the Colt, and replaced it with Ruby's knife, which is also a OneHitKill, but only works on demons. The Colt briefly resurfaced in season 5, only for it to be revealed that it actually can't kill everything, [[spoiler:as the Winchesters discover to their horror that Lucifer, and four other as of yet unidentified beings, are immune]]. It's lost again after only a single episode in the heroes' possession and never seen again.[[spoiler: It returns in Season 12.]]
** The biggest problem with the angels is the trivial ease in which they can resurrect the dead. Despite the show's DeathIsCheap reputation, just about every character who isn't Sam, Dean, Bobby, or Castiel tends to stay dead when they die -[[spoiler:and even Bobby was eventually KilledOffForReal in season 7]]- and originally this was justified as resurrection having a high cost such as selling your soul or the victim [[CameBackWrong Coming Back Wrong]]. But once the angels were introduced, they were granted the ability to resurrect the dead with absolutely no drawbacks whatsoever. This has caused all sorts of problems as the show continues to kill off the heroes' friends and allies, and nobody ever seems to consider asking Cas or another angel to bring them back. Occasionally there will be a HandWave explanation as to why it can't be done, but more often than not the writers just pretend the angels don't have this ability unless the plot calls for it.
** The Colt, a supernaturally powered gun that can supposedly OneHitKill anything. Originally it was limited by the number of bullets it had - any old regular bullet wouldn't work, they had to be enchanted like the gun - so the heroes had to save them for kills that really mattered. In season 3, however, the heroes figured out a way to make new bullets for the gun after extinguishing the original supply. Without the limited ammo, the gun quickly became story-breaking as Sam and Dean no longer needed to figure out [[AchillesHeel monsters' weaknesses]] and could just kill anything they came across by shooting it. Once they realized this, the writers had Sam and Dean lose the Colt, and replaced it with Ruby's knife, which is also a OneHitKill, but only works on demons. The Colt briefly resurfaced in season 5, only for it to be revealed that it actually can't kill everything, [[spoiler:as the Winchesters discover to their horror that Lucifer, and four other as of yet unidentified beings, are immune]]. It's lost again after only a single episode in the heroes' possession and never seen again.[[spoiler: It returns in Season 12.]]
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** WordOfGod admits that in hindsight they made angels too powerful and have had to come up with numerous {{Drama Preserving Handicap}}s to keep them from solving everything single-handedly, hence the proliferation of angel-killing blades and the angels' tendency to [[ForgotAboutHisPowers Forget About Their Powers]]. In season 7 Season 7, they introduced the Leviathans, who were supposedly even stronger than angels, and unlike the angels were [[AlwaysChaoticEvil all villainous]], but a direct comparison of the Leviathan's abilities versus the angels' was still hilariously one-sided in the angels' favor. Season 9 had to issue a species-wide {{Nerf}} by [[spoiler:casting the angels out of Heaven and burning off their wings, removing their ability to teleport and weakening their other powers.]]
** The biggest problem with the angels is the trivial ease in which they can resurrect the dead. Despite the show's DeathIsCheap reputation, just about every character who isn't Sam, Dean, Bobby, or Castiel tends to stay dead when they die-[[spoiler:and -- [[spoiler:and even Bobby was eventually KilledOffForReal in season 7]]- Season 7]] -- and originally this was justified as resurrection having a high cost such as selling your soul or the victim [[CameBackWrong Coming Back Wrong]]. But once the angels were introduced, they were granted the ability to resurrect the dead with absolutely no drawbacks whatsoever. This has caused all sorts of problems as the show continues to kill off the heroes' friends and allies, and nobody ever seems to consider asking Cas or another angel to bring them back. Occasionally there will be a HandWave explanation as to why it can't be done, but more often than not the writers just pretend the angels don't have this ability unless the plot calls for it.
** The Colt, a supernaturally powered gun that can supposedly OneHitKill anything. Originally it was limited by the number of bullets it had- -- any old regular bullet wouldn't work, they had to be enchanted like the gun - -- so the heroes had to save them for kills that really mattered. In season Season 3, however, the heroes figured out a way to make new bullets for the gun after extinguishing the original supply. Without the limited ammo, the gun quickly became story-breaking as Sam and Dean no longer needed to figure out [[AchillesHeel monsters' weaknesses]] and could just kill anything they came across by shooting it. Once they realized this, the writers had Sam and Dean lose the Colt, and replaced it with Ruby's knife, which is also a OneHitKill, but only works on demons. The Colt briefly resurfaced in season Season 5, only for it to be revealed that it actually can't kill everything, [[spoiler:as the Winchesters discover to their horror that Lucifer, and four other as of yet unidentified beings, are immune]]. It's lost again after only a single episode in the heroes' possession and never seen again.[[spoiler: It returns in Season 12.]]
** The biggest problem with the angels is the trivial ease in which they can resurrect the dead. Despite the show's DeathIsCheap reputation, just about every character who isn't Sam, Dean, Bobby, or Castiel tends to stay dead when they die
** The Colt, a supernaturally powered gun that can supposedly OneHitKill anything. Originally it was limited by the number of bullets it had
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** Alaric Saltzman was a ''little'' TooCoolToLive after he returned from The Other Side because he retained his powers as an "Enhanced" Original Vampire; Alaric was immune to all traditional vampire weaknesses like the Originals were, was always immune to the sole weakness the Originals had, became immune to his own personal weakness after Elena became a Vampire, still able to [[MindManipulation compel]] normal vampires, and his SuperStrength was superior to the eldest Original, the [[HybridPower Original Hybrid]] Klaus Mikaelson. The show found the fastest excuse it could to DePower Alaric early in season 6, lest he make chumps of any future threats to Mystic Falls.
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** Alaric Saltzman was a ''little'' TooCoolToLive after he returned from The Other Side because he retained his powers as an "Enhanced" Original Vampire; Alaric was immune to all traditional vampire weaknesses like the Originals were, was always immune to the sole weakness the Originals had, became immune to his own personal weakness after Elena became a Vampire, still able to [[MindManipulation compel]] normal vampires, and his SuperStrength was superior to the eldest Original, the [[HybridPower Original Hybrid]] Klaus Mikaelson. The show found the fastest excuse it could to DePower Alaric early in season Season 6, lest he make chumps of any future threats to Mystic Falls.
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*** And another example is the powers possessed by Kamen Rider Chronos, which was meant to be the game's ultimate weapon to fight its final boss, but is repurposed into fighting the show's heroes so the game never ends. Chronos is able to "pause" events for everyone but himself which lets him totally slaughter the other riders and then unfreeze time so that all the damage hits them at once and they're automatically defeated without a chance to hit back. Muteki Gamer mentioned above is introduced mainly because it makes the user immune to this, breaking a broken power in effect.
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** ''Series/KamenRiderExAid'' has Muteki Gamer, which was specifically created to be invincible, and it certainly lives up to that intention. Once Muteki Gamer is introduced, most of the {{Big Bad}}'s plans focus on trying to DePower Emu since Muteki Gamer is the only thing that can defeat him.
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** Robbie Reyes, [[ComicBook/AllNewGhostRider the Ghost Rider]], is incredibly powerful and able to dispatch foes quite easily, which is why he spends nearly two-thirds of the season [[spoiler:trapped in Hell]]. When he returns, Robbie can easily [[spoiler:dispatch Life Model Decoys and harm Aida, who had used the Darkhold to become a human with numerous Inhuman powers that rendered her virtually unstoppable otherwise. The final conflict is not about him overpowering Aida, but finding a way to let Ghost Rider approach her without the latter running away in terror.]]
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** ''Series/KamenRiderRyuki'' has the villainous Kamen Rider Odin. He's physically stronger than the rest of the Kamen Riders, has stronger weapons, and has a TeleportSpam that makes hitting him almost impossible. He doesn't even need use his [[{{Mons}} Mirror Beast]] in any of his fights. Lead characters Kamen Riders Ryuki and Knight can barely slow him down, even with their [[SuperMode Survive Modes]], and if he dies [[BigBad Kanzaki Shirou]] can bring him back.
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** ''Series/KamenRiderRyuki'' has the villainous Kamen Rider Odin. He's physically stronger than the rest of the Kamen Riders, has stronger weapons, and has a TeleportSpam that makes hitting him almost impossible. He doesn't even need use his [[{{Mons}} Mirror Beast]] in any of his fights. Lead characters Kamen Riders Ryuki and Knight can barely slow him down, even with their [[SuperMode Survive Modes]], and if he dies [[BigBad Kanzaki Shirou]] can bring him back. [[InvokedTrope He's made to be like this]] to rig the contest for Kanzaki, though.
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Doesn't really count since it's his reward for being the last guy standing after all the other riders and enemies are defeated. Hence there's no conflicts left for his godly powers to break since the show's over at that point.
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** And let's not forget ''Series/KamenRiderGaim'', who [[spoiler:became a God.]]
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** The Doctor is a member of one of the most [[SufficientlyAdvancedAlien advanced races]] that the universe ever has or ever will produce. If he seriously applied himself to any single project, he could probably end up [[EmperorScientist running everything]]. However, his short attention span keeps him constantly moving and prevents him from hatching many long-term plans. His seventh incarnation was an unusual exception in that he apparently had a number of elaborate schemes going on. But he [[NiceJobBreakingItHero rarely bothers to clean up after them]].
** So many stories would be a lot shorter if the Doctor remembered he can ''read minds'' - any of the [[MysteryFiction Whodunnit]] stories, any stories where someone turns out to be backstabbing the Doctor...
** So many stories would be a lot shorter if the Doctor remembered he can ''read minds'' - any of the [[MysteryFiction Whodunnit]] stories, any stories where someone turns out to be backstabbing the Doctor...
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** The Doctor is a member of one of the most [[SufficientlyAdvancedAlien advanced races]] that the universe ever has or ever will produce. If he seriously applied himself to any single project, he could probably end up [[EmperorScientist running everything]]. However, his short attention span keeps him constantly moving and prevents him from hatching many long-term plans. His seventh incarnation was an unusual exception in that he apparently had a number of elaborate schemes going on. But he [[NiceJobBreakingItHero rarely bothers to clean up after them]].
them]]. There's also the fact that he's very aware that PowerCorrupts, and he doesn't ''want'' to rule the universe.
** So many stories would be a lot shorter if the Doctor remembered he can ''read minds'' - any of the [[MysteryFiction Whodunnit]] stories, any stories where someone turns out to be backstabbing the Doctor...Of course, MindOverManners is probably in play here, as is the fact that he seems to be able to use TouchTelepathy only.
** So many stories would be a lot shorter if the Doctor remembered he can ''read minds'' - any of the [[MysteryFiction Whodunnit]] stories, any stories where someone turns out to be backstabbing the Doctor...Of course, MindOverManners is probably in play here, as is the fact that he seems to be able to use TouchTelepathy only.
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** One way the series avoids this trope is because, while the Doctor is [[GadgeteerGenius incredibly]] [[SuperIntelligence smart and cunning]], he's also (or at least close to) a BadassNormal in a WorldOfBadass, so he has to figure out ways to beat enemies who are more numerous and powerful than him.
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** Alaric Saltzman was a ''little'' TooCoolToLive after he returned from The Other Side because he retained his powers as an "Enhanced" Original Vampire; Alaric was immune to all traditional vampire weaknesses like the Originals were, was always immune to the sole weakness the Originals had, became immune to his own personal weakness after Elena became a Vampire, still able to [[MindManipulation compel]] normal vampires, and his SuperStrength was superior to the eldest Original, the [[HybridPower Original Hybrid]] Klaus Mikaelson. The show found the fastest excuse it could to DePower Alaric early in season 6, lest he make chumps of any future threats to Mystic Falls.
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** Alaric Saltzman was a ''little'' TooCoolToLive after he returned from The Other Side because he retained his powers as an "Enhanced" Original Vampire; Alaric was immune to all traditional vampire weaknesses like the Originals were, was always immune to the sole weakness the Originals had, became immune to his own personal weakness after Elena became a Vampire, still able to [[MindManipulation compel]] normal vampires, and his SuperStrength was superior to the eldest Original, the [[HybridPower Original Hybrid]] Klaus Mikaelson. The show found the fastest excuse it could to DePower Alaric early in season 6, lest he make chumps of any future threats to Mystic Falls.Falls.
* ''Series/WizardsOfWaverlyPlace'': One episode featured a spell that allowed the user to rewind time a small amount to fix a simple mistake. It never gets used again despite being a simple solution to most of the mishaps they spend entire episodes trying to fix.
* ''Series/WizardsOfWaverlyPlace'': One episode featured a spell that allowed the user to rewind time a small amount to fix a simple mistake. It never gets used again despite being a simple solution to most of the mishaps they spend entire episodes trying to fix.
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** In "The Big Bang" The Doctor starts the episode imprisoned in an inescapable trap designed just for him. Logically, there should be no way out...except for the TimeyWimeyBall [[spoiler: (after he gets out he travels back in time and sets things in place so he'll be able to get out, which begs the question of what the writers couldn't have gotten him out of using this method).]]
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** The Colt, a supernaturally powered gun that can supposedly OneHitKill anything. Originally it was limited by the number of bullets it had - any old regular bullet wouldn't work, they had to be enchanted like the gun - so the heroes had to save them for kills that really mattered. In season 3, however, the heroes figured out a way to make new bullets for the gun after extinguishing the original supply. Without the limited ammo, the gun quickly became story-breaking as Sam and Dean no longer needed to figure out [[AchillesHeel monsters' weaknesses]] and could just kill anything they came across by shooting it. Once they realized this, the writers had Sam and Dean lose the Colt, and replaced it with Ruby's knife, which is also a OneHitKill, but only works on demons. The Colt briefly resurfaced in season 5, only for it to be revealed that it actually can't kill everything, [[spoiler:as the Winchesters discover to their horror that Archangels like Lucifer are immune]]. It's lost again after only a single episode in the heroes' possession and never seen again.
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** The Colt, a supernaturally powered gun that can supposedly OneHitKill anything. Originally it was limited by the number of bullets it had - any old regular bullet wouldn't work, they had to be enchanted like the gun - so the heroes had to save them for kills that really mattered. In season 3, however, the heroes figured out a way to make new bullets for the gun after extinguishing the original supply. Without the limited ammo, the gun quickly became story-breaking as Sam and Dean no longer needed to figure out [[AchillesHeel monsters' weaknesses]] and could just kill anything they came across by shooting it. Once they realized this, the writers had Sam and Dean lose the Colt, and replaced it with Ruby's knife, which is also a OneHitKill, but only works on demons. The Colt briefly resurfaced in season 5, only for it to be revealed that it actually can't kill everything, [[spoiler:as the Winchesters discover to their horror that Archangels like Lucifer Lucifer, and four other as of yet unidentified beings, are immune]]. It's lost again after only a single episode in the heroes' possession and never seen again.[[spoiler: It returns in Season 12.]]
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** The Originals are the [[MonsterProgenitor first vampires to ever exist]] and some of the most powerful group of characters in the setting. They're immune to all vampire weaknesses and have the unique ability to [[MindManipulation compel]] even normal vampires, meaning even Stephan and Damon aren't safe from them mentally. Being the epitome of StongerWithAge, Each Original possess SuperStrength superior to even the oldest non-Original Vampires, so even with a numbers advantage victory wasn't guaranteed against them. They did posses a [[KryptoniteFactor weakness to the White Oak that created them]], but when it was discovered that [[NoOntologicalInertia killing an Original meant the death of every Vampire in their sire line]] the protagonists had to destroy their collection of White Oak steaks and surrender the war to them. The Originals became a combination of this trope ''and'' ContractualImmortality due to the previous reveal and their eventual FaceHeelTurn, and being so much more powerful than the actual protagonists meant they needed to be spun-off into their own series so they could face threats meant to combat them.
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** The Originals are the [[MonsterProgenitor first vampires to ever exist]] and some of the most powerful group of characters in the setting. They're immune to all vampire weaknesses and have the unique ability to [[MindManipulation compel]] even normal vampires, meaning even Stephan and Damon aren't safe from them mentally. Being the epitome of StongerWithAge, StrongerWithAge, Each Original possess SuperStrength superior to even the oldest non-Original Vampires, so even with a numbers advantage victory wasn't guaranteed against them. They did posses a [[KryptoniteFactor weakness to the White Oak that created them]], but when it was discovered that [[NoOntologicalInertia killing an Original meant the death of every Vampire in their sire line]] the protagonists had to destroy their collection of White Oak steaks and surrender the war to them. The Originals became a combination of this trope ''and'' ContractualImmortality due to the previous reveal and their eventual FaceHeelTurn, and being so much more powerful than the actual protagonists meant they needed to be spun-off into their own series so they could face threats meant to combat them.
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* ''Series/TheVampireDiaries'': Alaric Saltzman was a ''little'' TooPowerfulToLive after he returned from The Other Side because he retained his powers as an "Enhanced" Original Vampire; Alaric was immune to all traditional vampire weaknesses like the Originals were, was always immune to the sole weakness the Originals had, became immune to his own personal weakness after Elena became a Vampire, still able to [[MindManipulation compel]] normal vampires, and his SuperStrength was superior to the eldest Original, the [[HybridPower Original Hybrid]] Klaus Mikaelson. The show found the fastest excuse it could to DePower Alaric early in season 6, lest he make chumps of any future threats to Mystic Falls.
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* ''Series/TheVampireDiaries'': ''Series/TheVampireDiaries'':
** The Originals are the [[MonsterProgenitor first vampires to ever exist]] and some of the most powerful group of characters in the setting. They're immune to all vampire weaknesses and have the unique ability to [[MindManipulation compel]] even normal vampires, meaning even Stephan and Damon aren't safe from them mentally. Being the epitome of StongerWithAge, Each Original possess SuperStrength superior to even the oldest non-Original Vampires, so even with a numbers advantage victory wasn't guaranteed against them. They did posses a [[KryptoniteFactor weakness to the White Oak that created them]], but when it was discovered that [[NoOntologicalInertia killing an Original meant the death of every Vampire in their sire line]] the protagonists had to destroy their collection of White Oak steaks and surrender the war to them. The Originals became a combination of this trope ''and'' ContractualImmortality due to the previous reveal and their eventual FaceHeelTurn, and being so much more powerful than the actual protagonists meant they needed to be spun-off into their own series so they could face threats meant to combat them.
** Alaric Saltzman was a ''little''TooPowerfulToLive TooCoolToLive after he returned from The Other Side because he retained his powers as an "Enhanced" Original Vampire; Alaric was immune to all traditional vampire weaknesses like the Originals were, was always immune to the sole weakness the Originals had, became immune to his own personal weakness after Elena became a Vampire, still able to [[MindManipulation compel]] normal vampires, and his SuperStrength was superior to the eldest Original, the [[HybridPower Original Hybrid]] Klaus Mikaelson. The show found the fastest excuse it could to DePower Alaric early in season 6, lest he make chumps of any future threats to Mystic Falls.
** The Originals are the [[MonsterProgenitor first vampires to ever exist]] and some of the most powerful group of characters in the setting. They're immune to all vampire weaknesses and have the unique ability to [[MindManipulation compel]] even normal vampires, meaning even Stephan and Damon aren't safe from them mentally. Being the epitome of StongerWithAge, Each Original possess SuperStrength superior to even the oldest non-Original Vampires, so even with a numbers advantage victory wasn't guaranteed against them. They did posses a [[KryptoniteFactor weakness to the White Oak that created them]], but when it was discovered that [[NoOntologicalInertia killing an Original meant the death of every Vampire in their sire line]] the protagonists had to destroy their collection of White Oak steaks and surrender the war to them. The Originals became a combination of this trope ''and'' ContractualImmortality due to the previous reveal and their eventual FaceHeelTurn, and being so much more powerful than the actual protagonists meant they needed to be spun-off into their own series so they could face threats meant to combat them.
** Alaric Saltzman was a ''little''
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** Made absurdly blatant in season 3's finale "My Name is Oliver Queen". [[Series/TheFlash2014 Barry Allen]] was called in by Malcolm Merlyn and easily defeats the League of Assassins, breaks out the group, and grinds Ra's Al Ghul's entire plan to a halt in the space of a single episode after an entire season of Team Arrow trying to accomplish the same thing.
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** Made absurdly blatant in season 3's finale "My Name is Oliver Queen". [[Series/TheFlash2014 Barry Allen]] was called in by Malcolm Merlyn and easily defeats the League of Assassins, breaks out the group, and grinds Ra's Al Ghul's makes utter chumps of the entire plan to a halt complement of League members left at Nanda Parbat in the space of a single episode less than 5 minutes after an entire season of Team Arrow trying to accomplish the same thing.
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** Made absurdly blatant in season 3's finale "My Name is Oliver Queen". [[Series/TheFlash2014 Barry Allen]] was called in by Malcolm Merlyn and easily defeats the League of Assassins, breaks out the group, and grinds Ra's Al Ghul's entire plan to a halt in the space of a single episode after an entire season of Team Arrow trying to accomplish the same thing.
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* ''Series/TheVampireDiaries'': Alaric Saltzman was a ''little'' TooPowerfulToLive after he returned from The Other Side because he maintained his powers as an "Enhanced" Original Vampire; Alaric was immune to all traditional vampire weaknesses like the Originals were, was always immune to the sole weakness the Orignals had, became immune to his own personal weakness after Elena became a Vampire, still able to [[MindManipulation compel]] normal vampires, and his SuperStrength was superior to the eldest Original, the [[HybridPower Original Hybrid]] Klaus Mikaelson. The show found the fastest excuse it could to DePower Alaric early in season 6, lest he make chumps of any future threats to Mystic Falls.
to:
* ''Series/TheVampireDiaries'': Alaric Saltzman was a ''little'' TooPowerfulToLive after he returned from The Other Side because he maintained retained his powers as an "Enhanced" Original Vampire; Alaric was immune to all traditional vampire weaknesses like the Originals were, was always immune to the sole weakness the Orignals Originals had, became immune to his own personal weakness after Elena became a Vampire, still able to [[MindManipulation compel]] normal vampires, and his SuperStrength was superior to the eldest Original, the [[HybridPower Original Hybrid]] Klaus Mikaelson. The show found the fastest excuse it could to DePower Alaric early in season 6, lest he make chumps of any future threats to Mystic Falls.
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* ''Series/TheVampireDiaries'': Alaric Saltzman was a ''little'' TooPowerfulToLive after he returned from The Other Side. He maintained his powers as an "Enhanced" Original Vampire, being immune to all traditional vampire weaknesses like they were, able to [[MindManipulation compel]] normal vampires, and his SuperStrength was superior to the eldest Original, the [[HybridPower Original Hybrid]] Klaus Mikaelson. The show found the fastest excuse it could to DePower Alaric early in season 6, lest he make chumps of any future threats to Mystic Falls.
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* ''Series/TheVampireDiaries'': Alaric Saltzman was a ''little'' TooPowerfulToLive after he returned from The Other Side. He Side because he maintained his powers as an "Enhanced" Original Vampire, being Vampire; Alaric was immune to all traditional vampire weaknesses like they the Originals were, was always immune to the sole weakness the Orignals had, became immune to his own personal weakness after Elena became a Vampire, still able to [[MindManipulation compel]] normal vampires, and his SuperStrength was superior to the eldest Original, the [[HybridPower Original Hybrid]] Klaus Mikaelson. The show found the fastest excuse it could to DePower Alaric early in season 6, lest he make chumps of any future threats to Mystic Falls.
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* ''Series/TheVampireDiaries'': Alaric Saltzman was a ''little'' TooPowerfulToLive after he returned from The Other Side. He maintained his powers as an "Enhanced" Original Vampire, being immune to all traditional vampire weaknesses like they were, able to [[MindManipulation compel]] normal vampires, and his SuperStrenght was superior to the eldest Original, the [[HybridPower Original Hybrid]] Klaus Mikaelson. The show found the fastest excuse it could to DePower Alaric early in season 6, lest he make chumps of any future threats to Mystic Falls.
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* ''Series/TheVampireDiaries'': Alaric Saltzman was a ''little'' TooPowerfulToLive after he returned from The Other Side. He maintained his powers as an "Enhanced" Original Vampire, being immune to all traditional vampire weaknesses like they were, able to [[MindManipulation compel]] normal vampires, and his SuperStrenght SuperStrength was superior to the eldest Original, the [[HybridPower Original Hybrid]] Klaus Mikaelson. The show found the fastest excuse it could to DePower Alaric early in season 6, lest he make chumps of any future threats to Mystic Falls.
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-->'''[[spoiler:Root]]:''' [[MachineWorship I have a direct line to a higher power. And She has a plan]].
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-->'''[[spoiler:Root]]:''' [[MachineWorship I have a direct line to a higher power. And She has a plan]].plan]].
* ''Series/TheVampireDiaries'': Alaric Saltzman was a ''little'' TooPowerfulToLive after he returned from The Other Side. He maintained his powers as an "Enhanced" Original Vampire, being immune to all traditional vampire weaknesses like they were, able to [[MindManipulation compel]] normal vampires, and his SuperStrenght was superior to the eldest Original, the [[HybridPower Original Hybrid]] Klaus Mikaelson. The show found the fastest excuse it could to DePower Alaric early in season 6, lest he make chumps of any future threats to Mystic Falls.
* ''Series/TheVampireDiaries'': Alaric Saltzman was a ''little'' TooPowerfulToLive after he returned from The Other Side. He maintained his powers as an "Enhanced" Original Vampire, being immune to all traditional vampire weaknesses like they were, able to [[MindManipulation compel]] normal vampires, and his SuperStrenght was superior to the eldest Original, the [[HybridPower Original Hybrid]] Klaus Mikaelson. The show found the fastest excuse it could to DePower Alaric early in season 6, lest he make chumps of any future threats to Mystic Falls.
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* ''Series/{{Arrow}}'': the main criticism of Damien Darhk's character is that he was far too powerful of a villain for Team Arrow to be as big of a problem to him as they were, being telekinetic, able to kill people by touching them, and ''freaking teleport.'' You could make a drinking game out of the number of times Darkh could have slaughtered all of the heroes but takes his sweet old time.
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** The LeakingCanOfEvil Sutekh in "Pyramids of Mars" runs into this problem in that he's basically immortal, with such great psychic power that he is able to MindRape [[TheWorfEffect the Doctor effortlessly]], possess people on Earth at will, and turn whole planets into dustbowls. He proved such an effective villain that Creator/RobertHolmes wrote himself into a corner, unable to think of a way that the Doctor could possibly overcome him, and the ending we do get to the story is [[EndingFatigue cobbled together]] and [[PlotHole somewhat unsatisfying]].
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* ''Series/AgentsOfSHIELD'':
** Most of the Inhumans are significantly more powerful than anyone else on the show; Daisy can bring down buildings, and at one point Lincoln pours enough electricity into a power line to create an impassable rain of lightning. The show mostly gets around this by having them face enemies that they need to take in alive with minimal property damage. Their powers are still useful, but they don't break the show.
** Elena "Yo-Yo" Rodriguez is a step above the rest of the Secret Warriors. Her power lets her move at superspeed for a single heartbeat before snapping back to where she was when she activated her power. While that's far less destructive than her teammates, it's far more useful, and she can use it to do everything from stripping the weapons from an entire corridor of soldiers to scouting a base in minutes. It should be noted that this is a heavily nerfed version of her comics powers (which was more traditional "move fast as long as you want" super speed), and she's still arguably the most powerful person on the team. She spends a lot of time away from the plot for various reasons because she would break the story too easily.
** On the other side we have Hive's CoDragons, Giyera and Lucio. Giyera has the ability to control any non-organic matter in his line of sight. This would be a pretty broken power if used to it's full potential, and to his credit he does do a couple cool things with it like [[spoiler: forcing ATCU Agent Banks to shoot himself and hijacking control of Zephyr One]]. But in a fight, mostly what he does is pick up small objects and telekenetically fling them at people. [[ArrogantKungFuGuy He's even been known to ignore his powers completely and instead fight with his martial skills alone]], allowing [[BadassNormal Badass Normals]] who'd otherwise have stood no chance to get the better of him. Lucio, meanwhile, has the power to paralyze anyone just by ''looking'' at them. You'd think that would allow him to neutralize whole groups of enemies in only a few seconds, and that does seem to be the case when he's up against {{mooks}}, but somehow he never seems to get more than one or two of the heroes at a time.
* ''Series/TheAlmightyJohnsons'': Mike as Ullr has the supernatural power to win any game and the smarts to make any challenge he's facing into one. Fortunately for the plot, Mike is TheFettered, as he considers Ullr his SuperPoweredEvilSide.
* ''Series/{{Alphas}}'':
** Nina Theroux can control people's will simply by looking at them in the eye. The show sometimes makes up excuses as to why she can't just "push" the bad guys left and right (since theoretically it would make the job too easy and a drama television show can't have that). A good example of this is in "Anger Management"; when Nina was questioned why she couldn't "just push [the] kid", she revealed that her power only lasted for a couple of minutes and "Rosen doesn't like to work that way". Well, that's too bad because it would have resolved the conflict MUCH sooner and easier.
** We're extremely lucky that Jason Miller, the all-powerful hormonal hive-mind gathering alpha, is just a lonely teen who just wants friends and has no psychotic motives.
* ''Series/AmericanHorrorStoryCoven'':
** Misty Day is a gifted witch whose main power is her [[HealingHands ability to resurrect the dead by touching them]]. She can do this to ''anything'' dead, from birds, to alligators, to people, [[HealingFactor to herself after she was burned at the stake]]. Moreover, she can heal ''serious'' damage inflicted upon the corpses of those she revives - she undoes completely burnt off skin and partial bodily decay with contemptuous ease. Misty has resurrected not only herself but two other members of the main cast, and it's gotten to the point where the characters just come to her when someone dies, [[LampshadeHanging lampshading]] it as they go. In order to balance this, two characters have taken to destroying the bodies of their victims in order to keep them from being revived.
** Possibly why Madison was [[spoiler:killed off in episode three]] - her telekinesis and fire-starting powers would make short work of the zombie army attacking their house, and would stunt Zoe's arc about her necromancy powers.
* ''Series/{{Angel}}'':
** Illyria started out as very much one of these. That list of powers likely to be story-breakers? She was pretty much all of the above. She specifically dismisses the {{Big Bad}}s of the entire series as being like insects compared with her, and not without justification claimed she was a god to the gods. She was so powerful that one wonders why she even needed an army back in ancient times, save that one recalls there were others like her running around. The heroes didn't (and couldn't) beat her; Illyria failed to conquer the world simply because she lost interest. In short, Illyria put the "cosmic" in CosmicHorrorStory. Until she lost control of her powers due to the [[PunyEarthlings puny human]] body she was reincarnated into, and got a PowerLimiter slapped on her, taking away some of her powers entirely and dialing the rest of them down so she wasn't much stronger than the other protagonists.
** Earlier in season one, Angel manages to acquire the Gem of Amarra, a mystical ring described as the equivalent to the Holy Grail for vampires, from Spike in a {{Crossover}} episode from ''Series/BuffyTheVampireSlayer''. This artifact would grant the vampire wearer increased abilities and complete invulnerability to all their usual weaknesses, as demonstrated by [[TortureTechnician Marcus]] earlier when he shrugs off a bow-to-the-heart from Oz and the ability to walk in direct sunlight without erupting in flames. At the end of the episode Angel, who had remained doubtful about keeping the ring or not, decided to destroy it, preventing the show and Angel's fights from being [[ImmortalHero a lot less suspenseful]].
* ''Series/BabylonFive'' had a recurring problem with this after "[[Recap/BabylonFiveS01E19AVoiceInTheWildernessPart2 A Voice in the Wilderness, Part 2]]" granted the heroes control of a piece of ImportedAlienPhlebotinum on the uninhabited planet the station orbits. While they use the Great Machine as an intelligence source and to TimeTravel in later episodes, the installation also has tremendously powerful surface-to-space weapons, forcing the writers to always come up with a reason why they couldn't use them to defend Babylon 5 when it came under attack by the MonsterOfTheWeek (such as the Shadows jamming their communications in "[[Recap/BabylonFiveS03E22ZHaDum Z'ha'dum]]").
* Samantha from ''Series/{{Bewitched}}'' and Jeannie from ''Series/IDreamOfJeannie''. Their powers were pretty much "do anything by wiggling your nose/bobbing your head". If it weren't for the [[UselessSuperpowers random nature]] of their powers and otherworldly relatives, Darren and Major Tony would lead completely idyllic and boring lives.
* ''Series/DoctorWho'':
** The Doctor is the {{Trope Namer|s}} for the TimeyWimeyBall because without it, he could simply time travel anywhere and change anything, and if he made a mistake just go back again and fix it. This problem was parodied in the Comic Relief parody "Doctor Who and the Curse of Fatal Death," which put the Doctor and the Master in a series of time traveling counter-moves to each other.
** The Doctor could just evacuate everyone on the doomed space ship that's getting sucked into the sun, sucked into a black hole, crashed into meteors a la the Titanic, etc, in the TARDIS, if it didn't always (in)conveniently get blasted away into space and out of useful range for the episode.
** The Doctor is a member of one of the most [[SufficientlyAdvancedAlien advanced races]] that the universe ever has or ever will produce. If he seriously applied himself to any single project, he could probably end up [[EmperorScientist running everything]]. However, his short attention span keeps him constantly moving and prevents him from hatching many long-term plans. His seventh incarnation was an unusual exception in that he apparently had a number of elaborate schemes going on. But he [[NiceJobBreakingItHero rarely bothers to clean up after them]].
** So many stories would be a lot shorter if the Doctor remembered he can ''read minds'' - any of the [[MysteryFiction Whodunnit]] stories, any stories where someone turns out to be backstabbing the Doctor...
* ''Series/{{Heroes}}'':
** In the first season, Peter Petrelli can permanently gain anyone's power simply by being near them. It doesn't take long for him to rack up flying, time control, teleportation, and healing. With all of his powers, he should be able to achieve just about any conceivable goal. To keep him as a viable character, he's given amnesia in season 2, loses his powers briefly, and then regains them at a significant downgrade.
** Hiro's time control and teleportation abilities alone make it necessary for his character to constantly grasp the IdiotBall so that he doesn't just solve everything instantly.
* ''Series/JessicaJones2015'': [[NamesToRunAwayFromReallyFast Kilgrave]] can effortlessly [[MindControl control anyone's mind]] within his line of sight. The effects fade with distance and time [[spoiler: and under the influence of powerful sedatives]], but always leave him more than enough of a window to make a getaway in the unlikely event he's cornered. Basically, if he sees you, you've already lost. The reason he doesn't with Jessica is because he is a StalkerWithACrush who became obsessed with her after she broke his control the first time they encountered each other.
** [[spoiler: Or...as it turns out, Jessica Jones is completely immune.]]
* ''Franchise/KamenRider'':
** Series/KamenRiderKuuga's [[SuperMode Ultimate Form]], which despite being a potentially DeadlyUpgrade, is also debatably one of '''the''' most powerful Kamen Riders. To wit, one of his previous {{Finishing Move}}s, the Rising Mighty Kick, causes a 3 kilometer-diameter explosion; the Ultimate Kick has the potential to ''[[EarthShatteringKaboom destroy the planet]]''. In order to keep from overpowering the plot, Ultimate Form only appears in the last two episodes and is mostly used to battle the BigBad, [[spoiler:who is said to be just as powerful and both share a few common abilities like pyrokinesis.]]
** [[Series/KamenRiderDecade Decade]]. BigBad monsters from previous series iterations? [[CurbStompBattle Taken care of in no time flat.]] Still in a tight spot? Turn on your SuperMode and [[SummonMagic summon a previous rider clone for a synchronized double attack.]] Baddie still not finished yet? [[EquippableAlly Turn that ally into a useful weapon or vehicle]] to blow him away. Going up against giants and spaceships? Merge with J and turn everyone else into a card to kick them all to death. Just another day for a [[CatchPhrase passing-through Kamen Rider.]]
** Series/KamenRiderKabuto's Hyper [[SuperSpeed Clock Up]] allows him to move faster than light, and travel through time and alternate dimensions. On top of Kabuto being TheAce. However, [[PowerIncontinence he does not appear to have full control over its more powerful functions]], it will sometimes send him to random places of its own accord, his most powerful attack cannot be used while it is active, and some of his enemies have [[TimeStandsStill powers which can counter it]].
** ''Series/KamenRiderDouble'' has the villanous rider Eternal, who can make all Gaia Memories -- the main source of power for heroes and villains alike -- that were not created before his stop working. He can also [[AllYourPowersCombined use all the T2 Gaia Memories at once for several powerful attacks]].
** ''Series/KamenRiderRyuki'' has the villainous Kamen Rider Odin. He's physically stronger than the rest of the Kamen Riders, has stronger weapons, and has a TeleportSpam that makes hitting him almost impossible. He doesn't even need use his [[{{Mons}} Mirror Beast]] in any of his fights. Lead characters Kamen Riders Ryuki and Knight can barely slow him down, even with their [[SuperMode Survive Modes]], and if he dies [[BigBad Kanzaki Shirou]] can bring him back.
** And let's not forget ''Series/KamenRiderGaim'', who [[spoiler:became a God.]]
* One drinking game for ''Series/{{Merlin}}'' could be described thusly: take a shot for every problem that [[TheArchmage Merlin]] could have solved if [[BanOnMagic magic wasn't punishable by death]] and he wasn't [[HowDoIShotWeb restricted by his lack of training]]. He gets his full power and training in the GrandFinale, and curb stomps the [[spoiler:''entire Saxon Army'' at Camlann.]]
* Parodied in ''Series/ThatMitchellAndWebbLook'', where Angel Summoner and the BMX Bandit form a mismatched duo. Angel Summoner can summon angels, which can accomplish essentially anything; BMX Bandit has... [[WhatKindOfLamePowerIsHeartAnyway BMX skills]], making him feel like a permanent third wheel. On one mission Angel Summoner allows BMX Bandit to fight alone, while secretly summoning invisible angels to help him.
* [[ExpositoryThemeTune The theme song]] to ''Series/MysteryScienceTheater3000'' says that Joel ''could'' have built a device that could have skipped movies directly to the end. Instead, he used those parts to build his robot friends.
* ''Series/OnceUponATime'': Rumpelstiltskin could solve most of the shows problems if he wanted. Or if he weren't the cause of most of them.
* Tommy Oliver from the first season of ''Series/MightyMorphinPowerRangers'' is the Green Ranger and, between his natural karate skills and ranger powers, is about as strong as the other five combined. So to keep things interesting, The Powers That Be gave him an appaling memory that meant he was always forgetting his communicator and they eventually took away his powers altogether. He got new ones but not quite on the same level.
** Doesn't help, the character they get his footage from...only appeared sparingly, and was just as much of a 'scenario solver'. His Super Sentai equivalent would die if he used his powers too much.
* Just like in the comics, ''Series/{{Smallville}}'' didn't want ComicBook/MartianManhunter hanging around overshadowing [[Franchise/{{Superman}} Clark]], so they gave him an arbitrary weakness; his body's HealingFactor was inhibited by Earth's dense, oxygen-filled, and very un-Marslike atmosphere, so he frequently had to fly into space for extended periods to [[GoodThingYouCanHeal heal]] after a battle -- PutOnABus to the ionosphere, so to speak. Later they just [[BroughtDownToNormal depowered him]] entirely in a contrived HeroicSacrifice.
* Franchise/StargateVerse:
** The Asgard are one of, if not ''the'' most advanced race in the entire story (arguably surpassing even the Ancients at least in certain areas) by the end of their lifespan, and also happen to be [[BigGood very kind and helpful protectors of the Milky Way]]. So how come the Milky Way is overrun by the evil Goa'uld anyway? The Asgard are at a long-spanning war against [[MechanicalLifeforms the Replicators]], a far more dangerous enemy and they're ''not'' winning. Add that they are literally a dying race. The ''only'' time the writers allowed them to be BigDamnHeroes is in a parallel universe.
** The Replicators themselves, who turned the Asgard from the mightiest extant species in the known universe to TheRemnant barely holding onto their few remaining planets. They absorb and adapt rapidly to any new technology, which thanks to their FTL MindHive connection is spread amongst all units instantly, and can reform an entire swarm from a single active unit at ridiculous speeds, and that's before they start making [[RidiculouslyHumanRobots human-form Replicators]] which are even more advanced and ''[[ItCanThink smart]]''. {{Kinetic weapons|AreJustBetter}} can temporarily take down smaller units, but they just reform and larger units are impervious. As soon as they arrive in our galaxy the Goa'uld, the undisputed power of the Milky Way and the main threat for eight seasons, get [[CurbStompBattle absolutely demolished]] in a single episode, only taken down using a weapon that could wipe out all life in the galaxy. They're even considered a Story Breaker in-universe, as the back-up plan in ''Film/TheArkOfTruth'' is to [[GodzillaThreshold unleash a swarm in the Ori galaxy]], under the belief that not even they could take them down.
** {{Ascend|ToAHigherPlaneOfExistence}}ed beings are basically gods, able to command the forces of nature at will to terrifying effect. To prevent this trope, the writers introduced the idea that the Ancients also have a self-imposed AlienNonInterferenceClause. Which, naturally, they didn't apply to the Ancients' {{Evil Counterpart}}s the Ori when they needed new villains for the PostScriptSeason.
* ''Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration'':
** Counselor Troi can sense the emotions of most beings. This would end a lot of episodes really quickly if the writers didn't keep coming up with circumstances where her powers are blocked or confused or she's unable to warn the other characters. Some episodes HandWave or completely ignore her powers and the impact they would logically have on the plot. In early episodes, she's able to communicate with non-Betazoids (or at least her lovers) telepathically, even across long distances. It's not hard to guess why the writers [[ForgottenPhlebotinum quietly dropped]] this aspect of her character.
** There's the issue of the entire Betazoid race, and other friendly telepathic species, would seemingly be able to solve all sorts of problems by reading minds. It's a wonder anybody in the galaxy can carry out a hidden agenda. This was demonstrated in one episode where Troi's mother casually revealed that two alien diplomats were really assassins the second she encountered them.
** If it weren't for VillainDecay, The Borg would be in here easily. Before ''Series/StarTrekVoyager'', they could basically copy and negate the technology of any species they came across, and design nanites that integrated the physiology of any species they encountered into their collective. One of their ships could bring the Alpha Quadrant and any races less powerful than Organians or Douwds to their knees. Indeed the Borg were so powerful that no good reason was ever given why the Borg hadn't conquered the entire galaxy: the writers could only combat this by handing the Borg multiple {{Idiot Ball}}s and eventually sticking them in many of ''Voyager'''s {{Idiot Plot}}s.
** The biggest StoryBreakerPower in the franchise, however, is the transporter. The ability to teleport seemingly anything anywhere has been the resolution of just about any plot [[KryptoniteIsEverywhere where it didn't get immediately taken offline or blocked.]]
** Replicators fall under this. They can convert energy into matter. Its rarely is ever even handwaved why any MacGuffin of the week cant just be replicated such as the Dilithium Crystals which allow ships to use FasterThanLight travel. Just some of the demonstrations include a robotic beam turret or a fully functioning rifle. One episode even had the Transporters and Replicators combined to make a gun that could fire teleporting bullets anywhere on a space station.
** Data's android intelligence does this in-universe when he plays Sherlock Holmes on the holodeck in "Elementary Dear Data". Even when the obvious GameBreaker and SequenceBreaking of being able to remember the plots down to the tiniest detail is worked around, the result is still the android equivalent of easy mode for the computer-generated plots. Increasing the difficulty level brings disaster when it makes one of the characters sapient...
* ''Series/{{Supernatural}}'':
** A fifth season episode introduced Jesse Turner, the purported AntiChrist who (due to being a half-demon HalfHumanHybrid) gained really high-level RealityWarper powers following [[{{Satan}} Lucifer's]] presence on Earth, and was obviously more powerful than any other character seen up to that point. Having probably realized this, the writers quickly [[PutOnABus abandoned the character]] by writing him out at the end of his first appearance.
** Castiel. Angels are among the most powerful beings in the setting, even "grunt" angels like Castiel effortlessly dispatching most demons and monsters, heal fatal wounds, and even resurrect the dead. While this was fine for {{Story Arc}}s where he was fighting other angels who were equally powerful or even stronger than he was, it trivialized the MonsterOfTheWeek episodes as Cas could just locate the monster and zap it in two seconds. Thus, the writers were forced to continuously include [[DeusExitMachina excuses and storylines which explained why he couldn't help]] the {{Badass Normal}}s. In the seventh and eight seasons, the writers continuously toy with the idea of killing or permanently incapacitating Castiel, but they won't because [[BreakoutCharacter he's one of the most popular parts of the show]], and his episodes get the best ratings. Also, he's funny and arguably [[TheHeart the show's heart]], so his other attributes make the show more enjoyable. The writers just need to figure out how to depower him. [[spoiler:Indeed the season eight finale ends with Castiel's grace being taken from him, effectively [[BroughtDownToNormal turning him human]].]]
** Ezekiel is worse than Cas ever was. Introduced immediately after the above event, he quickly becomes the show's go-to fix it guy. In nearly every episode since his introduction he has served as some form of DeusExMachina, including [[spoiler:bringing Cas and Charlie back to life, healing Sam from the trial sickness and a slashed neck, and scaring Abbadon away when she and her mooks have the upper-hand against the Winchesters]]. They try to avert it by saying he's been weakened by his fall from Heaven and doesn't have enough power to be constantly doing this, and yet every time he's needed he's able to muster the strength without issue. But the worst part is, since [[spoiler:he's using Sam as a vessel]] they can't even not have him around when it's inconvenient to the plot like they did with Cas.
** WordOfGod admits that in hindsight they made angels too powerful and have had to come up with numerous {{Drama Preserving Handicap}}s to keep them from solving everything single-handedly, hence the proliferation of angel-killing blades and the angels' tendency to [[ForgotAboutHisPowers Forget About Their Powers]]. In season 7 they introduced the Leviathans, who were supposedly even stronger than angels, and unlike the angels were [[AlwaysChaoticEvil all villainous]], but a direct comparison of the Leviathan's abilities versus the angels' was still hilariously one-sided in the angels' favor. Season 9 had to issue a species-wide {{Nerf}} by [[spoiler:casting the angels out of Heaven and burning off their wings, removing their ability to teleport and weakening their other powers.]]
** The biggest problem with the angels is the trivial ease in which they can resurrect the dead. Despite the show's DeathIsCheap reputation, just about every character who isn't Sam, Dean, Bobby, or Castiel tends to stay dead when they die -[[spoiler:and even Bobby was eventually KilledOffForReal in season 7]]- and originally this was justified as resurrection having a high cost such as selling your soul or the victim [[CameBackWrong Coming Back Wrong]]. But once the angels were introduced, they were granted the ability to resurrect the dead with absolutely no drawbacks whatsoever. This has caused all sorts of problems as the show continues to kill off the heroes' friends and allies, and nobody ever seems to consider asking Cas or another angel to bring them back. Occasionally there will be a HandWave explanation as to why it can't be done, but more often than not the writers just pretend the angels don't have this ability unless the plot calls for it.
** The Colt, a supernaturally powered gun that can supposedly OneHitKill anything. Originally it was limited by the number of bullets it had - any old regular bullet wouldn't work, they had to be enchanted like the gun - so the heroes had to save them for kills that really mattered. In season 3, however, the heroes figured out a way to make new bullets for the gun after extinguishing the original supply. Without the limited ammo, the gun quickly became story-breaking as Sam and Dean no longer needed to figure out [[AchillesHeel monsters' weaknesses]] and could just kill anything they came across by shooting it. Once they realized this, the writers had Sam and Dean lose the Colt, and replaced it with Ruby's knife, which is also a OneHitKill, but only works on demons. The Colt briefly resurfaced in season 5, only for it to be revealed that it actually can't kill everything, [[spoiler:as the Winchesters discover to their horror that Archangels like Lucifer are immune]]. It's lost again after only a single episode in the heroes' possession and never seen again.
** The Angel Blade, the primary weapon angels carry which later fall into human hands. Like the original wielder, it is extremely powerful in that it can kill basically everything in [[{{Heaven}} the attic]] and [[{{Hell}} the basement]], including [[OurAngelsAreDifferent Angels and Seraphs]], [[HalfHumanHybrid Nephilim]], {{Hellhound}}s, [[OurDemonsAreDifferent Demons]], the aforementioned ''near-omnipotent'' AntiChrist, and even [[TheGrimReaper Reapers]]. These weapons tend to drop in and out of the story though, and one tends to wonder why nobody tried to use such weapons on the MonsterOfTheWeek as they more than likely would work.
** The ultimate example in the series is [[spoiler:God Himself. That's actually the reason he doesn't take a more direct role in the story. When he finally ''does'', it's only because he isn't an example of this anymore since the BigBad is his own sister Amara who is [[StrongerSibling even stronger]] (at least in terms of combat ability).]]
* ''Series/PersonOfInterest'': The Machine, the omniscient espionage computer that is spying on the entire planet and calculating the possibility of violent crimes (it was designed to predict terrorists, but it works for anything) cannot be defeated, tricked, or hidden from. Its information is always right, since it is crunching data on '''everything'''. The unspeakable potential for misuse is why the Machine only gives the government social security numbers of people relevant to threats to national security; no data on how these numbers are generated is provided, and the Machine itself is a complete black box immune to all tampering. On the rare occasions when someone gains unfettered access to the Machine, they become invincible. The Machine warns them of every attack, every threat, from incoming enemies to massive conspiracies. At one point, [[spoiler:Root]] casually strolls through a gunfight with one of the two most dangerous men on the planet, then shoots him without even looking.
-->'''[[spoiler:Root]]:''' [[MachineWorship I have a direct line to a higher power. And She has a plan]].
** Most of the Inhumans are significantly more powerful than anyone else on the show; Daisy can bring down buildings, and at one point Lincoln pours enough electricity into a power line to create an impassable rain of lightning. The show mostly gets around this by having them face enemies that they need to take in alive with minimal property damage. Their powers are still useful, but they don't break the show.
** Elena "Yo-Yo" Rodriguez is a step above the rest of the Secret Warriors. Her power lets her move at superspeed for a single heartbeat before snapping back to where she was when she activated her power. While that's far less destructive than her teammates, it's far more useful, and she can use it to do everything from stripping the weapons from an entire corridor of soldiers to scouting a base in minutes. It should be noted that this is a heavily nerfed version of her comics powers (which was more traditional "move fast as long as you want" super speed), and she's still arguably the most powerful person on the team. She spends a lot of time away from the plot for various reasons because she would break the story too easily.
** On the other side we have Hive's CoDragons, Giyera and Lucio. Giyera has the ability to control any non-organic matter in his line of sight. This would be a pretty broken power if used to it's full potential, and to his credit he does do a couple cool things with it like [[spoiler: forcing ATCU Agent Banks to shoot himself and hijacking control of Zephyr One]]. But in a fight, mostly what he does is pick up small objects and telekenetically fling them at people. [[ArrogantKungFuGuy He's even been known to ignore his powers completely and instead fight with his martial skills alone]], allowing [[BadassNormal Badass Normals]] who'd otherwise have stood no chance to get the better of him. Lucio, meanwhile, has the power to paralyze anyone just by ''looking'' at them. You'd think that would allow him to neutralize whole groups of enemies in only a few seconds, and that does seem to be the case when he's up against {{mooks}}, but somehow he never seems to get more than one or two of the heroes at a time.
* ''Series/TheAlmightyJohnsons'': Mike as Ullr has the supernatural power to win any game and the smarts to make any challenge he's facing into one. Fortunately for the plot, Mike is TheFettered, as he considers Ullr his SuperPoweredEvilSide.
* ''Series/{{Alphas}}'':
** Nina Theroux can control people's will simply by looking at them in the eye. The show sometimes makes up excuses as to why she can't just "push" the bad guys left and right (since theoretically it would make the job too easy and a drama television show can't have that). A good example of this is in "Anger Management"; when Nina was questioned why she couldn't "just push [the] kid", she revealed that her power only lasted for a couple of minutes and "Rosen doesn't like to work that way". Well, that's too bad because it would have resolved the conflict MUCH sooner and easier.
** We're extremely lucky that Jason Miller, the all-powerful hormonal hive-mind gathering alpha, is just a lonely teen who just wants friends and has no psychotic motives.
* ''Series/AmericanHorrorStoryCoven'':
** Misty Day is a gifted witch whose main power is her [[HealingHands ability to resurrect the dead by touching them]]. She can do this to ''anything'' dead, from birds, to alligators, to people, [[HealingFactor to herself after she was burned at the stake]]. Moreover, she can heal ''serious'' damage inflicted upon the corpses of those she revives - she undoes completely burnt off skin and partial bodily decay with contemptuous ease. Misty has resurrected not only herself but two other members of the main cast, and it's gotten to the point where the characters just come to her when someone dies, [[LampshadeHanging lampshading]] it as they go. In order to balance this, two characters have taken to destroying the bodies of their victims in order to keep them from being revived.
** Possibly why Madison was [[spoiler:killed off in episode three]] - her telekinesis and fire-starting powers would make short work of the zombie army attacking their house, and would stunt Zoe's arc about her necromancy powers.
* ''Series/{{Angel}}'':
** Illyria started out as very much one of these. That list of powers likely to be story-breakers? She was pretty much all of the above. She specifically dismisses the {{Big Bad}}s of the entire series as being like insects compared with her, and not without justification claimed she was a god to the gods. She was so powerful that one wonders why she even needed an army back in ancient times, save that one recalls there were others like her running around. The heroes didn't (and couldn't) beat her; Illyria failed to conquer the world simply because she lost interest. In short, Illyria put the "cosmic" in CosmicHorrorStory. Until she lost control of her powers due to the [[PunyEarthlings puny human]] body she was reincarnated into, and got a PowerLimiter slapped on her, taking away some of her powers entirely and dialing the rest of them down so she wasn't much stronger than the other protagonists.
** Earlier in season one, Angel manages to acquire the Gem of Amarra, a mystical ring described as the equivalent to the Holy Grail for vampires, from Spike in a {{Crossover}} episode from ''Series/BuffyTheVampireSlayer''. This artifact would grant the vampire wearer increased abilities and complete invulnerability to all their usual weaknesses, as demonstrated by [[TortureTechnician Marcus]] earlier when he shrugs off a bow-to-the-heart from Oz and the ability to walk in direct sunlight without erupting in flames. At the end of the episode Angel, who had remained doubtful about keeping the ring or not, decided to destroy it, preventing the show and Angel's fights from being [[ImmortalHero a lot less suspenseful]].
* ''Series/BabylonFive'' had a recurring problem with this after "[[Recap/BabylonFiveS01E19AVoiceInTheWildernessPart2 A Voice in the Wilderness, Part 2]]" granted the heroes control of a piece of ImportedAlienPhlebotinum on the uninhabited planet the station orbits. While they use the Great Machine as an intelligence source and to TimeTravel in later episodes, the installation also has tremendously powerful surface-to-space weapons, forcing the writers to always come up with a reason why they couldn't use them to defend Babylon 5 when it came under attack by the MonsterOfTheWeek (such as the Shadows jamming their communications in "[[Recap/BabylonFiveS03E22ZHaDum Z'ha'dum]]").
* Samantha from ''Series/{{Bewitched}}'' and Jeannie from ''Series/IDreamOfJeannie''. Their powers were pretty much "do anything by wiggling your nose/bobbing your head". If it weren't for the [[UselessSuperpowers random nature]] of their powers and otherworldly relatives, Darren and Major Tony would lead completely idyllic and boring lives.
* ''Series/DoctorWho'':
** The Doctor is the {{Trope Namer|s}} for the TimeyWimeyBall because without it, he could simply time travel anywhere and change anything, and if he made a mistake just go back again and fix it. This problem was parodied in the Comic Relief parody "Doctor Who and the Curse of Fatal Death," which put the Doctor and the Master in a series of time traveling counter-moves to each other.
** The Doctor could just evacuate everyone on the doomed space ship that's getting sucked into the sun, sucked into a black hole, crashed into meteors a la the Titanic, etc, in the TARDIS, if it didn't always (in)conveniently get blasted away into space and out of useful range for the episode.
** The Doctor is a member of one of the most [[SufficientlyAdvancedAlien advanced races]] that the universe ever has or ever will produce. If he seriously applied himself to any single project, he could probably end up [[EmperorScientist running everything]]. However, his short attention span keeps him constantly moving and prevents him from hatching many long-term plans. His seventh incarnation was an unusual exception in that he apparently had a number of elaborate schemes going on. But he [[NiceJobBreakingItHero rarely bothers to clean up after them]].
** So many stories would be a lot shorter if the Doctor remembered he can ''read minds'' - any of the [[MysteryFiction Whodunnit]] stories, any stories where someone turns out to be backstabbing the Doctor...
* ''Series/{{Heroes}}'':
** In the first season, Peter Petrelli can permanently gain anyone's power simply by being near them. It doesn't take long for him to rack up flying, time control, teleportation, and healing. With all of his powers, he should be able to achieve just about any conceivable goal. To keep him as a viable character, he's given amnesia in season 2, loses his powers briefly, and then regains them at a significant downgrade.
** Hiro's time control and teleportation abilities alone make it necessary for his character to constantly grasp the IdiotBall so that he doesn't just solve everything instantly.
* ''Series/JessicaJones2015'': [[NamesToRunAwayFromReallyFast Kilgrave]] can effortlessly [[MindControl control anyone's mind]] within his line of sight. The effects fade with distance and time [[spoiler: and under the influence of powerful sedatives]], but always leave him more than enough of a window to make a getaway in the unlikely event he's cornered. Basically, if he sees you, you've already lost. The reason he doesn't with Jessica is because he is a StalkerWithACrush who became obsessed with her after she broke his control the first time they encountered each other.
** [[spoiler: Or...as it turns out, Jessica Jones is completely immune.]]
* ''Franchise/KamenRider'':
** Series/KamenRiderKuuga's [[SuperMode Ultimate Form]], which despite being a potentially DeadlyUpgrade, is also debatably one of '''the''' most powerful Kamen Riders. To wit, one of his previous {{Finishing Move}}s, the Rising Mighty Kick, causes a 3 kilometer-diameter explosion; the Ultimate Kick has the potential to ''[[EarthShatteringKaboom destroy the planet]]''. In order to keep from overpowering the plot, Ultimate Form only appears in the last two episodes and is mostly used to battle the BigBad, [[spoiler:who is said to be just as powerful and both share a few common abilities like pyrokinesis.]]
** [[Series/KamenRiderDecade Decade]]. BigBad monsters from previous series iterations? [[CurbStompBattle Taken care of in no time flat.]] Still in a tight spot? Turn on your SuperMode and [[SummonMagic summon a previous rider clone for a synchronized double attack.]] Baddie still not finished yet? [[EquippableAlly Turn that ally into a useful weapon or vehicle]] to blow him away. Going up against giants and spaceships? Merge with J and turn everyone else into a card to kick them all to death. Just another day for a [[CatchPhrase passing-through Kamen Rider.]]
** Series/KamenRiderKabuto's Hyper [[SuperSpeed Clock Up]] allows him to move faster than light, and travel through time and alternate dimensions. On top of Kabuto being TheAce. However, [[PowerIncontinence he does not appear to have full control over its more powerful functions]], it will sometimes send him to random places of its own accord, his most powerful attack cannot be used while it is active, and some of his enemies have [[TimeStandsStill powers which can counter it]].
** ''Series/KamenRiderDouble'' has the villanous rider Eternal, who can make all Gaia Memories -- the main source of power for heroes and villains alike -- that were not created before his stop working. He can also [[AllYourPowersCombined use all the T2 Gaia Memories at once for several powerful attacks]].
** ''Series/KamenRiderRyuki'' has the villainous Kamen Rider Odin. He's physically stronger than the rest of the Kamen Riders, has stronger weapons, and has a TeleportSpam that makes hitting him almost impossible. He doesn't even need use his [[{{Mons}} Mirror Beast]] in any of his fights. Lead characters Kamen Riders Ryuki and Knight can barely slow him down, even with their [[SuperMode Survive Modes]], and if he dies [[BigBad Kanzaki Shirou]] can bring him back.
** And let's not forget ''Series/KamenRiderGaim'', who [[spoiler:became a God.]]
* One drinking game for ''Series/{{Merlin}}'' could be described thusly: take a shot for every problem that [[TheArchmage Merlin]] could have solved if [[BanOnMagic magic wasn't punishable by death]] and he wasn't [[HowDoIShotWeb restricted by his lack of training]]. He gets his full power and training in the GrandFinale, and curb stomps the [[spoiler:''entire Saxon Army'' at Camlann.]]
* Parodied in ''Series/ThatMitchellAndWebbLook'', where Angel Summoner and the BMX Bandit form a mismatched duo. Angel Summoner can summon angels, which can accomplish essentially anything; BMX Bandit has... [[WhatKindOfLamePowerIsHeartAnyway BMX skills]], making him feel like a permanent third wheel. On one mission Angel Summoner allows BMX Bandit to fight alone, while secretly summoning invisible angels to help him.
* [[ExpositoryThemeTune The theme song]] to ''Series/MysteryScienceTheater3000'' says that Joel ''could'' have built a device that could have skipped movies directly to the end. Instead, he used those parts to build his robot friends.
* ''Series/OnceUponATime'': Rumpelstiltskin could solve most of the shows problems if he wanted. Or if he weren't the cause of most of them.
* Tommy Oliver from the first season of ''Series/MightyMorphinPowerRangers'' is the Green Ranger and, between his natural karate skills and ranger powers, is about as strong as the other five combined. So to keep things interesting, The Powers That Be gave him an appaling memory that meant he was always forgetting his communicator and they eventually took away his powers altogether. He got new ones but not quite on the same level.
** Doesn't help, the character they get his footage from...only appeared sparingly, and was just as much of a 'scenario solver'. His Super Sentai equivalent would die if he used his powers too much.
* Just like in the comics, ''Series/{{Smallville}}'' didn't want ComicBook/MartianManhunter hanging around overshadowing [[Franchise/{{Superman}} Clark]], so they gave him an arbitrary weakness; his body's HealingFactor was inhibited by Earth's dense, oxygen-filled, and very un-Marslike atmosphere, so he frequently had to fly into space for extended periods to [[GoodThingYouCanHeal heal]] after a battle -- PutOnABus to the ionosphere, so to speak. Later they just [[BroughtDownToNormal depowered him]] entirely in a contrived HeroicSacrifice.
* Franchise/StargateVerse:
** The Asgard are one of, if not ''the'' most advanced race in the entire story (arguably surpassing even the Ancients at least in certain areas) by the end of their lifespan, and also happen to be [[BigGood very kind and helpful protectors of the Milky Way]]. So how come the Milky Way is overrun by the evil Goa'uld anyway? The Asgard are at a long-spanning war against [[MechanicalLifeforms the Replicators]], a far more dangerous enemy and they're ''not'' winning. Add that they are literally a dying race. The ''only'' time the writers allowed them to be BigDamnHeroes is in a parallel universe.
** The Replicators themselves, who turned the Asgard from the mightiest extant species in the known universe to TheRemnant barely holding onto their few remaining planets. They absorb and adapt rapidly to any new technology, which thanks to their FTL MindHive connection is spread amongst all units instantly, and can reform an entire swarm from a single active unit at ridiculous speeds, and that's before they start making [[RidiculouslyHumanRobots human-form Replicators]] which are even more advanced and ''[[ItCanThink smart]]''. {{Kinetic weapons|AreJustBetter}} can temporarily take down smaller units, but they just reform and larger units are impervious. As soon as they arrive in our galaxy the Goa'uld, the undisputed power of the Milky Way and the main threat for eight seasons, get [[CurbStompBattle absolutely demolished]] in a single episode, only taken down using a weapon that could wipe out all life in the galaxy. They're even considered a Story Breaker in-universe, as the back-up plan in ''Film/TheArkOfTruth'' is to [[GodzillaThreshold unleash a swarm in the Ori galaxy]], under the belief that not even they could take them down.
** {{Ascend|ToAHigherPlaneOfExistence}}ed beings are basically gods, able to command the forces of nature at will to terrifying effect. To prevent this trope, the writers introduced the idea that the Ancients also have a self-imposed AlienNonInterferenceClause. Which, naturally, they didn't apply to the Ancients' {{Evil Counterpart}}s the Ori when they needed new villains for the PostScriptSeason.
* ''Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration'':
** Counselor Troi can sense the emotions of most beings. This would end a lot of episodes really quickly if the writers didn't keep coming up with circumstances where her powers are blocked or confused or she's unable to warn the other characters. Some episodes HandWave or completely ignore her powers and the impact they would logically have on the plot. In early episodes, she's able to communicate with non-Betazoids (or at least her lovers) telepathically, even across long distances. It's not hard to guess why the writers [[ForgottenPhlebotinum quietly dropped]] this aspect of her character.
** There's the issue of the entire Betazoid race, and other friendly telepathic species, would seemingly be able to solve all sorts of problems by reading minds. It's a wonder anybody in the galaxy can carry out a hidden agenda. This was demonstrated in one episode where Troi's mother casually revealed that two alien diplomats were really assassins the second she encountered them.
** If it weren't for VillainDecay, The Borg would be in here easily. Before ''Series/StarTrekVoyager'', they could basically copy and negate the technology of any species they came across, and design nanites that integrated the physiology of any species they encountered into their collective. One of their ships could bring the Alpha Quadrant and any races less powerful than Organians or Douwds to their knees. Indeed the Borg were so powerful that no good reason was ever given why the Borg hadn't conquered the entire galaxy: the writers could only combat this by handing the Borg multiple {{Idiot Ball}}s and eventually sticking them in many of ''Voyager'''s {{Idiot Plot}}s.
** The biggest StoryBreakerPower in the franchise, however, is the transporter. The ability to teleport seemingly anything anywhere has been the resolution of just about any plot [[KryptoniteIsEverywhere where it didn't get immediately taken offline or blocked.]]
** Replicators fall under this. They can convert energy into matter. Its rarely is ever even handwaved why any MacGuffin of the week cant just be replicated such as the Dilithium Crystals which allow ships to use FasterThanLight travel. Just some of the demonstrations include a robotic beam turret or a fully functioning rifle. One episode even had the Transporters and Replicators combined to make a gun that could fire teleporting bullets anywhere on a space station.
** Data's android intelligence does this in-universe when he plays Sherlock Holmes on the holodeck in "Elementary Dear Data". Even when the obvious GameBreaker and SequenceBreaking of being able to remember the plots down to the tiniest detail is worked around, the result is still the android equivalent of easy mode for the computer-generated plots. Increasing the difficulty level brings disaster when it makes one of the characters sapient...
* ''Series/{{Supernatural}}'':
** A fifth season episode introduced Jesse Turner, the purported AntiChrist who (due to being a half-demon HalfHumanHybrid) gained really high-level RealityWarper powers following [[{{Satan}} Lucifer's]] presence on Earth, and was obviously more powerful than any other character seen up to that point. Having probably realized this, the writers quickly [[PutOnABus abandoned the character]] by writing him out at the end of his first appearance.
** Castiel. Angels are among the most powerful beings in the setting, even "grunt" angels like Castiel effortlessly dispatching most demons and monsters, heal fatal wounds, and even resurrect the dead. While this was fine for {{Story Arc}}s where he was fighting other angels who were equally powerful or even stronger than he was, it trivialized the MonsterOfTheWeek episodes as Cas could just locate the monster and zap it in two seconds. Thus, the writers were forced to continuously include [[DeusExitMachina excuses and storylines which explained why he couldn't help]] the {{Badass Normal}}s. In the seventh and eight seasons, the writers continuously toy with the idea of killing or permanently incapacitating Castiel, but they won't because [[BreakoutCharacter he's one of the most popular parts of the show]], and his episodes get the best ratings. Also, he's funny and arguably [[TheHeart the show's heart]], so his other attributes make the show more enjoyable. The writers just need to figure out how to depower him. [[spoiler:Indeed the season eight finale ends with Castiel's grace being taken from him, effectively [[BroughtDownToNormal turning him human]].]]
** Ezekiel is worse than Cas ever was. Introduced immediately after the above event, he quickly becomes the show's go-to fix it guy. In nearly every episode since his introduction he has served as some form of DeusExMachina, including [[spoiler:bringing Cas and Charlie back to life, healing Sam from the trial sickness and a slashed neck, and scaring Abbadon away when she and her mooks have the upper-hand against the Winchesters]]. They try to avert it by saying he's been weakened by his fall from Heaven and doesn't have enough power to be constantly doing this, and yet every time he's needed he's able to muster the strength without issue. But the worst part is, since [[spoiler:he's using Sam as a vessel]] they can't even not have him around when it's inconvenient to the plot like they did with Cas.
** WordOfGod admits that in hindsight they made angels too powerful and have had to come up with numerous {{Drama Preserving Handicap}}s to keep them from solving everything single-handedly, hence the proliferation of angel-killing blades and the angels' tendency to [[ForgotAboutHisPowers Forget About Their Powers]]. In season 7 they introduced the Leviathans, who were supposedly even stronger than angels, and unlike the angels were [[AlwaysChaoticEvil all villainous]], but a direct comparison of the Leviathan's abilities versus the angels' was still hilariously one-sided in the angels' favor. Season 9 had to issue a species-wide {{Nerf}} by [[spoiler:casting the angels out of Heaven and burning off their wings, removing their ability to teleport and weakening their other powers.]]
** The biggest problem with the angels is the trivial ease in which they can resurrect the dead. Despite the show's DeathIsCheap reputation, just about every character who isn't Sam, Dean, Bobby, or Castiel tends to stay dead when they die -[[spoiler:and even Bobby was eventually KilledOffForReal in season 7]]- and originally this was justified as resurrection having a high cost such as selling your soul or the victim [[CameBackWrong Coming Back Wrong]]. But once the angels were introduced, they were granted the ability to resurrect the dead with absolutely no drawbacks whatsoever. This has caused all sorts of problems as the show continues to kill off the heroes' friends and allies, and nobody ever seems to consider asking Cas or another angel to bring them back. Occasionally there will be a HandWave explanation as to why it can't be done, but more often than not the writers just pretend the angels don't have this ability unless the plot calls for it.
** The Colt, a supernaturally powered gun that can supposedly OneHitKill anything. Originally it was limited by the number of bullets it had - any old regular bullet wouldn't work, they had to be enchanted like the gun - so the heroes had to save them for kills that really mattered. In season 3, however, the heroes figured out a way to make new bullets for the gun after extinguishing the original supply. Without the limited ammo, the gun quickly became story-breaking as Sam and Dean no longer needed to figure out [[AchillesHeel monsters' weaknesses]] and could just kill anything they came across by shooting it. Once they realized this, the writers had Sam and Dean lose the Colt, and replaced it with Ruby's knife, which is also a OneHitKill, but only works on demons. The Colt briefly resurfaced in season 5, only for it to be revealed that it actually can't kill everything, [[spoiler:as the Winchesters discover to their horror that Archangels like Lucifer are immune]]. It's lost again after only a single episode in the heroes' possession and never seen again.
** The Angel Blade, the primary weapon angels carry which later fall into human hands. Like the original wielder, it is extremely powerful in that it can kill basically everything in [[{{Heaven}} the attic]] and [[{{Hell}} the basement]], including [[OurAngelsAreDifferent Angels and Seraphs]], [[HalfHumanHybrid Nephilim]], {{Hellhound}}s, [[OurDemonsAreDifferent Demons]], the aforementioned ''near-omnipotent'' AntiChrist, and even [[TheGrimReaper Reapers]]. These weapons tend to drop in and out of the story though, and one tends to wonder why nobody tried to use such weapons on the MonsterOfTheWeek as they more than likely would work.
** The ultimate example in the series is [[spoiler:God Himself. That's actually the reason he doesn't take a more direct role in the story. When he finally ''does'', it's only because he isn't an example of this anymore since the BigBad is his own sister Amara who is [[StrongerSibling even stronger]] (at least in terms of combat ability).]]
* ''Series/PersonOfInterest'': The Machine, the omniscient espionage computer that is spying on the entire planet and calculating the possibility of violent crimes (it was designed to predict terrorists, but it works for anything) cannot be defeated, tricked, or hidden from. Its information is always right, since it is crunching data on '''everything'''. The unspeakable potential for misuse is why the Machine only gives the government social security numbers of people relevant to threats to national security; no data on how these numbers are generated is provided, and the Machine itself is a complete black box immune to all tampering. On the rare occasions when someone gains unfettered access to the Machine, they become invincible. The Machine warns them of every attack, every threat, from incoming enemies to massive conspiracies. At one point, [[spoiler:Root]] casually strolls through a gunfight with one of the two most dangerous men on the planet, then shoots him without even looking.
-->'''[[spoiler:Root]]:''' [[MachineWorship I have a direct line to a higher power. And She has a plan]].
