History StoryBreakerPower / LiveActionTV

** [[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.]] Decade skirts around breaking any story he's in by having no story to break, instead jumping around between worlds and solving other people's problems as he travels.

** Claire's regenerative powers are so great that her blood can heal any wound, even fatal ones. You can tell the writers regretted giving her this ability when it had to be ignored for the [[spoiler:turn-Sylar-into-Nathan]] plot to take place, and it's never been mentioned after the one time it's used.

** 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 one of the most powerful people on the team. She spends a lot of time away from the plot for various reasons during the third and fourth seasons, because she would break the story too easily. In season five, Elena is promoted to a core cast member, but [[spoiler:she loses her arms halfway through the season, limiting her usefulness...until Mack and Fitz give her robotic arms that enhance her strength. Although this initially leaves her unable to use her superspeed without crippling pain, Fitz eventually recalibrates the arms to overcome this, leaving Elena even ''more'' of a story-breaker than before... which is countered by putting the team up against Graviton, whom she can't approach without being affected by his powers. In season six, Elena ends up infected by the Shrike, which causes a PsychosomaticSuperpowerOutage for the rest of season six and the first half of season seven... and when she overcomes it, she loses the "snapping back" restriction, making her even ''more'' broken. Granted, it's the final season, so she may not have time to exploit this too much.]]

** 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.]]

** 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 one of the most powerful people on the team. She spends a lot of time away from the plot for various reasons during the third and fourth seasons, because she would break the story too easily. In season five, Elena is promoted to a core cast member, but [[spoiler:she loses her arms halfway through the season, limiting her usefulness...until Mack and Fitz give her robotic arms that enhance her strength. Although this initially leaves her unable to use her superspeed without crippling pain, Fitz eventually recalibrates the arms to overcome this, leaving Elena even ''more'' of a story-breaker than before... which is countered by putting the team up against Graviton, whom she can't approach without being affected by his powers.]]

** 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.

** 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.

** Matt Parkman is only a telepath in season 1, able to read surface thoughts as best. His PsychicPowers greatly expand in both power and versatility, eventually becoming one of strongest evolved humans in the series next to Hiro and Sylar. Naturally, he eventually [[DeusExitMachina started showing up late to the party]] whenever the BigBad needed to be dealt with each season.

** Matt Parkman is only a telepath in season 1, able to read surface thoughts as best. His PsychicPowers greatly expand in both power and versatility, eventually becoming one of strongest evolved humans in the series next to Hiro and Sylar. Naturally, he eventually [[DuesExitMachina started showing up late to the party]] whenever the BidBad needed to be dealt with each season.

** The Thinker has SuperIntelligence great enough to let him predict every action and every outcome to Team Flash's plans, letting him remain one step ahead at all times. Combined with his incredible technology, and he's essentially invincible because he can't be taken by surprise. He essentially had to cause his own downfall in order for the heroes to win.

* ''Series/TheFlash2014'': Barry Allen should be able to win any fight against a non-speedster opponent instantly because he can move orders of magnitude faster than they can. But he has this terrible habit of running up to them and stopping dead in front of them.

* ''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.

** 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/KamenRiderDouble'' has the villainous 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. [[InvokedTrope He's made to be like this]] to rig the contest for Kanzaki, though.
** ''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.
*** 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.
*** The series' theme is video games and medicine at once, where the monsters are viruses in both senses of the word but the true villains are evil programmers. The series becomes a GameBreaker arms race with good and evil programmers each making their own [[GMPC game master player character]] more powerful than the other guy in response to whatever defeated them in the last episode. After everyone was similarly leveled in the early episodes (Genm staying on top with skill alone), Genm comes out with Dangerous Zombie, Level X when everyone else tops out at level 5, and it makes the user immortal because you can’t kill what’s already dead. However, the others manage to reach Level 20, then 50. He can’t die, but now can’t lay a scratch on the heroes! ''However'' however, Dangerous Zombie turns out to be Level X instead of 10 due to LetXBeTheUnknown; the more he uses it, the more it’s as StrongAsTheyNeedToBe and prone to NewPowersAsThePlotDemands. However however-''er'', Emu’s Maximum Mighty X can reprogram Riders and monsters, altering or erasing their powers. Then comes Cronus; he can freeze time before Emu can try that on him. In response to that, the heroes make Hyper Muteki, which is immune. In response to ''that,'' Cronus unlocks the ability to reverse time and make Hyper Muteki RetGone. Uh-oh! Not only do you have to rebuild Hyper Muteki from scratch, you'd better figure out how to make it immune to his time resetting! And so on.
** ''Series/KamenRiderBuild'' has the BigBad [[spoiler: Evolt]]. He has enough power to easily crush the heroes at the beginning of the series, but doesn't because [[CantKillYouStillNeedYou he needs the heroes alive for his plans]]. The only reason he uses a transformation even after his [[spoiler: host's]] identity is exposed is, as he explains, a "wardrobe change". However, this is only a shadow of his true power. Later in the series he gets [[spoiler: back his personal [[TransformationTrinket Driver]], the Evol Driver]], which gives him the power [[spoiler: to transform into Kamen Rider Evol]]. He then spends the next few episodes as an InvincibleVillain, easily [[CurbStompBattle stomping]] over all the heroes and getting back ''even more'' of his true power, culminating in his final form, which gives him the ability [[spoiler: to summon [[UnrealisticBlackHole black holes]], even one large enough to kill all life on a planet]]. Worse, ''every planet he consumes makes him even more powerful!'' The only reason he doesn't destroy Earth just by thinking about it is that he ''still'' needs the heroes; he can't get from planet to planet fast enough to accomplish his goal of consuming the entire universe in a timely manner. (He actually ''does'' succeed in obtaining the power of [[ThinkingUpPortals warping]] at one point - thankfully temporarily.) When fully powered he is quite possibly the most powerful character in Kamen Rider history, and when you add warping he is ''definitely'' this, as even other planet wreckers can only wreck one planet at a time.
** ''Series/KamenRiderZiO'' has a SuperMode that puts all the others to shame, [=GrandZi-O=]. How it works is that the form is covered in statues of all twenty Heisei-era Kamen Riders. Tapping a statue summons that Kamen Rider or their weapon from any point in time, which Zi-O abuses to basically spam [[FinishingMove finishers]], and the form's own finisher is to summon even more Riders in the middle of using their most powerful finishers. As for Zi-O's own statue? It contains ''his'' ''TimeMaster'' ''powers'', which allows him to do stuff like rewind an attack so he can hit his enemy again, or pause his finisher until the enemy is in a position to receive its full brunt.

** 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.
** The sonic screwdriver and its ability to basically do anything the Doctor needs it to (except wood and deadlock seals — perhaps, it's DependingOnTheWriter a lot of the time) is a classic example of this trope, and ironically enough, the writers realised this during Peter Davison'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.

* ''Series/OnceUponATime'': Rumpelstiltskin could solve most of the shows problems if he wanted. Or if he weren't the cause of most of them.

-->'''[[spoiler:Root]]:''' [[MachineWorship I have a direct line to a higher power. And She has a plan]].

** 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.

** 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 its 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 telekinetically 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.

*** The series' theme is video games and medicine at once, where the monsters are viruses in both senses of the word but the true villains are evil programmers. The series becomes a GameBreaker arms race with good and evil programmers each making their own [[GMPC game master player character]] more powerful than the other guy in response to whatever defeated them in the last episode. After everyone was similarly leveled in the early episodes (Genm staying on top with skill alone), Genm comes out with Dangerous Zombie, Level X when everyone else tops out at level 5, and it makes the user immortal because you can’t kill what’s already dead. However, the others manage to reach Level 20, then 50. He can’t die, but now can’t lay a scratch on the heroes! ''However'' however, Dangerous Zombie turns out to be Level X instead of 10 due to LetXBeTheUnknown; the more he uses it, the more it’s AsStrongAsTheyNeedToBe and prone to NewPowersAsThePlotDemands. However however-''er'', Emu’s Maximum Mighty X can reprogram Riders and monsters, altering or erasing their powers. Then comes Cronus; he can freeze time before Emu can try that on him. In response to that, the heroes make Hyper Muteki, which is immune. In response to ''that,'' Cronus unlocks the ability to reverse time and make Hyper Muteki RetGone. Uh-oh! Not only do you have to rebuild Hyper Muteki from scratch, you'd better figure out how to make it immune to his time resetting! And so on.

** ''Series/KamenRiderBuild'' has the BigBad [[spoiler: Evolt]]. He has enough power to easily crush the heroes at the beginning of the series, but doesn't because [[CantKillYouStillNeedYou he needs the heroes alive for his plans]]. The only reason he uses a transformation even after his [[spoiler: host's]] identity is exposed is, as he explains, a "wardrobe change". However, this is only a shadow of his true power. Later in the series he gets [[spoiler: back his personal [[TransformationTrinket Driver]], the Evol Driver]], which gives him the power [[spoiler: to transform into Kamen Rider Evol]]. He then spends the next few episodes as an InvincibleVillain, easily [[CurbStompBattle stomping]] over all the heroes and getting back ''even more'' of his true power, culminating in his final form, which gives him the ability [[spoiler: to summon [[UnrealisticBlackHole black holes]], even one large enough to kill all life on a planet]].

* 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.]]

** 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/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]].

* ''Franchise/PowerRangers'': 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.

** Supergirl herself is capable of having this problem during her crossovers with other 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. ''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. Averted in the second event, Crisis on Earth X, where she's given an equally powerful opponent to keep her occupied.

* ''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's ability to break his control was not just a one-time thing, but a sign that she had become immune.]]

* ''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.]]

** 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 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.

** 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.
** 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]].
** 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).]]
--->[[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.]]

** 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.

* ''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.]]

* 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.

* 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.

* Franchise/StargateVerse:

* ''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]].

* ''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/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.]]

** 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 one of the most powerful 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.