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| 3 | %% This page has been alphabetized. Please add new examples in the correct order. Thanks! |
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| 10 | [[quoteright:350:[[ComicBook/{{Superman}} https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/superman164.png]]]] |
| 11 | |
| 12 | It's a standard setup to have heroes race to stop the [[TheJuggernaut nigh unstoppable]] villain ''before'' he becomes all-powerful, unseals his true potential, or [[SealedEvilInACan gets released.]] However; more often than not, the [[YouCantThwartStageOne heroes fail]]. So, how's the average FarmBoy hero supposed to take on [[NamesToRunAwayFromReallyFast Excruciant, the Omnipotent!]] without getting turned to a fine red mist within five seconds of opening the door? |
| 13 | |
| 14 | Give the baddie a Drama-Preserving Handicap. |
| 15 | |
| 16 | To make things more interesting, a handicap is given to that person or organization to give the other a fighting chance. Sometimes this becomes the KryptoniteFactor. Sometimes a person will feign having a handicap and reveal IAmNotLeftHanded. Other times it's a simple [[SamaritanSyndrome moral]] [[ThouShaltNotKill code]] holding them back. |
| 17 | |
| 18 | This actually works both ways. Heroes who've won the SuperpowerLottery, are [[ImplacableMan unstoppable]], or [[BadassNormal just plain badass]] may be injured (either by being [[CherryTapping worn down by Mooks]] on the way or just from [[{{Mundangerous}} falling down the stairs at home)]], hit with GreenRocks, are being forced to comply some sort of NoHarmRequirement which forces them to not inflict excessive harm if any, are accosted with their WeaksauceWeakness or find out their invulnerability doesn't work with certain things to make the more modestly powered villain (or his {{Mooks}}, if he's a non-combatant) an actual threat. [[FlawExploitation Clever antagonists]] will use [[BatmanGambit tactics and plans]] that can bring about these handicaps (or advantages to themselves) either by injuring their enemy to the point of [[YouCanBarelyStand barely being able to stand]] or using GeoEffects. Sometimes the hero himself chooses to be WillfullyWeak for any of several reasons...but when he gives his NoMoreHoldingBackSpeech, the villain better be running. |
| 19 | |
| 20 | This is often a more ideal solution than using DeusExitMachina or randomly [[VillainDecay depowering the character]], as it can keep him in the cast with his normal [[PowerLevels power intact]]. Related tactics include AmnesiaDanger, ForgottenPhlebotinum, and HowDoIShotWeb. This is the opposite of EyepatchOfPower and DisabilitySuperpower, where the handicap ''is'' the power. Almost every EnemyCivilWar story is about this, as are a lot of RightHandVersusLeftHand stories where the heroic factions would normally be able to beat the villains if they worked together. |
| 21 | |
| 22 | A mundane version of this trope would be the heroes' ammo count in a gunfight. During normal scenes, the heroes will be able to waste ammunition with reckless abandon, [[ATeamFiring shooting at anything and everything]] but not hitting much of either [[ImperialStormtrooperMarksmanshipAcademy while the enemy does the same,]] and barely any mention being given to how many rounds are in the chamber or how many magazines are left. But then sometimes the heroes are counting their rounds, shouting "reloading!" or "last mag! Make it count!", their shots becoming more careful and sparse while the bad guys close in on their position. At this point, the heroes will either start making plans to [[DoNotGoGentle go out with a bang]] or hope some BigDamnHeroes show up to pull their asses from the fire. |
| 23 | |
| 24 | GameBreakingInjury and WorfHadTheFlu are subtypes. See also {{Depower}} and JustForFun/HowToStopTheDeusExMachina. Compare {{Nerf}} for changes to a game that weaken something in the interest of gameplay balance. Contrast KryptoniteProofSuit. |
| 25 | |
| 26 | '''Spoilers below.''' |
| 27 | ---- |
| 28 | !!Examples: |
| 29 | [[index]] |
| 30 | * ''DramaPreservingHandicap/TheFlash'' |
| 31 | [[/index]] |
| 32 | |
| 33 | [[foldercontrol]] |
| 34 | |
| 35 | [[folder:Anime and Manga]] |
| 36 | * In ''Manga/AttackOnTitan'', as a result of fighting the Female Titan, [[spoiler:Levi]]'s ankle gets twisted, thus subsequently getting taken out of action for awhile. As a result, the other characters cannot rely on the latter during [[spoiler:the Wall Rose Titan crisis]] or when [[spoiler:Eren is kidnapped by Bertolt and Reiner]]. Happens AGAIN after chapter 125 when it is revealed that he lost his [[spoiler:right eye and two fingers from the thunder spear explosion]]; this incident keeps not only him and Hanji out of the battle that takes place right before [[spoiler:Eren starts the rumbling]], but hinders him from being as OP as he has normally been shown to be in the final fight against [[spoiler:Eren]]. |
| 37 | * In ''Manga/{{Berserk}}'', DeityOfHumanOrigin [[BigBad Griffith]] had several opportunities to kill Guts and Casca early on, but refused as [[spoiler:it's revealed he's SharingABody with their unborn child, whose love for them somewhat reawakened his own [[EvilFormerFriend affection for them]] that was made dormant by him sacrificing his humanity]]. |
| 38 | * ''Manga/{{Bleach}}'': Orihime has the power to reject physical events in a manner characters in-universe have speculated to be akin to time-space manipulation or completely rejecting the reality of the event having ever happened. The only thing controlling this power is her personality. If she doesn't believe she can do something, she can't. If she doesn't think of trying something because she's been raised or led to believe it's impossible, she doesn't even think to try it. Her kill-attack is also kept under control by her personality which is unsuited to battle in the way other characters are [[spoiler:until she takes a third option and incorporates the kill attack into her much more powerful defensive shield, making it a pretty powerful AttackReflector and marking her evolution from TheMedic to CombatMedic]]. In short, her state of mind is her major limit. |
| 39 | * ''Manga/CaptainTsubasa'' has examples aplenty: |
| 40 | ** Jun Misugi from is handicapped with a heart disease. He wipes the floor with both Nankatsu AND Tohou before his heart gives out in both matches. Hence why he's recruited as TheStrategist by Katagiri. For the time of the WYC, Misugi was completely recovered from the heart disease. The only handicap remaining is his rather low stamina. |
| 41 | ** Tsubasa is severely handicapped during the Middle School arc. Part of this is because he has already won the competition two times already (plus the TournamentArc in elementary school) and therefore has already defeated his rival Hyuuga three times. The Middle School TournamentArc makes you route for both characters, by making Hyuuga a BenchedHero for most of the tournament who is aiming to finally defeat Tsubasa in a competition, while Tsubasa himself suffers from fatal injuries (his ankle and his shoulder) that keep him from being in top condition for most of the tournament, which also turns him into a BenchedHero during the final match, where Hyuuga gets to play from the very start. |
| 42 | ** The Japanese team often suffers from having to bench some of their best players due to injuries. In the Asian preliminaries, Genzo Wakabayashi is unable to use his hands to catch shots due to getting them injured in the Bundesliga, limiting him to barely be able to punch the ball away (adding to it that Ken Wakashimazu left the team over not been given the titular keeper spot). Then in the World Youth proper, Misaki is forced to sit out through most of the World Youth Cup due to getting his leg injured saving his little sister from being run over by a truck (though he recovers enough to play the last 30 minutes of the finals). |
| 43 | * ''Literature/ACertainMagicalIndex'': |
| 44 | ** The titular Index wears a nun's habit called the Walking Church, which is as strong as an actual church, meaning she can't be harmed by anything short of heavy artillery. One of the very first things that happens is Touma accidentally destroys it to prove the powers of his AntiMagic hand. |
| 45 | ** Accelerator. Originally introduced as a villain, when he began a long, slow HeelFaceTurn and became a protagonist, he suffered severe brain damage, crippling him. He now has a transmitter device that allows him to connect to a giant telepathic network in order to function like a normal human being, and he can only use his [[StoryBreakerPower utterly broken powers]] for a few minutes at a time. And, they can be deactivated if the enemy has a simple radio jamming device. The brainpower of ''9,970'' (9,969 Sisters plus Last Order) ''people'' only gives him the computing power to perform at ''half'' his previous level. And he can still [[spoiler:stop the earth's rotation for a few minutes]]. |
| 46 | * Li Xingke of ''Anime/CodeGeass'' is as smart as the Protagonist Lelouch, and as capable a warrior as the Antagonist Suzaku, which means he can both play XanatosSpeedChess on the battlefield, and do the heavy lifting himself, which means no margin for error due to miscommunication or incompetency of allies. He's also almost entirely collected and has it together much more than either of them who both have their share of mental issues. By all rights, he should utterly crush Lelouch in battle and nearly does. His flaw? He has an [[IncurableCoughOfDeath unspecified terminal illness]] that regularly disables him with great pain and BloodFromTheMouth. And it usually kicks in during combat, leaving him vulnerable. As a result, he's generally less effective than either of them. Without it, he'd be the most dangerous and competent character on the show. And he's still the only one to come out of the final battle with his Knightmare intact and himself unwounded. |
| 47 | * Fleonell in ''Manga/TheDarkQueenAndIStrikeBack'' has two: her power has been taken by the Holy Sword and she can only temporarily regain it by touching the Holy Sword's wielder; and she can only use her powerful Arcana techniques three times a day. Considering that her Arcana can do things like wipe out thousands of soldiers in a single blast or reshape a city, that second handicap is very much necessary to ensure she doesn't win the war by herself. |
| 48 | * There are several stances in ''Manga/DemonSlayerKimetsuNoYaiba'' to always build up tension throughout battles the titular slayers are part of: |
| 49 | ** Hinokami Kagura, the breathing style Tanjiro uses once he realizes his family's tradition, is in fact a fighting art shown to be extremely versatile and a battle changer. However, Tanjiro quickly learns that said breathing style is very taxing on his body and continuous usage of it will completely wear him off. If Tanjiro had unlimited access to Hinokami Kagura, demons would soon be not much of a threat to him. [[spoiler:It's no wonder since eventually it's revealed that Hinokami Kagura is no other than Sun Breathing, the original style which all others stem from.]] |
| 50 | ** Zenitsu's reluctance and self-deprecation are narrative handicaps in themselves since his proficiency with Thunder Breathing is quite good despite his own assertion of otherwise. Thus, Zenitsu early on the series must rely on his trance sleep mode to override his mental blocks and truly unleash his current potential. With his psychological issues out of the way, demons usually don't last more than a single attack of his. Also, it is noted the extreme muscle exertion Thunder Breathing inflicts on Zenitsu's legs quickly limit how much he can perform his most powerful techniques. If Zenitsu was a brave warrior with total confidence in his Thunder Breathing skills from the start and had unlimited usage of his arts, he would be unmatched for at least half of the series. [[spoiler:Not surprisingly, near the end of the series Zenitsu becomes quite impressive by completely forsaking his sleep trance during fights.]] |
| 51 | ** The Demon Slayer Mark is the visual cue for a slayer who has entered a state where their already superhuman might is amplified further: more strength, more speed, more power to fight better against the Upper Rank demons. However, that power takes a heavy toll on the slayers which translates into a time limit; as soon as it passes, the Mark fades away. With more experience, the slayers actually start to leave their Marks permanently etched on their bodies; but [[spoiler:growing stronger with the Mark is an omen that a slayer is approaching death, possibly even before the observed 25-year deadline]]. |
| 52 | ** At the end of the series, [[spoiler:Muzan gave all of his remaining blood to Tanjiro in hopes of creating a superior successor, more powerful than he ever was. However, Tanjiro still went through the process of adaptation a newly born demon goes through before becoming fully acquainted with their powers, although he was going through it in an extremely accelerated pace. Tanjiro was growing stronger by the second, but he never grew powerful and sapient ''enough'' to completely decimate the already fatigued remaining slayer corps before he was turned back into a human. If Tanjiro had become more powerful than Muzan and grew awareness from the get-go, he would have certainly killed everyone on sight instantly, become the superior successor Muzan desired, and ended the series on an absolute tragedy]]. |
| 53 | * One of the most famous examples, and one used against the Good Guys, occurs in ''Anime/DragonBallZ''. In the Cell Saga, [[BigBad Cell]] has proven to be [[CurbstompBattle completely outmatched]] by [[SuperPoweredEvilSide Super Saiyan 2 Gohan]]. Then Gohan gets his arm broken by ''[[CameBackStrong Super]]'' Perfect Cell. |
| 54 | ** Goku [[HeroicSacrifice sacrifices]] himself to stop [[TakingYouWithMe Cell's suicide explosion]] from ending the series entirely, which [[CameBackStrong twofold gives Cell a power boost due to his Saiyan Cells]] and [[FromASingleCell ability to regenerate]], and [[PutOnABus gets Goku out of the way]]. |
| 55 | ** Upon his return, he [[HeroKiller immediately slays Trunks]] [[NoSneakAttacks while everyone is distracted]], removing him from the picture as well. |
| 56 | ** Lastly, he [[NoSell No-Sold]] Vegeta's ''RoaringRampageOfRevenge'' against him ([[PapaWolf for Trunks' sake]]), responds with a [[MeteorMove strike strong enough to floor Vegeta instantly]] and almost kills him were it not for Gohan's ''DivingSave'', which leaves [[GameBreakingInjury Gohan weakened as well.]] |
| 57 | ** The stage is then set for the ultimate ''Beam-O-War'' of all time, which would have been impossible to do otherwise as [[WorldsStrongestMan Gohan didn't need help at all]] until he was injured. |
| 58 | ** This also happened at the start of the Androids Saga due to Goku's Heart Virus kicking in while he's fighting Android 19 and leaving him out of commission until Cell is about to absorb Android 17. |
| 59 | ** Likewise, the Freeza Saga pulls this for both Goku and Captain Ginyu. With Goku's new level of strength after training in 100G, he is easily overpowering the Ginyu Force - and that's not taking into account that we also have Krillin, Gohan, and Vegeta healed up to full strength, plus a newly-resurrected Piccolo joining the mix not long after. Banded together, they could potentially give Freeza a serious run for his money despite his status as the dreaded. Thus, Ginyu steals Goku's body, it gets beat up while he's in control, and when Goku's mind returns to it he's sealed up in a healing tank while everyone else is dealing with Freeza, who transforms past their current limitations and eventually mops the floor with them. When Goku recovers, Vegeta's dead and the others are beaten and exhausted, setting the stage for a 1-on-1 Freeza fight. In turn, while Ginyu's in control of Goku's body to keep him from curbstomping everyone with Goku's powers the bodyswitch ends up weakening him, giving Gohan, Krillin, and Vegeta a fighting chance. |
| 60 | * In ''Manga/DeliciousInDungeon'', in the past, Laois's prior party each played in a role in defeating dragons. Falin would cast protective spells. Laois, Namari and Shuro would distract and fight the beast while Marcille would weaken it with explosive magic, allowing one of the fighters to deliver the final blow. But with so many members gone, the current party would have a much harder time fighting the Red Dragon. |
| 61 | * ''Manga/FairyTail'': Natsu's SuperMode, Dragon Force enables him to be powerful enough to face and defeat [[spoiler:Jellal, a Wizard Saint]] and [[spoiler:Zero, Brain's SuperPoweredEvilSide and Master of Oracion Seis]], along with being able to match, though not defeat [[spoiler:Mard Geer, DragonInChief of [[OurDemonsAreDifferent Tartaros]] in his own [[OneWingedAngel Etherious Form]]]] in terms of power. Since that easily makes him one of the strongest characters in the series, the plot makes him unable to activate it without outside forces [[spoiler:or at least until his father Igneel [[SealedInsideAPersonShapedCan unseals himself]] [[ItMakesSenseInContext from within him]], but even then only when sufficiently enraged]]. |
| 62 | * Kazuya, arguably the main protagonist of ''Manga/{{Freezing}}'' has the unique ability to use talents like a [[BarrierWarrior Limiter]] without... well, limitations, including dispelling other Limiter's Freezing abilities and applying his own, which... well, freezes anyone in place. Unlike every other Limiter, he does not need to be linked to a Pandora in order to use his abilities. Moreover, his power is considered significantly stronger than any other Limiter shown thus far, overpowering top-ranked and multiple limiters at any time. This should allow him to settle any problem in an instant, but he constantly seems to forget his powers even exist, to the point it drastically affects the storyline. And that's when he's around or left conscious during a fight. |
| 63 | * Roy Mustang is one of the most powerful protagonists of ''Manga/FullmetalAlchemist'', easily able to defeat Envy in single combat. However, due to his fire-related powers, he's useless when wet, and coincidentally the first fight against Scar is during a rainy day. Later, an injury from his fight with Lust starts acting up just in time to prevent him from helping against Gluttony. [[spoiler:Even worse, at some point, he goes ''blind'', and thus he cannot use his fire powers. Riza, his FriendlySniper bodyguard (and who had barely survived to having her throat slit in the same incident that left Roy blind) solves this via using her uncanny accuracy and sharp eyes to direct Roy's attacks for him, telling him where to aim.]] |
| 64 | ** Wrath is nearly unbeatable thanks to his CombatClairvoyance, but he's otherwise just a BadassNormal without the Homunculi's usual HealingFactor advantages. As well, he's physically in his 60s and out of his prime, plus he has a public identity as [[spoiler:the country's leader King Bradley]] and is frequently busy with other matters. Even so, he's easily one of the best fighters in the entire series; [[spoiler:in the final battle, after a sneak attack leaves him half-dead, Bradley can still fight Scar to a standstill. And even then, Wrath would've outright WON if not for a near-literal DeusExMachina (sunlight reflecting off a sword into his eye) distracting him for a moment, and still [[DyingMomentofAwesome nearly killed Scar by stabbing him using his broken sword held with his TEETH]]]]. |
| 65 | ** Envy's shape-shifting could have become a StoryBreakerPower in the more cloak-and-dagger portions of the plot, of which there are many. Good thing Envy doesn't pay much attention to detail...or have much control over [[HairTriggerTemper its temper]] or [[KickTheDog its desire to punt puppies]]. |
| 66 | ** Between his massive strength (he's physically stronger than any other Homunculus) and blistering speed, Sloth is an extremely dangerous LightningBruiser. It's quite likely that he could crush any of the main characters he encounters with very little trouble... if it weren't for the fact that his speed makes it hard for him to ''aim'' (while he could learn to improve this, [[LazyBum that's too much work]]), and the fact that his laziness ensures that he won't put up much of a fight unless he has no choice. |
| 67 | ** Hohenheim is limited by ethics. [[spoiler:At the outset, he was ''exactly as powerful as Father'', if what the latter said about how he had split the souls evenly between them was accurate, but actually using that power would have required using the tormented souls of his destroyed civilization [[PoweredByAForsakenChild as an energy source]]. After taking ''centuries'' to get to know ''every single one'' of his souls, he's even ''more'' powerful because they're all working in concert, but by then, Father has increased his own power.]] |
| 68 | ** Greed has the Ultimate Shield power that makes him completely invulernable, but since it makes him look like a monster his vanity means he only covers as much of his body with it as he thinks he'll need. [[spoiler:It gets him killed fighting Wrath, as between Greed underestimating him and Wrath's speed, Greed doesn't start armoring up until it's too late. Notably, the one time his second host, Ling, has full control of Greed's powers he immediately deploys the Shield over his entire body and uses his invincibility to great effect.]] |
| 69 | * In the Ryuuguujou arc of ''Manga/{{Gintama}}'', Gintoki and Katsura were turned into old men before they can see any action, by Tamebako G, a device that can turn anyone into old people. The only reliable fighters at the time were Kagura and Kyuubei, and later the rest of the main characters were turned into old people as well. Had the device never existed, the arc could have easily ended in one episode. The great moment and Gintoki's RousingSpeech will never happen as well if that's the case. |
| 70 | * At one point in ''Manga/{{Gokusen}}'', ActionGirl and BadassTeacher Komiko catches a nasty cold. Then she makes it worse by single-handedly beating up a CLASS of delinquents (her own, incidentally). So when a repeat antagonist (whom she has swept the floor with twice already) suddenly pops up, she essentially collapses from the fever halfway through the battle. |
| 71 | * In ''Manga/GreenWorldz'', the badass Iwatobi owned the first round fight with the female human hybrid until his health took an unexpected decline in the midst of the fight, and remained helpless for a while. |
| 72 | * ''Manga/InuYasha'': |
| 73 | ** If Creator/RumikoTakahashi wants a villain to be dramatic, she'll make sure that the story [[ShapeshifterModeLock takes place on the night of the new moon]], when Inuyasha - normally a MadeOfIron HalfHumanHybrid - is instead [[BroughtDownToNormal trapped in human form]], and thus finds himself vulnerable to punches, poisoning, impalement, and everything else he can [[GoodThingYouCanHeal ordinarily shrug off]]. In some cases, he even forgets he's not as tough as he normally is, leading to one particularly embarrassing incident where he attempted to punch a giant stone sage who was falling on him. Unsurprisingly, he was crushed, passed out, and wound up getting captured instead. And if not the moon then something else, like when he ran too far into the sacred barrier surrounding Mount Hakurei, which purified his demonic blood, turning him into a human. [[FromBadToWorse Then he ran into his]] [[CombatSadomasochist sadistic]] StalkerWithACrush, who ''reveled'' in the newfound ability to injure him, as during their previous encounters Inuyasha had been able to fight him off relatively easily. |
| 74 | ** In the final arc, Sesshoumaru has obtained a sword that can pretty much OneHitKill anything, and anything touching it, and anything touching ''that'', and so forth. Naraku is aware of this and thus is forced to kidnap Rin and keep her with him to prevent Sesshoumaru from ending the series in a single attack. |
| 75 | ** Before Sesshoumaru, there was Miroku's Wind Tunnel which did the same exact thing, as it sucked everything in its path into a black hole. Naturally, Naraku comes up with poisonous bees to keep Miroku from sucking him up and just ending the series. Many other enemies who weren't Naraku would also be willing to take hostages or had other things to make Miroku's wind tunnel useless like attacking it (physical wounds speed up the critical point of PowerIncontinence that will make the Wind Tunnel kill him). In one particularly egregious occasion, a filler villain otherwise completely unrelated to Naraku's schemes borrowed a flight of bees purely to hamstring Miroku from ending the threat then and there. |
| 76 | * ''Anime/KanColle'': In episode 7, Kaga is clearly the better carrier compared to Zuikaku, so naturally she suffers some damage just before a vital mission. And to make matters worse, they're out of instant-repair buckets, so like Akagi, she has to wait until repairs are complete. As a result, Shoukaku, Zuikaku's sister carrier, is assigned to the mission instead. Though they're fairly competent, they're not as good as Carrier Group One. |
| 77 | * In the final mission of ''Anime/MagicalGirlLyricalNanohaStrikers'', since [[SuperSoldier Fate]] was now unrestrained by a PowerLimiter, Fate was forced to fight [[MadScientist Jail]] and two of his [[QuirkyMinibossSquad Numbers Cyborgs]] under heavy AntiMagic Field conditions to give them a better chance. [[spoiler:That, [[IAmNotLeftHanded and she was still holding back]] [[SuperMode her full strength]] since she was planning to catch up to Nanoha afterwards.]] |
| 78 | ** This trope in general runs wild throughout ''[=StrikerS=]''. The stronger heroic characters spend nearly the entire season operating under power limiters, and with that in place, most of the fighting is done by the newbie Forwards. Nanoha, Fate, and Signum don't get into any serious fighting until the climax. Hayate in particular, who specializes in large bombardment magic that would be overkill in most fights, is under special limiters that can only be lifted by designated individuals, so she only gets to see action twice: once during a large-scale enemy action in the middle of the season, and again during the endgame when the villains have committed all their resources to an all-out-attack, both cases where her bombardment magic is needed to get the sheer number of MechaMooks under control. |
| 79 | ** In [[AllThereInTheManual supplemental materials]] after the end of the main events of the second season, Nanoha and Fate suspect [[AntiVillain the Wolkenritter]] held back to avoid killing them, not wanting Hayate to be responsible for murder. The Wolkenritter also are forced to restrict their use of cartridges (which increase their magic power and enable them to use their more powerful moves) and magical energy in general (because they have to fill the book on a short timetable and keep energy in case the Bureau attacks them), which leads them to sometimes hold back or flee from the protagonists to conserve energy. |
| 80 | ** ''Manga/MagicalRecordLyricalNanohaForce'' implied that [[spoiler:Signum]] may now suffer from this because, despite having risen up from her hospital bed, her body hasn't fully recovered yet [[spoiler:from the heavy injuries sustained during her fight with Cypha]]. It's also implied the possibility of her spinal injuries leaving permanent sequels but that's yet to be confirmed. |
| 81 | * In ''Manga/MuhyoAndRoji'', the group runs into trouble against Face-Ripper Sophie [[spoiler:and [[TheMole Rio]] almost immediately afterward]], because Muhyo, the executor of the group and the one able to sentence spirits, is low on tempering from the previous sentencings. |
| 82 | * ''Manga/MyHeroAcademia'': Shota Aizawa has the power to erase other people’s powers with his gaze, as long as he makes eye contact and doesn’t blink. He would have been a big help against Shigaraki’s decay quirk, and that’s why Shigaraki tried to blind him in the Paranormal Liberation War arc. He only lost one eye, and we aren’t told if the other was damaged, but still, his quirk is very shaky and he’s much less effective. This allowed for a more dramatic and risky tag team with Monoma, who can copy quirks for a limited time, and though this helped the heroes, it has made stopping Shigaraki in the Final Battle arc that more difficult since Monoma couldn’t last as long. |
| 83 | * ''Manga/{{Naruto}}'': |
| 84 | ** Pain vs. Naruto could have been considerably one-sided in Pain's favor had the villain actually tried to kill Naruto instead of merely capturing him alive. |
| 85 | ** Similarly, Deidara holds back against Gaara, and except for one explosive he drops on the village to divert Gaara's attention, doesn't use many powerful bombs. When he goes up against Sasuke, whom he doesn't need to take alive, he uses powerful explosives while trying to kill him. This could apply to the Akatsuki in general, who are forced to capture the jinchuuriki live, but these two examples stand out. |
| 86 | ** [[TheAce Sasuke]] vs [[TheDreaded Itachi]] has layers of this. The fight seems close, going back and forth, with impressive displays on both sides, but eventually Itachi comes out on top, reaches out to end it, and..... dies. No visible injury. He just... falls over, dead. It turns out that Itachi had been dying from illness for some time, and was only alive at all by that point due to copious amounts of medication. Not only that, but due to overuse of the Mangekyo Sharingan if Sasuke was more than around 3 meters away, all Itachi could see of him was a hazy smear even while standing still. And Itachi actually wanted Sasuke to win. Tobi explicitly notes after the fight that even considering the fact that Itachi was essentially a walking legally blind corpse, if he had actually wanted to win, Sasuke would be dead. |
| 87 | ** This trope is a constant companion for [[BigBad Tobi]] in every battle in which he participates. His abilities make him a defensively formidable combatant and even knowing about his abilities and planning against them isn't enough, as Fu, Torune, and Konan can testify. So in order to get past this, all of his opponents have had some sort of exclusive technique to counter his warping/intangible abilities or on him himself imposed that limitation. Minato was able to defeat Tobi by just a split-second using his FlashStep technique; Konan had been observing Tobi's abilities in Akatsuki the whole time and she had to [[CrazyPrepared ''heavily'' plan, simulate and plant billions of traps]] to battle him, and she still lost; Kakashi, Naruto, Guy, and Killer Bee had been having trouble even scratching Tobi until Kakashi realized he just happened to have the exact same Kamui dimension as Tobi; upon becoming the Jinchuuriki of the Ten Tails, Tobi is unable to use Kamui due to having the Ten Tails sealed inside his body. And this is not to mention the fact that in each of these battles he had only one of his Mangekyou eyes which means that he could use only half his strength. |
| 88 | * ''Manga/OnePiece'': |
| 89 | ** Roronoa Zoro is incredibly tough, but almost every one of his significant fights has him either injured from a previous battle, not in possession of all of his weapons, or even handcuffed to a friend. The few times he can fight without a handicap, he can usually make TheDragon of any given arc look like a chump. |
| 90 | ** Nico Robin's a brutal CombatPragmatist whose preferred usage of her Hana-Hana-no-mi is to simply sprout arms on the backs or necks of enemies and break their spines, instantly removing them from the fight if not killing them. As a drama handicap, these limbs can still be injured and carry over to her, and if the opponent has a touch-based power, it will affect her. Also many enemies she attempts this on are [[KryptoniteIsEverywhere either Logia who can turn into their element to break out of her holds, have the aforementioned touch-based powers, or just have general biological weirdness that makes this hard to successfully use]], forcing her into more drawn-out engagements. |
| 91 | ** Trafalgar Law's power is a mobile StrappedToAnOperatingTable within areas called "Rooms", making him a light version of a RealityWarper. To balance this out, Law has the entirely unique-to-him limitation that maintaining rooms uses his stamina, so the longer he maintains them and the more he makes, the weaker he gets. [[spoiler:this doesn't stop him from nearly killing himself in the process of making a Room bigger than Doflamingo's mansion in a desperate attempt to deliver a fatal coup de grace to him.]] |
| 92 | ** The Marine Admirals are feared far and wide for being [[PersonOfMassDestruction people of mass destruction]] and [[OneManArmy some of the strongest characters in the entire story]]. However, as part of the World Government, the World Nobles have ultimate authority over them and the Marines are forced to do their bidding. Thus, when the Revolutionary Army attacked Sacred Marijoa and both Fujitora and Ryokugyu were mobilized to defeat them, they were unable to fight at full strength against Karasu and Morley respectively, with Fujitora being told off for trying to [[ThereIsNoKillLikeOverkill call down]] a [[MeteorSummoningAttack meteorite]] and [[UngratefulBastard Ryokugyu even being threatened with death if so much as one World Noble ended up getting killed]]. [[WorfHadTheFlu Ultimately, this handicap proved so severe that not only was Sabo able to successfully sneak past them, but the Revolutionary Army Commanders were able to successfully accomplish their objectives and escape]], much to the frustration of Akainu. |
| 93 | * Mad Hatter, a powerful Chain from ''Manga/PandoraHearts'' owned by Xerxes Break, would make the rest of Pandora completely useless, as it can destroy anything from the Abyss. However, Break coughs up blood and keels over nearly every time he uses it, so he can't do it too often. [[spoiler:The cumulative damage from using Mad Hatter eventually leads to his death.]] |
| 94 | * In ''[[Manga/PokemonAdventures Pokémon Special]]'', [[TheMedic Yellow]], among her arsenal of powers, can [[SuperEmpowering boost her Pokémon's strength by roughly fifty levels]]. There are two reasons why she's unable to curb stomp anyone in her way: 1) [[AchillesHeel using her powers makes her drowsy rather quickly]] and 2) she has to be properly motivated. As she is a MartialPacifist who prefers healing instead of fighting, this does not come to her easily. |
| 95 | * Another Pokémon example, this time from [[Anime/PokemonTheSeries the anime]]. Ash could easily beat the Cerulean Gym if he used Pikachu, but he's facing Misty and Pikachu doesn't want to battle her, so he's forced to use his non-Electric Pokémon. |
| 96 | ** Ash is only rarely allowed to have and use powerful, evolved Pokémon on his team. He's been allowed to keep evolved Pokémon on his team in the most recent seasons, but the early show (the Takeshi Shudo era) deliberately went out of its way to ''submarine'' Ash's journey ToBeAMaster. Butterfree was released to go participate in his mating season, Primeape was given to a boxer to go be trained[[note]]After winning the tournament it had just participated in... no, that makes no sense to us, either[[/note]] (in the very episode that ''it began to listen to Ash'', no less), Pidgeotto evolved into Pidgeot and was left with a flock of other Pidgey and Pidgeotto in the very first episode of the Orange Islands arc, the list goes on. (Misty had some of this, too -- when she returns to Cerulean City to briefly star in her sisters' underwater ballet, the episode ends with Misty's sisters relieving her of Starmie). |
| 97 | ** When he was allowed to ''keep'' powerful Pokémon, they would often have personality quirks, flaws, or foibles designed to prevent them from operating at maximum (or even remotely decent) efficiency. Most famously, Ash's Charizard was temperamental and often simply refused to lift a finger to help Ash in his battles. Late in the Orange Islands ([=EP105=]), Charizard is moved by Ash's devotion and finally decides to get its butt in gear. However, in the Johto arc, Ash is told that Charizard is too powerful and that he's been abusing its superiority, and the writers have him leave Charizard in the [[HiddenElfVillage Charicific Valley]] for training ([=EP134=])[[note]]The writers had apparently been planning this for a while, writing scenes to downplay Charizard's actual strength, such as when the Chikorita Ash would eventually catch managed to ''slam it into a mountainside''[[/note]]. Look at those episode numbers again -- Ash gets to enjoy a hard-earned, obedient Charizard for ''less than thirty straight episodes''. This made room for Cyndaquil, a little badger cub with powerful fire attacks hampered by its serious ignition problems, something it eventually got over in a few episodes too. |
| 98 | ** Similarly, Ash's insistence on dropping his whole team (aside from Pikachu) with Oak at the beginning of each new series and starting from scratch keeps him from using his League-level Pokémon to steamroll most of the new region. This ended up being a way to balance out a change in the series: Ash was finally allowed to use fully-evolved Pokemon on his team, but after dropping them at the lab would only primarily use them in tournaments (which he dropped after Sinnoh), until [[spoiler:upon defeating Leon in ''Journeys'', the final batch of episodes would see Ash regularly use old and new Pokemon alike]]. |
| 99 | * In ''Manga/RanmaOneHalf'': |
| 100 | ** Akane Tendo [[GameBreakingInjury injures her hand]] before fighting the [[GiantMook Dojo Destroyer]]. What should have been an easy battle for her (given the foe's fighting style) ends up putting her on the defensive, all to allow Ranma (who had run out on her earlier) to come back to help her and defeat the enemy in a single panel. |
| 101 | ** Another deliberate instance (and lampshaded) is found in the [[MartialArtsAndCrafts Martial Arts Rhythmic Gymnastics]] tournament. Normally, Ranma is far, far above Kodachi's league --but the rules of the sport state that contact without use of a tool is forbidden, and thus Ranma is restricted to the use of tools instead of his own style. |
| 102 | ** This is true for most of the MartialArtsAndCrafts Ranma gets involved in. None of the bizarre martial arts practitioners have Ranmas level of skill (With the possible exception of the Martial Arts Tea masters, whom he never faces in a direct battle), as Ranma is capable of mastering the art fast enough to win the rematch, or sometimes the first match. |
| 103 | ** Ranma's girl form sometimes counts, as Ranma is physically weaker as a girl. However it's usually also noted that he's faster that way too, and considering Ranma's specialty is speed, this doesn't come up unless he really needs that last extra bit of strength. His biggest problem in the girl form is usually shorter reach since as a girl his (her?) arms and legs are shorter. |
| 104 | * ''Anime/RevolutionaryGirlUtena'' has a very literal example in Ohtori Akio. Despite having minor [[RealityWarper reality-warping powers]] and [[ManipulativeBastard psychological manipulation]] of the whole cast, everything he does must be theatrical. Even everything his former persona (the Prince) did was followed with a flair for the dramatic. [[spoiler:Not only is he the reason that the anime series is the subtext porn MindScrew that it is, but his dependency on the dramatic makes him incapable of pursuing a plan that might actually have a chance recovering the power of the Prince or saving his sister. Instead, he relies on other peoples' psychoses.]] |
| 105 | * ''Manga/RurouniKenshin'': Because Sanosuke would {{Curb Stomp|Battle}} almost any opponent not at Kenshin or Saitou's level with his new technique, it manages to put immense strain on his hand so he has trouble facing foes weaker than he's been fighting. |
| 106 | * ''Manga/SaintSeiya'''s Gold Saint of the House of Virgo, Shaka, is already unbelievably powerful. But he's [[WillfullyWeak constantly handicapping himself by keeping his eyes closed]], to avoid going all-out on his enemies. The [[FiveManBand Bronze Saints]] are explicitly warned ''not'' to let Virgo Shaka open his eyes, for they will be doomed otherwise. [[spoiler:Naturally, Phoenix Ikki proves so resilient Shaka is forced to open his eyes and stop meditating, at which point he focuses ''all'' of his attention on swatting down the bothersome pest... and Ikki then manages to turn Shaka's own attacks against him in a TakingYouWithMe.]] |
| 107 | * Goku from ''Manga/{{Saiyuki}}'' could beat nearly every enemy they have to fight if he took off his power limiter; however, this also results in him attacking anything that moves. Hakkai too is very powerful without his limiters but can't remove them often thanks to the minus wave, and at least partly not wanting to. |
| 108 | * ''Manga/ShinMazingerZero'': After his victory over Gordon Hell, Koji's cyborg body breaks down from the stress and he has to go back to being flesh and blood, meaning he can't use the Mazin Powers against the Mycenae Empire anymore. |
| 109 | * Everyone in ''Manga/SoulEater'' has this. Black Star has his horrible showboating which prevents him from being a good assassin. Death the Kid has his symmetry fetish. Stein has his insanity. Free, who is an immortal werewolf with the eye of the most powerful witch alive manages to stop himself in his first appearance, plus purposefully getting himself locked up in prison for 200 years. Shinigami is tied to one spot.... The list is endless... |
| 110 | * ''Manga/SpyXFamily'': |
| 111 | ** It's a spy story, Anya is a telepath. She can easily read the thoughts of anyone she meets, allowing her to ferret out the many secrets surrounding her. She doesn't even have any PowerIncontinence or SensoryOverload problems; she is in complete control of her power. What keeps her from completely breaking the story? She's ''five''. Despite knowing all about her father's secret spy missions, she constantly misinterprets what's actually going on or jumping to conclusions about what the best answer to the problems he's facing would be. |
| 112 | ** Bond might be an even bigger potential story breaker. He can see the future, and while his visions aren't perfectly controlled they are easy to understand and always accurate, and he has UndyingLoyalty to Anya. But he's a ''dog''. A non-uplifted dog. The only reason he's useful at ''all'' is because Anya can (with effort) read his mind and share his visions. |
| 113 | * [[TheDragon Legato]] from ''Manga/{{Trigun}}'' is so strong that nobody, not even [[TheHero Vash]], can even begin to hope to have a fair fight against him. Therefore, Legato gives Vash a device that weakens his own special power and explicitly invokes this very trope as the reason why he'd give him such a device. It also counts as NiceJobFixingItVillain, since at the time [[BigBad Knives]]' plans would have been better served by keeping Vash disabled rather than giving him a fighting chance. Then again, by that point, Knives' [[OmnicidalManiac desire]] and [[UnknownRival Legato]]'s don't quite overlap anymore (although the latter remains blindly loyal). |
| 114 | * Arcueid from ''VisualNovel/{{Tsukihime}}'' suffered from a particularly acute version of this--in the very first scene she appears in, she gets [[spoiler:sliced into 17 pieces]]. [[GoodThingYouCanHeal She did recover]], but she's weakened enough that she needs [[spoiler:her "killer"]]'s help to fight. |
| 115 | * Used for much of the series in ''Anime/TurnAGundam'' to conceal the fact that the titular Gundam [[spoiler:is the most powerful weapon of war ever built by humanity]]. Initially, the machine is in poor condition after being buried in a mountain face for a few millennia, and Loran is an inexperienced pilot working from an unintuitive user manual. When he does gain enough skill, he's handed a pair of nuclear warheads and hides them in the chest compartments, forcing him to take a backseat in battles until he can get rid of them. He finally manages to do this on the trip to the Moon, and it's there that everyone learns just what the hell he's been piloting this whole time. |
| 116 | * In ''Anime/YuGiOh'', Joey would have actually beaten Dark Marik if not for the fact it was a Shadow Duel that made him pass out from the pain. |
| 117 | * Yuzu and Serena from ''Anime/YuGiOhArcV'' have LivingMacGuffin status but are both skilled enough to hold off most would-be kidnappers on their own. Naturally Serena gets [[spoiler:hit with nerve gas]] rendering her immobile so that several other characters can rush around protecting her for a few episodes. Likewise, Yuzu keeps losing her duel disk throughout the Synchro arc so that other characters can rush to help her (although in one case her rescuer arms her so they can fight together) or so that she'll be more easily kidnapped. |
| 118 | * ''Manga/YuYuHakusho'': |
| 119 | ** Yusuke is at a disadvantage against Kazemaru and Rando because he already used up his Reigun (which, at the time, he could use only once per day) on his previous opponent in the tournament. |
| 120 | ** Later in the Dark Tournament arc, Hiei busts out the Dragon of the Darkness Flame attack on the first enemy he fights. While it looks awesome, not only is it [[ThereIsNoKillLikeOverkill total overkill]], but the attack burns up his right arm, leaving him unable to use his arm (and that move) again until the finale of the arc. |
| 121 | * In ''Manga/Zom100BucketListOfTheDead'', Akira's and Beatrix's shark suit and armor dramatically reduce the amount of risk they're in, as the zombies simply can't bite through them. Because of this, they run into several situations where they're forced to leave their protection behind, such as when the camping van is stuck behind a blocked tunnel or it runs out of gas. |
| 122 | [[/folder]] |
| 123 | |
| 124 | [[folder:Comic Books]] |
| 125 | * Characters/{{Batman|TheCharacter}}. Think of how often he comes into contact with all sorts of alien technology, high-tech outfit technology, and super-scientists with all sorts of awesome nonlethal crime-fighting gadgets...and consider that he still uses mostly what he can make himself. He's either incredibly arrogant or incredibly thick in order to perpetuate the RuleOfDrama. One reason given for this is that Batman doesn't want to rely on something that he doesn't know for a fact won't go out of control. Alien technology can be manipulated by aliens, foreign tech could be a trap, and if anything happened to that tech he would be at a serious disadvantage. And given that he's a billionaire, he could make anything that he needs. |
| 126 | * [[Characters/MarvelComicsCable Cable]], being the son of [[Characters/MarvelComicsMadelynePryor Madelyne Pryor]] - a clone of [[Characters/MarvelComicsJeanGrey Jean Grey]] - and [[Characters/MarvelComicsCyclops Scott Summers]], would probably be one of the most powerful mutants around, and you'd be right. However, because he's infected with a Techno-Organic Virus, a vast amount of his power is used to hold back the virus' spread, thus his NinetiesAntiHero usage of guns. The times he's had the virus removed, he's had god-like power. |
| 127 | * Examples from the ComicBook/DisneyMouseAndDuckComics: |
| 128 | ** Super Goof, being basically Goofy with ''Superman's powers'', is saddled with [[HourOfPower his powers having a time limit]] and [[TheDitz being Goofy]]. Even then he's so powerful that he's rarely used in serious stories, that have to give him a reason to not just swallow one of his peanuts and win in a couple pages. |
| 129 | *** The ''ComicBook/{{Ultraheroes}}'' saga showed the problem with him by having him face the mightiest of the villains and his {{Kaiju}}-sized invulnerable trash construct and basically [[{{Pun}} thrash]] it in two pages once he's finished bringing the civilians to safety, right before having Gus wolf down ''all'' his power-granting peanuts just to keep him out of the way until the finale, where they finally brought in someone capable of facing him. |
| 130 | ** [[ComicBook/PaperinikNewAdventures Xadhoom]] is basically a {{Physical God}}dess with enough firepower to [[EarthShatteringKaboom destroy a planet]], [[NighInvulnerability inability to be wounded (she CAN be knocked out, but that takes enormous amounts of kinetic or gravitational energy and she recovers fast)]], and CasualInterstellarTravel among her ''many'' powers, and that's her ''[[WillfullyWeak holding back]]'' [[spoiler:(should she ever use her powers to their full extent it's implied she'd go to full RealityWarper levels for a few seconds [[PhlebotinumBreakdown before being reduced to nothingness from overuse]])]]. To give some drama to her appearances, she must always keep self-control or [[ApocalypseHow explode with the strength of a nova and turn into a black hole]], doesn't actually know the extent of her powers (an entire issue had everyone [[spoiler:believe [[BroughtDownToNormal she had lost her powers and returned to her natural state]] only to find out in the end she had unconsciously acted on her wish that the whole chain of events that gave her her powers had never happened]]) or her self-control (leading her to use far less power than she could actually use. She realizes this in the aforementioned story when the villain finally gets her to ''snap''... And the explosion doesn't even nuke Duckburg) and the Evronians, [[ItsPersonal who she wants to exterminate for destroying her homeworld]], are GadgeteerGenius who actually figured out ''three'' ways to defeat her (in order of appearance, a forcefield that can take everything she can dish except her final attack, a weapon that, if given time, can ''kill'' her by absorbing all her energy, and [[spoiler:[[HostageSituation holding the last survivors of her homeworld hostage]] until the machine that can turn her into a perpetual energy source actually succeeds]]). |
| 131 | * ''ComicBook/DoctorStrange'': |
| 132 | ** The character ''routinely'' deals with planet-eating megamonsters and walks without blinking through {{Acid Trip Dimension}}s, but he's still a human being who needs the free use of his hands and voice to cast spells. Attacking him physically is a routine method of affecting a DeusExitMachina. On the other hand, he has enemies that could and would easily squash him like a bug, except that they prefer to play cat-and-mouse with him and prolong the fun. This gives [[GuileHero Strange]] enough time to spot their weaknesses and exploit this knowledge to defeat them. |
| 133 | ** Strange's power level also make him notoriously difficult to write in team-ups or crossovers, which is why he was PutOnABus during ''ComicBook/{{Civil War|2006}}''. When Doctor Strange later joined the ComicBook/NewAvengers, he was quickly stripped of his Sorcerer Supreme status, which greatly weakened him and limited what he could do with his powers. He would not be restored to full power until the final issue of Creator/BrianBendis' run. |
| 134 | * Similar to the Dr. Strange example, Characters/{{Zatanna}} is a powerful magician whose spells work only if she speaks backwards, stating whatever she wants her spells to do. Because of this, her enemies naturally try to find ways to stop her from speaking. Even though Zatanna's been defeated many times by someone shutting her mouth, and though the backwards speaking isn't her actual superpower rather than just a tool she uses to focus her magic, for whatever reason she hasn't really learned other ways of casting her spells, so the handicap remains. Averted at one point when [[Characters/BatmanTheJoker The Joker]] thought this about her so he gagged her and shot her in the throat for good measure, thinking that would neutralize the threat she posed. She managed to avoid death by scrawling "Heal Me" backwards ''[[CouldntFindAPen in her own blood]].'' She also recently learned sign language. |
| 135 | ** There was a period in TheEighties where her powers were seriously weakened after she overexerted herself one time too many, which meant she now merely had control over the elements of fire, air, water, and earth. |
| 136 | ** It's also been established that there are nebulous limits on her power. During ''ComicBook/FinalNight'', a civilian asked why she couldn't just turn the sun back on with her magic. She demonstrated that it was ''way'' outside her ability. |
| 137 | ** In Creator/DwayneMcDuffie's ''ComicBook/JusticeLeagueOfAmerica'' run, it was shown that her spells take a physical toll on her body, and that particularly powerful ones eat away at her stamina and can render her physically exhausted. |
| 138 | * ''ComicBook/GreenLantern'': |
| 139 | ** Since the Green Lantern ring is repeatedly stated to be the "most powerful weapon in the universe" and can literally do anything the wielder wills it to, wielders have to have their [[WeaksauceWeakness weakness to yellow]] come up constantly, have the rings taken away from them or otherwise neutralized, or have the wielder have some personal hangup that keeps them from using the ring at its full power to justify the fact that they can't just wish the problem of the week away. |
| 140 | ** During the iconic "Hard Traveling Heroes" period from TheSeventies where Green Lantern and ComicBook/GreenArrow set off on a trip across America, the Guardians of the Universe weakened the potency of GL's ring. This, among other things, meant that the ring no longer provided automatic protection from mortal wounds, which allowed the writer to use more grounded, realistic threats than usual. |
| 141 | * ''ComicBook/TheIncredibleHulk'': the Abomination/Emil Blonsky generally has a default strength level that is greater than the Hulk's, and also retains his human mind where Hulk could be reduced to his familiar DumbMuscle whenever he transforms. However, Blonsky's main weakness in a fight is that his strength level is fixed, with the result that Hulk can easily beat Blonsky if a fight lasts long enough for him to get sufficiently angry and thus strong enough to beat his foe. |
| 142 | * ''ComicBook/KidEternity'': One of the stories in ''Hit Comics'' had Kid Eternity and Mr. Keeper face a villain called Mr. Silence who used a device to render most of the city devoid of sound so that no one could hear him and his henchmen making noise as they committed crimes and any witnesses or law enforcement agents present would be unable to call attention to them. This of course prevented Kid Eternity from saying "Eternity" to summon historical figures for assistance like he usually does, but he manages to overcome this after finding that Mr. Silence's lair is unaffected by the device so he can still communicate to his henchmen before they leave. |
| 143 | * ''ComicBook/{{Nova}}'': At the start of ''ComicBook/Nova2007'', Richard Rider has the entire Nova Force at his disposal, making him as powerful as the entire (recently destroyed) Nova Corps combined. Then he gets infected by the [[UnwillingRoboticisation transmode virus]] during the tie-in to ''ComicBook/AnnihilationConquest'', which forces him to dedicate most of his power to keeping the virus in remission lest it turn him into a minion of the Phalanx. This leaves Nova much weaker than he'd otherwise be [[spoiler:until Warlock cures him of the virus]]. |
| 144 | * In the ''Franchise/PowerRangers'' special ''[[ComicBook/PowerRangersSoulOfTheDragon Soul of the Dragon]]'', Tommy Oliver is searching for his missing son using his Master Morpher, which allows him to morph into any of his five past Ranger identities. However, the Master Morpher suffered damage the last time Tommy used it in a fight, and as a result, while Tommy can still us it to morph, he can only morph in reverse order of his previous powers (Black Dino Thunder Ranger to the original Green Ranger), he can only hold each morph for a short time, and once it demorphs he cannot use that Ranger form again, forcing him to carefully choose when he morphs. At one point, his son's friend Anara explicitly observes that Tommy is saving the Zeo powers for a truly desperate situation given how powerful they'll be by now. |
| 145 | * Although he was never more than a C-list character, ComicBook/{{Sleepwalker}} had a major advantage in that he could focus his [[RealityWarper warp]] [[EyeBeams beams]] directly on any human opponent, which would turn them into NoodlePeople and force them to [[NightmareWeaver experience nightmares over and over again]]. The reason Sleepy didn't do this was that all the members of his race swear a very strict oath to never use their warp vision on living beings. The sole exception is when people are being used as PeoplePuppets, at which point hitting them with a Sleepwalker's warp beams actually frees them from the demonic possession. |
| 146 | * In ''ComicBook/SonicTheHedgehogIDW'', a number of stories have injured or made Sonic incapacitated lest his SuperSpeed ends much of the conflict: |
| 147 | ** ''Metal Virus'' arc: Sonic is among the first infected. Even if he can temporarily reverse the infection by running, this means that he has to be almost constantly on the run, he has barely time to rest without risking being fully infected, and has to keep a distance from his friends in order not to spread the virus. This, naturally, makes Sonic far less effective than usual, and by the end of the arc he's an exhausted mess that can barely walk. |
| 148 | ** ''Imposters'' arc: Since Sonic pretty much ''demolishes'' Surge in their first bout despite the fact that, on paper, the opposite should have been true[[note]]Surge was specifically created to kill Sonic, her body is full of cybernetic enhancements that grant her increased strength, a SuperSpeed greater than Sonic's, the ability to generate electric blasts, and a HealingFactor[[/note]]. So during their next bout, on top of Surge carrying a gadget that enhances her already formidable powers, Sonic has to fight her with a hurt leg. |
| 149 | ** ''Scrapnik Island'' arc: Sonic once again hurts his leg at the beginning of the story. |
| 150 | * ComicBook/{{Spawn}} has a suit of Necroplasm that lets him do anything. However, he's only got 9999 units of power, and when they're gone, he's dragged to hell. When the creators stopped keeping track of how much power he had left, it became an InformedFlaw and drama was no longer preserved. He only had 9999 units of power himself, but he was taught how to draw energy from his symbiotic outfit, which had the ability to regenerate it. It took longer to draw from the suit, so he had to use his own built-in energy for fast reactions, and fear of running out is why he cached the huge military weapons in his alley. After being dragged to hell and coming out again, the problem went away. |
| 151 | * Characters/{{Superman|TheCharacter}} -and [[Characters/SupergirlTheCharacter his]] [[Characters/PowerGirl whole]] [[ComicBook/KryptoTheSuperdog family]], for that matter- can type a hundred ''pages'' a minute, and do any number of other tasks at super-speed. But he can't fight at super-speed. The in-universe explanation for this is that he [[WillfullyWeak holds back to keep from injuring anyone else]]. [[InvincibleHero The]] ''[[InvincibleHero real]]'' [[InvincibleHero explanation for it is simply that someone with the strength of the Hulk and the speed of the Flash could never even be challenged, let alone defeated.]] The real reason becomes especially evident when the villains with Superman's powers, who have no reason to hold back, also face the same problem. Later stories such as those in the ''ComicBook/New52'' implied that he is simply not agile enough to fight at superspeed, comparing him to Usain Bolt while Wonder Woman is Bruce Lee, which still doesn't make much sense because of all the non-combat tasks he does at super speed. |
| 152 | * During his time with the [[ComicBook/TeenTitans New Teen Titans]], Kid Flash contracted a mysterious illness that worsened the more he used his SuperSpeed. This is because Marv Wolfman notoriously found Kid Flash's speed powers difficult to write without making the rest of the team look useless. ''ComicBook/TitansRebirth'', written when the character had now grown up, become a version of Flash himself, and had become much faster and more powerful, had to also deal with writing around his powerset, such as having the first storyline feature his enemy Abra Kadabra intentionally trying to have him run himself into the Speed Force, or him developing a heart condition that required a pacemaker (thus running the risk of his heart stopping in the field). |
| 153 | * At the start of the 2016 ''ComicBook/{{Thanos}}'' series, the title character learns that he is dying from some unidentifiable ailment. This greatly weakens him, making the character much more vulnerable than usual. At the end of the first arc, Thane uses the Phoenix Force to strip Thanos of his powers, making him even weaker. |
| 154 | * Used InUniverse for ''ComicBook/TheTick'', [[ParodiedTrope whose main superpower is "Drama Power"]]. This means he is exactly as strong and invulnerable as the situation calls for and gets more powerful as the stakes get higher and things get more dramatic. And since a HeroicSecondWind is always more dramatic than just {{No Sell}}ing everything from the get-go, The Tick starts out all battles with this trope on by default. |
| 155 | * The mini-series ''Ultimate War'' revolves around a conflict between ComicBook/TheUltimates and the ComicBook/UltimateXMen. Before the battle begins, ComicBook/NickFury has his men activate neuron dampeners that shut out psychic abilities, which temporarily depowers both [[Characters/MarvelComicsProfessorX Professor X]] and [[Characters/MarvelComicsJeanGrey Jean Grey]] and stops them from immediately ending the fight. |
| 156 | * ''ComicBook/{{Ultimatum}}'': Jean Grey had resurrected [[Characters/MarvelComicsAngel Angel]] a short time ago, after the battle with [[Characters/MarvelComicsApocalypse Apocalypse]]. She can't do this again and bring back anyone, because she has lost the Phoenix powers. |
| 157 | * ''ComicBook/WonderWoman1942'': When she first locates "Princess #1003" the princess semi paralyzes Diana, forcing her to move with her legs together and arms at her side for the ensuing challenges which Di wins anyway. |
| 158 | [[/folder]] |
| 159 | |
| 160 | [[folder:Fan Works]] |
| 161 | !!!{{Crossover}}s |
| 162 | * ''[[https://archiveofourown.org/works/38530060/ Avengers: Darkness in Kingdom Hearts]]'' sees Spider-Man and the Scarlet Witch forced to protect a young Sora from the Heartless after ComicBook/TheAvengers' latest battle with Kang the Conqueror created a rift in reality that allowed Sora's future enemies to attack his past. As Peter, Wanda and Sora travel through a range of Disney-themed worlds, despite Peter's generally detailed knowledge of the films, they experience various issues; |
| 163 | ** When the trio meet Franchise/{{Hercules}}, they take part in a series of games that match nothing Peter saw in [[WesternAnimation/{{Hercules}} the film]] or [[WesternAnimation/HerculesTheAnimatedSeries the animated series]]. |
| 164 | ** While working with [[WesternAnimation/TheGreatMouseDetective Basil of Baker Street]], Peter tries to act as though he doesn't know what's coming up because he worries that using his knowledge of the film would have a negative effect on the storyline. |
| 165 | ** When the trio find themselves in a jungle, Peter initially isn't sure if they're in the world of ''Film/GeorgeOfTheJungle'', ''WesternAnimation/{{Tarzan}}'' or ''The Jungle Book'', and he never saw the ''Jungle Book'' films anyway so has no knowledge of those events beyond a few general details (they're in the ''[[WesternAnimation/TheJungleBook1967 Jungle Book]]'' animated film reality). |
| 166 | ** Their visit to [[WesternAnimation/TheHunchbackOfNotreDameDisney Paris]] nearly goes wrong not only because of the presence of the Heartless, but because Peter forgets about how Frollo found the Court of Miracles. |
| 167 | ** When the group arrive in the ''Franchise/StarWars'' universe before [[Film/RevengeOfTheSith the Battle of Coruscant]], even without the dangers of the upcoming events Peter immediately vows to find some way to prevent Anakin falling to the Dark Side even after being warned not to interfere with the events of the worlds they visit. |
| 168 | * ''Fanfic/AvengersAndTrollhunters'': |
| 169 | ** During the second arc, [[GeneralFailure General Ross]] forces the Trollhunters to "voluntarily" join the military on pain of being [[DepartmentOfChildDisservices torn away from their families]] otherwise. He also takes away the Skathe-Hruin, Toby's warhammer, and the Eclipse Amulet, forcing them to deal with the [[spoiler:museum robbers]] with only their wits, trained skills and whatever they can improvise. |
| 170 | ** The third arc involves most of the Avengers being on the run, while Toby, Jim, and the others are unable to interfere without either putting themselves at risk for imprisonment under the Sokovia Accords, threatening the lawsuits designed to get the Sokovia Accords taken down, or risking the Trolls. |
| 171 | * ''Fanfic/AvengersInfiniteWars'': |
| 172 | ** WordOfGod confirms that Spider-Man will be unable to sense the true threat posed by Palpatine as Peter Parker is still too new with his powers to realise just how his spider-sense works. |
| 173 | ** After [[spoiler:the Earth-based Avengers activate the Infinity Gate on Earth, Stark, Hank and Erik Selvig note that they can't just go through the Gate until their comrades in the other galaxy have secured a relevant Gate to be the doorway on the other side, as otherwise anyone going through this gate will at best end up on a specific planet with no way to contact the other Avengers or at worst the remaining members of the Earth team will be displaced across the galaxy at random]]. |
| 174 | * ''Fanfic/AvengersOfTheRing'': |
| 175 | ** Upon arriving in Middle-Earth, Thor and Bruce Banner are de-powered due to the energy drain of the vortex that sent them to this new world, requiring time to regain their lost energy and full strength. |
| 176 | ** In ''Methteilien'', [[spoiler:while Thanos was able to use the Silmaril as a limited substitute for the Mind Stone, he recognises that he would be unable to bear the strain of using it to try and enact the full scale of the cleansing he intended with the planned Gauntlet even if he performed smaller snaps in different parts of the universe. It is also noted that he has put the Stones through such strain already that he can't perform another Snap without risking destroying them, although he can still channel the powers of the individual stones]]. |
| 177 | ** On another practical note, [[spoiler:the lack of the Mind Stone prevents Thanos reading his enemies' minds, with the result that he can't predict what foes such as Captain America plan to do, while Morgoth is able to use the Mind Stone to cloud Thanos's ability to perceive the future with the Time Stone by disrupting his focus]]. |
| 178 | ** For the heroes, [[spoiler:Thor entering the Odinsleep deprives them of the advantages offered by the Bifrost, as Gandalf's own teleportation abilities are far more limited]]. Later on, when [[spoiler:the Avengers rescue Ant-Man from the Quantum Realm, Gandalf rules out the idea of using the Quantum Realm to attack Thanos via time travel as Thanos's command of the Time Stone would make him immune to such temporal interference]]. |
| 179 | * ''Fanfic/DanganronpaInHarmonysWake'': The DeadlyGame is being held on a cruise ship that could easily be located with satellite technology. However, since this is set in the world of ''[[WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyEquestriaGirls Equestria Girls]]'', getting the government involved would risk exposing the existence of magic and Equestia, something that the passengers agree would be best avoided if at all possible. |
| 180 | * In ''Fanfic/DoctorWhoAndTheRambaldiEnigma'', after Sydney Bristow is sent back to 1496 by the Path, Milo Rambaldi’s latest discovered invention, the Third Doctor soon determines that the Path was only capable of a one-way trip. On top of that, the Doctor is currently serving his exile to Earth in the 1970s and was only able to travel to 1496 because the Time Lords allowed the TARDIS to make this specific trip, with the result that he cannot take Sydney back to her time himself, forcing the Doctor and Sydney to work together to investigate the mystery of Rambaldi's genius. |
| 181 | * ''Fanfic/FateKill'': Shirou Emiya from ''VisualNovel/FateStayNight'' gets sent to the world of ''Manga/AkameGaKill''. He quickly learns that while he still has his magecraft abilities, this world has no mana in the air, preventing him from easily recharging. So far, the only sources of mana he could find are Danger Beast carcasses, which disintegrate after their mana is extracted. This means Shirou has to be careful about overusing his powers and has to periodically recharge using Danger Beast body parts he collects. |
| 182 | * In ''Fanfic/FrozenTurtles'', while Elsa is technically powerful enough to take out most of the heroes' enemies by herself, she’s often handicapped by the fact that she lacks fine enough control to unleash an attack that could defeat her enemies without hurting her allies. More explicitly, during ''Frozen Turtles in Space'', [[spoiler:Elsa is basically powerless on the planet Magdomar, as the temperature is so hot that anything she tried to create on that planet would melt (although she is able to channel enough power to freeze the heart of the Triceraton commander Zanmoran when he is right in front of her)]]. |
| 183 | * In ''Fanfic/InfinityCrisis'', time travel is explicitly ruled out as an option for defeating Thanos, as the ''Waverider'' is essentially rendered useless due to the risk of it being erased from history, and Barry and Wally note that they don’t have access to their full power in the Avengers’ universe. Downplayed as Barry uses his own experience to explain why using time travel to solve their problems would likely just create new ones. |
| 184 | ** Also a factor in the spin-off ''Distant Cousins''; unexplained interference in the dimensional barriers prevents Captain Marvel and Black Widow immediately returning to their world after they arrive in Earth-38 during a fight. |
| 185 | ** May be considered in the later storyline ''Tomorrow's Guardians''; tracing time-travellers in possible futures can be challenging as certain futures can 'wink out' the closer they get to the present as the odds of that specific future coming to pass are erased. |
| 186 | * ''Fanfic/InfinityTrainBlossomingTrail'': Chloe Cerise hails from a world with supernatural creatures, but the Infinity Train picks her up just as Chloe decides she's going to take Yamper on her and run away from home. Without Yamper and his handy Spark ability, Chloe can't rely on the Puppy Pokémon to help her fight off against some of the nastier parts of the Train, thus having her rely only on her wits, her allies, and her donut holer if she wants to leave. |
| 187 | * ''Fanfic/JauneArcLordOfHunger'': Given that the only ''RWBY'' characters who would be capable of stopping a fully-powered [[Characters/JauneArcLordOfHungerDarthNihilus Darth Nihilus]] are the setting's {{Physical God}}s, various limitations are placed on Nihilus in the story to keep him from steamrolling all of Remnant. While inside his mask, Nihilus's spirit is severely weakened and only has a fraction of his original power. Also, NewBodyOldAbilities does ''not'' apply to him and he can only possess the bodies of Force-sensitives; explaining why Nihilus can't simply take over the body of the first random schmuck he comes across. Even when he does find a host who fits those requirements, they also need to be a WillingChanneler for it to work. [[spoiler:The moment Darth Nihilus takes over Jaune's body, he immediately doles out an epic CurbStompBattle to anyone foolish enough to take him on and he shrugs off everything the heroes throw at him.]] |
| 188 | * ''[[https://www.fanfiction.net/s/13701065/34/Metagaming Metagaming?]]'': Harry, as the former god of freedom, is the complete antithesis of the Lich King and can explicitly break any bonds, even those created by an Old God like C'thun. To prevent Harry from just releasing all the souls within Frostmourne, both massively weakening the Lich King and effectively destroying the Scourge, it's declared that Frostmourne is so intrinsically tied to the Lich King that he must be greatly weakened or killed first then Frostmourne dealt with at his seat of power: The Frozen Throne. |
| 189 | * ''[[https://www.fanfiction.net/s/13272570/1/Ring-Of-Fire Ring of Fire]]'' explicitly states that [[Film/TheLordOfTheRings the One Ring]] can exert an influence over [[WesternAnimation/HowToTrainYourDragon Toothless]] the closer he gets to it, thus ruling out the option of having Toothless fly it to Mount Doom directly as it would create the risk that he would be corrupted by it and become Sauron's servant by the time he got there. |
| 190 | * ''Fanfic/RWBYEpicOfRemnant'': The Servants are still very powerful by Remnant standards, but being turned into teenagers has weakened them slightly, and since they are now human, they can't go into spirit form and are vulnerable to being harmed. This means while they will still win most fights, they can't get complacent and actually have to work for their victories. |
| 191 | * In ''[[https://www.tthfanfic.org/Story-32412-15/Cuautla%2BPlaylist%2Bon%2BShuffle.htm Wilderness]]'', to keep magic and technology from making things too easy, whenever Harry jumps to a new world, all his more complicated mechanical items fail. Anything from a flashlight to a water filter to gunpowder will suddenly become just useless bricks. Similarly food from his own world provides no sustenance, forcing him to hunt and forage for food while in a new world. |
| 192 | |
| 193 | !!!''Manga/{{Bleach}}'' |
| 194 | * ''Fanfic/HogyokuExMachina'': Orihime's powers are damaged early on to, in the author's words, "removed the get-out-of-death-free card". |
| 195 | |
| 196 | !!!''Franchise/DragonBall'' |
| 197 | * ''Fanfic/ChaosTheoryZ'': A millennial event called the Dragon Moon, which lasts about half a year, causes the Earth Dragon Balls to recharge in only a single day. But once the Dragon Moon ends, they’ll need as many years to recharge as the number of wishes made. The Dragon Moon concludes around the same time as the Saiyan Saga, and over that time, [[spoiler:they were used four times (twice by the good guys, twice by villains)]]. This coupled with the fact that [[spoiler:Kami and Piccolo fused together several years early]] means that the Earth’s Dragon Balls will be unusable for the foreseeable future. |
| 198 | * ''[[https://www.fanfiction.net/s/11886818/1/Inheritance Inheritance]]'' serves as an example of removing the dragon balls from the story so as to avert DeathIsCheap. Specifically, King Cold blows up Namek when they refuse to name his son's killer and Piccolo is forced to fuse with Kami when King Cold attacks Earth. |
| 199 | |
| 200 | !!!''Franchise/FateSeries'' |
| 201 | * ''Fanfic/FateHaremAntics'': Saint Martha is summoned as Servant Ruler. Ruler normally has two Command Spells for every other Servant in the Holy Grail War, but since she was summoned improperly, she lacks them. The author admitted this was done to prevent her from being too powerful. |
| 202 | * ''Fanfic/FateStarryNight'': Much like the events of [[VideoGame/FateGrandOrder Shimousa]], something is stopping Chaldea from sending Servant backup to Ritsuka. In this case, it's a wall of grail mud that injures EMIYA for trying to break through it and even obscures Gilgamesh's clairvoyance. But as a wall of curses, a conglomeration of wraiths and hatred like Jack is the only Servant who can be sent through. |
| 203 | * ''[[https://www.fanfiction.net/s/6852335/1/What-if-Almost-Everybody-was-Shirou-s-Servant What if Almost Everybody was Shirou's Servant]]'', all the Servants save for Berseker are summoned to protect Shirou from Berserker and Illya, with the teen becoming their master. Normally, this would give him a guaranteed victory, but since even a single, ''normally summoned'' Servant costs a lot of mana to maintain, the six Servants are one-sixth as strong so that they won't drain Shirou of his mana. |
| 204 | |
| 205 | !!!''Franchise/FinalFantasy'' |
| 206 | * In ''[[https://www.fanfiction.net/s/4813784/55/Once-More-With-Feeling Once More With Feeling]]'', two SOLDIER cadet squads play a game of CaptureTheFlag but one of them is undermanned, the other members having been expelled. As such, that squad gets a trio of SOLDIER Third Classes to help. Since those three could take on both squads at once with ease, they're given direct orders to follow the ExactWords of their squad leader, both to make things more fair and to teach the cadets to be careful with their orders. |
| 207 | |
| 208 | !!!''WesternAnimation/{{Gargoyles}}'' |
| 209 | * ''Fanfic/KimberlyTsGargoyles'' series: |
| 210 | ** Although the Xanatos family are now basically on the gargoyles' side, the geas Oberon placed on Puck means that they don't have access to magic to deal with bigger problems. Since Owen can only use magic to teach or protect Alexander, he can only act to protect Alexander under specific circumstances, such as if the castle is attacked during the day, and often he cannot provide more immediate magical assistance as Alexander isn't old enough to understand how to perform such a spell and there's no way Owen can justify performing that spell as Puck. |
| 211 | ** Due to a deal with the Illuminati, Xanatos is prohibited from doing more to help the gargoyles than just giving them a place to sleep during the day, when he was contemplating such plans as officially hiring Broadway as a chef to create legal precedent for gargoyles as people. That said, the Illuminati also impose prohibitions against the Quarrymen trying to attack Xanatos in other areas, and affirm that Xanatos can still defend the gargoyles if they’re attacked while at the castle. |
| 212 | |
| 213 | !!!''WebAnimation/HelluvaBoss'' |
| 214 | * In ''Fanfic/DogBreathAndBirdBrain'', [[spoiler:a fake grimoire]] not only forcibly sends Octavia and Loona to Earth, but strips them of their magic, rendering them unable to use their [[{{Glamour}} human disguises]] to blend in and forcing them to live in the woods away from human eyes. They end up relying on a human named Grace to be their SecretKeeper and give them food and supplies to avoid starving out. |
| 215 | |
| 216 | !!!''Series/{{Heroes}}'' |
| 217 | * ''[[https://www.fanfiction.net/s/13163441/1/The-Not-So-Average-Girl The Not-So-Average Girl]]'' expands on the limitations of Peter Petrelli and his ability to copy the powers of others. More specifically, while he can imitate the power of anyone he meets and copy it by recalling how they made him feel when out of their company, Peter can only exactly copy that power when he is in their presence; when he is away from the source of that power, he can only imitate the copied power at half the strength of its original owner, and he will never be stronger than the other superpowered person on his own. |
| 218 | |
| 219 | !!!''WesternAnimation/MiraculousLadybug'' |
| 220 | * ''Webcomic/ScarletLady'': |
| 221 | ** "Vanisher" demonstrates why it's necessary for kwami to work with wielders in the first place. Without a partner to help channel her powers, Tikki creates ''too much'' at once, including ''[[VomitIndiscretionShot vomiting up]]'' a literal WorldHealingWave of magical ladybugs. This also leaves her feeling incredibly ill afterwards. This forces Chat Noir and Marigold to continue relying upon [[NominalHero Scarlet Lady]] despite her often acting as TheMillstone. |
| 222 | ** Hawk/Scarlet Moth's mass-akumatization plan in "Catalyst" successfully ensnares most (though not all) of the heroes' friends, cutting off the possibility of tapping any of them to reprise their roles as temporary Miraculous heroes. This is {{Lampshade|Hanging}}d in the tags under one comic page, with the author remarking that "#lol some of you really thought I was gonna go into this part with [[spoiler:17]] heroes #didn't you see Part 2 is 38 pages long?!" |
| 223 | * ''Fanfic/TheresMoreMagicOutThere'': In the story where many supporting characters are [[AdaptationalBadass secretly either monsters or magic users]], Juleka Couffaine is a vampire and the strongest monster of the Mystery Gang. During the Incubus arc, she is practically stoned after eating overaged fae food and has to be kept out of fighting while the rest of the group confront [[spoiler:Mireille]] and her brainwashed army. [[PlayingWithATrope That said]], Juleka still plays a major role in the arc, such as advising Chloe on breaking Alix from [[BrainwashedAndCrazy her brainwashing]] through a [[spoiler:TrueLoveKiss]]. And when [[spoiler:Mireille]] desperately tries to use her powers to brainwash Juleka, the vampire [[NoSell No-Sells]] the spell and [[DoesNotKnowHisOwnStrength backhands the Incubus with enough force to send her flying]]. |
| 224 | |
| 225 | !!!''Franchise/MyHeroAcademia'' |
| 226 | * ''Fanfic/DekiruTheFusionHero'': |
| 227 | ** Izuku's Material Fusion allows him to increase his durability and even use the full power of One for All with minimal issue. However, it also diminishes the powers of his blows compared to if he were just flesh and blood. |
| 228 | ** Human Fusion is a borderline StoryBreakerPower. Not only do the resulting fusions have more powerful mutations of his and his classmates' Quirks, they also have access to One for All, and since they're not only more durable than normal Izuku but also flesh and blood, they have more control over it. As a result, Human Fusion is given many drawbacks to make it a DangerousForbiddenTechnique: CastFromStamina, memory-sharing, pain-sharing, and unpredictability. Even ''with'' the drawbacks, the technique is powerful enough that Aizawa was genuinely worried Izuku would come to rely on it too much. |
| 229 | * ''Fanfic/HeroesNeverDie'': |
| 230 | ** While Izuku can learn to handle One For All better using his GroundhogDayLoop quirk, he can't increase his capacity. That is based on the strength of his body, and it's impossible to increase his physical power through timeloops. Worse, [[spoiler:One For All's power ''does'' increase through the loops, so if Izuku loops too much it will outstrip his training]]. |
| 231 | ** {{Invoked|Trope}} during the Sports Festival. Izuku does such an excellent job organizing his class into a singular fighting force in the first round (every single one of them places in the top twenty), that the teachers realize he'd dominate the planned cavalry battle. They do a King of the Hill type match instead and change the way teams are chosen so that he can't control the outcome too much. |
| 232 | * ''Fanfic/MeanRabbit'': During the Sports Festival, Izuku's chances of winning are practically nil... until [[spoiler:Katsuki and Shouto manage to take each other out of the running during their match]], opening up the possibility of him potentially going all the way. |
| 233 | |
| 234 | !!!''Franchise/PowerRangers'' |
| 235 | * In ''Fanfic/PowerRangersMythos'', the temporally-displaced Rangers initially assume that they’ve been brought to the future to use their morphers after Fae’s own was disabled, but Fae reveals (and Flynn confirms) that the damage to the Grid has disabled their morphers as well and the Mythos Morphers are their only option. |
| 236 | * To keep the Triwizard Tournament from favoring the older students too much in ''Fanfic/PrincessOfTheBlacks'', the junior champions (between 14 and 16 years old) are given a magical item to make things easier, such as a fireproof cloak or a compass pointing towards their hostage. |
| 237 | |
| 238 | !!!''Franchise/SonicTheHedgehog'' |
| 239 | * ''Fanfic/LittleHandsBigAttitude'': |
| 240 | ** [[spoiler:Shadow]] is probably one of the most powerful characters in a setting where {{Physical God}}s are next-door neighbors; or he ''would'' be if not for the sharpnel in his leg and the resulting infection that makes him incapable of moving around without a cane. The fact that he's incapable of even ''walking'', much less running, puts him into a number of situations he could have easily otherwise fight his way out of or escape. |
| 241 | ** The above situation gets even worse when Sonic has to rescue him from [[spoiler:Agent Stone and his mech]], but during the escape [[DramaticDislocation Sonic dislocates his shoulder]] after a rough landing and thus is now incapable of carrying [[spoiler:Shadow]] around. It takes a BigDamnHeroes moment from [[spoiler:Silver]] to save them both. |
| 242 | |
| 243 | !!!''Franchise/StargateVerse'' |
| 244 | * In the ''Series/StargateSG1'' fanfic series ''Fanfic/WhatYouAlreadyKnow'', while Daniel Jackson gains powerful psychic abilities, he gets serious headaches that could actually damage his brain if he uses these powers too much, so he only ever uses his abilities when there is no other clear choice, although with training and experience he learns how to use his powers to achieve his goals without inflicting too much pain on himself |
| 245 | ** In ''[=WYAK=]: Resolutions'', Daniel initially suggests the use of the Dakara superweapon to stop Anubis’s supersoldiers, but [[spoiler:despite using it against the Replicators as in canon]], Sam determines that they can’t use the weapon against the Kull Warriors as it would have to be programmed to exactly match the frequency of the anti-Kull disruptor, and they don’t have the means to control it that specifically. |
| 246 | |
| 247 | !!!''Literature/{{Worm}}'' |
| 248 | * ''Fanfic/{{Atonement}}'': In her initial appearance, Pandora's biggest StoryBreakerPower was her ability to clone herself an unlimited number of times, with the clones possessing her full powerset and forming a HiveMind. Ballistic headshotting the "prime" Pandora near the end of her first appearance crippled that power, leaving the Pandora getsalt limited to a max of eighteen bodies at once (later reduced to sixteen after two of the Pandora personalities were KilledOffForReal). |
| 249 | [[/folder]] |
| 250 | |
| 251 | [[folder:Films -- Animated]] |
| 252 | * Taking after other movies that use this plot point to deal with a major character simply flying, ''WesternAnimation/DuckDuckGoose'' sees main character Peng break his wing, leaving him flightless and forcing him to team up with the ducklings he separated from their flock. |
| 253 | * The climax of ''WesternAnimation/JusticeLeagueDark'' has Felix Faust cast a spell that renders Zatanna unable to speak, thus stopping her from immediately ending the fight with her vocal magic. |
| 254 | * The plot of ''WesternAnimation/JusticeLeagueVsTheFatalFive'' could have been resolved much earlier had Star Boy remembered to take his schizophrenia medication prior to pursuing the escaped villains through time. By forgetting to take his medication (which he cannot replenish as it has not been invented in the present day), he ends up being locked into Arkham for a while until the villains he was pursuing resurface, and even then it is not until Miss Martian looks into his mind that the full picture of who the League is up against is assembled. |
| 255 | * In ''WesternAnimation/KungFuPanda2'', Crane's wing is injured right before the one point in the movie when it would be most useful to have a flying team member. |
| 256 | * In ''WesternAnimation/PeterPan'', Hook calls Pan a coward for flying away instead of facing him man to man. He gives his word to not fly and they fight. Although Hook gets the upper hand, Peter wins the day with his agility and quick wit. |
| 257 | * In ''WesternAnimation/SuicideSquadHellToPay'', Professor Zoom would normally be able to take down the Squad before they knew what hit them. However, [[spoiler:Zoom is dying from the headshot he took in ''WesternAnimation/JusticeLeagueTheFlashpointParadox'' -- he's using his SuperSpeed powers to defer the moment of death and has little left over for anything else]]. |
| 258 | * ''WesternAnimation/{{Storks}}'': Junior is shown very early on to be the best delivery stork in the entire company. So his wing is injured to prevent him from easily delivering the baby. |
| 259 | * ''WesternAnimation/{{Zootopia}}'': Shortly before the confrontation with the BigBad, Judy Hopps injures her leg badly enough that she can barely stand unaided, let alone run, leap, or kick her way out of the situation. |
| 260 | [[/folder]] |
| 261 | |
| 262 | [[folder:Films -- Live-Action]] |
| 263 | * The title character of ''Film/BruceAlmighty'' was completely omnipotent, aside from 2 rules. He couldn't tell anyone about his powers, and he couldn't effect free will. Most of the difficulties that Bruce encounters could have been solved had he not had to obey the two rules, as evidenced by his attempts to make Grace love him. Hell, even without willing her to love him, telling her about his powers probably would have helped her to understand why Bruce was doing some of the things he did, and maybe help her to forgive him. It's like God wanted Bruce to struggle...[[AnAesop and He did]]. The point of the exercise was to show Bruce that even omnipotence couldn't solve his problems, which were caused by his failure to appreciate the good things in his life and his refusal to put any effort into becoming a better person. Grace leaving him is the one problem he cannot solve with God's powers, and this realization is the catalyst that gets him to do the hard work of working on himself. |
| 264 | * In ''Film/Deadpool2016'', Deadpool has a really bad habit of forgetting his duffel bag of guns and ammo, which constantly prevents him from just shredding the opposition with MoreDakka. In the first battle he participates in, he only has his swords and twelve pistol rounds, which force him to be really careful with his shots even against {{Mooks}}. [[spoiler:And in the FinalBattle, he brings all his guns and three thousand rounds of ammo to take down Francis and his army... only to forget them ''all'' in the taxi he rode there, leaving him with just his swords and a single gun he stored ''somewhere'' in his suit.]] |
| 265 | * ''Film/EnterTheDragon'' had Creator/BruceLee as a literal unstoppable fighter. No one, not even the [[RankScalesWithAsskicking impressively skilled]] BigBad, could reasonably match him in a fight. So he not only used claws built into his [[ArtificialLimbs prosthetic hands]], he trapped Lee in the famous HallOfMirrors to balance out the odds. |
| 266 | * It's pretty clear in ''Film/{{Gladiator}}'' that Maximus would utterly destroy Commodus in anything resembling a fair fight. So, Commodus invokes this trope with a dagger to Maximus' lung before they go out to duel in the Colosseum. Commodus ''still'' never lands a blow on him, but it at least looks like Maximus is working hard. |
| 267 | * ''Film/JeepersCreepers3'': The Creeper has a lot of trouble pursuing Addison because of all the damage it has sustained. It gets trapped in its own boobytrap, losing an eye, making it difficult to throw a spear accurately. It tries to fly after her, but since it lost one of its wings in a previous fight it immediately loses balance. Then it also loses one of its feet when it gets hit by a truck, giving her enough time to get away entirely. Frustrated, he has to make do with the truck driver for spare parts. |
| 268 | * ''Film/TheLionTheWitchAndTheWardrobe'' has the battle between Aslan's army and the Witch's go decidedly in her favor. Having both great combat skills and a petrifying wand, no one can get close without dying or being turned to stone. Seeing her headed straight for Peter, Edmund [[RedemptionEqualsDeath nearly dies]] to destroy said wand and give Peter a fighting chance. He still nearly loses, but at least it isn't a curb stomp. The exact same thing also happens in [[Literature/TheLionTheWitchAndTheWardrobe the book]], but the fact that it's related to the other characters after the fact rather than being described in the narrative prevents it from functioning as an example. |
| 269 | * ''Franchise/MarvelCinematicUniverse'': |
| 270 | ** In all three ''Film/IronMan'' movies, Tony Stark is weakened before the final battle. In [[Film/IronMan1 the first]], his improved arc reactor is removed and he's forced to use the inferior prototype, severely limiting the suit's power. In [[Film/IronMan2 the second]], he uses up his best weapon on the Hammeroids before he fights Vanko, and is also battling in an enclosed environment where he can't just fly around and blast his enemy from a distance. Then, in [[Film/IronMan3 the third film]], Tony has been up for the last 72+ hours without sleep and faces SuperSoldier opponents who possess superhuman strength ''and'' the ability to generate flames hot enough to melt through his suit. He also spends the majority of the film stuck with the Mark 42 armor, which is a buggy prototype that is prone to falling apart. |
| 271 | ** In ''Film/{{Thor}}'', Thor gets stripped of his power for being a JerkJock. Even after regaining them, he is reluctant to use his full power. The [[Film/ThorRagnarok third movie]] then has his trademark hammer get destroyed in the first act, forcing him to rely on other, far less powerful weapons. It is only in the final battle that he unlocks his full potential and learns to unleash lightning blasts without the hammer. |
| 272 | ** In ''Film/SpiderManHomecoming'', Spidey gets his suit taken away by Tony Stark as a punishment for not only being responsible for the Vulture's escape, but also nearly getting numerous lives killed in the ensuing battle on the ferry. When it's time for the climactic battle with the Vulture, Spider-Man is forced to fight the hardened criminal with reworked alien PoweredArmor using his homemade BetaOutfit without all the technological advantages his original suit brought, on top of the fact that he's both inexperienced and doesn't want to go all-out against his love interest's dad. All of this contributes to a fight where Spidey can barely even survive against Vulture, and only "won" in the end by accident where Vulture's own suit was destroyed by overheating. |
| 273 | ** In ''Film/{{Black Panther|2018}}'', T'Challa is forced to eschew his vibranium-laced costume and drink a special potion that temporarily strips him of his superhuman abilities just prior to both of his duels for the Wakandan throne. This allows his respective challengers, M'Baku and Erik Killmonger, to fight him on equal footing. |
| 274 | ** ''Film/AvengersInfinityWar'': |
| 275 | *** In the opening scene, the [[Characters/MCUBruceBanner Hulk]] is dealt a severe beating by [[Characters/MCUThanos Thanos]]. [[spoiler:This somehow prevents Bruce Banner from being able to transform into the Hulk for the rest of the film, meaning he's unable to help out during the initial fight between the heroes and the Black Order in New York, needing to use the Hulkbuster armor (which was built to fight Hulk and is therefore equally as strong) for the final battle in Wakanda (and the confrontation with the scarred Thanos in ''Film/AvengersEndgame'').]] |
| 276 | *** [[Characters/MCUVision The Vision]], one of the most powerful and versatile Avengers, is stabbed from behind shortly after he makes his first appearance in the film. The damage to his body prevents him from using his trademark {{Intangibility}} and greatly decreases his physical capabilities for the remainder of the film. [[spoiler:When Thanos finally confronts him in the finale, Vision is easily killed without putting up much of a fight.]] |
| 277 | *** In the other direction, Thanos is nigh-omnipotent after obtaining all six Infinity Stones, but the sheer magnitude of deaths caused by his BadassFingersnap wounds him and visually damages his Infinity Gauntlet. [[spoiler:When the remaining Avengers confront Thanos at the beginning of ''Film/AvengersEndgame'', his injuries are even worse due to him having used the Gauntlet to destroy the Infinity Stones. As such, the heroes overpower him with ease, and Thor ends up [[OffWithHisHead decapitating him]].]] |
| 278 | ** With [[Characters/MCUScarletWitch Wanda Maximoff]] being one of the most powerful superheroes in the ''world'', with the same reality-warping powers as her comics counterpart (with "power that exceeds that of [[Film/DoctorStrange2016 the Sorcerer Supreme]]"), there tends to be a reason for her not to use her full powers each film post-HeelFaceTurn, lest she solve the problems in five minutes. |
| 279 | *** In ''Film/CaptainAmericaCivilWar'', she stays at the Avengers Compound rather than being involved with the plot for quite a bit of the film after being [[MyGodWhatHaveIDone horrified]] when she accidentally kills civilians. When she finally does fight, she's holding back since it's against her teammates. |
| 280 | *** It gets very blatant in ''Film/AvengersInfinityWar'' where Wanda spends almost the entire battle of Wakanda protecting a vulnerable Vision rather than getting out onto the battlefield. Once she finally gets out there and starts decimating Thanos' troops left and right, Okoye even lampshades the point by asking what she was doing up in Shuri's lab the whole time. Vision, however, is promptly attacked by Corvus Glaive. One could even argue that Wanda getting dusted in the Snap was also to make things more difficult for the remaining heroes during the Time Heist in ''Endgame''. |
| 281 | *** In ''Film/AvengersEndgame'', Wanda very nearly [[spoiler:kills 2014 Thanos all on her own in her rage without any help from another superhero. It's only her desire to see him suffer that allows him to call in an airstrike that finally gets her to back off a little. ''Series/WandaVision'' has Monica Rambeau even speculate that Wanda could've done it by herself if not for that]]. |
| 282 | * During the climax of the ''Film/TheNorthman'', Amleth, who has been shown to be a OneManArmy, goes into the final battle severely wounded from a sword slash and multiple stab wounds he suffered in a surprise attack. This makes the results of the battle far more close than they had any business being. |
| 283 | * In ''Film/RockyBalboa'' the odds of the fight between the current champ, the youngster Mason Dixon and the pushing ''50'' Italian Stallion is evened when Dixon breaks his dominant hand in the second round. Dixon chooses to put his career at risk and has to go the distance with a star that's [[ClapYourHandsIfYouBelieve powered by a chanting crowd of baby boomers]]. |
| 284 | * In ''Film/SonicTheHedgehog2020'', in his first meeting with Tom, Sonic is hit with a bear tranquillizer, not only causing him to drop his bag of rings through a ring but rendering him unable to run when he wakes up (which is around the same time Robotnik arrives at Tom's house). |
| 285 | * ''Franchise/StarWars'': |
| 286 | ** In ''Film/ReturnOfTheJedi'', the plan is to stop the completion of the second Death Star. When it all goes to hell, it's revealed that the Death Star's [[WaveMotionGun superlaser]] is already operational, at which point it starts picking off the Rebel Alliance's capital ships one shot at a time. Lando Calrissian then suggests engaging the Imperial Fleet directly in ship-to-ship combat, correctly guessing that the Death Star would hold its fire to avoid destroying friendly ships. |
| 287 | ** While [[WhatAPieceOfJunk the Millennium Falcon usually looks like junk but runs perfectly]], it has constant engine trouble only in the ''Film/TheEmpireStrikesBack'' because otherwise Han and Leia would be able to easily evade Vader and the entire B plot and climax of the movie wouldn't happen, and Luke would be able to finish his training without issue. So the hyperdrive constantly fails until the very last scene. |
| 288 | ** In ''Film/TheForceAwakens'', [[spoiler:[[TheHeavy Kylo Ren]] gets gutshot by Chewbacca's {{BFG}} of a bowcaster just before his climactic duel with Finn & Rey. Furthermore, Finn further wounding Ren gives Rey the advantage she needs to be able to overwhelm him, despite being far less skilled in lightsaber dueling and the Force than he is]]. |
| 289 | * ''Film/SupermanReturns'' had [[Characters/SupermanLexLuthor Lex Luthor]] threaten Superman and the lives of everyone in the North Atlantic with a [[ApocalypseHow Type 0-1]] disaster by creating a giant Kryptonite island, stabbing supes with Kryptonite (and lodging a piece of it inside of him), letting his goons beat him up, and finally [[LeftForDead dumping him into the ocean.]] Yet still, Supes manages to lob the island into space and fly back to a Metropolis ICU. It's [[LikeYouWouldReallyDoIt arguable whether this worked for the viewers]]. |
| 290 | * During the climax of the ''Film/TheTerminator'', [[spoiler:Reese sacrifices himself to destroy the T-800 with a pipebomb, which damages it enough so it's only a torso that can slowly crawl]]. At this point, Sarah could just walk away from the cyborg at a normal pace without too much worry. So in order to keep the intensity of the situation intact, her legs are injured due to [[spoiler:the shock from the explosion and a shrapnel wound to the thigh]], forcing her to crawl away from it. |
| 291 | * At various points in ''Film/XMenDaysOfFuturePast'', the most powerful mutants are incapacitated or kept from using their powers to full extent, thus allowing the plot to advance. This includes Xavier losing his mental powers due to the effects of the drug which allows him to walk, [[Characters/XMenFilmSeriesWolverine Wolverine]] dazed by flashbacks of being tortured by Stryker and allowing Magneto and Mystique to escape, [[Characters/XMenFilmSeriesMagneto Magneto]] kept in a prison of concrete and plastic, etc. |
| 292 | ** Each entry in the ''[[Film/XMenFilmSeries X-Men]]'' film series [[DeusExitMachina sidelines]] [[Characters/XMenFilmSeriesProfessorCharlesXavier Professor Xavier]], whose full faculties would solve every plot in moments. |
| 293 | *** In [[Film/XMen1 the first]], [[Characters/XMenFilmSeriesMystique Mystique]] poisons Cerebro, putting him in a coma. |
| 294 | *** In [[Film/X2XMenUnited the second]], he's captured by Stryker, and given an inhibitor. |
| 295 | *** In [[Film/XMenTheLastStand the third]], he's killed by Phoenix. |
| 296 | *** In ''Film/XMenFirstClass'', while he's not directly handicapped, [[Characters/MarvelComicsEmmaFrost Emma Frost]]'s presence and the anti-telepathy helmet serve the same purpose. |
| 297 | *** In ''Film/XMenApocalypse'', he's kidnapped by [[Characters/MarvelComicsApocalypse Apocalypse]] and his Four Horsemen. |
| 298 | *** In ''Film/{{Logan}}'', he's going senile and losing control of his abilities, requiring the use of medication. [[spoiler:He's also KilledOffForReal partway through the movie.]] |
| 299 | *** While not an ''X-Men'' film, the character also appears in [[spoiler:''Film/DoctorStrangeInTheMultiverseOfMadness'', where his attempt to rescue Earth-838's Wanda distracts him long enough for the villainous Wanda of Earth-616 to sneak up on him and [[NeckSnap break his neck.]]]] |
| 300 | ** This isn't exclusive to Xavier either. In ''Apocalypse'', the writers got around [[Characters/MarvelComicsQuicksilver Quicksilver]]'s SuperSpeed by having the title villain break his leg. Similarly, [[Characters/MarvelComicsNightcrawler Nightcrawler]] was rendered inert for part of the final battle so that he couldn't simply TeleportSpam the bad guys into submission. This happens again in ''Film/DarkPhoenix'', where [[spoiler:Quicksilver spends the majority of the film in a coma after a fight with Phoenix during the first act. He doesn't wake up until after the climax]]. |
| 301 | ** After ''Film/XMenOriginsWolverine'' was criticized for lacking stakes due to [[SavedByCanon being a prequel]] and Wolverine himself being functionally immortal, steps were taken to avoid this in the two sequels. |
| 302 | *** In ''Film/TheWolverine'', Logan spends most of the film implanted with a device that nullifies his healing factor. He removes it just in time for the final battle with the Silver Samurai, a MiniMecha outfitted with adamantium katanas that are capable of cutting through Wolverine's seemingly-unbreakable bones. |
| 303 | *** In the aforementioned ''Logan'', Wolverine's healing factor is now much weaker than it was when he was in his prime [[spoiler:due to the adamantium in his body poisoning him]]. This allows the villains to pose an actual threat to Wolverine, [[spoiler:and ultimately leads to him being KilledOffForReal in the utterly [[TearJerker heartrending finale]]]]. |
| 304 | [[/folder]] |
| 305 | |
| 306 | [[folder:Literature]] |
| 307 | !!!In General: |
| 308 | * In a lot of ScienceFiction settings, manned [[SpaceFighter space fighters]] and space freighters abound where unmanned vessels would be cheaper and more powerful. This is because of [[http://www.projectrho.com/public_html/rocket/prelimnotes.php#id--On_Shaky_Ground--Dramatic_Reasons Burnside's Zeroth Law of space combat]]: science fiction fans relate more to human beings than to silicon chips. |
| 309 | |
| 310 | !!!By Title: |
| 311 | * In ''Literature/{{Animorphs}}'', initially, it's in both sides' best interest to keep the war a secret. The Yeerks prefer a strategy of infiltration, then suddenly seizing control of the planet, in order to minimize both Yeerk casualties and the deaths of millions or billions of potential host bodies. The Animorphs, on the other hand, prefer the war also remain a secret, for tactical reasons: the Yeerks have much more advanced technology and would certainly win any open engagement where they were free to use all of their weapons (a bunch of animals can't do much good against Yeerk capital ships destroying cities from orbit). Also, the primary reason the Yeerks want Earth is because of the large population, and a war would reduce the value. On the other hand, there are so many damn humans compared to Yeerks (6 billion versus a couple hundred thousand) that open warfare might even hurt the Yeerks despite their serious technology because humanity could and probably would ZergRush any terrestrial fortifications, at least enough to turn the campaign into a PyrrhicVictory that the Andalites could take advantage of. |
| 312 | ** The Yeerk who's overall in charge of the invasion of Earth is a GeneralRipper who's entirely too willing to [[YouHaveFailedMe kill his subordinates]]. He's good at all out battle and ''especially'' situations where he can transform into bizarre alien monsters, and isn't well suited to the slow invasion plan he's been stuck with. Late in the series the Animorphs are aware that if he's gone a more clever Yeerk, such as the one who started the invasion of Earth, will take his place. |
| 313 | ** There have been several books where the central plan the Animorphs had was to reveal the existence of the Yeerks to the world in such an obvious way that even the most skeptical had to admit they were there and let the human military bring the Yeerks down, but [[StatusQuoIsGod in every case their plan to do so either fails and/or backfires horribly so that the secret war can continue.]] [[spoiler: Near the end of the series the Animorphs finally break the masquerade and tell a general what's happening - and they use morphing as proof and to keep his attention, something that was in their repetoire the whole time. Of course, by then the invasion isn't that secret anymore.]] |
| 314 | ** Then there's the morphing technology itself. As it gives whoever has it the power to turn into any life-form the user can touch, its power and applications are potentially limitless. However, what keeps it out of Story Breaker territory is that the inventors the Andalites lack the strategic thinking necessary to use it for anything other than infiltration, and the protagonists only have access to Earth animals most of the time, which keeps the 6 from being able to easily win the war single-handedly. The BigBad Visser Three/One does not have these limitations, and as a result the protagonists barely escape with their lives time and time again. |
| 315 | ** There's also the tendency to physically brawl instead of [[CombatPragmatist just shooting them]] - the Andalites have ranged weapons but love to fight with their [[BewareMyStingerTail bladed tails]]. The Yeerks chose to infest Hork-Bajir because as big bladed LizardFolk Hork-Bajir seemed like a physical match to Andalites. The Yeerks do still ''have'' laser guns (Dracon beams) which always present an added level of danger, but that's almost always a secondary tactic. Conveniently, Hork-Bajir are challenging to fight as powerful Earth animals but can be killed by them. |
| 316 | * In Volume 8 of ''Literature/TheBeginningAfterTheEnd'', [[spoiler:Arthur has been BroughtDownToNormal thanks to his mana core being damaged beyond recovery in the aftermath of the climactic battle of the previous volume. If that was not bad enough, it is just one part of the TraumaCongaLine he has been through as he finds himself stuck in an alien dimension with no way home in sight with his only companions being of the very people he had been fighting against the past two volumes and had just conquered his homeland. Luckily enough, Arthur finds a way to RePower himself during his time in the Relictombs by attuning himself with aether]]. |
| 317 | * In [[Literature/TheGunslinger the first book]] of the ''Franchise/TheDarkTower'' series it is clear that King's titular Gunslinger is an unstoppable force of death and destruction after he guns down several dozen enraged assailants. By the end of the book, it is clear that Roland has no equal. King fixes this by [[spoiler:mutilating Roland's primary hand]] to make him more dependent on his friends. |
| 318 | * During ''Literature/{{Dinoverse}}'', in which four tweens end up in the bodies of prehistoric beasts and sent on a quest to go home, one among them is in the body of a Quetzalcoatlus. The others quickly get a handle on the abilities inherent to the bodies they've been stuck with; being a Tyrannosaurus, being armored and club-tailed, being nimble and fast. Janine, the Quetzalcoatlus, struggles for half the book to learn to fly. Problem is, ''every single obstacle the four faces'' could be easily solved by having a character fly overhead, scouting and bringing items back, so she spends the rest of the book away or injured. |
| 319 | * Raistlin Majere from the ''Literature/{{Dragonlance}}'' series is one of the most powerful magic users in in-universe history to the point of having several of the ''gods'' so worried about [[GodhoodSeeker his ambitions]] that they actively work to sabotage him in an effort to save their skins. The only thing that really prevents him from being able to pull off his plans sooner is his exceedingly frail constitution and a [[BloodFromTheMouth nagging]] [[IncurableCoughOfDeath cough]]; for much of the Chronicles, he's simply too physically weak to survive the strain of casting the spells necessary to his plans. [[WoobieDestroyerOfWorlds He]] gets better, though. |
| 320 | * [[spoiler:Albus Dumbledore]] has [[spoiler:his]] primary wand hand cursed into functional uselessness in between ''Literature/HarryPotterAndTheOrderOfThePhoenix'' and ''Literature/HarryPotterAndTheHalfBloodPrince'' to preserve the dramatic tension in [[spoiler:his]] and Harry's subsequent adventures. |
| 321 | * Heralds in the ''Literature/HeraldsOfValdemar'' series are trained in Truth Spell, which is ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin and useful for discerning what's actually happened and who is responsible. Also, if another Herald is involved, even if they're compromised, their [[OurAngelsAreDifferent Companion]] won't be. In the ''Literature/LastHeraldMageTrilogy'', Tashir survives a RulingFamilyMassacre and is Chosen by a Companion in the aftermath, only for a Herald on hand to notice he has [[MindOverMatter telekinesis]] and blame him for the deaths of his family, attacking Tashir's Companion as if it's a demonic creature. Vanyel, trying to sort the situation out, finds that Tashir has [[RepressedMemories repressed the memories]] and Truth Spell gets him nowhere as he genuinely doesn't ''remember'' what happened. Additionally, his Companion is traumatized and won't speak to anyone. This forces Vanyel to actually investigate the situation, interviewing people and having to put things together. |
| 322 | * ''Franchise/StarWarsLegends'': |
| 323 | ** In ''Literature/TheThrawnTrilogy'', there's a whole planet covered in animals that block out the Force, so Luke can't go around using all his Jedi powers. Thrawn, ever the tactical genius, carries one of these animals around with him to avoid Force attacks. |
| 324 | ** Luke later does this to ''himself'' in the ''Literature/HandOfThrawn'' duology due to his concern that he's coming to rely more on brute power rather than wisdom, which might risk him falling to the dark side. It does however give him the advantage of greater [[CombatClairvoyance foresight]]. |
| 325 | ** This happens with Luke a lot, given how he's vastly powerful even for a Force user. Luke spends a lot of the EU either out of contact, incapacitated, or with his Force powers neutralized somehow to keep him from being able to solve the plot in about 5 minutes. Only during stories where he faces a Dark Sider of equal magnitude is he really able to cut loose, and even then said Dark Sider tends to have him incapacitated before doing much else. |
| 326 | ** In ''Literature/GalaxyOfFear'' this usually happens with Hoole. Since he has the StoryBreakerPower of being able to [[VoluntaryShapeShifting mimic the shape and abilities of just about any creature in the Star Wars universe perfectly]] and thus would be able to quickly solve just about every problem the rest of the protagonists come up against with ease, he spends the vast majority of almost every book either incapacitated or doing his own thing off-screen. |
| 327 | ** ''[[Literature/StarWarsKenobi Kenobi]]'' is set on Tatooine just after ''Film/RevengeOfTheSith''. Jedi Master Obi-Wan Kenobi would be able to handle most of the issues in the book without difficulty. Desert hermit Ben Kenobi, on the other hand, is far more limited in his options, lest someone out him as a Jedi and turn him in to the new Empire. |
| 328 | * In ''Literature/SuperPowereds'', while most of the characters start at very low-level, Mary is a very powerful [[MindOverMatter telekinetic]] and [[{{telepathy}} mind reader]] right from the get-go. To prevent her from being able to beat 95% of the cast just by smacking them into a wall until they stop moving, she's unable to use her powers directly against anyone living without the risk of hurting them. |
| 329 | * The White Queen, the BigBad of ''Literature/TheUnexploredSummonBloodSign'', is the most powerful being in the series by an enormous margin. She's a {{Yandere}} for main character Kyousuke, but she hasn't caught him yet because (a) she won't do anything to kill him (though this doesn't stop her from injuring him) and will even fight to keep him alive; (b) she finds losing to him fun, so [[ILetYouWin deliberately restrains herself to make it possible for him to win]]. Her being evil also prevents Kyousuke from ever wanting to summon her, acting as a handicap for him. More generally, the White Queen [[AwesomeButImpractical is incredibly difficult to summon]] and she's still subject to the normal rules of summoning, limiting other summoners from making use of her power. |
| 330 | * ''Literature/TheVagrant'' (first book of ''Literature/TheVagrantTrilogy''): Singing Swords like the one the Vagrant uses are extremely powerful weapons, especially against infernals. But to use its full power you have to sing with it, and the Vagrant is mute. [[spoiler:It turns out the reason he is mute is that when he tried to sing with Gamma's blade, its power proved too much for him and struck him dumb.]] |
| 331 | * ''Literature/WhateleyUniverse'': Bladedancer. She's the Handmaid of the Tao. If the Tao gives her enough power, she's unbeatable. But the reader never knows whether she's going to get any help from the Tao, in which case she's just a mere baseline with a really cool sword. |
| 332 | * In ''Literature/{{Worm}}'', Contessa has the most capable precognition of all parahumanity, being capable of beating almost anyone and accomplishing almost anything... [[PowerfulAndHelpless except that it flat out doesn't work on Humanity's biggest enemies]], the Endbringers [[spoiler:and Scion]]. |
| 333 | [[/folder]] |
| 334 | |
| 335 | [[folder:Live-Action TV]] |
| 336 | * ''Series/AgentsOfSHIELD'': |
| 337 | ** Daisy spends the first few episodes of season 4 without her custom-made gauntlets, which means that every time she uses her powers, she hurts herself. She gets more and more damaged over the course of the season, to the point that even when she does get her gauntlets back, she's warned that it will take her time to recover, and if she overuses her powers she could shatter every bone in her body. |
| 338 | ** The full scale of the problem posed by an "unhandicapped" super is illustrated by Robbie Reyes/Ghost Rider. The Rider's combination of powers makes him simply unstoppable. No one can stand against him; even Aida, with all her powers, can only run like hell when the Rider appears. The only way to have any drama when the Rider is around is to give him trouble getting into range of his enemies. Once he can reach them, [[CurbStompBattle they haven't got a chance]]. |
| 339 | ** Elena/Yo-yo has SuperSpeed powers, with the downside that she bounces back to her starting point whenever she uses it. Even so, she was incredibly powerful for a guest character, so when she [[PromotedToOpeningCredits became a main character]] from season 5 onward, Elena got a series of restrictions to stop her speed from breaking the plot. Initially, the team is trying to keep a low profile and can't rely on her powers too much. Later, Elena's arms [[AnArmAndALeg get cut off]] and replaced by prosthetics that glitch out whenever her powers are used. That problem is eventually fixed, but later, trauma from a near-death experience leaves Elena unable to access her powers. She only gets over that, as well as the bounce-back problem, just a few episodes before the series finale. |
| 340 | * ''Series/BuffyTheVampireSlayer'': |
| 341 | ** A first season episode features a living ventriloquist dummy named Sid. They both think the other is the bad guy, but a wooden dummy versus the slayer is not so much an UltimateShowdownOfUltimateDestiny as it is a curbstomp. So the writers specifically had Sid [[FallingChandelierOfDoom drop a chandelier on Buffy]] so that she was restricted and he had somewhat of a fighting chance. |
| 342 | ** In Season 6, Willow's power grows immensely, way before she [[spoiler:nearly destroys the world]]. But in Season 7, where she could use it to solve many if not most of the Scoobies' problems, she [[spoiler:won't because she was afraid of the dark power]]. Willow was pretty powerful in Season 7, but the reason she was so powerful at the end of Season 6 was that [[spoiler:she absorbed a metric fuckton of magic and transformed into her SuperpoweredEvilSide]]. Without that, she wasn't much stronger than at the end of Season 5, when she could barely manage to hurt [[PhysicalGod Glory]]. |
| 343 | ** A particularly satisfying example was the demon known as the Judge, whose DPH was disguised as an ancient threat: [[NoManOfWomanBorn "no weapon forged can kill him."]] [[spoiler:As Buffy points out, "That was then; this is now." And she blows him apart with a rocket launcher, which may not have killed him, but very effectively took him out of the fight.]] Arrogant in his assumed invincibility and ignorant of the modern world, he does nothing to stop this. |
| 344 | * Phoebe from ''[[Series/Charmed1998 Charmed]]'' gets hit with this whenever her [[{{Seers}} premonition]] power would easily solve the current episode's plot. This mostly manifests as her having difficulties calling for premonitions on command. |
| 345 | ** In Season 4 she gets this for several episodes in a row when the Source of All Evil is able to block her premonitions, which would reveal that [[spoiler:Cole]] was possessed by it. |
| 346 | ** The main [[RealLifeWritesThePlot off-screen reason]] for her losing her active powers in Season 6 was the dent the stunts and equipment for her levitation were making on the budget, but getting rid of her premonitions and empathy too certainly is what helped stretch the seasonal arc, basically a magical whodunnit, till the finale. |
| 347 | * ''Series/DoctorWho'': The Doctor is regularly separated from the [[CoolSpaceship TARDIS]] in order to provide a valid reason why he can't simply [[ClosedCircle escape danger]] or use it to solve whatever problem at hand. A good example of this is in [[Recap/DoctorWhoS31E1TheEleventhHour "The Eleventh Hour"]], where the severely damaged TARDIS is knocked out of commission whilst it rebuilds itself and the [[MagicTool sonic screwdriver]] breaks soon after, forcing the newly-regenerated Eleventh Doctor to rely on his [[GuileHero wits alone]] to try and save the world in under twenty minutes. |
| 348 | * ''Series/{{Heroes}}'': |
| 349 | ** Peter has every superpower he's ever been close to, making him practically invincible and all-powerful. Usually this was tempered with a heavy dose of IdiotBall, but starting in season 2, the show started giving him actual handicaps. Season 2 gave him total amnesia about himself and his powers. Peter eventually had his power nerfed down to only being able to copy one power at a time. |
| 350 | ** Sylar became powerless for the whole second season. The third season returned his telekinesis and ability to steal powers, but he was forced to re-steal any additional powers. |
| 351 | * In ''Series/HowIMetYourMother'', the reason why Ted cannot get into a serious committed relationship with other women is that [[spoiler:a small part of him is pining after Robin. The episode ''No Pressure'' makes it clear to Ted that Robin loves him as a friend, which now opens the possibility of him finally getting together with the mother]]. |
| 352 | * In the premier episode of ''Series/{{Inhumans}}'', [[Characters/MCUInhumans Medusa]] is captured and forcibly shaved by Maximus, which prevents her from using her trademark PrehensileHair for most of the series. Similarly, [[Characters/MCUInhumans Karnak]] suffers a head injury early on, which prevents him from using his power to predict the future. |
| 353 | * In ''Series/MinorityReport2015'', main character Dash had precognitive abilities that allowed him to see future murders, but his abilities only let him see the emotional trauma of the deaths and some general details and images, where his fellow precogs Agatha and Art saw more details, with Agatha getting a good view of the overall picture and Art the names and a few other relevant details. As a result, while Dash's visions can be useful in solving or preventing crimes, he doesn't see enough of them to solve whole murders on his own, requiring him to work with an experienced investigator like Vega to actually solve everything. |
| 354 | * In the series finale of ''Series/MysteryScienceTheater3000'': Pearl accidentally sets the Satellite of Love on a course back to Earth, then breaks the controller she was using, so she can't stop it. Observer couldn't simply use his powers to fix things because Pearl had "playfully" poured Mountain Dew into his brain pan, affecting his powers and giving him a mild case of aphasia ("Table dog purple liquify.") |
| 355 | * In the season six finale of ''Series/{{NCIS}}'', viewers find out [[spoiler:[=DiNozzo=] survived a fight with Mossad assassin Michael Rivkin because Rivkin was drunk]]. |
| 356 | * The main source of drama in ''Series/PersonOfInterest'' is caused by the fact that Finch purposely handicapped the Machine in what it can do. He rightfully feared that the government would abuse its power if given unrestricted access to its inner working. Thus it only gives out a single number that points to a person that will be central to an upcoming deadly tragedy. The government has the resources to quickly find the Relevant person and neutralize the threat. Finch and Reese are working to save the people on the Irrelevant list and while Finch's resources are considerable he cannot match those of a US government agency. Thus Reese often gets to the threatened person at the last moment and has to IndyPloy his way out of danger. The drama is further upped by the fact that sometime he gets there too late and an innocent person dies as a result. [[ProphecyTwist It also doesn't always tell whether the person will be victim or perpetrator.]] |
| 357 | * Some of the {{sixth ranger}}s of ''Franchise/PowerRangers'' get this. For example, the first Green Ranger was shown to be able to fight the Red Ranger to a standstill and take on the entire team at once. Then Rita used the Green Candle to sap his powers, forcing him to stay on the sidelines unless he was really needed. The [[Series/PowerRangersZeo Gold]], [[Series/PowerRangersInSpace Silver]] and [[Series/PowerRangersLightspeedRescue Titanium Rangers]] had similar disabilities; the Gold Ranger powers weren't meant to be wielded by a human long-term (Jason only became the Gold Ranger when the original was injured), the Silver Ranger's morpher was initially damaged so that he could only stay morphed for a few minutes at a time, and the Titanium Ranger was subjected to a curse that would potentially kill him each time he morphed (and after the curse was broken, he moved on to explore other ways of stopping the current demon threat). |
| 358 | * Sam, the ''Series/{{Reaper}}'', had [[spoiler:his hand broken right before he could beat the Devil in a game of coin-tossing and win his soul back. By an angel, no less!]]. Although the drama was preserved just fine, it turned out to no purpose, as it was the last episode before the show got cancelled. |
| 359 | * In the series finale of ''Series/{{Spartacus|BloodAndSand}}'', Crassus and Spartacus meet in a DuelToTheDeath. While Crassus has been pumped as a badass swordsman, Spartacus is a walking death machine, so he's powered down with a whole slew of battle injuries to make it competitive. |
| 360 | * This was very common with [[TheEmpath Deanna]] [[TheLoad Troi]] in ''Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration''. Because her abilities could be a StoryBreakerPower in most suspense-driven situations, she was often (in many cases inexplicably) unable to use them to do things that she was depicted doing very easily in stories that required her to be more perceptive. The most glaring example is in the episode "Disaster", where Troi's empathic abilities abruptly become functionally useless, preventing her from determining how many people are alive or dead, or where they are on the ship. The best excuse is that everyone is freaked out. But this neglects the fact that the Enterprise has been in deadly danger before and Troi's powers were never white-noised (except when dramatically necessary). The main purpose of this power outage is to preserve the tension over the question of whether or not to separate the saucer section from the stardrive section which might explode. Hence she cannot tell if anybody is alive in that part of the ship, or if particular individuals (even her closest friends, the command staff) are among the living period. |
| 361 | * ''Franchise/StargateVerse'': |
| 362 | ** ''Series/StargateSG1'' has this happen a few times. |
| 363 | *** When Daniel Jackson [[AscendToAHigherPlaneOfExistence becomes an Ascended Being]], he became a being made up of pure energy, with access to effectively unlimited knowledge. Unfortunately, he couldn't use these newfound powers to (directly) aid SG-1, as the Ancients [[ObstructiveCodeOfConduct enforce a set of rules that prevent Ascended Beings from interfering with the matters of those on the lower planes]], meaning that Daniel spends most of his time doing little more than sitting by and watching. |
| 364 | *** After successfully discovering and using the Ancient outpost in Antarctica to defend Earth from Anubis's combined fleet, one would think that the rest of the series would be gravy, with Earth finally having a weapon that can protect its population from any extraterrestrial threat. Unfortunately, said weapon requires the use of an extremely rare power source, as well as a genetically advanced human capable of controlling it. Said humans are short in supply (the only one they have on hand on a regular basis is O'Neill), and the power source that was used the first time was drained to completion sending the Atlantis Expedition to its destination below (along with every other known human with the ATA gene). Thus, for the majority of the remaining seasons in the show the outpost is essentially unfunctional, meaning that Earth has to rely on Daedalus-class battlecruisers and their Free Jaffa allies to protect them from attacks, and the chair itself is ultimately destroyed in the final episode of ''Atlantis''. |
| 365 | ** ''Series/StargateAtlantis'' opened with the SGC sending an expeditionary force to the Ancient city of Atlantis in the Pegasus galaxy. The distance between the two galaxies means that it requires an exceptional amount of power to dial the eight-chevron address via Stargate (standard addresses are just seven and confined to one galaxy), and the SGC drained their only power source to establish the first wormhole. For the first season, the expedition was thus cut off from Earth and with only limited power in the city; the mid-season two-parter saw them forced to improvise a plan using lightning as a temporary power source so that the city's shields would be able to protect it during an intense storm. From the second season onwards, the expedition were able to discover new Zero Point Modules- the power source needed to power Atlantis- allowing them to dial Earth and maintain the city's shields when required, although they never have access to enough [=ZPMs=] to run the city at full power. |
| 366 | ** In ''Series/StargateUniverse'', the main goal of the expedition was to find a way home after dialling the nine-chevron address that led them to the Ancient ship ''Destiny''. However, after drifting in space for millions of years, some of the ship's components have become worn down, with the result that while ''Destiny'' can refuel by literally channelling power from stars, its maximum charge capacity at present is only 40% of what it would have been capable of when the ship was new. While most ship functions operate at a normal level, such as life support and shields (albeit likely at a lesser efficiency than what they would have been capable of when the ship was totally new), this power supply is inadequate to dial a wormhole back to Earth via the Stargate, and attempts to dial the gate while the ship is charging have been dismissed as too dangerous due to the potential risk of an overload. |
| 367 | * ''Series/{{Supernatural}}'': |
| 368 | ** In "Mommy Dearest", the villain Eve is able to suppress Castiel's angelic powers, effectively turning him into a normal human. He gets them back after Eve is killed by Dean, and proceeds to wipe out all of her remaining {{Mooks}} in about three seconds. |
| 369 | ** This happens to Castiel quite a bit, presumably because he would have StoryBreakerPower otherwise. Over the course of the fifth season, he slowly loses his powers as a result of being cut off from Heaven. In season 7 the Leviathans are somehow able to kill angels despite otherwise being depicted as weaker than them (See InformedAbility). From the end of the eighth season, [[spoiler:Castiel was stripped of his grace and thus reduced to a normal human level; he was able to restore some of his powers by taking the grace from enemy angels, but this would eventually kill him until he managed to retrieve his original grace where it had been hidden]]. |
| 370 | ** Angels in general as of the end of season 8. After Metatron cast his spell, every angel was expelled from Heaven and their wings burned off. While it did result in "thousands" (according to Naomi) of angels walking the Earth, they lost a number of their higher-level powers: teleportation, time travel, and reality warping. |
| 371 | * In ''Series/{{Vikings}}'', Ragnar is suffering from lingering injuries during his duel with the Earl, preventing it from being a CurbStompBattle. |
| 372 | [[/folder]] |
| 373 | |
| 374 | [[folder:Multiple Media]] |
| 375 | * [[BigBad Makuta Teridax]] and his {{Brotherhood|OfEvil}} in ''Toys/{{Bionicle}}'' let the main characters live (and on occasion helped them out) because they knew that fulfilling their mission was a key element of their [[EvilPlan plan]]. But to keep the fans from finding this out too soon, most Makuta were outfitted with such handicaps. The three Phantoka Makuta got blinded, and the Mistika team members suffered ModeLock and lost several of their powers due to a mutagen. Icarax, the Makuta who [[TheStarscream wanted to have it his way]], and so didn't bother following rules, got devolved into his pre-{{Energy Being|s}} state, causing him great pain as there was no space left for his muscles and internal organs in his special armor (though it did turn into a boon when he finally betrayed the others and they tried to cut his armor open to dissolve his energy...only for him to smugly tell them that while he didn't have that problem anymore, ''they'' did as he revved up his own weapon). The only Makuta in Karda Nui that ''didn't'' have a handicap was Mutran, and as the resident major MadScientist, he preferred not getting his hands dirty directly anyways and spent most of his time in his lab doing research and churning out monsters and shadow leeches, only fighting directly when the Toa raided his lab and when the Makuta went on the full offensive. |
| 376 | [[/folder]] |
| 377 | |
| 378 | [[folder:Roleplay]] |
| 379 | * The ability to rewind time is a lot harder to implement in a roleplay setting, so in ''Roleplay/MahouMUSH'' [[Anime/PuellaMagiMadokaMagica Homura Akemi]] can still ''stop'' time but finds her ability to rewind time mysteriously blocked by a power which manifests via a cryptic "[[Franchise/SailorMoon ♇]]" symbol. Because she's no longer able to reset and try again if things go wrong, the stakes are correspondingly a lot higher - particularly when Walpurgisnacht comes calling. |
| 380 | [[/folder]] |
| 381 | |
| 382 | [[folder:Tabletop Games]] |
| 383 | * The Orks of ''TabletopGame/Warhammer40000''. The Orks outnumber every faction in the game, and could easily steamroll to galactic conquest through sheer numbers alone. Luckily for the galaxy at large, the only things Orks enjoy more than a fight is fighting other Orks. Which keeps them disjointed and scattered enough so this doesn't happen. |
| 384 | [[/folder]] |
| 385 | |
| 386 | [[folder:Video Games]] |
| 387 | !!!By Publisher: |
| 388 | * Creator/FromSoftware loves this trope: |
| 389 | ** In ''VideoGame/DarkSouls'', all of the most powerful figures in the setting's lore have been reduced to shadows of their former glory, yet another sign that the Age of Fire is ending. This is why a lone Undead (albeit a badass one) can potentially defeat them. Even then, they aren't exactly pushovers. |
| 390 | ** One example in ''VideoGame/DarkSoulsI'' [[spoiler:which happens long before the events of the game proper due to TimeTravel]] is [[spoiler:Knight Artorias]]. He was [[spoiler:one of Gwyn's Four Knights (the same order that Ornstein was captain of)]], known for being almost unbeatable with his trademark [[{{BFS}} greatsword]] and [[LuckilyMyShieldWillProtectMe greatshield]]. When you fight him, he's been tainted by [[TheCorruption the Abyss]], his armor is in tatters, his sword has been [[ExcaliburInTheRust wrecked and coated in dark slime]], his greatshield is gone [[spoiler:protecting his wolf companion, Sif]], and his left arm (which is implied to be his sword-arm) is broken and useless, forcing him to fight [[OneHandedZweihander one handed]]. And he ''still'' [[ThatOneBoss puts up a formidable fight]]. One can only wonder how strong he was in his prime... |
| 391 | ** The Last Giant from ''VideoGame/DarkSoulsII'' has been buried underground for ages with a large pillar impaling his torso, which gives you half a chance of defeating this several stories tall rock monster. [[spoiler:Going into one of the Giant Memories lets you fight him in his prime as the Giant Lord, and he puts up a much better fight with a greatsword as long as five of you stacked on top of each other.]] |
| 392 | ** A more spoiler-y example in ''2'' comes at the reveal of [[spoiler:King Vendrick's hollowed state]]. This character has been set up as the FinalBoss, but by the time you get to him, he is a barely functional zombie that won't even attack you. [[spoiler:Unless you provoke him, at which point he'll put up quite the fight that will be HarderThanHard unless you have at least four Giant Souls in your inventory. Still better than trying to fight him in his prime, but not by much since he still hits like a freight train.]] |
| 393 | ** If you try to go for the Shura Ending in ''VideoGame/{{Sekiro}}'', you're pitted against Isshin Ashina. Though he was wildly regarded as the WorldsBestWarrior in the past, this fight pits you against him as a sickly old man mere hours away from his natural death. He's still the second hardest boss in the entire game though, only beaten by the final boss of all the other endings: [[spoiler: The complete aversion of this trope. Isshin Ashina, The Sword Saint, brought back from the dead at the peak of his prime.]] |
| 394 | ** ''VideoGame/EldenRing'': During the GreatOffscreenWar, [[Characters/EldenRingRadahn Starscourge Radahn]], the mightiest among the Demigods, fought Malenia to a standstill which was only broken when Malenia lost control of her [[MysticalPlague Scarlet Rot]]. As a consequence, once you encounter Radahn yourself, he has been outright crippled, [[AgonyOfTheFeet physically]] and [[AlmightyIdiot mentally]], by the encroachment of the Rot... which is probably for the best, seeing as he's still a 27 feet tall MasterOfAll, capable of singlehandedly unleashing an ungodly RainOfArrows with his trusty bow, string together combos with his [[{{BFS}} giant cleavers]] with ease, and is still one of {{The Archmage}}s of the setting, having [[GravityMaster mastered Gravity Sorcery]] to such an extent that, even while mad and crippled, he is still capable of passively halting the movements of the stars themselves. |
| 395 | ** For that matter, [[Characters/EldenRingMalenia Malenia, Blade of Miquella]], was [[BlessedWithSuck born with the Scarlet Rot]] and has been stuck in an eternal uphill struggle against it for her entire life. Already before her battle with Radahn, the Rot had already claimed her eyes, her right arm, and both of her legs, forcing her to use prosthetic limbs which have to be made out of solid gold in order to slow the Rot's spread and influence. One shudders to imagine what manner of monster she would've been like had the Rot not crippled her, considering that, even with [[DelicateAndSickly the crippling harm it has already done to her]], she's still regarded as the WorldsBestWarrior and is the game's ultimate SuperBoss... |
| 396 | |
| 397 | !!!By Series: |
| 398 | * In the final stage of ''VideoGame/{{Bayonetta}}'', [[spoiler:Jeanne retrieves the title character from Jubileus' left eye, allowing the goddess to only use half of her full power]]. |
| 399 | * In ''Videogame/CastlevaniaLordsOfShadow2'', Dracula is basically the most powerful being alive. In his prime. When the game picks up after the ActionPrologue, he's been asleep for centuries without feeding. He can't even fight. Most of the game has Dracula journeying into his MentalWorld of Castlevania to regain his powers. |
| 400 | * ''[[VideoGame/DefJamSeries Def Jam: Fight For New York]]'' has the BigBad [[Music/SnoopDogg Crow]] stabbing the player character with [[SwordCane a blade hidden inside his cane]]. It's non-lethal but halves your health for the fight. |
| 401 | * ''VideoGame/DragonAgeOrigins'': Riordan damages the Archdemon's wing while falling, so that during the final battle, it can't just fly away and escape the Grey Warden. This also kills off Riordan, to prevent Riordan from being able to perform the HeroicSacrifice and leaving it to the Grey Wardens of the party to do so or use the ritual. |
| 402 | * In ''VideoGame/DungeonsAndDragonsOnline'', there is a very early quest, where you are level 1 or 2, where you destroy a crystal, which was allowing a mind-flayer to control a dragon. This is a clever way to allow a low-level player to defeat enemies which otherwise would curb stomp the PC in one blow. |
| 403 | * ''VideoGame/TheElderScrollsIIIMorrowind'': The Daedric Prince Hircine does this to himself willingly at the end of the ''Bloodmoon'' expansion pack. As a mortal fighting a Daedric Prince at full power would be like an ant fighting a tsunami (which, in his own words, would be "less than sporting"), Hircine takes a form that can offer a fair challenge to the player. |
| 404 | * ''VideoGame/FateGrandOrder'': |
| 405 | ** Demon King Goetia, the BigBad of the first arc, is all but unstoppable when finally confronted, having stolen the powers, possessions and body of his creator King Solomon, the WorldsStrongestMan in regards to magic, while also possessing the power and knowledge of 72 Demon God Pillars that he controls. Despite this, he's still able to be beaten because he lacks the final MagicRing of his creator, denying him the ten rings' SetBonus ability of ''shutting off magic from any human he wishes'' and giving Chaldea the chance to fight back against him. By the time Goetia finally gets his hands on all ten of Solomon's Rings, he's crippled and beaten beyond recovery, reduced to a rapidly dying form as the King of Men. |
| 406 | ** Chaldea themselves suffer from this, with events conspiring to prevent them from using the hundreds of legendary heroes, mythical monsters, and stronger oddities they've recruited from simply blitzing through every obstacle in their path. Heian-Kyo explains that the Singularities themselves inhibit bringing Servants depending on the danger the Singularity poses to Proper Human History, which is why every major Singularity in the first arc is only handled by the protagonist and Mash. Meanwhile, the Shadow Border simply can't support a large number of Servants in a Zero Dive, encouraging Chaldea to summon more on-site throughout the secondo arc. It isn't until Tunguska that simply bum-rushing the objective with a bunch of heavy hitters becomes a viable plan, and [[YourMagicIsNoGoodHere even that falls flat on arrival]]. |
| 407 | ** During ''Cosmos In The Lostbelt'', a few of the Lostbelt Kings or other entities from them have handicaps applied to let Chaldea beat them. |
| 408 | *** ''Permafrost Empire, Anastasia'': [[MightyGlacier Ivan The Terrible]] has his mammoth killed and gets badly thrashed by [[AntagonistTitle Lostbelt Anastasia]] prior to his final showdown with Chaldea, weakening him considerably. |
| 409 | *** ''The Eternal Icy Fire Century, Götterdämmerung'': [[FusionDance Scathach]]-[[BenevolentMageRuler Skadi]] is running on fumes by the time she fights Chaldea proper, thanks to pouring so much magic into keeping [[OmnicidalManiac Surtr]] [[SealedEvilInACan sealed in his prison]] beforehand. |
| 410 | *** ''The Synchronized Intellect Nation, SIN'': Qin Shi-Huang voluntarily cripples himself by destroying his Holy Frame with a Malignant Star (read: a meteor flung from space), out of respect for Jing Ke's prior efforts to assassinate him (again), choosing to fight Chaldea in his inferior ArtificialHuman backup body instead. |
| 411 | *** ''Saṃsāra of Genesis and Terminus, Yugakshetra'': [[BigBad Arjuna]] [[ManySpiritsInsideOfOne Over]] [[TopGod Gods]] handicaps himself ''twice'' before the final fight against him. First, his refusal to accept that he's a warrior at heart rather than a perfect God stops him using his full power. Second, a revived [[AlwaysSomeoneBetter Karna's]] TheReasonYouSuckSpeech badly shakes his self-image and since he's typically as strong as he thinks he is, his powers take another nosedive in response, allowing an empowered Karna and Chaldea to beat him. |
| 412 | *** ''Ancestral Ocean Of The Great Gods, Atlantis: Achilles has already been shot in his heel when he debuts as an ally, sealing his invulnerability and crippling him to 30% of his usual speed. Despite this, he's [[BroughtDownToBadass still a powerhouse]] and one of the Neo-Argonauts' best fighters. Meanwhile, the {{Threshold Guardian|s}} for Olympus' entrance, Lostbelt Poseidon, had one of his cores stolen by Francis Drake, which has driven him mad [[spoiler:in addition to the brainwashing Zeus slapped him with after crushing Poseidon and the other Olympians in the Olympiamachia, which was actually just him for the Authority Faction vs everyone else for the Co-Existence Faction]], severely gimping his combat strength and reducing him to trying to ram things [[SanityHasAdvantages instead of]] destroying them at a distance, allowing Chaldea to infiltrate him to destroy his other cores. |
| 413 | *** ''Interstellar Mountainous City, Olympus'': [[PhysicalGod Lostbelt]] [[DeusEstMachina Zeus]], like Arjuna before him, is under two handicaps by the time he finally fights Chaldea, because he's so [[AllYourPowersCombined disgustingly powerful]] that he'd easily fry them otherwise. The deaths of all of the other Olympians prior to his boss fight have forced him to run all of Olympus' functions by himself, taking up a whopping '''90%''' of his powers to do so, while [[TopGod Romulus]]=[[GodIsGood Quirinus]] uses his own Authority to strip Zeus of his HomeFieldAdvantage power up by declaring Olympus to be a seat of ''Roman'' power and divinity rather than a Greek one. |
| 414 | *** ''Fae Round Table Domain, Avalon le Fae'': The ClimaxBoss Cernunnos is revived as an undead corpse with no consciousness or soul left in him, allowing [[TheArchmage Merlin]] to rewind time without Cernunnos interrupting it with his Authority once Chaldea realises they can't win the first time, giving them another chance to prepare. By the time he's actually fought, [[TheChosenOne Artoria Caster]] has successfully completed Excalibur's forging and corrected the sins of the original [[GreaterScopeVillain Six Fae]], appeasing the undead Cernunnos' wrath and weakening his curses enough to make the fight manageable. |
| 415 | *** ''Non-Primate Ecosphere, Tunguska Sanctuary'': The Singularity instinctively repels most 'Hominidae' attribute Servants from Proper Human History, causing the majority of Chaldea's originally assembled team to be de-summoned when they breach the area and forcing them to rely on non-human Servants by and large, like [[OurGiantsAreDifferent Dobrynya Niktich]], [[LoveFreak Habetrot]] and [[PiecesOfGod Ibuki Douji]], in their stead. |
| 416 | *** ''Golden Sea of Trees Travelogue, Nahui Mictlān'': Both [[spoiler: [[AmnesiacDissonance U-Olga]] [[ArcHero Marie]] and [[CosmicKeystone Lostbelt]] [[EldritchAbomination ORT]] suffer the same handicap to keep the chapter from ending near-instantly. U-Olga winds up having her heart torn out by [[WildCard Tezcatlipoca]] after being knocked unconscious during the ActionPrologue, leaving her with amnesia and a pathetic 4% of her original power left over when she [[HeelFaceTurn joins Chaldea]] as a GuestStarPartyMember, while ORT itself has already had its primary power core torn out by [[TragicVillain Camazotz]] in the distant past and repurposed into an ArtificialSun for the Lostbelt, meaning that when reawakened by Daybit and Tezcatlipoca in the present it's running on the dregs the assimilated Tree of Emptiness can cough up for it and Chaldea's primary objective (aside from defeating it) is to stop it ''removing'' the handicap by getting its core back]]. |
| 417 | * Yuna's group in ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyX'' has a whole host of different elements to make sure that they're the only ones who can defeat Sin once and for all. First, there's the fact that Sin contains the soul of Jecht, a previous guardian to the High Summoner. Then Tidus, Jecht's son, happens to end up on Spira. Then there's the fact that Jecht liked the Hymn of the Fayth, and the airship that Yuna's party acquires late in the game has the ability to play a recording of the Hymn. If any one of those things didn't happen, Sin stays alive, especially considering the party kills Lady Yunalesca, who had the only alternative available. |
| 418 | * ''VideoGame/GodOfWar2018'': Both of the dwarven Huldra Brothers, Brok and Sindri display an ability to step into the Realm Between Realms as an in-universe explanation for how they are able to move around so easily and provide their exceptional smithing talents to help Kratos and Atreus on their journey. However, as Sindri learns the hard way, this ability is useless against the keen senses of a dragon, resulting in a detour for the duo on their path up the mountain when they have to save him from the dragon Hraezlyr. |
| 419 | * In ''VideoGame/GoldenSun1'', the heroes are able to fight Saturos (previously a HopelessBossFight) in the Mercury Lighthouse, because the lighthouse weakens his Fire-based magic, and strengthens the heroine's Water-based powers (which he is weak against). Notably, his ally [[TheChessmaster Alex]] was impressed that they managed to beat him, noting that he expected Saturos to win. |
| 420 | * ''VideoGame/MentalOmega'': In the campaigns, the Paradox Engine's built-in Chronosphere cannot teleport enemies, unlike every Chronosphere variant in the vanilla game series. Considering how powerful this version of the Chronosphere is shown to be, regularly teleporting whole invasion forces and even ''buildings'' to the frontlines, it'd be a complete StoryBreakerPower for the Allies if they could Chronoshift enemy forces, since they could kick back and teleport their enemies' armies to death before the fight even starts. |
| 421 | * ''VideoGame/MetalGearSolid'': |
| 422 | ** Otacon deliberately ''designed'' a blatantly obvious weak point for the Metal Gear. He claims it gives the mechs "character" but he may also have been indulging in being able to bring a common Mecha-based anime plot point to "life". |
| 423 | ** [[spoiler:Gray Fox]]'s [[RedemptionEqualsDeath last heroic deed]] is to take out Metal Gear REX's exterior vision modes, forcing the pilot to open the cockpit in order to see and giving Snake a legitimate weak point to fire at. |
| 424 | ** Solid Snake ends up on the receiving end of [[spoiler:having to open the REX's cockpit]] when it's his turn to use it to fight in ''VideoGame/MetalGearSolid4GunsOfThePatriots''. |
| 425 | * In ''VideoGame/MightAndMagicClashOfHeroes'', the game forces you to use Nadia in the final BossFight ([[ThisIsSomethingHesGotToDoHimself for plot reasons]]). At this point in the game, you won't have had time to level up Nadia to max (you don't gain access to her until the endgame and her stage lacks the side missions the others have to gain EXP). And as a bonus handicap, Nadia is the only playable character whose LimitBreak strikes randomly, rather than full-screen or aimed. What would've been an AntiClimaxBoss with Godric or Anwen turns into a LuckBasedMission. |
| 426 | * ''Monster Girl Quest!'': |
| 427 | ** The original trilogy has both Luka and Alice greatly weakened at the start of its third chapter: the former has his [[StatusBuff spirits]] sealed while the latter is herself sealed (and can only escape the seal in a weaker, child-sized form). As a result, the monsters and angels encountered from then on are actually challenging. It's also later revealed that [[spoiler:Tamamo]] has been stuck in a weaker form all along, and is actually one of the [[spoiler:legendary Six Ancestors]]. |
| 428 | ** ''Monster Girl Quest! Paradox RPG'' has Alice and Ilias both reduced to weaker, child-sized forms right from the start of the game, as well as losing the support of their subordinates. This forces them to find new allies. |
| 429 | * ''Franchise/StreetFighter'': |
| 430 | ** Shin Akuma is Akuma's ''default'' form. His regular playable form is him holding back so he doesn't immediately annihilate an unworthy opponent. |
| 431 | ** Oro is a master of Senjutsu, with phenomenal control over his ''ki'' granting him monstrous strength and stamina, telekinesis, and immortality. Like Akuma, he would overwhelm any opponent, so he chooses to fight with one arm literally tied. |
| 432 | * In ''VideoGame/SuperRobotWarsV'', it's noted by Tetsuya Tsurugi that the only reason why Earth Fleet Tenku stood a chance against [[spoiler:Mazinger Zero was because Koji hasn't been fully assimilated yet and is actively resisting. This slowed down Zero's full awakening enough that its abilities (especially its probability and reality manipulation abilities) hasn't fully come online yet. It's still by far the most powerful enemy that the player would face in the game thus far, and makes both the Angels Bardiel and Zeruel fought in the same map look like jokes in comparison]]. |
| 433 | * In ''VideoGame/SuperSmashBrosBrawl'', the final boss has an attack that instantly turns all of the heroes into trophies a little while before the final battle. Right before the battle begins, [[spoiler:Sonic]] appears and attacks the boss's wings, weakening this attack considerably (though it's still almost a OHKO). |
| 434 | * In ''VideoGame/{{Undertale}}''; a handicap in favor of the player is in effect for [[spoiler:Asgore]], the BigBad. As you go through the game it's repeatedly hammered into your head that he is ''the'' strongest Monster, more than capable of putting your character (a small child) into the dirt with little effort, and Undyne says that she's only ever landed one solid blow on him in practice because he's so fast. When it comes time to fight him you find out that at 80 ATK and 80 DEF, he has more statistical power than anything else in the game... and then you actually meet him, it turns out he's a TragicVillain who despises himself for killing children for the sake of his kingdom's hope. He can't bring himself to attack you full-force (and will in fact never kill you until your HP is already at 1), he's swinging wildly with what should be a precision weapon because he can't look you in the eyes, he leaves his guard down so his sky-high defense is irrelevant, and he'll just stand still tanking your attacks until it kills him because [[DeathSeeker there's only one way he wants this fight to end]]. |
| 435 | * ''VideoGame/WorldOfWarcraft'' often does this to justify players being able to kill a certain BigBad. Some raid bosses have been weakened by another force, sometimes [=NPC=]'s join the fight on the players' side, and some quests give you an item that will turn an elite mob into a normal one. Many of the hardmodes and achievements require you not to activate the handicap and still win the fight. |
| 436 | * ''VideoGame/XenobladeChronicles2'' has you fight Jin, one of the main villains and head of the [[YourTerroristsAreOurFreedomFighters Torna]] organization, about midway through the game. The issue is, Jin's currently one of the strongest [[LivingWeapon Blades]] in the world, [[spoiler:owing to his forbidden merging of human cells with his own Core to become a Flesh Eater]] and has powers ranging from [[FastAsLightning light-speed movement]] to [[AnIcePerson freezing an area to absolute zero]] to full elementary particle manipulation. Suffice to say, the party, despite having all members by this point, is nowhere near capable of facing him in combat. Fortunately, the party is currently being escorted by Fan La Norne, a Blade acting as envoy to the [[FantasticCatholicism Indoline Praetorium]] with the unique power of restricting Blades by nullifying their powers. The party notes that her power appears to not be working on him, until it is stated that he's just so powerful that the [[BroughtDownToNormal nullification is just barely able to bring him down to the power level of a regular Blade]], which they are able to face in combat. |
| 437 | [[/folder]] |
| 438 | |
| 439 | [[folder:Visual Novels]] |
| 440 | * ''VisualNovel/DanganronpaTriggerHappyHavoc'': The Mastermind enforces this by erasing Kyoko Kirigiri's memories of her talent ([[spoiler:Ultimate Detective]]), because if she had full access to it, [[StoryBreakerPower she could have ended the Killing Game far earlier than planned]]. [[spoiler:She still has her natural instinct as a detective, figures out that her memories have been tampered with, and later deduces what her talent was regardless.]] |
| 441 | * Lampshaded by the protagonist of ''VisualNovel/DoubleHomework''. Dennis, with his computer ability, can do a lot of damage by manipulating the availability of information, even though he has very little in the way of physical strength or social standing. The protagonist, meanwhile, has damaging information that can ruin him if it leaks out. |
| 442 | * ''VisualNovel/FateStayNight'': |
| 443 | ** Saber is the strongest member of her class, already considered the most outstanding of all classes, making her one of the strongest Servants ''period''. She possesses almost unmatched combat skills, excellent stats, is practically immune to all forms of magecraft, and possesses some of the most powerful Noble Phantasms in existence, including [[spoiler:Excalibur]] - a [[WaveMotionGun Wave Motion Sword]] capable of flattening mountains. She would normally be capable of single-handedly defeating all opposition, with only [[SuperpowerLottery Gilgamesh]] being a challenge, which would make the novel rather unexciting as she's [[BattleCouple partnered]] with the main character -- a guy who has next to no actual magical power. So she ends up getting improperly summoned, which leaves her with reduced stats and inability to regenerate prana through normal means - which limits her to single use of [[spoiler:Excalibur]] before she becomes almost cripplingly weakened. Furthermore, she only reclaims her third Noble Phantasm - which power makes her immortal and invulnerable - just before the last battle when she has to face Gilgamesh, the strongest of Heroic Spirits. Predictably, it turns out to be exactly what she needs to win. |
| 444 | *** She doesn't have all her Noble Phantasms because [[spoiler:as King Arthur, she made a deal with the world right before she ''died'' to claim the Grail, which limits her to have ''only'' the Noble Phantasm she had with her on her death bed ''and'' causes her not to be a full and true Heroic spirit... even in Literature/FateZero or as Rin's Servant]]. |
| 445 | ** Gilgamesh is by far the oldest heroic spirit in a world where OlderIsBetter. He has rather high stats across the board ( [[GlassCannon his lowest stats]] are on par with most servant's highest stats) and owns [[SuperpowerLottery a ridiculously powerful Noble Phantasm]] that gives him access to the superior ancient counterparts of all existing weapon-type Noble Phantasms. If he so deigned, he could very easily beat all other servants in the story even at their absolute best. The only reason this ''isn't'' the case and anyone lasts longer than ten seconds against him is because he's so inconceivably arrogant that he absolutely refuses to put serious effort in fighting others, even if they are a threat to him. In all routes, he gets taken out by opponents he could defeat if he were to seriously fight them, but he took the battle for granted and lost (and in ''Heaven's Feel'', gets eaten) as a result. |
| 446 | ** Berserker is both freakishly fast and strong, nigh-invulnerable, and has multiple lives to boot. He's summoned as a Berserker, rendering him incapable of doing anything more complex than AttackAttackAttack, locking out his offensive Noble Phantasm, and making him all but uncontrollable. He's still useful to his Master, simply by virtue of said master being the most powerful one and thus being able to control him ''anyway''. |
| 447 | * Arcueid of ''VisualNovel/{{Tsukihime}}'' is one of the most powerful characters in the Nasuverse. However, she uses the majority of that power [[VegetarianVampire suppressing her urge for blood]], and after Shiki "[[OnlyMostlyDead kills]]" her early on, she ends up using most of the remainder to regenerate herself. And the method he used to kill her means she takes the majority of the plot to fully recover. |
| 448 | [[/folder]] |
| 449 | |
| 450 | [[folder:Webcomics]] |
| 451 | * ''Webcomic/{{Housepets}}'': The comic clearly establishes that not only are the denizens of Heaven more or less omnipotent when it comes to fighting power, but effectively omniscient (and boy, do they [[JerkassGods flaunt it]]) - not because they're the smartest creatures ever, but because linear time doesn't exist in Heaven and they can simply reference what already happened should a crisis arise, so they only really have to worry about each other's actions. For the finale arc, Great Kitsune accidentally lets a demon enter Earth due to carelessness...so of course Heaven enters a crisis mode where time ''is'' linear and Kit is forced to improvise. He also can't do it alone, and the reason it happened at all was because he temporarily removed his friends/fellow Earth monitors from power. (One of the mortal characters is unimpressed that his supposed knowledge turned out to be to pause time and "magic Google" the answer.) |
| 452 | * ''Webcomic/KeychainOfCreation'': The first story arc takes the main characters into a corrupted PlaceOfPower that suppresses their RegeneratingMana, forcing them to budget their powers. |
| 453 | -->'''Ten:''' So, on our very first big adventure, we're going to be under an area effect that severely limits all our incredible, divine, make-things-a-lot-easier superpowers.\ |
| 454 | '''Misho:''' Yes...?\ |
| 455 | '''Ten:''' ...Weak. |
| 456 | * ''Webcomic/TheOrderOfTheStick'': |
| 457 | ** Ultra-powerful post-splice Vaarsuvius is the most powerful mage to have ever existed...as long as they hold on to the splices. Good thing one of them (a legendary necromancer no less, who would have been uniquely qualified to help against V's undead foe) slips away BEFORE the elf goes to fight the BigBad, Xykon, or else the Order Of The Stick's quest would end in a CurbStompBattle. Plus, Vaarsuvius has a revelation about more effective use of their power immediately ''after'' losing the other two splices. And they were further hampered by the fact that every stat other than their effective caster level (which, before losing the first splice, was somewhere in the ''90s'') and available spell slots was ''not'' enhanced by the splice. |
| 458 | *** V gets another lesson from the black dragon just before all that. In an anti-magic field, V is just a talking monkey, while the dragon is still a dragon. |
| 459 | ** Also happens repeatedly during [[EvilCounterpart Linear Guild]] confrontations, as [[LampshadeHanging lampshaded]] by Roy [[http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0834.html here]]. Roy seems to be outright [[DefiedTrope defying]] the trope in that comic, but it ends up being played straight again a dozen strips later when the Linear Guild attacks immediately after Vaarsuvius is incapacitated by a trap. |
| 460 | ** This also applies to Azure City being captured and taken over by Team Evil. Having the resources of a powerful city-state at their beck and call and ruler ready to accommodate them in any way gives the good guys a possible edge against the forces of darkness. In order to keep a real sense of drama and impending doom through several more story arcs, something had to happen to make sure the good guys wouldn't have it so easy. |
| 461 | * In ''Webcomic/SluggyFreelance'', you'd think Torg having a sword that can kill anything with one strike would make him unbeatable against the various aliens and demons he comes up against. It has a double-catch, however, since it (a) needs to [[PoweredByAForsakenChild feed on the blood of the innocent]] to gain that power, and (b) depending on the enemy, will need to hit a specific part of their body in order to kill them. (Fortunately, unpowered, it's still a pretty sharp normal sword that will work against non-superpowered opponents.) |
| 462 | [[/folder]] |
| 463 | |
| 464 | [[folder:Western Animation]] |
| 465 | * ''WesternAnimation/AvatarTheLastAirbender'': At the end of Season Two, Aang undergoes spiritual training that will allow him to enter the Avatar State at will. With that ability, Aang would've been able to take on Fire Lord Ozai then and there and end the war. So naturally, the first time he tries to invoke this power, he's nearly killed when Azula blasts him in the back with a lightning strike. When Aang recovers, he finds his injuries have blocked his chakra, sealing him off the Avatar State. He doesn't get it back until the GrandFinale (the end of Season Three). |
| 466 | ** In SequelSeries ''WesternAnimation/TheLegendOfKorra'', Korra has a similar problem. She can't go into the Avatar State or communicate with her past lives due to her undeveloped spiritual side until the end of book one. By the beginning of book two, she can use it almost at will, but normal bending has little effect on the spiritual enemies she has to face and near the end of book two, Unalaq [[spoiler:manages to ''tear the Avatar Spirit out of her'' and destroy the connection it had to the previous Avatars. While Korra is able to get the spirit back, losing the connection to the other Avatars means she's back to being on her own advice-wise when it comes to literally Earth-changing decisions.]] |
| 467 | *** Not to mention how she's [[spoiler:weakened in season four]] from being [[spoiler:exposed to mercury]] during the season three finale, [[spoiler: not to mention traumatized by the near-death experience to the point of hampering her performance]]. |
| 468 | ** Toph and Katara, despite being two of the most powerful benders of their generation and arguably of all time, do not participate in the fighting against the assorted villains because age hasn't been as kind to them as it has to some people. Toph delivers a CurbStompBattle to Kuvira's forces to rescue her family in ''Operation Beifong'', but in the aftermath, says she threw out her back out, and that it's up to the younger generation to deal with its problems. |
| 469 | * Across the ''Franchise/Ben10'' series (all iterations of the franchise), there's aliens on the Omnitrix with a StoryBreakerPower, but one or two have a handicap that seriously limits their usage: |
| 470 | ** Alien X is a Celestialsapien, a species which is a RealityWarper, but the SplitPersonality of Bellicus and Serena (and then Ben, meaning Alien X has ''three personalities'') endlessly debating and Alien X being unable to do ''anything'' without agreement (until Ben somehow manages to convince them that he'd be better in control and they can debate endlessly) means that drama is preserved; this is shown during the episode "Universe vs Tennyson" where the Galactic Gladiator appears. Alien X could not do ''anything'' until his personalities agreed - in ''Alien Force'' and ''Ultimate Alien'', it had to be a Majority Vote, while in ''Omniverse'' it was [[{{Retcon}} retconned]] into being a Unanimous Vote - and since two of them (Love/Compassion and Rage/Aggression) have been arguing for eternity, getting them to focus on any present task was difficult at best, leaving Alien X motionless. Ben became the [[OnlySaneMan voice of reason]], making this Celestialsapien unique as being the only one InUniverse to have three personalities. |
| 471 | ** Clockwork is a Chronosapien, from an unknown planet. Normally, usage of him would [[StoryBreakerPower end the story quite quickly]] due to being able to use time-manipulation and TimeTravel powers ''unless'' used against a similar antagonist with time-based powers. When Clockwork has been used in this manner, it was normally to demonstrate his abilities to Gwen and Kevin. ''Omniverse'''s final antagonist Maltruant on the other hand, being a major villain from the same race as Clockwork, had more freedom to use his powers since it served a different narrative purpose of establishing him as a threat. |
| 472 | ** Gutrot was only used five times, but Ben's lack of knowledge on gases in a scientific manner is the handicap here; used to full potential, it could kill anyone. |
| 473 | ** Juryrigg is an interesting example of this trope; his strong desire to break down and take items apart (mostly machinery) makes him useful, but the ability to be mischievous (well, maybe more like a cross between TheGadfly and at worst a {{Troll}}) rather than malevolent or ''evil'' stops him from being able to be a possible StoryBreakerPower. He isn't as widely used as other aliens in the Omnitrix since there haven't been situations where his abilities would fit in well. |
| 474 | * By the fourth season of ''WesternAnimation/Castlevania2017'', the three main heroes have slain many powerful monsters, and nothing they face in this season is any more powerful than previous villains ([[spoiler:except for Death]]). To preserve the drama, Trevor and Sypha can't instantly annihilate their enemies because they're exhausted after six weeks of constantly fighting monsters, and Alucard is in poor shape after [[DrowningMySorrows drowning his sorrows]]. |
| 475 | * In ''WesternAnimation/DannyPhantom'', Danny uses the [[PowerNullifier specter deflector]] on Vlad to weaken him to make it a fair fight. Later episodes show them pummeling each other on equal terms due to Danny's CharacterDevelopment. |
| 476 | * ''WesternAnimation/DCSuperHeroGirls'': They decided to re-imagine Jessica Cruz (ComicBook/GreenLantern) as a GranolaGirl and TechnicalPacifist since she and her Green Lantern Ring would have been able to defeat pretty much any opponent otherwise. |
| 477 | * An episode of ''WesternAnimation/TheFairlyOddParents'' wouldn't go by without Timmy losing his ability to unwish his wish, and he must regain his ability to make wishes before he can clean up his mess. |
| 478 | * In the final episodes of ''WesternAnimation/GravityFalls'', it's revealed that [[spoiler:Gravity Falls itself has a weirdness barrier around it to keep the weird happenings going on there contained there. This (until then unmentioned) barrier is the ONLY thing that stops the series BigBad Bill Cypher from conquering the world at that point, as he had already conquered Gravity Falls and was nearly omnipotent]]. |
| 479 | * In ''WesternAnimation/InfinityTrain'', Alan Dracula is an all-powerful deer, who is capable of practically ''anything'', and comes in very helpful to his companions...when he chooses to cooperate. |
| 480 | * ''WesternAnimation/MightyDucksTheAnimatedSeries'': |
| 481 | ** Mainly for the benefit of the Ducks, as damage inflicted on the Raptor early in the series leaves Dragaunus forced to focus more effort on finding a new source of power for his ship than actually conquering the planet. |
| 482 | ** A more distinct example occurred in the episode "The Human Factor" when damage to the Mask forced the Ducks to rely on more conventional detective work to investigate odd events in a small town [[spoiler:when the Mask would have quickly revealed that everyone in that town had been replaced by robots]]; when Wildwing observed at the end that recent events would have been easier with the Mask, Tanya noted that [[BreakingTheFourthWall it would have made for a much shorter episode]]. |
| 483 | * ''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic'': |
| 484 | ** Princess Celestia may be the princess of Equestria, but being such a powerful entity makes her the queen of this trope as she could theoretically solve every problem in the series if she isn't taken out of the picture somehow. The only time an excuse is given for her inaction is when faced with Tirek who could [[ManaDrain drain her power]] and thus become a bigger threat. The rest of the time she sits it out at the palace or is being held hostage while Twilight and company save the day, and when she does step up to fight she either gets her [[TheWorfEffect royal can thoroughly kicked]] by the unexpectedly powerful villain or finds her magic rendered unusable. Princess Luna is only moderately better as she ''has'' gotten to save the day a couple times, much to the chagrin of Celestia fans who [[TheyWastedAPerfectlyGoodCharacter are literally begging for "Sunbutt" to get off her laurels and finally get an episode of her own]]. |
| 485 | *** As of Season 7, she does in the episode "A Royal Problem", and it gives the implication that she's been holding back in fear she might harm others by using too much power at once. Of course this doesn't explain why she thinks that's a bigger risk than standing back and doing nothing, but it's at least something. |
| 486 | ** Twilight Sparkle's biggest weakness is crumbling under pressure combined with an inability to quickly improvise strategies, effectively meaning she often forgets to dip into her [[SuperpowerLottery ever-increasing array of spells]] in a fight and instead tends to just rear up and blindly shoot blasts from her horn. Notably this is a driving reason behind how Starlight Glimmer was able to take her down in two separate battles. |
| 487 | *** All the villains really need to do to prevent the magic of friendship from ruining their evil plots is [[JustEatGilligan confront Twilight physically and knock her out]] (or hire a goon or two to do it), but none of them ever thinks of this. |
| 488 | ** Unsurprisingly after Twilight Sparkle and Tirek's ''[[Anime/DragonBallZ Dragon Ball Z Level]]'' tussle in the Season 4 Finale, the Season 5 Premiere villain Starlight Glimmer specialized in [[PowerNullifier Power Nullifying]]: rather than overpower the main cast she simply snatched away their cutie marks (and by extension their skills and extraordinary abilities) leaving them borderline helpless. |
| 489 | ** Even back in the Season 3 premiere, King Sombra is cunning enough to invoke this. He uses a PowerNullifier curse to block Shining Armor's magic and prevent him from helping Princess Cadance with her shield spell, waits for her to exhaust herself in a MortonsFork situation without her aforementioned husband's backup now, and indirectly gets Twilight with one of his AntiMagic traps to prevent her from just teleporting to safety with his AchillesHeel. |
| 490 | ** [[spoiler:The Changeling Hive]] in "[[Recap/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagicS6E26ToWhereAndBackAgainPart2 To Where And Back Again - Part 2]]" is surrounded by a powerful AntiMagic field, preventing [[RealityWarper Discord]] from just solving all of the episode's problems with a snap of a finger (and also explains how they were able to capture the main cast and the princesses, which is why it's up to the secondary characters to save the day in the first place.) |
| 491 | * ''WesternAnimation/TheOwlHouse'': |
| 492 | ** Eda Clawthorne is generally billed as [[TheArchmage one of the most powerful witches in the world]] and [[MasterOfAll the only one to master every form of magic]]. Pretty much every time she's operating at full power, she can defeat just about any common enemy and resolve the plot in ten seconds. However, she also happens to be suffering from a curse that cuts her power significantly when it kicks in and [[spoiler:risks turning her into a mindless monster permanently]], which can only be held off with an elixir that exists in limited supply and grows less effective regularly. Consequently, many episodes in the first season that need her held in check have her suffer a relapse, run out of elixir, or have the elixir not work. [[spoiler:Her having the curse restricted in the first season finale coincided with her losing access to her magic.]] |
| 493 | ** To a much lesser extent, Amity's broken leg leaves the team of younger heroes without one of their strongest witches in the season one finale. |
| 494 | * In one episode of ''WesternAnimation/ThePowerpuffGirls1998'', a burglar breaks into the girls' house. Since he is an ordinary, non-superpowered human, the girls could easily deal with him...if it weren't for the fact that the Professor needs to sleep for a dissertation he's giving the next day, and they don't want to wake him up, thus forcing them to hold back when dealing with the crook. |
| 495 | * In the early seasons of ''WesternAnimation/RickAndMorty'', many a climax has had the heroes trying to escape from or outrun some kind of messy situation that, if they just used Rick's portal gun--an InterdimensionalTravelDevice--would be easily solved or avoided. Sometimes it's justified when the portal gun is directly shown to have been left behind by mistake or not be working for some reason, but more often, nobody seems to think of it or bring it up, and there's no indication that Rick even has it on him, even though it's one of his most important and well-guarded inventions. It got to the point where Rick just straight-up ''lies'' to Morty in "Get Schwifty" and claims there wasn't enough power to simply teleport to another dimension when Morty brings it up... which makes the situation worse when Rick carelessly uses it to get extra food and Morty calls him out on it before taking it himself. Not that it would help much in that situation, considering they were dealing with omnipotent reality show hosts who were completely impervious to ''nuclear missiles'' and "eliminated" their contestants by ''blowing their planets up with death rays''. |
| 496 | * ''WesternAnimation/SupermanTheAnimatedSeries'' and ''WesternAnimation/JusticeLeague'' weakened Superman severely so he couldn't curb stomp everything and the other members of the league could be useful. This also gave most supervillains a (vague) chance against him, since he felt pain from most attacks (more HeroicWillpower than NighInvulnerability). |
| 497 | ** ''WesternAnimation/SupermanTheAnimatedSeries'' used {{Kryptonite|Factor}} [[KryptoniteIsEverywhere everywhere]]. They also used the Parasite to sap Supes' strength, and in one episode they removed yellow sunlight so [[GadgeteerGenius Luminus]] could fight [[BroughtDownToNormal Superman]] one-on-one. |
| 498 | ** He did receive a major buff at ''WesternAnimation/JusticeLeague'' season 2, since so many fans complained [[AdaptationalWimp he became a superwimp]]. He can still be physically exhausted (see "Secret Society") but it takes a LOT more effort. And it was eventually revealed that he was [[WilfullyWeak inhibited the whole time]] out of fear of hurting others. |
| 499 | ** ''WesternAnimation/JusticeLeague'' occasionally did it for other characters too. A good example is where Characters/{{Wonder Woman|TheCharacter}} was poisoned to give [[Characters/AquamanRoguesGallery Black Manta]] CaptainErsatz Devil Ray, an [[BlatantLies entirely original character not related to Aquaman]], a decent chance against her in hand-to-hand. "The Savage Time" three-parter also saw ComicBook/GreenLantern's ring run out of power in the first installment, [[BroughtDownToBadass forcing him to rely on his military training]] for the remainder of the storyline. |
| 500 | ** J'onn J'onzz is a Martian who is as powerful as Superman and also an extremely capable psychic and shapeshifter. He is usually taken out very quickly or has his mind scrambled by the villain somehow. |
| 501 | ** The Flash falls prey to occasional tripping on objects he should otherwise see far in advance, to explain why he doesn't just beat everyone up before anyone else gets the chance. "The Great Brain Robbery" episode of ''Justice League'' has Green Lantern explain that The Flash has basically been holding back in ''every'' fight because if he wanted to, he could just phase through anything and explode it. J'onn is pretty much the only being who could revive from that. Wally uses it ''twice'', to destroy a robot clone of himself, and to destroy [[spoiler:robot parts of Brainiac fused with Lex Luthor]]. |
| 502 | * In the first and fourth seasons of ''WesternAnimation/TeenTitans2003'', the {{Big Bad}}s could have easily killed the Titans but were more interested in [[WeCanRuleTogether convincing one of them to defect to the villains' side]] instead. |
| 503 | * In ''WesternAnimation/WolverineAndTheXMen2009'', Professor X and Jean, the most powerful mutants and psychics of the X-Men, are missing. This causes the X-Men to disband and the goal of the series is to find them. |
| 504 | * ''WesternAnimation/YoungJustice2010'', throughout its run, had to address this when it came to Kryptonians. |
| 505 | ** Even accounting for the fact that a pure Kryptonian in this continuity cannot [[BatmanCanBreatheInSpace breathe in space]] and has no [[BreathWeapon breath-related attacks]], the presence of Superboy among the main cast had to be mitigated by explaining that due to being half-Kryptonian, he doesn't get all the known Kryptonian powers. A storyline in the first season saw him receive an item to mitigate this and unlock his full powerset, but it made him much more agitated, and he eventually burned through all of them. Drama is therefore maintained by Superboy needing to use the few powers he still has strategically, rather than directly overpowering his enemies. |
| 506 | ** The show's fourth season would prove to be the first adaptation not specifically focused on Superman in which the heroes of the DC universe encounter major Superman adversary [[KneelBeforeZod General Dru-Zod]]. Although Superman can overpower him eventually, with some difficulty, his overall threat level (think Superman if he didn't hold back and was willing to kill enemies) makes him a more powerful antagonist for other heroes who do not typically encounter Kryptonians. To compensate, [[spoiler:the season builds him up as a threat by focusing more on his teenage son Lor-Zod traveling through time to orchestrate the defeat of his enemies and attempt to free his family from the PhantomZone]]. Even then, [[spoiler:when Dru-Zod and his wife Ursa, later joined by Faora Hu-Ul and Non, finally do get out in the final three episodes of the season, they arrive on Earth hours before sunrise, giving them minimal exposure to Earth's sun. Ursa gets around this handicap by bonding with the Eye of Ekron to become Emerald Empress, but Zod, Faora, and Non get no such benefits, forcing them to fight Superman and the Team while not at full strength (notably, Non can be overpowered by the [[BadassNormal non-powered]] Nightwing and Tigress because of this). On the other hand, while Lor-Zod is at full strength, he receives a different handicap in that his powers are instead weakened by his age, evening out the drawbacks against his family, which also played a part in him being more of a manipulator who used a Time Sphere in earlier episodes to covertly deal with his enemies, and only finally started getting into fights as he got closer to winning]]. |
| 507 | [[/folder]] |
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