An index about trope that are about a character's weakness, people being characterized as weaklings, or things seen as a weakness.
See also Fear Tropes and Power at a Price. Contrast Power Tropes, Overpowered Tropes and Strength Index.
Physical weakness
- Achilles' Heel
- Armored But Frail
- Attack Its Weak Point: Being is vulnerable at a specific and obvious part of their body.
- Can't Catch Up
- Can't Use Stairs
- Cold Iron
- Convenient Weakness Placement
- Drama-Preserving Handicap
- Elemental Rock–Paper–Scissors
- Hobbling the Giant
- Kill It with Fire: Being is vulnerable to fire.
- Fire Keeps It Dead: Burning corpses prevents them from becoming zombies.
- Weak to Fire
- Kill It with Ice: Vulnerability to ice.
- Kill It with Water: Vulnerability to water.
- Kryptonite Factor
- Kryptonite Is Everywhere: The character's weakness is so commonplace that it's a wonder they haven't been killed yet.
- Logical Weakness
- Man of Kryptonite: A villain whose power is that they're equipped with or made of the hero's weakness.
- Revive Kills Zombie
- Sensory Overload
- Sniping the Cockpit
- Supernatural Repellent
- Weak to Magic: Vulnerability to magic.
- Weakened by the Light: Supernatural creatures perish when exposed to sunlight.
- Weaker in the Real World: A being who exists in a dream-like realm loses their powers when in the real world.
- Weaksauce Weakness: A character is vulnerable to a substance that is ridiculously easy to obtain.
- Willfully Weak: A character deliberately limits how much of their powers they use for everyone else's safety.
Emotional or psychological weakness
- Decapitated Army: Take out the leader and the army will have no reason to keep fighting.
- Meekness Is Weakness
- Verbal Weakness
- Weak-Willed: Character is incapable of standing up for themselves.
- Weakness Turns Her On
- Why Did It Have to Be Snakes?: Character has a crippling fear of something.
Things or concepts considered to be weak or cause weakness
- Love Is a Weakness: It is believed that falling in love makes you weak.
- Meekness Is Weakness
- Virtue Is Weakness
- Womanliness as Pathos: Women inherently cause drama or intense feelings.
- Women Are Delicate: The belief that women by nature are very vulnerable.
Character types
- Faux Action Girl
- Glass Cannon
- Fragile Speedster
- Joke Character: A playable character in a video game who is deliberately programmed to be weak and insanely difficult to play the game as.
- Lawful Pushover
- Mighty Glacier
- Non-Action Guy
- Squishy Wizard
- Stone Wall
