An index of tropes that are about a character's weakness, people being characterized as weaklings, or things seen as a weakness.
See also Fear Tropes, Allergic to Indexes, and Power at a Price. Contrast Power Tropes, Overpowered Tropes and Strength Index.
Physical weakness
- Achilles' Heel - Character or being is vulnerable to one specific thing.
- Adaptational Achilles Heel
- Armored But Frail: Their defenses/armor are very high, but once the defenses are gone, they go down easily.
- Attack Its Weak Point: Being is vulnerable at a specific and obvious part of their body.
- Can't Catch Up
- Can't Use Stairs: Character can't go up or down stairs, either due to not being designed to do so, or through being paraplegic.
- Cold Iron: The classic weakness of The Fair Folk.
- Convenient Weakness Placement
- Drama-Preserving Handicap
- Elemental Rock–Paper–Scissors
- Hobbling the Giant: Want to bring down a giant-sized target easily? Go for the legs!
- 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.
- Pathetically Weak
- Precautionary Corpse Disposal
- Revive Kills Zombie: Healing/revival magic is harmful to the undead.
- Sensory Overload
- Sniping the Cockpit
- Supernatural Repellent
- Taser Tag Weakness: Powerful enemies are nevertheless vulnerable to electricity.
- 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.
- Verbal Weakness
- Weak-Willed: Character is incapable of standing up for themselves.
- Weakness Turns Her On: A female character is aroused by men who are perceived as weak.
- 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: Having a sense of morality is seen as weak and stupid.
- Womanliness as Pathos: Women inherently cause drama or intense feelings.
- Women Are Delicate: The belief that women by nature are very vulnerable.
Character types
- The Ditherer: A character who waffles or cannot make clear decisions, often because they lack they will to deal with the fall out or repercussions from those decisions
- Faux Action Girl: A female character who is built up as an effective Action Girl, but proves to be too weak to fight real battles.
- Fragile Speedster: Quick on their feet, but too weak to defend against attacks.
- Glass Cannon: Effective attacker who is too weak to defend themselves.
- 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: A person in authority who is too weak and spineless to actually exercise that authority.
- Master of None: Poor at everything, without being overwhelmingly weak in any particular stat.
- Mighty Glacier: They're physically strong, but speed and mobility prove to be their Kryptonite.
- Non-Action Guy: Male character who is too weak to fight.
- Squishy Wizard: Can use powerful magic but is too weak to fight physically.
- Stone Wall: Has powerful defense, but is too weak to fight back.
