Basic Trope: The Leader gets the biggest and best power upgrades.
- Straight: Only Hiro can wield the Sword of Plot Advancement.
- Exaggerated: Each season there is a new Upgrade Artifact, and each season only Hiro can use it.
- Downplayed: Each member of the Five-Man Band gets an Upgrade Artifact, but Hiro's is clearly superior.
- Justified: The Sword of Plot Advancement requires a hero with Incorruptible Pure Pureness or descended from a famous hero, and only Hiro meets that description.
- Inverted:
- Hiro is special because he's the only one who can't use an Upgrade Artifact or an ability.
- Hiro starts out considerably weaker than the others, and the upgrades only allow him to catch up to them.
- Subverted:
- The Sword of Plot Advancement... is actually a gun so the Five-Man Band agrees Lance should wield it.
- An Upgrade Artifact is introduced, called the Rapier of Light...which can only be used by Faye. Bummer for Hiro.
- Double Subverted: Until is upgrade to it's final form, the Infinity +1 Sword at which point Hiro takes it back because Heroes Prefer Swords.
- Parodied:
- Lance, Pike, and Chica all groan when they find the Infinity +1 Sword because they know it means they'll be Out of Focus for the next big arc.
- Hiro puts on his newest magical item, and tips over from all the weight.
- Zig Zagged: The party discovers the Sword of Plot Advancement and it immediately goes to Hiro. However, Hiro still can't reach Emperor Evulz alone so there is a Plot Tailored to the Party. Once the big fights start, the rest of our heroes Can't Catch Up and it's all about Hiro and his newfound powers.
- Averted: Anyone can use the Sword of Plot Advancement, good or evil, and it changes hands frequently.
- Enforced: Lance, Pike, and Chica were each an Ensemble Dark Horse in their own right so the Sword of Plot Advancement was an effort to break Hiro's reputation for being The Generic Guy and a Standardized Leader.
- Lampshaded: "Hey Chica, do you know how to use a sword? No? It was worth a shot *sigh*. Have at it, hero boy."
- Invoked: The Omniscient Council of Vagueness knows that swordplay is a long-held tradition in Hiro's family so they deliberately make the Evil Crusher a sword as opposed to any other type of weapon.
- Exploited: Realizing that Hiro has the best weapon, his enemies take down his allies instead, one by one.
- Defied: Pike takes the sword because Hiro already has more power than the rest of the Five-Man Band and he knows they can't keep depending on Hiro to fight all their battles.
- Discussed: Two characters are discussing, "Hiro is The Chosen One so he gets the most powerful upgrades. Why the choosers would tailor them all to a single person is beyond me."
- Conversed: Two characters are discussing a Show Within a Show, "For a show about a Five-Man Band, it seems like Hiro's Power Level and potential is the only one that matters."
- Deconstructed:
- Since every upgrade goes to Hiro, the rest of the Five-Man Band Can't Catch Up, and it eventually leads to their downfall.
- Hiro eventually cracks, be it physically and/or mentally, as he is doing the workload of multiple people. This is because the others stopped bothering to even care about helping him in combat since they will just be The Load anyway if they do join future battles.
- Reconstructed: Without an Amplifier Artifact of their own, the party tailors themselves to help Hiro in ways that don't involve direct superpowered combat: Lance targets distant foes, Pike leads The Cavalry, and Chica takes care of diplomatic and administrative duties.
You can go back to Protagonist Power-Up Privileges, but Hiro can wherever he wants!
