Basic Trope: A superpower that's too specific to be practical in most situations.
- Straight:
- The Robed Ranger is a superhero whose main power is the ability to make sad people happy by touch. Problem is, a happy supervillain is usually just as dangerous as a sad one.
- Occlusion can turn invisible... but only when he's standing still, completely naked, and when he's invisible he's basically blind, because light passes through his retinas instead of interacting with them.
- Pepple can teleport things between his hands, which would only really be useful if he wanted to trick a villain about which hand some small item was in.
- Exaggerated: The Red Ninja has the power to make natural disasters. The Pierced Warrior has the power to manipulate atomic particles to (even) make atomic blasts. And The Robed Ranger can make small kids happy.
- Downplayed:
- Robed Ranger's happiness powers aren't as useful in as many situations as the more conventional powers, but hey, he can calm down people he's rescuing and he's a blast at parties.
- For the most part, Occlusion's invisibility is just a party trick, but occasionally he can catch villains talking about plans when they think there's no one to hear, or hide from threats.
- Pepple's power of teleporting small objects into his hands isn't the most flashy power, but it is effective. It's still not going to help when a rampaging supervillain wants to turn him into paste.
- Justified:
- Robed Ranger got his power from a wish to make the world a happier place. Unfortunately, said wish was made to a Literal Genie.
- Occlusion wanted the power of invisibility, which he got... but he didn't think through the Required Secondary Powers.
- Pepple was granted his power based on what he wanted at the time... which happened to be picking up that TV remote just out of his reach.
- In the work, Everyone Is a Super, but not everyone can win the Superpower Lottery. Robed Ranger, Occlusion, and Pepple just happened to draw short straws.
- Inverted:
- Subverted:
- Heart Is an Awesome Power
- Lethal Harmless Powers
- One of the Ranger's allies laughs at his abilities, and he admits that his powers stem a bit further from that, giving him complete control over people's emotions. He's only holding back because the really powerful applications of his abilities are just too dangerous for common usage.
- Occlusion just doesn't have full control over his invisibility yet. One Training Montage later, and he's good to go.
- Double Subverted:
- He made that up to save face.
- His enemies are well aware of the touch limitation, so under most circumstances they'd have to already be incapacitated for him to touch them in the first place. Alternatively, his powers are not developed enough to give targets anything more than a little buzz, and they will still attack him.
- Parodied:
- Robed Ranger has pretty standard powers... that are much less useful than his allies' silly powers because he never thinks to use them correctly.
- Zig Zagged: Okay, Robed Ranger's ability to make people happy by touch sounds really stupid, but that's only because Robed Ranger was holding back the really dangerous uses of his power. Of course, it's still touch-based and thus fairly easy to avoid if you know what you're dealing with, but every so often someone slips up...
- Averted: Robed Ranger's powers are on par with everyone else's.
- Enforced: Robed Ranger can't use the more powerful and lethal aspects of his power because he's in a kids' show.
- Lampshaded: "Seriously? Everyone else gets cool powers and I'm stuck with THIS?"
- Invoked: Plot Tailored to the Party
- Exploited: Robed Ranger specifically looks for opponents with Emotional Powers, since he can easily neutralize them with a touch.
- Defied: Robed Ranger, seeing that his options are a stupid ability or nothing, chooses to remain a civilian.
- Discussed: "Hey, come on, buddy, I know they suck, but at least you can learn practical skills."
- Conversed: "There's always that one guy in a group that has a stupid power."
- Deconstructed:
- The Ranger is constantly made fun of by his peers for his useless superpowers. Severely depressed by the abuse (and unable to use his powers on himself), he resigns in shame from superheroism and gets a job as a therapist.
- So you tried to summon the Captain without Heart... and he turned out to be a total sociopath.
- Reconstructed:
- The Ranger helps thousands of people per day with his new job. Far more than The Ninja and The Warrior, who eventually come to seek his help.
- ...Which just shows how important Heart is in the big picture. Heart alone is not that useful either.
What kind of lame trope is What Kind of Lame Power Is Heart, Anyway?, anyway?
