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Forgot About His Powers: Difference between revisions
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Compare [[Reed Richards Is Useless]], where a character with superhuman abilities or ridiculously advanced technology reserves it for equally advanced problems and never applies it to mundane difficulties.
{{Forgetfulness Tropes}}
{{examples}}
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* ''[[Blue Gender]]'' is one giant Wallbanger for many viewers because of this. Humanity knows The Blue can't swim or fly very well. (Hello there, aircraft carriers!) Humanity controls at least one giant orbiting space station. ([[Colony Drop]]!) Humanity also has literal Blue-detecting radar. And nukes. Does humanity use any of these advantages to fight the Blue? Nope! They'd rather take the Blue on in catastrophically designed, weaponless mechs.
==
* Nearly any situation should be easily solvable by [[The Flash]], [[Super Speed|since he can move hundreds and hundreds of times faster than anything else on earth.]] Yet he constantly forgets to use the full potential of his superpowers until it's time to end the story. Abilities the Flash consistently forgets he has: running faster than light, speed stealing, infinite mass punch, etc.
** ... and it gets worse. On one occasion the villains have destroyed a bridge. The Flash runs to a university, teaches himself civil engineering, rushes back to the site of the collapsing bridge, scavenges for parts and builds an entire new bridge to replace the old one, all in the blink of an eye. This trope is the only reason anyone is able to beat him.
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* In ''[[Marvel Zombies]]'', the zombies are attacking Doctor Doom's castle and the Scarlet Witch is infected by the Punisher. Gee, Scarlet Witch, did it never occur to you you could just teleport him and the other zombies away like you did with Ash earlier? Or teleport Enchantress away earlier so Dazzler wouldn't be infected? It is also never explained why Doom didn't just kill Enchantress in the beginning {{spoiler|like he did later}}.
* [[Green Lantern]]s [[Green Lantern Ring|have been variously shown as being able to warp time, move faster than light, contain supernovas, fight toe to toe with Superman, alter their own DNA, read minds, find subatomic aliens]]... Scratch that, if it's a superpower of any sort any given GL has used it at least twice. Now here's the thing. There are creatures other than Gods that bother them. Funny huh? It's somewhat justified in their case as their power require willpower and concentration to make anything happen. A GL who is having a bad day, is unfocused or demoralized will be less effective and the GL's are essentially human without their rings (or at least the human ones are.) Plus, their rings require a periodic recharge and anything yellow or anyone whose fast enough or crafty enough to remove a ring is a threat. Still, the idiot plot is somewhat less excusable in the case of veterans like Hal Jordan (or really, any of the Earth based GL's these days) as he is both experienced, and extremely strong willed.
* The chronic and widespread amnesia over the Iron Queen's [[Magitek]] is one of the main causes of the [[Idiot Plot]] that is The Iron Dominion Saga of ''[[
* Speaking of the [[Doctor Strange|Sorcerer Supreme]], he is repeatedly in situations where his virtually unlimited mystic abilities could resolve the plot, or at least make it much simpler. Alas, the good Doctor's imagination is often limited to that of those who write him.
** This
== Fan Works ==
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'''Spike''': Why didn't you just use your magic to float the food down to the animals?
'''Trixie''': ''([[Head Desk|slams her head into the side of the tub]])'' }}
== Films ==
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* ''[[Daikatana]]'': "You can't attack me, this is the same sword from two different parts of time and will destroy the universe!" "Damn, if only I had some other weapons on me..."
* During the climax scene of ''[[Golden Sun: Dark Dawn]]'', Sveta briefly forgets she's an Adept and [[Lampshade Hanging|has to be prompted to use her powers]] by Tyrell.
* Admit it, ''you'' have done this, probably more than once, if you play modern video games. Think about it. How many times has your character been killed because of an enemy or obstacle you could have gotten past with an item that was in your inventory? This phenomenon was analyzed by [[Ben Croshaw]] (in his "Yahtzee" pseudonym) while reviewing ''[[Mercenaries|Mercenaries 2]]:
{{quote|'''Yahtzee:''' There's an insidious thought that frequently goes through the minds of gamers [...] that goes, "But I might need it later" — the niggling little doubt that prevents you from using all your most powerful insurance policies in case there's some kind of no-claims bonus at the end of it all. So we have scenarios where you're sitting on a nuclear stockpile to shame North Korea and are throwing peas at a giant robot crab on the off-chance that there might be a bigger giant robot crab just around the corner.}}
==[[Web Comics]]==
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* ''[[He-Man and the Masters of the Universe]]'':
** Skeletor suffers from this a lot in both versions of the series. One big example was Faker. In the episode "The Shaping Staff" he somehow creates Faker out of thin air, Faker being a fully sapient duplicate of He-Man. One has to wonder why he never considered using such magic to create a whole army of evil clones if it was that easy to do so.
** In the 2002 series, the Snake Men retake Snake Mountain in all of five minutes, with Snake-Face using his powers to turn Skeletor's henchmen into stone with his gaze. However, when the Snake Men storm Greyskull later, Snake-Face, for some unfathomable reason, delays using this lethal ability until he goes up against He-Man, choosing to fight Mekanek with [[Good Old Fisticuffs]]. Say what? To drive home the point on how absurd this was, the comic book adaptation changed it, and he ''did'' use his gaze on Mek; fortunately, in this case, when [[Hoist
* In one episode of ''[[Sonic X]]'' where the setting is a jungle, Eggman tells Decoe and Becoe to go look for something to eat; both are reluctant to do so, as they’re afraid of the wildlife, and ask why Bokkun can’t do it. Eggman has to remind them that ''they'', unlike Bokkun and himself, are robots (as in, made of metal), and predators would not attack anything that is obviously inedible.
* This is lampooned in one episode of ''[[Xiaolin Showdown]]''. With Dojo has been striken by madness that strikes him every 600 years, he swallows the monks, Jack, and Wuya. Eventually, the monks find the two villains in Dojo's cavernous stomach, Jack being close to panic. Jack asks Wuya why she, being a spirit, can't just fly out; Wuya thinks about it, says "Good point", and does so... leaving Jack behind, much to his regret.
{{reflist}}
[[Category:{{PAGENAME}}]]▼
[[Category:Contrived Stupidity Tropes]]
[[Category:The Plot Demanded This Index]]
[[Category:Stupidity Tropes]]
▲[[Category:{{PAGENAME}}]]
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