Achilles' Heel: Difference between revisions

* In [[Voltron]], it turns out the the right knee where Black Lion and Blue Lion connect is the titular mecha's weak point. The enemy constantly bombards it when they find out about it before they're able to pull away and finish the fight before they lose the leg. However, in the end, they fix THAT weak point and put in ''another weak point''! What the hell?!

* Many villains in ''[[Yaiba]]'' has this. For example, Bat-Man's weakness to sunlight, the Moon Bunnies' ears and Silver's [[Go for the Eye|eye]].

== Fanfiction ==

* In ''[[Aeon Entelechy Evangelion]]'' due to mobility reasons the joints in the armor (normal or subdermal) are less protected, and therefore exploited.

* John in ''[[With Strings Attached]]'' has to eat all the time; if he doesn't, he fades pretty fast. He's also vulnerable to shrill sounds and was completely put out of action when the Hunter's [[BFS]] started screaming.

* ''Independence Day''. Not only is the alien mothership compatible with Mac OS, but despite millions of years of technological advancement, they don't have even the most rudimentary form of a firewall.

** However, it is likely that in their [[Hive Mind|culture]], software hacking was unheard of.

** In ''[[League of Extraordinary Gentlemen]]'' Volume 2, the virus was specially tailored by Dr Moreau. Yes ''that'' Dr Moreau.

* A blink-and-you'll-miss-it "[[Achilles' Heel]]" of sorts appears in the [[Jim Carrey]] movie ''[[Liar Liar]]'', where, faced with the prospect of "doing The Claw to [his ex-wife]", main character Fletcher Reed says, "You've found The Claw's only weakness--[[Ice Queen|sub-zero]] temperatures!"

* In ''[[The Dresden Files]]'' Nicodemus is made invulnerable by wearing [[Public Domain Artifact|Iscariot's Noose]], but {{spoiler|he's vulnerable to the noose itself, which naturally is conveniently already around his neck.}}

** Fairies are consistently vulnerable to iron, even if they're powerful enough to be practically impossible to beat with anything else.

** The "Seeds of Death" are vulnerable to water.

** The evil computer in ''The Green Death'' was vulnerable to [[Logic Bomb|logical dilemmas]].

** Mandragora energy is vulnerable to being conducted away.

** The Fendahleen are vulnerable to salt.

* Although not one related to the villain itself, the Goa'uld of [[Stargate SG-1]] have force shields that can be bypassed by slower-moving objects. (Bullets won't work, but a thrown knife will). Later, the Replicators can only be destroyed with projectile weapons. Yes, their only weakness is ''getting shot''. [[It Makes Sense in Context|It makes sense in the show.]]

** Specifically, energy weapons don't work on Replicators because the machines have energy shields resistance to practically all forms of harmful energy. However, projectile weapons like modern-era guns do their damage through ''kinetic'' energy, which causes the Replicators' relatively fragile bodies to shatter.

* ''[[Mighty Morphin Power Rangers]]'': The Warzord Cyclopsis was one of the best things Rita ever deployed, because its computer could adapt to each Zord and Zord formation used, (configuring the shields, targeting, weapons, armor-plate angling and such). However, quickly switching formations enough would overtax this system, causing the computer to lock up due to being asked to do more tasks at once than it was capable of. This allowed the Rangers to beat its restored form, obliterating it permanently.

** Z-putties, anyone? In the first fight, the rangers stated they were invincible, until Jason discovered they explore when you hit the "Z" on their chest. Later, kids were able to destroy them launching balls at the "Z".

* The [[Trope Namer|name]] for this trope is the Greek hero [[Classical Mythology|Achilles]]. In Homer, he's not invulnerable (he bleeds from a minor spear wound). Classical Greek art depicts Achilles being killed by an arrow to the body. But Statius, writing in the 1st century AD (900-some years after Homer), gave him a colorful superpower. According to Statius's account, Achilles' mother, the nymph Thetis, dunked him in the River Styx to make him immortal. However, she wasn't able to dunk the foot she held him with, since as a goddess, she could not bear the touch of the Waters of Styx. Quite naturally, he was killed by a poisoned arrow to the heel, courtesy of the cowardly [[The Archer|Prince Paris of Troy]].

** [[Fridge Logic|Why didn't she just use a rope tied to his foot?]]

* Also from Greek myth, the Gigantes were the children of Gaia and only had their supernatural powers when they were touching the ground. Heracles defeated at least one of them by picking him up with one hand and beating him with the other.

** Antaeus is not labeled among the Gigantes. The true Gigantes did have a weakness though. They could only be killed by weapons of a mortal being. Hence, the gods invited Herakles (or perhaps that was the entire point about their affairs with mortal women). Some Gigantes were defeated by gods, but not killed - one is still alive, breathing fire under Etna.

** Horribus is also only vulnerable on certain parts of his body. Even when Torg uses a magic, kill-anything sword, he can still only take Horribus down by either decapitating him or stabbing him right through his soul (located roughly in the center of his chest).

* Frans Rayner in ''[[The Adventures of Dr. McNinja]]'' is vulnerable on only one place on his body (his right butt cheek). However, the protagonist (who witnessed his defeat as a boy) strikes the same place 25 years later and fails... Rayner had moved it to his left eyebrow. Then in yet another encounter, it's revealed that following his previous defeat, Rayner moved it again, into his right leg, which {{spoiler|he then had amputated.}}

** Parodied similarly much earlier on when Black Mage is left to deal with a zombie orc. After an explosion propels him back in front of the team:

{{quote|'''Black Mage:''' I found out what zombies are weak against.

* When Alex O'Hirn becomes the [[Super Strength|superstrong]] Rhino in ''[[The Spectacular Spider-Man]]'', he goes on a destructive rampage and appears completely unstoppable. His [[Achilles' Heel]] turns out to be the same thing that makes him so [[Nigh Invulnerability|tough]]: Because his [[Clothes Make the Superman|suit]] is completely impenetrable, he can only perspire through his exposed face. Spider-Man is able to defeat him by trapping him in a steam-tunnel in the [[Absurdly Spacious Sewer|sewers]], which causes the [[The Brute|giant thug]] to overheat and collapse.

* In ''[[Justice League]],'' the forge god Hephaestus says that ''all'' of his creations are given one weakness so no one can become all-powerful. When Wonder Woman asked him what Ares' [[Humongous Mecha]] is vulnerable to, he doesn't tell her, saying she wouldn't want him going around telling the weakness he'd placed in ''her'' items. She does ''not'' look happy the revelation that she has any.

** The weakness is that if you bind her wristbands together she loses her super strength and is rendered helpless.

** The weakness of the aforementioned [[Humongous Mecha]] that Hephaestus made for Ares was... {{spoiler|[[Weaksauce Weakness|peace]]. [[Justified Trope|It makes sense]], once Ares is the god of War, and the Mecha in question was fueled by violence, either around or against the Mecha. Once people around stopped fighting each other and the Mecha, it ran out of fuel.}} In a later episode, this flaw was removed by {{spoiler|Felix Faust}}.

* The members of the [[Sushi Pack]] lose their powers and strength if they're exposed to heat. They also tend to announce this whenever it happens. "Heat! Our only weakness!"

* In a [[Harry Potter (novel)|Harry Potter]]-themed ''[[Treehouse of Horror]]'' Montymort's (Mr. Burns) only weakness was his enchanted shin.

* From ''[[Gargoyles]]'', [[Evil Sorcerer|the Archmage]] during the "Avalon" three-parter has gone from a formidable but [[Smug Snake|very overconfident]] mortal sorcerer to a demigod powerful enough to command the allegiance of three of the most powerful [[Physical God|Children of Oberon]] in the series. The catch? He can only control his incredible new powers by using the [[Artifact of Doom|Eye of Odin]], and when [[The Hero|Goliath]] manages to get it away from him... well, let's just say he sufferes [[Power Incontinence]] so bad ''it kills him''.

* Something of a [[Justified Trope]] with the introduction of the [[Combining Mecha|combiner super-robot]] Bruticus on ''[[The Transformers (animation)|The Transformers]]'' in the course of the episode "Starscream's Brigade." While he's first shown [[The Worf Effect|thoroughly smacking around]] fellow [[Humongous Mecha|massive combiner]] Devastator, he eventually turns on Starscream and Megatron to very littles surprise. However, Starscream, with unusual foresight in regards to treachery, had left three weak spots on Bruticus' back, where a good shot or two would force the big guy to fall apart into the individual robots that comprised him.

== Real Life ==

* Being one of the most famous memes ever, Achilles' Heel had a body part named for it, namely, the Achilles' Tendon. Sever it, and you won't be walking again for a long, long time.

* While most [[Nintendo]] products<ref> particularly the [[Game Boy]]</ref> are literally capable of [[Made of Indestructium|taking a head-on tactical airstrike and still functioning perfectly]], most of the [[Nintendo DS|DS]] line features an Achilles' Heel in the form of the hinges, which are not only destructible, but quite vulnerable and can in fact eventually break from overuse.

* The cobra is a [[Badass]] deadly snake from India with only one weakness. It strikes opponents rather slowly. Thus, the agile mongoose is able to defeat the cobra by jumping out of the way when it strikes and leaping up to bite the head when the snake is drawing back from the strike. Believe it or not, the cobra often manages to bite the mongoose ''once'', but since the mongoose has a partial immunity to the snake's venom it takes more than one bite to kill one, and the cobra usually tires out after it manages to bite once. In any given confrontation between an Indian Cobra and an Indian Grey Mongoose, the mongoose tends to prevail three out of five times.

*** Additionally, mongooses have another [[Achilles' Heel]] in that they are only resistant to the venom of cobras and their close relatives. This leaves them susceptible to the venom of other poisonous snakes that they share their range with, such as the black mamba.

*** There was once an attempt made to reduce populations of ''fer de lance'' vipers on an island by introducing a population of mongooses. It was a disaster. The mongooses were all decimated by the snakes and ''[[Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass|domestic cats]]'' were used instead.

* Sharks have a similar weakness: if you manage to flip one upside down, it will enter a state of "tonic immobility" and become paralyzed. Some orcas managed to figure this out to hunt sharks.