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{{trope}}
{{quote|What's… with this guy?! Fifteen minutes since {{spoiler|Mirio}} arrived on the scene… Five minutes since he was shot with the [[Power Nullifier|quirk-eliminating round]]. Even with that overwhelming disadvantage… Fighting two-on-one… quirkless for a full third of the battle, he fought— No. He protected her.
|''[[My Hero Academia]]''}}
The world of superheroes has all types. Some gain their powers through [[Training
▲The world of superheroes has all types. Some gain their powers through [[Training From Hell]] and gain [[Charles Atlas Superpower|Charles Atlas Superpowers]], while others get them from some form of [[Applied Phlebotinum]]. Trouble is, most heroes with the later form have an [[Achilles' Heel]] of some kind, could be a [[Weaksauce Weakness]], some [[Kryptonite Factor]], or a [[Power Nullifier]], that can rob them of their powers. When this happens, these heroes are left utterly useless, as their entire hero status rested on those powers. But sometimes, we will run across a hero who can ''still'' dish it out when their powers are gone. Basically, he's been [[Brought Down to Normal]], but he/she ''isn't'' useless or helpless.
These heroes (or villains) may be [[Crazy Prepared]] and [[Boxing Lessons for Superman|trained in non-powered fighting]] in case of just this occasion. Or, they may have gotten their powers ''[[Badass Abnormal|after]]'' learning [[Suddenly Always Knew That|five forms of martial arts]]. Or, maybe they just plain [[Fights Like a Normal|plain didn't use their powers to kick ass anyway]]. Or, they're just that [[Badass]] that they don't need powers to kick you into next week.
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Compare with [[Got the Call on Speed Dial]] or [[Power Loss Makes You Strong]].
{{examples|Examples: }}▼
== Anime
* {{spoiler|Mirio}} from ''[[My Hero Academia]]'', because his quirk (i.e. super power) required learning some skills that were useful even after losing it. {{spoiler|Mirio}}, while unarmed and quirkless, fought {{spoiler|Overhaul, who probably has one of the most powerful quirks in the setting. Overhaul, in principle at least, could kill Mirio by touching with one of his fingers, or by touching the ground and reshaping it to impale him. Plus Overhaul had a teammate. And Overhaul could target someone that Mirio was trying to protect. Also Mirio was under the influence of a quirk that disorients people.}} He dragged this fight out '''''for over five minutes'''''. Fifteen if you want to include the parts were he still had his powers.
* In one chapter of ''[[JoJo's Bizarre Adventure]]'', protagonists Jotaro and Polnareff are attacked by a villain named Alessi who can de-age his victims into children with his [[Psychic Powers|Stand]]. Polnareff keeps his Stand upon becoming a child since he was born with it. However, Jotaro loses his Stand, since he didn't develop it until he was a teenager. Alessi thinks he's got the fight in the bag once Jotaro de-ages down to 7 years old, but Jotaro still has his nasty temper and manages to pummel Alessi with nothing but his fists.
* In ''[[One Piece]]'', Blackbeard attacks Newgate with his darkness power, gloating about how it will nullify his earthquake ability... quite forgetting that he is facing the 18 foot tall [[World's Strongest Man]] with an even longer [[Blade on a Stick|bisento]].
* ''[[Bleach]]''
** At one point, Captain Yamamoto is attacked by an arrancar custom-designed to seal the devastating fire from his [[Empathic Weapon|zanpakuto.]] Deprived of his famous ability he gives the hollow a [[Death Glare]]... and promptly frags him with his bare fists.
** Long after losing ''all'' of his spiritual powers, {{spoiler|Ichigo}} demonstrates that one thing still remaining from when he had them is the physical reflexes and fighting experience from all the [[Training
* ''[[Darker than Black]]'' (second season): Even after [[De-Power|losing]] his [[Shock and Awe|electricity-based]] superpowers, Hei still [[Mook Horror Show|kicks serious ass]]. Which is hardly surprising, given the fact that he earned his [[Names to Run Away From Really Fast|nickname]] "Black [[Shinigami|Reaper]]" due to how good he was at killing contractors [[Badass Normal|before he got his powers]].
* ''[[Mahou Sensei Negima]]''
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* ''[[The Slayers]]'': When Gourry Gabriev lost his super mega giga artifact magic sword, he initially went through a period of depression and powerlessness. But after this brief period of despair was over, he quite adapted to kicking ass with a regular steel sword.
* Wrath in ''[[Fullmetal Alchemist (manga)|Fullmetal Alchemist]]'' always seemed to rely on his [[Charles Atlas Superpower]] more than his [[Evil Eye]], so when he loses that and is badly wounded, he's still a terrifying threat to the protagonists- even the ones who have [[Functional Magic|alchemy-related]] knowledge and abilities.
* In [[Umineko no Naku Koro ni]], Dlanor gets brought back to normal by a goat whose powers negate her Knox Commandments, and finds herself unable to fight back. Will, on the other hand, gets
* Acqua of the Back from ''[[
* In ''[[Tiger and Bunny]]'' {{spoiler|Kotetsu}}'s powers are fading away, yet {{spoiler|he}} still manages to do incredibly well in fights with superpowered opponents without them {{spoiler|and without his powered armor}}. {{spoiler|In the epilogue, he decides that he isn't going to let a lack of powers stop him from being a superhero until the day he dies.}}
* In the manga version of ''[[Sailor Moon]]'' the Sailor Senshi are temporarily depowered. During this period, most of them are defenseless until they recover their powers... But Minako still gives a run for their money at the enemy, reminding the reader she was the one that, untransformed, defeated a brainwashed but still super-strong Makoto [[One Hit KO|with a single kick]].
== Comic Books ==
* [[Marvel Comics]]: [[Ant-Man|Hank Pym]] and [[The Hulk|Bruce Banner]] have on various occasions throughout their careers gone from Ant-Man and Hulk (respectively) to "genius scientist" as their "superpower," arguably making them even more dangerous. (In Pym's case, he was a "genius scientist with a [[Bag of Holding]]." Be very afraid.)
* ''[[Ultimate Fantastic Four]]'': The Skrulls gave everyone on Earth superpowers, but poisoned them as well. The only one who had not taken the "super pill" was Ben Grimm, who had just been returned to normal. He then proceeds to defeat the Skrull leader... [[Good Old Fisticuffs|with his bare hands]].
* [[X-Men (Comic Book)|X-Men]]: Storm went through a long stretch without her weather powers, but ''with'' a Mohawk, a new [[Hell-Bent for Leather|leather wardrobe,]] and a take-no-crud attitude that made her just as dangerous as she had been when she was slinging lightning bolts or throwing tornadoes. Though her powers came back, she still possesses remarkable hand-to-hand prowess when she needs to use it.
* ''[[Captain America (comics)|Captain America]]'': Steve Rogers, most commonly known for hus role as Captain America, in his own mini-series got exposed to vita-rays that deactivated his Super serum reducing him to a scrawny
** Not to mention that he's usually fighting opponents many times stronger than him anyway.
* ''[[Iron Man]]'': Tony Stark would like to remind you that even without his armor, he's a [[Gadgeteer Genius]] trained in hand-to-hand by [[Captain America (comics)]].
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* ''[[All-Star Superman]]'': [[Lex Luthor]] steals Superman's powers, and Supes is [[Brought Down to Normal]]. The result? Supes beats Luthor. [[Moment of Awesome (Sugar Wiki)|With his brains, no less.]]
* ''[[Immortal Iron Fist]]'': Iron Fist has his link to his chi powers broken at one point, but the fact that he had to train to be a martial arts master to get those powers in the first place means he's still pretty damn hard.
* ''[[JLA: Act of God]]'', an [[Elseworld
* For a while in the 70s, [[Wonder Woman]] had to give up her magical powers and learned kung fu to keep on fighting crime.
* At the end of ''[[The Death of Superman]]'', when he '''really''' comes back, he has no powers, just his good ol' fists, and a bunch of automatic machineguns. He storms the Cyborg Superman's/Mongul's base just with that, keeping up with ''[[Steel]]'', a genius creator of some superweapons which had been being used by criminals, and who made himself a suit of [[Powered Armor]] capable of keeping up with said superweapons. He does get his powers back at the end of the arc, of course ([[Power Incontinence|and more]]), but he '''was''' pretty badass in the meanwhile.
** He actually does have a small measure of his power in that arc, being able to leap and possessing some super strength, but he's still going up against villains that would challenge him at full power so it hardly makes a difference.
* [[The Mighty Thor|Thor]] and [[Incredible Hercules|Hercules]] of the [[Marvel Universe]] have both had their godhood stripped away at times. With Thor it was back in the late nineties. He proved to be just as capable a fighter as Captain America. Hercules burned out all of his godly powers at the end of Chaos War leaving him without any [[Super Strength]] at all and still fights super-villains and criminals. He has access to some magical weaponry, is highly skilled at using it, but even then can barely keep up. Yet he still kicks butt.
* Happens rather interestingly in a ''Superman'' Elseworlds story. When Earth faces destruction, scientists Jonathan and Martha Kent send their infant son Clark off in a rocket, which eventually lands on Krypton, where he is found and adopted by Jor-El and Lara. Clark has extreme difficulties surviving with Krypton's greater gravity and red sun that saps his strength, until he encounters a dying alien who entrusts him with a ring, making him the new Green Lantern. He is eventually sent to investigate activities on Earth, which wasn't actually destroyed completely, but has suffered a
* [[Spider-Man]] lost his powers once or twice, notably in the 70's; when tricked to drink a potion that nullified his spider powers, he manages to burst out of several lengths of rope tying him up on a chair by flexing his muscles and getting pissed off - looks like playing super-hero daily helps building up upper body strength. On top of that, he remains a skilled chemist and physicist, good enough to show up the likes of Reed Richards, Doom and Tony Stark. He has, more than once, used his intellect to escape baddies while preserving his secret identity.
* [[Black Canary]] went for a while without her [[Make Me Wanna Shout|Canary Cry]], instead relying on her hand-to-hand ability. Since the character only gained said power after a couple decades of being a [[Badass Normal]], this was more of a Returned Down To Badass.
== Film ==
* In ''[[Bubba Ho-
* [[Thor (film)|Thor]] may have been stripped of his powers and Mjolnir but that doesn't stop him from beating up SHIELD agents to get back Mjolnir.
{{quote|'''Agent Coulson''':" It's not easy to do what you did. You made my men — some of the most highly trained professionals in the world — look like a bunch of minimum-wage mall cops."}}
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* ''[[Bionicle]]'': The Toa Nuva lost their elemental powers when the Bohrok-Kal stole the source of their elemental powers. Subverted in that they could still use their mask powers, but they did have to rely on their wits and skills to stop them.
* At various times in [[The Sword of Truth]] series, Richard is stripped of pretty much everything (his magic on more than one occasion, his friends, his freedom in several different ways, his love, and even his self-confidence), and invariably not only gets it back, but becomes more powerful as a result.
* In the third ''[[Monster Hunter International]]'' book the king of the werewolves loses his werewolf abilities, but remains {{spoiler|son of the greatest monster hunter who ever lived and keeps his over a century of hunting experience}}.
== Live Action TV ==
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** With the corrupted Intersect out of Morgan's head, ''nobody'' has ''any'' version of it now. It hasn't stopped the team from being quite [[Badass]].
* In an episode of ''[[Hercules: The Legendary Journeys]]'', Hera strips Zeus of his godhood and exiles him to Earth, assuming he will become miserable and quickly killed. While Zeus does get confused by life as a mortal (he had to ask Hercules what this unpleasant sensation he was feeling was: pain), he easily wins a [[Bar Brawl]].
* Wesley of ''[[Angel]]'' was shot and nearly killed after having taken the first of his [[Took a Level
* At the end of ''[[Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon]]'' the Sailor Senshi lost their powers. In the Special Act, set a few years after the end of the series, a group of [[Mook|low-level youma]] try and kidnap Minako, quickly subdue her bodyguards... And [[Oh Crap|back down in terror after Minako kicked one in a concrete pillar so hard to ''shatter the pillar's surface'']]. Youma and bodyguards alike understood why Minako complained of her bodyguards' weakness when the youma started defeating them...
** In the same Special Act we are shown that ''all'' the Sailor Soldiers are still badass: Rei attacked the [[Big Bad]] of the episode while without her Senshi powers and survived, albeith needing to be hospitalized; Ami resorted to [[Car Fu]] to beat up the low-level youma and escape one of the [[Big Bad]] [[The Dragon|Dragons]]; Makoto simply beated up an horde of [[Mook
== Video Games ==
* Hakumen in ''[[
* In ''[[The King of Fighters]] XI'', [[Villain Protagonist]] ({{spoiler|[[Good All Along|well,]] [[Well-Intentioned Extremist|not]] [[Jerkass Facade|quite]]}}) Ash Crimson gets the jump on [[The Rival|Iori Yagami]] after he succumbs to [[With Great Power Comes Great Insanity|The Riot of the Blood]] and becomes [[Super-Powered Evil Side|Orochi Iori]] (for those not in the loop, the [[Sealed Evil in a Can]] on [[Orochi]] had been weakened in this [[Story Arc|saga]]), trashing his teammates [[The Hero|Kyo Kusanagi]] and [[The Heart|Shingo Yabuki]]. This leaves Iori without his trademark [[Deadly Upgrade|cursed]] [[Playing with Fire|purple fire]]. What does he decide to do? ''Slash the hell out of his foes with his [[Wolverine Claws|hands]]''. Unfortunately when this same thing happened to [[Lady of War|Chi]][[Barrier Maiden|zu]][[Dance Battler|ru]] [[Master of Illusion|Ka]][[Team Mom|gu]][[Big Good|ra]] in the previous game, she was hit ''hard'' by [[Chickification]], being regulated to the sidelines and her confidence shaken. [[Demoted to Extra|Isn't it sad, Chizuru?]] {{spoiler|Thanks to a [[Cosmic Retcon]] due to a [[Temporal Paradox]]-induced [[Heroic Sacrifice]] by Ash in ''KOF XIII'', both Iori and Chizuru [[Can't Stay Normal|regain their powers]].}}
* According to the [[Cyber Connect 2|developers]], [[Asura's Wrath|Asura]] has lost most of his godly power of being sealed away for 12,000 years. Even without them, he slaughters mooks like they are nothing, can keep up and takes hits from Wyzen after growing over 60 meters tall, and when angry enough, stops Wyzen's Tennessee-sized finger in his planet sized state and punches it and Wyzen into oblivion. [[Holy Shit Quotient|God damn.]]
* Gig in [[Soul Nomad and The World Eaters]]. Let's see, he was [[Sealed Evil in a Can|sealed in a sword]] for millions of years, lost most of his godly power, lives as a formless spirit sealed in the body of a mortal and only gives the [[Silent Protagonist|Main Character]] a very small share of what's left. They are still able to destroy pretty much anything on their path. Also still considered one of the Nippon-verse big three alongside Zetta and real Zenon.
* Valvatorez in ''[[Disgaea 4: A Promise Unforgotten]]'' was originally titled the Tyrant due to his netherworld being absolutely terrifed of him. He may have been an equal to Baal. After no longer drinking blood, he was reduced to a Prinny Instructor who Zetta (official title: The Most Badass Frickin' Overlord in All the Cosmos) considers a [[Worthy Opponent]].
* In ''[[Maple Story]]'' to the six Heroes who originally opposed and defeated the Black Mage. At the time of that battle, they were the most powerful warriors in Maple World (in game terms, they were Level 250) but after spending many centuries as [[Human Popsicle]]s afterwards (due to the [[Villain's Dying Grace]]) they woke up with their skills regressed to that of Beginners, and had to start over from scratch. (And all of them had other curses placed upon them that caused them a lot of grief in the process.) Of course, when the Black Mage himself broke free of his prison, [[Life Isn't Fair| he didn't have this problem at all.]]
== Western Animation ==
* ''[[Avatar: The Last Airbender]]'': Azula, even when deprived of her firebending on the Day of Black Sun, she still manages to keep Toph and Sokka busy long enough for the eclipse to get over with.
** The [[DVD Commentary]] mentions a funny story behind that: she decided [[Badass Normal|Mai and Ty Lee]] would be her friends exactly because she'd be able to learn some of their abilities, and indeed the aforementioned scene does have her using some very [[She Fu|Ty Lee-ish]] moves.
** Same with
* From ''[[Justice League (animation)|Justice League]]'':
** In one episode, Superman ended up in a world with a red sun ({{spoiler|[[Bad Future|Earth]]}}), robbing him of his power, and still manages to survive, kill the leader of a pack of wolf-like animals to become their leader, and {{spoiler|team up with Vandal Savage to take back a nuclear fusion device from a bunch of giant mutant insects}}.
** In an episode where the League travels back in time to [[World War II]], [[Green Lantern]] John Stewart's power ring runs out of juice in the middle of a battlefield. He quickly recalls his Marine training and goes native with a squad of US infantrymen.
* Pharaoh Man in the ''[[Mega Man (animation)|Mega Man]]'' cartoon. Mega Man steals the powers of a couple of Robot Masters, and they don't do much of anything. [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C7dSJN5LgsE Not Pharaoh Man.] [[Crowning Moment of Awesome|DECISIVELY not Pharaoh Man.]] [[Crowning Moment of Funny|HILARIOUSLY not Pharaoh Man.]]
* Hal Jordan and Kilowog in ''[[
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