Brought Down to Normal: Difference between revisions

{{trope}}

 

 

A character who has some kind of highly developed or superhuman ability loses it for an episode, has to experience life as an average Joe. The character often actually enjoys the experience of being "normal". Or he will hate it and [[Sudden Humility|understand how hard it is to have no superpowers to help you]]. By the end of the episode he gets his skill back, usually just in time to save the day with it.

 

[[Bag of Spilling]] can be considered this trope when it applies to [[Video Game Characters]] between one game and its sequel.

{{examples}}

== Anime and Manga ==

* A brief story arc on ''[[Ranma ½]]'' sees Ranma going from unnaturally strong uberhunk to a pathetic weakling who literally couldn't hurt a toddler, thanks to a moxibustion "attack" by Happosai. His many enemies (minus [[The Rival|Ryoga]]) are happy to take advantage of this and beat the crap out of him as much as possible. Just as he's resigned himself to the situation, Ranma gets his strength back, and celebrates by giddily demolishing his house.

* Blackbeard of ''[[One Piece]]'' has [[Anti-Magic|the power to inflict this to other characters]] for as long as he's touching them. So far this has happened on-screen to [[Playing with Fire|'Fire Fist' Ace]] and [[Rubber Man|Luffy]].

** He also uses this ability on {{spoiler|Whitebeard,}} resulting in a [[Curb Stomp Battle]]. {{spoiler|Delivered by Whitebeard.}}

* Half-demon ''[[Inuyasha]]'' loses his powers and becomes fully human once a month, under the new moon. He hates it with a passion, and with good reason, since he ends up severely injured and/or in mortal danger almost every time. Luckily for him, his demon strength and [[Healing Factor|super healing abilities]] always return just in time.

* In ''[[Kanokon]]'', Chizuru temporarily loses her powers (and her breasts) and has to cope without them. She never cares about her power being sealed, though. She just wants her breasts back.

* In the [[Elseworlds]] series ''[[JLA: Act of God]]'' a strange wave of energy hits Earth causing heroes and villains alike to lose their superpowers. Some disappear into the woodwork while others reinvent themselves as [[Badass Normal]]s in the [[Batman]] mould. However, if you watched [[Atop the Fourth Wall|one man's review]] of it, you'd learn the writers fucked up this execution royally.

* A plot in the ''[[JLA]]'' book saw six members of the League have their secret identities split off from their superhero selves. While Clark Kent, John Jones and Wally West saw it as a blessing, Bruce Wayne, Eel O'Brien and Kyle Rayner could barely hold it together.

* In the ''[[Justice Society of America]]'' storyline "Fatherland", every super-hero on Earth is robbed of their powers by super-villain Nazis and their darkness engine.

* The [[House of M|M-Day]], natch. Thanks to [[Scarlet Witch]] realizing what happened and how did everything lead up to Magneto's dominion and the finally attained mutant supremacy, she uses her powers for one last time to declare "No more mutants". Thus, Earth goes back to what it was before, Bringing Down To Normal 90% of the mutants of the world ([[Status Quo Is God|after all, looks like the X-Men are too popular to become]] [[Badass Normal]]s). Some of them, like Blob and Chamber, [[Came Back Wrong]], because they lost their mutations, but not the body alterations they brought about (notably, Jono almost dies because, without the radiation he generated spontaneously, [[Body Horror|he no longer had a jaw or much of his torso]], which were burned away by his own mutant power).

* Red Devil/Eddie Bloomberg of the ''[[Teen Titans (Comic Book)|Teen Titans]]'' had his powers permanently taken by Brother Blood and was changed back into a human. This effectively got him out of his deal with [[Satan|Neron]], though he still stayed with the team and one time donned his old power suit.

** And before that was the "Beast Boys and Girls" storyline, when a villain releases a disease that causes a literal case of [[Contagious Powers]]. Kids across the city start [[Animorphism|turning into green animals]], while [[Voluntary Shapeshifter|Beast Boy]] is turned into a normal guy. He [[Reset Button|gets his powers back]] at the end of the storyline, getting a [[Tyrannosaurus Rex|TRex]]-tastic [[He's Back]] moment against the villain.

* Komodo in ''[[The Avengers (Comic Book)|Avengers: The Initiative]]'' had her powers removed by SPIN technology after refusing to go along with HAMMER's sinister perversion of the Initiative. Note: without her powers Komodo doesn't have any legs. Thankfully, a "cure" of sorts was eventually fashioned and she's back in action.

** Then, in a recent story taking place in an [[Alternate Universe]], Knuckles (who had also become Enerjak) was stripped of his powers in the exact same way by his daughter.

** In issue 232, Ixis Naguas ends up restoring Bunnie's former flesh and blood limbs after crystalizing them an issue before, removing the abilities she had as a cyborg.

 

== Films -- Animated ==

* ''[[The Wild Thornberrys]]'' did it in [[The Movie|their movie]] with Eliza's loss of her power to [[Speaks Fluent Animal|talk to animals]].

 

* A comedic pseudo-example is an episode of ''[[Seinfeld]]'' where George finds himself getting very bad at lying.

* Barney Miller, the "backup bionic guy" in ''[[The Six Million Dollar Man]]'', had his bionics "throttled back" to normal human level after his initial appearance.

* In ''[[Charmed]]'' there was an episode where Cole had to fully give in to his demon side in order to protect the girls which left him as a mindless beast for all of ten seconds before they used a spell to permanently remove his powers, leaving him mortal for a while and hating it. {{spoiler|He then went on to assume the throne of the underworld and become the Source of all Evil in the world but hey, there was a difficult transition period. Where he went from there is difficult to follow. Cole sort of embodies [[Powers as Programs]]}}.

** Leo also loses his Whitelighter powers mid-series, after choosing his family over his responsibility as Whitelighter. {{spoiler|Subverted in that, unlike Cole, he never regains his powers.}}

** The last thee Saban seasons (''[[Power Rangers Lost Galaxy|Lost Galaxy]]'', ''[[Power Rangers Lightspeed Rescue|Lightspeed Rescue]]'', and ''[[Power Rangers Time Force|Time Force]]'') have the rangers willingly give up the call.

** The Disney era has it happen to every single team except [[Power Rangers SPD|one]] (7 in all) are forced to give up the call.

* The fate of every [[Super Sentai]] team, and at the beginning of the first episode of ''[[Kaizoku Sentai Gokaiger]]'', after sacrificing their powers to defeat the invading Zangyack forces.

* Bosses in ''[[Undercover Boss]]'' go deep undercover, work in the front lines working minimum wage jobs and sleep in cheap hotels.

}}

 

* ''[[Justice League (animation)|Justice League]]'' has the Man of Steel take a stint on a future earth with a red sun. He shows that he's apparently a [[Badass|very tough individual with a variety of skills]] even without his powers.

** In another episode, Supergirl is trapped in Skartaris, which likewise has a red sun, depowering her considerably. However, instead of moping around, she quickly confirms that her powers indeed don't work and adopts new ways of being awesome, namely, by being a [[Badass Normal]] [[Little Miss Badass]] [[Determinator]].

* There's one episode of ''[[Winx Club]]'' where, as punishment for sneaking out of the school and causing trouble, the principal strips the main characters of their powers ("Secret Guardian"), forcing them to stop a monster using brooms and soap ("Grounded").

** ''[[Winx Club]]'' also did a variation on this as [[Story Arc]] later in season 1, with Bloom losing her "Dragon Fire" powers to villain witches ("Senior Witches Go To Earth"). Several episodes later ("The Great Witch Invasion"), she is under a lake with her sister/secret guardian Daphne, and it's revealed that Bloom's powers never left her (even though all signs pointed otherwise, starting with the fact that she was stuck in her regular form all these episodes), but her [[Heroic BSOD]] blocked her from summoning them. Once she stops moping, she gets her powers back.

** There was also an episode were Mandy lost her nerve (as in a little [[Anthropomorphic Personification]] of her attitude living her head) and it moves to Billy's head. This downgrades her from [[Heroic Sociopath]] to meek little girl and Billy up to a bully (though he's still stupid). She later decides she doesn't need the nerve and returns to her usual state while making the nerve vacate Billy's brain.

* In "Gwen 10", the [[What If]] episode of ''[[Ben 10]]'', Ben wakes up without the Omnitrix, but remembering the series so far. Upon realizing that it's the day he got the Omnitrix, he tries to get it back... And fails. He kinda mopes for the rest of the episode, but nothing else is shown of how it would have gone from there; it's a one-shot "What if?" style episode, complete with [[Shout-Out]] at the end.

{{quote|'''Alpha''': Go on, Zed. Destroy me. ''Do it!''

'''Zed''': No. You're a mere mortal now. You'll be punished like one. }}

* While a [[Goal-Oriented Evolution|hyper-evolved]] worm is by no means "normal", there was an episode of ''[[Earthworm Jim (animation)|Earthworm Jim]]'' where Jim's super-suit was replaced with one that only gave him strength comparable to an ordinary person. Or as Professor Monkey-For-A-Head found out the hard way, "an ordinary, really big person".

* Makes up the plot for an episode of ''[[Ace Lightning]]''.

{{quote|'''Gladstone:''' [[This Cannot Be!|I don't believe it!]] I've lost my luck! No food... no money... ''gasp'' I'll have to get a ''job'' like normal people!!}}

** During the episode, Raiden does show distress and unease at losing his powers, explaining that for him, being a [[Physical God]] ''is'' normal.

* The ''[[Adventures of the Galaxy Rangers]]'' episode "The Power Within". A slight subversion as it was demonstrated here that the Series 5 implants don't ''give'' the Rangers their abilities, just enhance what's already there. Niko could still sense the hunter on their trail and misdirect them, and Doc was still able to hack Nimrod's computer - it just wasn't as fast or as flashy as what they could do with a badge push. Of course, one scene could be read as the Series 5 implant ''curbing'' Shane's ability to use his abilities, but seeing as he is the last of a failed super soldier experiment, that could have been deliberate.

* One episode of ''[[Batman Beyond]]'' had a computer virus infect Terry's batman-suit-mini-[[Power Armor]] thing, forcing him to go it with just a utility belt and domino mask rather than flight, invisibility, super strength, etc. Turns out he picked up a few of the bat-skills from Bruce after all.

* ''[[Max Steel]]'' did this near the end of the first series. After an argument between Max and Rachel about Max relying on his powers over his training, he (naturally) loses them for the episode. However, he hates this fact and is all too willing to get his powers back.

{{quote|'''Rachel''': How are you feeling?

'''Max''': Human. I hate it. }}

* The ''[[Darkwing Duck (animation)|Darkwing Duck]]'' episode "Duck Blind" has Darkwing lose his sight after exposure to Megavolt's new magnetic superweapon. After a period of self-pity, he manages to overcome the initial loss by shutting down all lights in Megavolt's lair, bringing the fight to his advantage thanks to his now enhanced hearing. [[Status Quo Is God]] is followed by a second exposure to the superweapon restoring his sight.

{{quote|'''Baby Shredder''': Regular people!

'''Nega-Chin, Bull-E, & Dr. Crocktopus''': Without powers!

* In ''[[Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog]]'', Sonic's shoes are stolen, forcing the speedy hedgehog to ''[[Fate Worse Than Death|walk]]''. It also happens in ''[[Sonic Sat AM|Sonic the Hedgehog]]'' due to a laser that tracks whenever Sonic runs.

** It should be noted that both times Sonic doesn't actually lose his speed. He's just put into a position where he can't use it. His sneakers are designed to protect his feet from the intense friction running at the speed of sound would create.

** {{spoiler|Discord can take away a pegasus' wings and unicorn horns at a whim, which he demonstrates on the mane cast in the season 2 opener.}}

 

{{reflist}}

[[Category:Superhero Tropes]]

[[Category:Magical Girl Tropes]]

[[Category:Plots]]