Does Not Know His Own Strength: Difference between revisions
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[[File:doorbreak.png|link=Ace Lightning|frame|Uh... your door's broken.]]
In real life, people can control how much pressure they apply to things. An Olympic athlete that can lift several times his own weight can also pick up a caterpillar without squishing it. This is not always true in fiction. For some odd reason, some super powered characters have a lower limit to their dexterity. This would make sense if the character had just recently acquired super strength and tried to use the same amount of exertion to pet a kitten as he had done before. For those who have
That doesn't stop some writers from [[Rule of Funny|using it as a gag.]] The character's super strength creates a problem interacting with the real world. They break coffee cups, regularly smash windows, doors and other entrances and egresses and frankly cannot be trusted with a small child's toy. In worst case scenarios, their incredible powers result in damage to important facilities or even living beings. Cue guilt trip.
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Compare [[And Call Him George]], when it happens to (formerly) living things.
{{examples}}▼
▲{{examples}}
== Anime
* During her early life in a highly enhanced prosthetic body, the Major of ''[[Ghost in the Shell]]'' had some major (no pun intended) difficulties controlling the prosthetics' strength. She mentions (and it is shown in the opening credits) that she once smashed a doll by being unable to control her own limbs.
* Muay Thay God of Death Apachai Hopachai in ''[[Kenichi: The Mightiest Disciple]]''. Also a [[Gentle Giant]] on his own right, he is really kind to all living things, being even able to speak with animals. Unfortunately, due to the [[Training
** He's actually killed Kenichi at least once. The other masters are able to revive the poor kid, and it's been mostly played for laughs.
** Kenichi himself gets into this early on. One of the more humorous examples has him giving a "light" slapping to [[Jerkass|Niijima]], [http://www.mangafox.com/manga/history_s_strongest_disciple_kenichi/c054/6.html and manages to knock him out instead]. Somewhat justified, as Kenichi had been a total weakling not too long ago, so he's not at all used to having to hold back his strength.
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** Since she received her powers by fusing with a [[Great Big Book of Everything]] containing the strongest spells in the multiverse, Hayate ''literally cannot'' use low-power magic. As a result, the TSAB normally treat her [[Person of Mass Destruction|similarly to a tactical nuke]], only calling her in to cast a single spell in certain situations (and after evacuation orders have been given). Which is odd, given that Rein Eins' usage of spells like [[Flechette Storm|Bloody Dagger]] show that Hayate should, at least in theory, be able to fight at the anti-personnel level.
** In a [[All There in the Manual|sound stage]] of ''A's'', after Shamal forgot to heat up the water for bathing Vita asks [[Playing with Fire|Signum use her magic]]. She answers that she lacks finesse for smaller tasks.
** A physical strength example occurs in ''[[Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha ViVid|
* In the Anime/Manga series ''[[GetBackers]]'', one of the repeating causes of the main characters' crushing debt is the fact that Ban can't seem to control his strength when he is in a bad mood. As a result, he and Ginji frequently find themselves having to pay for damages to the Honky Tonk as a result of Ban breaking everything from coffee-cups to plates, tables, bars, doors, windows, and even walls.
* Ryoga from ''[[Ranma ½]]''. Whenever his emotions get too much, or his mind wanders, everything he touches tends to crumble around him. Combine this with the fact he gained the ability to shatter inanimate matter with a finger jab early in the series, and you've got a man who has as much trouble ''not'' destroying Tokyo as he does [[No Sense of Direction|navigating it]].
** There is also a storyline in which Akane gains [[Super Strength]] due to accidentally eating food called Super Soba, and briefly falls into this trope. She first discovers her newfound strength when she casually sets her bowl down, and promptly smashes the table and the floor '''below the table'''. She would also regularly pat other characters (usually Ranma) with what was supposed to be a light touch on the head or shoulder, and instead sent them flying.
** During a mid-manga story, Ranma is weakened by a vengeful Happousai. The cure involves a painful-looking [[Pressure Point|moxibustion technique]] applied on his
** It's played up more in the manga version, but [[Hot Amazon|Shampoo]] often destroys things around her, [[There Was a Door|tearing through walls rather than going for the door]] or shattering doors when she does use them. It's debateable whether she counts for this, though, as it's just as likely that she just likes to show off that she's a [[Cute Bruiser]].
* In ''[[Tenchi Muyo! GXP]]'', protagonist Seina Yamada has to spend several episodes learning to control this after being given enhanced [[Super Strength|strength]] and [[Super Speed|speed]]. Of course, this turns out to be a lovely excuse to set up some [[Innocent Cohabitation]]...
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{{quote|{{spoiler|'''Roy'''}}: Without my vision I can't limit the blast properly!
{{spoiler|'''Hawkeye'''}}: Don't limit it at all! }}
* ''[[Durarara!!]]''{{'}}s Shizuo Heiwajima is prone to this, ''especially'' when angry. At one point the Yakuza even deduce Shizuo's recent presence in an apartment complex simply by the state of the stairway's guardrails -- which is not very difficult, as Shizuo managed to ''utterly destroy'' them on his way out.
*
* The few countries in ''[[Axis Powers Hetalia]]'' with [[Super Strength]] are very prone to this. [[Adult Child|America]] in particular. Usually at either Japan or England's expense.
* In ''[[Tiger and Bunny]]'', it's implied that [[The Hero|Kotetsu]] had this problem back when was a child ("I'm not supposed to touch anyone when I'm like this. I'll hurt people."), which was why he was ashamed of his NEXT abilities up until he encountered Mr. Legend.
** After the seventeenth episode, {{spoiler|Kaede}} develops the ability to [[Ditto Fighter|copy the powers of the last NEXT she's touched]]. The last NEXT she's touched? Kotetsu. She destroys the kitchen simply trying to drink tea.
* Sakura Haruno in ''[[Naruto]]''. While training with Tsunade during the time skip of the original series, Sakura acquires the same herculean strength that she has. But of course, whenever Naruto does anything Sakura thinks is stupid, she manages to find some petty reason to pound the tar out of him and send him flying with just one punch.
==
* The comics version of [[Superman]] is the primary aversion of this, where his strength is almost always played as a positive and the negatives are rarely highlighted.
** One story from the '90s saw Supe's strength start increasing exponentially. This trope definitely came into play then.
** Some versions of Krypto the Super Dog apply this trope. Being just a dog, he really doesn't know his own strength.
** Many, many times in various Superman comics would other people gain Superman's strength. This trope almost always applies.
** And the [[Larry Niven]] classic ''[https://web.archive.org/web/20091225054403/http://www.larryniven.org/stories/Man_of_Steel_Woman_of_Kleenex.shtml Man of Steel, Woman of Kleenex]''.
** An excellent 1960s issue of ''[[Superboy]]'' dealt with a villain tricking young Supes into thinking he had accidentally killed Lana Lang with a careless display of strength. Grief-stricken, Superboy turns himself in to the police and sits brooding in a jail cell, giving the villain and his mooks a free window of opportunity to commit crimes unopposed. Naturally, it's all a ruse, and Lana turns out to have been merely kidnapped and is totally unharmed.
** In [[Infinite Crisis]], a character named Superboy Prime (he's from the real world) attacks the DCU's Superboy, beating him badly whilst causing a huge amount of damage to the town of Smallville, until a (fairly large) group(s) of other heroes arrive as back-up. When a heroine named Pantha calls him a 'stupid kid', he retaliates by proclaiming that he isn't stupid, seemingly with the intention to merely smack her across the face...... He ends up taking her head off and killing her, visibly shocked when he notices the blood on his hand.
** In ''Superman Annual #8'', Pounder, one of a far-future League of Supermen in who have each been genetically engineered to have ''one'' of Superman's powers, has support staff who have to do ''everything'' for him, because it's not safe for him to touch things. (The whole League is [[Blessed with Suck]], in fact.)
** In ''[[Superman: Secret
* On the other hand, [[Supergirl]] does this in on occasion, for example in one of Redan's ''Batman and Superman'' comic strips. Then again, she was still learning to control her powers.
** One of the explicit differences between Superman and Supergirl is that Superman has mental blocks he imposed on himself so there's an upper limit to how much power he'll use, while Supergirl has no such blocks, allowing her to at times be ''stronger'' than her cousin.
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* The titular character in ''Monica's Gang'' suffers because of this. Since she's only 6, it leads to really funny situations (although not as much funny for her parents, that have to pay for the broken stuff, or for Jimmy Five and Smudgy, that have to ''feel in their skins'' what her inhuman strength causes. Of course, all in the [[Amusing Injuries]] territory, since it's for kids.
* In a ''Wolverine'' series, there is a grown-up mutant with super strength but the intelligence of an infant. A horse tries to kick him and he punches it, then he gets upset because he can't put the horse's head back on.
* The [[Justice Society of America|JSA]] recently introduced Citizen Steel, who ''literally'' doesn't know his own
* Obelix from ''[[Asterix]]'' does seem to know his strength... he is just apparently unaware that not everyone possesses that strength, hence his failure to understand the difference between "knock the door" and "smash the door" and why no one around him is able to carry tiny menhirs.
* In the last issue of the Marvel MAX ''Barracuda'' miniseries, Barracuda pats the young hemophiliac he had been charged with turning into a cold blooded killer on the back... killing him. To be fair, Barracuda is a fucking beast of a man, but that's... dag, son.
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* A lot of humour stemmed from the use of this trope in the 1970s comic strip ''Wee Ben Nevis'' which featured in ''[[The Beano]]''. This trope is also frequently used in ''[[The Dandy (comics)|The Dandy]]'''s most famous strip ''Desperate Dan''.
* The titular character from "Irredeemable" also fits this trope. Basically a Superman expy, in one scene where he visits one of the many sets of foster parents he had as a child, we see him feeding their severely disabled (adult) biological son. Turns out he was there the day that Jr. came home from the hospital with Mum...he just wanted to give his new baby brother a hug...
* A few superheroes in ''[[PS238]]'' have this problem, specifically Superman [[expy]] Atlas (he can handle normal humans without causing injuries, but according to his son, "He's broken more TV remote controls than I can count") and Julie, at least with Moon Shadow ("[http://ps238.nodwick.com/comic/2015-10-23/ I forgot that when 84 gets excited, she ''hugs'' people]") - his unofficial mentor [http://ps238.nodwick.com/comic/10302009/ half-joked] alluding that a kiss could be more dangerous. And Bernard, but he's [[Shapeshifter Mode Lock|stuck]] in "Bernard [[Hulk|Smash]]!" mode, so in his case this comes with territory.
== Fan Works ==
* ''[[Twisted
** And the time he petted the bunny too hard. And then did the same with Cyclops.
* Kyon from ''[[Kyon: Big Damn Hero]]''.
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* Many Fanon depictions of ''[[Touhou]]'''s Flandre Scarlet make her out to be this. Those she "plays with" [[And Call Him George|do not last long]]. However, in canon, this decently true because she can't control her powers (a bad problem to have, given that her power is the ability to ''[[Person of Mass Destruction|destroy anything that exists]]''), thus it is speculated that she never learned, thus having a hard time expressing playfulness without harm.
* Paul, in spades, in ''[[With Strings Attached]]''. Compounded by his having two levels of strength, “low” (where he can lift about 8 tons) and “high” (where he can lift at least 90 tons). After practicing day and night (literally) for several weeks he can act relatively normal at “low” strength (though he still breaks things if he doesn't take care); however, at “high” strength, which he tries not to use unless practicing, he can just barely function in the real world. He is continually conscious of his strength, so that in proximity to other people, he hardly moves, and he never makes sudden gestures.
* Mentioned a couple of times in ''[[The Secret Return of Alex Mack]]'' as having happened to {{spoiler|Willow Rosenberg}} as a child, most notably when she accidentally injured her father by greeting him too enthusiastically.
== Films -- Animation ==
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** Lest we forget, he also threw his ''boss'' through ''seven walls''. However, he arguably did that on purpose in a fit of rage, seeing as how he grabbed him by the neck to do it.
* The young Tigress was shown to be like this in ''[[Kung Fu Panda|Kung Fu Panda: Secrets of the Furious Five]]'', till she learned self-control.
* Used in Disney's ''[[Hercules (
* In ''[[Monsters vs. Aliens]]'', Ginormica initially has this problem after discovering she has super strength (more than her [[Attack of the 50-Foot Whatever|massive form]] should have, at any rate). She ends up nearly crushing Derek in her excitement to see him again. Other than that, though, she manages to keep a handle on it.
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* In ''[[Kamen Rider the First]]'', Hongo Takeshi runs afoul of this trope in a non-comedic manner, trying to save a little girl from being hit by a truck. He scoops her up a little too forcefully, and while he does save her life, she has to be hospitalized anyway due to the pressure he put on her body.
* At the end of ''[[Young Frankenstein]]'', the Monster accidentally rips off Inspector Kemp's wooden arm while shaking hands. Understandable, as the brain hasn't been attached to that body for very long..
* Moses Hightower has this problem in some ''[[Police Academy]]'' movies. In the fourth movie, he's so angry that he has to work under Harris that he hits a locker and causes ''all'' the lockers to fall over like dominoes. In the same movie, he and other members of the cast are playing basketball, he slam dunks the ball - and breaks the ball.
== Literature ==
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** Bella gets this in the fourth book because brand new vampires are so damn strong. She hugs Edward and actually hurts him, something nearly impossible to do to Twilight vampires. Emmett, widely regarded as by far the strongest Cullen, is completely overpowered in the weeks immediately after Bella's transformation.
* In ''What Fire Cannot Burn'' by [[John Ridley]], [[Mutants]] with [[Super Strength]] do their best to avert this, but they must concentrate to avoid applying a little too much force. "Your sweaty nightmare -- 'Hey, do you want to hold the baby?'"
* ''[[The Six Million Dollar Man]]'': Steve Austin accidentally broke a man's wrist in the original book. Ironically, it was right after that man figured out that Austin's bionic hand had developed a feedback that ''would'' allow him to judge how much pressure he was
* Lennie from ''[[Of Mice and Men]]'' by John Steinbeck is another example of this trope, breaking the neck of a doggy by [[And Call Him George|petting it too hard]].
** That's hardly the worst thing he (unintentionally) does. He also {{spoiler|breaks Curly's wife's neck}}, leading to his {{spoiler|[[Mercy Kill]] at the hands of George}} and one ''hell'' of a [[Downer Ending]].
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** Granted, nearly all of the main characters with the exception of Simon could probably fit under this trope, as their DNA has been tweaked, thus making their individual abilities much, much, ''much'' stronger than usual and leading to random outbursts of power. Most notably Chloe's accidentally raising the dead ''in her sleep'', Derek's already mentioned feats, and Liz's telekinetic tantrum {{spoiler|right before she is taken away and murdered because she cannot control her powers}}.
* The magic version is used in the [[Tortall Universe]]. ''Most'' wizards can put out a candle by magic; if Numair tried it he'd just cause an explosion.
* Fezzik in [[The Princess Bride (novel)|the original novel of ''The Princess Bride'']]. In his background, he accidentally breaks his father's jaw when his father is trying to teach him to fight, later saying he had uprooted a tree stump and wondering how he did it. Later in the actual story, when the Albino won't tell Indigo where the Man in Black is, he tells Fezzik to job his memory - Fezzik "jogs" it a little too hard.
* ''[[The Price Is Right]]'': On numerous occasions, overly excited contestants who were Samoans would pick him up, bearhug him, and otherwise get very affectionate with him, causing him brief physical discomfort. Often, but not always, these instances occurred after the contestant won a pricing game. A running joke was that, every time a Samoan contestant appeared on the show, he would claim that a past Samoan contestant injured him (before playfully admonishing the new contestant to keep her distance).{{context|reason=Who is "he?"}}▼
▲== Live Action TV ==
▲* ''[[The Price Is Right]]'': On numerous occasions, overly excited contestants who were Samoans would pick him up, bearhug him, and otherwise get very affectionate with him, causing him brief physical discomfort. Often, but not always, these instances occurred after the contestant won a pricing game. A running joke was that, every time a Samoan contestant appeared on the show, he would claim that a past Samoan contestant injured him (before playfully admonishing the new contestant to keep her distance).
* This trope was [[Renamed Tropes|formerly named]] "Ace Lightning Syndrome", after the titular character in the CGI-animated TV program ''[[Ace Lightning]]'', who had quite the tendency towards smashing his human sidekicks' household appliances when he arrived in the 'real world', super strength and all (not to mention his need to absorb energy in order to survive resulted in the destruction of much electrical equipment. And apparently Mark's family's electric bill was costing them a fortune).
* In [[Too Good to Last|short-lived]] UPN super-spy show ''[[Jake 2.0]]'', the main character mostly dodged this because his powers were mostly by activation; nevertheless, there was at least one occasion where his little brother pissed him off, resulting in him accidentally breaking off the handle to his car door.
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* A trailer for ''[[Deus Ex: Human Revolution|Deus Ex Human Revolution]]'' has Jensen accidently cracking a glass as he tries to hold it with one of his new cybernetic arms.
* Flandre Scarlet of the "[[Touhou]]" series possesses extreme physical strength and the ability to destroy anything, except she does not know how to control it. In fact, she was locked away in a basement for 495 years as a result of her unstable and potential destructibility.
* Potemkin in ''[[Guilty Gear]]'' is so absurdly strong that he cannot hold any normal object in his hands without breaking it, even taking his [[Power Limiter]] into account. He likes drawing as a hobby and needs his own set of reinforced pencils that don't instantly snap between his fingers.
== Web Comics ==
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** Possibly slightly averted - The MITD DOES know it's super strong (why else think of a game "who can hit the lightest"), it just still can't control its strength...
* In ''[[Tales of the Questor]]'', this happens as an one off joke when Quentyn reunites with his friend, Kestral at her engineering school. She gives him a big hug and inadvertently hurts him because her vigorous studies having increased her strength considerably and she is not yet fully in control of it.
* Sidney Burns of ''[[Mob Ties]]'' displays this [https://web.archive.org/web/20100716053335/http://www.drunkduck.com/Mob_Ties/index.php?p=600774 occasionally].
* Summer Mighty of ''[[Everyday Heroes]]'' has trouble controlling her [[Puberty Superpower|new-found strength]], resulting in a [http://www.webcomicsnation.com/eddurd/everydayheroes/series.php?view=single&ID=81245 kitchen remodel].
* ''[[Spinnerette]]'': Not as bad as most, but Heather's still getting used to her new strength, as well as having six arms, as seen when she [http://www.krakowstudios.com/spinnerette/2010/03/29/03292010/ bear hugs Sahira.]
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* Equius of ''[[Homestuck]]'' would ''like'' to use [[The Archer|bows and arrows]] as his [[Weapon of Choice]], but can't actually wield them without the bow snapping like a twig when he draws it. The only safe outlet for him to let off his frustration is through beating the shit out of robots in cage matches.
** He also loves drinking milk. It's too bad he can't pick up a glass of it without shattering it in his hand.
* ''[[Gunnerkrigg Court]]'' has [https://www.gunnerkrigg.com/?p=1687 this] as a side effect of magical augmentations.
== Web Original ==
* Common problem in the ''[[Whateley Universe]]'': Phase can change her density from intangible to super-dense. When she first manifested, she smashed her bathroom, bent her tub, and then went light and couldn't stop sinking through the floor. One of the things [[Super-Hero School|Whateley Academy]] teaches is control of powers. The [[Flying Brick|bricks]] routinely have assignments like carrying a raw egg around to learn control.
** Probably a better example than Phase (who for all her worrying has remarkable fine control over her powers already) would be Compiler, a girl who used her mutant gift for nanotechnology to give herself the superhuman strength and speed her mutation itself failed to provide and that she hasn't quite learned to keep from activating purely by accident yet.
** Another good example is Diz Aster, who is a Brick along the same lines as Lancer - except that her telekinetic field can't produce anything ''less'' than 7 tons of force. This also means that she can't even ''feel'' anything, since her shields extend to a few millimetres past her skin; by the time Chaka starts helping out, it's been a year since anyone's been able to touch
** An equally good example might be
* Alfred, the Bison construction worker from [[Darwin's Soldiers]], possesses extreme strength. Most of the time he is in control of it but if he is angry then things tend to get destroyed. For instance, he crushed a piece of concrete that he was planning to use as an [[Improvised Weapon]]. A more extreme example was when he started pounding on Aisha's door and leaves the door looking like someone had taken a sledgehammer to it. And he accidentally knocked over a vending machine while trying to free a stuck snack.
== Western Animation ==
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** The Tick has done the door thing, too. And generally causes massive amounts of collateral damage. It isn't that he is unused to his strength so much as that he's clumsy, insane and not very bright.
*** And [[Nigh Invulnerable]], so he doesn't necessarily notice if he bangs his head on a doorframe hard enough to put a hole in the wall.
* Bulkhead of ''[[Transformers Animated]]'' has this problem fairly often, in no small part to being the biggest Autobot and in a world much too small for him. In [
** In ''[[Transformers Prime]],'' Bulkhead says that the Autobots know both when to use force and how much to use... and breaks some of Ratchet's equipment by way of demonstration. "Hey, I NEEDED that!" Unlike ''Animated'' Bulkhead, this version isn't clumsy but it's implied that he still heavily restrains himself because even among Cybertronians he is an abnormally big and powerful bot. Part of his relationship with Miko is her encouraging him to unleash his strength when necessary.
* Mr. Strong on ''[[The Mr. Men Show]]''. His [[Catch Phrase]] always comes up after an incident involving his strength: "Aw, I ''barely touched it.''"
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** [[Weird Al|"He's the strongest toddler in the whole land, tear your arm off it he shakes your hand..."]]
* [[Kim Possible]] had a few of these moments when she briefly ended up with the [[Super Strength]] of Hego, a Superman [[Expy]].
* The [[Recycled: the Series|animated spinoff]] of Disney's ''[[Hercules (
* ''[[Teen Titans (animation)|Teen Titans]]'''s [[The Chick|Starfire]] is an [[Human Aliens|alien]] from a planet where ''everybody'' has superstrength, resulting, when she comes to Earth, in a world-of-cardboard effect as Superman described it (not the trope). Particularly unfortunate as she fond of [[The Glomp|hugging her friends]].
* [[My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic|Derpy Hooves]]. She's also [[The Klutz]].
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== Real Life ==
* There's a nervous system disorder that prevents people from telling quite how much pressure they're applying to
** Or unless they're handling something light and delicate, like paper or a neurosurgical operation.
* Though nowhere near as extreme in fiction, can happen with some people devoid of any nervous disorders. Common with young men who are just realizing that they've suddenly gained a bunch of muscle mass.
* And athletes. It's not uncommon for water polo players to under-estimate their strength and over-estimate the other player's strength, and dunk someone/give them a nosebleed/really hurt someone without realizing it.
* Basketball player Charles Barkley once hugged a teammate into the emergency room. WHOOPS!
* Humans don't actually have perfect control over their
** Not to mention that the perceived weight of an object can be very different from the actual weight in terms of expectations. For example, picking up a gallon of milk expecting it to be full only to find out that it is nearly empty. It can make almost anyone feel like [[Superman]].
** The inverse is also true; if you see something presumably made of plastic or another light material and don't know that it's actually solid wood or metal, you'll either drop it or (depending on the object's size) be unable to pick it up.
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{{reflist}}
[[Category:{{PAGENAME}}]]
[[Category:Unisex Tropes]]
[[Category:Power At a Price]]
[[Category:Character Flaw Index]]
[[Category:Stock Super Powers]]
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