Does Not Know His Own Strength: Difference between revisions

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 always has this power their entire life, there should be no problem.

This trope is related to [[Blessed with Suck]] but is specific to strength and to powers which resemble strength (i.e. the ability to crush objects via telekinesis) and is not primarily a bad thing; the empowered individual often finds their strength to be very handy when they're not having to do delicate things like handle children's rattles.

A frequent and more realistic variation of this is that the hero is able to control his strength, but when tempers flare or the hero is startled (or otherwise incapacitated, or perhaps inebriated) that control quickly lapses. Another variation involves [[Functional Magic]] or [[Psychic Powers]], where a mage or telekinetic who could decimate armies with their powers have to do chores by hand, because they lack fine control. After all, when you're incinerating enemies, [[No Kill Like Overkill|"Too much fire"]] isn't really a problem.

{{examples}}

{{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.

* 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.

* 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.

** Many, many times in various Superman comics would other people gain Superman's strength. This trope almost always applies.

** And the [[Larry Niven]] classic ''[http://www.larryniven.org/stories/Man_of_Steel_Woman_of_Kleenex.shtml Man of Steel, Woman of Kleenex]''.

* ''[[Twisted Toyfare Theater]]'' -- The [[Hulk]] encounters [[Star Wars|Ewoks.]] "Hulk pet fuzzy too hard! Fuzzy pop!"

** And the time he petted the bunny too hard. And then did the same with Cyclops.

** In a later chapter, a [[Fictional Document]] reminded that while getting new powers were good, one should also learn to be careful with them.

* 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.

* One more word: ''[[Hancock]]''. Though in his case, it's more a case of him simply not bothering to check his superstrength.

* In the ''[[Fantastic Four (film)|Fantastic Four]]'' movie, The Thing is prone to doing this with drinkwear, though it could also be related to reduced sensation with his new skin making it hard to tell how much he's squeezing.

* The Autobots of the ''[[Transformers Film Series|Transformers]]'' movie basically destroy Sam's backyard, though that's mostly due to scale issues.

* In ''[[Superman Returns]]'', Clark accidentally breaks the glass in the picture frame he's holding when Jimmy surprises him with the information that "Lois is a mommy".

* ''[[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 exerting -- once he got used to it.

* 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]].

** Curley picks a fight with Lennie; it doesn't end well for Curley. Lennie's scared to fight back, but once he does, all Lennie needs to do to stop Curley is squeeze his hand so hard that Lennie breaks his bones.

* Derek Souza in ''[[Darkest Powers]]'' is a werewolf with an incredible protective streak over the people he cares about, which leads him to do such things as throwing another boy into a wall and breaking his back, nearly tossing Chloe across a room while merely trying to keep her from stomping off, and breaking Liam's neck, killing him - and all of this completely on accident.

== 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).

* 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.

* Sometimes a problem for ''[[The Greatest American Hero]]''.

* Played with on ''[[Charmed]]'' when a spell cast on their police buddy gave him Superman-like strength and invulnerability. Has him accidentally ripping the door off a police cruiser, but only mildly bruising the suspect.

== [[Video Games]] ==

* While just about everyone in ''[[Disgaea]]'' has ridiculous [[Dragonball Z|DBZ]]-levels of [[Super Strength]], only Flonne's shown some difficulty in controlling it: [[Disgaea Infinite|at one point]], she hastily shoves Laharl away (to prevent him from performing [[Percussive Maintenance]] on poor Mr. DVD Player) and ends up [[Blown Across the Room|rocketing him across the room]].

* In [http://www.sluggy.com/daily.php?date=980117 this] ''[[Sluggy Freelance]]'' strip, while Aylee's getting used to being Torg's secretary, she tends to accidentally drive her fingers right through the computer keyboard.

* In ''[[The Inexplicable Adventures of Bob]]'', when Bob briefly gains [[Super Strength]], he manages to stop a bank robbery... but accidentally destroys the bank in the process.

** 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.

* 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.]

* The first time Walky and Joyce have sex in ''[[Walkyverse|It's Walky!]]'', they wreck most of the furniture in their hotel room. As one of the hotel employees says, "Man of steel, woman of steel, '''bed''' of Kleenex."

* 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.

== Western Animation ==

** The live-action series has a gag where Arthur shakes hands with the Champion, and Arthur clutches his hand in pain, then the Tick shakes hands with the Champion and the ''Champion'' recoils in pain.

** 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.

** 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.''"

** Of course, Superman's [[World of Cardboard Speech]] in the grand finale mentions that he's constantly holding himself back, for fear of hurting those around him.

* The infant Bamm-Bamm on ''[[The Flintstones]]''. Later spinoffs (that feature Bamm-Bamm as a child, teenager or adult) usually show him as fully aware of/in control of his strength.

* There's a nervous system disorder that prevents people from telling quite how much pressure they're applying to something -- though unless they're ridiculously strong, it's rarely ever a problem.

** Or unless they're handling something light and delicate, like paper or a neurosurgical operation.

* Basketball player Charles Barkley once hugged a teammate into the emergency room. WHOOPS!

* Humans don't actually have perfect control over their bodies -- anyone who has ever tried to do any very delicate work could attest to that. At a low enough level, controlling your own strength can be hard.

*** It's fun to trick other people with this, handing them a heavy object using just one outstretched arm or a light object while holding it like it's really heavy. Luggage tends to be perfect for this, since it can basically have any weight.

* [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L1uVC0VlqwY Beyonslay] may fit this trope. Look at what she did to Rice Rocket!

* Scientists are currently working on robots that are made of soft materials, because hard ones are not equipped to handle delicate objects. Really hoping it wasn't some kind of medical/child device that led them to this conclusion.

* Sadly, lots of small children learn this the hard way with their first pet.