No Man Should Have This Power: Difference between revisions

An object of tremendous power and [[Just Think of the Potential|potential]] is created or found. Unfortunately, almost immediately the entire cast starts fighting over it, demonstrating their inability to be in charge of such power. Ultimately one character - usually the wisest - then decides that the only way to stop the conflict is to destroy (or cast away) the object. With nothing left to fight over, peace and order is, indeed, restored.

This is the typical fate of all [[MacGuffin|MacGuffins]]s. See also: [[The World Is Not Ready]], [[Status Quo Is God]], [[ReluctantEngineer MadExploited ScientistFor Evil]].

Compare [[No MacGuffin, No Winner]] where the object is lost as a karmic punishment, rather than a willing decision in fear of the consequences. Also compare [[It Belongs in Aa Museum]]. Does not refer to powers that only ''women'' have, or should have.

* In the manga ''[[Tri Peace]]'', two rulers solve the conflict between their nations by destroying the magical fountain that they are warring over.

* ''[[Fate /Zero]]'' and ''[[Fate/stay Stay Nightnight]]'': The conclusion their respective main characters ultimately come to, regarding the [[Unholy Holy Sword|corrupted Holy Grail]].

* In [[Elliot S! Maggin]]'s [[Bronze Age]] ''[[Superman]]'' story, "The Day the Cheering Stopped", Superman gets magical sword which was apparently created at the dawn of time. It gives him incredible power (even for Prethe [[Pre-Crisis]] Superman) and helps him defeat the villianvillain. In the end he realizes the incredible power the sword will give him and feels that it will make him an all powerful protector. He decides he doesn't want this power and throws it into space. A voice (Possiblypossibly the voice of God) tells him he did the right thing.

* At the end of ''[[The Mask (Filmfilm)|The Mask]]'', the protagonist casts the magical mask into the river.

* In ''[[Back to The Future]]'', Doc Brown repeatedly promises to himself to destroy his own time-travelling technology, which finally happens at the end of movie 3. ( {{spoiler|Almost immediately it turns out that he had built a new one.}})

* At the end of ''[[Harry Potter and Thethe Deathly Hallows (novel)|Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows]]'' Harry chooses to get rid of the titletitular objectsrelics, for precisely this reason.

== [[Live -Action TV]] ==

* On one episode of ''[[Star Trek: Deep Space Nine]]'', the heroes embark on a quest to find the Sword Of Kahless, a very important religious artifact to the Klingons. So important, in fact, that whoever finds it and brings it back to the homeworld would gain the cultural/religious/political power to take over the Klingon Empire. As it turns out, it seems to corrupt it's wielder faster than [[The Lord of the Rings|The One Ring]], and after seeing her cohorts plotting to take over the empire and fighting amongst themselves over who gets to do it, Jadzia beams the sword into space.

* In ''[[Star Trek: theThe Next Generation]]'', when Q appeared in "Hide and Q" he endowed Riker with the power of the Continuum in an attempt to uncover how humanity might someday surpass his species. Picard immediately pressured Riker into resisting the urge to use this power, ostensibly to prevent Will from abusing it, and also to win a wager against Q in the hopes of making the God-like being sod off forever. Even though he is corrupted by the power, Riker ultimately decides to remain human and has the power taken away, with the moral being that humanity will take it's own path without needing to be uplifted by Q. This doesn't stop Q from continuing to harass Picard once a season for the rest of Next Gen's run, of course.

* Parodied in one episode of ''[[The Big Bang Theory]]''. The guys end up with one of the actual props of the One Ring from the [[The Lord of the Rings (Filmfilm)|Lord Of The Rings]] movies, and squabble constantly over who gets to keep it, while Leonard rolls his eyes. While they're asleep, Leonard takes the ring, and tells them he sent it back to [[Peter Jackson]] where it belongs. {{spoiler|Subverted when it turns out Leonard kept it for himself.}}

* "Too many ''Sombreros''." The chivato said. "[[What Do You Mean ItsIt's Not Awesome?|No one man should have]] [[Nice Hat|that power]]...''

* ''[[El Goonish Shive (Webcomic)|El Goonish Shive]]'' has Sensei Greg. Who eventually closed his dojo of "[[Supernatural Martial Arts|Anime Style]] Martial Arts" in part due to worries that it turned out to be a magical training and there's no way to ensure that good powers would be granted to the right people. Just before the dojo was wrecked by {{spoiler|a sleepwalking magic-user and a dragon}} anyway.

* Parodied on ''[[South Park]]''. The boys see the girls playing with a [http://en.[wikipedia.org/wiki/Paper_fortune_teller:Paper fortune teller|paper fortune teller]]. After Butters successfully infiltrates their slumber party and steals it from them, the boys decide that the power to tell the future is to great and dangerous to possess, and destroy it with a spectacular explosion.

* In the ''[[Gargoyles (Animation)|Gargoyles]]'' episode "Grief", the Emir manages to take the powers of Anubis (mastery of death) away from Jackal and becomes Anubis' avatar. The Emir then does what he can to repair the damage inflicted by Jackal during his brief tenure as Anubis' avatar. After seeing the destruction wrought by Jackal and becoming the avatar himself leads the Emir to two epiphanies: the first being that the dead should stay dead, and that no one mortal should have access to this kind of power ever again. He collapses the entire building on himself, destroying any trace of the knowledge needed to bind Anubis.

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