Drama-Preserving Handicap: Difference between revisions

{{trope}}

 

Give the baddie a Drama Preserving Handicap.

This is often a more ideal solution than using [[Deus Exit Machina]] or randomly [[Villain Decay|depowering the character]], as it can keep him in the cast with his normal [[Power Level|power intact]]. Related tactics include [[Amnesia Danger]], [[Forgotten Phlebotinum]], and [[How Do I Shot Web?]]. This is the opposite of [[Eyepatch of Power]] and [[Disability Superpower]], where the handicap ''is'' the power. Almost every [[Enemy Civil War]] story is about this, as are a lot of [[Right Hand Versus Left Hand]] stories where the heroic factions would normally be able to beat the villains if they worked together.

 

{{examples}}

 

* Jun Misugi from ''[[Captain Tsubasa]]'' is both a brilliant player ''and'' the local [[Ill Girl|Ill Boy]].

* ''[[Bleach]]'': Orihime has the power to reject physical events in a manner characters in-universe have speculated to be akin to time-space manipulation or completely rejecting the reality of the event having ever happened. The only thing controlling this power is her personality. If she doesn't believe she can do something, she can't. If she doesn't think of trying something because she's been raised or led to believe it's impossible, she doesn't even think to try it. Her kill-attack is also kept under control by her personality which is unsuited to battle in the way other characters are {{spoiler|until she takes a third option and incorporates the kill attack into her much more powerful defensive shield, making it a pretty powerful [[Attack Reflector]] and marking her evolution from [[The Medic]] to [[Combat Medic]].}} In short, her state of mind is her major limit.

* In ''[[Ranma One Half]]'', Akane Tendo [[Game-Breaking Injury|injures her hand]] before fighting the [[Giant Mook|Dojo Destroyer]]. What should have been an easy battle for her (given the foe's fighting style) ends up putting her on the defensive, all to allow Ranma (who had run out on her earlier) to come back to help her and defeat the enemy in a single panel.

** Another deliberate instance (and even lampshaded) is found in the [[Martial Arts and Crafts|Martial Arts Rhythmic Gymnastics]] tournament. Normally, Ranma is far, far above Kodachi's league --but the rules of the sport state that contact without use of a tool is forbidden, and thus Ranma is restricted to the use of tools instead of his own style.

** Ranma's girl form sometimes counts, as Ranma is physically weaker as a girl. However it's usually also noted that he's faster that way too, and considering Ranma's specialty is speed, this doesn't come up unless he really needs that last extra bit of strength.

*** His biggest problem in the girl form is usually shorter reach, since as a girl his (her?) arms and legs are shorter.

* Pain vs. ''[[Naruto]]'' could have been considerably one sided in Pain's favor had he been allowed to kill Naruto instead of merely capture him alive.

** Similarly, Deidara holds back against Gaara, and except for one explosive he drops on the village to divert Gaara's attention, doesn't use many powerful bombs. When he goes up against Sasuke, whom he doesn't need to take alive, he uses powerful explosives while trying to kill him.

* Arcueid from ''[[Tsukihime]]'' suffered the [[Up to Eleven]] version of this--in the very first scene she appears in, she gets {{spoiler|sliced into 17 pieces}}. She did recover, but she's weakened enough that she needs {{spoiler|her "killer"'s}} help to fight.

* At one point in ''[[Gokusen]]'', [[Action Girl]] and [[Badass Teacher]] Komiko catches a nasty cold. Then she makes it worse by singlehandedly beating up an entire CLASS of delinquents (her own, incidentally). So when a repeat antagonist (whom she has swept the floor with twice already) suddenly pops up, she essentially collapses from the fever halfway through the battle.

** Bradley is over 60 and he's still that hard to beat. {{spoiler|Scar only won because he was half dead already.}} Not to mention {{spoiler|he WOULD have killed him if not for the sun, and even then [[Dying Moment of Awesome|he almost killed Scar by stabbing him using his broken sword held with his TEETH]].}}

** Envy's shape-shifting could have become a [[Story-Breaker Power]] in the more cloak-and-dagger portions of the plot, of which there are many. Good thing Envy doesn't pay much attention to detail... or have much control over [[Hair-Trigger Temper|its temper]] or [[Kick the Dog|its desire to punt puppies]].

* Goku from ''[[Saiyuki]]'' could beat nearly every enemy they have to fight if he took off his power limiter, however this also results in him attacking anything that moves. Hakkai too is very powerful without his limiters but can't remove them often thanks to the minus wave, and at least partly not wanting to.

* Mad hatter from ''[[Pandora Hearts]]'' would negate the rest of pandora completely as it can destroy anything from the abyss, however Break coughs up blood and keels over nearly everytime he uses it so he can't do it too often.

* ''[[Rurouni Kenshin]]'': Because Sanosuke would [[Curb Stomp Battle]] almost any opponent not at Kenshin or Saitou's level with his new technique, it manages to put immense strain on his hand so he has trouble facing foes weaker than he's been fighting.

* Pretty much everyone in ''[[Soul Eater]]'' has this. Black Star has his horrible showboating which prevents him from being a good assassin. Death the Kid has his symmetry fetish. Stein has his insanity. Free, who is an immortal werewolf with the eye of the most powerful witch alive manages to stop himself in his first appearance, not to mention purposefully getting himself locked up in prison for 200 years. Shinigami is tied to one spot.... The list is pretty much endless...

* Kazuya, arguably the main protagonist of ''[[Freezing]]'' has the unique ability to use talents like a [[Barrier Warrior|Limiter]] without... well, limitations, including dispelling other Limiter's Freezing abilities and applying his own, which... well, freezes just about anyone in place. Unlike every other Limiter, he does not need to be linked to a [[Hot Amazon]] Pandora in order to use his abilities. Moreover, his power is considered significantly stronger than any other Limiter shown thus far, overpowering top-ranked and multiple limiters at any time. This should allow him to settle just about any problem in an instant, but he constantly seems to forget his powers even exist, to the point it drastically affects the storyline. And that's when he's around or left conscious during a fight.

* In ''[[Pokémon Special]]'', [[The Medic|Yellow]], among her arsenal of powers, can [[Super Empowering|boost her Pokemon's strength by roughly fifty levels]]. There are two reasons why she's unable to curb stomp anyone in her way: 1) [[Achilles Heel|using her powers makes her drowsy rather quickly]] and 2) she has to be properly motivated. As she is a [[Martial Pacifist]] who prefers healing to fighting, this comes rather hard to her.

 

 

* [[Batman]] pretty much ''is'' this trope. Think of how often he comes into contact with all sorts of alien technology, high-tech outfit technology, and super-scientists with all sorts of awesome nonlethal crimefighting gadgets...and consider that he still uses mostly what he can make himself. He's either incredibly arrogant or incredibly thick in order to perpetuate the [[Rule of Drama]].

** One reason given for this is that Batman doesn't want to rely on something that he doesn't know that won't go out of control. Alien technology can be manipulated by aliens, foreign tech could be a trap, and if anything happened to that tech he would be at a serious disadvantage. And given that he's a billionaire, he could make anything that he needs.

** The real reason becomes especially evident when the villains with Superman's powers, who have no reason to hold back, also face the same problem.

* [[Spawn]] has a suit of Necroplasm that pretty much lets him do anything. However, he's only got 9999 units of power, and when they're gone, he's dragged to hell. When the creators stopped keeping track of how much power he had left, it became an [[Informed Flaw]] and drama was no longer preserved.

** The exact same thing also happens in the book, but the fact that it's related to the other characters after the fact rather than being described in the narrative prevents it from functioning as a [[Drama-Preserving Handicap]].

* ''[[Superman Returns]]'' had Luthor threaten Superman and the lives of everyone in the North Atlantic with a [[Apocalypse How|Type 0-1]] disaster by creating a giant Kryptonite island, stabbing supes with Kryptonite (and lodging a piece of it inside of him), letting his goons beat him up, and finally [[Left for Dead|dumping him into the ocean.]] Yet still, Supes manages to lob the island into space and fly back to a Metropolis ICU. It's [[Like You Would Really Do It|arguable whether this worked for the viewers]].

* In ''[[Return of the Jedi]]'', the plan is to stop the completion of the second Death Star. When it all goes to hell, it's revealed that the Death Star's [[Wave Motion Gun|superlaser]] is already operational, at which point it starts picking off the Rebel Alliance's capital ships one shot at a time. Lando Calrissian then suggests engaging the Imperial Fleet directly in ship-to-ship combat, correctly guessing that the Death Star would hold its fire to avoid destroying friendly ships.

* In ''[[Rocky Balboa]]'' the odds of the fight between the current champ, the youngster Mason Dixon and the pushing "50" Italian Stallion is evened when Dixon breaks his dominant hand in the second round. Dixon chooses to put his career at risk and has to go the distance with a star that's [[Clap Your Hands If You Believe|powered by a chanting crowd of baby boomers]]

 

 

 

== Live Action TV ==

** In Season 6, Willow's power grows immensely, way before she {{spoiler|nearly destroys the world}}. But in Season 7, where she could use it to solve many if not most of the Scoobies' problems, she {{spoiler|won't because she was afraid of the dark power}}.

*** Willow was pretty powerful in Season 7, but the reason she was so powerful at the end of Season 6 was because {{spoiler|she absorbed a metric fuckton of magic and transformed into her [[Super-Powered Evil Side]]}}. Without that, she wasn't much stronger then at the end of Season 5, when she could barely manage to hurt [[Physical God|Glory]].

** A particularly satisfying example was the demon known as the Judge, whose DPH was disguised as an ancient threat: [[No Man of Woman Born|"no weapon forged can kill him."]] {{spoiler|As Buffy points out, "That was then; this is now." And she blows him apart with a rocket launcher.}}

*** Technically that still held true. He was blown up but didn't die. Were his pieces to be put back together he could reassemble and carry on. Angel took a piece of the Judge to a place where the Sun is always shining so that no vampires could get it.

** Sylar got hit with this one, too; being powerless for the whole second season (we ultimately find out it's due to a virus). He's better as of season 3, but [[Word of God]] says that he lost all the extra powers he had up to that point (keeping only telekinesis) and had to start acquiring new powers from scratch.

 

 

 

== Video Games ==

* ''[[World of Warcraft]]'' often does this to justify players being able to kill a certain [[Big Bad]]. Some raid bosses have been weakened by another force, sometimes NPC's join the fight on the players' side, and some quests give you an item that will turn an elite mob into a normal one.

** Many of the hardmodes and achievements require you not to activate the handicap and still win the fight.

 

 

== [[Web Comics]] ==

** Ultra-powerful post-splice Vaarsuvius is literally the most powerful mage to have ever existed...as long as he/she holds on to the splices. Good thing one of them slips away BEFORE the elf goes to fight the [[Big Bad]], Xykon, or else the series would have ended in a curb stomp.

** Also happens repeatedly during [[Evil Counterpart|Linear Guild]] confrontations, as [[Lampshade Hanging|lampshaded]] by Roy [http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0834.html here]. Roy seems to be outright [[Defied Trope|defying]] the trope in that comic, but it ends up being played straight again a dozen strips later, when the Linear Guild attacks immediately after Vaarsuvius is incapacitated by a trap.

== Western Animation ==

* In ''[[Danny Phantom]]'', Danny uses the [[Power Nullifier|specter deflector]] on Vlad to weaken him to make it a fair fight. Later episodes show them pummeling each other on equal terms due to Danny's [[Character Development]].

** He did receive a major buff at ''[[Justice League]]'' season 2, since so many fans complained he became a superwimp. He can still be physically exhausted (see "Secret Society") but it takes a LOT more effort.

** And of course it was eventually revealed that he was [[World of Cardboard Speech|inhibited the whole time]] out of [[Your Worst Nightmare|fear of hurting others]].