Weaksauce Weakness: Difference between revisions

** His [[Accidental Marriage|fiancee]] [[Cute Bruiser|Shampoo]] and his main rival Ryoga Hibiki have an even worse case of the water weakness than Ranma does; Jusenkyo made them become a [[Baleful Polymorph|little kitten and miniature pig]] respectively when splashed with cold water. So they go from incredibly powerful fighters to harmless little animals whose only recourse is to run or hide until they can get some hot water. Genma Saotome, Ranma's father, pretty much subverts it; his panda form loses little, if any, speed and agility while gaining in strength and toughness due to the increased [[Stout Strength|bulk]]. Mousse, meanwhile, seesaws between subverting this trope and playing it straight with his duck curse; while it is much smaller, weaker and can't use his physical attacks, it can fly and he's still capable of throwing barrages of knives, darts and bombs in it.

*** And a non-water version applies to [[Old Master|Happosai]], who is such a [[Dirty Old Man]] that his perversion becomes his own Achilles heel. If there is a fight serious enough, or a reward great enough, that he can't be immediately distracted from whatever he was doing by the sight of girls in skimpy clothing, bare cleavage or a bra, it hasn't come up in the series. He can even be lured right into dangers simply by tossing a bra in the right place.

* Natsu from ''[[Fairy Tail]]'' is [[Made of Iron]], he can breathe fire and cause [[Person of Mass Destruction|massive property damage simply by punching someone]], but he too suffers from the ignominious suspectibility to ''transportation''. At least once it was actually exploited to defeat him in battle.

** This motion sickness seems to extend to being carried by people, as well. He's perfectly fine being taken to flight by Happy the cat, however, reasoning that Happy isn't a vehicle. [[Fridge Logic|So Lucy is?]]

* In ''[[Naruto]]'', Konan of the Akatsuki is, like all members of that group, very powerful. Yet her [[Paper Master|paper-based techniques]] can be completely nullified by spraying oil on her to make her stick together (a technique one human ninja and some summoned toads have), although water can release her.

* Adam Blade from ''[[NEEDLESS]]'' has a weakness for little girls, and usually ended up getting his butt kicked because of this. Though later in the manga his weakness had developed from mere lolis to naked lolis. In the other hand, his love for lolis can temporally boost his strength and saves him from a [[Lotus Eater Machine]], so it's subverted.

{{quote|{{spoiler|'''Nightmare''': Aaaah! How did Kirby discover the secret?! That pitiful little Star Warrior has found my only weakness! I am helpless against the power of the Star Rod! [[Death Cry Echo|WAAAAUUUUGGGGHHH!!!!]]}}}}

* The Dai Gurren in ''[[Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann]]'' is a walking battleship...that is not designed to go on water. A ''battleship'' that ''isn't designed to go on water''.

* From 1966 superhero parody ''[[Rat Pfink A Boo Boo]]'': "Remember, Boo Boo, we have only one weakness... bullets."

* Like the Dalek example given below, in the 1987 movie [[RoboCop]], the killer robot ED-209 chasing the titular character was taken out of play simply by trying to chase [[RoboCop]] down stairs that its chicken-walker legs were ill-suited to negotiate.

* Derek [[Zoolander]] can't turn left until his [[Big Damn Heroes]] moment. (Though continuity nitpicks will note that he does turn left (relative to himself, though not the camera) while in disguise while trying to retrieve Maury's computer.)

* ''[[The Spiderwick Chronicles]]'' provides a literal weak''[[Incredibly Lame Pun|sauce]]'' weakness: Tomato sauce is corrosive to goblins. (This was not in the original book.)

** [[The Musical]] adaptation of ''[[Wicked (theatre)|Wicked]]'' openly mocks the entire idea of water melting the Witch. {{spoiler|Elphaba uses this urban legend about herself to fake her own death at Dorothy's hands.}}

* The weakness from ''[[The Wonderful Wizard of Oz]]'' is spoofed in the ''[[Enchanted Forest Chronicles]]'', where evil wizards can be melted with water—but only with soap and lemon juice added. The good witch Morwen, on the other hand, explicitly does not melt. It is later theorized that this might be because the wizards never shower while Morwen is something of a neat-freak. Eventually, the heroes refined this into a one word spell with the same effect. One very memorable word, too: {{spoiler|Argelfraster}}!

* The Boggart in ''[[Harry Potter/Harry Potter and The Prisoner of Azkaban|Harry Potter]]'' seems to be almost an incarnation of this trope. A Boggart will materialize in the form of a person's worst fear (though exactly what that means is debatable). The way to repel one is to forcibly imagine the fearsome thing as something ridiculous, and then laugh at it.

** Alternatively, the Boggart can't handle trying to frighten more than one person at once, as attempts to materialize into more than one person's fear results in things such as the "half a slug" incident. This is why Lupin advissed his students not to face a Boggart alone (combined with the above reason).

* In ''[[The Wheel of Time]]'', channelers are people and therefore are vulnerable to all the things that squishy humans are (though they can do things to help offset that). However, they are particularly vulnerable to Forkroot tea. In normal humans, it's harmless, if at most a mild sedative. In channelers it cuts off their ability to use their magic and knocks them out.

* In Nick Perumov's novel ''Diamond Sword Wooden Sword'', magic-users are vulnerable to the herb swamp crower. Its smoke makes everybody cough, but magic-users also temporarily lose their powers.

* The kids in the ''[[Goosebumps]]'' book ''How To Kill A Monster'' have to figure out exactly how to do that. Falling three stories doesn't stop him nor does poisoning a pie. Luckily, there's a [[Deus Ex Machina]] way out. {{spoiler|the monster dies after they confirm their humans, as he's allergic.}}

* Iron against the chaos mages in the ''[[Saga of Recluce]]''. Even the strongest bolt of chaos fire can be stopped cold by a thin sheet of iron, and the more powerful a chaos mage is the more they're hurt by iron, to the point that what for anyone else would be [[Only a Flesh Wound]] will be a [[One-Hit Kill]] for an experienced chaos mage.

** In another episode the Captain finds an ancient Vulcan artifact believed to be some kind of superweapon. By that time he has realised its critical weakness—it can only kill people who have violent thoughts. Remaining calm renders it ineffective—even Worf is able to counter it using this method.

* On ''[[All That]]'', the character Superdude... is lactose-intolerant. Even throwing milk ''on'' him will send him to the ground, disabled. So of course, the bulk of his rogues' gallery is dairy-related: Butter Boy, Yo-Girl, Cow-Boy, the Dairy Godfather, & his [[Arch Nemesis]] Milkman. {{spoiler|His one foe without quick access to lactose, the Evil Superdude, gets a [[Nice Job Breaking It, Hero]] moment when confused bystanders use a pitcher of milk to tell the two apart.}}

* The alien "Gua" in ''[[First Wave]]'' turn out to be badly affected by salt. It affects them roughly like heroin affects humans. One episode featured renegade Gua hiding out in a derelict building snorting packets of McDonald's salt. Of course, this is the same series where the hero fought the alien invasion using the lost diaries of Nostradamus, so...

** Technically, we never see an actual Gua. They're husks - cloned human/Gua hybrids. it's entirely possible that actual Gua are immune to salt but happen to be crappy genetic engineers.

 

== Tabletop Games ==

** Not as good as it sounds: At the Demilich scale of power, Shatter deals very little damage. Besides, demiliches are both very powerful spellcasters and extremely intelligent, so it's very likely that it'll just whip up a spell that offers protection from sonic damage.

** Persistent Spell and Globe of Immunity (both easily learnable by anyone capable of becoming a demilich) renders this tactic completely impossible. It renders the caster completely immune to Shatter (along with any 4th rank or lower spell) for 24 hours per casting. Any caster is going to have numerous methods of defending against Dispel, so removing this spell might end up being more difficult than just directly killing him.

*** Inversely, Shedinja is an extremely viable option in the Legendary/Uber arena, in that most of the commonly used Legendary Pokemon have no moves that can penetrate Wonder Guard. For example, the near-almighty Kyogre will be generated most of the time with no powers that can hit Shedinja, letting the tiny bug [[Death of a Thousand Cuts|cut him to death]]. If you can take out the one or two (at most) Pokemon that could beat Shedinja, you've practically assured yourself a victory.

** There's also Paras and Parasect, who in the first generation had ''three'' [[Attack Its Weak Point|Super Effective]] weaknesses (Parasect is also incredibly slow). One of their new abilities in the fourth generation gives Parasect what is essentially a ''five'' fold weakness to Fire. Parasect also gets a 100% accuracy sleep move, which is potentially the most powerful status-inducing move in the game, so the Weaksauce Weakness was likely added to keep it from being a [[Game Breaker]].

** Several moves and other things introduced in the fourth generation of the games can cause examples of this trope. One of the most hilarious: a Grass-type move called Grass Knot that is said to work by tripping the opponent, and does more damage the heavier the opponent is. The result of this is that the heaviest Pokemon in existence, the Ground-type [http://bulbapedia.bulbagarden.net/wiki/Groudon Groudon], can often be ''tripped to death in one hit'' by something as small as a [http://bulbapedia.bulbagarden.net/wiki/Pichu Pichu].

** Dragons are weak to Ice-type moves. This means that pseudo-legendaries like Salamence and Garchomp can be taken out in one hit by an Ice Beam from a Cloyster.

*** In the Prinny games, said weakness can be exploited ''[[Hilarious in Hindsight|by a Prinny]]'' against some particular enemy Prinnies.

* In ''[[Elite Beat Agents]]'', an alien species known as the "Rhombulans" come to Earth and ban music because they're scared of it. Then the agents come and get everybody in the world to dance to Hoobastank and the Rolling Stones.

* The final boss of ''[[Final Fantasy Tactics]]'', {{spoiler|St. Ajora}}, is incredibly weak to {{spoiler|the Oracle spells of Drain and Osmose, the two easiest spells to acquire for the class}}. The AI even actively hones in on characters using it {{spoiler|by outright killing them if able, or depleting all their magic if not}}. However, even a single Chemist is enough to counter these effects, and you can merely have the rest of the party wail on the final boss without it even bothering them for an easy victory.

* Two of the three final bosses of the ''[[MOTHER]]'' series are established as ridiculously powerful, perhaps even immortal, up until the final fight. {{spoiler|Giegue/Giygas from Mother is forced to retreat because of the emotions of song, and Claus/Masked Man from Mother 3 dies by killing himself due to brotherly love.}}

** The Tengu can be calmed down from going berzerk by causing it to rain.

** The [[Big Bad]] is weak to {{spoiler|sunlight}}, but then again, {{spoiler|he ''is'' a god of Darkness}}.

* In ''[[Devil Survivor]]'', the Nigh-Indestructible enemy Beldr is only harmed by Devil's Fuge {{spoiler|AKA Mistletoe, which the only thing made of said plant you can get your hands on is a ''cellphone strap'' that is only made in the image of mistletoe}}. Makes up for it by being [[That One Boss]] of the game, but still a rather undignified weakness—but [[Justified Trope|justified]], due to [[Norse Mythology|the boss's background origin]].

* An odd case in ''[[Tales of Phantasia]]'', which isn't a conventional weakness, but more of a developer’s oversight. The [[Bonus Boss]] of the [[Bonus Dungeon]], Pluto, only has physical attacks, and one ridiculously long charging special attack, all of which have insane amounts of damage behind them, but must be used at close range. The first skill the main character ever learns is a long range, one SP cost move called Demon Fang', which ''instantly pushes pluto back and flinches him''. Hence, a [[Bonus Boss]] battle where the heroes stay on oneside and nuke the poor guy and the lead constantly pelts him with Demon Fangs, while the boss sits on the other side of the screen defenseless.

* Kanbari in ''[[Shin Megami Tensei]]: [[Strange Journey]]'' is weak to physical attacks, and each hit against him generally results in a cooperative attack with your allies. To be fair, he's the god of the toilet, so players are right not to expect much.

** Be careful, however - Kanbari ''does'' know Tetrakarn (which reflects physical attacks).

* Kratos from ''[[Tales of Symphonia]]'''s weakness is tomatoes.

** Every playable character in the game has a least favorite food in the same way - Kratos' is just the only one that became [[Memetic Mutation|memetic]], probably because he's so stoic as to become [[The Comically Serious]]. It's not like they can ever get used against him in battle or anything.

* Hooktail, the boss of Chapter 1 in ''[[Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door]]'', has a weakness to things that start with "cr" and end with "icket". {{spoiler|This is because she ate some crickets a long time ago prior to the game's events, and the sound of crickets became so unbearable to her that she never wanted to eat a single cricket again. Equipping a certain badge that makes a cricket sound lowers her attack power and her defense drastically, making her easier to defeat.}}

{{quote|'''Hooktail''': Bleck! That awful sound! It... sounds like a {{spoiler|cricket}}! How did you know?}}

* The Pork Trooper in ''[[Mother 3]]'' has a weakness to {{spoiler|DCMC stuff, which makes him waste turns staring jealously at it.}}

* ''[[Touhou]]'': In ''Immaterial and Missing Power'', Patchouli tells Youmu that she ought to be weak to fire since she's (half) an undead. Youmu replies that it doesn't apply to ghosts. In the end her '''human''' half turns out to be weak fire, but then again who isn't?.

* Not exactly canon for ''[[Darkwing Duck (animation)|Darkwing Duck]]'''s mythos, but when he retells his origins in "The Secret Origin of Darkwing Duck," he describes meeting another hero whose weakness is Coo-koo Cola. She winds up falling into a vat of the stuff at a factory and, well ... adds to the Disney series' death count.

** There's also Comet Guy ([[Super Weight]]: 3), whose [[Achilles' Heel]] is that every time he hears the sound of a bell, he starts dancing mindlessly until he hears a whistle. His intellect might also count, but frankly it probably can't even do 2+2.

** There's also all the various "Da Rules" which prevent them from undoing some of the more disastrous wishes, but do nothing to stop them from getting into these situations to begin with. One thinks an "I wish that no wishes that will somehow prevent me from ''undoing'' those wishes can be cast" wish might save a lot of trouble.

* The alien jellyfish in the ''[[SpongeBob SquarePants]]'' episode, "Planet of the Jellyfish", dissolve into puddles of goop upon contact with mayonnaise.

{{quote|'''The Tick''': "And that's just it, Doc - my mind has always been my Achilles' heel!"}}

** Also if you can get rid of the feelers on his head (As The Terror was able to do with his Wish Machine) The Tick completely loses his equilibrium and can't even keep his balance.

* Several characters from ''[[CatDog]]'' refer to this trope as "Porkfat", named after the weaksauce weakness of the in-universe movie character, Mean Bob.

* ''[[Bureau of Alien Detectors]]'': When making an unstoppable zombie army, it's a good idea to ensure that the one thing that will kill them doesn't exist naturally in the atmosphere. {{spoiler|Oxygen.}}