Weaksauce Weakness: Difference between revisions

'''Raj''': Great. So I can take them both out with a number 2 pencil|'''''[[The Big Bang Theory]]'''''}}

* ''[[Super Dimension Fortress Macross]]'' has an alien attack force made up of gigantic [[Scary Dogmatic Aliens]] who are a [[Proud Warrior Race Guy|proud warrior race]] do a mass [[Mook Face Turn]] because of... singing. And souvenirs. In fairness, it does make sense in the story (at least as much as ''[[War of the Worlds]]'' Martian{{'s}} Martians being vulnerable to Earth's diseases) and is perhaps one of the best logical conclusions to a typical alien's [[Planet of Hats]] treatment. The aliens have no culture to speak of other than fighting, so when exposed to humans and their culture in the form of songs and interacting with the other gender after sending a team of spies to the SDF-1, typical Zentradi start feeling emotions, questioning their purpose, and [[What Measure Is a Non-Human?|becoming similar to humans.]] Because of this, their entire fleet gets deemed "contaminated" by the unexposed Zentradi and programmed for destruction. In the face of this [[Enemy Civil War]], they wisely choose to ally with the humans. Still, it doesn't quite wash away the faint air of ridiculousness when Minmay's singing becomes an ''offensive weapon'' to unbalance the unexposed Zentradi in their attack.

** Those who consider Minmei [[The Scrappy]] half-jokingly argue the Zentradei were distracted by her singing because [[Dreadful Musician|it was so bad]] in the ''[[Robotech]]'' dub.

*** Taken to even greater extremes in ''[[Macross 7]]'' where the spirit draining Protodevilins's only weakness is actually the ''energy'' produced by music. It produces a spiritual energy "too pure for them to absorb" and regenerates the lost energy in those drained by them.

** The use of Minmei's voice as a weapon is actually short-lived: while the Zentradi were initially too distracted to react, as soon as the heroes opened fire they started firing back. The real decisive weapon in that engagement was Minmei kissing Kaifun: the Zentradi were so disgusted they stopped fighting effectively, trying absolutely anything to erase the image from their minds, including firing in the middle of nowhere (a Zentradi heavy cruiser was observed doing exactly this as Hikaru locked his nukes on it) and listening Minmei's songs. Incidentally, ''Macross 7'' shows us that Minmei's registered songs have absolutely no effect on unexposed Meltrandi (the FEMALE''female'' Zentradi) that just ignore them (partly because they had the common sense to just jam the frequencies used to broadcast them), but BASARA''Basara's'' songs made them groupies the very moment he managed to get them to hear him. It baffled a [[General Ripper|UN Spacy higher up]], who had assumed the Meltrandi would just jam the broadcast (both times the Minmei tactic had been seen used had been with broadcasts the enemy didn't jam for a reason or the other).

* The titular hero[[Gender Bender|(ine)]] of ''[[Ranma ½]]'' can be incapacitated by [[Why Did It Have to Be Snakes?|the mere sight of a cute little kitten]]. However, those who attempt this should note to apply said weakness quickly and forcefully—prolonged, intense exposure has a tendency to [[Unstoppable Rage|backfire]]. Thanks to his [[Gender Bender]] curse, [[Kill It with Water|cold water]] can also count as a weakness. Technically. Ranma's female form has less strength and reach than his male form (though the anime is explicit that Ranma's speed is boosted in this form, so it's more of a trade), but s/he can still pull off all of his/her normal attacks. Based on a character with an identical curse, it's also possible that being in female form weakens his [[Ki Attacks]].

* My name is [[Cromartie High School|Yutaka Takenouchi]], and I have only one weakness ... I am VERY''very'' susceptible to motion sickness!

* 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 suspectibilitysusceptibility to ''transportation''. At least once it was actually exploited to defeat him in battle.

*** According to Rogue, ALL''all DRAGONdragon SLAYERSslayers'' suffer from this.

<nowiki>*</nowiki>Pride attacks* }}

* Emperor Nightmare, the leader of Nightmare Enterprises (Holy Nightmare Co. in the Japanese version) in the ''[[Kirby: Right Back at Ya!|Kirby anime]]'', is weak against AND''and'' afraid of {{spoiler|one weapon that Kirby can take control of by swallowing his Warp Star: the Star Rod.}}

* Saiyans, a race of savage and brutal warriors from ''[[DragonDragonball BallZ]] Z'' can be easily neutralized by grabbing their tails. They can be trained to overcome this weakness though.

* In the manga ''[[Fukashigi Philia]]'', the villain Shidow is extremely fearful towards water to the point if he gets in contact with it, he will go berserk and have his abilities neutralized.

* From the manga ''[[Kenichi: The Mightiest Disciple]]'', we have Akisame Koetsuji, the Jujutsu Philosopher. Master martial artist, a doctor so skilled he can raise the recently dead, and [[The Ace|master of a bazillion and six other fields]]. He's one of Kenichi's six super-powerful masters... and green peppers make him so ill that he can be held at bay simply by hanging one outside his door.

* The greater the power, the weaker the sauce! Marvel's latest{{when}} and most prominent Superman [[Captain Ersatz|pastiche]] is theSentrythe Sentry, a "golden guardian of good" who's pretty much as powerful as he lets himself be. However, he's also agroaphobic—he can't stand being outside. If you also so much as ''remind him'' of his little [[Dark Side]] problem, he'll fly off to Saturn and cry. Or revert to human form. Or, if he's ''really'' unlucky, let the Void out—and suddenly things will look a whole lot better for the bad guys.

** In FirestormsFirestorm's case, his weakness was probably imposed to prevent the [[Nightmare Fuel]] implications of his powers being used on living people and animals. Since [[Blackest Night]] eventually provided us with a very memorable example of just ''how scary'' his powers could actually be, maybe it was for the best that [[Think of the Children|writers watered him down early on]].

* [http://marvel.wikia.com/Kallark_(Earth-616) Gladiator,] [[Flying Brick|Praetor]] of the Shi'ar Imperial Guard. [[Super Strength|Strong]] enough to shatter planets. Able to fly at [[Faster-Than-Light Travel|many times the speed of light.]] Can withstand the heat of a star or the blast of a supernova. His eyes can emit beams of unimaginable heat, and they can see particles on a subatomic level. Truly a being of such infinite power can only be defeated by... making him feel bad about himself.

* [[Zatanna]] is one of the DC Universe's top magic users, but, because she needs to verbalize her spells, she can be rendered helpless if she's made unable to speak, which led to her being frequently (especially in her early days) [[Bound and Gagged]] [[Fetish Fuel|(not that there's anything wrong with that)]]. Recent{{when}} comics have come up with creative ways to work with this, such as a recent Batman comic where the Joker shot her in the throat so she couldn't talk, but she managed to write a spell in her blood, or something.

* Despite having an incredibly powerful sonic scream, gagging [[Black Canary]] could effectively disable it, despite the fact the Canary Cry theoretically should be able to break through any cloth. That too, has decreased in recent{{when}} years, although Deathstroke found an, “[[Does This Remind You of Anything?|interesting]]” way to silence her in an issue of ''[[Green Arrow]]''.

* When he first appeared, Loki of ''[[The Mighty Thor]]'' had one-he couldn't use his powers when wet/in contact with water. Against Thor, who could easily make it rain. No wonder this is ignored now.

== [[Fan FictionWorks]] ==

* Not even a [[God Mode Sue]] like Ronan of ''[[Naruto Veangance Revelaitons]]'' is immune, as he and {{spoiler|Sasuke}} suffer great pain and are incapacitated if they hear music they don't like (Top 40 music and music the author likes, respectively) or something that goes against their religious beliefs (Bible verses and the works of Richard Dawkins, respectively). Madara is also allergic to cats, enabling him to get beaten up by some of his [[Catgirl]] [[Mook]]s after [[Sex Face Turn|Ronan has sex with them]], [[Mook Face Turn|resulting in their]] [[Heel Face Turn|switching to his side]].

*** It was also a psychological weakness: he had almost drowned once as a child (probably due to the a fore mentionedaforementioned bone density), an event so traumatic he blocked it from his memory. That would make anyone nervous around water, even if they couldn't remember why.

* The Bioraptors (also called '"Demons'") of ''[[Pitch Black]]'' had a similar weakness to light. Though this actually worked, as most of the movie was during a solar eclipse and they broke their flashlights. Oddly enough, the creatures are shown moving about in the light, albeit cautiously, before the eclipse. Compare this to later on, when a lighter is enough to make them run away...

* The same thing appeared in ''[[Attack of the The Eye Creatures]]''. Although, in this case, it was more because [[They Just Didn't Care]] (and because it was an almost word for word remake of ''Invasion of the Saucer Men'').

** [[Your Mileage May Vary]] on whether FIRE''fire'' is a Weaksauce Weakness, considering how many things are affected by it.

** Rendered especially silly by the fact that if you've ever been to Egypt, you'll know that there are stray cats absolutely EVERYWHERE''everywhere'', meaning that all the heroes had to do was go downstairs and grab some.

* From 1966 superhero parody ''[[Rat PfinkFink 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.

* The [[Supercop]] in ''[[Super Fuzz]]'' has super speed, super strength, invulnerability, telekinesis and so on, but he completely loses his powers when he sees the color red (probably a nod to GL and his vulnerability to yellow): a red traffic light, a red flower, a red ribbon, and he's harmless.

* The Psychlo homeworld of ''[[Battlefield Earth]]'' can be blown to (relatively) tiny bits with a nuclear explosion. You'd think that is substantial enough to bypass the Weaksauce bit, but remember that this is a ''[[Sci-Fi Writers Have No Sense of Scale|PLANETplanet]]''. It'd be like a human exploding in a smear of gore after stubbing their toe.

* In ''[[Monty Python and the Holy Grail]]'', the Knights Who Say Ni can't stand to hear the word {{spoiler|"it"}}.

* As is the usual with horror movie monsters, the 1973 [[Blaxploitation]] movie titular character [[Blackenstein]] was [[Immune to Bullets]], fists, and blunt objects—traits which, when added to his [[Super Strength]], seemingly made him all but unstoppable. What is it that finally laid the mighty monster low? The primal forces of nature themselves or divine intervention? No. The police sicced the hounds on him. That's it. Doberman Pinscher fangs trump bullets, apparently.

* ''[[Mad Max]] Beyond Thunderdome]]''. Blaster is the immense Dragon to Master. According to people who want him dead and have been hunting for the right assassin to get the job done, "He can kill most men with his breath." His weakness: he can't stand high pitched noises. Max discovers this when the car alarm on his vehicle renders Blaster into a writhing, screaming, mess- and promptly figures out that his old [[Chekhov's Gun|police whistle]] can have the same effect.

* The [[Ninja Pirate Zombie Robot|undead mutant warrior things]] from [[The Eighties|the 80's80s]] flick ''[[Neon Maniacs]]'' are virtually invulnerable except, like many other things on this list, they can be [[Kill It with Water|dissolved with a squirt gun.]]

* The goblins from ''[[Troll 2]]'' are defeated when Joshua eats a double-decker bologna sandwich in front of them during the film's climax. They literally can't come within 20 feet of you after you eat 2two bites of bologna.

* ''[[Ernest Scared Stupid]]''{{'}}s titular monsters are these trolls, who legend speaks of them being weak to... milk.

* In ''[[The Traveler]]'', the only way to counter Mr Nobody is actually by {{spoiler|letting him hear his real full name}}, which will make him lose powers and become vulnerable to physical attacks. Kinda makes sense for him to conceal his identity throughout the film.

* The book ''[[Wicked (novel)|Wicked]]'', a [[Fanfic|parallel novel based on]] ''[[The Wonderful Wizard of Oz]]'', explores the Wicked Witch of the West's weakness to its entirety, explaining that since birth, exposing her skin to water hurt her, so she had to clean herself with oil and find creative solutions for things which normally involve using water. When she cries, it's like acid flowing down her face. Weakness to water could be the result of the unexplored concept of being "a daughter of the dragon". Its also implied that if Elphaba had ever come into the fullness of her powers, water would cease to be a true threat to her (at one point she instinctively freezes a lake, allowing her to cross it unharmed).

** 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 advissedadvised his students not to face a Boggart alone (combined with the above reason).

*** Discworld vampires play this trope in a weird, [[All Myths Are True]] way. ALL''All'' weaknesses you might have ever heard of apply to SOME''some'' vampire, but you may have to do trial and error to find out which ones apply to the particular one who's trying to eat you right now. There are also a few with psychological problems that compel them to do things that directly address their particular weakness (such as the vampire flash photographer who works for The Truth, who has a weakness to bright light, and the one who worked at such jobs as pencil maker, garlic stacker, and whole-sale holy water clerk).

** Discworld bogeymen are incredibly strong, reasonably nasty, and some of them can teleport to some extent. Their vunerability is that they're ridiculously succeptable to [[Clap Your Hands If You Believe]]. If you can get your head under a blanket, then you believe you're safe from the bogeyman and therefore you are. If you can get the ''bogeyman''{{'}}s head under a blanket, he goes into "existiental shock", since he no longer believes he exists.

* In ''[[Worldwar]]'', the invading reptilian aliens called '"The Race'" had an immense weakness to ... ginger. Not only was it an incredibly addictive narcotic, but it also made the females produce sexual pheromones outside of the normal fertility cycles, turning exposed members of The Race into crackheaded sex fiends. When the humans attacked Race-occupied Australia, they used missiles armed with warheads ''packed with powdered ginger''.

** Even before they discover ginger's effect on the Race females, they find that not only does is it extremely addictive to the lizards, but it also causes them to temporarily feel nigh-invincible - not a good trait for an infantryman, a tank crew commander, or a fighter jet pilot.

* In ''[[Bystander (novel)||Bystander]]'' Lucretcia won the [[Superpower Lottery]]. But, she has two big weaknesses. First, she is weak against hot weather. A warm summer day means she can't leave the air-conditioned car, or she'll blister instantly. Two, she sucks at using her powers. Especially fighting. Being as strong as Superman isn't much use when you can't HIT''hit'' the opponent!

* Bram Stoker's Literature''[[Dracula (novel)|Dracula]]'' averts most of the popular traditional weaknesses; for example, he can't be killed by most conventional means, and can use his shapeshifting powers during dawn, noon, and dusk. However, he does have unique weaknesses; he can only cross running water during high or low tide (this amounts to 12 hours and 25 minutes per day), needs to keep a small amount of Transylvanian soil in his home, and needs to be invited inside before he can enter a building (considering this is Victorian era England and he is a noble, this is pretty much a non-matter).

* [[Mercedes Lackey]] has fun [[Playing with a Trope|playing with]] the iron weakness of fae; in her ''[[SERRAted Edge]]'' book series, the good elves not only use their skills as ''race car mechanics'' to work up a tolerance to iron (while at the same time developing aluminum engine blocks), but also gladly use the metal to shield themselves from enemy elf attacks. It's also noted that elf magic goes haywire in the presence of iron. In the same series, however, she plays the Trope straight in that her elves have a powerful vulnerability to caffeine.

* In the first book of [[Anne McCaffrey]]'s ''[[Tower and The Hive]]'' series, ''The Rowan'',<ref>Technically the second, after ''[[To Ride Pegsus]]'', but most fans consider ''The Rowan'' the first of the series proper</ref> Prime-level [[Psychic Powers|Talents]] could not travel off-planet, due to Travel Sickness - a severe form of vertigo. They later found out that this wasn't the case, but the older Primes consider it a phobia, rather than a medical condition.

* A secondary canon ''[[Star Trek]]'' novel (''World Without End'') describes Vulcans as being extremely vulnerable to cold, sufficient exposure to Earth's winters can kill them much faster than the exposure can kill a human. When staying on Earth briefly with his mother's family as a boy, Spock has to be completely bundled up whenever he is walking outside in the snow.

** In the show, Kryptonite is so common that Clark would almost be better off powerless. Especially problematic in the earlier years when his "monsters of the week" got their powers FROM''from'' kryptonite.

* The ''[[Star Trek: The Original Series|classic]] ''[[Star Trek]]'' episode "Day of the Dove" features an [[Energy Beings|Energy Being]] which feeds on negative emotions, and so causes total chaos on the Enterprise by provoking conflict in order to feed on it. Kirk eventually figures out that the alien can be driven off by ''peace''.

* 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, &and 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.}}

* Sportacus, the superhero of ''[[LazyTown]]'' becomes helpless if he eats things with '''sugar''', like candy. However it may be that he's actually weak to chemicals ''added'' to sugar, as he can eat (and in fact gets stronger) from eating '''fruits''', which contain ''natural'' sugars.

* In ''[[Rock-Paper-Scissors]]'', Rock's ultimate weakness is ''Paper'' (which covers Rock). The other two (Rock breaks Scissors and Scissors cut Paper) at least make sense.

** A demilich has gained such power in magic that it barely has a physical body anymore, only a portion, usually the hand or head, loaded with tiny gems which contain bits of their old body and act as anchors for their soul. They can absorb anything's soul by simply touching it, by definition have mastered lots of nasty spells, and are totally immune to all magic except heavy-duty holy magic. The one exception? A simple little 2nd level spell called Shatter, that '''destroys crystalline objects.''' Whoops.

*** ''[[Dark Sun]]'' has ranike tree, smoke of which is a repellent for all sorts of insects and insectoids, including abundant monstrous species and sapient [[Multi-Armed and Dangerous|kreen]].

* In ''[[GURPS]]'' the disadvantage Supersensitive makes having any other sort of sentient creature with 20 meters a serious weakness. With Combat Paralysis your greatest weakness is being put in any sort of danger. Naturally such disadvantages are not recommended for Player Characters.

* ''[[D20 Modern]]'' has a table of random weaknesses... including some really stupid ones, such as: Clowns, the number 8, math, and books written by willam[[William blakeBlake]].

* Somewhat in keeping with the game's theme, the [[Big Bad]] of ''[[Spore]]'', {{spoiler|the Grox}}, is weak against... Life! They can only survive on barren planets; creating a life-sustaining world literally kills them (although their spaceships can still bomb you from orbit).

* Cole from ''[[Infamous (video game series)|In FamousInfamous]]'' has the standard "electric super" Weaksauce Weakness of water... but also has one in chain-link fences. The metallic mesh absorbs his shots and dissipates them harmlessly. He has to go around to shoot whatever is on the other side—since every last chain link fence in the game is capped with razor wire and can't be climbed. [http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2009/5/27/ Penny Arcade didn't let this go without comment.] It's even Lampshaded in the sequel—you can now climb over chain link fences, and there's a ''trophy'' for doing so for the first time, celebrating this amazing achievement.