Worf Had the Flu: Difference between revisions

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A type of fandom-based [[Author's Saving Throw]], this is the specific rationalization that a character suffering from [[The Worf Effect]] or a [[Curb Stomp Battle]] did so only because something (artificially) undermined their performance. The insinuation, of course, is that it probably wouldn't have happened this way under "normal" circumstances.

This is often used within fandom, and can be a satisfying answer for fans bothered by the outcome of the battle or use of the trope itself. As the 'flu' is generally pulled from something within the story, explicit or otherwise, it does not necessarily require a blatant [[Retcon]] or [[Canon Discontinuity]] ~~-- the~~ event ''itself'' is still treated as canonical. Note, however, the new ''reason'' may not officially be, except as a passing [[Ascended Fanon]] by some writers.

This is often used within fandom, and can be a satisfying answer for fans bothered by the outcome of the battle or use of the trope itself. As the 'flu' is generally pulled from something within the story, explicit or otherwise, it does not necessarily require a blatant [[Retcon]] or [[Canon Discontinuity]]—the event ''itself'' is still treated as canonical. Note, however, the new ''reason'' may not officially be, except as a passing [[Ascended Fanon]] by some writers.

Whether or not a later matchup is provided becomes irrelevant. If enough ire is raised from using the Worf Effect, a later matchup may be specifically ''avoided'' to [[Dork Age|dodge any mention of it at all]]. On the other extreme, the response to the trope may be too loaded with [[Take That]] overtones not to come off as petty. In contrast, a well-written [[Evasive Fight Thread Episode]] often includes 'flu' logic in an effort to quell any complaints about the match-up. Essentially the "Power Seep" part of [[Power Creep, Power Seep]].

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== Anime and Manga ==

* In ''[[Bleach]]'', Ichigo's poor performance in his battles against Ulquiorra and Yammy, as well as his first battle against Grimmjow, is attributed to his difficulty suppressing his inner hollow. {{spoiler|When he does manage to control his inner hollow, he is still unable to defeat Grimmjow the second time, and loses to Ulquiorra the first time he fights him in Las Noches.}}

** In the Arrancar arc, Hitsugaya, Rangiku and Renji are losing to their Arrancar enemies, but then they get permission to release their [[Power Limiter~~|Power Limiters~~]], and easily defeat their foes. Being limited to 1/5 of one's power is a pretty crippling handicap.

** In the Arrancar arc, Hitsugaya, Rangiku and Renji are losing to their Arrancar enemies, but then they get permission to release their [[Power Limiter]]s, and easily defeat their foes. Being limited to 1/5 of one's power is a pretty crippling handicap.

** Ichigo when confronted by the #5 Espada Nnoitra Jiruga gets easily owned, then gets bored and leaves the ass-whooping to his Fraccion, Tesla. It should be noted that Ichigo had a grueling battle against #6 Espada, Grimmjow Jaegerjaquez (who also got owned by Nnoitra) in which he barely defeated him. This is shown when he took on Ulquiorra again, and was a match for him, until he had to release (Ulquiorra lost, but Ichigo doesn't consider his [[Super-Powered Evil Side]] laying the smackdown on him a fair fight).

** The entire Bount Arc is this trope. Every Soul Reaper who comes to Earth can only use a fraction of their power, and Ichigo has to relearn Bankai for some silly reason. Even the Bount enemies don't reach full power until they travel to the Soul Society.

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* One scene in Episode 52 of the ''[[Naruto]] Shippuden'' anime (which doesn't appear in the manga) suggests that Naruto and Sakura fared poorly against Sasuke in their first meeting with him after the timeskip because of their wounds from their previous battle (although they do realize that Sasuke has gotten far more powerful). Yamato is also holding back, not wanting to injure Sasuke too much, but just after he decides to get serious, Orochimaru leaves with Sasuke.

** In the manga, Naruto was still suffering from his [[Super-Powered Evil Side|Four-Tailed Form]]'s side effects. He was, at best, half power when he finally encountered Sasuke (even Orochimaru commented when they fought again, Naruto wasn't doing nearly as well before). Sakura, likewise was still suffering from the poisonous wound that she had gotten from the [[KN 4]]'s tail swipe. Only Yamato and Sai were at full strength.

** Before the [[Time Skip]], during the Chunnin exam tournament, Jiraiya notices the chakra-blocking seal that Orochimaru had placed over Naruto's Kyubi-containing belly-button seal, and realizes it prevented Naruto from channeling properly. Once he removed it, Naruto was able to instantly master the water-walking technique he had been struggling with before. And it might also explain Naruto's rather lackluster performance against ~~Kiba -- Naruto~~ previously never needed any distractions or significant pauses in a fight to create Shadow Clones. Of course, Naruto himself never seemed to notice his own difficulties...

** Before the [[Time Skip]], during the Chunnin exam tournament, Jiraiya notices the chakra-blocking seal that Orochimaru had placed over Naruto's Kyubi-containing belly-button seal, and realizes it prevented Naruto from channeling properly. Once he removed it, Naruto was able to instantly master the water-walking technique he had been struggling with before. And it might also explain Naruto's rather lackluster performance against Kiba—Naruto previously never needed any distractions or significant pauses in a fight to create Shadow Clones. Of course, Naruto himself never seemed to notice his own difficulties...

** Tsunade's first appearance has her using then-current [[Big Bad]] Orochimaru like a paddleball. The only reason Orochimaru did not bust out far more powerful moves for the fight was because had previously lost the use of his arms (and thus, most of his jutsus). Jiraiya was likewise disabled thanks to a drug Tsunade slipped into one of his drinks earlier on. Tsunade as well suffered some early damage due to her entirely psychological weakness to blood, making her use her trump card on a healing power. If the Sannin were at their top form during the fight the others there would've been useless and the battle would've dwarfed even the epic rumble that it was and likely not be quite as one-sided.

*** [[Missed Moment of Awesome]]... {{spoiler|Orochimaru breaking out his Yamata Form, Jiraiya's [[Super Mode|Sage Mode]], and Tsunade's Byakugo...god, that'd be one of the best fights ever.}}

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*** To be fair, Sasuke did far better than Itachi even suspected he would. Breaking Tsukuyomi, equalling him in Taijutsu, faking out Amaterasu... only [[Power Armor|Susanoo]] Sasuke didn't have a contingency against since he had never seen, or even ''heard'' of it before. And that was the only part of the fight that Itachi let Sasuke win in.

** Pain versus Naruto could have been much more one sided with the odds heavily against Naruto had it not been for the fact that Pain was trying to capture Naruto, not kill him. It also didn't help that he'd just finished fighting and leveling a village, and his most powerful body had its powers disabled at the start of the fight.

** And Chapter 485 seems to be setting this up for the fight between {{spoiler|Naruto and Sasuke. Naruto has likely just been inflicted with a life-threatening poison just before he starts fighting Sasuke.}} In this case it's less [[Worf Had the Flu]] and more like leveling the playing field, as {{spoiler|Sasuke is completely exhausted.}} It still counts since {{spoiler|Naruto would likely [[Curb Stomp Battle|completely crush]] Sasuke in both a fair fight and with only Sasuke being exhausted with no handicap for Naruto, but in this situation, the outcome is thrown up in the air. Subverted because, regardless of who is handicapped and how, it's clear that the villains are going to escape to fight another day.}}

** And Chapter 485 seems to be setting this up for the fight between {{spoiler|Naruto and Sasuke. Naruto has likely just been inflicted with a life-threatening poison just before he starts fighting Sasuke.}} In this case it's less Worf Had the Flu and more like leveling the playing field, as {{spoiler|Sasuke is completely exhausted.}} It still counts since {{spoiler|Naruto would likely [[Curb Stomp Battle|completely crush]] Sasuke in both a fair fight and with only Sasuke being exhausted with no handicap for Naruto, but in this situation, the outcome is thrown up in the air. Subverted because, regardless of who is handicapped and how, it's clear that the villains are going to escape to fight another day.}}

** And going back allllll the way, Naruto's crappy abilities with chakra control are implied to be due to the Kyuubi's chakra inside him. Once he started getting his jutsu under control, he was learning jounin level skills (albeit in a wasteful ~~manner -- thank~~ the Sage of Six Paths that he's got enough chakra to burn) and a technique that requires a practically impossible level of chakra control.

** And going back allllll the way, Naruto's crappy abilities with chakra control are implied to be due to the Kyuubi's chakra inside him. Once he started getting his jutsu under control, he was learning jounin level skills (albeit in a wasteful manner—thank the Sage of Six Paths that he's got enough chakra to burn) and a technique that requires a practically impossible level of chakra control.

* Goku's heart virus thing while fighting Android 19 in ''[[Dragonball Z]]''. This is actually taken to the extent of an [[Alternate Universe]], where without the aid of [[Future Badass|Trunks]], Goku died from the virus, [[Bad Future|and well...]]

** Also happens much earlier when the series when Goku is defeated by Yamcha because he is extremely hungry.

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== Comicbooks ==

* In the big [[The DCU|DC]] vs [[Marvel Universe]] crossover, one fight that attracted particular opprobrium from fans was [[Lobo]]~~--a~~ character who can go toe-to-toe with [[Superman]] and at the time [[From a Single Cell|could regenerate from a single drop of blood]]~~--losing~~ to [[Wolverine]] (who at the time didn't even have his adamantium skeleton, though his healing factor ''was'' significantly boosted as a result). This was explicitly down to [[Popularity Power]]~~--the~~ results were voted on by ~~fans--but~~ the match-up was so uneven the writers had to have Wolverine's victory take place off-panel. A little while later Lobo mentioned that he'd actually been bribed by "some bald guy" (presumably Professor X) to take a dive in the fight.

* In the big [[The DCU|DC]] vs [[Marvel Universe]] crossover, one fight that attracted particular opprobrium from fans was [[Lobo]]—a character who can go toe-to-toe with [[Superman]] and at the time [[From a Single Cell|could regenerate from a single drop of blood]]—losing to [[Wolverine]] (who at the time didn't even have his adamantium skeleton, though his healing factor ''was'' significantly boosted as a result). This was explicitly down to [[Popularity Power]]—the results were voted on by fans—but the match-up was so uneven the writers had to have Wolverine's victory take place off-panel. A little while later Lobo mentioned that he'd actually been bribed by "some bald guy" (presumably Professor X) to take a dive in the fight.

* One of the more famous events in the history of the [[X-Men (Comic Book)|X-Men]] is the battle for leadership of the team between Cyclops and [[Storm]] - who at the time had no powers. Storm won by stealing Cyclops' [[Power Incontinence|visor]]. Without the control of the visor, any attempt to continue fighting would've run the risk of killing Storm (or any of the audience), so he gave up. Several years later, Cyclops' ex-wife Madelyne Pryor announced that she'd used her psychic powers to ''make'' Cyclops lose. This is a relatively easy [[Retcon]] since Cyclops spent much of the fight distracted by a major argument he and Madelyne had just been having, so to say he didn't exactly have his mind on the battle was very easy to change into a result of Madelyne's direct influence.

* Played in advance in the ''[[Superman]] vs [[Predator]]'' mini-series. Under normal circumstances the Predators would have posed no threat whatsoever - so the story had Superman catch alien flu just as he arrived in the jungle where they had landed.

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** And when Superman fought Muhammad Ali, the aliens behind the [[Let's You and Him Fight]] had made sure it was under red star radiation.

* Several defeats and cases of [[Badass Decay]], of villains who were revealed to be members of The Intelligencia in [[Fall of the Hulks]] were explained to be staged for heroes as [[Kansas City Shuffle|distractions from their true schemes]].

* Early in his superhero career, [[Spider-Man]] is actually beaten and unmasked by Doctor Octopus in front of his friends and family. However, Peter's powers were on the fritz at the ~~time--he~~ had lost his spider-sense and had his strength reduced to that of a normal ~~teenager--and~~ so no one believed that he was actually Spider-Man, but was just dressing up as Spidey in order to distract Doc Ock. Much later, when Peter revealed his secret identity to the world during the events of ''[[Civil War (Comic Book)|Civil War]]'', Doc Ock went ballistic because he had known this information for years and never realized it was the truth.

* Early in his superhero career, [[Spider-Man]] is actually beaten and unmasked by Doctor Octopus in front of his friends and family. However, Peter's powers were on the fritz at the time—he had lost his spider-sense and had his strength reduced to that of a normal teenager—and so no one believed that he was actually Spider-Man, but was just dressing up as Spidey in order to distract Doc Ock. Much later, when Peter revealed his secret identity to the world during the events of ''[[Civil War (Comic Book)|Civil War]]'', Doc Ock went ballistic because he had known this information for years and never realized it was the truth.

** A borderline case occurs with the death of Gwen Stacy, as Spider-Man was suffering from an unspecified illness at the time. This tends to be omitted in almost all retellings of the story, however; given that Gwen's neck snapped [[Not the Fall That Kills You|due to the abrupt stop from Spidey's webbing]], [[Your Mileage May Vary|it's questionable]] whether the illness was a factor at all in her death.

* In the very first crossover between ''[[Superman]]'' and ''[[Spider-Man]]'', Spidey initially holds his own because [[Lex Luthor]] and Doc Ock had unknowingly (to him) sprayed a dusting of Kryptonite particles on him. But once those particles come off... well....

* In another meeting between the above two it was a blast of Red Sun Radiation. Spider-Man does well until the radiation fades just as Superman is about to use a full powered punch (this is the 1970's Superman.) He stops the punch and the blast of the punch knocks Spider-Man through several buildings.

* If the above two entries are referring to the first ''Superman vs Spider-Man'' tabloid, they're both wrong in the fine details. Spidey's ability to hurt Superman in their "meet-and-greet" battle was due to Luthor using a Red Sun Radiation beam on him, thereby at least partially negating Supes' invulnerability. Superman still had his full strength, though, so once he recovered from the shock of being knocked around by Spidey (who, let it be said, was almost as surprised as Superman when a blow sent the Man of Steel flying), he struck back, only to realise while his fist was in motion that if the punch landed, it would kill Spider-Man, so he pulls the ~~punch -- with~~ the resulting wind-blast mentioned above. After Spidey recovers from being sent flying through at least one building, he gets angry and charges Superman, only to have the Red Sun Radiation wear off just as he lands his first punch. As he puts it a couple of panels later, "Oboy. I broke my hands..."

* If the above two entries are referring to the first ''Superman vs Spider-Man'' tabloid, they're both wrong in the fine details. Spidey's ability to hurt Superman in their "meet-and-greet" battle was due to Luthor using a Red Sun Radiation beam on him, thereby at least partially negating Supes' invulnerability. Superman still had his full strength, though, so once he recovered from the shock of being knocked around by Spidey (who, let it be said, was almost as surprised as Superman when a blow sent the Man of Steel flying), he struck back, only to realise while his fist was in motion that if the punch landed, it would kill Spider-Man, so he pulls the punch—with the resulting wind-blast mentioned above. After Spidey recovers from being sent flying through at least one building, he gets angry and charges Superman, only to have the Red Sun Radiation wear off just as he lands his first punch. As he puts it a couple of panels later, "Oboy. I broke my hands..."

* Similarly, [[The Flash]], when in the [[Marvel Universe]] during the [[JLA-Avengers]] crossover, was unable to run as fast as he usually does (and, eventually, loses his Superspeed altogether) because 616 lacks the Speed Force. Otherwise he'd probably knock every Avenger not named Thor unconscious about .5 seconds into the required "Crossover Fight".

* [[Fantastic Four (Comic Book)|"It was just a Doombot."]] [[Retcon|Really!]].

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== Live-Action TV ==

* The trope naming incident occurred in an episode of [[Star Trek: The Next Generation]] but wasn't an example of this trope. Worf, the badass [[Proud Warrior Race Guy]], keels over in the middle of his shift right at the end of the episode's opening teaser. In this case, it was a [[Pseudo Crisis]]; the show comes back from commercial-break with Worf already all better after a simple inoculation in sickbay, being lectured by the doctor about he should have been vaccinated when he was a kid.

* Episode six of ''[[Dollhouse]]'' features this canonically on ''both sides'': when Ballard and Echo fight, on the surface it seems like it might be an even match that could go either way. Echo with her programming is probably the better technical fighter, but Ballard is very big, built like a brick house, and so tough he can take out four gun-wielding thugs with a plank ''after'' he's been ~~shot--plus~~, he's a trained fighter, so all of ''his'' experience is real. However, he ''had'' been shot mere days ago, and was not looking to actually hurt Echo, as she's his best link to the case. Cue him fighting defensively and eventually getting worn down. On the flip side, Echo was also fighting in order to frame Ballard for shooting a cop, not to actually win, so while she wasn't fighting to win either, her goals were served by simply getting him to the right place at the right time and disappearing.

* Episode six of ''[[Dollhouse]]'' features this canonically on ''both sides'': when Ballard and Echo fight, on the surface it seems like it might be an even match that could go either way. Echo with her programming is probably the better technical fighter, but Ballard is very big, built like a brick house, and so tough he can take out four gun-wielding thugs with a plank ''after'' he's been shot—plus, he's a trained fighter, so all of ''his'' experience is real. However, he ''had'' been shot mere days ago, and was not looking to actually hurt Echo, as she's his best link to the case. Cue him fighting defensively and eventually getting worn down. On the flip side, Echo was also fighting in order to frame Ballard for shooting a cop, not to actually win, so while she wasn't fighting to win either, her goals were served by simply getting him to the right place at the right time and disappearing.

* Spike's attempted rape of [[Buffy the Vampire Slayer]] in "Seeing Red" only got as far as it did because a run-of-the-mill vampire had got a lucky shot in earlier (as she was staking him, no less). Both injuries carry over into Buffy's fight with a superpowered Warren - even with super-strength and near-invulnerability, he can tell she's off her game.

* The eponymous star of ''[[Angel]]'' has a long history of losing fights with Slayers. Then, in the episode "Release", he managed a narrow victory over Faith (after a wonderfully brutal fight). Not only was Faith still recovering from a severe beating the previous day at the hands of an indestructible demon, the very next episode it was revealed that at the start of her fight with Angel she had pumped herself full of magic heroin.

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* In ''[[Chrono Trigger]]'' there is a sequence where your party has all of their money and equipment taken from them. Unless you have {{spoiler|Ayla}} in your party, this sequence becomes a stealth mission.

* In ''[[Prototype (video game)|Prototype]]'', halfway through the game Alex is given a "cure" that zaps him of all of his powers besides his strength, speed, and shapeshifting. He gets better.

* In ''[[Super Robot Wars Original Generation]] Gaiden'', many people seems to come to term that Lamia Loveless was hit with this trope that she accidentally got hit by so many [[Distress Ball~~|Distress Balls~~]]. She only got caught by the Bartolls on the first place because she was not in her mecha (the same goes to Kusuha, Arado, Seolla and Latooni), and later on, Juergen managed to 'kill' her because for the same reason, added by the fact that she was just recently and forcefully been plugged out from her cockpit that binds her. She doesn't really have much impact after being rescued, but should you bring her to battle against the Bartolls in Chapter 34, she will express disgust on the Bartolls and show them that in the right conditions, they are no match for her. Unfortunately, however, she could never do it on Juergen (nor that she has any special lines against him when they face off in Free Battle).

* In ''[[Super Robot Wars Original Generation]] Gaiden'', many people seems to come to term that Lamia Loveless was hit with this trope that she accidentally got hit by so many [[Distress Ball]]s. She only got caught by the Bartolls on the first place because she was not in her mecha (the same goes to Kusuha, Arado, Seolla and Latooni), and later on, Juergen managed to 'kill' her because for the same reason, added by the fact that she was just recently and forcefully been plugged out from her cockpit that binds her. She doesn't really have much impact after being rescued, but should you bring her to battle against the Bartolls in Chapter 34, she will express disgust on the Bartolls and show them that in the right conditions, they are no match for her. Unfortunately, however, she could never do it on Juergen (nor that she has any special lines against him when they face off in Free Battle).

* In ''[[Golden Sun]]'', when the party faces Saturos on the roof of the Mercury Lighthouse, they are able to defeat him. However, Menardi reveals that because he's a Fire Adept, he's weakened by being on the Water-aligned lighthouse roof (strangely enough, although Water Adept Mia is able to recover her MP, Fire Adept Garet suffers no disadvantages). Saturos is stronger (and backed up by Menardi) when fought on the complementary Earth-aligned Venus Lighthouse.

* The first Yellow Squadron member shot down in ''[[Ace Combat]] 4'', Yellow {{spoiler|Four}}, is revealed to have sortied with poorly-maintained engines.