39,327
edits
Worf Had the Flu: Difference between revisions
m
update links
m (update links) |
m (update links) |
||
Line 17:
** 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.
** 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.
** In the Invasion Army arc, Ichigo's power was failing after {{spoiler|having used it all up fighting Aizen}}. So of course he was coming into this new dilemma already handicapped.
** In the Lost Substitute arc, it's revealed {{spoiler|that Ichigo's reiatsu was being surpressed by his substitute badge, explaining his poor performance in the Arrancar Invasion arc.}}
* In the anime ''[[Berserk]]'', Casca actually loses and needs rescuing from her first battle with Adon Corbowitz. While tending to her Guts notes blood between her thighs and comments to himself how it must be hard for a woman mercenary. The next time she and Adon meet, the beatdown goes the other way.
** It's also a [[Chekhov's Gun]], as she's seen being 'out of it' earlier. Furthermore, as in case the viewer doesn't get it, Adon says, when being beat down: "YOU HAD PMS!?"
* [[One Piece|Luffy]] and the rest of the Straw Hats are initially unable to defeat the CP9, and while they are not yet using the techniques they use to defeat their opponents in later battles, Nami suggests that they weren't fighting at their full potential because they were still unsure whether Robin had betrayed them. Once they realize that she did what she did for their sake, they are able to fight to their full power to rescue her (Strangely enough, Sanji knows Robin's reasons and still is unable to defeat Blueno, but later defeats the far more powerful Jyabura). Luffy also admits he wasn't at his fullest because he [[Incredibly Lame Pun|wasn't full]] and just fought Wanze, whow as a relatively weak enemy but managed to thrash Sanji a fair amount before he started using knives.
** Earlier in the manga, Sanji was wounded by Pearl and nearly lost to Gin.
** In the Skypiea arc, Luffy, Zoro and Sanji are unable to fight well against Wiper because they have not adapted to Skypiea's higher elevation and thinner atmosphere. Luffy manages to get over this by the time he fights the White Berets, and throughout the rest of the arc, there is no suggestion that the characters are fighting at anything less than their full potential.
** The Straw Hats exhaust themselves fighting the first Pacifista on the Sabaody Archipelago, making them easy pickings for Sentoumaru, Kizaru, Kuma and '''another''' Pacifista. To be fair, though, if they had that much trouble against an ordinary Pacifista, they had little chance against the original model with Devil Fruit powers or an Admiral. And with the possible exception of Luffy, they were all also recovering from the fight against Gecko Moria, his generals, Oz and the subsequent beatdown by Kuma. '''Especially''' Zoro.
** Kuma seems to be a fan of this trope, considering that he's beaten the Strawhats twice, and both times he confronted them right after they'd fought a major, exhausting battle.
** Luffy's somewhat underwhelming (Haki aside) showings during the Kuja and Marineford battles are at least partially attributed to having to deal with the Kizaru/Kuma/Sentoumaru/Pacifista gangstomp the day before in the previous case and nearly dying against Magellan and being kept running on sheer willpower and hormone doping in the latter case. Of course, a lot of it has to do with the fact that the major players are all Warlord of the Sea class, at least, but the Luffy at Marineford didn't seem to be operating at the same caliber as he did against the likes of Rob Lucci and Gecko Moria, and actually had to be doped ''again'' near the end of the battle.
** This was the primary reason Franky was struggling against Fukurou, despite having previously overpowered Blueno; As he was lacking in Cola, his attacks were decreased in effectiveness and power. Once he got his cola back...
** Seriously, many of Zoro's battles had him at some sort of disadvantage or not at his full potential. In the battle with Cabaji, he was already injured from Buggy's earlier attack. When fighting Hachi, he was still recovering from his wounds from his fight with Mihawk and had a fever on top of that. He had difficulty with Mr 1 since Mr 1's body can become steel, something Zoro couldn't cut at the time. During the Davy Jones game, he wasn't able to use his swords due to the rules. He only had two swords with him during the fight against Ryuuma. And against Oz, he was still getting used to his new sword Shunsui. With Kuma, he had taken damage from Ryuuma and Oz over the night. With the Flying Fish Riders and with the Pacifista, he was hampered down from his injuries from Thriller Park, along with Luffy's pain that was transferred to him.
* 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...
** 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.
Line 58:
* In the ''[[Tales of Symphonia]]'' manga, Lloyd claims that {{spoiler|Kratos}} lost his last fight with him because he was still suffering from the wound he received {{spoiler|protecting him from Yuan}}.
* In ''[[Tokyo Mew Mew]]'', Ichigo gets attacked by Kisshu in Episode 17 while she's sick, resulting in her being unable to defend herself and [[Mysterious Protector|the Blue Knight]] appearing for the first time to save her.
* [[Muhyo and Roji's Bureau of Supernatural Investigation]] takes a long time to recover his tempering after a sentencing, so when a problem arises soon afterward, he's often unable to intervene immediately. As such, after the group defeats Face-Ripper Sophie, only for {{spoiler|Rio to reveal herself as a traitor and attack them}}, they spend much of the battle retreating, and must brew Muhyo a dangerous potion to help him get his tempering back before they can effectively fight back.
* In ''[[Tegami Bachi]]'', during the infiltration of Honey Waters, Niche drinks some of the poisonous water that is the village's namesake. It doesn't take effect immediately, but when the villagers pin down Lag and Connor, Niche is only able to defeat Lag's attackers before being paralyzed from the poison, resulting in her and Connor being captured and Lag barely escaping.
* ''[[Rurouni Kenshin]]'': One of the reason Kenshin easily fell to Shishio {{spoiler|in the first part of their battle}} was because he had already gone through battles with Aoshi and [[The Dragon|Sojirou]]. Both opponents were considered near or at Kenshin's level, so it would be a miracle for him to even be able to stand up to Shishio. This trope extended to Kenshin's allies as well; Saitou, Sano and {{spoiler|Aoshi}} were unable to even hurt Shishio due to their previous injuries.
** Shishio is actually concerned about whether or not this is fair, but Kenshin reminds him that it counteracts his own handicap, his lack of sweat glands which eventually {{spoiler|set him on fire and burn him up from within}}. Shishio also plays with the trope, since it's implied that the extra heat energy his body produces makes him stronger somehow and he can literally kill someone by touching them long enough. Oddly enough, he doesn't use this as a weapon.
* ''[[Medaka Box]]'': [[Badass Normal|Zenkichi's]] victory against Munakata is slightly downplayed, as despite his abnormal desire to kill, {{spoiler|he was actually actively suppressing it}}.
* [[Soul Eater|Black Star's]] failure to use Soul Menace against Kid is actually a product of his inability to deal with the [[Worf Effect|worfing]] that he's noticed he was being subject to. And THOSE losses were caused by him losing confidence in himself for not being able to master [[Deadly Upgrade|Shadow Star]].
Line 90:
** The above was an odd case of this. Superman really was about as fast as Barry back when those issues were actually written, but Superman was powered down substantially in 1986 and, even if a lot of that power has returned he is not back to [[Silver Age]] power levels, so when those [[Silver Age]] stories became canon again, this explanation became necessary.
* [[The Mighty Thor|Thor]] is said to only use about a fifth of his full strength when fighting humans, even insanely strong ones like the Hulk, out of fear of accidentally killing them. One of the few exceptions (he specifically noted he wasn't holding back) was when he fought [[Iron Man]] after ''[[Civil War (Comic Book)|Civil War]]'', and even after Iron Man's numerous upgrades in the past few years [[Curb Stomp Battle|Tony didn't last thirty seconds.]]
* When [[Supergirl]] first returned in 2004, she was shown outperforming [[Superman]] to the point where it was speculated that she might actually be more powerful. It turned out, this was meant to show that Superman [[World of Cardboard Speech|had been holding himself back]] all these years out of fear of causing death or destruction (which Supergirl in fact does in the early issues because she [[Does Not Know His Own Strength|doesn't know her own strength]].)
** So when the yellow-clad Weapons Master does fight the flu-ish Superman, this ironically makes Big Blue that much more dangerous. As he tries to explain to the bad people, he doesn't know if he can stop his punches from taking off heads.
** In one [[Bronze Age]] story, Superman starts having [[Does Not Know His Own Strength]] moments, and fears his powers are growing beyond his ability to control. In fact, the reverse is true: the [[Powers as Programs|Parasite]] is slowly ''draining'' his powers, but he made a point of first draining Supey's sense of self-control that normally keeps them in check. Since he was no longer pulling his punches, they seemed ''more'' powerful even though his baseline strength was actually ''dropping.'' By the time he figured it out, the Parasite had already drained a good chunk of his energy.
* ''[[Preacher (Comic Book)]]''; the flashback history of the hero's dad. All sorts of horrific things end up happening to Daddy simply because his army buddy was too damned stupid to go get the flu treated.
Line 123:
* 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.
** In another instance, Hamilton stomping over Illyria happened only after she had been massively depowered, and it's probably telling that Hamilton didn't go anywhere near her until this had happened, and in fact when Wesley was studying her gave him a hint that led him to discover how to drain her powers. He even goes into an exaggerated [[Smug Snake]] routine to Illyria's face as he ponders why she can't beat him to a pulp.
* In ''[[Dai Sentai Goggle Five]]'', only going as far as episode 8, Goggle Blue gets [[A Day in the Limelight]] episode...where he got horribly owned solo by the [[Monster of the Week]] because they managed to wound his leg while protecting a woman. Skip ahead several episodes later and then, he's shown to be as good as he gets when he's on a solo fight. [[Papa Wolf|Especially when kids are involved.]]
* An inversion takes place in ''[[Mahou Sentai Magiranger]]'', where the Heavenly Saint Lunagel is defeated in battle by Wolzard partly because she went on her own, but mostly because he'd spent the past four episodes doing nothing but powering up.
Line 137:
* When [insert your favorite team in [insert sport here] here] loses a game.
* The New Zealand Rugby team was suffering from food poisoning at the final of the 1995 World Cup, to the point where they can be seen throwing up on the sidelines.
* A legend has Auburn University cadets greasing the rails before an opposing football team from Georgia Tech arrived, causing their train to slide past the station, and forcing the team to tire itself out walking back to the stadium.
* Averted in Game 5 of the 1997 NBA Finals between the Chicago Bulls and Utah Jazz, to this day thought of as "The Flu Game". According to The Other Wiki, [[Michael Jordan]] woke up the day before the game nauseated and sweating profusely. He was diagnosed with food poisoning. He barely had the strength to get up out of bed, and the Bulls trainers told him there was no way he could play in Game 5. The Bulls would be at a distinct disadvantage without their leader, because the Jazz had just won two straight games to even the series, and whoever won Game 5 would be one win away from the championship. But he rose out of bed three hours before tip-off, determined to play. And after a listless first quarter in which the Jazz ran off to a 16-point lead, Michael led the team back to a 90-88 victory, finishing with 38 points, seven rebounds, five assists, three steals and a block. And then his teammate Scottie Pippen [[Crowning Moment of Heartwarming|helped carry him off the court]].
* Nearly every losing sports team ever. It can't ''always'' be the referees' fault.
Line 163:
** Lancer gets this too in the ''Fate'' route. His only accomplishments were fighting Archer to a standstill and attempting an instant-kill attack on Saber which failed...until you realise that this was ''before'' Archer was injured, Lancer was ordered to scout his enemies rather than defeat them, and {{spoiler|it took the most powerful Servant in the story to kill him}}. He is notably more [[Badass]] in the ''Unlimited Blade Works'' route.
** Then there's Rider having a limited mana supply and not wanting to obey her Master's commands until the ''Heaven's Feel'' route, and {{spoiler|Gilgamesh}} refusing to wear his armour against someone he viewed as an inferior opponent... really, this could be applied to most characters in the game at some point.
** In all routes, Saber starts out being improperly summoned by someone who can barely use magic, so she has an incomplete connection to his mana and therefore has to recharge herself very often with large amounts of sleep and food, even if she uses only a little bit of her power. This is exacerbated by the fact that she took a cursed, slow-healing stab close to the heart soon after being summoned. It also doesn't help that, due to worries that Shirou's lack of mage skill would leave him open to mind magics, she doesn't let him know her true identity and holds off on using her Noble Phantasm even more than any other Servant. And of course, her Master being unwilling to risk her life if he can avoid it and being unwilling to fight as ruthlessly as possible is a pretty hefty handicap for a Servant of the Grail War as well, even though she herself isn't really all that much more ruthless than he is (especially compared to all the non Rin and {{spoiler|Good Sakura}} Masters). The other Servants aren't pushovers by any stretch of the word, but as the two times she got a competent mage as a master showed, there is a REASON she's considered the strongest class.
** ''The'' [[Fate/stay night]] Worf character, Berserker, has this arguably crippling him in UBW and definitely doing so in HF. In UBW, he's hampered in his fight against {{spoiler|Gilgamesh}} because he's shielding Ilya as well (which is given a [[Shout-Out]] in one of his ''Fate/Unlimited Codes'' missions, where he has to fight his opponent while keeping the defenseless Ilya alive). In HF, he gets hit by a gamebreaker ability he can't actually fight against {{spoiler|and is turned into Dark Berserker}} before he can truly fight. While in {{spoiler|Dark Berserker form}}, the fact that he {{spoiler|is killed nine times by the same attack}} is likely because all his stats had degraded...including Noble Phantasm, meaning God Hand no longer provided as good protection. And while the Berserker class amps his already legendary strength and speed, it leaves him unable to use any of his skills or non-auto Noble Phantasms, instead fighting almost purely on instinct, reflex and power. Which is enough to make almost everyone who encounters him wet themselves in terror.
* Arcuied is operating far below her normal power in ''[[Tsukihime]]'', as she is still recovering from Shiki slicing her into pieces, and has to devote almost all her strength to suppressing her bloodlust. This is probably a good thing for the sake of the plot, though, as with access to her full abilities, she has [[Story-Breaker Power]] and would curb stomp everyone in about ten seconds flat. {{spoiler|And in Ciel's route, where she does gain back some of her power, it's [[Woman Scorned|not a good thing]].}}
Line 182:
== Web Original ==
* A version of this occurs in "Have Yourself a Monkey Little Christmas" in the [[Whateley Universe]]. Chaka is put in significant danger during a fight because she'd just had her ''hips broken and reset''! This is also a [[Chekhov's Gun]], as the need was stated around her first appearance! {{spoiler|She does in fact win the fight, thanks to Chou's healing abilities.}}
** Yet again, Fey's infamous fight against Mule is revealed to include a good bit of Flu. Fey fought her in an arena where she couldn't draw upon her powers. In fact, she was put in there ''specifically because'' the administration heard her say "But I can't do a fight in there! The Ley Lines are so tangled that I'll hardly be able to do anything!" Furthermore, her foe can absorb her magical abilities. What follows is a rather fun run-and-gun.
* In the second-to-last episode of ''[[Red vs. Blue]]'': ''Revelation'', it's revealed that Tex is destined to always fail at the last moment, because {{spoiler|she's based on the memory of the Director's lost love who died in combat, and the trauma of her death is an integral part of how the Director remembers her.}} This explains how, throughout the series, Tex always managed to get captured, killed, or knocked-out at a critical moment despite being the strongest character in the series.
| |||