You're Nothing Without Your Phlebotinum: Difference between revisions

A stock phrase (prone to variations) uttered by the villain whenever the hero suffers a case of [[Phlebotinum Breakdown]], [[We Have Forgotten the Phlebotinum]], [[Brought Down to Normal]] or [[Useless Superpowers]], in which they take the time to enjoy some evil gloating about the heroes' reduced effectiveness.

Alternatively, it may take the form of I'm Nothing Without My Phlebotinum, when the hero himself is left feeling inadequate due to his depowering, triggering either a [[Heroic Blue Screen of Death]] or a [[Ten -Minute Retirement]].

* An inverted example in ''[[Yu-Gi-Oh (Animeanime)|Yu-Gi-Oh]]'', where Pegasus turns out to be nothing without his Millenium Eye and cheated-out cards.

* More or less said by Brox in ''[[With Strings Attached (Fanfic)|With Strings Attached]]'' after {{spoiler|she, Grunnel, and }} the Raleka wizards render both George and Ringo powerless and kidnap the other two. Heck, George rescues John and they get their magic back, and Brox ''still'' sneers at their relative powerlessness.

* ''[[BAS EketballBaseketball]]'' had one of these in the end when Coop was trying to hit a home run.

{{quote| '''Motaro:''' Without your weapons, you are NO match for Motaro!<br />

''(beats Jax up)''<br />

* From the trailer for ''[[The Avengers (Filmfilm)|The Avengers]]'':

{{quote| '''Captain America:''' Big man in a suit of armor. Take that away and what are you?<br />

* {{spoiler|Played with}} at the end of the ''[[Incarnations of Immortality]]'' novel ''[[On A Pale Horse]]'', Satan bluntly tells the incarnation of Death that Death is nothing without his magic. So, the person who assumed the role of Death takes off all of the magic items (cloak, gloves, boots, etc). {{spoiler|But, Deaths powers are part of him and cannot be taken by Satan, or by taking the items -- Satan was lying.}}.

* In the ''[[Codex Alera]]'' series, the main character Tavi has spent his entire life without the Phlebotinum everyone else in Alera has -- entitieshas—entities called furies which grant power over various elements (water, earth, air, fire, metal). Alera's technology completely relies on them, down to the level of turning on a light. He learns to survive and even prosper through his native wit. {{spoiler|He starts gaining the abilities at the end of the third book}}

* An odd subversion of the self-inflicted version happens in the [[Doctor Who (TV)|Doctor Who]] episode "The Eleventh Hour," where the newly regenerated Doctor muses that he has no TARDIS (it's busy rebuilding itself) and no sonic screwdriver (it was destroyed). However, rather than feeling emasculated, he uses it as a sort of self [[Dare to Be Badass]].

** In Part 2 of the ''[[Batman: The Animated Series (Animation)|Batman the Animated Series]]'' episode "Demon Quest", Batman is captured by Ras Al Ghul and his henchmen, and is stripped of his utility belt (and, oddly enough, [[Shirtless Scene|his shirt]]), two henchmen are assigned to lead him off to a cell, one commenting "not so tough without your precious belt". Both henchman are rendered unconscious by Batman roughly 30 seconds later, as the hero escapes and goes on to thwart Ra's scheme perfectly competently, even sans utility belt ({{spoiler|But with [[Sleight of Tongue|help]] from Talia}}).

** In the ''[[Justice League (Animationanimation)|Justice League]]'' [[Grand Finale]] "Starcrossed", [[Big Bad|General Talak]] comments that Green Lantern is "nothing without his toy", referring to his power ring. When the two later fight, and Talak destroys said doodad, Green Lantern still defeats him by tricking him into slamming his axe into a piece of machinery, electrocuting him into unconsciousness.

* This also happens to Batman in ''[[The Batman (Animation)|The Batman]]'', when captured and once again stripped of his belt by Black Mask's thugs, one of those thugs mockingly dangles the belt tantalisingly in front of Batman (who is locked in a cage at this point)- Batman's response? "Utility belt, charge to stun" Cue one electrocuted mook, and one free Batman.

*** But it was Batman's [[Crazy Prepared|Crazy Preparedness]]ness that freed him as much as the utility belt and he always has that.

* Also used in the ''[[Kong: theThe Animated Series (Animation)|Kong the Animated Series]]'' cartoon, wherein the teenage hero confronts the mad scientist villain on an airplane without the titular ape to back him up- the villain snarls "without your ape your are nothing!". He is promptly judo-tossed out the side of the plane.

* An example of the secondary type is from the ''[[Mortal Kombat: (Animation)Defenders of the Realm|Mortal Kombat]]'' cartoon, where Jax's bionics are disabled in a fight with Reptile. Initially, he angsts about his perceived uselessness, being "just a strong man". Of course he's forced back into action and as per the trope description, defeats Reptile by outsmarting him.

* In ''[[Aladdin (Disney film)|Aladdin]]'', Snake-Jafar tells Aladdin that he's nothing without the Genie.

* ''[[Hercules (Disney1997 film)|Hercules]]'', when Hades takes Herc's powers away: "Now you know how it feels to be just like everyone else. Isn't it just peachy?"

* In ''[[The Tick (animation)]]'', the Carpeted Man refuses to remove his static-electricity-generating carpetsuit despite it making him too hot, claiming "I'm the ''Carpeted Man!'' Without my suit, I'm NOTHING!"

* Said by a hero, about himself, rather than a villain in ''[[Darkwing Duck (Animationanimation)|Darkwing Duck]]''. After showing Darkwing up all over St. Canard for a whole episode, Gizmoduck is trapped by a magnet, making his suit useless. He bemoans the fact that he's useless without his suit - but Darkwing, on the other hand, is not, and he's not shy about proving it, either.

{{quote| Darkwing: "Superpowers do ''not'' a superhero make!"}}

** Oddly, in the ''[[Duck TalesDuckTales (Animation1987)|Duck Tales]]'' miniseries when Fenton Crackshell got the Gizmoduck suit, he pulled off some heroics without it near the end. Did he forget about that?

* In an episode of ''[[The Grim Adventures of Billy and Mandy (Animation)|The Grim Adventures of Billy and& Mandy]]'', Grim destroys Hoss Delgado's mechanical/weaponized hand and mocks him. Hos punches him out with his normal hand.

[[Category:YoureYou&#39;re Nothing Without Your Phlebotinum]]