Blessed with Suck

""And as he drove on, the rain clouds dragged down the sky after him for, though he did not know it, Rob McKenna was a Rain God. All he knew was that his working days were miserable and he had a succession of lousy holidays. All the clouds knew was that they loved him and wanted to be near him, to cherish him and to water him.""

- So Long and Thanks For All the Fish, Hitch Hikers Guide to The Galaxy

Blessed with Suck is one of those tropes that comes in a few distinct flavors. Generally, it's when a character is given a special ability that seems to cause nothing but trouble:


 * 1) By far, the most common variation is that the writers have seen fit to give you a special power that is, to be frank, stupid or Useless Superpowers.
 * 2) In other, more extreme cases, your power is actually too dangerous to use. See also I'm Having Soul Pains.
 * 3) Sometimes your power sounds really, really cool at first, but it turns out to have a lousy limitation or weakness, control problem, lacks the Required Secondary Powers, or (in the worst cases) has very dangerous side-effects.
 * 4) Sometimes the blessing is actually beneficial - but extenuating circumstances have ruined the potential fun. For example, A Mind Is a Terrible Thing to Read, And Your Little Dog, Too, or Mutant Draft Board.
 * 5) Often the original "blessing" turns out to be a curse when you stop to think about it, thanks to Exact Words, or not taking into account the intrinsic consequences. For example, Midas' touch. This is usually a Fantastic Aesop.

This blessing may take form of Applied Phlebotinum, privileges, or special abilities. For artistic cases (real or (self-) imagined), see Muse Abuse.

May be caused by a Literal Genie. May also result in With Great Power Comes Great Insanity either as part of the blessing or a result of its psychological effects.

Opposite side of the same coin from Cursed with Awesome, in which a "Curse" actually is cool and helps the character, even if they refuse to believe it and just want to be normal. If the "blessing" is somehow removed via Aesop learning, then the Curse Is Foiled Again. If a character is given a lame power but manages to use it to great effect, you've found that Heart Is an Awesome Power.

This is Older Than Feudalism, and it's a perfect way to teach the Aesop of Be Careful What You Wish For. Can encompass Who Wants to Live Forever? and So Beautiful It's a Curse as well. The more general form of Does Not Know His Own Strength.

Compare/contrast with Awesome but Impractical (which it is often mistaken for by the looks of most of the tropes), Super Loser, Super Zeroes, Power Incontinence, Bad Powers, Bad People. See also Curse.


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