Weaksauce Weakness: Difference between revisions
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'''Sheldon''': Only the modern Green Lantern is vulnerable to yellow.
'''Leonard''': Golden Age Green Lantern was vulnerable to wood.
'''Raj''': Great. So I can take them both out with a number 2 pencil
|'''''[[The Big Bang Theory]]'''''}}
Being a [[Superhero]] ain't easy. Most of the original [[Flying Brick]]s have the good [[Achilles' Heel|Achilles heels]] covered, and the pharmacy is even out of [[Psycho Serum]] to give you a cheap [[Backstory]] gimmick to explain your powers.
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{{examples}}
== Fiction in General ==
* Vampires, the badass creatures of the night who always want to suck your blood, tend to have a ''lot'' of weaknesses. Popular tradition holds that you're fine as long as you [[Weakened by the Light|stay in the sunlight]], have some garlic, stay inside your house and refuse to let them in, or even wield a simple cross.
: The multitude of fiction involving vampires, though, has led to a [[Our Vampires Are Different|multitude of differing weaknesses]]—including varying degrees of effectiveness. In some settings, vampires are weak to silver, and other religious symbols affect them as much as Christian ones. Then there's the older, more obscure, and even more restrictive weaknesses such as inability to cross running water, or obsessive-compulsive disorder causing the need to count piles of beans or other small objects, inability to stand constant bell ringing, and even the need to be invited to enter houses.
: On the inverse, many of the works that tend toward "non-standard" portrayals of vampires also go at length to [[Your Vampires Suck|mock]] the traditional weaknesses.
* [[The Fair Folk]] are terrific—as in terror-inducing—beings of legend and myth ... and yet, they can be beaten by a stick of iron, salt, a horseshoe, a length of rowan wood, clothes worn inside-out, or a ''stick of bread''.
: A popular explanation for the weakness comes from Victorian Era archaeologists, who held that this is all just symbolism for the bronze and stone-working cultures being conquered by iron-working ones. More recent academics (like Dr. Diane Purkiss) have shown there's no archaeological or historical evidence for this.
:* Some stories say that if you accept a gift from them, you should ''never'' respond by saying "thank you", it will make you beholden to them. Give them one in return of greater value and they must leave you unharmed.
:* This is an especially big problem for the Nuckelavee of Orcadian folklore. Widely considered the most malevolent elf in all of Scotland, the Nuckelavee is an eldritch horror that resembles a man on horseback, if the man was fused to the horse and both had all their skin flayed off. It rides through the countryside destroying crops, killing travelers, causing floods and plagues and generally being a harbinger for all things bad. How do you defeat this monstrosity? Fresh water, and burning seaweed. The Nucklavee fears freshwater, so much so that it cannot cross a stream, and hides in its oceanic lair during the winter storms. Likewise, it finds the smell of burning seaweed intolerably offensive. However, don't provoke the Nucklavee, especially with taunting or burning seaweed, as whenever the Nucklavee is offended, it tries to literally kill all of the horses in the Orkneys with a hideous disease called "Mortasheen."
* Werewolves have their share of weaknesses, too; earlier legends provide ones such as having an iron bar thrown over their head, drawing three drops of blood, or having their name announced one to three times.
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** It should also be noted that Homer's depiction of Achilles does not appear to include the tradition of limited invulnerability. When Achilles takes the field in the later books of The Iliad, a spear (thrown by a mid-level mook) grazes his shoulder and draws blood.
* In folk tradition, salt is often used to repel evil. It was said a circle of salt could protect one from witches, that salt over your doorstep would ward off ghosts and evil spirit. Salt was often seen as a symbol of purity, especially in its uses: Salt is a conservation agent after all, and salt-cured meats don't spoil. Salt as a purifier appears in Shinto (Where it is used as a ritual purifier and small mounds of salt can be used to repel evil spirits) and Christianity (where it is used before mass and to consecrate a church).
* Robots or other sentient machines (especially [[Mecha Mook]]s) often blow their fuses when exposed to water, seeing as there is [[No Waterproofing in the Future]].
== Anime and Manga ==
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*** And to use the Dance Powder, not only to frame the king in an effort to overthrow him, but also to stop it from raining in the town he was using as a base.
** Blackbeard has one of the most powerful abilities in universe. He can wipe out entire towns in seconds, shoot the debris out like cannon, and negate Devil Fruit powers. But he can't dodge ''anything.'' While most Logia-fruit users can have attacks pass right through them, Blackbeard is quite the opposite, making any physical attack super-effective.
** Speaking of Blackbeard, San Juan Wolf, a member of his crew, is one Devil Fruit user who can easily handle water; as one of the largest giants alive, he can wade through the ocean without it ever coming to neck-length.
** Seastone is the Devil Fruit version of kryptonite; it is a man-made material that is supposedly made by a process that makes sea water so dense that it becomes solid and as hard and durable as diamond. However it is made, physical contacy with a Devil Fruit user both weakens said user and nullifies his powers. The Marines have an abundance of this material, using it to craft handcuffs, weapons (like Smoker's jutte) and jail cells.
* The specialists, the Paper Sisters in ''[[Read or Die|Read Or Dream]]'' can telekinetically manipulate paper... unless it's ''wet''. This was not a weakness for Yomiko Readman, who ''is'' shown on camera manipulating paper while underwater. This is actually [[Justified Trope|explained in-universe]]. The Paper Sisters' powers are essentially imperfect clones of Yomiko's, artificially created by Dokusensha; which is why they are weaker and more specialized/limited. Water naturally disrupts the structural integrity of paper, and their inferior powers are not sufficient to maintain it the way Yomiko can.
* ''[[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]]''
** 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
** They could also be paralyzed by ''kissing.''
* In ''[[Rosario + Vampire]]'', vampires are considered the high end of the monster scale, but the fact that you can pretty much take a vampire down with a glass of water kinda puts a [[Incredibly Lame Pun|dampener]] on that idea.
** Though, you'd have to be of werewolf speed to even ''consider'' hitting them with the stuff in the first place.
*** Vampires are ironically said to have the most weaknesses compared to any other monster. Things like silver would also do them in.
* 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]].
** His [[Accidental Marriage|fiancee]] [[Cute Bruiser|Shampoo]] and his main rival Ryoga Hibiki have an even worse case of the water weakness than Ranma does; Jusenkyo made them become a [[Baleful Polymorph|little kitten and miniature pig]] respectively when splashed with cold water. So they go from incredibly powerful fighters to harmless little animals whose only recourse is to run or hide until they can get some hot water. Genma Saotome, Ranma's father, pretty much subverts it; his panda form loses little, if any, speed and agility while gaining in strength and toughness due to the increased [[Stout Strength|bulk]]. Mousse, meanwhile, seesaws between subverting this trope and playing it straight with his duck curse; while it is much smaller, weaker and can't use his physical attacks, it can fly and he's still capable of throwing barrages of knives, darts and bombs in it.
*** And a non-water version applies to [[Old Master|Happosai]], who is such a [[Dirty Old Man]] that his perversion becomes his own Achilles heel. If there is a fight serious enough, or a reward great enough, that he can't be immediately distracted from whatever he was doing by the sight of girls in skimpy clothing, bare cleavage or a bra, it hasn't come up in the series. He can even be lured right into dangers simply by tossing a bra in the right place.
* My name is [[Cromartie High School|Yutaka Takenouchi]], and I have only one weakness ... I am
* 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
** This motion sickness seems to extend to being carried by people, as well. He's perfectly fine being taken to flight by Happy the cat, however, reasoning that Happy isn't a vehicle. [[Fridge Logic|So Lucy is?]]
*** According to Rogue,
* In ''[[Bleach]]'', Espada #9 Aaroniero can't use his shapeshifting when in sunlight. Though he can still use any of his other 30,000+ powers (not that he does before getting killed, but he had the option).
** To make matters worse, he lives in Hueco Mundo, which has no natural sun. His boss builds a fake one for no discernible reason.
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{{quote|'''Pride''': Appearances can often be deceiving. Isn't that right, little alchemist?
'''Ed''': Grk!
<nowiki>*</nowiki>Pride attacks* }}
* In ''[[Naruto]]'', Konan of the Akatsuki is, like all members of that group, very powerful. Yet her [[Paper Master|paper-based techniques]] can be completely nullified by spraying oil on her to make her stick together (a technique one human ninja and some summoned toads have), although water can release her.
* Adam Blade from ''[[NEEDLESS]]'' has a weakness for little girls, and usually ended up getting his butt kicked because of this. Though later in the manga his weakness had developed from mere lolis to naked lolis. In the other hand, his love for lolis can temporally boost his strength and saves him from a [[Lotus Eater Machine]], so it's subverted.
* 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
{{quote|{{spoiler|'''Nightmare''': Aaaah! How did Kirby discover the secret?! That pitiful little Star Warrior has found my only weakness! I am helpless against the power of the Star Rod! [[Death Cry Echo|WAAAAUUUUGGGGHHH!!!!]]}}}}
* The Dai Gurren in ''[[Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann]]'' is a walking battleship...that is not designed to go on water. A ''battleship'' that ''isn't designed to go on water''.
* In ''[[Ah! My Goddess]]'', Urd is put to sleep by Enka music, traditional Japanese ballads. When someone tries to take advantage of this fact, [[Mundane Solution|she just pops in earplugs]].
** Mara is weak to rock music; it causes her to dance uncontrollably.
* Saiyans, a race of savage and brutal warriors from ''[[
** The only way to defeat Chaozu's psychic attacks is to break his concentration. Krillin does this by asking him ''extremely difficult math questions.'' Like 9 - 1.
*** After that his teacher the Crane Hermit immediately [[Mundane Solution|gave him remedial math lessons]].
** Apparently, whistling around Piccolo, or any Namek can really incapacitate them. This becomes a plot point in the DBZ movie ''Lord Slug'' where Piccolo {{spoiler asks Gohan to start whistling after [[Body Horror|ripping off his own ears]] in a desperate attempt to stop Lord Slug.}}
* 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.
* [[Kinnikuman]] is weakened by milk. Though after he goes insane during his match against Curry Cook and ''drinks'' the stuff, it becomes apparent that he just thinks it's disgusting.
* The Gundam Aerial of ''[[Mobile Suit Gundam: The Witch from Mercury]]'' primarily uses [[Frickin' Laser Beams|beam weaponry]], which in this continuity is greatly weakened by water, meaning rain puts it at a heavy disadvantage. This weakness is ironic, since the Aerial is (officially) from Mercury, which is known as "Water Planet" (水星) in Japanese.
== Comic Books ==
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** More recently, [[Frank Miller]] parodied the ''hell'' out of this in ''[[All-Star Batman and Robin The Boy Wonder]]''. Before confronting Green Lantern, Batman and Robin paint an entire house, and everything in it, yellow. Then they put on yellow costumes. Then they paint their exposed faces yellow. When GL comes over, Batman goes so far as to offer him a nice refreshing glass of lemonade, while Robin eats some lemon ice cream. Hal was not amused. Readers were.
** The original Green Lantern was almost as bad—his weakness was wood. Since so few people knew it as later Green Lanterns became famous, however, he in many cases seemed ''more'' powerful than the new Green Lanterns because, for example, the Sinestro Corps yellow power rings couldn't even make him flinch.
*** This was parodied in the ''[[Justice League]]'' [[The Golden Age of Comic Books|Golden Age]] [[Affectionate Parody]] episode "Legends", with his [[Captain Ersatz|stand-in version]] "Green Guardsman", who had a weakness to aluminum <ref>Given he's from the Golden Age, this is not as bad ''as'' it sounds: Aluminium, which is common but rarely found pure and needing mass electricity to be refined economically, was expensive prior to modern nuclear/hydroelectric power and several times more expensive than gold before the 1850s.</ref>. Either way, you've got a superhero who could appear on the news after having been beaten to death with a baseball bat—and considering that one of his foes was the Sportsmaster, who ''did'' wield a baseball bat... it's pretty darned weaksauce.
*** It didn't hurt that wood, while very common when Alan Scott first hit the scene, had become rarer in civilization by the time [[The Silver Age of Comic Books]] hit. Villains in [[The DCU]] tend to decorate in metal, plastic, and [[Zeerust]] by then, which means even less to block that strange ring with.
*** This actually becomes a problem for him in the Elseworlds story ''[[Kingdom Come]]''. Like most of the other original heroes, [[Green Lantern]] Alan Scott's powers have progressed to a ludicrous level - he keeps watch over the Earth in a massive emerald [[Space Station]], constructed himself a suit of impressive armor, and carries around a sword made out of pure energy - all from his power ring. None of it helps very much against [[Green Arrow]] in the final battle, since this Oliver Queen's arrows are made out of wood.
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* [[Martian Manhunter]] has a ridiculous amount of powers, yet he had weakness to fire, making it quite easy to disable him. This because he saw his entire family—and species as a whole—die in a psychic plague that manifested itself as fire. He then buried the bodies of everyone on the planet. This makes his pyrophobia a form of post-traumatic stress disorder. The first attempt to remove this weakness accidentally unlocked his [[Super-Powered Evil Side]].
* Prism, a member of the ''[[X-Men (Comic Book)|X-Men]]'' villain group the Marauders, is a truly pitiful example that combines this trope with [[What Kind of Lame Power Is Heart, Anyway?]]. His mutant ability is that he is made of a crystal that can absorb and redirect light energy (like a prism) and is no more durable than glass. Yes, he is made of ''glass''. His weaknesses include any sort of impact. Two of his four deaths (yes, he has died often) involve being thrown into a wall and being shattered by bullets.
* The greater the power, the weaker the sauce! Marvel's latest{{when}} and most prominent Superman [[Captain Ersatz|pastiche]] is
** One fancomic actually has him carrying around his entire living room whenever he wants to go anywhere.
** [[Iron Man]] once defeated him by forwarding his mail, more or less.
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** Firestorm needs to merge with someone in order to use his powers. If the merge happens too long, his powers ''eat'' his partner.
** In one of his appearances on ''[[Superfriends]]'', he was rendered helpless after being sprayed with ''plant food''. Even ''their'' version of Aquaman wasn't as lame.
** In
* Although it's since been removed, Eclipso - DC's god of darkness - could be dispelled from his human host by a camera flash.
* [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.
** Somewhat justified in that his powers are explicitly psionic/mental in nature. If he believes that they won't work or that he can't complete a task with them, they won't work and he won't be able to complete that task. This means you don't actually need a weapon powerful enough to beat him, only something which you can convince him is a weapon powerful enough to beat him, which Rocket Raccoon exploited.
* Another parody—Super-Ace, an alternate Ace Rimmer from a superhero universe appeared in one ''[[Red Dwarf]] Smegazine'' comic strip. While he had the full array of [[Flying Brick]] powers, his one weakness was ... human flesh. So an ordinary [[Mook]] could ''punch'' him.
* Storm, of the [[X-Men]], has complete control of the weather almost pushes her into [[God Mode Sue]] territory: in practice it gives her flight, superspeed, and the command of electricity, water, cold, and wind. So what's her weakness? Claustrophobia. If a writer wants to take her out of a battle, all they need to do is drop some rubble on her—and sometimes not even that much. In her early years, she had a [[Heroic BSOD]] when a villain only mentioned a word that made her ''think'' of enclosed spaces. (These days, trying to stick her in an enclosed space just makes her [[Unstoppable Rage|mad.]])
* The laughably silly [[Silver Age]] DC villain Ten-Eyed Man was a guy whose "[[What Kind of Lame Power Is Heart, Anyway?|power]]" was being able to see through his fingertips. Every single battle involving him ended with him being ''tricked into grabbing something'' rendering him completely helpless.
* [[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]]''.
* Fay Moffit, the second Spellbinder (the original was a third-rate Batman villain who was Fay's lover, whom she murdered when he turned down power from Neron and took it for herself) has the ability to create very realistic illusions. However, because her eyes are needed for this, simply blinding her in some way is enough to disable her power.
* 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.
** Plus, Loki's a ''Frost Giant.'' A race that lives on a snow-covered world and fights with ice. This weakness became [[Fridge Logic]] after that came to light.
* The sword in, umm, ''[[The Sword]]'' grants whomever touches it serious [[Super Strength]], enough [[Super Speed]] to run on water and deflect bullets, and a powerful [[Good Thing You Can Heal|healing ability]] that can close gaping chest wounds and reattach limbs. Unfortunately, these only last for as long as the user maintains physical contact. Put it down to eat a sandwich or go to the bathroom and you're mortal again. At one point, protagonist Dara drops in the middle of a super-strength high jump (a natural reaction to being shot) and suddenly finds she's not landing, ''she's falling''. Worse, {{spoiler|go too long without touching the sword and any injuries it healed come back all at once.}}
* The first story of the 2011 relaunch of ''[[Swamp Thing]]'' features a kid villain named William Arcane. William's connection to the forces of Death (or The Rot) allow him to control all dead or decaying matter. This gives him immense power. The only problem is his fatal allergy to ''[[Kryptonite Is Everywhere|chlorophyll]]''.
* The story "The Day Red Turned to Green", in issue #85 of ''Tales of the Unexpected'', featured giant mushroom-like aliens that could be harmed by anything red. The main character found one of their "absorbo-sponges" while spelunking, and anything red that he passed while carrying it turned green.
* [[Justice League]] villain Queen of Fables has strange powers and a stranger weakness. To use her powers offensively, she must base them around a well-known work of fiction (not necessarily fairy tales, but those are her preference) and once she is set on one, she is invincible and invulnerable, ''unless'' her intended victims take advantage of whatever flaw in the strategy the villain of the original story had. If they do, the Queen becomes powerless. For example, she could cast herself as the witch from [[Hansel and Gretel]], forcing [[Superman]] and [[Wonder Woman]] to assume the role of the two protagonists. Trying to fight her the usual way would get the two heroes nowhere, as they'd be as helpless as the two children were, but if they caught on and decided to try shoving her into her oven, the Queen would be beaten. Unfortunately for the Queen of Fables, the stories she uses are just too well known, so under this sort of condition, she is never as much a threat as her powers suggest.
* [[Disney Ducks Comic Universe|In Disney comics]], Scrooge McDuck's nemesis Magica De Spell has an aversion to garlic, much like vampires do; this is not the case in second version of ''[[DuckTales (2017)|DuckTales]]'', where she was seen eating it without any discomfort.
* The Shaper of Worlds (a character most associated with the [[Silver Surfer]]) is as his name applies, a powerful [[Reality Warper]] who can reshape entire planets, able to turn a dead, lifeless world into an idyllic paradise. Only problem is, he has no imagination, and must rely on that of mortals (usually his apprentice, the former earthling Glorian) to do so properly.
* 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]].▼
▲== [[Fan Fiction]] ==
▲* 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]].
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* The aliens in ''[[Signs]]''. It's [[Nightmare Retardant|hard to feel threatened]] [[Fridge Logic|(retrospectively)]] by creatures which will dissolve in an April shower or corrode in a particularly humid breeze.
** In Shyamalan's earlier film, ''[[Unbreakable]]'', he also used water as a weakness for the main character. In that case, though, it wasn't that he was especially vulnerable to water, but rather he was just as susceptible to drowning as a normal person. If he drank something too quickly he would choke and if he was submerged he would succumb to drowning just like everyone else—though it was theorized that the dense bone and muscle that made him ''unbreakable'' also made him ''unfloatable'' (or the character simply couldn't swim).
*** It was also a psychological weakness: he had almost drowned once as a child (probably due to the
*** There was also a complicating factor in the scene where he ends up almost drowning in a swimming pool. He's tangled up in a big piece of fabric, which would give anyone a bad time while in water.
* Shyamalan probably got the weakness idea for ''[[Signs]]'' from ''[[Invasion of the Saucer Men]]'', whose aliens were melted by ''light''. There is nothing lamer. Especially considering they were done in by {{spoiler|the headlights of teenage hot rodders...!}}
* The Bioraptors (also called
* 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'').
* Also happens in ''[[The Mole People]]''; in which a lost colony of ancient Sumerians living [[Beneath the Earth]] had adapted to their lightless conditions to the point where our heroes could kill them with a ''flashlight''.
* In the movie version of ''[[The Day of the Triffids]]'', the titular monsters were melted by sea water. Nearly as lame. In the original novel, ironically, [[Kill It with Fire|flame-throwers]] are among the most effective anti-Triffid weapons.
** [[Your Mileage May Vary]] on whether
* The Tenctonese in ''[[Alien Nation (TV series)|Alien Nation]]'' (the movie as well as the series) are harmed by ''salt water''. Seawater is like acid to them. They live mostly on the Californian coast; while they do develop a tolerance to it, though direct exposure is still harmful to them.
** There is a slightly funny moment when the police find the partially-dissolved body of a Newcomer washed up on the beach. When asked how they were able to identify him, they simply shrug and show his soaked wallet. All his clothes were, naturally, fine too.
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* The Tomatoes in ''[[Attack of the Killer Tomatoes]]'' had the same weakness, in the form of a song called "Puberty Love".
* Imhotep in his incomplete form ''[[The Mummy Trilogy]]'' was immediately chased away when a cat is in his presence, because they guard the Underworld. Naturally, the heroes never did anything to exploit this weakness, such as by putting cats in the room full of the people he needed to kill to stop being vulnerable to cats.
** Rendered especially silly by the fact that if you've ever been to Egypt, you'll know that there are stray cats absolutely
** Rick ''did'' place a cat in Evey's room, thought it seems to have slunk away to a corner where it wasn't much use. Still, when Imhotep came to call, all Rick had to do was hold it up in a pseudo-menacing fashion. This was enough to drive Imhotep away. Soon after, the mummy regained his powers completely and lost that particular weakness. This still doesn't explain why the other people he had marked out as victims hadn't kept cats on hand.
* From 1966 superhero parody ''[[Rat
* 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.
* In an [[Homage]] to ''[[The Wizard of Oz (film)|The Wizard of Oz]]'', Death in ''[[Six-String Samurai]]'' is killed when squirted with water.
* Derek [[Zoolander]] can't turn left until his [[Big Damn Heroes]] moment. (Though continuity nitpicks will note that he does turn left (relative to himself, though not the camera) while in disguise while trying to retrieve Maury's computer.)
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* ''[[Bolt]]'', of the movie of the same name, ''thought'' his super-weakness was styrofoam.
* ''[[Mystery Men]]'', Invisible Boy's weakness was anybody looking at him while he was invisible. {{spoiler|(Machines, like motion detectors and cameras, didn't trigger this.)}}
* 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|
* The movie ''[[Sleepwalkers]]'' had monsters that were [[Made of Iron]], except for when scratched by house cats.
* 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
* The [[Ninja Pirate Zombie Robot|undead mutant warrior things]] from [[The Eighties|the
* 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
* {{spoiler|[[Subverted Trope|Subverted]]}} in ''[[Megamind]]'' when Metro Man has a {{spoiler|completely fake}} weakness to copper as part of {{spoiler|his plan to retire}}. This is even lampshaded by Megamind:
{{quote|'''Megamind''': Your weakness is ''copper''!? You're kidding, right?}}
** [[Kryptonite Is Everywhere|Copper is pretty common]], so Megamind really ''should'' have realized {{spoiler|it was a fake weakness}}. Especially since he grew up with Metro Man and would have seen him handle things like pennies or batteries.
* ''[[Ernest Scared Stupid]]''{{'}}s titular monsters are these trolls, who legend speaks of them being weak to... milk.
* In ''[[Lair of the White Worm]]'', a vampire's natural enemy is the mongoose due to vampires in this universe being snake-people. {{spoiler|The mongoose ends up getting killed anyway but it's still enough to make the [[Big Bad]] retreat for a while.}}
** Also, playing the bagpipes puts them in a trance. {{spoiler|Unless they have earplugs, of course.}}
* In ''[[Hook]]'', the Lost Boys exploit Captain Hook's fear of the sound of ticking clocks, which they attribute to Hook's memories of being pursued by a clock-swallowing giant crocodile. Subverted when Peter points out that Hook can't really be afraid of the crocodile, {{spoiler|which he killed years ago; rather, Hook is afraid of ''time'', as he's become an old man beneath his wig and make-up, and old age is hardly a fear that can be dismissed as Weaksauce.}} Counts as [[Fridge Brilliance]], as the original [[Peter Pan]] could never have made that connection before he had the chance to grow up himself.
* ''[[Superman IV]]'' brings us the horror that is Nuclear Man who, for reasons unknown, is powered solely by the sun. The minute he is out of direct sunlight he stops dead. Even if he's in a well lit room but slightly in the shade then he's next to worthless. This is especially pathetic when you consider that, in canon, Superman's own powers are ultimately derived from sunlight, but *he* doesn't power down in the shade.
* 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.
* Played for laughs in ''[[Evolution (film)|Evolution]]'', where the aliens' critical weakness is to dandruff shampoo.
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** The Wicked Witch is not the only one afraid of water: while Tin Man doesn't melt, he rusts to the point of total immobility - even though [[Did Not Do the Research|he shouldn't.]]
** Another [[Land of Oz|Oz]]-related Weaksauce: the Nome King was an extremely powerful, nigh-invincible subterranean fairy who had armies of nomes... all of them, including him, could be weakened to the point of being killed by ''eggs''. This doesn't look as bad as it seems at first, because there's only one chicken in Oz.
* 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).
** [[The Musical]] adaptation of ''[[Wicked (theatre)|Wicked]]'' openly mocks the entire idea of water melting the Witch. {{spoiler|Elphaba uses this urban legend about herself to fake her own death at Dorothy's hands.}}
* The weakness from ''[[The Wonderful Wizard of Oz]]'' is spoofed in the ''[[Enchanted Forest Chronicles]]'', where evil wizards can be melted with water—but only with soap and lemon juice added. The good witch Morwen, on the other hand, explicitly does not melt. It is later theorized that this might be because the wizards never shower while Morwen is something of a neat-freak. Eventually, the heroes refined this into a one word spell with the same effect. One very memorable word, too: {{spoiler|Argelfraster}}!
* The aliens in ''[[The War of the Worlds (novel)|The War of the Worlds]]'' were killed by {{spoiler|a common disease. The aliens were so advanced and germophobic that they wiped out all microbial life on their native planet. Which of course meant they had nothing to develop immunities to when they invaded Earth}}.
* The Martians, in [[Ray Bradbury]]'s ''[[The Martian Chronicles]]'', are killed ''en masse'' rather early in the book by a human-induced plague of chicken pox. It's a [[Shout-Out|knowing reference]] to both American history and ''[[The War of the Worlds (novel)|The War of the Worlds]]''.
* The Boggart in ''[[
** 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
** Voldemort's inability to understand Love, and [[The Power of Love]], proves to be his ultimate undoing. However, this is less of a Weaksauce Weakness than a [[Fatal Flaw]]. Harry does not beat Voldemort because of some mystical aspect of love, but because having reliable friends and allies ultimately gives him an advantage over Voldemort, who underestimates the capacity of others to behave selflessly because he would never even consider doing so himself.
* In the ''[[Diablo|Sin War]]'' trilogy, Diablo, the Lord of Terror and one of the three most powerful evil things in existence, is defeated by a reflective surface. To clarify, Diablo appears as things you fear, and if it's bad enough to scare Diablo, it's pretty bad.
* Eddings' ''[[The Redemption of Althalus]]'' featured both one protagonistic and one antagonistic [[Five-Man Band]], both with similar power arrays. The villains included the evil mind-leech Koman, with telepathy and mind-warping abilities... who was defeated when Althalus thought about random numbers. ''Fractions'' of numbers, even.
* ''[[Discworld]]'' examples:
** The Auditors in ''[[
*** Non-incarnated Auditors can be killed by getting them to say "I", "me", or otherwise admit individuality. Since it's widely known that (a) only living things have individuality, (b) all living things die after some amount of time and (c) any living thing's lifespan is practically no time at all compared to the universe's, any Auditor who admits individuality instantly dies. By the perspective of the rest of them, this isn't much of a loss, since there are more Auditors than there is ''anything else in the universe'' and, by definition, any given one of them is supposed to lack any defining characteristics.
** Much of the plot of [[Discworld]] novel ''[[
*** Discworld vampires play this trope in a weird, [[All Myths Are True]] way.
** Discworld bogeymen are incredibly strong, reasonably nasty, and some of them can teleport to some extent. Their
* In ''[[Artemis Fowl]]'', fairy magic can be completely stopped by animal fat. That's right, magic that can make you invisible, hypnotize people, heal nearly anything, and in some cases ''travel through time'' can be stopped by ''lard''. [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ry0TyIJXgoU Praise the Lard!]
** Also not forgetting some of the laws that (most) fairies have to adhere to thanks to some very old, powerful magic—the most commonly seen are the Ritual for restoring magic (has to be done with an acorn, at the full moon, under an oak next to a bend in the river... or at least to start with. By the second book that's already been thrown out as mere myth.), the 'fairies cannot enter human houses without permission' rule, and by extension, the 'fairies cannot disobey a direct command given by a human eye to eye' rule. Of course, {{spoiler|These are handwaved away by No1 in the 6th book.}}
* ''The Haunter in the Dark'', the titular monster in a story by [[H.P. Lovecraft]], is an avatar of the god Nyarlatothep. It's a huge winged and tentacled mass of darkness with a three-lobed burning eye, whose touch will burn the flesh from your bones. However, it's extremely vulnerable to light. Even little light will hurt it, and strong light will banish it. So you can temporarily defeat an avatar of an ancient and evil god with ''a flashlight!''. Temporarily. As soon as the lights are out, it can come back, just as nasty as before.
* In ''[[Worldwar]]'', the invading reptilian aliens called
** Even before they discover ginger's effect on the Race females, they find that not only
* In [[Lisa Jane Smith|L.J. Smith]]'s ''Night of the Solstice'' series the Fair Folk-like race known as the Quislai have many advantages, such as immortality, invulnerability, extreme beauty, the ability to throw lightning bolts, the power to travel to places quickly using secret pathways through space, and freedom from nearly all physical limitations. They can't be imprisoned by normal means, as doors and windows will unlock themselves for Quislai, and they can travel through dimensional gateways between worlds without preparation while everyone else requires a special magical amulet to use them. However, the one thing that can restrain them is a thornbranch tangled in the hair. Unfortunately, most Quislai seem too ditzy to think of cutting their hair short or at least avoiding rosebushes.
* Judges 1:19 in [[The Bible]] is often taken by unbelievers and skeptics to argue that ''iron chariots'' are a weakness of God; as the King James Version translates it, it reads ''"And the Lord was with Judah; and he drave out the inhabitants of the mountain; but could not drive out the inhabitants of the valley, because they had chariots of iron."'' Needless to say, this interpretation is [http://www.apologeticspress.org/apcontent.aspx?category=6&article=301 not generally accepted by believers].
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* In ''[[The Wheel of Time]]'', channelers are people and therefore are vulnerable to all the things that squishy humans are (though they can do things to help offset that). However, they are particularly vulnerable to Forkroot tea. In normal humans, it's harmless, if at most a mild sedative. In channelers it cuts off their ability to use their magic and knocks them out.
* In Nick Perumov's novel ''Diamond Sword Wooden Sword'', magic-users are vulnerable to the herb swamp crower. Its smoke makes everybody cough, but magic-users also temporarily lose their powers.
* 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
* The kids in the ''[[Goosebumps]]'' book ''How To Kill A Monster'' have to figure out exactly how to do that. Falling three stories doesn't stop him nor does poisoning a pie. Luckily, there's a [[Deus Ex Machina]] way out. {{spoiler|the monster dies after they confirm their humans, as he's allergic.}}
* Iron against the chaos mages in the ''[[Saga of Recluce]]''. Even the strongest bolt of chaos fire can be stopped cold by a thin sheet of iron, and the more powerful a chaos mage is the more they're hurt by iron, to the point that what for anyone else would be [[Only a Flesh Wound]] will be a [[One-Hit Kill]] for an experienced chaos mage.
* Bram Stoker's
* [[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.
* The Hunter from the ''[[Coldfire Trilogy]]'' is one of the most powerful beings in the series, but also fatally flawed in his nature. As part of his [[Deal with the Devil]] to stave off death, the Hunter surrendered his power over life, creation, and light. He can no longer use healing magic without dying, sunlight burns him horribly, and he is completely unable to manipulate ordinary fire. A villain in the first book took advantage of these weaknesses by luring him into a cave filled with crystal and used a mirror to reflect what little sunlight there was back at him, with the light magnified by the crystal. Then he was rendered helpless by being placed in an ordinary bonfire.
* ''[[Animorphs]]'' has one book where the group finds out the Yeerks' [[Bizarre Alien Biology]] allows both them and the hosts to treat ''instant maple oatmeal'' as an addictive drug on par with heroin. While they plan on dumping a bunch of Quaker Oats' finest into the pool the Yeerks use to rejuvenate, they don't end up using it as a weapon because it plays merry hell on the hosts as well.
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* In ''[[The Dresden Files]]'' all illusion has the problem that anyone capable of using the Sight can simply activate it and no matter how skilled the illusionist, they'll be able to see what's really going on. While most people avoid using the Sight due to the potential for seeing disturbing, unforgettable things with it, the ability for the most marginally skilled caster to totally counteract any illusion means that the Council doesn't consider it an especially useful discipline.
* The Nazgul from ''[[The Lord of the Rings]]'' are vulnerable to sunlight and fire, and will not cross running water if they can at all avoid it. The first two are actually a [[Logical Weakness]]- as creatures of darkness and cold, it makes perfect sense that they wouldn't like light and heat- but Tolkien never explains (either in the books themselves or [[Word of God]]) why they feared water.
* 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.
* All types of the fae in ''[[The Name of the Wind]]'' are susceptible to iron.
* 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.
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** Similarly, Elle possesses powerful electrical powers, but because of them can be incapacitated by a bucket of water, which shorts the circuit and fries her with her own powers if she tries to use them.
* In ''[[Smallville]]'', Aquaman's guest appearance explained that he needed to be constantly wet or otherwise have a glass of water or he loses his immense strength and begins to wither. Considering he has had plenty of his own [[What Kind of Lame Power Is Heart, Anyway?|superpowered problems]], this is especially glaring.
** 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
** This (unbelievably large amount of Kryptonite on Earth) even made Ultraman flee his own reality because ''everyone'' had it and wouldn't hesitate to use it against him.
* The ''[[Star Trek: The Original Series
* In an episode of ''[[Star Trek: The Next Generation]]'', the crew deals with a hostile silicon based lifeform that draws its energy from light. They subdue it by turning the ship's interior lighting off.
** In another episode the Captain finds an ancient Vulcan artifact believed to be some kind of superweapon. By that time he has realised its critical weakness—it can only kill people who have violent thoughts. Remaining calm renders it ineffective—even Worf is able to counter it using this method.
* 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,
* In the '80s series ''[[V (TV series)|V]]'', aliens are vulnerable to certain inoffensive bacteria that live in human digestive tract. {{spoiler|It backfires later on.}}
* The alien "Gua" in ''[[First Wave]]'' turn out to be badly affected by salt. It affects them roughly like heroin affects humans. One episode featured renegade Gua hiding out in a derelict building snorting packets of McDonald's salt. Of course, this is the same series where the hero fought the alien invasion using the lost diaries of Nostradamus, so...
** Technically, we never see an actual Gua. They're husks - cloned human/Gua hybrids. it's entirely possible that actual Gua are immune to salt but happen to be crappy genetic engineers.
** Did we mention that Nostradamus was actually {{spoiler|a psychic alien}}?
* Sportacus, the superhero of ''[[LazyTown]]'' becomes helpless if he eats things with
** Also, candy is made from refined sugar which is simple glucose molecules that the human body metabolises, and thus runs out of, much faster than more complex fructose. This is a real problem for people with hypoglycemia.
* Turned on its head by [[Buffy the Vampire Slayer|The Gentlemen]] who die instantly upon hearing a human scream. Because of this they steal everyone's voice, making themselves essentially invincible and all the creepier - [[And I Must Scream|they're cutting your heart out and you can't scream!]]
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* A villain of the week on ''[[Misfits]]'' turns out to be allergic to peanuts, which gets cranked up to [[Mundane Made Awesome]] levels and treated as a [[Kryptonite Factor]] in the confrontation.
* In ''[[Kamen Rider Double]]'', the Utopia Dopant [[Emotion Eater|draws upon peoples' positive emotions]], granting him incredible power. Inanimate objects, however, ''have'' no emotions to drain, meaning that the series' [[Big Bad]] gets manhandled by the same cute and [[Toyetic]] [[Robot Buddies]] that have been hanging around since Episode 1. In fact, one of the show's copious [[Crowning Moment of Awesome|Crowning Moments of Awesome]] is protagonist Shotaro blocking Utopia's powers with nothing more than his [[It Was a Gift|dead mentor's]] [[Cool Hat]].
* The Gentlemen from the ''[[Buffy the Vampire Slayer]]'' episode "Hush" are demons who ''really'' hate noise of all sorts, but are especially susceptible to human voices. [[Pragmatic Villain|This is the reason for the curse they put on Sunnydale]] before attacking it, stealing the residents' voices.
== Parlor Games ==
* 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.
** This was mocked in an episode of ''[[Corner Gas]]''; Davis chooses rock, while Karen chooses paper. Davis declares he won. When Karen says that paper beats rock, Davis counters with this: if you cover a rock with paper, ''it's still a rock'' - you can break a window with it.
== Tabletop Games ==
* ''[[Dungeons & Dragons]]'' has various examples, many of which occur whenever the designers remember that critters [[No Biochemical Barriers|don't all have the same metabolism]]:
** Umber hulks are huge and tough, but jade treated in a particular way is corrosive to their hides (mechanically represented by double damage) and nauseating. The drow make jade spiders, constructs with jaws and claws made of this special jade, to keep hulks away from certain areas.
** The magic-eating Nishruu are averse to salt, which is poisonous to them.
** ''[[Dark Sun]]'' has the ranike tree - smoke from a fire made with its wood is a repellent for all sorts of insects and insectoids, including abundant monstrous species and the sapient [[Multi-Armed and Dangerous|kreen]].
* In ''[[Heavy Gear]]'' the advanced ''Black Mamba'' Gear - one of the more powerful designs in either of the two superpowers' armies - had exceptionally weak rear armour. The result is that Black Mambas could be (and routinely were in gameplay) easily defeated by lightweight ''Cheetah'' scout Gears. While the fluff text initially ignored this, the game's designers eventually acknowledged and lampshaded this weakness by having Mamba pilots clamouring for a solution to the "glassback" problem.▼
** Rakshasas are devils who have always been ''very'' hard to hurt - in most editions, level 7 or lower are spells worthless against them, non-magical weapons don't hurt them, and weapons that ''can'' hurt them do reduced damage. ''However'', a crossbow bolt that has been blessed by a Good-aligned cleric (which requires a common 1st-level spell) will kill one ''instantly''. Why crossbows? Nobody knows.
** Trolls, while nocturnal, are not harmed by sunlight (except Ysgardian trolls, a different species entirely) and have a powerful regeneration ability, but are very susceptible to fire and acid, which are also very afraid of. They cannot regenerate injuries caused by either.
** Medusas can be petrified by their own reflection, but only in an actual mirror - other reflective surfaces like clear water or polished stone will not work. This seems to be a result of the curse that affected a society of vain, narcissistic and beautiful women who tried to use black magic to preserve their beauty forever. These women became the first medusas, and whether they are [[Gorgeous Gorgon|gorgeous]] or otherwise, not being able to safely admire themselves in a mirror is part of their punishment.
** Vecna, the dreaded Oeridian [[God of Evil|God of Secrets]] in [[Greyhawk]], would likely crush any mortal who dared challenge him. He is a [[Physical God]], after all, and was a powerful lich even before becoming one: in the module ''Die Vecna Die'', his [[Evil Plan]]s cause him to ascend to the power of a Greater God who threatens to destroy the whole multiverse and remake it in his own foul image. Even worse, he is the God of Secrets, meaning no secret can be kept from him; no mortal can plot or plan against him without him quickly learning every little detail of their plan. [[Impossible Task|What are the heroes to do?]] Well, actually, due to a flaw in his plan, he does have a weakness. Anyone who assimilates one of his two infamous artifacts (the ''Hand and Eye of Vecna'') or one of his lesser Relics (the ''First Digit, Second Digit, Third Digit, Last Digit, Incisors, Molar, Scalp, Skin, Heart, Foot,'' and ''Right Eye'', all parts of his original body) is immune to his divine abilities and is concealed from his omnipotence (including his ability to discern secrets), and anyone wielding the ''Sword of Kas'' (a weapon he forged as a mortal lich and gave to his [[The Starscream|traitorous lieutenant Kas]]) can injure him. While the ''Eye of Vecna'' is unavailable to the heroes in this story (Vecna’s rival Iuz gets it first), the Hand, Sword, and Relics are [[Boss Arena Idiocy|in Vecna’s palace in Caviticus]]. In short, they make it so that in the [[Final Battle]], Vecna must face them mano-a-mano - not that this will make it easy, of course.
▲* In ''[[Heavy Gear]]'', the advanced ''Black Mamba'' Gear - one of the more powerful designs in either of the two superpowers' armies - had exceptionally weak rear armour. The result is that Black Mambas could be (and routinely were in gameplay) easily defeated by lightweight ''Cheetah'' scout Gears. While the fluff text initially ignored this, the game's designers eventually acknowledged and lampshaded this weakness by having Mamba pilots clamouring for a solution to the "glassback" problem.
** Most [[Hover Tank|hovertanks]] have weak Underside facing, but it can be hit only when the vehicle moves over placed explosives or uses jump jets (to clear obstacles).
* Most of the monsters in [[Hero System|''Lucha Libre Hero'']] take extra damage from ''lucha'' combat maneuvers. And since the PCs are by default ''technico'' luchadors, there's a lot of these showing up in the fight scenes. But then, the sourcebook was inspired by Mexican ''lucha'' films, and "every problem can be solved with a good wrestling hold" was standard in those films.
* 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
* In the ''[[The Dresden Files (game)|The Dresden Files]] RPG'', all creatures who take some sort of supernatural toughness, regeneration, or physical immunity must take something called "The Catch", which, when used against them, will take out their ability to shrug off damage. The more common/easily accessible the ability to fulfil "The Catch" (so, something everyone knows about and can get easily), the more points you can get back. So, Catches like "Swords Of The Cross", "Wizards Born Under Special Circumstances", "Soulfire", and "Nuclear Detonations" don't really offset the power, while more common and known substances (like iron vs Fey, holy items vs Black Court Vampires, or physically attacking magically immune creatures with [[Discworld|a brick loaded sock]]) will give you more points to potentially work with.
* In ''[[Deadlands]]'', there are some creatures and villains who are immune to anything except one weakness. For example, a Hangin' Judge is vulnerable to a weapon held by a legitimate lawman on duty, a Tummy Twister to hot chili peppers, and Jasper Stone to suicide.
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* ''[[Rifts]]'' has a little fun with the concept of fae weaknesses. Among the ways to protect yourself from Faerie Folk is to turn your clothes inside-out or backwards when traveling through their territory, or by tying colorful ribbons all over you and your gear. But this is less a matter of them being unable to approach you as it is them being too busy ''laughing'' to trouble you.
* It's possible to give a character in ''[[Champions]]'' such a weakness via the Susceptibility Disadvantage. Water, for example, could be worth quite a few points depending on how many dice the character takes from it since it's one of the most common substances in practically any game world. Of course, this would make it impossible for your character to do such simple things as bathe or shower, and any kid armed with a [[Weaponized Weakness|Super-Soaker and/or a bucket of water balloons]] would become a credible threat.
* In ''[[Pathfinder]]'' psychic casters can't cast spells with emotion descriptors if "under the influence of a non-harmless effect with the emotion or fear descriptors". This means one can largely be shut down by demoralizing them, which is easy to accomplish against a player class character because it's a fairly minor debuff to anyone else.
== Video Games ==
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** It's a curse, and one that actively tries to kill him. Any time he goes near deep water, [[Everything Trying to Kill You|a hand made of water tries to drag Raz in and drown him.]]
* The '''[[Mega Man (video game)|Mega Man]]'' series has plenty of bosses who had a weakness to unlikely-looking weapons and questionable moves.
** The final boss of ''[[Mega Man 2]]'' can only be damaged with the most useless and most difficult-to-hit-with weapon, Bubble Lead.
** The final form of Wily in ''[[Mega Man 3]]'' can be one-shotted with a proper application of Top Spin, a glitchy and hard to aim attack that often damaged you and would drain the entire bar if mistimed. (Thankfully, Search Snakes also work on it—which has much the same movement pattern as the aforementioned Bubble Lead and would be this game's hardest-to-hit-with weapon if not for the Top Spin.)
** In ''[[Mega Man X]] 1'' and ''2'', the final boss forms of Sigma were weak against the Rolling Shield (a hard to aim attack that generally did less damage than a charged shot) and the Strike Chain (a pathetically short ranged attack).
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** Several moves and other things introduced in the fourth generation of the games can cause examples of this trope. One of the most hilarious: a Grass-type move called Grass Knot that is said to work by tripping the opponent, and does more damage the heavier the opponent is. The result of this is that the heaviest Pokemon in existence, the Ground-type [http://bulbapedia.bulbagarden.net/wiki/Groudon Groudon], can often be ''tripped to death in one hit'' by something as small as a [http://bulbapedia.bulbagarden.net/wiki/Pichu Pichu].
** Dragons are weak to Ice-type moves. This means that pseudo-legendaries like Salamence and Garchomp can be taken out in one hit by an Ice Beam from a Cloyster.
* Somewhat in keeping with the game's theme, the [[Big Bad]] of ''[[Spore]]'',
* [[Noble Demon|Laharl]] in ''[[Disgaea]],'' being a young demon who makes a big deal out of being evil, is violently allergic to women with sexy bodies and expressions of optimism or hope. In one battle he has to fight a bunch of half-naked [[Horny Devils|succubi]] and [[Catgirl|nekomata]] with his stats halved; another time [[Love Freak|Flonne]] nearly kills him by yelling "eternal love!" (her favourite words).
** This appears to be largely psychological, however. Laharl learns to accept {{spoiler|that he is capable of love}} by the end of the game, and while he makes a few comments about not wanting [[Ms. Fanservice|Jennifer's]] body near him, her presence has no effect on his stats. In [[Disgaea Infinite]] you can even use [[Mind Control]] to make him ''love'' sexy bodies, and glomp Jennifer.
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** Also, [[Revive Kills Zombie|all healing spells have reverse effects on undeads]]. The mid-level spell that heals someone back to max HP? It reduces ''any'' undead to one HP. Including an epic dracolich.
** Taken even further with [[Bonus Boss]] Kangaxx. While he is definitely one of, if not ''the'' strongest enemy in the game, his death resistance is piss poor. There are so many ways of taking advantage of these, along with [[Good Bad Bugs]], that someone wrote the song parody "Fifty Ways To Kill Your Kangaxx." ("Use Protect Against Undead, Fred.")
* Cole from ''[[Infamous (video game series)|
** He has another weakness: areas without flowing electricity. If there isn't an active power grid where he is, he suffers from severely blurred vision and is said in dialog to be generally impaired, though this doesn't really show in gameplay.
* In ''[[Prototype (video game)|Prototype]]'', Alex Mercer and the Infected have a Weaksauce Weakness in water. Their biomass is too dense to float. Alex and Hunters will just jump back out of any body of water they fall into after a brief pause. The Infected [[Super Drowning Skills|not so much.]] However, it takes place on Manhattan Island, so besides the surrounding water that makes it an island, there's not a lot of water to use. Makes the quarantine easier to keep, though.
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* [[World of Warcraft]] is rife with such weaknesses to make otherwise impossible encounters winnable or just for amusement value. One great example is a quest where you have to get an artifact to defeat a pack of imps. The effect of this awesome weapon? It creates beautiful rainbows... cue sound of heads exploding.
* ''[[Castlevania II: Simon's Quest]]'' features the easiest fight against Dracula in the entire series. There are two weapons {{spoiler|the golden knife and the sacred flame}} which cause Dracula to completely freeze in place. All Simon has to do is repeatedly spam those weapons, and he'll win before Dracula can even move.
** Death is also an incredibly easy boss if you know what ''his'' odd weakness is - garlic. (Well, odd seeing as, unlike his boss, he isn't a vampire.) Buy one clove of garlic, drop it in front of him, and Death is ''stun locked'' and will take continual damage that does him in after about a minute, during which all you really have to do is watch.
* In [[Super Robot Wars Z]] 2: Saisei-Hen, The [[Demonic Spiders|DAMON]] are affected by [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=awAi36JjFiQ Basara's singing]. They even take damage, making [[Man of Kryptonite|Basara]] [[Weaponized Weakness|a viable choice for fighting against the DAMON]].
* In ''[[Luigi's Mansion 3]]'', Luigi's gooey doppelganger Gooigi melts on contact with water (a squirt gun is enough to damage him) and instantly disintegrates on contact with fire. It's a good thing he can [[Death Is a Slap on The Wrist|respawn indefinitely from Luigi's location.]]
* In ''[[Fatal Frame]]'', in order to fight the ghosts, the protagonist has to take their pictures with a camera. Okay, it's [[Magitech| a magical device]] called the Camera Obscura, but it's still the only weapon that can harm them.
* In ''[[Spelunky]]'', King Yana is a hellish and difficult enemy (he is the [[Final Boss]], after all) but he has a weakness that took the fans over a year after the game’s release to discover - {{spoiler| eggplants. If the player throws it in his face, Yana becomes powerless and is reduced to 2 HP, one of which he loses from being hit by the eggplant, making it incredibly easy to finish him off. The challenge, of course, is getting an eggplant and bringing it there; you have to first get a Mystery Box (buy it from a merchant) and rather than open it, bring it to Kali’s Altar, where it turns into an eggplant. Then you have to carry it there, which is difficult because ''any'' action done with it other than gently placing it on the floor will destroy it.}}
== Web Comics ==
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* Another spoof of ''[[The Wizard of Oz (film)|The Wizard of Oz]]'' comes from ''[[Darths and Droids|Magicians & Munchkins]]''; the [[Wicked Witch Of The West]] simply [http://www.darthsanddroids.net/magiciansandmunchkins/episodes/0050.html took this disadvantage] to get a few additional levels in magic.
* Toothgnip the goat in ''[[Goats]]'' gets his [[Kavorka Man]] powers from "The Panties of Potency". This had nothing to do with the artist having trouble drawing Toothgnip standing on all fours, honest!
* Parodied in [http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0607.html this strip] of ''[[The Order of the Stick]]'', where, since Haley always has her sandwiches without pickles, Crystal thinks they're toxic to her. {{spoiler|They're not.}}
* In one ''[[Bob the Angry Flower]]'' strip, Bob thinks that a superhero has the Weaksauce Weakness of '''''bacon'''''. He turns out to be totally wrong, but we never find out what the weakness actually is.
** Another one has Bob running a hot peanuts stand, recognizing a customer and his friends as a band of supervillains, and [[Strange Minds Think Alike|instantly and correctly deducing]] that they are actually buying ammunition for an attack on Anaphylactic Man's fortress. (He sells it to them anyway.)
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** And Elites can still go around that with mathematics: Charby is seen weighting both a small sample and the whole heap on pocket scales, and deducing the total number from the sample size.
* Liz's beast-man of a boss in ''[[Dead Winter]]'' doesn't really know how to fight, yet is still able to take on [[Badass|Monday]] pretty effectively due to his sheer giganticness and indestructibility. Monday stabs him in the shoulder, [[Groin Attack|kicks him in a certain area]], etc. but never really fazes him; the heroes end up ''smashing him in the head with a metal pole attached to a fast-moving car'', but this only stuns him temporarily. His weakness? Germs—the imaginary kind. He's such a hypochondriac that slapping him in the face with a dirty mop will [[Freak-Out|give him a panic attack.]] He gets over his fear of [[Zombie Apocalypse|zombie infection]] pretty quickly, though...
* [[Axe Cop]]'s weakness is being surprised. [https://web.archive.org/web/20130217020745/http://axecop.com/index.php/acepisodes/read/episode_72/ He melts.] And his second weakness is [https://web.archive.org/web/20130508122450/http://axecop.com/index.php/acepisodes/read/xmas2010/ cherry rainbow].
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* In [[Group of Weirdos]], the Iron Knuckles are completely invincible, unless tag-teamed and attacked repeatedly by Link, the hero of time, and Ganondorf, a dark wizard with great power. Or you can just slash them a few times with a Deku Stick.
* [[Asdfmovie|"Kitten Fight!" "No wait, I'm allergic to adoreableness!"]]
* ''[[SCP Foundation]]'': The [[Ret Conned]] version of SCP-166 ("Just a Teenage Gaia") is a child of a nature goddess, and as such, she is sickened by manmade pollutants. Cigarette smoke sickens her so much that even being near a doctor who had ''quit'' smoking and had gone three weeks without a cigarette made her ill.
== [[Western Animation]] ==
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* ''[[Ben 10: Ultimate Alien|Ben 10 Ultimate Alien]]'' features in [[Monster of the Week|one episode]] an otherwise-invulnerable plant monster that ''dissolves'' on contact with... peanuts. No explanation is given beyond "it's allergic".
* The Imperium, White Martian expys in ''[[Justice League]]'' have an even greater weakness than the usual fire. Direct sunlight causes them to burn and evaporate near instantly. One would think they'd be moving along planet systems ''away'' from suns, but no.
* In ''[[The Owl House]]'' demons have two weakness that King (a demon himself) relates to Luz, purified water and passive-aggressive comments. "Even demons have inner-demons," he claims.
* ''[[She-Ra and the Princesses of Power]]'': In one fifth-season episode Netossa researches and analyzes the weaknesses of each alliance member, hoping to prevent them from falling victim to this Trope:
** [[Wrench Wench|Entrapta]]: [[Attention Deficit Oh Shiny|Obsessed and easily distracted by technology]]
** [[Our Mermaids Are Different|Mermista]]: [[Kill It With Fire|Fire]]<ref>Debatable, seeing as having Elemental water powers would more likely make her a [[Man of Kryptonite|Woman of Kryptonite]] to anyone using fire.</ref>
** [[An Ice Person|Frosta]]: Fire
** [[Green Thumb|Perfuma]]: Fire and [[The Fettered|her reluctance to use her powers to fullest potential, out of fear of hurting someone.]]
** [[The Hero|Adora]]: [[Bad Liar|Cannot act or bluff to save her life]] and her envy of She-Ra's hair
** [[Royals Who Actually Do Something|Glimmer]]: [[Heroic Self-Deprecation|Self-doubt]] and hubris
** [[The Straight and Arrow Path|Bow]]: [[Crippling Overspecialization]]; can’t fight if his bow is damaged or lost
** [[Cat Girl|Catra]]: Her feline nature being exploited.<ref>Again, debatable. Fans of the show might argue that her [[Hair-Trigger Temper]] and [[Green-Eyed Monster|jealousy of Adora is even more of a weakness]].</ref>
* [[Freakazoid]] cannot escape a cage made of graphite with negatively charged ions. Possibly why he felt safe telling this to Gutierrez, figuring the villain wouldn't be able to exploit it - unfortunately, Gutierrez could.
== Real Life ==
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* British sailors in the 19th century hated eating fish or any food from the ocean for that matter, preferring weevily biscuits and gruesome salt pork or beef to fresh fish. Sailors hate the sea, pilots hate the wind, and retailers hate customers—Weaksauce Weakness in its truest form.
* The [[Brown Note|right pattern of flashing lights]] can cause nausea in just about any human, people with epilepsy simply have a more severe reaction.
** This has since been [https://web.archive.org/web/20120108070911/http://www.technologyreview.com/computing/19142/?a=f weaponized]
*** And now you can [http://www.ladyada.net/make/bedazzler/ build your own].
* Tropers: Little do some know it, but the wiki they created is ''eating'' their spare time. [[Tropes Will Ruin Your Life|and if you do know, knowing doesn't help a bit]].
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* When it comes to YouTube, some would try to censor certain parts of the video with the annotations, which could be easily turned off with a simple chick. If there's an age restriction on a video, it doesn't often work since one can simply access another of anyone at the legal age or fake their birth date to appear much older.
* High-tech thermal imaging will make living beings immediately obvious even against the best camouflage, but is stopped by ordinary glass
* Green-blue algae, aka cyanobacteria<ref>named so due to having primitive cells (though it's not quite the same as other algae or bacteria) and producing a blue pigment along with chlorophyll (but it's not always prevalent - e.g. some of these give Red Sea its hue, some form infamous fish-killing "red tide") -- they redefine "ancient", and those classifications were made for much younger species</ref>. They probably were here before anything else still alive and outlived most species formed in this time by reproducing faster than anyone who eats them and being resilient enough to spread far and wide. The only way they could find to get even tougher is symbiosis with fungi (as lichens). They thrive in the range of conditions nothing else could approach<ref>Quoth Britannica, "Cyanobacteria flourish in some of the most inhospitable environments known. They can be found in hot springs, in cold lakes underneath 5 m of ice pack, and on the lower surfaces of many rocks in deserts. Cyanobacteria are frequently among the first colonizers of bare rock and soil."</ref> until "recently" some apes stumbled on the combination of tool use and faster-than-genetic exchange of "software" adaptations... then some of the latter took a good look at cyanobacteria and it gave them willies. Having green-blue algae in, say, a rice field, can help a lot, since they fix nitrogen (back when they were young, there was no one else to fix it for them). It's not so good to have excess of these paint a fish tank green, because when light is off they may consume enough of oxygen that by morning your fishies go belly up. Worse still, in a fish pond -- some species are highly toxic and kill fish and/or make water in which they float, aquatic plants on which they stuck and animals that eat them too poisonous for consumption by mammals<ref>drinking water contaminated by algae bloom can "[https://web.archive.org/web/20180620104157/http://agriculture.vic.gov.au/agriculture/pests-diseases-and-weeds/animal-diseases/beef-and-dairy-cows/blue-green-algal-poisoning-of-stock kill large numbers of livestock very quickly]", and surviving cattle is likely to remain unhealthy due to liver damage</ref>. And, of course, getting rid of them is a problem because most conditions too inhospitable for a we-were-here-before-Cthulhu species kill ''everything else'' first. Yet these near-unstoppable organisms turned out to have an exploitable vulnerability: hydrogen peroxide gets them even in concentrations harmless to the fish and other water-breathing critters.
{{reflist}}
[[Category:Power At a Price]]
[[Category:Superhero Tropes]]
[[Category:Speculative Fiction Tropes]]
▲[[Category:Weaksauce Weakness]]
[[Category:Alliterative Trope Titles]]
[[Category:For Massive Damage]]
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