History CripplingOverspecialization / NonVideoGameExamples

** [[BigBad Fire Lord Ozai]] is the most powerful firebender in the world... and has not developed any way to deal with opposition other than to KillItWithFire. He is not a FrontlineGeneral like his brother [[CoolOldGuy Iroh]] or father [[PredecessorVillain Azulon]], nor does he have any fighting abilities outside of his Firebending, like his children [[MasterSwordsman Zuko]] or [[LightningBruiser Azula]] -- in fact, [[spoiler:during the Day of Black Sun (which marks a solar eclipse that temporarily [[BroughtDownToNormal disables Firebending]]), Zuko is able to easily hold Ozai back merely by drawing his swords on the latter before CallingTheOldManOut]]. Fittingly, Ozai's final fate is to [[spoiler:be {{Depower}}ed by Aang via Energybending, exposing him for the shell of a man that he really is, to the point where a gang of teenagers who'd been terrified of him only minutes before are mocking him. After his imprisonment ([[CruelMercy at the mercy of the son]] [[LaserGuidedKarma whom he'd tried to stamp that quality out of]]), he's too weak to break out as Iroh did during the Day of Black Sun]].

** The reverse was true when Korra first joined the Fire Ferrets. She was literally a last-minute replacement when their previous waterbender no-showed, and started out by thrashing the opposing players with highly effective attacks... that were against the rules, resulting in fouls against Korra. Just like what's good in a pro-bending isn't necessarily good in a fight, what's good in a fight isn't necessarily good in pro-bending.

** Bender is a bending unit, meaning he's ''very'' good at bending things, but isn't very good at anything else. In one episode, when the Robot Mafia drops an unbendable girder on Flexo, the only solution that Bender can think of is to try to bend it off of him anyway. ("Well, I don't know anything about lifting, so that just leaves us the one option!") Miraculously, he succeeds, but falls apart in the process. On the other hand, Bender manages to pull WhenAllYouHaveIsAHammer moments from time to time, performing non-bending tasks by seeing them as being (in his words) "primitive, degenerate forms of bending".
** In one of the "Anthology of Interest" shorts, Fry says that he's good at video games and bad at everything else. This is actually good because of the premise of the short, being that real life was (quite literally) like a game.

** Twilight is cripplingly overspecialized in other ways, however. In "Winter Wrap-up" she tries to [[PaintingTheFrostOnWindows help clean up winter]] without her magic (because that's the traditional way), but because she's so used to using magic for everything, she screws up anything she tries to do physically (starting with putting on her saddle). [[spoiler:She eventually leans to non-magically contribute with her TRUE strength, that of an uber-delegating ScheduleFanatic.]]
** Throughout the series, [[PhysicalGod Princesses Celestia and Luna]] are said to be among the most powerful of Ponies in all of Equestria due to their ability to move the Sun and Moon with their Magic, and while they are indeed capable of turning that Magic on their foes in a fight, despite the fact that they are [[AllYourPowersCombined Alicorns]] (meaning that they have the Magical capabilities of a Unicorn, the Agility and Flight of a Pegasus, and the Strength of an Earth Pony), they only seem to rely on their flying and their Magic in order to fight, without ever utilizing their Earth Pony strength to try solving a problem. And in most (read as: EVERY) case of this happening in the series, Celestia and Luna [[WorfEffect end up being defeated or captured]] ''because'' of their overreliance on BeamSpam and BeamOWar without once resorting to GoodOldFisticuffs or taking advantage of FlyingBrick status to even dodge attacks.

* ''WesternAnimation/TheOwlHouse'': Invoked by Emperor Belos, who forces all of his subjects to join one of nine covens that are each devoted to a single school of magic upon reaching adulthood, with all of their other powers permenenantly sealed away by special sigils. Only the lucky few chosen to join the Emperor's Coven (or those that forgo the coven system altogether and become marked as criminals) can freely use all forms of magic.

* In ''WesternAnimation/SheRaAndThePrincessesOfPower'', Hordak relies on long-range attacks such as hurling objects and firing his arm cannon. He's a powerhouse when attacking opponents from a distance, or besieging large stationary targets [[spoiler:such as the Sea Elf Village and the Salineas Sea Gate]]. However, his lack of agility puts him at a disadvantage in hand-to-hand combat, [[spoiler:allowing the much more maneuverable Catra to subdue him ''twice'' in Season 4]].

* Ahsoka Tano in the later seasons of ''WesternAnimation/StarWarsTheCloneWars'' adopted the Jar'Kai lightsaber DualWielding technique but grew too reliant on having two sabers for defense. Despite being capable of [[TeenGenius holding her own against Jedi Masters and Sith Lords alike]] with both sabers in hand, she ended up losing to the corrupted Padawan Barriss Offee when forced to use only one. Her EvilCounterpart Asajj Ventress displayed a similar weakness in TheMovie but eventually grew past it.

** [[MakingASplash Lapis Lazuli]] is powerful enough to take control of ''all'' the world's ocean water and control it to her advantage, as well as [[ImaginationBasedSuperpower fashion it into various forms for combat]]...but she's pathetically weak physically-wise (by Gem standards), so in a place where there's little water to use, even a Gem like [[WeakButSkilled Pearl]] could take her down quickly since she's shown no offensive abilities that don't relate to water.

*** Mortimer Lindquist is an ectomancer, a conjurer of spirits. Harry mentions (and ''Ghost Story'' proves) that Mort could go toe-to-toe with Harry in a contest of raw power, and Harry is considered one of the most powerful wizards of his generation. However, Mort has no real abilities outside of his ability to commune with the spirits of the dead.

** Sanosuke runs into this problem as well. He is first introduced as an opponent wielding a {{BFS}}, but is defeated easily by Kenshin because he can only do two attacks with said weapon and those attacks can be easily dodged because of how unwieldy the weapon is. Sano ditches the weapon when he becomes an ally and fights using good ol' street brawling but, during the Juppon Gatana Arc, is defeated easily by Saito who, as noted above, is an experienced boxer. Sano did learn and perfect a unique technique during that arc, but he could only use said technique with his right hand, which gave him problems when fighting against the guy who taught him said technique.

* ''WesternAnimation/TheVentureBrothers'':

** Roy Mustang is possibly the only master of flame alchemy, which makes him a borderline PersonOfMassDestruction. He kills [[spoiler:Lust]], and while [[spoiler:Envy]] ''survives'' their fight, it's only by a paper-thin margin, especially since Roy was so driven by rage that he was ''letting'' [[spoiler:Envy]] regenerate just for the sick pleasure of killing them again. The downside is that Roy is ''so'' focused on flame alchemy that when his ignition gloves are damaged, lost, too wet to function or meets someone that his fire can't hurt, he's so inferior to a more generalised alchemist that at least once a sign reading "USELESS" physically manifests and lands on his head...at least until he can get his gloves working again, at which point [[KillItWithFire you are in trouble]]. At the very least he's aware of this and tends to carry extra gloves and a pack of matches just in case, which Ed learned the hard way during a sparring match of theirs.

** Roy Mustang is possibly the only master of flame alchemy, which makes him a borderline PersonOfMassDestruction. He kills [[spoiler:Lust]], and while [[spoiler:Envy]] ''survives'' their fight, it's only by a paper-thin margin, especially since Roy was so driven by rage that he was ''letting'' [[spoiler:Envy]] regenerate just for the sick pleasure of killing them again. The downside is that Roy is ''so'' focused on flame alchemy that when his ignition gloves are damaged, lost or too wet to function, he's so inferior to a more generalised alchemist that at least once a sign reading "USELESS" physically manifests and lands on his head...at least until he can get his gloves working again, at which point [[KillItWithFire you are in trouble]]. At the very least he's aware of this and tends to carry extra gloves and a pack of matches just in case, which Ed learned the hard way during a sparring match of theirs.

** Portgas D. Ace had this issue. His fighting style essentially boiled down to "shoot as much fire as possible until the problem stops being a problem." While this was effective in most cases, it was extremely innefective against Blackbeard, who could nullify his Devil Fruit powers, and Akainu, whose Magma powers were superior to Ace's Fire Powers. [[spoiler:In the latter case, this ends up getting Ace killed.]]

** The Order of the Scribble, which took charge of protecting the five Gates that stopped the world from being destroyed by the Snarl, took this approach when it came down to said protection, each taking charge of one of the gates and defending it with their own specialties and beliefs -- which causes them to fall, one by one, because their overspecialization means they do not cover many dangers. Lirian's nature-focused protections turn out to have a major AchillesHeel in the form of not being able to respond to an undead. Dorukan's magical seals prove static to the point that when Xykon lures him out and overpowers him in a WizardDuel, he basically just moves in and takes over the place. Soon's order of paladins with unbreakable honor codes ends up too hidebound and restricted by poor oaths to act to its full potential, and ultimately sees its finest warrior go mad from misguided conviction. Girard restricting the defense of his Gate to his family makes the Gate defenseless when [[FamilyExtermination a spell is cast that targets through family lines]]. [[spoiler: Fittingly, the one gate that manages to actually hinder the villains the most is Kraagor's Gate, assigned to the late barbarian party member, but entrusted to the party's rogue Serini. It combines both Kraagor's belief in physical might along with Serini's belief in tricks and traps to misdirect potential raiders away from the true method of reaching the Gate, and backs it up further with magical defenses on loan from the group's three main casters.]]

** The Order of the Scribble, which took charge of protecting the five Gates that stopped the world from being destroyed by the Snarl, took this approach when it came down to said protection, each taking charge of one of the gates and defending it with their own specialties and beliefs -- which causes them to fall, one by one, because their overspecialization means they do not cover many dangers. [[spoiler: Fittingly, the one gate that manages to actually hinder the villains the most is Kraagor's Gate, assigned to the late barbarian party member, but entrusted to the party's rogue Serini. It combines both Kraagor's belief in physical might along with Serini's belief in tricks and traps to misdirect potential raiders away from the true method of reaching the Gate.]]

* ''Literature/{{Animorphs}}'': The Arn were masters of bioengineering and genetics, even able to quickly alter their own physical structure in a matter of days to ensure that the Yeerks couldn't take them as hosts and create the Hork-Bajir to essentially be their planet's gardeners, but they were apparently useless in virtually every other field of science. Quafijinivon, the last known Arn, had to steal a Yeerk ship to fly to Earth to get help, since his race never had the technology to build more of their own, and he has no ability to scan for the HiddenSupplies left behind by Aldrea and Dak, the last leaders of resistance on the planet.

* ''Literature/TheChroniclesOfThomasCovenant'': Happens to some Insequent in ''The Last Chronicles of Thomas Covenant]]''. They gain their powers through knowledge, so an Insequent who studies only one or two specific things may be powerless in situations not involving them. For example, [[EvilSorcerer the Harrow]] has made a study of [[TheUndead the Demondim]] and related creatures, meaning he can tear through them like wet tissue paper all day -- but he [[BigBadWannabe goes down like a chump]] against [[spoiler:a Kastenessen-powered Roger Covenant]].

* ''Series/TheFutureIsWild'' has a quite literal example with the Terabytes, termite-like insects. They're divided into separate castes which are very good at what they do (gum-spitters trap the [[{{Planimal}} Garden Worms]] the Terabytes harvest algae from, water-carriers store water, rock-borers do the burrowing, transporters carry stuff, queens lay eggs), but almost all of them save the transporter caste either have ''no legs at all'' or vestigal legs, and require the transporters to carry them around. Transporters have it less overspecialized since they're also capable of cutting off the algae appendages of Garden Worms.

* Three examples from ''Literature/TheElenium'' and ''Literature/TheTamuli'' by David Eddings:

* In the novel ''Literature/SpiderManTheOctopusAgenda''- the third part of the trilogy that began with ''Literature/SpiderManTheVenomFactor''- Doctor Octopus unwittingly ruins his own plan when he tries to imprison both Spider-Man ''and'' Venom in a cell that he had prepared for Spider-Man, with the intention of forcing his enemy to watch as Octavius's plan to decimate global civilisation unfolded. As the cell had been designed exclusively to contain Spider-Man, the wall-crawler realised that there may be a loophole in the cell's design that Venom could exploit, which allowed them to stage a fight so that Venom could find a weakness in the cell's force field and break out.

* In the ''Franchise/SpiderMan'' novel ''The Octopus Agenda''- the third part of the trilogy that began with ''Literature/SpiderManTheVenomFactor''- Doctor Octopus unwittingly ruins his own plan when he tries to imprison both Spider-Man ''and'' Venom in a cell that he had prepared for Spider-Man, with the intention of forcing his enemy to watch as Octavius's plan to decimate global civilisation unfolded. As the cell had been designed exclusively to contain Spider-Man, the wall-crawler realised that there may be a loophole in the cell's design that Venom could exploit, which allowed them to stage a fight so that Venom could find a weakness in the cell's force field and break out.

* Franchise/TheDCU:
** ComicBook/LegionOfSuperHeroes villain Nemesis Kid has the power to [[ManOfKryptonite develop a power capable of countering any other person]]: for instance, if he were fighting Superman, he'd gain the ability to create Kryptonite radiation. However, he can only counter one person at a time, meaning if he fights two people at once, he either gains only one power, [[PhlebotinumBreakdown short-circuits]], or has to run for it. He also can't change the power he's chosen on the fly, which was what killed him: he was fighting the illusionist Princess Projectra and gave himself the power to see through illusions, so she simply [[FightsLikeANormal used her martial arts skills to beat him to death.]]
** The Brain suffered from this in ''JLA: Year One'', during a storyline that saw the post-''Crisis'' early Franchise/{{Justice League|OfAmerica}} -- consisting of Franchise/TheFlash, Franchise/GreenLantern, ComicBook/BlackCanary, ComicBook/{{Aquaman}} and the ComicBook/MartianManhunter -- and the ComicBook/DoomPatrol join forces to fight the Brotherhood of Evil after the Brain used advanced technology to take the Flash's legs, Black Canary's voice, the Manhunter's eyes and Green Lantern's right arm (and hence his ring) and graft them onto a body for himself. Despite having access to all those powers, the Brain still relied exclusively on the ring, which Aquaman noted was a key weakness as the Brain was unaware of the ring's time limitation and its vulnerability to yellow, to say nothing of underestimating his opponents' ability to work as a team and compensate for their weaknesses.
** Ultra Boy, also of the Legion, has all of Superman's abilities, but can only use them one at a time. This puts him on par with Big Blue, but unless his chosen power is invulnerability, [[GlassCannon he's no tougher than an ordinary human]] (and if it is, then [[StoneWall he's got another problem]]).
** The Atlanteans, including ComicBook/{{Aquaman}}, were incredibly situational throughout most of the pre-Flashpoint continuity -- forces to be reckoned with underwater, not so much out of their element. When Geoff Johns took over, they lost most if not all their out of water weaknesses, while their super strength additionally carried over.
** [[ComicBook/Batgirl2000 Cassandra Cain]], the second Batgirl, SacrificedBasicSkillForAwesomeTraining; the language centers of her brain are dedicated to reading and processing human body language. This means she's [[CharlesAtlasSuperpower a phenomenal martial artist]], capable of reading a person's moves before they make them, but it leaves her brain wired wrong for any other kind of language, meaning she can barely speak and is even worse at reading. Several stories involve her roping civilians or less-skilled crimefighters into her cases simply because they involved reading at some point.
** ''ComicBook/RedRobin'' villain Recluse has replaced his fingers with implanted knife blades. While this makes it easy for him to cut people it does explain his lack of shirt: he literally can't put one on.
* Franchise/MarvelUniverse:
** Razorfist had both hands removed and replaced with blades to maximize his combat ability. He now needs servants to feed him and attend to his basic personal hygiene. Plus, every time he's arrested, the blades are replaced with prosthetic hands to which he's unable to adjust, as shown in an issue of ''ComicBook/{{Toxin}}''.
*** [[AbledInTheAdaptation Averted]] in [[Characters/MCUTenRings the MCU]], where he only has one hand replaced with a blade, leaving the other for normal use.
** ''ComicBook/{{Daredevil}}'' and ''ComicBook/JessicaJones'' villain Killgrave, a.k.a. the Purple Man has incredibly powerful CompellingVoice powers, but that's it: he's otherwise a baseline human apart from being purple from head to toe. [[spoiler:In the last issue of ''ComicBook/{{Alias}}'', ComicBook/JeanGrey counteracts his powers and Jessica lays him out with one punch. Then adds a few more.]]
** As part of his TrainingFromHell, recurring Captain Britain villain Slaymaster repeatedly punched boulders with his left hand until his entire hand was covered in a thick callous, which he ground to a deadly point. He described the ordeal as a "ninja trick" and admitted that it had made his hand useful only as a weapon.
** This is the fatal flaw of Franchise/SpiderMan villain Overdrive; he has the power to alter, transform, or improve any vehicle near him. This is incredibly useful... as long as there's some vehicles around for him to actually use. He also can't alter any other machines, just vehicles. This wouldn't be a problem if Overdrive knew anything about hand-to-hand combat, but he's a mechanic by trade and isn't very strong so he's useless without a vehicle around. Spidey and other heroes frequently beat him by either forcing him into an area away from any vehicles or simply waiting to ambush him; after all, he can't spend his whole life inside a car.
** The ''Franchise/XMen'' foe Dark Beast- an alternate version of long-time X-Man ComicBook/{{Beast|MarvelComics}}- suffers from this; where his 616 counterpart is an OmnidisciplinaryScientist, Dark Beast specialises in genetics. While this gives him a greater knowledge of genetics than the prime Beast, it hindered his attempts to pose as his counterpart on one occasion, as the X-Men expected him to have a broader range of knowledge than he actually did.
* The ''ComicBook/MegaManArchieComics'' comic features Crash Man, Spark Man, and Needle Man, who have drills, sparking rods, and needle-guns in place of actual hands. This makes them dangerous in combat, but incapable of performing practical tasks like lifting things. It also means that if their weapons are damaged, then they're helpless. They've formed something of an unofficial "No Hands Club" for robots with similarly unfortunate builds. (Fire Man also has no hands, but he seems to handle it better.)
* In the ''ComicBook/DisneyDucksComicUniverse'' story "The Duck Who Never Was", Donald Duck accidentally releases the Birthday Genie, who grants one wish when his lamp is touched by someone on their birthday. Donald unintentionally uses this wish to [[ItsAWonderfulPlot wish that he was never born]]. Fortunately, after he sees how terrible the world has turned out for his friends and family without him, Donald is able to make another wish to undo the first one, as the Birthday Genie clarifies that he doesn't just grant a single wish on a person's birthday but grants a wish ''each time'' they touch the urn on their birthday.

* Similarly, after ''Series/RuPaulsDragRace'' weeds out the least impressive queens, the next queens eliminated tend to be the ones who are so specialized in a certain skill, such as lip-syncing or stunning fashion, that they usually stumble in areas outside their expertise. The winners of the competition as well as the most popular ones with the fans are queens that tend to have a variety of skills, but still have a specialty.

* In ''Manga/DemonSlayerKimetsuNoYaiba'', Zenitsu Agatsuma is a demon hunter who fights under the Thunder Breathing discipline; the art has 6 forms but Zenitsu only managed to learn one, the very first and basic form, but this very one he learned got honed by him to absolute master level, to the point he developed phases for it: Thunderclap Flash --> Six-Fold --> Eight-Fold --> God Speed.

* In ''Fanfic/FracturedSovereignGFC'', a ''Franchise/MassEffect''[=/=]''Franchise/StarWars''[[spoiler:[=/=]''[=Borderlands=]'']] [[MassiveMultiplayerCrossover crossover]] and its sequel, ''Fanfic/{{Origins}}'' a whole class of ships falls into this trope. "Aspirations Toward Infinity" ([[GiverOfLameNames lame names aside]]) ships are designed around their Reaper-killing guns, leaving them PointDefenseless and very un-[[TheBattlestar battlestar-like]] compared to more versatile Star Destroyers -- no [[SpaceFighter starfighters]] here!

** Monta, the Deimon wide receiver, is only good at catching. This makes him bad at his original favorite sport, baseball, but good at American football. Sena is dazzlingly fast, but had no strength to push another in power games. Takami, thanks to his build and training, is a quarterback with precise and high-altitude pass, but thanks to injury in his legs, can't move quick enough to avoid sacking. Kurita is [[MightyGlacier obscenely strong and unmovable, but also can't run to save his life]]. And Yukimitsu, all that he had is [[AwesomenessByAnalysis ability to deduce possible pass route on the fly]] and [[{{Determinator}} sheer determination]], and [[WeakButSkilled that's all]]. Fortunately, the team is directed by a psychotic genius who knows exactly how to make all the specializations form a coherent, powerful whole.

*** The Deimon Devil Bats advocated an all-offense strategy and not just because Hiruma likes it. With its limited number of players, most of them were rookies and/or people coerced into joining, Hiruma had to make do with the pieces he had.
*** The Ojo White Knights, the team's primary rival, was the best defensive team in Kanto, owing to its coach's defensive philiosphy and the presense of Seijirou Shin, Japan's best linebacker. This. however, comes at the expense of the team's offense which was mediocre at best.
*** The Taiyou Spinx were renowned for having the heaviest line that gives them an edge over other teams in a contest of power. However, their backfield doesn't have a lot of talent and the only decent secondary player they have is a cornerback.
*** Finally, no other team is more specialized than the Bando Spiders. Once one of the best teams in Kanto, it was reduced to just the kicking team after the Offensive and Defensive teams were recruited by another school. Even after their best player comes back to the team and drastically improves their chances of winning, the fact the team relies on field goals to score makes them one of the less effective teams.

** The Assassin servant who guards the Mountain Gate of Ryuudou Temple is a man with literally nothing besides swordplay; he was not given a name or taught to read, and lived his entire life practicing a technique that would allow him to cut down a bird in flight. The end result is a man who can use martial arts to [[BeyondTheImpossible warp reality]] in order to strike from three directions simultaneously. However, imperfections in his weapon can create blind spots in the technique, and compared to other servants, he is the absolute bottom of the barrel in terms of combat ability aside from this OneHitKill attack.

* Eosinophils in ''Manga/CellsAtWork'' excels at slaying parasites, but is completely incapable of slaying even a single bacterium (which appear in the body much more frequently). This is to the point that she's given AllOfTheOtherReindeer treatment by other body cells.
** This actually is TruthInTelevision for much of how cells in the body's immune system work. See the Real Life folder at the bottom for more.