History Main / CripplingOverspecialization

* In the '50s and '60s, the UsefulNotes/{{Detroit}} automakers took ready advantage of America's seemingly bottomless supply of cheap gasoline and structured their entire business models around the production of cars that, by modern standards, are absolutely titanic. While they also made smaller cars, such vehicles were seen as purely economy cars for those who couldn't yet afford the full-size sedans that got the lion's share of the automakers' interest and [=R&D=] investment. Then came the 1973 oil crisis, and [[OhCrap gasoline stopped]] [[TerminallyDependentSociety being cheap]]. Detroit's self-styled reputation for building the biggest, most luxurious automobiles in the world suddenly turned into a liability as Japanese and German automakers that ''did'' put serious investment into smaller cars (UsefulNotes/{{Japan}} and UsefulNotes/WestGermany having never been able to take cheap oil for granted) took massive chunks out of the American market, chunks that Detroit has never been able to reclaim even after it started figuring out how to build good compact cars.

* In the first and fourth ''VideoGame/{{Gobliiins}}'' games, the player controls three [[OurGoblinsAreDifferent goblins]] whose specializations border on the ridiculous. One can only pick up and place objects (only one at a time), another can only punch things, and the third can only cast spells. Apparently, the other two goblins haven't grasped the concept of, well, [[IncrediblyLamePun grasping]].

* ''VideoGame/DissidiaFinalFantasy''

* ''VideoGame/SuperSmashBros'' has [[VideoGame/PunchOut Little Mac]]. A BoxingBattler, with powerful ground game, moves with super armor, very fast-moving speed and a one-hit KO punch. However, since boxing doesn't ever get off the ground, Mac's air game is extremely poor both in strength and in ability to get back to the battlefield. Notably, his crippling weaknesses are spelled out in his character trailer for all to see, which has never happened for any other character before or since. So, good job Mac, I guess?
** While Mac has been given ''some'' improved abilities intended to strengthen his air game a little, this trope arguably no longer even applies as Mac has been massively nerfed in almost every area, even hampering his one good area of expertise, his strong ground game.

* VideoGame/{{Battlefield}}

* ''VideoGame/PuzzleQuest'' and its sequel ''Galactrix'': Pumping all your [[PointBuySystem skill points]] into one or two types of mana/energy gives you near GameBreaker power with some of your spells/attacks[[note]]With the exception of PQ's Knight class, where pouring nearly everything into Battle and Morale turns you into a MightyGlacier.[[/note]] but at the cost of under-powering the rest of your arsenal. And that's assuming you don't run into an enemy who has high-resistance to or can counter that particular mana/energy type (and you will) leaving you to muddle through with weak attacks while it pounds you at full strength.

* In ''VideoGame/MarioKart Wii'', the Aeroglider/Jetsetter suffers from this. Basically, it's got a great top speed stat and weighs a lot, but has the worst stats for drifting, handling, acceleration, offroad and mini turbos. So while it's fast, it can barely turn, flies off the road when drifting, and takes forever to get back to top speed after taking a hit. This means that if the player is racing on a track with lots of corners or item boxes, using the Aeroglider is basically guaranteeing they'll get last place.

* ''VideoGame/AgeOfEmpiresIII''

* ''VideoGame/GroundControl''

* ''VideoGame/MetalFatigue''

* ''VideoGame/SupremeCommander''

* ''VideoGame/{{Diablo}}''

* ''VideoGame/GoldenSun''

** As a race, asari also fall victim to this with their ground forces having a focus on elite biotic commandos rather than a larger combined arms military, relying on their fellow Council Race turians for full scale warfare. This turns out to be less than ideal when [[spoiler:the Reapers attack Thessia while the turians are also bogged down fighting Reapers on their home front. Thessia falls swiftly once the Reapers win in space.]]

* ''Franchise/TheElderScrolls'' series has an in-universe [[InvertedTrope Inversion]] example in the backstory. Uriel Septim V, after inheriting an Empire wracked with internal strife and floundering provincial support, decided to launch a series of invasions outside of Tamriel. After several successes invading island nations in the Padomaic Sea east of Tamriel, Uriel V decided to invade the continent of [[{{Wutai}} Akavir]] itself. However, due to space restrictions on his fleet, his forces were cripplingly ''under''specialized except for the [[MagicKnight Battlemages]]. The lack of cavalry was one of his biggest issues, as it left his infantry and settlements vulnerable to [[DeathByAThousandCuts quick-strike attacks]] by mounted [[SnakePeople Tsaesci]] raiders. Eventually, Uriel V was forced to withdraw from Akavir, and he died in a HeroicSacrifice while covering the retreat of his legions.
* Shana and Miranda in ''VideoGame/LegendOfDragoon''. Their skillset is centered entirely around healing - which is [[PlayerCharacterCalculus far too specialised for a party size of three]], so they are essentially stuck dealing ScratchDamage or having to use magic items to catch up with everyone else. When it comes to healing or magic damage, they're the best by ''far'', but they deal negligible physical damage and have paper thin physical defense with low health.
* Much like in ''VideoGame/LegendOfDragoon'', Sharla in ''VideoGame/{{Xenoblade}}'' suffers for this for very similar reasons. Sharla is a CombatMedic with more emphasis on the medic part than combat. Her skillset is based ''too much'' around healing with very little in the way of offence. Since her base attack and her attack abilities don't deal enough damage (and in the case of HeadShot, have a very long cooldown) she is considered one of the worst characters in the game. Part of this is due to the fact that the party size is three - if the party size were four, Sharla would probably see more use.

* ''VideoGame/FableI'': Dedicated melee or archery builds both suffer from being really good at one kind of fight but bad at others. Melee excels at groups of weaker enemies, especially since they can hit multiple enemies with one attack, but has trouble against enemies that block often or have high defenses such as assassins and trolls respectively. Achery is amazing at burning down a single tough enemy such as trolls and bosses, but is quickly overwhelmed by swarms of weak enemies. Though melee at least can aleviate their problems somewhat using Berserk and Multi-strike spells.

* ''VideoGame/DontStarve''

* ''[[Videogame/{{X}} X-Universe]]''

** [[PlanetTerra Terran]] and [[EliteArmy AGI Task Force]] ships are incapable of mounting Commonwealth weaponry used by every other faction ([[BeePeople besides the Kha'ak]]), forcing them to use the more limited Terran arsenal, which lacks in fast projectile weapons to kill [[GoddamnBats M5s and M4s]], and they are completely lacking a frigate-size weapon, making their [[LightningBruiser otherwise awesome]] Yokohama and Aegir frigates pathetically weak at fighting ships of their size or larger (unless they're equipped with the [[RecursiveAmmo Wraith missile]]).

* ''VideoGame/NintendoWars''

* In most ''VideoGame/FireEmblem'' games archers are helpless in melee, and entire classes ([[WhiteMage cleric, troubadour]], etc.) have ''no'' combat skills whatsoever, leaving them doomed if the enemy catches them off-guard.

** Likewise, the mighty siege driver can be fitted to a dreadnought and [[NoKillLikeOverkill fires literal asteroids]] for planetary bombardment. The unfortunate side effect is that it tends to miss anything ''smaller'' than a planet. Also, it's [[AwesomeButImpractical usually unnecessary]] to bring one to a planetary bombardment when a fleet of well-rounded ships can do the job equally well. Its only use would be strategic (i.e. to bombard a planet from far away and then jump away to avoid the defenders).

* ''VideoGame/SuperRobotWars''

* ''VideoGame/SidMeiersAlphaCentauri''

* ''Manga/{{Naruto}}''

** The Raikage is this in spades. He uses taijutsu and focuses on melee combat using his high speed and strength to overwhelm the enemy. We see that when he tosses Sasuke around like a ragdoll. However, he tries to do the same against the ''much'' stronger [[spoiler:Madara Uchiha... and it doesn't work too well]]. He has no long ranged jutsus at all, or even summoning, bunshins displayed, or anything to make up for his style's weaknesses. Thus, he's the only Kage [[spoiler:to under perform in the War. Especially against Madara, since he needs Onoki's help to even breach Madara's Susano'o.]]

* ''Manga/{{Bleach}}''

* ''Anime/MagicalGirlLyricalNanohaStrikers''

* ''LightNovel/InfiniteStratos''

* Sylphiel of ''LightNovel/{{Slayers}}'' is an extremely skilled WhiteMagicianGirl, but has absolutely ''no'' talent for offensive magic. Her attempt to cast Flare Arrow produced a weak and PainfullySlowProjectile that was [[EpicFail shaped like a carrot]]. Later subverted when [[spoiler:she learns to cast ''[[UnholyNuke Dragon Slave]]'' of all things.]]

* Early in ''Manga/BakusouKyoudaiLetsAndGo'', the main characters' machines suffer from this on the competitive level: Magnum Saber is too fast and too light it can't take corners properly; Sonic Saber is good at tackling curves, but loses time on straights and zig-zagged roads; Spin Axe is only superior at chicanes; finally, Tridagger X dominates the straights, but it is too agressive on cornering it slows down greatly.

* Tokyo-3 and NERV HQ from ''Anime/NeonGenesisEvangelion'' is a gigantic city with an even more gigantic and extensive bunker underneath it designed specifically for defending against attacks from Angels. However, ''The End Of Evangelion'' shows the one thing that NERV headquarters is utterly defenseless against: [[spoiler:Other humans. More specifically, a JSSDF invasion, who overtake the facility almost effortlessly.]]

* In ''Manga/YuYuHakusho The Movie: Poltergeist Report'', Kuwabara is faced with a demon capable of copying opponents' {{Ki Attack}}s, including his own [[LaserBlade reiki sword]]. Kuwabara pumps all his spirit energy into his sword so that the demon will do the same, then once they've both expended all their energy, the more physically capable Kuwabara puts him down with a simple haymaker.

** ''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}}'', Jean Grey counteracts his powers and Jessica lays him out with one punch. Then adds a few more.]]

** The ''Franchise/XMen'' foe Dark Beast - an alternate version of long-time X-Man the Beast - 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 as the X-Men expected him to have a broader range of knowledge than he actually did.
* Franchise/DCUniverse:
** 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, at which she simply [[FightsLikeANormal used 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 Justice League - consisting of the Flash, Green Lantern, Black Canary, Aquaman and the Martian Manhunter - and the Doom Patrol 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; as Aquaman noted, 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 his opponents' ability to work as a team.

* The Italian remake of ''FanFic/BattleFantasiaProject'' has the Invaders, powerful aliens whose physiology makes using explosions and fire against them worse than useless, as they ''multiply'' ([[AllThereInTheManual production notes]] state it's the reason nobody just [[NukeEm nuked them]]: many would die due the overpressure, but the multiplication would end with them being more numerous than before). On the other hand, their physiology offers no protection against magical attacks or even simple kinetic energy, meaning that, when fighting a competent human army, they are [[CurbStompBattle massacred by bullets, frag grenades, high-explosive shells detonated high enough they are hit only by the high-speed fragments, canister shots, and]] [[NoKillLikeOverkill thermobaric weapons detonated high enough they are only hit by the overpressure]], and a competent magical girl can take on large numbers of them (in fact their first attack was defeated by ''one single magical girl'').

** The Dothraki are remarked as being near unmatched as light calvalry but have focused so heavily on it that on a battlefield unsuited for calvalry, such as mountain steppes, they're completely crippled as a fighting force.

* ''Disney/WreckItRalph'':

* ''Disney/{{Zootopia}}'': The ranks of the ZPD are filled with animals of various sizes. Extra Large (elephants, rhinos, polar bears), Large (lions, tigers), Medium (rams, wolves) and Small (bunny[[spoiler:, fox]]). The trope comes into play when the responding or assigned officer is inappropriate for the task at hand. During the Weaselton chase, Judy is clearly better suited for pursuit than Officer [=McHorn=]. Yet later in the movie, Judy is shown struggling to provide crowd control at Gazelle's peace rally.

** {{Subverted}} by the minor character Androl Genhald. His talent at magic is very weak, with one exception: he can create larger [[TeleportersAndTransporters gateways]] than much stronger channelers could with ease. Many of the other magic-users mockingly name him "Pageboy" since all he's good for (that they know of) is carrying messages over long distances. However, this turns out to be an ''incredibly'' versatile skill with [[PortalCombat many offensive applications]]. Besides {{Tele Frag}}ging and {{Portal Cut}}ting enemies, being able to open a portal leading to a subterranean reservoir of pressurized magma with a thought is at least as useful as being able to cast {{Fireballs}}.

* A North-Going Zax and a South-Going Zax meet head-on in the story "The Zax" from "Sneetches and Other Stories" by Dr. Seuss. Since both stubbornly refuse to take even a single step to the East or West, both are still stuck in place at the end of the story, which is at least long enough for a highway overpass to be built over them.

* Shalsha of ''LightNovel/IveBeenKillingSlimesForThreeHundredYearsAndMaxedOutMyLevel'' learns a spell than can utterly destroy the ''grossly'' overpowered protagonist, Azusa, the Witch of the Plateu. Problem is, [[spoiler:it only works on Azusa specifically, is useless against any other target, and she hasn't had the time nor the skill to learn any ''other'' spells.]]

* ''Franchise/StarTrek''

* In UsefulNotes/{{Tennis}}, the French Open a.k.a. Roland Garros takes place on clay courts that favor defenders due to their slowness and high bounce giving players more time to reach the ball and return it in ways difficult for their opponent to hit. Because of this, it was historically considered to be the hardest Grand Slam to win with many great players' tactics being ill-suited for the clay surface... and many French Open champions are clay-court specialists who have performed ''poorly'' at other Slams, until more recent times. A good example is UsefulNotesRafaelNadal, who has won Roland Garros ''12'' times (as of 2019) but has had far more irregular performances in other courts.

* In TabletopGame/{{Chess}}, conventional CharacterTiers rate Bishops as equal to Knights, though Bishops are actually the better pieces in a lot of positions because of their long movement range and ability to defend squares either adjacent or on the opposite side of the board. They are, however, overspecialized in that they can never move through or onto any square of opposite color to their starting place, which can lead to "bad Bishop" positions, in which a Bishop is trapped behind chains of allied Pawns on squares of the same color.
** Applies to Knights to an extent as well. While they are the only piece that can't be blocked from threatening another piece, they are also the only piece that is unable to ever threaten an adjacent piece.

** The town of Ogdenville makes nothing but barley, even their history is centered about barley. When the barley got tainted, this caused their entire business to go bust, and sent their town into a depression.

* One episode had the titular ''WesternAnimation/SuperDuperSumos'' each facing an opponent who was especially tailor-made to face him, with abilities designed to specifically counter and defeat that one specific sumo. They're getting utterly {{Curb Stomp|Battle}}ed until they decide to switch opponents... and effortlessly win the battles in mere seconds. How does having one extra butt-cheek made one able to effectively defeat one specific sumo and nobody else? [[ItMakesJustAsMuchSenseInContext It's just that kind of show, silly]].
* In the 2018 reboot of ''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.]]

* The Germans made the ultimate in crippling overspecialization during UsefulNotes/WW1 with the Paris Gun - a [[{{BFG}} mammoth gun]] that shot shells so high and so far they had to compensate for the fact that the Earth's rotation could put shells off target. While the gun's range was impressive, it burned through barrels so quickly it needed progressively larger shells for each shot, could only shoot around 20 shots a day, and its accuracy was so poor it only stood a chance of hitting a large city.
* During the 1930s, the Imperial Japanese Army Air Force and the Imperial Japanese Navy both demanded that their fighter aircraft be made as light as possible, [[FragileSpeedster emphasizing maneuverability and range at the expense of armour protection]]. This was complemented by a very rigorous and selective training program that produced exceptional pilots, resulting in Japanese dominance of the skies against less capable Allied pilots and their often-mediocre machines between 1940 and 1942. However, by 1943, Army Ki-43 and Navy [=A6M=] ("Zero") fighters found themselves hacked out of the sky by Allied aircraft with increasingly powerful engines, which allowed for [[LightningBruiser superb high-speed performance without sacrificing protection]]. In the process, the Japanese lost many of their carefully-trained, veteran pilots, which adversely affected the quality of future pilots, who could not benefit from the experience of their forebears. This was exacerbated by the fact that veteran Japanese pilots were kept in front-line service until they died or were otherwise unable to fly anymore, meaning that they had little chance to recuperate from the stresses of combat and even less chance to pass on the skills they'd learned to the next generation of pilots. Japanese training doctrine and industrial capability simply could not keep up with the Allies; by the end of the war, they were reduced to expending their novice pilots and obsolescent aircraft in suicidal ''kamikaze'' attacks against Allied shipping, and what few experienced pilots and advanced fighters that remained could not effectively challenge Allied air superiority over their home territories.
* Conversely, the Brewster [=F2A=] Buffalo was terrible for the exact opposite reason. Built according to misguided naval requirements, the Buffalo was so overloaded with armor and equipment that it was underpowered and often ''broke'' its undercarriage when landing. Deployed by some Allied forces in the Pacific Theater during the beginning of the war, it was woefully inadequate compared to the far lighter and more agile Japanese fighters. Pilots nicknamed the plane [[{{Armored Coffins}} "the Flying Coffin"]] not only because it was so badly outmatched, but also because it lacked dedicated protection for the pilot.

* With the invention of guided missiles in the early years of the Cold War, the US thought gun armament on aircraft were obsolete, and so they lost many jet fighters in the Vietnam War. The F-4 Phantom was armed with the then state-of-the-art AIM-7 Sparrow missiles, which were capable of locking on to a target far outside of visual range. However, the Rules of Engagement mandated that the pilots make visual contact before firing their missiles. The [[{{Catch 22 Dilemma}} problem]] with this was that the missiles [[{{Didnt Think This Through}} would not lock on]] at that range (not to mention that they required the pilot to keep the radar focused on the target, which is easy when it hasn't seen you yet, but becomes impossible to do when it's dodging and weaving all over the place), and the pilots got slaughtered by the [=MiG=]-21 and, more embarrassingly, the obsolete [=MiG=]-17. Though the F-4 had an externally mountable "gun pod", it was often bulky and unreliable. Seeing this mistake, subsequent jet fighters became equipped with integrated gun armament and all pilots receive training in dogfighting.

* Professional bodybuilders have their workouts revolve around having massive, well-defined musculature. However, this causes problems if they try to do anything else. Having ''large'' muscles is not the same as having ''strong'' muscules. This is why powerlifters and weightlifters, who do have to be strong, don't look like bodybuilders. Large muscles can reduce flexibility required in other activities, the amount of energy necessary to put into workouts means they often don't have the energy to do anything else, and they have pay attention to details like body fat composition and fluid retention that others athletes don't have to care about because bodybuilding is based on appearance. In short, if you intend to become a top bodybuilder, that's essentially ''all'' you can do. However, many bodybuilders do come from the powerlifting ranks (most famously Ronnie Coleman), and nearly all bodybuilders look more like a typical weightlifter during their "offseason", when they are eating big and lifting their heaviest.

** Iron Fist is a LightningBruiser. He practices ConfusionFu, transitioning seamlessly between kung-fu moves to mixup opponents. He can even cast [[StatusBuff Status Buffs]] to adapt to his enemy. His weakness? ''[=MvC=] 3'' features [[InASingleBound Super Jumps]], [[Double Jump]]s, TeleportSpam and Flight. It's remarkably easy for any enemy to wage HighAltitudeBattle. But because Iron Fist has no AntiAir attacks, he is unable to effectively reach anyone airborne. And because two of his most important moves — his Launcher and his Dragon's Touch — are only effective on ''standing'' enemies, he can't effectively damage airborne fighters even after he catches them.

** Iron Fist is a LightningBruiser. He practices ConfusionFu, transitioning seamlessly between kung-fu moves to mixup opponents. He can even cast [[StatusBuff Status Buffs]] to adapt to his enemy. His weakness? ''[=MvC=] 3'' features [[InASingleBound Super Jumps]], [[DoubleJump]]s, TeleportSpam and Flight. It's remarkably easy for any enemy to wage HighAltitudeBattle. But because Iron Fist has no AntiAir attacks, he is unable to effectively reach anyone airborne. And because two of his most important moves — his Launcher and his Dragon's Touch — are only effective on ''standing'' enemies, he can't effectively damage airborne fighters even after he catches them.

** Iron Fist is a LightningBruiser. He practices ConfusionFu, transitioning seamlessly between kung-fu moves to mixup opponents. He can even cast [[StatusBuff Status Buffs]] to adapt to his enemy. His weakness? ''[=MvC=] 3'' features [[InASingleBound Super Jumps]], [[DoubleJump Double Jumps]], TeleportSpam and Flight. It's remarkably easy for any enemy to wage HighAltitudeBattle. But because Iron Fist has no AntiAir attacks, he is unable to effectively reach anyone airborne. And because two of his most important moves — his Launcher and his Dragon's Touch — are only effective on ''standing'' enemies, he can't effectively damage airborne fighters even after he catches them.

* ''VideoGame/FableI'': Dedicated melee or archery builds both suffer from being really good at one kind of fight but bad at others. Melee excels at groups of weaker enemies, especially since they can hit multiple enemies with one attack, but has trouble against enemies that block often or have high defenses such as assassins and trolls respectively. Achery is amazing at burning down a single tough enemy such as trolls and bosses, but is quickly overwhelmed by swarms of weak enemies.

* Shana and Miranda in ''VideoGame/LegendOfDragoon''. Their skillset is centered entirely around healing - which is [[PlayerCharacterCalculus far too specialised for a party size of three]], so they are essentially stuck dealing ScratchDamage or having to use magic items to catch up with everyone else.

* The ''Anime/{{Pokemon}}'' fic "[[https://www.fanfiction.net/s/13189446/1/More-than-Meets-the-Eye More than Meets the Eye]]" invokes this as the reason [[spoiler:Misty defeats her ex-fiancé in the Whirl Cup; while he specifically prepared to fight Mega Gyarados with a Totem Araquanid that could take most of Gyarados's attacks and counter them, he was unprepared for her to borrow Ash's Greninja, who is able to evade the larger Pokémon's attacks and strike back with more evasive methods]].

* In UsefulNotes/{{Tennis}}, the French Open a.k.a. Roland Garros takes place on clay courts that favor defenders due to their slowness and high bounce giving players more time to reach the ball and return it in ways difficult for their opponent to hit. Because of this, it was historically considered to be the hardest Grand Slam to win with many great players' tactics being ill-suited for the clay surface... and many French Open champions are clay-court specialists who have performed ''poorly'' at other Slams, until more recent times. A good example is Rafael Nadal, who has won Roland Garros ''ten'' times (as of 2017) but has had far more irregular performances in other courts.
* UsefulNotes/{{Baseball}} has the concept of the "Mendoza Line", a minimum level of batting average competency below which a player's presence in the major leagues is very difficult, if not impossible, to justify no matter how good defensively he is (pitchers are exempt because their trade is extremely specialized, and in the DH-rule American League they don't normally bat at all). The most common cutoff is .200, though definitions can vary from .190 to .220[[note]]For comparison, someone batting .300 is considered an excellent hitter and .400 is legendary (the last MLB player to hit .400 in a season was Hall-of-Famer Ted Williams in 1941)[[/note]]. It's named after Mario Mendoza, who played in the mid-1970's to early 1980's and was a very good defensive shortstop but was definitely not good at the plate (several seasons saw him with sub-.200 averages, though in the last couple of years of his career after the term began gaining traction in baseball circles he did get a little better and by the end his career average was .215). Anyone with a more extreme imbalance in defensive and offensive capabilities is going to fall into this trope and isn't likely to remain in the big leagues for long.

** The saber-tooths, whose namesake dagger-like choppers were designed for hunting large megafauna such as mastodons, woolly rhinos, and giant bison. But when the megafauna died out at the end of the ice age due to a combination of climate change and the arrival from Africa of [[ExpospeakGag an adaptable, omnivorous animal that proved to be much better at hunting large megafauna than the sabers]], the sabers were unable to adapt to a diet of smaller game, and so followed their massive prey to oblivion.
** Likely a cause for the extinction of the large native carnivorous marsupials of Australia as well. The last of them, the thylacine, was simply not able to adapt to the coming of the dingo and was rather quickly displaced and outcompeted while the marsupial lion ''Thylacaleo'' had a bite that was extremely well-adapted to killing large prey like the diprotodonts and giant kangaroos it shared its habitat with, but was very inefficient for killing smaller animals and quickly went extinct as Australia's herbiverous megafauna vanished.
** Cheetahs, specializing in ultimate sprinting, have a very light build and not much strength compared to other large African predators. Against lions, hyenas, leopards and hunting dogs, all a cheetah can do is run. When it comes to prey, anything larger than a Thompson's gazelle is off-limits to most cheetahs (some males can become large and robust enough to take down yearling wildebeests). However, it may be subverted, as some cheetahs have learned to bring down larger prey by hunting in groups. Cheetah mothers sometimes have their cubs eaten by baboons, being unable to defend them. While baboons have an impressive build and sharp teeth, this is not something they could get away with against, for instance, a leopard. The other drawback of the speed is win or lose, the burst of speed leaves the cheetah too tired to do ''anything'' to the point that other predators can survive off stealing their kills, so the individual cheetah is always living off ''just enough'' meat to get by, if even that. That said, cheetahs do up their chances of being able to eat in peace by doing much of their hunting midday, when most large predators are less active.
** The giant panda, which evolved in a time when there were massive forests of bamboo and becoming one of the few large animals that could the eat the stuff seemed like a good idea... before the bamboo forests started shrinking and breaking up into smaller areas, with the panda's diet effectively holding them prisoner on rapidly sinking islands. Thanks, of course, in part to Chinese bamboo farmers, and the propensity of farmers to kill things that like to eat their crops. It also doesn't help that the panda eats a vegetarian diet with what is essentially a carnivore's digestive tract. The panda in many ways represents a cascade failure of the evolutionary process, a series of "good enough" kludges that let it just barely hang on in its environment (though this is countered by evidence that under good conditions in the wild they survive and reproduce perfectly well). They do however have one very important evolutionary adaptation that will pretty much ensure their survival; being adorable. [[WhatMeasureIsANonCute First priority endangered animal!]] However, this adaptation doesn't apply to ''each other'' considering their issues of either not raising their own cubs or just not interested in breeding at all due to simple apathy. They also have another trait that helped them a great deal in the early days of home printing: being black and white, and therefore cheap to print and photocopy, led them to become the logo for the WWF.
** It's speculated that crippling overspecialization is what killed off the Neanderthals. They were strong and could use tools, and their bulky bodies ensured that they could easily withstand the cold European climates they had to face. However, they required a lot of daily calories, and were primarily meat-eaters (their diets probably consisted of about 80% meat. Scientific evidence shows that Neanderthals had digestive tracts specifically evolved to digest meat). When the larger animals they relied on died off, Neanderthals couldn't adapt quickly enough and thus died off themselves. However, this may not be as true as previously thought, as examination of Neanderthal remains has shown that they actually ate a broad variety of foods based on what was available, including individuals who appear to have had almost entirely vegetarian diets. And DNA sequencing has shown that they [[BoldlyComing frequently interbred with modern humans]].

** The prehistoric pterosaur ''[[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nyctosaurus Nyctosaurus]]'' was a definite example, making this trope OlderThanDirt. It was so adapted to flight that it even lost those nifty little wing claws that would have assisted with ground locomotion. Since ''Nyctosaurus'' would have to land one way or another, the way it might have walked is a subject of debate. The current theory is that ''Nyctosaurus'' used its wings like walking sticks, using them to stablize itself as it shuffles around on its hindlegs.

** Other examples include the giant shark ''megalodon'', which was specially adapted to hunt giant whales in tropical or temperate waters, and went extinct when they moved into the Arctic, and the giant ratfish ''Helicoprion'', who was so ridiculously over-specialised [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Helicoprion#/media/File:Helicoprion_NT_small.jpg no one is even sure what it was supposed to eat]].

** The kakapo is a breed of parrot endemic to New Zealand. It evolved in an environment where the only predators were airborne raptors of various types - so they evolved to camouflage with the forest floor, became foragers, learned to freeze when threatened, and lost their ability to fly. This made it absolutely defenseless against land-based predators such as cats and rats. It is also long-lived and slow-breeding. It has been driven to the brink of extinction, completely extinct on the New Zealand mainland. As of August 2018, exactly 148 of them remain alive.

Ironically, the Confederacy went into the war thinking that this trope would help them. They believed that they had such a stranglehold on world cotton production that Britain and France would have to intervene on their side in order to keep their textile mills running, and that Northern industry's dependence on Southern cotton would bankrupt their economy and lead them to sue for peace. Pro-secession Southern demagogues in the run-up to the Civil War referred to it as [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/King_Cotton "King Cotton"]].\\\

* Interceptor fighters, such as [=MiG=]-25 and Lockheed F-104 Starfighter. They were designed on one single purpose on mind: to take off and climb to the ceiling altitude as quickly as possible, launch their missile load against the oncoming enemy bombers, and escape. They were made obsolete by surface-to-air missiles, which in turn obsoleted their intended targets, high flying heavy bombers. The much later introduction of [[JackOfAllTrades multi-role fighters]] such as the Su-30, the F-15[E], the F-16, and the F/A-18 only further proved the pointlessness of the interceptor concept. The Starfighter especially was good for only one thing: accelerating quickly and flying fast and high. It was insanely dangerous on any other flight modes and landing, and its losses on attrition were appalling -- West Germany lost some 30% of its Starfighters on accidents, while Italy lost 36% of hers and Canada experienced a staggering 46% loss rate on hers. Even a normal aileron banking was dangerous on F-104 due to inertia coupling, and its T tail configuration was prone on deep stalls. It was far more dangerous to its own pilots than to the enemy -- the F-104 kill to loss ratio in combat was 3 victories to 24 combat losses.

* In an odd real life subversion, there was [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sideroxylon_grandiflorum a species of tree]] in Mauritius that was thought to be germinated by the dodo bird. People believed that, since the dodo went extinct, the tree itself had started to decline. It turned out that this wasn't true; the tree could easily germinate through other birds and did not need the dodo alone to survive.

** Michigan has fallen victim to this issue before. In the mid-19th century, copper was discovered in Michigan's Upper Peninsula, leading to the most profitable mineral rush in United States history. This copper was in "native" form (aka nuggets), and could be found in pieces as small as coins or as large as school buses. Copper mining town in the UP were larger and more economically robust than southern Great Lakes towns like Chicago and Toledo, and Michigan's capital was nearly moved to it's crown jewel of Calumet. Unfortunately, World War II created a demand for copper that nearly depleted the existing lodes and miners were forced to dig over a mile underground in hot, toxic conditions to follow new lodes. Combine that with the invention of chemical leaching that could be used on poorer ores, and the copper mines of the UP were doomed. In the following decades, the population of the UP was decimated as miners fled South to avoid the economic collapse. The region is now home to abandoned mines, {{Ghost town}}s, and rampant poverty.
** When oil prices were high, Hugo Chavez provided government subsidies for everyone on everything in UsefulNotes/{{Venezuela}}, provided they proved their loyalty to him. When oil prices dropped, a domino effect took place, and the country now faces civil unrest due to shortages of food and basic supplies, and their economy is screwed up that farmers can't afford to farm.

* The Parthians themselves later fell prey to this trope in the first century, as they only had cavalry and most generals weren't smart enough to bring with them large numbers of spare arrows while the Romans learned their lesson and started bringing with them adequate numbers of light infantry, armoured cavalry and even mounted archers: in about 150 years of conflict, the Parthian victories would be very few, while the Romans overran Ctesiphon (the Parthian capital) ''five times'' and being prevented from utterly annexing the Parthians due being overstretched. Their Sasanid successors would fare much better (while ultimately defeated and weakened to the point the Arabs could overran their whole empire, they resisted much longer and, right before the campaign that left them crippled, they come extremely close to ''winning'') precisely because they ''weren't'' overspecialized, supporting their cavalry with infantry (both barely-trained and lightly-equipped conscripts, good quality heavy infantry and capable archers) and war elephants (useless against the Romans but useful against other enemies).

* [[UsefulNotes/NapoleonBonaparte Napoleon I]] was a military officer before being crowned Emperor of the French, and it showed: waging war and conquering new lands for the French empire were the only thing he could do to maintain his popularity to an acceptable level, and it worked for several years until his disasterous campaign in Russia that cost him over half his men for nothing. Everything went downhill from there, with his popularity dropping and more military defeats at the hands of every other European country he had severely alienated during the course of his previous campaigns, until being defeated for good at Waterloo.
* UsefulNotes/{{Australia}} is this, environmentally. They have many [[UsefulNotes/AustralianWildlife unique flora and fauna,]] but this is due to the continent's isolated nature, and that gave rise to a delicately balanced environment solely to sustain these creatures. When you introduce new species into the area, they become OutsideContextProblem and often out-compete the local wildlife. Australia had many bad experience with introduced species, and that's why they take quarantine and border control very, ''very'' seriously.
* In the 1960s' when aircraft manufacturers were seeking to get a cut of the profitable civil aviation market, the French company Dassault, maker of the Mirage series of fighter-bomber series, came up with [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZXXHsPrasx0 the Mercure.]] While other contemporary aircraft were designed to fly to either medium or long range destinations, the Mercure was designed to be a short range aircraft. Unfortunately, Dassault did not figure that other medium range aircraft could be used for short range travel as well, and [[DidntThinkThisThrough their calculations as to what ranges the Mercure could reach were based on Mercures taking off from Paris, and did not account Mercures taking off from other European cities, or how practical they could be in a large country like the U.S.]]

* Professional bodybuilders have their workouts revolve around having massive, well-defined musculature. However, this causes problems if they try to do anything else. Having ''large'' muscles is not the same as having ''strong'' muscules. This is why powerlifters and weightlifters, who do have to be strong, don't look like bodybuilders. Large muscles can reduce flexibility required in other activities, the amount of energy necessary to put into workouts means they often don't have the energy to do anything else, and they have pay attention to details like body fat composition and fluid retention that others athletes don't have to care about because bodybuilding is based on appearance. In short, if you intend to become a top bodybuilder, that's essentially ''all'' you can do. However, many bodybuilders do come from the powerlifting ranks (most famously Ronnie Coleman), and nearly all bodybuilders look more like a typical weightlifter during their "offseason," when they are eating big and lifting their heaviest.

** Even though Grotle still won at times, it became absolutely pitiful when it was Torterra, having never won a single battle. Ash's team in the Sinnoh sage was mainly based on small, [[LightningBruiser fast Pokémon who can deliver hard hits, as well as take some too]]. But a [[StoneWall damn near immobile tank]] like Torterra was just not his style, and never really adapted to it.

*** A few moves, such as Follow Me, Helping Hand, or Spotlight, serve absolutely no purpose outside of double battles. The main storyline of a game mostly consists of single battles, and even when you ''are'' in a double battle, there are generally better move-slot options available.

*** Neutrophils are the body's equivalent of {{Mooks}} or RedShirtArmy as they have short lifespans but are the most numerous type of white blood cell. Their job is to clean up the remains of dead cells and kill bacteria and other small microbes by engulfing digesting them.

*** Natural Killer Cells also protect the body from viruses and cancer by the destroying the body's own cells like Killer T Cells, but they use a different method of detecting bad cells. Instead of being created to only target one antigen, they look for cells that are missing antigens that healthy cells are supposed to have. So Killer T Cells and Natural Killer Cells complement each other by each detecting something they other can't

* Most ''Manga/RanmaOneHalf'' characters, but especially one shot practitioners of MartialArtsAndCrafts. There's really not THAT much call for the use of Martial Arts Chess, is there? Hilariously, Ranma often make a point of adhering to their rules and restrictions just so he can learn their style properly, and then incorporate their strengths into his "Anything-Goes" school (based off averting this trope entirely), as well as the satisfaction of beating them at their own game. He only occasionally bend or break the rules after he learns what he's supposed to do.

* In ''Manga/DemonSlayerKimetsuNoYaiba'', Zenitsu Agatsuma, a demon hunter who fights under the Breath of Thunder 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.

* Shirou lampshades this with his [[Anime/FateStayNightUnlimitedBladeWorks Unlimited Blade Works]] ability during his final battle with Gilgamesh, stating that, were he to go up against any of the other servants, he wouldn't stand a chance, given that the rest of them have mastered one weapon, whereas he possesses a huge amount of weapons without having mastered any of them. Against Gilgamesh, however, he holds a great advantage, as his weapons are already at his beck and call, whereas Gilgamesh has to call them from a different dimension.

* All of the three female leads in ''LightNovel/KonoSuba'' suffer from this to some degree. Aqua is a goddess who's exorcism abilities make her a DiscOneNuke against undead, and ''only'' undead. She also has water magic at her disposal, but it only comes in two flavors: "Harmless party trick" and "Massive collateral damage." Darkness is strong enough to shatter rock and can tank pretty much any attack, but her swordsmanship is awful to the point of being incapable of hitting ''anything''. Megumin has it worst of all: She's a low-level wizard who's [[MinMaxing Min-Maxed]] to the point of being able to cast Explosion, one of the most powerful offensive spells. This is also the ''only'' spell she knows, and she's only capable of casting it once before collapsing in a defenseless heap due to it completely draining her energy. Explosion is also equally dangerous to both friend and foe and can't be cast underground or else it'll cause a cave-in (meaning she's completely useless in dungeons.) Unlike the others, Megumin's problem isn't that she can't expand her repertory of spells, she just doesn't ''want'' to. Whenever she has more skill points to spend, she just uses them to make her explosion even stronger. She's perfectly happy to be this way and any attempts to get her to do otherwise would get ignored.

* A running theme in ''Manga/JoJosBizarreAdventure'' has the protagonists being given extremely basic and thus highly adaptible Stand powers that can be adapted to almost any situation, whereas (minor) antagonists have powerful but specialized Stand powers and have no defense whatsoever if the heroes figure out how to avoid said powers. One notable example is Steely Dan from ''[[Manga/JojosBizarreAdventureStardustCrusaders Stardust Crusaders]]'', whose microscopic Stand 'Lovers' was capable of infiltrating Joseph's brain matter and slowly consuming his nervous system while also replicating any injury Dan suffered in Joseph, essentially holding him hostage and preventing the others from fighting. However, when Kakyoin and Polnareff manage to get Lovers out of Joseph's brain, Dan has pretty much no fighting ability whatsoever and folds like tissue paper before Star Platinum.

** The ''Franchise/XMen'' foe Dark Beast- an alternate version of long-time X-Man the Beast- 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 as the X-Men expected him to have a broader range of knowledge than he actually did.

** The Brain suffered from this in ''JLA: Year One'', during a storyline that saw the early post-''Crisis'' Justice League- consisting of the Flash, Green Lantern, Black Canary, Aquaman and the Martian Manhunter- and the Doom Patrol 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; as Aquaman noted, 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 his opponents' ability to work as a team.

** Applies to knights to an extent as well. While they are the only piece that can't be blocked from threatening another piece, they are also the only piece that is unable to ever threaten an adjacent piece.

** In the game's fluff, this is the reason why the Imperium has lost so much of its ancient technology and can't easily replicate what is found or what it currently has. During the Age of Technology, many millennia in the past, humanity became completely reliant on the Standard Template Construct system for technological development and proliferation, with no other system being nearly as reliable or easily reproducible. Also, control of the process was ceded to the AIs running the STCs so humans could enjoy other pursuits. The Men of Iron took advantage of this in their rebellion, corrupting STC databases and wrecking as much of the actual machinery of the STCs as they could. When they were finally stopped, humanity had only fragments of its technological base remaining and few, if any people who had any knowledge of how to fix anything. The current Imperium is still suffering from the effects of this loss of tech knowledge, and the Adeptus Mechanicus controls the technology that remains with a literal religious fervor.

** The Primordials, the transcendently powerful beings that created the setting, each have their own themes, and are absolutely all-powerful, invincible, and unassailable within those themes; Authochthon is the Craftsman, Malfeas is the King, She Who Lives In Her Name is the Organizer, the Ebon Dragon is the Corrupter, etc. The thing is, each Primordial is not only absolutely helpless outside of those themes, but absolutely incapable of even thinking outside of them. For example, Malfeas is incapable of any kind of subtlety, compromise, or anything else that requires him to act from a position of anything less than absolute power and authority, and She Who Lives In Her Name cannot be unpredictable or spontaneous in any way.

[[caption-width-right:250:[-Good at combat. Bad at feeding himself.-]]]

* This is what doomed the US Navy's Zumwalt-class destroyers to be reduced from a planned order of 32 to 3. The ships were optimized to be bombardment platforms to support amphibious attacks from over the horizon - and out of range of shore-based antiship missiles - as part of an emphasis on building littoral (near shore) capability for a US navy that had otherwise focused on oceanic combat. To this end, they were equipped with the expensive, volume-intensive Advanced Gun System, and adopted their trademark tumblehome hull to maximize radar stealth. Unfortunately, this focus on shore bombardment had consequences in other areas. They carry fewer missile cells than a much smaller Arleigh Burke, and while their radar systems are more advanced they're also not suited towards area air defense. Their Anti Submarine Warefare suite is optimized for littoral tasks and is less capable in blue-water ASW than a Burke. None of this was a huge problem when they were conceived in the 1990s, but during the 2000s advancements in sensors and communications pushed out the range of shore defenses, rendering the shiny AGS and its precision fire support capability obsolete (not that it matters, since procurement of AGS ammunition was canceled, leaving it with nothing to fire) and leaving the Navy stuck with an expensive, oversized destroyer whose main function had gone away and that was inferior in capability to its predecessor in other destroyer tasks.

** Spartan soldiers had a reputation for being the most well-trained in Ancient Greece. However, they only trained one kind of troop -- the heavy-infantry hoplite -- and in fact trained their troops [[TheSpartanWay so hard]] that their army was relatively small. They had no cavalry, navy, or light infantry. The tactics they were able to execute were severely limited, and their army was too small to maintain extended conflicts. An enemy who refused to fight them head-on could inflict them horrendous casualties. In the battle of Sphacteria 425 BC, the Athenian light skirmishers simply refused to fight them hand-to-hand and instead harassed them with javelins, running away in the face of danger. At the end of the day the Spartans were completely demoralized and surrendered. The Athenians had not suffered one single casualty.

** Adam Taurus is revealed to have a semblance like Yang's, although in his case the energy from an enemy's attacks is stored in his sword when he blocks, which he can then unleash in an attack. However, it's ''in his sword''. Get the sword away from him and he's unable to use his semblance.