History Main / FakeWeakness

-->'''Red Dragon:''' Heheh… [[AsideGlance It's amazing what some red paint can do!]]

-->'''Red Dragon:''' Heheh… [[AsideGlance It's amazing what a little red paint can do.]]

* In Brandon Mull's ''Literature/{{Beyonders}}'' trilogy, Maldor [[spoiler: plants the Word- an ancient spell activator that would completely destroy him. It turns out that the Word is actually a fake. Maldor uses the hunt for the Word to not only send all of his enemies on a massive and dangerous wild goose chase, but is able to recognize the ones who survive as his actually dangerous enemies.]]

* ''VideoGame/ChronoTrigger'': it can't be certain if Lavos [[ItCanThink was doing this on purpose]], but in the final stage of the battle against it [[spoiler:the [[AttackItsWeakPoint core you need to destroy]] is ''not'' the vaguely humanoid part in the center--that's just another part that will regenerate after being destroyed. The real core is the limb-like part on the right, which looks identical to the non-essential part on the left.]]

* Played straight and inverted at the same time in ''LightNovel/Overlord2012'', [[EvilOverlord The title character]] fights against [[spoiler:[[OurVampiresAreDifferent Shalltear]]]], as an undead, he is vulnerable to fire and holy magic, so he [[spoiler: uses an item which protects him from holy attacks]]. During the fight he acts as if he was [[NoSell resistant]] to [[spoiler: fire]] but still [[WeakenedbytheLight very vulnerable]] to [[spoiler: holy magic]], tricking his opponent into spamming [[spoiler: holy attack]] while also using the False Data:Life spell to make it look like he has less hit points than he actually has. He also pretended to not know anything about quite a few of her skills and spells while he knew about them since the beginning ([[spoiler:in fact, since Shalltear's creation]]) to trick her into wasting them. The [[OhCrap face of pure horror]] from said opponent once she realizes that she's been tricked and is now low on Mana is priceless.

* In Brandon Mull's Beyonders trilogy, Maldor [[spoiler: plants the Word- an ancient spell activator that would completely destroy him. It turns out that the Word is actually a fake. Maldor uses the hunt for the Word to not only send all of his enemies on a massive and dangerous wild goose chase, but is able to recognize the ones who survive as his actually dangerous enemies.]]

[[folder:Theater]]

[[folder:Web Comics]]

* In Literature/TheBible, Samson made up quite a few of these to mask his true WeaksauceWeakness of cutting his hair. However, it was less an attempt to be cautious and more an attempt to get Delilah to stop pestering him about it. Upon learning each "weakness," Delilah would send some Philistine soldiers to try it out, only for Samson to laugh and kill them. He apparently [[IdiotBall never noticed]] he'd accidentally [[FeedTheMole Fed the Mole]] repeatedly, and eventually told Delilah his real weakness.

* In Literature/TheBible, Samson made up quite a few of these to mask his true WeaksauceWeakness of cutting his hair. However, it was less an attempt to be cautious and more an attempt to get Delilah to stop pestering him about it. Upon learning each "weakness," Delilah would send some Philistine soldiers to try it out, only for Samson to laugh and kill them. [[WhatAnIdiot He apparently learned absolutely nothing from this,]] and eventually told Delilah his real weakness.

* ''WesternAnimation/{{Megamind}}'':
** [[spoiler:Metroman]] pretends to be vulnerable to [[spoiler:copper to fake his own death, because he has come to feel he and Megamind are in a rut and he wants to explore another career.]]
** This comes to bite Megamind in the ass later. It turns out, a trap made of solid [[spoiler:copper]] can't stop the rampaging [[spoiler:superhero-turned-villain Titan who had Metroman's powers.]]

* Psychic has nothing but these in ''VideoGame/PokemonRedAndBlue''. Future games [[{{Nerf}} fixed this]], but as of Gen I, they have:

** The Bug-type, in practice: While the ElementalRockPaperScissor chart does indeed double the damage of Bug-type moves against Psychic-type mons, trying to actually use Bug as a Psychic-killer is a bad idea -- the type has three damaging moves (of which only Pin Missile even ''approaches'' being worthwhile), and the majority of its {{mons}} are half-Poison, a type which takes double damage from Psychic.

* A programming bug caused this in ''VideoGame/PokemonRedAndBlue'', where Psychic-type Pokémon were supposed to be vulnerable to Ghost-type attacks, but ended up outright immune to them instead.

* In ''[[https://www.fanfiction.net/s/10589711/1/Falling-Up Falling Up]]'', both [[WesternAnimation/GravityFalls Mabel and Dipper Pines]] pretend to have specific weaknesses. Mabel pretends her powers are bright and flashy and that she requires an amulet to use them. Dipper pretends to have a weakness for redheads after Mabel asks, "Would you rather your enemies throw redheads or grenades at you?"

* In ''VideoGame/NoMoreHeroes'', the boss Bad Girl will sometimes fall to the ground, seeming like a big opening for you to attack... [[TryingToCatchMeFightingDirty take a single swing at her while she's on the ground]] and she'll parry, and the game will enter a cinematic of her beating you to death. Seems like a trap for gamers who are used to bosses who periodically leave themselves vulnerable, right? Well, not quite - she actually has two "fall to the ground crying" animations. One leads to the instant kill, and the other genuinely ''is'' an opportunity to knock her senseless. The trick is [[spoiler:to check her hands: [[SublimeRhyme If one's still on the bat,]] ''[[SublimeRhyme do not attack]]'']].

* In the ''Literature/WhateleyUniverse'', Phase gets a fake weakness put on his powers testing results: dark chocolate, administered orally. So now he can have enemies try to stop him by bringing him delicious desserts.

As every smart hero or villain knows, the best way to defeat most adversaries is to AttackItsWeakPoint. But said savvies will also know that this is coming, and may very well decide that they don't like being shot in their weak point. This is where the Fake Weakness comes in: [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin faking a weakness]], whether it's [[AttackItsWeakPoint an actual flashing weakpoint]], a WeaksauceWeakness or just an AchillesHeel, to put your opponents off their guard and make them waste valuable time and energy on a RedHerring before you proceed with the [[CurbStompBattle curb stomp]].

Compare IAmNotLeftHanded and BriarPatching. Related to, but not to be confused with FakingTheDead. Often this is used as a justification for OurVampiresAreDifferent and the like, because if you start debunking beliefs in ''fake'' weaknesses, they might start stumbling onto the ''real'' ones.

* One episode of ''WesternAnimation/TheGrimAdventuresOfBillyAndMandy'' is set in a dystopian future where Mandy, [[Literature/GodEmperorOfDune now a giant slug-thing, rules the world by her production of spice]] (namely cinnamon) and keeps around clones of Billy to keep her company. She tells Billy the "secret weakness" to her cinnamon power was frogs, and when he inevitably blabs to LaResistance it turns out she knew this would happen and was using this trope.

* Played straight and inverted at the same time in ''LightNovel/Overlord2012'', [[EvilOverlord The title character]] fights against [[spoiler:[[OurVampiresAreDifferent Shalltear]]]], as an undead, he is vulnerable to fire and holy magic, so he [[spoiler: uses an item which protects him from holy attacks]]. During the fight he acts as if he was [[NoSell resistant]] to [[spoiler: fire]] but still [[WeakenedbytheLight very vulnerable]] to [[spoiler: holy magic]], tricking his opponent into spamming [[spoiler: holy attack]] while also using the False Data:Life spell to make it look like he has less hit points than he actually has. He also pretended to not know anything about quite a few of her skills and spells while he knew about them since the beginning ([[spoiler:in fact, since Shalltear's creation]]). The [[OhCrap face of pure horror]] from said opponent once she realizes that she's been tricked and is now low on Mana is priceless.

* Played straight and inverted at the same time in ''LightNovel/Overlord2012'', [[EvilOverlord The title character]] fights against [[spoiler:[[OurVampiresAreDifferent Shalltear]]]], as an undead, he is vulnerable to fire and holy magic, so he [[spoiler: uses an item which protects him from holy attacks]]. During the fight he acts as if he was [[NoSell resistant]] to [[spoiler: fire]] but still [[WeakenedbytheLight very vulnerable]] to [[spoiler: holy magic]], tricking his opponent into spamming [[spoiler: holy attack]] while also using the False Data:Life spell to make it look like he has less hit points than he actually has. The [[OhCrap face of pure horror]] from said opponent once she realizes that she's been tricked and is now low on Mana is priceless.

* One ''Literature/{{Animorphs}}'' book featured aliens with translucent skin and completely visible internal organs. When Jake has to fight them he realizes that no animal would evolve such perfect targets for a predator and deduces that they must be distractions. He hits one of the aliens in the one empty spot and it drops almost instantly..

* Played straight and inverted at the same time in ''LightNovel/Overlord2012'', [[EvilOverlord The title character]] fights against [[spoiler:[[OurVampiresAreDifferent Shalltear]]]], as an undead, he is vulnerable to fire and holy magic, so he [[spoiler: uses an item which protect him from holy attacks]]. During the fight he act as if he was [[NoSell resistant]] to [[spoiler: fire]] but still [[WeakenedbytheLight very vulnerable]] to [[spoiler: holy magic]], tricking his opponent to spam [[spoiler: holy attack]]. The [[OhCrap Face of pure horror]] from Said opponent once she realises she's been tricked is priceless.

[[folder:Anime]]

* In ''Manga/{{Heroman}}'', the BigBad implants some information about his race in the mind of a guy who later does a HeelFaceTurn. This information includes the fact that the massive eye on his chest is a weak point that can be targeted to kill him. The titular robot punches said eye, putting his fist right through it -- at which point the eye socket ''clamps down on his arm'', immobilizing him long enough for the BigBad to [[spoiler: outright ''kill him'']].

* Played straight and inverted at the same time in ''LightNovel/{{Overlord 2012}}'', [[EvilOverlord The titular character]] fights against [[spoiler:[[OurVampiresAreDifferent Shalltear]]]], as an undead, he is vulnerable to fire and holy magic, so he [[spoiler: uses an item which protect him from holy attacks]]. During the fight he act as if he was [[NoSell resistant]] to [[spoiler: fire]] but still [[WeakenedbytheLight very vulnerable]] to [[spoiler: holy magic]], tricking his opponent to spam [[spoiler: holy attack]]. The [[OhCrap Face of pure horror]] from Said opponent once she realises she's been tricked is priceless.

* There was one ''Comicbook/XMen'' story where people discover ancient scrolls with rituals that would destroy ComicBook/{{Apocalypse}}. It turns out that they were created by Apocalypse himself, just to get people to try them out.
** The [[WesternAnimation/XMen '90s animated series]] used the same plot.

[[folder:Fan Fiction]]

[[folder: Film - Animated]]

** [[spoiler:Metroman]] pretends to be vulnerable to [[spoiler: copper to fake his own death, because he has come to feel he and Megamind are in a rut and he wants to explore another career.]]
** This comes to bite Megamind in the ass later. It turns out, a trap made of solid [[spoiler: copper]] can't stop the rampaging [[spoiler: superhero-turned-villain Titan who had Metroman's powers.]]

[[folder:Film - Live-Action]]

* [[spoiler:Skynet's EvilPlan]] in ''Film/TerminatorSalvation''.

* In ''Literature/{{Discworld}}'':

[[folder:Live Action TV]]

* On ''Series/TheVampireDiaries'', Damon stabs [[spoiler:Mason Lockwood]] with a silver knife, which backfires when it turns out that werewolves aren’t actually vulnerable to silver, and he just made an enemy of someone who wanted to live in peace. And eventually we find it's more than fake--silver jumpstarts their HealingFactor.

--> Kryptonite? Please, I think he started that nonsense. I tried everything: kryptonite rays, kryptonite missiles. Once I had the fool locked in a kryptonite ''coffin''. 'Oh, oh, it hurts, kryptonite, kryptonite'. Then he broke out and started tearing up my secret lab! He just never stops. Then... ''then'' he's got the nerve to put on some glasses, and suddenly he's incognito. Like I'm stupid.

[[folder:Webcomics]]

* One episode of ''WesternAnimation/TheGrimAdventuresOfBillyAndMandy'' was set in a dystopian future where Mandy, [[Literature/GodEmperorOfDune now a giant slug-thing, rules the world by her production of spice]] (namely cinnamon) and keeps around clones of Billy to keep her company. She tells Billy the "secret weakness" to her cinnamon power was frogs, and when he inevitably blabs to LaResistance it turns out she knew this would happen and was using this trope.

* Perhaps not the straightest example, but about halfway through ''VideoGame/PaperMario'', Bowser flat out asks Peach about Mario's weaknesses. If Peach answers honestly, there will be several [[BossInMookClothing powerful]] enemies around the next game area, but if she tells Bowser that Mario is deathly afraid of healing items, he will take this at face value, and there will be several useful items scattered around the area instead.
** The same thing happens in VideoGame/SuperPaperMario with [[ShapeShifter Mimi disguised as Merlee]] asking Mario what terrifies him the most.

* Played straight and inverted at the same time in ''Overlord'', [[EvilOverlord The titular character]] fights against [[spoiler:[[OurVampiresAreDifferent Shalltear]]]], as an undead, he is vulnerable to fire and holy magic, so he [[spoiler: uses an item which protect him from holy attacks]]. During the fight he act as if he was [[NoSell resistant]] to [[spoiler: fire]] but still [[WeakenedbytheLight very vulnerable]] to [[spoiler: holy magic]], tricking his opponent to spam [[spoiler: holy attack]]. The [[OhCrap Face of pure horror]] from Said opponent once she realises she's been tricked is priceless.