History Main / ForgotAboutHisPowers

** In the final battle of ''Anime/DragonBallGT'', it's noted that Omega Shenron has [[AllYourPowersCombined the abilities of all the lesser Shadow Dragons]]. He shows these abilities off frequently... except, for some reason, he doesn't bother to use Haze Shenron's ability to weaken others, which was shown to make Goku barely able to fight beforehand.

*** A particularly ridiculous case in the ''Galactic Monster'' story arc of ''Omniverse''. Zs'Skayr gets several occasions where he could easily possess Ben and doesn't bother even trying, even though ''this was the whole point of his goal in all his previous appearance'', and, when his mind-controlled minions seize him, struggles using his scythe to get out of their graps even though he has the ability to turn intangible. Later, the climax ends up being a fight between Ghostfreak's minions and Ben's allies, where two characters involved have SuperScream abilities, one has ShockAndAwe and another has a whole body made of CombatTentacles. They spend the entire fight brawling like regular humans.

** Ulrich is a much worst offender. When he was first introduced, his Triplicata allowed him to summon two illusion of himself to trick the enemy. In season 2, it was upgraded so they could fight and hurt enemies of their own, with Ulrich [[OneManArmy once defeating an entire army of monsters thanks to it]]. Comes season 4, he forgets the upgrade when fighting William (who easily devirtualizes the real one) before forgetting the power altogether for the whole season. He doesn't uses it again until ''Series/CodeLyokoEvolution'', and when he does, it's portrayed as just the illusion trick.

* This seems to be a staple of ''WesternAnimation/DrawnTogether'', especially with Captain Hero, who takes this to TheDitz levels. More often than not though, he is just {{sociopathic|Hero}}. Lampshaded at the start of the second season, when he says that he could have saved the rest of the cast from the crashing helicopter, but he was unable to react, "because (he) smoke(s) mariujana."

* In the two-part episode of ''WesternAnimation/HeManAndTheMastersOfTheUniverse2002'' episode where the [[SnakePeople Snake Men]] are freed, the villains retake Snake Mountain in all of five minutes, with Snake-Face using his powers to turn Skeletor's henchmen into stone with his gaze. However, when the Snake Men storm Greyskull later, Snake-Face, for some unfathomable reason, delays using this lethal ability until he goes up against He-Man, choosing to fight Mekanek with GoodOldFisticuffs. Say what? To drive home the point on how absurd this was, the comic book adaptation changed it, and he ''did'' use his gaze on Mek; fortunately, in this case, when his [[HoistByHisOwnPetard gaze was reflected back on him]] by He-Man and he got a taste of his own medicine, [[NoOntologicalInertia the effect on his victims wore off.]]

** [[Characters/FriendshipIsMagicTwilightSparkle Twilight Sparkle]] is an extremely gifted and versatile magician but ''constantly'' seemingly forgets spells she's used in the past without any trouble that certainly seem applicable. Why she doesn't just just freeze up an enemy's body like she did to her friends in "Castle Mane-ia" or turn them into a breezie is anyone's guess.

** In "[[Recap/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagicS4E8RarityTakesManehattan Rarity takes Manehattan]]", Twilight doesn't even ''try'' using her princess authority to help Rarity get a taxi. Or teleport her around. [[Characters/FriendshipIsMagicRainbowDash Rainbow Dash]] doesn't try to fly her, or [[Characters/FriendshipIsMagicApplejack Applejack]] pull her in a cart....

--->"Don't be too quick to judge Superman's alzheimers problems, though. You probably forget about your powers sometimes too. You can't fly, but you have the ability to learn to waterski, bake, watch baseball, and put objects in your ass. If Lex Luthor came at you with a mind deconfribrulator, you'd be so scared you'd totally forget to learn to waterski. Also, you probably wouldn't jam anything into your ass. See? You forgot about at least TWO super powers, smartass."

* Cheetara from The ''WesternAnimation/{{ThunderCats|2011}}'' constantly forgets her SuperSpeed that can instantly defeat most of their enemies. [[WesternAnimation/ThunderCats1985 1980s]] Cheetara forgets the same thing. Partially justified in that her Anointment Trial episode shows her having a limited upper endurance. But most of the battles aren't ''that'' long.

* ''Literature/{{Ramayana}}'': As an avatar of Vishnu, Rama should be completely over-powered in the human realm. Instead, Rama seems to forget that he is a god until the other gods remind him. In the original version of the poem, Valmiki's version, this happens more than once.

* In ''Literature/TheTwilightSaga'', Benjamin, a member of the Egyptian coven, possesses the special talent of controlling the four classical elements--earth, air, water, ''and fire''. Fire is one of the few things that can reliably do permanent damage to a vampire, but while he's shown practicing with air and water, and prepares to use earth when it looks like things are going to escalate to a fight with the Volturi, he never generates so much as a spark. No one else ever thinks of having Benjamin spin up some flames, either, or for that matter asking him to save Irina from being burned to death by quenching the fire. (Granted, vampires usually need to be incapacitated before being burned, otherwise they'll just use their superspeed to put out the fire, but as Benjamin can control fault lines, he could presumably keep a person-size fire going for as long as he wants.)

** Due to his strength and invulnerability, Superman often forgets he has an effective ranged attack with his heat vision. He could solve many issues from miles away, if he so chose.