History Main / InverseLawOfUtilityAndLethality

* ''ComicBook/BlackCanary'': The Black Canary's superpower is a powerful [[MakeMeWannaShout ultrasonic scream]] -- so powerful, in fact, that's it hard for to use without the risk of killing an opponent or a bystander. As a result, she hardly ever uses it. Fortunately, she's also one of the greatest martial artists in the DC Universe, so she doesn't really need it. It's kept in reserve as a trump card against foes whose SuperStrength is too much for her martial arts to overcome.

* ''Franchise/XMen'':
** A rather JustForFun/{{egregious}} mix of this and WhenAllYouHaveIsAHammer when they made ComicBook/{{Psylocke}}, one of their [[PsychicPowers team telepaths]], over into an Asian ActionGirl. She gained kung-fu, LeParkour, and the ability to focus her telepathy into a "psi-blade", which would instantly short-circuit the nervous system of anyone she stabbed with it, resulting in incapacitation or, [[{{Mooks}} in rare cases]], death. Unfortunately, the blade became the entirety of her heroic repertoire shortly thereafter. Combined with the Inverse Law, it made the poor girl look like the weak link in the X-Chain, and it took [[NewPowersAsThePlotDemands new powers]] to give her any sort of versatility or credibility afterwards.
** This trope made considerable angst-fodder for Havok since unlike his teammates his power couldn't be used for anything but lethal purpose. Any shot of his plasma either incinerates or, equally useless, is completely deflected.
* ''Franchise/TheDCU'''s ''Legion Of Substitute Heroes'', the rejects and washouts of the ''ComicBook/LegionOfSuperHeroes''. Their powers were deemed useless or dangerous. The ones who best fit this trope were Infectious Lass (she gave people contagious diseases - but couldn't control when she used it, who got it, or what disease they got), Porcupine Pete (could shoot porcupine-like quills, but only in every direction, hitting friend and foe alike), Color Kid (could change the color of objects) and Stone Boy (turned into an immobile statue). Despite their potentially offensively devastating powers, Infectious Lass and Porcupine Pete, due to their lack of control were reduced to objects of humor, while Color Kid and Stone Boy, despite their powers being useless on the surface, had moments of awesomeness - like changing all Green Kryptonite to Blue, rendering it harmless to Superboy and Supergirl, or immobilizing Pulsar Stargrave by falling on him from a great height.
* From ''ComicBook/FantasticFour'':

* ''ComicBook/TheFlash'' has the villain Heat Wave who burns people alive these days.
* Inverted in the original ''ComicBook/{{Wanted}}'' comic: the protagonist is The Killer; his ''only'' superpower is being unnaturally good at dealing death. While this would be unworkable in an ongoing comic, it's mighty good in a miniseries.
* Lifeline as presented in the ''Franchise/GIJoe'' comic books. He's derided and insulted by his comrades because he will not shoot people. However, he wins his allies over by proving he can toss mooks around with the best of them. Toss, not kill. Plus, the guy who can stitch up your holes while under fire deserves some respect. (Except for his bright red uniform. At least Devil's Due tossed ''that''.)
* ComicBook/BlackCanary's superpower is a powerful [[MakeMeWannaShout ultrasonic scream]] -- so powerful, in fact, that's it hard for to use without the risk of killing an opponent or a bystander. As a result, she hardly ever uses it. Fortunately, she's also one of the greatest martial artists in the DC Universe, so she doesn't really need it. It's kept in reserve as a trump card against foes whose SuperStrength is too much for her martial arts to overcome.
* Lampshaded in ''ComicBook/{{Watchmen}}'' by the first Nite Owl, Hollis Mason, when he points out the advantages of spirit gum adhesive versus a simple string or piece of elastic when wearing a DominoMask.
* In the ''ComicBook/New52'' reboot, both Franchise/{{Superman}} and ComicBook/{{Supergirl}} developed an ability called "Super Flare" which allows them to expel out the most of solar energy stored in their cells at once, causing a humongous fireball which obliterates everything around them and leaves them almost completely exhausted. So Kal and Kara decided it was too dangerous -since it doesn't discriminate between allies/innocent bystanders and enemies- and unreliable, and not worth the effort, which is because they barely used it in their [[ComicBook/ActionComicsNew52 respective]] [[ComicBook/Supergirl2011 books]].
* Kyle Baker reportedly saw this as an issue when writing ComicBook/{{Hawkman}}: Hawkman's main offensive power is being skilled with medieval weapons, so you have to write antagonists that can be defeated by a [[BadassNormal physically fit man with a big spiky mace]], but at the same time, it's difficult to draw a superhero (especially one who operates in the modern era) smashing a big spiky mace into someone's head without making him look like a violent brute. Consequently, he chose to have Hawkman fight [[WhatMeasureIsANonHuman mostly nonhuman enemies]]; after all, taking on a T-rex with a mace seems downright sporting by comparison.

** ''The Legend Of Korra'' also has a unique character example with Ghazan. All bending elements can conceivably cause damage to people and the show doesn't shy away from nastier violence, though they usually take the form of a GoryDiscretionShot here and there. Ghazan's lava-bending, on the other hand, has the potential to cause some serious FamilyUnfriendlyViolence, if you could imagine any living target of his being hit by the lava, screaming in agony as their flesh is burned off their skin, and being reduced to either cinders or a charred skeleton. In order for Ghazan to be able to function on the show with his powerset, most of the time he won't be hitting people with his lava-bending unless it's blunt physical damage with his lava shuriken, strikes people with normal earth-bending during those moments where he is allowed to hit his target, and even when he's turning a whole temple to lava to kill his enemies, he'll leave the area rather than stick around to make sure the lava has totally consumed his foes, though this final part may be forgiven as he was in a rush to escape with Ghazan and his companions.

* The Freeze Ray of ''WebVideo/DrHorriblesSingAlongBlog'' doesn't fare too well, but the simple fact that Horrible is willing to fire it on his nemesis makes it a lot better at its intended task than, say, the DeathRay. Admittedly [[spoiler: the latter ''does'' kill ''some''one...]]

* Wheeler from ''WesternAnimation/CaptainPlanet'' suffered from this trope pretty often. You'd think the ability to incinerate anything would come in useful when fighting [[StrawmanPolitical beings of pure, motiveless, and unadulterated evil]], but for some reason that just didn't take off on a kid's show. The most powerful member was probably Ma-ti, [[HeartIsAnAwesomePower with no offensive abilities at all but support powers including talking with animals and full mind control]].

* The first time Batman meets Scarecrow in ''WesternAnimation/BatmanTheAnimatedSeries'', Batman turns his back on Scarecrow to deal with his goons and Scarecrow pulls out a gun and shoots Batman in the neck. It seems entirely a matter of luck that it was loaded with a dart full of nightmare toxin instead of [[YourHeadASplode something crazy like bullets]]. Which actually makes sense, considering the Scarecow's MO.
* Another Batman example, in the ''WesternAnimation/BatmanBeyond'' episode "April Moon", Terry is up against three villains who fight with deadly prosthetic limbs: one [[CombatTentacles whips metal tentacles]] from his wrists, one can encase himself in [[PoweredArmor powered armour]] and one has [[ChainsawGood chainsaws on his elbows and knees]]. Guess which of the three goes down without landing a single hit on the bat. Granted, the placement of the chainsaws makes their use in combat awkward at best -- Kneejerk's primary function seemed to be slicing open safes and vault doors.
* ''WesternAnimation/SamuraiJack'' only uses his sword against robots and occasionally an enemy holding a sword. This is likely because Jack is a MartialPacifist and doesn't want to kill anyone except [[BigBad Aku]]. However, many of these "robots" look and act exactly like organic beings, to the point of patronizing bars/restaurants. Even the wild animals proved to be robots, suggesting that the "robot" conceit is just a way to squeak the show past the gore police. A lot of them sprayed oil from their wounds in an obvious blood parallel.
** [[spoiler: ''Shockingly'' averted in [[DarkerAndEdgier Season 5]], where thanks to the TV-14 rating Jack kills for the first time in his life, slicing the throat of one of the Daughters of Aku. The end builds this as a DespairEventHorizon...]][[spoiler:and the next episode involves him downright javelining another two, stabbing a third, and punching another one so hard it twists her neck. He throws the last two down a cliff, but Jack himself falls after them, showing it to be a survivable fall. But even if they survived, they’re both RetGone once Jack kills Aku in the past.]]
* In ''WesternAnimation/TeenTitans'', Beast Boy never gets to bite anyone while in T-Rex form. He does do a lot of trampling and charging around as a rhino or other animal, but his no-holds-barred form is oddly ineffective.
* Chat Noir from ''WesternAnimation/MiraculousLadybug'' holds the Miraculous of Destruction, which lets him [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin destroy anything with a touch]]. Against most enemies, this power would make for an easy victory, but he and his partner are fighting the akumas: innocent civilians mind-controlled by the villainous Hawkmoth. Cat still gets a lot of mileage out of his power, but it's a fraction of what he could do against most enemies. In turn, Ladybug's powers are a magical ResetButton and the Lucky Charm which produces the most bizarre and mundane objects (and never lethal) for her to use in battle. The ResetButton is what keeps the show in a G-rating (the villains wreak a lot of havoc) while the Lucky Charm is almost always the key to defeat them -- through convoluted plans or hinting at when and who ally needs to join the battle.

* In the ''Film/TeenageMutantNinjaTurtles'' movies, Leonardo's swords are only useful for {{Flynning}} until he can get a good kick in to finish his opponent. Occasionally he's allowed to hit someone lightly with one. In the [[Film/TeenageMutantNinjaTurtlesIITheSecretOfTheOoze second movie]] he wasn't even allowed to draw them completely (the most he gets is them half out of their scabbards in a big panoramic shot, but he puts them back and fights unarmed for no apparent reason).

Often, this phenomenon will go completely unnoticed inside a show or game, becoming at most the subject of a PlotTailoredToTheParty to "prove" how versatile the heroes truly are. No one InUniverse realizes the full power of the character with the SwissArmySuperpower. When a character realizes their power has lethal applications, it's a case of LethalHarmlessPowers. Compare the InverseLawOfComplexityToPower, where "simple" powers have more oomph than more abstract ones, BoringButPractical and the aesthetic aspects of CoolButInefficient.

In VideoGames, this can help the in-game balance: since the coolest-looking attacks are also, on the whole, the most powerful, making them AwesomeButImpractical can stop them from becoming {{GameBreaker}}s.

** Hermione plays this trope straight. Of the PowerTrio, she appears to be the weakest fighter. Defense Against the Dark Arts (the whole point of the series) was the one O.W.L. she didn't get 100% on (Harry actually beat her there) On the other hand, Hermione outshines both Harry and Ron at, well, everything else.

* ''Manga/TsukuyomiMoonPhase'': Kouhei's total lack of magic power also means he's impervious to all forms of magic, which is by the way quite common in this series.

* Sailor Uranus in ''Anime/SailorMoon'' gets a nifty mythology trinket courtesy of a magic sword. As you might expect from a television show, the amount it's used by an owner who has fewer issues with lethal force is surprisingly low versus a rather effective but generic magic attack.
* Kuwabara in ''Anime/YuYuHakusho'' eventually gets a sword that can cut through DIMENSIONS. Logically this means he can cut through any foe regardless of how powerful they are, and playing this trope straight, as the only member of the lead 4 characters without super speed or reflexes, he near never lands a clean shot.
* ''Manga/NegimaMagisterNegiMagi'':
** Setsuna's concern over [[LoveIsAWeakness her weakening skills as a warrior]] turns to concern over her lack of any ''other'' skills, and she imagines herself having to work a part-time job at a convenience store to support her girlfriend. Distracted by thoughts of failure, she then slices a giant metal ball that had been flying at Konoka [[AbsurdlySharpBlade clean in half]] [[OffhandBackhand without even noticing.]]
** Later on, Chachamaru comments that she was concerned that she wouldn't have a chance to use her artifact because of this law. Said artifact is a [[spoiler: Kill Sat which despite being shaped [[CuteKitten like a cat]] is more than powerful enough to take out an EldritchAbomination.]]

* This mostly doesn't come into play in ''Anime/DarkerThanBlack,'' since the Contractors who get sent on missions and end up in the protagonists' way are, logically enough, usually combat-oriented, but nevertheless we get situations like, say, Hei, as opposed to Havok: his powers can be blocked, but he can also use them to pick locks and fix his landlady's TV, while her ability to create vacuums isn't useful for much but wanton destruction, but it's ''really, really good at it''. The individual Contractor's [[MagicPrerequisite remuneration]] also affects whether they can get away with using their powers for lesser concerns.
* Tenten from ''Manga/{{Naruto}}'' is an example of this. In a world of ninja, magic fireballs, demons, and GodMode eye techniques, Tenten uses normal weapons at her disposal. [[LinearWarriorsQuadraticWizards Because of this, she is practically useless]], which is jarring as any one of her weapons could end a battle really quickly, as it's been shown countless times that no matter how strong an enemy is, they usually have to dodge a kunai flying at their face. Part of her problem is one of her defining features is a 100% accuracy rate in projectile weapons... Considering the enemy is still VERY free to either block or dodge, and her enemies are, well, ninja, it goes as well as you can expect.
** She gets much more love in filler episodes, as her many normal weapons are summoned from [[HyperspaceArsenal special seals,]] and this is expanded upon to turn her into a master of Hammerspace. She has, on one occasion, hidden an entire ship in one of these seals and [[ColonyDrop colony dropped]] the thing on some baddies. She is basically the [[BoringButPractical boring but practical]] support fighter, in that when the others have run out of flashy tricks, she'll still have weapons galore to hit you with.
* ''Manga/JoJosBizarreAdventure''. Much of the intrigue comes from how villains use their Stands' strange and convoluted powers to deadly effect (A Stand that reduces your memory capacity to three given facts? A Stand that reduces the target's age?). The heroes often have to struggle to defeat their foes using their much more direct powers (Cut anything, control flames, extreme speed and strength...) A clearly established rule is also that direct power is inversely proportional to range, which means that heavy hitters are heavily restricted. The exceptions are "remote Stands", that have large range, power ''and'' lack the usual "damage also affects the user" drawback, but cannot be controlled at long range and instead rely on simple behavior programs, giving them even less utility than normal stands, which can at least be an extra pair of hands when needed.

** Conversely, [[Manga/JojosBizarreAdventureStardustCrusaders Hol Horse]] and [[Manga/JoJosBizarreAdventureGoldenWind Guido Mista.]] Both characters have roughly the same power (a gun with [[ImprobableAimingSkills bullets that they can redirect in mid-flight to hit a target]]), and it should make them incredibly formidable since very few people in the setting are ImmuneToBullets. Except [[StoryBreakerPower it would be boring]] to simply have Mista unerringly shoot every opponent in the head, and Hol Horse is a villain so he can't just shoot and kill the heroes, so both characters tend to be [[ATeamFiring surprisingly bad at actually hitting anything]] despite their power being that they can hit anything, either because their enemies always seem to [[KryptoniteIsEverywhere conveniently have the perfect Stand to ruin their day]] or because they just flat-out miss. Hell, more than a few times, they've ended up hitting ''[[EpicFail themselves]]''. While fighting White Album alone, Mista shot himself twenty times--and survived.

* ''Anime/SailorMoon'': Sailor Mercury's Sabão Spray attack. It has zero offensive power (for the entire first season Sailor Mercury is the only Senshi without an offensive move), but a wide array of strategic uses: it can provide cover for the Senshi, distract the enemy, function as a defence against high temperatures, and gets eventually upgraded to freezing the enemy solid. Unsurprisingly, it's one of the only starter attacks to defy SoLastSeason and be used well into the final seasons of the anime.

* ''Franchise/Digimon'':
** Myotismon's Nightmare Claw is successfully used exactly once in the entire show, where first uses it, it's efficient and concise and does its job of completely paralyzing its target. In every single other use of it... he just goes 'Nightmare....' and pauses for three seconds which is enough time for the heroes to interrupt him, and expanded materials reveal [[NoSell it wouldn't work on Angewomon anyway]] (though that's justified by Angewomon [[ManOfKryptonite being predestined and perfectly suited to kill him]].
** In ''Digimon 02'', we have Kimeramon, whose breath weapon instantly vaporizes everything in its path... naturally all the heroes and their digimon only suffer near [[PlotArmor misses with the thing]].

* Paul exemplifies this trope in ''Fanfic/WithStringsAttached''. He's NighInvulnerable, [[SuperStrength super strong]], able to zap things, and able to [[ActionBomb explode and disintegrate everything around him]]. He's also an ActualPacifist and completely not interested in harming anything. Of the four, he easily finds the least use for his magic.
** To the point where, in ''Fanfic/TheKeysStandAlone'', Paul comes to actively hate most of it and is desperately jealous of the others. Though he does get some mileage out of his invulnerability, and he does develop some useful secondary and tertiary powers, like the ability to see magic and energy. But he has little flexibility with most of his magic.
** The others could potentially be pretty lethal themselves, but their magic is far more applicable to everyday use.

* Discussed in ''Fanfic/ABetterClassOfCriminal'' where libriomancy (the power of pulling items from books that mostly work how the book says) offers both MundaneUtility ''and'' potential for untold destruction. But any of the latter would be far more trouble than it's worth, between all the hassle from the authorities and likely destroying whatever he was fighting for.
* In ''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic'' this is a common explanation for why Princess Celestia gets struck with TheWorfEffect so often despite ostensibly being one of the most powerful characters in the setting: her primary job is to [[ThePowerOfTheSun control the Sun]], and naturally applying ''that'' to combat would cause more damage than whoever she's trying to fight.

In VideoGames, this can help the in-game balance: since the coolest-looking attacks are also, on the whole, the most powerful, nerfing their usefulness can stop them [[GameBreaker just being used to win any and all battles.]]

* Another Batman example, in the ''WesternAnimation/BatmanBeyond'' episode "April Moon", Terry is up against three villains who fight with deadly prosthetic limbs: one [[WhipItGood whips metal tentacles]] from his wrists, one can encase himself in [[PoweredArmor powered armour]] and one has [[ChainsawGood chainsaws on his elbows and knees]]. Guess which of the three goes down without landing a single hit on the bat. Granted, the placement of the chainsaws makes their use in combat awkward at best -- Kneejerk's primary function seemed to be slicing open safes and vault doors.

* Tenten from ''Manga/{{Naruto}}'' is an example of this. In a world of ninja, magic fireballs, demons, and GodMode eye techniques, Tenten uses normal weapons at her disposal. Because of this, she is practically useless, which is jarring as any one of her weapons could end a battle really quickly, as it's been shown countless times that no matter how strong an enemy is, they usually have to dodge a kunai flying at their face. Part of her problem is one of her defining features is a 100% accuracy rate in projectile weapons... Considering the enemy is still VERY free to either block or dodge, and her enemies are, well, ninja, it goes as well as you can expect.

* In the mid-'90s ''WesternAnimation/XMen'' cartoon, Wolverine was never allowed to slash anything that would bleed, while Jubilee could shoot fireworks at anyone. Gambit never threw his cards directly at people, instead throwing them nearby so the force of explosion would knock them down.

** On the other hand, Sylar's power is the ability to intuitively understand how things work. That doesn't sound so amazing until Sylar quickly figures out he can use it to learn other people's superpowers, making him one of the most powerful people in the world. Sylar's heavy use of telekinesis both averts and supports this, depending on the plot. It's a tremendously versatile power, good for everything from opening locks to stopping bullets to sawing off heads, but he has an amazing talent for not killing main characters, considering that he's a homicidal psychopath who can kill you by wishing it.

Okay, how about [[HeroesPreferSwords swords]]? Being a super cool swordsman is better than a wimpy WhiteMage. Except, if you [[InverseLawOfSharpnessAndAccuracy hit anyone]], you're likely to cause massive bleeding, and so unarmed opponents can pull NeverBringAKnifeToAFistfight.

You've just run into the [[TitleDrop Inverse Law Of Utility And Lethality]]. In series that are focused on combat and fighting, there will be cool (but [[MediaWatchdog nerfed]]) violence. The items which produce the coolest violence will be the least useful -- for anything. MundaneUtility will be rare. Like BadPowersBadPeople, the uses for super destructive powers are severely limited. The main reason for this is, of course, censorship - particularly for works aimed to young children and teens. (Expect this to be averted in more adult works.)

** On the other side of the trope, she has a projectile that can cut anything in half, but constantly misfires due to an unwillingness to harm. However she's also confidently stated that she can "reject" any and EVERY event on a target, until they simply cease to exist. She's also raised the dead, and could probably even reverse the hollowfication process if she tried.

* Sailor Uranus in ''Anime/SailorMoon'' gets a nifty mythology trinket courtesy of a magic sword. As you might expect from a television show, the amount it's used by an owner who has less issues with lethal force is surprisingly low versus a rather effective but generic magic attack.

** Setsuna's concern over [[LoveIsAWeakness her weakening skills as a warrior]] turns to a concern over her lack of any ''other'' skills, and she imagines herself having to work a part-time job at a convenience store to support her girlfriend. Distracted by thoughts of failure, she then slices a giant metal ball that had been flying at Konoka [[AbsurdlySharpBlade clean in half]] [[OffhandBackhand without even noticing.]]

* Tenten from ''Manga/{{Naruto}}'' is an example of this. In a world of ninja, magic fireballs, demons and GodMode eye techniques, Tenten uses normal weapons at her disposal. Because of this, she is practically useless, which is jarring as any one of her weapons could end a battle really quickly, as it's been shown countless times that no matter how strong an enemy is, they usually have to dodge a kunai flying at their face. Part of her problem is one of her defining features is a 100% accuracy rate in projectile weapons... Considering the enemy is still VERY free to either block or dodge, and her enemies are, well, ninja, it goes as well as you can expect.

* ''Manga/JoJosBizarreAdventure''. Much of the intrigue comes from how villains use their Stands' strange and convoluted powers to deadly effect (A Stand that reduces your memory capacity to three given facts? A Stand that reduces the target's age?). The heroes often have to struggle to defeat their foes using their much more direct powers (Cut anything, control flames, extreme speed and strength...) A clearly established rule is also that direct power is inversely proportional to range, which means that heavy-hitters are heavily restricted. The exceptions are "remote Stands", that have large range, power ''and'' lack the usual "damage also affects the user" drawback, but cannot be controlled at long range and instead rely on simple behavior programs, giving them even less utility than normal stands, which can at least be an extra pair of hands when needed.

** Conversely, [[Manga/JojosBizarreAdventureStardustCrusaders Hol Horse]] and [[Manga/JoJosBizarreAdventureGoldenWind Guido Mista.]] Both characters have roughly the same power (a gun with [[ImprobableAimingSkills bullets that they can redirect in mid-flight to hit a target]]), and it should make them incredibly formidable, since very few people in the setting are ImmuneToBullets. Except [[StoryBreakerPower it would be boring]] to simply have Mista unerringly shoot every opponent in the head, and Hol Horse is a villain so he can't just shoot and kill the heroes, so both characters tend to be [[ATeamFiring surprisingly bad at actually hitting anything]] despite their power being that they can hit anything, either because their enemies always seem to [[KryptoniteIsEverywhere conveniently have the perfect Stand to ruin their day]] or because they just flat-out miss. Hell, more than a few times, they've ended up hitting ''[[EpicFail themselves]]''. While fighting White Album alone, Mista shot himself twenty times--and survived.

* This trope is why in ''Anime/TigerAndBunny'' the [[PlayingWithFire flame-powered]] hero Fire Emblem is consistently low-ranked in universe. Besides simply being a nice guy, Fire Emblem is one of many [[CorporateSponsoredSuperhero Corporate Sponsored Superheroes]] who catches criminals for public entertainment. As such, his impressive flame production/control is relatively useless, given the lack of purposes that it can be applied to that ''don't'' involve killing or severely injuring others. Notably, the criminal-killing [[VigilanteMan vigilante,]] Lunatic, has the same power (but stronger) and naturally finds it very useful for his purposes.
* ''Manga/{{Trigun}}'': Meryl's derringers are neither taken seriously as a threat nor used to deliver meaningful damage over the entire course of both series. This is because Milly's stun-gun can be used with impunity, but since Meryl's little guns can't invoke Rule of Cool or the beaten-up-by-bullets effect and she's not a killer, they aren't allowed to actually do much of anything. Still good that she doesn't go around unarmed, and she does take some useful actions; the derringers themselves are just useless. Even though a real derringer can kill you very dead.

** Myotismon's Nightmare Claw is successfully used exactly once in the entire show, where first uses it, it's efficiency and concise and does it job of completely paralyzing its target. In every single other use of it... he just goes 'Nightmare....' and pauses for three seconds which is enough time for the heroes to interrupted him, and expanded materials reveal [[NoSell it wouldn't work on Angewomon anyway]] (though that's justified by Angewomon [[ManOfKryptonite being predestined and perfectly suited to kill him]].
** In ''Digimon 02'', we have Kimeramon, who's breath weapon instantly vaporizes everything in its path... naturally all the heroes and their digimon only suffer near [[PlotArmor misses with the thing]].

** This trope made considerable angst-fodder for Havok, since unlike his teammates his power couldn't be used for anything but lethal purpose. Any shot of his plasma either incinerates or, equally useless, is completely deflected.

* In the ''ComicBook/New52'' reboot, both Franchise/{{Superman}} and ComicBook/{{Supergirl}} developed an ability called "Super Flare" which allows them to expel out the most of solar energy stored in their cells at once, causing a humongous fireball which obliterates everything around them and leaves them almost completely exhausted. So Kal and Kara decided it was too dangerous -since it doesn't discriminate between allies/innocent bystanders and enemies- and unreliable, and not worth of the effort, which is because they barely used it in their [[ComicBook/ActionComicsNew52 respective]] [[ComicBook/Supergirl2011 books]].

* In ''Film/HowIUnleashedWorldWarII'' Franek got conscripted right before the war and he's amazingly incompetent fighter. On the other hand, he survives the entire war, visiting most of its fronts, despite being a small-time crook with zero combat training or experience. His street smarts are probably his biggest asset.

*** More as a practical backup or "just in case". The books showed repeatedly that Holmes was not only a skilled fighter, but also had terrific physical conditioning. In ''The Case of the Speckled Band'', he very casually un-bent a fireplace poker that a character had previously bent as a display of strength (and then told Watson to bring his revolver, just in case it escalated past a "fireplace poker bending contest").

*** Not stupid at all. Look at Therizinosaurus ("Scythe Lizard") with it's nasty set of foot-long sickle-shaped claws used for... eating leaves. They even look a bit like Hork-Bajir.

* For elves in the ''Literature/TheHalfbloodChronicles'', males usually have ''far'' more magical power than females, but as it turns out, weak females have a lot more ''control'', allowing them to do a wide variety of useful things by using very little magic to alter their surroundings, like plants (food/shelter), animals (taming/control), minds (rewriting memories), themselves (minor shapeshifting), and enemies (stopping hearts). Not as flashy as giant illusions, fireballs, earthquakes, and so forth, but it gets the job done. At one point it's raining. Very inconvenient. The men all agree that it's too dangerous and draining to try to alter the weather patterns, and so they must get wet. The women alter the fabric of their hats into makeshift umbrellas and snicker to each other.

*** Numair Salmalin is one of (if not THE) most powerful mages in the world, and he has to blow out his own candles, because his power is tuned so heavily to big spells that if he tries to magic it out, ''it explodes''. He can still perform incredible feats of great utility, such as calling boulders from ten miles away to form a new wall, rearranging terrain to make more room for a refugee camp, or ''turning a guy into a tree'', it's just mundane things that most mages take for granted that give him trouble.

* In the ''Literature/{{Dragaera}}'' novels, Vlad Taltos often plays the utility-guy, where his associates have usually [[spoiler:until recently]] been immensely more lethal than he is. It's practically routine for him to get knocked out in the first exchange of blows/spells, yet still be the one who can think outside the box and solve the dilemma that's got Morrolan and Aliera stumped. Plus, versatility simply comes with the territory when you're a multiclassed witch/assassin/mob boss/sorcerer/smartass.
** Likewise, Loiosh's venomous bite is probably the ''least'' useful of the jhereg's inherent abilities, taking a backseat to the winged reptile's flight, stealth, telepathic abilities, perceptiveness and comic relief snarkiness.

** {{Lampshaded}} by other characters who point out Harry's seeming preference for casting "Expelliarmus" all the time. By the end of final book, its ''plot importance'' in the series is quite large comparable to "Avada Kedavra".

** On the other hand, Sylar's power is the ability to intuitively understand how things work. That doesn't sound so amazing until Sylar quickly figures out he can use it to learn other people's superpowers, making him one of the most powerful people in the world. Sylar's heavy use of telekinesis both averts and supports this, depending on the plot. It's a tremendously versatile power, good for everything from opening locks to stopping bullets to sawing off heads, but he has an amazig talent for not killing main characters, considering that he's a homicidal psychopath who can kill you by wishing it.
** The show also developed the inverse law of utility and special effects cost. This is why you only see Nathan soar across the sky once, while Micah repeatedly took control of machines -- much easier to shoot. Greg Grunberg (playing Matt Parkman) said his character had "''the power of leaning''", since that was the only thing he had to do to read minds. Not coincidentally, it saw plenty of use.

* ''TabletopGame/UnknownArmies'' features "skill penumbras", meaning that every skill - most of which are custom-made by the players - has a substantial number of uses. e.g. a player's Cap In Your Ass skill is used not only for gunfights but also for weapon maintenance and accessing the black market, depending on how much the GM is willing to let them get away with. On the flipside, this also means that players can use skills like Crazy Driver to [[CarFu attack]]. Additionally, high skills usually imply a measure of fame in a particular area, meaning that, for instance, a player with a skill of 55% in Jeet Kune Do would probably be well-known in the martial-arts circuit.
** And despite this status he would still have a 45% chance of failing at any Jeet Kune Do, and a 4% chance of screwing up bad enough to cause serious injury or death. Gotta love the Percentile System.
*** The actual skill percentage represents how good you are at that skill while under extreme duress. As in, other people are trying to kill you and the environment isn't being much more friendly. So that's a 55% chance to succeed in a very bad situation. When it comes to practice or formalized competitions, your effective skill is going to be much, much higher and can be performed very easily, meaning a 55% skill is extremely impressive.

** Neo-Spacian Grand Mole, a 900 ATK monster (in a game where anything short of 1000 is arguably weak, hence most of the previous entries) with an uncanny effect. Whenever he battles something, both him and his opponent are returned to their owner's hand. This means that anything in your path is effectively null and void if you can keep getting your Grand Mole out to do battle with it. Bonus points (and usually an easy win) if you have a solid attacker on your field and are using Grand Mole to remove the only defending monster your opponent controls from said solid attacker's path (needless to say, this tactic has been run into the ground, and is the reason why you can only have ONE of Grand Mole in a given deck).

*** Brought to an unprecedented awesome when you find the series of supporter cards specifically MADE to back up the Blue Eyes. The theme deck that centers around the Blue Eyes is a prime example. Paladin of the White Dragon can be freely tributed at the time of its summoning to bring forth a FREE Blue Eyes White Dragon into battle, Kaibaman with the same effect with no strings attached, White Stone of Destruction to add a Blue-Eyes to your hand and with the setup, it can easily be a free trip to unloading all three on your side of the field as much as possible. And Burst Stream of Destruction lets your Blue-Eyes destroy all active enemy monsters, at the expense of merely giving up its attack for one turn. (And nothing says you can't have ''another'' monster do a direct attack to the opponent's life points afterward, just as long as it's not a Blue-Eyes.) Kaiba was also quick to make his signature combo the Ultimate dragon split which means that on direct attack, it can deal 13500 direct damage to any player, a one turn kill.
* Depending on "culture rating," the ''TabletopGame/{{Ravenloft}}'' campaign setting allows some sixteenth and seventeenth century firearms to evoke a Gothic Horror atmosphere, but makes sure GunsAreWorthless and unreliable so that the ''TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons'' HighFantasy battle system isn't reduced to AnachronismStew by GameBreaker Firearms.

* Newbie players of ''TabletopGame/{{Paranoia}}'' probably think "Machine Empathy" is an awesome mutation to get. Veteran players ask for a spare character sheet so they can get started on their next character ahead of time, as being found out as a Machine Empath leaves you massively crippled, having only one body, instead of a six extras other players have.

* ''TabletopGame/FengShui'' mostly ignores this, as the characters should at all times either be in a fight or getting set up for the next fight scene, and they should never be unable to advance the plot due to a lack of noncombat skills. It ''does'' turn up in the rules for Sorcery under the Blast shtick, detailing the varying forms "hurt somebody with magic" can take, along with the other things that Blast can do. Lightning can recharge car batteries, Steam open envelopes or fog glass, and so on. Then there's Transmutation of one substance to another, with the note that any attempt to produce stone, water, or so on to ''use'' won't work: "It's only good for hurting people and wrecking stuff." Which is almost an inversion.

** This trope is somewhat [[EnforcedTrope enforced]] in ''Touhou'' because of the nature of combat there. [[DuelsDecideEverything Danmaku duels are used to settle most important conflicts]] and at least one of the protagonists [[BarrierMaiden cannot be killed without causing Gensokyo to collapse]], not to mention her ability to [[{{Intangibility}} become intangible and immune to all damage at will]]. This means that a signature power such as [[PersonOfMassDestruction Flandre Scarlet]]'s, which is "to destroy everything and anything", is next to useless in battle in a practical sense. Meanwhile someone like [[TheDon Yachie Kicchou]], boasting the comparatively tame-sounding power of "[[CompellingVoice making people lose the will to fight back]]", uses and abuses that ability on the protagonists to make them do all of her dirty work for her.
* ''Franchise/StarWars: VideoGame/JediKnightDarkForcesII'' gives the player the option to turn to the Dark Side and gain damage-dealing force powers, or to stay on the Light Side and gain defensive and healing powers. The Dark Side powers don't actually deal that much damage, and the player already has a lightsaber and 9 guns. Therefore the Light Side powers are actually far more useful, giving you much greater utility at deflecting or healing up from damage without having to worry about how limited the level's health and armor pickups might be. Later games in the series balanced it out somewhat, boosting the damage of dark side powers (while removing the inability to use powers outside your alignment, at least in singleplayer) and giving a few Dark Side utility moves, though it's still overall better to focus on the offensive Dark Side powers over the utility Dark Side powers, since they tend to have various drawbacks that their Light Side equivalents don't (Rage makes you completely invulnerable, but saps your health anyway; Drain heals you up, but is slower and more unwieldy than Heal since you need another enemy to drain from)

** The Mortal Blow Hidden Skill in ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaTwilightPrincess''. If used properly, it is a OneHitKill against any unlucky mook. However, Link can't even hold his shield while preparing for it. The Ending Blow, which finished downed enemies, on the other hand is one of the most useful Hidden Skills, and the first one Link learns.

** On the other side of this trope, Ultras like Dhalsim's Yoga Catastrophe and Rose's Soul Satellite create slow-moving balls of damaging energy - very good for comboing, but... it's just a slow-moving ball of energy, in a series whose best known attack is the Hadoken.

* ''VideoGame/KingdomHeartsII'' introduces the Drive Form mechanic, which allows Sora to temporarily absorb one or both party members to dramatically increase his combat abilities. While the drive forms by themselves aren't this trope, the hidden Anti-Form mechanic, which the developers included to punish players for abusing them, makes them this trope. Anti-Form is a drive form that Sora goes into randomly which has a whole smorgasboard of drawbacks that usually culminate in certain death on higher difficulties. The likelihood of entering Anti-Form increases every few times a Drive Form is entered, and the odds are doubled or possibly even quintupled against bosses. Ultimately subverted with Final Form, which is not only the most powerful drive form and cannot trigger anti-form when used, it decreases the likelihood of entering anti-form with each use.

** If friendly fire is enabled and everyone is in the the thick of things, you could blow up your teammates.

* Subverted in ''Webcomic/{{Homestuck}}''. John's god tier abilities prove to be extremely useful in combat, and he can even use the power of wind to make a massive wind drill to dig into the center of the Battlefield. He also can mask his scent when [[spoiler: Grimbark Jade comes after him with the intent to kill]].

* In ''Webcomic/TheOrderOfTheStick'' Vaarsuvius is an evoker (specializing in a school of magic that deals direct elemental damage) which means that in a battle they can slaughter masses of mooks. As their barred schools however, they took necromancy and conjuration which contain some of the most useful spells outside combat - especially teleportation which would have solved plenty of the Order's problems. (In their defense, they took their barred schools in D&D 3.0 when teleportation was in the transmutation school. It's not their fault that the spell got moved to conjuration when the world upgraded to 3.5 in the first strip.)

** Gotterdammerung is one of the more teased/bullied students because he doesn't fight back. What's his power? ''Disintegration'' -- only with little to no fine control over just ''what'' he disintegrates, so against people it's either kill or do nothing. (He gets a bit better after managing to save some lives without having to kill anyone to do so during the Halloween attack of all times.)
* Averted in ''Literature/{{Prolecto}}''. A lot of characters have deadly powers...which is why all the villians tend to be capable of healing from them. The most egregious is the Succubi's blades...which another Succubi can easily regenerate from.

** However, in ''WesternAnimation/TheLegendOfKorra'', firebending does turn out to have one incredibly useful peaceful function; electricity generation. Republic City employs hundreds of fire-benders to lightning bend, powering the city. We also discover that it can be used to "read" a person's chi, and discover sources of illness.

* Watch ''Franchise/TeenageMutantNinjaTurtles'' some time. Donny and Michelangelo seem to be the only ones allowed to actually hit anyone with their weapons [[MechaMooks unless they're fighting robots]]. Hence, in the 1987 cartoon series the Foot soldiers are clearly robots.

* In the mid '90s ''WesternAnimation/XMen'' cartoon, Wolverine was never allowed to slash anything that would bleed, while Jubilee could shoot fireworks at anyone. Gambit never threw his cards directly at people, instead throwing them nearby so the force of explosion would knock them down.

* Chat Noir from ''WesternAnimation/MiraculousLadybug'' holds the Miraculous of Destruction, which lets him [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin destroy anything with a touch]]. Against most enemies, this power would make for an easy victory, but he and his partner are fighting the akumas: innocent civilians mind-controlled by the villainous Hawkmoth. Cat still gets a lot of mileage out of his power, but it's a fraction of what he could do against most enemies. In turn, Ladybug's powers are a magical ResetButton and the Lucky Charm which produces the most bizarre and mundane objects (and never lethal) for her to use in battle. The ResetButton is what keeps the show in a G-rating (the villains wreak a lot of havoc) while the Lucky Charm is almost always they key to defeat them -- through convoluted plans or hinting at when and who ally needs to join the battle.
** The other Miraculi also suffer from this to an extent. For instance, the Fox's power Mirage creates vivid illusions of about anything and the Snake's power Second Chance grants a saving point that can be reminded as much as needed. Ladybug has used the former to throw off people from her trail (an illusion of her secret identity to appear along her heroic alter ego) and Chat Noir has used the latter to outwit the akumatized Miraculous users.
** Subverted with the Dragon Miraculous which lents three elemental powers (wind, lightning, and water) and is arguably second to the Black Cat Miraculous in raw power but far more versatile.

** A bolt-from the blue attack was generally discounted. Their primary purpose was to deter a Soviet invasion of Western Europe. The perceived importance of tactical nuclear weapons is usually underestimated.
* Personal weapons designed specifically for killing tend to be more limited in their utility. A sword or stiletto is great for stabbing, but can't be put to other types work the same way an axe, machete or broad-bladed knife can. Meanwhile, a good rifle or shotgun in a big enough chambering has the extra range and power to make it far more useful for hunting game compared to a compact handgun.[[note]]There ''are'' handguns suitable for hunting, but their large size and excess power make them poor choices for home protection or self-defense, to say nothing of the skill needed to shoot them accurately at long distance.[[/note]]

* Watch ''WesternAnimation/TeenageMutantNinjaTurtles'' some time. Donny and Michelangelo seem to be the only ones allowed to actually hit anyone with their weapons [[MechaMooks unless they're fighting robots]]. Hence, in the 1987 cartoon series the Foot soldiers are clearly robots.

* Cat Noir from ''WesternAnimation/MiraculousLadybug'' holds the Miraculous of Destruction, which lets him [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin destroy anything with a touch]]. Against most enemies, this power would make for an easy victory, but he and his partner are fighting the akumas: innocent civilians mind-controlled by the villainous Hawkmoth. Cat still gets a lot of mileage out of his power, but it's a fraction of what he could do against most enemies.

** The [[WesternAnimation/TMNT 2007 movie]] averts this: although [[BloodlessCarnage there's no blood or anything]], it's fairly clear that Leonardo, Raphael, and April are hitting Foot Ninjas with their swords.

* In the ''ComicBook/New52'' reboot, both Franchise/{{Superman}} and ComicBook/{{Supergirl}} developed an ability called "Super Flare" which allows them to expel out the most of solar energy stored in their cells at once, causing a humongous fireball which obliterates everything around them and leaves them almost completely exhausted. So Kal and Kara decided it was too dangerous -since it doesn't discriminate between allies/innocent bystanders and enemies- and unreliable, and not worth of the effort, which is because they barely used it in their [[ComicBook/GrantMorrisonsActionComics respective]] [[ComicBook/Supergirl2011 books]].

** Conversely, [[Manga/JojosBizarreAdventureStardustCrusaders Hol Horse]] and [[Manga/JojosBizarreAdventureVentoAureo Guido Mista.]] Both characters have roughly the same power (a gun with [[ImprobableAimingSkills bullets that they can redirect in mid-flight to hit a target]]), and it should make them incredibly formidable, since very few people in the setting are ImmuneToBullets. Except [[StoryBreakerPower it would be boring]] to simply have Mista unerringly shoot every opponent in the head, and Hol Horse is a villain so he can't just shoot and kill the heroes, so both characters tend to be [[ATeamFiring surprisingly bad at actually hitting anything]] despite their power being that they can hit anything, either because their enemies always seem to [[KryptoniteIsEverywhere conveniently have the perfect Stand to ruin their day]] or because they just flat-out miss. Hell, more than a few times, they've ended up hitting ''[[EpicFail themselves]]''. While fighting White Album alone, Mista shot himself twenty times--and survived.

* ''Franchise/TheDCU'''s ''Legion Of Substitute Heroes'', the rejects and washouts of the ''ComicBook/{{Legion Of Super-Heroes}}''. Their powers were deemed useless or dangerous. The ones who best fit this trope were Infectious Lass (she gave people contagious diseases - but couldn't control when she used it, who got it, or what disease they got), Porcupine Pete (could shoot porcupine-like quills, but only in every direction, hitting friend and foe alike), Color Kid (could change the color of objects) and Stone Boy (turned into an immobile statue). Despite their potentially offensively devastating powers, Infectious Lass and Porcupine Pete, due to their lack of control were reduced to objects of humor, while Color Kid and Stone Boy, despite their powers being useless on the surface, had moments of awesomeness - like changing all Green Kryptonite to Blue, rendering it harmless to Superboy and Supergirl, or immobilizing Pulsar Stargrave by falling on him from a great height.

** In one episode of ''WesternAnimation/WolverineAndTheXMen'', an enraged Wolverine, battling his ArchEnemy Sabretooth to protect a little girl, pops his claws ... and uses them to slice off a tree branch he could use as a club.

* ''Manga/MahouSenseiNegima'':

* ''Franchise/Digimon:''

* ''VideoGame/{{Touhou}}'' has [[CuteGhostGirl Yuyuko Saigyouji]], with the ability to kill ''anything'' simply by inviting it to its death (actually "control of death", but it mainly manifests this way). Perhaps the ultimate example of this trope, as it is absolutely lethal and almost completely useless, especially when compared to [[SuperpowerLottery other characters]], and she doesn't even use it that much (in fact when she first discovered she possessed the ability, she ''[[DrivenToSuicide killed herself]]'' due to her fear of it). The one time in the games she even ''considers'' using it just supports this trope further, as it was against a character who couldn't die.

* Modern {{RPG}}s tend to have failsafes built into the mechanics to ensure that if you specialise in [[StuffBlowingUp lobbing balls of explodium]] [[SplashDamage into rooms]] and try it on something valuable, all you'll get out of the treasure chests is damaged garbage. However, the original ''VideoGame/{{Neverwinter Nights}}'' averted this, allowing powerful area of effect spells to be used to destroy almost all objects unless specifically (and usually plot related) flagged as indestructible. Room full of boxes you can't be bothered to search through individually to see if they have anything valuable? Fireball and collect the loot. Locked doors and a low lockpicking skill? Fireball. Intricate traps involving destroyable chess pieces on a giant board? [[RuleOfThree Fireball]]. [[WhenAllYouHaveIsAHammer When all you have is a load of Fireball spells,]] [[{{Metaphorgotten}} everything starts to look like a pack of goblin warriors.]]

[[folder:Web Comics]]

* Subverted in Webcomic/{{Homestuck}}. John's god tier abilities prove to be extremely useful in combat, and he can even use the power of wind to make a massive wind drill to dig into the center of the Battlefield. He also can mask his scent when [[spoiler: Grimbark Jade comes after him with the intent to kill]].

* The many crippling issues of big, powerful creatures in ''TabletopGame/MagicTheGathering used to make them this, especially in the earlier phases of that game's existence, where such creatures usually took an ungodly amount of resources to get to the table, could still easily get killed, countered, exiled, etc. by any number of spells with a much lower cost, and to make matters worse, often had devastating drawback abilities, just in case they were still a little bit too playable! PowerCreep has since set in, and nowadays many of these creatures have ways to get around their high casting costs early, protections against some of the means to easily body them, and no drawbacks. Even still, of the cards famed for [[GameBreaker bending the game over its knee and making it cry uncle]], the cards whispered of in legends, almost none have damage as a main focus. An inordinate amount of them also happen to be in Blue, a color focused almost entirely on utility and control.[[labelnote:Note]]For reference, the "Power Nine", widely considered to be the most powerful cards in the game, consist of [[https://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=black+lotus Black Lotus]] (which produces mana of any color), [[https://mtg.fandom.com/wiki/Mox the original Mox cycle]] (five mana-producing artifacts, one for each color), and the rest is [[https://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=time+walk three]] [[https://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=ancestral+recall blue]] [[https://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=timetwister spells]]. [[https://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=489729 Jace the Mind Sculptor]], another one of the most infamous - and infamously expensive - cards, is also blue[[/labelnote]] Even today, some of the most powerful competitive decks tend to be not flashy decks with big creatures and explosive spells, but GradualGrinder control decks that have layers upon layers of countermeasures to shut down anything you might hope to throw against them. Tremendously effective, and [[BoringButPractical mind-numbingly boring to play against.]]

* The many crippling issues of big, powerful creatures in ''TabletopGame/MagicTheGathering used to make them this, especially in the earlier phases of that game's existence, where such creatures usually took an ungodly amount of resources to get to the table, could still easily get killed, countered, exiled, etc. by any number of spells with a much lower cost, and to make matters worse, often had devastating drawback abilities, just in case they were still a little bit too playable! PowerCreep has since set in, and nowadays many of these creatures have ways to get around their high casting costs early, protections against some of the means to easily body them, and no drawbacks. Even still, of the cards famed for [[GameBreaker bending the game over its knee and making it cry uncle]], the cards whispered of in legends, almost none have damage as a main focus. An inordinate amount of them also happen to be in Blue, a color focused almost entirely on utility and control.[[labelnote:Note]]For reference, the "Power Nine", widely considered to be the most powerful cards in the game, consist of [[https://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=black+lotus Black Lotus]] (which produces mana of any color), [[https://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Search/Default.aspx?action=advanced&set=+[%22Vintage%20Masters%22]&name=+[mox] the Mox cycle]] (five mana-producing artifacts, one for each color), and the rest is [[https://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=time+walk three]] [[https://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=ancestral+recall blue]] [[https://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=timetwister spells]]. [[https://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=489729 Jace the Mind Sculptor]], another one of the most infamous - and infamously expensive - cards, is also blue[[/labelnote]] Even today, some of the most powerful competitive decks tend to be not flashy decks with big creatures and explosive spells, but GradualGrinder control decks that have layers upon layers of countermeasures to shut down anything you might hope to throw against them. Tremendously effective, and [[BoringButPractical mind-numbingly boring to play against.]]