History Main / LimitedWindowOfVulnerability

[[folder:Anime and Manga]]

* ''Manga/OnePiece:'' In Whole Cake Island arc, this is discussed by Capone Bege, who plans to assassinate Big Mom during her daughter's wedding party. She's tough as nails, but she has a peculiar trait where, if her precious picture of Mother Carmel (Big Mom's late foster mother) is harmed, she'll be emotionally wrecked and her skin will bleed easily. Then, when the party starts, the Straw Hat Pirates (the hero group) cause chaos in the party to both distract the Big Mom Pirates and sneakily crush the Mother Carmel picture. They succeed, Big Mom goes to cry loudly and become vulnerable, and Bege and his men jump in to assassinate her with potent poison syringes... only for her scream -- [[AwesomenessIsAForce the Conqueror Haki-empowered scream]] -- to break the syringes. The Straw Hats and Bege's pirate crew get nowhere to run and are then trapped inbetween the Big Mom's family and pirate group.

[[folder:Fanfic]]

* ''Series/StarTrekTheOriginalSeries'': In the second pilot "[[Recap/StarTrekS1E3WhereNoManHasGoneBefore Where No Man Has Gone Before]]" , Gary Mitchell gains incredible powers when the Enterprise tries to breach an energy barrier. These powers become so great that Mitchell loses his humanity, empathy, and compassion. Spock advocates this trope to Kirk, telling him they need to kill Mitchell now, while they still can, before his powers become so great that he can't be killed and the crew of the Enterprise become mere annoyances to him. Later, Mitchell himself mockingly tells Kirk that he should do exactly what Spock says and kill him while they still can. (It's clear during this scene that he's subtly implying that the point where they were still capable of killing him has already passed). Finally, another crewman who'd gained the same powers but still hung on to her humanity attacks Mitchell and weakens him enough to make him vulnerable. She then tells Kirk to hurry, ''because he hasn't got much time.''

* ''VideoGame/DawnOfWarII: Retribution'': The BigBad is ascending to daemonhood; he's already in OneWingedAngel form, but explicitly mentions his ascension is not yet complete, and needs his minions to protect him in the meantime.

[[folder:Webcomics]]

* ''WesternAnimation/HarleyQuinn2019''. Harley Quinn runs into this when she gets on the wrong side of the Queen of Fables. She refrains from killing the Queen, who coldly tells her this is a wrong move and she ''will'' come back to kill Harley. And the Queen does come back.
* ''WesternAnimation/JusticeLeagueUnlimited'': During the episode "Patriot Act", a scientist paraphrases this trope when he orders some guards to shoot General Wade Eiling before the super solider serum he took takes effect. They end up being too late, although he doesn't kill any of them as he is after the league.

* ''Film/StarWarsEpisodeIIIRevengeOfTheSith'': Subverted. Chancellor Palpatine goads Anakin into summarily executing the defenseless Count Dooku, justifying it by claiming he is too dangerous to be left alive. This, of course, turns out to be a lie, since Palpatine is secretly Dooku's master and, hence, in no danger at any point... however, the time pressure itself is real in that scene, as Dooku's execution by Anakin is part of Palpatine's plan to seduce the latter to TheDarkSide, and he must get him to do it before Anakin's own master, Obi-Wan (whom Dooku knocked out earlier), regains consciousness, as he would remind Anakin that Jedi do not kill their prisoners.

* ''WesternAnimation/{{Hercules}}'': The evil Hades wants to kill Zeus' newborn son Hercules, but, since Hercules is a god, that makes him immortal. So Hades fetches a potion that will turn the drinker mortal, but only if they drink all of it. Hades gets his minions Pain and Panic to take the baby far away from his home in Mount Olympus and get him to start drinking the bottle, but they are unable to get Hercules to drink the very last drop, so the murder plot fails. While they technically didn't ''have'' to do it when Hercules was a baby, it would have been more difficult to get him to drink the potion and then kill him when he was older.

* ''Film/VanHelsing''L Towards the end, Van Helsing inherits the curse of lycanthropy and must use the supernatural strength bestowed by his werewolf form to destroy Count Dracula. He must fight and kill Dracula at some point between the first stroke of midnight, when the transformation begins, and the twelfth, when the transformation will become permanent and Dracula will be able to turn him into a werewolf thrall under his control.

* ''Literature/TheDresdenFiles'': Halloween is a magically LiminalTime where immortal beings, including {{Physical God}}s, become vulnerable. This gives Harry one chance in ''Literature/ColdDays'' to kill [[spoiler:The corrupted [[TheFairFolk Faerie Queen]] Maeve]] before they can complete a plot that would unleash a FantasticNuke as collateral damage.
* ''Literature/{{It}}'': The Losers manage to fight and seriously wound Pennywise in his lair; during the battle, the Turtle tells the Losers to go and finish the job, while Pennywise is still wounded and they are still at the peak of their powers. They are unable to do so, and end up having to return to Derry decades later and fight Pennywise again, but this time with their powers diminished and one member short (Stan refuses to return and commits suicide).

And during the delay, the clock is ticking...ticking...ticking... perhaps waiting for either the target to break free, or for a BigDamnHeroes (or VillainousRescue, or TheCavalry, or the like) to show up, ruining the whole engagement.

* ''Manga/OnePiece:'' In Whole Cake Island arc, this is discussed by Capone Bege, who plans to assassinate Big Mom during her daughter's wedding party. She's tough as nails, but she has a peculiar trait where, if her precious picture of Mother Carmel (Big Mom's late foster mother) is harmed, she'll be emotionally wrecked and her skin will bleed easily. Then, when the party starts, the Straw Hat Pirates (the hero group) cause chaos in the party to both distract the Big Mom Pirates and sneakily crush the Mother Carmel picture. They succeed, Big Mom goes to cry loudly and become vulnerable, and Bege and his men jump in to assassinate her with potent poison syringes... only for her scream - [[AwesomenessIsAForce the Conqueror Haki-empowered scream]] - to break the syringes. The Straw Hats and Bege's pirate crew get nowhere to run and are then trapped inbetween the Big Mom's family and pirate group.

* This happened in a ComicBook/WhatIf story featuring ComicBook/ThePunisher and the [[ComicBook/TheIncredibleHulk Hulk]]. Frank was present at one the Hulk's rampages and simply followed him at a discreet distance afterwards, waiting until the Hulk transformed back into Banner and fell asleep in an alley. Frank then shot Banner in the head, preventing the Hulk from ever returning. In both the comics and the Marvel Cinematic Universe it's now established that this approach won't work. Any severe injury suffered by Banner, even a fatal one, automatically triggers the transformation and he survives. Even sticking a gun in his mouth and pulling the trigger won't work, he simply transforms into the Hulk and spits the bullet out.

* ''Fanfic/DungeonKeeperAmi'': In [[https://forums.sufficientvelocity.com/threads/dungeon-keeper-ami-sailor-moon-dungeon-keeper-story-only-thread.30066/post-6355796 "Backfire - Part 1"]]: As part of the advice of the person she's aiding's advice, Ami gets a warning that indicates this is occuring:

* ''WesternAnimation/{{Hercules}}'': The evil Hades wants to kill Zeus' newborn son Hercules, but since Hercules is a god, that makes him immortal. So Hades fetches a potion that will turn the drinker mortal, but only if they drink all of it. Hades gets his minions Pain and Panic to take the baby far away from his home in Mount Olympus and get him to start drinking the bottle, but they are unable to get Hercules to drink the very last drop, so the murder plot fails. While they technically didn't ''have'' to do it when Hercules was a baby, it would have been more difficult to get him to drink the potion and then kill him when he was older.

* ''Film/IndependenceDay'': The computer virus that lowered the alien ships' shields could only work for approximately fifteen minutes.
* Subverted in ''Film/RevengeOfTheSith'', when Chancellor Palpatine goads Anakin into summarily executing the defenseless Count Dooku, justifying it by claiming he is too dangerous to be left alive. This, of course, turns out to be a lie, since Palpatine is secretly Dooku's master and, hence, in no danger at any point... however, the time pressure itself is real in that scene, as Dooku's execution by Anakin is part of Palpatine's plan to seduce the latter to TheDarkSide, and he must get him to do it before Anakin's own master, Obi-Wan (whom Dooku knocked out earlier), regains consciousness, as he would remind Anakin that Jedi do not kill their prisoners.
* Towards the end of ''Film/VanHelsing'', Van Helsing inherits the curse of lycanthropy and must use the supernatural strength bestowed by his werewolf form to destroy Count Dracula. He must fight and kill Dracula at some point between the first stroke of midnight, when the transformation begins, and the twelfth, when the transformation will become permanent and Dracula will be able to turn him into a werewolf thrall under his control.

* In ''Literature/{{It}}'', the Losers manage to fight and seriously wound Pennywise in his lair; during the battle, the Turtle tells the Losers to go and finish the job, while Pennywise is still wounded and they are still at the peak of their powers. They are unable to do so, and end up having to return to Derry decades later and fight Pennywise again, but this time with their powers diminished and one member short (Stan refuses to return and commits suicide).

* In ''Series/BuffyTheVampireSlayer'' at the end of Season 5, once [[spoiler: Glory]] has been temporarily defeated and [[spoiler:[[SealedInsideAPersonShapedCan reverted back to Ben]]]], Giles [[spoiler: [[ShootTheDog kills Ben]] so that Glory can't return to be a threat.]]
* ''Series/StarTrekTheOriginalSeries'': in the second pilot "[[Recap/StarTrekS1E3WhereNoManHasGoneBefore Where No Man Has Gone Before]]" , Gary Mitchell gains incredible powers when the Enterprise tries to breach an energy barrier. These powers become so great that Mitchell loses his humanity, empathy, and compassion. Spock advocates this trope to Kirk, telling him they need to kill Mitchell now, while they still can, before his powers become so great that he can't be killed and the crew of the Enterprise become mere annoyances to him. Later, Mitchell himself mockingly tells Kirk that he should do exactly what Spock says and kill him while they still can. (It's clear during this scene that he's subtly implying that the point where they were still capable of killing him has already passed). Finally, another crewman who'd gained the same powers but still hung on to her humanity attacks Mitchell and weakens him enough to make him vulnerable. She then tells Kirk to hurry, ''because he hasn't got much time.''

* In ''VideoGame/DawnOfWar II: Retribution'', the BigBad is ascending to daemonhood; he's already in OneWingedAngel form, but explicitly mentions his ascension is not yet complete, and needs his minions to protect him in the meantime.
* In ''VideoGame/Warhammer40000SpaceMarine'', captain Titus explains Nemeroth will be at his most vulnerable during his own ascension to daemonhood, and duels him once he turns OneWingedAngel.

* In ''WesternAnimation/AvatarTheLastAirbender'' the Gaang tries to mount an invasion against the Fire Nation on "The Day of the Black Sun" (a solar eclipse, which makes firebenders weaker), at which point Aang can defeat the [[BigBad Fire Lord]]. Unfortunately [[TheDragon Azula]] knew of the details of the plan from the start.

[[/folder]]

* This happened in a ComicBook/WhatIf story featuring ComicBook/ThePunisher and the ComicBook/IncredibleHulk. Frank was present at one the Hulk's rampages and simply followed him at a discreet distance afterwards, waiting until the Hulk transformed back into Banner and fell asleep in an alley. Frank then shot Banner in the head, preventing the Hulk from ever returning. In both the comics and the Marvel Cinematic Universe it's now established that this approach won't work. Any severe injury suffered by Banner, even a fatal one, automatically triggers the transformation and he survives. Even sticking a gun in his mouth and pulling the trigger won't work, he simply transforms into the Hulk and spits the bullet out.

* ''WesternAnimation/{{Hercules}}'': The evil Hades wants to kill Zeus' newborn son Hercules, but since Hercules is a god, that makes him immortal. So Hades fetches a potion that will turn the drinker mortal, but only if they drink all of it. Hades gets his minions Pain and Panic to take the baby far away from his home in Mount Olympus and get him to start drinking the bottle, but they are unable to get Hercules to drink the very last drop, so the murder plot fails. While they technically didn't ''have'' to do it when Hercules was a baby, it might have been more difficult to get him to drink the potion and then kill him when he was older.

[[folder: Anime and Manga]]

[[folder: ComicBooks ]]

[[folder:LiveActionFilm]]
* ''Film/IndependenceDay'': The computer virus that lowered the alien ships' shields could only work for approximately fifteen minutes.
* Subverted in ''Film/RevengeOfTheSith'', when Chancellor Palpatine goads Anakin into summarily executing the defenseless Count Dooku, justifying it by claiming he is too dangerous to be left alive. This, of course, turns out to be a lie, since Palpatine is secretly Dooku's master and, hence, in no danger at any point... however, the time pressure itself is real in that scene, as Dooku's execution by Anakin is part of Palpatine's plan to seduce the latter to TheDarkSide, and he must get him to do it before Anakin's own master, Obi'Wan (whom Dooku knocked out earlier), regains consciousness, as he would remind Anakin that Jedi do not kill their prisoners.
* Towards the end of ''Film/VanHelsing'', Van Helsing inherits the curse of lycanthropy and must use the supernatural strength bestowed by his werewolf form to destroy Count Dracula. He must fight and kill Dracula at some point between the first stroke of midnight, when the transformation begins, and the twelfth, when the transformation will become permanent and Dracula will be able to turn him into a werewolf thrall under his control.

[[folder:LiveActionTV]]
* In ''Series/BuffyTheVampireSlayer'' at the end of Season 5, once [[spoiler: Glory]] has been temporarily defeated and [[spoiler:[[SealedInsideAPersonShapedCan reverted back to Ben]]]], Giles [[spoiler: [[ShootTheDog kills Ben]] so that Glory can't return to be a threat.]]
* ''Series/StarTrekTheOriginalSeries'': in the second pilot "[[Recap/StarTrekS1E3WhereNoManHasGoneBefore Where No Man Has Gone Before]]" , Gary Mitchell gains incredible powers when the Enterprise tries to breach an energy barrier. These powers become so great that Mitchell loses his humanity, empathy, and compassion. Spock advocates this trope to Kirk, telling him they need to kill Mitchell now, while they still can, before his powers become so great that he can't be killed and the crew of the Enterprise become mere annoyances to him. Later, Mitchell himself mockingly tells Kirk that he should do exactly what Spock says and kill him while they still can. (It's clear during this scene that he's subtly implying that the point where they were still capable of killing him has already passed). Finally, another crewman who'd gained the same powers but still hung on to her humanity attacks Mitchell and weakens him enough to make him vulnerable. She then tells Kirk to hurry, ''because he hasn't got much time.''

[[folder: Literature ]]
* In ''Literature/{{It}}'', the Losers manage to fight and seriously wound Pennywise in his lair; during the battle, the Turtle tells the Losers to go and finish the job, while Pennywise is still wounded and they are still at the peak of their powers. They are unable to do so, and end up having to return to Derry decades later and fight Pennywise again, but this time with their powers diminished and one member short (Stan refuses to return and commits suicide).

[[folder: VideoGames ]]
* In ''VideoGame/DawnOfWar II: Retribution'', the BigBad is ascending to daemonhood; he's already in OneWingedAngel form, but explicitly mentions his ascension is not yet complete, and needs his minions to protect him in the meantime.
* In ''VideoGame/Warhammer40000SpaceMarine'', captain Titus explains Nemeroth will be at his most vulnerable during his own ascension to daemonhood, and duels him once he turns OneWingedAngel.
[[/folder]]

[[folder: WebComic ]]
* ''Webcomic/TheOrderOfTheStick'': When a goblin warlord [[DeityOfHumanOrigin ascended to divinity]] after his death as "the Dark One", the PhysicalGod Thor immediately tried to destroy him. The other Gods held him back long enough for the fledgling god's divine powers and CompleteImmortality to manifest, and the Dark One never forgot the offense.
[[/folder]]

[[folder: WesternAnimation ]]

* ''Anime/DragonBallZ'': This happens in the Freeza saga when Freeza finds himself outmatched by Goku after he transforms into the mythical [[SuperMode Super Saiyan]]. Pushed to the brink, Freeza announces to Goku that he'll be unleashing 100% of his power. King Kai warns Goku through telepathy that he needs to kill Freeza fast before he becomes too dangerous for even him to handle, but due to the Saiyan's BloodKnight tendencies of letting their opponents fight at their best, Goku refrains from doing so and allows Freeza to reach his maximum power, with the situation being made far worse by that fact that planet Namek is just minutes away from [[EarthShatteringKaboom total destruction]].
** During Gohan's battle against Perfect Cell, he finally achieves the power of Super Saiyan 2, and starts toying with the villain, intent on making him suffer for his evil deeds. Goku, who [[TaughtByExperience knows from his battle with Frieza]] that this can backfire, urges Gohan to finish Cell off immediately, pointing out that the villain's desperation will make him more dangerous than ever. Goku ends up proven right when Cell decides to initiate self-destruct, which could take the whole planet with him, and is forced to perform a HeroicSacrifice to teleport him away.

* ''WesternAnimation/AdventureTime'': In "Henchman", Marceline orders Finn to kill a seemingly innocent-looking plant. Finn refuses, and a few seconds later, the plant becomes large and monstrous. When he tries to slay the plant, Finn gets swallowed by it, by Marceline kills it and Finn is freed.
* In ''WesternAnimation/AvatarTheLastAirbender'' the Gaang tries to mount an invasion against the Fire Nation on "The Day of the Black Sun" (a solar eclipse), at which point Aang can defeat the [[BigBad Fire Lord]]. Unfortunately [[TheDragon Azula]] knew of the details of the plan from the start.

* This is the case in ''Franchise/SonicTheHedgehog'' when [[EleventhHourSuperpower Super Forms]] are given narrative significance, usually because the threat at hand has either grown too powerful for anyone to handle by themselves or said threat [[HighAltitudeBattle has situated itself]] [[AstralFinale somewhere that the heroes can't]] [[FinalBossNewDimension reach on their own.]] Given that in most cases these Super Forms are sustained using a [[HourOfPower finite source of Rings]], it can often come down to a matter of minutes or even seconds that the transformed character has to wrap things up before the power fails on them.

* ''ComicBook/AndersonPsiDivision'': When she is hurled into an alternate reality, Anderson has the opportunity to kill Judge Death before he became immortal. However, he discovers her plan beforehand thanks to one of his moles and has the process sped up so it's already too late when they track him down.

This trope occurs occurs a character or characters has to kill someone or something. That someone is an incredibly tough, practically undefeatable menace. But not only do they need to kill them, but they need to do it ''quickly.'' There's no time to waste.

This can be because the person or thing that needs to be killed is restrained or imprisoned, but it can't last. They'll escape sooner or later. Or they're unconscious, but sooner or later they're going to wake up. Or they are weak ''now'', or ''temporarily'' weakened, but will get stronger or return to full strength in a very short time. If you wait too long, it'll be too late.

This can be a source of extreme conflict, especially if the hero has a strict no-killing rule, or if the subject isn't really ''evil'', just uncontrollable or misunderstood. If there's a team involved, look for a lot of arguing with some team members advocating to hurry up and finish them off, while other team members insist that killing is simply off the table.

And while the discussion rages, the clock is ticking...ticking...ticking...

Can also be found in conjunction with AntiRegeneration scenarios if killing quickly is necessary to prevent the enemy from regenerating and continue being a threat.

This is not MercyKill, but elements of it can be in play. Look for IfYouKillHimYouWillBeJustLikeHim to be dragged into the conversation by the no-killing side, but not always. Not to be confused with KillMeNowOrForeverStayYourHand.

* In WesternAnimation/AvatarTheLastAirbender the Gaang tries to mount an invasion against the Fire Nation on "The Day of the Black Sun" (a solar eclipse), at which point Aang can defeat the [[BigBad Fire Lord]]. Unfortunately [[TheDragon Azula]] knew of the details of the plan from the start.

* ''Manga/Golgo13'' sometimes takes jobs where the target will only be out in the open, or at least in circumstances where a clear line of fire is theoretically possible for a very brief period of time. The most spectacular being "One Second Out of 36,000", where the target is in a room at the end of a long corridor, and the doors between Golgo's perch and the target open and close at different times, leaving only the titular time frame as the length of time when all of them are open simultaneously, forcing him to have a very long stakeout while virtually immobile for that one moment. [[ImprobableAimingSkills He nails the shot]].