History Main / StoryBreakerPower

** Nanase's Angel form enhances her already impressive strength and grants flight, increased speed, high durability, and other useful abilities like mild telepathy. However, she's locked out of all other magic once she uses the spell, and it uses so much energy that she'll be burned out once it ends, preventing her from using magic for anywhere from a few days to a few months. One MonsterOfTheWeek even exploits this, tricking her into using the Angel form early in the fight so she can't weaken him first, and planning to stall until the timer runs out. The Angel form is pretty much an "I Win" button, but there are very good reasons why she can't use it too often.

* ''Film/{{Avatar}}'': Toruk the Great Leonopteryx is one of the most powerful animals on Pandora and provides Jake Sulley a flying mount to carry him into battle and cause havoc to the occupying RDA forces. They are set free at the end of the film and don't factor into the ''Film/AvatarTheWayOfWater'' which means that they do not participate in that film and potentially turn the tide of battle in our heroes' favor.

* ''Film/{{Avatar}}'': Toruk the Great Leonopteryx is one of the most powerful animals on Pandora and provides Jake Sulley a flying mount to carry him into battle and cause havoc to the occupying RDA forces. They are set free at the end of the film and don't factor into the ''Film/AvatarTheWayOfWater'' which means that the don't participate in the battles of that film and potentially turn the tide of battle in our heroes' favor.

** With [[CharacterLevel high-level]] characters, one of the simplest and most dangerous strategies is commonly called "Scry and Die" -- instead of [[DungeonBypass traversing a dungeon]] or an [[SequenceBreaking elaborate plot]] to track down the BigBad for an epic confrontation, the players scry out his location with magic, then [[StatusBuff buff]] up (and occasionally ''[[TimeStandsStill stop time]]'') before {{teleport|ation}}ing in and killing the unfortunate enemy very, very quickly]] [[FetchQuest (or fetching whatever their goal is to fetch]], and so forth.)

*** Berserker's God Hand is an AdaptiveAbility that also grants him eleven {{One Up}}s: He has to be killed twelve times, [[ItOnlyWorksOnce in different ways every time]], and will conceptually NoSell any weapon or attack type below a certain mythic strength. In ''Fate'', the narrative is basically forced to give the heroes an out by stating certain attacks are so powerful they kill Berserker multiple times in one blow, even though this violates everything the narration has revealed about God Hand up to that point and is also not brought up again in later routes.

** It's worth noting that much of the information we have on these abilities comes from an UnreliableExpositor who incorporates the exaggerations of the youkai themselves into her writings. These characters are ludicrously strong, but the fact that there is [[VideoGame/DanmakuAmanojakuImpossibleSpellCard a game]] where everyone throws out the spell card rules to take down a canonically WeakButSkilled character that ends with that character ''winning'' against several of the characters on this list is proof that the spell card rules aren't the only thing keeping Gensokyo from becoming a smoking crater. Much of this perception comes from the fact that {{Fanon}} tends to take these exaggerations seriously, when in reality the degree to which most of these assertions are true and what limitations these powers have is unclear. Some of them (such as Remilia's ability to manipulate fate) may not exist at all.

** It's worth noting that much of the information we have on these abilities comes from an UnreliableExpositor who incorporates the exaggerations of the youkai themselves into her writings. These characters are ludicrously strong, but the fact that there is [[VideoGame/ImpossibleSpellCard a game]] where everyone throws out the spell card rules to take down a canonically WeakButSkilled character that ends with that character ''winning'' against several of the characters on this list is proof that the spell card rules aren't the only thing keeping Gensokyo from becoming a smoking crater. Much of this perception comes from the fact that {{Fanon}} tends to take these exaggerations seriously, when in reality the degree to which most of these assertions are true and what limitations these powers have is unclear. Some of them (such as Remilia's ability to manipulate fate) may not exist at all.

* ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyXIV'': Near the end of [[ExpansionPack Shadowbringers]], the [[PlayerCharacter Warrior Of Light]] obtains the ability to [[SummonMagic summon allies]]. This may sound underwhelming, but it's ''insanely'' powerful, because "summon allies" includes [[spoiler:other [[WorldsBestWarrior Warrior Of Light]] from [[AlternateUniverse Alternate Universes]] or calling long-dead souls back from the afterlife.]]

** Justice is a Commander Gear capable of [[MindControl exerting her influence over nearly every other Gear in existence]], turning them to her side; only Sol is immune to her commands on account being the prototype Gear. [[note]]Presumably, other Commander Gears like Solaria and Dizzy are also immune, but Justice died before either character came into prominence.[[/note]] She additionally possesses physical and magical abilities superior to most other lifeforms (reflected by her serving as an unrelenting SNKBoss in the original game and being flat-out broken whenever she's playable[[labelnote:*]]save for ''Accent Core Plus R'', which rebalanced her from a LightningBruiser MasterOfAll to a more of a MightyGlacier[=/=]StoneWall LongRangeFighter[[/labelnote]]) and, in the backstory, was responsible for [[NukeEm nuking Japan]] with her [[WaveMotionGun Gamma Ray]]. In two of her three run-ins with Sol, she beat him clean, even when he had the [[AmplifierArtifact Fireseal]] boosting his magic to cover for his PowerLimiter. It's also implied in ''Overture'' and outright shown in ''Xrd'' that Justice was capable of becoming a [[{{Kaiju}} Megadeth-type Gear]], suggesting she might not even have been at the apex of her power when Sol did manage to kill her.

** That Man is the creator of the Gears and main villain of the setting, with a brilliant mind, access to high-level magic, and several [[InexplicablyAwesome unexplained powers]], including the ability to age backwards. Players are introduced to him [[NoSell effortlessly shrugging off Sol's attacks]] and exhibiting knowledge bordering on prescience despite being an "ordinary" human, and when Sol finally gets the chance to fight him in ''Overture'', complete with Sol assuming his Gear form for the first time on-screen, it's a largely indirect battle [[StealthMentor serving as a test to see if Sol is capable of taking care of a more immediate threat]]. Complicating matters is That Man's [[AffablyEvil affable nature]] and [[AmbiguouslyEvil questionable acts]], to the point that he spends more time giving cryptic hints and reining in one of his subordinates (a TimeMaster witch with StupidEvil tendencies) than he does doing anything even remotely evil. [[spoiler:This is because, as revealed in ''Xrd'', [[GoodAllAlong he's not a villain at all]] -- ''he's the BigGood'' and the one person who truly knows what's going on, [[PoorCommunicationKills though he's really bad at being forthright with information]]. When he finally comes clean to Sol late in ''-REVELATOR-'' about everything he's been up to over the years, he spares no time in devising a plan that effectively derails the true villain's schemes.]]

** ''-STRIVE-'' reveals that none other than ''Axl Low'' is perhaps the greatest example of all of them. Yep, the laid-back CosmicPlaything Englishman who's just looking for a way to go home to his girlfriend, ''that'' Axl. The events of ''REVELATOR'' whack him with the terrible TomatoInTheMirror that he's really a PureMagicBeing made of sentient temporal information [[RealityWarper who has the power to erase and rewrite entire timelines however he wants with a single thought]]. That includes the ability to instantly erase ''anyone'' from time, rendering them RetGone. All that time-skipping he was doing through the series was just PowerIncontinence. Jack'O and Sol agree that he is the single greatest threat to the entire world given that he can do things that no feat of science or magic can replicate, and Jack'O even points out that Axl could pull an AGodAmI if he so desired. Thankfully, Axl's [[TheHeart pacifistic and kind-hearted]] NiceGuy attitude prevents him using this power for anything besides saving people from collapsing buildings and the like - he even used his powers to save the current timeline in ''REVELATOR'' [[HeroicSacrifice at the cost of ever being able to go home to Megumi like he wanted]], [[WhatYouAreInTheDark even though there would have been no ramifications for him if he refused]]. Where this becomes horrifying for the heroes is [[spoiler:[[AxCrazy I-no]] is a being of similar nature and power to Axl (in fact she ''is'' an AlternateTimeline version of Megumi), and without Asuka/That Man to keep her in line, she's free to use her powers to attain godhood.]]

This is a common problem for sequels of works that end with the protagonist unlocking their full power. Once they get [[SuperWeight too much power]], they win the SuperpowerLottery and become [[PhysicalGod godlike]], or worse, ''[[GodModeSue Suelike]]''. On the other hand, a simple or limited power can lead to viewers [[FridgeLogic asking]] "[[StatingTheSimpleSolution Why don't they just]] use his power of X to do Y and stop the bad guy/get the MacGuffin?" In order to challenge the protagonist the writers will have to [[SlidingScaleOfVillainThreat ramp up the villain's power]], [[JustForFun/HowToStopTheDeusExMachina find a way]] to otherwise [[DeusExitMachina remove or sideline]] them, [[DePower depower them]] or at least [[PowerLimiter reduce it]] to more reasonable levels, [[BagOfSpilling take away their weapons]], make the power come [[PowerAtAPrice at a price]], or give them a DramaPreservingHandicap of some sort (see also KryptoniteIsEverywhere). Otherwise, the character will be TooPowerfulToLive. The easiest way to tell if this trope is in effect is when the writer resorts to handing the protagonist the IdiotBall and ForgotAboutHisPowers to keep the character from using their powers in a straightforward way.

** ''-STRIVE-'' reveals that none other than ''Axl Low'' is perhaps the greatest example of all of them. Yep, the laid-back CosmicPlaything Englishman who's just looking for a way to go home to his girlfriend, ''that'' Axl. The events of ''REVELATOR'' whack him with the terrible TomatoInTheMirror that he's really a PureMagicBeing made of sentient temporal information [[RealityWarper who has the power to erase and rewrite entire timelines however he wants with a single thought]]. That includes the ability to instantly erase ''anyone'' from time, rendering them RetGone. All that time-skipping he was doing through the series was just PowerIncontinence. Jack'O and Sol agree that he is the single greatest threat to the entire world given that he can do things that no feat of science or magic can replicate, and Jack'O even points out that Axl could pull an AGodAmI if he so desired. Thankfully, Axl's [[TheHeart pacifistic and kind-hearted]] NiceGuy attitude prevents him using this power for anything besides saving people from collapsing buildings and the like - he even used his powers to save the current timeline in ''REVELATOR'' [[HeroicSacrifice at the cost of ever being able to go home to Megumi like he wanted]], [[WhatAreYouInTheDark even though there would have been no ramifications for him if he refused]]. Where this becomes horrifying for the heroes is [[spoiler:[[AxCrazy I-no]] is a being of similar nature and power to Axl (in fact she ''is'' an AlternateTimeline version of Megumi), and without Asuka/That Man to keep her in line, she's free to use her powers to attain godhood.]]

** Justice is a Commander Gear capable of [[MindControl exerting her influence over nearly every other Gear in existence]], turning them to her side; only Sol is immune to her commands on account being the prototype Gear. [[note]]Presumably, other Commander Gears like Solaria and Dizzy are also immune, but Justice died before either character came into prominence.[[/note]] She additionally possesses physical and magical abilities superior to most other lifeforms (reflected by her serving as an unrelenting SNKBoss in the original game and being flat-out broken whenever she's playable[[labelnote:*]]save for ''Accent Core Plus R'', which rebalanced her from a LightningBruiser MasterOfAll to a more of a MightyGlacier[=/=]StoneWall LongRangeFighter[[/labelnote]]) and, in the backstory, was responsible for [[NukeEm nuking Japan]] with her [[WaveMotionGun Gamma Ray]]. (To wit, ''[[VideoGame/GuiltyGearXrd Xrd]]'' features the ruins of Japan as a stage, which can be accurately described as ''a hole in the Pacific Ocean''.) In two of her three run-ins with Sol, she beat him clean, even when he had the [[AmplifierArtifact Fireseal]] boosting his magic to cover for his PowerLimiter. It's also implied in ''Overture'' and outright shown in ''Xrd'' that Justice was capable of becoming a [[{{Kaiju}} Megadeth-type Gear]], suggesting she might not even have been at the apex of her power when Sol did manage to kill her.

* ''Franchise/TheIncredibles'': Some of Jack-Jack's powers are grouped in-universe as "molecular self-manipulation", which is VoluntaryShapeshifting taken to the extreme. He can alter his body in ways that give him multiple powers. If he wasn't a baby and actually had control of his ability, Jack-Jack would have presented a serious challenge to the BigBad in both films.

** [[Comicbook/ProfessorX Professor Charles Xavier]]'s {{Telepathy}} is such that most of the movies would be over very, very quickly if he did not frequently get incapacitated or rendered powerless in some way.

** As noted above, Thor becomes this in ''Infinity War'' on account of Stormbreaker, an enchanted axe he personally forges with the help of Eitri for the sole purpose of enacting revenge on Thanos. With it, he's able to summon the Bifrost on his own for quick travel across space (getting around the issue caused by [[spoiler:Thanos killing off Heimdall early in the film]]--itself done to [[spoiler:prevent the heroes from easily teaming up to counteract the Mad Titan]]), effortlessly turns the tides of the Battle of Wakanda mere moments after his arrival, and even proves capable of curb-stomping Thanos while he's wielding '''all six Infinity Stones''' (albeit via the element of surprise). He's scaled back in ''Endgame'' by [[FormerlyFit having him gain a lot of weight]] due to depression over his failure to prevent the Snap and [[DrowningMySorrows wallow in a alcohol-induced haze]] over the next five years. Upon getting back to shape in ''Thor: Love and Thunder'', as a member of the Guardians of the Galaxy, he is so significantly more powerful than any of them that he alone wipes out the entire army that they and the planet they were helping were losing against, and he is quickly removed from the team in order to ensure that the future Guardian films won't be dealing with the fact that the Guardians have who is easily among the top candidates for WorldsStrongestMan to follow his own story. He doesn't use Stormbreaker much, and certainly not at full capacity, in this film, for the obvious reasons of him and the weapon together being far too powerful, and he ends up losing it after having previously made it evident he could have single-handedly defeated Gorr the God Butcher, having shown he could easily handle him in a fight, whereas it took Valkyrie and Jane as Mighty Thor wielding Mjolnir to just drive back the God Butcher. The end of the film even has Thor voluntarily give it away to Love, reverting back to using Mjolnir.

** Thus far movies dampen Grindelwald and Dumbledore's full abilities and strength since they're at their primes and are the two greatest wizards in the world, albeit to a lesser extent with the latter as he's had minimal screen time thus far, and would make literately anyone they fight look pathetic even though in reality they are quite powerful. In [[Film/FantasticBeastsAndWhereToFindThem the first one]], in order to give the heroes a chance against him, Grindewald is impersonating the head of the American Auror office Percival Graves until the last fifteen minutes of the film and even then he is still head and shoulders above everyone else. By the time he's in the subway and really starts to let loose and it's obvious he's been holding back a lot. He's about to take out a whole platoon of Aurors when he's defeated by being taken by surprise. Even though he's more out in the open in the second one, he's given the incentive to emphasize acting well-intentioned and noble to limit his fighting scenes and whenever he does fight, it's clear he is hardly serious as none of the enemies he fights are of any real threat to him. Likewise, Dumbledore is acknowledged by Grindelwald to be all but unstoppable to his men as no one but him and Credence even has a chance against him and he gets put on house arrest at Hogwarts to keep him out of the action. The final fight against him thus ends in Grindelwald curb-stomping the entire group of Ministry fighters and the heroes and he's not even really going all-out, as he was simply manipulating what was confirmed to be a dark version of the Shield Charm in the form of hellish blue fire and it alone proved enough that the only reason the main heroes are alive because one of them sacrificed themselves. It took all they had just to stop Grindelwald from burning down Paris and that's with Grindelwald having just left them and not even doing anything to power the spell. By the end of the film, they finally go straight to Dumbledore to bring into the conflict against Grindelwald the big gun they could use that really has a chance against Grindelwald after armies have proven worthless. In the third film, where the stakes are much higher, the story significantly increases their show time but it's clear that their action are still limited for story-purposes. Dumbledore only fights Credence at first rather than helping the heroes, as Credence is a powerhouse who is also at the level of story-breaker power, while Grindelwald doesn't even fight at all as he's focused on gaining the ultimate political power that would have let him achieve everything. It is only at the end, with their blood pact broken at the crucial moment where Grindelwald was about to kill everyone else, that Dumbledore finally fights against Grindelwald, and he even makes it a point to take them to a special dimension so their fight doesn't cause much damage.
** Queenie Goldstein is such a powerful, natural Legilimens (mind reader) that the story has to find workarounds to keep her from knowing everything. This is mostly done by having her interact with non-Americans because she admits to the British protagonist Newt towards the end of the first movie that she has trouble even with understanding native English speakers who have different accents' thoughts. The second movie establishes while she can read the thoughts of non-native English speakers, she can't understand them. In that movie, she doesn't speak to a native English speaker from the time she leaves Newt's house at about the half hour mark until she meets back up with everyone at the rally in the third act. She gets lost in Paris looking for her sister and has a breakdown in the street when she's drowned out by a bunch of French speakers that sound like gibberish to her. Grindelwald and his followers quickly swoop in and take advantage of the language barrier to try to manipulate her into joining them. Vinda Rosier, who's French, helps her off the street and gets her into their hideout and he (also not a native English speaker) personally gives her his recruitment spiel since she can't understand their thoughts. He later wins her over at the rally. Although given what a powerful wizard he is, there was also a bit of Occulemency involved to keep her out of his mind, which is likely how she was kept in the dark about his impersonation of Percival Graves in the first movie.
** Newt's collection of beasts include some of the deadliest creatures in the world, making him capable of pulling off sudden and rather easy solutions to problems when he truly wants to use them. The story thus makes sure to have him rely mostly on his natural abilities and give him the personality of a creature-loving guy to make sure pulling out his creatures and using them is the last thing he'll do and only at the most dire of circumstances. In the first film, he is left without much of his creatures as they escape and can't exactly use what remains to fight fire with fire given that he is a wanted guy and has to be cautious and that kind of a ruckus would instantly let him be captured. Without that limitation, a Swooping Evil single-handedly lets him and Tina escape certain death within moments and even captures ''Grindelwald'' himself. In the second film, he uses a Zowu to casually beat back Matagots and reach the place of the final battle, but leaves his case, leaving only his Niffler to be used against Grindelwald. As if recognizing this, the third film entirely puts Newt's beasts and case on the sidelines by giving it a role that means he can't use it, meaning he can rely on only his Niffler and Bowtruckle.

** Nuidis Vulko in ''Film/Aquaman2018'' is the best warrior among the Atlanteans who had personally trained both Arthur and Orm, which subsequently makes him an even better warrior than they are, considering how the one time he is seen fighting, he utterly destroys Arthur in a spar, and how he is repeatedly acknowledged to be capable of defeating Orm himself, and he was also a collector of many intelligence and knowledge who had started their hunt for the Trident of Atlantis. In order to prevent him from single-handedly ending the conflict or at minimum providing some much needed assistance that would have helped the two in their quest, he is only given the role of telling them about the Trident and his character is that of a peaceful and non-agressive character who relies on diplomacy and doesn't retaliate even when pushed, along with also having Arthur's defeat of Orm necessary.

** ''Film/BirdsOfPrey2020'': Black Canary, the only member of the team with superpowers, doesn’t use her Canary Cry until the final battle and immediately passes out after using it, keeping her from instantly ending the Birds' multiple fights with armies of goons.

* In the DVDCommentary for ''Film/TheLordOfTheRings'' extended version, Creator/PeterJackson points out and jokes about it that Gandalf could not use the magic he used to turn away the forces of Mordor a second time because he used up all the power in his staff, "And all the shops in Minas Tirith were sold out of batteries."

** Chaos Control from allows its user to [[TimeStandsStill stop time entirely]] and/or teleport across various distances. What prevents it from being too convenient is that it requires a Chaos Emerald to use, of which there are only seven in existence, and only three recurring characters (including Sonic himself) are capable of the ability.

** Justice is a Commander Gear capable of [[MindControl exerting her influence over nearly every other Gear in existence]], turning them to her side; only Sol is immune to her commands on account being the prototype Gear. [[note]]Presumably, other Commander Gears like Solaria and Dizzy are also immune, but Justice died before either character came into prominence.[[/note]] She additionally possesses physical and magical abilities superior to most other lifeforms (reflected by her serving as an unrelenting SNKBoss in the original game and being flat-out broken whenever she's playable[[labelnote:*]]save for ''Accent Core Plus R'', which rebalanced her from a LightningBruiser MasterOfAll to a more of a MightyGlacier[=/=]StoneWall LongRangeFighter[[/labelnote]]) and, in the backstory, was responsible for [[NukeEm nuking Japan]] with her [[WaveMotionGun Gamma Ray]]. (To wit, ''[[VideoGame/GuiltyGearXrd Xrd]]'' features the ruins of Japan as a stage, which can be accurately described as ''a hole in the Pacific Ocean''.) In two of her three run-ins with Sol, she beat him clean, even when he had the [[AmplifierArtifact Fireseal]] boosting his magic to cover for his PowerLimiter. It's also implied in ''Overture'' and outright shown in ''Xrd'' that Justice was capable of becoming a Megadeth-type Gear (read: {{Kaiju}}), suggesting she might not even have been at the apex of her power when Sol did manage to kill her.

* ''VideoGame/BioShockInfinite'' ended with Elizabeth becoming [[TheOmnipotent omnipotent]] and unlocking the full scope of her [[RealityWarper reality warping]] powers. While this worked for the main storyline, it caused major problems for the ''[[BioShockInfinite/BurialAtSea Burial at Sea]]'' DLC, the second episode of which has Elizabeth as the main character, as it meant the writers had to find a way to write a compelling story about a protagonist who is effectively unbeatable and who's opponents are, at best, {{Badass Normal}}s. The DLC begins with Elizabeth being awkwardly BroughtDownToNormal and eventually it's revealed that [[spoiler:the whole thing was one long ThanatosGambit planned out by the omnipotent Elizabeth before she lost her powers]]. Fans ''still'' argue over whether she had to be given the IdiotBall to get the plot to work.

** In ''VisualNovel/DanganronpaV3KillingHarmony'', Shuichi Saihara is the Ultimate Detective, which remains ''exceptionally'' useful in solving murder mysteries. He manages to deduce that one of their own was secretly the Mastermind (something that took Makoto and company up to the last chapter to figure out), [[spoiler: and in the end he's able to end ''Danganronpa'' itself by realizing that both the hope and despair options are false, and winning by refusing to play the game.]]