History Main / SuperpowerLottery

** Ironically, the character with probably the most broken, over-powered ability, doesn't use it to near it's full potential. Naruto's Kage Bunshin ability. For one thing, even ignoring the potential of a ready-made army, consider what would have happened if Naruto had started using the clone training earlier. Even if he started at the beginning of the time-skip, say he trained with a thousand clones for six hours every day, like he did during the Elemental Training Arc. After two years, he would have a grand total of 84 YEARS of pure training experience. Makes you wonder what the hell Jiraiya was thinking not telling him about the shared-experience bit sooner.
*** Supposedly such usage of the Kage Bunshin is dangerous, not only to the body but also the mind, which isn't exactly built to instantly absorb massive amounts of memories. Using that form of training over a long period could have caused brain damage...[[IdiotHero which isn't exactly something Naruto can afford]].

** Although it [[DangerousForbiddenTechnique takes a year off his life every time he uses it]]... I wonder what would happen if his ideal was to live forever?

** Soifon has a Shikai that kills instantly if it touches the same spot twice; [[spoiler: her Bankai is a {{BFG}} with the strength of a nuke.]]

* Lampshaded in ''YuYuHakusho's'' anime when Kuwabara complains about Yusuke being able to use a Spirit Gun, while he gets a Spirit Sword. Toguro initially pretends that he had a bad draw in the apparitions' Superpower Lottery, but then proceeds to show just how powerful he is at only a fifth of his strength.

** To be clear on the matter, generally speaking, the superpowered lottery is partly subverted in ''Naruto'', where the majority of powers are learned and can be by anyone, depending only on had work, skill, intelligence etc. Even the ''Kekkai Genkai'' and tailed beast powers depend greatly on individual talent (eg. The Sharingan is not so much broken as every Uchiha who could not use it hypercometently is dead and buried; Killer Bee is one of only two people- the other being the 4th Mizukage Yagura- who have completely mastered their Bijuu). Even clans like the Aburame or the Inuzuka use justu that could be given to anyone, save that they kept the details secret. The main lottery is a matter of what teachers you happen to get and how far you are determined to go to get or create more jutsu, with special powers just making it easier or giving access to more unusual powers. Some of the strongest characters in the story or backstory had nothing that could not feasibly be learnt, obtained or invented.

**** But then, a very useful ability appears later: [[spoiler: A complete MegaManning of a second Devil's Fruit. To amke matters worse for everybody, he chooses Whitebeard's power below]].

* The Hyuuga and Uchiha clans from ''{{Naruto}}''. The former can see through nearly everything in nearly every direction at once and disable their opponents completely by hitting special points on the body. The later can easily copy others' techniques and potentially (at a price) upgrade their eyes to a level that allows completely unique techniques like burning anything, sucking something into another dimension, and powerful illusions that can compress days worth of torture into seconds.
** Also, being the host of a tailed beast, which gives you massive reserves of energy and some unique ability (which themselves vary in worth). Naturally, Naruto is host to the strongest of the beasts, with the mother of all {{Superpowered Evil Side}}s that when releasing larger amounts of it power tears up the landscape to a degree that would make any DragonballZ character proud. This, too, comes at a great price.

** [[spoiler:Danzo]] BOUGHT the lottery. He grafted [[spoiler: 10 Sharingans on to himself, including one that has a mind control specialty, and also uses a technique that even the psycho Uchiha forbid usage. He also has grafted Mokuton powers on himself. That means he's the only person to have both the power to control bijuu and the power to suppress bijuu, which are entities of godlike powers that give their own lottery to the person containing them. He's also smart enough to conceal this knowledge.]]

** The Mizukage also scored pretty big, being able to use ''two'' unique types of ElementalPowers in addition to the three regular ones they were made from. To date she's the only character with a ''double Kekkai Genkai''.
** To be clear on the matter, generally speaking, the superpowered lottery is partly subverted in ''Naruto'', where the majority of powers are learned and can be by anyone, depending only on had work, skill, intelligence etc. Even the ''Kekkai Genkai'' and tailed beast powers depend greatly on individual talent (eg. The Sharingan is not so much broken as every Uchiha who could not use it hypercometently is dead and buried; Killer Bee is one of only two people- the other being the 4th Mizukage- who have completely mastered their Bijuu). Even clans like the Aburame or the Inuzuka use justu that could be given to anyone, save that they kept the details secret. The main lottery is a matter of what teachers you happen to get and how far you are determined to go to get or create more jutsu. Some of the strongest characters in the story or backstory had nothing that could not feasibly be learnt, obtained or invented.
** Ironically, the character with probably the most broken, over-powered ability, doesn't use it to near it's full potential. Naruto's Kage Bunshin ability. For one thing, even ignoring the potential of a ready-made army (which doesn't seem to have a time limit either), consider what would have happened if Naruto had started using the clone training earlier. Even if he started at the beginning of the time-skip, say he trained with a thousand clones for six hours every day, like he did during the Elemental Training Arc. After two years, he would have a grand total of 84 YEARS of pure training experience. Makes you wonder what the hell Jiraiya was thinking not telling him about the shared-experience bit sooner.

** Sort of justified in that the Spectre is more or less an extension of {{God}}. Plus RuleOfCool plays into it--why ''shouldn't'' someone that powerful be able to melt someone like a candle or cut them in half with giant scissors?

** There is plenty of middle ground, we usually just don't see it, as the story usually centers around Magicians, or poorly empowered people just trying to get along. Middle level don't take center stage much but are there, for example, determining the direction of anything (Including 'Source of Magic'), is certainly not a huge talent, but incredibly useful. Grundy can speak any language. One background character could summon an animated sword. For reference the useless talents are called 'Spot on the Wall', which is ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin. Magician levels are Illusion (At a range, that you can see through, that encompass ALL 5 SENSES), the ability to turn anyone but yourself into any other living creature, the ability to turn yourself into any other living creature, making things true by agreeing with them, knowing damn near everything, and being immune to magical harm.
** That last talent hides itself, so that people don't wise up and try to hurt him by mundane means either. Not there ''are'' very many entirely mundane means available; Xanth is so thoroughly infused with magic that even the simplest objects are probably at least a little bit magical. The talent also ''indirect'' magical harm in its protections, so something like magically hiding the edge of a cliff from him and trying to get him to fall off wouldn't work either. It's even theorized in-universe that when the [[AGodAmI omnipotent demon]] that's the source of all magic in Xanth left, shutting all the magic down, it came back very shortly afterward solely because of this talent, as putting him in danger by removing magic could be considered indirect magical harm. That's right, it's so powerful that it can even affect ''[[BeyondTheImpossible its own omnipotent source]]''.

**** But then, it's revealed [[spoiler: that it has a [[MegaManning power vampirism]] abiliy, which enables him to steal and use someone else's Devil's Fruit. His choice? [[OhCrap Whitebeard's]]]].

** But even all of these pale in comparison to "Ambition" or "Haki". Someone with a very powerful Haki can hurt even a ''Logia'' user with physical attacks. Haki enhanced kicks and punches can hurt Rubberman Luffy who normally has high resistance to blunt damage. The Kuja Amazons are especially talented in the use of Haki. Their queen Boa Hancock can even fire her Haki like a ''bullet''. Blackbeard mentioned above avoids some of the BlessedWithSuck properties of his devil fruit by virtue of having a powerful Haki of his own. He basically won ''two'' [[SuperpowerLottery Superpower Lotteries]].
*** The real lottery winners are those with "Haōshoku Haki", or "King's Ambition"; only one in a million are born with it, and it's powerful enough to knock out scores of [[EliteMook Elite Mooks]], such as the Kuja warriors, who are already well-accustomed to the effects of the regular variety. And this was done by somebody who didn't even realize he ''had'' any sort of Haki (or even what Haki ''was''). Currently, only 4 characters in the series are confirmed to possess this type of Haki, all of whom are leaders in some way: Luffy, Shanks, Boa Hancock, and Whitebeard.

**** Then there is Awaki, who is basically Kuroko UpToEleven. Her only disadvantage is she can't teleport herself. However, her weight limit is in the tonnes, her distance limit is similarly over blown, and the biggest difference is she doesn't have to touch you like Kuroko. She can send you anywhere she wants just by looking at you.

** More specifically, he's used his superspeed to time travel, travel between dimensions, become intangible (and make other people or things intangible), become invisible, cure himself of detrimental conditions, increase or decrease the speed of other people and objects (including turning someone into, effectively, a living statue), create whirlwinds strong enough to lift others aloft (sometimes just by spinning his arms), extinguish fires, melt large amounts of snow and ice, fly, and power large machinery, among other things.

* Jackie Estacado in ''TheDarkness''. The full extent of his power has yet to be explored, but the ones we've seen are impressive indeed. First, he has your basic package of enhanced strength, agility, speed, stamina, and what-have-you. Second, he can make, well, just about anything out of darkness. Things he makes on a regular basis include {{BFG}}s, CombatTentacles, and the infamous [[SnarkyNonhumanSidekick Darklings]], although he has also been shown to be able to make miniature black holes, buildings, and sentient human beings. The only limitation on this power seems to be that these creations crumble in direct sunlight (in the game, this is {{Nerf}}ed to include all strong light, to avoid making every fight a CurbStompBattle). Finally, he has an in-universe form of ContractualImmortality: the Darkness is sentient, and refuses to let him stay dead until he has [[SuperpowerfulGenetics produced a male heir]]. This functions to the extent that, when he blew up a warehouse with himself inside it, he merely had to cool his heels in {{Hell}} a while until the Darkness had reassembled his body from the molecular level.

* In ''TheLawOfUeki'', each participant in the ever-present TournamentArc has a special power given to them by their heavenly sponsor, usually of the form "turn X into Y"; our hero, for instance, can transform garbage (usually wrappers) into trees (with a degree of GreenThumb). The BigBad of the first arc's power at first seems to be generating gravity-manipulating bubbles ... but, no, that turns out to just be a side effect created by a previous use of his real power: "[[RealityWarper to turn ideals into reality]]". SoYeah.

[[caption-width:330:Powers, from left to right: [[MadeOfIron tough]], [[BadassNormal badass]], [[PhysicalGod di]][[NighInvulnerability vi]][[{{Immortality ni]][[PersonOfMassDestruction ty]], [[CharlesAtlasSuperpower training]] and [[CrimefightingWithCash money]].]]

[[caption-width:330:Powers, from left to right: [[MadeOfIron tough]], [[BadassNormal badass]], [[AGodAmI divinity]], [[CharlesAtlasSuperpower training]] and [[CrimefightingWithCash money]].]]

** The DCAU version becomes something similar through a variant of MegaManning.

** Power Girl, of course, seemingly gets Superman's full combo platter, except her KryptoniteFactor only exists in an alternate universe. She routinely ends up on the wrong end of TheWorfEffect. Maybe she traded the PopularityPower for something else?

** DependingOnTheWriter, Magneto really lucked out where superpowers are concerned. He went from menacing the X-Men with girders to controlling the entire electromagnetic spectrum, which ''should'' make him pretty much unbeatable.
*** In general, any Omega-level mutant falls to this. (With the possible exception of Mr. Immortal. Let's not think about {{Squirrel Girl}}.

** Any yet he is still always shown to be the Vegeta style warm up act to Superman's Goku. "Oh my gosh if he defeated Martian Manhunter how can Superman defeat him?" Apparently the answer to this question is always "Easily".

** For this reason he was depowered for the DCAU. His intangibility, telepathy, flight and shapechanging were emphasized and his superstrength was downgraded. His invisibility only appeared once or twice, and his 'Martian Vision' were entirely ignored.

** There is plenty of middle ground, we usually just don't see it, as the story usually centers around Magicians, or poorly empowered people just trying to get along. Middle level don't take center stage much but are there, for example, determining the direction of anything (Including 'Source of Magic'), is certainly not a huge talent, but incredibly useful. Grundy can speak any language. One background character could summon an animated sword. For reference the useless talents are called 'Spot on the Wall', which is ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin. Magician levels are Illusion (At a range, that you can see through, that encompass ALL 5 SENSES), the ability to turn anyone but yourself into any other living creature, the ability to turn yourself into any other living creature, making things true by agreeing with them, knowing damn near everything, and being immune to magic (and indeed, this last talent hides itself, so that people don't wise up and try to hurt him by mundane means either).

*** Actually, WordofGod says that if a human ate the Hito-Hito fruit, he/she would become 'enlightened'... which doesn't sound that much better, but since the fruit was eaten we'll never know to what extent one would be enlightened.

*** The real lottery winners are those with "Haōshoku Haki", or "King's Ambition"; only one in a million are born with it, and it's powerful enough to knock out scores of [[EliteMook Elite Mooks]], such as the Kuja warriors, who are already well-accustomed to the effects of the regular variety. And this was done by somebody who didn't even realize he ''had'' any sort of Haki. Currently, only 4 characters in the series are confirmed to possess this type of Haki, all of whom are leaders in some way: Luffy, Shanks, Boa Hancock, and Whitebeard.

** The Mizukage also scored pretty big, being able to use ''two'' unique types of ElementalPowers in addition to the three regular ones they were made from.

*** The real lottery winners are those with "Haōshoku Haki", or "King's Ambition"; only one in a million are born with it, and it's powerful enough to knock out scores of [[EliteMook Elite Mooks]], such as the Kuja warriors, who are already well-accustomed to the effects of the regular variety. Currently, only 4 characters in the series are confirmed to possess this type of Haki, all of whom are leaders in some way: Luffy, Shanks, Boa Hancock, and Whitebeard.

[[caption-width:330:Powers, from left to right: [[MadeOfIron tough]], [[BadassNormal badass]], PhysicalGod, [[CharlesAtlasSuperpower training]] and [[CrimefightingWithCash money]].]]