History Main / ThisLooksLikeAJobForAquaman

** While the Explosher has long range and terrific ground-inking capabilities, it is weakened by its slow firing speed and high ink consumption, and there's little utility to its rounds being able to pass through players in online multiplayer battles. However, this lets it damage lots of [[ZergRush massed]] [[{{Mooks}} Lesser Salmonids]] in a single throw, but its greatest talent lies in making quick work of [[DemonicSpiders Flyfish]]. Normally, players must [[InsertGrenadeHere toss a Splat Bomb into both of their missile pods]] to defeat them, which can be thwarted by other Salmonids throwing off players' aim, and always takes more than a full tank of ink to accomplish. However, the Explosher's rounds can directly demolish them both in seconds, and with a fraction of the ink consumption. Come ''VideoGame/Splatoon3'', and they can also directly [[FeedItABomb give a Mudmouth severe indigestion]] in a similar fashion, with its shots piercing through the Lesser Salmonids that they [[MookMaker barf up]].

** Rollers are capable of running into opponents to instantly flatten them[[note]], except for the Carbon Roller[[/note]], but a competent player can easily backpedal while firing at the roller-wielder, making this maneuver very hard to pull off, and often not worth the trouble. However, Salmonids don't think to do that, and thus rollers become an effective tool for mopping up Lesser Salmonids. Of particular note is the Dynamo Roller, whose rolling speed is the slowest of all, making it very hard to squish a player while rolling. However, it's the only kind of roller that can bowl over a [[GiantMook Cohock]] in one hit, and can quickly make mincemeat of [[MetalSlime Goldies]].

* In ''VideoGame/Splatoon2'''s [[MultiMookMelee Salmon]] [[TimedMission Run]] mode, the Explosher weapon is ill-suited to most aspects therein, owing to its slow firing speed and high ink consumption, except when it comes to taking down [[DemonicSpiders Flyfish]]. Normally, players must [[InsertGrenadeHere toss a Splat Bomb into both of their missile pods]] to take them down, which can be thwarted by bad aim and always consumes more than half of a player's ink tank. However, the Explosher's rounds can directly demolish them both in seconds, and with a fraction of the ink consumption. Come ''VideoGame/Splatoon3'', and they can also directly [[FeedItABomb give a Mudmouth severe indigestion]], in a similar fashion.

** Picture this; Zacian-Crowned, the strongest Pokémon introduces in ''Sword and Shield'' thus far. So powerful was this monster that until it was banned the unholy realm of Anything Goes (Mega Rayquaza's domain of all places). It has a grand total of ''one'' reliable counter, and that total has not increased with the National Dex version of Anything Goes. That Pokémon? Unaware Quagsire. Berserker Blade is ''at best'' a five-hit-KO and Play Rough is three or four. Both these moves have low PP, and Quagsire can easily outlast them with Recover. It also gets STAB on Earthquake, and thanks to Unaware, Zacian cannot even power up to break through. Quagsire currently resides in PU, but during Zacian's time in Ubers, Quagsire was solidly Underused, three tiers above where it is, solely through the usage it got for being the only thing to stop the monster that was Zacian-Crowned.

** [[https://bulbapedia.bulbagarden.net/wiki/Heatmor_(Dark_Explorers_19) Heatmor (Dark Explorers)]], who has one attack, Hot Lick, that does a measly 10 damage but does 60 damage if the target is Durant--and was released at a time the [[https://bulbapedia.bulbagarden.net/wiki/Durant_Mill_(TCG) Durant Mill]] deck was making short work of most other decks. In particular, Hot Lick needs only 1 Energy of any type to use allowing Heatmor to fit into any deck, including other Durant Mill decks.

* ''WebVideo/SolidJJ'': Parodied in "Classic Aquaman", where the Justice League sounded the alarm to enlist his help... unclogging the toilet. [[DudeWheresMyRespect He was not at all pleased]].

** While Namor the Submariner from their RoguesGallery had ''some'' useful abilities on land (flight and super strength), he generally needed to spend some time in the water to keep them optimal. In one early comic where Characters/DoctorDoom teamed up with him to try to eliminate the Fantastic Four, only to betray him along with them (since Doctor Doom wanted no super-powered competition from the Submariner either), Namor was only able to power up enough to pull everyone's fat out of the fire because the Fantastic Four happened to have a big tank of water handy in their building for him.

* In the ''VideoGame/TouhouProject'' series, [[VideoGame/TouhouKoumakyouTheEmbodimentOfScarletDevil Flandre Scarlet]] doesn't really get to use her ability to destroy anything and everything much as such an ability is [[InverseLawOfUtilityAndLethality useless in Spell Card Duels]]. However, come ''VideoGame/TouhouGouyokuIbunSunkenFossilWorld'', [[spoiler:Due to Yuuma Toutetsu's ability to absorb enemies' attacks being countered by the nature of Flan's ability, and Flan's childish mind meaning Yuuma cannot talk her out of fighting, this makes Flandre the perfect counter to Yuuma, and this is likely why Okina sent Flandre to go fight Yuuma in the first place.]]

* ''WebVideo/TwitchPlaysPokemonRed'': All Terrain Venemoth was the lowest-level of Red's endgame team, but it proved vital to one defeat of Lance after all the other party members had fainted. The Dragonite it was facing was far above its level, but the gen 1 AI has a quirk wherein AI pokemon will always use moves that are super-effective against your pokemon... even if these moves are harmless status buffs that just happen to have the right type. Lance's Dragonite knew Agility and Barrier, which are Psychic (super effective against Venemoth's Poison type) but deal no damage. Venemoth's moves did very little damage, but since the Dragonite wasn't attacking, it had all the time it needed to inflict DeathByAThousandCuts.

* ''Series/ThatMitchellAndWebbLook'' parodied this trope (as well as the TheyFightCrime one) with a series of sketches about superheroes [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sbzUfV3_JIA&NR=1 Angel Summoner and BMX Bandit]]. As [[ConversationalTroping discussed in each episode]], poor BMX Bandit's abilities are rather [[CripplingOverspecialization overspecialized]] and contrived (he tended to come up with complex plans that involved a lot of BMX tricks) in comparison with Angel Summoner (who would just [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin summon angels]] to resolve the issue).

* In ''VideoGame/CrashTeamRacing'', the "beginner" class of racers are [[TierInducedScrappy typically seen as worthless]] because their only strength, superior handling, comes at the cost of having low max speeds and actually makes it harder for them to get power slide turbo boosts which are ''the'' way to win races. However, they completely and utterly dominate Battle Mode owing to their ability to maneuver around opponents and dodge projectiles, and their low speed making it difficult to come up behind them and line up an attack without overtaking them. Even when playing Adventure mode you'll notice that, while you're struggling to win races and get even Sapphire Relics (where other racers can casually get a Gold with little problem) you'll be dominating the [[ThatOneLevel normally difficult]] Crystal levels with a solid 30 seconds to spare.

** Another "anti-X bonus damage" gimmick: At the release of the game, Rider Boudicca's anti-Roman bonus damage skill saw her relegated to the lowest tier of the metagame, as it applied to all of five Servants and no non-Servant enemies. [[TierInducedScrappy Some fan sites created a whole new bottom tier just for Boudicca]]. After two upgrades for herself and two alternates for Nero, she was ''still'' incredibly niche. What finally turned things around? The release of Romulus-Quirinus, who can turn enemies Roman.

* Ken in ''VideoGame/Persona3'' is usually considered a TierInducedScrappy due to his MasterOfNone tendencies. The last Tartarus guardian, the Jotun of Grief, is immune to everything but Pierce attacks, which makes him one of the better members for the fight.

** ''Film/{{Suicide Squad|2016}}''. Killer Croc is really good at swimming and fighting underwater. Unfortunately, almost all of the mission takes place on dry land. However, during the battle against the Enchantress's brother, the team needs an explosive device to be detonated in an underwater tunnel to blow up the brother. Killer Croc actually insists on participating in this task because he realizes how useful he will be during it. This is spoofed in ''WesternAnimation/TheLEGOBatmanMovie'' where Killer Croc's only role in the ActionPrologue is to press a single bomb's button underwater, after which he cheers: "I did something!"

** In ''VideoGame/LEGOBatman 2'', in certain areas, Joker-faced/Two-Face-faced/Riddler graffiti can only be removed by [[spoiler:... [[BrickJoke AQUAMAN]]]].
** ''VideoGame/LEGODimensions'' has many examples, including (naturally) Aquaman himself, who is the only character capable of summoning items from special pools, Chell (only person with an Aperture Science Portal Gun), Scooby-Doo (only character able to follow trails underwater), Cragger (only character able to use CHI-points underwater), ''Teen Titans Go'' Raven (only character able to open purple portals).

* Downplayed in ''WesternAnimation/HarleyQuinn2019'', as while Clayface's powers can be used in several instances, it's his disguise ability that has the most trouble as he tends to go LargeHam and blow his cover. However, the only person he can perfectly masquerade as is ComicBook/{{Aquaman}}, as both have hammy dialect and manages to perfectly fool two Atlantean guards.

* The parody of ''Series/KnightRider'' shown on ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'' (called Knight Boat, the ''crime solving boat''):

* In the ''VideoGame/TouhouProject'' series, [[VideoGame/TouhouKoumakyouTheEmbodimentOfScarletDevil Flandre Scarlet]] doesn't really get to use her ability to destroy anything and everything much as such an ability is [[InverseLawOfUtilityAndLethality useless in Spell Card Duels]]. However, come ''VideoGame/TouhouGouyokuIbunSuibotsuShitaChinshuuJigoku'', [[spoiler:Due to Yuuma Toutetsu's ability to absorb enemies' attacks being countered by the nature of Flan's ability, and Flan's childish mind meaning Yuuma cannot talk her out of fighting, this makes Flandre the perfect counter to Yuuma, and this is likely why Okina sent Flandre to go fight Yuuma in the first place.]]

** Sacrificial Pact is a no-cost Warlock spell that kills a Demon minion to restore 5 Health to your hero. While healing is a very useful thing to have on a class revolving around CastFromHitPoints, it was rarely used not only because it was generally a low-impact card that usually wasn't worthy of taking of a card slot, it was also too situational. Find a decent Demon minion to target it was hard as it was only worth using on your own weak token minions as there weren't good synergies to go with it (For reference, Dark Pact costs 1 Mana and was nerfed to healing only 4 Health, but still saw play for killing their own Deathrattle minions). Although you can target your opponent's Demons, Demons were seldom seen outside of Warlock mirror matches. ''Ashes of Outland'' introduced the game's first new hero class, the Demon Hunter, who were straight-up overpowered at launch and [[GameBreaker overwhelmed the meta]]. They were also the only other class to use Demons, and this made Sacrifical Pact ''the'' best answer to Demon Hunters. Though this didn't last, as it was nerfed to target only friendly Demons, but for that brief moment it was one of the best tech cards in the game.

* Sacrificial Pact is a no-cost Warlock spell that kills a Demon minion to restore 5 Health to your hero. While healing is a very useful thing to have on a class revolving around CastFromHitPoints, it was rarely used not only because it was generally a low-impact card that usually wasn't worthy of taking of a card slot, it was also too situational. Find a decent Demon minion to target it was hard as it was only worth using on your own weak token minions as there weren't good synergies to go with it (For reference, Dark Pact costs 1 Mana and was nerfed to healing only 4 Health, but still saw play for killing their own Deathrattle minions). Although you can target your opponent's Demons, Demons were seldom seen outside of Warlock mirror matches. ''Ashes of Outland'' introduced the game's first new hero class, the Demon Hunter, who were straight-up overpowered at launch and [[GameBreaker overwhelmed the meta]]. They were also the only other class to use Demons, and this made Sacrifical Pact ''the'' best answer to Demon Hunters. Though this didn't last, as it was nerfed to target only friendly Demons, but for that brief moment it was one of the best tech cards in the game.
* Bolf Ramshield is a Legendary minion from ''The Grand Tournament'' that has an effect which redirects any damage your hero takes towards himself. He is considered to be one of the worst Legendaries ever printed, as his effect makes him worse than a regular Taunt minion because the opponent's minions could just hit your hero to kill him without taking damage from trading into him, meaning his 3/9 body was more of a 0/9 in practice. He can tank direct damage to your hero from spells and such, but he was still hideously inefficient since he costs 6 Mana. 7 years later, a new card finally gave players a reason to use Bolf: The Jailer, who makes all your minions Immune for the rest of the game, meaning if your opponent doesn't have an indirect hard removal effect to kill Bolf, you were unkillable.[[note]]Though the much more useful Mal'Ganis can basically do the same thing, he costs 9 Mana and is Warlock-exclusive.[[/note]]

* ''VideoGame/{{Arknights}}'' has enough examples of this trope to warrant [[ThisLooksLikeAJobForAquaman/{{Arknights}} its own page]].

* In the spinoff crossover ''Anime/IsekaiQuartet'', Aqua shows exactly how dangerous she is to undead: with one cast of TurnUndead, a low-level spell, she makes [[InvincibleHero Ainz Ooal Gown]] shout in pain.

** Delcatty is a Pokemon that has ''very'' poor stats despite its diverse movepool. However, when it comes to Contests in ''Ruby & Sapphire'' and Super Contests in ''Diamond & Pearl'', it does very well. %%How exactly does it perform well in Contests?

%%** Delcatty is a Pokémon that has ''very'' poor stats despite its diverse movepool. However, when it comes to Contests in ''Ruby & Sapphire'' and Super Contests in ''Diamond & Pearl'', it does very well. %%How exactly does it perform well in Contests?

* {{Subverted|Trope}} in ''Series/RobinHood'' with the series' [[TheLoad Load]] Kate. Her occupation is that of a potter, but despite introducing an entire shelf full of hideous-looking pots, there never comes a time when she's given the opportunity to throw them at anyone (or in fact, when her ability to shape clay comes in handy at any point). Instead the writers give her arbitrary moments of usefulness that could have been just as easily achieved by [[TheSmurfettePrinciple any one of her fellow male outlaws]], most of which involved Kate finding the episode's MacGuffin.

** During [[VideoGame/PokemonXAndY Generation VI]], Aegislash was tearing through opposing teams all by itself, with very little that could counter it--but it was quickly put in check by, of all things, Diggersby, one of the region's early-game ComMons. Looking past its low stats reveals Huge Power, which lets it deal double physical damage; and looking past its weird Normal/Ground typing reveals that standard Aegislash moves, Ghost and Steel, cannot deal even neutral damage to Diggersby. This means Diggersby can withstand any attack Aegislash throws at it, then [[OneHitKill one-hit KO Aegislash]] with a well-timed Earthquake. It's even more so now that Aegislash got a {{Nerf}} in ''Pokémon Sword and Shield''...with Bunnelby, and by extension Diggersby, ''also'' being an early game Com Mon in Galar.

* ''LetsPlay/TwitchPlaysPokemonRed'': All Terrain Venemoth was the lowest-level of Red's endgame team, but it proved vital to one defeat of Lance after all the other party members had fainted. The Dragonite it was facing was far above its level, but the gen 1 AI has a quirk wherein AI pokemon will always use moves that are super-effective against your pokemon... even if these moves are harmless status buffs that just happen to have the right type. Lance's Dragonite knew Agility and Barrier, which are Psychic (super effective against Venemoth's Poison type) but deal no damage. Venemoth's moves did very little damage, but since the Dragonite wasn't attacking, it had all the time it needed to inflict DeathByAThousandCuts.

* In ''VideoGame/DiscoElysium'', one of the skills unlocked with the Thought Cabinet gives the Detective a +2 to hit targets wearing T-500 armor. It is an ultra specific, niche skill that won't be useful anywhere [[spoiler:until an important end-game encounter]].