History Main / WorfHadTheFlu

* ''WesternAnimation/DuckTales2017'': Scrooge has temporarily thrown out his back on a number of occasions when he needed to be sidelined so another character can save the day. The most noteworthy being the ''rumble for ragnarok'' episode where scrooge is sidelined for the majority of the episode so we can see the kids scramble to fill his shoes in preventing ragnarok.

This is the specific rationalization that a character suffering from TheWorfEffect or a CurbStompBattle did so only because something (artificially) undermined their performance. The insinuation, of course, is that it probably wouldn't have happened this way under "normal" circumstances. It may or may not be a fandom-based AuthorsSavingThrow.

* Spike's AttemptedRape of Series/{{Buffy|TheVampireSlayer}} in "[[Recap/BuffyTheVampireSlayerS6E19SeeingRed Seeing Red]]tr" only got as far as it did because a run-of-the-mill vampire had got a lucky shot in earlier (as she was staking him, no less). Both injuries carry over into Buffy's fight with a superpowered Warren - even with super-strength and near-invulnerability, he can tell she's off her game.

** Angel has a long history of losing fights with Slayers. Then, in the episode "[[Recap/AngelS04E14Release Release]]", he managed a narrow victory over Faith (after a wonderfully brutal fight). Not only was Faith still recovering from a severe beating the previous day at the hands of an indestructible demon, the very next episode it was revealed that at the start of her fight with Angel she had pumped herself full of magic heroin.

* In ''VideoGame/GoldenSun'', when the party faces Saturos on the roof of the Mercury Lighthouse, they are able to defeat him. However, it's revealed that because he's a Fire Adept, he's weakened by being on the Water-aligned lighthouse roof (strangely enough, although Water Adept Mia is able to recover her MP, Fire Adept Garet suffers no disadvantages). Saturos is stronger (and backed up by Menardi) when fought on the complementary Earth-aligned Venus Lighthouse.
** Something similar happens to their successors in ''The Lost Age''. When you fight Agatio and Karst at Jupiter Lighthouse, they're tired and worn down from their fight with Isaac's party, while Felix and co. are at full strength as they were healed by Alex shortly before the battle began. Karst even acknowledges this at one point, but later attempts to double-cross you and invoke YouHaveOutlivedYourUsefulness anyway.

* This usually happens on [[Franchise/{{Superman}} Superman]]’s part part whenever he fights [[Franchise/{{Batman}} Batman]]. For example, In Frank Miller’s [[ComicBook/BatmanTheDarkKnightReturns The Dark Knight Returns]], Superman was not only weakened by his age, as indicated early on in the story, plus being at ground zero of a nuke so powerful it caused a nuclear winter by itself just a few days before ''and'' said nuclear winter limiting the amount of sun rays he could receive, but he was also holding back because Batman is his friend. [[spoiler:This even gets confirmed in the sequel comics, where it’s revealed that Superman was indeed holding back all along and when Batman realizes this, he has a [[OhCrap most appropriate reaction]].]]

* In the big [[Franchise/TheDCU DC]] vs Franchise/{{Marvel|Universe}} crossover, one fight that attracted particular opprobrium from fans was SelfDemonstrating/{{Lobo}}--a character who can go toe-to-toe with Franchise/{{Superman}} and at the time [[FromASingleCell could regenerate from a single drop of blood]]--losing to Comicbook/{{Wolverine}} (who at the time didn't even have his adamantium skeleton, though his healing factor ''was'' significantly boosted as a result). This was explicitly down to PopularityPower--the results were voted on by fans--but the match-up was so uneven the writers had to have Wolverine's victory take place off-panel. A little while later Lobo mentioned that he'd actually been bribed by "some bald guy" (Professor X? Lex Luthor?) to take a dive in the fight.
* One of the more famous events in the history of the Comicbook/XMen is the battle for leadership of the team between ComicBook/{{Cyclops}} and Comicbook/{{Storm}} - who at the time had no powers. Storm won by stealing Cyclops' [[PowerIncontinence visor]]. Without the control of the visor, any attempt to continue fighting would've run the risk of killing Storm (or any of the audience), so he gave up. Several years later, Cyclops' ex-wife Madelyne Pryor announced that she'd used her psychic powers to ''make'' Cyclops lose. This is a relatively easy {{Retcon}} since Cyclops spent much of the fight distracted by a major argument he and Madelyne had just been having, so to say he didn't exactly have his mind on the battle was very easy to change into a result of Madelyne's direct influence.

* In the very first crossover between ''Superman'' and ''Spider-Man'', Spidey initially holds his own because ComicBook/LexLuthor and Doc Ock had unknowingly (to him) sprayed him with a blast of Red Sun Radiation. Superman is about to use a full powered punch when he realises that the impact would subject Spider-Man to the ChunkySalsaRule and stops it short, the sheer blast of the punch knocking Spider-Man through several buildings ([[SuperWindowJump through their windows]].) Spidey gets angry and charges Superman, only to have the Red Sun Radiation wear off just as he lands his first blow. As he puts it a couple of panels later:

** In the SpiritualSuccessor to this team-up, ''Franchise/{{Batman}} vs. [[ComicBook/IncredibleHulk The Hulk]]'', this trope is only enforced through FridgeLogic, as Batman 'wins' their first encounter through judicious use of his utility belt's knockout gas capsules. His ploy when the Hulk simply ''holds his breath'' is to kick him in the solar plexus, only working (as the narrative captions would have it) because the Hulk is so surprised at the ''fact'' of the blow rather then any physical pain and is forced to inhale the gas. Notably, when Batman [[ItOnlyWorksOnce tries this trick again]], [[SoLastSeason it fails]], as the Hulk just waves the gas away with his hands.

* [[Comicbook/FantasticFour "It was just a Doombot."]] [[RetCon Really!]].
** ComicBook/SquirrelGirl's defeat of ComicBook/{{Thanos}} had Uatu present to confirm that "that is, in fact, the one true Thanos, and not a robot, clone or simulacrum". Then it was later established that Thanos can make duplicates of himself perfect enough to fool the Watcher. ([[FridgeLogic Which brings up the question of what's the difference between beating Thanos and beating a perfect copy of Thanos]].)
*** ...and then she beat him ''[[RunningGag again!]]''

* When ComicBook/{{Supergirl}} first returned in 2004, she was shown outperforming Franchise/{{Superman}} to the point where it was speculated that she might actually be more powerful. It turned out, this was meant to show that Superman [[LetsGetDangerous had been holding himself back]] all these years out of fear of causing death or destruction (which Supergirl in fact does in the early issues because she [[DoesNotKnowHisOwnStrength doesn't know her own strength]].)

** In one [[UsefulNotes/TheBronzeAgeOfComicBooks Bronze Age]] story, Superman starts having DoesNotKnowHisOwnStrength moments, and fears his powers are growing beyond his ability to control. In fact, the reverse is true: the [[PowersAsPrograms Parasite]] is slowly ''draining'' his powers, but he made a point of first draining Supey's sense of self-control that normally keeps them in check. Since he was no longer pulling his punches, they seemed ''more'' powerful even though his baseline strength was actually ''dropping.'' By the time he figured it out, the Parasite had already drained a good chunk of his energy.

* An issue of Comicbook/NewAvengers had Wrecker narrating a fight between the titular team and ComicBook/TheHood's crime syndicate, explaining that he wouldn't have lost to ComicBook/{{Luke Cage|HeroForHire}}, who is significantly weaker, if Doctor Strange hadn't confused him with his magic.

* [[ComicBook/RachelSummers Rachel Grey aka Marvel Girl]] of the ComicBook/XMen was the host of the Phoenix Force for a long while. Her relatively weaker power compared to her mother's stint as the Phoenix's host was due to Rachel actively suppressing the Phoenix's power. She mentioned at one point that she only allowed the Phoenix to use at most ''one percent'' of its power.

** During the Makaiju[=/=]Doom Tree FillerArc of ''Sailor Moon R'' Usagi watches in horror as her Moon Tiara Action attack powers down in mid-flight, leaving her a crying confused mess when the other Senshi come to the rescue. When a subsequent battle not only has this happen again, but also destroys her original brooch and strands her and Luna in another dimension, Usagi comes to realize the reason of this happening is because her head wasn't in the game: she didn't ''want'' to be Sailor Moon anymore and, because of it, [[PsychosomaticPowerOutage it was affecting her powers]]. It takes a pep-talk with the spirit of Queen Serenity and a new brooch to get her back in the game.

* ''Manga/{{Mahou Sensei Negima}}'': Specially common when the 3-A non-combatant/non-magical girls have to be portraited as "dangerous" to more powerfull characters. Negi is an horrible victim of that when his students {{Took A Level In Jerkass}}.

* ''Franchise/DragonBall''

* Prior to his first battle with Mukuro, Hibari from ''Manga/KatekyoHitmanReborn'' literally had been injected with a flu, causing him to get [[CurbStompBattle curb-stomped]] despite being at least Mukuro's equal in fighting prowess.

* ''Anime/DigimonSavers'': In one episode, one of Masaru's punches breaks [=SaberLeomon's=] tooth. This wouldn't be out of character for him except that an earlier attempt to punch [=SaberLeomon=] had significantly less effect, and prior to the second attempt [=SaberLeomon=] had just taken a [[KilledOffForReal Gizumon blast]], severely weakening him to the point when an Ultimate level Digimon could blow him up.

* In ''Manga/TegamiBachi'', during the infiltration of Honey Waters, Niche drinks some of the poisonous water that is the village's namesake. It doesn't take effect immediately, but when the villagers pin down Lag and Connor, Niche is only able to defeat Lag's attackers before being paralyzed from the poison, resulting in her and Connor being captured and Lag barely escaping.

* ''Anime/SailorMoon ''

* Given the power levels of many ''VideoGame/{{Touhou}}'' characters this trope is used by many fans to explain the defeat of certain characters, since everyone in Gensokyo is battling under the Spellcard system, and if they weren't HoldingBackThePhlebotinum, the fighting between magicians, time-stopper, ancient vampires, embodiments of death and afterlife, immortals, wielder of '''NUCLEAR POWER''', and assortments of gods would have wiped Gensokyo off the map.

** In college football, a famous recent example would Colt [=McCoy=] at his last Rose Bowl Game. The momentum of the entire game reversed suddenly - all because [=McCoy=] got tackled by a nearly 400-pound man early in the game, taking him out of the game. It wasn't even an especially brutal hit, but the physics somehow left his arm with no sensation whatsoever. He didn't feel any pain and his arm hadn't suffered serious injury, but he couldn't feel the football contacting his palm and fingers and thus couldn't make accurate throws. Truly a bizarre moment in sports as a QB had never before been knocked out of an entire Super Bowl or BCS Title game before, much less on such an unusual injury.

* [[Wrestling/JillianHall Macaela Mercedes]] had a less than decisive victory over [[Wrestling/BethPhoenix Phoenix]] for the Glory Championship trophy in The Apocalypse Wrestling Federation, as she hadn't gotten over the flu (she avoided being pinned, did not submit and was awarded the trophy by decision after the match became a stalemate). This later lead a ''healthy'' Macaela Mercedes to become unusually aggressive in an effort to prove she deserved it.

* In ''Manga/MyHeroAcademia'', Midoriya, Iida, and Todoroki were able to win against HeroKiller Stain (an S-ranked villain) partially because his fighting style and [[TheParalyzer Quirk]] are best suited to ambushes and one-on-one fights and partially because he was suffering a VillainousBreakdown the entire fight (his BlackAndWhiteInsanity did ''not'' lend itself well to people admitting VillainHadAPoint). The end of the fight also reveals that Iida's opening kick broke a rib.

-->'''Spiderman''': Oboy. Oboy. I think I just broke my hands...

* There is a case to be made for this for Thor in ''Film/AvengersEndgame''. Thanos beats Thor in round 3 of their fight (the first two coming in ''Film/AvengersInfinityWar''). However, Thor isn't the chiseled fighter he usually was and while he obviously retains most if not all of his physical strength, he hasn't done any fighting for five years, whereas Thanos is at the peak of his abilities.
** That ''is'' the case with him. If Thor was at his peak, he would have demolished Thanos and his forces like he did previously in Infinity War's climax....[[spoiler:And Tony Stark wouldn't have needed to make his noble sacrifice.]]

* When ComicBook/{{Supergirl}} first returned in 2004, she was shown outperforming Franchise/{{Superman}} to the point where it was speculated that she might actually be more powerful. It turned out, this was meant to show that Superman [[WorldOfCardboardSpeech had been holding himself back]] all these years out of fear of causing death or destruction (which Supergirl in fact does in the early issues because she [[DoesNotKnowHisOwnStrength doesn't know her own strength]].)

* There are fan theories that state that the reason Superman was so weak in the first season of ''WesternAnimation/JusticeLeague'' is because he was still recovering from [[WesternAnimation/SupermanTheAnimatedSeries the war with Apokolips]]. Of course, the same series is the {{Trope Namer|s}} for WorldOfCardboardSpeech.

** Spider-Man's sense of responsibility compels him to fight the villain of the month while impaired countless times, he's done it while sick, (that one in particular happens a lot [[WhatAnIdiot due to Peter's tendency to swing around New York in Spandex in WINTER)]] with a sprained arm, while he's lost his powers for the 20th time... Basically, Spidey falls under this trope [[PunctuatedForEmphasis All. The. Time.]]

** Explicitly called out with regards to Lancer in the ''Unlimited Blade Works'' route. In all routes, he ties with Archer and loses to Saber; in Fate and Heaven's Feel, he doesn't get many more scenes after that, but when he and Archer fight again in ''Unlimited Blade Works'' he easily defeats Archer, having explained that he'd been [[TheUriahGambit ordered to lose]] the previous two fights, and Archer only survives because Lancer figures out what he's doing and chooses not to kill him.

** In all routes, Saber starts out being improperly summoned by someone who can barely use magic, so she has an incomplete connection to his mana and therefore has to recharge herself very often with large amounts of sleep and food, even if she uses only a little bit of her power. This is exacerbated by the fact that she took a cursed, slow-healing stab close to the heart soon after being summoned. It also doesn't help that, due to worries that Shirou's lack of mage skill would leave him open to mind magics, she doesn't let him know her true identity and holds off on using her Noble Phantasm even more than any other Servant. And of course, her Master being unwilling to risk her life if he can avoid it and being unwilling to fight as ruthlessly as possible is a pretty hefty handicap for a Servant of the Grail War as well, even though she herself isn't really all that much more ruthless than he is (especially compared to all the non Rin and [[spoiler: Good Sakura]] Masters). The other Servants aren't pushovers by any stretch of the word, but as the two times she got a competent mage as a master showed, there is a REASON she's considered the strongest class. And even when she ''does'' get a competent Master, she still technically has the Flu because she never has access to her final and strongest Noble Phantasm [[spoiler:that gives her a HealingFactor and effective CompleteImmorality]] except, ironically, [[spoiler:when she's still with Shirou.]]

** And the ''other'' Archer [[spoiler: Gilgamesh]], is the most powerful character by ''far'', and could stomp just about anyone, thanks to being [[spoiler:the first and oldest hero in a 'verse where OlderIsBetter]]. Unfortunately, his ego is so unfathomably massive that he refuses to fight seriously, or even bother to ''fight'' much at all, he just stands around while using his [[spoiler: Gate Of Babylon]] to [[StormOfBlades sword-spam]] things into nonexistence. He dies every route due to underestimating his enemies and getting manhandled because of it.

** And speaking of Tex, the second-to-last episode of the ''Recollection'' trilogy reveals that the reason she never came through in the clutch despite being the strongest fighter on the heroes' side is that [[spoiler: She's an A.I. fragment based off the Director's memories of his wife Allison. Allison died in combat, so what the Director remembers most clearly about her is her ''failure'', and that carries over to Tex]], so she's essentially cursed to fail at the last minute, no matter how badass she is before.

* And speaking of Tex, the second-to-last episode of the ''Recollection'' trilogy reveals that the reason she never came through in the clutch despite being the strongest fighter on the heroes' side is that [[spoiler: She's an A.I. fragment based off the Director's memories of his wife Allison. Allison died in combat, so what the Director remembers most clearly about her is her ''failure'', and that carries over to Tex]], so she's essentially cursed to fail at the last minute, no matter how badass she is before.

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* In the second-to-last episode of ''Machinima/RedVsBlue'': ''Revelation'', it's revealed that Tex is destined to always fail at the last moment, because [[spoiler:she's based on the memory of the Director's lost love who died in combat, and the trauma of her death is an integral part of how the Director remembers her]]. This explains how, throughout the series, Tex always managed to get captured, killed, or knocked-out at a critical moment despite being the strongest character in the series.

* In ''[[https://www.fanfiction.net/s/11972895/1/The-God-of-Destruction-comes-to-Remnant The God of Destruction Comes to Remnant]]'', Velvet Scarlatina and Coco Adel get beaten up by thugs and nearly raped until they get rescued. Several chapters later, the thugs' leader, Cobalt Yashi, explains that he had been stalking the two for a while and had a telepath underling of his secretly mess with their minds for weeks to dull their reflexes, make them prone to mistakes, etc until they would be weak enough to capture.

** Casca actually loses and needs rescuing from her first battle with Adon Corbowitz. While tending to her Guts notes blood between her thighs and comments to himself how it must be hard for a woman mercenary. The next time she and Adon meet, during the Battle of Doldrey, the beatdown goes the other way, and Adon does not survive.

A type of fandom-based AuthorsSavingThrow, this is the specific rationalization that a character suffering from TheWorfEffect or a CurbStompBattle did so only because something (artificially) undermined their performance. The insinuation, of course, is that it probably wouldn't have happened this way under "normal" circumstances.

* At the end of ''VideoGame/DevilMayCry5'', [[spoiler:Despite having reached levels of power that surpass nearly ''anything'' from previous games, Vergil is weakened and exhausted from his DuelToTheDeath with the similarly powered-up Dante, and despite his bravado is easy pickings for Nero despite having a massive advantage over the younger Devil Hunter in experience and power even with Nero unlocking his own proper [[SuperMode Devil Trigger]]]].