Line #180 Main/PowerfulButIncompetent


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3	%% The examples have been alphabetized. Please put any new example in its proper place in the folder rather than at the end.
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6	->'''Gohan:''' Wait, what is he doing?\
7	'''Piccolo:''' Well, this ''is'' your father, so he's either saving all our lives or dooming us all.
8	-->-- ''WebVideo/DragonBallZAbridged''
9
10	This character is the local winner of the SuperpowerLottery -- either the WorldsStrongestMan or damn close to it. They have enough power to be able to succeed or accomplish almost anything...
11
12	...if they weren't a [[FailureHero complete and utter moron]].
13
14	Capable of using {{Flight}} to go anywhere they want? Doesn't matter, because they [[NoSenseOfDirection get lost easily]]. Can shrug off most attacks or weapons with their SuperToughness? Irrelevant because [[MinorInjuryOverreaction any tiny injury]] will make them panic and cry. Able to chase anyone down with their SuperSpeed? Too bad that [[AttentionDeficitOohShiny they get distracted too easily.]] And this all assumes they even ''know'' what powers they have; ForgotAboutHisPowers is the ''norm'' for this guy.
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16	The best way to think of this trope is not as a ''character'' trope, but a ''narrative'' trope [[IndexFailure about failure]]. While it can overlap with UnskilledButStrong or DumbMuscle, it's not quite the same. Those archetypes can still ''win'' if they hit hard enough that their relative lack of skill or planning doesn't matter. At the very least, their allies or teammates can help use traps or strategies that enable them to unleash their massive power at the best time.
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18	The character described by ''this'' trope, however, is so incompetent that people weaker than them are either more reliable teammates or regularly defeat these idiots with little trouble. Planning or help from others often won't work either, because this idiot [[SpannerInTheWorks will find some way to fail even the most basic role]]. They may also be LethallyStupid, and thus almost as much of a danger to their allies as the enemy is. In anyone else's hands, their abilities would be a StoryBreakerPower... but for better or worse, in this character's hands, they might as well be stage tricks.
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20	Merely being IncompletelyTrained, having an WeaksauceWeakness or [[AlwaysSomeoneBetter losing ONE fight to someone better]] is not this trope. This character fails ''despite'' their amount of training, or their flaws make them impossible to train in the first place. Other characters with the same weaknesses have either overcome them or at the very least learned to work around them. Their losses and failures are [[EpicFail total embarrassments]] that someone of their power or level ''should'' have been able to handle. Failure has to be the ''norm'' for this character, or so common that no matter how skilled or powerful they become, the outcome is never certain.
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22	'''NOTE: To qualify as this trope, the example ''MUST'' explain how stupidity either negatively-affects the use of the character's powers or negatively-affects the outcomes of their usual battles/missions.'''
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24	Compare IdiotHero and BrainsVersusBrawn, with the trope referring to the "Brawn" side, as well as AlmightyIdiot for cases where the power is godlike but the foolishness below human levels. Also compare and contrast the AlmightyJanitor. Compare SuperWeaponAverageJoe, for when the user is weak and incompetent, but their ''weapon'' is mighty. May overlap with IneptMage, whose spells and abilities tend to backfire due to incompetence. Also see PowerIncontinence, when someone doesn't know how to turn their powers on or off. Contrast HeartIsAnAwesomePower. A potential consequence of GivingTheSwordToANoob.
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26	One way it's demonstrated that it's mere incompetence holding a character back is when an AlternateSelf is [[AlternateUniverseReedRichardsIsAwesome just that much better]].
27
28	[[JustForFun/IThoughtItMeant Do not confuse with]] PowerfulButInaccurate. The exact polar inverse is InvincibleIncompetent.
29
30	----
31	!!Examples:
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33	[[foldercontrol]]
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35	[[folder:Anime & Manga]]
36	* ''Manga/{{Berserk}}'': General Adon Coborlwitz of the Tudor Empire fancies himself the greatest military genius of the hundred year war, and despite his delusions of grandeur he technically has the means to succeed on the battlefield. He can cut down two armored men at once with his impressive strength, and leads strong troops including a BigLittleBrother with an EpicFlail. The problem is that his foolish overconfidence always makes him reckless until he realizes he’s bitten off more than he can chew, at which point he resorts to WeHaveReserves and abandons his soldiers like a DirtyCoward, thus earning no respect from anybody. When he has the gall to report back alive after getting his whole unit killed in an attempt to get revenge on Guts, General Boscogn relieves Adon of his command and relegates him to garrison duty at Doldrey so he can’t mess anything else up...and then he manages to mess that up too!
37	* ''Manga/{{Bleach}}'': Yammy Llargo is Espada #10, which makes him the 10th strongest of the entire Hollow species. However, Yammy is TheBrute and is exceptionally moronic and short-tempered. When faced with enemies close to his power level, he inevitably takes a beating. [[spoiler:It's later revealed that he's actually ''Espada #0'', which means he's actually the ''strongest'' of all the Hollow... but only in terms of raw spiritual energy. Yammy's ability, "Ira", allows him to [[HulkingOut get stronger as he gets angrier]]... but ''that's all''. He's still all brute force, and he's still an idiot, which leads to him getting trounced so badly even in his strongest form that one of the Court Guard Captains who defeated him, Kenpachi, considered the fight to be "boring as hell". While the other Espada manage to defeat or at least fight on-par with Ichigo and other Captains, the only victories Yammy manages to claim are on people much, ''much'' weaker than himself or suffering some sort of handicap, with anyone on an equal scale basically treating him as a ButtMonkey.]]
38	* ''Manga/BungoStrayDogs'': Akutagawa struggles with this, which is Lampshaded frequently. His Ability, Rashomon, enables him to manifest a sort of monster in the clothes he wears, enabling him to create [[AbsurdlySharpBlade razor-sharp]] CombatTentacles, armor and even ''swallow space''. Unfortunately, he has a one-track mind and isn't particularly creative, severely limiting the effectiveness of his powers as he is unable to come up with more effective uses for them and tends to become extremely AxCrazy. However, he learns to be more inventive over time.
39	* ''Anime/CardfightVanguard'': Katsumi Morikawa is one of the most skilled Vanguard fighters in the series, able to give [[TheHero Aichi Sendou]], the current Asian Continental Champion, a hard time. Problem is, that's only when you give him a balanced deck. He's so fixated on Grade 3's that if left to build his own deck, he'll fill it with so many Grade 3's that it's useless.
40	* ''Manga/DarwinsGame'': Wang is certainly not an idiot. He figured out the real purpose of the Treasure Hunt event shortly after Kaname did. His [[StupidEvil petty sadism]], delusions that ''he'' is the "hero" of Darwin's Game, and the fact he never faced anyone on his level before negate his intelligence and [[SpaceMaster powerful sigil]]. [[spoiler:He kills a hostage, destroying all his leverage, just to hurt Kaname. All it does is cause Kaname to [[GainingTheWillToKill realize]] that some people [[ViolenceReallyIsTheAnswer can't be reasoned with and need to be killed]]. He always uses the same move in his fights so Shuka easily counters him. When Shuka is about to kill him, he teleports himself 100 meters into the air. He was only ever able to teleport himself 10 meters before, implying that his sigil is far more powerful than he thought. He only realizes his mistakes as he is being disintegrated for losing the clan battle.]]
41	* ''Literature/DemonLordRetry'': Luna is the most powerful character in the entire Kingdom of Holy Light (aside from Kunai and his aides, of course). Even amongst the Holy Maidens, she has the most destructive magical power and is noted to have seemingly endless potential for growth. However, being the hot-tempered idiot she is, she usually fails to utilize her magic and abilities properly, leading her to be defeated by enemies even her ostensibly "weaker" sisters could manage.
42	* ''Manga/DemonSlayerKimetsuNoYaiba'': Upper Moon 5 Gyokko is able to teleport, and his Blood Demon Art can unleash devastating sea-themed attacks from his various pots. And then there's his extremely broken "[[OneWingedAngel true form]]" which gives him immense speed and flexibility, scales as hard as diamonds, and the ability to transmute anything he touches into fish. Personality-wise however, he's an arrogant braggart who has a habit of underestimating his opponents. In addition, doing anything that [[BerserkButton hurts his ego]] [[MadArtist as an artist]] makes him completely lose his composure. [[spoiler:These traits allow him to be easily and comically defeated by an enhanced Muichiro Tokito.]]
43	* ''Manga/DragonBall'': Upon his debut, Gotenks was one of the most powerful fighters in the setting, being able to take on Super Buu with multiple tricks at his disposal and was able to reach Super Saiyan 3 with little effort. However, he's a fusion of two hot-headed children, and as such is often reckless, overconfident, and at times downright dumb, so for all his amazing power he can't be relied on at all. In ''Super'', this trait causes Goku to disqualify him as a potential Tournament of Power competitor, since he's just as likely to be a liability as an asset.
44	* ''Manga/FullmetalAlchemist'': Three homunculi qualify.
45	** Envy is an near-immortal homunculus with the unique power of shapeshifting, though the usefulness of this ability is hampered by their numerous flaws. Envy is easily provoked and extremely impulsive, which others will take advantage of to defeat them, but sometimes Envy will just screw themself over. Their drive to [[KickTheDog kick any and every dog they find]] causes them to make ''very'' bad decisions as they'll go out of their way to upset someone even if it's an obviously terrible idea. This officially places them in the TooDumbToLive category when they [[spoiler:fight Mustang after having ''forgotten'' he burned Lust to death. They use their OneWingedAngel form to fight, not realizing that makes them an easier target and intentionally provoke him into a RoaringRampageOfRevenge beforehand. Their only trick left at that point is a ShapeshifterGuiltTrip, and they have absolutely no fallback when it fails and just makes him even angrier]]. Needless to say, things do not go well.
46	** Like Envy, Gluttony is a near-immortal homunculus who can easily overpower most human characters with his massive bulk; and [[BewareTheSillyOnes when he gets angry]], [[OneWingedAngel he can turn his jaw and ribcage into a fake Portal of Truth]] which can teleport anything and anyone in his way into a dimension between reality and Truth, from Mustang's extremely powerful flame alchemy, to [[spoiler:other homunculi, as he accidentally swallows Envy.]] However, he's very childish and dim-witted, and although agile, he's also a rather sluggish fighter. As a result, he's usually takes a [[GoodThingYouCanHeal lot of abuse when fighting characters]] to the point where he almost dies from exhausting his regenerative abilities.
47	** Possibly the biggest offender is Sloth. He is also a near-immortal homunculus, although he's shown to be significantly stronger physically. He takes the appearance of a colossal muscular behemoth, and his skin is so tough that he's impervious to bullets, thus it takes a significant amount of effort to even damage him. Oh yeah, he's also [[spoiler:the self-proclaimed fastest homunculus, and can move so fast, that he can't be traced by the human eye.]] However, true to his sin, he is extremely lazy and sluggish, thus wasting his potential strength and making him a very poor fighter. [[spoiler:In addition, he can't even use his immense speed properly, and he's so uncoordinated that he ends up randomly dashing into walls.]]
48	* ''Manga/JoJosBizarreAdventure'':
49	** Certain Stand Users with extremely powerful abilities have very little in the brains or cleverness department--which is a major problem for their users, as Stand combat relies a lot on {{Semantic Superpower}}s and lateral thinking, and as soon as your opponent figures out your gimmick, that's usually curtains unless you can come up with a new one on the spot or counter by figuring out said opponents' own gimmicks.
50	** ''Manga/JojosBizarreAdventureStardustCrusaders'': In contrast to most of the other MonsterOfTheWeek Stand-users in the part, Rubber Soul has a terrifyingly powerful ability in the form of Yellow Temperance: a shapeshifting BlobMonster that can expand in size by consuming organic material, take on virtually any form and color, and surround the user to serve as a shield. It's impervious to blunt force or slashing, can't be burned or frozen, and its shapeshifting means it can also serve as a perfect disguise for the user. All told, it's not for nothing that Rubber Soul brags about being invincible. Fortunately, the Stand does have one weakness: Rubber Soul himself. Not only does Rubber Soul [[PerfectDisguiseTerribleActing put no effort into the "disguise" part of the Stand]], such that Jotaro figures out he's a fake within minutes, but he's also so swollen with ego that he passes up countless opportunities to kill Jotaro in favor of [[VillainBall random acts of violence and sadistic playing with his food]]. Ultimately, Jotaro defeats him by luring him over a drop into a nearby bay--as it turns out, his Stand can't protect him from drowning.
51	** ''Manga/JojosBizarreAdventureDiamondIsUnbreakable'' has The Hand, a Stand with a speed and physical strength that's almost on par with Star Platinum, and has the ability to erase space just by swinging his right hand. This bestows its user with short-range teleportation, and allows him to not only to NoSell any attack aimed at him he can hit in time, but also erase anyone and anything from existence. The problem is that its user, Okuyasu, is, for lack of a better word, a HotBlooded [[DumbMuscle dimwit]] who often [[AttackAttackAttack acts first before thinking through]], and is also just too nice to make full use of his power, since it would be extremely lethal. Okuyasu himself admits that he's not that bright.
52	** Ungalo, of ''Manga/JojosBizarreAdventureStoneOcean'', is practically the pinnacle of this in the franchise. Ungalo's Stand is Bohemian Rhapsody, which lets him [[ArtImitatesLife bring characters to life.]] As in, any character, anywhere, created by anybody, as long as they exist in some kind of visual medium. These characters have all the abilities they did in their original stories, with the added benefits of being able to draw people that empathize with them into their stories and reenact their events. The power has infinite range and no clear limitations, and would enable just about any person able to think about the power for more than five minutes to do just about anything with it. However, it ''also'' happens to be in the hands of Ungalo, an AddledAddict and LazyBum who has no interest in using the power to actually do anything creative. The only use he can come up with is to activate the power worldwide while he's on a plane flight and [[PowersDoTheFighting hope that the resulting chaos kills the main characters while he never so much as sees them]]. Because he has no control or care for how to use the power, he ultimately gets defeated by ''himself'' when Weather Report (with the help of a painting of Vincent van Gogh) creates the character Put Back, whose power is to negate Bohemian Rhapsody.
53	* ''Literature/KonoSuba'': Each of the three main heroines fall under this trope:
54	** Aqua is a water goddess with the power to cleanse impurities from any source of water and OneHitKill all but the most powerful undead creatures. However, she is not only a complete idiot, but her ability to "cleanse" water is actually more of a hindrance in most cases. For example, if she makes contact with a beverage, potion, or even ''hot spring'', her powers will "cleanse" the foreign elements and turn whatever the useful item was back into normal water.
55	** Darkness is a warrior with extremely high defense and resistances... but absolutely ''[[StoneWall NO attack accuracy whatsoever]]''. This means that even attacks from ''Demon Generals'' have a hard time scratching her, but she'll also never do any damage because her attacks all miss. On top of this, Darkness is a [[InterplayOfSexAndViolence masochist]] who ''enjoys'' being hurt, meaning she will be overcome with pleasure while being attacked, often rendering her useless even as a damage sponge/distraction.
56	** Megumin is an extremely powerful mage whose crowning achievement is Explosion -- a FantasticNuke that can destroy anything within several square kilometers of the impact. The problem is, she has specced her growth into ''only'' making the flashiest, most powerful Explosion she can. She has no other spells, no other abilities, and only enough MP to cast ONE Explosion. Running out of MP in ''Konosuba'' means that the spellcaster loses total control of their body and is completely defenseless until it regenerates. Because of this, she is absolutely useless as a mage most of the time.
57	* ''Manga/OnePiece'': Some characters possess Devil Fruit powers or other abilities that on paper, would make them some of the most powerful individuals in the setting. Problem is, a lot of them have personality traits or flaws that make them too stupid, uncreative, lazy, or arrogant to figure out how to utilize their powers in effective ways, which allow their opponents to defeat them with relative ease. A noteworthy example is Kurozumi Orochi, who has a Mythic Zoan that allows him to turn into [[{{Orochi}} the legendary eight-headed serpent he's named after]], but is so [[DirtyCoward cowardly]] and inept at fighting that he ends up as a NonActionBigBad of the Wano Arc.
58	* ''Manga/PrecariousWomanExecutiveMissBlackGeneral'': Team RX as a whole falls into this, their reputation increasing solely by virtue of misunderstandings or unintentional badassery:
59	** The Boss has genuinely destructive PsychicPowers, but he rarely if ever uses them, and is far too much of a {{chuunibyou}} to actually be useful.
60	** The Scientist can create powerful hybrids and weapons, but while they are powerful in one way they're made useless in other ways:
61	*** Miss Water B, a human-tardigrade hybrid who's functionally invincible... when hibernating, meaning her only use is a HumanShield.
62	*** A handheld gun with a blast radius far greater than its range.
63	*** Black Lion, a human-lion hybrid able to fight toe-to-toe with a superhero, but passes out if he spends too long in direct sunlight.
64	** The titular Black General is capable of surviving huge amounts of damage (not her clothes though) but is obsessed with getting the hero Braveman to sleep with her, with every scheme she tries backfiring.
65	** The only actually competent members of the team are the Secretary, who has explosion powers but is determined to remain the CloudcuckoolandersMinder / IgnoredEnamoredUnderling to the Boss, and GG, a girl who wanted to become a ninja so the Scientist equipped her with cockroach traits that embarrass her in combat (like making skittering noises when she fights).
66	** Balor, a cyclops with EyeBeams who looks like an RPG endboss but faints at the slightest provocation (or after using his abilities).
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69	[[folder:Comic Books]]
70	* ''ComicBook/TheBoys'': While some of the supes are actively malicious, most of them are just ''amazingly bad'' at being superheroes, causing untold damage through sheer incompetence. They are also all either unwilling or unable to learn to be better (and their corporate masters are similarly uninterested in improving them - as long as they ''look'' good they can be used to support massive franchises, so actual competence doesn't improve the bottom line much).
71	* ''Franchise/DCUniverse'':
72	** ''ComicBook/JusticeLeague'' and ''ComicBook/TeenTitans'' villain Dr. Light has the power to command the spectrum of visible (and sometimes invisible) light, which grants him an array of abilities from {{Energy Weapon}}s to HardLight to [[MasterOfIllusion Illusions]], but he was considered such a joke that veteran heroes would often just let their {{Kid Sidekick}}s deal with him. [[spoiler:It's revealed, via {{retcon}}, that this was because Light once figured out how to get onto the Justice League satellite, sexually assaulted the wife of the Elongated Man, and then used clues he found on the satellite to deduce some personal details about the heroes, vowing to attack them or their loved ones if he had the chance. To prevent this, some members of the League wiped his mind, which had the side-effect of making him much less intelligent.]] However, even ''after'' this information is revealed, Dr. Light is still treated as a pariah in both the hero and villain communities. For example, despite the impressive feat of getting onto the League satellite, what he actually ''accomplished'' with it was considered just [[EvenEvilHasStandards tasteless and petty even by other villains]].
73	** ''ComicBook/{{Superman}}'':
74	*** [[Characters/SupermanBizarro Bizarro]] has all the powers of Superman (with some slight reversals like flame breath instead of cold breath and ice vision instead of heat vision) and generally tries to be a superhero like him, but his skewed morality and diminished intellect causes him to screw it up. Part of the reason Bizarro World exists is because Bizarro wanted a place where his idea of heroism would be appreciated.
75	*** In ''ComicBook/AllStarSuperman'', Bizarro Green Lantern has a ring that can create any object he imagines; but he can't use it, since his mind is always blank.
76	** Solomon Grundy wildly varies in power from appearance to appearance. Some versions of him are strong enough to take on the entire Justice League at once and win. But he's also a brutish zombie who's dumb as a brick and is easily manipulated into becoming hired muscle for other supervillains with little in the way of personal ambition. He can be convinced to simply give up and go back to his latest hiding spot by giving him something like a hot meal or a promise to be left alone.
77	* ''ComicBook/GrooTheWanderer'' is a BarbarianHero capable of taking down entire armies with only his two swords... which is a problem because he is a WalkingDisasterArea with the intelligence of a toothpick. Stories of his heroics usually end with him being chased away by furious villagers while he wonders, "Did I err?"
78	** Inverted in an issue where Groo gets fed up being a failure as a hero and decides to become a villain instead, which backfires when his attempts at being a bad guy accidentally end up saving the day.
79	* ''Franchise/MarvelUniverse'':
80	** ''ComicBook/FantasticFour'': Owen Reece, the Molecule Man, has the power to transmute anything into anything else and telepathically control his creations, and yet he's only a minor villain because he lacks imagination, intelligence, and a killing instinct. If he was actually competent he'd be one of the biggest threats in the world. When he ''does'' level up, realising that what he arguably manipulates is [[TheoryOfNarrativeCausality narrative]], his sole limitation is his occasionally weak will... and even then, a newly empowered Lifebringer Galactus treads very carefully around him, noting that Reece could eradicate him with a thought.
81	** ''ComicBook/TheIncredibleHercules'': Hercules has often been written as this type of character. As the [[PhysicalGod Olympian god of strength]], Hercules has physical might roughly equal to that of [[ComicBook/TheIncredibleHulk The Hulk]] or [[ComicBook/TheMightyThor Thor]], in addition to several skills and abilities of his own. However, he's also a drunken, womanizing, sexist (in some depictions, misogynistic, though in the 2010s he's grown out of both), quick-tempered ManChild and BloodKnight. On more than one occasion, his failure to stay sober, take orders or plan properly has led to humiliating defeats and even endangering other members of any team he's on. Later depictions of the character have him come to understand that his behavior [[DeliberateValuesDissonance is unacceptable for "heroes" of the modern day]] and try to clean up his act. Even so, when Hercules shows up to a team or crisis, many of those in attendance groan and desperately wish that there were someone else to ask for help. But during the time when he lost his powers, [[LetsGetDangerous he suddenly showed much greater skill and forethought]].
82	** ''ComicBook/TheIncredibleHulk'': The U-Foes are a quartet of villains who gained superpowers by deliberately staging a space expedition identical to the one that mutated the ComicBook/FantasticFour. They consist of Simon Utrecht/Vector, a powerful telekinetic; Ann Darnell/Vapor, who can transform into any type of gas she desires; Ann's brother Jimmy/X-Ray, who became a living field of quasi-solid radiation; and Mike [[StevenUlyssesPerhero Steel]]/Ironclad, a man whose body is entirely made of metal with the extra power to control his density. When you look at their abilities, the U-Foes are actually far above the Fantastic Four in terms of power and could easily be a dangerous threat to the Avengers or the X-Men. Unfortunately for them (and fortunately for the rest of the world), the U-Foes are too stupid and lazy to truly take advantage of their gifts (half the time they are beaten due to their powers going haywire because they still have a novice-level grasp of them at best), and, more importantly, would much rather work as hired thugs or go around spoiling for a fight with the Hulk than put in the effort to advance themselves as a team.
83	** ''ComicBook/SpiderMan'': A lot of Spider-Man's higher-end villains tend to be handicapped by this trope, probably because if they had any common sense, most of them would be using their powers to [[CutLexLuthorACheck become fabulously rich and famous legally]] and without even bothering Spidey.
84	*** Hydro-Man and Sandman are the undisputed kings, being {{Elemental Shapeshifter}}s that are still regularly defeated by Spidey because they're too dim-witted to anticipate his (usually very obvious) strategies or use their powers in any ways more imaginative than "drown/smother the Wall-Crawler". Sandman at least is a DependingOnTheWriter case, qualifying for this trope depending on whether he's on the Heel side of his HeelFaceRevolvingDoor on any given day, but with Hydro-Man it's so bad that he's one of the Marvel poster boys for TooDumbToLive.
85	*** Scorpion is physically superior to Spidey, like Venom, but unlike Eddie, he always gets his butt kicked because he never plans anything, he just charges in swinging and expects to win.
86	*** Morlun, despite being ''much'' stronger than most people in Spidey's rogues gallery, pretty much operates the same way, to the point that Spidey recognizes it and gives him TheReasonYouSuckSpeech.
87	*** There's also Electro, who's hindered as much by his cripplingly low self-esteem as his lack of imagination, but like Hydro-Man and Sandman still falls into this as a force of nature-tier character who still operates on the level of a common thug (and usually gets beaten like one). When he does start thinking, he cracked open the Raft and nearly killed a young [[Characters/MarvelComicsXMan X-Man]].
88	*** The Spot has the ability to create portals anywhere, including over his own body. These portals allow him to place anyone or anything anywhere he wants at any time, could potentially make himself untouchable, and could allow him to blindside or ambush his opponents from anywhere. Fortunately for the Wall-crawler, however, Spot is a complete idiot and never realizes the full potential of what his powers are capable of. Thus, while his abilities may annoy and inconvenience Spidey for a time, the hero will usually adapt and defeat Spot without too much trouble.
89	** ''ComicBook/XMen'':
90	*** ''ComicBook/WarOfKings'' BigBad Vulcan is this. Being a high-order energy manipulator empowered to PhysicalGod levels during M-Day, he's one of the strongest mutants alive and has near-Phoenix level command of cosmic energy. Unfortunately for him, he's also an AxCrazy PsychopathicManchild who rarely thinks anything through and prefers to just charge in slinging energy blasts willy nilly. This usually leads to him being beaten by weaker opponents who exploit his UnskilledButStrong handicap.
91	*** Holocaust/Nemesis, the son of ComicBook/{{Apocalypse}}, is another high-tier power jockey who's rather a bit of an idiot. Nate Grey the ComicBook/XMan has handily beaten him in every encounter, even the ones where he was suffering PowerIncontinence (and therefore not so far out of Holocaust's league it wasn't even funny), just because ol' Holly never has any strategy beyond "blast it to hell, then blast it again for good measure". ComicBook/CaptainAmerica even tricked him into taking out his own ally Post during the time when he was working for ComicBook/{{Onslaught}}.
92	* In ''ComicBook/ScottPilgrimVsTheWorld'', Todd Ingram, the third evil ex, possesses incredibly strong PsychicPowers thanks to his veganism. He has enough destructive power to blast craters in the moon visible from Earth, and Scott can't even touch him in a fight. However, he's also an idiot with terrible self-control, which is a bad thing when your abilities are based on abstention. He ultimately gets stripped of his powers due to having eaten gelato before the fight, at which Scott takes him down in a single hit.
93	* The various ''Franchise/TransformersGeneration1'' based comics have Skywarp, the only Cybertronian to demonstrate the power of teleportation. Later continuities would establish him as an Outlier, sort of the Cybertronian equivalent of a mutant in ''X-Men''. Walls, force fields, solid rock, it doesn't matter; Skywarp can teleport past it as long as there's someplace on the other side for him to emerge. In theory, you'd ''think'' this would make him the ultimate infiltration agent, able to steal any data, assassinate any officer, sabotage any base. In practice, Skywarp's childish stupidity prevents him from actually ''thinking'' about how to use these powers in a meaningful way, instead using his special ability as a means to suddenly appear behind people and [[DeadlyPrank perpetrate some kind of sadistic practical joke at their expense]]. He's only useful when directed by a smarter Decepticon, but the list of people he respects enough to obey generally begins and ends with Megatron.
94	* ''ComicBook/{{Wanted}}'': Fuckwit has all the powers of your typical FlyingBrick, but also has the intelligence of a very slow child. When Sucker steals his powers, he initially expects to get super-strength and durability, and maybe flight. He is astounded to discover that Fuckwit also had various enhanced senses, which ends up being his downfall; he spends so much time enjoying Fuckwit's powers that he forgets that his own powers only last for 24 hours per victim, causing him to fall to his death in mid-flight.
95	[[/folder]]
96
97	[[folder:Film -- Live-Action]]
98	* Franchise/MonsterVerse: [[Characters/MonsterVerseApexCybernetics Apex Cybernetics]], the human villains of ''Film/GodzillaVsKong'', are this trope comparative to the guerrilla [[Characters/MonsterVerseEcoTerrorists eco-terrorists]] of ''Film/GodzillaKingOfTheMonsters2019''. Apex have far more resources as a leading hi-tech corporation TwentyMinutesIntoTheFuture, as well as a [[VillainWithGoodPublicity decent public image]]; yet unlike the eco-terrorists, whom were able to [[XanatosSpeedChess think on their feet]] against [[Characters/MonsterVerseMonarch Monarch]], [[CrazyPrepared deployed]] [[TaughtByExperience contingencies]] when Monarch came close to catching onto them, and technically achieved the best of their end-goals in a roundabout way; Apex place all their eggs in one basket, they have no in-case-of-emergency backups (at least not any that come into effect), and they're [[SelfDisposingVillain defeated]] '''[[SelfDisposingVillain entirely]]''' [[SelfDisposingVillain by their own hubris (without the heroes needing to do anything)]] when they unwittingly unleash ''the mirror opposite'' of [[MugglePower what their agenda was all about]] upon Hong Kong.
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100
101	[[folder:Literature]]
102	* ''Literature/{{Animorphs}}'': Visser Three, the main antagonist for most of the series, is near-undefeatable in combat because of the bewildering array of horrible monsters he can turn into thanks to his Andalite host body, but is easily outwitted and tends to slaughter his own subordinates when they speak against him, or if things start going badly, or if he's annoyed, or... By contrast, Visser One has a regular human body, but was a far more dangerous enemy (figuring out that the Animorphs were humans and not Andalite bandits as Visser Three believes).
103	* ''Literature/CaptainUnderpants'' The titular Captain is a prime example of this. Created when a high school principal was hypnotized into believing he was a superhero created by two kids, his superhero and civilian identities know nothing of each other. He doesn't understand the difference between his real adventures and those written in the comics (thinking at one point that spray-starch was his kryptonite) and usually loses the first time he fights the villain.
104	* ''Literature/TheElenium'': EvilOverlord Otha was given tremendous power by the dark god Azash, but he is an absolute idiot when it comes to actually applying that power. Most ably demonstrated when a horde of undead guards raised by Otha proves ridiculously easy to ''walk around'' because they're set to guard specific cobbles of the street and nothing else. Mostly for their amusement, the protagonists push one of them into the other and watch the domino effect cause the entire squad to turn on itself since Otha also didn't consider friendly fire.
105	* ''Literature/HonorHarrington'':
106	** The Solarian League Navy has spent literal centuries as the biggest, baddest space navy that absolutely nobody dares mess with. Unfortunately for them, this makes them complacent about their superiority, they fill their officer ranks through nepotism and cronyism far more than due to ability, and disregard the technological advancements coming out of the Star Kingdom of Manticore's and Peoples' Republic of Haven's bloody, decades-long war even as they're repeatedly warned of the potential threat either nation might pose. When Manticore and the League end up in a shooting war, the League almost universally sees heavy losses despite massively outnumbering their enemies because Manticore's missile technology has advanced to the point of being able to fire on League ships from well outside those ships' ability to reliably fire back, if at all, and commanders too stupid or stubborn to back off when this is made clear to them. The main problems Manticore has with regards to the League are literally running out of missiles before the League runs out of ships and, more seriously, that the League's much larger R&D program might actually start to match Manticore's capabilities once it has enough incentive to begin trying to do so.
107	** When the League finally takes its atrocities one step too far, the war ultimately concludes with [[spoiler:Honor taking a fleet right into the heart of the League, Old Earth itself, and forcing a surrender while making it absolutely clear that the Solarian League was no threat and they could have done this ''at any time they chose'']].
108	* ''Literature/{{Ward}}'': Torso is a superpowered AntiVillain who can't talk (at least in costume, and possibly at all), has terrible balance, stumbles around everywhere, needs to be in touch-range to use his power, can't even effectively be carried by someone else with superpowers due to power interaction shenanigans, and [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking has a pretty ugly and restrictive costume]]. But when he ''does'' manage to land a blow, he hits hard enough to OneHitKO {{Kaiju}}, cause earthquakes, and in at least one instance ''[[BeyondTheImpossible damage the fabric of reality]]''. This is still not enough to win the battle at hand nor gain him the respect of other capes.
109	[[/folder]]
110
111	[[folder:Live-Action TV]]
112	* ''Series/TheBoys2019'': [[Characters/TheBoys2019Supes Supes]] fight crime and are generally around to protect the world from evil. However, most of their heroics are publicity stunts set up by the [[MegaCorp Vought Corporation]] (who actually [[spoiler:created Supes by bribing pregnant women to be injected with [[SuperSerum Compound-V]] and tell the world how God gifted them with such an amazing child]]), and when they are thrown into an actual emergency they have no idea how to handle the situation, such as when [[Characters/TheBoys2019Homelander Homelander]] and [[WonderWomanWannabe Queen Maeve]] intercept [[spoiler:a highjacked plane, botch the rescue, and allow it to crash]].
113	* ''Series/GameOfThrones'': [[Characters/GameOfThronesJoffreyBaratheon King Joffrey Baratheon]] is the official king of the Seven Kingdoms, but only uses his position to inflict pain and suffering for fun, while leaving all the important things to his [[TheSmartGuy uncle]] and [[DragonInChief grandfather]].
114	* ''Franchise/KamenRider'':
115	** ''Series/KamenRiderDenO'': Ryutaros is the most powerful of Den-O's four Imagin and the only one that has a ranged weapon, but his childish personality makes him even less reliable than the other three, and his habit of dancing mid-battle makes his aim atrocious.
116	** ''Series/KamenRiderExAid'' and ''Series/KamenRiderZeroOne'', both written by Yuya Takahashi, use this as a recurring style of villain. Each show has at least two villains with an absurdly broken power like ResurrectiveImmortality, [[TimeStandsStill the ability to stop time without limit]], PowerCopying that only requires touching the opponent once to permanently gain all of their powers, or CombatClairvoyance that perfectly predicts everything their opponent will do hours in advance. While they start out as an overwhelming threat, each of these villains is so reliant on their broken power that once the heroes develop a countermeasure, the villain is swiftly reduced to a punching bag.
117	** ''Series/KamenRiderSaber'' has a downplayed example with Kamen Rider Durendal, who has the power to erase time. While Durendal is a skillful swordsman in regular combat, he's so used to being able to defeat any opponent by using his power to stab them in the back that he fails to come up with any new tactics once his opponents figure out what he's doing, letting them trivially turn his attempts at a surprise attack back on him.
118	** ''Series/KamenRiderGeats'' features an exaggerated example with Chirami, the first Kamen Rider [=Glare2=] and a PointyHairedBoss of the highest caliber. Not only is [=Glare2=] a SuckSessor to the original Glare, with all of the same powers but much lower stats, but the suit is eventually stolen and used by another character who reveals it to actually be much ''more'' powerful than the original Glare. Chirami is just so bad at using Glare's power that it actually makes the suit itself become weaker simply because he's the one wearing it.
119	* ''Series/TheUmbrellaAcademy'': Klaus is one of the most powerful members of the team because of his mastery over death, but he's also an AddledAddict because of the abusive, traumatic training that Sir Hargreeves subjected him to, locking him in a mausoleum for hours to "help him" get over his fear of ghosts. Klaus can commune with and conjure the dead, including equally powerful supers like Ben, and as it turns out in later seasons, [[spoiler:he's also ''immortal'']]. He rarely makes use of his powers because he's usually hung-over or in rehab, and his own siblings tend to dismiss him because he never seems to treat any situation with the proper gravitas.
120	[[/folder]]
121
122	[[folder:Tabletop Games]]
123	* ''TabletopGame/GeniusTheTransgression'': Geniuses are [[MadScientist mad scientists]] capable of creating devices beyond the laws of physics and often capable of more power than other supernatural creatures; even [[RealityWarper Mages]] can be matched, to the point even their own organizations can get them mixed up. However, they're '''mad''' scientists and often fail because of poor planning, bad decisions, or because their goal was nonsensical and impossible in the first place. Then again they can also blind side everyone by pulling of schemes that are CrazyEnoughToWork.
124	* ''TabletopGame/InNomine'' has Saminga, [[DemonLordsAndArchdevils Prince of Death]]. He's the most skilled necromancer in history, has world-shaking raw power based on a near-invulnerable concept, is the ruler of a good chunk of Hell and has armies of the undead working for him on earth. However, he's also a lazy idiot who's content to spend his life sitting in a wasteland monologuing about how great he is and randomly murdering people he stumbles accross. As such, rather then the major infernal power he could easily become, he's ended up more of an embarrasment to Hell and retains his status primarily because his fellow Princes find him pathetically easy to manipulate.
125	* ''TabletopGame/Warhammer40000'': As a species, the orks are the single most powerful faction in the game and could easily crush the others by weight of numbers alone, their basic footsoldiers are more than seven feet tall and about half as wide, and they're also able to create weapons, armor and vehicles from almost any random junk. Fortunately, they aren't a unified faction (and will gladly fight each other given half a chance), and for the most part their tactics involve running at the enemy and shooting while screaming (they missed the memo when an EldritchAbomination made every other species afraid of dying), meaning they die in thousands to enemies with the firepower to keep them at bay. The few times an ork leader actually has the brains for warfare beyond just relying on LargeAndInCharge, it's a threat to the entire galaxy.
126	[[/folder]]
127
128	[[folder:Video Games]]
129	* ''VideoGame/AzureStrikerGunvolt2'': It's ''very difficult'' to believe Teseo's Septima is stronger than the ''Azure Striker'' despite being merely a nuisance in the great scheme of things and being outmatched by Merak (who has a less powerful Septima) in an audio drama CD. It's implied that he's held back by his SmugSnake tendencies and he usually uses his Septima to pull pranks for fun. Plus if he were any stronger he could had been just erased Gunvolt or Copen from existence before any fight can commence.
130	* ''VideoGame/FalloutNewVegas'': While Joshua Graham is far from stupid, as a military commander he had no real ability when it came to strategy or tactics and had no mind for logistics by his own admission, since his primary goal was to kill people and relay Caesar's orders. While this served him well enough when fighting tribals and raiders, he fared poorly when pitted against the NCR, a well-armed military force that had both numbers and tech led by a competent tactician. His replacement Legate Lanius is stated to be slightly better as a tactician, but since he has no talent other than violence this mostly means that he's just smart enough to recognize that the Legion has severe logistical problems. If put in a position of power other than military commander, he'll run the Legion to the ground because he lacks the vision and foresight to do anything but wage war, even when he loses more than he gains.
131	* ''VideoGame/FateGrandOrder'':
132	** Akuta has exceptional magical ability, allowing any Servant fighting under her to battle at full strength for an extended period of time. Because of this, she should logically be an extremely formidable Master in the same vein as Illyasviel von Einzbern. In practice, she's a complete GeneralFailure who has no idea how to get a team to work together. Even with Servants as powerful as the Prince of Lan Ling and Xiang Yu on her side, she still fails to crush Chaldea due to her insistence that her victory be effortless and flawless. When Lan Ling and Xiang Yu are pitted against her in [[spoiler:her own]] interlude, she asks if they were holding out on her because of how much more effective they are under the [[WeakButSkilled protagonist's leadership]] than her's. It should be noted, however, that this only applies to her abilities as a leader; as a ''solo fighter'' [[spoiler:who is an immortal fairy-vampire]] she's as dangerous as you might expect that description to be, and in fact comes closest to crushing Chaldea [[spoiler:when she's on a one-woman RoaringRampageOfRevenge after releasing her true powers as Yu Mei-ren]].
133	** [[spoiler: Lostbelt ORT is ''the'' most powerful entity in the entire [=FATE=] universe, but it's also mindless until it can use its CannibalismSuperpower. The reason it was initially defeated in its backstory was simply because when confronted with someone it couldn't just kill (Camazotz, who became an immortal Beast), it was completely incapable of ''not'' repeating the same useless tactics over and over, resulting in the much weaker Camazotz winning by sheer attrition. And when Camazotz ripped its heart out, it was ultimately sealed away with a rather simple trick that led it into an infinite loop of trying to get its heart back->thinking the heart was still there->attempting to do something->failing miserably because the heart was gone->repeat. It's fully capable of just regenerating its heart, but never actually ''does'' so because it's programmed to try retrieving said heart first.]]
134	* ''VideoGame/GodOfWarRagnarok'': The reason Heimdall is ultimately a mid-game boss despite having the power to foresee his opponents' moves is that he rests on his laurels, relying almost entirely on this ability to the detriment of his actual skills as a warrior. Kratos finding a way around his precognition isn't the ''end'' of the fight, but as Heimdall goes through a VillainousBreakdown over no longer being untouchable, he goes from needing to set Draupnir Spear traps to hit him, to being vulnerable to the spear's normal attacks, to being vulnerable to ''any'' weapon as he gets so rattled he forgets how dodging works.
135	* ''VideoGame/TheLastSovereign'': [[TheChosenMany The Chosen]] all have Ivala's blessing, which drastically increases their power to superhuman levels. They also have no sense of responsibility whatsoever, being [[LustMakesYouDumb more interested in appeasing their lust, consequences be damned]]. Predictably, many of them die on their quests.
136	* ''Franchise/MortalKombat'':
137	** Frost is stated to be her master Sub-Zero (a.k.a. Kuai Liang)'s equal in [[AnIcePerson cryomancy]] -- possibly even capable of surpassing him someday. Unfortunately, she is so arrogant and impatient that she sees [[CantTakeCriticism any criticism]] or [[TrainingFromHell difficult training]] as "holding her back". She thus betrays Sub-Zero in two separate timelines, and in both cases, he bemoans how much of a waste it was. Also, even other villains often mock or refuse to team up with her because they view her as [[SmallNameBigEgo a complete failure]] whose flaws outweigh whatever assets she could possibly provide.
138	** Johnny Cage is noted by many to be surprisingly powerful in terms of both martial arts ability and [[SupernaturalMartialArts spiritual power]]. It's even revealed that he's one of the [[LastOfHisKind last descendants]] of an ancient tribe of monks with power that could defeat Elder Gods. Unfortunately, [[ArrogantKungFuGuy he is an arrogant prima donna]] and has SkewedPriorities that make him more concerned with his image and career as an actor than taking his fights seriously. This leads to him getting defeated and/or killed on numerous occasions in the franchise. After most of the more competent fighters wind up killed and Johnny settles down with a family, he ''finally'' learns to take his responsibilities (somewhat) seriously, becoming a much more competent fighter (although still not as skilled as some others, like Liu Kang or his daughter Cassie).
139	* ''VideoGame/NintendoWars'':
140	** Kanbei from the first ''Advance Wars'' game has ''very'' powerful units at the cost of them being more expensive to deploy, getting a universal 20% attack boost for units that are 20% more expensive than normal. However he's also so hotheaded and has such poor tactical abilities that his daughter Sonja basically spends every second of her screen time explaining that he needs intel to succeed, the importance of ''having bases'' (the second battle you can deploy new units but he can't), and the importance of the ''location'' of those bases (he has a base on the final battle, on an isolated island where they're completely harmless). He'd have {{curb stomp\|battle}}ed you if he'd just listened to her. He gets [[CharacterDevelopment much better in the sequel]] but still remains something of an IdiotHero.
141	** The official explanation for Flak's wildly-varying luck and why he can randomly do higher or lower damage is that he's this:
142	---> '''Flak's Bio:''' High firepower, but he relies solely on strength. His shoddy technique sometimes reduces the damage his units deal.
143	* ''Franchise/{{Pokemon}}'': Slaking is a LightningBruiser with incredibly high physical attack, high HP and physical defense, and high speed. However, its ability "truant" makes it so lazy it can only be bothered to move every other turn. Its ''VideoGame/PokemonGo'' incarnation has the highest possible CP in the game, but its only Fast Attack is Yawn, which is functionally useless save for charging its Charged Attack, meaning that Charged Attacks are the only way to do damage with it.
144	* ''Franchise/TouhouProject'': Rumia is a youkai with power over darkness, usually manifesting as a bubble of pure black around her. While this sounds like a BigBad ability, she can't actually ''see'' through the dark, and so bumps around into things.
145	[[/folder]]
146
147	[[folder:Web Animation]]
148	* Splendid from ''WebAnimation/HappyTreeFriends'' is a SupermanSubstitute who never manages to actually save someone (and if he does, they usually don't stay alive for long afterwards) due to a combination of stupidity, carelessness, and a lack of interest in his "job". For example, in "[[Recap/HTFHelpingHelps Helping Helps]]", he doesn't look where he's flying after he rescues Giggles, leading to her getting decapitated by a tree branch, and in "[[Recap/HTFWrathOfCon Wrath of Con]]", he lets go of the chunk of debris he's holding up to sign an autograph for Sniffles, leading to the latter getting crushed.
149	* ''WebAnimation/HunterTheParenting'' (by the same people behind ''If The Emperor Had a Text-To-Speech Device'' below) has Norfolk's Tremere Regent. While she is a 7th-generation vampire and thus exceptionally powerful, she's completely out-of-touch with modern society and downright ''dumb'', ignoring Kevin when he pointed out a major flaw with her handling of her mortal minions (namely, that just taking all their money [[ForensicAccounting will make people suspect fraud]]), and [[spoiler:she forgets to renew her Blood Bond with Guy Chapman for ''eight months'', leaving a fomerly loyal minion so desperate for his fix that he decided that being ghouled to ''anyone'' would do)]].
150	* ''WebAnimation/IfTheEmperorHadATextToSpeechDevice'' has a few notable examples:
151	** The stand-out one is likely [[PersonOfMassDestruction Daemon Primarch Magnus the Red]]. He's a powerful sorcerer, a brilliant scholar, and capable of whipping up plans on the fly. The problem is that his plans are never properly thought through, so there's always at least one overlooked detail that brings the entire thing crashing down and makes sure he doesn't get the result he wanted - and given that, despite all his impressive skills and knowledge, he ''wants'' to be a brilliant manipulator and was formerly a servant of [[JerkassGods Tzeench]], [[FailureIsTheOnlyOption well]]... The Emperor has even noted this trait and plans his own schemes around it, though Magnus denies it to be an issue and claims that it's his [[TheExile former second-in-command Ahriman]] who really embodies it. As Ahriman is essentially a "lesser" version of Magnus, he's not ''entirely'' wrong.
152	** Other examples include the Fabulous Custodes; while each one is a SuperSoldier the likes of which would make ordinary men weep in awe, able to take on and win against the regular SpaceMarines, whose physical prowess and skill in combat is second only to the [[PhysicalGod Primarchs and the Emperor himself]], who could rout entire armies singlehandedly... this isn't that kind of series. As a result, their incredible abilities in fights tends to be glossed over or ignored - [[OffscreenMomentOfAwesome like mentioning dealing with an Eldar assassin squad as an offhanded comment and moving on]] - instead focusing more on their personal flaws, neuroses, and ''several'' shortcomings. Babysitting a near-corpse for almost ten thousand years has done their mental state no favors, as they've all developed some flavor of insanity, their {{Stripperific}} outfits and homoerotic tendencies being only one portion of their issues, if the most obvious.
153	* ''WebAnimation/{{RWBY}}'':
154	** Zigzagged with [[Characters/RWBYCinderFall Cinder Fall]]. She is intelligent and possesses Maiden powers alongside a deadly Semblance. However, she's very unstable and has serious self-worth issues stemming from her FreudianExcuse. At her best she's one of the most effective agents on [[BigBad Salem's]] side, as she can play an effective game of XanatosSpeedChess and her fighting abilities and the Maiden powers she gained in Volume 3 are a threat to all the heroes, even [[BigGood Professor Ozpin]]. At her worst her name might as well be LeeroyJenkins, as she ruins several of Salem's plans by either attempting to solve problems by brute force or by biting off more than she can chew. For bonus points, her sadistic tendency to be extra-cruel to defeated foes has resulted in them gaining a HeroicSecondWind and her getting maimed more than once. Despite how good she ''can'' be, Salem keeps her on an increasingly short leash because she just can't trust Cinder to ''not'' mess everything up at the last second. All of this, combined with her almost pathological need to steal more of the Maiden powers, results in her becoming a SpannerInTheWorks for both sides, kneecapping herself due to her own pride.
155	** [[Characters/RWBYAdamTaurus Adam Taurus]] is a force of nature on the battlefield, a powerful and vicious warrior capable of casually defeating [[HunterOfMonsters Hunstmen]], [[AnimalisticAbomination Grimm]], or entire squads of soldiers. He's also a ''deeply'' mentally unstable megalomaniac who is prone to being BlindedByRage, turning allies and average people alike against him due to his bloodthirsty ways, [[RevengeBeforeReason obsessing over petty grudges]] to the point that it undermines his greater goals, and such a GeneralFailure that in Volume 5 [[spoiler:he causes his terrorist faction to implode due to his terrible leadership abilities mere months after taking it over]]. In Volume 6 [[spoiler:he kills most of the remains of his group in a fit of rage when they refuse to acknowledge or follow him any longer]], reducing him to a crazed and increasingly delusional fugitive whose only remaining motivation left is [[PsychoExBoyfriend lashing out at the ex-girlfriend]] who refused to stay under his thumb.
156	[[/folder]]
157
158	[[folder:Web Originals]]
159	* ''WebVideo/DragonBallZAbridged'':
160	** Nappa is one of the strongest Saiyan warriors and, when introduced to the story, greatly outclasses almost all of the heroes. However, he's such an idiot that when Krillin yells out that it's "his turn", Nappa stops and waits to abide by it. He also thinks that Krillin's Destructo Disc is a frisbee and tries to catch it with his teeth, only being saved from decapitation by the fact that he missed.
161	** Goku is the WorldsStrongestMan and easily the most powerful fighter, but he is so stupid that whether or not he'll win is completely unreliable. For example, he stops to eat on Snake Way and thus arrives seconds too late to save most of his friends; he spaces out in the middle of a fight and allows Frieza to nearly blow up the planet they're on; he chose ''not'' to take heart medicine because it was grape flavored (thus causing him to have a heart attack in the middle of a battle, though some of Roshi's comments about Goku 'sweating purple' as a result of grapes suggests Goku has a severe grape allergy); and almost left one of his friends to die because [[ForgotAboutHisPowers he forgot that he had the ability to teleport]].
162	---> '''Gohan''': (watches his father teleport away) Did he forget he could do that?
163	---> '''Popo''': Your father's an idiot.
164	[[/folder]]
165
166	[[folder:Webcomics]]
167	* ''Webcomic/EightBitTheater'': Every main character is skilled but inept in some way, but the most standout one is Black Mage, whose KamehameHadoken can level mountains but is able to miss when ''aimed'' at mountains. He once manages to take over Hell, which only lasts for a few minutes. And generally, whenever he might get a pang of competence, the world [[TheChewToy smacks him back down]] to stay in one piece (without killing him, of course, lest he take over Hell again).
168	* ''Webcomic/FullFrontalNerdity'': One strip has the guys decide to play a superhero RPG with the twist that they have characters who have massive power but no skills. This means that they wind up accidentally devastating the city they're attempting to defend before accidentally creating a black hole that destroys the world, which they decide is probably the best outcome for those characters.
169	* ''Webcomic/LeagueOfSuperRedundantHeroes'': Lazer Pony has EyeBeams capable of vaporizing an alien war fleet in a flash, but is too moronic to use them properly. While he ''is'' blind, that handicap doesn't stop his AlternateUniverse analogues from being some of the most capable superheroes of the multiverse.
170	* ''Webcomic/OnePunchMan'': The titular hero is able to end all his fights in a single punch. The problem is he has NoSenseOfDirection and so the giant monsters are often able to cause huge amounts of destruction before he finally runs into them. It's uncertain if this is an intellectual blind spot of his or just another symptom of his [[NoChallengeEqualsNoSatisfaction terminal lack of enthusiasm]] — being so powerful, nothing registers as a threat to him, so things like “not missing the sale at the grocery store” take priority in his mind.
171	* ''Webcomic/SchlockMercenary'': The villain of the comic's final arc, the Andromedan Pa'anuri, are incredibly powerful, possessing a zero-point energy generator that uses the rotation of the entire Andromeda galaxy as a power source, a Long Gun that can shoot at things inside the Milky Way ''from'' Andromeda, and an armada of warships so big that the biggest Milky Way warships can punch holes the size of a small moon in them and it pretty much amounts to scratching their paintjob. On top of this, the Pa'anuri are individually powerful enough to use planets as projectiles, and supernovas as hand grenades. Despite (or perhaps exactly ''because'') their impressive hardware and biology, however, the Pa'anuri are ''really bad'' at fighting an actual war: Individually, they can inflict a horrible CurbStompBattle on anyone who tries to take them on, but they suck at planning and executing an extended campaign and have next to no contingency plans. This means they are utterly incompetent in a lot of vital aspects of war-fighting, chief of all operational security: The Gatekeepers were able to fight them to a standstill in the past, their attempt at taking over the Milky Way in the Core War was quickly rebuffed once someone with foreknowledge of their secret weapon came back to inform everyone, and their final attack against the Milky Way was defeated thanks to a SpannerInTheWorks moment and some spectacularly poor decisions, primarily in letting baryonics repeatedly board, hack and subvert their war machines and communications network. Just before [[spoiler:hacking their Long Gun so it shoots the transponder attached to it, thereby destroying itself]], Ennesby refers to them as "utterly transcendent idiots".
172	[[/folder]]
173
174	[[folder:Western Animation]]
175	* ''WesternAnimation/The7D'': Grim has shown throughout the series that he has the potential to be a powerful magic user, being able to cast a multitude of spells and utilize various magical artifacts. What holds him back from being competent at his profession is his low intelligence and ManChild personality, as shown in one episode where after getting his [[GeniusSerum intellect greatly boosted]], Grim [[TookALevelInBadass had almost effortlessly and single-handedly conquered Jollywood]] if not for [[EnemyMine Hildy secretly teaming up with the 7D]] (as Grim had become increasingly distant towards Hildy throughout his conquest) to return Grim to his normal, idiotic self.
176	* ''WesternAnimation/AquaTeenHungerForce'': The T-Shirt of the Living Dead, stolen by Shake in the eponymous episode, grants the wearer the ability to know and do anything... but it winds up ShrunkInTheWash before Shake can do anything with it. Meatwad gets it, and uses it to summon whatever random desire comes to him... resulting in SantaClaus getting burned alive by a giant fire-breathing Easter egg. While the shirt could potentially heal Santa, Meatwad getting DrunkWithPower on top of his usual stupidity means it never occurs to him, and the Aqua Teens are stuck SavingChristmas (poorly, again despite Meatwad's power).
177	* ''WesternAnimation/TheAwesomes'': The superhero Teleportation Larry, [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin as his name implies]], has the ability to teleport almost anywhere at anytime. This would make Larry one of the most powerful and versatile characters in the setting if not for his extreme [[TheAlcoholic alcoholism]], which results in him being a liability to other heroes most of the time.
178	* ''WesternAnimation/DarkwingDuck'' has a Superman parody named Comet Guy who is far more powerful than all of the other heroes. He's also dim witted, easily manipulated, and-until training with Darkwing Duck-could be disabled by a ringing bell.
179	* WesternAnimation/DynomuttDogWonder is powerful but not the brightest light on the porch. His goofiness is grudgingly tolerated by his master the Blue Falcon, and it's his occasional malfunction that gets the duo in a pickle.
180	* ''WesternAnimation/HarleyQuinn'': Clayface has versatile shapeshifting and is practically invincible, but is unable to use these abilities properly because of his stupidity and fixation on being an actor. He uses his shapeshifting to impersonate people but often gets caught anyway due to being a LargeHam and/or overcomplicating his "roles" for the sake of drama, frequently forgets he can use it for other things, and is a terrible fighter. When he's mind-controlled into fighting against Harley she's enraged to learn he's had the ability to turn into a super-strong giant the entire time and just never used it.
181	* ''WesternAnimation/InvaderZim'' has the [[Characters/InvaderZimIrkenEmpire Irken Empire]] as a whole. The Irkens are the main technological and military superpower in space, and are shown to far outclass any of their erstwhile rivals, but they have absolutely no tactical sense, are superficial to the extreme, and are led by a pair of incredibly incompetent leaders who were chosen solely based on height. [[Characters/InvaderZimZim Zim]] himself is regularly shown to be incredibly dangerous even by Irken invader standards, and has created machines or plans of world-destroying scale, only to then bungle them due to his own recklessness and arrogance. He once created a device that drained all the world's oceans for the sake of winning a water balloon fight.
182	* Creator/{{Terrytoons}}' 1966 crimefighters the Mighty Heroes are so inept that a Goodhaven citizen quipped "With heroes like these, who needs enemies?" It's after they get their second wind in act two that the heroes deliver the goods.
183	* ''WesternAnimation/XiaolinShowdown'': Jack Spicer has the intellect to create futuristic machines and claims a considerable amount of [[ArtifactOfPower Shen Gong Wu]] throughout the series, but his immaturity, low self-esteem and cowardice cause him to lose a number of battles he should have otherwise won. As a result, he becomes a laughing stock among the antagonists, though he would ultimately subvert this trope come the final episode, in which he unexpectedly manages to take over the Xiaolin Temple during Omi's absence, leading to a BadFuture.
184	[[/folder]]

Context Main / PowerfulButIncompetent