Times where Worf Had the Flu in Live-Action TV series.
- Angel:
- Angelus has a long history of losing fights with Slayers. Then, in the episode "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 Angelus she had pumped herself full of magic heroin with the goal of drugging him when he bit her.
- Hamilton stomping over Illyria happened only after she had been massively depowered, and it's probably telling that Hamilton didn't go anywhere near her until this had happened, and in fact when Wesley was studying her gave him a hint that led him to discover how to drain her powers. He even goes into an exaggerated Smug Snake routine to Illyria's face as he ponders why she can't beat him to a pulp.
- Deconstructed in Battle Fever J: The first Battle Cossack, Kensaku Shiraishi, entered a fight without his Transformation Trinket thus not transforming at all. While he put up a decent fight, he ended up Killed Off for Real because he couldn't transform and fight at full power.
- Spike's Attempted Rape of Buffy in "Seeing Red" 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.
- In Dai Sentai Goggle Five, only going as far as Episode 8, Goggle Blue gets A Day in the Limelight episode...where he got horribly owned solo by the Monster of the Week because they managed to wound his leg while protecting a woman. Skip ahead several episodes later and then, he's shown to be as good as he gets when he's on a solo fight. Especially when kids are involved.
- Denji Sentai Megaranger had this case with the Mega Voyager in the final battle. After Yugande succeeded in destroying Delta Mega, while gravely damaging Galaxy Mega and the Mega Winger, and causing partial damage to the Voyager Machines (at the cost of Yugande's own life), Mega Voyager had this problem when faced with Dr. Hinelar's final creation: the Grand Neziros, which was the Death Neziro converted into a Humongous Mecha. Due to the Mega Voyager not being at full percent, it took a horrific beating from the Grand Neziros, and even lost an arm to the Grand Neziros' sword. Even its attempt to try and end the fight prematurely with the Voyager Spartan was fruitless, due to Grand Neziros' regenerative capabilities. Surprisingly, though, Dr. Hinelar, who piloted the mecha, suffered from this as well, as his exposure to the real world after years of being stuck in the Nezirejia dimension had begun to spiralize his body beyond his control, and he was slowly dying. Due to this, and a lot of inspiration from their classmates, the Megarangers counterattacked; the Mega Voyager succeeded in damaging Grand Neziros beyond repair, impaling it through the face with its own sword and forcing Hinelar to pull a Taking You with Me. It is strongly implied, however, that even if Mega Voyager had been at 100% percent, it still wouldn't have won in a straight-up fight with Hinelar's final weapon.
- Episode six of Dollhouse features this canonically on both sides: when Ballard and Echo fight, on the surface it seems like it might be an even match that could go either way. Echo with her programming is probably the better technical fighter, but Ballard is very big, built like a brick house, and so tough he can take out four gun-wielding thugs with a plank after he's been shot — plus, he's a trained fighter, so all of his experience is real. However, he had been shot mere days ago, and was not looking to actually hurt Echo, as she's his best link to the case. Cue him fighting defensively and eventually getting worn down. On the flip side, Echo was also fighting in order to frame Ballard for shooting a cop, not to actually win, so while she wasn't fighting to win either, her goals were served by simply getting him to the right place at the right time and disappearing.
- Arrowverse:
- The Flash (2014): Savitar, the so-called "God of Speed", is a case of becoming beatable by getting uncanned, similar to, of all things, the Power Rangers Samurai example. In his early appearances, he outclasses everyone he fights by an insane degree, can only be seen by certain people, and earns his status as The Dreaded. He claims to be a supernatural force and nearly has the heroes convinced. However, it turns out that he is actually trapped in the Speed Force, and is only able to temporarily appear under certain circumstances. This gives him the appearance of this Outside-Context Problem that can be anywhere and everywhere and can only be seen by speedsters and at certain times; he's not Just That Fast, he's exiting the Speed Force prison in different places, and he drags opponents through it to disorient them. But he's able to travel through and manipulate a primal force of space-time and can only to appear to others connected to that force because he's actively grappling with it for every second of freedom. Once free, all that's gone and he's just another speedy bad guy — and the Flash has beaten three of those already. Portrayed now with practical effects instead of CGI, he even looks and feels more real and thus more hittable to the audience. It's telling that the scene in which he properly escapes is also the first time Barry is able to injure him. He proves to be a very tough opponent, but the "God of Speed" isn't looking so godlike with both feet in this world.
- Legends of Tomorrow:
- There's Tabitha, Neron's Dragon and lover. Season finale spoilers here: We've got another case of "the curse had benefits" like the speed force prison. As a fairy godmother, Tabitha can do pretty much anything on behalf of the person she's fairy godmother to. Of course, that last part means she has the need to convince her charge to ask for things in line with her plans, and without a charge, she's powerless. However, she was totally untouchable when her charge gave her commands she could work with. Once she tricks another character into taking on her fairy godmother status and is free to use magic at will, that magic is not the same as the near-omnipotent power she had when granting a charge's wish. A powerful magic user who grows stronger by the minute (she's powered by fear and Neron's machinations are giving her a really good supply of it) is like the unbound Savitar: a terrifying opponent, yes, but beatable.
- The Legends actually tried to invoke that with the previous season's Big Bad, Mallus. A demon is limited to what he can do as a Sealed Evil in a Can, but you also can't punch it. The obvious solution... once you have what's needed to vanquish him, free him so you can face him in person and use it on him! Of course, since it resulted in the death of Rip Hunter and a reformed Damien as well as the freeing of every other prisoner who'd been canned with Mallus, including the aforementioned Neron and Tabitha, they probably don't consider that a success even if they were able to destroy Mallus in the end.
- In Game of Thrones, two of Brienne's big victories over renowned fighters have those fighters under severe handicap. Jaime is supposed to be one of the best warriors in the realm but has his hands and ankles tied together, is weak from almost a year of imprisonment with inadequate food and exercise, making him completely out of practice and had no armour. The fight in the books is much closer; Jaime holds his own and even gains the upper hand (despite the presence of his manacles) until he realizes that in his weakened state, Brienne is stronger than him (this is notable, because his great physical strength has been mentioned before). The fight goes on until he slips on wet stones, allowing Brienne to get a victory... just before the Bloody Mummers show up. Sandor Clegane, who is one of the strongest and most fearsome fighters in the realm, able to hold his own against his brother Gregor and defeat Beric Dondarrion, gets bitten on the neck near the end of Season 4 and the wound gets severely infected and he has a fever because he wouldn't let Arya cauterize the wound. Arya even points out that Sandor got a lot slower because of it. Loras Tyrell, on the other hand, loses to her fair and square. Although he still sort of counts if only in a metafictional sense by virtue of just not being that good of a fighter compared to his book version; his only on-screen victory is a joust where he cheats.
- An inversion takes place in Mahou Sentai Magiranger, where the Heavenly Saint Lunagel is defeated in battle by Wolzard partly because she went on her own, but mostly because he'd spent the past four episodes doing nothing but powering up.
- In Samurai Sentai Shinkenger/Power Rangers Samurai, the Big Bad is, in his first fight with the Rangers, utterly invincible, no attempt to harm him making a single scratch, and comes within an inch of wiping out the heroes in two minutes flat. How, in the final battle, are the Rangers able to win? Well, he's able to beat the sealing spell that kept him canned for most of the season by absorbing one of his formerly-human generals, gaining a human side and thus immunity from a spell that wasn't made to be used on humans. However, being part human weakens him just enough that beating him goes from completely impossible to merely incredibly difficult.
- Part of the reason M.A.N.T.I.S. ended the way it did is to due damage his exosuit took during a crash and later, further damage and injuries he sustained in an earlier confrontation with the very invisible dinosaur that ends up killing him.
- Spartacus: Blood and Sand: In the first few episodes, Crixus was a superior fighter to Spartacus. Crixus takes injuries from Theokoles and goes into a coma. When he wakes up and learns Spartacus has replaced him as the Champion of Capua, he angrily challenges Spartacus to a fight to try to regain his title. Although Crixus' injuries are healed, he is slightly out of shape from being asleep for so long and becomes exhausted after a few sword swings, allowing Spartacus to easily beat him down. Spartacus lectures him on attacking him before his body was ready.
- Arguably true for Worf himself in an episode of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine. He loses a one-on-one battle with the Jem'Hadar, but this was towards the end of a brutal gauntlet of fights where he was given minimal time to rest or recover. And even then, he refuses to yield, earning the respect of his final Jem'Hadar opponent.Ikat'ika: I cannot defeat this Klingon. All I can do is kill him. And that no longer holds my interest.
- Charmed (1998) has several examples:
- In "Be Careful What You Witch For", Prue is stabbed to death by a Dragon Demon while she's been transformed back into her teenage self, who doesn't know she's a witch, and doesn't have powers at all (since they were bound until she was 27). Piper and Phoebe are also prevented from interfering, which means it's too late for Leo to heal her by the time they get to her. They are able to revive her when they wish her alive again thanks to the Genie in a Bottle who features prominently in the episode.
- Prue's actual death that stays permanent is a result of being hit by an energy blast from Shax - one of the most powerful upper-level demons in existence, who can only be vanquished by the Power of Three. She gets thrown through a wall first, followed by Piper. As this is after a Reset Button to a timeline when Piper died, it's stated that Leo was so overcome by shock at possibly losing Piper a second time that he rushed to heal her first and Prue had already died by the time he got to her.
- The death of the Source of All Evil in "Charmed & Dangerous" is heavily reliant on several factors that justify it only happening now instead of him coming to power in the Underworld. The first is that he had been told of a vision where he fought the Charmed Ones and lost, and became relentless in trying to prevent it, which made him even more unhinged. The second is that he believed he had already won, thanks to stealing Piper and Paige's powers, and underestimated Phoebe's seemingly useless powers, allowing her to trap him in a crystal cage with an attack he wasn't expecting. The third is that Cole took his powers thanks to the Hollow and careful planning from the Seer ensuring everything would unfold as it did. And lastly, Phoebe had come up with a spell that called on the magic of their entire family line.
- In "A Witch in Time", the Charmed Ones are disempowered by the warlock Baccara and his past self. Paige is unable to orb and gets killed while she's caught off guard, and Phoebe likewise follows her when she's so shocked at seeing the death. Piper is only saved when Leo orbs her away at the last possible moment. Time being reset likewise prevents this from happening.
- "I Dream of Phoebe" - the sisters are killed when a demon gets a hold of a genie's bottle and wishes them dead. The genie however is able to employ Loophole Abuse by making them legally dead, so they can remain as ghosts until someone else wishes them alive again.
- In "Styx Feet Under", Paige is killed by a demon called Sirk, who was established as getting even more powerful the more of his blood relatives he murdered - even being powerful enough to approach the Angel of Death and contact the sisters telepathically. As Phoebe was next on Death's list, Paige was in hiding expecting her to be attacked and thus was caught off guard, since Sirk had enlisted a Seer's help to know what their next move was.
- In the Grand Finale, Phoebe and Paige are killed in a magic battle with the Jenkins sisters, which makes the Manor explode and only leaves Piper and Billie left alive. Both sets of sisters had absorbed The Hollow, an Eldritch Abomination that consumes power, and it was made clear that the overload of the power couldn't end well. Once again, resetting time to prevent these events from unfolding saves everyone's lives.
- Christy Jenkins is one half of the Ultimate Power, and she ends up dying when her own fireball is turned on her. This is justified by her own shock at being defeated by the Charmed Ones, who vanquished all her allies right in front of her, as well as her own sister turning on her. Christy's Villainous Breakdown is what leads her to try that one last attack, with it strongly implied she was performing Suicide by Cop. What's more is that Billie (the one who kills her) is said to be more powerful, so Christy would never have stood a chance against her.
- In the Grand Finale of Star Trek: Picard, we have the Enterprise-D facing down a Borg cube. Even on its best days, the Lady E barely survived encounters with one, so having a 40-year-old ship cobbled together of surplus parts and the old D’s saucer section would fare even worse. It’s lucky that the Borg cube is in even worse shape, only running on 36% power, the Borg Queen and the Borg almost dead and are barely holding together to power a signal that’s assimilated Starfleet’s youth, giving the ship a fighting chance.
- The Thundermans: In The Thundermans Return, Hank and Barb suffer from this during the climactic battle. Hank is in even worse shape than he was during the series proper, nearly losing a fight to King Crab, a villain he'd previously taken down in two hits while simultaneously fighting three other villains, until a Heroic Second Wind. Barb gets her hands bound by She-Crab before their fight begins, putting her on the defensive before Nora eye-lasers the binds and allows Barb to take She-Crab down with one electric blast.
