tvtropes.org

Power Returned Stronger - TV Tropes

  • ️Tue Jul 02 2024

This trope is what happens when a character loses an old power/ability/stat, but gets the same power back, but better, making this a combination of Discard and Draw and Next Tier Power-Up.

This trope gives a character the growth of adapting to the loss of their powers. It might be their Darkest Hour, and a time where Power Loss Makes You Strong. For an out-of-universe reason to not change their powers, it allows the creator to keep using the same plots and moves they had before the De-power, along with the character not having to go through any retraining in a new powerset, and not being too much weaker than the enemies that likely also improved over time.

That return to normal might also be because Status Quo Is God, but it needs to be improved because their enemies likely have gotten stronger in the meantime.

It is possible that the power loss could be due to Imposed Handicap Training or some Power Limiter going all the way to Power Nullifier that becomes the permanent De-power-ing instead of just limiting it mid-way.

Brought Down to Normal is for when the exact same power returns, and Bag of Spilling goes even further and is for the removal of items as well as inherent powers before usually returning them slowly. A Taste of Power is for games where you start at high power, lose it, and then you can regain it, all in the same game.

The "power improvement" might just be an Equipment Upgrade, especially if Clothes Make the Superman. Compare 10-Minute Retirement and Back in the Saddle, which is someone retiring from a job, but not necessarily involving any change in powers. Also compare Stolen Good, Returned Better, for when it's a stolen item rather than a power that's involved.

Examples:

open/close all folders 

Anime & Manga 

  • Bleach:
    • Ichigo Kurosaki is the most recurring example:
      • He first gained Shinigami powers by borrowing Rukia's pure Shinigami reiryoku. When Byakuya depowered Ichigo by removing Rukia's powers from him, Urahara immediately helped Ichigo awaken his own native Shinigami potential. Cue Ichigo ending up with a hybrid mixture of Shinigami and Hollow powers that was far better than anything Rukia had been able to give him.
      • Ichigo loses all of his powers and gets a Fullbring, then loses all but a fraction of that new power and then almost immediately regains his old powers, but now slightly altered by the remnants of his Fullbring.
      • He loses his Zanpakuto due to getting it broken (thereby losing access to most of his Shinigami powers) and soon after he gets it reforged into what is apparently the true form of his Zanpakuto, giving him two blades and new powers which are partly Quincy, based on his ancestry.
    • Uryuu burnt out his Quincy powers by using Letzt Stil during his battle with Mayuri for a massive temporary power boost. During an anime-only filler arc, he is given an artifact that lets him use Quincy powers again but it eventually breaks. His father Ryuuken then revealed that there WAS a way around the Letzt Stil limit. The workaround was horrific but it came with expanded, more stable powers.
  • Crush Gear Turbo: After Kouya wrecks the Garuda Eagle by overusing the Shining Sword Breaker technique, it's revealed that Kyousuke has had a new Gear in the works to replace it. Testing reveals a flaw in one of its gears that Kouya fixes by using a gear from the broken Garuda Eagle, unlocking its full potential. Fittingly enough, the new Gear is named Garuda Phoenix.
  • This happens with a lot of Gundam shows to facilitate a Midseason Upgrade.
    • In Gundam SEED, Athrun self destructs his Gundam to try and kill Kira, who is at that time his enemy. However, he gets a new, better Gundam a few episodes later.
    • In Gundam SEED Destiny, The Savior is irreparably damaged after a fight against Kira and the Freedom. A few episodes later he upgrades to a better Gundam again, the Infinite Justice.
    • In both Gundam SEED series, Kira upgraded to a stronger model shortly after his original machine was destroyed.
    • Occurs repeatedly throughout Gundam Wing:
      • Originally Quatre uses Wing Gundam Zero to replace Sandrock, but later loses it and goes back to his rebuilt and improved Sandrock Custom.
      • All five of the Gundam pilots briefly pilot Wing Zero. Pretty much all the pilots had their own Gundams blown up, and sometime after piloting Wing Zero, got a new/repaired and upgraded version.
    • Gundam 0083. After Kou and Gato both destroy each other's Gundams, they each get a gigantic mobile armor shortly afterwards. Kou's has a new Gundam attached.
    • In the original manga of Mobile Fighter G Gundam, Allenby loses her old Nobell Gundam and gets it replaced with a very Super Sailor Moon-esque Super Nobell Gundam.
  • Lina Inverse from Slayers was once cursed by a demoness, and lost all her magic powers. She started to wear talismans that gave her enough boost up to do at least some small spells. When the demoness was killed, the curse ended, and Lina not only got her powers back but also added one of the setting's most powerful spells to her repertoire. She still wears the talismans, which now make her destructive spells even more destructive! She ultimately has to sacrifice them for a big spell, and doesn't get a replacement.
  • Yu-Gi-Oh! GX: Jaden Yuki becomes unable to see his Elemental HERO cards after being defeated by Aster Phoenix and is unable to duel. After being taken to Neo-Space, he briefly replaces his old deck with new cards known as Neo-Spacians, which not only allow him to duel again but eventually restore his old cards as well. Later, when Jaden becomes possessed by the Supreme King, he replaces most of his Elemental Heroes with the more powerful but harder to summon Evil Heroes, until he is freed.

Comic Books 

  • Batman: At one point Bane broke himself from his addiction to Venom cold turkey and was able to rebuild his strength through conventional bodybuilding and exercise. Depending on the Writer he may be lacking in some of the raw superhuman strength Venom provided, but it's universally accepted that he's much more dangerous when he's fully in control of himself and not subject to the thralls of addiction to and mind-altering side effects of Venom.
  • Captain Marvel: Carol Danvers was permanently drained of her Flying Brick powers as Ms. Marvel (and most of her memories) from prolonged contact with Rogue, but later regained most of the memories and received even better powers due to experiments by the Brood, becoming Binary. As in, 'binary star' — she tapped into a White Hole. Eventually, she lost those powers rebooting the sun and was returned back to her original Ms. Marvel levels with the additional ability to absorb and redirect energy. As Captain Marvel, Carol's power level became a sort of median between her Ms. Marvel and Binary abilities — the latter only when she absorbs sufficient energy, and a generally higher baseline.
  • Fantastic Four; During an extended 1970s arc in Fantastic Four (1961), Ben reverted to human. Reed built him an exoskeleton shaped like his Thing form, so he could still participate in adventures as a member of the Fantastic Four. The suit actually had somewhat less strength and durability than his mutated form, but it sufficed. During an encounter with Galactus, Galactus sensed that Ben was wearing an exoskeleton, and hit him with an energy beam that apparently did nothing, but later caused him to transform back into his mutated form, tearing the suit apart as he did so. Upon transforming, he noted that he felt stronger, and Reed replied that he looked larger as well. Proof that he was stronger came shortly thereafter when he fought the Sandman, and the Sandman was astonished to see Ben shrugging off and giving a No-Sell to blows that formerly would have staggered him.

    Sandman: "What's with you, Grimm? Last time out, my hammer-blow would have at least made you wince!"

    Grimm: "Reed and me figgered out I'm stronger than I was before. And that, cupcake, isn't going to be the best news you've heard today."

  • Lady Death: The titular character had a habit of gaining and losing weapons in the Chaos! continuity. Her first sword, Darkness which was forged by Cremator, was lost for most of the Between Heaven And Hell arc. She regained it only for it to be snapped in two by one of Genocide's minions in Asgard. Fortunately, Brock was able to melt down the remains into a new sword called Nightmare. Unfortunately, Nightmare's bloodlust became too much for Lady Death to deal with and she discarded it leading to Purgatori claiming it. Cremator forged a new sword out of pure chaos energy for her called Apocalypse. During a fight with Morgana, her bond with Apocalypse was temporarily severed requiring Brock to yet again make a new weapon for her — a short sword which could transform into a chain with a scythe blade at the end called Scynister. During her time as the Avatar of Death, she gained the Scythe of Eternity.
  • New Warriors: When Speedball became Penance, his new powers still had the same basic trigger: he needed to be happy. As Penance, the endorphin reaction from cutting himself with his suit made him high. Once he's back to being Speedball, he now has both sets of powers.
  • The Order: Mulholland Black lost her mutant powers after M-Day, and was recruited into Tony Stark's Fifty State Initiative and given an artificial version of her powers. Then when she was de-powered by the bad guys, it reactivated her original powers. Or so she thought. It was really Stane rebooting Stark's tech-based powers, but more potent and less controlled.
  • Spider-Man: Felicia Hardy is largely known as a Badass Normal but has gone through multiple iterations of being superpowered. Firstly, she made a deal with the Kingpin and was scientifically experimented upon, which gave her the ability to induce bad luck in others. Then it turned out that she suffered Power Incontinence, making her The Jinx even to her allies, so Spider-Man asked Doctor Strange to De-power her. However, the magical ritual he used went a little awry and left her with cat-like physical powers, including heightened agility and reflexes, low-level Super-Strength, infrared vision, and natural retractile talons in her fingers. Then the Chameleon accidentally hit her with a De-power ray whilst trying to zap Spidey, so she went back to relying on skill and a few key gadgets, such as clawed gauntlets, though she did get an exosuit from The Tinkerer that replicated those animalistic powers for a while. Then she decided this wasn't enough and made a bargain with Mr. Negative, resulting in her getting a cybernetic implant that brought back her original "negative probability induction powers" (and may or may not have gotten cyber-claws installed in her fingers in the process).
  • Superman: In The Death of Superman, when the Eradicator rescued Superman's body, he placed him in a Healing Matrix that also doubled as a solar battery for the former to use to recharge his power. Thus, when Superman is revived, he's missing a great deal of his powers, requiring him to use a Kryptonian Warsuit to get to Metropolis and a pair of rocket boots and the Matrix Supergirl to get him to Engine City. When the Eradicator performs a Heroic Sacrifice to protect Superman, Superman ends up regaining his powers with a nice little boost to them. However, this turns into a Came Back Wrong moment later on as his power ends up increasing way too much, though the Parasite ends up fixing this.
  • Teen Titans: Blackfire suffered a childhood disease that cost her the Tamaranean natural ability to fly. Hawkman used Psion technology to strip her of her Starbolt powers, which she was able to regain. This also restored Blackfire's ability to fly and further increased her ability to manipulate and absorb solar radiation.
  • X-Men:
    • Warren Worthington III's power set has undergone a number of changes over the decades. Originally, Warren started out as simply having wings that allowed him to fly. After he suffered an injury to these wings, he was transformed into Apocalypse's Horseman and gained techno-organic wings that fired poison-tipped Feather Flechettes. He regained his organic wings and gained the ability to heal himself and others by mixing his blood with theirs. After some time, his metallic wings and the Archangel persona resurfaced. Following Psylocke killing him, his organic wings and healing powers returned. He also gained the ability to fire energy blasts from his hands and manifest a Laser Blade.

Literature 

  • At the climax of the Black Jewels trilogy, Inverted, where powers return weaker: Jaenelle must drain all the power from her jewels, which shatter, but she then gets a new jewel, which encompasses most of her previous power range. She's still not as powerful, but she was the one that made sure she dropped a power level afterwards.
  • Dragon Bones: Inverted, where powers return weaker: Ward once had magic powers, most of which he lost when his father beat him nearly dead. He gets them back eventually, but the lack of training inbetween means that he's not as powerful as he could have been.
  • Dresden Files: At the end of White Night, Harry Dresden loses the powers granted by Lasciel's Shadow, including the ability to enhance his spells with Hellfire. Not too far into the next book, Small Favor, (set one year after White Night) he gets spell-enhancement, but now it's not-so-nasty, when the Archangel Uriel grants Harry the ability to use Soulfire, Hellfire's nicer counterpart.
  • Harry Potter: Child wizards and witches can do accidental magic soon after they're born, then it fades over time until they learn to do magic deliberately instead of being about luck.

Live-Action TV 

  • In Kamen Rider Agito had Kamen Rider G3, a manmade Rider system built to fight the Grongi. Unfortunately, it was literally So Last Season; the more powerful Lords as well as the mystical based Agito and Gills, outmatch it. So they eventually decomission it and replace it with the G3-X armor, which comes with more power, thicker armor, and increased combat ability.
  • Power Rangers:
    • In Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers, this was basically Tommy’s story arc leading to him obtaining the White Ranger powers. To wit: Rita creates and uses the Green Candle to steal away his powers, only for him to give the Power Coin to Jason to save them. He gets back the coin, but he must get periodic recharges as it is only temporary, making him a big target for Lord Zedd. His courage and bravery in the face of all this convinces Zordon to make him the White Ranger, giving him greater powers than before.
    • By the time of "Dimensions In Danger", Tommy has acquired the Master Morpher which allows him to use all of his Ranger forms.
    • Power Rangers Mystic Force: The premise of the three-parter "Dark Wish" is that the Rangers try too often to use Jenji as a "get out of jail free" card, giving the villains the chance to capture the genie and wish themselves up a Villain World without good magic; de-powering the Rangers and conquering the world. The Rangers eventually manage to impress the Tribunal Of Magic into undoing the wish and restoring the status quo - receiving their Super Mode some time after as a reward for learning the virtue of responsibility.
  • In Stargate SG-1, the SGC loses the Prometheus, their space faring battlecruiser, only to immediately replace it the next episode with the Odyssey, which was more advanced anyway.

Tabletop Games 

  • Dungeons & Dragons 3rd Edition: The Paladin class had an extensive amount of supernatural abilities they gained, but as a tradeoff were forced to follow a code of conduct (often accused of being Lawful Stupid) that would see them stripped of all powers if violated. The Holy Liberator Prestige Class was Chaotic Good to the Paladin's Lawful Good, and while it could be taken by any class it was specially designed for ex-Paladins who'd become chaotic- not only would they regain most of their lost powers, they gain some additional bonuses to boot, up to the possibility of trading out Paladin class levels for Holy Liberator levels on a 1 to 1 ratio if they had 11 or more Paladin levels before becoming a Holy Liberator.

Video Games 

  • In Boktai 2: Solar Boy Django, you start with the very powerful solar gun, Gun Del Sol. It is stolen from you a few screens later. You get it back near the end of the game, but it's actually returned downgraded: it is damaged and uses many times as much energy as it used to.
  • Final Fantasy:
    • Final Fantasy VI: After The End of the World as We Know It, Terra found herself as a surrogate mother to a town full of orphans. The turmoil of dealing with her unfamiliar feelings weakened her magic and cost her access to her Super Mode. When the town is attacked again later, Terra's Mama Bear rage at the monster responsible allows her to make peace with her feelings, restores access to her Super Mode, and doubles the mode's duration.
    • Final Fantasy IX: Garnet can technically access her Eidolons when she first joins the party, but their MP costs are prohibitively high that they're practically unusable barring loads of Level Grinding. Later in the game, Queen Brahne has Zorn and Thorn extract Garnet's Eidolons from her to use as weapons of mass destruction. Shortly after this, Garnet rejoins the party and starts learning how to summon her Eidolons once more, not only cutting their MP costs down but also gaining access to Eidolons she never had prior to the extraction.
  • In The Force Unleashed, the prologue level is played as Darth Vader. He plays like the normal player character would after being powered up to the max, with all the combos and powers available, minus the abilities of Force Dash and Force Lightning.
  • Kameo: Elements of Power begins with A Taste of Power: The titular character infiltrating the fortress of Thorn, the troll king, with three Elemental Warrior transformations intact. Instructions are given on how to transform and use the Warriors' abilities. The attack on the castle fails; Kameo loses her Elemental Warriors and must retrieve them, along with several other transformations.
  • Metroid: Zero Mission: By the time Samus Aran defeats Mother Brain and escapes Tourian, she has a powerful Varia Suit decked out with various upgrades, including three unknown items that are incompatible with her current suit. However, her ship is shot down by Space Pirates and she loses everything except her vulnerable Zero Suit and weak Paralyzer. After a tense Stealth-Based Mission through Chozodia, she completes the Ruins Test and is rewarded with the legendary Fully Powered Suit, which comes with all her previously-lost upgrades and also unlocks the three previously-incompatible upgrades, which turn out to be the Gravity Suit for greater defense, the Space Jump for greater mobility, and the Plasma Beam for greater offense, making her even more powerful than she was before.

Western Animation 

  • Ben 10: Alien Force: In the finale, Ben Tennyson's Omnitrix is destroyed and replaced with the Ultimatrix. The Ultimatrix keeps all of the same transformations, with the addition of being able to upgrade those transformations into Super Mode.
  • Generator Rex: In the first season finale, Van Kleiss absorbs Rex's nanites, bringing Rex down to normal. Fortunately, the special nanites set up 10 episodes in advance were still there, and allowed Rex to get back his powers, and then some.
  • My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic: Baby unicorns get magic surges soon after they're born, which can be wielded to do their will, then it fades until they learn to do it deliberately.
  • W.I.T.C.H. (2004): Will's boyfriend Matt gets his own set of powers, including flight and the ability to shoot lasers from his eyes, after Nerissa kidnaps and brainwashes him into becoming Shagon, her demon of hate. Will eventually breaks him free of Nerissa's control, restoring Matt to a normal human. Matt remains normal for one full episode, but the episode after that sees him gain his powers back but rather than being fueled by hate, they're now powered by Cornelia's sister Lillian's Reality Warper magic and can be used for good.