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A List of Powers Main Characters Don't Get
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These powers aren't excluded from being in the main character's arsenal because they're too OP; they're excluded because people don't want the challenge of writing around them, or they impact the ability to tell the story in some way. Unfortunately, these types of abilities are therefore delegated mostly to side characters or minor villains.

Long Range Precognition: Tends to spoil everything before it happens, really hard to write on regardless of whether the future is set in stone or the character can alter their actions and see its effects

Babyface (JJBA), Siberian (Worm), and other long-range projection-type powers: This sort of ability allows the main character to fight at little to no risk to themselves, which makes fights seem boring. Babyface is a double whammy in that the power is inherently problematic and creepy.

Portal Making/Teleportation: Allows the main character to simply teleport away and avoid any situation that would harm them unless the opponent 1 shots them or has teleportation of their own. These powers are actually really common and I'm just dumb and can't remember things.

Long term mind control: Powers that grant long term mind control of targets, even when a lot of conditions are required, aren't given to main characters.

Unrestricted Telepathy: A lot of plots break down when the main character can read everyone's mind.

Infohazard abilities: Abilities that activate based on knowing the main character severely hamper their interactions with allies and communications in general.

Intangibility: Makes fights incredibly boring and awkward, unless the intangibility is bypassed somehow, in which case it's a one-sided stomp.

Reviving people from the dead: Either you revive people for real, in which case the power breaks the setting (usually), or you revive them as zombies on your side, in which case that's a hard sell for a protagonist.

There are others I'm likely missing; feel free to discuss them. I do believe that all these powers can be written to be given to the protagonist in good ways, but I have not yet found media that do so.

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2 years ago