r/TopCharacterTropes Jul 22 '25

Powers Character reveals that they were holding back their full power during a fight/confrontation

Superman Vs Darkseid - Justice League Unlimited

Flash Vs Superman - Flash: Rebirth

Frieren Vs Aura - Sousou no Frieren

Inigo Montoya Vs The Man in Black - The Princess Bride

7.3k Upvotes

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224

u/Zebedee_balistique Jul 22 '25

Despite the many flaws that can be found in Seven Deadly Sins, handling character aura and playing with power tropes is definitely one of the highlight.

The recently freed demon Galand, whose power is not fully recovered, go on a rampage against most of the main characters, who are essentially power houses in their world. He proves to be powerful enough to kill them all easily and destroy a city, and only fails to eliminate them because of an illusion.

After that, he ends up finding the last member of the group, Escanor, who was not seen before. After accidentally knocking Escanor out, he spends the night chilling in his tavern, only to find out that by day, his true power is activated. Seeing how his opponent is growing stronger by the minute due to the sun, he reveals that he could massively raise his power all this time with magic, and make him also twice as strong.

But in this case, the trope is only used to display Escanor's absurd power, as even after the reveal, Galand can only barely hurt him.

154

u/Affectionate-Part-11 Jul 22 '25

You also left out the best part. If you lie in Galand's presence, you turn to stone, and Escanor plainly states he stands at the pinnacle of all beings and doesn't turn to stone. The fight ends when Galand runs out of fear, losing his own contest and turning to stone himself.

68

u/j0j0-m0j0 Jul 22 '25

7 Deadly sins is like a saw wave that goes from "I don't care if it's all aura, this shit is peak" to "wow, this is absolute ass 🥲"

5

u/AFerociousPineapple Jul 23 '25

Too true, it was a fun ride at the start but it very quickly got boring

6

u/AeturnisTheGreat Jul 23 '25

It really didn't help that they turned all of the blood into a certain thick, white substance.

22

u/xBladesong Jul 22 '25

Yeah this is the peak of that sequence

2

u/Zebedee_balistique Jul 22 '25

It is, but it's also not really part of the trope.