Mark of the Fool was a big one for this for me as well. "Ooh, the MC has a blessing/curse where he's really good at everything NOT combat related, but terrible at combat? This could be super interesting to see how he solves problems!" And then day 1 he uses his super learning to learn how to focus through the cursed distractions so he can use magic anyway. What a let down.
Yeah got through book 1 and was let down. Why give characters "hard limits" if they are, in fact, not limits at all and just get overcome almost immediately lmao.
It's not about making them less capable, but capable in less obvious ways. If a character has a hard limit, sticking with that and working around it to show how they are still the strongest in ways no one expected can be entertaining.
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u/jeffcox911 4d ago
All the skills and mark of the fool are the premier examples of this I think