A term that originated from tabletop gaming, if something is "broken", then it is considered to be cheap or unfair in a fight.
Examples of brokenness include:
- Alphamon's "Alpha-Gain-Force" (Digimon)
- Alti's Torment of a Thousand Lifetimes (Xena: Warrior Princess)
- Armor Mothra's Transcending Fate from Rebirth of Mothra III
(Godzilla film series)
- Asura being able to use every Dark Bring from his verse (RAVE)
- Battler Ushiromiya's Endless Nine barrier (When They Cry series)
- Boss Rabbit and Akkuman's abilities (Dragonball)
- Baraggan's Respira (Bleach)
- Causality Manipulation in general (The God Hand and Idea of Evil from Berserk have this)
- Chao Lingshen's Cassiopeia and Bullet of Compulsory Time Lapse (Negima)
- Conceptual Manipulation in general
- Cosmo Power (Saint Seiya)
- Data Drain (.hack)
- Dispel Bound and Eternal Atoms (Bastard!!)
- Fiamma of the Right's Holy Right and Aureolus Izzard's Ars Magna (ToAru)
- Former Crimson King's knowledge and ability to use every Mibu technique and other powerful techniques like Sekireigan (Samurai Deeper Kyo)
- Fuzetsu (Shakugan no Shana)
- Genie (Aladdin)
- Golden Experience Requiem/Stairway to Heaven (Jojo's Bizarre Adventure)
- Jesse Custer's Word of God (Preacher)
- Kouga Gennosuke's doujutsu (Basilisk)
- Kenshiro's Musou Tensei (Fist of the North Star)
- Kirakishou before obtaining a physical body (Rozen Maiden)
- Light Hawk Wings (Tenchi Muyo!)
- Lord Voldemot's death spells (Harry Potter)
- Mystic Eyes of Death Perception for both Shikis (Nasuverse)
- Naraku's Shikon no Tama (InuYasha)
- Probability Manipulation in general (The God Hand and Idea of Evil from Berserk have this)
- Road Kamelot's Dimension of Dreams (D.Gray-Man)
- Reality Warping in general
- Reflect (Kingdom Hearts)
- Saber's Avalon (Fate/Stay Night)
- Sakura Kinomoto's Clow Cards (Card Captor Sakura)
- Schrödinger's powers (Hellsing)
- The Saint of Killer's bullets from Preacher (Vertigo title)
- Shendu and his Talismans from Jackie Chan Adventures
- Spiral Power (TTGL)
- Superman (Superweaving? SuperVentriloquism? Superhypnosis?)
- Teridax (Is practically a Swiss Army Knife of abilities)
- Time Compression (Final Fantasy)
- Time Stop (The World), Time Loop (Killer Queen), Time Skip (King Crimson, JJBA, also from Kingdom Hearts and several other games and other works of fiction)
- The Force (Star Wars)
- The Power Cosmic (Marvel)
- The Speedforce (DC)
- The Shrike (Hyperion Cantos)
- Many Touhou characters
- Yamato (Devil May Cry)
- Yami Yugi's Heart of The Cards (Yu-Gi-Oh)
- Yuki Nagato's data manipulation (The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya)
NOTE: Brokeness is not defined solely by massive power. A character who can shoot a blast to blow up the world or push a planet out of orbit isn't necessarily broken, just powerful. Broken abilities generally have more finesse, and are the kind that can be classified as "cheap tricks" (like the stand of the same name in Jojo's Bizarre Adventure). That doesn't mean that broken characters cannot be massively powerful, on the contrary, many are. It just means that it's not a defining characteristic of brokeness.
A basic idea of brokenness can be derived as follows - does the attack enable individuals to fight on par with vastly more powerful foes? Does it work on a plane completely separate to normal methods of battle? (Timefuckery is a prime example) Does it violate causality or logic? If so, it's probably broken.
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| Similar, yet different to glass |
Examples of brokenness include:
- Alphamon's "Alpha-Gain-Force" (Digimon)
- Alti's Torment of a Thousand Lifetimes (Xena: Warrior Princess)
- Armor Mothra's Transcending Fate from Rebirth of Mothra III
(Godzilla film series)- Asura being able to use every Dark Bring from his verse (RAVE)
- Battler Ushiromiya's Endless Nine barrier (When They Cry series)
- Boss Rabbit and Akkuman's abilities (Dragonball)
- Baraggan's Respira (Bleach)
- Causality Manipulation in general (The God Hand and Idea of Evil from Berserk have this)
- Chao Lingshen's Cassiopeia and Bullet of Compulsory Time Lapse (Negima)
- Conceptual Manipulation in general
- Cosmo Power (Saint Seiya)
- Data Drain (.hack)
- Dispel Bound and Eternal Atoms (Bastard!!)
- Fiamma of the Right's Holy Right and Aureolus Izzard's Ars Magna (ToAru)
- Former Crimson King's knowledge and ability to use every Mibu technique and other powerful techniques like Sekireigan (Samurai Deeper Kyo)
- Fuzetsu (Shakugan no Shana)
- Genie (Aladdin)
- Golden Experience Requiem/Stairway to Heaven (Jojo's Bizarre Adventure)
- Jesse Custer's Word of God (Preacher)
- Kouga Gennosuke's doujutsu (Basilisk)
- Kenshiro's Musou Tensei (Fist of the North Star)
- Kirakishou before obtaining a physical body (Rozen Maiden)
- Light Hawk Wings (Tenchi Muyo!)
- Lord Voldemot's death spells (Harry Potter)
- Mystic Eyes of Death Perception for both Shikis (Nasuverse)
- Naraku's Shikon no Tama (InuYasha)
- Probability Manipulation in general (The God Hand and Idea of Evil from Berserk have this)
- Road Kamelot's Dimension of Dreams (D.Gray-Man)
- Reality Warping in general
- Reflect (Kingdom Hearts)
- Saber's Avalon (Fate/Stay Night)
- Sakura Kinomoto's Clow Cards (Card Captor Sakura)
- Schrödinger's powers (Hellsing)
- The Saint of Killer's bullets from Preacher (Vertigo title)
- Shendu and his Talismans from Jackie Chan Adventures
- Spiral Power (TTGL)
- Superman (Superweaving? SuperVentriloquism? Superhypnosis?)
- Teridax (Is practically a Swiss Army Knife of abilities)
- Time Compression (Final Fantasy)
- Time Stop (The World), Time Loop (Killer Queen), Time Skip (King Crimson, JJBA, also from Kingdom Hearts and several other games and other works of fiction)
- The Force (Star Wars)
- The Power Cosmic (Marvel)
- The Speedforce (DC)
- The Shrike (Hyperion Cantos)
- Many Touhou characters
- Yamato (Devil May Cry)
- Yami Yugi's Heart of The Cards (Yu-Gi-Oh)
- Yuki Nagato's data manipulation (The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya)
NOTE: Brokeness is not defined solely by massive power. A character who can shoot a blast to blow up the world or push a planet out of orbit isn't necessarily broken, just powerful. Broken abilities generally have more finesse, and are the kind that can be classified as "cheap tricks" (like the stand of the same name in Jojo's Bizarre Adventure). That doesn't mean that broken characters cannot be massively powerful, on the contrary, many are. It just means that it's not a defining characteristic of brokeness.
A basic idea of brokenness can be derived as follows - does the attack enable individuals to fight on par with vastly more powerful foes? Does it work on a plane completely separate to normal methods of battle? (Timefuckery is a prime example) Does it violate causality or logic? If so, it's probably broken.