Are Power Belts an outdated concept?

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GeekyPornCritic

I will sound hypocritical about this topic because I recently wrote my first SHIP story about a heroine with a power belt. My opinion on power belts have greatly shifted over the past few days. I think power belts are the worst excuse for a weakness. It's the easiest weakness to exploit. Just force the belt off of the heroine and she is helpless. I was reading Ms. Amazing and Victory, and both heroines suffer from the same weaknesses in their stories. They become jokes of themselves and cannot defend themselves. I know that is the point, but it is too easy to achieve.

Fighting gangs is too dangerous. The stories about Ms. Amazing, Mis. Patriots, Victory, and some versions of Wonder Woman features these ladies easily defeated by gangs because one gang member will unstrap the belt when the heroine's back is turned. Sometimes one thug bearhugs the heroine for his buddy to unstrap the belt. It's a very predictable defeat.It does not make sense for these types of heroines to fight gangs alone.

Every villain knows the heroine's weakness. Power belts remove tension from battles. I know how this fight is going to end most of the time. Even if the villain uses a clever trick to win, then he or she is always wise enough to remove the belt while the heroine is unconscious.

Centurion fixed this problem in his series, Fuchsia Fox. Fuchsia Fox has the same weakness, but only with her bracelets. She needs her bracelets to use her powers. However, only she can take them off or she must give someone permission to take them off. The other person cannot use her powers because they are not mentally connected to her bracelets, but if they find a way to form a connection then the powers will work.

Even though Primal Fetish only films videos, I think they are able to capture tension because they don't use the power belt concept. Their villains use magic, technology, divine powers if they are gods, better super powers, chloroform, seduction, chemical substances, nano-bots, etc. I am always on my toes on how the villain is going to win. In their recent Supergirl video, Supergirl is defeated by a God with sexual powers.

I would like to see writers add a villain like Rogue (she was originally a villain). Someone can copy or steal powers for an extended period of time. That would cause tension and peril. Add sexual touching like kissing, fingering, or pussy lick to make the peril more intense. Not only is the heroine losing her powers because of the touch, but she is being forced to enjoy being de-powered in a humiliating and blissful manner.
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I'm kind of with you on this, but a powered item isn't innately flawed so much as it often manifests the same kinds of stories and plot-mistakes. Like, often in these things the heroine just becomes the same as any victim the moment the belt comes off, and I'm just not a fan of any heroine that stops being heroic just because she loses her belt or whatever. It makes it seem like just the belt is what makes them a hero, and that's a rubbish character if so.

Even so, I think a power belt could work just fine if written right, and much like SG with kryptonite it gives you the sudden, dramatic inversion of power in a scene, and that's understandably popular. It doesn't need much - even just a plot conceit that means the belt, or whatever powered item - can't simply be removed by any random, but perhaps needs something more intricate than that. The easiest and still probably most interesting is for it to be a matter of the heroine's willpower being the thing that keeps the belt locked, and if her concentration or will to fight slips then the belt becomes removable. But the most important thing to me would be the heroine still behaves and thinks like a heroine even after losing her edge.

Indeed a villain or villainess that drains power through touch or pleasure sounds like gravy. Right out the gates, that fight and the peril that could come after it looks pretty fun.
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It probably depends on the reality of the world in which the story is set. It's obvious to us because that is what was in the Wonder Woman TV show, and many stories that followed. But if that show never existed in an author's world, then a belt as a power source wouldn't be so obvious, and wouldn't be the obvious target of criminals.

Either way, unlike Void I'm a sucker for a heroine who has a power source that transforms her from a meek (but hot) woman into something else entirely, and back again when it's stripped from her.
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GeekyPornCritic wrote:
5 years ago
I would like to see writers add a villain like Rogue (she was originally a villain). Someone can copy or steal powers for an extended period of time. That would cause tension and peril. Add sexual touching like kissing, fingering, or pussy lick to make the peril more intense. Not only is the heroine losing her powers because of the touch, but she is being forced to enjoy being de-powered in a humiliating and blissful manner.
There have been lots of videos like this over the years. One that comes to mind immediately is, I believe, Lexi Belle's first superheroine vid for TBFE: http://shg-media.com/Default.aspx?PageI ... 4626844054
Damselbinder

I'm with the others here in that I think it depends how you do it.

I can, for example, envisage a heroine very paranoid about having her belt remove. She rigs it up to be almost impossible to take off - it's booby-trapped, even. So yeah, no-one is going to be able to beat her BY removing her belt. But let's say someone defeats her anyway, and that slowly undoes all her precautions, and takes her belt anyway as a way of keeping her captive. It might drive the nail in rather well: for all her preparation, her power was STILL taken from her in the end.

And as for Roguelike (tee-hee) enemies, I agree they are potentially very fun. I had one called Adrienne, who could steal heroine's powers using a set of slick, binding tentacles, and it would produce a euphoric, blush-inducing sensation in her victims. I uh...I enjoyed that one.
GeekyPornCritic

I am working on a custom script about a superheroine losing her superheroine persona to her ex-best friend. Her best friend steals her power belt, costume, and superheroine ego.

I wrote a character similar to Rouge for a custom video from Primal Fetish. It is Ultra Girl Succumbs to Lust XXX. Lust steals energy instead of superpowers. She is basically like Androids 19 and 20. Heroines just aren't able to use their powers against her because their energies have been drained. She steals energy by kissing her victims, and her kisses fill superheroines with unquenchable sexual desires. Ultra Girl is seduced into willingly giving her energy to Lust.

https://www.clips4sale.com/studio/53607 ... P4+Optimum
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Everybody has a different appetite for dramatic tension in their porn.

There's nothing outdated about getting what you want when you want it.

The power belt is just a plot device -- an old one. Delilah cut Samson's hair while he slept.
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Power belt allowed the depowering of Wonder Woman without physical violence and the alternatives were knockout gas or using a hostage to make her do it. They were TV safe ways to do it instead of knockouts of her head and other methods from the comics.

Batman TV series did physical and gas knockouts, but tried to them in a comic style to make them TV friendly. For instance Batgirl got knocked out by a vase while King Tut was doing a witty exchange to distract her.

It's really what works in the story style as a method. In videos and text it is a quick method to jump to the next part.
arkane
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I don't like the power belt concept either. An external source for the strength that should be "within" the character.
Maybe it's widely used because too strong heroines need a quick and easy way to make possible to defeat them (but that would mean that they are too strong to start with).
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Yep, I am with opinion that generally if a "thing" makes a person into the hero, well, that "thing" could have fallen into anyone's hands. At least make it a skill to actually wield the "thing" so that the hero using it has some value in the situation.
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power belts!! yes...like my batbelt....I feel Naked without it!!!
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The power belt concept has been a major turn on for decades and will continue being so into the future. I admire superheroines who are virtually invincible and confident of their abilities against any amount of bad guys. It's hot to see them maintain their heroic stance even if they are depowered and regardless of the perilous circumstances.
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I agree that power belts are a bit obvious, but as a super fan of the old Wonder Woman TV show I am hooked on them. But, saying that, in my stories I have the younger heroines coming on the scene using other items (some hidden) as power sourses: Rings under their gloves, chokers, tiaras, belly rings, etc.

But I love the idea of a super heroine having such a extreme and profound vulnerability. Now, Mr X has Ms Americana's belt held on by her will power, forcing the villain to KO her or use sex to break her will enough to remove it. Or use extreme strength to rip it off. Ms A does seem to loose her belt more easily nowadays, but I know it's not so easy.

But I hear you. Still, it seems like every other villain has kryptonite with fighting Superman or Supergirl. Same thing in a way.
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DonShip wrote:
4 years ago
I agree that power belts are a bit obvious, but as a super fan of the old Wonder Woman TV show I am hooked on them. But, saying that, in my stories I have the younger heroines coming on the scene using other items (some hidden) as power sourses: Rings under their gloves, chokers, tiaras, belly rings, etc.

But I love the idea of a super heroine having such a extreme and profound vulnerability. Now, Mr X has Ms Americana's belt held on by her will power, forcing the villain to KO her or use sex to break her will enough to remove it. Or use extreme strength to rip it off. Ms A does seem to loose her belt more easily nowadays, but I know it's not so easy.

But I hear you. Still, it seems like every other villain has kryptonite with fighting Superman or Supergirl. Same thing in a way.
I love the power belt device as well. To see a superheroine in all of her glory, in her superheroine stance, at the height of her powers, and then suddenly to be rendered powerless, to have the strength of a normal woman, the sudden surprise of that is superheroine peril gold, especially when written by a writer of your caliber. Conversely, when a superheroine slowly, gradually loses her powers, it does not seem to resonate with me as much. In the Wonder Woman episode titled "the bushwackers" there is a scene where Wonder Woman is debelted, and the initial look on her face when that happens, the look of shock and bewilderment on her face..... well, for me it does not get any better than that.
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No i dont think so, to me the power belt is the perfect source of power and weakness for a super heroine

I like that having a power item like that magical or not lets the girl o woman keeps her femininity and being strong at the same time, i mean they dont need to train and have big muscles to fight bad guys they dont need to look like a guy or something.

sailor moon by example uses a magical brooch to transform into sailor moon and a few times on the manga and anime is taken from her... if you took it from her by force while she is transformed or if the brooch is damage she lost her transformation and powers and she cant fight without them because she is a young and delicate girl with no training in combat but she becomes super powerful when she becomes sailor moon, usagi as sailor moon can fly or jump very hight use her magic powers and overall her body becomes stronger, but just like the magic belt weakness if you remove her brooch she lost her powers and becomes weak and helpless.



tv wonder woman was unable to fight once her magic belt is removed because as a regular woman she always was subdued easily by a man strength, on the Bushwhackers episode she tried to get free from the guy but she cant cause she is weaker than them without her powers, but once she retrieved her belt she defeats them easily.

I like the idea that any woman can be a super heroine just by wearing power item, is a sexy weakness when the villain took it from her and she is helpless until she is able to get it back, the heroine is both strong and confident with her powers on and weak and helpless without them.

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The power belt is an old concept, like ancient. Swan maidens were Norse daughters of the gods who basically wandered the world looking for men, and slaughtering anyone who wasn't quite up to the task of beating them. The man who defeated her took her belt, and with it, both the unnatural strength and immortality that went with it. The upside was, now she was mortal, able to marry and have her happily ever after. A bit bloodier than your Victorian romances, but Norse women took a bit of murder on the way to matrimony as being seriously romantic.

In stories it can be a real cop out, if it is so easily done that it makes you wonder how anyone but the blind and wheelchair bound could fail to easily defeat the heroine. Same as Wonder Woman's lasso. Oh, touch her with the rope and she is your slave forever. Kind of skipped the seduction, corruption and fall that gets me wet and involved. That is the good bit, and you skipped it.

Give me a good why, hang a decent story on it, and I will forgive anything. I mean Green Lantern is helpless against colour, so literally you could beat him to death with dandelions. It doesn't have to be that sensible. Comic logic is a really low bar.
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Earth 2 Green Lantern's ring doesn't work against wood, so as some wag said, you could defeat both with a number 2 pencil.
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In that cowboy episode WW was supposed to get chloro instead of a de-belt but they changed it due to time. Someone I know bought the script and its explains what was supposed to happen.
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Depowering a heroine while she remains in costume is a pretty common trope. I like the Japanese style where the heroine’s costume gets briefer and briefer as she is defeated, until she is sweaty and nearly naked. I am not a huge fight fan, so seeing a woman beaten into submission is not that interesting to me. Seeing her gassed or de powered, then bound and put into peril is more my speed.

Batgirl’s utility belt is a nice fashion accessory, that doesn’t give her superpowers, but serve as a handy plot device to get out of danger when all else fails and doesn’t require another character to free her. Power belts and magic brooches serve as a “capture the flag” feature. If you can get it off her, you win the round and get to move onto the next level, like ye’ olde death trap…
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I can’t believe nobody ever removed Batgirl’s utility belt in the 1960s Batman.
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IMSancho wrote:
1 year ago
I can’t believe nobody ever removed Batgirl’s utility belt in the 1960s Batman.
I thought that low slung utility belt was sexy as fuck. It was just such a shame they didn’t do the fourth season with Robin off to college. Batman and her running parallel investigations. More screen time for her and all perils that had been going to Robin being given to her…
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IMSancho wrote:
1 year ago
I can’t believe nobody ever removed Batgirl’s utility belt in the 1960s Batman.
I don't recall her ever using it. You see Batman use his all the time but Robin and Batgirl rarely used theirs.
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Power Items are difficult to handle, make them too simple and they become boring and if they're too complicated it's hard to write scenarios where they come off without them being a slog. I like the idea of a heroine having something similar to Thor's hammer, an item that can be taken from them, but that can also be summoned back under the right conditions. Alternatively if they have some other skills they can use to retrieve their power item that's a good way to balance the problem too. I guess I just don't like the idea of it being too simple to remove or that once it's removed it's an instant game over and the heroine has no chance of retrieval. It should be a serious set back, but not necessarily the end.
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Mr. X wrote:
1 year ago
IMSancho wrote:
1 year ago
I can’t believe nobody ever removed Batgirl’s utility belt in the 1960s Batman.
I don't recall her ever using it. You see Batman use his all the time but Robin and Batgirl rarely used theirs.
She used a vat opener to keep Louie the Lilac from boiling her alive and a fuse extinguisher to keep the Joker from launching her into outer space.
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IMSancho wrote:
1 year ago
Mr. X wrote:
1 year ago
IMSancho wrote:
1 year ago
I can’t believe nobody ever removed Batgirl’s utility belt in the 1960s Batman.
I don't recall her ever using it. You see Batman use his all the time but Robin and Batgirl rarely used theirs.
She used a vat opener to keep Louie the Lilac from boiling her alive and a fuse extinguisher to keep the Joker from launching her into outer space.
Oh true. But they STILL never took the belt off of her. I guess disrobing a girl would be a big NO NO.
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Mr. X wrote:
1 year ago
IMSancho wrote:
1 year ago
Mr. X wrote:
1 year ago
IMSancho wrote:
1 year ago
I can’t believe nobody ever removed Batgirl’s utility belt in the 1960s Batman.
I don't recall her ever using it. You see Batman use his all the time but Robin and Batgirl rarely used theirs.
She used a vat opener to keep Louie the Lilac from boiling her alive and a fuse extinguisher to keep the Joker from launching her into outer space.
Oh true. But they STILL never took the belt off of her. I guess disrobing a girl would be a big NO NO.
Batman’s was taken a couple of times, but was generally left in situ. When I was writing Batgirl stories, I had villains try to remove it but couldn’t because it was held as a puzzle lock in the buckle. They just had to tie her up in a way she couldn’t make easy use of it….
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Valleyvixin
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I just wrote a story that had been simmering in my mind for a while based on the power belt trope, but turned sideways.

I took a heroine of debatably human parentage who used a power belt to keep her human fraction in control. The power belt wasn't there to make her superhuman, the power belt was there because it was the only thing that kept her weak humanity in control. The classic sexual tension required to make it work is even worse for her because she walks the razor edge between her Succubus mother's hunger for consuming lift through lust, and her father Hyde's need to rip from the world everything he even momentarily lusts for through violence made almost elemental. She has to keep up enough to keep her mother's hunger from taking over, but never enough to wake her father's blood.

Now someone spots her power belt, and decides to strip it from her, and thus make it safe to ravage her.

Or not.

Needless to say, had to move it to the Dungeon for the last half, as it got dark, before it got darker, but ended shiny happy.....ish.

The power belt has so much fetish luggage that using it allows you to not beat people to death with the why and wherefore because we all know how the damned things work, and what happens to heroines who lose them.
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And I heartily endorse Valleyvixin's very clever and effective story.
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Power belts are an absurd concept, that's for sure, but I sure did love the watching WW's power belt getting snatched off her lovely waist and seeing her suddenly helpless against ordinary thugs.
Check out my superheroine-related short stories here:

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In Flesh Gordon, Dr Flexi Jerkoff is given a pair of Power Pasties…

I like the trope because it can heroines a source of power and confidence that can be stripped away, leaving her otherwise okay, but vulnerable to whatever perverse death trap that awaits…. The Giga heroines seem particularly susceptible to these situations and the subsequent costume destruction. :thumbup:

As a side note, I recalled Batgirl gave Batman & Robin Universal Antidote Pills from her Batgirl Utility Belt just a couple of minutes before Catwoman put her in the Cat’s Whiskers to slowly be strangled.
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batgirl1969
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Would have been great to see Catwoman slowly removing batgirl's belt while she was strapped to the pattern cutter before she lays the flower between her tits, maybe telling her it would be a shame to see this wonderful utility belt cut in two!!! GOD I love purple and yellow!!!
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In Electra Woman and Dyna Girl the villains usually did something to neutralize their Electracomps whenever they were trapped.

The Empress of Evil once took Dyna Girl’s Electracomp.
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