Convection, Schmonvection: Difference between revisions

Lava: primal force, essence of destruction that leaves behind fertile land; ''really, '''really''' hot''.

 

 

 

Although lava is the primary offender, this also applies to any time convection is ignored for the sake of [[Rule of Cool]], such as when a character is standing above or near a large fire or any other extreme heat source. If you don't touch the raging inferno, boiling lake, or white-hot walls, you'll be fine.

Lava is also rarely found just calmly laying around - when it slows, it has time to cool and harden. If it's been liquid for any appreciable length of time, it will probably [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IAxj2ob_JoU look like this]. This is a subtrope of [[Artistic License Physics]].

 

 

A complete but no more accurate inversion is "[[Space Is Cold]]", where there ''is'' no convection, but TV acts as though there is.

** In another example, from the ''[[Naruto]]: Shippuden the Movie'', the priestess Shion goes running to where some evil demon's body is sealed in a shrine located along a thin strip of rock. In a volcano. ''Barefoot''. This also throws into question why one would put a shrine in a freakin' volcano.

** Itachi's Amaterasu, which creates black fire said to be hot as the sun, should destroy everything in the area of its use, but you can get right next to it unless it touches you (then it needs to be sealed/brought down by its user or it keeps burning). Even as hyperbole, it's a bit of a stretch.

* During ''[[Bleach]]'''s {{spoiler|Fake Karakura Town}} arc, [[Playing With Fire|Yamamoto]] traps {{spoiler|Aizen, Gin and Kaname}} inside a giant ball of fire. They just stand there looking pretty for a few chapters and when it's finally extinguished they don't appear any worse for wear.

** [[Justified Trope|Justified]] in that the powers of a zanpakuto seem to be dependent on the spiritual pressure of the user. {{spoiler|Aizen and co.}} likely just upped their pressure enough to avoid damage from the heat and flame. Yama-jii, meanwhile, was only trying to keep them out of the battle, and didn't bother to try and harm them.

* Averted in the [[Filler]] Arc "Asgard" of ''[[Saint Seiya]]''. God Warrior [[Playing With Fire|Hagen]] of [[Stellar Name|Merak Beta]] lures the [[An Ice Person|ice-and-cold-wielding]] Saint Cygnus Hyoga into the depths of a volcano. While Hagen's Cloth and his own supernatural [[Battle Aura|Cosmo]] explicitly protect him from the heat (and, indeed, the lava enhances his attacks,) Hyoga has to spend such a ''considerable'' amount of his cooling Cosmo just to ''survive'' in the volcano, let alone ''attack'' his enemy, that he completely exhausts himself doing so.

* Also averted in ''[[Ranma One Half|Ranma 1/2]]''. No volcanoes, but the final enemy is a [[The Phoenix|phoenix]]-[[Half-Human Hybrid]] who can generate as much flame and heat as he wants. With one swipe of his wings, or a wave of his hands, he can toss a gout of flame that, aside from ''[[Captain Obvious|burning]]'', it heats up the air around it and the resulting pressure actually punches through solid rock. Later in the fight, when this enemy's [[Battle Aura]] causes the rock to melt into magma, Ranma tries to shield himself from it with a frozen boulder. The boulder (which took the brunt of the hit) is disintegrated and Ranma himself is scorched despite never coming into contact with the magma. In the end, even when the foe ''isn't'' emitting any flame, the extreme heat in the air around him is what makes Ranma's final attack possible.

 

 

** Also, when they went to Iceland to start their trip to the North Pole, James had a hard time standing within ten feet of a ''coagulated'' lava flow. [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y7rffcRFwD0&feature=relmfu\]

* Subverted on ''[[MacGyver]]''. In the episode "Flame's End", the villain has [[Death Trap|locked him and a companion in a room]] at a nuclear power plant and he plans to flood it with the reactor's coolant water. Mac's companion points out that convection alone is going to kill them long before they have a chance to drown, scald, or be irradiated to death.

* In the ''[[Star Trek Voyager]]'' episode "Basics, part II", the "don't touch the lava" rule is very much in effect when, during an evacuation from a volcanic eruption, Chakotay rescues an alien girl who's somehow gotten herself stranded on a piece of rock.

** The ''[[Star Trek the Next Generation]]'' series finale includes a scene where [[The Omnipotent|Q]] takes Picard back to primeval Earth. There are flaming pools of lava all around them, but Picard doesn't even seem to sweat. (Maybe Q shielded them from it?)

 

== [[Video Games]] ==

* Averted in ''[[Star Fox (Video Game)|Star Fox]] 64''. The sun/molten planet (the games are inconsistent on this) Solar's heat will damage your Arwing just by being in the area.

** Some ''[[Star Fox Adventures (Video Game)|Star Fox Adventures]]'' levels contain lava, none of which is harmful to be near, but which causes damage for as long as Fox stands on it.

* Averted in ''[[The Bards Tale]]'': depending on your actions, either one of Chosen Ones goes to a chest on a stone island in a middle of room full of lava, and promptly catches on fire just by being there; or, the Bard explains him that this would happen if he goes there.

* In the ''[[Thief]]'' games lava is harmless as long as you tiptoe around it, but coming into even the slightest contact with it will kill Garrett instantly. This is taken to an even more ridiculous extreme in the Thief Gold mission "The Mage Towers" where the interior of the Fire Tower is built almost entirely out of metal and there's a huge lava pool sitting right smack in the middle. In addition to convection, shouldn't the intense heat conduct through the metal and immolate any non-mages on contact?

* Taken to a ridiculous extreme in the Underworld stage of ''[[Ninja Gaiden|Ninja Gaiden II]]'' for the Xbox 360. The usual rules of the trope are applied, made even sillier by the fact that you're running around on molten rock in ''socks.'' But you can fall into deep lava-which very slowly damages you-and SWIM IN IT LIKE IT'S WATER.

** That's because [[Conservation of Ninjutsu|he's a ninja]]. The same also applied to the previous game.

** On a related note, the ice cape even works if you lack the [[Power-Up]] necessary to swim in water without [[Super Drowning Skills|taking damage]]. This may be considered [[Sequence Breaking]], but it gives you something to [[Fridge Logic|think about]].

* ''[[Lemmings]]'' one-upped this trope: the fiery levels in the original not only had lava that was no danger to the little green-haired [[Too Dumb to Live]] critters as long as they didn't actually touch it, it also had a trap that continually sprayed fire and fried them - if they landed in the middle of it. The edges (especially the forward edge) were perfectly safe. And the masonry levels had something greenish as the liquid that looked suspiciously like the cliché depiction of acid - but without dangerous vapors. Then again, [[Everything Trying to Kill You|it's not exactly as if the lemmings were ''safe'' because of these omissions...]]

* ''[[Ratchet and Clank]]'' follows this trope. Particularly in ''[[Ratchet and Clank Going Commando]]'' where:

** If Ratchet grabs an edge just above lava, he'll hang there in lava ''up to his knees'' and take no damage.

* Both used and averted in the [[Star Wars]] RTS, ''[[Empire At War]]''. There are a few planets which are volcanic (Sullust, Shola, Aeten II, Mustafar in the expansion) and planets which are covered in snow and ice (Hoth, Ilum). The only one that infantry take auto-damage on is Shola. Somehow, infantry and vehicles are immune to going over STREAMS OF LAVA (or entire rivers in the case of hover vehicles on Mustafar in the expansion). Then there's the cold on Hoth and Ilum, acid rain only affecting repulsorlift vehicles on Jabiim (repulsorlift vehicles don't work), and nobody taking damage from Tatooine heat or sandstorms...

* As long we're talking about Mustafar: in ''Star Wars Galaxies'', as long as you are on solid ground, you are safe from lava. However, flying over lava (even in completely enclosed vehicle) will cause damage. That's right, in ''Galaxies'' heat travels only upwards.

** Close examination reveals that the "lava" in some rooms of Dodongo's Cavern appears to be just really hot rocks. The room with the gigantic lava flow covering two stories is a straight example, though.

** Using the [[Warp Whistle|Bolero of Fire]], young Link can trans straight to Death Mountain's crater (and plant a seed to access a Piece of Heart). There is a timer on arrival that ticks down until Link leaves (another song is required, as he lacks the tools needed to escape on his own), and he will die of heatstroke if the clock runs out (aforementioned tunic is too big for him).

* Quite a few ''[[Pokémon (Franchise)|Pokémon]]'' gym leaders have lava inside their gym, inside their room (in the case of the leagues), or are located near lava.

** While not strictly a lava hazard, Magcargo's Pokedex entry lists it skin [[You Fail Physics Forever|as being]] ''[[You Fail Physics Forever|twice as hot as the surface of the sun.]]'' Just let [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=brWQpe-QN-o this guy] explain the further implications of this, especially in regard to ultraviolet radiation. {{spoiler|A Pokémon trainer standing near a Magcargo gets ''35 million times more'' UV radiation than an average life-form would get from the sun.}}

** Camerupt fits into this as well, as does the aformentioned Torkoal.

** ''[[Pokémon Diamond and Pearl]]''/ Platinum has Stark Mountain, which has this trope all over the place-the character is walking all around lava pools

** Conversely, the 2007 movie gets convection mostly right, but was criticized by fans who did not fully understand that while space is infinitely cold, the ''lack'' of convection in space means that a body in space will cool very, very slowly - much more slowly than a superheated body falling into the Arctic Ocean. In fact, the TF Wiki ''links to our [[Space Is Cold]] page'' to explain why that's not an error. See, this stuff ''is'' educational!

*** Not only does "infinitely cold" not exist (there is a lowest possible temperature), but space is several degrees warmer than absolute zero. Specifically, it's about 3 Kelvin, or -270 degrees Celsius (0 Kelvin is absolute zero). Furthermore, unless there is evaporation going on, a body in space that is in view of the Sun tends to heat up unless it's already hotter than the Sun's surface, 6000K. And, of course, if it is not in view of the sun, it tends to cool down to that 3K I mentioned, but it happens very slowly because neither conduction nor convection are possible, only radiation, and things at "normal" temperatures tend to radiate very very slowly.

** Likewise, in "Volcano" Lois is right next to molten lava and is completely unaffected, even doing a hand-over-hand climb over a field of lava without being even singed.

** This is amended in later episodes, where Lois Lane is imperiled by fire, and passes out or is burned outright by the heat.

** [[Averted Trope|Averted]] in another episode; things are seen catching on fire ''before'' making contact with lava.

** This extends to the Jedi lightsabers as well. Quite often the Jedi will use their lightsabers to create passages via cutting holes through walls, floors and ceilings, leaving a smoldering hot ring of molten material around the cut. Often characters will hop right through these holes, sometimes even ''touching'' the edges with no ill effects.

* ''[[The Land Before Time]]'' animated series episode "The Canyon of Shiny Stones" is all about this trope (although they do, at least, remember that volcanoes produce choking smoke).

* ''[[Phineas and Ferb]]'' roast weiners on a passing lava flow in "Candace Loses Her Head".

* In the ''[[Young Justice (Animation)|Young Justice]]'' episode "Denial", the team falls into a pit, at the bottom of which is a pool of lava. A trap door closes over the lava in time to catch them (though not before taking out [[Nigh Invulnerability|Superboy's]] [[What Do You Mean It's Not Heinous?|boots]]), and while Aqualad notes that the floor ''should'' be burning hot and Kid Flash warns him that if he pulls open the trap door, the backdraft from the lava will roast them alive, neither are true. Of course, this is all due to the fact that they're in [[Reality Warping|Dr. Fate's tower]], and reality warped itself to their benefit after they convinced the tower they had legitimate reasons for breaking and entering.

** Played straight in that they ''should'' have been roasted alive when they were dropped into the chimney. Except [[Superboy]]. But then, it is [[A Wizard Did It|Doctor Fate's house]].

* In the "Read it and Weep" episode of ''[[My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic (Animation)|My Little Pony Friendship Is Magic]]'', this trope is played straight by Daring-Do in her book, in which she removes the statue from its resting place á la ''[[Raiders of the Lost Ark (Film)|Raiders of the Lost Ark]]'', triggering a trap that causes the floor melts away and ne replaced entirely by a rising lava flow. Aside from visibly sweating, Daring shows no ill effects from being in such close proximity to the lava.

** "Dragon Quest" has this in spades. Spike ''jumps into'' a [[Lava Pit]], ''submerges'' and then '''spits out some lava from his mouth''' as if it were a swimming pool, which, for the teenage dragons that he is hanging out with, is.

[[Category:Sublime Rhyme]]

[[Category:Convection Schmonvection]]