Elemental Ignorance: Difference between revisions

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== Anime & Manga ==

* In ''[[Marchen Awakens Romance]]'', the characters have a habit of making fairly poor matchups in general. For instance, having the plant user fight the plant user in the final round of the [[Tournament Arc|War Games]] (to be fair, the others had their own grudge matches, and it worked out for revenge anyway). However, possibly the most blatant was picking [[Winter Royal Lady|Princess Snow]] to fight in the ''desert'' and ''volcano'' fields, while neglecting to use her either of the times they fought on the ''ice'' field.

* The ''[[Pokémon (~~Anime~~)|Pokémon]]'' anime (or at least Ash) has a habit of doing this, occasionally drifting into the need of a [[Deus Ex Machina]] or plot powers to resolve the situation, despite the fact that, say, Pikachu is clearly not the Pokémon for a given situation. The first gym battle in ''Black and White'' even mentions this, saying that Pokémon isn't only about type matchups, but friendship and strategy and whatnot.

* The ''[[Pokémon (anime)|Pokémon]]'' anime (or at least Ash) has a habit of doing this, occasionally drifting into the need of a [[Deus Ex Machina]] or plot powers to resolve the situation, despite the fact that, say, Pikachu is clearly not the Pokémon for a given situation. The first gym battle in ''Black and White'' even mentions this, saying that Pokémon isn't only about type matchups, but friendship and strategy and whatnot.

** The early episode "School of Hard Knocks" has Misty subvert this trope, by defeating a schoolboy's Weepinbell<ref>a Grass-type</ref> with her Starmie<ref>a Water-type</ref> simply because her Pokémon is of a higher level, nullifying the type matchup. Giselle continues this lesson by choosing Graveler<ref>a Rock/Ground-type which should be [[Quad Damage|doubly weak]] to Water-type attacks</ref> to beat Starmie.

* Inverted in ''[[Bastard]]!!!'', where the protagonist fights a fire elemental with fire spells, who comments on the stupidity of it, and how he should try ice spells... and then he turns the fire spells Up To Eleven and out heats the elemental, forcing it to swear loyalty to him.

* Inverted in ''[[Bastard!!]]!!!'', where the protagonist fights a fire elemental with fire spells, who comments on the stupidity of it, and how he should try ice spells... and then he turns the fire spells Up To Eleven and out heats the elemental, forcing it to swear loyalty to him.

* Subverted in the ''[[Saint Seiya]]'' Asgard saga: The local ice user actually trained in the volcano so he could "beat" it. {{spoiler|And he's also a fire user as a result.}}

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== Film ==

* In ''[[Dodgeball]]'' [[The Obi-Wan]] tells them to attack their opponent's strengths (rather than their weakness), because it's unexpected and the opponent will have planned defenses for his weakness but not for his strength.

* In ''[[~~The Beastmaster (Film)|~~The Beastmaster]] 2'' the villain Arklon fights his opponent ''[[The Beast Master]]'' in a ''zoo'', and even creates an earthquake that lets out all the animals. Dar fights him one on one so none of the animals get hurt, which doesn't make his choice of location any less stupid.

* In ''[[The Beastmaster]] 2'' the villain Arklon fights his opponent ''[[The Beast Master]]'' in a ''zoo'', and even creates an earthquake that lets out all the animals. Dar fights him one on one so none of the animals get hurt, which doesn't make his choice of location any less stupid.

== Literature ==

* The main character's older brother does this in ''[[A Hero Born]]'', when the three brothers are competing in matches of their own choosing, by choosing the main character's strongest subject to challenge him in. {{spoiler|It later turns out he was intentionally throwing the competition.}}

* In ''[[The Princess Bride (~~Literature~~)|The Princess Bride]]'', Inigo Montoya always uses his left hand for combat, {{spoiler|except for the fact he's secretly right handed}}.

* In ''[[The Princess Bride (novel)|The Princess Bride]]'', Inigo Montoya always uses his left hand for combat, {{spoiler|except for the fact he's secretly right handed}}.

** Except that he does that intentionally: he is so skilled that most opponents don't rate him using his dominant hand to beat them, and in the event he ever finds somebody who poses a real threat, he has a secret weapon: [[I Am Not Left-Handed]].

== Video Games ==

* In ''[[~~Tales of Symphonia (Video Game)|~~Tales of Symphonia]]'', characters in a battle will remark if you're using an element poorly suited to the situation, like if you're hitting a Water-elemental monster with the Aqua Edge spell. Star student Genis will even get a title if he does this enough times in a single battle.

* In ''[[Tales of Symphonia]]'', characters in a battle will remark if you're using an element poorly suited to the situation, like if you're hitting a Water-elemental monster with the Aqua Edge spell. Star student Genis will even get a title if he does this enough times in a single battle.

* The first time you meet Edge in ''[[Final Fantasy IV]]'', he's gleefully using his fire magic... on a fire demon made of fire. And he's surprised when it doesn't work well.

* In ''[[Pokémon]]'' games, you get to choose a grass, water or fire starter. Most players are aware of the type specialty of the first gym, which is usually the rock type. Now, before the fire starter started picking up the fighting type, it was the worst matchup for such a gym, even then it only became a [[Mutual Disadvantage]], however some players consider it the best option for this very reason, since it forces you to level it up more at the start of the game and any later disadvantage can be overcome by a high enough level difference.

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== Western Animation ==

* In ''[[Justice League]]'', one of the not![[Wonder Twins]] tries to drown [[Aquaman (Comic Book)|Aquaman]] due to not thinking straight at the moment.

* In the animated ''[[Teen Titans (~~Animation~~)|Teen Titans]]'', when fighting [[Big Bad|Trigon]], the team is forced to fight their [[Evil Counterpart|Evil Counterparts]]. They each try and match them, to no avail, trying and failing for a good amount of time, until they finally reach a brilliant conclusion: {{spoiler|[[Opponent Switch|switch who they're fighting]] so that they're, y'know, not fighting the one that can match their every move blow for blow.}}

* In the animated ''[[Teen Titans (animation)|Teen Titans]]'', when fighting [[Big Bad|Trigon]], the team is forced to fight their [[Evil Counterpart|Evil Counterparts]]. They each try and match them, to no avail, trying and failing for a good amount of time, until they finally reach a brilliant conclusion: {{spoiler|[[Opponent Switch|switch who they're fighting]] so that they're, y'know, not fighting the one that can match their every move blow for blow.}}

* In an episode of ''[[Captain Planet and ~~The~~ Planeteers]]'', the heroes are trapped behind ice, but never think to use fire, despite elemental typing pretty much being their only means of problem solving as it is.

* In an episode of ''[[Captain Planet and the Planeteers]]'', the heroes are trapped behind ice, but never think to use fire, despite elemental typing pretty much being their only means of problem solving as it is.