Lava Is Boiling Kool-Aid: Difference between revisions

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{{trope}}
[[File:s Kong Quest (V1.1) (U) 00004.png|link=Donkey Kong Country (video game)|frame|What are those barrels supposed to be made of?]]
 
{{quote|''Using Surf to cross ''lava''?!''|'''Lance''', ''[[Pokémon Special]]''}}
 
Real Life lava is ''molten rock''. (The subterranean version is called magma.) Imagine an entire lake of electric-stove heating elements, all glowing red-hot. Its viscosity ranges from water-like fluidity to 100,000 times greater. It is an opaque emitter of reddish-yellow light. Its temperature is typically 700-1200 degrees C; coming within a dozen yards of it can inflict fatal burns.
 
In fiction, '''Lava Is Boiling Kool-Aid'''. It flows like water, it's no heavier than water, and it can be diverted like water. Objects can sink in it. The heat will be trivial to overcome—not just [[Convection, Schmonvection]], but people swimming around in it with a special suit or vehicle, or game characters only taking a finite amount of damage per second spent in the lava.
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Compare [[Sand Is Water]]. Sometimes a subtrope of [[Palette Swap]].
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== Anime and Manga ==
* ''[[Mazinger Z]]'': Several times Kouji fought near flowing lava. Since he always was inside his [[Humongous Mecha]] it is [[Hand Wave]]d like Mazinger-Z's armor and insolation protecting him from the extreme heat, at least for a while. Still, in one episode he got dunked INTO a volcano. The characters pointed out, though, not even Mazinger could endure that for long, and they had to get out of the magma RIGHT AWAY or Kouji would die. Nevertheless, usually the lava looks clearer and more liquid than it should be (although it is somewhat more viscous than in other examples).
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== Film -- [[Live Action]] ==
* ''[[The Core]]'' seems to present the ultra-high pressure liquid metal at the core of the earth as being thin as water and just about as clear, just slightly yellow-orange tinted. Being under such high pressure, the "liquid" core really functions more like a solid (denser than lead), and it's most certainly not the transparency and color of tang.
** Movie convenience. Wouldn't be much of a movie, take that as you will, if the outside views were fully based on reality now wouldn't they. As for the viscosity...least of problems present.
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** There's also a memo you can find in one of the final levels that was sent by the manufacturer of their fake lava, stating that while it looks far less realistic than previous versions (the lava in NOLF2 looks terrible compared to the first game), it is far hotter.
* In ''[[Lemmings]]'', lava looks like bubbling, red-orangey water, and causes [[Super Drowning Skills|the same kind of death]] as any of the other types of water.
* In ''[[The Elder Scrolls FourIV: Oblivion|Oblivion]]'' players can swim through and under lava if they have enough hit points/health potions and the Water-Walking spell works on it. Then again, considering it's a hell dimension, it may very well be boiling blood.
** Well, it IS''is'' referred to as the "Waters Ofof Oblivion." Who says it isn't just magic water that does fire damage?
** Most likely the case, as lava in [[The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind|Morrowind]] is treated fairly realistically (you don't sink when you step on it, you can't swim in it, and it doesn't flow like water). Can stand next to it all day without minding, though. Cryodiil doesn't have much in the way of active tectonic activity, where Morrowind is set on a large volcanic island.
* Most of the lava in ''[[Donkey Kong Country]] 2'' is treated as a [[Bottomless Pit]]. However in one level you can cool the lava down in order to swim through it.
** [[Justified Trope]] because it actually ''is'' boiling hot water which you have to cool down in order to be able to swim through it and only years of [[Genre Savvy]]ness would make you think otherwise. However, this doesn't explain [[Artistic License Physics|why the water isn't just vaporizing]] - and why it's [[Color Coded for Your Convenience|turning red]]...
*** The reason in this case is because the level in the screenshot is a [[Palette Swap]] of the Sunken Ship level type, with the "lava" being a unique twist to it for the [[Lethal Lava Land]] world.
*** Or how jumping on a seal's back allows him to cool it down. (Though at least that remains [[Magic A Is Magic A|internally consistent]]; you later use the same seals again for a [[Slippy-Slidey Ice World]]).