Lost Superweapon: Difference between revisions

{{quote|''"Then they went out and played Charles Fort and the Atlanteans versus the Ancient Masters of Tibet, but the Tibetters claimed that using mystic ancient lasers was cheating."''|''[[Good Omens (Literature)|Good Omens]]'' }}

In any event, unlike its cousins the [[Ancestral Weapon]] and [[Forgotten Superweapon]], the [[Lost Superweapon]] is [[Exactly What It Says Onon the Tin|lost]], and not just down the back of the sofa with some loose change and badly crumpled hidden back issues of [[The HitchhikersHitchhiker's Guide to Thethe Galaxy|''Playbeing'']]. (For the latter, see [[Superweapon Surprise]].)

See also: [[MacGuffin]], [[Artifact of Doom]], [[Older Is Better]] and [[Lost Technology]]. Compare [[Fling a Light Into Thethe Future]].

* ''[[Mazinger Z (Anime)|Mazinger Z]]'': Mykene Mechanical Beast. Old myths assured an ancient, {{spoiler|allegedly}} lost Greek civilization called Mykene lived on the island of Bardos used [[Humongous Mecha|metallic giants]] [[Chest Blaster|shot flames from their chests]] to defend their land. [[Big Bad]] and [[Mad Scientist]] Dr. Hell pondered maybe the myths might be true. [[Understatement|Unfortunately for everybody]], the old legends were indeed right, and he found an army of ancient, forgotten [[Humongous Mecha]] under the ruins of the island. However it is a subversion, since {{spoiler|like it was seen in ''[[Great Mazinger (Anime)|Great Mazinger]]'', the Mykene civilization still existed, and throughout millennia had dramatically improved their technology, and compared with their newest mechas, the giant robots Dr. Hell found were ancient, outdated, mountain sized piles of scrap.}}

* ''[[One Piece (Manga)|One Piece]]'' has, as part of its [[Myth Arc]], the existence of three super weapons, Pluton, Uranus, and Poseidon. They are so rare, powerful, and difficult to obtain that one villain tries to conquer an entire country ''just to facilitate finding one.'' One is apparently a battleship of some kind, and another is {{spoiler|the Mermaid Princess' ability to command the Sea Kings}}.

* The God Warriors of ''[[Nausicaa of the Valley of Thethe Wind]]''.

* The [[Cool Starship|Saint's Cradle]] of ''[[Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha StrikersStrikerS]]''.

* The Ark of the Covenant in ''[[Raiders of the Lost Ark (Film)|Raiders of the Lost Ark]]'' is a Grade A Lost Superweapon.

** FMS might be nice, shiny and theoretically operational by just a playgroup, but there are also some surviving Directional Titans it was designed to kinda "replace". One is currently an [[Bio ShockBioshock|underwater city]] and another a giant freaking flying mountain. Estimated matter survival time around each of those deployed in combat: 1 tick. And it does take a city of operators to man.

* This was the original defining feature of [[Battle TechBattleTech]]. The golden age of technology was some 300 years ago and everything now is patched-up, dumbed-down versions of the stuff the Star League had but the Successor States have largely forgotten how to make.

* The Imperium in [[Warhammer 40 K40000]] appears to have lost the ability to innovate. Apart from reuniting humanity the Great Crusade is also about finding STCs on lost colony worlds that describe how to build things the Empire lost the plans of in the Age of Strife. There are also superweapons knocking about that were built by mysterious ancients who tend to manufacture these awesome devices and then wander off with the instruction manual in their pockets never to be seen again.

* Remember the Gaia Temples in ''[[Sonic Unleashed (Video Game)|Sonic Unleashed]]''? The ones built centuries ago to house (and if needed restore) the power of the Chaos Emeralds? Well, apparently, {{spoiler|Light Gaia/Chip can summon them to form the Gaia Colossus, the one integral component (aside from the power of the emeralds) needed to tame [[Eldritch Abomination|Dark Gaia]] and prevent [[The End of the World Asas We Know It]].}}

** In fact, this was [[Insistent Terminology|Dr. Egg...er, Robotnik's]] shtick from about [[Sonic Adventure (Video Game)|Sonic Adventure]] to Sonic Unleashed (chronologically, about 1998-2008). Virtually every storyline had him digging up one deranged [[Eldritch Abomination]]--or [[One-Man Army]], in [[Sonic Adventure 2 (Video Game)|Shadow's]] [[Shadow the Hedgehog|case]]--or another. Of course, [[The Starscream|they all had their own agendas]], usually revenge on whoever imprisoned them in the first place.

* Surprisingly (And hilariously) subverted in ''[[Ben 10 (Animation)|Ben 10]]'' when Enoch searched for an ancient Mayan sword. Grandpa Max had been so distracted by getting it first and keeping it from the wrong hands, it almost killed his grandchildren. With the final opportunity, he gave up the sword in exchange for saving Ben and Gwen's lives. Of course that means Enoch now has the sword... which turns to dust soon after he picks it up.

** The Sword of Ascanlon in [[Ben 10: Ultimate Alien]] fares better {{spoiler|probably because it was made by alien technology}} and was used to cut out and contain the heart of an [[Eldritch Abomination]] a thousand years before the series. Unfortunately, it (and the heart of said abomination) didn't stay lost.