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Placebotinum Effect: Difference between revisions
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== [[Comic Books]] ==
* In [[Alan Moore]]'s ''[[Tom Strong]]'' comic, there's a flashback in which the villain has a phlogiston machine. In the present day, Tom and the villain briefly discuss how it's now known that phlogiston doesn't exist, yet the machine worked back then (no conclusion is reached as to why).
* An issue of ''[[The Simpsons (animation)|Simpsons Comics]]'' reveals that most of Dr. Frink's devices work on this principle, and thus break down when his new assistant starts questioning his logic.
* In ''Absolution'', the villain Technocrat creates devices which defy the laws of physics. They only function within a mile radius of him, and stop permanently once he dies.
* At one point, [[Flash]] villain, the Weather Wizard, discovered that his Weather Wand did not actually work and that the weather control powers were his own.
** Actually in earlier comics he really needed the wand, making this either a case of [[Retcon]] or him being with the wand for so long he [[Deadly Upgrade|absorbed its powers.]]
* A similar case at [[Marvel Comics]] was the Molecule Man, who could originally transform inorganic matter with the aid of a wand. It was later retconned that he had the power himself and just thought he was using the wand (and also just thought he had an inorganic matter limitation).
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== [[Film]] ==
* In ''[[The Matrix]]'' Neo has to believe he can manipulate the laws of the matrix before he can actually do anything superhuman.
== [[Literature]] ==
* The abilities of several of the characters in the ''[[Wild Cards]]'' novels work this way. One case mentioned involved a mad scientist who seemingly created a highly advanced robot. However, when the robot was cracked open, it contained no electronic or mecahanical components at all; just a collection of random junk. In this case, the [[Meta Origin]] is a virus that induces specialized [[Psychic Powers]].
* Cranston, a WWII [[Mad Scientist]] in the backstory of the ''[[Temps]]'' universe. His giant robot is unaffected by a character with psychic control of computers because "he never liked Turing, and used entirely different principles". He died when he sucessfully split an atom with a hammer and chisel.
* Flight in the ''[[
* In the [[Xanth]] book ''Ogre, Ogre'', Smash Ogre get hit with an Eye Queue that makes him smart (ogres are usually dumb) and suddenly is coming up with complex and ingenious plans. In the end, he discovers that the Eye Queue vine doesn't actually make you smart, it makes you ''think'' you're smart - ''and'' it lasts much less time than he thought it did. The usual effect is acting pompous with [[Delusions of Eloquence]] for a few hours, and Smash was actually smart all along.
** Another Xanth book establishes that the Placebotinum Effect is one of the fundamental laws running Xanth, and the reason ogres have a reputation for stupidity is that they have a reputation for stupidity. When characters drop their prejudices, suddenly ogres talk and act like everyone else.
▲== [[Live Action TV]] ==
* "Where No One Has Gone Before", an early episode of ''[[Star Trek: The Next Generation]]'', had a scientist try to upgrade the engines on the Enterprise. It turned out that his upgrades were (nearly) useless, but his assistant had psychic powers that were activated by the [[Clap Your Hands If You Believe|belief of the crew]], enhanced because they warped to a section of the universe where reality was more susceptible to thought
* In an episode of ''[[News Radio]]'', Joe creates an intelligence-enhancing potion and tests it on Matthew. The results are spectacular, quickly turning Matthew into the intellectual "Smatthew" (smart+Matthew) who is so smart that he can speed-read four books at once (two of which were upside-down. "Have ''you'' ever tried reading four books at once?") Unfortunately, it wore off after "Smatthew" became smart enough to realize it was just a placebo and he therefore only imagined he was getting smarter.
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== [[Tabletop Games]] ==
* In ''[[Warhammer
** Many of their more advanced "shootas" merely have some bullets and gears inside them, and it's their [[Psychic Powers]] that actually make the weapons work.
** Orkish tanks go faster when they're painted red. There's no scientific reason, but the [[Psychic Powers]] of the Orks make it so.
** Their [[Cool Spaceship|ships]] are meteors with rockets on them. It works because nobody told them it shouldn't.
* In ''[[Deadlands]]'', Junkers from ''Hell on Earth'' work on the fine inventing principle of "Hell, that's close enough." Basically, they duct-tape together a bunch of parts that are kind of like what they need, then invoke the power of the [[Magitek|technology spirits]] to make all the separate parts function like they "should".
* In [[Mutants and Masterminds]]' ''[[Paragons]]'' setting (possibly as an homage to ''[[Wild Cards]]), several paragons create "ACME devices", which are really expressions of their power, and are almost always unreproducible.
* Not only is this how magic works in ''[[Mage: The Ascension]]'', but it's heavily implied that most modern technology works only because enough [[Muggle]]s are convinced that it works.
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== [[Video Games]] ==
* In ''[[City of Heroes]]'', {{spoiler|the Clockwork are this way -- though they seem to be [[Punk Punk|Clockpunk]] constructs, they're really animated by the Clockwork King's will.}}
** The PsychoChronoMetron relies on an interesting variation of this trope; while it originally worked by using psychic energy to alter the timeline and change reality, it is eventually disabled by not only unmaking its own history, but altering reality so it could no longer work, just in case anyone else reinvented it. It's hinted that the device also empowered the people who used it in the past to make such reality-altering changes, retconning itself into a Placebotinum Effect [[Magic Feather]].
* [[Brave Soul]] has one of the clients send you after a supposedly magic flute that can charm animals. The flute turns out to be an ordinary flute and it was the owner's charisma that charmed the animals instead. The client isn't pleased.
* In ''[[Mana Khemia: Alchemists of Al
== [[Web Comics]] ==
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== [[Web Original]] ==
* ''[[Whateley Universe|Whateley Academy]]'', being a somewhat [[Trope Overdosed]] [[Super-Hero School]] series, has this. There are two forms of [[Mad Scientist]]—Gadgeteers, who have the psychic ability to know exactly what tool/technology to use to create a desired effect, and Devisers, who enforce their own reality using their inventions. Whereas Gadgeteers have to follow the laws of physics, Devisers definitely fall into the Placebotinum Effect category—other people cannot recreate their devises, and they tend to fall apart if someone not the original inventor uses them.
** On the plus side, at least Devisers aren't vulnerable to being told their machine doesn't work. Most of the time.
* In [[Unreal Estate]], {{spoiler|all the reality-water-containing duplicate people have this ability}}. It takes the protagonist a while to figure this out.
* In Dave Van Domelen's online shared writing universe ''[[Academy of Superheroes]]'', lots of [[Superhero]] gear is like this, due to the fact that all super-powers are [[Meta Origin|variations on an ability]] to break the laws of physics. At least one story mentions "inventions" that have nothing but a drawing of circuitry inside.
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{{reflist}}
[[Category:Applied Phlebotinum]]
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