Pure Energy: Difference between revisions
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{{trope}}
[[File:
{{quote|'''Senior Officer:''' The weird thing is, the bodies show traces of...pure energy.
'''Detective Randall:''' Energy? Like, electric, solar, or what?
'''Senior Officer:''' No, Randall. [[
'''Detective Randall:''' [[Dull Surprise|...Odd.]]
|"[[The Lazer Collection]] 3" by Dom Fera}}
Energy is formally defined as the capacity to do work (whilst work is defined as [[Shaped Like Itself|the energy transferred by a force]]).<ref>The actual formal definition of energy isn't so confusingly circular, but [[Lies to Children|takes a lot more time and effort to explain]]</ref>
But the [[E=MC Hammer|famous]] "E=mc<sup>2</sup>" equation gave us a notion that matter and energy were interchangeable in a certain way, and, as they tend to, Science fiction writers [[Did Not Do the Research|went off half-cocked with the idea]].
You will therefore find in quite a lot of [[Speculative Fiction]], the notion that energy is just another form of
In this sort of system, you can treat "Pure Energy" as a [[Hard Light|building material]], and [[Elemental Crafting|make things out of it]]. Such things would, quite naturally, be of higher quality than anything made out of mundane old matter. In the universe of real physics, claiming something is "made out of pure energy" is flat out
If we're feeling generous, we can suppose that they don't really mean to treat energy like a kind of matter, and are actually dealing with highly energized exotic matter, such as plasma, [[Minovsky Physics|certain created energy sources]] or [[Steampunk|Phlogisticated Aether]], but they really shouldn't be going around calling it "Pure Energy".
In [[Elemental Rock-Paper-Scissors]] settings, this enables "energy elements"
Misinterpreting the law of conservation of energy - "energy cannot be created or destroyed" - to mean that objects made of "Pure Energy" are ''indestructible'' is a common subtrope. Of course, if "energy cannot be created", then we're left to wonder how, according to this subtrope, "Pure Energy" came into being in the first place. Or why the same rule doesn't apply to stuff made of Pure Matter (as the actual LoC does).
'''See also:'''
* [[Energy Ball]]: An orb of the stuff usually used offensively.
* [[Energy Beings]] are ''people'' made of
* A [[Swirly Energy Thingy]] is a
* [[Laser Blade
* [[Sword Beam
* [[Deflector Shields]] are usually walls made of
* [[Hard Light]], when it's just "we [[Tim Taylor Technology|turned up the power so high]] that it became solid" as in ''Automan'', is a solid projection made of
* [[Frickin' Laser Beams]] are, by and large, simply conventional pistols that fire bullets made of
* Objects made by a [[Green Lantern
* [[Power Source]] to most advanced or magical machinery.
* Frequently a source of [[Non-Elemental]] damage.
* [[Ray Gun]]s use Pure Energy as projectiles.
{{examples}}
== [[Advertising]] ==
* One of the brands of Leggs® panty hose was called "Sheer Energy".
== [[
* Smax in
* The "
* Cyclops of the [[X-Men
* In the ''[[W.I.T.C.H.
== [[Film]] ==
* In the 2009 ''[[Astro Boy]]'' movie, the title character is powered by a glowy energy that is "more powerful than nuclear energy." News flash, folks: Energy is energy. You can say you have more watts or transmit at a higher voltage, but energy does not come in "flavors" that are better or worse than any other.
* In the movie ''[[Titan A.E.]]'', an ''entire race'' called the Drej and all of their ships and weapons are made of pure energy. The mind boggles.▼
** Of course, that stops bothering you once you see them use the Drej as a giant Battery.▼
== [[Literature]] ==
* In the [[Discworld]] book ''[[
== [[Live
* One episode of ''[[Blake's
* ''[[Star Trek]]'', the original series at least, might as well be the trope namer. The number of times Spock says "
== [[Tabletop Games]] ==
* In third edition of ''[[Dungeons
** Meanwhile, in third edition at least, magic missile spells are made of force, which is basically the same thing as 'pure energy'. Other force effects include the Bigby's line of spells, and a dragon that BREATHES force energy.
* Warp Energy in ''[[Warhammer Fantasy Battle]]'' and ''[[Warhammer
* The "Solid Energy Illusion" power from ''[[Villains and Vigilantes]]'' -- intended to allow the modeling of characters like [[Green Lantern]] and Pyro from ''[[X-Men]]'', it allows its possessor to create objects and effects from any single kind of energy (chosen at character creation).
== [[Video Games]] ==
* ''[[Mega Man Star Force]] 2'' featured Matter Waves. The futuristic society in the series essentially does just about everything using energy waves, such as creating snow for a ski resort, making fountains, and controlling... the... weather. Ignoring all of the completely ridiculous things done with it, however, you still have the Matter Waves, which are basically electromagnetic waves in tangible form. You have Matter Wave Skis, Matter Wave Vacuum Cleaners, Matter Wave [[MacGuffin
* ''[[Lost Planet]]'' has "Thermal Energy", which is harvested by killing Akrid. It's some kind of [[Power Glows|glowing]] orange goo that has a large potentency. Possibly overlaps with [[Green Rocks]].
* ''[[Half Life]]'''s [[Energy Ball|Combine Dark Energy Orbs]] are balls of energy either kept in a stasis and used to power generators, or contained in a capsule which can be used as a weapon, releasing the orb which instantly disintegrates most biological lifeforms it comes in contact with.
* ''[[Final Fantasy VI]]'' has the [[Boss Battle|boss]] Atma/Ultima Weapon, which before the battle [[Badass Boast|boasts]] of being "pure energy, and [[Time Abyss|ancient as the cosmos]]." It is ''[[That One Boss|no]]'' [[Disc One Final Boss|pushover]].
** Which is why beating it by {{spoiler|draining all of its MP}} makes sense - without MP, it's as good as non-existent.
*
==
* ''[[Gene Catlow]]'' has seen a lot of this after Friendship Island was introduced.
== [[Web Original]] ==
* ''[[The Lazer Collection
* This is a pretty common power type in the ‘’[[Global Guardians PBEM Universe]]’’. Victory, Evengella, Argent, both Quantums (one an American superhero with [[Physical God|vast and near-limitless power]], the other a Spanish hero with not quite as much power), Silverwing, and the Chaos Lord all use the “cosmic energy” rational, and some use the “energy can’t be destroyed” assumption as well.
== [[Western Animation]] ==
* In ''[[Transformers]]'', Energon, so near as we can tell, is
▲* In the 2009 ''[[Astro Boy]]'' movie, the title character is powered by a glowy energy that is "more powerful than nuclear energy." News flash, folks: Energy is energy. You can say you have more watts or transmit at a higher voltage, but energy does not come in "flavors" that are better or worse than any other.
▲* In ''[[Transformers]]'', Energon, so near as we can tell, is [[Pure Energy]] which has been poured into a box for easy storage.
** The late G1 episode, "Call of the Primitives", featured a monster named Tornedron who was described as being made of "pure energy", thereby allowing him to assume many (apparently solid) forms and making him superior to Unicron, a being of matter... ''riiiight''.
** Other incarnations, like ''[[Beast Wars]]'', made Energon into a form of [[Green Rocks]] that generate a lot of power and have all sorts of funky effects.
** G1 Energon is weird. Any source of fuel can be poured into a cube made of... white outlines... and once inside, it promptly turns into glowy stuff that robots can ''drink'' or use to fuel stuff. All the other series (including ''[[Beast Wars]]'', which actually follows G1) treat it as a natural resource that can be mined. [[Made of Explodium|It still blows up if you rub it the wrong way]], though. Interestingly, most if not all weapons made of
▲* In the movie ''[[Titan A.E.]]'', an ''entire race'' called the Drej and all of their ships and weapons are made of pure energy. The mind boggles.
▲** Of course, that stops bothering you once you see them use the Drej as a giant Battery.
* Dexter of ''[[Dexter's Laboratory]]'' once tried to produce pure energy in his laboratory. In the few moments before his machine crashed, it was depicted as a giant glowing atom (you get a better view of it in [[Cloudcuckoolander|his grandfather's]] [[The Cuckoolander Was Right|Rube Goldberg machine]]).
* Megabyte in ''[[
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