Pure Energy: Difference between revisions

[[File:cit_pure_energycit pure energy.jpg|link=Adventurers!|right|[http://www.adventurers-comic.com/d/0367.html This] ''[[Adventurers!]]'' strip explains the merits of [[Laser Blade|energy swords]].]]

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>. Energy is not something you can, for example, pick up and put in your pocket.

You will therefore find in quite a lot of [[Speculative Fiction]], the notion that energy is just another form of matter -- particularlymatter—particularly, a sort of warm [[Power Glows|glowy]] kind of matter, whose exact properties can be fine tuned to user specifications, and which can be summoned or banished with a button-press.

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 nonsensical -- itnonsensical—it makes as much sense to say that something is "made out of pure velocity," or that pasta is "[[Insubstantial Ingredients|made out of yummy]]". (It is, though.)

In [[Elemental Rock-Paper-Scissors]] settings, this enables "energy elements" -- Fire—Fire, Lightning, Light, and Darkness -- toDarkness—to be treated and manipulated the same as "material elements" -- Air—Air, Water, Earth, Metal, Wood.

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). <ref>One source of confusion here is that in laws of conservation, "destroy" means, more or less, '''eliminate entirely from reality'''. In everyday usage, though, it simply means "dismantle into lots of tiny bits" — even if you ''think'' you eliminated the thing from reality. When you "destroy" a piece of paper by setting it on fire, you're not violating physics, because that's a different sense of "destroy". The paper no longer exists as "paper", but as lots of molecules once connected as "paper". In the sense of the LoC, fictional characters indeed have no hope of "destroying" a Pure Energy object, but they don't have any hope of destroying a basketball either — only of (in either case) breaking it down into lots of tiny bits.</ref>

* [[Energy Beings]] are ''people'' made of [['''Pure Energy]]'''.

* A [[Swirly Energy Thingy]] is a [['''Pure Energy]]'''-based [[Cool Gate]].

* [[Laser Blade|Laser Blades]]s are swords forged out of the stuff.

* [[Sword Beam|Sword Beams]]s are beams that shoot out from swords.

* [[Deflector Shields]] are usually walls made of [['''Pure Energy]]'''.

* [[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 [['''Pure Energy]]'''.

* [[Frickin' Laser Beams]] are, by and large, simply conventional pistols that fire bullets made of [['''Pure Energy]]''', rather than being lasers or something similarly hard to dodge.

* The "[[Pure Energy]] items are indestructible" thing shows up all the time in the [[Marvel Universe]].

* ''[[Star Trek]]'', the original series at least, might as well be the trope namer. The number of times Spock says "[[Pure Energy]]" over the course of the series is only rivaled by the number of times he says "[[Planet of Hats|Near Earth parallel]], captain."

* In third edition of ''[[Dungeons and Dragons]]'', non-physical damage types like fire, electricity, and acid, are referred to as "energy damage," in a nod to logic and reason. [[Elemental Crafting|And they all end up being used]] in practically the same manner as [[Pure Energy]] anyways.

* ''[[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|MacGuffins]]s, and Matter Wave BUTLERS.

* In ''[[Transformers]]'', Energon, so near as we can tell, is [[Pure Energy]] which has been poured into a box for easy storage.

** 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 [[Pure Energy]] in ''Transformers'' are called "energon weapons". They seem to be quite solid. In ''[[Transformers Animated]]'', the shiny parts of a weapon that's mostly made of shiny can ''hold the solid parts in place.'' It's... pretty safe to say that it all runs on [[Rule of Cool]].