Required Secondary Powers: Difference between revisions

{{trope}}

{{cleanup|The examples section is too long. If you find an example discussing only one of the powers listed here, move it to the examples section of that power's corresponding page, if it isn't there already.}}

 

{{quote|'''Invulnerability:''' Not much of a downside to this, as long as you're also invulnerable to things you might want to get a shot for. And your hair and fingernails aren't invulnerable. And you're not planning on getting into the piercing and tattooing scene. And your skin doesn't have the texture of cold bicycle tires as a result.

 

Okay, so you've got [[Differently-Powered Individual|one of those people]] who's got a "[[Stock Super Powers|Special Power]]". But even if you supposedly only have the one ability, if you're going to actually ''use'' it for anything, [[Fridge Logic]] demands that you have myriad other passive powers in order to make it work the way it usually does. This is sometimes directly referred to and explained, and sometimes not.

 

'''[[Super Strength]]'''

To use super strength effectively also requires the ability to strengthen objects by touching them (Unless the object is made of some advanced material, of course). Otherwise, holding up (for example) an airplane with one hand would simply result in a hand-shaped hole in the still-plummeting airplane. This was addressed in the second episode of ''[[The Big Bang Theory]]'', as the characters discuss a scene from the original Christopher Reeve ''[[Superman]]'' movie:

{{quote|'''Sheldon''': Lois Lane is falling, accelerating at an initial rate of 32 feet per second per second... Superman swoops down to save her by reaching out two arms of steel... Miss Lane who is now traveling at approximately 120 miles an hour hits them and is [[Not the Fall That Kills You|immediately sliced into three equal pieces]]...Frankly, if he really loved her, he'd let her hit the pavement - it'd be a more merciful death.}}

 

'''[[Healing Factor]]'''

Any character with a healing factor presumably also requires superhuman pain tolerance, to avoid falling unconscious from the crippling pain and then waking up ten minutes later good as new. Still would be useful, but not so much in a combat situation (where being unconscious makes you useless at best, and makes you a liability or opens you up to a [[Coup De Grace]] at worst.)

 

 

'''[[Super Speed]]'''

These characters are somehow immune to the effects of friction - specifically, the chafing that would naturally occur from using extremely rapid speed for extended periods of time, especially while wearing spandex. And they face a problem the other direction, of having too little friction. Feet coming down at superspeed would presumably have super impact, and push them off the ground and at least a few feet in the air. Even once that's explained, someone going at superspeed over the slightest hill, or up stairs, or just random dips in the ground, would lose contact with the ground, they would keep going in the 'same direction' as before, into the air.

 

 

'''[[Flight]]'''

Other than those with obvious mechanical assistance (either [[Winged Humanoid|wings]] or rockets), flying characters possess the ability to propel themselves through no effort of their own. This might be due to some inherent [[Mind Over Matter|telekinetic]] ability, or perhaps it might be due to the ability to manipulate their own personal gravity. [[Winged Humanoid|Winged flyers]] don't have it much better; they need some way to offset the [[Square-Cube Law|mass and awkward shape]] of the human body, whether it be super-powerful wing muscles (and more importantly very large wing surface area, about that of a hang glider would do), a bird-like hollow bone structure (which would only save a few pounds for something with the body mass of a human - some engineering doesn't scale up well, as the ostrich can attest), or perhaps even a method of non-powered flight or levitation that is merely augmented by the wings (or some combination of the three).

 

'''[[Shapeshifting]]'''

Characters that shift into other objects also have the ability to ignore how said objects would ordinarily hurt people. For example, someone who could become living flame is also immune to being burned (either by their own flame or that of others). Someone who can turn into water often gains the ability to breathe in water (or has no need to breathe at all).

 

 

'''[[Time Stands Still|Time Freezing]]'''

Those that stop time should be blinded. If time were stopped, everything else stops too, including light. And air, which would hold them in place because the air they displace when they move can't get out of the way. In fact, those that stop time should be frozen along with everything else by the mere nature of the ability.

 

 

'''[[Time Travel]]'''

Most time-traveling heroes have the benefit of being immune to [[Temporal Paradox]] and the physical effects of [[The Time Traveller's Dilemma]]. Even if they do accidentally erase their own parents from history or create an even worse [[Crapsack World]] by [[Hitler's Time Travel Exemption Act|killing Hitler only to have someone worse take over]], the hero will remain unchanged and still be capable of trying to [[Set Right What Once Went Wrong]].

 

 

'''[[Deflector Shields|Force Fields]]'''

Force fields are often air-permeable, which not only allows people to speak and listen through the field, but it also allows oxygen to filter in through the force field and thus allow breathing. However when a force field is used to keep water out while underwater, the force field often appears to have the power to actually extract breathable oxygen from the water around it and remove carbon dioxide from within it.

 

 

'''[[Invisibility]]'''

Applies not just to you, but to things you are carrying, or wearing. Any dirt on you becomes invisible, and either you get clothes made of some [[My Suit Is Also Super|suitable material]], or provide some [[Fan Service]]. Also, your light distortion fits that of your surroundings, and food remains invisible through the digestive process.

 

 

'''[[Intangible Man|Intangibility]]'''

You are immune to gravity or gain some kind of buoyancy, hence not plummeting through the ground. You also gain some self locomotion, so as not to worry about friction, (though many intangibles can float or [[Not Quite Flight|explicitly fly]]). You can still interact with air normally allowing you to breathe (if you need to breathe), hear and speak.

 

Clearly, a lot of potential downsides to this one. The ability to selectively screen your input is an absolute necessity unless you want your hero to be called "Captain Migraine", "The Squinter" or "Curled-Up-In-The-Fetal-Position-On-The-Floor-Man," and let's not even go over issues with sensitivity in the nether regions. Likewise, being able to [[X-Ray Vision|see through things]] is only good if you can also see the ''outsides'' of them when necessary.

 

 

'''[[Immortality]]/[[The Ageless|Agelessness]] in its various forms'''

As an immortal, you are in some way exempt from being tied to the normal mortal coil. You're either fully immortal, reincarnated immortal, or ageless but vulnerable. The latter type requires a lot of intelligence and careful planning if you don't want to be discovered. You should ideally have a lot of resources financially, and certain contacts, like people who can change your identity. Also it helps to be VERY mentally resilient, because [[We Are as Mayflies]] and so forth. There's an [[Age Without Youth|eternal life that does not include eternal youth]], leaving you in worse shape every year but knowing that your condition has nowhere to go but down.

 

'''[[Teleporters and Transporters|Teleportation]]'''

Teleportation-users would need to have some way of extending their teleportation to their clothes and items if they do not wish to reach their destination naked. Clothes are one thing but dental fillings, bone pins, pacemakers, etc would be unpleasant to suddenly be without. Ignoring the ludicrousness of trying to extend quantum-scale barrier tunneling to the classical scale (assuming that's how matter teleportation works in your particular [[The Verse|'Verse]], or that the [[Real Life]] rules of quantum physics even apply at all), such motion usually needs large amounts of energy as well.

 

 

'''[[Shock and Awe|Lightning]]'''

Electricity has a tendency to take not only the path of least resistance, but to a lesser degree all other possible paths as well. Hitting your target without inundating everything around it with current would require a great deal of setup, meticulous planning, prior knowledge of electrodynamics, and the resulting hours of linear algebra to ensure that all other available paths are sufficiently resistive enough not to cause collateral damage. Here's hoping you're ''really'' [[Good with Numbers]].

 

 

'''[[Attack of the 50-Foot Whatever|Size Changing]]'''

The ability to shift one's size would require the following abilities:

* Control over one's mass and density so that one does not blow away or sink into the earth (due to the shift in surface area and pressure).

 

{{examples}}

== Anime and Manga ==

* Pointed out by the author in the manga version of ''[[Ghost in the Shell]].'' He goes on to explain that this is why full-body prostheses, like those of Motoko Kusanagi (whose only remaining organic components are her [[Brain In a Jar|brain and nervous system]]), are preferable.

** To clarify, the manga points out that if someone were to get, for example, his arm replaced with a prosthetic, his biological body would still be subject to the strain of muscle fibers tearing where the arm is connected if they lift too much weight. Full-body prosthetics on the other hand, have theoretically limitless strength (since it's now all a matter of technology), enabling them to jump huge distances (like how [[The Incredible Hulk]] does) and survive the impact of the landing (albiet the ground will take damage.)

* In ''[[Code Geass]]'', Rolo the [[Tyke Bomb]] is a subversion because he doesn't stop time, he puts your brain ({{spoiler|and his own heart}}) on pause so you ''think'' he stopped time.

* This is referenced in ''[[Psycho Busters]]'' when lead Kakeru wonders whether [[Playing with Fire|Kaito]] ever gets burned by his own flames. He then answers himself saying "Nah! He must have the impervious-to-fire power!". Kakeru later sees Kaito turning down a coffee saying his tongue is sensitive to heat.

** In fact, it's mentioned that most powers, if not all, are based on this, revealing the reason why the ability users have to study extensively to be able to get more powerful.

* According the the backstory of ''[[Zeta Gundam]]'', [[Transforming Mecha]] are only possible, or at least practical, due to a revolutionary variable-friction magnetic coating on their joints that was first used by the original RX-78 series Gundams. This allows them to change in a snap. Without it, their joints would either be too rigid & their [[Transformation Sequence]] would take hours, or else their limbs & other moving parts would constantly be flopping around & falling out from under them.

* Similar to the above, the various signature [[Transforming Mecha]] of ''[[Super Dimension Fortress Macross]]'' and its sequels employ 'Energy Conversion Armor' which uses metals and technologies reverse engineered from the eponymous Macross itself (termed 'Overtechnology'). This armor can absorb energy and use that energy to reinforce it's own structural integrity. According to the various supplementary materials of the series, this is what the energy output of the Reaction Engines is used for when not being 100% committed to thrust. Thus when in Battroid (giant robot) mode, standing on the ground, with 0 thrust, 100% of the engine output is going towards telling the [[Square-Cube Law]] to take a hike.

* Brainiac Five of the [[Legion of Super-Heroes]] has a force field belt that (before [[Crisis on Infinite Earths]], at least) was explicitly noted to have the ability to automatically generate breathable air whenever creating a closed shield. Even before he invented the [[Batman Can Breathe in Space|transuits]], it was stated that he didn't need a conventional space suit for this reason.

 

* A problem with regeneration was mentioned at least once in [[Fanfic]]:

{{quote|"We had learned the hard way- well, Steve had learned the hard way, by having it happen to him; Valerie and I had learned the easy way, also by having it happen to him- that while werewolf bodies heal wounds instantly, they don't always heal ''right''."}}

** Johnny Storm (or rather, his clone—all of the Fantastic Four of 2099 are [[Cloning Blues|clones]] of the originals)) is at one point exposed to the Negative Zone's poisoned atmosphere through a leak in a labor frame suit he was wearing/driving. He ended up briefly coughing from it, but otherwise he sustained no long-term effects from it. When questioned about this later, he pointed out that as [[Wreathed in Flames|The Human Torch]] he tended to be surrounded by plasma flame, meaning that the very air he inhaled was superheated plasma. His lungs would have been scorched without the Required Secondary Power of enhanced lungs that could very efficiently filter out what he breathed. As a result, breathing toxic Negative Zone air was relatively a piece of cake, and he was shown doing so without a gas mask on at least one occasion.

** On the other end of the spectrum, the clone of Ben Grimm has the same rocklike epidermal layer as his predecessor—which he at one point described as "a full-body callus strong enough to withstand being hit by a missile." Unfortunately, his thick hide was still pierced on a few occasions, but the injuries were slow to heal, leaving deep craters and sensitive scar tissue in their wake.

* From [[Sleeping with the Girls]] vol II

** {{spoiler|[[Tenchi Muyo!|Washuu]]}} restores {{spoiler|[[Sailor Moon|Luna's]]}} ability to turn into human form. Later we learn {{spoiler|she}} also retained cat's muscle density, which makes {{spoiler|her}} really strong and agile but also uses proportionally more energy. So {{spoiler|she}} either has to [[Big Eater|eat a lot]] in human form or stay most of the time as a cat to save energy.

* ''[[Harbinger]]'' mentions this in regards to [[Mass Effect|Shepard's]] [[Psychic Powers]] that allow him to move at [[Super Speed]]. His fists move extremely fast when he strikes someone in close quarters, hard enough to [[Punched Across the Room|crumple armor and throw people across the room]], but his arms also move so fast and with so much force that they'd break on impact. His armor and omnitool generates a dual-layer mass effect field (pun questionably intended), with the outer layer being a hardened kinetic barrier while the inner layer being a "cushion" that behaves like ballistic gel, absorbing the reaction to his punches.

* [[The Teraverse]] superheroine Sister Marie has an almost-total immunity to the effects of fire, heat, and smoke. It ''does'' usually come in handy for her, as she often associates with her local fire departments in the course of her heroism. She once got a large chunk of her habit scorched off and only had a 'mild sunburn' underneath, and in the same incident, discarded a self-contained breathing unit after discovering that she's immune to the effects of smoke inhalation. She also frequently handles things in the kitchen (such as cookie sheets or paper coffee cups) without protective insulation. Unfortunately, she actually can't tell how much hotter something is if it's above room temperature, and finds it necessary to ask someone else to check the water temperature when giving her infant godson a bath.

 

== Films -- Animated ==

** Perhaps she's just using massive amounts of conditioner?

** Wait, doesn't her hair have healing powers?

 

== Films -- Live-Action ==

** There is also the fact that Gabe seems to instinctively know how hard to hit, even though his strength and speed have been rapidly increasing for the past several months. Granted, his constant martial arts training could have something to do with this, but he seems to be genuinly surprised every time he does something superhuman.

* In ''[[Stardust (film)|Stardust]]'', Lamia puts a curse on Dishwater Sal so that Sal will be completely unable to see, hear, feel, smell, or otherwise perceive Yvaine. The curse does give Sal one benefit: when Yvaine tries to attack Sal, she is stopped by an invisible forcefield (to ensure Sal can't ''feel'' Yvaine).

 

== [[Literature]] ==

** The protagonist's mentor scolds him and comments that if he HAD tried to push it sideways, he'd likely have been thrown across the continent by now.

* Something similar to ''Belgariad'' also holds for magic in ''[[Discworld]]''. A wizard who wants to move a large weight telekinetically needs to harness some secondary force to avoid being crushed by the mass he's lifting; e.g. in ''Light Fantastic'', a wizard levitates himself by dropping a weight off a roof and transferring the force to himself. This rule seems to be often ignored [[Rule of Cool|if it would get in the way of the story]], however.

** Not to mention Eskarina demonstrated teleportation without an "anchor". Part of the ''Discworld'' narrative causality is things can be possible as long as you aren't told they aren't.

* Directly stated in the ''[[Wild Cards]]'' series of novels with the beautiful (and [[Winged Humanoid|winged]]) character of Peregrine. When a boyfriend tells her he hates mutated "Jokers", she explains to him that she is one. After all, her wings are large deformities that are not the source of her [[Flight|flying ability]], she does that psychically.

* Thanks to [[Brandon Sanderson|Brandon Sanderson's]] rather [[Functional Magic|scientific approach]] to [[Magic A Is Magic A|magic systems]] lots of his powers show the problems of missing Required Secondary Powers. For instance in the [[Mistborn]] trilogy, tineyes have heigtened hearing and sight, but can be very vulnerable to bright lights and loud noises while burning. Steelpushing and Ironpulling are not run-of-the-mill telekinesis, but are based around force, mass, and their interaction through Newton's Third Law. The Kandra are a race of shape shifters with a [[Healing Factor]] who can't actually be killed by wounding them, but wounds are still incredibly painful and regeneration takes time.

 

* The [[Syfy]] show ''[[Alphas]]'' is built on this trope. The title characters are shown as a drastic mutation in the human genome, but their bodies and minds have to adjust dramatically to accommodate their powers. You can read electromagnetic signals? Great, but that means you brain is now mostly a data processor, eating up the neurons used for emotional neural paths, making you severely autistic.

* ''[[No Ordinary Family]]'' includes a few examples of imperfect powers. In one episode, Jim tries to stop a moving car, but his super strength and invulnerability are not enough to overcome a car's inertia. This results in him getting run over repeatedly. Stephanie is depicted as consuming huge amounts of food to fuel her super-speed. She also trips and tumbles for hundreds of meters when she tries reading a text message while super-running. There's also a bit of lampshading going on, with Stephenie's assistant spouting the number of laws of physics that are being broken (why doesn't the friction burn off her clothes? Shouldn't the sand destroy her corneas at that speed?).

* Possible subversion in ''[[Smallville]]'': in a cliffhanger where Clark loses his powers near the end, a doctor must save his life by injecting him with a substance via syringe. Clark's parents (unaware that he has lost his powers) are terrified that the doctor will discover their son's secret, as they expect him to be invulnerable to needles in much the same way that he is invulnerable to bullets. However, the needle goes in fine, because of the loss of his powers.

** The [[Monster of the Week]] is occasionally [[Hoist by His Own Petard|done in by their own powers]]. For example: a guy who was [[Playing with Fire]] died when he tried to blast Clark, but the flames spread to him and burned him to death.

* In something of an aversion of the pyrokinetic version, ''[[Charmed]]'' has offered any number of witches, demons and warlocks who are completely vulnerable to their own fire-based powers, most notably {{spoiler|Christy, who is burned to death by her own flame-throwing ability when she tries to use it against her telekinetic sister Billie.}}

* The [[Doctor Who|Time Lords]] must have spent millenia perfecting all the biological processes necessary with the act of a body undergoing DNA rewriting at the most basic cellular-level across every organ from bone to hair. And it happens in roughly a minute, and doesn't kill the person undergoing it.

* In ''[[The Sarah Connor Chronicles]]'', Terminators don't need to breathe; that also means they can't take air into their lungs to float like humans can, and sink in deep water. Terminators that need to infiltrate human society also cannot weigh much more than humans, which is especially important for ones that have to pretend to be lightweight, small human women, like Cameron. That also makes them very easy for other Terminators to pick up and throw around and reduces their physical strength, meaning a Terminator like Cameron can't win a straight slugging match. A Terminator's mechanical nature means that it cannot heal physical damage like a human can and must keep a stockpile of parts to repair itself, and damage to its neural chip means that it cannot repair damage to its programming ''at all''.

* ''[[Painkiller Jane]]'' [[Averted Trope|averts]] the [[Healing Factor]] version: Jane can heal herself, but has no super tolerance for pain and has to endure every minute of the pain associated with the injury she receives.

 

== [[Music]] ==

I'll be gone before you see me

Do you think you can imagine anything so lonely?}}

 

== [[Myth and Legend]] ==

* The hero Ural in Bashkir legend definitely has both [[Super Strength]] and the requisite anchoring power. He managed to lift a great big stone (in the challenge to win a [[Princess]] and a [[Hellish Horse|demon-blooded winged steed]]... devised by said stallion himself), but his brother who tried before him hadn't these secondary powers and ended up buried waist-deep. Before this, a great bull buried himself knee-deep in a futile attempt to lift Ural while he was holding the bull's horns.

* [[Older Than Feudalism]]: This trope shows up in [[Classical Mythology]] with Midas. Wishing that what one touches turns to gold certainly can have some [[Power Incontinence|horrible downsides]] (and [[Fridge Logic|economic consequences]]). The man lacked such necessary powers as "not turning food and water and people into gold." He didn't turn air into gold, though, nor the contents already in his digestive tract, so he survived just long enough to learn his lesson and beg for a wish reversal.

 

== [[Tabletop Games]] ==

== [[Toys]] ==

* ''[[Bionicle]]'': Matoran actually have Required Secondary Powers, but have a minuscule amount of [[Elemental Powers]]. Of course, when they do become Toa, they will have the necessary secondary power for their element.

 

== [[Video Games]] ==

** In the diary concerning the Telekinesis plasmid, Dr. Suchong mentions that it can't be used to do a [[Bullet Catch]] - not because of the plasmid's deficiency, mind, but the user's reaction time.

* ''[[Dark Forces Saga]] II: Jedi Knight'', there is a little of aversion of this in play when using the force speed and force jump powers. Using either at its highest setting causes a little damage to the player upon running into something or landing on a surface equal or lower than the one from which he or she jumped. If a player tweaks the powers outside the game (which is quite easy), force speed can easily mean death when running into stair steps at top speed, and force jump can be a great way to get higher, but the fall back down is a killer. The sequels apparently address this by increasing the distance characters can fall without taking damage as a side feature of their increasing Force Jump skill.

** The use of cybernetic implants in general is also explored. In real life, cybernetics that are married to biological tissue face issues of immune system rejection and the buildup of glial tissue that results in the device not working. As a result, anyone in the setting who uses augmentations must take regular doses of the drug Neuropozyne or their own bodies will reject their augs. The fact that Adam Jensen doesn't have this rejection issue is an important plot point; he is {{spoiler|the "Patient X" that Megan Reed was referencing as having the genetic ability to allow cheap and sustainable augmentations available for all of humanity}}, and the breakthrough was what triggered the {{spoiler|Illuminati's attack on Sarif Industries because of fears that human augmentation would go out of their control.}}

* The water breathing potion in ''[[Terraria]]'' makes it so that you drown in the air while it has it's effect. However, if you wear a fish bowl on your head, you can go in and out of water just fine.

** Almost all the Dominion's forces have been "neural resocialized" (read, brain washed) so they are suicidally complacent (most of the army is former criminals).

** The Hydralisk has several thousand mores muscles in it's large head than the entire human body. Each is needed to fire their spikes. which can pierce future tank armor.

* In ''[[Command & Conquer 3: Tiberium Wars]]'' the flamethrower-using Black Hand aren't immune to hostile fire attacks.

* Discussed in ''[[Mass Effect]]'' with regard to biotics, who can manipulate mass effect fields to lift, throw, warp, or block things. This is done because they have nodes of element zero in their bodies that are activated by electricity from the nervous system and produce mass effect fields. The asari are the only species that can naturally do this on any significant scale - all other species must have implants to strengthen and control their powers, allowing their biotics to actually become useful, as most species' bodies can't generate electrical fields like that. There's also the problem of energy, as using biotics uses a significant amount of it. Because of this, biotics have a significantly higher required calorie intake than ordinary people (half again as many calories are allotted to biotic soldiers as compared to regular ones, for example) and often have to stop to eat and rest after extended use of their powers.

 

== [[Web Comics]] ==

* In ''[[The Adventures of Dr. McNinja]]'', the superpower of flight is bestowed by an organic jetpack that [[Charles Atlas Superpower|grows from overly-developed abdominal muscles]]. It's spelled out that fueling the organic jetpack requires a methane-rich diet, and that the power of flight does ''not'' grant immunity from the thin air of higher altitudes—those with the organic jetpack are invariably [[With Great Power Comes Great Insanity|driven insane]] by the oxygen deprivation.

** A fight with an opponent with a laser eye {{spoiler|a cyborg Frans Rayner}} ended very quickly once the beam was fired and missed, leaving {{spoiler|Frans}} too weak to fight. Why? The good Doctor noted that the eye had no outside power source, and was never used earlier in the fight, meaning it burns up a ''lot'' of calories.

** Since most characters we see are superheros, or superheroes in training, perhaps those without the required secondary powers just didn't get past the strict selection process.

** There is also a kind of magic water that allows blades to cut superhuman skin and hair, without superheroes wouldn't be able to shave.

* ''[[Dinosaur Comics]]'' discusses this, when T-Rex designes a game much like [[Super Mario Bros.]], except that the player character can't shoot fireballs from his hands without burning them.

* In ''[[The Order of the Stick|Order of the Stick]]'' Roy dons a belt of gender changing and becomes a bald girl, because if a "magic item doesn't specifically say it grows hair, it probably doesn't."

 

== [[Web Original]] ==

'''Sarge''': Sleep? When that game comes out, I won't sleep for a week!

'''Church''': Yeah, no, it's not that, it's just that he's having trouble sleeping because he can see through his eyelids now.

* In ''[[Trinton Chronicles]]'' it would seem like everyone who has an ability that might normally kill them has an unmentioned secondary power.

** Best example of this is Dan who controls time, in order to move at hyper speeds when emulating [[Super Speed]] he would need a way to extract air with out burning his lungs and in order to see when he slows time to a crawl he would need a way to speed light up to his eyes while still perceiving slowed time.

** Of course, Superman wasn't actively trying to use his powers there. He has shown anchoring powers before and since, so it's probably something he has to consciously make happen, and Batman caught him by surprise (Superman's so used to people shooting him, the thought that an unpowered human would use a martial arts throw against him probably never even occurred to him).

*** Of course, [[Crazy Prepared|Batman already knew that.]] That's why he did that instead of punching him in the face with Kyrptonite right off the bat.

** Timmy Turner does the same thing in ''[[The Fairly OddParents]]''. He learns is leasson and wishes for secondary powers after the first few backfires.

* Averted in ''[[Gargoyles]]'', as the eponymous beasts, despite having wings, don't have any of the Required Secondary Powers necessary to enable flight, and thus [[Not Quite Flight|can't actually fly]] (they simply glide). However, Dr. Sevarius notes since the amount of energy the species uses would require eating the equivalent of three cows a day, he theorizes that their daytime stone forms may be used to absorb solar radiation for the necessary energy. However, this has not been proven, especially since the Gargoyles have gone into their stone states indoors and in dark areas without seeming to be lethargic.

** This is actually supported in an episode where {{spoiler|Apple Bloom}} made a potion that made her keep getting cutie marks. She was able to use all the skills like a master, with ranged from speaking French to taming lions to using a hulo hoop like a helicopter.

** This is actually explained quite handily by Twilight Sparkle. She says that all unicorns have a little magic that help them with whatever special talent they have, despite not being especially talented in magic. For instance, in Twilight's case, her special talent ''is'' magic, essentially giving her endless possibilities in using it.

 

== [[Real Life]] ==

* [[We Can Rebuild Him|Cybernetics]] will only reach full viability when they can be tied into the human nervous system. Replacement sensory organs are obvious, but a cybernetic limb will not have the same fluidity and grace of a natural limb until the brain can ''treat it'' like one. Some method of translating between electrochemical and digital transmission is needed.

*** At the other end of the scale, there's a robotic arm which has been made deliberately ''weak''. The fact that it is too weak to hurt anybody is a selling point.

* Poisonous creatures (such as monarch butterflies) sometimes form an immunity against their own poison.

** Venomous creatures mostly aren't immune to their own venom though, so must isolate it from the rest of their body kind of like the same way we have hydrocholoric acid in our stomach (with a very complicated "support" system to neutralize it) but aren't by any means acid-proof.

 

{{reflist}}

[[Category:Power At a Price]]

[[Category:Superhero Tropes]]

[[Category:Magic and Powers]]

[[Category:Power]]