Required Secondary Powers: Difference between revisions

Speedsters also must possess a very powerful and efficient metabolism, which keeps them from needing to drink several times their weight in pure nectar every day (In recent years, this element has been often used to justify [[Healing Factor|faster healing]]). Sometimes, this is partly averted - more than one character like this has been shown to be a [[Big Eater]] to power their abilities - though not even spending 24/7 in front of an all-you-can-eat ice cream and candy buffet could provide enough calories to power more than a second or two of supersonic running speeds. Which means that every Speedster really is a PerpetuumMobile. Also, they have to have a very high stamina, as running from New York to Los Angeles all at once should be impossible no matter how fast they do it. They also have to have super friction powers (again with the friction), so that they can actually keep their footing when turning on surfaces that aren't specially constructed for high-speed travel. Cars turn easily at sixty miles per hour on (properly angled) asphalt, but they'd have a much harder time on tile.

 

 

If these characters approach the speed of light, they would experience time dilation. Furthermore, speedsters never get [[Eye Scream|specks of dust caught in their eyes...]]

There's also the issues of surviving while transforming and in the transformed state (altering one's body structure even a little is usually fatal in the real world, let alone having your flesh turned into another substance or turning into something with no internal organs) and keeping the ability to shape shift rather than transforming into something cursed with permanent [[Shapeshifter Mode Lock]]... This one could fill a page on its own.

 

 

And of course, if the shape shifter can also [[Shapeshifter Baggage|change his mass]]...

* That is if you consider the sun the center of the universe, or anchor on which reality rests. Otherwise, you may find yourself speed from the solar system and/or galaxy. Maybe the frame of reference is voluntary? After all, if these can work on space ships when they turn or other planets...

** One excuse is that the [[Intangible Man]] is presumably moving at the same speed the Earth is before becoming intangible. Therefore, unless some force changes his velocity or the velocity of the Earth/the Sun/the galaxy/whatever, he willseem anchored to the Earth. If he is immune to gravity, however, then he will merely travel in a straight path at the velocity of the Earth at the current moment. As the Earth orbits around the Sun, it's velocity constantly changes, though the [[Intangible Man]]'s would not

 

Alternatively, you remain affected by gravity but your intangibility makes an inexplicable exception with the ground so you can just walk on it normally instead of falling through.

 

'''[[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. Long-distance teleporters would also need to compensate for the curvature of the Earth and relative motion of different points on the Earth's surface; someone teleporting from Europe to China would otherwise arrive traveling very, very fast while upside-down. Furthermore they need to be really accurate to avoid falling hundreds of feet on arrival or [[Tele Frag|appearing inside the Earth itself, or something else]] - and even if they manage to appear in relatively empty space, they need to somehow ensure (1) that the air at the destination does not end up inside their body, causing decompression sickness and a potentially-fatal air embolism, and (2) that some matter replaces them at the departure location, to avoid an implosion which would damage things in the area. Best variants so far boil down to cutting an area out of reality and pasting it in at the destination in a speed-synchronized way (of course, the destination area must be instantaneously exchanged with the source). Or a [[Our Wormholes Are Different|Wormhole]], which is basically a spatial shortcut-- the real-world physics term for such a hypothetical form of transport is "topological displacement".

* The makers of Jumper actually subverted this by doing something similar to a wormhole(the "jumpscar"), which also causes a spherical explosion upon arrival {{spoiler|the lead is jumping into a hospital, and the entire room is flattened, a circular pit with the lead in the center.}} Presumably there is also an implosion upon leaving, as seen in the {{spoiler|bank robbery scene, and the money in the room starts flying after he goes back for seconds.}} there's also the scene in the end where he jumps with an {{spoiler|entire apartment, causing a veritable tornado upon departure}}(should have probably flattened the entire block, considering an implosion of that size would be enough to heat the air to several thousand degrees and explode, violently, tactical nuke style. For comparison, just look at the effect a pistol shrimp has when it [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eKPrGxB1Kzc snaps its claw at ~60MPH underwater]. To quote K. Montagne of ''[[Cracked.com]]'': "[http://www.cracked.com/article_17612_the-6-most-badass-murder-weapons-in-animal-kingdom.html That's like getting punched by Mike Tyson in his prime if his outstretched arm was attached to a meteor as it entered the atmosphere].")

 

**** Similarly, when Barry the Chopper's armor is destroyed, the piece with the blood seal on it can still talk, hear, see, and move (he can't move a lot, but he can move), but the rest of the armor can't.

*** Although, it is shown that somebody in Al's situation will feel it if you touch the blood seal. At one point in the anime, Lust scratches Al's blood seal and he seemed to be in pain.

* Brook from ''[[One Piece]]'' is basically ''made'' out of these. In life, he ate a fruit that allowed him to return to life once after he died, aside from this he only had the powers of a human. When he died, the ship he was on was in a dense fog and it took him a year for his soul to locate his body and revive. Because of the time, his body decomposed until all that was left was a skeleton with an afro ([[It Runs on Nonsensoleum|strong roots]]). Despite reviving being the main power of the fruit, it also provided him with everything he needed to survive in his body; he can move the bones without muscles, see without eyes, speak (''[[Super Drowning Skills|and drown]]'') without lungs, eat without a stomach, use a toilet without bowels ([[Running Gag|Luffy asked]]), etc.<br />Many of Brook's ACTUAL powers are merely extensions of this. For example, in life he was over 8 feet tall and pretty strong (if not super strong). He maintains that same level of strength and can even increase it with time, but now his body is a mere fraction of the weight, allowing him to leap incredible distances and run across water.

** It turns out that all of his secondary powers are a result of a special energy given off by his soul. Post [[Time Skip]] he's learned to channel this energy for [[Heart Is an Awesome Power|all sorts of supernatural effects]], from [[Astral Projection]] to [[Mass Hypnosis]] to a ''[[An Ice Person|weaponized]]'' [[Ghostly Chill]].

* In ''[[Dragonball Z]]'', the weakest member of the Ginyu Force has the power to [[Time Stands Still|stop time]]. However, he can't maintain it indefinitely and can only do so for as long as he can hold his breath and maintains the proper concentration. Considering how out of shape he is, this isn't long.

** [[Fridge Logic]] dictates this is why Oozaru form increases a Saiyan's strength and chi ten-fold. Growing to giant proportions allows them to access additional strength and chi, which would be needed to prevent their body collapsing under its own weight.

* The manga series ''[[Cannon God Exaxxion]]'' goes into some considerable detail about what a 500+ ft. [[Humongous Mecha]] would need to be able to move around. The mechs use [[Imported Alien Phlebotinum]] gravity/inertial control devices to prevent them from collapsing under their own weight & allow their limbs to move at a reasonable speed, instead of feet they have invisible forcefields to distribute their weight to prevent them from crashing through the ground, because having actual feet big enough to accomplish this herculean task would look insanely silly (the fields are described as "invisible snowshoes" at one point), although at least that way bystanders would see them coming rather than being crushed underfoot by a robot that appears to be safely dozens of feet away. Aside from this, they're otherwise portrayed realistically & thus cause massive property damage to anything they get anywhere near simply by walking around.

* ''[[Darker Than Black]]'' plays with this all the time:

** In ''Darker Than Black: Shikkoku no Hana'' Hei tested the idea that a Contractor who can disintegrate matter does something close enough to negate with his electron control, as he tried to go hand-to-hand with a guy who disperses bullets so fast they can't harm him. {{spoiler|He's kind of right. They both even survived it. But it ''was'' nasty.}}

* Nancy Makuhari (a.k.a. "Miss Deep") of ''[[Read or Die]]'' possesses the power of [[Intangible Man|intangibility]], but is unable to breathe while using her powers, as air passes through her lungs while she is intangible. This presents the very real danger of drowning while using her powers underwater.

* 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.

* Accelerator in ''[[To Aru Majutsu no Index]]'' has a rather interesting required secondary power: [[Good with Numbers|mathematics]] and spacial relations. Yes, without them he could probably deflect anything anyone sent at him but he couldn't really aim. Vector control requires him to be able to figure out what to actually do to get the result he wants. {{spoiler|Post [[Heel Face Turn]] he's [[Good Is Dumb|notably weaker]] because of some brain damage}}.

** [[All There in the Manual|The databooks]] state that the [[Dishing Out Dirt|Earth]] technique to [[Tunnel King|burrow underground]] has the user act as a human compass to keep track of their location and sense what's above so they know where to attack when coming up.

** Mabui's ability to move a target from one location to another at the speed of light is largely limited to inanimate objects. For a living being to survive, they either need advanced self-healing, like Tsunade, or to be [[Made of Iron]], like the Raikages.

** Those Claymores who are known by the Organization to have shape-altering abilities are issued special uniforms that can stretch to accommodate the changes.

* ''[[Durarara]]'''s Shizuo acquired [[Super Strength]] pretty early on in life, but not the physical resistance that usually goes with it. The end result was that he spent as much time tossing cars as he did in the hospital from the resulting fractures until around high school.

** However, he doesn't seem to hold much knowledge as of how fire itself works. There was one instance (in the animated version, admitedly) where Mr Fantastic gave him a watch which was in fact a special torch capable of lighting underwater (which actually exists in real life, the olympic torches of 2008 were known for that). He then uses such fire to light himself while underwater, which he ought to be able to do anyways without the watch, or not do at all. Unless it was [[A Wizard Did It|magic fire]].

** Not necessary for being the Human Torch per se, but certainly necessary for doing many of the things Johnny does, is magic fire. He creates specific shapes from fire that maintain their shape (and of course keep burning, as do his own flames, with no perceivable fuel). He creates cages of fire that are hot but do not burn, and in fact can keep fire from burning things. I guess it might be an example of [[Convection, Schmonvection]].

** Technically, Aquaman always ''had'' superstrength and durability, at least in his first [[The Golden Age of Comic Books|Golden Age]] appearances, that were forgotten during the [[Dork Age|Superfriends era]]. On the splash page of his very first appearance, ''More Fun Comics'' #73, he's shown deflecting an artillery shell with his hand.

** [[Grant Morrison]] also gave him the ability to essentially induce seizures by telepathically touching the part of the brain that humans share with fish. It's a shame that he doesn't do that more often.

** He also lacks certain required secondary ''skills'' - for instance, when he was young, he copied a professional diver's dive. But neglected to learn how to swim first.

*** Taskmaster is a bit of an odd case; he supposedly has no superhuman powers beyond his signature "photographic reflexes", yet is not only able to pull off the aforementioned feats, but also [[Spider-Man|Spider-Man's]] [[Bullet Time|speed]] and [[Building Swing|agility]], and further, can [[Super Reflexes|catch bullets]], leap dozens of feet vertically, casually send a man flying with a [[Megaton Punch|punch]] and shake off [[Made of Iron|getting smashed through a reinforced wall]] by the force of an enraged Spidy (thinking Taskie had kidnapped Mary Jane) ''kicking him in the head''.

* [[Ultimate Marvel]]'s version of [[Fantastic Four|Reed Richards]] has his body transformed into an undifferentiated "bacterial stack" with no internal organs or tissues, so he has no need to worry about, for example, his stretched arms going numb because his heart had to try to pump blood the length of a football field. How he [[No Conservation of Energy|gets energy without eating]] is [[Hand Wave|glossed over]].

** Note that this is roughly the power of Plastic Man. Nothing new under the sun.

* Strangely both averted and used in ''[[Legion of Super-Heroes]]'' V2. Supergirl is trying to move a planet. She has the strength, but attempting to do so just ends up digging a hole through the planet because she can't move it as a single object by touching a small part of it. However, the "solution" used is to have her bounce into the planet, which really should fail for the same reason.

* It's possible that [[Spider-Man]]'s super-strength is a [[Required Secondary Power]]. Everything else - agility, wall-crawling, advanced nervous system - falls under "proportionate powers of a spider" but spiders aren't really known for their brawn. It does, however, probably keep him from dislocating his arms when he leaps from a great height onto the side of a building.

** Lampshaded on at least one occasion when Spidey loses his powers but still has his web shooters; he tries to swing away but lacks the strength to hold onto his own web!

*** Most comics allow normal-strength people to hold their own weight on one arm for some reason, it's interesting that writer remembered. Another didn't, and had him able to web-swing fine with his powers gone, except without his spider-sense he had to actually ''concentrate'' on things like aiming.

* In issue 75 of ''[[Justice Society of America|JSA]]'', Atom Smasher explicitly mentions breaking and regrowing his bones and muscles as he grows. While it has never been done, this would theoretically allow him to heal bone and muscle damage by simply shifting height again. He also has a specific height (around 50 feet) wherein his powers start to malfunction and the [[Square-Cube Law]] starts paying attention to him again.

** Subverted in a ''JLA'' story where Superman encounters a new superhero while rescuing some firemen from a collapsing building. The newbie has super strength and is able to hold up the falling ceiling long enough for Superman to evacuate the firemen. Unfortunately he discovers that he does not possess invulnerability and is killed when a gas main blows up in his face.

* Chamber from ''[[Generation X]]'' is a [[Zig-Zagging Trope|triple subversion]]: he doesn't need to eat, breathe or drink thanks to the pure-energy furnace within his chest, which is a fortunate thing since the same furnace blew off his jaw and a good portion of his chest when his powers first surfaced. With no lungs or mouth, he can't talk normally but then he develops a secondary mutation of [[Telepathy]] to communicate with others. As it turns out, he doesn't need telepathy; he has the potential to reconstitute his missing parts [[How Do I Shot Web?|but isn't skilled enough in his powers to do so for long]]. He nearly died in ''Decimation'' when he lost his powers and suddenly needed things like food, water, and oxygen again.

** Max Damage, from [[Irredeemable]]'s sister title, has super strength and invulnerability which proportionally increase the longer he's been awake. Unfortunately, a side-effect of the latter is that he loses all sense of touch, taste and smell after a couple of hours - he describes it as being numb instead of being tough, like God didn't know when to stop with the Novacaine. He also suffers from the normal effects of sleep deprivation, which is sometimes necessary to get his powers up to a certain level, so the stronger his body becomes the weaker his mind gets.

* Minor character from [[Rising Stars]] was [[Nigh Invulnerable]], but doesn't have several secondary powers that usually come with it - he has no enchanced senses so his powers block his sense of touch, pain and temperature and he has no super strength so he is rather useless in a fight, being beaten like anybody else, just without feeling anything. And he needed air just like anybody else, so he was suffocated to death with a plastic bag. In fact, lack of enhanced senses was what killed him - without his powers he didn't feel it when the murderer tied him up and put the bag on his head.

** Lifting the entire island at escape velocity, though, was pure Tactile Telekinesis.

** They also show one of the downsides to [[Nigh Invulnerability]] when, {{spoiler|after being killed by the fall from space due to Kryptonite temporarily taking away his powers, medical staff attempt to revive Superman with defibrilators, only to find that his powers have returned, and the electricity can't get through his skin to reach his heart.}}

** Tony chides the captured Anton Vanko about his failed attempt to kill him, implying that although he figured out the arc reactor technology, he screwed up on some other details, which allowed Stark to defeat him. Vanko implies that [[Xanatos Gambit|that was the plan all along....]]

** The first film features this as well. Tony initially discovers the problems of flying without stabilizers, and didn't forsee the problem with his equipment icing up at high altitudes. The "Icing problem" becomes a [[Chekhov's Gun]] near then end when it turns out that Obadiah and his team didn't consider it either.

*** That's explainable as something she didn't think of. Having that flaw in her power pointed out in the first movie, she likely would have rectified that in her future encounters with mutants that have heightened senses like Wolverine's. That or Wolverine was simply too distracted to notice the difference in scent that time around.

** The novelization of ''X-Men 2'' implies that most of the time many of her disguises are purely cosmetic, as actually replicating the textures of clothing and other materials put a strain on her abilities.

*** [[Fridge Brilliance|Which explains why]] [[The Incredibles|Mr. Incredible]] [[Fridge Brilliance|was working out by pressing trains.]]

* In ''[[The One (film)|The One]]'', all shown versions of [[Jet Li]]'s character never have problems that a [[Super Speedster]] or a [[Lightning Bruiser]] should have, such as flying backwards every time he punches someone at super-speed or having his clothes ripped off by running at speeds at over 60 mph, or jumping high and leaving footprints in the road every time he moves really fast. Also, his gun doesn't seem to suffer any ill effect from being hit with a bullet from a futuristic gun, not even a scratch. Inertia also, apparently, does not exist for them, as they can go 0 to 60 in a matter of seconds and stop just as fast.

** The ''[[Wild Cards]]'' criminal Fadeout bends light to become invisible, and is effectively blind while doing so. He can only see by making his eyes visible.

** There's also a [[What Kind of Lame Power Is Heart, Anyway?|Deuce]] with the ability to produce flame from his hands. Normally this would make him an Ace... except for the fact that he's not immune to his own fire.

* ''Heretics of [[Dune]]'' sees {{spoiler|Miles Teg}} gain [[Super Speed]], but needs to become a [[Big Eater]] to compensate (several characters lampshade his Big Eating). He also gets his hands badly bruised and torn from hitting his enemies at such speeds.

* In the ''[[The Shahnameh]]'', written by Ferdowsi of Tus, the main hero, Rostam, at the beginning of the story is too strong to walk, since with every step he would ram his leg into the earth up to the waist. He had to pray to his god make him weaker to actually be able to walk normally.

* In [[Larry Niven]]'s ''[[Known Space]]'' series, humanity has developed teleportation technology that has distance and mass limits due to the Law of Conservation of Energy. Teleporting east-west doesn't generate many problems, but teleporting too far north-south generates problems because of the difference in orbital velocities between where you are and where you were. In short, teleport too far north or south, and you arrive at your destination as a human-shaped exploding nuclear weapon.

* In one ''[[Dragonlance]]'' story, a group of Gnomes fly a zeppelin to the moon of Lunitari, the god of neutral magic. The inherent magic gives them powers... but not secondary powers. At first the powers are very light; one can see slightly better, one can hear slightly better, one is stronger, one can cling to walls, etc... but with prolonged exposure the powers keep getting stronger and stronger. Eventually the one with sight starts seeing through the entire moon with covered eyes, the one with hearing has to stuff his ears lest the crawl of insects make them bleed, the strong one breaks everything he touches and the clingy one just gets stuck.

 

 

* 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.

** It can be argued that the augmentation is a required *tertiary* power, since without both the natural strength boost in conjunction with the power-armor's strength boost, they would be unable to carry and fire the unreasonably large guns they are issued. Man-portable Las-cannons and Multi-meltas, weapons that weigh 40+ kilos and are usually crew served or vehicle mounted weapons are carried around by Marines and fired from the shoulder.

* ''[[Wild Talents]]'' Second Edition's One-Roll Talent Generator table gives a character with any level of Flight above the minimum Light Armor, "�cause honestly, at around 500 mph, you�re going to need to worry about skin abrasion if not an air supply."

* In ''[[Rifts]]'' there's a class known as the Titan Juicer, chemically-enhanced humans who are much larger and stronger than is otherwise possible for a human. The class specifically mentions that the bones are made stronger so as to handle the increased weight and strength. Their punches are also so powerful they have to wear special gloves so that they don't break their hands when they take a swing at something.

* [[Dungeons and Dragons]] has some natural limitations on effects like scrying and translocation - one needs to have a good idea of the destination. . The caster of Teleport not knowing the destination ''very'' well risks to end up misplaced, which includes arrival in mid-air or into a wall. There's a more complex - of higher level - variant of Teleport spell with added safeguard, originally named simply "Teleport Without Error" (see 3.5 version - [http://www.d20srd.org/srd/spells/teleport.htm Teleport] vs. [http://www.d20srd.org/srd/spells/teleportGreater.htm Greater Teleport]).

** Maybe only in the Archie comic, but the rings are supposed to provide energy. It could well be infered that Sonic offsetting his need to be a big eater by having a lot of rings. While this might mean he's also effectively an energy leech, most of his allies seem to be too. On at least the level needed to create a personal protection field.

* ''[[Metroid Prime]]'' lampshades this when the [[Space Pirates]] try to reverse engineer Samus Aran's powers. They manage to clone her basic weaponry but abandoned the Morph Ball research due to... let's just say "unknotting a pretzel" and move on. <ref>"Science Team is attempting to reverse-engineer Samus Aran's arsenal, based off of data acquired from her assaults on our forces. Progress is slow, but steady. Command would dearly enjoy turning Aran's weapons against her. We believe we can implement Beam weapon prototypes in three cycles. Aran's Power Suit technology remains a mystery, especially the curious Morph Ball function. All attempts at duplicating it have ended in disaster: four test subjects were horribly broken and twisted when they engaged our Morph Ball prototypes. Science Team wisely decided to move on afterward."</ref>

** Rolling around in the Morph Ball also requires Samus to be immune to motion sickness, not to mention impact trauma when she lands, boosts into walls or is hit by enemies.

** Recurring series villain Ridley is a [[Giant Flyer]], with all the logic problems that implies. ''Prime'' mitigated it somewhat by giving him forcefield wings, which would essentially be massless, aside from the physical parts by which they are generated.

** That last is explicitly shown - Mercer spends the first few minutes of the game with bloodsoaked clothing riddled with bullet holes. After you consume your first victim, and regenerate your first chunk of health, his clothing is repaired.

** Being a wad of nothing but biomass also explains how Mercer can hip-drop a tank from the top of a skyscraper and walk away uninjured - he had no bones to break or organs to rupture.

* Some of this in ''[[Infamous (video game series)|In Famous]]''. Cole's electricity powers must also come with some control over magnetism for him to decrease his falling speed and jump off of skyscrapers only to land without breaking anything - it's mentioned explicitly that being able to jump off buildings is a part of his powers, but how it relates to electricity is up to conjecture. More obviously, Kessler's final power once he fully evolved as a Conduit was {{spoiler|the ability to travel into the past one time}}, but likely thanks to this trope, he's immune to {{spoiler|[[Temporal Paradox]] and freely alters his past life with no side-effects to himself}}.

* This trope is what makes Shirou {{spoiler|and Archer}} from ''[[Fate/stay night]]'' so dangerous. Sure he is able to replicate swords, even Noble Phantasm swords, but they are weaker imitations of the original. However, he can also replicate the skills of the original's wielder throught the weapon's memory, allowing him to draw on the skills of countless swordsman, including heroic spirits. Gilgamesh has the similar power of summoning the prototypes of Noble Phantasms, but without the ability to wield them effectively, he loses in his fight with Shirou despite Shirou using weaker versions of Gilgamesh's own weapons.

** In ''[[Metal Gear Solid 3 Snake Eater]]'', Volgin the [[Psycho Electro]] also has superhuman strength. The strength allows him to punch holes in solid concrete, but it's also required for another of his favorite moves: using his electricity to fire bullets held between his fingers. Without super-strong hands, the kickback would break his fingers.

* The [[Soul Series]] makes a case for a perfectly mundane character laking a Required Secondary Skill: while Cassandra is plenty proficient with the weapons she "borrows" from her sister, she doesn't know how to take care of them. [[Gameplay and Story Segregation|Not normally an issue]], [[Rule of Funny|except]] during her ending of ''Soul Calibur 3'' where {{spoiler|her sword breaks after being used to shatter Soul Edge, and Sophitia catches her trying to hide it after a bad patch job and sends her straight to the forge to fix it properly. Cut to Cassandra having a sobbing fit on the forge floor, sword still broken, wailing that she doesn't know how to fix it.}}

** 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 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.

* As well as being armed with a portal gun, Chell in [[Portal (series)|Portal]] is fitted with a pair of legs springs that [[Not the Fall That Kills You|allow her to survive falls from any height]]. According to the commentary, the developers added these because playtesters complained about the lack of realism. Even though the leg springs couldn't possibly account for all the issues with survivng falls, the complaints stopped.

* 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.

 

'''Sarge''': Oh. That's creepy.

}}

** 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.

* The demons in the ''[[The Salvation War]]'' all have giant back muscles that are very similar to the cells of the electric eels, which makes up for the needed energy a 20 foot tall man would need. The flying demons are filled with a light and highly flameable gas that allows them to fly and breath fire. However, the byproduct to the gas makes the demon's blood HIGHLY acidic, and while their insides are well protected from the acid, their skin bursts into flames if the blood touches it.

*** Hey, ''real'' [[Magic Pants]]!

*** The spell that froze them must've also proofed them against the stone-destroying action of plants, lichens and weather for them to remain unharmed for a millennium.

* Bunnie Rabbot from Sat AM ''[[Sonic Sat AM|Sonic the Hedgehog]]'' would have had the same problem, but the writers never discussed it. Since the interrupted process was supposed to transform her entirely into a machine, it's presumably pure luck that the half-way state she is stuck in is organically viable, or a safety device to prevent her from dying during the process.

** Most versions of ''[[Sonic the Hedgehog]]'' have him as a [[Big Eater]], and note that his sneakers are specially designed to reduce the problems with friction. Occasionally other secondary powers are alluded to, and on occasion he has learned to use them for other means (the Sonic the Comic version noted that part of the reason he was so tough was that he could vibrate the particles around him to provide a forcefield against air friction and direct damage).

** There was an advertisement/comic about Sonic that stated that his sneakers were, in fact, "frictionless". Which, while solving the problem of his shoes bursting into flames, creates the ''new'' problem of how he gains any traction, and thus is able to move at all... or stop, for that matter.

* Blastus in ''[[Robotomy]]'' has flame eyes, but not flame-''proof'' eyes, so when he tries to use them he accomplishes nothing but [[Eye Scream|setting his own eyes on fire.]]

* [[Jimmy Neutron]] used a superslick spray to give his shoes [[Super Speed]] while the effect of friction in the air is never discussed, he had horrible control of the friction on the ground and was unable to stop. He ended up as a pile of goo.

** This also brings up a few questions, regarding the time she spent apparently doing nothing for what was to her likely several hours, while those around her were shown to have moved.

* The titular character of ''[[Danny Phantom]]'' has a bucketload of these. For example, he's clearly [[Nigh Invulnerable|very hard to injure]] considering the number of buildings he falls off of or is blasted through with minimal damage to himself [[My Suit Is Also Super|or his jumpsuit]]. This one is pretty reasonable, though, because the story wouldn't be very interesting if damage was realistically represented ''every time'' Danny gets blasted, punched, zapped or shot through a wall.

** And with time and lot of training, horrible deformity, bone pain and cumulative disability. [[Sarcasm Mode|Yes, it's a charm]].

** Don't forget the ballerinas. They basically break the bones in their feet and have them heal in an unnatural position. One reason why you might not want to give one a foot rub; black toes aren't exactly attractive.

* One problem in the developed world is that, while advanced agriculture provides abundant food, our metabolic systems are still not that dissimilar from Stone Age hunter-gathers. This often leads to calorie intake outstripping energy needs, causing weight gain. It is not increased food consumption but decreases in physical activity and the reduced nutritional range of the foods we consume that is responsible for this change. Actual stone-age hunter gatherers had the best diet of any society humans have ever developed.

** Except before that our ancestors ate mostly fruits and nuts for millions of years, not meat. This is the reason we are among the rare animals that can get scurvy, a problem those hunters will have faced, especially during winter in colder area's. Our diet has in fact changed faster than our evolution can keep up with, and we currently are not adapted to deal with any of them perfectly.

** The high, year round calory intake is why Type II Diabetes, once rare and found only in the middle-aged, is becoming very common and is appearing even in children.

* The brain averts [[Dizzy Cam]] by inducing temporary blindness that exists for a fraction of a second. In other words, your brain averts Dizzycam by using [[Jittercam]].

* Bat echolocation is amazingly high-energy, loud enough that some species can use their calls to stun their insect prey. As the [[Make Me Wanna Shout]] page observes, their own calls should be loud enough to deafen them -- but they have an autonomic reflex which uses the stapedius muscle to dampen the vibrations of the inner ear. Humans have the same muscle reflex but it is really only useful for dampening the sound of yourself chewing.

** Cicadas have an extremely loud call. In fact, they would make themselves deaf if they didn't have built-in earplugs.