Misapplied Phlebotinum: Difference between revisions

{{trope}}

 

 

** If the technology works by destroying and reconstructing, there are a number of possible uses that are rarely used, like bodily restoration after injury or death, copying/mass-production of reconstructible objects, copying/mass-production of ''people'', etc.

* '''[[Artificial Gravity]]:'''

*** Unless those other functions are actually offshoots of artificial gravity (or [[Babylon 5|vice-versa]]).

*** For that matter, mounting '''weapons''' might be redundant - just ask the crew of the [[Martian Successor Nadesico|Nadesico]].

* Somewhat averted in ''[[Cannon God Exaxxion]]''. They go into a considerable amount of detail about all the interesting things you can do with [[Artificial Gravity]] tech & how it dramatically changes the face of modern industry & combat. The limited way [[Nanomachines]] are used in the series smacks of this trope, but they at least bother to handwave it by citing the technology's astronomical cost.

* Averted by ''[[Martian Successor Nadesico]]''. The villains get their hands on easy teleportation and quickly use it to warp warheads straight through the ''Nadesico'''s [[Deflector Shield]].

* Averted in ''[[Code Geass]]'' with Sakuradite, a naturally-occurring substance that is an exceptionally good conductor. It's used in [[Humongous Mecha]] '''and''' consumer electronics, and is the reason the why [[Magnetic Weapons]] have completely replaced gunpowder, even when it comes to personal firearms.

* ''[[Ranma ½|Ranma 1/2]]'''s Jusenkyo --cursed springs that, when submerged inside them or splashed with water from them, give you the shape of whatever drowned there first until you turn yourself back with hot water (and then turn again with cold.) Any living thing can be transformed into a multitude of other things: men, women, children, a huge variety of animals, twins, or even [[Superpower Lottery|godlike lightning- and fire-spewing entities]]. Yet no one in the series ever thinks of [ab]using it to, for example, dump a handful of ants in the Spring of Drowned Ox and feed impoverished villages with the resulting hundreds of oxen. Worse, there's even ''powdered'' packets of "instant," single-use springs, but they're even more obscure than the springs themselves. About the only people who profit from the springs are the Musk Dynasty (who, in antiquity, would dump strong animals into the Spring of Drowned Girl in order to procure wives to yield [[Lego Genetics|stronger children]],) and [[Winged Humanoid|the people of Mt. Phoenix]], who use their bird-cursed water [[Mundane Utility|for everything water is typically used for]] (bathing, drinking, cooking, washing) and, from time to time, turning themselves human to spy on others.

** And on the subject of Mt. Phoenix: their lord, the Phoenix King, breaks every last law of thermodynamics with [[Playing with Fire|his ability to generate limitless heat and light]], [[Good Thing You Can Heal|regenerate from any injury]], and [[The Phoenix|bring himself back from the dead]]. [[Person of Mass Destruction|How many countries has he conquered?]] None, because his primary task is to [[Orcus on His Throne|sit pretty and prim on his hanging perch]] and provide light [[Mundane Utility|for the comfort of his subjects]].

** Seemingly played straight, but averted at the last second with in the case of the [[Dangerous Forbidden Technique|Yamasenken and Umisenken]]. These are exceptionally devastating martial arts schools which emphasize, respectively, outwards force and absolute stealth. Warrior-minded fighters will seek them out to add to their repertoire... but in their creator's words, they're actually meant for ''burglary'' and ''thievery''.

 

 

== Comic Books ==

** Finally subverted with Kyle Rayner, who was more likely to create [[Humongous Mecha]] and [[Anime]] characters than giant hammers and boxing gloves. Once when asked to make a simple bubble he said that it was the "other guy" who did mundane things like that.

* Basically, every [[Superhero]]. [[Reed Richards Is Useless|Name one superhero who couldn't somehow make a fortune using his or her abilities for something other than beating up another superhuman.]]

*** Which is even funnier, considering ''he wears tights that practically show everything anyway.''

* [[Alan Moore]]'s ''[[Tom Strong]]''. His recurring enemy has 'liquid sun' as his main weapon (being an evil genius also helps). Much misery results. An alternate universe Tom convinces said bad guy to sell his Phlebotinum as an energy source. Much happiness results. Until it all goes to pot.

* [[The Golden Age of Comic Books|Golden Age]] [[Superman]] villain Funnyface was a disgruntled cartoonist who invented a machine to bring [[Newspaper Comics]] characters to life. He used it to ''rob banks''. When he reappears in an issue of ''[[All-Star Squadron]]'', many years later, the heroes point out to him what a preposterous waste of the technology this is, and he reacts with astonishment, [[Villain Ball|clearly not having thought about it.]]

* [[Double Subversion|Double subverted]] in ''[[Invincible]]'': the superheroine Atom Eve's power is that she can create, transform and manipulate almost any form of matter. After having used this power for superheroing for a few years, she realizes she could better use it to help hungry and poor people in the Third World, which is what she proceeds to do. However, {{spoiler|after doing this for some time she finds out she can only offer temporary help and not facilitate any long-term changes on her own, so she returns to being a superhero.}}

** [[Lampshaded]] in the novelization: A clone trooper, pretending to be dead for the benefit of a few battle droids, is able to communicate with his squad and receive orders, since his helmet is designed to work on voice commands and chin switches, so it can be used even when immobilized. He muses that while clones are becoming more like droids, droids are being made more human (such as being required to speak ''aloud'' when using their communicators).

** The droids' lack of intelligence ''may'' be explained by the various [[Corrupt Corporate Executive]]s, especially the Neimodians, being extremely paranoid cowards that only used droid armies in the first place because they wanted soldiers that were one hundred percent loyal, constantly concerned about their subordinates turning on them, so could have intentionally had them programmed to be less than optimal. Also, it is well established that without constant memory wipes droids develop individual personalities, so this could have happened as well, though far less probable considering the aforementioned paranoia.

*** Also, with the kind of forces ''Star Wars'' throws around, "FTL as a weapon" might not always work. At one point in a ''Star Wars'' comic, [[La Résistance|The Rebels]] set up the Executor on a collision course with three Star Destroyers exiting hyperspace, which promptly [[Ramming Always Works|ram into the Executor at near light speed]]. The ([[Deflector Shields|fully shielded]]) Executor ''shrugs off'' the attack and casually proceeds with its original mission.

* ''[[Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs]]'' has an inventor who typifies this trope. One could think up a thousand uses for a bulletproof, waterproof, fireproof, spray-on coating other than "spray-on shoes". And consider that his "food creation machine" converts ordinary H2O into complex organic food molecules (which means it could convert them into darn near any other material, organic or inorganic) -- and apparently runs off the residual energy left over from the process. A combination ''replicator and fusion generator''...

** The coating's potential is partially realized at the end of the movie.

** It ''could'' be that the transporter could only work if one knows the specifics of the destination, and one of the fundamental aspects of ''Star Trek'' is exploration, wherein [[Captain Obvious|the destination is not always known]].

** This method of transport also seemed less accurate than the usual teleportation as Scotty ended up in the water filtration system and nearly got diced by it before Kirk saved him.

 

== Live Action TV ==

* ''[[Star Trek]]'' actually [[Shown Their Work|did do the research]] on this one (albeit with some glaring exceptions): [[The Federation]] as depicted is a near-perfect example of a [[wikipedia:Post scarcity|post-scarcity economy]]. Federation citizens don't need to work for a living because replicators make everything you need for free, so everybody just does whatever they feel like doing. The shows concentrate on the idealists who are devoted to exploration and diplomacy because that makes for better television.

** Another case is the holodeck. One may assume there are people who have taken to just living permanent lives of leisure in a holodeck, but again, they aren't shown on-screen because that would be boring. Recurring character Reginald Barclay's ongoing struggle with "holo-addiction" points out why you don't want that sort of thing going on when you're supposed to be busy exploring the galaxy and [[Boldly Coming|making friends with aliens]].

*** The Vidiians also overlook the possibility of harvesting organs from, y'know, ''non-sapient animals'' rather than intelligent races, despite their obvious proficiency in cross-species transplantation.

* Subverted in ''[[Supernatural]].'' When a character is discovered to have mind control abilities, he is asked why he is only using it to live a lower middle class life and to obtain some weed and a couple cool things like a rare car. He replies by claiming that he has everything he would ever want.

* Speaking of mentalistic powers, [[Buffy the Vampire Slayer|Buffy Summers]] acquired the ability to read minds. Giles suggested using it for gathering intelligence against her enemies... but Buffy's response was "Way better than that," and she used it to investigate the petty personal questions of how people think about her. Of course, like most magic in Sunnydale, it goes horribly wrong.

** Furthermore, the second episode established that Sylar was incredibly well-read; his apartment was filled with nothing but books on a wide array of topics (sorta like an eerily tidy version of [[Read or Die|Yomiko Readman's]] pad), suggesting that Sylar had spent the vast majority of his life absorbing information about pretty much everything.

** The writers seem to have caught on that Sylar's power is good for more than stealing brains. In Season 3, Peter takes Sylar's power in order to understand the show's plot. Unfortunately, [[The Dark Side|it also comes with an uncontrollable]] [[I'm a Humanitarian|craving for brains]].

 

== Tabletop Games ==

* In ''[[Dungeons and Dragons]]'', clerics can ''make water materialize out of thin air'' and ''purify huge amounts of existing water''. Rather than, you know, revolutionizing agriculture and sea travel, they primarily use this ability to reduce the amount of canteens parties of adventurers have to lug around.

** Given the nature of the ''[[Dark Sun]]'' setting, it seems strange that there aren't more Water Clerics running around.

** Thermal Discouragement Beams - Semi-lethal laser beams. Marketed as means to keep office workers from ''leaving their desks''.

** Repulsion and Propulsion Gels - Gels literally capable of breaking the laws of physics by making any surface in which they are spread suddenly gain elasticity or make any object in contact with that surface ''gain momentum'' respectively. Marketed as ''dietary aids'' despite being ''horrifically toxic''.

** And then there's the stuff that was apparently ''never released at all'': solar powered [[Hard Light]] bridges, tractor beams capable of sending things forward or backward, [[Brain Uploading]], enough technology to create a facility literally capable of suriviving the Apocalypse, repair and literally ''[[Chaos Architecture|rearrange itself at will]]'', sentient [[A Is]] capable of running with voltage sources capable of outputs as low as ''1.1 volts'', selective desintegration... all this used for no other purpose than testing.

* Averted to an incredible degree in [[Mass Effect]]: almost everything in the universe runs on [[Minovsky Particle|eezo]]-based technology, from artificial gravity and FTL travel to miniature railguns and telekinesis.

** More specifically, each of the guilds in Loom derives its supernatural abilities from a sort of [[Charles Atlas Superpower]] related to their original mundane role. The glassmakers make infinitely sharp glass edges and crystal balls that see the future; the Weavers went from weaving cloth to [[Reality Warper|weaving reality]]. But they still stick to their roots.

* Naoya from ''[[Devil Survivor]]'' creates both a demon summoning program and a harmonizer that lessens blows to the user and increases those from the user. While the demon summoning program is rightfully considered a big deal in universe, the harmonizer is not, despite allowing its user to shrug off gun wounds.

*** The harmonizer weakens blows from demons. A bullet will still have the same effect it always does, but a fireball will barely scratch you. This is the reason you can't just massacre the JSDF and walk out of the city.

**** It is also not selective. Anyone within range of the Harmonizer reaps the benefits, owner or no.

* ''[[Cracked.com]]'''s [http://www.cracked.com/article/138_6-magical-movie-items-they-wasted-bullshit/ 6 Magical Movie Items They Wasted on Bullshit].

* Phase is single-handedly wrecking this trope in the [[Whateley Universe]]. Only a freshman at [[Super-Hero School|Whateley Academy]], he's already going around getting inventors to sign up with his financial service and marketing their inventions to fix this problem. Bugs had a weird gadget that faked painting on stuff: Phase saw how to turn it into the best toy ever. Jericho had some stuff that Phase is trying to patent and turn into the best medikit in the world. Loophole had a gadget that helped her get awesome performance out of her self-built car: Phase wants to market it as a way of cranking up automotive fuel efficiency world-wide.

 

== Western Animation ==

* Parodied to no end in ''[[Invader Zim]]''. The title character once created an orbital satellite station that sucked out all the water from the city, gathered it into a giant balloon, and dropped it for no other reason than to win a water balloon fight.

** A massive robot obviously capable of obliterating everything in its path is used by Zim to get revenge on Dib for a few off-hand comments made earlier in the episode.

** Zim has a device that can take out human organs and subsitute them with...stuff...and what does he do with it? He uses it to stuff himself full of human organs in case the <s>school</s> skool nurse decides to do an x-ray. Never mind sucking the brains out of the entire human populace, what if Zim needs to see a doctor?

* [[Lampshade Hanging|Lampshaded]] in the episode "Jail Bird" of ''[[Darkwing Duck]]''; Negaduck is continually frustrated that Megavolt, Bushroot and the Liquidator are too stupid to make full use of their superpowers. (Although, thanks to a power-stealing emerald, Negaduck ultimately doesn't fare much better.)

** Well, his main problem was that he also gained three new sets of weaknesses and a compulsion to act goofy at inopportune moments in addition to the powers. You have to admit, before he got taken down, he was much more of a threat then Bushroot, Megavolt, and Liquidator ever could have been.

** Another Halloween episode has Lisa and Bart develop superpowers. Bart vows to uses his powers (stretching) "only to annoy", and procedes to pull a prank on Skinner.

* Pretty much every invention ever made by Doctor Doofensmirtz on ''[[Phineas and Ferb]]''. In one particular incident, he created a machine that could remove zinc from water as the first stage of a circuitous plot that even he couldn't remember all the details of. Considering that zinc is fairly useful metal, he could have just cornered the world zinc market, made a lot of money, and done so legally at that.

* One could say that many of the devices Shredder and Krang use in [[Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 1987]] had more potential than they were using them for, including Krang's [[Morph Weapon|molecular]] [[Make My Monster Grow|manipulation circuit]] for his suit.

** {{spoiler|In ''[[Turtles Forever]]'', the Shredder of [[Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 2003]] was much more creative with the Technodrome's technology, such as using the dimensional portal for bigger ambitions and even spliced the technology of Krang's suit into his own to great effect.}}

* Very common in ''[[Batman Beyond]]'', which was set [[Twenty Minutes Into the Future]] and given the kind of writing team that admits they usually just blew the building up to round off the episode because they hadn't though of an ending. Most of the plots revolved around some new technology, and none of it was thought out very hard.

** Particularly ludicrous example is that cash money has become obsolete, but the writers apparently didn't understand how digital currency transfers work, so you get things like people stealing shipments of little green 'cash cards,' or running a 'cash card' through one of those little handheld beeper thingies and getting the correct amount in the read-out, but then the card gets stolen back and apparently the money's still on it.

** And, of course, all the supervillains. The future has hovercars, but they work about the same as regular cars, and pretty much all that's different is that youthful self-destructive behavior is more colorful.