Forgotten Phlebotinum: Difference between revisions

This trope does not necessarily denote bad writing. It can be (as noted in the ''[[Order of the Stick (Webcomic)|Order of the Stick]]'' example) convenient writing instead. If the protagonists have some piece of phlebotinum that makes them invincible or at least very hard to so much as injure that is both reliable and accessible, [[Drama Preserving Handicap|vast numbers of plots have to be thrown out the window.]] Some would call this unwillingness to change the [[Status Quo Is God|Status Quo]] and then adapt to the new order of things "lazy", but when one is working on a regular series, changing the status quo (interesting though it can be dramatically) is not something to be done lightly. When it's a [[Shared Universe]] this is even more pronounced. In such cases, [[Forgotten Phlebotinum|"Forgotten" Phlebotinum]] is a subtrope of [[Real Life Writes the Plot]].

 

 

When it's ''not'' forgotten and ''is'' used in a later episode because a writer wants to [[Continuity Nod|acknowledge continuity]], it is [[Chekhov's Boomerang]].

 

 

== [[Anime]] and [[Manga]] ==

* A very subtle version of this happens in L. E. Modesitt's ''Spellsong Sorceress'' cycle. In the first chapters of the first book, a spell is cast that teleports the main character in from Earth. It's implied that although the lady casting this spell isn't a very strong sorceress, she can still send people to locations halfway across the continent with a bit of help. This use of magic is never mentioned again, despite the fact that it would be tremendously useful in a variety of circumstances.

* ''[[Harry Potter (Literature)|Harry Potter]]'': Sirius' two-way mirror, which is basically a magical walkie-talkie. In Harry's defense, he was never told exactly what it was, and swore never to use it for fear it would cause Sirius to come to Hogwarts and get arrested and/or killed. It still qualifies as forgotten phlebotinum, however, because even after Harry has gone through great risk to speak to Sirius through Umbridge's fire, it didn't occur to Sirius to tell him "Next time, use the mirror I gave you." which would have {{spoiler|saved his life}}.

* Science Fiction author [[Larry Niven]] coined "Niven's Law," which states that once a technology is introduced into a setting, it must continue to be present in all later stories in that same setting.

* In the [[Star Trek Novel Verse (Franchise)|Star Trek Novel Verse]], the phase-cloak seems to go through this a lot. After its introduction (and successful use) in an episode of ''[[Star Trek the Next Generation (TV)|Star Trek the Next Generation]]'', it's largely ignored by the books (as well as later TV series). A short story in a ''[[Star Trek New Frontier (Literature)|Star Trek New Frontier]]'' anthology eventually suggested the prototype was destroyed soon after the episode. By the time of ''[[Star Trek the Genesis Wave]]'', the Romulans are making use of the technology again, or something very much like it, but then it drops off a second time, and when ''[[Star Trek Titan]]'' comes round no-one's using it. Finally, in the ''[[Star Trek Typhon Pact]]'' series, we're explicitly told the Romulans have finally perfected it.

** At least in ''The Next Generation'', it was mentioned that the Federation had negotiated away its right to use cloaking technology in a treaty with the Romulans, making the Federations research into the phase-cloak illegal (i.e., a treaty violation that could lead to war with the Romulans). The episode showing the Romulans were working on it themselves showed that it was giving them trouble, and the illegal Federation project Riker had been a part of had not ended well either.

** At the end of the first Christmas special of the new series, the vast alien starship that had been menacing the whole planet is utterly destroyed by a colossal laser fired from beneath London. This fantastic weapon devised by Torchwood London from captured alien technology for the defense of the kingdom from extraterrestrial perils is never again mentioned, despite London being menaced by aliens so frequently that its citizens get into the habit of evacuating over Christmas so as not to be there when the monsters turn up. However, the same technology (or, at least, similar special effects) seems to now be incorporated into {{spoiler|the ''Valiant'', as seen in "The Poison Sky"}} so even if the main weapon was destroyed, it's not all gone to waste. At least, until "The Stolen Earth", when {{spoiler|the ''Valiant'' is overwhelmed and destroyed by the Daleks off-screen}}.

** The TARDIS has had many features used over the decades that were completely forgotten soon afterwards; drifting back to its owner if separated from them in time ("Revenge of the Cybermen"), The Space-Time Visualiser ("The Space Museum" and "The Chase"), the Hostile Action Displacement System ("The Krotons"), the macro-kinetic extrapolator ("Boom Town" and "The Parting of the Ways"), among others. Considering that the TARDIS was a museum piece even before the Doctor stole it almost a millennium ago and is highly temperamental even at the bet of times, it's entirely probable that these things literally don't work anymore.

** In "Partners in Crime" the Doctor obtains a sonic pen which can open deadlock seals one of only two types of locks his sonic screwdriver can't deal with. At the end of the episode he simply THROWS IT INTO A BIN on 21st century Earth.

** A machine that creates candy-bar-shaped [[Food Pills]] appears once in the 1963 season and is never seen again.

== [[Toys]] ==

* The ability of various ''[[Bionicle]]'' characters to [[Fusion Dance|form a Kaita or a Nui]] has been all but forgotten, and had only ever been used a handful of times early on in the series. This can be attributed to the set designers not coming up with combinations for the later sets, though a couple of already existing combinations still didn't get to be used, even when they would have come in really handy. There is no in-story explanation for this: the writer simply doesn't want to use them.

 

 

 

== [[Web Original]] ==

* In the first episode of ''[[Chad Vader]]'', he is shown to have the ability to force choke people, and he uses it on a guy who annoys him. In later episodes, his nemesis repeatedly humiliates him, and he just fumes impotently.

 

 

== [[Western Animation]] ==

** This is particularly jarring given how good this show normally is at avoiding this trope. Every time Aang can't use the [[Glowing Eyes of Doom|Avatar State]] or [[Elemental Powers|bending]] won't work, there's a perfectly logical explanation. It even gets Lampshaded a few times.

* This isn't always something big... It creeps in on a smaller scale, too, like Waspinator's [[Eye Beams]] that he shoots at Cheetor with in the ''[[Transformers]]: [[Beast Wars (Animation)|Beast Wars]]'' pilot. He never uses them again, even in the Season 2 opener, when Cheetor knocks his gun out of his hand and those [[Eye Beams]] would have been a nice alternative to running away. Of course, Waspinator's never really been the sharpest saw in the toolshed.

** He did actually use them at one other time, when he and Terrorsaur (who was also using [[Eye Beams]]) were trying to cut into Tigatron's stasis pod. Basically, if a character on the show had that ability and wasn't named Dinobot, they only got used on very rare occasions, and got overlooked numerous times that they could have been helpful.

** It wasn't only ''Transformers'' that did this - in ''[[Super Dimension Fortress Macross]]'', we see that the [[Humongous Mecha]] piloted by humans have head-mounted cannons - that got used exactly four times during the ''entire show''. Only twice as a weapon - both of the other times they were used as ''cutting tools''.

* The Shard of Lightning in ''[[Xiaolin Showdown (Animation)|Xiaolin Showdown]]'' is an example of this. It can freeze time, and Jack used it to steal most of the monks' Shen Gong Wu, and cause various havoc. The monks won it by the end of the episode. They could have used it to freeze time and just kill Jack, Chase, Wuya and Hannibal all at once.

* ''[[Star Trek the Animated Series (Animation)|Star Trek the Animated Series]]''. The "life support belts" were clearly introduced to save on animation costs, but they're certainly a handy device. They never show up in the rest of ''Trek''.

* [[Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 2003 (Animation)|Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 2003]]: In the ''Fast Forward'' season, the Turtles and Splinter are stranded a hundred years in the future with no way of returning to their own time... not one mention is made of their time-traveling friend Renet, who is supposed to keep an eye on the time stream and would almost certainly have noticed if the Turtles were suddenly in a different time period than they were supposed to. Possibly justified if the Turtles and Splinter ''were'' supposed to spend some time in the future.

 

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