Misapplied Phlebotinum: Difference between revisions

{{trope}}

 

 

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

** If your [[Cool Ship]] has a device that can generate and manipulate Gravity irrespective of Mass then mounting [[Tractor Beam|Tractor Beams]], [[Deflector Shields]], [[Inertial Dampening|Inertial Dampeners]] and even '''Engines''' may be redundant.

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

** Note that it takes a really strong and accurately-placed gravity field to significantly change the trajectory of a laser beam or anything else moving at relativistic speeds - a field which, apart from theoretically consuming an extremely large amount of energy to maintain (depending on your flavour of Phlebotinum), might have [[Useful Notes/Black Holes|unintended consequences]].

* 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 One Half|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.

** This world also has the technology to create [[Powered Armor|powerful suits of armor]] --strong, quick, and durable enough to give Ranma serious trouble-- at such low cost it's readily available to the public via mail-order. Nobody thinks of removing the armor's [[Power Limiter]] and equipping the local police force with these.

** 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''.

* 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.]]

** [[DC Comics]] has (had?) the Kapitalist Kouriers, a set of Russian superspeedsters who indeed used their powers for a courier business. All over the world. However: characters who do that instead of beating up on The Bad Guy of the Week don't get played in RPGs and don't get their own comic titles. So it's sorta self-defeating.

** A recent issue of ''[[The Flash|Flash]]'' had him do just this. He was hired by an antique film and memorabilia collector. He hired the Flash to watch all of his movies and examine all of his antiques and catalog them. Obviously made for the plot, but ingenious none the less.

*** Another issue of Flash has Mirror Master being introspective about how him and many of his fellow villains are perceived as examples of this trope. He is perfectly aware of the fact that he and most of his compatriots could make more money selling their various technology (Freeze Rays, Teleportation, Weather Control, etc.) legitimately then they could ever hope to make robbing banks even if there were no super heroes. He does the supervilliany instead because he's an immensely disturbed individual, but is aware of the fact.

** The ''[[GURPS]]'' supplement ''SuperTemps'' was filled with supers who used their powers for things like sanitation and garbage disposal, medicine, being a courier, or being a security expert.

*** ''[[GURPS]] International Super Teams'' incorporated ''SuperTemps'' into its setting, and expanded upon it. And the ''I.S.T''. chapter of ''GURPS Y2K'' had detailed passages on supers using their powers for construction and other mundane occupations. And not-so-mundane UN-sponsored occupations, like weather control (to divert destructive hurricanes, alleviate drought, and so forth) and famine relief ("you can make plants grow? come with me!").

** ''Almost'' subverted in DC's critically-acclaimed ''[[Starman (Comic Book)|Starman]]'' comic of the mid-to-late-1990s. Our Hero, Jack Knight, agrees to take on his father's mantle as Starman, ''if'' his father will in turn take the amazing Cosmic Rod technology that he's used for self-indulgent heroics for half a century, and adapt it to civilian use: clean power, antigravity, force fields, and more. In the final issue, Ted makes good on the promise, and hands Jack a thick sheaf of documents detailing exactly that, just before his [[Crowning Moment of Awesome]]. It's ''almost'' subverted because, years after the end of the series, [[Reed Richards Is Useless|no trace of the "spin-off" technology has been seen]].

** Seriously averted in ''[[Watchmen]]''. Dr. Manhattan's unique physiology and abilities are used to derive a massive amount of technologies, including electric cars. Ozymandias is running a mega-conglomerate, selling, among many other items, perfume and action figures based on himself and his colleagues. The original Silk Spectre also made a living as a model. She went on to marry her agent.

** Which doesn't help in that Simon dislikes showing his rear for the camera.

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

** At least Herschel Clay, the school's handyman, is shown to use his powers for commercial purposes: He owns an industrial conglomerate that, amongst other things supplies the school with most of its high-tech gadgets, and in a side-story is shown to be a contractor for NASA who makes starship designs -- unfortunately, the people who are supposed to implement his designs can't keep up with his constant drive to improve them.

* [[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.]]

 

 

* In ''[[The Matrix]]'' sequels, Neo never seems to use the full extent of his powers. In the first film, it's implied that he has transcended the laws of the Matrix, and can now just about anything he wants while inside. When Smith attacks him, he just tears apart his code. In films two and three, he shows some super-powers, like being able to fly and stop bullets, but he's still punching his enemies and worrying about getting punched.

** A possible explanation is that the Matrix in the second and third movie is reloaded (i.e. a new version) and that the upgrade reduced Neo's powers. This is supported by the first time in Matrix: Reloaded that Neo fights a group of Agents. They prove to be (slightly) more of a challenge than he remembers, and he sarcastically remarks: "Hmm... upgrades."

* ''[[Star Wars]]'': The battle droids' artificial intelligence. We've been trying for decades to create artificial intelligence so that robots can adapt quickly to changing situations. In ''[[Star Wars]]'', artificial intelligence is used to give robots human-like reaction times and indecisiveness, turning a killer robot army into comic relief.

** Later, more advanced models are actually worse for this. In Episode One they had verbal orders and could be confused, by Three they had little chats while they worked.

** [[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 recieve 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 "FTL as a weapon" idea is averted ''hard'' in ''[[Star Wars]]'' -- if a hyperdrive approaches a gravity well, it automatically shuts down and reverts the starship to realspace. Or, failing that, melts. Which pulls the starship back into realspace. The time someone gets stranded in hyperspace, we find out [[Fate Worse Than Death|why there are so many safeguards]]. Also, if a ship hits a gravity well while in hyperspace, it's rather strongly implied that it will somehow be annihilated, killing all on board.

*** 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.

** 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.

** ''[[Iron Man]]'' possibly has the justification that Stark is implied to make a lot of cool toys for himself and just uses them for mundane things instead of marketing them, just because he can be a lazy dick.

* One of the biggest problems of the main character in ''[[Click]]'' was that his job took too much time, leaving him too little to spend with his family. His magic remote has a Pause button he can use to freeze time, during which he can manipulate objects and people. He could have solved his biggest problem by doing his overtime work outside time entirely, but doesn't try that on screen. [[Gone Horribly Wrong|That doesn't even get into the remote's unexpected behavior.]]

 

 

* In [[Hyperion]]'s last 2 books, the protagonist and narrator, Raul Endymion, is trapped in a deathtrap modelled after Schrondinger's Cat because nobody wants to kill him. So, with his connection to the Void Which Binds, he starts writing, and uses the connection to look back in time to ensure his story is accurate. He actually peers into minds all over the known universe. He also knows that the Void Which Bind, which he's connected to, was used in the past as a teleporter, and Aenea, his girlfriend/the messiah can use it. Never mind. It doesn't occur to him throughout the books that he can break out and continue writing without the threat of death by cyanide poisoning.

** Later, he realizes this and teleports off. Turns out he was kinda slow (and also was at the time greatly affected by the {{spoiler|horrific martyrdom of Aenea}}). Practically the whole universe had learnt to do that, and has dubbed it "freecasting", a homage to the older term "farcasting". Starships are still used by the people still loyal to the Pax, and refuse to take Communion and learn freecasting. In fact, the whole point of him writing the two book is to come to this realization.

** A couple of other factors in play there, though: first, it took them forever to get their hands on a morphing cube, and once they had one, the one and only time they used it was a complete disaster, and second, it's Andalite technology, and they're desperate for Andalite help, and Andalites aren't exactly enthusiastic about letting the Yeerks use their technology, especially considering what happened the last time they tried it.

** The imperialist Yeerks would have just used it as a weapon, and {{spoiler|they were forced to permanently morph into animals at the end}}.

* A number of stories by Henry Kuttner about a down on his luck (mostly due to constant drinking) man who becomes a [[Bunny Ears Lawyer]] genius inventor when drunk but can't remember when he sobers up. Since it is generally played for laughs and his drunk self is a [[Cloudcuckoolander]], that kind of explains it.

** In the short story ''The Proud Robot'' he invented an unbelievably sophisticated singing robot with a highly intelligent (and vain) AI. The inventor couldn't get the robot to do anything he wanted because he forgot ''why'' he built it in the first place (he was drunk). In the climax, he remembers that he built it because {{spoiler|he had trouble opening a can of beer. He swore to build a bigger and better can opener; said robot is able to open beer cans with absolutely no fizz or a single drop of spilled beer}}. The ending has the inventor becoming depressed because {{spoiler|beer cans are being phased out in favor of plastic bulbs, meaning his [[Do-Anything Robot|"can opener" robot]] will be "useless"}}.

** However, it is mentioned that they get infinite money from Alice's [[Psychic Powers|foreknowledge of the stock market's ups and downs.]] And then Carlisle is a doctor, which is a pretty good way to put his skills to use. And Edward used to use his mind-reading powers to hunt down criminals.

** Don't forget the perfect looks, absolute expertise in all physical combat, inability to feel cold/heat/pain, and several degrees apiece. About the only thing that can be used as an excuse is that the Volturi might kill them for using too much of their awesome stuff, but then that doesn't stop them from buying crazy-expensive cars and jet-setting around the world for years at a time. You have to think the world governments already know about them.

* In [[Michael Crichton]]'s ''Timeline'' there is an immensely powerful quantum computer capable of recording the exact quantum state of every particle in human body, and then sending the data to another universe where it can somehow be recreated into a perfect copy of the person (though the original is technically speaking destroyed - the protagonists are much less disturbed by this than you'd think). It is used to study history by sending people and recorders to universes identical to our own except their position in time, when they could use it among other things for consulting dead people with important opinions, for duplicating rare and useful materials, for ''immortality'', or ''for bringing just about any technology that's ever going to be invented in any possible future to the present you morons!''

** [[Two Words]] [[Teleporter Accident|Transcription Errors]].

** Wait, it actually [[It Got Worse|gets worse]]: What was the first revolutionary, world changing application they thought for said historical research? A Theme Park. Yeah. They just dropped the idea because [[Reality Is Unrealistic]] (I.E. nobody wants to see George Washington puking on the crossing of the Delaware)

* James P. Hogan's novel ''The Genesis Machine'' takes the [[Faster-Than-Light Travel]]/[[Weapon of Mass Destruction]] misapplication mentioned above and flips it on its head. The protagonists figure out a way to transmit energy through "[[Hyperspace|hi-space]]" to a location of their choosing, no receiver required; they weaponize it and sell it to the military. Only at the very end of the novel does it occur to one of them that with slight modifications, matter could be transmitted as well.

* Averted hard in [[Larry Niven]]'s ''[[Known Space]]'' setting. Thanks to ubiquitous and cheap teleporters, Earth's population becomes almost entirely homogeneous.

* Happens a lot in ''[[Harry Potter]]'', where they use ''time machines'' so that children can take more classes than they otherwise could, the [[Bag of Holding]] exists but is strangely underutilized, and so on. Deconstructed in ''[[Harry Potter and The Methods of Rationality]]''.

** And how about the Resurrection Stone? Yes, bringing back loved ones is dangerous, and trying to do it permanently is wrong, but imagine the possibilities of contacting the dead! Solving a murder crime by asking the victim, getting the wisdom from the greatest minds in History directly from them, etc.

* Aversion: in the Teleporter section of the main article, there's a mention of the potential use of this for backing yourself up/making multiple copies of yourself. The [[Charles Stross]] book ''Glasshouse'' did both; they massively affect society, and form major plot points. For example, changing genders is common thanks to the 'reconstruct' part (making gender nouns rather confusing); 'orthohuman' (standard ''H sapiens'' shape) and 'xenohuman' (with massive bodily alterations) are normal descriptions; lethal duels are equally common so long as the participants 'saved' recently; the combination of disintegration/reconstruction transport 'gates' with memory-wipe technology resulted in ''memory censor viruses'' which affect anyone who uses the gate, one of which managed to pretty much wipe the reason for a whole ''war'' from history; and a major plotpoint involves the main character {{spoiler|being knocked out by a copy of ''himself'' (well, he's physically female at the time, but he seems to identify as male for the most part), thanks to the 'original' being brainwashed with one of those memory worms.}}

* In [[David Weber|David Weber's]] [[Empire From the Ashes]] the Enchanach Drive, if activated/deactivated too close to a star, can accidentally cause a [[Remember When You Blew Up a Sun?|supernova]]. A small error in emergence in our Solar System is also used to explain why the orbit of Pluto is a bit odd. (Well, it's using black holes - there's bound to be SOME gravitational side-effects!) {{spoiler|In fact, they make use of the supernova-riffic side effects to give an entire enemy fleet a billion-degree plasma bath.}}

* In ''The Wonderful Life of Henry Sugar'', the titular Henry Sugar finds a book that gives a first-hand account of how a doctor met a man who mastered an ancient technique that allowed him to see without eyes and to also see through various thin objects, like playing cards. Subverted by the doctor, who wanted to find a way to use the technique to help people with disabilities like blindness be able to live normal lives, but played straight by Henry, who picks up the technique to win in casinos. He later subverts it himself, when he has an is bored and rich and decides to dedicate his life to winning money and donating it to various orphanages and charities.

* ''[[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.

** 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]].

** Claire's blood. Could easily prevent and reverse any character death in the series. Could even end death as we know it.

* In ''[[New Amsterdam]]'', in the 1600s, a Native American tribe has a spell that makes people immortal. In-story use: reward some random white guy who saved the life of one of the tribe's women. Better use: make all of the tribe's warriors immortal, then easily defeat the white guys that are taking their land.

** Well, considering that we have absolutely no idea how the whole immortality thing works, it's entirely possible that it only worked on people in John's situation (saved a woman/saved a woman from his own comrades/saved a stranger from his own comrades and then was stabbed...). We have no idea how specific the requirements are.

** Stargate Command does use the stargate like that now and then. In at least one episode, a piece of phlebotinum was about to explode and they couldn't find any safe way to destroy it in time, so they dialed a wormhole and threw it into the "kawoosh" vortex, which disintegrates anything caught in it. Note that that wouldn't work for radioactive waste; disintegrated matter doesn't go anywhere, it just gets reduced to its component atoms. (At least, that's what the iris does.) As for why they don't regularly use the stargate to send dangerous stuff or trash to another planet intact, there's no good reason except for the secrecy of the program.

*** Or energy efficiency. Or unforeseen side effects of overusing the technology; in one ''[[Stargate Atlantis]]'' episode, they tried to solve global warming by pumping excess heat into an uninhabited parallel dimension, only to nearly freeze to death because they couldn't turn it off.

** The Asgard had a sudden attack of [[Genre Savvy]] about this and only gave humans teleporters that were run by their own people. Until the humans found Atlantis and ''its'' storehouse of [[Lost Technology]], after which (no causative relation implied) the Asgard just threw their hands up, committed suicide as an entire culture, and handed over ''all'' of their knowledge to the Tau'ri. With a talking manual Thor thrown in for free. Of course, the vote to hand over everything to the humans was less than unanimous, but after the whole lot of you offed yourselves...

*** The Asgard decided to commit mass suicide when their last effort to correct the genetic degradation of their species had failed. Since they were going to go extinct soon anyway, they decided it was better to kill themselves and give their technology to the still relatively primitive but basically trustworthy Tau'ri rather than risking it falling into [[Big Bad|Ori]] hands. Yet to be brought up is that, with all of the Asgard technology at their disposal and no time limit like what the Asgard faced, Earth scientists might someday be able to solve that genetic degradation problem and clone new bodies for them (among other things, the Asgard database includes the recorded thoughts and memories of every Asgard who ever lived).

*** Actually, they ''do'' re-visit that one. {{spoiler|the [[Robot Me]] versions start using their battery power to go on their own missions through the Stargate, just going home before their power runs out. Until stuff happens.}}

** There is an episode of ''SG-1'' where [[Big Bad|Anubis]] has souped up his flagship so that it has a nigh-impenetrable energy shield. Meanwhile, the Tau'ri have developed a kick-ass space fighter with a hyperdrive that, sadly, only works for very short hops (as in, miles, rather than light years). Colonel O'Neil uses the hyperdrive to make a hyperjump just inside the forcefield and make an [[Airstrike Impossible|Spacestrike Impossible]] on the flagship to disable its [[BFG|main weapon]].

'''Student''': Oh, so what did you wish for?<br />

'''Wyatt Donnelly''': I wished to be president of the chess club once. It didn't work out. }}

 

 

== 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.

** ''Dungeons and Dragons'' is full of this. Using a permanent area of reverse gravity and a flywheel half in reverse and half in normal gravity is a perpetual motion machine.

** [[Made of Phlebotinum|Magic-rich]] settings like [[Forgotten Realms|Netheril]] may have full set of plane-gating plumbing. Otherwise [[Awesome but Impractical]], given how frequently those spell can be cast. And requires a rather powerful priest to begin with. Magic items (''Decanter of Endless Water'', ''Urn of Water Purification'') are better, but very expensive.

** In most [[New World of Darkness]] gamelines, using your magic powers for mundane tasks is a [[Karma Meter]] violation. But it's usually one so small that only a [[Incorruptible Pure Pureness|living saint]] would even need to roll for degeneration for doing it.

 

== Video Games ==

* ''[[Steambot Chronicles]]'': The Killer Elephants have a large organization with extensive industrial production, able to mass-produce the mecha they use, and even a giant mecha. What do they do with all these resources? They rob passing travelers. True, they're just trying to get funding for their true project, {{spoiler|flying to the moon}}, but with a setup like theirs, they really should be doing something more profitable.

** Originally contracted to create shower curtains for the Army, Aperture patented their [[Teleporters and Transporters|portal gun]] technology as a "man-sized ad-hoc quantum tunnel through physical space ''with possible applications as a shower curtain''." This is a device that breaks the laws of thermodynamics, implicitly allows [[Faster-Than-Light Travel]], and would revolutionize the world, and it gets used to run hapless test subjects through mazes like lab rats.

** GLaDOS, a fully sentient AI, was originally designed as a ''fuel line de-icer''. She was also designed in apparent ignorance of the [[Three Laws Compliant|Three Laws]], as shortly after she was turned on, she found a way to murder nearly every scientist in the facility.

** Aerial Faith Plates - Compact and quite powerful catapults capable of launching adult humans dozens of feet into the air. Marketed as truck cargo loading devices, despite being WAY too powerful for that causing the cargo to be damaged and/or bounced right back out of the truck. Also used for launching humans into space, apparently without any protective suits.

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

** 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.

** Uh, no. They used it to become immortal and turn the insides of small tents into roomy houses and one cathedral-sized temple. And then they used it to observe the nature of the universe and trace a discord that threatened to destroy everything. Weaving cloth is just how they got started.

** 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.

** Considering the circumstances, however, people may simply be assuming the two functions are connected, and with the problems the ''former'' is causing... On a related note, {{spoiler|Atsuro}} comes to think that the demons themselves are [[Misapplied Phlebotinum]], and wants to take the summoner's control over them even further.

*** 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.

* PROXY, the cheerfully homicidal (to Galen at least) [[Robot Buddy]] in ''[[The Force Unleashed]]''. Vader created a droid that could, with the proper modules, copy the techniques and appearance of any Jedi, somehow produces lightsabers from nowhere, and can even replicate ''Force abilities'' with repulsor technology. And Vader uses it as a communications device and as a [[Training From Hell]] tool. As opposed to mass producing a droid Jedi [[Super Soldier]] army.

** Not so much. The Clone Wars (well, the last five minutes or so) showed that Jedi are about as effective as knights were (in other words, not very...) with their primary use being as commandos (Vader has that) and generals (Vader IS that). And we don't know how prohibitively expensive PROXY was.

** For example right at the begining of one game, some Machoke are moving boxes into your house. They are also used in construction. Miltank are used for dairy production, grass types in perfume manufacturing, and electric types are used in power plants.

** A better example would be the online storage systems. These store and teleport hundreds of living creatures (and in some games furniture and dolls as well). These could surely be used as houses, storing populations of whole countries.

*** The technology is ''massively'' inconsistent, though (you can't even store ''items'' in Unova). It would be a horrid risk to store living people in there until the system was unified.

** This probably would have been explained better if they had paid [[Excuse Plot|more attention to the plot]].

** The system is shown to be prohibitively expensive. If memory serves, a percentage of your money is taken every time you die. If we accept handwaving, then that means a stronger person costs more to reproduce. Or, look at it the other way: The average player probably has killed well over a couple thousand humans by the end of the game: Who is to say they weren't being respawned too?

** The most obvious example is also the most explainable: Yakumo Yukari can [[Reality Warper|do basically anything]], but is [[The Gods Must Be Lazy|usually too lazy to bother]].

** [[Time Stands Still|Izayoi Sakuya]], the time (and space) manipulating [[Ninja Maid|maid]] of the Scarlet Devil Mansion, uses her abilities to...clean. Granted, with a bunch of [[Too Dumb to Live|fairy maids]] as co-workers, it'd be quite a big hassle otherwise...

** To be fair, they were first made [[For Science!|for the sake of being made]] and only then their creators started thinking of more practical uses like replacing man in dangerous work (don't mind housekeeping, that was the first two robots and the lab was really a mess, ok?) and [[Take Over the World]]. They still fit this trope to a 'T'. Oh, and [[Lampshade Hanging|lampshaded]] in [[Bob and George]].

 

* ''[[Sidekick Girl]]'', a superhero parody comic toys with the idea by having a mind-switch between the powerful ditz Illuma and her sidekick [http://sidekickgirl.comicgenesis.com/d/20081119.html here]. Once switched she practices and applies Illuma's powers in a much more intelligent way. Developing flight, stun blasts, and other useful applications that Illuma could never figure out herself.

* ''[[Video Game/Fracture|Fracture]]'': As pointed out in this ''[[Penny Arcade]]'' strip: [http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2008/9/19/\]. And when you start to think about how the terrain deformation might work and other applications for its principles, it becomes even sillier.

* All the technology Tony invents in ''[[Real Life Comics]]'' is used by Greg for disturbingly mundane purposes. [http://www.reallifecomics.com/archive/040623.html This] pretty much tells you all you need to know. This is deliberate, and played for comedy, though.

* Mad inventor Riff (well, he's more of a [[The Stoic|"Meh"]] inventor) in ''[[Sluggy Freelance]]'' has ended up playing this trope for laughs by using such things as his dimensional portal for cheap magic tricks, and generally using his prodigious intellect on ray guns and toaster cannons. Is it any wonder his [[Catch Phrase]] is "Let me check my notes"?

** In [[Alternate Reality|4U City]] Alt-Riff's nanomachines fairly avert this trope allowing the citizens nearly magical abilities in healing and allowing the near instantaeous conversion of matter such as converting tranquilizer darts into live fire ammutition.

** Subverted by the fact that his inventions ''are'' being applied to better effect (well, slightly better at least) by the evil corporation that employs him.

** The Pizza Teleporter can only be used to teleport objects to his desk (plus Majel Roddenberry would sue him if he tried patenting it), and he made the time traveling marker while intoxicated (and destroyed all reality when he used it).

** Played for laughs on [http://drmcninja.com/archives/comic/13p9 this page]: "James! The leader of our group. He invented jet boots, and he used them to kick people."

** And then there's Martin, who is basically the Hulk, who uses his ability to...advertise his chain of super-markets. {{spoiler|Oh, and do work for the mafia}}.

** But easily topping them both: Using a [[Time Travel|Time Portal]]... for [http://drmcninja.com/archives/comic/21p36/ garbage disposal.] And a septic tank, somehow.

** The Wormgates themselves can be considered an evil aversion of this trope as well: after all as long as people are seen going in one place and coming out the other, there's nothing to worry about what goes on in between...[[Cloning Blues|right?]]

** And even before the introduction of the Teraport there was the ubiquitous gravitic technology; if you have gravity manipulation<ref>not creation, just manipulating the gravity generated by a sphere of Neutronium</ref> on your ship then you already have forcefields, tractor-beams and a reactionless drive as well.

*** ...not to mention the ability to rip other ships apart with a careful application of gravitics.

** Considering that Tedd's dad is the head of the local MIB, he can't really sell or distribute the technology without getting grounded for, say, ten thousand years or so.

** This is also a universe where every major government has a dedicated ([[The Masquerade|albeit secret]]) magic agency. Just because ''Tedd's'' not applying the phlebotinum doesn't mean somebody isn't.

** Tedd and his friends occasionally do break out the transformation gun for more practical purposes, like to turn Elliot into a [[Were Cat|werecat]] for battles.

 

 

* 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.

* On the PBS cartoon ''[[Word Girl]]'' the villainous Dr. Two-Brains builds a ray which can make gold into cheese (he's obsessed with cheese) and then a second one which can turn potato salad into gold. He then ''steals'' potato salad to turn into gold and then into cheese. Not only WordGirl but even the ''announcer'' think this is the stupidest plan ever -- why not just turn potato salad into gold and ''buy more potato salad?''

* 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.