The Power of Rock/Playing With

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.


Basic Trope: A character defeats an evil force using music

  • Straight: Bob defeats Lord Bloodstone by playing the opening Guitar Solo from Metal Meltdown.
  • Exaggerated: Bob shreds so hard that it compels everyone in the world to sing or play along with it, and exponentially increases its strength.
  • Justified: The sound it's not the thing hurting Lord Bloodstone; it is the overwhelming force of the collective will and positive emotions of the band and the audience.
    • The music itself doesn't hurt Bloodstone, but the inspiring lyrics and heart-pumping music inspire the people to rebel against him and his armies, allowing the heroes to get the upper hand against him.
    • The music prevents Lord Bloodstone from concentrating, thus setting free his mind-controlled mooks. The freed mooks gang up on the villain before he can regain his composure.
    • Lord Bloodstone's powers include heightened senses, making his hearing incredibly sensitive. The loud music is putting him in physical pain.
    • Lord Bloodstone hates rock music, and it annoys him so much he lets his guard down long enough for Bob to attack.
  • Inverted: Lord Bloodstone sends a Musical Assassin after Bob.
  • Subverted: Bob starts the opening riff...only he has absolutely no musical talent, and it has no effect.
  • Double Subverted: Bob just has performance anxiety, and once he gets into the song it improves in strength until it's powerful enough to defeat Lord Bloodstone.
  • Parodied: The battle area turns into a massive performance hall, complete with screaming fans and glam rock outfits for Bob and his band.
    • Geodude. Yes a guitar player suddenly plays riffs and a geodude emerges from the floor.
  • Deconstructed: During their final confrontation, Bob and his band begin playing some killer rock music, but the music has no negative effects on Lord Bloodstone. Instead, Lord Bloodstone orders his Mooks to open fire on the band, killing them all. It's a very sad ending.
  • Reconstructed: The music itself may have no supernatural effect, but Bob puts everything he has into one last song before his death, and the act of such a spontaneously beautiful performance is so emotionally moving that it makes Lord Blackstone reconsider his view of humanity, and perform a Heel Face Turn.
  • Zig Zagged: Bob starts what seems like a World of Cardboard Speech, which turns into the opening lyrics for a song that he then plays guitar along with, only to have his instrument break right before the song kicks into high gear. However, he finds that even simple percussion and vocal accompaniment has enough power to defeat the villain anyways.
  • Averted: Bob fights using conventional weaponry.
  • Enforced: "You know what'd be awesome? If the villain got defeated by this awesome song!"
  • Lampshaded: "Defeated!? By arpeggios!? HOW!?
  • Invoked: "In order to defeat the villain, we will write the best fucking rock song in history. Even Lord Bloodstone won't be able to stand against its sheer awesomeness!"
  • Defied: Lord Bloodstone traps the heroes in a soundproof cell that blocks their music from having any effect.
  • Discussed: "Why is it almost always rock music that the heroes use in this kind of situation? Are villains somehow immune to Bach or Lady Gaga?"
  • Conversed: "What kinds of rock do you think supervillains are more susceptible to? Bloodstone seems to be one of those villains who crushes the good emotions out of his subjects, so let's play a song showcasing how life is really worth living."

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