Power Copying/Playing With


 * Basic Trope: Gaining new abilities by copying them from others.
 * Mega Man-type: Whenever a character defeats an opponent in battle, they gain their foe's signature attack.
 * Final Fantasy-type: Whenever a character is hit by an opponent's signature attack, they learn the attack.
 * Straight:
 * Mega Man-type: Whenever Nikki defeats an opponent in battle, she gains her foe's best skill.
 * Final Fantasy-type: Whenever Mike is hurt by an opponent's signature attack, he learns the attack and can use it in any opportunity.
 * Exaggerated:
 * Mega Man-type: Nikki can use every skill and talent down to bending her tongue by defeating her enemy
 * Final Fantasy-type: Whenever an enemy hurts Mike, he copies every skill they ever learned.
 * Downplayed:
 * Mega Man-type: Nikki can pick up an enemy's firearm.
 * Final Fantasy-type: Mike is Awesome By Analysis, and can usually imitate an opponent's moves - but he still needs to practice if he wants to get any good at a given technique.
 * Justified:
 * Mega Man-type: Nikki has methods to copy enemies' abilities, like ripping a page from a wizard's spellbook and adding it to her own, removing a robot's plasma cannon arm and use it to upgrade her BFG, and being a master martial artist, which allows her to copy any move after seeing it a few times.
 * Nikki is an AI, and she is capable of analyzing the code of enemy AI and integrating it into herself.
 * Final Fantasy-type: Mike's Congruent Memory allows him to learn skills by seeing a demonstration.
 * Inverted: Mega Man-type and Final Fantasy-type are inversions of each other, but the following is an inversion of BOTH:
 * Whenever Nikki/Mike defeats an opponent, she/he loses the ability that was used to defeat that opponent.
 * Alternately, they learn an ability that counters the opponent's, like a water attack to beat a fire-based enemy.
 * Subverted:
 * Mega Man-type: Nikki knocks out a star swordsman after an epic fight, and gains... the ability to communicate with plants.
 * Final Fantasy-type: Mike gets hit by a powerful knight, and learns... how to attack.
 * Double Subverted:
 * Mega Man-type: Confused, Nikki questions the swordsman after he comes to, and he admits he used to be an earth mage with that exact ability.
 * Final Fantasy-type: Mike never knew how to attack before.
 * Parodied:
 * Mega Man-type: Whilst driving home, Nikki accidentally runs over a possum in the road. She subsequently discovers she now has the power to play dead.
 * Final Fantasy-type: Mike is napping when a possum plays dead on his stomach. Everyone else thinks he's playing dead too.
 * Deconstructed:
 * Mega Man-type: Nikki may be able to copy the ability, but it may never have been meant to be used by a person like her. Nikki gets serious injuries after pushing herself beyond her limits to use an ability like Super Speed.
 * Nikki's growing inventory of powers is eating up her other physiological and cognitive functions.
 * Final Fantasy-type: Mike can only learn so much, so when he knows too many skills he forgets how to use abilities.
 * Reconstructed:
 * Mega Man-type: But that's only because she hasn't mastered the ability yet. After a few minutes of practice she's doing it like a pro.
 * Final Fantasy-type: However, Mike does remember how to revive himself after dying, thus making him an immortal Game Breaker.
 * Zig Zagged: Sometimes Nikki/Mike gain skills from battles and sometimes not.
 * Averted: All Nikki's and Mike's powers are their own.
 * They learn new abilities as they advance through the game.
 * Enforced: "Why would we bother creating separate set of abilities for the heroes and for their enemies? Just make the heroes capable of copying their enemies!"
 * Lampshaded: "Now I've got your power!"
 * Invoked: Nikki and Mike are Blue Mages.
 * Exploited:
 * Mega Man-type: The Big Bad sends out a slew of opponents with the ability to self-destruct. When Nikki defeats them and habitually steals and tries out their powers, the results aren't pretty.
 * Final Fantasy-type: Mike saves the self-destructing minion's power to take out the Big Bad in a Heroic Sacrifice.
 * Both: Mike and Nikki hurt each other with each other's powers on a regular basis.
 * Defied: Emperor Evulz sends out alien-insect-something minions with abilities that require Bizarre Alien Biology.
 * Discussed: "Alright! A new enemy! Now I'll get a new skill!"
 * Conversed: "How do Nikki and Mike learn skills by killing and being hurt? Couldn't they just pick up a How-To book?"

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