Awesome but Impractical/Playing With

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.


Basic Trope: A weapon or device which looks cool at first, but isn't very useful.

  • Played Straight:
    • Alice has a BFG which creates a flashy deadly laser. It takes a whole minute to charge up, and you need to change its very huge batteries every shot.
    • The best Combination Attack needs all five members to perform it. It's awkward getting the Infinity Plus One Mons needed to pull it off, and it has the Mighty Glacier going first, meaning the enemy gets a turn during the setup.
  • Exaggerated:
    • Alice's BFG creates a laser the size of the Moon. But to do that it take enough energy to black out a whole city. Furthermore, the thing can only be used once.
    • The ultimate Combination Attack is only effective against enemies with OHKO moves, meaning it's rarely ever used.
  • Justified:
    • Of course a BFG would neeed that much energy.
    • Alice gets caught up in a crisis and needs a gun, but the only one available is a prototype that doesn't have all the kinks worked out yet.
  • Inverted: Boring but Practical
  • Subverted: Alice's upgrades her laser so it charges up quickly.
  • Double Subverted: Only 2 seconds quicker.
  • Parodied: The ultimate weapon looks awesome, but is actually a water gun.
  • Deconstructed: Alice runs out of money from all the recharging and repair.
  • Reconstructed: But Alice earns a lot of money defeating villains.
  • Zig-zagged: Alice upgrades the gun again so it charges fast now.
  • Averted: Awesome Yet Practical
  • Enforced: "A BFG would make things too easy for our hero. We could have it a long charge up time."
  • Lampshaded: "Weapons never work how they're supposed to."
  • Invoked: "Our boss demands us to make a BFG, but we don't have the energy to make it charge up quickly!"
  • Defied: Alice refuses to use the weapon for fear of its failure.
  • Discussed: "If you have a BFG, it isn't going to fire like a normal gun. It will take along time to charge up."
  • Conversed: "So, this show is trying to be realistic and show the flaws with a BFG."
  • Played for Laughs: The villain just sits there waiting for it to charge up.
  • Played for Drama: The BFG is very powerful, but sucks energy from Alice herself.

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