This is discussion archived from a time before the current discussion method was installed.
Working Title: Web Shooters: From YKTTW
In the case this comes back up again, here's the posts from YKTTW that state the differences between this, Useless Superpowers and Phlebotinum Breakdown
Phlebotinum Breakdown is about Phlebotinum which, well, breaks down. It doesn't necessarily have to be at the least opportune moment (or, at least, that's not what the trope is about), and it doesn't have to fail. The trope is about Phlebotinum which breaks and has a completely adverse (or at least random) effect, which the main characters have to deal with. It being usually in the worst possible time is not the point of the article, the point is that they protagonists then have to adapt to the strange effects that the Phlebotinum produced. Here's a couple of examples:
- Phlebotinum Breakdown: Space Captain Bob is travelling around Planet X by teleporter. When the situation gets rocky, Bob orders First Mate Alice to use the teleporter to bring Bob back. Instead, it breaks and sends him to a random place on the planet, cutting off all transmission in the process. Now Alice is desperately looking for a way to either fix the machine or use it's random teleportations to their advantage.
- Plot-Driven Breakdown: Space Captain Bob is travelling around Planet X via teleporter. Suddenly, he's in a rocky situation, and he asks First Mate Alice to beam him back up. Unfortunately, and, suddenly, due to using it too much, the teleporter is now out of power, and Bob will have to fend for himself until it recharges in about thirty minutes to an hour.
And:
Useless Superpowers is about any situation where powers are unable to be used and the hero has to use another way (like Harry Potter being unable to use magic outside of school, or Da Rules in The Fairly Oddparents). This is a more specific trope where a power will work fine until just when it's most needed, at which point it fails or can't be used to advance the plot.
tbarrie: Removed
- Also listed under Too Dumb to Live and with a strong Tempting Fate component: during the Crusades, Saladin sent back a captured commander for relying on God's divine help on the war... i.e. they had no plan, no recon, no knowledge of enemy forces, no logistics, no supplies, no strategy, no nothing, because they thought God would actually come down and help them at any time. Needless to say, he thought all of them were Not Worth Killing.
