Basic Trope: Needing a power cord is a weakness.
- Straight: Alice's robot minions need to be connected to a power source. Bob generally fights by shooting the cords.
- Exaggerated: Every other part of Alice's robots is indestructible, and each of the hundreds of them she owns has the firepower to level a city. The cords are too short to allow them the freedom to move.
- Downplayed:
- The cords are long enough to allow mobility and heavily armored, but still constitute a weakness.
- There are no literal cords, the robots are powered by wireless power transfer from a central source, but that source is still a weakness that can be blown apart to cut the (metaphorical) cord.
- Justified:
- Alice has no special technology to generate enough power in a package her robots could easily carry.
- The robots are power hogs and their batteries don't carry enough of a charge to be of any use.
- The robots were meant for heavy industrial work but Alice hacked them to attack.
- It's a safety, in case the robots go haywire.
- Inverted: It is technically possible to defeat a robot by shooting its power cord, but it is considered showing off, because it is way harder than other tactics.
- Subverted:
- The power cords are far too heavily armored for Bob's guns to be able to damage.
- The robot minions have power cords, which Bob immediately goes for the first time. Turns out they also have onboard batteries that last long enough for a few battles.
- Double Subverted:
- The outlets they are plugged into, not so much.
- Bob also keeps some water handy to short out the batteries.
- Parodied:
- Bob brings a sword with him, specifically because power cords are easier to cut than to shoot.
- Alice's super death robot has enough firepower to obliterate planets, but the second it moves the power cord is ripped from the wall before it even has a chance to show off.
- Zig-Zagged: Most of the robots are powered by cord, but some of them have onboard power sources. Also, against the cord-powered robots, Bob rarely targets the cords, despite it being a perfectly viable strategy that Bob himself brings up.
- Averted: The robots have onboard power supplies.
- Enforced: The story's creators made the deliberate decision to include the weakness of needing a power cord as a key element in Alice's robots' design or the overall plot.
- Lampshaded: "You would think Alice would have found a way to stop me from doing this by now."
- Invoked: When faced against Alice's robots, the first thing Bob does is search for power cords on them.
- Exploited: Alice waits until Bob has gotten complacent before she starts fielding robots with onboard power supplies.
- Defied: Alice immediately starts building robots with power supplies when she realizes that power cords are a weakness.
- Discussed: Alice and Bob engage in a conversation or dialogue about the robots' reliance on power cords and the potential vulnerabilities it presents.
- Conversed: The topic of the robots' power cords is brought up in an unrelated or irrelevant conversation between Alice and Bob, possibly for comedic effect or to emphasize their awareness of the weakness.
- Deconstructed: Alice tries to find out a way to remove the major weakness of her killer robots...
- Reconstructed: Alice could never find a way to get rid of the power cords and is forced to use power cords.
- Implied: Bob goes into the battle against Alice's killer robots wearing rubber boots, and one later shuts down abruptly from its position next to him.
- Plotted a Good Waste: The weakness of needing a power cord is set up and utilized in a significant and satisfying way, contributing to the plot or narrative involving Alice and Bob.
- Played for Laughs: The trope is used humorously, generating comedic situations or gags related to the robots' power cords and Alice and Bob's interactions with them.
- Played for Drama: The trope is used to create tension, suspense, or emotional impact in dramatic scenes or situations involving Alice and Bob. The reliance on power cords becomes a source of conflict or vulnerability for them.
Back to Achilles' Power Cord
