Basic Trope: A video game character says or acts like they physically can't do something, which by all means they should be able to do.
- Straight: In a video game, Alice the player's character has to get a soccer ball down from a high place. There is a ladder nearby, so Alice could theoretically climb the ladder and get the ball, but whenever the player tries to make her do it, she just says, "Oh no! That ball is too high!" without explaining why she doesn't climb the ladder.
- Exaggerated: All of a sudden, the player can no longer move Alice, even though nothing bad happened to her to impede her movement and nothing's in her way.
- Downplayed:
- There is no ladder, but there is a way Alice should be able to climb up that, while hard, shouldn't be impossible, but she claims it is.
- The soccer ball is somewhere that most people wouldn't be able to reach, but Alice can make herself bigger, make her arms or legs longer, teleport, fly, jump really high, has psychokinesis, or otherwise has powers that should make her able to reach the ball, but she claims she can't reach it.
- Justified:
- Alice is just lazy.
- Alice thinks she can't climb ladders when actually she can.
- Alice is afraid of heights or ladders, but acts like she just can't do it because she's embarrassed to admit she's afraid.
- Inverted: Alice doesn't have powers or anything but she keeps telling the player, "Why don't you just make me fly up to the soccer ball?" completely seriously.
- Subverted: It turns out that Alice is only saying it's too high because she's afraid of heights, and the player can make her face her fear.
- Double Subverted: But when the player tries to make her go down, she claims to be actually unable to climb down the ladder.
- Parodied: The game gets made into a movie, and in the movie, the characters have moments of being inexplicably unable to do things and comment on how ridiculous it is.
- Zigzagged: Alice claims the ball is too high, then it turns out she's just afraid, but when she faces her fears she claims she physically can't get down, but she's just joking, but when she gets down she claims she can't lift up the ball...
- Averted: Alice can do everything most people can do, and possibly more.
- Enforced: The game makers couldn't be bothered to make a climbing action, so they decided to just make Alice not be able to do it.
- Lampshaded: "I know I should be able to do it but I can't!"
- Exploited: The villain, Bob, can climb ladders, so he keeps things out of Alice's reach by putting them up ladders.
- Defied: Alice checks if the objects around her can help solve her problems; in this case, the ladder will help, so she climbs it to get the soccer ball.
- Conversed: "That game has this really frustrating scene where my player claims not to be able to reach something. Dude, there's a ladder right there!"
- Played for Laughs: The player needs to do something wacky to get the ball down.
- Played for Drama: There's a time limit to the game and failing will result in Alice's death.
I Can't Reach It! The link is too far away and I can't move my mouse to it!
