Basic Trope: Illogically fast speeds with dangerous side effects.
- Straight: A ship enters Faster-Than-Light Travel and its occupants experience physical deformation.
- Exaggerated:
- A ship enters Faster-Than-Light Travel, causing its occupants' bodies to explode, demolishing the ship entirely afterwards, and causing the creation of another universe from a wormhole at the spot.
- A ship enters Faster-Than-Light Travel and creates a "sonic boom" that batters any nearby ships and planets.
- Downplayed: A ship enters Faster-Than-Light Travel and its occupants experience short-term memory loss.
- Justified:
- Faster-Than-Light Travel is primitive at this point.
- Faster-Than-Light Travel isn't actually possible, so doing it requires breaking the laws of physics. Breaking the laws of physics comes with side effects.
- Inverted:
- It's slow speeds that are dangerous.
- Traveling very fast for some reason beyond their ability to figure out 'fixes' a wide variety of issues and never does anything negative.
- Slow speeds fix many issues without any side effects.
- Subverted:
- Captain Bob warns that going to Faster-Than-Light Travel is very dangerous, so he won't do it.
- Captain Bob warns that going to Faster-Than-Light Travel is very dangerous, but they're desperate, so he does it, and nothing bad happens.
- The consequences of Faster-Than-Light Travel are all straightforward and mundane like obviously going Too Fast to Stop while flying blind since by definition you are outrunning all signals.
- Double Subverted:
- Captain Bob goes to Faster-Than-Light Travel anyway, with the expected consequences.
- It just took some time. Once the ship returns to its prior speed, First Mate Alice notices Captain Bob's right arm is through his heart, his left is through his liver, and that he's turned inside out. And the same has happened to her, plus her body has been rearranged to be upside down.
- The members of the crew are punished for indulging in Faster-Than-Light Travel by way of torture.
- Parodied: The ship goes from standstill to a gentle cruising speed ... but because its acceleration was still infinity, its occupants transform into various creatures against their will.
- Zig-Zagged: The ship travels at such a speed that it mends all past injuries, erases minds, switches bodies, and gives its occupants ridiculous strength.
- Averted:
- Travel at such speeds has no negative effects.
- There is no Faster-Than-Light Travel.
- Enforced: "This Space Opera isn't dangerous enough. Let's put the characters in such a dangerous position through Faster-Than-Light Travel!"
- Lampshaded: "What the hell kind of crap does that stuff?"
- Invoked: Technology exists that can force a ship into such speeds.
- Exploited: A ship that can handle faster speeds pursues this one to force Morton's Fork on its crew: surrender or accelerate to a speed where they risk being torn apart.
- Defied: "There's just that right point where you can travel so fast and not encounter adverse effects."
- Discussed: ???
- Conversed: ???
- Played for Laughs: A ship enters Faster-Than-Light Travel and its occupants suffer Amusing Injuries.
- Played for Horror: A ship enters Faster-Than-Light Travel and its occupants experience flat-out Body Horror, optionally reaching the level of a Painful Transformation.
- Implied: A ship comes out of nowhere at rapid speed and its crew members are sending an SOS but having a hard time explaining the nature of their distress.
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