Basic Trope: There's a character with magical powers. Said powers don't work if said character is a victim of a Sick Episode.
- Straight: The Great and Powerful Alice gets sick, and every time she coughs or sneezes, her powers start randomly firing off, turning Bob into a talking frog, shrinking Carol, and giving Dave a high voice.
- Exaggerated: The Great and Powerful Alice's powers go haywire whenever she is sick, but also when she has allergies, is sad, or is injured, and they are completely uncontrollable.
- Downplayed: The Great and Powerful Alice's magic only gets slightly unreliable when she is sick.
- Justified: In magical beings, Power Incontinence is a symptom of the illness Alice has.
- Inverted:
- Alice's powers only work when she's sick.
- Alice develops powers when she's sick.
- Subverted: It turns out that Bob turning into a frog was intentional.
- Double Subverted: But shrinking Carol and giving Dave a high voice wasn't.
- Parodied: "Symptoms include coughing, sneezing, and Power Incontinence."
- Averted:
- Even when she's sick, The Great and Powerful Alice's powers are not affected.
- Alice is so Great and Powerful she doesn't get sick.
- Zigzagged: Alice is ill. Sometimes her powers work, sometimes they don't.
- Enforced: The writers want to give Alice Power Incontinence for the laughs, but can't think of another way to do it as she's, well, Great and Powerful.
- Lampshaded: "My powers don't work, I need a doctor.".
- Invoked: The Big Bad gives Alice a poison that will give her Power Incontinence.
- Exploited: The Big Bad captures Alice while she is ill, as she can't fight them while she has Power Incontinence.
- Defied: The Great and Powerful Alice develops healing powers on purpose so as not to deal with this.
- Discussed: "Okay, Alice's magic has gone haywire, so she might be sick or something. We need to get her to a doctor."
- Conversed: "Why do the writers have to make the poor character sick, just to give them Power Incontinence, there must be another way."
- Implied: The Great and Powerful Alice is seen with her magic awry, but it is unknown if she is sick or not.
- Deconstructed: Alice ends up causing chaos.
- Reconstructed: She repairs the damage with magic upon getting better.
- Played for Laughs: Bob, Carol, and Dave must Find the Cure! while being stuck with Alice as an Annoying Patient, and also deal with being a frog, being pint-sized, and having a high voice respectively.
- Played for Drama: Alice's new Power Incontinence could be very dangerous.
Back to Malfunction Malady.
