Basic Trope: A character with superpowers uses them exclusively for their own personal convenience.
- Straight: Alice uses her newfound ice powers for mundane, self-serving things or her own amusement. She never uses it to fight crime or help other people.
- Exaggerated: Every superpowered individual in town has decided to use their superpowers solely for their own convenience. Nobody is interested in becoming a superhero or a supervillain.
- Downplayed:
- Mundane Utility: Alice does use her ice powers for good though she does still exploit her powers in her daily life.
- Alice joins the fire department: using her powers to help people but drawing a paycheck for doing so.
- Heroism doesn't pay the bills, so Alice uses her superpowers for mundane purposes as well as superhero work.
- Justified:
- Alice isn't really a good fighter, so she uses her powers on things she is good at.
- After a long time of crimefighting, Alice realizes it would be much easier just to let the cops handle the mundane things in case somebody tries to exploit her. The police are aware of this as well, but they encourage her to keep using her powers so she doesn't get out of practice.
- Alice is not powerful enough to use her powers effectively for crimefighting, so she just settled for an ice cream and smoothies business instead.
- Alice knows that her understanding of law is too limited not to make the crimes worse.
- Alice's powers aren't that useful for crime-fighting.
- Inverted:
- With Great Power Comes Great Responsibility: Alice uses her ice powers exclusively on crime-fighting. It hasn't occurred to her that her powers have other applications besides that, or she is aware and even then refuses to use her powers in that manner.
- With Great Power Comes Great Insanity: Alice's power inflicts a gradually increasing urge on her mind to freeze everything in sight with each use so she only uses it sparingly.
- Personal Gain Hurts: As soon as Alice tries to use her ice powers for personal cooling, she overdoes it, nearly gives herself frostbite, and learns from her experience not to do it again.
- Subverted: Alice has come across a situation where her powers could be useful, but she hesitates as she knows that she shouldn't be exploiting her powers for her own personal gain.
- Double Subverted: ...but she does so anyway.
- Parodied: Alice just bought a drink from a diner. They forgot to add ice cubes in her drink, so she makes her own using her ice powers. As she drinks from her cup, we can see Super Bob fighting desperately against a giant fire monster attacking the town through the window.
- Parodied/Justified: That's an oil-fire monster, you want Foam-Girl (who's already en route) for that.
- Zig-Zagged: Alice tries to only use her powers for crime-fighting, but sometimes she cares, and sometimes she doesn't.
- Averted:
- Alice doesn't have powers.
- Alice's powers are useless in crimefighting.
- Alice received her powers through a Magically-Binding Contract that prevents her from using them for quotidian or personal reasons.
- Enforced: Super Bob, the government, and/or villain for whatever reason actively prevent Alice from becoming a superhero or supervillain.
- Lampshaded: "I bet Alice would use her powers on other things other than crime-fighting."
- Invoked: "Who said that I have to become a superhero anyway?"
- Exploited: Super Bob invited Alice to join Team Superhero but she declined. Instead she used her newfound ice powers to start an ice cream and smoothies business.
- Defied: Super Bob finally convinces Alice to join Team Superhero.
- Discussed: "Man, it's really hot today ... If only I had some ice powers or something."
- Conversed:
- "You could've had an easier life if you would just loosen up and use your powers for other things other than crime-fighting, you know."
- "If you are finished making your smoothies, I could really use someone with ice powers against this fire monster over here!"
- Implied: Alice's fridge is always frozen cold even though it isn't plugged in.
- Deconstructed:
- Without performing the good deeds obliged of someone with the power to do so, people are suspicious and distrustful of Alice and see her as a freak. Super Bob calls her out for being selfish in not using her powers to help others. Alice is eventually regarded with disdain and shunned by everyone.
- Realizing she can't use her ice powers for herself and not wanting to take responsibility, Alice either doesn't use them or has them removed. Some see her actions as reasonable, others see it as cowardly.
- Alice is forced to use her powers against her own free will.
- Reconstructed:
- Alice finally uses her superpowers to help people and fight crime to repair her reputation.
- Laws are soon placed to allow super-powered individuals to use their powers freely as long as they don't abuse them.
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