History Main / PureEnergy

* ''WebAnimation/TheLazerCollection'': [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d3ZYF-Zmo2E&t=0m40s Just. Pure. Energy.]] This disjointed collection of 4chan-esque shorts might be the only instance where the words "pure energy" actually make sense. The "lazers" are just a large wave of light, heat, and concussive force -- the purest expressions of energy in a system -- expelled all at once.

* Notably {{Averted}} with the ''[[Franchise/StarWars Star Wars]]'' "lightsaber". It's never really addressed on-screen, but various materials reveal that the blade is made from plasma (which is also probably ArtisticLicensePhysics, but in a different way).
* In the ''{{Film/Tron}}'' films and ExpandedUniverse, the sentient AIs ''drink'' the stuff for nourishment. Digitized humans can also benefit from drinking it.

* ''Franchise/StarTrek'', the original series at least, might as well be the trope namer. The number of times Spock says "Pure Energy" over the course of the series is only rivaled by the number of times he says "[[PlanetOfHats Near Earth parallel]], captain."

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* In the ''Comicbook/{{WITCH}}'' comic Will's element is defined as "Pure Energy" while the rest of the Guardians are a FourElementEnsemble. In the TV series her element is defined as "[[ElementNumberFive Quintessence]]" which is basically ShockAndAwe mixed with LightningCanDoAnything.

* Objects made by a [[GreenLanternRing Green Lantern Power Ring]].

The funny thing is that in Physics, ''everything'' [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xo232kyTsO0 is made up of energy]]. Mass is also just a form of energy, so basically everything you see, you pick up and hold onto, is pure energy. Just not in the sense of this article.

-> '''Senior Officer:''' The weird thing is, the bodies show traces of... pure energy.\\

Energy is formally defined as the capacity to do work (whilst work is defined as an action displacing an object by applying a force). Energy is not something you can, for example, pick up and put in your pocket.

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[[folder:Real Life]]
* Light is a form of electromagnetic radiation, which is composed of elementary particles called photons that are massless, making it the closest thing in real life to being made of pure "energy".
* Physicists refer to the beginning of the Universe as being created in a Big Bang out of pure energy.
* As mentioned above, [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xo232kyTsO0 mass is just a form of energy]].
* Or if you are a purist and cannot accept an energy linking to other things as pure energy, [[https://www.forbes.com/sites/startswithabang/2017/03/25/ask-ethan-is-there-any-such-thing-as-pure-energy/#62d70fd3762a dark energy is a candidate for it]]. Though our current technology and scientific knowledge is unable to do much about that.
* Massless Particles are also composed completely out of energy, [[https://www.symmetrymagazine.org/article/massless-particles-cant-be-stopped#:~:text=They%20are%20also%20unaffected%20by,the%20University%20of%20California%2C%20Riverside according to this link]].
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* ComicBook/{{Cyclops}} releases blasts of "pure concussive force" from his eyes. His brother Vulcan can manipulate and absorb energy in vast amounts granting him super strength, flight and energy blasts.
* The Power Cosmic used by a number of Heralds of Galactus (some Heralds like Terrax or Nova and Firelord treat their Power Cosmic more like [[ElementalPowers elementals]]) and Eternals (including Thanos) treat it as a mysterious energy that can be focused to a more specific more of energy like hard radiation, electricity and etc. The Power Cosmic can also be used to transmute matter.
* A pure energy entity also appears in a ''ComicBook/JusticeLeague'' comic from the late eighties. It's handled more realistically than most and a lot is made of the fact that it shouldn't exist. Captain Atom states that "According to what I remember about physics, any uncontained energy should dissipate immediately." and calls in Doctor Fate to make sure there are no supernatural explanations for a physics-defying... thing appearing out of thin air.

* Massless Particles are also composed completely out of energy [[https://www.symmetrymagazine.org/article/massless-particles-cant-be-stopped#:~:text=They%20are%20also%20unaffected%20by,the%20University%20of%20California%2C%20Riverside. according to this link]]

* [[SlowLaser Slow Lasers]] are, by and large, simply conventional pistols that fire (slow) bullets made of Pure Energy, rather than being lasers or something similarly hard to dodge.

'''Senior Officer:''' No, Randall. [[PunctuatedForEmphasis Just. Pure. Energy.]]\\

Energy is formally defined as the capacity to do work (whilst work is defined as [[ShapedLikeItself the energy transferred by a force]]).[[note]]The actual formal definition of energy isn't so confusingly circular, but [[LiesToChildren takes a lot more time and effort to explain]].[[/note]] Energy is not something you can, for example, pick up and put in your pocket.

* Smax in comic ''ComicBook/TopTen'' can fire energy from his chest. This is later named "The Strong Light".
* A pure energy entity also appears in a ''ComicBook/JusticeLeague'' comic from the late eighties. It's handled more realistically than most and a lot is made of the fact that it shouldn't exist. Captain Atom states that "According to what I remember about physics, any uncontained energy should dissipate immediately." and calls in Doctor Fate to make sure there are no supernatural explanations for a physics-defying... thing appearing out of thin air.

* In the ''Comicbook/{{WITCH}}'' comic Will's element is defined as "Pure Energy" while the rest of the Guardians are a FourElementEnsemble. In the TV series her element is defined as "[[ElementNumberFive Quintessence]]" which is basically ShockAndAwe mixed with LightningCanDoAnything.

* Notably {{Averted}} with the ''[[Franchise/StarWars Star Wars]]'' "lightsaber". It's never really addressed on-screen, but various materials reveal that the blade is made from plasma (which is also probably ArtisticLicensePhysics, but in a different way).

* In the Literature/{{Discworld}} book ''Literature/{{Sourcery}}'', a tower is built out of [[AWizardDidIt pure magic]].

* ''VideoGame/LostPlanet'' has "Thermal Energy", which is harvested by killing Akrid. It's some kind of [[PowerGlows glowing]] orange goo that has a large potency. Possibly overlaps with GreenRocks.
* ''VideoGame/HalfLife2'''s [[EnergyBall Combine Dark Energy Orbs]] are balls of energy either kept in a stasis and used to power generators, or contained in a capsule which can be used as a weapon, releasing the orb which instantly disintegrates most biological lifeforms it comes in contact with.
* ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyVI'' has the [[BossBattle boss]] Atma/Ultima Weapon, which before the battle [[BadassBoast boasts]] of being "pure energy, and [[TimeAbyss ancient as the cosmos]]." It is ''[[ThatOneBoss no]]'' [[DiscOneFinalBoss pushover]]. This trope is why beating it by draining all of its MP [[GameplayAndStoryIntegration makes sense]]; without MP to sustain it, it can't exist. Until it [[UnexplainedRecovery comes back]], [[DeathIsCheap of course]].

* In ''VideoGame/{{Albion}}'', forcefields found in one dungeon are apparently made of pure energy. Considering that one of the heroes is a scientist, this understandably confuses him. He does manage to conclude that the field appears to be made of electrical discharges, but has no visible power source. He later concludes that information, energy and matter are interchangeable on the eponymous planet, allowing magic to exist.
* In ''[[VideoGame/XCOMEnemyUnknown X-COM: Enemy Unknown]]'', the Outsider alien is deemed a being "made of almost pure energy" by Dr. Vahlen. She's just as confused as the rest of us, perhaps lampshading the impossibility of this trope.
* [[PowerOfTheVoid Nothingness]] gets this treatment in ''VideoGame/KingdomHeartsII''. In the Kingdom Hearts universe, Nothingness is a form of matter separate from Light and Dark, and inimical to both. It's the substance that the [[HumanoidAbomination Nobodies]] are made of, though it also manifests as thorny, vine-like wisps that encircle the elemental attacks of Organization XIII's members (though [[BigBad Xemnas]] and the [[WarmupBoss Twilight Thorn]] can use the wisps themselves as an attack). For a straighter example, there's Xemnas's and the [[VideoGame/KingdomHeartsBirthBySleep Mysterious Figure's]]/[[spoiler: Young Master Xehanort's]] [[LaserBlade Ethereal Blades]].

** To make things even weirder, the Photon Spheres and Photon Drops are depicted as any other rare drop when on the ground- a deep-red box probably only slightly larger than someone's head. Even if the model size isn't indicative of the item itself, one has to wonder how somebody is supposed to handle a crystalized form of a substance that is regularly shot out of guns and ejected out of blade handles for the purpose of shredding beasts and frenzied robots alike. Ouch.
* In ''VideoGame/AxiomVerge'', one hidden weapon fires beams of "pure inertia."
* ''VideoGame/SpiderMan2EnterElectro''[='s=] final boss is "Hyper Electro" which, as described by Stan Lee in his in-game narration, is Electro "transformed into a being of pure energy". They probably meant to say "pure electricity" although that hardly makes any more sense.

* Dexter of ''WesternAnimation/DextersLaboratory'' once tried to produce pure energy in his laboratory. In the few moments before his machine crashed, it was depicted as a giant glowing atom (you get a better view of it in [[CloudCuckooLander his grandfather's]] [[TheCuckooLanderWasRight Rube Goldberg machine]]).
* Megabyte in ''WesternAnimation/ReBoot'' once extracted all the energy in Mainframe's core and converted it into a liquid state which was stored in a "transformer". But since this pure energy was unnatural it caused problems when the User loaded a game, including forcing the game to land on the Principal office, corrupting the game and turning Megabyte into a Megatruck.

The funny thing is that in Physics, [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xo232kyTsO0 everything is made up of energy]]. Mass is also just a form of energy, so basically everything you see, you pick up and hold onto, is pure energy. Just not in the sense of this article.

The fun thing is, in the Physics sense, [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xo232kyTsO0 EVERYTHING is made up of energy]], mass is also just a form of energy, so basically everything you see, you pick up and hold onto, is pure energy. Just not in the sense of this article.

[[caption-width-right:214:Says who?]]

* The Prime arcanum in ''TabletopGame/MageTheAwakening'' provides several varieties: pure {{Mana}} condensed to solid form for easy storage, NonElemental Celestial Fire, weapons and armour (and [[MundaneUtility tables and stuff]]) created from HardLight, and sentient constructs MadeOfMagic.

But the [[EEqualsMCHammer famous]] ''E'' = ''mc
''

* ComicBook/{{Cyclops}} releases blasts of "pure concussive force" from his eyes.

* FrickinLaserBeams are, by and large, simply conventional pistols that fire (slow) bullets made of Pure Energy, rather than being lasers or something similarly hard to dodge.