Line #28 AwesomeButImpractical/LITERATURE


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7	"A flashy feature that has limited usability for victory."
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11	* Creator/UrsulaKLeGuin's ''Literature/AlwaysComingHome'' features a post-industrial society where most societies manage without advanced technology. One expansionist state decided to look up ancient weapon designs on the Internet (there are AI's maintaining a version of it -- in a book published in 1985). Since their society has a religion based around condors, they make a few military planes. However, it's a PostPeakOil world, and they find out rather quickly that it's very hard to expand when all the food has been converted into biofuel...
12	* ''Literature/ApparentlyDisillusionedAdventurersWillSaveTheWorld'': The Sword of Bonds found by Nick and the party. It's a living sword that has incredible power and can not just multiply but square the strength of the user. Made even better by the fact, that it is completely safe, as the creators were GenreSavvy enough individuals who implemented all kinds of safety features so that there would be no risk of misusing him. It would easily be the ultimate weapon in existence, were it not for one little issue: It requires the user to sync with another person, and they have to be on the same wavelength. Which is extremely difficult to do. This issue is compounded by the fact that Nick's party is founded on the basis of distrust, due to each of them having suffered betrayal by the groups they were with before one another, and they have strict rules about how they interact with one another off and on the clock. In spite of that, Nick manages to succeed at syncing with Karan in their time of need and defeat the monsters preventing the party from leaving with the sword.
13	* ''Literature/AscendanceOfABookworm'': The setting's {{Magitek}} is powered by {{Mana}}-based LivingBattery. Ferdinand is on the ''very'' high end in terms of the mana he can spare and likes inventing magic items that he sometimes sells to others. Some of his inventions are stuck in the prototype stage because he considers something worth making as long as ''he'' can power it, but people with less mana to spare (aka the vast majority of the SupernaturalElite) can't use such items. At some point in the story, Ferdinand turns out to have figured out how to make the equivalent of a video camera while his world is in the middle of its transition from Middle Ages to Renaissance. He also needs to provide several {{Power Crystal}}s filled his own mana to power the camera when he lends it to his cousin's adult son, in a world where SuperpowerfulGenetics are a major influence on mana capacity.
14	* ''Literature/TheBelgariad'':
15	** In ''Belgarath the Sorceror'', the title character approaches a demon summoner who decides to show off by {{summoning\|Ritual}} a demon in a protective circle of fire on the [[WalkOnWater surface of a river]]. A protective circle drawn in mud is just as effective and has the benefit of not being washed downstream while the summoner is being eaten by an amused demon.
16	** [[TeleportationWithDrawbacks Teleportation magic has drawbacks]]. It's is [[CastFromStamina very draining on the caster]] and has the TeleportersVisualizationClause. For speedy long-distance travel, Belgarath attempts a MultistageTeleport, but gives up and [[{{Animorphism}} turns into a falcon]] instead.
17	* In ''Literature/{{Below}}'', the quest leader Gareth uses an unpredictable wand of [[TransformationRay polymorphosis]] to attack a large squad of goblins that outnumbers the party, with the goal of creating a monster too big for them to handle. One hit turns a goblin into a giant beetle that keeps the others busy, but another [[GoneHorriblyRight creates a cockatrice]] that [[TakenForGranite threatens]] the goblins and the party alike.
18	* In ''Literature/CharlieAndTheChocolateFactory'', one of the stories about Willy Wonka was him building a palace out of chocolate for an Indian prince. All fine and dandy, but it's ''HOT'' in India. As Wonka warns the prince, the sun will melt it, and indeed it does.
19	* The Aeyrie, batlike {{winged humanoid}}s in Laurie J. Marks's ''Literature/ChildrenOfTriad'' trilogy, are described as such—by [[ThisLoserIsYou one of their own]], no less -- in the second book: Between the weight of the musculature required to get something roughly human-sized aloft, and the hollow bones and general frailty required to compensate for said weight, they're "too heavy to fly easily, yet too light to do anything else."
20	* ''Literature/TheCosmere'':
21	** ''Literature/TheStormlightArchive'':
22	*** Kaladin's spear katas in ''Literature/TheWayOfKings2010''. He himself admits that they're only designed to stretch the muscles and get you used to handling a spear, and would be totally useless in an actual fight. On the other hand, the Awesome part proves to be of some practical use, as demonstrating his [[MasterSwordsman Master Spearman]] skills and his [[PowerGlows shiny]] new Surgebinding powers helps cement the loyalty of his followers.
23	*** In ''Literature/{{Edgedancer}}'', [[spoiler:Lift]] discovers that summoning your [[EquippableAlly living Shardweapon]] in fork form to show off might be cool, but {{Absurdly Sharp Blade}}s are a pain to eat with, since they keep stabbing through the plate.
24	** The EmpathicWeapon Nightblood from ''Literature/{{Warbreaker}}'' is one of the most dangerous things in the universe, capable of physically and [[SoulCuttingBlade spiritually]] annihilating almost anything it cuts. It also drains its wielder's [[{{Mana}} Investiture]] at a ferocious rate, followed by their life if they don't sheathe it in time. Also, OnlyThePureOfHeart can touch it without Nightblood forcing them to kill themselves.
25	** Subverted in ''Literature/WaxAndWayne''. As Wax points out, the Sovereign hiding an ArtifactOfDoom in a gigantic TempleOfDoom was a terrible idea, because the unworthy would know exactly where to look. Then he realizes that his suggestion of [[BoringButPractical storing the artifact in a cave without any clues]] wouldn't work either because while the unworthy would have trouble finding it, the Sovereign would [[HoistByHisOwnPetard lose it forever if he forgot where he left it]]. The point of the temple is to make sure that explorers will always know where to look, [[spoiler:and to misdirect anyone who doesn't know the secret. The artifact is located right next to the entrance, and the temple tricks the unworthy into fruitlessly searching deeper in the temple]].
26	* ''Literature/TheCrewOfTheCopperColoredCupids'' makes a point of noting that the [[SpaceSailing tachyonic sailing ships]] are an impractical, unreliable and obsolete way to travel TheMultiverse, only ever used by eccentrics who put aesthetics before safety and accuracy. The ships do occasionally present advantages in specific circumstances, mostly sneaking around defences built for regular Void Ships in mind.
27	* In ''Literature/DarkHeavens'', Emma is unexpectedly able to generate an ultra-rare black chi that can instantly annihilate demons, or turn them human... sometimes. Other times, it does nothing at all. Emma eventually decides that it's too unpredictable to be useful, and stops using it... [[ChekhovsGun for now]].
28	* ''Literature/{{Discworld}}'':
29	** Death used to ride a fiery steed, but it set fire to the stable. Then he got a skeletal horse, but bits kept falling off (including its head). Then he got a BadassNormal WhiteStallion and called it Binky, and has no issues beyond having to feed him and taking care of his needs, just like a normal horse.
30	** In ''Literature/{{Snuff}}'', Col. Makepeace retired from the Pseudopolis military's Light Dragons, which attempted to use the notoriously-explosive and volatile swamp dragons in warfare. It never worked, and is the reason his memoirs are titled ''Twenty-Four Years Without Eyebrows''.
31	** This is the entirety of Mustrum Ridcully's attitude towards magic. Ridcully is a ludicrously powerful and skilled Wizard, but ''Discworld'' magic is generally unstable and dangerous to everyone in the vicinity, including its caster and especially after extended use. Also, he figures that anything he can't take down with his staff (six feet of sturdy bog-oak, swung by arms that box against trolls for fun) isn't going to be deterred by magic either.
32	* ''Literature/TheDresdenFiles'':
33	** Subverted with [[DishingOutDirt earth magic]]; Harry openly considers it this since it takes a lot of time for any spell using earth magic to get working, and his life is normally too hectic and dangerous for him to wait around that long. Sufficiently skilled masters in it, however, such as [[InspectorJavert Warden Morgan]], can do stuff like ''making the freaking ground quake'' by just changing the pitch of their voice.
34	** Downplayed with the enchanted swords used by the [[ObstructiveBureaucracy White Council's]] [[JudgeJuryAndExecutioner Wardens]]; on the one hand, they're ''really'' {{Cool Sword}}s with AntiMagic woven into their very making and are very effective weapons in combat (thanks in part to their enchantments making them {{absurdly sharp\|blade}}). On the other hand, they're incredibly exhausting and time-intensive to make (to the point where they can no longer be made for the time being thanks to [[spoiler:Captain Luccio -- the only person on the Council who previously had both the skill and innate power to make them -- being stuck in a new body]]), and each is intricately interwoven with the very essence of the Warden assigned them (meaning that if a Warden died, their sword could not be just reassigned to someone else).
35	** Harry mentions to [[TheWatson Butters]] in ''Literature/DeadBeat'' that, theoretically speaking, a necromancer ''could'' [[RaisingTheSteaks raise an animal corpse as a zombie]] [[LoopholeAbuse without breaking the Seven Laws of Magic]] (or at least their letter), but they wouldn't do that since animals leave behind less of a "psychic footprint" than humans do since they're not sapient. Combining this with how zombies in ''The Dresden Files'' work on OlderIsBetter rules (the older the corpse, the more potential power can be put into it), it just wouldn't be that practical. However, at the novel's climax, [[spoiler:Harry -- with the help of Butters -- raises Sue (the ''Tyrannosaurus rex'' skeleton kept in Chicago's Field Museum) to take on a horde of human zombies and spirits raised by a hostile group of necromancers, and the fact that the dinosaur is over '''65 million years dead''' makes the fight an almost-effortless CurbStompBattle in his favor]].
36	* In ''Literature/TheElenium'', the undead soldiers created by Otha. While they ''look'' like an undefeatable regiment of unkillable warriors in ScaryImpracticalArmor, there turn out to be two crippling problems with them: 1. Their armor really is ''impractical''. The guys making it didn't understand armor had a purpose beyond looking scary, so they made armor that looked really scary but is restrictive, doesn't deflect blades properly, and is too thin. 2. Otha is a moron. He has the power to raise the dead, but no idea what to do with it. The soldiers are set to guard the stone they're standing on, and that's all. The heroes win by just walking around them. Then because it didn't occur to Otha that his soldiers should be selective in their targets, they chuck a rock at one soldier causing it to enter the square of another, and the DisasterDominoes set the entire regiment fighting each other.
37	* ''Literature/FlowersInTheAttic'' and its sequels mention a swan bed with custom made sheets.
38	* In ''Literature/GatheringTheEnchanted'', it would be Calynn's legs suddenly bending backwards. This would realistically cause her to have to crawl on all fours due to the sudden change in her lower body.
39	* Many modern writers on Internet culture have noted how impractical Creator/WilliamGibson's idea of "cyberspace" is. Despite forming the core of classic {{cyberpunk}} stories like ''Literature/{{Neuromancer}}'' and ''Literature/BurningChrome'', when the Internet finally did become a fixture in everybody's life, cyberspace failed to come with it. The reason, they argue, is that it added a superfluous layer of "travel" to the Internet, when in reality it is simpler to just let the net come to you.
40	* ''Literature/HarryPotter'':
41	** Offensive magic generally falls under this trope. The Killing Curses, Forbidden Curses, and even more mundane magic attacks tend to pale alongside modern firearms, save for situations where the target is immune to anything else. [[WordOfGod Rowling herself]] maintains there's a reason muggles with guns still rule the world (well, [[ExplosiveBreeder one of two reasons]]).
42	** The fact that even Avada Kedavra is only single-target means that the entire wizarding world is childishly outclassed by technology dating to the Renaissance, namely guns and grenades. That could have to do with wizard culture preferring duels, though. It's also so slow and difficult to cast that a student wizard of middling skill using the single most basic combat spell successfully fought the Killing Curse's ''undisputed master'' to a draw.
43	** It's the ''mundane'' aspects of the wizard world which are less practical than [[MugglesDoItBetter what muggles use]]. Like kneeling down at a fireplace and sending your head through it for a conversation instead of simply using the phone. This is even lampshaded at one point concerning the use of owls in the Ministry of Magic, due to the inescapable problem of owl droppings. Enchanting the missiles into paper birds which fly to the right place instead is certainly a solution, but a computer system would be an even better one. Somewhat {{justified\|Trope}} due to the "magic is an EMP" subtype of MagicVersusTechnology being in play: [[NecessaryDrawback you have to choose]] between the advantages of using tech and the advantages of using magic in any given area. Want to teleport to work and skip the commute? Then you'll have to deal with sharing the elevator with a bunch of enchanted paper airplanes, because email won't work. It's not at all clear why they can't use magic to get the same effect, however, especially since making mundane objects intelligent and at least partly sentient is commonplace. For instance, the students occasionally used the paintings to run messages, and at least two of the dorms were protected by paintings asking for passwords.
44	** Animagi. On paper, transforming yourself into an animal is definitely awesome. However, each wizard's animal transformation is fixed according to their traits, which means they can only change into a specific animal all their lives. Obviously, some forms are more useful than others; small animals like rats or cats are preferable, while transforming yourself into an ''elephant'' is potentially destructive. There is also the fact that the Ministry require Animagi to register, making it useless for law-abiding wizards to spy on other wizards ([=McGonagall=] successfully spies on the Dursleys before delivering Harry Potter using her cat form, but that is because they are Muggles). Also, the process of becoming an Animagus is very difficult and time-consuming, with so many ways that it can go wrong.
45	** The Fiendfyre curse allows the user to conjure extremely powerful, possibly sentient fire that can destroy anything in its path. It's also nearly impossible to control and can easily kill its user, as [[spoiler:Crabbe]] finds out the hard way.
46	** Broomsticks. Having your own flying machine small enough to keep in your hallway is undoubtedly pretty awesome. But at the end of the day, we are just talking about a wooden stick that you put between your legs. If you fall off, you're dead, and there is very little but your own grip to keep you on it. And we know this from the time Harry fell off during a Quidditch match and the only thing saving him from becoming a pancake was Dumbledore. If these things existed in real life there is absolutely no way that parents would allow their school-age children to fly one, much less play a full contact sport using it. ''The Prisoner of Azkaban'' also gives us another disadvantage of broom travel in the fact that you have absolutely no protection from the elements. You would probably have to deck yourself out with a heavy coat and goggles like a World War 1 fighter pilot to even think about flying one of these things on a cold day at altitude.
47	** ''Literature/HarryPotterAndTheHalfBloodPrince'': The Felix Felicis potion grants its drinker one day of extraordinary luck in which all of their endeavours seem to succeed. However, it's extremely difficult to make, to the point that [[TheSmartGuy Hermione]] deems it not even worth trying to brew herself, and if taken in excess it can lead to dangerous and potentially fatal overconfidence, as it only makes you lucky, not invulnerable.
48	* ''Literature/HelenAndTroysEpicRoadQuest'': As Nigel points out, Franklin's [[EpicFlail chain-mace]] has never actually been used as a weapon in real life due to its poor design, one more likely to take off their own head than the opponent's.
49	* ''Literature/AHerosWar'':
50	** Landar's robot suit may indeed have been "too cool not to get built", but it's so ridiculously power-hungry that even her unusually large magic reserves aren't able to supply it for more than a few steps -- and that's from pouring in all the magic she could spare for weeks.
51	** The university successfully launches a hot-air balloon, using magic-imbued steel as the power source for the heat. It's the first man-made flying vehicle in thousands of years, ever since the precursor civilisations (the First and the Tsarians) fell, but even a short test flight consumes a tremendous amount of power, making it infeasible for any longer trips. [[spoiler:They eventually develop a more feasible design based on a lighter-than-air foam, although it still faces serious engineering difficulties before it can become practical.]]
52	* The [[WaveMotionGun LIGHT annihilation device]] in ''Literature/TheHistoryOfTheGalaxy'' series. Originally developed as part of a project to build an {{Antimatter}} drive, it was adapted into a projector that fires a stream of anti-particles at the target. The problem? They never figured out how to control the yield. The first battlefield use resulted in the loss of ''both'' fleets, as well as the weapon itself. Oh, and the enemy had more fleets at their disposal, while the side with the device was left with a grand total of 8 warships out of hundreds. The weapon is later placed on their flagship-class cruisers, taking up a good fifth of the size (a flagship cruiser is about 7 kilometers in length). It's almost never used in battle due to unpredictable results and is mostly there as a show of force. Think [[Franchise/StarWars Death Star]], but even less useful.
53	* ''Literature/HonorHarrington'':
54	** In ''[[Literature/HonorHarrington On Basilisk Station]]'', Honor's [[CoolStarship ship]] was refitted with a shiny new weapon that could destroy the protective force fields on other ships. Unfortunately, it had a relatively miniscule range of about a hundred thousand kilometers, and required the removal of most of the ship's conventional missile and beam armanent, making it incredibly ineffective at typical combat distances of up to a few million kilometers. She manages to make use of it, but would have been much better off with the original BoringButPractical armanent. Her ship was only intended to be a test platform for the grav lance, which was not supposed to be used in a real fight until enough of those issues had been worked out to make it more practical -- but since it didn't turn out to even be promising in the wargames at the beginning of the book, the ship was ReassignedToAntarctica (along with its unfortunate commander) to save the Admiral responsible for it the embarassment of having it around. Of course it DID end up in combat, leading to the first of MANY ReassignmentBackfire moments for Harrington (the enemy ship was unaware of it and got close enough for the weapon to be effective after her ship was effectively crippled; however, a ship with a traditional loadout would have won at an earlier stage of the battle easily).
55	** Admiral Sonja "Horrible" Hemphill was notorious for turning out this kind of military advances. Undeservedly, as it turns out, since any of her advances that weren't in this category were classified so all most people saw were her failures.
56	** Once missile pods were invented, they designed warships that were based on the ability to store, deploy and launch large numbers of pods in two classes: Superdreadnoughts and battlecruisers. Pod battlecruisers turned out to be fragile (when the pod core is fully worked out, it takes up the entire interior of the midships portion of the hull, leaving virtually no room for proper armor), easy to knock out of action, cramped, and in order to prop up salvo density, the missiles they carry are cruiser-weight rather than capital-weight. They didn't even try making pod ships of classes smaller than battlecruisers (apart from a few anti-pirate Q-ships) because they wouldn't be large enough to store enough pods to be worth it.
57	** WordOfGod says that [[spoiler: [=LACs=] are a strategic dead-end]], making them this once navies have figured out a counter for them. Unlike BC(P)s, however, [=LACs=] still function as working area defense ships, helping larger and more important ships escape harm from extremely heavy pod missile salvos.
58	* In the ''Literature/InheritanceCycle'', Zar'roc is a magical sword with a perpetually sharp and indestructible blade. However, Eragon finds it to be unwieldy, short, and ill-suited to any techniques other than those that can be performed with one hand. When [[spoiler:Murtaugh]] takes Zar'roc, Eragon specifically asks for his next sword to be designed to fix the problems he had with Zar'roc. The problems Eragon had, however, are due to the fact that it was meant to be a custom weapon for the deceased Morzan, and thus didn't fit properly with his fighting style or in his hands. There was nothing wrong with the blade, he just preferred a slightly larger weapon suitable for one or two handed use.
59	* In ''Literature/{{Insomnia}}'', all humans are this. Ralph is horrified at first when he learns he can drain energy from other people to reverse his aging, become stronger, slip in and out of reality like a ghost, and even ''fly'', likening himself to a vampire and feeling as if he stole this power from others. Lachesis and Clotho explain though that the energy Ralph needs to steal from one person to do these feats is comparable to a bucket of water stolen from ''the ocean'', and that the only reason that humans live comparably short lives to the "Long-Times" like them is that they are so inefficient at using their power that they burn insane amounts of it on entirely mundane things -- Ralph wasn't given any new powers, he was just shown how to use mankind's power efficiently.
60	--> '''Lachesis:''' Have you not wondered why you are Short-Timers, marking the spans of your lives in decades rather than in centuries? Your lives are short because you burn like bonfires! When you draw energy from your fellow Short-Timers, it’s like [telepathically shows a little girl filling a bucket from the ocean]. You are like that child, Ralph and Lois -- your fellow Short-Timers are like the sea. Do you understand now? That's how much there is ''in every human being on the face of the Earth!''
61	* In ''Literature/TheKingsAvatar'', the "Dragon Raises Its Head" Battle Mage technique is a signature move associated with Ye Xiu. However, it is extremely difficult to execute as well as the damage it inflicts is about the same as other easier-to-perform techniques. Which is why Ye Xiu rarely uses it.
62	* {{Flight}} is one of the many things possible through magic in ''Literature/TheMagicians''. As Quentin notes in the second book, it's a very impressive sight... but it's also very energy-intensive, meaning that if you use it in battle, you run the risk of not having enough power to actually ''fight'' with. On the other hand, it does have a nice secondary usage in space travel... provided you've remembered to cast all the necessary protective spells in advance.
63	* ''Literature/MailFoxTales'' : Eva's ability to tell the route to deliver a given package. Being able to tell the quickest route to take for delivering something sounds awesome at first. That is until you realize whatever magic is plotting this course neither sees a need to point you to your actual destination by any means other than showing you the shortest route, nor has any sense of danger or private property.
64	* ''Literature/MordantsNeed'': Most people go mad when passing through a "plain glass" (that is, a mirror reflecting a location in the world of Mordant as opposed to a location in another world). Those rare few Imagers who can do so while keeping their sanity can effectively teleport themselves to any place that they possess a glass that carries an Image of it -- however, since it's [[note]]normally[[/note]] impossible to determine before creating a glass what Image it will hold, and there is no [[note]]commonly available[[/note]] way of making the return trip without having to physically travel back to the site of the mirror by mundane means, the ability has few practical applications except for providing a really good means of making quick escapes. Even so, it's considered the most difficult thing you can do with Imagery, and someone who has the ability is known as an Arch-Imager.
65	* In ''Literature/ThePaleKing'', Creator/DavidFosterWallace explains how awesome the Peoria REC looks as you approach its parking lot... except that the design of its road and structuring makes for horrendous afternoon traffic.
66	** In essence, the baronial splendor of the REC’s grass was a testament to the idiocy and hassle of the whole thing’s planning.
67	* In ''Literature/TheQuantumThief'', there are the Solar (aka Stellar) Lasers from the Sobornost and the Ekpyrotic Cannon of the Zoku. The Solar Lasers pump out so much energy that they create small black holes and are used to manipulate the sun, but it can take hours to turn their reflectors so their use as a weapon is hindered. When they are successfully turned though... As for the Ekpyrotic Cannon, it fires an exotic load projectile into a heavy mass target which then generates a gravitational field that penetrates multiple dimension before bouncing back and causing a miniature "Big Bang" event. Problem is the weapon requires something of at least gas giant mass to work.
68	* Bryn's [[WolverineClaws Wolverine Gauntlets]] from ''Literature/RaisedByWolves''. The claws are silver, and extend and retract via a quick twist of the wrist. The only time they're used in combat, [[spoiler: the enemy figures out how they work and neutralizes them by grabbing Bryn's wrist and twisting them to the retracted position.]] Made more annoying by the fact that Bryn was already carrying around [[BoringButPractical two perfectly good silver knives]] when she got the gauntlets.
69	* ''Literature/TheReynardCycle'': The Muraille, a series of fortresses connected by a wall over a hundred miles long. It's been breached so many times that it's been completely abandoned.
70	* ''Literature/ASongOfIceAndFire'':
71	** The Iron Throne. It's a throne for the King of the Seven Kingdoms to sit in... but it's made entirely out of swords and is reportedly ''extremely'' uncomfortable to sit on. And dangerous! Aegon the Conqueror (the first king of Westeros, who commissioned the throne) wanted his successors to never forget that a king's duty is a burden, not a privilege. Hence a throne that always hurts you while you sit on it. [[DramaticallyMissingThePoint Too bad nobody seems to get this.]] It's believed that any King who cuts themselves on the Iron Throne, as has happened, is unworthy to rule, such as Maegor, who died on the throne and may have used its blades to kill himself. Also, it is [[https://awoiaf.westeros.org/images/e/e5/Marc_Simonetti_Bran_theironthroneJoff.jpg extremely tall]] (roughly 30 feet), requiring the equivalent of climbing two stairs to even reach the seat. [[Series/GameOfThrones The television adaptation]] downplays the last part by turning it into a normal, if rather intricate, throne.
72	** Robert believes [[https://i.pinimg.com/originals/23/a2/23/23a223662c372f8d73a69e772bafe733.jpg Cersei's Wheelhouse]] to have been incredibly unpractical for their journey to the North. It's incredibly large (as in it's double-decked) and beautiful to the point where it's practically a medieval [=RV=], but its size means it has to be pulled by 40 heavy draft horses (and even then, Robert says it's still too slow) and can't fit through the gates of Winterfell.
73	** [[BigFancyCastle Harrenhal]] is another example. On the face of it, it's an awesomely solid defensive construction, most of which has managed to stand the test of time -- if rather badly scorched, melted, and battered. However, it's also a massive ode to [[TheTower hubris writ in stone]]. Even if it hadn't met ruin- by unforeseen-[[WeaponOfMassDestruction dragons]] trimming its available living space a fair bit, it'd ''still'' have been an impossible castle to supply, maintain, and run properly thanks to the sheer scale of the damned thing, and due to the army of servants and/or serfs needed to keep it going. Let alone anything else, like unsupportable supply lines in a notoriously politically unstable region given to being the standard battlefield of choice for the whole continent. The Riverlands and the Iron Isles would probably have been beggared and/or partially depopulated and deforested in just a couple of generations trying to make it work at its peak. As it is, even in its partially-used state, it's still TheMillstone around the neck of any poor, unsuspecting Family that gets given it as a "[[UnwantedGiftPlot reward]]" for services rendered. The Whents are only the latest Family to go under primarily due to its financial and logistical weight making them sitting ducks in the Game at the start of the series. The total list of [[HighTurnoverRate Houses to fall]] to the place: Qoherys -- totally extinct; Harroway -- extinct ([[TheButcher King Maegor]] had the entire family executed for treason); Towers -- extinct; Strong -- extinct (although the name does resurface from time to time, probably stolen), Lothston -- extinct; Whent -- extinct in the main, male line, although a side-branch still struggles along; House Slynt -- new and still going, [[spoiler: although utterly stripped of the title, though Lord Slynt was sent to the Wall and executed; and, last but not least, Baelish -- gods alone know how that's going to play out, but he's so far studiously avoided going anywhere near the damn thing and at one point mentioned plans to have it torn down and the materials used to build something saner.]] Also, misfortune tends to find those who just hold it, entitled to or not: [[spoiler:Vargo Hoat, upon being captured by the Mountain, had pieces of himself cut off each day and fed to him; the Mountain himself suffered shortly afterwards upon getting wounded and began dying from an incredibly painful but slow poison,]] though [[spoiler:he may have survived via necromancy]]; Roose Bolton's plans haven't been going so well since he left the place... and his erstwhile patron, Tywin Lannister, has also succumbed to HoistByHisOwnPetard. All this, in combination with the burning backstory and other notable historical disasters unrelated to actually running it, is why the common folk (and a few not-so-common) [[HauntedCastle consider the thing]] under an unspecified, if incredibly potent, {{Curse}}. Selection biases and tall tales or not, Harrenhal ''does'' seem to buck statistical trends by having a fairly regular stream of both major and minor incidents of misery at more frequent intervals than most places in this CrapsackWorld do.
74	** Daenerys' dragons can be considered this. They are an awesome WeaponOfMassDestruction, that's for sure, but they are the first dragons to be hatched in over a century and a half, and all arts pertaining to them have been lost, so nobody alive knows how to control them. Even the dragons of times past were notoriously independent creatures, requiring time and patience to master. They are basically [[CatsAreSuperior cats]], if they are gigantic winged fire-breathing monstrosities. A person can only bond with one dragon, which means two of Dany's dragons (namely Rhaegal and Viserion) are essentially wild and can turn on her if she makes a mistake.
75	* ''Literature/SpellsSwordsAndStealth'': One of Grumph's spells is to create a magical weapon that, once conjured, can take any form Grumph chooses. Because using this spell takes a lot of mana and the weapon isn't particularly more powerful than its mundane counterparts, Grumph tends to only use it when he has specific need of the weapon's transforming ability.
76	* The ''Literature/StarRiskLtd'' team once tried to hang onto a destroyer they bought and crewed for one of their jobs, but then one of their accountants took Freddy von Baldur aside to explain to him that they couldn't afford to maintain it if it wasn't earning any profit.
77	* Invoked in ''Literature/TheStarsMyDestination'': Mind-activated teleportation has made all forms of travel and communication apart from teleportation, couriers and spaceships obsolete. This means that rich people compete to have the most awesome methods of transportation to display their wealth ("I can spend huge wads of cash on things I don't need") and power ("I don't wait for other people, they wait for ''me!''"). One character arrives at a party in lavish style by driving a ''steam train'' complete with a team of navvies ''laying track in front of it''. Another character has a manual telephone switchboard in his office, not because he needs it, but to prove he can put up the cash for an expensive piece of complex, difficult-to-repair electronics -- and the required operators and repair staff -- to do something he could do himself with minimal effort.
78	* ''Franchise/StarWarsLegends''
79	** ''Literature/HanSoloAtStarsEnd'': The Corporate Sector Riot Gun can fire a constant stream of energy (used for mowing down a crowd as "crowd control") that can clear a room of combatants in a hurry. However, it has very poor aiming characteristics, as Han Solo found out when trying to shoot at [=ESPOs=] using its single shot mode. It can only hit effectively on "constant fire", which dramatically increases the chances of friendly casualties in a pitched battle. Contrast with the obsolete blaster carbine (no designation mentioned) in the same book that was "rugged and extremely durable", "with simple telescopic sights", with "no moving parts" and "if left against a tree in the jungle, would still be fully operable ten years from now."
80	** ''Literature/JediAcademyTrilogy'': Double-barreled blasters of the kind Skynxkex uses when trying to kill Han in ''Literature/JediSearch'' fire two beams at slightly intersecting angles; when these reach other, they merge and diffract into a spreading burst of bolts each ten times stronger than a normal blaster shot. However, while potentially very deadly, these blasters are functionally impossible to aim due to the projectile swarms being sent out randomly, and few people actually bother using them.
81	** ''Literature/NewJediOrder'': In ''Destiny's Way'', Han uses this argument as a TakeThat against the Empire (and the author uses it as a TakeThat against the Bantam books, sometimes called the "Superweapon-of-the-Month Club"). An Imperial Navy officer claims that, were Palpatine still around, the [[ScaryDogmaticAliens Yuuzhan Vong]] wouldn't stand a chance because Palpatine wouldn't pussyfoot around and deploy the Imperial Fleet at the first sign of trouble. Han argues that the Empire wouldn't do anything of the sort and instead try to beat the Yuuzhan Vong by building some Awesome, But Impractical superweapon to scare them into backing down. It didn't work on the Rebellion, and it wouldn't work on the Yuuzhan Vong.
82	** The ''Lancer''-class frigate (seen in ''Literature/DarkForceRising'' and ''[[Literature/XWingSeries Rogue Squadron]]'') is a 250-meter warship [[MoreDakka bristling with quad laser batteries]] designed as a counter to the starfighter-heavy Rebel/New Republic fleets. Unfortunately it required too many crew and proved too expensive for wide deployment, and didn't have any way to defend against capital ships, so most admirals scorned it in favor of the old standby of TIE swarms. Grand Admiral Thrawn does eventually find a very good use for such ships by pairing them up with the equally over-expensive Interdictor cruisers and using them to ambush small convoys that normally rely on starfighters for defense.
83	** ''ComicBook/{{Legacy}}'': By the time of the comics, ships of the scale of the ''Executor''-class star dreadnought are seen as this. Without a tax base the size of a galaxy, they cost too much to operate.
84	** Several books treat [[SlowLaser blaster weapons]] this way. The plasma/laser bolt of a blaster technically does more damage than a rifle bullet, but it's slower and brightly visible. Blasters are also said to foul up in bad terrain (like swamps) almost instantly, while your trusty [[BoringButPractical slugthrower]] won't stop firing until you throw it under a tank tread. The prevalence of armor-piercing blasters also made body armor much less common throughout the galaxy, with armies favoring lightweight uniforms so troops could move faster; this is the exact kind of target slugthrowers excel at fighting. Most of all, though, blaster bolts can be deflected by a Jedi's [[LaserBlade lightsaber]], but [[MugglesDoItBetter slugthrower bullets can't.]] [[DependingOnTheWriter Other books emphatically do NOT treat blasters this way, of course.]]
85	** ''Literature/DarthBane'': Double-bladed lightsabers have shades of this, as discussed in the book. Despite its impressive appearance the weapon has a number of obvious drawbacks. For starters its advantage of having more options is an illusion. The second blade greatly obstructs the user's movements, limiting them mostly to swings while making other moves harder. They require specialized training and a lot more stamina than a regular blade. The enlarged hilt is also an easy target for enemies. The weapon's real advantage comes from how little most know about it, and thus these weaknesses... but anyone who is familiar with the weapon can easily exploit them. Even then, it's not as dangerous as one might think with the two blades; since the blades are locked together, knowing the location of one blade automatically lets you know where the other is. "Do not be fooled into thinking the blades are separate, for they are not."
86	** The same book implies this about DualWielding lightsabers. Kas'im taught his students to avoid it for this reason, but later catches Bane off-guard for the same reason that he uses a double bladed lightsaber; Bane at this point has no experience fighting against a DualWielding opponent and Kas'im is able to gain the upper hand in their fight for a time until Bane buries him in rubble.
87	** Dual-phase lightsabers. By realigning the crystals with a twist of the hilt, a Jedi can switch from a standard length blade to one double in length to give more reach. However, making use of the extra long blade requires a specialised fighting style that differs from the standard forms. They're also pretty unstable if not built with proper care. Corran Horn builds himself one in ''I, Jedi'' that fails on him after switching to long blade mode. It's even noted that dual phase lightsabers were little more than a passing fad at one point.
88	** Light''[[WhipOfDominance whips]]'' like the one used by the Sith Lord Lumiya were even worse than the saberstaffs. Their only real advantage was that their exotic nature made them difficult to defend against, but they were even harder for their user to defend ''with'' as the flexible blade was useless for parrying and someone lacking experience with normal whips could easily maim themselves. Additionally the weapon was useless outside of combat as the blade was too weak to have the AbsurdCuttingPower of a normal lightsaber, and would even short out if struck hard enough in combat. Lumiya tried to get around some of these drawbacks by attaching solid tassels to hers, but in one of her [[ComicBook/StarWarsMarvel1977 earliest fights]] with Luke Skywalker he overcame this by simply DualWielding and ensnaring her weapon with one blade while having another open.
89	** Disruptors. Essentially a blaster rifle with much more power, a disruptor has massive power requirements; power packs are often drained after five shots and shots have to be spaced several seconds apart to prevent overheating. Han Solo took advantage of the latter problem to kill an opponent, killing them while the weapon recycled.
90	* ''Literature/TheSunEater'' has the colossi and Eriel-class dreadnoughts. The Eriel are the finest dreadnoughts with cutting edge firepower and abundant facilities to sustain a small army, they're also so expensive that only 17 were commissioned in an empire that spans many solar systems. The colossi are giant robots with devastating PlasmaCannon artillery, thick armour and powerful shields - problem is that they're extremely expensive, their armor isn't made of adamant so it's not NighInvulnerable and they have no protection against boarders. That said against the star-faring Cielcin empire, the Eriel-class dreadnought and colossi prove invaluable.
91	* Creator/ArthurCClarke's short story ''Literature/{{Superiority}}'' ([[http://www.mayofamily.com/RLM/txt_Clarke_Superiority.html Link.]]) is about Awesome, But Impractical means of warfare hilariously turning almost inevitable victory into utter chaos and failure.
92	* ''Literature/TheTravelersGate'': All the Dragon's Fangs are massive swords nearly seven feet long and capable of cutting through anything. They are so heavy you need SuperStrength to pick them up and even then they're so long they're very difficult to wield properly. Even if you don't care about accidentally cutting everyone around you, it's easy for a skilled opponent to get inside your reach.
93	* In the ''Literature/{{Uplift}}'' universe, the Tandu races get around by using Episiarchs, a race that has the ability to [[RealityWarper temporarily alter reality by force of will]]. They open short-lived portals that allow Tandu ships to travel instantly to different areas, making them faster than about anything else in the Five Galaxies. It sounds awesome, but the other starfaring races refuse to use this method of travel because it's unstable beyond belief, sometimes randomly destroying ships or even whole fleets. The first time we see Episiarchs in action, they get the Tandu to a battlefield hours before anyone else. The second time, they cause a Tandu warship to ''implode''. Krat notes that the Tandu are the only major race crazy enough to think that the reward outweighs the risk.
94	* ''Literature/VillainsDontDateHeroes'': CORVAC keeps bugging Night Terror for a giant robot, which she only built grudgingly. The whole idea was impractical from the start, got worse when CORVAC insisted on "improvements" like a single vulnerable eye stalk, and became completely obsolete once Fialux showed up. [[spoiler:Night Terror never actually told CORVAC that Fialux could easily handle the robot, which is why he still tries to use it when he goes rogue]].
95	* ''Literature/TheWheelOfTime'':
96	** ''[[InfinityPlusOneSword Callandor]]'' is an extremely powerful AmplifierArtifact, but it was built without the normal safeguards in place on artifacts of its type. [[spoiler: Both times [[DarkMessiah Rand]] uses it at full power, he ends up with temporary delusions of godhood and starts doing insane things. It's later revealed that ''Callandor'''s flaw is actually a deliberately designed trap, and proves crucial to Rand's plan for winning the Last Battle]].
97	** Earlier in the series, Rand tries to make creating a FlamingSword out of magic his SignatureMove. Just about every magic user he meets lambastes this as a waste of his powers.
98	* A lot of superpowers in ''Literature/WildCards'' count. They seem useful on the surface, but quickly prove to be next to useless except in specific situations. Some good examples include the Sleeper who gets a new power every time he sleeps (but can't control when he sleeps or what power he gets, often being saddled with useless ones), Sewer Jack who transforms into an alligator (but ''only'' an alligator, making it useless for most conventional problems), and Veronica who can induce crippling fear and weakness (but only in men, which leads to her getting the shit kicked out of her when she encounters a female supervillain).
99	* Moonwatcher, a protagonist in ''Literature/WingsOfFire'', has telepathy and limited precognition. Has she won the SuperpowerLottery? Not quite -- many dragons she meets can shield their minds, often without realizing they're even doing it. Also, her visions of the future are short, infrequent and mostly plot-driven.
100	** The [=NightWing=] species have black and dark blue scales, which allows them to hide well at night. During the daytime, this same colouring is easily spotted.
101	** The [=SandWing=] species have poisonous barbs on their tails... which are useful for fighting, but make it difficult for them to gather in large numbers (as everyone will be bumping and jostling and accidentally poisoning each other). When Sunny enters a [=SandWing=] town, she notices that most shops there sell the antidote.
102	** There's also Peril, who has a birth defect that makes it so that, instead of breathing fire, the fire is inside her body, making her scales super heated. It's made her the perfect fighter, since she's immune to heat and no dragon can touch her without horribly burning themselves. The problem is, she can't turn it off, so it's impossible for her to read scrolls or sleep on beds, since her touch would instantly incinerate them. She's also feared by the [=SkyWing=] society, to the point where [[spoiler: after Queen Ruby takes over the Sky kingdom, she banishes Peril from the kingdom for being a danger to her subjects.]]
103	* ''Literature/WorldWarZ''
104	** Most of the weapons the US Army uses at Yonkers. They use "Shock and Awe" weaponry against the zombies, which is ineffective against them, in addition to a combat system for infantry that allows you to hear and see everything your buddies are seeing. This does nothing for morale when it is stated that the aerial recon showed a horde of zombies millions strong marching out of New York when they were already having a lot of trouble against the front ranks. Also, a soldier is ambushed and torn apart outside a house, and his camera gets all of the action. This stuff, along with a plan that ignores much of the good terrain, written by armchair generals who had spent decades preparing for WorldWarIII with the Soviets, allows the army to be slaughtered. This happens all over the world, apparently -- South Korea had a similar incident at Inchon.
105	** MHTELS (Mobile Tactical High Energy Laser) and Zeus, anti-missile and anti-mine technology, respectively. Terribly inefficient for anti-zombie work, as they take forever to kill organic targets, but make for great propaganda footage, because they make ''heads boil apart.''
106	** Also, the guy early in the outbreak who fights the zombies by strapping on some rollerblades and attempts to mow down zombies with a meat cleaver attached to a hockey stick. [[spoiler: He doesn't make it home, as he gets tripped by a zombie, is dragged into a sewer by his ponytail, and then gets mocked by Creator/ParisHilton after a news camera catches it.]]
107	** The tactic used by the US Armed Forces in the American reclamation is ''almost'' this: two lines of infantry, stretching the entire continent, moving in synchronicity. The line wasn't in step, for obvious reasons -- differing terrain and weather, places that required a grouped offensive, et cetera. Todd Wanio discusses having to wait weeks at a time before bad weather stopped hampering them and mop-up operations in places that the line missed.
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Context AwesomeButImpractical / LITERATURE