Line #66 PlayingWith/ReedRichardsIsUseless


1	'''Basic Trope''': A super-powered or super-intelligent character who could easily solve real problems in the world where they live if they tried, but fail to do so.
2	* '''Straight''': Amazing Girl, a brilliant superhero, could theoretically cure cancer for those living in the universe she inhabits, but does not do so.
3	* '''Exaggerated''': Amazing Girl could cure all disease, ensure world peace, reverse climate change, defeat all evil, and create a utopia in her universe -- and, in fact, everyone around her begs her to do so. She refuses to, instead using her powers for more trivial purposes.
4	* '''Downplayed''':
5	** Amazing Girl could cure the common cold, but she only gets around to creating a pill that'll relieve coughing.
6	** Her powers can help with some problems, but [[SurprisinglyRealisticOutcome some new issues crop up as consequence.]]
7	* '''Justified''':
8	** Amazing Girl is from the future, and her bosses cannot let her technology become public, because of the great risk of it generating catastrophic changes in their timeline.
9	** TheWorldIsNotReady for the advances that Amazing Girl could theoretically bring to the world.
10	** Although seemingly harmless and beneficial on the surfaces, the advances that Amazing Girl could bring to the world require massive sacrifice on an unthinkable scale or would ultimately produce worse problems and suffering further down the line, results that Amazing Girl refuses to risk.
11	** Amazing Girl does not want the people of the world to become too dependent or reliant on her; she ''could'' solve every problem, but people would out of laziness start demanding that she solve every trivial difficulty that they themselves could easily resolve, which would distract her from the more difficult problems she faces.
12	** Amazing Girl fears that interfering in society to such an extent would put her on a slippery slope that would lead to her putting herself above everyone as a totalitarian dictator.
13	** Although Amazing Girl's powers and abilities are ''seemingly'' limitless, there are nevertheless certain limits which she has not managed to transcend.
14	** Amazing Girl must negotiate complex matters of international politics and diplomacy when dealing with some of these problems; world governments and authorities would react with unease and suspicion if Amazing Girl tried to interfere too closely in their affairs.
15	** There are simply [[TheWorldIsAlwaysDoomed too many hostile forces clogging up cities and wilderness alike at any given moment]] to pursue scientific advancement.
16	** Or, actively, Amazing Girl simply gives the existing scientists a push so they can come up with solutions while she fights crime.
17	** Amazing Girl's creations are tied to her life force, or are otherwise restricted in such a way that only she can make them, and they will stop working when she dies.
18	** If Amazing Girl's power is SuperIntelligence, no one can understand any of her attempts to explain her discoveries, or figure out how to work the technology she invents (it would be like trying to teach a chimpanzee how to perform brain surgery).
19	** It could be even as simple as it merely being not feasible mass produce her inventions, and solving ''that'' is beyond Amazing Girl's abilities--she may, however, be leaving careful notes for when technology catches up enough.
20	** Amazing Girl notes that some problems are too complex to cure, e.g., cancer or the common cold, due to the nature of cancer or the fact that there is not just ''one'' virus that causes the Common Cold, and they all mutate over time.
21	** Amazing Girl is so afraid that some evil entity (a supervillain, rogue nation, etc.) will reverse-engineer her creations and either weaponize them or develop effective countermeasures that she doesn't even try. See also Played for Drama (below).
22	** Amazing Girl is fully aware of her inventions' potential and wants to mass-produce them. But bringing any new product to market is a slow and often expensive process.
23	** Amazing Girl lacks the resources to mass-produce her inventions.
24	** Or the marketing skills/know-how.
25	** Amazing Girl just [[BrilliantButLazy couldn't be bothered.]]
26	** Amazing Girl holds a very low opinion of civilization and [[CrapsackWorld the world they live in]], and decides [[ItIsBeyondSaving they don't deserve the results of her work.]]
27	** Amazing Girl has a mental disorder or disability that inhibits her mental ability/motivation to do so, in spite of her physical abilities.
28	** Amazing Girl's inventions simply aren't useful on the mundane level; the average household has little use for a timeship or a spaceship.
29	** Amazing Girl knows that providing her inventions would stunt mankind's true potential. If she were to provide them now technology would stagnate and that would lead to their extinction. Not interfering will cause much suffering for centuries but will make things far better on the millennium scale.
30	** Amazing Girl is simply that selfish.
31	** Amazing Girl's abilities and creations depend upon a replenishing resource. Too many attempting to use it would deplete it and leave everyone without it for a while. Worse, running low has additional dire consequences.
32	** Amazing Girl knows that her inventions are so revolutionary that they would completely destroy the global economy, which risks a Second [[TheGreatDepression Great Depression]] turned up to eleven.
33	** Amazing Girl needs AppliedPhlebotinum to make her inventions but [[ForgottenPhlebotinum doesn't remember the material or technique]].
34	** Amazing Girl places a heavy premium on custom-tailoring every device to fit its user's needs perfectly. As a result, a number of her devices function in oddly specific manners that are not quite user-friendly to the mass market.
35	** Amazing Girl is [[AvertedTrope NOT]] an OmnidisciplinaryScientist, so she's uncertain and/or unable how to apply them in different situations.
36	* '''Inverted''':
37	** Amazing Girl actively devotes herself to solving everyday problems, with the intention of transforming her world into a {{utopia}}.
38	** Amazing Girl slowly causes her inventions to bring about more social progress.
39	** Amazing Girl focuses on the everyday problems until events force her to [[ImprovisedWeapon repurpose her tools]]. This leads her to getting involved in the traditional way.
40	** Amazing Girl attempts to solve such problems despite her own intelligence and abilities being inadequate.
41	** Awful Girl deliberately provides technology with the goal of worsening real-life problems as a side effect.
42	** Amazing Girl starts by solving serious problems and [[DudeWhereIsMyRespect not only doesn't get respect]] but winds up an outright HeroWithBadPublicity as every special interests group who lost business blames her for misapplication of broad inventions no matter how innocous.
43	* '''Subverted''':
44	** Amazing Girl initially refuses to meddle in 'everyday' concerns, but after much soul-searching changes her mind.
45	** The true reason why Amazing Girl hasn't done anything is because she is a fraud.
46	** Amazing Girl’s creations are revealed to only exist in her imagination and aren’t real.
47	* '''Double Subverted''': Amazing Girl's efforts result in more harm than good, and she swears off such meddling in the future.
48	* '''Parodied''':
49	** People begin demanding that Amazing Girl do ridiculously trivial things for them, such as mowing their lawn or giving them a backrub, and berate her when she refuses.
50	** Every time Amazing Girl thinks about using her inventions to cure society's ills, a future version of herself appears warning of the BadFuture that will result from her actions. Amazing Girl always agrees not to do so, her future version always vanishes, and Amazing Girl always has trouble building a time machine.
51	* '''Zig-Zagged''':
52	** Amazing Girl is selective in what she supplies owing to her [[BlueAndOrangeMorality odd ethos]]. She refuses to provide conventional weaponry to others even in dire circumstances due to a belief that it is morally wrong to wield weapons not developed by oneself. She is however completely fine with biological weapons, oddly enough considering them pacifism. She does freely share her powerful clean and safe energy technology. While she gives cures to bacteria and viruses and cybernetic technology she considers fighting cancer in others a morally wrong interference in the collective of cells.
53	** The story occasionally branches off into [[MultipleEndings good ends]] where circumstances are right [[AlternateUniverseReedRichardsIsAwesome to make major positive changes in mundane circumstances]] then goes on to show how it goes in the continuing timeline to [[StatusQuoIsGod ensure that it resembles our world]]. Alternatively a few bad endings also show up where things [[GoneHorriblyWrong go out]][[GoneHorriblyRight of control]].
54	* '''Averted''':
55	** Amazing Girl is merely a BadassNormal or otherwise limited superhero; while she does have abilities that place her above most other people, she's by no means in a position where she's able to use her gifts to effect massive societal change on the scale this trope demands.
56	** Alternately, she actively uses her abilities to bring about world peace, cure cancer, reverse climate change, etc.
57	* '''Enforced''':
58	** The creators do not want to offend people in the real world either suffering from these problems or actively attempting to solve them by suggesting that their suffering and efforts are trivial, and that only a fictional superhero can really solve these problems.
59	** The creators do not want the world they are creating to differ that drastically from the real world in order to allow their readers to engage and identify with it, and mass societal change on a scale this trope suggests would make the world too different.
60	** The creators feel that having Amazing Girl solve ''every'' problem would [[RuleOfDrama rob their story of drama]].
61	** The creators despise superheroes as a concept, and want to "prove" that they're completely useless so as to puff up TheRealHeroes.
62	* '''Lampshaded''': "For all the fighting you do, Amazing Girl, [[HannibalLecture what good are you, really]]? When you can't stop the ''real'' suffering that these people you claim to love so much are going through?"
63	* '''Invoked''': The beings who granted Amazing Girl her powers established certain limits precisely so that she would not get too DrunkWithPower and try solving problems she was not ready/able to solve.
64	* '''Exploited''': Amazing Girl's ArchEnemy [[CorruptCorporateExecutive Elliot McWealthybucks]] [[HeroWithBadPublicity turns the public against her]] by pointing out all the problems she could have solved.
65	* '''Defied''':
66	** Amazing Girl actively attempts to solve everyday problems and make her world a better place.
67	** Amazing Girl makes inventions for the other heroes on her team.
68	* '''Discussed''': "Yeah, if Amazing Girl's so great, how come I don't see her dealing with the everyday crap you and me face on a regular basis?"
69	* '''Conversed''': "Why don't the superheroes in these books ever try to make a real difference?"
70	* '''Deconstructed''':
71	** Amazing Girl's refusal to help solve everyday problems is merely indicative that she doesn't really care, and is no real hero; she focuses on the 'beat-something-up' problems because she's ultimately too cowardly and selfish to truly share her gifts where they'll do most good.
72	** Alternatively, Amazing Girl decided, after one too many comments that she is useless, to indeed help with everyday problems, and things escalated until she was taking over the world.
73	** Amazing Girl is tormented by guilt by her refusal or inability to use her gifts in such a fashion, and begins to question whether she is really any use at all.
74	** She acquires a nemesis who was a law-abiding citizen until he went mad as a result of barely surviving a plague she could easily have prevented if she hadn't been so focused on fighting crime. He's still sane enough to rub her nose in his origin story, and the number of infected who ''didn't'' survive.
75	** Amazing Girl is shown what lies beyond the FourthWall by the AuthorAvatar of [[Creator/GrantMorrison Matt Garrison]], her current writer. While observing our world, she reads a story by of one of Garrison's contemporaries, [[Creator/GarthEnnis Greg McGuinness]], where he castigates superheroes who could, in-universe, solve "[[CreatorProvincialism real]] world" problems but don't. Then she reads an interview where [=McGuinness=] [[{{Hypocrite}} denounces the idea of superheroes solving "real world" problems as trivializing and cheapening them]]. Realizing she's faced with a catch-22, Amazing Girl becomes deeply depressed.
76	* '''Reconstructed''':
77	** It's not that Amazing Girl doesn't care, what she's ''really'' afraid of [[AwesomeButImpractical is that her gifts make everyday problems too easy to solve]], [[WeHaveBecomeComplacent and that things won't just get boring for her, but everyone else as well.]] [[WasItReallyWorthIt So she doubts if that would actually make her a real hero.]]
78	** One of Amazing Girl's friends reminds her that she still makes a difference; whilst there are millions of doctors researching cures into cancer, only she can deal with the superpowered madmen, {{Evil Overlord}}s, and alien conquerors who threaten her world regularly, and that 'no one can solve ''all'' the world's problems single-handedly'.
79	** Amazing Girl ended up taking over the world because she was, and still is [[TheExtremistWasRight legitimately improving it for the better.]]
80	** Amazing Girl is a BadassNormal who shares her inventions... but avoids becoming redundant because A.) most of the inventions she shares are unique and are tailored to other superheroes' existing powers and B.) for the inventions that ''are'' copies of her own loadout, [[WeakButSkilled she is still the most skilled user of those devices]].
81	* '''Played for Laughs''': Amazing Girl isn't [[GeniusDitz all there]] [[DitzyGenius despite her talents]]. While her heroic inventions work perfectly fine, all of her attempts at converting her technology to civilian use end predictably in hilarious disaster. Other scientists interviewing her are stymied by her [[CloudCuckooLander unique mind]]. Analyzing her inventions proves difficult due to being based on collections of kludges and hacks.
82	* '''Played for Drama''': A member of Amazing Girl's RoguesGallery deliberately makes a point of weaponizing whatever she comes up with and using it to stigmatize the technology with the intent of forcing sweeping bans on things that could fix the world's problems.
83	* '''Implied''': When somebody asks why nobody has invented a device to perform Task X that would make life easier, Amazing Girl looks away guiltily.
84	* '''Plotted a Good Waste''': Amazing Girl [[BatmanGambit was counting on her enemies getting their hands on one of her creations]] to show why TheWorldIsNotReady to further explore their possibilities.
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