Line #23 PlayingWith/TheWorfBarrage


1	'''Basic Trope''': A weapon or attack that is said to be incredibly powerful, but never seriously damages anything stronger than a {{Mook}}.
2	* '''Straight''': The [[CoolStarship Tropestar 5000]] fires its [[WaveMotionGun main gun]] at [[TheBrute General Torg]]'s ship, but only [[ScratchDamage deals minimal damage to it]], [[NoSell if that]].
3	* '''Exaggerated''': The Tropestar 5000's main gun has never scored a kill, not even against Mooks.
4	* '''Downplayed''': The Tropestar 5000 fires its main gun at General Torg's ship, resulting in a large explosion and cries of NoOneCouldSurviveThat. Torg survives but is injured, and a number of his {{Red Shirt}}s are killed.
5	* '''Justified''':
6	** The Evil Empire can only afford so many AceCustom ships with powerful force fields, so it gives them only to its generals and top officials.
7	** [[TheMole Someone]] leaked the gun's plans to General Torg, allowing him to modify his DeflectorShields to stop the attack.
8	** The gun works by [[DeathOfAThousandCuts firing five million rounds per minute]], but Torg's ship's plating is strong enough to NoSell the individual rounds.
9	* '''Inverted''': The Tropestar's guns never work against small mass-produced fighters, but always OneHitKill any ship with a named character on it.
10	* '''Subverted''': At first it would seem that Torg's ship manages to NoSell the Tropestar's attack, but [[YouAreAlreadyDead a minute later]], the ship falls apart.
11	* '''Double Subverted''':
12	** But Torg's ship [[HealingFactor reforms from the debris]].
13	** Or, the destruction of Torg's ship wasn't actually caused by Tropestar's attack, but because an [[TheMole enemy spy]] had activated a self-destruct mechanism.
14	* '''Parodied''':
15	** The Tropestar's main gun fails to kill a normal, unarmoured person. At point-blank range.
16	** The only purpose of the WaveMotionGun is to throw up completely harmless clouds of dust. Everyone is still surprised whenever this happens.
17	* '''Zig Zagged''':
18	** The Tropestar's gun completely destroys Torg's ship, sending it crashing down in a spectacular explosion. However, Torg and his crew survive the destruction unharmed...
19	** No effect at first, and Torg gloats. Later in the fight his ship suddenly explodes due to delayed effect. However Torg himself survives unharmed...
20	** The ship is completely fine from the blast, but the gun ''somehow'' [[LudicrousGibs brutually decimated Torg and his entire legion inside.]]
21	* '''Averted''': The Tropestar's guns are fairly effective against a wide range of targets.
22	* '''Enforced''': "There's no drama in destroying the enemy in a single shot. Make his shields stronger or something to prove how powerful the Evil Empire is!"
23	* '''Lampshaded''': "Let me guess... we didn't even scratch the paint?"
24	* '''Invoked''': The Tropestar has a big gun that only produces a harmless but showy explosion to serve as a nonlethal deterrent.
25	* '''Exploited''':
26	** Rather than trying to ZergRush the Tropestar, the Evil Empire sends only a few well-armoured ships against them, secure in the knowledge that the heroes' weapons are completely ineffective against them.
27	** An ActualPacifist with some form of augmented toughness deliberately tanks a hit from a heavy weapon and replies to the hit by asking "So you're gonna keep ShootingSuperman, or are you gonna surrender or run away?" in order to demoralize their foe. The enemies wisely make a run for it or surrender.
28	* '''Defied''': The crew of the Tropestar are constantly buying, discovering or upgrading their weapons to prevent this sort of thing from happening.
29	* '''Discussed''': "Why would they keep using the main gun again and again if they know it's not going to work? Why not try something different, like [[MoreDakka a lot of weaker attacks]]?"
30	* '''Conversed''': "I'll just go get some popcorn while they fire that stupid crappy gun. It's not like it ever does anything plot-relevant, they just stand around congratulating themselves and then the baddy pops right up again acting smug."
31	* '''Deconstructed''': The fact that the enemy ship is completely unaffected by their best shot [[CurbStompBattle shows how outmatched the heros are]], [[ShaggyDogStory and that all their efforts were for naught.]]
32	* '''Reconstructed''': General Torg's ship [[StoneWall is insanely tough, but also has minimal firepower as a direct result of this.]] As such, it's a race to find something that CAN put the ship down, as the heroes had previously been over-reliant on their superweapon.
33	----
34	Back to TheWorfBarrage
35	----
36	%% Optional items, added after Conversed, at your discretion:
37	%%
38	%%* '''Implied''': ???
39	%%* '''Played For Laughs''': ???

Context PlayingWith / TheWorfBarrage