Artifact Of Doom Discussion - Television Tropes & Idioms

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Artifact Of Doom Discussion

Jordan: Maybe I'm dense, but I don't get the description of these objects as inanimate- aren't they usually living/demon possessed? For this reason, I wonder if a separate category is needed for things not alive but which create an unhealthy fixation- like the Gonne or Doctor Octopus' tentacles in Spiderman 2 (I presume that was in his head and they weren't actually alive)

Shire Nomad: Something can have intelligence or life and still be inanimate: inanimate just means it can't take action by itself. The irony of an Artifact Of Doom is that it would be completely harmless if someone weren't dumb enough to use it.

slowroasted: Arguing the examples more than the reasoning here, but it's strongly implied that the Gonne is at least quasi-magical in origin, and the good Doctors tentacles in S2 have an Evil AI which was supposed to be kept in check by a circuit breaker of some kind, this is shown breaking shortly after the tentacles are installed in the massive electrocution.

Shadar Logoth doesn't belong, it's not an artifact, it's a location, and I think we have a trope for that.

From current revision: "The Dragaera books deal with this in an interesting way, in that Morganti weapons seem to be dark and evil, but against the norm, make the user feel unsettled rather than good and in fact don't have any kind of mental control or sentience.". This sounds interestingly similar to how people react to the hypometric weapons in Absolution Gap. —Document N

Bobfrank: Removed the following:

In Star Trek Deep Space Nine there was the Sword of Khaless, which turned Worf and Kor against each other once they'd found it. This is an unusual example, both for the purposes of this trope in general and Star Trek in particular in that no explanation was ever given for the warping effect it seemed to have on Klingons - perhaps it was simply because of their hat being Proud Warrior Race Guy, and this artefact being the ultimate representation of it, thus making them behave even more proud and warlike.

It's not a cursed artifact, and the reason Worf and Kor were fighting over it was explained quite well in the episode: It had a good deal of historical significance, and the two of them had different ideas as to how the political power that would accrue to the wielder of such a legendary item ought to be used. (Just imagine how the various factions within the modern nation of Israel would react if the Ark of the Covenant were to be found!)

Cidolfas: I fail to see how the Black Materia from FF7 qualifies. The materia itself doesn't alter anyone's behavior; it's just a Mac Guffin that leads to world destruction. Cloud's behavior was altered due to Sephiroth's influence, not that of the materia.

Cheat-master30: Where would you put Artifacts of Doom that are the villains and are capable of taking action? You know, like this kind of thing, except the artifact is the bad guy itself. Like Majora's Mask (which is listed, but from Majora's Wrath and the like, it's obviously some kind of demon thing) and the Black Jewel from Wario World (which was an actual boss on it's own, complete with laser attacks)? They aren't exactly inanimate, but close to the Artifact of Doom archetype.

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