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Playing With: Super Empowering

Basic Trope: The ability to give someone else an ability.

Straight: In Heroes of Troperia, The Sage Al-Mu'alim can give someone super power, which he did to Bob, making him a standard-issue Flying Brick.
Exaggerated: Every single heroes ever in Heroes of Troperia was empowered by the immortal Al-Mu'alim. Which gives way to a lot of Fridge Logic.
Downplayed: Al-Mu'alim teach Bob the theory behind a Flying Brick superhero, which Bob then practice with great success.
Justified: Al-Mu'alim is a deity, a celestial, or someone of great power who is barred from acting (too) directly in the world, so he set us up some superheroes.
Inverted: Al-Mu'alim drains power from superheroes.
- Bob bludgeons Al-Mu'alim and then absconds with the poor old man's powers.
Subverted: Bob really can awaken by himself, Al-Mu'alim is just taking advantage of Bob's ignorance.
Double Subverted: When Bob confronts Al-Mu'alim about this, the incensed sage takes Bob's power away. "You would rather listen to someone shady you just met, than me who gave you power for free?!"
Parodied: Al-Mu'alim gives Bob a really lame set of power, and then he set Bob upon a hellish quest, just to shake off some boredom in his immortal life. Which is really not all that different from when it's not a parody.
Zig Zagged: Mu'alim gave Bob powers to carry out his quest, then Bob discovers he already had powers, only for Mu'alim to reveal that he gave Bob a hidden power to save him in the final battle... and it's Heart. Great, just great.
Averted: All heroes learn, awaken, or (in case of Anti-Hero) steal their power, on their own.
Enforced: Making the concept of super powers more humane: it's given by someone who, despite great power and moral superiority, is more or less an approachable person; he or she who expects the heroes to use the power responsibly.
- Teaching people about how you should not trust a cute being who offer you power, he or she might have an unpleasant fate in store for you.
Lampshaded:
Alice: "Hey Mr. Mu'alim, can you give me super powers too? Please? Pretty please?"
Invoked: "I'll go to the mountain and find an old hermit, maybe he can give me super powers!"
Exploited: Al-Mu'alim raises himself an army of supers, and then conquers the world by manipulating them into doing things that further his plans.
Defied: "I can do this myself, old man." And then Bob becomes a Badass Normal.
- Up To Eleven: ...who punches Emperor Evulz —himself a hero of Mu'alim gone bad— to death.
- Beyond The Impossible: ...who punches Sol of Invincible Heroism —the one who gives Mu'alim his power— to death.
Discussed: "If this were a fantasy anime, we would have run into an old man with cryptic prophecy and an offer of power. Unfortunately we're not some kind of exalted knights going after a mythical dragon, we're patrolling this highway from bandits."
Conversed: Two Otaku talking about how Magical Girl mascots can give super powers for girls, but only because they need them to fight alien monsters. Then they imagine how Magical Girl anime that viciously carry the idea to its conclusion will make millions of yen.