Needs Help: Frightening Power Usage

The trope Frightening Power Usage was launched on 9th December 2019. The definition and the laconic defined it as "good" or normal superpowers Played for Horror. However, the description for this trope is very poor, resulting in misuse as any instances of superpowers being scary such as the examples in the trope itself. This is aggravated by the fact the trope is not thriving at all and had paltry number of wicks for it.

Here is the totals I received based on the wick check for this trope.

• 2/9, or 22%, are the correct usage that is "normal or good superpowers played for horror".
• 4/9, or 44%, are superpowers being scary or general Nightmare Fuel related to superpowers.
• 1/9, or 11%, are Discussed examples, that is, Fridge Horror or covered under Could Have Been Messy.
• 2/9, or 22%, are just Zero-Context Example.

As this trope suffers from poor description and is not thriving, the suggested potential course of action is to either cut the page wholesale or discuss whether it should be split into multiple tropes.

Opening.

As a reminder, please link or copy+paste your wick check in the OP. Wick check is at Frightening Power Usage Sandbox

I am good with cutting and yarding any concepts we don't have already.

Edited by MacronNotes on Mar 3rd 2022 at 7:36:53 AM

We need to discuss on the trope first before this can be yarded and cut.

...We know. Macron's just making a suggestion.

I'd send "Good powers, bad uses" back to TLP/yard for additional work or disambiguate between Lethal Harmless Powers, Bad Powers, Good People and Fridge Horror otherwise.

I'm somewhat confused on what the difference is between playing the superpowers for horror vs showing them as being scary

What's the difference between that and Good Powers, Bad People?

In fact, what's the difference between this and Good Powers, Bad People aside from the fact that the it's the usage that's bad and not necessarily the user?

I'm leaning toward disambiguating due to a lack of valid examples.

Edited by GastonRabbit on Mar 4th 2022 at 4:21:50 AM

Not inherently involving bad people, another way for newbie hero to learn With Great Power Comes Great Responsibility is realizing that they could hurt a lot of people if they wanted to.

Yard is a free action anyway, so that doesn't prevent disambiguating.

About the definition of Frightening Power Usage:

When I first drafted the trope, I originally defined as "superpowers used in cruel ways or horrific effects of superpowers". I used the horror film Brightburn as a definite example for the trope's definition.

Unfortunately, I was still an amateur in drafting TLP proposals at the time. So this left a poorly-written draft as a result which was silently launched. Upon realizing this was placed on the Tropes Needing TRS and how it was not thriving, I went to do a Wick check for this and drafted this TRS thread.

Because of the conflicting interpretations for the trope discussed in this thread, I suggest splitting the trope into proposed tropes:

• Power Cruelty Potential: Special abilities turned to abusive and barbaric purposes.
• Untitled Trope: Superpowers inflicting gruesome and horrific effects by the means of Surprisingly Realistic Outcome.

While there are only 19 wicks so the 9 wicks checked makes sense, there are far more on page examples you can look at and I'd recommend you do so, since the only reason they aren't included in the wick check is due to a lack of crosswicking.

I don't think either of those tropes should be created since they both come off as versions of With Great Power Comes Great Responsibility or Good Powers, Bad People as Amonimus and GastonRabbit have already pointed out.

I'm in favor of disambig and yard

Edited by amathieu13 on Mar 4th 2022 at 8:12:36 AM

Disambig and yard.

Disambiguating and Yarding sounds fine. Alternatively, if someone in this thread offers to start a TLP draft, we could send it to TLP right away, similarly to what we did for Music Player Game recently.

This kind of reads like "superpowers but R-rated", or "superpowers but the effects obey physics". Was that the idea?

It's more supposed to come off as "horrific effects of superpowers" and "superpowers used for abusive and barbaric applications". That is the original intention of the trope, inspired by the horror film Brightburn.

Disambiguated the page, cleaned all of the wicks, and tagged the discussion page. Locking up.