A lot of these examples are actually "blessed with suck". Remember, Cursed with Awesome is more good than bad, Blessed with Suck is more bad than good.
Cut for being X Just X with no explanation:
- Barajou No Kiss. Just...Barajou no Kiss. "Is this the punishment you were talking about, Dad?"
The main character's Dad told her to never take of her choker or a terrible punishment would befall her. But the the terrible punishment seems to consist of taking command of 4 bishonen knights.
- RWBY: The twins, Qrow and Raven, have the ability to shapeshift into their namesake birds. They don't tell many people they have this ability, and it helps them travel the world very swiftly and gather intel discretely. After a conversation where she tells Yang and Weiss that Ozpin cannot be trusted, Raven reveals the ability and insinuates that it's a terrible thing she is angry and bitter about. However, of all the questionable things Ozpin has done, this isn't one of them, as the shapeshifting is entirely at-will, and doesn't seem to have any particular drawback.
The ability to turn into a bird isn't portrayed as a curse. Instead, Raven implies the ability was given to her and Qrow against their will to force them into Ozpin's secret war. Qrow later reveals that they agreed to this, after which no one has any problems with it.
Previous Trope Repair Shop thread: Unclear Description, started by Catbert on Apr 16th 2014 at 2:27:52 PM
"For a successful technology, reality must take precedence over public relations, for Nature cannot be fooled." - Richard Feynman Hide / Show RepliesPrevious Trope Repair Shop thread: Unclear Description, started by ObsidianFire on Feb 16th 2016 at 6:42:42 AM
"For a successful technology, reality must take precedence over public relations, for Nature cannot be fooled." - Richard Feynman- Aang from Avatar: The Last Airbender is initially upset at finding out he's the Avatar (and to be fair, the circumstances of the world shortly after he runs away do make the responsibility a pain). Still, you'd think that a 12 year old kid finding out that he could bend not just one, but ALL of the elements would be a little more excited. And as Avatar Roku mentions, being the Avatar doesn't hurt with the ladies.
- The Legend of Korra: Korra, on the other hand, practically reveled in being the Avatar from the moment she knew she was, having already taught herself three of the four elements by age 5. The weight of her responsibilities did eventually catch up to her, however, when she proved capable of living up to them when the time came.
For Aang, it really was a curse. Yes, he was potentially the most powerful Bender there was, but it also came with being ostracized by his friends, being yanked from the only home he'd known, then having the rest of the world look to him as The Only One who can stop Fire Lord Ozai. And all of that was on top of the pressure of being the world's only living master Airbender, for most of his life.
And the trope never fit Korra at all. She reveled in being Avatar and handled the pressures of the position with far less angst than Aang did.
My name is Freezer and my anti-drug is porn.Recently, Awesome Yet Practical was cut by TRS(Link: {{https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/posts.php?discussion=1396895998061226400&page=1}} ) As the reasoning included "awesome" be subjective, i am nominating Cursed with Awesome and Awesome, but Impractical to YMMV banner in the 'Pages that need the YMMV banner' thread.
Hide / Show RepliesCommented in the forum thread.
You should link it in the future.
"For a successful technology, reality must take precedence over public relations, for Nature cannot be fooled." - Richard FeynmanI have question:
Does Cursed with Awesome count if the character complains about suffering Power Incontinence, but as soon as the character learns to control it on demand, there are no real drawbacks anymore?
Ranma 1/2 "Don't even ask how the eel and the octopus managed to drown..."
Explained later in the arc with the Phoenix King Saffron and his bird people. "Drowning" apparently means 'get dunked into', as when Kiima digs a new hole down to the water level, then dunks Akane in it. Akane survives, but Kiima is able to use the pool to take Akane's form and infiltrate Ranma's group.
The definition of the trope seems to be the overall results are good and there's a golden chance of a happy ending. (Or as much as possible in the relevant world.)
This Cracked article 7 Awesome Super Powers Ruined by Science discusses Blessed with Suck vs Cursed with Awesome with a good dose of Required Secondary Powers.
"Star Trek tends to go in for this trope a lot. Odo in Deep Space 9 and Seven of Nine in Voyager are other examples of characters with cool abilities and immunities who go through lots of angst over the fact that they aren't the same as everyone else."
Seven at least has a good psychological reason; unlike Odo and Data, who were born/made what they are, Seven was changed from a little girl to a cyborg. Wanting to go back can be seen as a way of going back to that time in her life where things weren't so scary and her parents were around. (Not that it would work, and she logically understands this, but emotions are strange and funny things.)
Edited by Candi Coming back to where you started is not the same as never leaving. -Terry PratchettA lot of the examples listed here involve characters in genuinely crappy situations which happen to have some cool side effects. For example, I just removed this one:
- In Final Fantasy XIII, the main cast constantly bemoans being super-strong magic-wielding meta-humans.
The characters do have enhanced strength and the ability to use magic, but it's because they've been unwillingly drafted by an inhuman being to destroy the world they live in, which puts them at the top of their own community's list of public enemies; if they fail to carry out their focus, they'll turn into corrupted shambling monsters, and if they succeed they'll turn into crystal paperweights.
The trope seems to be written as "the supposed curse's benefits outweigh its drawbacks," but most of the examples are written as "character doesn't appreciate the beneficial side effects of a curse that's nevertheless still making their life hell."
"In the classic Disney film Beauty and the Beast the Beast is constantly whimpering about how ugly he is."
Is he?
Should this be divided into sub-pages? After all, Blessed with Suck was
I think we should remove the picture, that picture was when She-Hulk was a mindless monster like hulk.
A possible page image quality upgrade is now under discussion on Image Pickin'.
Please comment there if you have a view on this.
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