Discussion Main / MagikarpPower

What would be the inverse? Specifically a character/weapon that starts very powerful and useful but is later outclassed because it has little or no growth potential.

So Last Season Is the best fit I'm aware of, but it applies more to television series.

Dark Souls is not a Western RPG, and while World of Warcraft technically is, it's best suited to the MMO category...

I fixed Dark Souls's placement if that's ok. Left World Of Warcraft as is because it exists in both categories and I'm not sure how to approach it, maybe a more experienced troper can best approach it.

I was wondering if a real life case could be made about humans.

Humans lack the strength and toughness of the elephant, the strength in numbers of rats, the agility of cats... All in all, the only thing special about humans was that they ere designing and making tools. And that was pretty weak. Once.

And look at where this has gotten us! Guns, tanks, the A-bomb, modern medicine, electricity... We rule the world so much that the only thing that would permanently knock us down as a species would be misuse of our tools (which sadly could still happen, see Mutually Assured Destruction, or managing to render our planet uninhabitable...), or another species with tools attacking us. No matter what happens, as long as we keep the knowledge we acquired, potentially everything, even up to a pandemic wiping out 90% of humankind, would only be a temporary setback.

How about the handgun you start the game with in Resident Evil 4? It's easily the weakest firearm in the game... until you max it out at which point it gains a 90% chance for a critical headshot perk which, so long as you hit enemies in the head, virtually turns it into a one-hit-kill weapon.

I am looking for a trope to describe certain situation but can't seem to find it. Does anybody know if there is (and what's it's name) a trope about geniuine weakness that becomes useful thanks to another weakness?

Okay, what smarmy SOB moved Fire Emblem to Eastern RPG?

NO mention of how Magikarp was used in the Anime.

All of the Pokemon examples are sub-listed under Magikarp as the Trope namer. Which would make sense if it were listed with everything else, but it has its own folder.

Wouldn't it make more sense to have the entry for Magikarp first, then to list each generation with the examples sub-listed under them, or even each pokemon/move listed individually?

Would the Slith cards from Magic The Gathering—particularly, the Slith Predator—count? Sliths start off with 1/1, and gain +1/1 for every time they damage a player. The Slith Predator has Trample, too.

Can Magikarp Power apply to non-combative skills as well? For example: the Chaste Hero becomes a Casanova, or The Scrappy becomes one of the most popular characters in their franchise in the most epic way possible.

Removed

• Dragon Quest Monsters has this fun thing: Take two Metal Slimes to get a Metal Babble. Take two Metal Babbles to get a Metal King. Take two Metal Kings to get a Gold Slime. And take two Gold Slimes to get a Gran Slime. To get a Metal King, you can also breed a King Slime or Spot King with a Metal Drak; this involves breeding Slimes to level + 5 or Spot Slimes to level + 5. These can also be caught in the wild, but it's a lot harder. Also, if you really work at it, you can give a Slime MegaMagic, but it's really difficult and requires breeding the Slime as the base with everything but other Slimes, as long as it's the Slime family. Confusing, no?

It didn't really seem to fit the trope. Yes, getting Gold and Gran Slimes is a hell of a lot of work, but the other slimes are by no means useless; even the basic Metal Slime is damned near magic immune to begin with.

Replaced with

• Slimes from Dragon Quest Monsters fit the trope pretty handily. They're the classic DQ monster, you see a billion of them in every game, and they're pretty mediocre... but if you level them up high enough, they learn the Mega Magic spell. What does Mega Magic do, you ask? Why, it's one of the most powerful moves in the game, dumping every last one of your remaining magic points into a super-powerful magical explosion that absolutely nothing in the entire game, including those damned Metal Slimes and their upgraded versions, is immune to.

So, this example:

(Literature folder)

• Protagonist Tobas of Telven in Lawrence Watt-Evans' With A Single Spell starts the story only knowing a simple magical spell to create fire. Despite having acquired a great many more powerful spells through the remainder of the story, this starting spell proves to be his most useful tool in killing a rampaging dragon.

I admit to not having read the book(s) in question, but unless the spell to create fire increases in power by a large amount, this isn't an example of Magikarp Power. [[/folder]]