Markup View

Author: tlayton

Sep 25th 2012 at 8:54:55 PM

Expanding on the ''{{Dune}}'' example, one common way for a work to justify the prevalence of [[GunsVsSwords swords over guns]] using {{Technobabble}} (or {{Magibabble}}) is to establish some technology which shifts the mechanics of combat in favor of melee weapons somehow.

A related case (although arguably not an example of this trope) would be the use of the MinovskyParticle in ''{{Gundam}}'' to explain the use of HumongousMecha in space, despite that environment normally favoring extreme-long-range weaponry.

However, I notice that the current description seems to require that the new tech specifically act to augment the old tech (hence 'upgrade'), whereas, in examples such as the ''Dune'' one, the old tech stops being obsolete because the tech which replaced it is in turn made obsolete by the new tech, in a way which does not affect the previously-obsolete tech. This can only be described as an upgrade in relative terms. Is the trope meant to encompass instances like this, or must there really be an actual upgrade to the old tech involved?