History Main / ElementalBaggage

* [[PlayerCharacter Geralt]] takes advantage of this during the boss fight in Chapter 2 of ''VideoGame/TheWitcher''. [[spoiler:The mage [[TheDragon Azar Javed]] specializes in fire magic. Geralt lures him to a swamp, since water is fire's [[ElementalPowers opposite element]].]]

*** Which is often a source of spoofs in D&D parodies, as characters somehow or another wind up in a plane or demiplane of infinite food.

* The ''Game/MegaMan'' and ''MegaManX'' games partially avert this. The weapons and tools are fueled by their own energy reserves, but where do the heroes get the materials for things like giant scissor blades, ''a damn meteor shower,'' barriers made of jewels, homing missiles, tornadoes, etc?

* [=RyuKoOh=] in ''SuperRobotWars'' averts this with the "Mountain Pressure" attack. It drops a ''mountain'' from a few hundred feet over an enemy's head; but this is a specific holy mountain, which is returned after it's used.
** This is ''SuperRobotWars'', the game where under the right circumstances, a technique shown to be destroying the Universe does ''ten'' damage, in a series where unit health is usually in the ''thousands''. WillingSuspensionOfDisbelief is required when you start the game up.
* ''GoldenSun'' contains some pretty good examples of this, such as characters freezing small puddles of water into huge ice pillars.

When users of ElementalPowers need to kick ass and take names, they can't always count on [[EigenPlot there being enough of their element of choice around to properly fight.]]

* Most ''{{Pokemon}}'' are capable of expelling ridiculous quantities of their elements from their bodies. One episode of the anime had Ash's Squirtle fill up a whole truck with water using only Water Gun. In the games, a Pokedex entry mentions that Blastoise (about the size of a van) could fill an Olympic swimming pool. How did so much water end up inside the {{Mons}}? Nobody knows. Then again, that creature the size of a van fits in a ball the size of a clenched fist (which in the anime can become ''even smaller'').
** Not so much in the ''PokemonSpecial'' manga. Almost at the end of the third arc, the day is saved because Blue's Blastoise had run out of water [[spoiler:and Red filled it with flammable water from a mystical healing spring]].

* Averted in ''{{WITCH}}'' for the most part. Taranee is shown to absorb and exert heat from the human body, which is the source of her fire as she is shown to be unable to conjure fire when the heat from her body was drained away from her in "S is for Self". Irma also needs moisture in the air to create water. Cornelia subverts this the most when her element is useless in "N is for Narcissist" where the fighting takes place in a floating fortress in the sky with no plant-life at all.

* ''TeamFortress2'': Pyro apparently took night classes in this trope seeing as one of his taunts produces fire out of thin air.

** The "water from a desert" thing is used similarly in ''{{Eragon}}'', where the title character can't get enough water from the air, and attempting to control the weather to get rain would [[EquivalentExchange kill him]], so he digs a pit and uses a spell to draw up water from deep underground.

This phenomenon is less of an ailment for users of more volatile elements such as air (which is present in large enough quantities in pretty much every setting), fire (although someone is bound to ask [[NoConservationOfEnergy where all those calories come from]], which is often {{Lampshaded}} by having fire users be {{Big Eater}}s) or lightning (where one is usually more distracted by the character's PsychoElectro qualities). Water and earth users have more trouble, but benevolent viewers will often allow for 10,000% humidity or really really dusty conditions. Not to be confused with SeasonalBaggage.

* On ''{{Ben 10}}'', Osmosians, such as Kevin 11, can absorb anything into themselves, but they need to have something to absorb, so Gwen gets the idea for Kevin to carry rocks along with him to provide him with armor. He says he needs a lot more metal to make his armor.

**** Also consider 'create food' spells, does that mean there is a 'plane of gruel'?
***** Theoretically, yes.

* On ''Ben 10'', Osmosians, such as Kevin 11, can absorb anything into themselves, but they need to have something to absorb, so Gwen gets the idea for Kevin to carry rocks along with him to provide him with armor. He says he needs a lot more metal to make his armor.

* ''DresdenFiles'' by JimButcher averts this at times. While it is entirely possible to create fire, solid objects (formed from ectoplasm, they collapse when magic is no longer sustaining them), and energy through the use of a wizard's personal will, they can also channel existing energy. Emotions can also be used to power spells. Harry has frozen water by drawing heat from it to create fire and channeled the energy of a storm, but has also just created fire and tossed it around, and [[spoiler: after becoming the Winter Knight, gains the ability to create cold.]]

** The Third Hokage actually had a jutsu which played this strait using ''dirt'' that just came out of his mouth to block attacks.

* ''ChangelingTheLost'' accounts for this with the Contract of Elements. Level 3 requires that the element actually ''be'' there before you can control it... but level 4 of the Contract allows you to summon a large quantity from elsewhere if there's none available.

* In ''[=~Avatar: The Last Airbender~=]'', Hama reveals to Katara that using the water in the air is very doable, and when Firebenders imprisoned the Waterbenders from the Southern Water Tribe, they piped dry air into their cells to make sure they couldn't do anything. However, this is a more realistic instance; when they're pulling water from the air, Waterbenders only receive small portions. And when they're pulling it from living things, things tend to wither and die for quite a large area for a relatively small amount of water. Also averted with Earthbenders to the extent that keeping refined metal between them and any earth or stone is considered sufficient to imprison them... and only two have proven common wisdom wrong (one by commanding nearby stone with his exposed face, the other by figuring out how to control impurities in the metal). Though they're sometimes shown pulling boulders out of the ground without making a hole or noticeable mark in the ground [[FridgeLogic (closing said hole is also likely the result of Earthbending)]]. However, this is played straight in the case of Firebenders, who are capable of creating fire, though it's explained in-universe by [[KiAttacks chi]]; presumably, they sling around burning energy.

* In ''[=~Avatar: The Last Airbender~=]'', Hama reveals to Katara that using the water in the air is very doable, and when Firebenders imprisoned the Waterbenders from the Southern Water Tribe, they piped dry air into their cells to make sure they couldn't do anything. However, this is a more realistic instance; when they're pulling water from the air, Waterbenders only receive small portions. And when they're pulling it from living things, things tend to wither and die for quite a large area for a relatively small amount of water. Also averted with Earthbenders to the extent that keeping refined metal between them and any earth or stone is considered sufficient to imprison them... and only two have proven common wisdom wrong (one by commanding nearby stone with his exposed face, the other by figuring out how to control impurities in the metal). Though they're sometimes shown pulling boulders out of the ground without making a hole or noticeable mark in the ground [[FridgeLogic (closing said hole is also likely the result of Earthbending)]]. However, this is played completely straight in the case of Firebenders, who are capable of creating fire without any fuel, either because the creators [[YouFailPhysicsForever fail physics]] or deliberately wanted to give them an advantage.

** Hermione explicitly says that "You cannot create food. But you can make more if you have some". So think of it what you might. (After all, one famous wizard fed thousands from a few baskets of bread and fish.)