Boring But Practical / Fan Works

Boring, but Practical in Fan Works.

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• In the Harry Potter fanfic The Accidental Animagus, the canonical inability of seers to recall their own prophecies (being entranced and all that) comes into play at various points, frequently in a detrimental way. In the sequel, Madam Fan, the eldest extant precognitive, has a Magitech device that detects when she's entering a precognitive trance, records her prophecy, and then plays it back so that she can jot it down herself. The sheer simplicity of the arrangement boggles Dumbledore.
• Hinata becomes clan head in Accounting no Jutsu because she shows that she can manage the clan's money far better than anyone else. As one clan elder puts it, "Not like clan heads fight much anyway. Better a head that's good with money."
• In All For Power, many of the bigwigs in the League of Villains have turned to tamer and less flashy uses of their Quirks while laying low, that nonetheless earn them considerable money. Kurogiri and Ujiko smuggle drugs throughout Japan using the former's Warp Gate. Twice uses his clones to both star in snuff films but also fake people's deaths for them. Mustard has the most legitimate job in selling his gas to a pharmaceutical company that develops sleeping pills from it.
• Another Way: The Mercia are nothing special, as capes go. Whereas Hookwolf can turn into a nearly indestructible cluster of moving blades, and Rune can make car-sized objects (possibly actual cars) into floating platforms or even projectiles, and Squealer can build invisible super-tanks armed with rocket launchers, the Mercia are merely a bit stronger and tougher and faster than regular humans, enough to make them lift surprising weights, take a few hits without going down, and be very good at parkour. But Marchioness can give those minor powers to anyone, because they're not true capes, they just have a package of biological optimisations that she's developed, improving their eyesight and bone strength and muscle mass and reaction speeds. One on one, they would go down to the gangs' heavy hitters, but when Marquis employs dozens of them, they quickly get the upper hand over regular thugs and enable a thriving protection business.
• Naruto's method for solving Suna's food supply problems (and becoming filthy rich) in The Art of the Deal doesn't involve complex seals or jutsu for preserving and transporting food. Instead, he introduces them to the humble potato and tofu, delicious and nutritious foods that can be stored for months without perishing.
• Played for Laughs in Atlas Arc when Jaune discovers the perfect landing strategy for him: crash and walk it off. This is due to learning that trying to perform any cool or special tricks to land will actually make him lose more Aura than simply crashing at terminal velocity.
• The moment Todoroki's battle trial starts in Beast Mode, he freezes the entire building, which traps his opponents in ice without fighting them. While described In-Universe as lame and anticlimactic, it did win him the match.
• Ben 10: Unlimited: Played with. While none of Ben's alien forms are exactly boring, there are some (Clockwork, Gray Matter, Porkuspike, etc) who aren't as strong/powerful/flashy as some of his other forms (Diamondhead, Four Arms, Heatblast, etc). However, even the sillier/weaker-looking alien forms have powers that can get the job done more easily than other, more impressive-looking forms. Shown when, while facing Shifter, Ben ends up turning into Brainstorm (instead of Rath). She laughs at him, seeing the large-headed crab as an easy target...only for the alien's superior brain power to figure out her weakness in two seconds flat and leave her unconscious on the floor.
• Boldores and Boomsticks:
  • Team RWBY explains to Pinot, a snobby Devon Corp. scientist, why they use metal cages to hold Grimm: unlike force fields, there's no battery to drain.
  • Wiffle bats and other toys are useful for training because they're cheap to replace.
• Child of the Storm:
  • When being offered weapons, Carol, who doesn't have much combat experience at this point, rejects something like a sword or an axe (which she doesn't know how to use) in favour of a simple, kite-shaped shield. It's not as deadly as, say, Uhtred's axe, but it does come in very useful during the ensuing fight.
  • Natasha, Steve, and Clint's abilities as spotters and The Strategist are well-harnessed by the Avengers. While Thor and Loki are Physical Gods with Combo Platter Powers, Tony has his armors, and the Hulk has the raw physical power to crush almost any other opponent, Steve's abilities as The Strategist are used to figure out where and how to best utilize them, while one or both of Clint and Natasha will go high and keep an eye on the battlefield to direct their allies.
  • The Winter Soldier's lethal nature and rep for taking down high-level targets is shown to be heavily related to this — not his abilities, not his metal arm, nor close-up assaults. This is not to say that he isn't good at all of these; in fact, he's downright deadly, capable of matching Wolverine a.k.a. The Best There Is At What He Does, in a knife fight, while carrying broken ribs. However, he's realistic about his limits, and most of the time, he will simply either set up a bomb or use his abilities as a sniper in conjunction with the best ammunition he can get hold of. By doing so, he has so far managed to kill a previous Captain Britain, almost kill Thor (putting him in a coma), and severely piss off Dracula (leaving him open to a brutal psychic attack that almost worked). All three are Physical God-level beings.
  • While comparing wandless and wanded magic, Harry Dresden states that the latter falls into this trope. While wandless magic has all kinds of great perks, like greater longevity and magical senses, and is incredibly flexible (every practitioner has their own strengths and can do all kinds of things with their area of expertise), it also takes longer to learn, partially because that same flexibility also makes it harder to standardize. Meanwhile, a wanded mage can become incredibly proficient in just a decade or two of study, and its standardization means that a wizard doesn't have to make things up, say, in the middle of a fight.
• According to Cole in Conduit of Central City, this was the intent behind the design of the Amp.
  Wells: Despite its crude design, it's quite effective at channeling your energy.
  Cole: That was the point. Nothing flashy, nothing too complex, just good old grit, sweat, and blood.
• In Crimson Rising, the anti-Power Ranger organisation Sector Nine has spent the better part of a decade studying the salvaged remains of the Thunderzords, and have created at least two 'zords' that vaguely resemble the Shogunzords without any of the animal theme elements. While relatively bland by zord standards, Sector Nine's zords are least powerful enough to hold their own against the monsters even if the true zords always win the day.
• In Cyberpunk: Another Daybreak, David is a little disappointed to find that the offices at Hiden are a dull, standard cubicle setting in comparison to the futuristic, cutting-edge offices of Arasaka. Rather than exuding power, Isu prefers to save eddies and use them for practical measures like these. Lucy and Kiwi also use ice baths not unlike the ones they used as Cyberpunks rather than Arasaka's cooling suits.
• Somewhat in contrast to her presentation in Daria, Jane takes this approach to art in Daria in Morrowind. It'd be considered weird and unprofessional for artists to follow their own visions in Tamriel, so they generally imitate the masters and flatter their clients. Jane does have some more eccentric personal work, but she keeps them to herself and has no wish to try and sell them.
• Harry Potter in A Discordant Note teaches his children how to fight with staves initially because doing so will prepare them for using almost any weapon to some extent. He also defeats the first attempted siege on his tower not with magic but by forcing the attacking hordes to charge up a narrow icy slope into a choke point staffed by men with spears.
• Distance Learning for Fun and Profit...: Once Taylor proves capable of understanding, repairing, and improving tinkertech, the US government gets her more samples buy offering Leet a million dollars and a presidential pardon for him and Uber for any such devices he's willing to part with. Since Leet's specialization means he has an impressive range by necessity but almost all his devices are either broken or never worked to begin with, he parts with most of his stock, resulting in Taylor having a wide variety of toys to play with.
• While hailed for his power as the titular dragon in Dragon Knight, the biggest reason Xander's army was so successful was due to him teaching them basic tactics like shield walls and rotating out men on the front line between charges. Such tactics allow his men to rather easily defeat a force five times their size due to the latter's lack of discipline. He also teaches what he knows of sanitation and modern medicine (such as digging latrines downhill from the camp to cut down on sickness).
• Naruto learns in A Drop of Poison that he needs to train the basics. He later demonstrates this to the Konohomaru Corps, beating Konohomaru with nothing but repeated high-speed substitutions and dropping him into a pool — one of the three basic academy techniques, but extremely effective when mastered. Once Konohomaru and his friends settle down and learn the basic three techniques properly, he deigns to teach them something greater: the Fire Candle technique, which simply makes a small flame appear at the tip of one's finger. They're disappointed until he explains that it builds control that will be necessary for all fire techniques.
  Naruto: Those who start with the Great Fireball often burn their lips and tongue when they fail.
• In the Animorphs fanfic Slaughterhouse-Five, Jake says that his most useful morph is the seagull because it can fly, walk, swim, and be anywhere on Earth without looking conspicuous.
• In Enough Rope, Tony Stark tells Rhodes to guess which act of his saved the most lives. While Rhodes guesses it was sending the nuke bound for New York through the Chitauri portal, Tony corrects him that it was inventing mosquito-repelling fabric. Because of the clothes, screens, and nets made from that fabric (the last of which Tony donates in mass to charities), mosquito-born diseases have almost been eradicated.
• In Equestria Divided House Earthborn fights mostly using a combination of medieval weaponry and clockpunk war machines and does a pretty good job at it.
• In Everqueen, Isha tends to see constantly creating healing fruit to combat the enemy bioweapons as a rather boring and monotonous task, but it is the most efficient way.
• In one story of the Facing the Future Series, Desiree is given noise-cancelling headphones to prevent her from hearing wishes that could be used against her.
• In Faith No More, the best weapons for fighting vampires (even for normal humans) are simple spears and bows. As Faith demonstrated, a stake allows your enemy within arms reach (and biting reach) before you can kill them, a spear doesn't.
• Fallout: Equestria:
  • Unlike most unicorns, Littlepip does not have a unique spell related to her Cutie Mark. All she has is the same basic telekinesis spell that every unicorn has. But in a world where no one has hands, basic telekinesis is pretty useful. She starts with the ability to use it to hold lockpicks, quickly learns how to fire guns with it, and even trains it to be strong enough to lift extremely heavy objects such as train cars.
  • Littlepip's cutie mark is a PipBuck, omnipresent in the Stable. She got a job as a PipBuck repair pony. She's rather embarrassed that her special talent is nothing but doing minor repair work. However, she eventually realizes her talent is something else altogether. Her cutie mark doesn't represent that she's good with PipBucks (though she is), but that she's good at the thing PipBucks were originally designed for: Finding people. Spike spent two hundred years searching for six people who could bear the Elements of Harmony, with no luck. Littlepip found four of them in two months, and the rest in under a year.
• Harry and his girls learn to defend against the Killing Curse in For Love of Magic by conjuring a swarm of butterflies in front of them. While the curse can't be magically blocked, it can only kill a single target, regardless of said target's size.
• In Fox Rain, Vorpika (Lila's superhero alter ego) prefers this approach:
  • In combat, she uses an illusion to make herself invisible or otherwise hide her approach and then hits the supervillain as hard as she can with whatever she finds, or just kicks and punches (her costume even has MMA gloves-like padding over the hands). And when she feels she owes a favor to Ladybug and Chat Noir, she pays them back by teaching them the basic one-two of boxing.
  • How does she improve her skills? Practice: upon receiving the Fox Miraculous, she spends a whole night casting illusions (it helps her favorite snack is what Trixx uses to fuel his powers and that she already knows how to play the dizi), and later starts taking MMA classes, something that has the added benefit of helping her with her anger management issues by allowing her to vent on something.
• Fragmentation has Executive Outcomes becoming very popular by selling Zerg Rush quantities of simple tanks such as the Pike at dirt-cheap prices that, Pound for C-Bill, provide enough firepower to overwhelm pirate 'Mech units, making EO welcomed to planets that can't afford or are incapable of training 'Mechwarriors, but can recruit and train tank crews by the dozens.
• In Game and Bleach, Ichigo and Tatsuki make a point of taking any perks they're eligible for that make it easier to boost their stats. As a result, Tatsuki is two hundred levels lower than Yoruichi but almost all of her stats being around the same level^note The two standouts are Yoruichi's Charisma and Dexterity which are respectively double and triple Tatsuki's.
• In Hard Being Pure, during Rust's fight with Snatch, the latter complains that lasers are cheap and boring. Rust agrees, and summarily uses his lasers to rip through Snatch's robots one by one.
• In Harry Potter and the Lack of Lamb Sauce, Ron Weasley competes in a magical cooking competition and due to a poor showing in the previous challenge, has to make a breakfast dish with only two ingredients, one of which has to be eggs. In the end, he makes three different variations of bacon and eggs with the only criticism he receives being that his dish was rather bland because he wasn't allowed to use anything else.
• Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality:
  • Quirrell asks the class how to defeat a troll. They come up with a number of complex scenarios to get around its Healing Factor, most of them involving acid. Quirrell tells them that the correct answer is "hit it with the Killing Curse." That is always the correct answer.
    Quirrell: The Killing Curse is unblockable, unstoppable, and works every single time on anything with a brain. If, as an adult wizard, you find yourself incapable of using the Killing Curse, then you can simply Apparate away!
  • Bear in mind that even if it's a very practical offensive spell, the Killing Curse is an "Unforgivable" (that is, "instant ticket to Azkaban for life, even if you're a minor and you were defending yourself") Curse, so the fact he's teaching kids to make this their "hammer" provides quite a hefty amount of Foreshadowing about him. Furthermore, canonically, both the Killing Curse and Apparation are actually fairly difficult for even adult wizards, so they're not necessarily practical to begin with. They also don't help if you're in a situation where you can't kill your opponent (such as when you need to capture them alive) or can't escape (such as when you need to protect a location).
  • Lucius Malfoy's lesson to his son Draco regarding plan-making is pretty much this: any plan that needs more than two steps to succeed is automatically hoping to get lucky on the Last Plan Standing Gambit Pileup Roulette, so it's best to make them very simple (to put in context: this lecture he gave as a "Take That!" response to an In-Universe version of Death Note and Draco's apparent decision to take inspiration from it for his rivalry with Harry). Quirrell eventually also provides a similar speech when he says that plans that are absolutely essential for the planner to succeed should not depend on anything that runs on chance (those that don't can be done as fancy as the planner wants, maybe even allowing them to fail for the sake of Obfuscating Stupidity).
• In Hunter, while Xander becomes magically empowered to be functionally a male Slayer and Willow takes lessons in magic, Oz simply becomes a member of the clergy. While it has no direct combat applications, he can now bless objects, giving the Scoobies a functionally infinite supply of holy water. He also blesses the water tank for the school's fire suppression system so the sprinklers spray out holy water, making the school unassailable to vampires.
• In Infinity Train: Seeker of Crocus, the Red Lotus Uprising don't have flashy weapons made from premium blacksmiths, illusion powers, or Personas. Instead, they all have more simplistic skillsets that translate into useful abilities.
  • Chloe Cerise, aside from her very powerful cloak that lets her cast fire, uses a donut holer named Cheshire as her main weapon. A donut holer, in this case, is a long rusty L-bend steel pipe that is supposedly capable of punching holes into things to turn them into "donuts". Chloe herself is said to be a softball enthusiast, so a pipe is no different than a bat, and if she gets a hit with it, it will hurt in the morning. This is noted when she fights off against her bully, Sara, in the climax of Act 1: while Sara goes for cooler things like a crystal bat that shoots spikes and is lit on fire, Chloe simply just fights with her pipe as she's been using it for so long that it's become second nature to her.
  • Atticus is a corgi king and doesn't have any other abilities except that he talks. But he's a dog and like any dog he has a good sense of hearing and smell, plus his leadership skills and his experience in Train adventures means he's the most observant and capable of making strategies. Plus his small size means he can sneak into areas that others usually can't fit.
  • Lexi is a flying book who can manipulate his papers into any constructs he wants. Instead of turning into a kaiju or badass paper monster, he simply folds his hands into sharp blades, throws paper kunai at the enemy or swallows them whole with a tsunami of papers.
  • Amelia's major weapon is the Ice Wand and she uses it to make slopes or walls. Not only does she not have to expend so much energy, but a wall of ice is not something one can easily shatter quickly and makes for a good stalling tactic or barrier in case someone is going through a meltdown.
• Cinder Fall in In the Kingdom's Service compliments John White's (Jaune Arc's cover identity) preference for simply knives over fancier mecha shift weaponry, citing that they're concealable and basic enough that they're both easy to replace and hard to trace back to him. Likewise both she and Roman would rather take on someone intelligent but with subpar power over someone strong but stupid as not only are the latter more liable to screw up a job, but it's easier to make someone stronger than to make them smarter.
• Jedi of the Boiling Isles: Unlike in The Owl House, where Luz pretends to be an Abomination to help out Willow with the Abomination Track as part of a Zany Scheme, Luz's idea to help out her new friend in this story involves... talking to Principal Bump and showing him that Willow is far more suited for the Plant Track.
• In The Knight and Fairy of the Forward unto Dawn, Master Chief introduces Kites to the denizens of Winterfell. The design is so simple and easy to make that many people (not just kids, but adults and even nobles) are able to build their own in no time at all, and then proceed to spend hours outside playing with them. Ned Stark notes that these simple toys have brought color and merriment back to the North.
• A Man of Iron: When asked what he would order if he got to order one thing from the Ultimate Blacksmith, Jaime Lannister answers "a sword". His companions decry his choice as boring, but when Jaime explains that he is famous for being very good with a sword, and refuses to waste a wish like that on something he can't use, they grudgingly accept the logic.
• Maria Campbell of the Astral Clocktower:
  • Katarina has been diligently training in the sword every single day since she was eight years old for the sole purpose of surviving a possible sword duel. Therefore her skills are utterly basic, completely defensive, and absolutely perfect. She has no offensive capabilities besides counters, but she can perfectly evade, riposte, or parry any attack, to the point that multiple trained knights sparring with her find themselves utterly unable to break her defense. Even Maria is impressed, despite their fighting styles being complete opposites.
  • When Maria begins inventing guns from her old life, some of Sophia's past-life memories bleed through a little as well, giving her more familiarity with the weapons, and she is able to suggest enough new ideas that Maria enters into business with her. What's Sophia's most valuable contribution? The idea of an assembly line and standardized parts to streamline construction. Which, it should be noted, was an example in real life as well.
• Metal Gear: Green: Poland's approach to heroes is to use dull or camouflage for their costumes, boring names, and carry guns as well as use their Quirks. During the battle against the MSF in Africa, three out of five MSF casualties were from the Polish heroes, much to Madam President's chagrin.
  • When investigating how the Tyrant came to be, Ocelot realized that the Tyrant had turned the three cities under his rule into concrete meatgrinders while seizing civilian goods and vehicles, stripping them of their parts and repurposing them into tanks, guns and whatnot. The Tyrant's approach was not only practical in discouraging the other warlords, but he became the most dangerous warlord Africa ever faced once he started striking.
• In the MLP:FIM fanfic A Minor Variation, Rarity's teleporting apples can be used by anypony with a functional mouth, provide their own magical power, and can bypass most conventional wards.
• In My Hero Playthrough, after Shinso used his Quirk to brainwash Ojiro and Hagakure into doing his bidding, Aizawa calls Shinso in for a meeting. He counters Shinso's claim that the entrance exam favors those with flashy quirks by saying that the two of them managed to pass despite having Quirks that aren't all that impressive because they put in the work to improve themselves, thereby demonstrating the utility of seemingly useless quirks(an extra limb and Invisibility) and good old-fashioned hard work.
• One of Hikigaya's favourite skills in My Hero School Adventure Is All Wrong As Expected is the ability to sleep soundly, anytime and anywhere. It's not as flashy as the original skill he copied it from, which allowed the holder to survive on just 15 minutes of sleep per day, but for a cynical and jaded member of society, surrounded by superheroes and villains, it's still priceless.
• In My Huntsman Academia, Mei notes that weapons designed and built in Mountain Glenn, are "designed more for efficiency rather than any spark or showmanship." Case in point, Izuku's Emerald Gust is a set of armored gloves and boots that protect his hands and feet while bolstering his attacks with shotgun blasts. However, they don't have the bells and whistles and multiple transformations of weapons like Ruby's Crescent Rose and Weiss' Myrtenaster.
• Early in Naruto and the Overpowered Academy Three, it's made clear that the three academy jutsu aren't flashy but can easily save your life, even if you're a Jounin. Naruto manages to remove the "boring" part because of how ridiculously he overpowers them, such as turning the henge into Voluntary Shapeshifting and transforming into a cross between a hydra and a tentacle monster.
• The Night Unfurls:
  • This trope is the reason why Kyril fights using the innate attributes of a Bloodborne Hunter of Monsters, rather than the Combo Platter Powers of his great one form. The former essentially boils down to "super-human mowing down mooks left and right while dodging to avoid damage", while the latter boils down to "resolving the plot in an instant while driving innocents insane just by perceiving his true form". Obviously, the former is less flashy but more reliable.
  • Apart from that, this trope is what allows Kyril's company to be the Men of Sherwood in the story. Compared to Kyril and his apprentices, the soldiers don't look that impressive. These men and women in the company don't have their fancy, overpowered trick-weaponry. They don't have the hunters' enhanced strength and reflexes. Nonetheless, they are able to perform their duty efficiently in the battlefield, and they have yet to suffer from The Worf Effect. Why? Are they disciplined? Yes. Do they have high morale? Yes. Do they put emphasis on practical tactics (flanking, pincer maneuvers)? Yes. And most importantly, can they strike at multiple places/directions at once with their numbers? Oh yes.
• While clothes shopping for Diana in A Phantom Hero in Metropolis, all of the girls confuse her by recommending their own personal style. Danny, meanwhile, advises against something unique and advocates for a look that's the bare minimum of socially acceptable clothing, which is promptly ignored.
• In the fan game Pokémon Insurgence, most of the villains try to bring legendary Pokémon to their sides by offering up sacrifices, blackmailing them, using magic to control them, or beseeching them to join their cause. Perfection, meanwhile, just uses Master Balls to capture them — a less flashy method, but one that's proven to be a lot more efficient.
• Giovanni is quite pleased with Team Rocket in Pokémon Reset Bloodlines for capturing a flock of Spearow and Fearow. While they're not rare or valuable, they do make useful pokemon for his grunts to use.
• In Pro Hero Metal Bat After Todoroki freezes Ojiro to the ground, he stops and apologizes/gloats about how he's sorry but he had to do this. Ojiro just waits until Todoroki is about to walk past and winds him with a powerful tail blow, leading to Todoroki's capture and his team ultimately losing the match.
• Jaune in The ProfessionARC makes a point of color coding his elixirs by their strength as well as putting them in differently shaped containers. As a result, he can always tell what an elixir is with a glance or a feel if he can't look at it. Jaune also admits that the ones that see the most use aren't ones that enhance his senses or combat ability but ones that speed up his healing.
• In Red and Green in Blue, Yukiko cuts her hair short before joining the police alongside Chie and ends up liking her new haircut better, since not only does it meet the police's grooming standards, but it's also much easier to take care of her hair. The only downside is that some people come to the conclusion that Yukiko just had a breakup, resulting in Yukiko getting more unwanted love confessions.
• Attacking a major installation in Star Trek usually requires a huge fleet and lots of Beam Spam and/or technobabble. In Red Fire, Red Planet, Norigom eschews all of that in favor of dropping a ten-ton block of uranium out of the bottom of a Bird-of-Prey moving at 25,000 kilometers per second. (For reference, that's on the order of 750 megatons of kinetic energy.)
  Norigom: Basic physics. High mass plus high velocity equals ouch.
• Harriet Potter in The Rigel Black Chronicles gives the Weasley Twins a new potion she invented herself: a preservation oil that can be applied to a vial to extend the shelf life of a potion stored in it. It's not spectacular, but the Twins are savvy enough to realise that it would have been worth a mint to a commercial brewer.
• When Tenzou starts teaching his students some jutsus in Sage of the Leaf, he opts to focus on some lower rank ones instead of anything too advanced. Naruto, while annoyed that he won't be learning anything powerful or super cool, does somewhat understand the importance of such jutsus after Tenzou demonstrates how practical they can be when used correctly.
• Saruman of Many Devices: This is Central's approach to introducing new weapons summarized — it's better to have a good weapon for all of your troops than an awesome one for a few of them. Something as simple as using the same caliber of ammunition for pistols, revolvers, and rifles makes the Army of the White Hand quite a bit more efficient than historical Real Life armies, and one of his most revolutionary changes is constructing a railroad to carry supplies.
• This is practically Harry, Ron, and Hermione's motto in Si Vis Pacem, Para Bellum. Any plan that gets them out of a situation alive and well is always the go-to plan. For example, when scouting the Chamber of Secrets to see if there's another Basilisk, Luna asks if they're going to fight it if there is one. The trio reply that if there is indeed a second Basilisk, then they're going to flee and report the Basilisk to Dumbledore. ^note They didn't inform Dumbledore about the investigation because they didn't want to waste his time in case the hypothetical second basilisk didn't exist, something he calmly calls them out on
  "I thought we were hunting the basilisk." Luna commented.
  "No, we're investigating," Harry managed through his constricted throat. "If we actually think there's a giant murder snake here, we are all going to move quickly back to the hole and get out."
  "That's no fun."
  "Nope," Ron agreed. "It's nice and boring."
  "And safe." Harry added.
• A Song of Ice and Fires That Weren't All My fault: Harry Dresden can overpower a whole squad of assassins with a word and a wave of his staff. Nothing short of a dragon could really take him in direct combat. But what is it that really draws attention to him, setting him up for fame and fortune? He starts manufacturing compasses for more reliable navigation at sea. As soon as he demonstrates a needle that consistently points at the linked cube at any distance, he has a backlog of orders from wealthy and influential clients who realize that this will revolutionize shipping.
  The compasses might not have been as impressive as a zombie dinosaur, but they’d done infinitely more for the world than riding Sue through Chicago.
• Son of the Sannin: During her final battle against Toneri Otsutsuki, Hinata finds herself in a pinch as he tries to drag her towards him to kill her, so she pulls out a chakra bow she got from Tenten a while ago. Toneri mockingly says she expected something more impressive from her, but as soon as she gets the chance, all she needs is one clean shot to kill him off.
• The Soulmate Timeline has the first lesson that Mami and Homura teach Nagisa be not how to use her vast array of magical powers, but the fact that being a magical girl enhances their physical attributes significantly by getting her to jump as high as she can and watch as she clears a building. While magical girls have amazing abilities they can do with magic, such as forming magical barriers, magic also needs to be recharged. If you can avoid an attack or danger by using your stronger body instead of expending magic, that should be your first course of action.
• In The Stalking Zuko Series for a Continuity Nod and Call-Back Zuko's firebending lessons to Aang. Aang finds Zuko's lesson extremely boring and all Zuko teaches is how to block and breathing exercises but Zuko points out how dangerous fire is so it's more important to know how to block before learning how to attack and the breathing exercises would be good for his control.
• Xander brings a tool belt on a mission to a hell dimension in Stand Ins and Stunt Doubles. Why? Because he can use his tools to make weapons but the reverse is much trickier. Also, several tools (such as a short-handled sledgehammer) make decent weapons themselves.
• Julio in Star Wars Episode I: The Familiar of Zero (a Jedi in this story) massively improves the standard of living in Romalia by introducing them to the concept of indoor plumbing, eliminating the need to simply throw body waste into the streets.
• After being turned into Gargoyles in Stone in Love, Giles initially wants everyone to follow tradition when it comes to their stone sleep: assuming a threatening stance to scare off enemies. He changes his mind when he realizes Xander's method (curling up in a ball and covering himself with his wings) would leave them indistinguishable from large rocks, and thus is far better suited to the large forest they're in than a group of statues.
• During the first Chunin Exam Arc of the fic Sugar Plums, there is a chapter devoted to showing some of the genin's fighting styles. When it gets to Ume, she notes the opponent she's fighting doesn't seem to have any clear signs of being from a powerful Konoha clan. So instead of doing anything flashy, she closes the distance then one by one breaks the genin's wrists, then yells to the exam proctor to call the match since her opponent could no longer throw weapons, punches, or use hand signs. This style of very non-flashy but efficient ways of standard combat is something that becomes a hallmark of Ume's overall fighting style, which focuses mostly on very fast movements and standard ninja tools rather than large-scale or complicated jutsu.
• This One Time, at Cultivation Camp: Taylor and Vicky make a point of wearing the more rugged clothing popular among the lower class while entering a Supernatural Martial Arts tournament, unlike many of the other Cultivators who choose to wear expensive and fragile clothing that they reinforce with their Qi. Not only is it easier to reinforce something that's already fairly durable, Taylor proves why the alternative is a bad idea when she accidentally rips off most of a woman's clothing while throwing her.
  • While High Sects of Cultivators seek to develop their Qi as far as possible in hopes of achieving immortality by going beyond the divine realms^*Qi development is divided into three mortal realms, three spiritual realms, and three divine realms, each exponentially harder to reach than the last, something Taylor's and Vicky's teacher Ten Springs says maybe one in a hundred million might accomplish, Low Sects stay focused on only the mortal realms. While they are weaker than those who go further and have far fewer abilities, Low Sects are filled with the best farmers and craftsmen in the world who create a life of comfort for both themselves and their communities. Ten Springs explains it as "Focusing on life on earth rather than reaching for the heavens".
• In Transcendence, Zangetsu is seen as this at a glance in-universe since the blade is remarkably plain looking by Azeroth standards.
• Similarly in Uchibi Sasuke, Orochimaru decides to go after Naruto instead of Sasuke when he finds out that Naruto is a skilled accountant. Sure, having the Sharingan would be nice and all, but Orochimaru's experience with running a village has shown him that he needs someone who can expertly handle money, paperwork, etc.
• Kirishima's Hardening Quirk in The Vigilante Boss and His Failed Retirement Plan simply grants him Super-Toughness and even the boy himself remarks that it's not very flashy. But it nets him the top score in the entrance exam due to using his Quirk to shield other examees, often from debris from Bakugou's explosions.
• Izuku's first two weeks as a Vigilante in Viridian: The Green Guide consist entirely of heckling Pro Heroes until they chase him towards a crime he spotted earlier. While certainly not glamorous, it does help people and Izuku currently has neither the skills nor physical fitness to fight villains himself.
• Voyages of the Wild Sea Horse:
  • It's established early on that the Kamikaze Pirates prefer to largely loot ships of their supplies — food, medicine, extra sails, leisure objects, repair materials, etc. It's not that they're averse to taking treasurel it's just that they're not primarily motivated by the desire for wealth, nor do they have any interest in preying on civilians, so stealing supplies from the marines and rival pirates they prefer to battle with keeps them largely self-sufficient.
  • When Nabiki decides to invest in a Devil Fruit, she declares that this is her fundamental guideline for choosing one... well, insofar as Devil Fruits can be considered "boring". As she points out, the last thing she needs is to take a Fruit that requires extensive training to be able to use it effectively, considering she's already starting from a position of weakness. As a result, she considers most Paramecia fruits to be a last resort, with her first choice being either a Logia fruit for the Nigh-Invulnerability that is part of the standard package those fruits give or else a Zoan fruit, which will at least boost her basic physical abilities and work with her martial arts training — and even then, she'd much rather have an Ancient Zoan or Mythic Zoan, which provide vastly superior stat boosts.
• In We're Taking Over, Nick Fury sent a second flash drive to Tony Stark. While Steve and Natasha come up with a risky plan to use their flash drive without being caught by HYDRA, Tony just disables the wifi in a room and uses a computer that's physically disconnected from any networks. The program can't send out an alert if there's no network to send it through.
• In What the Cat Dragged In, Tony is disappointed to learn that the S.H.I.E.L.D. project Clint and Natasha are assessing is simple formal wear that allows complete freedom of movement. Natasha explains that regular formal wear is completely restrictive, which is unfortunate for anyone who's wearing them when facing an unexpected threat; this new project will save the lives of many agents.
  • On top of that, Gabriel designed the clothing based on simple three-piece business suits, instead of a fancy Bond-esque tuxedo or something similar, because its classic design will help integrate its wearer into even the wildest setting.
• In Where Talent Goes on Vacation, during the "Crime and Punishment" side story, hanging is described this way when it comes to executions in the post-Tragedy world. As one prison guard points out, all you need is some rope and a good place to tie it in order to execute someone and possibly leave their body on display. She adds that she doesn't get why Monokuma felt the need to use elaborate and high-tech executions.
• Used repeatedly in the Star Wars fanfic Wilhuff Tarkin, Hero of the Rebellion. The most notable so far is Armand Isard's assassination, executed with a slugthrower (that is, a real-world gun) through a window: the window would have saved him from a blaster, as the bolt would have simply exploded on contact and showered him with small shards, but the slug, being a solid object, went through it and hit Isard.
• With This Ring:
  • When Paul first comes to universe 16, he doesn't try some complex scheme to power up; he simply goes to the original Earth Green Lantern's house, knowing that he's retired from costumed heroics, and offers to buy his lantern.
  • He later partners with a local shooting range to improve on the AK-47, producing the "Cobra" gun. It doesn't have any special effects, it just fires bullets. However, it uses a magnetic field to fire solid metal bullets rather than cartridges. With no explosives, it's cheaper to maintain (a standard electricity supply will do), easier to aim (minimal recoil), and has a better rate of fire than an AK-47.
  • Paul eventually gains access to a large database of alien technology, including all sorts of energy weapons and even beam singularity projectors that essentially create a black hole. But when a combat situation comes up, he almost always creates construct railguns. They're not especially intimidating — indeed, rookie Lanterns tend to dismiss them — and they don't attack at lightspeed, but they're cheap to create, easily scaled up by just making more of them, precise enough to avoid friendly fire, and they can launch a variety of specialist ammunition types, allowing them to hurt almost any target.
  • One of the really revolutionary products that Paul is distributing through KordTech is jovium, a perfect conductor of heat and electricity. The Amazons, who have had it for centuries, mostly shrugged their shoulders at it, using it in bathhouses but otherwise ignoring it; they're more interested in nigh-indestructible metals like orichalcum that can be used to make armour and weapons. However, by building an electricity grid without losses in transmission, electricity becomes cheaper, there's less conflict over oil reserves, and thousands of lives are improved or outright saved.
• In Wizard Runemaster, Harry Potter has two instances in Naxxramas where easy low-level spells are just as, if not more, effective as complicated battle oriented spells. First, using a spell for banishing spiders to turn the entirety of the Arachnid Quarter into a Zero-Effort Boss. Second, while fighting the Four Horsemen, Harry stops Mograine from using the Ashbringer by hitting him with a disarming spell and then using a sticking spell to glue the sword to the floor.
  • Later he demonstrates how a silencing spell renders magic users helpless, easily taking out a large group of mages with an area silencing spells.
  • Right from the start, one of Harry's most used spells is the translation spell which allows anyone under its effect to hear every language as their native language for twelve hours, and any word they hear in another language, they'll be able to speak afterwards. An example given by a Tauren was that if she was hit by the spell then spent a day in Stormwind, she'd likely be completely fluent in Common by the time it wore off.
  • Harry earns a lot of goodwill with both the Night Elves and the Horde leadership by introducing them to communication mirrors. Previously, communication between cities or outposts took weeks and changed hands so many times that the contents were frequently white-washed if not outright falsified. By giving Tyrande a hundred such mirrors, she and all her major outposts can communicate instantly with each other. While the Horde isn't initially given as many (due to Harry having no interaction with them yet), they still get a few dozen that allow all their leaders to contact each other at once. Furthermore, said mirrors have a conference call function so for example, all the Horde leaders can meet with each other without spending months preparing.
• In the Medaka Box fanfic World as Myth, Kumagawa's Minus, Book Maker, is a giant screw. That can subdue even War God Mode Medaka.
• Worldfall has a few examples:
  • What are the improvements of the M1A5 over the existing variants of the Abrams? A new 140mm gun, thicker armor, and an autoloader to fire faster. Race tank crews find the latter the most devastating.
  • The post-Footfall Race offensive suffers three massive defeats, but if the Americans, the Mexicans, and the Canadians used massive amounts of air bombardment (even using every single strategic bomber in tactical roles) and artillery at Route 55 and the French wiped out the Race offensive on Lyon with nerve gas, the Italians decimated the invasion of Sicily by simply taking advantage of the hill/mountain terrain mix their army is uniquely adapted to. No immense firepower, no nerve gas, simply their usual weapons on their chosen terrain.
• Xander in Xendra makes a point while patrolling to wear durable clothes he can afford to lose, including either cheap tennis shoes or work boots. Contrast Buffy who wears designer clothes and shoes and has a manicure while on patrol then complains when they get damaged or stained.
  • Xander's carpentry skills frequently help out the Scoobies, and later Angel's group, by enabling him to cheaply and efficiently repair any damage incurred against their homes. While he lacks Buffy's and Faith's fighting ability or Willow's magic and brains, Xander makes sure they don't go bankrupt repairing the Hyperion after the battle against Skip trashes the place.
• In Dark Arts and Crafts one of the first spells Xander casts on himself is a curse to prevent himself from feeling any pleasure from a designated action, casting spells in this case, thus preventing himself from ever getting addicted to magic. The fact said curse stores the pleasure that would be felt as a secondary energy source is also a useful bonus.
• In Sounds Fishy to Me or Blackened White Fish Xander teaches Pyro a basic candle lighting spell. For most people, it's near useless offensively as the flame is roughly equivalent to a lit match. For Pyro however, it means he no longer needs a flame source to use his powers.
• The M2A2 "Ma Deuce" .50 BMG Machine Gun gets described with this exact term on Regular Dinosaur Park during a weapons demonstration to some corporate big-wigs. When said "corporation" happens to be Jurassic freaking Park and the objective of said weapons is to mow down rampaging dinosaurs (or people barging into the park to commit crimes, most probably violently) before they can hurt any guests, you don't want awesome, you want it to work. The whole gamut of "awesome" (including Simple, yet Awesome) is covered by all the other guns on display, any case.
• Whenever he masters a skill in The Lemon Games, Naruto gets the choice of two perks, almost always one Awesome, but Impractical and one Boring, but Practical. For example, archery allows him either the "Like the Wind" or "Like the Lightning" perk. The former decreases his range by a third but allows him perfect accuracy even while running at top speed; whereas the latter increases his range by a third but forces him to stand perfectly still while shooting. More often than not, Naruto takes the Boring, but Practical route.
• To gather the large amounts of various poisons he needs for his experiments in Blood and Venom, Naruto places a standing bounty on them. While it's not very much, it's enough for any shinobi who comes across some to grab it for a minor bonus, thus giving Naruto access to a much larger variety of venoms, toxins, and poisons than he otherwise would have.
• Sirius Black in the snippet Magical Contracts completely changes the Shinobi world via the titular items. While not remotely flashy, the idea of contracts that are impossible to break (at least not without dire consequences) reshapes the world as not only are agreements between two parties actually ironclad, but no one is willing to make an agreement without a magical contract.
• We Must Tend Our Garden briefly mentions how Brutha handles catering for diplomatic meals. Rather than trying to make the guests feel at home by making their cuisine, he tells the cooks to make whatever they're good at, with a vegetarian option available. He probably dodged a bullet with the D'regs; someone wanted to make their sheep's eyeball delicacy, which Jingo reveals is their way of messing with foreigners.

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