Basic Trope: An item which seems incredibly powerful or awesome at first, but has detrimental issues that limit its usefulness.
- Straight:
- Alice's BFG is a One-Hit Kill on almost any enemy, but ammo for it is very scarce, and it takes a long time to aim and fire.
- The best Combination Attack needs all five members to perform it. It's awkward getting the Olympus Mons needed to pull it off, and it has the Mighty Glacier going first, meaning the enemy gets a turn during the setup.
- Exaggerated:
- Alice's BFG creates a laser the size of the Moon. But to do that, it takes enough energy to black out an entire state... for about three years and all that energy is giving away it's location to everyone and cannot be reaimed throughout the charging phase. On top of all this, the thing can only be used once.
- Cool, but Inefficient
- Downplayed: Alice's BFG is powerful, but its large charge up time limits it to use against immobile targets which cannot shoot back effectively. It is of situational use but very useful when the time is right.
- Alice's BFG is legitimately very powerful but only in narrow situations.
- Justified:
- Of course a BFG would need that much energy.
- Alice gets caught up in a crisis and needs a gun, but the only one available is a prototype that doesn't have all the kinks worked out yet.
- Inverted:
- Subverted: Alice upgrades her laser so it charges up quickly.
- This is simply because Alice hasn't mastered the weapon yet. Once she learns how to use it efficiently, it becomes one of the most effective weapons in the game.
- Alice finds that demonstrating she has sufficient ammo to fire her BFG in burst mode is enough to force surrender as it is proof that she has way more than enough technology and logistics to destroy them all in far more efficient ways.
- Double Subverted: Only 2 seconds quicker.
- Parodied: The ultimate weapon looks awesome, but is actually a water gun.
- Zig-zagged: Alice downscaled the gun so it charges faster, but sacrificed most of its firepower. Then Alice upgrades it to be just as strong as it originally was, but it can only be used once. Then Alice repairs it to have Bottomless Magazines... which is actually an improvised waterjet with a muzzle velocity so fast that it boils away its entire water tank, on top of consuming massive amount of energy and blowing up eardrums. And said repair costed literally a ton of gold.
- Averted: Anything awesome is practical and anything boring is impractical.
- Enforced: "A BFG would make things too easy for our hero. We could have it a long charge up time."
- Lampshaded: "Weapons never work how they're supposed to."
- Invoked: "Our boss demands us to make a BFG, but we don't have the energy to make it charge up quickly!"
- Implied:
- The Wall of Weapons in Alice's house has an array of amazing firepower, but it's easy to notice that one BFG has been maintained the least out of the whole lot.
- We see plenty of weapons going from drawing board to prototype to full production, but one especially cool looking design is the only one never shown leaving the drawing board the entire series.
- Exploited: The villain attacks during the BFG's long charge-up time.
- Defied: Alice refuses to use the weapon for fear of its failure.
- Discussed: "If you have a BFG, it isn't going to fire like a normal gun. It will take a long time to charge up."
- Conversed: "So, this show is trying to be realistic and show the flaws with a BFG."
- Deconstructed: Alice runs out of money from all the recharging and repair.
- Reconstructed:
- But Alice earns a lot of money defeating villains she wouldn't have been able to defeat without her special BFG.
- It doesn't matter how long the weapon takes to recharge, when it can disintegrate planets in a single shot.
- At the end of the day, Alice's BFG is the only weapon that can defeat the villain for good, and it is mentioned repeatedly, explained in length, and shown that nothing else will work. It doesn't needs to be useful for any other role.
- Played for Laughs: The boss the team are fighting sits there waiting for the BFG to charge. He taps his foot impatiently, checks his watch, and eventually leaves to get a cup of coffee. Only when he returns does the weapon actually fire.
- Played for Drama:
- The BFG is very powerful, but sucks life-energy from Alice herself, and the sheer amount of power it projects is enough to severely harm or kill Alice.
- The BFG is the only weapon powerful enough to defeat the Big Bad's forces, but the maintenance cost that Alice needs to spend on it takes a toll on her, and causes to question whether or not she is cut out to be the hero everyone wants her to be.
- Plot Foundation: For Alice, style is so much more important than substance that she's perfectly willing to use the BFG. The point of this isn't to show how powerful she is, but rather, to make it clear how she got such a favorable reputation.
Going to the main page by typing the URL in with your eyes closed would be Awesome, but Impractical. Try using the link in the previous sentence.
