Deadlock Clock: Mar 1st 2017 at 11:59:00 PM

ObsidianFire Since: May, 2014 Relationship Status: Not caught up in your love affair

#1: Feb 15th 2016 at 9:42:42 PM

I went with Unclear Description for Cursed with Awesome because that's what started this whole thing off. It could just have easily gone under Unclear Description, Misused, Ambiguous Name and Trope Decay. It also grew to include Blessed with Suck as that has the same problems Cursed with Awesome does. Sorry about the novel it turned into...

I was prompted to investigate both tropes when I really read the definition of Cursed with Awesome and literally had no idea what trope was actually being described. It sounded like there were several tropes being described all on the same page and overlapping with each other. This led me to go on a long wickcheck for Cursed with Awesome and then Blessed with Suck when it became apparent that other tropers couldn't' tell the difference between the two.

Among other things, the wickcheck for both tropes revealed that tropers were using the tropes for very similar examples and in nearly twenty percent of the examples were using both of them at the same time. As Cursed with Awesome and Blessed with Suck are presented nearly everywhere on TV Tropes as being the inverse of each other, this indicated that both tropes had major problems with their definitions.

This lead to me tracing the development of both both tropes in the Wayback Machine to see what the tropes were actually meant to be when they were first made and to see if that shed any light on what tropes were actually be described as well as how they could be fixed.

Both trope definitions with commentary and the result wickchecks are below. The full analysis is in seperate posts below as they got long.

Cursed with Awesome

This trope has fewer wicks then Blessed with Suck does, but I'm starting here because it's definition is much wider in scope then Blessed with Suck is.

Perhaps the biggest problem with Cursed with Awesome is the trope name itself; it's too ambiguous. There are so many things that can be considered curses (literal and figurative ones) and there are so many things that can be considered awesome. It's impossible to know what's being referred to simply by reading the trope title.

A strict grammatical reading of the title leads to "someone/thing cursed (literally or figuratively) with something that's awesome". However, the description is about as muddied with meaning as the title is. Because I couldn't understand what was meant by Cursed with Awesome from a quick read of the description, I did the Wickcheck first to see if that would shed some light on how other people used the trope around the wiki.

Cursed with Awesome Wickcheck and Analysis

At the time I did the wickcheck, Cursed with Awesome was linked to on around 2300 pages. I took a random sampling of 55 pages and because I wanted to see how Cursed with Awesome was used around the wiki, I didn't make a difference between examples and potholes/links. I did take a look at the work and character pages when potholes and links did occur to do some research on why Cursed with Awesome was being linked too. The results were interesting...

Number of wicks/examples:58 (some pages had multiple uses/definitions)

Audience/other characters think the power is awesome (22 examples, 38% of use)

The most common use of Cursed with Awesome is of the audience (tropers) and other characters thinking that a character's power is awesome. I searched the rest of the wiki to see what the characters who actually had the power thought about their power and it turned out that 11 examples were about a character that didn't like their power, a little over 6 of them featured characters that I couldn't find out from the wiki what they thought about their powers, 4 examples were about multiple characters (different opinions) and only 1 example was about a character who liked their power. By nature, nearly all the examples under this definition are YMMV.

Power With Disadvantages (15 examples, 26% of use)

The second most common use is when the power has both disadvantages to it, but the power itself isn't completely bad. Whoever decides the power is awesome and the disadvantages are bad, as well as what those disadvantages are, ranges from the audience to the character with the power. Essentially, these would all be examples for the Power at a Price index. Given that a lot of the examples depend on the audience's interpretation of what is considered a disadvantage, most of the examples are YMMV.

Character likes the power and got it in a negative way (definition suggested by trope title) (11 examples, 19% of use)

In addition to being the most literal interpretation of the trope title, this was the definition most often used by examples that were about what the character thought about their own power. While there were other combinations of what the character thought about the power vs. how they got it. This was by far the largest combination. As this definition depends only on what characters in the work think, this is an actual trope.

Non-examples (7 examples) (12% of use)/ZCE (3 examples) (5% of use)

Examples where there wasn't enough information to know how what was being described fit the trope and a few ZCE. It doesn't seem t o be that bad for a trope with this many wicks.

Something else I noticed was that a significant number of wicks linked the same example to both Cursed with Awesome and Blessed with Suck. This amounted to 11 examples or 19% of use. Given that Cursed with Awesome and Blessed with Suck are suppose to be inverse tropes of each other, this is a pretty good indicator that both tropes are in need of work. Ultimately, this lead me to do a wickcheck/analysis of Blessed with Suck as well.

Cursed with Awesome Description And Analysis

Now that I had at least some idea of what everyone else was seeing when they saw this trope, I took an in-depth look at the actual trope description. Specifically, I made use of the Wayback Machine to see if the way Cursed with Awesome developed explained why it had the useage it does.

Long story short, there appears to be three tropes in the definition of Cursed with Awesome and the wickcheck corroborates this.

The oldest definition (and the one with the most examples) is easiest defined as "a character thinks their power is a curse, but the audience (and often other characters) think it's awesome". The emphasis is on the contrast between what the character thinks about the power vs what the audience thinks about the power. Because this directly involves the audience, it's an Audience Reactions and therefore YMMV.

The second definition can be defined as "power with a disadvantage". Where it's the power that is awesome and it's the disadvantages that are the curse. Examples from the wickcheck reveal that nearly anything can be considered a disadvantage, from the way the power was gotten, to the power itself to side effects of using the power. The impact of the disadvantages can also range from minor annoyances to major problems. It should be noted that a lot of the examples in the other two definitions could qualify for this definition. This is simply all the examples that weren't one of the other two. This is probably YMMV as well.

The third definition is the "someone/thing cursed (literally or figuratively) with something that's awesome" definition. Given how little this definition is actually referred to in the actual trope definition, this is almost certainly a result of a literal reading of the trope title. This is also not YMMV as it doesn't require any judgment calls on the side of the audience.

Blessed with Suck

I decided to take a look at this trope when I found out that nearly a fifth of the examples in the Cursed with Awesome wickcheck said that the same power was an example of both Cursed with Awesome and Blessed with Suck.

A quick look at the definition page of Blessed with Suck revealed a much less confusing trope them Cursed with Awesome did. Sure, it suffered a tad from having a bit too much Example As Thesis and parts of it are in 2nd person, but it was still obvious what the trope was and there was one main definition tying everything together: "a character is given a special ability that seems to cause nothing but trouble". The description even follows the grammatical meaning of the trope title pretty well: "someone/thing blessed (literally or figuratively) with something that sucks".

The concise definition of Blessed with Suck lead me to hope that the wickcheck would show examples that stayed closer to the trope definition then Cursed with Awesome examples do. But no... they definitely didn't.

Blessed with Suck Wickcheck And Analysis

At the time I did the wickcheck, Blessed with Suck was linked to on around 3600 pages. I took a random sampling of 65 pages and conducted the wickcheck in the same manner as the Cursed with Awesome wickcheck.

Number of wicks/examples: 73 (some pages had multiple uses/definitions)

Power With Disadvantages (33 examples, 45% of use)

This seemed like the inverse of the "a character thinks their power is a curse, but the audience thinks it's awesome" definition of Cursed with Awesome at first, but further research into what the characters thought of their power revealed that none of the examples were about characters who thought their power didn't suck. Any examples that looked like they were going to be about characters who thought that also ended up being mostly about the downsides of that power which put them under the Power With Disadvantages category. As for the examples that are actually found in here, 3 of them are about characters who don't like their powers, 6 examples are about multiple characters (differing opinions) and in 8 examples it couldn't be determined what the characters thought about their powers. Some of these examples could be written to not be YMMV, but some definitely are.

Character doesn't like the power and got it in a positive/neutral way (definition suggested by trope title) (15 examples, 21% of use)

Here's the examples that actually agree with the trope definition. And it's a fifth of the examples in the wickcheck. I find that depressing.

Non-examples (7 examples, 11% of use)

Examples where there wasn't enough information to know how what was being described fit the trope and a few ZCE. It doesn't seem t o be that bad for a trope with this many wicks.

The percentage of examples that linked to both Blessed with Suck and Cursed with Awesome was nearly identical to the Cursed with Awesome wickcheck: 18% or 13 examples. Given that none of the examples were the same across wickchecks, I'm pretty sure that this isn't an exaggeration.

Blessed with Suck Description

Just to see if something was hiding in the Blessed with Suck definition that would lead to all the misuse, I researched it the same way I did the Cursed with Awesome one.

When it was first created, the original definition of Blessed with Suck was very narrow. It was specifically, "a power that's supposed to be awesome sucks because of outside circumstances". This seems to be where all the Power With Drawbacks examples come from. The problem now being that those examples now refer to any drawback even those that have to do with the power itself and not the circumstances the character is in. Also, there's no mention of who (audience vs character) gets to decide on if the circumstance make the power sucky, which makes me think the original definition of Blessed with Suck is inherently YMMV.

In order for the "someone/thing blessed (literally or figuratively) with something that sucks" definition to become valid, several key phrases had to be changed/added. However, since those changes were made, the definition has been very stable and has barely changed in meaning at all. This also is a definite trope instead of being YMMV.

The one definition I can't find anywhere is the "Audience/other characters think the power sucks" definition. I mean, Blessed with Suck is like not like Cursed with Awesome where the contrast between what the character think and the audience thinks is part of the trope definition. I guess those examples are just places where tropers don't put down what the characters think of their power? On the other hand, the original trope didn't call for what the character thinks...

Conclusion (TLDR)

It seems to me that this is a case of two old tropes showing their age. Both of these date back to 2007 and suffer from having unclear names for legitimate trope definitions. Because of their ambiguous names, they've undergone trope decay to the point that a significant number of examples think they mean roughly the same thing even though they're supposed to be each other's inverse. This has covered up a huge case of Missing Supertrope Syndrome. On the bright side, they've still got salvageable definitions are really the inverse of each other. This is a good thing given the large number of wicks and inbounds both tropes have.

I think we need is a YMMV version of the Power ATA Price index (Power With Drawbacks maybe?). This would at least serve as someplace to send all the examples that don't fit either the "a character thinks their power is a curse, but the audience thinks it's awesome" definition or the definitions that are a literal reading of the trope titles. It also seems like there's enough examples to warrant an Audience Reaction trope with the definition of "a character thinks their power is a curse, but the audience thinks it's awesome". As far as Cursed with Awesome and Blessed with Suck themselves go, I think they should stick with the "cursed with a power the character thinks is awesome" and "blessed with a power the character thinks sucks" definitions. They're by far the easiest definitions to extrapolate from the meaning of the trope titles and a significant portion of the examples follow those definitions anyway. It's also the easiest way to not rename them as there's to many wicks to justify a rename.

Another way to fix the tropes that wouldn't require as much work on the part of the TRS would be to make both Cursed with Awesome and Blessed with Suck YMMV and leave it at that. As they're currently used, the tropes rely more on the audience's interpretations of what is awesome or what sucks then it does on what the work says the characters think is awesome or what sucks.

Whatever option is picked though, something needs to be done. Both of these tropes are well-known around the wiki and the longer they are undressed the harder they'll be to fix in the future.

Edit: Moved detailed Wickcheck and Description Analysis to their own posts: https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/posts.php?discussion=1455601362019488200&page=1#5, https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/posts.php?discussion=1455601362019488200&page=1#6

edited 6th Nov '16 7:46:24 PM by ObsidianFire

SeptimusHeap from Switzerland (Edited uphill both ways) Relationship Status: Mu

#2: Oct 30th 2016 at 9:25:51 AM

Bumping as it was clocked.

"For a successful technology, reality must take precedence over public relations, for Nature cannot be fooled." - Richard Feynman

ObsidianFire Since: May, 2014 Relationship Status: Not caught up in your love affair

#3: Oct 31st 2016 at 10:30:50 AM

Huh. I'd assumed this had died on the back pages of the forum.

I'd be willing to put a bunch of the analysis/wickcheck parts of the OP in a second post if that would make the OP easier to read. I also would have put Blessed with Suck in the thread title if I'd been able too as it's as much about that trope as it is about Cursed with Awesome.

I'm still willing to do a bunch of grunt work for this if we start changing things about it.

shigmiya64 Somebody get this freaking duck away from me! from a settlement that needs our help, General Since: Jan, 2001 Relationship Status: Non-Canon

Somebody get this freaking duck away from me!

#4: Nov 5th 2016 at 12:48:45 PM

Hm, I always thought the rule of thumb for Cursed with Awesome was the characters think it sucks, but the audience thinks it's great, and the opposite of Blessed with Suck.

ObsidianFire Since: May, 2014 Relationship Status: Not caught up in your love affair

#5: Nov 6th 2016 at 7:40:51 PM

Moved all the examples in the two wick checks here.

Cursed with Awesome

Audience/other characters think the power is awesome ( 22 examples, 38% of use)

Research shows the character doesn't like the power (11)

DC Universe Online

Cursed with Awesome: Two-Face's opinion on Clayface's condition.
If I could look like anyone I wanted, I wouldn't be complaining.

This is the opinion of another character. From the looks of it, the character with the power doesn't think it's awesome. No mention is made of how that character got the power.

Fearless

Cursed with Awesome: Loki's point of view on Gaia's fearlessness. His attempts to recreate it don't go so well though.

This is the opinion of another character. From other examples, it looks like the character with the power doesn't think it's awesome. The same power is also listed under Blessed with Suck and no mention is made of how that character got the power. Another case where the tropers writing the examples think it's both Cursed with Awesome and Blessed with Suck.

Code Geass - Main Characters

Cursed with Awesome: Oh, sure, she's got that immortality to worry about, but she can do just about anything thanks to her powers.

No mention of what the character feels about the power. The same power is also listed under Blessed with Suck. Other examples make me think she doesn't think this power is awesome and that the way she got the power was from a negative event. The "downside" is being used sarcasticly here.

Fate/Zero

Cursed with Awesome: A Berserker class Servant is supposed to trade away their skill, sanity and Noble Phantasms for a boost to power. However, Berserker's Eternal Arms Mastery counteracts the skill and sanity loss and only one of his Noble Phantasms requires him to be capable of thinking properly and can be circumvented with Command Seals.

The character manages to turn something bad into an advantage. No mention is given about what the character think of their power as other examples reveal that he's insane for the majority of the work though... he probably doesn't like it. It doesn't look like the origins of said powers are good either. This probably is a case where the tropers writing the examples think it's Cursed with Awesome.

Film

In Blade, the title character is the son of a woman who was bitten by a vampire and went into labor. He's inhumanly strong, fast, and tough; he can stand sunlight, silver, and garlic; and he craves blood (which he avoids by using a serum, though at least once per film he drank blood and got "supercharged"). The vampires fear him because he hunts them down; in the second film, they want him so they can figure out his immunities and create vampires with them.

Pothole. No mention of what the character feels about the power, only that the tropers writing the examples think it's Cursed with Awesome. Other examples on the Blade Trilogy page give evidence that the character with the power doesn't think it's awesome and that the events that led to him getting the power were negative.

Hyrule: Total War

Cursed with Awesome: The Kingdom of Ikana. While its citizens have been cursed to relive their three-day civil war for all eternity, now that they have been unleashed upon Hyrule by Majora, they've kept the experience of these millennia of fighting and whenever they'll be killed they will just respawn from a Termina fissure. It is said even the Stalfos envy them.

General example in-universe. The negative event is there. Other examples reveal that the nation doesn't like this. Another case of tropers thinking something is Cursed with Awesome regardless of what the characters think.

President's Vampire

Cursed with Awesome: Both Tania and Zach lampshade the fact that for all of Cade's sulking about being a vampire, being a nigh-immortal, nearly indestructible, super-strong and fast predator is actually pretty cool.

This is the opinion of other characters. Other examples show that the character doesn't think being a vampire is great. It's also a given that being turned into a vampire is a bad thing.

Quake IV

Cursed with Awesome: His Stroggification is, naturally, a horrific, agonizing and traumatizing experience. However, his new modifications grant him strengths and abilities that make him humanity's best hope.

No mention of what the character feels about the power. The event is negative at least. Other examples lead me to think he doesn't think his power is awesome. Another case where the tropers writing the examples think it's Cursed with Awesome.

Rogues of Clwyd-Rhan

Cursed with Awesome: The Corby clan are "cursed" with the ability to turn into birds. Voluntarily. With absolutely no restrictions or drawbacks involved. The "curse" is broken when another character points out that they can just stop doing it.

Looking at the webcomic bios reveals that the cursed characters don't think that their curse is great. And apparently it was meant as a curse. Another case where the tropers writing the examples think it's Cursed with Awesome.

Supernatural Angst

For added irony, a character suffering from Supernatural Angst may be Cursed with Awesome or Blessed with Suck - however, in many cases there's no such irony; there's no awesome side effects to the curse, it just sucks. Link. There's no mention of who gets to determine if it's Cursed with Awesome or Blessed with Suck which leads too...

This is particularly the case if the character is Cursed with Awesome - if the Supernatural Angst stems from something that is actually pretty cool, with very few negative drawbacks, and that your readers would love to be able to do, then they're unlikely to react well if all your character does is whine about it. Link. The trope assumes the awesome part of Cursed with Awesome is determined by the audience of a work, not the person who is actually cursed.

Related tropes include Blessed with Suck; Can't Have Sex, Ever; Cursed with Awesome; I Hate You, Vampire Dad; What Have I Become?; Who Wants to Live Forever?. Contrast with Cursed with Awesome and Living Forever Is Awesome. Link. First the trope says Cursed with Awesome and Blessed with Suck are related tropes, then says that this trope is in contrast to Cursed with Awesome...

Ultimate Spiderman

Cursed with Awesome: Being Spider-Man destroys his academic career, and any chance of happiness he has. On the other hand, he's capable of web-swinging all over New York, and has the chance to do some serious good in the world.

The examples are all over the place, but it seems like he ends up not thinking his power is awesome in the end. The way he got his powers is definitely not a result of negative events though.

Research doesn't show how the character feels about their powers (6)

Hrithik Roshan

Also: He has three thumbs. Pothole. On a creator page no less... and no mention about how the real person feels about it...

Strike the Blood

Cursed with Awesome: Much like Kojou, she also has the "curse" of immortality. Hence why she shrugs off that seemingly fatal attack moments earlier by the monster she was chasing after.

The examples don't indicate that she either hates or likes her power, but they do indicate that she didn't get it as the result of something bad. Another case where the tropers writing the examples think it's Cursed with Awesome.

The Confessions Of Dorian Gray

Blessed with Suck/Cursed with Awesome: Dorian does not have a soul. This impedes and saves him multiple times throughout the series.

ZCE. There's no indication if the character got his power via good or bad events or what he thinks about it. The Picture of Dorian Gray has the origins of this under Blessed with Suck. Another case where the tropers writing the examples think it's both Cursed with Awesome/Blessed with Suck.

Film

The Mummy Trilogy: Imhotep in these films. In the first The Mummy, his every action, from betraying his liege to trying to kill the Female Lead, stems from his commitment to his lover and desire to be with her. That he brings about the end of the world is incidental, the result of being Cursed with Awesome rather than a desire for mass murder or conquest.

Link. Other examples on the The Mummy (1999) page don't show if the character thinks his powers are awesome or not, but they do show that he gained them though negative events. Another example of tropers thinking that a character is Cursed with Awesome regardless of what the character thinks.

The Big Year

Cursed with Awesome: Stu lost his sense of smell in an accident with industrial chemicals, which comes in very handy chasing rare birds at a garbage dump.

There's nothing indicating what the character feels about it, but it was a result of a negative event. Another case where the tropers writing the examples think it's Cursed with Awesome.

Virtue's Last Reward

Cursed with Awesome: According to the secret files the reason Sigma talks in cat puns when anything related to a cat is involved is that he was cursed by a magical cat when he was younger.

No mention is made of what the character thinks of the power, but the events that gave them the power are negative. Another case where the tropers writing the examples think it's Cursed with Awesome.

Research shows the opinion is about multiple characters (4)

Ultimate Spiderman

Cursed with Awesome: How he sees the Ultimates. He believes that they should be thanking Roxxon for what they gave them and can't see why they are opposed to them. He also believes they are by-large property of Roxxon although he is wrong on account of Miles was not bitten by a Roxxon made product and his only connection to them is that they are after him regardless.

The examples is specifically about another characters view of a completely different set of characters. Given that they all have different powers from different events...

Urban Rivals

World of Badass: By virtue of being locked in a war between 22 factions comprised of people ranging from Badass Normal to Cursed with Awesome to Kaiju. Unfortunately, this also has the effect of making the city a...

Pothole. Research reveals that examples are all over the place.

Legend of Legaia

Cursed with Awesome: Mystics. They contain elemental spirits inside of them and have access to corresponding Elemental Powers. However, they are generally met with a combination of fear and revulsion; Avalon's backstory shows that he turned unto evil because fellow villagers cast him out and attempted to kill him because of his being a Mystic.

General example for the game. As people are born being mystics, this doesn't really begin with something negative. Weather this is awesome or not varies on the individual.

Pillars of Eternity

Blessed with Suck: Being a Watcher carries the risk of being driven to insanity, as past lives are recalled without the ability to separate one from the other. And in the Dyrwood in particular, Watchers are regarded with suspicion by the populace. However, the Watcher can potentially see it as Cursed with Awesome instead for the other things that go with it.
Cursed with Awesome: Being a Watcher carries all sorts of perks. They can communicate with the dead, peer into people's souls, and learn a host of unique abilities that can come in handy in a fight. The player is free to decide whether the protagonist's status as a Watcher is a curse or a blessing.

General example for the game. As people are born being Watchers, this doesn't really begin with something negative. Weather this is awesome or not varies on the individual. This also varies depending on the PC. Another example where the same example qualifies for both Cursed with Awesome and Blessed with Suck.

Research shows the character likes the power (1)

Harpy Gee

Cursed with Awesome: While Harpy can't wield magic anymore due to Pumpkin eating all of it. This likewise makes her immune to magic herself as shown in a flashback when a snobby girl tried to hit her with a spell only for it to pass through her.

No mention of what the character feels about the power. Other examples reveal that Harpy is fine without having magic because she's now immune to it and that she lost her magic due to an accident.

Power With Disadvantages ( 15 examples, 26% of use)

Live Action TV

Monk: Adrian Monk is arguably the paradigm for this type. His obsessive/compulsive disorder got him booted from the SFPD and makes it difficult for him to get through his day-to-day life, but it also aids him immeasurably in solving cases. As Monk himself often acknowledges, "It's a gift... and a curse." There once was an episode in which Monk was on pills which took away the Crazy, making him also lose the Awesome.

Pothole. While the character thinks the power has at least some good to go with it, the power wasn't caused by bad events.

Destructive Harmonics

Cursed with Awesome - played with, in that lycanthropy is officially considered to be a bad thing in this setting, and it does have its drawbacks (involuntary shapeshifting, worries about infecting others, contact allergy to silver), but Billie still thinks it has its good points.

The character with the power thinks it's mostly good even if there is some drawbacks. There's no info on if the way the power is gotten is negative or not.

The Belgariad

Cursed with Awesome
- Barak's "curse" is to turn into a bear when Garion (heir to the long-empty throne of Riva and Overlord of the West by treaty) is threatened. A rampaging, unstoppable bear. At first he thinks it's just a progressive ailment and attempts suicide, but once he gets filled in on the trigger conditions (i.e., his family is now the hereditary protector's of Garion's), he contemplates tasteful ways to work it into his coat of arms. Who wouldn't want to advertise that?

The character (eventually) thinks his power is awesome. The other examples leave it ambiguous if it was a result of something negative or not.

Manhunter

Cursed with Awesome: Graham's ability to get inside the heads of the killers he tracks makes him good at his job, but puts serious stress on his own sanity at the same time.

The character doesn't seem to find his ability awesome, but it's ambiguous as to how he developed this ability.

Mass Effect: Human Revolution

Cursed with Awesome: In chapter 28, Garrus tells him that no one feels sorry for him when he complains about what the augs let him do.

The character doesn't think a particular power is great. But I can't find anything about this specific power and how it was gotten in the examples which is saying something.

Anime & Manga

Slayers has a team of regulars that involves an overzealous justice freak who often does Sailor Moon-style poses and failed acrobatics, an overly short Pettanko motivated primarily by greed/gluttony/revenge, a Big Eater Dumb Blonde Badass Normal, and a Cursed with Awesome golem-demon-human hybrid. The extra characters in the party include an ex-princess who worships a monster she made up, a demon with a penchant for secret-keeping (who is also willing to sell out the entire party), and a shrine maiden with an absurd lack of skill in black magic (to the point where she casts carrot-sized fire spells that tickle people) who somehow learned the strongest black magic spell.

Link. The work page reveals that the character in question doesn't like his power (he wants to get rid of it) and he got it though negative events.

Break the Haughty

Also features in The Voyage of the Dawn Treader. Eustace has an (unjustified) superior attitude towards everyone around him (especially towards the non-humans) and considers himself above such mundane tasks as setting up camp and sneaks off on his own to explore the island. He gets hopelessly lost and then turned into a dragon for sleeping on a dragon's hoard while thinking greedy thoughts. This actually seems like it would be pretty fun, but Eustace is doesn't have the right mindset to be able to enjoy it; also, being turned into a dragon has some serious drawbacks since he can't speak and can't go on with the ship because he's too heavy and eats too much.

Pothole. This is never treated as Cursed with Awesome in-universe except for a few brief moments by the person with cursed. When the person figures out it's not awesome, and is really Cursed With Suck, this is treated as a good thing by everyone in-universe.

Fullmetal Alchemist

Cursed with Awesome:
- Scar's right arm, which is tattooed with a transmutation circle, but which can only take apart things, whereas a normal alchemical circle deconstructs something and puts it back together in a desirable shape. Scar dislikes it due to how the arm is a transplant from his brother, who thus sacrificed himself to save Scar, and how it utilizes alchemy which is taboo to Scar's people, the Ishbalans.
- The homunculi, who are practically immortal and possess amazing superpowers, yet bitterly resent their existence and supernatural forms. Likewise with Al and the other souls-bonded-to-suits found in Laboratory 5, who are likewise, almost immortal and yet, with the exception of Al, see themselves as not-human. Lust even compares the two situations when trying to explain to Ed why she wants to become human.

Both of these examples are of characters who don't think their powers are awesome and who got their powers though negative events. Both examples are tropers thinking that a character is Cursed with Awesome.

Opposite-Sex Clone

In Mass Effect 2, Miranda Lawson is genetically engineered using her biological "father's" modified genome to be perfect. Unsurprisingly she has some pretty severe daddy issues resulting from what she perceives as her father's egotistical arrogance. Ultimately by the end of 2 and in 3, they turn out to be two VERY different people, with Henry Lawson turning out to be even worse than Miranda described and Miranda showing herself to be a Jerk with a Heart of Gold, with the Jerk part eventually being shed.

Pothole.The character's "power" is a source of angst for them as is the origins of it. Another case where it's the tropers writing the examples think this is Cursed with Awesome.

Celebrity Is Overrated

The Simpsons did this multiple times.
- Parodied towards the end of "Homerpalooza", when Homer becomes famous as a carnival freak who withstands cannonballs to his stomach, but is urged to stop by a veternarian because it's damaging his body. During his final show, Homer dodges the cannonball, losing his fans.
Homer: I'll miss you, Pumpkins, but I just can't share your bleak world view. I've got too much to live for.
Billy Corgan: We envy you, Homer. All we have is our music, our legion of fans, our million of dollars and our youth...
(Beat)
Smashing Pumpkins: Woo-hoo!
James Iha: Let's all go out and buy fur coats!
Jimmy Chamberlin: I want a walk-in humidor.

Pothole. It looks like the character doesn't like the power and they got it in a positive way.

Granola Girl

Monique of Sinfest fame is attempting to become one after an encounter with Barack Obama. Sadly for her she is Cursed with Awesome in that her own sex appeal tends to trip her up, putting her on the Devil's radar.

Link. Examples from the work page reveal that the character doesn't like their "power", but as said "power" is of neutral origin.

Sealed with a Kiss

Used literally and figuratively in Date A Live where almost every arc ends with Shido kissing the Girl of the Week. (This seals their power and allows them to live normally.)

Pothole. A look at the Date A Live page shows that the characters don't think their power is awesome in the circumstances and that the events that led to their power are probably neutral.

Twilight Dragon

Bizarre Baby Boom: After a while, it turns out that nearly every baby born on Earth was becoming infected with either the Crystallinevirus or the Capaciousvirus - two very bad Cursed with Awesome type diseases that permanently alter the molecular structure and brain density of the affected people.
Cursed with Awesome: People who have been infected with the Crystallinevirus can become see-through and partially intangible. Unfortunately, the disease also leads to death, either by "losing yourself" or being hunted down and eventually murdered by Fader Haters. Psychics could also count. They possess incredible psychic power, but most end up killing their parents as infants or toddlers because they can not control their power that young.

These both look to be general in-universe examples with no mention of how the people with the diseases view them. Other examples seem to show that the people with these diseases do not view them as being awesome. Another case where the tropers writing the examples think it's Cursed with Awesome.

Alphas

Blessed with Suck: She arguably has the worst drawback of the entire team; at least, the most debilitating. She can't help but focus excessively on whatever she's doing, which means she sees how horribly disgusting every surface is, smells everything at greater intensity, and can barely kiss a guy without her sense of touch going haywire.
- Cursed with Awesome: When she gets her abilities dialed up by the power-amplifying photic stimulator, all those downsides are magnified even further... except she can suddenly get intimate without it overwhelming her. Not a bad exchange, all things considered.
Cursed with Awesome: How she sees her power. She learns anything instantly, and the memory loss means no "rear-view mirror". Bill and Rosen try to convince her that some memories are worth holding onto.
- She later withdraws this claim, telling Hicks that he's lucky to have his memories.

No mention of what the character feels about the power, only that the tropers writing the examples think it's both Cursed with Awesome and Blessed with Suck. No mention of how the power was gotten either, but other examples make me think that it wasn't a result of a negative event.

Far Out There

Cursed with Awesome - Avatar. Immortality and indestructibility sound great on the surface, but what good is Eternal Life when you have no life?

No mention of what the character feels about the power, only that the tropers writing the examples think it's Cursed with Awesome. The character bio on the webcomic doesn't specify how the character views their power either. It does reveal that the origin of said power was a negitive event.

Character likes the power and got it in a negative way (definition suggested by trope title) ( 11 examples, 19% of use)

Buffy the Vampire Slayer S4 E12 "A New Man"

Cursed with Awesome: Averted; Giles wants to know if he has Eye Beams, but apparently the only power a Fyarl demon has is to sneeze large amounts of mucus. Paralyzing mucus that turns hard as concrete.

The character wants to know if they got an awesome power from a negative event. They didn't.

Design-It-Yourself Equipment

NetHack lets the player wish for items if they find a means of getting said wish. The trick here is that the player can also wish for modifiers to said items. Some of the more popular wishes include: blessed greased + 2/+3 gray / silver dragon scale mail, 7 uncursed candles, cursed potions of gain level, and magic markers.

Pothole. Research shows that this is considered a good thing in the game as a Cursed Potion of Gain Level will decrease the level of the dungeon you are on which effectively lets you travel deeper into the dungeon for free.

Fallout 4: Companions

Cursed with Awesome: He regards his current state as an acceptable trade-off for near-immortality. (He's a ghoul.)

Probably invoked in-universe. Other examples reveal the character specifically went and "cursed" himself to become a ghoul so he could take advantage of the "awesomeness" that came with being one.

Fringe Observers

Brought Down to Normal: By the Observers as a punishment. He considers it a blessing.

Pothole. The character thinks that the "power" he gained is great even though it was gained though negative events.

Fullmetal Alchemist

Cursed with Awesome:
- Edward's automail, Steampunk prosthetics which offer full mobility but presumably require constant maintenance. They give him an advantage in combat, as they are sturdy, disposable, transmutable and throw off opponents, but they are still prosthetics—meaning he had to lose his right arm and left leg to begin with—and a constant reminder of the price he and his brother paid for trying to resurrect the dead.

Fullmetal Alchemist (Anime)

Cursed with Awesome: Even Ed admits his automail has come in handy and saving his life on many occasions.

In both the above examples, the character went through something negative and managed to turn it into something he views positively.

Planescape: Torment

Cursed with Awesome: The people who turned his body into a living conduit to The Elemental Plane of Fire meant it as an Ironic Hell. They definitely weren't expecting him to like it.

The character loves his power even though how he got it was specifically supposed to be negative by design.

Seasons of Love

A Threesome Is Hot: Subverted. We don't see it, but when Jimmy suggests this to Scott as a solution to his problem, it ends up ruining Scott's relationship with Sloane (although it does fix the original problem). Of course, this was the plan from the start, enabling Jimmy to sleep with Sloane in the aftermath. After they break up, Samara and others invoke the idea that we're supposed to feel sorry for him about this.

Pothole. Seems to be that the characters think the outcome of a negative event is great.

Supernatural Angst

Sin-Eaters, since the Geist in one's head is a pretty kickass alternative to what would happen if they didn't have one-namely, being dead.

Pothole. Interestingly enough, the work page puts this same example under Blessed with Suck. From that example it seems that it's a general example in-universe and that most characters that are this think it's pretty awesome even though they pretty much ended up dieing to get it.

The Frighteners

Cursed with Awesome: Frank gained the ability to communicate with the dead after a tragic accident that killed his wife and exploited it for profit as a "freelance exorcist."

The character seems to be perfectly fine with his ability even though it came about through horrible events.

Web Comics

We could save a lot of time and simply say EVERYONE from Homestuck. The universe is not kind to these characters.
- Sollux and Aradia. Aside from being responsible for the software's creation, both are Cursed with Awesome Mad Oracles; Aradia hears voices and is a ghost after Sollux was mind-controlled into killing her during a flashback, and Sollux has serious self esteem issues.

Link. The events that lead them to getting their powers (or at least fully realizing them) are negative. Aradia at least loves her powers/role.

Z Nation

Cursed with Awesome: Murphy. He's immune to the virus. Being immune results in him mutating into a zombie-human hybrid. Zombies regard him as one of them and he doesn't seem to need food, rest or drink. However, being a half-zombie results in his skin going grey and wrinkly, weird black tumors growing all over him, his eyes changing color, and, as of the season finale, his skin shedding.

The other examples don't show much about what Murphy feels about it , but they never mention him having problems with having his powers. It's also pretty obvious he got them in a negative way. Another case where the tropers writing the examples think it's Cursed with Awesome.

Non-examples ( 7 examples) (12% of use)/ZCE ( 3 examples) (5% of use)

A Charmed Life

Cursed with Awesome: Light decides that if he is "cursed" than he couldn't have asked for a nicer curse to have.

Non-example. The character is being ironic.

Badass Normal "It's important to note if they have strange or superhuman abilities, they are not normal. There is no "relatively" when it comes to Badass Normal. It doesn't matter if you can "barely" lift a tank, your ki blasts can "only" level cities, your Bio-Augmentation is standard issue, or your ability to alter the fabric of reality isn't as developed as others; you're a badass with superpowers." Pothole. Used as a synonym for general superpowers.

Gentle Giant

Some comic book characters are gentle giants by necessity. Captain Britain is constantly aware that a slip-up could turn a handshake into a crushed hand.

General example and potholes to both Cursed with Awesome and Blessed with Suck.

K-On!

Cursed with Awesome: In-universe, of sorts: she's unable to understand Mio and Sachi's worries about fitting into nice clothes. They'd both rather dress cutely but don't have the figure for it, and it's bothersome to a girl with A-Cup Angst like hers. She immediately apologizes for making light of their insecurities after Sachi points out how people can be self-conscious about all sorts of things (like being tall...)

Non-example. I don't even... what's going on here?

Super Amazing Wagon Adventure

Blessed with Suck/Cursed with Awesome: If a party member gets ill, their health drops to 1, which effectively makes them a One-Hit-Point Wonder. However, if you manage to keep them alive, they will heal back to full health regardless of how much health they had before getting ill.

Not enough information to figure out what is going on here. Research didn't reveal anything either. Another case where tropers think it's both Cursed with Awesome and Blessed with Suck.

Supernatural Angst

Edward Cullen often crosses the line into Supernatural Wangst, although Stephanie Meyer's somewhat idiosyncratic take on vampirism does not count as Cursed with Awesome.

Link. Really an general example in-universe. The specific characters who have the powers don't think they're awesome and most of them get those powers in negative events. Other members of their race would definitely think they are Cursed with Awesome though...

The Sims 2

Cursed with Awesome: The Grilled Cheese Aspiration. You can rack up aspiration points really quickly by doing various very simple tasks involving grilled cheese sandwiches. With Free Time you can get a benefit that allows your Sim to conjure grilled cheese out of thin air, meaning you never have to worry about cooking again and you'll achieve the Lifetime Want (Eat 200 Grilled Cheese Sandwiches) in no time.

No explanation is given for why the events causing this would be bad even in other examples.

I Just Want to Be Normal: Sims who don't have a knowledge aspiration react this way if you get them turned into a monster. Even a witch, which makes a Sim Cursed with Awesome and carries no harmful side effects whatsoever.

Link. Not an example.

Hawkman

Cursed with Awesome/Blessed with Suck

ZCE. Another case where both Cursed with Awesome/Blessed with Suck are used at the same time.

Twisted Metal

Cursed with Awesome: In Black.

ZCE.

Witch Quest

Cursed with Awesome / Blessed with Suck: Like other Puella Magi.

ZCE. Another case where the tropers writing the examples think it's both Cursed with Awesome/Blessed with Suck.

Blessed with Suck

Power With Disadvantages ( 33 examples, 45% of use)

Atomic Laundromat

Blessed with Suck: Juno, whose third eye lets her foresee everything before it happens. It can make life pretty boring. It can also make life pretty horrific, judging from the glimpses we get of her backstory.
- She does have temporal nearsightedness, though, so she can only see up to a certain point in the future. And she practically forces David to give her a job at the laundromat because it's the one place her powers don't work.

The character tries to get their powers not to work and it's not mentioned how she got the powers in the first place.

Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha ViVid

Super Power Lottery: She has 500 years of combat experience. What is she doing in a tournament for preteens?!
- Blessed with Suck: Although she isn't very fond of having her power since it caused her problems in the past.

The character doesn't like their power, but other examples don't reveal if it was the result of negative events or not.

Planetarium

Blessed with Suck: The girl can see her future up to a point, but can't remember anything that happened to her in the past. It's said in the first part that she eventually moved away from her family because they kept on using her as a fortune-telling machine.

The character with the power finds it to be inconvenient at lest, but there's no mention in other examples as to what lead to her getting the power in the first place.

Laser-Guided Amnesia: Part of the girl's Blessed with Suck package: she sees things when they haven't come to pass yet, but she forgets them as soon as they come to pass. This results in her losing all her memories of the mathemagician at the end when she uses up her foresight and begins remembering things normally, though it's implied that she does retain some subconscious memory of him.

Link.

Feng Shen Ji

Cast from Lifespan: Using the Phoenix drains your life force. Shi Xing, being undead, doesn't really care...

Pothole. Having read the manhua, this is more appropriately a case of Cursed With Suck. The character hates his power (he's got a death wish) when he's sane (the same curse that makes him undead also drives him Ax-Crazy) and he was literally cursed with it as punishment. But what a power it is...

Freedom City

Blessed with Suck: His Super-Senses, which were so powerful that he suffered constant pain, his companions doubting his sanity due to his pleas for relief from light and sound that, to them, were harmless, and which ultimately drove him to commit suicide.

The character obviously doesn't like their power, but they got it through negative events.

GL - Other Villains

Blessed with Suck: Most versions of Power Ring are essential enslaved by the ring, rather than using it for their own ends. Most Power Rings are still evil, just frustrated at their lost free will.

At least one version of the character this example is for doesn't like the power he gets. But the ways he gets the power are always negative.

The Magic Comes Back

Final Fantasy XIII-2 reveals that a small portion of ordinary humans (the protagonist Serah included) has suddenly gained magical powers in the aftermath of the Fall, when the majority of them migrated down to Gran Pulse. In Final Fantasy XIII, magic was restricted to the l'Cie servants of fal'Cie, and while Serah in particular was a l'Cie once, it is implied she has lost whatever meager powers she had upon de-crystallizing and gained them again the natural way, so to speak.

Pothole. The event it's referring to is more properly a case of Cursed With Suck.

Video Games

After Gulcasa's demon blood is unsealed in Blaze Union, he goes from having a normal appetite for a teenage boy to going after everything edible. In hindsight, the use of this trope is actually rather depressing, as Gulcasa desperately needs the energy due to the general instability of his body and his flagrant abuse of his Dangerous Forbidden Technique. When having Gulcasa use edible items in-game, though, it just comes off as silly and cute—especially given what kinds of food make him go "Oh god, why did I just eat that?" and the way he still won't touch dairy with a ten-foot pole.

Pothole. Examples on the work page give the impression that the character doesn't like his power and that he got it from a negative event.

Anti-Magic

A Certain Magical Index: Touma has the "Imagine Breaker", a right hand that can completely cancel any esper or magic power it touches. The suck comes in the fact that it also cancels his luck — turning him into a Cosmic Plaything — and leaves plenty of loopholes, like hitting any other part of his body or even cancelling out healing magic (though somewhat mitigated by a generous hospital and Healing Factor.

Pothole. Seems to be used as a synonym for Power With Drawbacks. The A Certain Magical Index Protagonists page puts the same power under both Blessed with Suck and Cursed with Awesome where it's revealed the character was born with this ability. Examples are all over the place on what he really thinks about his power.

Anti-Magic

Arcanum: Of Steamworks & Magick Obscura has a Technical to Magical spectrum. The more skills you learn of each, the more ineffective (and possibly dangerous) the other becomes for you to use or to use against you. (e.g. magic armor won't give benefits to engineers, and guns will blow up when used against mages). Characters with a high technological aptitude have this effect around magical items and have a high resistance to magic. Even the good kind.

Pothole. Seems to be used as a synonym for Power With Drawbacks. The power has a neutral origin.

Anime/Canaan

Superpower Lottery: The kind of mutation a Borner gets, along with its strengths and drawbacks, seem to be entirely random. Hayatori in episode 2 has two hearts, granting him immense agility and premature aging, while his brother in episode 3 can contort and squeeze inside small spaces, though he's physically trapped in a child's body. Meanwhile Yunyun has been granted... two appendixes.

Pothole. Paradoxically, the Characters/Canaan page says that she got off easy compared to some of the other characters with powers. It's not said how the character feels about the power, but it's the result of a mutation, so it's neutral at least. Another case where the tropers writing the examples think it's Blessed with Suck.

Furry Webcomics

The Pride of Life: A webcomic about a dog-like teenager named Kedamono, who, after eating a legendary fruit, transforms into a 'superbeast' and gains super powers. He quickly finds out that this isn't necessarily a good thing. Largely a comedy with fantasy elements.

Link. The work page reveals that while the character finds the power a downside, other people in his position think it's great. And that it's usually gotten in a positive/neutral way. So it's a general in-universe example. The work page also puts the same power under both Blessed with Suck and Cursed with Awesome.

Jason and the Argonauts

Blessed with Suck: Phineas is given the gift of making prophecies but has lost his eyesight. Derek Jacobi's version even has his eyes sewed shut.

The power was meant as a gift, but it has downsides. It's not said what the character thinks about this. Another case where the tropers writing the examples think it's Blessed with Suck.

Literature

The Dresden Files has a condition called Cassandra's Tears, resulting in a person having somewhat reliable visions of the future, which no one believes. If someone does believe, the condition may be cured — but it's easily faked and a common confidence scam among the magical community. Which probably contributes to the fact that no one believes the predictions. More medically, genuine cases are also easy to mistake for garden-variety seizures, so people not in on The Masquerade, or people in on it but not suspecting the condition, could end up trying to medicate the wrong problem.

Pothole. This is a general in-universe example and therefore can't make any judgements on what the characters with the power think about it. It looks though like this power comes from neutral events. Another case where the tropers writing the examples think it's Blessed with Suck.

Marillion

Blessed with Suck: Thanks to "Kayleigh", no matter how hard they try to reinvent themselves, the Mainstream Media will always view them as a One-Hit Wonder from The '80s.

Real life example, so who knows what the real people think. It does come about from a good event though. Another case where the tropers writing the examples think it's Blessed with Suck.

The Wolverine

Blessed with Suck: Yukio's mutant power allows her to foresee a person's death (including that of her own parents), but she can't do anything to prevent it from happening.

Other examples don't reveal what the character thinks about their ability. She got it in a neutral way. Another case where the tropers writing the examples think it's Blessed with Suck.

Tutenstein

Blessed with Suck: Arguably, Luxor. The scepter's magic made him intelligent and able to speak, but also forced him to become Tut's Extreme Doormat Beleaguered Assistant.

No mention is made of what the character thinks about it. Apparently he didn't get to be this way though bad events though. Another case where the tropers writing the examples think it's Blessed with Suck.

Anti-Magic

Orem, in Hart's Hope by Orson Scott Card, is a "Sink"; he gets the full Blessed with Suck implications (Power Incontinence, et cetera) until he's properly trained in it, but afterwards he's able to negate the Big Bad's entire power-up ritual by duplicating it as she goes along.

Link. The character apparently outgrows the suck part of Blessed Wtih Suck eventually. He got the power though neutral events. This is a case where the tropers writing the examples think it's both Blessed with Suck and Cursed with Awesome.

Freakazoid!

Cursed with Awesome: He wasn't too happy at first about becoming Freakazoid, but once he realized the opportunities (code: impressing girls) his attitude changed.
- Blessed with Suck: His sanity suffers big time for it, though.

The character thinks his power is awesome and other examples give the impression that he got the power though neutral means. Another case where the tropers writing the examples think it's both Blessed with Suck and Cursed with Awesome.

Inuyasha

Blessed with Suck / Cursed with Awesome:
- Miroku. The Wind Tunnel in his right hand, a curse placed on his grandfather and passed down onto him, is basically a one-way dimensional gateway with the force of a minute black hole. Even the most powerful of demons seem to be unable to escape it if drawn inside — witness the spirit of Kaguya, an entity stated to be truly immortal, being banished forever by being drawn inside the Wind Tunnel. However, Miroku can only control it by wrapping his hand in certain special beads, and as Naraku created it, he has also created a counter for it: a rapidly-breeding wasp-like creature called Saimyosho contain a poison that will cause Miroku intense pain and eventually death if he draws them in. Oh, and the Wind Tunnel, even if not used, is slowly growing ever larger, until the day when it consumes Miroku and everything around him in a fair-sized Sphere of Destruction, just as it has already devoured his father and grandfather.

It's a power gotten in a negative way that the character doesn't like even if he makes good use of it. Another example where the tropers writing the examples think it's both Blessed with Suck and Cursed with Awesome.

Supernatural: Dean Winchester

Blessed with Suck: Dean is totally immune to the hunger-inducing powers of Famine, which seems pretty cool. Except that Famine points out it's due to the fact that Dean is so dead inside that no form of self-indulgence would fill the void.

For this specific example, it doesn't look like the character minds or that it's from good events. Other examples on the page might qualify though...

The Heritage of Shannara

Blessed with Suck: All of the Ohmsford heirs, and Morgan as well. They have powerful magic that can help them slay Shadowen, sure. It also means that they're targets for every Shadowen out there, constantly have to be on the lookout in case they become addicted to it, and are in constant danger of passing out or mutating due to its overuse.

No mention is made of what the characters think of their power. They got it though neutral means. Another case where the tropers writing the examples think it's Blessed with Suck.

The Flash – The Rogues

Blessed with Suck: Downplayed: His Integrated Freezing abilities make him more powerful than ever but liquid tends to freeze around him, so he can't get drunk, and when he get's tossed into the water it freezes on him, and he has difficulty moving.

The fact that this is downplayed makes me think that this isn't an example. Other examples show that he takes full advantages of his power at least. He also invented and gave himself his own powers, so he got them in a good way. Another case where the tropers writing the examples think it's Blessed with Suck.

Freedom City

Blessed with Suck: Incredible physical power, at the cost of being visibly monstrous looking and with a body so clumsy he can't really perform the scientific experiments he loves so much.

No mention of how the character feels about their power, but they did get it from negative events. Another case where the tropers writing the examples think it's Blessed with Suck.

League of Legends: Others

Cursed with Awesome: To some extent. The curse of his people on him is extremely painful, but it's pretty useful for combat since his body can regenerate past it. His people have been Blessed with Suck in some way by having their curse removed, since it's apparently grown into their regenerative factor; removing the curse has also removed that.

Link. Although it is used as the inverse of Cursed with Awesome in this case. Except that other example reveal that the people who are supposedly Blessed with Suck really like that they aren't Cursed With Suck anymore. Which means it's Blessed With Awesome for them...

The Legend of Korra - Avatar Korra

Blessed with Suck: She manifested as the Avatar far younger than normal, so she got even less of a normal childhood than Aang. Something that repeatedly bites her in the ass in Season 1, as she commits faux pas after faux pas in Repbulic City. Then, in Season 3, we find out that the White Lotus didn't just sequester her in a Southern Water Tribe compound because they misinterpreted Aang's final request to protect the next Avatar: Korra's abnormally young Avatar status emboldened an anarchist offshoot of the White Lotus (The Red Lotus) to try and kidnap her, so they locked her away for her protection, not knowing how many more potential kidnappers there were. Add to that the implication that Korra's prodigy status left her so reliant on her physical abilities that her spiritual ones atrophied to the point where she couldn't even activate the Avatar state out of fear or anger, not Airbend, nor contact the spirit of Aang or the other Avatars. ^note

Other examples reveal that the character's perception of their powers is all over the place, but by the series' end, she likes them. They were gotten for a neutral reason.

Anti-Magic

It can be Blessed with Suck if this means White Magic doesn't work on you either. No magical healing or protection in this case. If the world runs on Magic, this person may be a pariah, especially if it's a power that they can't control. Link. Seems to be used as a synonym for power with drawbacks.

Batman Beyond

Rubber Man: The 2-D Man of the Terrific Trio in the episode "Heroes". His powers are nearly identical to that of Fantastic Four's Mr. Fantastic. Unfortunately, the Trio is Blessed with Suck, as their powers came at the cost of their decaying genetic structure. Eventually, they go psycho and do a Face–Heel Turn, forcing Batman to kill them. The 2-D Man is sucked into a high-powered fan and chopped into pieces.

Link. Seems to be used as a synonym for power with drawbacks. Research doesn't reveal how they got their powers or how they feel about them. This is a case where the tropers writing the examples think it's Blessed with Suck.

Eden OCT

Blessed with Suck: Zalosts new soul makes him feel compassion for those he kills, Endas blessing can kill her, 807 needs to eat constantly or she will shut down, Ooze can't keep a solid form unless he's conscious of it, and too many noises can cloud Mods vision. Sucks to be them.

It's not mentioned if the characters think these are good or not. It's also not mentioned how they even got the powers. Another case where the tropers writing the examples think it's Blessed with Suck.

I See Dead People

This is a very dangerous ability to have in the Hell Teacher Nube world, as being able to see and hear ghosts means that you're Supernaturally Delicious and Nutritious - ones with Ghostly Goals won't stop bothering you until you help them, and the ones that are dangerous will come after you first.

Pothole. The work page doesn't use Blessed with Suck as a trope at all.

Chloe of the Darkest Powers series is a necromancer, and quite thoroughly Blessed with Suck. She can certainly see ghosts, and they can see her... but there is nothing to alert her to the fact that they're ghosts...

Link. Tones of natter after this. Tropes on the work/character pages doesn't reveal what the character thinks about this, but she does use it a lot. They also don't reveal how she got it.

Shock and Awe

Johnny B of the cult classic Misfits of Science. The ability to throw lightning and move at Flash-like speeds somewhat makes up for the fact that a drop of water will burn him like acid. How he doesn't die of dehydration was never addressed.

Pothole. The work page doesn't even mention the trope.

Spellforce

Blessed with Suck: as a Rune Warrior, the Shadow Bearer owns the only weapon able to kill a Fial Darg. However, said weapon is slowly corrupting him and turning him into a Living Shadow. And there's nothing to prevent that.
- Cursed with Awesome: as a Shadow, the Shadow Bearer is basically an invisible eldritch Fial Darg-slaying assassin.

Other examples show that the character at least thinks the drawbacks are acceptable. I can't find if the origins of the power are negative or not. Another case where the tropers writing the examples think it's both Blessed with Suck and Cursed with Awesome.

Tokyo Ravens

Blessed with Suck: His prophetic ability made him miserable due to the knowledge of the future.

The character doesn't like their power, but it's not mentioned how they got it.

Audience/other characters think the power sucks ( 17 examples, 23% of use)

Research doesn't show how the character feels about their powers (8)

King of the Hill

Blessed with Suck: One episode has Bobby having to take medication to focus in class better. On one hand, the medication ends up giving him Hyper-Awareness (bordering on Super-Senses). On the other hand, he ends up acting perpetually stoned out of his mind.
: Bobby: *sniff sniff* There some milk in the fridge that's about to go bad. *sniff sniff* And there it goes...

It's not mentioned what the character thinks of the power, but they got it though neutral means. Another case where the tropers writing the examples think it's Blessed with Suck.

One Piece: Major Villains in the New World

Blessed with Suck: Her Devil Fruit is pretty versatile, but it's unfortunate that it halted her aging process at ten forever. Especially since it seems that her mental development has gone on normally for the most part.

No mention is made of what she thinks of her own power, or the circumstances that lead to her eating a Devil Fruit, although the vast magoirty of people eating Devil Fruits are neutral/positive events. Another case where the tropers writing the examples think it's Blessed with Suck.

Yandere Kanojo

Bishounen: Which garners the attention of many females. Given his orientation and dislike of women, this becomes Blessed with Suck.

There's no mention of what the character feels about their situation which of neutral origin.

Zettai Karen Children

Blessed with Suck: As a psychometer, she can read people's darkest secrets and feelings, leading her to have a very cynical view of people and also leading many people to being afraid of touching her.

Other examples reveal that the character knows her power has given her dark outlook on life, but it's not revealed if she doesn't like that or not. Her power is neutral in origin.

Persona 3

Blessed with Suck: The group requires the same life-shortening drugs that Shinjiro takes. In fact, they're his dealers.

If not for some of the other examples, this is nearly a ZCE.

Woobie, Destroyer of Worlds: A trio of this, all of them being artificially implanted with the powers of Persona by the Kirijo Group and forced to take drugs that shorten their lifespan in order to control their powers. The leader, Takaya, later embraces Nyx coming to destroy life, proclaiming that his fight against SEES is him fighting for his way of life.

Pothole. It's obvious though that the way they got their powers is negative. How they think of them isn't really mentioned in the other examples. At least one of them does like them though.

Characters/Prototype

Blessed with Suck: Seems to kill anything he touches. As a result, he is kept either in a sealed cell or a courtyard surrounded by snipers and barbed wire.

The character never appears in the game, but is only mentioned. The circumstances that lead to his power are bad though. Another case where the tropers writing the examples think it's Blessed with Suck.

The Dresden Files – The Fae

Blessed with Suck: She was content with being just a changeling, until Maeve forced the mantle of the Summer Lady onto her by killing Lily.

The events that lead to her getting the power are pretty bad. Other examples don't reveal if she likes the power she got or not. Another case where the tropers writing the examples think it's Blessed with Suck.

Star Trek Novel 'Verse

Blessed with Suck: As a "Quiet," she has the ability to communicate with the other sapient race on her homeworld, a talent very few possess. Unfortunately, Quiets have great difficulty with regular language skills (hence the name - as children, they don't speak). Her childhood was therefore difficult, and she was an outcast for much of it.

It's not specificed how the character got her ability or what the character thought about the ability. Another case where the tropers writing the examples think it's Blessed with Suck.

Blessed with Suck: Miras Vara's spiritual awakening in Terok Nor may be for the good of Cardassia, but her new life is hardly a happy one, seeing as she has to give up her old identity and live on the run as an outlaw. Then there's her prophetic knowledge of her planet's future destruction, which she knows she is powerless to prevent. She sees it regularly in her dreams, and is haunted by the vision.

Other example don't reveal if the character likes her power or not and the events that lead to her getting that power are ambiguous. Another case where the tropers writing the examples think it's Blessed with Suck.

Research shows the opinion is about multiple characters (6)

Black And Gold

Barrier Maiden: This is what makes her responsible for the special humans and Godlings sheltered by the Institute.
Blessed with Suck: Kira's condition is dehabilitating, but the "advice" of the voices allow her to see through trickery and deception, including the Love aura.
- This comes even more into play when the "voices" are revealed to be the manifestation of her suppressed memories trying to push through.
Beta Couple: Hinted with Joey, one of L.J.'s cousins. Interestingly, while he has a crush on Kira (mainly because the aura of infatuation he radiates doesn't affect her due to her Blessed with Suck condition), Kira's "voices" tell her to stay away from him because of how manipulative L.J.'s cousins are. Kira thus treats Joey with indifference, and even goes out of her way to avoid him. But Joey, being the Anthropomorphic Personification of Love's rash and daring side, just doesn't get it, and still chases after her.
Blessed with Suck: They have the ability to make girls infatuated with them, but they can't turn it off, so will probably never have a real relationship. Basically why Joey likes Kira.

None of the other examples revival what the characters who have the abilities think of them. It is revealed that they were born with them. This is a case where the tropers writing the examples think it's Blessed with Suck.

Star Trek

Blessed with Suck: Vorta only have a ridiculously limited sense of taste, a feature installed in their genes to remind them of their humble origins. They generally have no appreciation for art. Combine that with an intrinsic belief in the Founders as gods, bad eyesight, and zero sex life, and the Vorta might have been happier as monkeys.

This is a general in-universe example that covers multiple people. The race as a whole was genetically engineered to be the way they are and most of them are perfectly fine with it. Another case where the tropers writing the examples think it's Blessed with Suck.

Film/Scanners The drifter, Cameron Vale (Stephen Lack), is delivered into the custody of Dr. Paul Ruth (Patrick McGoohan of The Prisoner fame), who informs him that he is a scanner. A scanner is a person born with a derangement of their brain, giving them telepathy. They can 'scan' you. Unfortunately, this telepathy is very much of the Blessed with Suck variety: most scanners can hear your thoughts, and can't block them out. They get Psychic Nosebleeds. They can alter your bodily functions. A particularly powerful one, like Big Bad Darryl Revok (Michael Ironside) can blow up your head. Link.

Anti-Hero: In the thought-provoking sense, rather than the Lovable Rogue sense. Sure, Cameron is a stone cold Bad Ass who can put his enemies into cardiac arrest without lifting a finger, but due to being Blessed with Suck, he's also just generally stone cold. He has no outside interests, no real motivation of his own, and not a whole lot of personality, being described by Kim as "barely even human." During his downtime, he simply sits in his hotel room, stares at the wall, and waits for the next plot point to happen. So yes, he's a Bad Ass, but not the sort of Bad Ass you would ever daydream about being. This makes sense, as the character was a downright Villain Protagonist in the original script. This motif of the protagonist-as-a-pawn was one that Cronenberg later returned to in Videodrome, where the manipulation is a good deal more explicitly sinister.

Link. Other examples reveal this power was gotten though negative events.

Blessed with Suck: It's no fun being a Scanner, mostly because of all that Power Incontinence. Also, hearing the thoughts of everyone around you gets noisy and distracting.

Other examples reveal that at least one person tried to get rid of their power, the events that lead to getting the power are anything but positive. This is also a general in-universe example as lots of characters in the work have the same ability. Another case where the tropers writing the examples think it's Blessed with Suck.

The 4400'

Blessed with Suck
- "Powers" have included spreading contagious diseases and other less-than-desirable abilities.
- Danny Farrell gained the ability to spread promicin to anyone who came in contact with him, thereby giving them abilities, which could be seen as awesome. However, due to the nature of promicin, there was a fifty percent chance that he would kill the person instead.

General examples. The way people got their power is arguably bad (alien abduction) and there's far to many people with very different powers for them to all think that their powers aren't good.

Literature/Palimpsest

Blessed with Suck/Cursed with Awesome: Attitudes of people who have found Palimpsest vary. Some acknowledge that it has taken everything away from them, but believe it is worth the price. Others know that while it is supposed to be a marvel, they live in fear of it.

General example in-universe. It looks like different people think the same "power" is good or bad and that the events that lead them to it might be good or bad as well. Another case where the tropers writing the examples think it's both Blessed with Suck and Cursed with Awesome.

Fanfic/Redemption

Blessed with Suck:
- Cardin, whose fear Semblance makes him lethal to his own team in a melee until he gets control over it; Sky, whose super senses make him a hilariously unfit partner for Dove, whose Semblance is basically sonic screaming, and Russel, who hates his Semblance so much he refuses to tell his teammates what it is for almost two semesters.

It's not mentioned what three of the characters think of their powers. Research reveals it's probably of neutral origin. Another case where the tropers writing the exaples think it's Blessed with Suck.

Research shows the character doesn't like the power (3)

StrikerS Sound Stage X

Blessed with Suck: Can create Mariages which are Cyborg Zombie Super Soldiers but cannot command them in any way.

Nothing about what the character feels about her power here, but other examples reaveal that she doesn't like her power with no mention is given as to how she got it. Another case where the tropers writing the examples think it's Blessed with Suck.

Star Trek: The Next Generation S3E20 "Tin Man"

Blessed with Suck: Tam's telepathy is extraordinary even by Betazoid standards. He can learn everything there is to know about a person simply by being near them, read the minds of people on other starships with ease and is constantly aware of everyone around him. Which is the part that sucks. He can't turn it off, and therefore has severe socialization issues and exhibits schizophrenia-like symptoms, except that the voices in his head are the actual thoughts of the people in his proximity.

It doesn't specify what the character thinks here, but other examples confirm that he thinks his power is more trouble then it's worth and that it's of neutral origin. Another case where the tropers writing the examples think it's Blessed with Suck.

Eirs Tommorrow

Blessed with Suck: Cloud's mako enhancements plus the Planet prevent him from starving to death as quickly as regular people he has to watch all of his friends and family starve, lose hope and die, living him the sole survivor.

No mention of what the character thinks about his power or how he got it here. But anyone who knows Final Fantasy VII knows that the way Cloud got his mako enhancements was horrendous and that he never really liked what having those enhancements meant. This would be 'power with drawbacks' at least...

Character doesn't like the power and got it in a positive/neutral way (definition suggested by trope title) ( 15 examples, 21% of use)

Choice of Robots

Blessed with Suck: Late in the game, you find out that you have a hereditary condition called Algernon's Syndrome, which gives you Super-Intelligence at the cost of occasional seizures and eventual synaptic degradation. This is also revealed to be the cause of your father's death. You can either have the degraded chunk of your brain cut out, removing your Super-Intelligence, leaving it alone but dying shortly after, or cutting it out and replacing it with a computer chip. The latter option keeps you alive and allows you to retain your intelligence, as well as allowing you to wireless interface with technology, but at the cost of your humanity. If you have children, you can also choose to have them tested for the disease. You can get yourself tested for it after it kills your Father (though the condition has no name at that point), but there's nothing you can do to avoid falling victim to it's detrimental effects later on, nor do you even learn conclusively if you have it or not until your first stroke.
- Cursed with Awesome: You can decide that the condition under the Blessed with Suck entry falls under this instead.

It's up to the player character if it's ultimately awesome or not. Given that it's a result of genetics, it's of neutral origin. Another case where the tropers writing the examples think it's both Blessed with Suck and Cursed with Awesome.

Dragon Age: Origins – Playable Characters – The Warden

Blessed with Suck/Cursed with Awesome: Congratulations! You've been selected as a Grey Warden recruit — the highest honor to which you could ever aspire! It means any birthright or title you had is now forfeit. But wait, you have yet to become a Grey Warden - first you have to drink darkspawn blood, which will often kill you right away. If it doesn't, congratulations on becoming a Grey Warden! You can now sense the darkspawn and destroy archdemons at the low cost of obliterating your soul if you try the latter. Of course, they can sense you just as easily as you sense them. Oh, and you have about thirty years to live until the taint starts turning you into a darkspawn, at which point the Grey Warden instruction troubleshooting manual tells you to go on a suicide run against the darkspawn hordes. Oh, and good luck ever having children, especially if the other parent is also a Grey Warden.

It's left up to the player if it's awesome or not. And if the way the player got the power is very subjective. This is a rare case when the example can be both Blessed with Suck or Cursed with Awesome legitimately. It would probably best fit under a 'power with drawbacks' trope.

Earth and Sky

Blessed with Suck: Normally Pinkie's stream-of-consciousness rambling is either endearing or annoying. Now it's driving her to pieces because her imagination runs wild when her daughter is missing.

A character doesn't like their power even though it has a good origin.

Falling into His Arms

Variation on Pushing Daisies: Due to Ned being Blessed with Suck, when his love interest trips right in front of him he has to step out of the way to avoid touching her, leaving room for someone else to swoop in and be the hero. He gets the girl anyway, but not before he nurses his inferiority complex for a while.

Link. The Pushing Daisies page reveals that this power has a neutral origin and that the character who has it has problems with it. It also puts the exact same power under both Blessed with Suck and Cursed with Awesome.

Genesis of Aquarion'

All of the Other Reindeer: Tsugumi was constantly shunned by friends and family because of her powers before coming to Daeva.

Pothole. But the power mentioned is a legit example of Blessed with Suck.

Blessed with Suck: Tsugumi can create explosions when her pulse reaches its peak, and has probably the strongest raw power of all the Element Users; unfortunately, she's really bad at controlling her emotions, so whenever she gets excited or anxious things around her tend to go KABOOM. It's heavily implied that because of this she was shunned by her family and friends.
- Reika's powers are based on bad luck.

The character pages reveal the character find their powers mostly inconvenient and it looks like their powers aren't negative in origin.

Inuyasha

Blessed with Suck / Cursed with Awesome:
- Inu Yasha's youkai form. Insanely high levels of strength and speed, a much improved healing factor, enough youki to make even Sesshoumaru feel one, brief moment of fear and have a youketsu capable of holding the evil spirit of the Shikon no Tama immobile against its will and decay a frggin' portal to hell when its sliced by the Dragon-Scale Tessaiga. Of course, there's the little matter of him being a bloodthirsty monster that has barely any of Inu Yasha's restraint, and each time it gets even less controllable and less intelligent. Of course, he does get to occasionally take advantage of it and Tessaiga at the same time, whenever someone starts stealing some of Tessaiga's forms, or he boosts Tessaiga with purified Shikon shards.

The power has a neutral origin and the character doesn't like the outcome of using it. Another example where the tropers writing the examples think it's both Blessed with Suck and Cursed with Awesome.

Kamen Rider Ryuki

Blessed with Suck: Possibly more so than anyone. If not for his Photographic Memory, he would have never known about the Rider war. He even stated himself that it causes him problems. He was right.

The character thinks their power isn't good and it's of a neutral origin.

Light & Darkness: Heroes of Calradia

Blessed with Suck: The Sunflower Scroll (see the No Fair Cheating entry above). It gives the maximum amount of Strenght and Dexterity, but drops Charisma to 0. Then the player character becomes an extremely powerful fighter who can only be followed by a very small army. In a game focussed on massive battles, it is not very useful.

Given that the person Blessed with Suck is the PC in a sandbox game, this is a case of good events/sucky power or good events/awesome power depending on the player. It would probably best fit under a power with drawbacks trope.

Minority Report

Blessed with Suck: Big time. Imagine you're able to see the future, but it's mainly continual flashes of people having being horrifically murdered. Now imagine you've been doing this your entire life. Basically, your head has been filled with virtually nothing but sheer Nightmare Fuel... and as long as the government can still rely on your predictions, it's never going to stop.

The characters with this ability don't like it and it's of a technically neutral origin (they were born with it). However, the events that led to them being born with it are negative events.

Muh Phoenix

Blessed with Suck: Overlapping with Leaning on the Fourth Wall Wanda mentions that being an A-Lister is fine at first, but when the novelty wears off you're forced to go through a lot of stupid stuff in order to stay relevant.

The "power" is ultimately viewed as annoying even though it's gotten in a good way.

Redemption

Blessed with Suck:
- Russel's Semblance is revealed to be healing through absorbing and then suppressing injuries. He has a lot of issues with it because his parents, who were Hunters, and his grandmother, who was old, all died before it manifested, then Violet, who he could have saved if she hadn't set it up otherwise, killed herself in such a way as to make sure he couldn't help her. He tells his teammates that his Semblance is simply absorbing injuries and that he doesn't actually suffer from them; unfortunately, by that point they know him well enough to know he's lying through his teeth. Surprisingly, they see that as very positive because it means he's not suicidal.

The character doesn't like their power and it seems that the power has a neutral origin.

South Park Main Characters

Blessed with Suck: Either that or Cursed with Awesome. His super power is being unable to die, and people don't remember that he died. He does, however, and when Kyle remarks that being immortal would be cool, Kenny snaps that it's not cool, because he remembers every single one of his deaths.

The character thinks his power sucks, and he didn't get it though negative events. Another case where the tropers writing the examples think it's both Blessed with Suck and Cursed with Awesome.

The Sight

Blessed with Suck: While the Sight is often seen as an extraordinary gift, Larka is shown throughout the book to resent it half the time, especially when she can't hunt without feeling her prey's pain as she kills it.

The character doesn't like her power and other examples reveal that it wasn't negative events that lead to her getting it.

The Spectacular Spider-Man S2E11 "Subtext"

Blessed with Suck: Mark's Molten Man powers, once he realizes that they don't activate on HIS will, but that of the Goblin's.

The character doesn't like his powers and other examples reveal he agreed to the events that lead to him getting that power.

Zettai Karen Children

Blessed with Suck: In episode 21 of the anime, he tells Hyobu he was constantly being ignored, such as being skipped over for attendance in class, which he exploits by taking pictures of Babel employees without their knowledge. He then says he has to practically punch someone in the face before they'll even notice him, which also comes back to bite him when Kaoru nearly walks over him while he's spying on Oboro Kashiwagi.

The character doesn't like his power and it's of neutral origin.

Non-examples ( 7 examples, 11% of use)

A to C

Blessed with Suck is in fact about Rogue (along with others), but not in that way.
- It is not about Kirby — or even Kirby.
- It is not about God giving a vacuum cleaner greater power.
- Or when BRIAN BLESSED!!!!!... uh, no.

Link. Natter.

Cape Busters

Dangerous Lunatics, a furry original story by Alex Reynard, features such an agency with a really insidious approach: Convince the world that the supers are crazy, get the supers while they're still young, and put them in institutions to warehouse the supers out of sight until they can be quietly disposed of. The approach works because the supers in the story often have other problems, i.e. an immortal with a Healing Factor discovers the ability through repeated suicide attempts, another constantly wakes up from nightmares, one with extreme durability uses his power by constantly getting into fights, etc. Cursed with Awesome and Blessed with Suck apply here.

Potholes to both Cursed with Awesome and Blessed with Suck and no work page. ZCE.

Comic Books

Me (Deadpool) being crazy awesome was key in defeating the Taskmaster in hand-to-hand combat.
- And then there was that time I sabotaged a Skrull installation and slaughter ensued. That whole Clone Degeneration, With Great Power Comes Great Insanity, Blessed with Suck, and Driven to Madness, all in a no-survivors gambit, wasn't really necessary or required by the mission, but by golly it was fun!

Link. ZCE. Then again it's Deadpool...

Den of Shadows

Blessed with Suck: Her pacifist vows have made her a Badass Pacifist.

Non-example. Another case where the tropers writing the examples think it's Blessed with Suck.

DieBuster

Hourglass Plot: Their attitudes don't shift much, but Nono goes from minor curiosity allowed to tag along with Fraternity to humanity's one hope for survival as Lal'C goes from being the most elite of the elite to a girl with a disease.
- One thing that stays consistent is Nono's Pinocchio Syndrome, but the reasons behind it change. At first she's Cursed with Awesome as being an advanced, durable android has the drawback of not letting her become a Topless. Later, she is Blessed with Suck as she makes the Topless obsolete, is looked at with jealousy and spite, and her responsibilities of protecting humanity drives other schisms between them. Whether it is inaccessible or she is flung far beyond it, she doesn't get to aim for the top like her idol.

Link. Blessed with Suck isn't even a proper trope on the page.

I See Dead People

Dawn Star from Jade Empire. Considering the dead do not rest easily across the Empire, because the Water Dragon, keeper of the gates to the Underworld, has been imprisoned and all but one of her worshipers slaughtered, it is a massive case of Blessed with Suck for her.

Link. The work page doesn't use Blessed with Suck as a trope at all.

Who Names Their Kid "Dude"? May induce a sense of being Cursed with Awesome or Blessed with Suck — let alone a whole bunch of problems if you've been saddled with a name to run away from really fast and it's not by your own choice. Even a name to trust immediately can lead to schoolyard jokes. Link.

'Agarest Senki 2

Badass Normal: In the first generation and most of second generation. That is until he gets his Blessed with Suck McGuffin.

Link. Other examples don't reveal anything about it.

edited 19th Dec '16 4:23:21 PM by ObsidianFire

ObsidianFire Since: May, 2014 Relationship Status: Not caught up in your love affair

#6: Nov 6th 2016 at 7:45:17 PM

Moved all the detailed Description Analysis here.

Cursed with Awesome

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Cursed With Awesome Definition and Analysis

A character has some "terrible" curse placed on them (if they weren't born with it) that is actually pretty awesome. Often, such characters will bemoan their fate and go to great lengths to be rid of the "curse" instead of taking advantage of whatever cool side effects the curse may have. Other times it's the "reward" for Heroic Willpower. Sometimes a subset of people try to tell him this. The idea that the awesome is a curse may cause some forms of Internalized Categorism.

The bulk of this paragraph dates back to when the trope was first made as evidenced on the Wayback Machine

. Notable here is that it makes it seem like the "Cursed" part of the trope title is how the character feels about their power, while the "Awesome" part is about how the audience and sometimes other characters view that same power. If a trope with the same definition was being made today, it would almost certainly be a YMMV trope if not an Audience Reaction.

This "a character thinks their power is a curse, but the audience thinks it's awesome" definition matches up well with the "Audience/other characters think the power is awesome" examples. It also explains why most of the examples use this definition.

{Immortality}} has been done to death under this heading, even garnering its own trope. While eternal life does have some understandable drawbacks, excessive emphasis on the negative side can push it straight into Cursed With Awesome territory. The Emergency Transformation of a character often crosses into this, as the condition is considered literally de-humanizing. The Curse That Cures can skirt this depending on the severity of the curse and the illness or injury it's curing as a side effect.

Vampire protagonists are always Cursed With Awesome.

Various Example As Thesis that could probably be safely cut.

This trope is a major source of Angst Dissonance — if not used carefully, then a character being Cursed With Awesome carries the risk of plummeting straight into Wangst or Deus Angst Machina territory, as nothing is guaranteed to piss an audience off more than a character complaining about having abilities that are, on the face of it, utterly fantastic and that the audience would kill to have. This is especially a risk if a balance between the awesomeness of the powers and the suckiness of the consequences of possessing them is not maintained; if the drawbacks are outweighed by the benefits, then the character just looks whiny. On the other hand, it can make for some great Character Development if the character is saddled with something that is genuinely difficult to live with, but later figures out a way to benefit from it.

More evidence of Cursed With A Wesome originally being an Audience Reaction. This paragraph as well as a lot of the Example As Thesis paragraphs bring up the idea of Power With Downsides as a form of a character being Cursed with Awesome where the "curse" is the downsides of an "awesome" power and not necessarily what the character thought about their power.

The 2nd most used definition of Cursed with Awesome follows the Power With Downsides trope to a "T". "Downsides" is also used very broadly as it can refer to everything from how the character got the power to annoyances the character has with it.

There are also some cases where the drawback is just a straight-up Informed Flaw, or negated by a bit of Fridge Brilliance. The Super Mode can be legitimately terrifying if the person using it loses control of themselves while remaining aware of what they're doing, but not if they only do things that they could just as well have done anyway and are just as beneficial, but now they have an excuse for behavior that might be otherwise unacceptable. The Smart Guy may be so smart that it's said to alienate others and leave him lonely or anti-social, but if he's in a Five-Man Band, he almost certainly has at least four True Companions.

More Example As Thesis coupled with trope analysis which is only muddying up what exactly the trope definition is supposed to be. This was the last major addition to the trope definition according to the edit history of Cursed with Awesome. It was added in mid November 2013 "because it seems to be a trend". It further reinforces the Power With A Downside definition.

Occasionally leads to a "World of Cardboard" Speech whether or not the character is unhappy about the effects of their curse.

This is one of the first indicators in the Wayback Machine

that Cursed With A Wesome can apply to characters that are not unhappy about the effects of their curse... which is probably what eventually lead to the "curse" in Cursed with Awesome being assumed to mean "how they got the awesome" by people. It was helped by how ambiguous the title is.

This "cursed with what the character thinks is an awesome power" definition is the 3nd most used definition of Cursed with Awesome in the wickcheck by a few examples.

The Punishment is an extreme form of this and usually done to someone that actually deserves it. Also compare Plague of Good Fortune. Compare Unishment, where the "curse" turns out to be something that the character actually enjoys or wanted all along.

It should be noted that both the definitions of The Punishment and Unishment are (now) incorrect here. The Punishment is on the oldest version of the page still available and it meant something slightly different back then; The Punishment wasn't linked to tropes like Unishment and Living Forever Is Awesome back then and now when it links to Cursed with Awesome it implies the "cursed with what the character thinks is an awesome power" definition as much as it implies the "character thinks their power is a curse, but the audience thinks it's awesome" definition.

The definition of Unishment is that it is specifically a punishment the character likes, not a catch all-term for a "curse" the character likes. This was actually the definition of Unishment at the time it was added to the definition of Cursed With A Wesome. This is also the first time the "cursed with what the character thinks is an awesome power" definition is actually written into the description of Cursed with Awesome. The wick check indicates that Unishment is not considered to be a contrasting trope of Cursed With A Wesome now, but a sub-trope.

See also the inverse, Blessed with Suck, where the ability given is supposed to be good, but isn't. Compare I Just Want to Be Normal. Contrast Super Loser. May result in a Curse Is Foiled Again or Living Forever Is Awesome. Both this and Blessed with Suck may connect with Muse Abuse.

List of tropes and their relationship with Cursed with Awesome, some correct, some seriously a stretch. Here, Blessed with Suck is said to be the inverse of Cursed with Awesome. According to this, the reason why they are inverses is not because the power in Blessed with Suck is a sucky power, but because the ability is supposed to be an awesome power that isn't really. Which isn't confusing at all.

The definition for Blessed with Suck was added long after Blessed with Suck was said to be an inverse of Cursed with Awesome. The first available version of Cursed with Awesome does list Blessed with Suck as the inverse of Blessed with Suck, but no definition of Blessed with Suck is given. The definition of Blessed with Suck was added late enough for it to turn up in the edit history, in early June 2013 to be exact and no edit reason was given. This actually does partially mesh with the earlier definition of Blessed with Suck, but Blessed with Suck became identified with any sucky power regardless of why the power is sucky as far back as 2010.

The choice of saying Cursed with Awesome may result in Living Forever Is Awesome is interesting. Going from the description of Cursed with Awesome, I would have thought it would result in Who Wants to Live Forever? instead. Living Forever Is Awesome was also added long before Unishment was, so apparently people have been confused about what Cursed with Awesome was about for a long time. Which is more evidence of a confusing title.

If a character actually gets over it by refusing to be tormented any longer by the downsides of their "curse", they usually result in a case of Sweet and Sour Grapes; as the "curse" is merely their own displeasure at their condition, then by moving past it they become purely Awesome.

More analysis at the bottom. This fits in with the "character thinks their power is a curse, but the audience thinks it's awesome" definition. This also makes it look like a character can stop being Cursed with Awesome so long as they think their power is awesome.

Blessed with Suck

Blessed With Suck Definition and Analysis

Blessed With Suck is one of those tropes that comes in a few distinct flavors. Generally, it's when a character is given a special ability that seems to cause nothing but trouble:

This definition of Blessed with Suck is nearly exactly the same as the earliest definition available on the Wayback Machine

. The only differences is that "special ability" was originally specifically a "blessing" and "trouble" was originally "pain".

# By far, the most common variation is that the writers have seen fit to give you a special power that is, to be frank, stupid or useless.

In other, more extreme cases, your power is actually too dangerous to use. See also I'm Having Soul Pains.
Sometimes your power sounds really, really cool at first, but it turns out to have a lousy limitation or weakness, control problem, lacks the Required Secondary Powers, or (in the worst cases) has very dangerous side-effects.

These and the entry below were part of a normal paragraph before they were made into a list.

# Sometimes the blessing is actually beneficial - but extenuating circumstances have ruined the potential fun. For example, A Mind Is a Terrible Thing to Read, And Your Little Dog, Too!, Power-Upgrading Deformation or Mutant Draft Board.

In the original definition, the power being actually beneficial except for extenuating circumstances ruining the potential fun was the main characteristic of the trope. This was changed to "in most cases" when the above "flavors" were added to the definiton as evidence in the Wayback Machine

. It was changed to "sometimes" a few moths later. This was also when "pain" in the first paragraph was broadened to "trouble".

And this is where the Power With Disadvantages definition came from and why so many examples use this as the definition. In effect, the original definition of Blessed with Suck was probably "power that's supposed to be awesome sucks because of outside circumstances". However, the Power With Disavantages definition is much broader then the original definition of Blessed with Suck originally was.

# Often the original "blessing" turns out to be a curse when you stop to think about it, thanks to Exact Words, or not taking into account the intrinsic consequences. For example, Midas' touch. This is usually a Fantastic Aesop.

This was the last major addition to the trope definition (back in early March 2010 according to the Wayback Machine

) and it shows. The definition hadn't been changed in nearly a year and it's the only part of the definition that brings out the idea that it's the power itself that sucks instead of circumstances around the power that make a power that is (or could be) awesome suck. This is also the time when "blessing" in the first paragraph is broadened to just "special ability". It seems that this is when the "someone/thing blessed (literally or figuratively) with something that sucks" meaning was added to the definition. Granted the trope title doesn't help either.

Essentially, this is what broadened Blessed Withh Suck to apply to powers that sucked because they were sucky powers inherently and not just because circumstances made a power that could be awesome sucky. AKA the "someone/thing blessed (literally or figuratively) with something that sucks" definition.

This blessing may take the form of Applied Phlebotinum, privileges, or special abilities. For artistic cases (real or (self-) imagined), see Muse Abuse.

May be caused by a Literal Genie. May also result in With Great Power Comes Great Insanity either as part of the blessing or a result of its psychological effects.

Opposite side of the same coin from Cursed with Awesome, in which a "curse" actually is cool and helps the character, even if they refuse to believe it and just want to be normal. If the "blessing" is somehow removed via Aesop learning, then the Curse Is Foiled Again. If a character is given a lame power but manages to use it to great effect, you've found that Heart Is an Awesome Power.

This is Older Than Feudalism, and it's a perfect way to teach the Aesop of Be Careful What You Wish For.

These paragraphs have always been part of the definition, down to the wording. The Applied Phlebotinum sentence used to be part of the first paragraph though. The Heart Is an Awesome Power sentence was added sometime after flavor #5 was added.

The most interesting thing, is the definition of Cursed with Awesome, which was seen as the inverse of Blessed with Suck as far back as records of the page exists. It also gives wiggle room for the person Cursed with Awesome to actually see their power as awesome instead of as a curse. So I'm thinking that the idea of Cursed with Awesome being stemmed from Blessed with Suck. The other theory is that Cursed with Awesome was seen as applying to characters that thought their power was awesome as soon as it was created.

Supertrope to Who Wants to Live Forever?, So Beautiful, It's a Curse, Immunity Disability and Does Not Know His Own Strength.

Compare/contrast with Awesome, but Impractical (which it is often mistaken for by the looks of most of the tropes), Super Loser, Super Zeroes, Power Incontinence, Bad Powers, Bad People. See also Curse. Contrast a Curse That Cures, when a Curse cures a character of an illness or disease they already had.

Various tropes related to Blessed with Suck. The note about this trope being mistaken for Awesome, but Impractical should have been a warning about the state of the examples back in early 2012 when it was added.

edited 14th Dec '16 4:55:06 PM by ObsidianFire

DiamondWeapon Since: Jan, 2001

#7: Nov 7th 2016 at 8:48:51 AM

Well, that's just natural human language for you. Cursed with Awesome can be read as "character thinks awesome powers (his own, or someone else's) are a curse" or "character is given awesome powers as a curse." The second meaning flows naturally from the first, the person/entity doing the cursing is the one who thinks the powers are a curse. Either way, there's someone who thinks the powers are a curse.

And "awesome" is only YMMV if taken unnecessarily literally. Your average superpowers can quite objectively be classified as hugely beneficial, no audience reaction necessary.

PhiSat Planeswalker from Everywhere and Nowhere Since: Jan, 2011

Planeswalker

#8: Nov 7th 2016 at 10:59:57 AM

Can we not cut the Power at a Price examples and broaden the trope to include both the "Audience thinks power is awesome despite it being a curse" and "Character thinks power is awesome despite it stemming from something negative"? Tropes Are Flexible, after all.

Oissu!

MorganWick (Elder Troper)

#9: Nov 16th 2016 at 12:29:31 AM

A link to the previous thread would seem illuminatory here.

Getta Since: Apr, 2016

#10: Nov 16th 2016 at 1:40:14 PM

There are a LOT of angles to be covered here and for Blessed with Suck. If I would try to simplify it, it'd be like this: "X with Y" where X is either "cursed" or "blessed" and Y is either "awesome" or "suck".

Does the character himself see it as a blessing or a curse?
If it's bestowed by someone else, does that someone else see it as a blessing or a curse?
Does anybody else see it as a blessing or a curse?
Do the audience see it as a blessing or a curse?

Does the thing hinder the subject ("suck"), or does it help him ("awesome")?
Does the awesome mitigate the curse? Does the suck undermine the blessing?

Now, which are we gonna cover?

We don't need justice when we can forgive. We don't need tolerance when we can love.

ObsidianFire Since: May, 2014 Relationship Status: Not caught up in your love affair

#11: Nov 16th 2016 at 2:09:19 PM

Totally forgot about that thread. Yeah, it looks like everything mentioned there applies here.

The big thing for me is if Blessed With Suck is YMMV or In-Universe or neither. Answering that question would determine a lot of things in this post. I kinda feel like it shouldn't be YMMV though as there's always an audience member somewhere who thinks a given power is cool/sucky regardless of how the narrative treats it.

Getta Since: Apr, 2016

#12: Nov 16th 2016 at 4:51:28 PM

This argument is not mine (I read it somewhere else): Someone is "cursed" if someone gained the thing in a negative way (the narrative played it as negative, and if it's from another person, said person meant it as a curse), and someone is "blessed" if that someone gained the thing in a positive way.

It's a good start, I think.

We don't need justice when we can forgive. We don't need tolerance when we can love.

ObsidianFire Since: May, 2014 Relationship Status: Not caught up in your love affair

#13: Nov 20th 2016 at 1:26:49 PM

up: This is how I read the "cursed" and "blessed" parts of the trope names, but it's just as easy to read those as describing the "awesome" or "suck".

Discussion bump.

Madrugada Zzzzzzzzzz Since: Jan, 2001 Relationship Status: In season

Zzzzzzzzzz

#14: Nov 20th 2016 at 2:09:34 PM

That's half of it, since I think y'all are talking abiut the way I broke it down in the earlier thread. And both parts work parallel:

Regarding "are they Blessed or Cursed"

A) If the power or whatever was bestowed by another entity, did that entity mean it to be a good thing, or do it out of good will; or did they mean it as a bad thing or do it from ill-will?

B) If there is no bestowing entity, whether it's a blessing or a curse is how the character who has it regards it.:

C) If there's no "bestowing entity", if the character is ambivalent or inconsistent in how they feel about it, it's not an example of this trope, or it's both of them depending on the specific example listed.

Regarding "Is it Suck or Awesome":

a) How does the character themselves feel about it? Do they like it or hate it? or do they not seem to care either way, or change their minds depending on what is happening?

B) If the character is ambivalent, inconsistent, or never indicates either way how they feel about it, how do the other characters regard it? "I wish I could do that!" or "Man, I'm glad I'm not you!"?

C) If none of the other characters give any indication either way, use contextual clues to determine which way the creator preferred it be viewed. (I doubt that we'll have very many examples that get to this stage.)

edited 20th Nov '16 2:18:18 PM by Madrugada

...if you don’t love you’re dead, and if you do, they’ll kill you for it.

Madrugada Zzzzzzzzzz Since: Jan, 2001 Relationship Status: In season

Zzzzzzzzzz

#15: Nov 20th 2016 at 2:27:04 PM

If we additionally make it In Universe Only, we dodge the fan reaction bullet. It doesn't matter what the fans think.

...if you don’t love you’re dead, and if you do, they’ll kill you for it.

malias Since: Jun, 2015

#16: Nov 20th 2016 at 9:34:56 PM

I'm all for making it In-Universe. It would keep this trope more objective and clean up the misuse imo. Plus, the fan reaction entries really are just Audience Reactions and we already have tropes those can go under.

Memers Since: Aug, 2013

#17: Nov 20th 2016 at 9:41:46 PM

The reaction ones might be better to be under something like Fridge Awesome. The work or character presents it as bad but Fridge Logic postulates it really isn't or shouldn't be.

Most of the fan reactions I see are more that than anything.

DiamondWeapon Since: Jan, 2001

#18: Nov 21st 2016 at 2:36:15 PM

@14 seems like a good clarification, but it has the characters' feelings on the matter on both sides of the equation. Shouldn't it have objective benefit/lack thereof as the "awesome/suck" factor?

EDIT: Oh, and I agree with the in-universe thing.

edited 21st Nov '16 2:36:59 PM by DiamondWeapon

ObsidianFire Since: May, 2014 Relationship Status: Not caught up in your love affair

#19: Nov 21st 2016 at 2:59:54 PM

"Shouldn't it have objective benefit/lack thereof as the "awesome/suck" factor?"

Who would be deciding on the "objective benefit/lack thereof"? Currently it's the audience doing that. The narrative tone doesn't really work as the audience can interpret tone differently and in some mediums (comic books especially) the narrative tone varies a lot, but the character's feelings don't. If you want a trope as opposed to a YMMV entry then you need a standard that doesn't rely on interpretation of a work, but what's in the work itself.

And another vote form making both Blessed with Suck and Cursed with Awesome In-Universe.

While I can see how Fridge Awesome would work, it almost seems To Common To Trope. It also seems more like a subtrope of Character Audience Dissonance, specifically one to do with superhuman abilities. It only really crops up when a character thinks that the power is sucky (of the overall effect of having it is sucky) and the audience thinks it's awesome, which is what most of the Cursed with Awesome examples are anyway.

PhiSat Planeswalker from Everywhere and Nowhere Since: Jan, 2011

Planeswalker

#20: Nov 21st 2016 at 3:10:07 PM

I disagree with making it In-Universe only. Most of the trope is about fans disagreeing with a character's perception of their power.

Blessed with Suck can be either when a character is bestowed a power, but the disadvantages either outweigh the benefits or there are no benefits at all. The intent is that the power is a good thing though, that's what the trope is about. Cursed with Awesome is the reverse, either the bestowed power was bad or the character angsts about the power, but fans see it as a positive thing because either the benefits outweigh the disadvantages or it's plain awesome.

I could support both tropes becoming YMMV, but the trope is primarily about fan reactions.

Oissu!

Madrugada Zzzzzzzzzz Since: Jan, 2001 Relationship Status: In season

Zzzzzzzzzz

#21: Nov 21st 2016 at 5:18:29 PM

It doesn't have to be though; it's a valid technique and tool in writing to convey more information than just the bare words do. And we aren't primarily concerned with cataloguing fan reactions. Given the choice between spending our resources and effort on a trope or on a fan reaction, I'll go with "the trope" every time.

...if you don’t love you’re dead, and if you do, they’ll kill you for it.

Getta Since: Apr, 2016

#22: Nov 22nd 2016 at 4:29:34 AM

I think the "awesome/suck" can be measured objectively too by seeing how said thing either help or hinder him, like I said above.

We don't need justice when we can forgive. We don't need tolerance when we can love.

DiamondWeapon Since: Jan, 2001

#23: Nov 22nd 2016 at 6:27:52 AM

"Who would be deciding on the "objective benefit/lack thereof"?"

Objective as in not up for interpretation. If the powers or effects in question are shown on screen to be in fact useful/not useful, it doesn't require anyone's subjective decision.

ObsidianFire Since: May, 2014 Relationship Status: Not caught up in your love affair

#24: Nov 22nd 2016 at 10:14:28 AM

""awesome/suck" can be measured objectively too by seeing how said thing either help or hinder him,"

"If the powers or effects in question are shown on screen to be in fact useful/not useful, it doesn't require anyone's subjective decision."

The problem is that pretty much all the powers mentioned on both tropes are presented by the narrative as being both useful and not useful, aka Power at a Price or Power With Drawbacks. What Blessed with Suck and Cursed with Awesome are about isn't the power itself but a reaction to having the power, specifically the character who has it.

DiamondWeapon Since: Jan, 2001

#25: Nov 22nd 2016 at 10:42:23 AM

Not the reaction by itself. A contrast of the reaction with the physical reality of it. A good power the character(s) see as a curse, or a lousy power they see as a blessing.

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Total posts: 90

Unclear Description: Cursed With Awesome

Cursed with Awesome

Cursed with Awesome Wickcheck and Analysis

Cursed with Awesome Description And Analysis

Blessed with Suck

Blessed with Suck Wickcheck And Analysis

Blessed with Suck Description

Conclusion (TLDR)

Cursed with Awesome

Research shows the character doesn't like the power (11)

Research doesn't show how the character feels about their powers (6)

Research shows the opinion is about multiple characters (4)

Research shows the character likes the power (1)

Blessed with Suck

Research doesn't show how the character feels about their powers (8)

Research shows the opinion is about multiple characters (6)

Research shows the character doesn't like the power (3)

Cursed with Awesome

Blessed with Suck