| rdfs:comment | - The observation that in some genres, characters can have fantastic technology far beyond our own, yet this technology only gets used to solve equally fantastic problems. A person who controls weather will never make it rain in drought-stricken areas, or stop the rain during terrible flooding, or stop a heatwave. A person who can control fire will never douse bush fires or burning buildings, or get a job at a power station. And a supergenius (such as Reed Richards of the Fantastic Four) can save the life of starving demi-god being like Galactus, but will never take a weekend to duplicate and market Doctor Doom's burn-victim cure device (or even five minutes to find out what causes piss shivers), or release his inventions that could solve a variety of real-world problems. All potential solut
|
| abstract | - The observation that in some genres, characters can have fantastic technology far beyond our own, yet this technology only gets used to solve equally fantastic problems. A person who controls weather will never make it rain in drought-stricken areas, or stop the rain during terrible flooding, or stop a heatwave. A person who can control fire will never douse bush fires or burning buildings, or get a job at a power station. And a supergenius (such as Reed Richards of the Fantastic Four) can save the life of starving demi-god being like Galactus, but will never take a weekend to duplicate and market Doctor Doom's burn-victim cure device (or even five minutes to find out what causes piss shivers), or release his inventions that could solve a variety of real-world problems. All potential solutions to real-life problems will only be done in novel (fictional) situations -- useless. Status Quo Is God, and the status quo of the real world even more so. It's the same reason you can't stop Hitler from starting World War II. There are several typical motivations for this: 1.
* To keep the world similar to the real world. This is particularly common in an Urban Fantasy, superhero, or other series whose setting is superficially similar to the real world. Unlike, say, Star Trek or The Lord of the Rings, one of the key draws of the series is that it could take place right outside the reader's window, which is lost if you make the fictional world too fantastic in comparison. This is particularly common in comic books, where major modifications to the world are only done to fictional locations, and often only to current levels of technology. Here's a video of late Marvel editor-in-chief Mark Gruenwald explaining the reasons for this in some depth. 2.
* To ensure that there's some level of drama in the story. If the super science or magic can literally do anything, then there's no reason the heroes can't just figure out a creative way to get them out of any jam. Goodbye potential conflict. In the case of Star Trek, there were tons of things the replicators and transporters should have been able to do which would have ruined the plot of half the episodes, necessitating a lot of Holding Back the Phlebotinum to maintain drama. As well, it could very easily be that the technology itself has some limitations, as "It can do anything you can imagine" is quite a bold statement for anyone to make. Other times, the Disposable Superhero Maker is disposable in the first place to avoid flooding the setting with superheroes. 3.
* To avoid trivializing real-life problems. If Mr. Fantastic actually does cure HIV in the Marvel Universe, there will be plenty of real people still HIV-positive, and plenty of researchers still investing untold millions of dollars and man-hours to fight HIV when they finish the comic. This can make creators wary of tackling such issues, as it can be considered insensitive to have such a heavy burden in real life be casually miracle-cured in fiction. Also, in the interest of representation, physically challenged persons exist in universes where science should theoretically be able to cure their handicap. However, either the disability is so ingrained as a facet of the character's portrayal or curing them could be seen to detract from their mass-market appeal as someone that other physically challenged readers can relate to. This is probably why Professor X always ends up back in the wheelchair after regaining use of his legs. Similarly to point one, this is generally more of a concern if the world is supposed to reflect the real world closely; if it's explicitly an Alternate History or Alternate Universe, or the future, then there's greater room to play with this without potentially causing offense. 4.
* To keep multiple titles within a Shared Universe consistent with one-another; comic book universes would approach a new level of Continuity Snarl if writers had to keep track of every published book in their universe for which major diseases/blights had been cured by the heroes and which ones weren't. 5.
* The idea that technology which could solve serious human problems does exist, but is either repressed from the public, or otherwise not used. This trope is often associated with the Fantastic Aesop that these problems don't have easy solutions in the real world, and any proposed sci-fi solutions will have negative side-effect or potential for abuse that justifies completely abandoning all hope of trying to solve the problem. However, as superhero comics especially have begun to explore the ramifications of their characters on real-world settings more closely over the years, this question has been raised and addressed more frequently. It is sometimes lampshaded as making people "too dependent" on superheroes. Smaller-scale continuities such as newly-created Superhero universes with a single author to explore the fictional world in 1 or 2 titles are more likely to avert and examine the concept of super-technology's effect on modern society, especially if the writer is trying to make a geopolitical statement. Larger superhero continuities, such as Marvel and DC (with an average 24 titles per month), are established to have upheld this trope as their Earths have been explored in extensive detail. The trope can be inverted by having a hero "inventing" a technological revolution that already exists (for example, the Ultimate Universe Iron Man apparently invented the MP 3 player). Recently, Marvel and DC have been making baby steps in averting this trend (i.e. having the current Venom use his powers to cure addicts, Barbara Gordon regaining her mobility etc.). This applies to supervillains as well, albeit for different reasons. See Plausible Deniability for aversions, and You Are Not Ready for a Deconstruction. Antonym to Alternate Universe Reed Richards Is Awesome. Compare Superman Stays Out of Gotham. Note that this trope does not apply to Reed Richards abstaining from using his other power of elasticity to solve a smaller problem. It wouldn't be very surprising, for example, to see him stretching his arm into the kitchen to open up the refrigerator door and grab a beer, so he doesn't have to leave his spot in an armchair by the TV. And let's not get into the Power Perversion Potential... Also see MST3K Mantra. Do not confuse with Mundane Utility. Examples of Reed Richards Is Useless include:
|
