Dear Roleplayers,
Hi! It's Riq again! I am writing to you all on behalf of anonymous, random followers to talk to you on a topic that needs to be clarified; Elemental powers.
Alright, I personally like elemental powers, I think you could do so much with them but apparently some people don't and that's why I'm making this.
"But why wouldn't you like this?" You might be asking.
Well the reason I got in PM were explicitly clear on exactly why and I agree so let's examine them.
A.) They've become a cliché
Before we go firing off at someone for saying that, let's examine what a cliché is.
By the standard of the English dictionary, a cliché is a phrase, noun or idea that is so often used that it has little meaning.
Again, I don't disagree. I've spent about two years on amino, actually longer if I count aminos outside of Marvel and the shoe fits. A power that almost everyone will default to is an elemental power and honestly it can get things but why?
Well for the exact same reason it's a cliché:
It is an idea that is so often used that it has little meaning.
I mean if you saw one channel on your television, wouldn't you get bored and say "fuck it" at one point?
I would but some people won't and that leads me to wonder why? Why redo a power set that has been done so many time over and over again?
I can probably suggest why.
Firstly, these powers are actually fun to use and implement especially when you control a specific element when the scenario is in favour of your powers being used, that s**t can be so f**king fun. It's really no wonder as to why so many people wanna have these powers and I can't blame them. Elemental powers are just fun.
Lastly, it's what's mostly represented as a power in mass media; Think about it, the first appearances of heroes with elemental powers that pop into your head are probably Iceman, the human torch, pyro, magneto, Thor, Storm and etc.
Outside the superhero genre, elemental powers are still the rage. Take a look at fantasy, YA, horror and even sci-fi, they all have some piece of work out there where a character can control an element.
It's just become a default to list an elemental power as a power because that is what is generally seen as a power.
That default and it's capacity for enjoyment in an RP is allows it to be used so much.
B.) All elemental powers are homogenous
This one isn't wrong really. I've spent about two years here and I've been within MMH in both of its iterations, co-hosting and hosting in its second iteration and I've seen Elemental powers pop up like flies; out of nowhere and in the dozens.
I just said I don't mind the quantity, I mind the homogeneity of the power.
Homogenous: An adjective to describe the state of a collective where they are all uniform (the same) with no significant differentiating traits.
Homogeneity: A noun derived from the word homogenous.
Yeah, I gotta say that I agree HARD with this point.
No one seems to manifest this power in any unique way other than creating fire, throwing fire and manipulating fire. Hell, it's all basically done in the formula of avatar except there's no lightning (that's not an excuse to list lightning under fire manipulation, if you do, I will effectively ignore you).
Again, no one wants to see the same thing and yes, you can manifest elemental powers under subcategories of powers and still have fun. That leads me to my next point in all this.
C.) They are underutilized
They are VERY underutilized.
Let's give an example:
In of earth powers, a few ideas come to mind, creating earthen structures, throwing chunks of rock at the enemy, creating sink holes/pits/earthquakes and if you're lucky then you might see someone use earth powers to move sand. In the end, elemental powers usually just get pushed into being earth manipulation at its most generic.
Firstly, this lack of diversity in power manifestation and use makes this entire power a cliché and homogenous. Stop.
Secondly, there are MANY other ways to have earth powers, just think about what it means to have power over earth.
Lastly, this limits definition of a power and makes it essentially OP with no limitations on power and we'll that adds to it being an annoying cliché because as far you've shown, earth manipulation is what your character does but that's not everything they can do.
So I'm done--well I'm done with listing why it's a cliché (drop something in the comments if you think I missed something) and now I'm gonna tell you how to solve it, really it's hugely simple.
First you have to think about what it means to have power over an element but to do that, you gotta know what power is.
Power is the ability to do something.
Essentially, power is energy (energy is the ability an object has to do something) and you need to that energy manifests in many ways, meaning that energy can be potential, kinetic, thermal, light, sonic and etc which means that energy is malleable and you can do anything with it and better yet, it never dies, it's just transferred.
Now you know what power is, let's figure out what an element is (I'm saying earth but it applies to any elemental force).
An element is a part of what makes something whole.
When we generally say elements, we think of earth, fire, water, air, nature and the occasional lightning (ya know, avatar shit).
That's not all the elements in tbe world loves, those are the main elements but that is just a subsection of elements.
As said before an element is a part of a whole and when we think of the whole in reference to elements, our brains often think of the world as a whole and SCIENCE (go study it) dictates that the avatar elements aren't the only elements of the world.
Now let's back something up a bit. Everything is an element of the world as it is a part of the world and makes up the world as a whole so can you use this?
No. Everything natural is a part of the world as a whole so you have to look at natural things not man made things.
Basically:
Element=Natural aspects of the world
But what are the natural aspects of the world if they're not the five elements?
Thank you for asking. As I said, any natural aspect of nature is an element if the world.
Gravity, magnetism, energy, heat, sound, light, darkness, entropy, regeneration, atoms, friction, newtons, velocity, Hydrogen, mercury, neon, carbon, magic(if you plan to manipulate magic, please come to talk to either me, our leader Stephen, Hela or a magic expert, don't attempt that on your own), sodium, blood, nutrients, decomposition, osmosis and all those grand aspects of science. All of it is a part of nature. USE IT.
But now I've only widened the list of other things to be clichés, I haven't really told you how to stop making it a cliché.
Well I wasn't done.
We've defined what an element is and what power is, now it's time to define power over an element in our context.
Power over an element is the ability to do something with a natural aspect of the world.
Now pick an aspect and do what you want with it with discretion (no one likes OP characters and no one likes hack).
How do you use elemental power with discretion?
Well lemme explain.
Pick an element, figure out what you can do with it and if you find out you can do something specific with it then use that as a power.
Example:
Electricity is an element, I want to be able to project an electric field that can stop the electrical signals that travel back and forth within the nervous system, basically, an EMP for the nervous system.
That's my power.
Do that. Use that formula instead of saying I blast lightning and can short out electrical devices, I mean my power is so much cooler than yours.
Now if you don't want to and you just wanna be able to manipulate and generate electricity then be a dear and be sensible.
Electrokinesis is the ability to control electricity, use that in the fullest at moderation. That simply means that you shouldn't make a child who just got his powers, willingly and effectively create a city wide EMP with electrokinesis, that's bulls**t and no one will buy it, not even marvel, do that if making city wide EMPs are their power and they have mastered it.
Again, the problem isn't the power, it's the abundant, annoying, generic misuse of the power.
So my final advice is to learn the elements of nature and then learn what you can do with them and use that so you don't bore people with a generic water blast.
Note: I know certain websites might not list what I said above as elements and will be generic by using the fish elements but determining what is an element is based on what you think is an aspect of nature and what isn't. I just listed what I listed above as elements because this is the marvel universe and science is a huge thing there.
Comment