Power Glows/Playing With

Basic Trope: Powerful weapons glow inexplicably.

• Straight: There are powerful weapons. They glow.
• Exaggerated: The strongest weapons barely affect the heroes, even though the screen is almost completely obscured by their glow.
  • Alternatively, The Big Bad is blinded by The Hero's glowing sword.
• Downplayed: Powerful weapons glow, but the glow is very dim.
• Justified: Powerful weapons glow because our heroes are fighting shadows.
  • The power that weapons contain create enough heat energy to cause them to glow.
• Inverted: Only weak weapons glow.
  • Alternatively: Powerful weapons emit darkness.
• Subverted: A huge glowing bomb is assumed to be a superweapon, and is then revealed to not have any effective blast due to its inefficiency.
  • Powerful weapons glow -- thereby expending their energy and becoming powerless.
• Double Subverted: A huge glowing bomb is assumed to be a superweapon, and is then revealed to not have any effective blast due to its inefficiency. But the glow itself is plenty effective.
  • They can be recharged; it's like ammo when you are fighting shadows.
• Parodied: The heroes fight with giant glowsticks.^[1]
  • The Hero defeats the Big Bad using a flashlight.
• Deconstructed: The most powerful characters are all blind. What was the audience expecting, to be able to see after that ultimate attack that's rated at 47 million Candela? Furthermore, the energy loss from the glow turns out to be a major waste of energy, as a similarly-rated sword that was forged from a light-absorbing material can do the same attack better.
• Reconstructed: Vision damage is a risk that the heroes must take to defeat the Ultimate Evil. And the heroes, at least, take eye protection seriously.
• Zig Zagged: There's a fifteen-page-long chart explaining how effective weapons with different glow intensities are against one another. And the authors still manage to do a complete Ass Pull every once in a while.
• Averted: Glowing weapons are purely aesthetic.
• Enforced: The toy company handling the merchandising wants to make all the best weapons glow in the dark, so the producers have that incorporated into the strongest weapons on the show.
• Lampshaded: "Why are glowing swords more powerful? I mean, it just doesn't make much sense."
• Invoked: "I'll win! I have to! I have a GLOWING! SWORD!"
• Defied: "Target their leader! The one with the glowing sword, kill him first!"
• Exploited The heroes use their weapons when they need to find their way in the dark.
• Discussed: "Yes, you're exactly right: The glow is due to phlebotinum dust used during smelting to increase strength."
• Conversed: "What's with all the glowing swords? Is this a skirmish or a rave?"

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