rdfs:comment
| - Sometimes a power just seems limited. While talking to fish, super speed, and superhuman parkour skills are most definitely special abilities that could prove formidable in certain, very specific situations, much of the time they appear to be near-useless novelties. Or so it would seem to those who lack imagination. See, characters with Swiss Army Super Powers are able to apply their narrowly-defined abilities in amazing array of situations. Solely because their insight is so great, the Swiss Army Super Powered are always expanding the potential utility of their powers.
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abstract
| - Sometimes a power just seems limited. While talking to fish, super speed, and superhuman parkour skills are most definitely special abilities that could prove formidable in certain, very specific situations, much of the time they appear to be near-useless novelties. Or so it would seem to those who lack imagination. See, characters with Swiss Army Super Powers are able to apply their narrowly-defined abilities in amazing array of situations. Solely because their insight is so great, the Swiss Army Super Powered are always expanding the potential utility of their powers. What sets the Swiss Army Power apart from similar power tropes is that the defined base ability never changes. The user simply becomes aware of aspects to their power they didn't think of before. The base rules do not change. This blend of flexibility and limitation is convenient for the writers, because it allows them to get their heroes in and out of a host of sticky situations while avoiding complaints from fans that they've pulled a new power out of a character's ass. It still has a semblance of consistency. However, this also depends on how creative a writer can be about it. Named after Swiss Army Knives, which are pocket sized sets of 8 - 10 undersized tools that can do everything. Expect Forgot About His Powers to occur on multiple occasions. Compare Green Rocks (which do this stuff at the whim of the writers, rather than serving a specific character), New Powers as the Plot Demands (for cases where new powers are the result of Ass Pull), Re-Power (for situations when a character has their powerset either expanded upon in a "nonlinear" way, or reimagined entirely from the ground up), Adaptive Ability, Swiss Army Weapon and Adaptive Armor. When a weak-sounding power has this, then it's Heart Is an Awesome Power. Semantic Superpower and Imagination-Based Superpower are also related. Examples of Swiss Army Superpower include:
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