The stupidest flaw

[lord Martiya]

Today I caught myself thinking at a strange fact: sometimes in sci-fi a super technology pops out but has some flaw whose solution is obvious enough to make anybody facepalm.
An example of this is from the anime Cosmo Warrior Zero. The titular character was ordered to capture Captain Harlock, and to do the job was given the Karyu, a battleship hastily refitted with the latest technologies. Karyu's most powerful weapon is the Saint Elmo, a flamethrower-like wave motion gun with immense power, relatively fast charging without sucking all the ship's energy, and, as the flaw, an overheating problem severe enough that a low power test shot nearly cooked to death the entire crew. In one of the last episodes, after he allied with Harlock to face a common enemy, Zero gets Tochiro to try and fix the Saint Elmo, and Tochiro just takes a glance before suggesting to add a water cooling system to the air cooling system already installed on the gun, and it works (following the suggestion the first officer, a cyborg whose body is mainly composed by liquid, use her own body fluid to cool the gun, who manage to shoot at full power without cooking the crew or destroying the ship).
After this, I wondered: what's the stupidest flaw of a super technology or hi-tech device in science fiction?

[Enigma]

I doubt it is the stupidest but probably among the top contenders.

Thermal vent on the Death Star.

[Rossum]

Lets see...

Green Lantern Rings cannot affect yellow objects (or wooden ones depending on the ring). A smart green lantern could just carry around a can of red spray paint and spray paint yellow objects to make them harmless. Or just get a suit of metal armor and levitate it around with his lantern energy to protect against wood.


Old Who Cybermen die when they touch gold... put some filters over their breathing apparatus to protect against gold dust and wear rubber or something over their metal components.


Holodecks in Star Trek routinely malfunction and eat people. The solution would be to replicate some video game consoles for people to entertain themselves... or get some strippers and prostitutes to entertain crew members that need it (instead of having them fly halfway across the Galaxy to visit Risa). This would not only prevent many senseless deaths and dismemberment aboard Federation ships and save lots of fuel that was wasted flying to the Red Light District planet, but it would also result in Lieutenant Barclay being addicted to video games in his room instead of hyper-realistic holographic worlds. Plus, they could have an episode where Barclay is sad because none of the prostitutes on board will deal with him because the Federations communist system means that they don't have to be that desperate for money.

La Forge: Barclay... did you intentionally sabotage the warp nauticals so that we would have to stop at Risa for repairs... and that you could spend your shoreleave on the surface?

Barclay: ...yes.

La Forge: You do realize that the entire planet stopped its sex-trade business and shut down the environmental control so that they could shift their economy to aquaculture and medicine production, don't you?

Barclay: WHAT?! When the hell did that happen?

Data: Three months ago. Once Starfleet decided to hire strippers instead of having those absurdly dangerous holodecks and having ships fly all over Risa for no good reason.

Barclay: GOD DAMMIT!!

La Forge: You are soo lucky your uncle is the fleet admiral.

[Coyote]

Green Lantern Rings cannot affect yellow objects (or wooden ones depending on the ring)...

A primary color defeats Green Lantern?

Boy, I can see the humiliation now.... Getting one's ass kicked by Big Bird...

[Batman]

Green Lantern Rings cannot affect yellow objects (or wooden ones depending on the ring)...

A primary color defeats Green Lantern?
Boy, I can see the humiliation now.... Getting one's ass kicked by Big Bird...

I can only assume you were being sarcastic there because that particular weakness is so pathetically easy to work around it's pretty depressing that Lanterns are bothered by (and often failed to compensate for) it in the first place.

[Penfold]

Green Lantern Rings cannot affect yellow objects (or wooden ones depending on the ring)...

A primary color defeats Green Lantern?
Boy, I can see the humiliation now.... Getting one's ass kicked by Big Bird...

I can only assume you were being sarcastic there because that particular weakness is so pathetically easy to work around it's pretty depressing that Lanterns are bothered by (and often failed to compensate for) it in the first place.

He's not. I remember an older story (it had Korona and Nekron as the villains) where a Green Lantern fought an all-yellow creature. The Lantern had to snap its neck with his bare hands because even throwing asteroids at it didn't work.

Apparently, objects thrown by the ring's power won't damage anything yellow.

[Bob the Gunslinger]

Can he use a gun? If he uses his lantern to pull the trigger, will the bullets not hurt someone who is yellow?

[Penfold]

Can he use a gun? If he uses his lantern to pull the trigger, will the bullets not hurt someone who is yellow?

You'll probably have to find an issue with Jack T. Chance to figure it out. I only have one with him in it, and he's just there as a minor speed bump for a crazed with grief possessed-by-Parallax Hal.

[Batman]

He's not. I remember an older story (it had Korona and Nekron as the villains) where a Green Lantern fought an all-yellow creature. The Lantern had to snap its neck with his bare hands because even throwing asteroids at it didn't work.
Apparently, objects thrown by the ring's power won't damage anything yellow.

The operative phrase here being OLDER story. Ever since I started reading superhero comics (and trust me, that was a LONG time ago) the ring couldn't DIRECTLY affect anything yellow and that was it. It could absolutely hit said yellow being over the head with some uninhabited planetoid or other.
Not that superhero comics are all that hot on consistency so I guess that could've happened reasonably recently ( I don't remember when Nekron was added to the DCU) but the VAST MAJORITY of the DCU has the rings being unable to DIRECTLY affect anything yellow, nothing more.

[Ghost Rider]

It was the Silver and Golden Age of comics.

In said age, since Superman had Kryptonite weakness, EVERYONE had a weakness. So for the Green Lantern they developed one. For the earlier, it was because the creator of said character wanted something of easy access.

So since the Guardians were little blue men. They combined their energy with a yellow impurity to come up with GREEN!

As for the weakness, it was so completely variable it's asinine. Sometimes GL could simple grab a shitload of whatever mud to change it's color and then proceed to rape enemy of the month or the writer wanted him to be so dumbfounded that his pea brain was befuddled by yellow that he had no idea what the fuck to do.

And as for the Death Star's weakness? Yes, because something that plot needed to be discovered by stealing the plans and still required luck/plot to destroy is nowhere near the fucking stupidity of the variety of other science fiction robots or destroyers that can be dumbfounded by asking them to divide by zero.

As for dumbest reason, comics has far better then yellow given they have shown that in both are capable of grabbing some small interstellar body and beating you with it.

Honestly, go for Batman and the fact that they made him a brainless boob if he lost his utility belt. No, the 1966 show wasn't shitting the audience. The writers made it his power and if the Joker took it away he could proceed to sodomize Robin and all Batman could do is pout.

[adam_grif]

You guys are going to hate me for this (more than you already do), but...

Weaksauce Weakness

[mr friendly guy]

Green Lantern's weakness to yellow was explained by a yellow impurity affecting the central power battery which their power rings draw upon. It was later explained in more detail that this impurity was Parallax, the embodiment of fear and yellow was the colour of fear on the emotional spectrum. Emotional spectrum? Say what?

Yeah continuing on, current Green Lanterns only have the weakness of yellow if they give in to their fears, Parallax being a yellow critter. So generally most Green Lanterns weren't so handicapped and they preceded to whoop the Sinestro Corps who use a yellow power ring based on the power of fear.

[Srelex]

An entire Dalek Empire being disabled from a control console.

[The Yosemite Bear]

cybermen and gold

[Admiral Drason]

Water and the stupid aliens from Signs.

[Bilbo]

Democrats and the truth.

[Bilbo]

Oh wait you want sci-fi examples.

Predator super sensors being defeated by a thin coat of mud.

Star Trek shields having a combination lock like code that makes them instantly nullified.

Modern sci-fi (as opposed to mystical or magical based) vampires, and other monsters, who instantly explode when exposed to sunlight.

Jedi who only ever seem to carry one lightsaber even though dropping it means they lose a huge amount of their combat ability.

[SilverWingedSeraph]

Predator super sensors being defeated by a thin coat of mud.

It was thermal sensors. They weren't that super. The thin coat of mud wouldn't have rendered it as useless in the real world as it did in the movie, though.

Star Trek shields having a combination lock like code that makes them instantly nullified.

It's so they can shoot through their own shields instead of needing to make holes in their shields or lower them entirely in order to fire their weapons. Not that stupid, considering making holes in their own shields is a capability I do not believe has even been shown in Trek, and needing to lower your shields for every shot would be a far bigger, more retarded weakness.

Jedi who only ever seem to carry one lightsaber even though dropping it means they lose a huge amount of their combat ability.

I suppose a police officer who carries only one firearm is also a stupid weakness. Or a Knight with only one sword.

Democrats and the truth.

My, how very clever of you.

[Bilbo]

Predator super sensors being defeated by a thin coat of mud.

It was thermal sensors. They weren't that super. The thin coat of mud wouldn't have rendered it as useless in the real world as it did in the movie, though.

Star Trek shields having a combination lock like code that makes them instantly nullified.

It's so they can shoot through their own shields instead of needing to make holes in their shields or lower them entirely in order to fire their weapons. Not that stupid, considering making holes in their own shields is a capability I do not believe has even been shown in Trek, and needing to lower your shields for every shot would be a far bigger, more retarded weakness.

Jedi who only ever seem to carry one lightsaber even though dropping it means they lose a huge amount of their combat ability.

I suppose a police officer who carries only one firearm is also a stupid weakness. Or a Knight with only one sword.

Democrats and the truth.

My, how very clever of you.

Predators - Pretty stupid flaw then if a much less advanced human device wont fail in the same way.

Star Trek shields - The Enterprise did not instantly change the frequency which means they probably do not change it often. Which means a bit of espionage and you can seriously weaken your foe. In addition O'Bien once beamed onto a ship cause he knew the frequency of the shield for sensor purposes. If a shield has to modulate to allow sensors through then a smart foe should be able to use this to determine the shield frequency and bypass it.

Jedi lightsabers - Most cops do carry more than one gun, in addition they often carry batons, tasers, and mace. At the same time knights often carried short swords, hammer or maces or picks, lances, and other weapons. So the loss of their sword would not completely disarm them.

Democrats - Your right. I should have said politicians. It is an equal opportunity flaw.

[SilverWingedSeraph]

Predators - Pretty stupid flaw then if a much less advanced human device wont fail in the same way.

True enough, but this is Hollywood. Merely depicting how easy it is to fool thermal sensors is not unlike them.

Star Trek shields - The Enterprise did not instantly change the frequency which means they probably do not change it often. Which means a bit of espionage and you can seriously weaken your foe. In addition O'Bien once beamed onto a ship cause he knew the frequency of the shield for sensor purposes. If a shield has to modulate to allow sensors through then a smart foe should be able to use this to determine the shield frequency and bypass it.

Still doesn't make it an especially stupid weakness, it just means the Federation is lazy. Oh, and that the Trek Verse is full of idiots, I guess.

Okay, it's a fairly stupid weakness.

Jedi lightsabers - Most cops do carry more than one gun, in addition they often carry batons, tasers, and mace. At the same time knights often carried short swords, hammer or maces or picks, lances, and other weapons. So the loss of their sword would not completely disarm them.

Losing their lightsaber doesn't completely disarm a Jedi. They have this handy thing called the Force that lets them hurl enemies around like ragdolls, dodge and deflect blaster bolts, recover lost weapons or grab new ones. I can agree that Jedi should probably have a backup weapon handy, but the fact they only carry one weapon is not an incredibly stupid flaw.

[Bilbo]

Predators - Pretty stupid flaw then if a much less advanced human device wont fail in the same way.

True enough, but this is Hollywood. Merely depicting how easy it is to fool thermal sensors is not unlike them.

Star Trek shields - The Enterprise did not instantly change the frequency which means they probably do not change it often. Which means a bit of espionage and you can seriously weaken your foe. In addition O'Bien once beamed onto a ship cause he knew the frequency of the shield for sensor purposes. If a shield has to modulate to allow sensors through then a smart foe should be able to use this to determine the shield frequency and bypass it.

Still doesn't make it and especially stupid weakness, it just means the Federation is lazy.

Jedi lightsabers - Most cops do carry more than one gun, in addition they often carry batons, tasers, and mace. At the same time knights often carried short swords, hammer or maces or picks, lances, and other weapons. So the loss of their sword would not completely disarm them.

Losing their lightsaber doesn't completely disarm a Jedi. They have this handy thing called the Force that lets them hurl enemies around like ragdolls, dodge and deflect blaster bolts, recover lost weapons or grab new ones. I can agree that Jedi should probably have a backup weapon handy, but the fact they only carry one weapon is not an incredibly stupid flaw.

When an 80 plus year old POS Klingon ship can destroy the Federation flagship in a matter of moments it certainly looks like a major flaw to me. The real flaw may be having the code printed in large numbers on a screen that anyone can see.

Count Dooku and his imprisonment by the pirates or Anakin running like a girl from a few bounty hunters certainly suggests that a Jedi loses quite a bit of power when he no longer has his lightsaber. In fact that may be why Anakin at some point learned the ability absorb/deflect blaster bolts as seen in TESB. If he had that ability when the bounty hunters attacked the Senate things would have been much easier for him.

[dworkin]

Jedi who only ever seem to carry one lightsaber even though dropping it means they lose a huge amount of their combat ability.

Which is why Luke throws his lightsabre away at the end when facing the Emperor (who wasn't waving one around either).

[tezunegari]

When an 80 plus year old POS Klingon ship can destroy the Federation flagship in a matter of moments it certainly looks like a major flaw to me. The real flaw may be having the code printed in large numbers on a screen that anyone can see.
[...]

The Duras Sisters didn't get the prefix-code of the Ent-D. They got the shield frequency.
It allowed them to [technobabble] their own torpedoes (do torpedoes have shields?!) to nullify the barrier effect of the shields.
This only worked because Starfleet has no good security protocols regarding hostages.

The Prefix-Code of a Starfleet ship is actually even more retarded. It exists only to bypass the defenses of a ship.
Maybe the Admiralty isn't trusting their own Captains.
You know the 4-digit code and correct communications protocol - voila, instant shield-off.

It was only used twice in Trek-history.
In Wrath of Khan Kirk used it to lower the shields of the Reliant and escape for repairs.
The other time was during TNG The Wounded when a starfleet captain attacked cardassian ships.
It actually worked but the Cardassians were destroyed.

Stupid flaws:

• Star Trek: prison cells, isolation wards and quarantine boxes all use force fields instead of hermetically sealed PHYSICAL barriers
• Star Trek - TNG: Security protocols regarding:
  • prisoners (not searched for weapons, not given orange brig pajamas while everything they have is put in storage),
  • hostages (got taken as a hostage? go straight back to work, don't take the day off and don't get counseling)
• Star Trek - TNG and later: warp cores, look at them the wrong way and they explode (quite literally in True Q )
• Star Trek - TNG and later: central computer cores, that do everything...
  well, a virtual desktop run remotely on a server isn't a bad idea but having
  vital functions, like the FUCKING LIFE SUPPORT, run on THE ONLY computer aboard is just retarded. I know there are supposed to be TWO computer cores on a Galaxy... but the second one is just a backup...
• Stargate Atlantis: You can copy, modify and overwrite THE BLOODY OPERATING SYSTEM without anyone being aware of it.
• Star Wars: "What do you need those tacky pits of doom in your throne room on top a spire, oh wise emperor?!" "Why, so that my traitorous Lieutenant can throw me down to a grizzly death..."

[SilverWingedSeraph]

• Star Wars: "What do you need those tacky pits of doom in your throne room on top a spire, oh wise emperor?!" "Why, so that my traitorous Lieutenant can throw me down to a grizzly death..."

Hey man, keep it in perspective!

At least those tacky pits of doom had railings, which seem to be a very rare piece of technology in the Star Wars universe.

[Srelex]

Reminds me of that quote from A Death Star is Born: "Hey, make sure you always stay behind me. Don't want anyone sneaking up on me and throwing me into one of those bottomless pits, okay?"