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Daichi, Yu-Gi-Oh! GX: The Abridged Series "If there's one thing I know, it's water beats fire. But grass beats water, and fire beats grass. Good God, it's like a never-ending circle!"
Many works feature characters that have some elemental association, and this often includes some form of resistance or weakness to one or more elements. In some cases, these are arbitrary even very similar characters may have wildly different resistances and weaknesses.
In the case of this trope, however, quite the opposite is true: if you know what elemental associations a character has, you know which elemental skills to use to deal the most damage. This is because, under Elemental Rock-Paper-Scissors, the elements are arranged in a pattern of fixed relationships to each other: Element A beats element B; element B beats element C; and so on.
In short, this trope is the application of Elemental Powers to Tactical RockPaperScissors.
Note that while while the trope is named for RockPaperScissors, which has a simple three-item cycle, that needn't be the case for an example to fall under this trope Tropes Are Flexible, after all. The core idea here is that, given an element, you can reliably say which elements it "defeats" and which it's "defeated by". That said, cyclical patterns are not uncommon likely because a cycle instates a degree of balance, with no one element being "the best". A common exception is Light/Holy vs. Darkness/Unholy. These two are typically set outside the rest of the cycle, and more often than not mutually weak to each other in favor of the attacker.
An elemental sub-trope of Tactical RockPaperScissors. Contrast Elemental Tiers, where one element is intended to be dominant above all others. When a character sticks with a single element regardless of such a system, they become Poor, Predictable Rock. Established rules can be changed further by either side through Scissors Cuts Rock, Barrier Change Boss, and Kryptonite-Proof Suit, or bypassed with Non-Elemental, Element No. 5, and Infinity +1 Element. If an element happens to be resisted by itself, see Like Cannot Cut Like; if an element happens to be weak against itself, see Takes One to Kill One.
Examples:
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Anime and Manga
Comic Books
The Golden Age Green Lantern has an inverted version of the East Asian elemental relationships. He used the element of fire, was strong against metals, but was weak against wood. The modern Green Lantern comics have this with the emotional/color spectrum rather than elements. For instance, Willpower/Green rings are vulnerable to Fear/Yellow rings, which are vulnerable to Hope/Blue rings, which depend on the aid of Willpower/Green rings to actually do anything. Rage/Red rings give the user the user the ability to vomit blood that weakens other rings, the disadvantage is that most red ring users are unable to make constructs, and they also were vulnerable to blue. Greed/Orange rings can store far more charge than normal rings and can absorb energy from other colors, but not blue. Indigo/compassion can copy other colors. Black/Death, which is the absence of color and life, normally can only be beaten by a combination of green plus one other color or by white. White/Life is the combination of all other colors except black, and their combined abilities. The First lantern was a Reality Warper and Emotion Eater who had an advantage over all the colors, although Orange was particularly resistant to him. His only vulnerability was against Black.
Various Marvel Comics heroes have used this trope at several points to defeat certain enemies, most often villains who either transform themselves into some giant elemental-type creature or otherwise use a certain type of energy in their powers. Spider-Man: Electro, Sandman, and Hydro-Man have all been defeated by being doused with water and/or some chemical compound that negatively affects them, like wet cement. X-Men: Iceman once defeated the Human Torch despite the apparent weakness, using his ice powers to create steam and water vapors around Torch and extinguish his flames. Obviously, The Torch was struck dumb. The Incredible Hulk: The Hulk has defeated some of his opponents this way, such as by spraying the villainess Vapor with oxygen when she had transformed herself into hydrogen, effectively turning her into water (which should have required burning it), or by beating X-Ray (a living field of radiation) with a lead pipe, which disrupts his radioactive body. This is much more more fun if you realize that pure oxygen and pure hydrogen tend to explode when combined. Vapor and X-Ray were both members of the U-Foes, a group of villains who tried to get superpowers by copying Reed Richards' flawed space flight. They ended up as direct analogues of the Fantastic Four (but evil, and therefore punchable), making them Elementals twice removed.
Wonder Woman (1987): A few villains and heroes who use conflicting elements fight during the giant brawl across New York in "The Witch and the Warrior". Two dark/shadow manipulators try to take down Dr. Light, who blasts through their combined power, and Killer Frost handily freezes Inferno solid.
Fan Works
Film
In the kung fu movie Mystery Of Chessboxing, the evil Ghost Face Killer is a master of "Five Elements Style", a collection of techniques thematically tied to the five elements of Chinese philosophy, and to defeat him, The Hero Ah Pao needs to learn which elemental technique counters which.
Gamebooks
A couple of instances from Fighting Fantasy: The final confrontation of Return to Firetop Mountain, between you and the warlock Zagor. Prior to the adventure, you're told of the Elemental of Chaos now in Zagor's hands, and you'll need to seek four golden dragon teeth containing four Elementals of Good before facing the warlock. The final battle have Zagor releasing his elementals, one at a time; you'll need to have all four elementals and use them in the right order, to win the battle. The ending of Stormslayer plays out in a similar way. Throughout the adventure you're given instructions on seeking the help of four heroic elementals - Vulcanus of Fire, Zephyrus of Wind, Arkolith of Earth and Hydana of Water - and as you face Balthazar, the main villain, Balthazar reveals his ability to transform into any elemental of his choice, and you can bypass Balthazar's forms by getting the right Elemental of good to fight for you. Unlike Zagor though, if you don't have the right elemental, you can still fight Balthazar yourself, rather than getting killed on the spot for lacking the right items.
Literature
"The Bear, The Fire, and The Snow" by Shel Silverstein. The bear fears the snow, the snow the fire, the fire the river, and the river the bear.
by Shel Silverstein. The bear fears the snow, the snow the fire, the fire the river, and the river the bear. In Codex Alera,there are three pairs of opposing elements: Fire vs Water, Air vs Earth, and Wood vs Metal. Keeping a craftsman with only an Earth Fury suspended in mid-air saps their powers, burying an Aircrafter saps theirs, dunking a Firecrafter in water or surrounding a Watercrafter with fire will cancel them out, and putting a Woodcrafter in a metal box will cancel out theirs. It's never seen, but it can be assumed that stuffing a Metalcrafter into a wooden crate would drain their powers. An exceptional craftsman can have multiple elemental pet Furies of varying types, though, which makes keeping them prisoner or nullifying them much more difficult.
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Good Luck Symbols and Signs from Around the World 1) Elephants. 2) Horseshoes. 3) Four Leaf Clovers. 4) Keys. 5) Shooting Stars.
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Mercedes Lackey's Elemental Masters series has four elements: Air, Water, Fire, Earth. Neighboring elements, like Air and Fire, can enhance each other, but opposing pairs (Water-Fire and Air-Earth) are bitter enemies. This came out particularly grimly in Phoenix and Ashes, where an Air Master pilot crashed and was held at the mercy of corrupted Earth elementals for a while, emerging with severe PTSD.
Mentioned in Fengshen Yanyi with the Chinese 5 elements philosophy: Princess Longji is able to easily defeat Luo Xuan's fire-based Fabaos (Magic tools) using her water-based Fabaos, while later, when the minor villain Hong Jin tries to escape her by flying on a cloud of earth, she summons a cloud of wood note presumambly made of wood branches, roots and the like, not a cloud of solid wood and is able to catch up to him.
and is able to catch up to him. In The Girl from the Well series, every ghost is aligned with one of the five Eastern elements. Because Okiku drowned in a well, she is a spirit of Water, making her strong against spirits of Fire but weak against those of Earth. The ghosts of Aitou village are of Earth: strong against Water and thus Okiku; but weak to Wood, thus allowing Tark to exorcise them with wooden stakes. The woman in black is aligned with Fire, and Hiroshi Mikage is aligned with Wood.
The magic system of I'm In Love With the Villainess involves the four classic elements, each weak or strong against another: Fire beats Earth, Earth beats Air, Air beats Water, Water beats Fire. Outcomes can still very, however, given difference in magical aptitude, how the magician applies their talents, and very rarely, individuals with control over more than one element.
Journey to Chaos: The magic system features ten elements and all of them have an opposite that they are both strong and weak against. For instance, water puts out fire but heat from the fire can be used to evaporate the water. During Mana Mutation Menace, Eric uses air magic to prevent someone from teleporting with lightning magic.
In Kaze no Stigma, fire mages can't be harmed by fire and can even stand on lava.
In The Spectra Universe, the six clans represent the six colors. The three "secondary" clans: Nome (orange), Sprite (green), and Muse (purple) have a natural disadvantage against their complimentary primary color: Mer (blue), Cole (red), and Lectran (yellow), respectively.
Sharon Shinn's Troubled Waters novel, though written by a Western author, uses the Eastern elements. Each person is governed by one element, giving them certain personality traits and sometimes superhuman abilities, and some elements pair very well with one another and some are always in opposition. For example, the main character is a coru, governed by the water element; she eventually marries a hunti man, governed by the element of wood . Occasionally this subverts itselfthe heroine's mother was a coru and her father was a sweela (fire element).
. Occasionally this subverts itselfthe heroine's mother was a coru and her father was a sweela (fire element). In one of Piers Anthony's Xanth novels, a dragon and a merman play this game, only they unwittingly play with different interpretations of what defeats what. When one plays Fire and the other plays Water, they each assume they've won, leading to an argument that results in the death of the merman.
Live-Action TV
In the reality gameshow series Endurance the Temple of Fate showdown were resolved by pitting Wood, Water and Fire against each other. Water doused Fire, Fire burned Wood, and Wood floated on Water.
Leverage: Redemption: In Spirit's Ruse, the fictional card game at the center of "The Card Game Job", fire, water, and earth cards are weak to each other. Eliot says it's "basically rock-paper-scissors", frustrating Breanna, who admits that yes, it's exactly like RPS.
Tabletop Games
Ammo: When it comes to demons of elemental nature, Fire beats Water and Air beats Earth, but the opposite is also true.
Dungeons & Dragons features the four classic Western elements as monster subtypes, Inner Planes, and fundamental building blocks of the Multiverse. The basic game had a notion of "elemental dominance" in which one elemental would deal extra damage and enjoy protection from another: Air has dominance over Water, Water has dominance over Fire, Fire has dominance over Earth, and Earth has dominance over Air. The Time Travel-laden 'Verse shared by the Feng Shui Tabletop Games and Shadowfist card game also uses this variation. Coincidentally, the most significant "boss" NPC associated with the Shadow element also becomes a technological cyborg when travelling into eras that won't support her magic.
Magic: The Gathering has a stylized version of this trope with its Color Wheel. The game has five colors associated with land forms, creatures, and most importantly a style of play. Adjacent colors tend to share strengths and play styles (red and black are both great at killing creatures, for example), but are opposite/opposed to the two other colors (white likes to prevent damage, red likes causing it, while black will simply bring a dead unit back to unlife). But opposing colors are capable of finding common ground, and characters in the setting can have allies of opposing colors; Lorwyn's beauty-obsessed elves sport green and black members, while there's a group of white and red giants who oscillate between being extremely zen and extremely passionate. The game also has some "colorless" cards such as lands or artifacts, and a few that are multiple colors. As for the colors themselves: White is associated with light, valor and order. On the attack it uses numerous weak creatures working together or a few powerful champions, all of which can be further augmented through spells. But White tends to show itself best in defense; White is where you most likely find creatures with Vigilance. note Vigilance means a creature doesn't tap when it attacks, meaning it can attack and still be used to block on the opponent's turn. White magic is partial towards life-restoring spells, or enchantments that prevent your opponent from doing damage to you or your creatures (Lifelink is most often seen in White creatures). But while White can deal with almost any threat, it does so only partially; its removal spells either give your opponent an out, or make an "equal" trade that destroys a lot of things, including your own. If a White spell doesn't destroy something, it more than likely only taps (temporarily disables) a target, meaning you need to coordinate such effects so as to take advantage of these openings. Blue is the magic of air/water, deception, and intelligence, built around counterspells and altering the flow of the game. Blue magic tends to have the highest number of Flying creatures, but they are generally ill-suited for direct combat and instead employ indirect damage or disruptive abilities. While Blue is good at shutting down the enemy, it doesn't have many offensive options. Blue spells usually don't destroy cards but instead forces them back into the hand or Library. Black is the color of death, night, and amorality, and its magic is designed to degrade enemy creatures and whittle down the other player's health points. It's also very strongly associated with the Cemetery so Black cards tend to have effects like Unearth and Deathtouch. This power usually comes at a price, but the payoff is generally worth it. However, Black magic struggles to deal with things that aren't living, such as enchantments, artifacts, and other Black creatures Red magic is associated with earth/fire, destruction, and chaos. It's the most offensive color, boasting spells that do direct damage or destroy enemy artifacts and lands, and fast-striking creatures that do the same (Red creatures are the most likely to possess Haste note Which means they can attack the same turn as they're cast ). But like Black, Red has trouble with enchantments, and has to burn down big creatures with damage since its own creatures tend to fall short of Green's power. Green is the color of nature, life, and raw power. It likes big and powerful creatures that trample the opposition, and its magic can buff them further or gather the resources necessary to summon them. But the only way Green can deal with opposing creatures is through direct combat; to help balance the opposition to Blue's Flying creatures, Green creatures are the most likely to possess Reach. In a more traditional example of this trope, it's fairly common to see cards that are either more effective against enemy colors or are very efficiently costed but only work against enemy colors. For an example of each, Kor Firewalker is a white creature that can't be directly interacted with by red cards and gains its controller 1 life whenever an opponent casts a red spell (red has the most damage-dealing cards in the game, so gaining life works directly against it). Flashfreeze is an undercosted, easy-to-cast, counterspell (causes an opponent's card to be discarded without effect) that can only target a red or green spell.
Pathfinder: In Second Edition, imperial dragons follow a version of this based on the classical Chinese model. Each variety is aligned with one element — fire, water, earth, metal or plants — and finds its powers hindered by an opposing element while becoming stronger if targeted with a specific third. Forest dragons, for instance, are aligned with plants; consequently, they're fed by water (attacking one with a water-based spell causes no damage and instead gives it temporary hit points) and hampered by metal (if struck with a metal weapon, they lose access to certain abilities for a while). Sovereign dragons are a notable exception, as they're closely tied to earth but are neither fed by fire nor hampered with wood as would be expected; other imperial dragons suspect they struck a Deal with the Devil, sacrificing their elemental affinities in exchange for greater arcane magic.
What is the sound for money?
Money is sound when its value is stable and it is thus able to perform its functions as a medium of exchange, a unit of account and a store of...
Awaken your dormant DNA ability to attract wealth effortlessly
The simple yet scientifically proven Wealth DNA method laid out in the report allows you to effortlessly start attracting the wealth and abundance you deserve.
Scion: The titular children of the gods can utilize Boons that fall under a variety of Purviews, which range from the elemental (earth, fire, sky, fertility) to the abstract (guardian, chaos, death, health). Although the different Purviews have no direct relationship with each other in normal gameplay, there is one aspect in which they do: dealing with monsters of the Greater Titans. As the chthonic embodiments of different elements, the creatures that dwell within the Greater Titans possess different templates depending on the Titan. In addition to specific skills and powers, these templates grant the monsters an immunity to their own element, but attacks of certain other Purviews are granted bonuses against them (e.g. Monsters dwelling in Musphelheim, the Greater Titan of Fire, have the infernal template, which renders them completely immune to the Fire Purview, but vulnerable to the Water and Sky Purviews).
Some of the earlier video game adaptations of Yu-Gi-Oh! used two tiers of Elemental RPS based on eleven elements: The first one is, in advantageous order: Fire, Forest, Wind, Earth, Thunder, Water, and Fire. Then you have Shadow→Light→Evil→Dreams→Shadow. The eleventh element, Divine, had no type advantages or disadvantages. A monster with a superior Attribute will automatically win a battle regardless of actual stats.
Toys
Video Games
Web Comics
Web Original
Goodbye Strangers: The fictional video game Zeroworld has Strangers classified into different types that parody the types from Pokémon. It is even more ridiculously unbalanced than Pokémon. The void type, for example, has a total of nine immunities, two resistances, and only two weaknesses, and is not resisted by or ineffective against anything except itself.
RPS 101 . Each 'element' is weak to 50 and strong against 50, and there are descriptions for why for each.
. Each 'element' is weak to 50 and strong against 50, and there are descriptions for why for each. Demon Thesis has this to an extent, as elemental spells will affect each other differently. The creator of the game made a cheat sheet that lays out all the effects, as well as some other nuances. (For example, if a character standing on a grid that was frozen by an ice spell and you attempt to hit them with a fire spell, the ice and fie will cancel each other out, since the ice melts and the fire never get a proper chance to burn anything, and the character will be undamaged).
Awaken your dormant DNA ability to attract wealth effortlessly
The simple yet scientifically proven Wealth DNA method laid out in the report allows you to effortlessly start attracting the wealth and abundance you deserve.
Awaken your dormant DNA ability to attract wealth effortlessly
The simple yet scientifically proven Wealth DNA method laid out in the report allows you to effortlessly start attracting the wealth and abundance you deserve.
Affluent Savvy
Photo: Julia Volk
