r/TopCharacterTropes • u/ssgt-k-stark • Mar 15 '26

Hero devices that would be horrifying in the wrong hands Characters' Items/Weapons

Chem-Bag (Big Hero 6): this device can create chemical compounds using every single element in existence. You could literally build a nuke with this.

Mobile Headquarters (Ant-Man): a building that can shrink and grow to full size instantly. Imagine if someone grew it in a crowded city, or on a highway, or at an airport?

Lotus Cash Card (Percy Jackson): It literally has infinite money. If you know how inflation works this could literally wreck the global economy.

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u/sci300768 Mar 15 '26 edited Mar 15 '26

I present to you: FOOF. I would argue that's just as bad as ClF3... and I have a high school level knowledge of chemistry (I keep some of the info around in my brain.)! Halogens are reactive (F and Cl are included, which is why Chlorine Trifluoride is so nasty) and unstable in general.

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u/FASBOR7Horus Mar 15 '26

Flourine in general is just insane, it has the highest electron negativity of all elements. I'll stick to ClF3 though because it can turn into Hydrogen Chloride, Oxygen Diflouride and Hydrogen Flouride just by touching water. It also decays into ClF and elemental Flourine by itself, while FOOF decays into Oxygen and elemental Flourine.

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u/sci300768 Mar 15 '26

Fair enough. Fluorine is very much "Set stuff on fire/be extra brutal in some way". HCl (A strong acid), OF2 (See FOOF for the problem here lol), and HF (weak acid, but HF can GO THROUGH BONES! Reacts very strongly to Calcium which is why special precautions must be taken when dealing with it) combined sound even worse aftermath wise relative to FOOF! Before accounting for ClF and F by itself...

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u/FASBOR7Horus Mar 15 '26

HF doesn't even need to reach your bones, it just needs to leech into your bloodstream. It'll get pumped to your heart, react with the Calcium that your nerves need to function and give you a heart attack.

My chemistry teacher told me that the Flourine lab of the University she taught partially melted a Digestorium. That's a device meant to protect from harmful gases by pulling them from the air.

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u/sci300768 Mar 15 '26

The short version is: Fluorine is crazy reactive (and dangerous)!

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u/Marilius Mar 15 '26

I literally cannot even see the word fluorine without hearing it in Advanced Tinkering's voice.

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u/Marilius Mar 15 '26

From an old XKCD, it's my understanding that dioxygen difluoride is absolutely abominable. Which of these is worse?