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Introduction
Will preface by saying this: if I am outvoted/incorrect on this then I will accept the lapse in judgement on my part; even if I disagree with something, the site strives to be as democratic as possible and I respect that. That being said...Yesterday, I deleted a page with a single P/A; ignoring the fact that ONE P/A is an issue in of itself, the P/A in question was Light Manipulation by virtue of weilding a flashlight. I disagreed with this because it didn't seem like an acceptable application of light manipulation, but after discusssing it with some people in the Profile Deletion Request Thread, they provided numerous examples of pages where this is the case:
To clarify, as per what these users said, these characters do not use supernatural flashlights, nor do any of them have extremely unique connections to the flashlights (i.e., flashlights integrated into the palms of their hands or something), according to the users, these are regular flashlights.
My Issue With This + Addressing Counters
Since the crux of my argument can be conveyed by countering the points that were brought up... I will do that.
Counter: A character with a flashlight having light manipulation, is like a character with a flame thrower having fire manipulation.
My Response: A flamethrower is a weapon not a household, day-to-day object; I really gotta ask, at what point do we draw the line? Tazers, Flamethrowers, Guns, etc are all weapons making them more relevant for a site dedicated to indexing battle boarding feats. So no, using a flashlight for light manip would not be similar to using a flamethrower for fire manip (at least in this context); it would be more akin to giving a character Air manipulation for using a normal fan.
Counter: On the Light Manipulation Page, a limitation that is listed as an ACCEPTABLE limition is: "User May be unable to create light, being limited to manipulating only from already existing sources". Therefore, using a flashlight for light manip is acceptable since the person isnt required to emit the light themselves.
My Response: The user isn't even manipulating the light itself. The machine is the the thing that "manipulates" (if this is even considered manipulation) the light.
Counter: The image on the Light Maniplulation page "has someone using something as an alternative to a flashlight."
My Response: Harry Potter pouring out his magic into a magic wand to emit light is very different from a person using a flashlight.
Counter: Humans cannot create light naturally, so using a flashlight to do so should be a power
My Response: Humans can't do a lot of things. Do we index everything that humans can't do as a power and/or ability? No.
Counter: There are multiple cases where a simple flashlight may be combat-viable (against characters weak to light, at least)
My Response: A character being weak to light is a weakness on the part of that character, NOT an ability of the character weilding a flashlight as a weapon. I can apply this logic to literally anything. If a character is weak to water, and I dump a water bottle on them, does that give me water manipulation? No.
As an addendum, to everything mentioned above, and to summarize my point in one sentence: I'm saying there has to be a point where enough is enough with how equipment can be interpreted as a power in the P/A; following this line of thinking, the possibilities would be nigh-endless which is just unnessecary in my view.
Is a Flashlight an acceptable form of Light Manip?
Agree with OP: Deagon, Bambu, Dereck, Andytremon, LordGriffen, Planck, Damage, GarrixianDisagree with Op: TIlmberg, Propellus
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