"That Hot Goo Could Melt Anything!": How Does Hollywood Acid Work?

[Angry_Dummy]

Seeing as I freaking hate chemistry class, all I know about acid is the following.

1) It's the opposite of a base, or something.

2) It tastes sour.

3) It's often clear in color.

4) If you pour some water into a plastic container of it, the sides will melt in half a second and there'll be a huge, steamy mess.

5) Hollywood remembered nothing about it except the last third of number four, made it green, and suddenly it's freaking everywhere and cool-looking.


Because I'm a writer and not a chemist/mathematician/type of nerd that's useful to society, I wouldn't know the logic behind how acid does the melt-y thing, and because of that, acid has a sort of mysticism to me. It's like a science-based magic that eats everything and anything it touchs.

At least, Hollywood acid. Normal acid is kind of boring.

So, as I imagine horrible villains using the stuff in tandem with a liquid-based version of nigh-invulnerability, a love of grappling and pinning, some tricksy traps and strategies, and a massive sadistic streak, I start to wonder if acid might be a sort of Durability Ignoring assault. So now I'm really curious.

1: "Can acid be used to circumvent incredibly high durability?" From what I know, acid dissolves things by pulling apart molecules. Even if bullets can't injure a tank, a bunch of fast-moving engineers with the right tools might be able to dismantle it, I imagine, using my tiny brain to break down highly complicated science into tangentially related comparisons that I can visualize.

2:: "Can acid circumvent Regenerationn, like fire?" I remember the trolls from D&D and how acid is one of the few things can keep them down, and I remember how acid is capable of rendering cells incapable of functioning, and wonder if perhaps all Sephiroth and Cell need to kick the bucket is a really fast-moving acid monster, ala The Blob.

3: "If neither of the above qualify, then why is that, and how might you explain this in terms that I can understand?" Because I'm tired of coming into a VS debate, pointing out that a strong character will have a hard time punching with mountain level force if he lacks flight and a solid leverage point to draw strength from, or something else based on physics and Earth-logic, and having people roll their eyes and saying, "No, you're wrong," and then never elaborating, ever.

Anyone who read the title quote in the voice of the tuna fish news reporter from Spongebob reflexively officially has my unending adoration.

 

[Angry_Dummy]

Bump

I require answers to these burning questions!

 

[ThePerpetual]

Hmmm. A bit of a tricky question...

1: Depends on the nature of the acid in question, I think. Some acids; i.e. many supernatural ones that are just sort of globs of melty stuff: are basically just puddles or streams of liquid that basically burn without generating actual heat. Others, such as more "true" acids or ones more grounded in real-world chemistry, probably qualify as some degree of molecular hax, though the potency of such an effect might vary. It's also worth noting that the durability of some things are reinforced with more than particularly tough physical matter, with things like magical energies helping to hold things together or the like.

2: Maybe not circumvent it, unless like D&D trolls they have a specific mechanism to their Regenerationn like that, but depending on how strong it is it can quite possibly suppress it for a good length of time.

3: Simply because of special circumstances, as this is very much a case-by-case thing you've got going here. Sorry that Vs Battles don't follow traditional logic all the time, but fiction doesn't eitehr, and we shouldn't try to force a fictional work to be something it's not, in my opinion.

Hopefully this helps?

 

[Angry_Dummy]

That didn't help a massive amount.

1) I'm thinking of the steamy "Melt ALL the Things!" stuff that you see in movies, which I assumed worked on similar principles as real acid, the same way a dire animal is similar to a normal one. It's just faster, nastier, and inexplicably ravenous all the time. So that would give it the hax, I think.

2) With trolls, fire or acid temporarily negates their Regenerationn for about six seconds. Seeing as they aren't considered dead until they're both unconscious AND unable to regenerate for at least six seconds, that's the best way to deal with them, outside of fireballing them into oblivion. From what I know, the reason for this is because the troll's regenerative body is being overwritten by the identity-stealing chemical reactions, and so now the flesh and bone underneath it has to molt off the burned, useless tissue, and turn its energy to regenerating new, fresh tissue from scratch, and that's why it takes time.

So, in theory, a regenerating character who was englufed by a cackling acid-man would be hard-pressed to shake off the threat with their healing as their molecules get burned out and made useless at the speed of Clint Eastwood. Make the monster a sticky knucker and a powerful regenerator in his own right, and Majin Buu can kiss his rolls of fat goodbye as he is quickly eaten alive and every last molecule of him gets melted down into more of the nasty, black sludge.

3) Fiction doesn't follow logic ALL the time. It follows logic A LOT OF the time. It is a basic rule of story-writing that your world is like reality unless noted. You may have a plumber jumping forty feet in the air while chucking fireballs at waddling mushrooms and turtles, but the world is still round, gravity is still a thing, people need oxygen to breathe to some extent (they can breathe underwater just fine, but space is a no-go without a helmet), electricity and fire hurt, kissing is still a sign of affection... Even something as weird as Mario still follows a lot of earth rules.

I typically argue using only two rules: that fiction is like reality until stated or shown otherwise, and that when the first rule applies, Reality Ensues.

As such, questions like "Can acid harm a person who shrugs off an explosion through sheer toughness?" are really important to me.

Your response wasn't the most helpful. Thank you, however.