It’s Tuesday, which means you’ve survived the first day of the work week but still have another four days to get through. It also means that it’s time for our weekly soujourn into TVTropes.org. On the docket this time around: Uniqueness Decay.

In many series, something or someone is first introduced as special – new, awe-inspiring, mysterious, utterly unique, unparalleled, or some combination of those things. Sometimes, either later in the series or in related works in shared universes, that specialness seems to fade without much explanation or get outright retconned away. The unique example becomes just one of many, the mystery somehow gets thoroughly documented, the new arrival turns out to have a long history in the area, the unparalleled turns out to be a footnote, and the awe becomes…ehn.

This is a form of Continuity Drift, perhaps sometimes due to They Just Didn’t Care or careless research on Long Runners. It can be justified if enough time passes and the once unique aspect is spread due to analysis/teaching/reverse engineering.

Remember when super weapons were unique? When there was just one maniacal overlord menacing the Galaxy with a fully armed and operational battlestation capable of turning an entire planet into an asteroid field? It meant something to have a weapon of mass destruction capable of inflicting total xenocide in a matter of seconds.

Then the Expanded Universe happened and every Durron, Daala, and Durga had one. They weren’t even elegant! Some were just superlasers with engines strapped on the back. But really, someone ought to regulate these things. How can you inspire terror and fear when another big, honking super-weapon is being built between a couple black holes?

It used to mean something to have a Death Star, you know.