Cursed with Awesome: Difference between revisions

{{trope}}

* ''[[Magical Project S]]'': Sammy complains of being a magical girl because she has a lame outfit; this despite having reality-bending powers. Misao complains about having to transform into Pixy Misa (granted, it was an evil personality). However, at the end, both learn to enjoy their abilities.

* ''[[Ranma One Half]]''. While it's never officially stated that Ranma Saotome has some sort of "May You Live In Interesting Times" curse on him, it's a fair assumption to make in order to explain his status as a [[Weirdness Magnet]]. However, Ranma himself has no complaints about this curse, at least in abstract- it draws strong (if weird) martial arts challengers and beautiful girls to him like flies to honey. He complains when they personally get out of hand, but not about the situation itself. Many fans consider his [[Gender Bender|Nyanniichuan curse]] to be a case of [[Cursed With Awesome]] too, but to Ranma it's more a case of [[Blessed With Suck]].

*** Don't even ask how the eel and the octopus managed to drown...

* Ataru Moroboshi of ''[[Urusei Yatsura]]'' seesaws somewhere between this and [[Blessed With Suck]] in regards his [[Accidental Marriage]] to [[Cute Monster Girl]] Lum. On the one hand, she is a beautiful alien princess who genuinely does love him and sees his better qualities, and a lot of his protestations seem to be rooted in his being a particularly lustful example of the [[Casanova Wannabe]] who doesn't seem to realise how lucky he is. On the other hand, Lum does have her legitimate bad points, including [[Tsundere|having a bad temper and little tolerance for jealousy]], being somewhat ditzy, [[Alien Lunch|enjoying higher levels of food spice]] [[Fire-Breathing Diner|than humans are comfortable with]], and, of course, her ability to generate electricity... not only does she use this to discipline him when he goes skirt-chasing, but she sometimes loses control of this when trying to cuddle him, giving him a painful shock (particularly early on, when she is the unofficial villain). And, on the meta-level, there's the fact he was originally supposed to marry [[Unlucky Childhood Friend|Shinobu Miyake]] (who ended up crushing on Mendou after he was first introduced, then hooking up with Inaba, anyway), until Lum became the [[Ensemble Darkhorse]].

* ''[[Tenchi Muyo GXP]]'' plays with this trope. Protagonist Seina Yamada is cursed to be a [[Weirdness Magnet]], with his mere presence causing accidents to harm himself and anyone else in the general area. His curse seems to reach new heights when he gets shanghaied into the Galaxy Police, and attracts a horde of [[In Space|space pirates]] almost as soon as he leaves orbit. But when he's rescued, it's brought to his attention that his curse led to one of the biggest blows against piracy in history -- and he becomes determined to take the chance to have his luck serve a purpose for a change. Of course, the curse also leads to an [[Unwanted Harem]]... 'nuff said.

* The "yaka" in ''[[Sola]]'' closely resemble vampires minus the need for blood: immortality, super strength and agility, regeneration, ability to resurrect people by turning them, and sometimes other awesome unique powers, with only the vampire-like extreme weakness to direct sunlight (and the 'curse' of immortality) as a drawback. {{spoiler|Another character has a unique body that overcomes even that, but he spends all his time angsting over not being a real boy}}. The ending highlights how unappreciated these abilities are by those who have them.

* Ashitaka in ''[[Princess Mononoke]]'' gets cursed by a boar demon, which manifests itself in a gradually increasing nasty-looking scar which will eventually kill him, and turn him into a demon. {{spoiler|(He comes pretty close to the deadline).}} The curse also grants him awesome powers, like super strength, which comes in very handy among all the hostility he gets faced with.

* Allen Walker from ''[[D Gray Man]]'' was born with a deformed left arm that made his parents abandon him. After his adopted father died, Allen unknowingly had the [[Big Bad|Millennium Earl]] turn him into an [[The Heartless|Akuma]], who then cut Allen's left eye and cursed him. Allen's arm can turn into an incredible weapon for destroying Akuma, and his left eye can see the soul bound to them, making him the only person on the planet who can tell which "people" in a crowd are Akuma. A few other Exorcists are [[Cursed With Awesome]] too, particularly Krory (who was bitten by a plant and started drinking the blood of what he ''thought'' were humans at first) and Miranda (a perpetual loser who can now stop time). Miranda started as full-fledged [[Blessed With Suck]] until she was able to control it, though.

** Remember, though, that when Lavi briefly saw an Akuma the way Allen always does, he declared it to be horrific and said he'd rather be [[Properly Paranoid|looking over his shoulder all the time]] than have to deal with that.

*** On the other hand, something else that Allen can see that no other exorcist can is the souls bound to the Akuma being released when the Akuma is destroyed. To everyone else, the Akuma can easily be seen as simply monsters that need to be destroyed, but Allen gets a truer idea of what's really at stake.

** Most of the other [[Sealed Inside a Person Shaped Can|hosts]] aren't as lucky: Gaara was ostracized even more from his village while the thing tried to take over his mind when he slept ([[The Insomniac|so he doesn't]]) and [[Minor Major Character|hosts 2-7]] {{spoiler|were all killed by Akatsuki}}. However, the 8-Tailed Ox host, Killer Bee, ''has it even better than Naruto'': he's able to control his beast and use it however he wants (that might have been something he needed to learn how to do), has no apparently risk of it getting out (even if he uses its full power), and his village actually respects him. It helps in Killer Bee's case that the Eight-Tails is ''considerably'' more mellow than the Kyuubi. The Kyuubi is constantly threatening to kill Naruto; the Eight-Tails just occasionally insults Killer Bee.

** Naruto now {{spoiler|has control of Kurama (the Kyubi).}}

* [[Orson Scott Card]]'s [[Ender's Game|Ender series]] has Olhado, who [[Eye Scream|lost his eyes in an accident]] when he was a child, and they were replaced with high-tech metal eyes capable of recording what he sees for later playback. His mother laments his deformity, and his brother marvels that a freak like Olhado could find a wife. Rarely do characters treat Olhado's metal eyes as an advantage rather than a curse. Olhado himself doesn't seem to mind them; he's arguably the most well-adjusted member of his family.

* In [[The Kingdoms of Evil]], the main character is forced to rule half a continent.

* In the first book of [[The Sword of Truth]], Darken Rahl curses Richard in what he THINKS is a completely debilitating way: His enemies will see him as himself, and his friends will see him as their worst enemy. This has the expected effect (including being attacked by Zedd and Kahlan), but shortly afterwards, he meets his half-brother, and realizes his brother KNOWS WHO HE IS...

* In the ''[[Alex Verus (Literature)|Alex Verus]]'' series, Luna's luck-stealing curse has the nice side effect of rendering her immune to casual misfortunes and making her generally lucky. Plus, it doesn't just affect people she likes: She brings bad luck to her enemies, too. Justified in that the curse was created by taking a useful (if morally questionable) luck-draining spell and making it [[Power Incontinence|permanent]].

** Another good example: Emma Coolidge in Volume Five, a deaf woman who develops the power to [[Disability Superpower|see sounds as multicolored lights]]. This not only looks pretty cool, but also makes her an [[Instant Expert]] at playing musical instruments. Her first reaction (after receiving independent verification that she's not hallucinating) is to demand that it be taken away and spend several episodes [[Wangst|Wangsting]] about it for no readily apparent reason.

* ''[[Lizzie Mcguire]]'' from...well Lizzie McGuire after trying to find something she is good at is not very happy to find out she is a rhythmic gymnastics prodigy, calling it a "stupid talent" to have and does not enjoy taking part in a compitition which she easily wins.

** Admittedly, his whining becomes ''slightly'' more justified in later seasons as some people he loves die or move away, his would-be [[OTP]] starts getting really screwy, and increasingly more dangerous and determined adversaries are pitted against him. '''Still''', you wish you could just tell him that a few years down the track he'll get the hot chick, be the universally beloved protector of the planet, hang out with a bunch of super buddies etc... SO JUST PUT A SOCK IN IT!

* Subverted in ''[[Reaper (TV)|Reaper]]''. At first it seems like the devil owning Sam's soul looks like the best thing that's ever happened to him: he gets a cool job as a hunter of escaped souls, powers specially designed for each soul so he shouldn't have too much trouble with them, and the big guy's inside advice on how to get laid. However, the devil also occasionally screws with Sam's life just for the hell of it, and he can't say anything about it to the girl he really loves since it would jeopardize her ownership of her own soul.

** Their main issue is with the [[Muggles|Mundanes]] hating them. According to the canon Psi-Corps trilogy, when the knowledge of telepaths first became public on Earth, it was followed by mass [[Witch Hunt|Witch Hunts]] for anyone who even seemed like they may be a telepath. This is despite the Pope (you know, the head of the largest religion on the planet) telling people that he approves of telepaths. The only time shown in the book where he is heeded is when an Italian mob boss lets a telepath go after cheating in his casino, provided he uses his gift to help him.

* One episode of ''[[House (TV)|House]]'' implies that the title character may have Asperger's Syndrome, which allows him to focus intensely on his cases, at the expense of being a complete social incompetent and highly self-destructive (on the basis of an autistic boy he was treating deliberately meeting his gaze at the end of the episode, which he is stated to have never done before). On the other hand, House may just be a [[Dr. Jerk|brilliant ass]].

** The Eleventh Doctor mentions in an extra scene that after over 900 years of exploring the universe, it has become like his "backyard" and [[Mundane Fantastic|he no longer really sees it anymore]]. One of the reasons he has companions (apart from keeping him [[Morality Pet|in check]]) is that their wonder at seeing the universe allows ''him'' to see it again properly.

* ''[[The Sentinel (TV)|The Sentinel]]'''s Jim Ellison sometimes feels his super-senses are a curse; his first request of Blair is how to make them go away.

* In ''[[Mass Effect|Mass Effect 2]]'', Miranda Lawson complains that she was genetically engineered from the ground-up to be perfect. This means that her intelligence, physical prowess, beauty, and deadliness far surpass that of any normal human. Said modifications were done by her father, who took his own DNA and modified it with select gene sequences from dozens of sources. Miranda also notes that she wasn't his first attempt to create a daughter, and that he never saw her as his child, merely part of his "dynasty." There's also the fact that any time she's praised she can only think that it's her father's modifications that are being praised, not her as a person, whereas all of her failures are hers alone -- if her genes are "perfect", the only thing that can be at fault is her.

** Further revelations throughout the course of the game, such as {{spoiler|she kidnapped her baby sister and joined Cerberus to protect her}} in her loyalty mission, and {{spoiler|her genetic engineering is probably the reason she's infertile}} in ''Lair of the Shadow Broker'' goes further to explain why she doesn't view her modifications as a good thing.

{{quote| '''Nassana Dantius''': Shepard! But... you're dead!<br />

'''Shepard''': [[Unexplained Recovery|I got better.]] }}

* This disease is pure awesome: With neurosyphilis, a recurrence of syphilis when latent ''Treponema'' bacteria start attacking the brain, it causes euphoria in its victims. They become more sexually active, happier, and more passionate. Because syphilis isn't very common anymore, this usually happens in old people. Now, you can imagine how being old and suddenly regaining your sex drive is unusual. A substory of ''[[House (TV)|House]]'' was inspired by this. That, in turn, was inspired by a real case study done by Oliver Sacks, which he wrote about in ''The Man Who Mistook His Wife For A Hat''. This 89 year old woman had been a prostitute in turn of the century Greece and contracted syphilis when she was 20. Since there was no treatment at the time, the spirochetes became latent and only affected her 70 years later. She started feeling horny for the first time in years, and sleeping with younger men. Her fellow prostitutes had nicknamed it "Cupid's Disease" (brothels should know a thing or two about STDs). Sure enough, when they tested her CSF, it was positive for neurosyphilis. And just like in ''House'', the old woman wasn't sure if she wanted it treated. But she didn't have to worry. Her brain had been permanently "damaged," so the spirochaetes could be killed without reversing the mild disinhibition. In House's words, she was "cursed to feel happy".

* In the late 1940s Harry Corbett used to play the piano in a band. Then he started going deaf (he was eventually cured by an operation). He took up conjuring instead, and before long he started using a teddy bear [[Hand Puppet|glove puppet]] as his assistant - and [[The Sooty Show|the rest]] [[Long Runners|is history]].

* The religious hierarchy of Egypt was so angry at King Tut's father for trying to switch to a monotheistic system that they did their best to completely erase any history that his son ever ruled. They were so successful that even grave robbers couldn't find the tomb. Which is why it was undisturbed when Carter discovered it, causing King Tut to be the best-known pharaoh of all time.

* Narcissists. They are much more confident, ambitious and sure of themselves than ordinary people, giving them a greater chance of success. On the other side, their relationships and self-control can become really serious issues, with a chance they end up putting themselves or others in danger.

** Of course, there's also the fact that it cannot be controlled. What if, you meet someone who you think might be the love of your life, but merely speaking or hearing their name literally puts a bad taste in your mouth.

* Complete androgen insensitivity syndrome. You were going to be male, but your cells totally ignored your androgens. Now you have female anatomy on the outside with male gonads in the inside, putting you at risk for testicular cancer. Your vagina has little depth, making intercourse difficult. But guess what? You're tall, have little to no body hair, no acne, you might be good at sports, and you've got well-developed breast.

{{reflist}}

[[Category:You Hate What You Are]]

[[Category:Cursed With Awesome]]