Cybernetics Eat Your Soul: Difference between revisions

{{trope}}

 

In many popular [[Cyberpunk]] [[Tabletop Games]], cybernetic implants cause "humanity loss", reducing your social traits and essentially making cyberware into a form of [[Body Horror]]. Too many implants may [[Sense Loss Sadness|reduce your character to catatonia]] or (far more often) [[Ax Crazy]] [[Psycho Serum|on steroids]]. If these settings also feature [[Psychic Powers]] or [[Functional Magic]], cyberware often reduces your ability to use those as well. This trope usually accompanies the broken lesson that ''only'' cyberware inflicts humanity loss—sure, getting that [[Arm Cannon]] will dehumanize you, but not [[Moral Event Horizon|deliberately committing actual atrocities]], getting hooked on [[Drugs Are Bad|hard drugs]], learning [[Black Magic]], having a mental illness that is not fictional, or other expected sources of insanity. It is also a [[Broken Aesop]] when [[Ridiculously-Human Robots]] are depicted as more...um...[[Shaped Like Itself|human]].

 

{{examples}}

* It was averted in ''[[Astro Boy (manga)|Astro Boy]]''. In one story, a terrorist organization {{spoiler|steals dogs and grafts their brains in mechanical, humanoid bodies}} in order to create loyal and utterly obedient soldiers. However, in the prologue of the story, [[Osamu Tezuka]] argued as far as he was concerned, the soul or spirit of the being always endures, even it if is mechanized.

* In the ''[[Afro Samurai]]'' movie, Sio implies that this has happened to Kuma, saying that he's been repaired so many times, there's hardly any human left at all, just a mindless "samurai doll."

*** It's more a case of [[The Government]] being [[Too Dumb to Live]]; they provide all the [[Required Secondary Powers]] to keep their [[Super Soldier]]s alive, but they don't give a damn about keeping them ''sane''. Their "enhancile" can't even speak normally. [[And I Must Scream|And He Must Scream.]]

{{quote|'''Member 436''': ''Try to imagine. You're a multiple amputee who's been flayed alive. You can't feel your own heartbeat. You can't feel yourself breathe. You can feel metal rubbing against your muscles and organs. And you don't recognize the man in the mirror.''}}

* Dekko from ''[[Zot]]'' is a textbook example. Although cybernetics don't seem to be inherently bad in Zot's world, the trauma of having his terminally-ill body replaced a piece at a time turned him into a [[Mad Artist]].

* Hart Whitcraft was afraid of this happening after receiving an artificial heart in the Acclaim version of ''[[Magnus, Robot Fighter]]''. {{spoiler|The series, and entire line, ends before we can find out.}}

* Played straight in ''[[Iron Man]]: Rapture'' mini-series that had Tony implanting himself with a new heart after his heart attack. {{spoiler|He ended up getting addicted to cyber enhancements and locked himself in his lab for a week. Before revealing himself as a cyberbeing named 'Stark 2.0''.}}

* ''[[ROM Spaceknight]]'' subverts the trope, being an extremely human and noble character despite looking like a walking suit of armor—but he ''fears'' this happening, and he [[Body Horror|loathes his metallic shell.]] Played with when his girlfriend Brandy becomes a Spaceknight as well—at first her personality is unaffected, but when {{spoiler|[[Doomed Hometown|her entire home town is murdered by the Wraiths]]}}, she succumbs to a state that Rom says he has seen in Spaceknights before: an overwhelming hatred that ''physically changes'' her armor to look more vicious, and she remains a cold-hearted killer until {{spoiler|she's removed from the armor and becomes human again.}}

 

* The ''[[Homestuck]]'' fanfic [http://archiveofourown.org/works/143699 "Tenth Life"], where one of the characters has a robot body made for her after her death, but the cybernetic body robs her of all imagination and creativity. Her friends eventually {{spoiler|decide to just end her life}}.

* [[In the Service]], building on the [[Lyrical Nanoha]] example above, posits that cybernetic enhancement is neither necessarily good nor evil: it reinforces existing traits. Mentally healthy people converted to cyborgs will withstand huge amounts of emotional trauma and stress without ill effect. People who are not mentally healthy...won't.

* In ''To Hold Infinity'' by John Meaney, the plexcores with which the inhabitants of Fulgor augment their brains don't eat your soul so much as change it into something rather inhuman. The antagonist of the book is a hundred times more augmented than his peers, ultimately {{spoiler|enabling him to survive death, in a fashion, and become a mind-eating planet-conquering godlike being}}. He maintains much of his human emotion, but has a tendency to [[A God Am I|consider other humans as obstructions or prey]].

* In the [[Star Wars Expanded Universe]], cyborgs aren't really any more or less likely to go psychotic than anyone else, but there's a bit of [[Fantastic Racism]] towards those who've had more than a limb or an eye replaced.

{{quote|'''Phanan:''' "There's no mechanical replacement for a future, Face. And every time I take a hit, and they have to cut away another part of me and replace it with machinery because I'm allergic to bacta, every time that happens I seem to be a little further away from the young doctor who had a future. He can't come back, Face. Not all of him is here anymore."}}

** The extent to which Phanan's issues are directly related to the cybernetic implants is debateable, however. The nature of his injuries and his allergy to bacta mean that his facial injuries are highly visible, unpleaant to look at and nearly impossible to disguise. He might well have had similar problems adjusting to life with extensive facial scarring and the loss of an eye.

''And even when I'm right with you I'm so far away''}}

* Papa Roach's ''Singular Indestructible Droid'' is this trope.

* ''The Soul Doctors'' from Fireaxe's 4-hour [[Food for the Gods]].

 

 

* Decisively averted in ''[[Eclipse Phase]]''. Your mind is software and can be "resleeved" into anything from another human form to an uplifted octopus or even a futuristic tank. If for some reason you want to keep your old body, you can still deck out it with an array of cybernetic and biological modifications, without any limitations whatsoever.

** The closest thing being some temporary stress when re-sleeving (especially when the character remembers dying).

** [[Eberron]] had grafts, whom depending on the type take various toll on the body. Almost always resulted in constitution loss. Some grafts, called symbiotes, are also [[Exclusively Evil]] and will try to make you [[Ax Crazy]] by constantly speaking suggestions to your mind. [[Min-Maxing|But who cares about that if you have the right build?]] (To the point: Abusing fiendish symbiotes, cloning, and damage-sharing effects created a build that [[Readings Are Off the Scale|required a new mathematical notation to write down how much damage it did]].)

* Various ''[[Warhammer 40,000]]'' examples play this trope straight, most notably the Adeptus Mechanicus, who replace parts of their brains with computers. Similarly, Servitors and Arco-flagellants are soul-eaten by their cybernetics. However, the majority of the 'verse avoids the trope, since cybernetic alteration, augmentation and replacement is common, and generally doesn't cause major problems. It's one of the few tropes the universe ''doesn't'' play [[Darker and Edgier|as grim and dark]] [[Up to Eleven|as it possibly can]]. [[Rule of Cool|We can only assume the coolness of cybernetics makes up for it.]]

** One might make an argument that this is what happened to the Necrons, though it may have to do more with their soul-eating gods. Based on the 5th edition rulebook, all Necrons have souls, and every time they 'die' the repair chip eats away a small part of their souls until only the basic program is left, mixing this with a little [[Came Back Wrong]]. Lords, who don't die as much and have better repair systems, are just driven insane from the the millions of year in stasis: some think they're gods, some customized their armies to be different etc. (Yes, that's right, Games Workshop has managed to take a race of ''omnicidal zombie robots'' and make it ''more'' GRIMDARK.)

*** The Codex has went into it better. It was the C'tan that ate their souls, however their personalities remain for the noble born, the common born were either lost in the transfer to robot bodies or deliberted so the nobles can have the perfect army (or both).

{{quote|''"The process of absorption fascinates... [unclear] one's body might somehow swallow the item, like unto a serpent or the surface of some [viscous?] fluid. Yet it doth seem a mutual [process]. For not only doth the body absorb the [weapon] but also [doth the] weapon, in some strange way, seem to [absorb] the body...[RECORD CORRUPT] as the weapon becomes like unto my flesh, so doth mine flesh... [unclear] like unto the weapon. Indeed, I trace this [stylus] upon mine arm, and the shape and form of the weapon appears under [my touch?]. It doth not appear in mine hand so much as mine hand doth arrange itself so as to become the weapon... [BREAK IN RECORD] capakhity of mine new form to abkhorb weaponsh ish akhtonishing... [unclear] a whole lakhgun! But I do shtart to lokhe zhe shenshation in mine shkin. Mine jawkh are [hardening?] and mine ribkh are protruding from mine [chest]. Zhey are of a dull, metallic sheen and tekhts show zhey are a mix of [bone?] and shome metal I cannot identify... [BREAK IN RECORD] thsi wil be mmmylsat [RECORD CORRUPT] cannnnnnnnnnnot useth esse febel mahcinsse aaaaany log;ner [RECORD CORRUPT] tothe eyeof the larybinht the hearto fthe maichnettttto the pppplaceo f... metalll..."''}}

** [[Sandy Mitchell]] has great fun playing with this trope in his [[Ciaphas Cain]] and ''[[Dark Heresy]]'' tie-in novels; of the four techpriests who receive any real character development in these books, one is an obnoxious zoobiology [[Otaku]] who [[The Load|has to be babysat by Cain's patrol]], one is a [[Genki Girl]] with "no head for theological matters" ( {{spoiler|and whose career would have probably not advanced as far as it did had she not played a key part in one of Cain's missions}}), one loves to eat junk food, and one is a [[Deadpan Snarker]].

* ''[[Alternity]]'' uses Cybertech that not only costs 10 skill points to have installed (but everything else costs skill points too...) as well as 'Cyber Tolerance' points based on your constitution score. If you run out of these, you die. Installing a reflex chip requires a Will check to resist insanity. The resulting madman [[NPC]] is a Cyko-Tek ([[Viewers are Morons|get it?]] [[Don't Explain the Joke|It's a pun]]) who want nothing more to graft more and more cybernetic hardware and go on homicidal rampages against those squishy pure organics. Can you say [[Ax Crazy]] with a ''literal'' [[Vibroweapon|vibroblade]] handaxe?

** Not quite. Filling up the cybertolerance score does not equal death (and there are pieces of gear you can purchase to actually increase this score), although installing the reflex and/or fast chip will more than likely result in insanity. The part about cykosis (yes, the puns abound) is dead on, though.

* ''[[All Flesh Must Be Eaten]]'' provides rules for Essence loss from cybernetics and "cyberpsychosis" in its ''All Tomorrow's Zombies'' supplement... but made it clear they were optional for two reasons. One was that such rules went against the [[Rule of Fun]] that AFMBE embraces (who has time for moral dilemmas when there are undead to kill?!?); the other is that when there are undead wandering around, the question of where the line between humanity and inhumanity lies is already pretty much answered, so it's not exactly relevant.

* The ''[[Dark Future (game)|Dark Future]]'' supplement ''Dead Mans Curve'' introduced rules for cybernetics and for psychosis caused by the stress and trauma of the life of Renegades and Ops. Cybernetics increased your base level of psychosis.

 

* The [[Yu-Gi-Oh (Tabletop Game)|Yu-Gi-Oh]] cards "[http://yugioh.wikia.com/wiki/Giga_Gagagigo Giga Gagagigo]" and "[http://yugioh.wikia.com/wiki/Gogiga_Gagagigo Gogiga Gagagigo]" show the character [http://yugioh.wikia.com/wiki/Gagagigo Gagagigo] after being cybernetically reconstructed. The flavor text on the first mentions that the cybernetics caused him to [[Face Heel Turn|lose]] his [[Heel Face Turn|heart and redemption]], and the second's says that his soul has long since collapsed, and that his body continues recklessly in a quest for more power.

** Even more Gagagigo is the evolved form of [http://yugioh.wikia.com/wiki/Gigobyte Gigobyte], a very cute mon.

* [[Magic: The Gathering]] has Esper, part of the Shards of Alara block. Every creature in Esper has some amount of aether-infused metal grafted onto their body. This is okay unless they replace their whole body, after which they become twisted fiends called aether-liches. Then there's Phyrexia...

** Phyrexia's worse.

** Ashnod's Transmogrant.

 

== Video Games ==

** Played straight with the Collectors {{spoiler|and Saren}}, though, but {{spoiler|considering [[Eldritch Abomination|who designed them]]}}, the soul-eating may well have been intentional in this case:

{{quote|'''Mordin''': "No glands, replaced by tech. No digestive tract, replaced by tech. No souls... replaced by tech"}}

* [[Body Horror|Combine]] [http://images1.wikia.nocookie.net/half-life/en/images/0/07/Combine_Advisor_%28old%29.jpg Advisors] from ''[[Half Life]]''. Thanks to their dependence on technology, they've evolved into large slug / larva like creatures, their only remaining appendage being a long snaking tongue [http://images4.wikia.nocookie.net/half-life/en/images/6/6f/Ep2_outland_advisor_rebel.jpg which they use to feed].

** Likewise [http://half-life.wikia.com/wiki/The_Consul The Consul], who was a predecessor to Breen before getting cut. Over the course of the game, the Consul was going to slowly implant himself with more and more Combine life-support technology, eventually becoming [[Who Wants to Live Forever?|immortal]]. All this would be unbeknownst to player until the end of the game, only seeing his unaltered face in the meantime.

* As much as Viktor of [[League of Legends]] uses hextech rather than cybernetics, he [[Invoked Trope|invoked the trope]] - intentionally locking himself away and replacing most of his flesh with machine parts to create something no one could steal from him, but also precisely to get rid of his emotions, which were bugging him since a fellow scientist claimed the glory for his achievements. It didn't exactly work, as he still hates his 'rival' a bit. He's also obsessed with making everyone be like himself, and speaks in an emotionless manner.

* [[Armored Core|Armored Core V]] has the {{spoiler|Zodiacs, thirteen AC pilots and their [[Voice with an Internet Connection|Operator]], Angie}}. The pilots are ''heavily'' implied to have undergone some sort of integration with their Armored Cores, while {{spoiler|Angie seems to be based in some sort of network shared by Zodiac's support helicopters}}. Since the war they were created to fight is long over, their only purpose appears to be to destroy. {{spoiler|Angie and Zodiac 1 seem to have gotten the worst of this in different ways as neither can think beyond their original orders anymore: Zodiac 1 is a mindless killing machine, while Angie seems to have lost a great deal of her humanity and original personality after her integration according to Zodiac 8}}.

 

== Web Comics ==

** Also [[Averted Trope|averted]] with the cyborg Coldstone; Goliath seems to ''think'' this at first, but his mental instability is really due to anger at first, and then later from the circumstances of having three souls (one of whom was evil) sharing one body. The closest he ever really came to this trope was when Xanatos used a computer program to brainwash him for a while; it messed with his mind, but his "soul" remained fine.

* The unproduced ''[[Invader Zim]]'' episode "10 Minutes To Doom" implies that the Irkens physical bodies are just shells for the cybernetic Paks on their backs.

 

== [[Real Life]] ==

[[Category:Transhuman Tropes]]

[[Category:Cybernetics Eat Your Soul]]