Dangerous Forbidden Technique: Difference between revisions

{{trope}}

 

There are [[The Dark Arts|some attacks]] in the media that come at a price. Actually, there are a ''lot'' of attacks in media that [[Power At a Price|come at a price.]]

 

Compare [[Deadly Upgrade]], [[Cast from Hit Points]], [[Cast From Lifespan]]. If they constantly survive these it's a case of [[I Thought It Was Forbidden]]. See also [[Godzilla Threshold]] and [[Lethal Harmless Powers]].

 

* ''[[Naruto]]'' has lots and lots and lots of these. In fact, there exists a specific subset of the Shinobi arts called 'Kinjutsu', literally "Forbidden Techniques". For one reason or another they have been banned from being taught, used, or both by the commanding shinobi. They are either jutsu that damage the user to a fatal extent (e.g. Mass Shadow Clone Technique), jutsu that are viewed as ethically wrong (such as Edo Tensei which resurrects the dead) or jutsu which involve other crimes (e.g. murder in case of the "Edo Tensei," because a [[Human Sacrifice]] is needed to resurrect someone). There also exists a wide range of techniques that are not officially 'kinjutsu' but fit this trope.

** Sasuke's Chidori is only supposed to be used twice, but he uses it a third time; the result is that his cursed seal activates and nearly takes over (the technique later loses its "Dangerous" element, as Sasuke is able to spam the crap out of it without becoming exhausted). Just about every move Rock Lee uses that isn't a basic punch or kick carries some heavy toll on his body (such as his use of the Chakra Gates), and as a result, Gai forces prerequisites upon him, so that he must be protecting someone or defending his ninja way when he uses said moves.

* In ''[[Raideen]]'', the titular mecha has the powerful "God Voice" attack, which ends up ruining his vocal cords every time he does it. In the ''[[Super Robot Wars]]'' games, Akira will actually end up being unable to speak if you use this too many times before a certain point.

* The kemonozume technique in ''[[Kemonozume]]'' involves ''cutting off your own arms''. Ther is also a large risk of going berserk if the user's willpower isn't strong enough.

 

== Comic Books ==

* The "Demon Ball" technique in ''[[Bowling King]]''; Its creator injured himself badly attempting to perfect it and was forced to retire from professional bowling.

 

* In ''[[Kiss of the Dragon]]'', [[Jet Li]] describes the titular technique as "very secret, very forbidden".

** Though that technique actually represents no danger fot the user at all. What it does, however, is cause a slow, painful, messy death for the one it's used upon.

* In ''[[Blades of Glory]]'', the Iron Lotus is a technique developed by the coach in his "wild youth", but only one country was crazy enough to try it - North Korea. The only attempt resulted in the woman's head cut off by the man's ice skate (as impossible as this sounds). According to the coach, the only way for the technique to be performed successfully is by a pair of two men.

 

== Literature ==

* Death magic in [[Lois McMaster Bujold]]'s ''Chalion'' series causes both the target and the caster to die as their souls are borne off to the Bastard's Hell (when it works at all). Not to mention that unsuccessful attempts/research are regarded as attempted murder at best and dealt with by temporal authorities as such.

** It wasn't just the cities disappearing that almost broke reality, but also having them reappear again as the destroyers were killed with balefire, and then having them vanish ''again'' if the person who did that ''also'' got killed with balefire. (Though Robert Jordan waffled on this a bit, at one point saying that the effects of balefire couldn't be undone by more balefire.)

** Picking apart a weave of the One Power rather than leaving it to dissipate is a Dangerous Forbidden Technique among the Aes Sedai, and just a bloody dangerous technique among the Aiel Wise Ones. If executed perfectly it won't leave a telltale "residue," which normally lets one channeler see exactly what another has done, but failure is extremely easy and can produce a range of consequences. {{spoiler|When Elayne tries and fails, it produces a burst of wind. A burst of wind with the force of a small nuclear explosion.}}

*** And a lasting "fallout" effect that makes it difficult to cast spells in the entire region or a year or more.

* [[Mercedes Lackey]]'s ''[[Heralds of Valdemar|Last Herald Mage]]'' trilogy mentions the "Final Strike", in which a mage uses up all his energy in an offensive spell, thus killing himself along with whatever is aimed at. It works, too, in the [[Downer Ending|tragic]] ending of the trilogy.

** The use of Horcruxes is so forbidden that it's nearly impossible to find any information on how to use it.

*** Probably not least because it involves fracturing the soul, and doing ''that'' involves murdering people.

* In Anthony Reynolds's ''[[Warhammer 40,000]]'' novel ''[[Word Bearers|Dark Apostle]]'', creative thinking is viewed like this by the Mechanicus. Dangerous enough to be sealed away in a separate brain.

* The ''[[Dragaera]]'' series has "Elder Sorcery", which involves the direct manipulation of raw chaos, and the practice of which is a capital crime by imperial edict. Those who research and practice it do so mainly out of curiosity and/or for the search for knowledge, since elder sorcery has long since been supplanted by the ''much'' safer and easier use "normal" sorcery, where the energy of raw chaos is first filtered through the Imperial Orb before being used. However, there are some circumstances where normal sorcery doesn't work, forcing the characters to resort to elder sorcery.

* In Garth Nix's ''[[Old Kingdom]]'' series (''Sabriel'', ''Lirael'' and ''Abhorsen''), the last of the bells of the necromancer throws everyone that hears it deep into Death. What's it called? [[What Do You Mean Its Not Symbolic|Astarael]].

 

* ''[[Juken Sentai Gekiranger]]'' features the Ju-Ju-Zenshin-Hen, which allows the user to take on a super-powerful beast-like form. The bad news: transformation is permanent. The worse news: if your technique isn't perfect, your life's gonna ''suuuuuuck.'' A Wolf Fist user winds up transforming into an out-of-control werewolf periodically, but at least he gets restored into his human form. The Fly Fist user (no, really) isn't so lucky, winding up an anthropomorphic fly who is about the size of a mouse. He ends up getting swallowed by an evil Chameleon Fist user and is resurrected along with her after she dies...

* ''[[Mahou Sentai Magiranger]]'' also has one. Anyone who uses Chronogel's forbidden time spell will die via getting sucked into a wormhole that appears on their chest while it sucks other things like matter and time into it. This curse was deliberately placed on it - apparently, the use of time magic is so dangerous that ''making sure the universe is screwed if you use it'' is the best way to protect it. Yeeeah.

* [[Kamen Rider Double]]'s Twin Maximum, in which he activates two [[Finishing Move|Maximum Drives]] at the same time, temporarily taking his power up to 200%. However, this puts an incredible strain on his body, {{spoiler|as demonstrated when Shotaro impulsively uses it in one battle, which lights him on fire and severely injures him. In the final battle of the series, Double's [[Super Mode]] is powerful enough that he can combine the Xtreme and Prism Memories' Maximum Drives without ill effect.}}

* The bonehead maneuver in [[Babylon 5]].

 

== Professional Wrestling ==

* Technical wrestlers generally avoid this as most submissions don't actually put that much pressure on the body.

 

** There also exists an incredibly powerful dispel spell called ''Mordenkainen's Disjunction'', which can destroy just about any magic effect, even those created by gods. If it is used for this purpose, however, the caster may permanently lose all his magic abilities and/or anger the effect's creator. And he is no slouch, believe us.

** This is the point of the corrupt spells in the Book of Vile Darkness (and their Exalted Deeds counterparts, sacrifice spells). They are notably more powerful than other spells of their level—for instance, run-of-the-mill Blindness is a second-level spell, while Seething Eyebane, a corrupt first-level spell, causes the target's eyes to spew acid and explode—but there is always a tax, sometimes permanent, on one or more ability scores. The most powerful of these spells is harmful even to prepare and has a very good chance of rendering the caster dead and/or permanently insane [[Omnicidal Maniac|(if he wasn't already)]].

* ''[[Genius: The Transgression]]'' has Deep Inspiration, which lets you draw out Mania directly from the Genius's mind, even if the Genius is "empty". Unfortunately, doing so too often or with too much power runs a very real risk of turning you into an [[Insufferable Genius|Unmada,]] and if you keep pushing it even after becoming Unmada...[[The Unfettered|Let's just say]] [[Complete Monster|it's a bad idea]].

* ''[[Changeling: The Lost]]'' features Goblin Contracts, magical powers that are cheaper to buy than standard Contracts and have nice effects (open all the locks on a building, see the future, drain an enemy of all their [[Mana|Glamour]]). The catch? Well, they also have side effects that will likely screw you over (respectively, your locks fail the first time someone tries to break in, [[Mad Oracle|you go mad]], you lose all ''your'' Glamour).

* Plenty of Charms in ''[[Exalted]]'' come with heavy tolls. The more common include pushing up your Limit track, and Abyssals have some that increase resonance or mean that they'll experience [[Cessation of Existence]] upon death.

** The Infernal Exalted get a good number of these, mainly because they're learning Charms that make them more like their [[Eldritch Abomination|Yozi]] patrons. Learn a Charm that gives you increased authority over lesser demons? That means greater demons are allowed to walk all over you. Learn a Charm that perfectly blocks Social attacks? That's because it turns all noise into wretched discord that makes you want to kill. Learn a Charm that allows you to communicate telepathically? Shame you can now only vocalize laughter for the rest of your days.

* ''[[Scion]]'' has the Avatars, which allows Gods to channel the power of a Purview at the apex of cosmic power, so much that anyone who fights them has to become one in order to match. However, while the cost to activate it is rather modest game-wise, there are some major prices to be paid: first, you suffer the strongest Fatebinding upon activation, second, if you die, all the Avatars you learned to channel get loose all at once, and third, you activate it in the domain of a Titan, you'll attract every Titan Avatar in it, and chances are, they'll already have their own powers ready as well. Congrats, you now get to fight five or six beings with the same power as you.

* ''[[Magic: The Gathering]]'' has a bunch of cards that are effectively this. You can't miss them, because they all inform you that ''you lose the game'' after a certain amount of time or if a certain condition is met. For example, [[Hour of Power|Final Fortune]] allows the user a free turn at a cost and color that doesn't normally get it, but the user loses the game at the end of that turn if they haven't won yet. [[Immortality|Lich and its variants]] protect you from dying through life loss, but kill you under other circumstances, such as an empty graveyard.

 

== Video Games ==

* In the Fate scenario of ''[[Fate/stay night]]'', Saber comes under this limitation because using her Noble Phantasm requires all the mana she's currently holding to activate (and her flawed summoning means Shirou can't provide her with any), and she ends up facing at least three enemies that require—or at least seem to require—the use of it to defeat.

** Furthermore, each Servant has a power known as the Broken Phantasm—willingly breaking their Noble Phantasm. This renders the servant without their proof of heroism (which for many of them is their weapon), but also inflicts massive one-time damage on whoever the Phantasm is shattered on. {{spoiler|Archer, who can create Noble Phantasm duplicates, routinely uses this technique to compensate for the fact that his duplicates are weaker than the real thing.}}

* In ''[[Final Fantasy IV]]'', the sage Tellah is seeking the ultimate magic spell, Meteo(r), so that he can seek revenge on Golbez (the game's [[Big Bad]]) for the death of his daughter Anna. Sure enough, Tellah eventually learns the spell from his [[Forgotten Superweapon|repressed memory]], and uses it against Golbez, killing himself in the process. Other, more youthful mages, as well as an eternal precursor, can cast it without side effects. In gameplay terms, this means that he never ends up getting the required amount of MP to cast it.

* ''[[Valkyrie Profile: Covenant of the Plume]]'' has a [[Player Punch|heartbreaking]] example in the Destiny Plume. Left by Lenneth on Wylfred's father's body and corrupted by the goddess Hel, it can make any unit absurdly powerful - ten times as powerful in every single stat. And at the end of the stage, they die. Wyl is forced to use its power on his best friend and would-be [[Lancer]] at the beginning of the game...

** Exactly how forbidden to make it is left up to the player, though, and [[Multiple Endings|affects the outcome of the plot.]]

** To elaborate, Dominus Anger and Dominus Hatred are direct attack glyphs with each use inflicting shitloads of damage at cost to your HP, and Dominus Agony amps all your stats immensely with gradual HP loss thrown in on top of that. Unless you use a healing item at some point, prolonged uses of these glyphs by themselves will kill you. The Dominus glyph union kills everything in the area - Shanoa included save the aforementioned instance - dead on the spot.

** Earlier in the series, ''Portrait of Ruin'' subverts the hell out of this. Pretty much for the entire first half of the game, you get warned about how having Johnathan or any other non-Belmont use the true power of the Vampire Killer will drain their life force and eventually kill them if they overuse it. But when you do actually unlock its power in game, [[Double Entendre|you can whip it all day long with absolutely no consequences whatsoever.]]

*** [[I Thought It Meant|Oh dude!]]

*** Uh yeah, that's because it takes longer than a day (and it's only a day they spend in Drac's castle), Johnathan shows no ill effects. It's implied that that will come later. He probably won't survive to see Drac's resurrection in 1999 if he keeps using the whip or doesn't somehow lock its power back up. It has also been said that using the whip too much will cause death, making it a possibility that he didn't use it well enough. Jonathan was urged not to over use it by various characters.

* ''[[Vagrant Story]]'' has learned techniques that, when used, [[Cast from Hit Points|drain a portion of your health]].

* Akuma's (Gouki in the original Japanese) fighting-style from ''[[Street Fighter]]'' has the Shun Goku Satsu attack, which effectively drags both the target ''and'' the practitioner into hell, where they're assaulted by demons. Until it was mastered by Akuma, it was generally assumed that using it would always be lethal to both. Of course, in-game, it's just a move that does a lot of damage...

** Averted when, upon killing enough people with the eyelander, the Demoman becomes second in max health only to the Heavy and in speed to the Scout (or a Soldier with the Equalizer at maximum effect).

** A more appropriate example is the Equalizer. It's possible for a [[Jack of All Stats|Soldier]] to become [[Fragile Speedster|super fast]] and [[Glass Cannon|do huge damage]] when wielding the melee weapon and [[One-Hit-Point Wonder|at low health]]. Obviously while powerful, using the weapon this way is very risky, as a casual shot could kill the soldier. Oftentimes cornered soldiers with no rockets use this tactic as a last resort.

* The first four [[.hack|.hack//]] games feature Data Drain, a technique that allows the user to either severely weaken a computer-controlled enemy, or [[Mind Rape]] a human being (most humans hit with a Data Drain end up in comas). The hero, Kite, is the only human with the ability. He uses it to weaken game enemies that have been hacked so as to have infinite HP, thereby making them defeatable, and to gather virus data to hack into protected areas of the game. The catch is that repeated use will corrupt his character data with the virus, causing nasty side effects in battle and, eventually, his character's death.

* Multiple moves in the ''[[Pokémon]]'' franchise harm the user (such as [[Taking You with Me|Explosion]]), but these moves also tend to be very powerful.

** And then there's the move "Struggle," which is a rather weak move that damages the user by 1/4th of it's max HP. Chances are, you're only using it four times before you die.

** And, of course, the classic Hyper Beam and all of its variations. It has 150 base power, but also renders the user immobile on the next turn.

* In ''[[Nethack]]'', one can choose to break a magic wand in half, unleashing all the remaining power at once. Can be dangerous as most wands will simply explode.

* In ''[[Zettai Hero Project]]'' Dangerama's entire skillset is composed of these. As a [[Death Seeker]], this makes sense.

* [[Blood Magic]] in the ''[[Dragon Age]]'' [[Dragon Age II|games]]. It is ''extremely'' powerful and dangerous -- [[Bloody Murder|to]] [[Mind Control|enemies]], [[Powered by a Forsaken Child|allies]], [[Cast from Hit Points|and the user]]—and for many, many reasons, it is forbidden everywhere in the world. Even the Tevinter Imperium officially condemns [[Blood Magic]], though in practice all of the Magisters are secretly Blood Mages.

** Though the [[Well-Intentioned Extremist|Grey]] [[Knight Templar|Wardens]] don't forbid blood magic.

** This is meant to communicate to the player that they should only use it as a last resort, as doing so will negatively impact their score. [[Guide Dang It|Good luck figuring that out without trial and error, though.]]

** Lugonu's self-banish causes permanent damage to HP and MP.

** As does Borgnjor's Revivification.

** Downplayed with mid-level summonings, most of which have a chance to be hostile.

 

** [[It Makes Sense in Context|"No, you fool! Don't you realize if you initiate that attack, it will be the last thing you do??? Fiesta smacks some sense into you."]]

** Although not considered forbidden, Black Mage is only able to cast that spell once a day, and it makes a cute little [[Nuke'Em|nuke-sized]] crater wherever he aims it.

** Spells that drain the net amount of love from the universe with each use and require the sacrifice of orphans to gain in the first place tend to have a bit of a social stigma against them. Black Mage seems to find an excuse to use it nearly every day...but then again, this is [[Complete Monster|Black Mage]] we're talking about here.

** [[Word of God]] implies that abusing the form does have plenty of consequences, but it depends on how she uses it / how much damage she sustains, not necessarily how often.

* In ''[[El Goonish Shive]]'', magic apparently drain users at various rates. Spells too powerful to handle may overtax even well-trained magic users, possibly even [[Brought Down to Normal|removing their magic for months at at a time.]]

 

== [[Western Animation]] ==

* In ''[[WITCH (animation)|WITCH]]'', the [[Elemental Powers|Guardians]] can choose to transform into living embodiements of their elements, giving them [[Physical God]] levels of power- at the risk of losing their personalities and humanity, and being left open to mental domination from outside forces, such as [[Big Bad]] Nerissa. {{spoiler|Fortunately, the one time they do this, they manage to come back- barely}}.

* ''[[ReBoot]]'': Bob's fusion with Glitch is viewed as doing the unthinkable by Daemon's adviser, and Bob was fully aware that overusing his new Glitch powers would kill him. Bob comes very close to death when Daemon infects and forces him to overuse his powers to create portals. Bob does imply that the fusion would have been much less dangerous had Glitch not been damaged at the time (which is what necessitated the merger in the first place), however.

** In ''[[Transformers Generation 1]]'', Elita One turned out to have the power to {{spoiler|[[Time Master|freeze time]]}}, but as Alpha Trion had warned her, using it drained her [[Life Energy]] to a near-fatal level.

** Also in ''[[Transformers Generation 1]]'', Megatron has the ability to draw anti-matter from black holes and pretty much blow up all of his surroundings. It was used about twice in the Marvel comics, where it was explained he didn't often use it because he was liable to kill himself too.

** In ''[[Transformers Cybertron]],'' Vector Prime would {{spoiler|greatly tax himself reversing time by a few minutes, and eventually die by using his time/space powers to get the team through the rift separating Gigantion from the normal universe.}}

* In ''[[Justice League]]'' {{spoiler|the League had pretty much lost against the Brainiac/Luthor hybrid,}} until [[The Flash]] saves the day by running at extreme speeds (to the point where he was circling the world in mere seconds) {{spoiler|and smacking Brainithor around by repeatedly running into him. Soon enough, he destroys all traces of Brainiac, leaving only a naked Luthor lying on the ground.}} However, in the process he was almost swallowed by the Speed Force from moving so fast, and he says he probably won't be coming back if he ever goes that fast again.

 

== [[Urban Legend]] ==

== Real Life ==

* The destruction of HMS ''Invincible'' at Jutland. The Dangerous Forbidden Technique in this case was the bypassing of safety protocols designed to prevent flashdown of a detonation in a turret from reaching the magazines, and it was done to increase rate of fire. But ''Invincible'' was pounding the crap out of the German ''Lutzow'', so why not? Why not, indeed. The mist that was hiding her cleared, just long enough for two other German battlecruisers to get some solid hits in in the right place, and ''Invincible'' was blown in two. At least one and possibly both of the other British battlecruisers lost that day went up for the same reason.

* In soccer, the awesome techniques of jumping up in the air and trying to hit a ball next to another player is usually forbidden, because it could hurt the other player if he'd get hit by a flying boot. A little more mild, but still similar is the "scissors" technique of scoring.

* [[Nuke'Em|Nuclear weapons]]. Nukes are capable of great destruction, but actually using one comes at a hefty price. Large nuclear detonations release irradiated material into the surrounding environment that remains dangerous long after the explosion is over. In a more immediate sense, several nations have active nuclear weapons that are kept ready for launch at all times. Since there is currently no viable way to defend against a nuclear weapon after it's been launched, the target has no reason not to fire all its weapons at the aggressor. This is the concept of Mutual Assured Destruction (MAD,) and it effectively makes using nukes suicidal. Note that in World War II, this was not an issue; with no other nuclear-capable countries to provide the "Mutual" portion of MAD, the United States was free to attack Japan without fear of a similar retribution.

* This trope is usually very heavily subverted in real life, due to [[Combat Pragmatist|Combat Pragmatism]] being a time-honored military and general combative doctrine. If it's dangerous and highly lethal, using it is the best way to win. If it's forbidden, all the better, because that means the other guy will never see it coming.

* Overdosing on caffeine as a deadline draws nearer.

 

{{reflist}}

[[Category:Power At a Price]]

[[Category:That Which Must Not Be Indexed]]