Demonic Possession: Difference between revisions

{{trope}}

 

{{quote|''As the humble spirit you now see before you, I am free to cross over and possess any human I wish, enabling me to undo the sacred spells that keep you here. If you so deem it.''|'''Shendu''', '''''[[Jackie Chan Adventures]]'''''}}

 

# First, by taking over an [[Empty Shell]] or once a mortal's [[Deal with the Devil]] is up and his [[Soul]] is yours. Once you own the "landlord," so to speak, the house is yours.

# The third way is popular among [[Mummy|mummies]] and [[Sealed Evil in a Can]]; any [[Artifact of Doom]] that is a [[Soul Jar]], when held, lets the sealed spirit take over the possessed.

# A fourth way is to let the victim think he is possessing ''you!'' First, you let them think that by summoning and then "[[Bondage Is Bad|binding]]" you <small>*[[Noblewoman's Laugh|Ohohoho]]*</small> they will get [[Powers Via Possession]], but they never [[Read the Fine Print]] in this [[Deal with the Devil]]. The more they use our powers the more [[The Corruption]] takes root and lets us take over. Delectably ironic, isn't it?

** Also, {{spoiler|Pride}} does something possession-like to {{spoiler|Al at one point, [[People Puppets|operating the armor with his shadows]] while Al is out of it.}}

* Played for laughs early in ''[[Hayate the Combat Butler]]'' with Katsura Yukiji when a demon tricks her using money. {{spoiler|Not played for laughs later at ''all'' with Athena and the ''Honored Spirit'' that possesses her when she's very upset. The first time she almost killed Hayate, Sakuya and Isumi. A curbstomp battle, in fact.}}

** {{spoiler|When Athena first threw Hayate out of her castle, it seems to have been mostly her; the Spirit didn't take dominance till later.}}

*** {{spoiler|Alternately, we could have never seen Athena un-possessed, it's just only become visible during these times.}}

* Annabelle in ''St. Trinian's: The Legend Of Fritton's Gold'' gets possessed by her ancestor Captain Fritton. There is no real point to this scene, other then having the other girls scream, making the Emo do an exorcism, damaging Annabelle's self-esteem, and getting the second half of the clue.

* Dan Aykroyd LOVES this trope. ''[[Ghostbusters]]'' I and II feature possession, with Dana and Louis getting it in GBI; and Oscar (sort of), Janohz and Ray in GB II by the ''same'' entity. It also forms a prevalent part of the game. {{spoiler|1=There are even specific mooks who quite happily invade the bodies of NPCs, including the Busters. The most obvious example of this is, of course, Ray, who gets possessed after playing the hero -- "they'll have to go through me first!" Nice going, Doc. The Xbox version of the game has him get possessed again later on his way to the security office at the museum, with him babbling incoherently over the walkie-talkies. Then, of course, there's Illysa and Peck, both of whom get possessed at the museum. And the Mayor, who gets possessed by Ivo Shandor.}} So yes, this Troper thinks it's fairly safe to say that Mr. Aykroyd appears to be fond of this trope.

* ''[[Happy Hell Night]]'': A mock satanic ritual turns out to be real when a body of a priest is possessed by a demon and starts killing people.

* "The Shrine"takes place in a small Polish village that is cursed with a demonic statue standing in constant fog. Those who approach the statue in the fog, eventually become possessed by the demon.

* In [[Robert Bloch]]'s [[Cthulhu Mythos]] story "The Shadow From the Steeple", one of Nyarlathotep's many forms can apparently possess people. The possessed individuals look mostly the same other than their skin turning darker. Oh, and they also glow in dark.

* Greg Bear's ''[[The Way Series|Eon]]'' has something somewhere between Demonic Possession and [[Puppeteer Parasite]]. The Jarts are a species (really a conglomeration of assimilated species and whatever you'd call "original" Jarts) that exist primarily as virtual personality fragments as a sort of hive mind, where bits can be combined, split off and downloaded into an artificial body to perform any given task. The book's protagonist, Olmy, discovers an "individual" Jart who had been captured by humanity centuries earlier and downloads it into his mental implants to study. The Jart, because of the "species'" inherent flexibility to modify itself to fit into any environment capable of holding a conscious entity is easily able to reverse engineer the implants interface and downloads itself directly into Olmy's mind, reversing their roles. (He gets better.)

** There seem to be three kinds of relationship between a full Denarian and his/her Fallen. The first kind is demonstrated by particularly brutish Fallen such as Ursiel or Magog, who simply [[Mind Rape]] their host into submission at first opportunity and outright take over. The second shows up with more cunning Fallen, who let the hosts stay in the driver's seat but use cunning and manipulation to make them do what they want (this is what Lasciel was trying to do to Harry, and allows more options, since with the mortal still technically in control, the Denarian isn't subject to as many restrictions as a Fallen by itself would be). Finally, the Fallen and Denarian can work as equal partners- the only known case of this is the relationship between [[Complete Monster|Nicodemus]] [[The Chessmaster|Archleone]] and his Fallen [[Demon Lords and Archdevils|Anduriel]].

* In Gav Thorpe's [[Warhammer 40000]] novel ''Annihilation Squad'', this overtakes {{spoiler|Kage. Fortunately, a blank can free him when in distance, and in the end, he is free enough to make a [[Heroic Sacrifice]]}}.

== Multiple Media ==

* The Makuta in ''[[Bionicle]]'' are [[Energy Beings]] who can possess living bodies or robots. The only catch is that the body must be empty of a soul (but still alive, unless it's a robot, of course) before they can enter it.

 

 

* In ''[[Xenogears]]'', Miang, a servant of Deus, can possess any woman with her genetic material. Since she's [[Adam and Eve Plot|her planet's "Eve"]], that means effectively any woman. Ironically, the two main characters are using the very same MO to reincarnate themselves over and over: The Irony being that, Elly now has the genetic material of her first incarnation and Miang's genetic material.

* ''[[Soul Nomad and The World Eaters]]''

** The [[New Game+]] has {{spoiler|the demon path, where you willingly give in to Gig's influence, much to his delight; until you ''out-evil'' him}}.

** {{spoiler|[[Complete Monster|Raksha]] bought two slave children then [[Break the Cutie|broke them]] so he could inhabit their soulless bodies...and then he starts to really be a jerk.}}

* [[The Reveal]] in ''[[The Princess 99]]'' shows that the assassin, {{spoiler|Axel}}, had been possessed by a demon {{spoiler|she gets better via forcibly removal of said demon}}.

* [[Shiny Objects Videos]]: A toaster gets possessed in the aptly-titled "Possessed Toaster".

* ''[[Tasakeru]]'': {{spoiler|[[Innocent Flower Girl|Hanami]] is possessed by the spirit of the [[Big Bad]] in Book IV. Said [[Big Bad]] possesses [[Church Militant|the head of the]] [[The Order|Silver Order]] two books later.}}

* [[The Nostalgia Critic]] gets possessed by the devil in one of his fights with the Nerd, and only Super Mecha Death Christ is able to defeat him.