Die or Fly: Difference between revisions
m
Tweaks
mNo edit summary |
m (Tweaks) |
||
| (12 intermediate revisions by 7 users not shown) | |||
Line 1:
{{trope}}
{{quote|''"We're either gonna die, or we're gonna fly."''
|'''Jamie Hyneman'''}}
At a moment of extreme stress, a superpower pops out that the character never knew was there. They might have continued to lead a normal existence, doomed to be—at best—a character in a romance, if it had not been for that car wreck, or fall from a great height, or evil-doer... Evidently, life-threatening situations bring out our hidden powers. Do not try this at home, though. The threat seems to have to come from Fate for it to work out.▼
A preferred training method of the [[Sink or Swim Mentor]]. Contrast with [[New Powers as the Plot Demands]], which is about powers manifesting as an easy way out of danger. This trope is about danger being used as a not-so-easy way for powers to manifest. This trope is a common way of introducing [[Powers in the First Episode]]. If the power can only ''ever'' be used in life-threatening situations, it's a [[Defence Mechanism Superpower]].▼
▲At a moment of extreme stress, a superpower pops out that the character never knew was there. They might have continued to lead a normal existence, doomed to be—at best—a character in a romance, if it had not been for that car wreck, or fall from a great height, or evil-doer...
▲A preferred training method of the [[Sink or Swim Mentor]]. Contrast with [[New Powers as the Plot Demands]], which is about powers manifesting as an easy way out of danger. This trope is about danger being used as a not-so-easy way for powers to manifest. This trope is a common way of introducing [[Powers in the First Episode]]. If the power can only ''ever'' be used in life-threatening situations, it's a [[Defence Mechanism Superpower]].
{{examples}}
== [[Anime]] and [[Manga]] ==
* In ''[[Naruto]]'', Jiraiya resorts to literally ''throwing Naruto off of a cliff'' to force him to learn how to tap into the power of the [[Sealed Evil in a Can|Kyuubi demon]] [[Sealed Inside a Person-Shaped Can|sealed within him]]. {{spoiler|Luckily for Naruto, this "strategy" actually '''works''' and enables him to get the chakra needed to summon a giant toad.}}
** Also, the Uchiha clan's hereditary super-eye power, Sharingan, first manifests in a life-or-death situation. For some reason, they can use it at will afterwards, although it takes time to get to full potential.
** Naruto's first successful use of the Rasengan is in his battle with Kabuto, in a situation in which failure would have meant defeat.
* Mai's powers manifest themselves this way in ''[[
* [[Neon Genesis Evangelion|Gendo Ikari]]: [[Falling Into the Cockpit|"Pilot the mecha against the thing that just wiped out an army and survived a nuke."]] Shinji (rather sensibly): "Uhhhm....what!?". But seriously, this is how the first few Unit 01 battles go. Shinji (with little-to-no training) has to go out and fight things that ignore (basically) nuclear strikes. To quote: "Unless you (Shinji) succeed, humanity HAS no future." Have fun with that.
** It's actually much worse. Even if he does succeed, humanity still doesn't have much of a future anyway. On the bright side, the Mecha he "pilots" is basically unbeatable so Shinji had no chance of actually dying ANYWAY, so it all evens out.
Line 32 ⟶ 29:
** Before that, he learns the Internal Drift when Super Asurada AKF-11 is about to crash on the wall, also during a test drive.
* ''[[The Girl Who Leapt Through Time]]'' made her first time leap when flipped into the path of a train.
* Basically the whole point of ''[[
** It's actually {{spoiler|when they're on the brink of death.}}
* In ''[[Grappler Baki]]'', a young Baki throws himself off of a cliff in order to trigger [[Did Not Do the Research|"endor]][[You Fail Biology Forever|phins"]] that enhances his senses.
* In ''[[One Piece]]'' Zoro comes up against an adversary whose body is made of steel. With no option to retreat, it becomes a "cut steel or die" scenario. No points for guessing the outcome. It's even lampshaded to an extent, when Zoro declares, after learning of his opponent's ability, that he will be able to cut steel by the end of the fight.
* Early on in [[Dragonball Z]], Piccolo throws Gohan at a mountain for this express purpose. Good thing it worked. Of course, instead of flying, Gohan goes into "hidden power" mode and ''vaporizes'' the mountain.
** [[Averted Trope|It didn't work]] in [[Dragon Ball Abridged|the Abridged Series]]. Cue offscreen *smack*, then Gohan whining.
* At the end of the [[Soul Eater]] anime, Maka discovers that {{spoiler|she is also a weapon, like her father}} when fighting Kishin, though this is not what allows her to defeat him.
Line 43 ⟶ 40:
== [[
* In the [[Marvel Universe]] there is a relatively new phenomenon called Secondary Mutation, in which known mutants (typically [[X-Men (Comic Book)|X-Men]]) suddenly develop a new mutant power at [[Deus Ex Machina|extremely convenient moments]], such as a healing power (after receiving an otherwise mortal wound) or the ability to become indestructible (in the middle of a bombing).
** The Richard Rider [[Nova]] is not a mutant, but he was depowered for a long time and the superhero, Night Thrasher, guessed that he could reignite Rider's powers with a high stress incident. To create one, he kidnapped Rider, dropped him off a building and found that his hunch was right when Rider instantly repowered in the fall, including his flight power.
Line 49 ⟶ 46:
** [[Spider-Man]] first discovered his powers this way. While walking home feeling sick after being bitten by the spider, a car is about to hit him. His new Spider Sense kicks in and he instinctively leaps up the side of a building and clings to it.
** The transformation of Jean Grey into The Phoenix was originally presented as this, then retconned into a subversion, with a primal power of the universe using her as a template to create an avatar. (This ultimately [[Gone Horribly Wrong|went horribly wrong]].)
** Amara from ''[[New Mutants]]'' discovers her powers like that. Selene [[No One Could Survive That|drops her in a volcano]] and she ends up learning to [[Playing with Fire|manipulate lava]]. Guess her [[Code Name]] ? Magma, of course.
* Wolverine is a prime example of this-his claws first popped out during the attack on his parents.
* In its 1988 [[Crisis Crossover]] ''Invasion!'', [[The DCU|DC Comics]] introduced the "metagene", which gives humans superpowers as a way to survive lethal trauma, as a way to [[Hand Wave]] the many heroes and villains with [[Freak Lab Accident]] [[Super-Hero Origin|origin stories]].
Line 55 ⟶ 52:
** Another story featured wannabes hanging around hoping for the day of their Origin and one relating how one guy decided to stop waiting and shoved a fork into a toaster. While the guy he's talking with starts rattling off possible powers the answer for what it got was 'electrocuted'. Destiny doesn't like it when you try and cheat.
* There is a Sandman short in which a dreaming man who falls off a cliff literally must fly or die. It ties into [[An Aesop]] about how you don't know if you can do something until you've done it.
* In ''[[Strikeforce: Morituri]]'', candidates for the Morituri Process must survive Biowar Facility Alpha, a greenhouse garden loaded with lethal traps. The stress of survival is required to trigger the superpowers granted by the Process.
* In ''[[Elf Quest]]'', Zahntee's shielding power first manifests when he saves Skot and Krim from being struck by a falling branch. Justified in that this is the first opportunity he'd had to invoke it after being exposed to the Palace, which enhances elves' powers.
* The original Liberty Belle, a member of the [[All-Star Squadron]], had an experience like this. She'd been kidnapped by Baron Blitzkrieg, who used her, a lightning bolt, and the stolen Liberty Bell in an attempt to cure his blindness (don't ask). The experiment worked, but the bell fell off its rig toward Libby; she raised her hand in a desperate bid to stop it, and it flew across the room, [[Hoist by His Own Petard|hitting Blitzkrieg instead]]. Turned out the experiment had given her sonic powers as a side effect.
Line 94 ⟶ 91:
** At first he thinks he just blacked out after his dad beat him, and began hitchhiking. The first time he consciously realizes he "jumped" is when some truckers tried to rape him, and he was suddenly back in the library.
*** Happens again in the sequel, ''Reflex,'' in which the main character's girlfriend-in-the-first-book-wife-in-the-sequel "jumps" to safety after a probably-fatal fall. Apparently, being teleported by a teleport enough times can pass on the ability, though the characters have NO idea how that works.
* In Audrey Niffenegger's novel ''[[The Time
* In the ''[[Wild Cards]]'' series, people infected with a latent version of the wild card virus often "turn their cards" after a near-death experience. Examples include Will-O'-Wisp (stepped on a power line, gained electrical powers), Stuntman (botched a stunt during a student film and fell several hundreds of feet onto solid ground, gained the ability to regenerate from any injury), and the Harlem Hammer (exposed to nuclear waste, gained superstrength and invulnerability but needs to consume heavy metal salts to survive).
* This is exactly how ''[[The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy|Arthur Dent]]'' manages to fly, after reading from the guide that flying is the art of "throwing oneself at the ground and missing" - he has to completely focus his attention on something else (typically something immensely banal, as per the themes of ''[[The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy]]'') or simply ''forget'' that he's supposed to be falling. Once achieved, he simply hovers there and can move around at will... but he has to be careful not to think too hard about what's going on.
{{quote|'''The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (on flying):''' ''...Do not listen to what anybody says to you at this point because they are unlikely to say anything helpful. They are most likely to say something along the lines of, 'Good God, you can't possibly be flying!' It is vitally important not to believe them or they will suddenly be right.''}}
* A [[Prophetic Dreams|prophetic dream]] from ''[[The Wheel of Time]]'':
Line 112 ⟶ 109:
* An odd varient in the ''[[Knight and Rogue Series]]''. When Michael is tossed off a cliff his magic activates on his own and saves him. Despite not wanting to die, he stops it the moment he realizes what's going on. (Fortunately, he's only a few feet from the ground at this point)
** Actually, is powers work this way in general, since they're driven entirely by need rather than want. The only time they don't manifest when his life depends on it is when he's desperately trying to put out a fire.
* ''[[Monster Hunter International]]'' primarily recruits people who have already survived monster attacks, since it screens for people with the "Flexible Minds" needed to remain rational when facing the supernatural.
▲== [[Live Action Television]] ==
* Nathan Petrelli from ''[[Heroes (TV series)|Heroes]]'' discovers he can fly when he unconsciously rises into the air while his car is being shunted from behind by employees of a crime boss he is attempting to prosecute. This happened completely against his will; without him in the driver's seat, the car crashes, paralysing his wife from the waist down and leaving him with lasting guilt about his wife's condition.
** Similarly, Claude attempts to help Nathan's brother, Peter, control his power-stealing powers by throwing him off a tall building, hoping to trigger the flight power he'd mimicked earlier from Nathan. In a unique subversion, {{spoiler|while Peter's flight power is ''not'' triggered by the attempt, the regeneration powers he took from Claire Bennet are triggered when he dies after crashing and being impaled on a cab.}}
Line 128 ⟶ 125:
** Aberrant is unusual this way; the moment of becoming a Nova is similar to exposure to LSD, in that the results are dependent on the personality of the individual and the circumstances under which it occurs. In consequence, Novas demonstrate this trope by their very nature.
* In the story of the ''[[Magic: The Gathering]]'' trading card game, those with the "planeswalker spark" can become Planeswalkers, powerful, immortal mages (representing the player in the game). To become a Planeswalker, one must "ascend", which involves great stress and usually horrendous death—the most famous example, Urza, was literally blown to atoms before ascending.
* In the ''[[Dungeons
** The [[Eberron]] novel ''The Grieving Tree'' had {{spoiler|Ashi}} develop a mark to defend her friends from an angry dragon.
* Deconstructed in the ''[[Mutants and Masterminds]]'' setting "Paragons": it's common knowledge that superpowers occasionally manifest this way, so a common cause of death is idiots attempting to invoke this trope by e.g. skydiving without a parachute or setting themselves on fire. Worse, once in a blue moon it ''works'', which means that someone who is suicidal and/or not particularly bright now has superpowers, and moreover, everyone else has renewed encouragement.
Line 147 ⟶ 144:
* ''[[The Lord of the Rings]]: The Two Towers'' throws you right into the fray after the lengthy unskippable intro.
* ''[[EVO Search for Eden]]'' does this in the age of dinosaurs, and quite literally at that. After climbing to the top of Mt. Brave, you are given a choice to jump off or leave. Jumping off results in an evolution... you become a pterodactyl.
* In the original ''[[X-COM (Video Game)|X-Com]]'', the player initially has no way to screen soldiers for Psionics Strength (determining their resistance to Psionics) until they're reverse-engineered and the player gains a time-intensive option to test soldiers for it. A popular workaround to this is to force your soldiers to fight [[Mind Control]]-using aliens. Since [[The AI Is a Cheating Bastard]], they will show you which of your soldiers has low resistance and, by exclusion, those with high resistance. Since such [[Weak-Willed]] soldiers are a liability in the endgame and their Psionic Strength can't be improved by any means, [[Video Game Cruelty Potential|the rejects won't be a huge loss]] - if they survive, they can be repurposed as unarmed medics who can draw aggro from otherwise-deadly psionic enemies.
== [[Web Comics]] ==
* Happens to ''[[Terinu]]'' when his Bion abilities activate when he's drugged and kidnapped.
* A more literal example occurs in the current ''[[One Question]]'' storyline, as Ranu falls off a building and his ''wings'' suddenly appear. Unfortuantely he needs some tutoring to learn how to use them...
* Also [http://www.crfh.net/d/20040627.html literally happens to Marsha] in ''[[
* Faevv of ''[[Juathuur]]'', at first, seems to be able to release her powers only when threatened by imminent death.
* In ''[[Homestuck]]'', Vriska strands [[The Fool|John]] on a tiny island in the middle of an ocean of oil that's about to be engulfed in fire in order to get him to develop his [[Blow You Away|powers as the Heir of Breath.]] {{spoiler|Luckily, it works.}}
** Even before that, she tried it in a much more literal sense with Tavros. {{spoiler|He didn't fly, and wound up paralyzed from the waist down for his trouble.}}
* In ''[[El Goonish Shive]]'', Grace first discovers how to create legion forms when she is under pressure to change to a form strong enough to maintain her telekinesis without passing out in order to save Ellen and Nanase's lives during the fight with the Omega Goo as seen [http://www.egscomics.com/?date=2002-11-28 here] and on the next page.
* Played with and lampshaded in [[The Dreamland Chonicles]]. While taking flying lessons, Alex asks if the lessons involve him getting thrown off a cliff. The teacher asks why on earth he would do something so risky. After exhausting all of his other ideas, the teacher does throw Alex off the cliff, only to realize that also isn't going to work, so he reminds Alex of his promise to his [[Love Interest]]. This motivates Alex enough to save himself and learn to fly.
* ''[[Schlock Mercenary]]'': now that Liz is an officer, she's overdue for flight training. [//www.schlockmercenary.com/2018-12-30 Let's start!] But then, it's not like there's a very pressing time limit where they do this. She finishes it with playing free-form Schlock grav-ball. But then, it's not like this was more than a mild inconvenience for him.
{{quote|'''Liz''': Sergeant, this is ''hazing'', and there's ''no way'' it's what Captain Murtaugh wanted.
'''Schlock''': The haze doesn't get thick for another five hundred kilometers. But you're right, no way Captain Murtaugh want us falling that far. }}
== [[Web Original]] ==
Line 178 ⟶ 177:
** Also, in "The Puppetmaster", Katara learns [[People Puppets|Bloodbending]] when her [[Evil Mentor]] Hama takes control of Aang and Sokka and was about to make Sokka stab Aang.
* Happens in episode 16 of ''[[My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic|My Little Pony Friendship Is Magic]]'', when Rainbow Dash finally manages to pull off her Sonic Rainboom technique {{spoiler|to save her friend Rarity and her idols the Wonderbolts from plummeting to their doom after Rarity's wings failed and the Wonderbolts were knocked out in their attempt to rescue her.}}
** This is pretty much how Fluttershy's ability to fly at high
* In ''[[Winx Club]]'', Bloom discovers her powers in the pilot episode only after being threatened by [[Our Ogres Are Hungrier|an ogre]] and some [[Our Ghouls Are Creepier|ghouls]]. She also only unlocks her [[Our Fairies Are Different|fairy form]] after almost being finished off by [[Big Bad|The Trix]].
== [[Real Life]] ==
* Some people believe that the best way to teach children to swim is to throw them in the water where it's deep. These people are wrong. Awesome way to teach children to thrash in water, develop a phobia, hate water/swimming/you or drown, though.
* Certain special forces [[Training
* Quite literal in the case of some birds. The mother bird pushes the chick out of the nest, and the bird's sink or swim instincts kick in, often resulting in the bird flying.
* When faced with life or death, the human brain goes into "survival at any cost" mode. This includes shutting
* Learning a language by immersion, while usually not lethal, works out similarly. You put yourself in a country where your mother tongue isn't commonly used and have to learn the native language, or else you're going to find it hard to gain access to essential products and services. Automated machine translation, while having improved since the first dark days, is still far from guaranteed to capture all the necessary nuances, and there remain many usually formal contexts where toggling between the person speaking and the phone with a translation app is frowned on if not outright forbidden.
{{reflist}}
| |||