Die or Fly: Difference between revisions

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...

{{examples}}

== [[Anime]] and [[Manga]] ==

** 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.

* [[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-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 die ANYWAY, so it all evens out.

*** In fact, the point that he's '''literally''' dead after this event is never addressed again in the manga or anime. We are basically left to come to the conclusion that he is still dead, and '''POSSESSING HIS OWN CORPSE''' for the rest of the series.

** Orihime and Chad's powers also manifest the first time when they are threatened by Hollows, Although Orihime managed to call out her power not so much in defense of her own life, but at the desperation to protect Tatsuki and her other classmates.

* In the [[Time to Unlock More True Potential|Hiryuu Shouten Ha story arc]] (Rising Dragon Wave in the US) of ''[[Ranma One Half|Ranma 1/2]]'' [[Old Master|Cologne]] never gets around to disclosing the legendary technique's final step to Ranma. However, he figures it out all on his own just as Ryouga's fist is about to turn him into paste on the side of the mountain.

* The Nekoken of [[Ranma One Half]]. Cover a child in fish. Throw them into a pit full of starving cats. The child learns or dies.

* Retasu in ''[[Tokyo Mew Mew]]'' gained her mermaid form when she jumped into the ocean, despite being terrified and unable to swim, to try and save a small child.

** Technically a [[McGuffin|Mew Aqua]] also helped.

** 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.

** 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.

* 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.

* In the [[Nasuverse]], the [[Evil Eye|Mystic Eyes of]] [[Story-Breaker Power|Death Perception]] seem to be awakened by near-death experiences; though this is extremely unlikely to happen.

** [[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]].)

* 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]].

* 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.

* In ''[[Wanted (Comic Book)|Wanted]]'' this happens where Wesley must shoot the wings off of flies or Fox will blow his brains out.

* The "Pureheart the Powerful" sequences of ''[[Archie]]'' (1966-7) had this as Betty/Superteen's origin story, as she tried to rescue an unconscious Archie from falling off a cliff.

== Fan Works ==

** Also Ringo, twice. First, he has his choice of telekinetically levitating himself (which he's never thought to do before, because he can only hold something 5-7 seconds) or getting torn apart by crazed "Beaglemaniacs." Then, after a pair of disembodied arms throws him off the garage roof where he stranded himself ([[It Makes Sense in Context]]), he suddenly teleports to safety--if ending up in the Plaza Hotel, currently under siege by thousands of Beaglemaniacs, is "safety."

== [[Film]] ==

* In ''[[The Incredibles]]'', {{spoiler|Jack Jack apparently doesn't manifest his powers until Syndrome tries to kidnap him. However, the short film "Jack Jack Attack" reveals that Jack Jack did manifest his powers beforehand: a Mozart CD is the catalyst. The sitter did say that Mozart is good for babies, I guess she just didn't know the effects on superbabies.}}

* Happens to the hero twice in ''[[Sky High]]''. {{spoiler|Once literally.}}

* Not quite the discovery of superpowers, but in the same vein: at the end of the ''[[The Matrix|Animatrix]]'' short ''Kid's Story'', the eponymous Kid frees himself from the Matrix by throwing himself off the roof of his school.

* In ''[[Unbreakable]]'', David discovers his invulnerability after surviving a horrific train wreck unharmed. {{spoiler|Turns out his mentor, Elijah, was behind it because of this trope; he has caused many disasters in order to find someone like David.}}

* The climax on the film ''[[Rio]]''. Blu must fly or he and Jewel will die. [[Crowning Moment of Awesome|And he did]].

* The film version of [[Fantastic Four]] also has this. Johnny has been trying to master flight ever since he got his powers (with no one really believing he can do it), when Doom fires a heat-seeking missile at the Baxter Building he leaps off the edge to try and lure it away and right before he splatters all over the pavement he finally nails it.

== [[Literature]] ==

** "Jaunting" started as "burn or teleport" for the discoverer, Charles Fort Jaunte, about a century before. It went downhill from there.

** Charles was actually put in an inescapable, slowly flooding chamber by his fellow scientists [[For Science!|to force him to replicate the process]].

** 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 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).

{{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.''}}

{{quote| Perrin (walking off a cliff): It must be done. I must learn to fly before I reach the bottom.}}

* In the world of ''[[The Belgariad]]'' and ''[[The Malloreon]]'', [[David Eddings]] uses this trope straight for sorcerers, who usually discover their power by accident, in a fit of anger or frustration. Since the one unbreakable rule of the universe is "you can't unmake something with sorcery, and if you try, the universe unmakes''you''", most potential sorcerers don't survive the discovery of their powers.

* In ''[[Mistborn]]'', Allomantic powers are activated by "Snapping", which involves some form of trauma. Most nobles give their children a savage beating at some point in their life, hoping they're latent Allomancers. Kelsier was Snapped by the death of his wife. {{spoiler|The best way is to experience "mist-sickness", which only affects latent Allomancers and by design causes just enough harm to Snap them.}}

* Several times in Katheryne Kurtz [[Deryni]] universe someone discovers that s/he has Deryni (magic-user) blood in an extreme situation. Not all Deryni, even very powerful ones, are Healers; but those who are often first discover that they have that power when someone is hurt and there is no Healer available.

* In [[The Secret Texts]] Kait discovers she can Shift into a flying form this way. {{spoiler|Specifically, jumping off a tower.}}

* Obligatory ''[[Discworld]]'' reference: Archchancellor Ridcully once [[Insane Troll Logic|disputed]] Ponder's notions about evolution using this trope, proclaiming that nobody's ever ''seen'' a lizard evolve into a bird to save itself after falling off a cliff.

== [[Live Action Television]] ==

** 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.}}

* In the Nickelodeon remake of ''[[The Tomorrow People]]'', Jade spends much of her series hanging out with Adam and Megabyte and wishing she could be a Tomorrow Person. Her powers are revealed when she saves herself (and her crush Megabyte) from an exploding boiler room.

* On ''[[Fringe]]'', David Robert Jones subjects Olivia to a series of tests for telekinetic ability, including a game where you make lights go off with your mind. With the Bishops' help, she fakes the test. She later finds a bomb attached to a skyscraper that will take out half of downtown Boston unless she can beat the same test for real.

* According to the background for the tabletop role-playing game ''[[Aberrant]]'', the first recorded superhero following the Space Station Galatea's explosion was a firefighter whose flame-manipulation powers kicked in when he was trying to save some kids from a burning bus. Likewise, the "eruption" of several other Novas in the setting usually comes about as the result of a massively emotional experience, such as a near death experience. Given the celebrity associated with being a Nova at this point in history, a lot of people often try to kick-start powers of their own through such experiences; the results are often unpleasant and messy, to say the least.

** 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 ''[[Dungeons and Dragons]]'' setting ''[[Eberron]]'', the dragonmarked houses try to induce this on purpose in blood members in their late adolescence to see if they'll develop a dragonmark or not if they haven't already; this is called the Test of Siberys. While [[Subverted Trope|contrary to the usual form of this trope]] it often works, sometimes someone who's assumed not to have a mark due to failing the test [[Double Subversion|needs to encounter a]] ''[[Double Subversion|real]]'' [[Double Subversion|Die Or Fly situation]] in order to manifest a mark.

** 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.

* People tend to [[Exalted|Exalt]] at a moment when they are in dire need of a boost of heroic supernatural power. It's supposed to be fated, but considering how many things muck about with Fate on a fairly regular basis, not even the [[Celestial Bureaucracy|Sidereals]] can always figure ''whose'' life or death situation will end up resulting in Exaltation.

** The Lunars get a weird variant on this, seeing as they usually Exalt after managing to ''survive'' a life-or-death situation.

== [[Video Games]] ==

** ''Persona4'' subverts this with most of your party members. While the Protagonist still has his classic "Per...So.................Na..." invocation scene, his powers were {{spoiler|awakened by Izanami at the start of the game}}, the source of the rest of your party's powers is the very same thing that would have ''caused'' the [[Die or Fly]] reaction in the first place.

* The player has to do this in ''[[Steel Battalion]]''. No training, no tutorial, just the imposing controller and a complex manual. Good Luck!

* ''[[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.

* 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...

* Faevv of ''[[Juathuur]]'', at first, seems to be able to release her powers only when threatened by imminent death.

** 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.}}

* 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.

== [[Western Animation]] ==

* ''[[Danny Phantom]]'' busts out his Ghostly Wail to defeat his [[Ax Crazy|future self]] when it looks as though he's going to be defeated and everyone will die.

** Technically, he first got it when he was ganged up by some really angry ghosts, but the Ghostly Wail did serve as a hidden weapon for his final battle in the episode.

** In "The Avatar State," an Earth Kingdom general attempts to induce the Avatar State by putting first Aang, then Katara in danger. [[Gone Horribly Right|It works.]]

** 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.

** This is pretty much how Fluttershy's ability to fly at high-speeds works. She ''can'' match Rainbow Dash's flying speed, at least for brief moments, but only when it's absolutely necessarily and seems to be a fairly poor flyer at other times.

* 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]].