Emotion Bomb: Difference between revisions

* Morag uses one of these to turn Aribeth to the dark side in the original Neverwinter Nights campaign

* It's implied that a slow-acting version of this mixed with mundane counterintelligence got to Denethor of ''[[Lord of the Rings]]'' (book only), finally [[Driven to Suicide|driving him to an attempted murder-suicide]]. This is why you shouldn't engage in direct psychic contact with the immensely powerful [[Big Bad]] (Denethor has one of the palantíri, or Seeing Stones, like the one that Pippin took from Gandalf and looked in).

* [[Ciaphas Cain]] gets a ''nasty'' hit of this in ''Duty Calls'', complete with [[Religious Horror]]. {{spoiler|[[Heroic Willpower]] keeps him sane until [[Anti-Magic|Jurgen]] arrives to break the spell, but he was still out of the fight for a bit.}}

* [[Harry Potter]]'s world has Dementors, who guard the prison of Azkaban. Dementors sense and feed on the positive emotions, happiness and good memories of human beings, forcing them to relive their worst memories. It is notable that Dumbledore is against the use of Dementors, considering them cruel and unusual punishment (as well as a natural fifth column for Dark wizards.)

* Averted in ''The Bones Of Haven''. Initially, the Brimstone Boys' very presence seems to have this effect on the Special Wizardry And Tactics team's sorcerer. {{spoiler|It turns out he was faking, so as to catch the Boys off-guard.}}

* Perona's Negative Hollow attack in [[One Piece]] sends a ghost through the opponent that leaves them crippled with despair and depression, though only lasting a few seconds. {{spoiler|Usopp, who already lacks self-confidence and spends a lot of time in a funk anyway, is immune to it.}}

* In Saberhagen's Books of Swords series this is what the Tyrant's Blade (AKA Soulcutter) does. When it is drawn from its sheath everyone in a 250m radius ''including the wielder'' is struck with such crippling despair that most will be unable to summon the will to do ''anything'', even eat when food is provided.

* Arael's weapon of choice in ''[[Neon Genesis Evangelion]]''. It's the [[Trope Namer]] of [[Mind Rape]] for a ''reason''.

* ''All'' dragons in some [[Dungeons and Dragons]] editions are constantly surrounded by an aura of fear that sends pretty much any low-level character into panic. They can, however, turn it off for a brief time. A few other monsters also have fear auras, such as liches.

** In 3.5 and [[Pathfinder]], it's not a magical or psionic effect: dragons are just plain scary. Mechanically, if a dragon with greater hit dice than you does anything threatening, you have to roll your save.

* One of these was used in the ''[[Doctor Who]]'' serial ''The Sun Makers'' by the evil tax-gathering government to control the human populace. The Doctor inverts the technology to make people angry instead.

* ''[[Charmed]]'' gives us Barbas, the Demon of Fear, who is able to read the worst fear of his targets, and make them believe they are living it through illusions. He's even able to kill his victims his way.

* A ''very'' popular ability in ''[[Warhammer Fantasy Battle]]'' and ''[[Warhammer 40000]]'' is the ability to inflict fear (or, worse yet, ''terror'') on the enemy.

* Zofis, the [[Big Bad]] of an entire story arc of ''[[Gash Bell]]'', is able to manipulate the demons of a thousand years ago into fighting for them by making them believe that, after being freed of their stone curse, that Zofis can ''return them to stone at will''. After spending 1000 years utterly immobile, that fear is enough to get them to do anything for him.

* Gachnar, the Fear Demon from the fourth season Halloween episode of ''[[Buffy the Vampire Slayer]]''.

* The Fury Twins Phobos and Deimos of the [[Whateley Universe]]. Each has a fear aura. When they merge into a single creature, the fear aura gets so bad they [[Reality Warper|warp reality in the vicinity]]. Unlike most characters in this category, they're not evil, and in fact they are receptive empaths so they have to feel the fear of everyone around them, which they don't like.

** Referenced on ''[[30 Rock]]'', when Jack Donaghy ''uses it'' on the Joint Chiefs of Staff in order to get fired and return to GE.

** In ''[[Axis Powers Hetalia]]'', where America invents a "love gun" which he believes would make enemies shot with it fall in love with each other and leave them unwilling to fight.

* This is usually the emotion stoked by your [[Standard Status Effects|average Charm spell]].

* Salamander, a low-level villain in the first issue of ''[[Fairy Tail]]'' had such a spell, which he used to entrance young women and {{spoiler|attempt to sell them into slavery}}.

=== Other/Multiple: ===

* The "blamethrower", from ''[[Mystery Men]]'', produces not so much Anger as petty bickering.

** Sympathy and Antipathy are two other good ones. Cast on a place, they make you very strongly want to stay there, or get the hell out as soon as possible. Cast on an object, they make you either covet it and obsess over possessing it, or want absolutely nothing to do with it. Furthermore, they only affect specific beings determined when you cast the spell, leaving all other beings unaffected.

** And of course, Tasha's Uncontrollable Hideous Laughter. It not only incapacitates the target, but also weakens their muscles for a while after they calm down.

* The "Emotion Control" power in ''[[Mutants and Masterminds]]'', which can also be used to instill calm or hope.

* In [[Higurashi no Naku Koro ni]], {{spoiler|Hinamizawa Syndrome}} is at least as much a Fear/Paranoia Plague as a [[Hate Plague]]. Although the characters start attacking each other, rather than being motivated by outright anger, frequently, it's a poorly-conceived self-preservation method. {{spoiler|Keiichi}} in Onikakushi-hen in particular comes to mind.

* The ''[[Kim Possible]]'' episode "Emotion Sickness" has both Kim and Shego accidentally implanted with emotion-altering computer chips, run off a remote-control device which then gets mistaken for a video game...

* Two of the Rahkshi from ''[[Bionicle]]'' have this power; Turahk triggers fear and Kurahk triggers anger. Makuta Vamprah also wears a Mask of Hunger, allowing him to feed off emotions and other metaphysical things (like energy or a person's goodness).

* ''[[Paranoia]]'' [[Tabletop RPG]]. 2nd Edition changed the Empathy mutant ability so that the user could project his own emotions onto an opponent.

* Firecrafters in the [[Codex Alera]] series can inflame the emotions of others. Senators and Lords of the realm that can firecraft generally use this ability during their speeches to influence the listeners. Also, Earthcrafters can create lust.

* Sweet Sorrow, an [[Emotion Control|emotion manipulator]] from the ''[[Global Guardians PBEM Universe]]'', concentrates on the darker emotions. She once made a successful escape by making a crowd of innocent bystanders both terrified of and furious with the superheroes trying to capture her.

* This is the schtick of the [[Emotion Eater|White Court vampires]] in ''[[The Dresden Files]]''. The most common emotional affinity is lust, especially among House Raith, which is why they're often called [[Horny Devils|succubi and incubi]]. Other branches specialize in fear or despair. (Though, interestingly, real, pure emotion can actively injure them; [[The Power of Love|True Love]] burns lust-feeders, for example) In addition there's, Vittorio Malvora: because he decided to do some finagling outside of the traditional [[Planet of Hats]] line, he has the ability to use despair, plus lust, plus fear, ''all at the same time''. It takes {{spoiler|the [[Heroic Sacrifice]] of a freakin' fallen angel}} to keep it off Harry.

* An episode of the ''[[Aladdin (Disney film)|Aladdin]]'' TV series, "The Flawed Couple", had a [[Villain Team-Up]] between Abis Mal and Mecanicles involving magical stones that could alter people's moods. Aladdin managed to break the fear one by focusing on the fact that Jasmine was in danger.

* The ''[[Eureka]]'' episode "Alienated", has several characters unknowingly hit by an experimental beam that causes extreme paranoia, while watching a movie about an [[Alien Invasion]]. They kidnap a visiting senator, who they're sure is being [[Puppeteer Parasite|controlled by an alien]].

* ''[[Geist: The Sin Eaters|Geist: the Sin-Eaters]]'' likewise has various ways to make this work through the Passion Key. The Passion Boneyard allows a Sin-Eater to enter a trance and assume control over an area, where he can manipulate the emotions of everyone therein (and gain benefits when they act towards a certain emotional resonance). The Passion Curse, on the other hand, hits a target with an uncontrollable burst of the Sin-Eater's choice of emotion... and higher levels [[Hate Plague|make it spread to everyone the target touches]].

* The [[Seven Deadly Sins]] from [[The DCU]] are demons who can make people fall under the influence of their respective sins. One villain Sabbac briefly merged with all seven demons and gained their powers. The first thing he did was to use Lust to make an entire prison complex have a massive orgy [[For the Evulz|just for kicks]].

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[[Category:Speculative Fiction Tropes]]

[[Category:Stock Super Powers]]

[[Category:Magic and Powers]]

[[Category:Emotion Tropes]]

[[Category:Emotion Bomb]]