Hate Plague: Difference between revisions

{{trope}}

{{quote|"This spell allows me to exploit the petty prejudices of man. Minor grievance would escalate to murderous rage and oh, the sweet terror when the spell wore off and they saw their hands covered with their neighbor's blood."|'''Kain''', ''Blood Omen, [[Legacy of Kain]]''}}

 

 

{{examples}}

== Anime and Manga ==

* ''[[Higurashi no Naku Koro ni]]'' arguably [[Deconstructed Trope|deconstructs]] this trope {{spoiler|since the main characters always suffer from it. Through most of the arcs, no one figures it out, and as a result, anywhere from more than half of to the entire cast winds up dead at the various ends}}.

** ''[[Higurashi no Naku Koro Ni Kai]]'' turns it straight again when {{spoiler|the heroes learn about the plague in question and conquer it with [[The Power of Trust]].}}

** Further, one character does have it figured out in every arc (and a few more know about it but don't find out about specific instances until too late). {{spoiler|Unfortunately, by not fighting against it aggressively enough she produces the same effect as if she hadn't known about it at all, which is to say none, and still gets to watch her friends descend into violent madness.}}

* In ''[[Read or Die]] The Television Series'', one [[Villain of the Week]] uses two kinds of sounds to protect his base as the heroines try to infiltrate it, both of them out of the range of normal hearing: one is a subsonic hum that enhances depression and melancholy in people who are already disposed to it, and the other is a supersonic hum that makes more excitable people angrier and more irritable.

* Yubel uses this in duels to great effect in ''[[Yu-Gi-Oh! GX]]''. While she's on the field as a monster, she can force monsters to attack her; she takes no battle damage, and inflicts the same damage to her opponent in retribution. She calls this effect "Nightmare Pain." Shortly after Yubel reveals herself in Season 3, Judai's cloest friends are also infected with a Hate Plague against him, which was quite effective in bringing out his [[Super-Powered Evil Side]], especially when followed by their apparent deaths.

 

 

* Also ''[[Transformers]]''-related, one issue of Marvel's ''Generation2'' comics featured black energy goo beings that induced and lived on other creatures' aggression.

* [[Inverted]] in the ''[[Hellblazer]]'' arc "The Red Right Hand", in which the plague makes its victims incredibly empathic. Unfortunately it takes hold in [[Violent Glaswegian|Glasgow]] and so everyone begins to share one another's guilt and misery, culminating in mass suicides.

* An alternate version of the ''New [[X-Men]]'', set in the House of M universe, dealt with Wallflower, a mutant with pheromone powers, causing Sooraya to engulf her best friend Jubilee in a sandstorm that likely would have shredded her body to its bones if given time.

* In ''[[The Savage Dragon]]'' #55, a massively powerful mind-controller [[Power Incontinence|unintentionally]] sends everyone in Chicago into a murderous rage the moment he steps out of his bunker.

* During the [[Blackest Night]], [[Emotion Eater|Psycho-Pirate]] used these on Smallville. [[Nightmare Fuel]] ensued as his mask's abilities to influence any nearby target to near-suicidal hatred, uncontrollable fear or demented avarice ensued, heightening minor feelings to killing urges.

* The main shtick of the villain Hate-Monger from the [[Marvel Universe]]. (Who is actually [[Adolf Hitler]]. )

** And Psycho-Man, a [[Fantastic Four]] villain.

* In ''[[Asterix]] and the Roman Agent'', Tortuous Convolvulus has the ability to sow mistrust (indicated by [[Speech Bubbles]] gaining a green background) that quickly escalates into shouting and fistfights.

** He complemented the power of causing mistrust and discord by his presence alone (he didn't have to say or do a thing to start a fight between Caesar's advisers) with a good amount of mundane skill in psychological warfare and sowing mistrust and fear. He also had been sentenced to death at the Colosseum, and was alive at the beginning of the book due to [[Crowning Moment of Awesome|making the beasts attack one another]].

* In ''[[Darkwing Duck (comics)|Darkwing Duck]]'', the Phantom Blot has created an inky mind-altering substance to create new rogues in St. Canard which is also used to control the populace briefly.

 

* ''[[28 Days Later]]'' and its sequel revolve around a [[Technically Living Zombie|sort of]] [[Zombie Apocalypse]] caused by a literal Hate [[The Plague|Plague]], the Rage Virus.

** Ditto ''[[The Crazies]]'' and ''[[REC]]''. ''[[The Crazies]]'' is a somewhat different variant, as the infected often retain coherence and elements of their personality, unlike the mindless fury of the ''28'' movies and ''[[REC]]''.

* In the movie ''[[Ghostbusters]] II'', the sewers of New York City become filled with an ectoplasmic sludge that absorbs emotions. The Ghostbusters discover it while it's been negatively charged, and after they end up covered in it, they briefly end up going at each other's throats. Egon discovers the malleable nature of the slime, however, and in order to break through a barrier of negatively-charged slime, the Ghostbusters positively charge some of it through [[Crowning Moment of Awesome|a combination of the song "Higher and Higher", and the most inspiring thing they can find in Manhattan: The Statue of Liberty.]]

* One of the "non-lethal" weapons employed by the good guys at the end of ''[[Mystery Men]]'' is a ray (the Blame Thrower) that can cause angry arguments amongst whomever gets hit with it. A rare case of the protagonists employing such a tactic as psychological warfare.

* ''[[Serenity]]'': The Reavers (murdering, raping madmen who terrorize the fringes of the <s>universe</s> small star cluster/ solar system) are revealed to be {{spoiler|the victims of a government-sponsored lotus-drug gone so bad. It was meant to weed out aggression in the population. Instead it made the majority of the population so passive that they couldn't even be bothered to take basic measures to continue living, while it became a Hate Plague for a fraction of a percent of the population. They proceeded to wipe out whoever was left, and then start ''recruiting''.}}

* This is the alien threat in the film ''[[Alien Cargo]]''.

 

== Literature ==

* In David Moody's ''[[Hater]]'' and its sequel ''[[Dog Blood]]'', a virus causes people to murder their loved ones and anyone else in their path. The local media even calls the infected people "haters."

* Played with in ''[[Star Trek: A Time to...]]''. It sort of happens on the planet Delta Sigma IV, in ''A Time to Love'' and ''A Time to Hate'', only with a twist. {{spoiler|The plague isn't really causing the hate and violence- in fact, it's curing the populace of a mind-altering drug that kept them peaceful. Suddenly confronting emotions such as hate and rage for the first time, the Delta Sigma inhabitants can't cope, and old racial tensions erupt into violence. Riots soon spread across the planet.}}

** The Bhelliom got far nicer in the ''Tamuli'', though.

* ''[[Harry Potter]]'', in ''Deathly Hallows'' {{spoiler|the Slytherin Locket Horcrux has this effect and leads to Ron leaving the group for a while}}.

** Steven King also used the idea in ''[[Needful Things]]'', where the [[Big Bad]], Mr Gaunt (a demon, if not the devil himself) manipulates the town into destroying itself through a series of escalating "pranks". Evidently Mr King likes this trope.

* The novel ''One Rainy Night'' by Richard Laymon is about a bizarre black rain that causes [[Ax Crazy|Ax Craziness]] in everyone who gets wet.

* In ''The Long Last Call'' by John Skipp, the Devil goes to a strip club, where his tainted fifty dollar bills inspire murderous rage in the employees. Yes, even the girls. ''Especially'' the girls.

* The One Ring in ''[[The Lord of the Rings]]'' has this effect, turning people against one another by playing on their lust to use its power, particularly on Bilbo and Boromir. Was shown well in the film adaptation in a shot which showed the arguing Council of Elrond reflected in the Ring as fire blazed within.

*** {{spoiler|Boromir}} was exposed to the ring far longer than his brother; Tolkien may portray one as a "better" man, but [[Fridge Logic|the younger brother]] had been exposed for only hours, not days and days.

*** {{spoiler|Boromir showed hints of being tempted during the council scene, immediately upon being faced with the ring.}}

** Morgoth in [[The Silmarillion]] was capable of sending these off with his will eventually, although he was just as good at using rumor and misdirection to accomplish the same end without sorcery.

* ''[[Able Team|Able Team #8: Army of Devils]]''. A drug capable of creating instant rage in the user is smuggled into Los Angeles, in an attempt to create a race war in the United States.

* In ''[[The Wheel of Time]]'', the dagger from Shadar Logoth is so tainted with evil that his carrier becomes paranoid and hateful, and then starts to infect other people.

** Padan Fain, a recurring villain partially possessed by the spirit who ''created'' Shadar Logoth, also has this effect- people who spend too much time in his company become increasingly paranoid, ill-tempered, and generally corrupt. When he gets the dagger back (another character carries it for a good chunk of the early books) his powers are increased dramatically.

* Kyr Bulychev's book ''The Purple Sphere'' is about an artificial virus (stored in the titular container) which causes unnatural hatred in anyone infected. The developers got infected. They killed each other off, the rest of their planet's biosphere evolved into a [[Death World]].

** ''The Dark'' by the same author uses a more supernatural version of the same trope, with similar results.

* The god of war Ares in [[Percy Jackson and The Olympians]] radiates an aura that makes people around him more susceptible to violent impulses. It's not quite a weapon, but it means the characters have to be more careful around him since he is always looking for an excuse to start a fight.

 

 

* ''[[The Sarah Jane Adventures]]'' had a single-target variation, where anyone who heard or read the name "Clyde Langer" turned against Clyde.

* An episode ('Sense and Antisense") of ''[[Millennium (TV series)|Millennium]]'' (the TV series produced by Chris Carter) has Frank Black tracking down a man supposedly infected by a hate virus. At the end we see a photograph of the man posing with military personnel marked "Kigali, Rwanda, 1994".

* The ''[[Farscape]]'' episode "Crackers Don't Matter" has a highly amusing Hate Plague, causing several characters to become obsessed with ensuring their fair share of crackers, to the point of barricades and gun battles.

* One of the Gelliant Gutfright sketches from ''[[A Bit of Fry and Laurie]]'' features the "Fighting Buttercup," a flower which causes anger and aggression {{spoiler|for about five minutes. And then explodes.}}

== Tabletop Games ==

* Dracorage in ''[[Forgotten Realms]]'' was murderous madness periodically magically induced in dragons world-wide. Designed by ancient elves to break dragons' control over the world, later magical device was hijacked and used {{spoiler|by Sammaster to convince evil dragons that becoming [[Undead]] with his help is their only option to avoid insanity and then ignominious death.}}

* One of the horrors described in the ''[[GURPS]]'' sourcebook ''Creatures of the Night'' is the Dread Blossom, a flower that makes people exposed to its scent paranoid and xenophobic.

* Wraiths in ''[[Shadowrun]]'' can cause uncontrollable aggression in those near them.

* Some Apostates in [[Black Crusade]] can 'Inspire Wrath' in people against specific targets, with just a few words. It makes [[Player Characters]] more determined, and so more likely to, hit the subjects. NPCs are a little less predictable.

* Classic ''[[Traveller]]'' Adventure 6 ''Leviathan''. When the [[PC]]'s explore the world Pa'an, the natives will use their psionic powers to inflict telepathically induced aggression toward other party members. The crew will begin by feeling antagonistic and short-tempered with each other, and within one to six hours will be actively engaged in trying to finish each other off.

* ''[[Resident Evil]]'' has this introduced instead of the zombie plague in all the other games in the form of Las Plagas, which (in their normal form) are only able to make their victims more aggressive, albeit controlled. Experiments show how much [[Body Horror|worse]] this can actually be for its victims.

* In [[Trauma Team]], almost all of the murders solved by Naomi was caused by the murderer being infected with the {{spoiler|Rosalia}} virus.

* This happens in ''[[Pokémon Colosseum]]'' and its sequel ''Pokémon XD''. Pokemon's hearts are closed, so that they have no sense of compassion, and only their primal bloodlust. They'll attack anything, and they sometimes go into uncontrollable rage fits.

* The Pox of LeChuck in ''[[Tales of Monkey Island]]''.

* One episode of ''[[Dungeons and Dragons (animation)|Dungeons and Dragons]]'', featuring the usual "get to the one-chance exit back home" set-up, forced the kids to go through a maze to reach a portal. One part of the maze made all the kids become very aggressive, tetchy and downright bloodthirsty, which almost resulted in a nasty fight. Fortunately, Hank was able to snap everyone out of it.

* The [[My Little Pony]] [[My Little Pony: The Movie|movie]] had the Smooze, which, in addition to making everything putrid and covering the land in a thick layer of concrete-like substance, made characters touched by it aggressive, spiteful and pessimistic.

* The little pink dog [[Courage the Cowardly Dog|Courage]] once faced a literal sweeping Hate Plague called the "Cruelty Curtain". This energy barrier caused anyone it touched to become ridiculously rude to the point where benevolence was considered a crime. Courage managed to re-wire the Curtain so that it turned people nice--[[Heel Face Turn|even its evil creator]], who was later elected mayor.

 

 

== Alternate Reality Games ==

 

== [[Real Life]] ==

* Many illnesses, such as rabies or brain tumors, often result in mood swings and sometimes increased aggressiveness.

* Dogs (particularly in Springer Spaniels) can have something called "Rage Syndrome" which does resemble Hate Plague. Fortunately, it's rare and it only lasts a few minutes.

 

{{reflist}}

[[Category:This Index Means Trouble]]

[[Category:Index Syndrome]]

[[Category:Speculative Fiction Tropes]]

[[Category:Truth in Television]]

[[Category:Hatred Tropes]]

[[Category:Mind Manipulation Tropes]]