Healing Factor: Difference between revisions

Slightly more plausible than being [[Super Tough]] or [[Nigh Invulnerability|Nigh Invulnerable]], as it is a souped-up version of a power certain real life forms possess. When this ability is powerful enough (such as regenerating from being reduced to almost nothing), it actually becomes a form of [[Nigh Invulnerability]], however. Rarely will a character need to worry about infection, as [[Required Secondary Powers|a super immune system]] is most often packaged in, but they may need to worry about setting broken bones.

 

 

On the down side, extreme regeneration often leads to the character getting targeted by [[The Worf Barrage]] so often, people go "[[Good Thing You Can Heal]]" because their [[Immortal Life Is Cheap]]. Also, regenerators are often more [[Made of Plasticine]] than the rest of the show's cast.

* The primary effect of the "Cure virus" in ''[[Ever 17]]'' is to give the infected party a healing factor that makes it impossible for them to be killed.

* In ''[[Slayers]]'', trolls have such fast regeneration abilities that they are nearly impossible to kill. The main character, Lina Inverse, solves this issue by {{spoiler|casting a magic-reversal spell on all the trolls so that even the [[Scratch Damage|tiniest scratch]] results in [[Hoist by His Own Petard|nearly instant death-by-implosion]].}}

** Two seasons later, and we're introduced to the Huckubein, who can regenerate even better than the Wolkenritter. [[Dual-Wielding|Cypha]] proves this by [[Just a Flesh Wound|regrowing an arm]] that Signum cut off. Oh, and they're also [[Made of Iron|pretty darn tough too.]]

** Also there's the fact that after said two seasons the Wolkenritter's Healing Factor has finally faded away.

'''Jaken:''' 'What's that?! Just whose fault do you think it is that it came to this?! It's solely because {{spoiler|Meidou Zangetsuha was turned over to someone like you}} that Sesshoumaru-sama has...'

'''Inuyasha:''' 'Shut up!' ''Thinks'': 'I know that. {{spoiler|If he'd at least had a weapon,}} Sesshoumaru wouldn't have been wounded to this extent...'

'''Jaken:''' 'Oooh! He closed his wounds with [[Determinator|pure fighting spirit]]! Nothing less from Sesshoumaru-sama!' }}

** Then, there's Naraku. Being cut to bits is only a minor inconvenience to him.

An arc in his main book was written to tone this down—by the same writer who had written one of the more ridiculous examples, ironically enough.It exemplifies [[Voodoo Shark]] - he could ''battle the Angel of Death'' if ever he dies in order to return to life, having beaten him before, but apparently can no longer do this.

 

 

Finally, Wolverine's arch-enemy Sabretooth had virtually the same power-set, including the healing factor. But all that was cut to an abrupt end. Literally, thanks to Wolvie's anti-healing [[Infinity+1 Sword|katana]] forged from the [[The Dark Side|dark area]] of his soul.

== Literature ==

* Billy "Carnifex" Ray from the ''[[Wild Cards]]'' series of novels is a slight subversion; he has a Healing Factor that acts as the biological equivalent of "meatball surgery". It will save his life and restore practical functionality, but repeated injuries have left him somewhat misshapen (e.g. a broken nose healing while still bent out of place).

** The Mechanic's Healing Factor required him to be in contact with a machine.

** Stuntman's Healing Factor regrows the damaged tissue violently, leaving him disoriented and very hungry.

* In P.C. Hodgell's ''[[Chronicles of the Kencyrath]]'' series, the Kencyr peoples have impressive healing abilities, although much of it requires ''dwar'' sleep, a hibernation-like mode of deep, restorative sleep which can, for severe injuries, last for weeks. Jame, the protagonist, sleeps for thirteen days after she arrives in Tai-tastigon with severely infected haunt bites (haunts being essentially zombies); her healing astonishes the human healer who tends to her. Kencyr can also regenerate lost teeth, and through ''dwar'' sleep can recuperate from punishing speeds on foot, allowing their armies to cover ground at a sustained rate much faster than human armies can attain.

* Averted, and possibly inverted, in ''[[The Belgariad]]'', where the gods have ''no'' healing ability whatsoever because they're normally invincible and have no need of it. {{spoiler|Meaning that when the [[Big Bad]] Torak is badly maimed, his injuries, consisting of horrible burns and a destroyed eye, remain exactly the same as when Torak received them, pain and all, even after thousands of years.}}

* In Octavia Butler's ''Fledgling'', the [[Our Vampires Are Different|protagonist]] recovers from being caught in a burning building—it's implied that she had severe head injuries and was ''blind'' at the start. At the end of the process, she's fine except for the amnesia, but she needs fresh meat as soon as possible, and is too hungry to notice where it comes from. {{spoiler|It's one of her brother's human friends, who was there trying to find and rescue her.}}

* As the [[Doctor Who Expanded Universe]] [[Eighth Doctor Adventures]] are a bit [[Bloodier and Gorier]] than the ''[[Doctor Who]]'' TV series, it's much more evident that the Doctor has a certain degree of this ability in the novels than it is on TV. The Doctor regrows a tooth at one point. He walks on a severely broken leg, is severely stabbed, gets shot full of buckshot, has [[Heart Trauma|one of his hearts]] [[Made of Plasticine|ripped out]], [[Real Men Get Shot|etc.,]] and always gets better with a minimum of fuss and no medical attention.

** To be fair, {{spoiler|He got it from Ted Sprague, who was shown to have the [[Required Secondary Powers]] to survive it.}}

* [[Our Vampires Are Different|The Wraith]] in ''[[Stargate Atlantis]]''.

** Taken to a disturbing extreme in the series two finale, where he is {{spoiler|trapped in a continual death-resurrection cycle for almost 1900 years after being [[Buried Alive]]}}.

** Taken to yet another disturbing extreme in the ''Children of Earth'' miniseries, where he has {{spoiler|a bomb implanted in his stomach. He regenerates from a few limbs and part of a head to a skeleton to his normal self over the course of the day... and starts regaining consciousness and screaming when his skin has yet to come back. The room he's locked up in is promptly filled with concrete, and he's rescued when the team breaks the concrete block by dropping it into a quarry}}.

 

== Tabletop RPG ==

** The ultimate example of this ability is the Tarrasque. Its renegeration ability has no [[Achilles' Heel|damage type exception]], meaning that no matter what you do to the monster it'll come back eventually unless you use a magical Wish to wish it stayed dead.

** In previous editions, there were particular forms of regeneration that varied from monster to monster. The D&D troll, arguably the most famous example, can quickly regenerate wounds from swords and axes, and by themselves these weapons can't kill them, although they can knock them out temporarily by reducing their hit points to zero. The only thing that ''can'' kill them are fire and acid, which also cause damage that can't be regenerated. Whether you blow them up with a fireball, or knock them out with a weapon and then set them on fire or douse them with acid, you need to burn trolls to kill them if you're using standard tactics. If beat into helplessness, they can then be drowned also if there is water nearby (as there often is as they often inhabit swamps). Trolls being vulnerable to fire is likely originally taken from the novel [[Three Hearts and Three Lions]].

** One of the fomori powers in ''[[Werewolf: The Apocalypse]]'' provides this, except that everytime you regrow something, but always with nasty scars and often malignant tumors as well. Being a fomor is completely disgusting, seriously.

* Vampires in both ''[[Vampire: The Masquerade]]'' and ''[[Vampire: The Requiem]]'' can heal about as quickly as Werewolves, but they must expend blood they've ingested to do so, and the strength of their healing factor depends on the damage type. Wounds caused by bashing or gunshots heal faster than wounds from stabbing or slashing weapons. Damage from fire, sunlight or a supernatural source takes even more blood and time to heal.

** Well one of them, their primary [[Planet of Hats|Hat]] is that they are hyper-advanced robots.

** To a lesser degree this applies to the Orks, who are capable of healing from any non-fatal wound quite quickly, and when you consider how "tuff" they are, a fatal blow is difficult. In fact, standard Imperial procedure is, after a battle with Orks, to go around and cut the heads off their bodies with entrenching shovels to make sure they stay dead. About the only non-fatal thing that they can't regenerate on their own is severed limbs and they can still stitch the lost limb, or even someone else's limb, back onto the stump and have it heal together pretty quickly. They can even reattach severed '''heads''' and walk off like nothing happened!

* ''[[Rogue Squadron]]'': Ships equipped with an astromech droid will gradually regain health as the droid makes repairs. However, if your droid is destroyed you lose this ability.

* An incredibly disgusting version is used by {{spoiler|the Hunter}} in ''[[Dead Space (video game)|Dead Space]]'' who {{spoiler|regrows entire limbs}} while flailing and oozing. Where it gets the extra tissue required is [[Shapeshifter Baggage|unknown.]]

* In ''[[Ghost Trick]]'', {{spoiler|Yomiel has a fragment of the Temsik meteor lodged in his body that constantly restores his body to how it was just before his death.}}

* Fittingly, [[Lizard Folk|shra]] in ''[[The Reconstruction]]'' have very high rates of bodily regeneration, though not to the extent of most Healing Factors. This is [[Deconstruction|deconstructed]] with Skint (who ''does'' have a very potent Healing Factor), who got stabbed in the back with a large sword...and his body healed the wound, ''with the sword still in''. To make things worse, the sword was lodged through his heart, making it impossible to take out without killing him. It also means he can [[24-Hour Armor|never take off his armour]], which must make sleeping pretty difficult, too.

Additionally, medical technology of the twenty-third century can regrow your body from the head down in less time than it takes you to naturally heal a paper cut.

** Laz'r'us grade nanites appear to be able to provide this, as witnessed on the two occasions they're called on (for Kevin and General Xinchub).

 

** It's suggested by several characters within the strip (including Torg, Riff, and Oasis herself) that she's actually a ghost that possesses people to such a degree that they take her form clear down to her crazy hair making this more [[Grand Theft Me]] although the author hasn't cleared it up for us yet.

== [[Western Animation]] ==

* Starscream gets this in ''[[Transformers Animated]]'' from an Allspark fragment in his head.

*** But that was only his spark (soul) which was immortal, he didn't have a body, regenerating or otherwise. Which lead to him floating around like a ghost for quite some time until he could scam himself a new shell (or steal someone else's).

** Transmetal 2s in ''[[Transformers]]: [[Beast Wars]]'' have the ability to heal mild to moderate damage near-instantaneously using energy from their spark. Rampage also has one, as he was created by an experiment to duplicate Starscream's spark.