Healing Hands: Difference between revisions

{{trope}}

 

 

Characters with a [[Healing Factor]] have the ability to heal themselves at an incredibly fast rate. Characters with '''Healing Hands''', however, are kind enough to share the wealth.

 

 

Due to its support nature, these abilities are often relegated to characters other than [[The Hero]], usually [[The Medic]], but may also be applied to teammates or sidekicks (often [[The Chick]], sometimes [[The Smart Guy]]). If the Hero does possess the ability, it will be just one of his many. When they aren't the hero, these characters usually have limited offensive power, and will optionally possess the ability to dole out [[Standard Status Effects]] to enemies, or to improve the fighting abilities of their teammates. Part and parcel of this package is the ability to cure poison and other such nastiness.

 

 

 

 

Oftentimes, this power is also coupled with "healing induced bloodstain removal and clothing fix," usually when the wound is caused either by bullet or stabbing weapon - it can usually be seen in the form of the bloodstain going slowly away (as if the soaking process was played backwards) and the clothes consequently appearing undamaged (i.e. without bullet holes etc.).

== Anime & Manga ==

* Dende, Mr. Popo and Buu from ''[[Dragonball Z]]''. In fact, a great number of Nameks besides Dende are also implied to have this, as Dende is part of a class of "healer" Nameks. Piccolo can repair clothing but not heal, while the latter don't repair clothing. Blood usually vanishes, bloodstains have to manually cleaned when other healing methods are used.

* Shamal of ''[[Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha]]'' specializes in this, and most mages eventually learn a healing spell or two.

* All the medical ninja from ''[[Naruto]]'':

** Most notably Tsunade and Sakura. Though, it's more like superpower assisted first-aid and surgery than healing and also that the knowledge of anatomy and chakra control necessary for healing makes them dangerous, to say the least.

** It's recently been shown that Karin can heal anyone that ''bites her''.

** Josuke can do this with his Stand power easily due to his power being the ability to restore anything that is broken, but he cannot do it to himself.

** Giorno CAN heal himself, but has to use something to turn into what he is trying to heal like the bullets you were shot with to fix your organs. (This leads to an... odd moment later on in the story.)

* Elf dust in ''[[Berserk]]'' can heal wounds. This is sometimes an unfortunate fact for Puck, the elf that travels with Guts - when he needs healing (and after a typical Apostle fight, he's usually in bad need of it), Guts has no problem with grabbing Puck and shaking him over whatever wounds need to be healed.

** Botan, Genkai and Yukina all have healing powers, although the latter is the only one to use it more than once. The actual [[The Medic|team medic]] is Kurama, the [[Green Thumb|plant master]].

** When Sniper tried to {{spoiler|off Mitarai and a bookshelf ended up falling on Botan, Genkai healed her.}} Also implied {{spoiler|after the second fight with Goki that Botan had healed Yusuke; later in the same episode/arc she ended up using her powers to prevent Keiko's demonification.}}

** Although his healing powers are never shown offscreen (except for one instance where he reattached his severed arm), it is said at the end of the series that Sensui's former henchman Doctor Kamiya opened up his own medical facility, using his powers to heal the sick and injured.

** The Fourth Court Guard squad are the healers for all Shinigami.

** Rukia knows some minor healing spells, but nowhere at the Orihime level and her powers are more typical of [[An Ice Person]]. {{spoiler|Ishida}} once is healed by her, but he points out that it's just a temporary solution since {{spoiler|Orihime}} is incapacitated after {{spoiler|a massive [[Mind Rape]]}}.

* Hotaru Tomoe/Sailor Saturn from ''[[Sailor Moon]]'' has this ability, despite being quite sickly herself. She's not a [[White Magician Girl]].

* Expanded and explored very thoroughly in the manga ''[[Double Arts]].'' All of the Sisters, but in particular Sister Elraine (a [[Nerds Are Sexy|nerd without glasses]]) have an enhanced immunity to a strange and virulent plague called 'Troi.' The Sisters save patient's lives by putting their hands on them and absorbing the toxins from the patient's body, but, despite living, the patient still carries Troi and can never touch an unaffected person, at the risk of spreading the disease. On the other hand, Kiri, [[The Only One Allowed to Defeat You|the only person so far who is completely immune to Troi,]] not only can heal minor diseases by touching someone else, but when he touches another person, that person's strength doubles, along with his own. And the more people join in, [[All Your Powers Combined|the strength increases exponentially.]]

* Xiao Long of ''[[Psycho Busters]]'' does this with his Qigong. He calls it ''fixing''.

* [[Mahou Sensei Negima|Mahou Sensei Negima's]] [[White Magic]] reacts this way, though usually only for basic healing spells. The higher level healing [[Power Glows|is glowy-er]].

** Joshua, Rosette's brother, has a glowing version of this. (perfect healing)

** Azmaria has similar powers, but she sings instead of using glowing hands.

* Solty in ''[[Solty Rei]]'', though it's imperfect. Interesting considering her other main ability is a [[Power Fist]].

* Saori Kido from ''[[Saint Seiya]]'', being the incarnation of Athena, the [[Lady of War|Goddess of Defensive Warfare]], is ''excellent'' at this.

* Belnika, a late add on to the team in ''[[Rave Master]]'' meets the main character via this ability.

* Yuma of ''[[Oriko Magica]]''.

* {{spoiler|The real Yuuri}} of ''[[Kazumi Magica]]''.

 

 

* Raven of ''[[Teen Titans (Comic Book)|New Teen Titans]]'' heals others by absorbing their pain and some degree of their injury into herself, a grisly take on healing powers.

* Indigo Tribesmen from ''Green Lantern'' can heal.

** Elixir

** Angel is a more grisly variation, who is able to share his [[Healing Factor]] by cutting himself and bleeding on others. Earlier there was the Morlock Healer, who actually ''died'' by overstressing his power. Angel's power had an interesting limitation: it would only work on people with the same blood type as his (or maybe anyone who could accept his blood type). It was discovered when, after an attack by an anti-mutant fringe group, they had him donating blood through about eight separate tubes to as many badly injured mutants. However, only some of them were healed.

** Angel's blood even burns mutants descended from ancient beings whose mutations classify them as "demonic," but [[Fanon Discontinuity|we try to forget that]].

** In the generally regarded as "out of continuity" origin story ''Children of the Atom'', there is a character called Scab who healed by taking whatever injuries one person had and putting them on himself. He saved Jean Grey's life and promptly died, never to be mentioned again.

* This was the paranormal ability of Anastasia Inyushin of the [[New Universe]] title ''Psi-Force''.

* ''[[Elf Quest]]'' healers have the lay-on-hands ability to heal. With amplification, they don't even need to touch their patients, and they can heal multiple patients at once. The power has been expanded to include [[Shapeshifting|flesh-shaping]] (a painful process at times); DNA-altering; pain-inducing; and some other applications. The ability to stimulate nerve endings can also enhance healers' relationships. The ''Gatherum'' notes that the attempted move to an [[Animated Adaptation]] required the loss of healing powers, since the "lay-on-hands" thing offended the [[Media Watchdogs]].

* [[Osamu Tezuka]]'s ''Phoenix'' saga includes at least one point at which a phoenix feather heals people; this might not count so much, being an item, but that the people believed it was the power of the nun who was using the feather, and didn't realize it was the feather itself, which they saw as incidental to the healing.

 

 

== [[Film]] ==

* Mr Miyagi of ''[[The Karate Kid]]''. Sort of. He knew some pressure points and techniques to suppress pain.

* In ''[[Push]]'', they're called Stitchers. Healing is very painful, and it hurts even worse when they use their power in reverse.

 

 

* John Coffey in [[Stephen King]]'s ''[[The Green Mile]]''. The manifestation of the ailments he heals are tiny, luminescent bugs {{spoiler|which he uses to scramble one bad guard's brain}}.

* ''[[The Deed of Paksenarrion]]'' by [[Elizabeth Moon]] includes healing powers granted by various gods. Paladins also get healing powers, but it's anything but easy to use them, as Paks herself found out: You mentally dip into an awareness of the body, like a stream, locate the things that are impeding the stream, fix them, and then get forcibly ejected by a body that doesn't want interlopers on its territory.

* ''[[Wild Cards]]'' series has several healers:

** John Fortune had the power to heal others before his wild card was turned again with the Overtrump cure. This proves a mixed blessing as {{spoiler|his original ability was slowly killing him.}}

** Jedi healers use the Force to help others in this regard- healers include [http://images3.wikia.nocookie.net/starwars/images/f/f7/Barriss_medstar2.jpg Barriss Offee] and [http://images2.wikia.nocookie.net/starwars/images/c/c2/Cilghal_egtf.jpg Cilghal].

** Cade Skywalker has a special variant on the technique called [http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Force_Resuscitation Force Resuscitation]; it is unique in that it can heal normally fatal wounds rather quickly, as well as corruptive plagues and other such maladies. It also works in reverse; that is, kill people beyond repair. However, it has two major drawbacks; one, the user channels this ability through the dark side (Cade's eyes flash from their usual [[Green Eyes|emerald green]] to a [[Red Eyes, Take Warning|blood-red color]] whenever he uses it), and two, the recipient must be willing to accept the healing, or else it won't work.

* Mia Cooper of [[The Shapeshifter]] series has this power, it nearly kills her on several occasions because she absorbs people pain. Fortunately she gets better at using it.

* [[Roswell High]], similar to the [[Roswell]] TV show listed above. The aliens have the power to heal.

* [[The Dresden Files]] has a few examples: Queen Mab (yes, that Mab) and the Leanansidhe can heal serious injuries with just a touch, and some human wizards (i.e., Elaine, Injun Joe) can use their magic for healing and medical purposes, albeit on a much smaller scale. This is supposed to be ''extremely'' hard to do, however; Harry mentions all the biological processes a healer needs to mind in order to make sure they don't screw it up, and the fact that Lea can heal one of his wounds with a simple kiss is a sign of just how powerful she is.

* In Jim Butcher's other series, the [[Codex Alera]] has Watercrafters. This is their signature ability, though not their only one by any means. They actually have all sorts of combat abilities (when someone has all of the water '''''pulled out of their body''''', they tend to stop being a threat). They are also empaths by virtue of their Watercraft, so the ones without [[Required Secondary Ability|Metalcraft]] to ignore the empathic pain from others tend to stick to healing.

* In Gail Dayton's [[One Rose Trilogy]], many East [[Magic Genetics|naitani]] have this.

* In ''[[Shadows of the Apt]]'', the Butterfly Apt allows for this.

* Healer Adepts (and Lord Adepts who have the right set of powers) can heal others ''and'' themselves in Jean Lorrah's ''Savage Empire'' books.

* [[The Grimnoir Chronicles]] have Healers/Menders who can heal others and/or themselves. Actives can lay on hands and heal specific things, Passives have an area of effect within which people just heal faster.

* In the [[Sword of Truth]], any wizard can do this. War Wizards can do this on instinct alone. Sorceresses can learn to heal, but never as effectively as wizards.

** It has a nice integration of the Additive/Subtractive magic system: if someone has internal bleeding in their lungs, you have to remove that blood or they wont be able to breath even if you rebuild their lungs. However, it's very hard to control Subtractive magic, so you have to be sure to not accidentally get rid of their organs. It fits the [[Crapsack World]] setting that even trying to heal someone risks horribly mutilating them.

 

== [[Live Action TV]] ==

* The aliens in ''[[Roswell]]''. It was later retconned that only Max could do this.

** Linderman is an interesting case, seeing as he's a healer ''and'' The [[Big Bad]].

** Hiro's mother is also a healer, except that she has healing ''lips''. She can literally "kiss it and make it better."

* Shawn Farrell in ''[[The 4400]]''.

* As of the sixth season of ''[[Smallville]]'', {{spoiler|Chloe}}.

** The show had a couple healers, among them one who took onto himself the ailments he was healing. His was a miserable existence growing more miserable with every healing until finally {{spoiler|he brought someone back from the dead, thus taking death onto himself and ending his suffering}}.

** In "Frozen," the [[Sufficiently Advanced Alien]] Ancient woman is able to heal the disease she accidentally infects the team with. Though she can't heal herself of it.

** In "Lost City," when O'Neill has the Ancient database loaded in his brain, the second time, the knowledge "unspools" far enough that he is able to do this after Bra'tac is stabbed by [[The Mole]].

** Too many times to count with Goa'uld, Tok'ra, and former hosts of either using the Goa'uld handheld healing device.

** The [[Our Vampires Are Different|Wraith]] from ''[[Stargate Atlantis]]'' could heal ''and'' revive people by giving back the life-force they took from someone else. Not that they were in the habit of doing this a lot.

* An episode of "[[Friday the 13th: The Series]]" involved a phony faith healer who found a glove that gave him real healing powers. Given the nature of the [[Artifact of Doom|antiques on the show]], there was a nasty twist. Namely, any disease/condition the healer cured was transferred to him-and he had to pass it on to another victim, who would die of the original ailment multiplied a dozen times over. This leads to a rather nasty [[Karmic Death]] on the part of the healer when he tries to heal a bullet wound he receives later in the episode.

* In ''[[Carnivale]]'', this is Ben Hawkins main power, although it always comes with a price.

* The angels in ''[[Supernatural]]'' are shown to possess tremendous healing abilities, being able to heal major injuries and raise the dead with little effort. Naturally, this is the first ability Castiel loses after he defects from Heaven.

 

 

== [[Mythology]] and [[Religion]] ==

** Apparently there were a surprisingly large number of people walking around in that area, in the 1st century, healing the sick. It's just that all the other miracle healers took the credit for themselves, as in "I did this", whereas the J-dude said that he was merely channeling a higher power.

 

 

== [[Tabletop Games]] ==

** "Laying On Hands" is an ability that can be acquired by paladins. In addition, clerics (and, to a lesser degree, druids) are capable wielders of healing of the spellcasting variety. Paladins and Rangers are too, although they're both primarily combat classes that only have magic as supplement. Bards can use the healing spells, too.

** In the third edition of D&D in particular, good and many neutral clerics have the ability to turn ''any'' of their prepared spells into healing energy as needed. This theoretically frees them from having to load up on healing magic to the exclusion of more 'interesting' spells, but doesn't do much to dispel the 'heal-bot' image the class suffers from in some players' minds. Their being bar none the most powerful class as of Third Edition, though, does.

** All core non "mass" healing spells require touches, meaning a lot of them qualify.

* ''[[Exalted]]'' has a number of examples:

** The Medicine Charms of the Solar Exalted really stand out. They allow a skilled surgeon to cut treatment time radically, instantly purge a person of poisons through proper manipulation of Essence, and ''regrow severed limbs''.

** While Solar charms are capable of impressive feats, the most impressive effects require an hour of treatment and a day or rest to manifest, specifically averting the instant healing side of this trope, although it still turns months of bed rest into mere hours. Alternatively, there is a martial art that allows one to ''heal a character instantly by punching him, repeatedly.''

 

 

* Pick a [[White Magician Girl]], ''any'' [[White Magician Girl]]. Even if the game uses a [[Magic A Is Magic A|standardized magic system]], odds are she'll have ''some'' kind of special unique healing ability.

* In the ''[[Final Fantasy]]'' series, the category of spells that focuses primarily on healing (usually with a side-order of other defensive spells) is known as White Magic. White Mages use it best, though other jobs, or just anyone you arbitrarily assign the ability to, may be capable of using it to a lesser degree depending on the game. Specific characters that have healing abilites are:

* In the games, some ''[[Pokémon]]'' learn moves to heal other members on the party, like Heal Bell and Arometherapy, which heal the [[Standard Status Effects]], or Wish, which can heal 50% health of a teammate if it is switched in after use. Others like the Chansey line and Miltank have the moves Softboiled and Milk Drink to heal others outside battle.

** Gen. V introduced Heal Pulse, a move that can heal any pokemon in battle other than the user. Even your opponent's pokemon.

** It still retains situational uses for its ability to remove status effects without taking up inventory space and being unaffected by silence.

* In ''[[Kanon]]'', {{spoiler|it's revealed that Mai can heal others with her tears. Unfortunately, when news of her powers spread, the people around her condemned her as a freak}}.

** Ness is a rare Hero example, although it is just one of many.

** Poo gets all the same healing capacities as Ness (except Lifeup Omega) and learns Healing Omega, which Ness never learns. By the end of the game, you'll probably be using him mostly for healing powers.

** Every mother protagonist winds up getting the best healing skills. In fact, the protagonist of the first game never learns PSI that deals damage.

* [[Breath of Fire]] III's Ryu is another example of a hero holding the game's best healing spells. However, most will end up never using them, since his magic power is better off being saved for his dragon transformations. Most will rely on Momo to heal instead, or just stick with items.

** Mia has several offensive abilities but is primarily a healer.

** Despite the class system where anyone can have healing abilities, the story treats Mia and Piers as the healers of the group due to their natural affinity with the Mercury (water) element.

** Although Jenna naturally gets a fire element healing spell that heals the whole party, so she can easily play the roll of healer in the game while remaining in her natural element.

* Polka from ''[[Eternal Sonata]]''

* Chidori from ''[[Persona 3]]'' has life-giving abilities that even function on herself. {{spoiler|She uses them to save Junpei after he is shot to death by Takaya -- [[Heroic Sacrifice|at the cost of her own life]].}}

* In ''[[World of Warcraft]]'':

** Paladins have Lay on Hands as a healing ability. On a long cooldown, they can heal a target for an amount equal to the Paladin's maximum health, and, at higher levels, restore some of their [[Mana]]. However, it is suspected that either literal laying on of hands is not required... or Paladins somehow have 40-yard-long arms. One of those.

** Even when Lay On Hands drained all of a Paladin's mana, it was still useful, because it could be cast when the paladin had ''run out of mana'' by casting other healing spells. (That, plus the fact that it healed a freakin' ginormous number of hit points.)

** A later patch did away with the "entire-mana-drain" part of the spell and instead made it usable only every 20 minutes. It still retains its entire health restoration aspect, so now it's more of an OH SH** type of spell for emergencies only.

** The first game also gave even nonmagical Good-aligned PC's some minor healing spells as freebies as they unlocked more of their Bhaalspawn potential. The sequel took them away again after [[Big Bad|Jon Irenicus]] {{spoiler|stole the PC's soul}}, but they were [[So Last Season|obsolete]] by that point anyhow.

* In ''[[Trauma Center]]'', healing hands is a mysterious power possessed by people blessed by Asclepius, which manifests as various methods of performing surgery extremely well. For Derek or Markus, the healing hands jack up his concentration, allowing him to move incredibly quickly and precisely (represented in-game as time slowing down). Nozomi's version causes the patient's vitals to improve every time she does something right, and Valerie's freezes the patient's vitals in place regardless of any injuries that happen.

 

== [[Web Comics]] ==

* [[Alternate Universe|Dimension of Lame]] Gwynn from ''[[Sluggy Freelance]]''.

* In [[Emergency Exit]]:

** Also {{spoiler|Sal Declan}} is able to {{spoiler|use magic to put in stitches}}. Very useful if you have someone [http://eecomics.net/EEArchives/?strip_id=1098 you really can't take to the doctor...]

* In ''[[Harkovast]]'', the priestesses of Hevalla use magical healing water to return Sir Muir to the fight (and just in time, as a bad guy breaks through the door a few moments later!)

* ''Charby the Vampirate'' features:

** Mye, a zombie witch. While she is proficient in making potions, she can also literally kiss things better, much to the chagrin of her boyfriend and brother - other characters abuse Mye's helper's syndrome shamelessly.

** Kavonn, the Hat Mage. Kavonn wields a massive ankh-topped staff and can cast highly varied spells, including healing ones. Lesser artifacts from the Hat can also grant healing magic.

** Zerlocke, a low-rank elite. As elites are nigh immortal and invulnerable with a whole set of other abilities, general magic is frowned upon. Zerlocke was one of the few to bother and possibly knows healing spells.

** Matty gets these toward the end of the next chapter.

* [[Tamuran]] [http://www.tamurancomic.com/?p=163 the knife cut heals up again] as soon as the blood is taken.

* Lorelei in ''[[The Fourth]]'' has saved her friends a number of times with these.

 

== Web Original ==

* Shandala, heroine of ''[[Broken Saints]]'', demonstrates this on more than one occasion, first healing her brother Tui, then Oran.

* In the [[Whateley Universe]], several characters have healing powers:

* In ''[[Trinton Chronicles]]'' only one person, Coatl, actually has this power and seeing as how its a super rare ability in this world, she keeps it well hidden from everyone she doesn't trust.

* Joan Banks's story series ''Absolute Power'' stars a man who, having wasted the first two of [[Three Wishes]] from a genie, chose this for his third wish. As it turns out, this means that he can "heal" anything if he can think of it as a disease. This is ''exactly'' [[Superpower Lottery|as powerful as it sounds]].

 

 

* Katara in ''[[Avatar: The Last Airbender]]'' as a specialty of the Waterbenders. In contrast with the "Wound-B-Gone" effect this ability usually has, people tend to recover from major injuries gradually over several healing sessions.

* Serena from ''[[Dino Riders]]'' has this ability, which she uses both on her teammates and on the dinosaurs she befriends.

* Bloom from ''[[Winx Club]]'' gains this power in season 2.

* ''She-Ra: Princess of Power'' gains this ability, much to the surprise of ''He-Man'' who only got super strength.

* In ''[[Rollbots]]'', this is the power of Penny, Koto, and presumably the rest of the Kuzuri.

 

{{reflist}}

[[Category:Stock Super Powers]]

[[Category:Video Game Characters]]