Insanity Immunity: Difference between revisions

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{{trope}}
When a character is already so crazy that none of the traditional [[Go Mad Fromfrom the Revelation]]-type phenomena or [[Brown Note]] will affect them in the slightest; they can speed read ''[[The King in Yellow]]'' and the [[Tome of Eldritch Lore]], get into a [[Staring Contest]] with Cthulhu, contemplate the Void without any negative mental effects, and get [[Through the Eyes of Madness|caught in the Throat of Madness]], simply because they can't get any crazier. This can also mean that they can wield/absorb any powers with these effects without any problems, either; powers that would drive a normal man insane simply won't affect them in any negative fashion.
 
They also cannot be controlled, [[Confusion Fu|predicted]], or otherwise influenced by others: [[A Mind Is a Terrible Thing to Read|psychics will recoil in horror from the rotting offal that is their minds]], those who can see the future will find their expectations dashed as [[Screw Destiny|destiny is royally screwed over]], martial artists with [[Combat Clairvoyance]] will be no match for their [[Schrodinger Fu]], etc.
 
This is a [[Disability Superpower]], more specifically a [[Disability Immunity]]. See also [[Too Dumb to Fool]] and [[Too Spicy for Yog-Sothoth]]. [[Crazy Sane]] is a subtrope for a little crazy giving resistance specifically to other damage to sanity.
{{examples}}
 
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* In ''[[Lucifer (comics)|Lucifer]]'' Fenrir manipulates a man with a mental disorder into thinking that he's gone crazy and killed his wife and daughter. This is so he and his companions can "ride his coattails" towards Yggdrasil. By tricking the man into thinking his wife and daughter are at the tree, he gets there without having his mind torn to shreds by the sanity-ripping "thorns" on the path there. The man is more or less immune both by virtue of his insanity and single-minded [[Heroic Resolve]] to rescue his family. Don't worry, they were reunited and lived [[Happily Ever After]]. (Fenrir, for his part, almost undid all creation.)
** You must have missed the part where {{spoiler|Fenris kills the guy so he can ''leave'' Yggdrasil.}} The guy does in fact lose pieces of himself on the way- some memories, ''an arm'', but his insanity means he's ''used'' to surrendering pieces of himself, and thus he can serve as another's chariot.
* This is about as close as The Joker gets to a superpower. For example, in a [[Batman]]/JudgeDredd[[Judge Dredd (comics)|Judge Dredd]] [[Crossover]], Judge Death tried to possess his body, flowing into his head only to fly out through the other ear, Joker's mind completely incompatible with his mind control powers.
** [[Martian Manhunter|J'onn J'onnz]] was actually able to replicate this effect during [[Grant Morrison]]'s run on [[Justice League of America|JLA]]; when he and Superman are trapped in a pocket dimension created by The Joker (which reflects his madness), J'onn uses his shapeshifting abilities to literally change the shape/function of his brain to resemble The Joker's, enabling him and Supes to navigate their way out without being consumed or driven mad.
** Also, in DC and [[The Mask (comics)|The Mask]] crossovers both Joker and Lobo put the titular mask on their faces, and it didn't affect their personalities at all.
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* In [[Alan Dean Foster]]'s ''To The Vanishing Point'', Burnfingers Begay can deal with the shifting realities matter-of-factly because he's already crazy.
* The [[Magic: The Gathering|Magic the Gathering]] novel ''Final Sacrifice'' involves a [[Mind Control Device]] in the form of a helmet that lets a wizard summon and control another wizard the same way wizards can summon and control ordinary creatures. (Interestingly, this novel was written long before the card [http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=46724 Mindslaver] was printed.) The druid Greensleeves, having once been insane, finds the effects of the helmet to be similar to the insanity she conquered and is able to ignore its commands - and is also able to access the vast amounts of information stored in it.
* Billy in ''[[Remnants]]'' has a mind that clearly does not work normally--henormally—he seems to be mildly psychic, has an eidetic memory and rarely interacts with anyone. It turns out he is the only one able to mentally interact with [[One Bad Mother|Mother]], a [[Sapient Ship]] who has [[Go Mad From the Isolation|Gone Mad From The Isolation]], without going crazy. He explains it as his mind being malleable, like rubber, while other people's are like sticks that break if you bend them.
 
== [[Tabletop RPG]] ==
* ''[[Call of Cthulhu (tabletop game)]]''. When characters lose Sanity points they can go temporarily insane, which impairs their abilities considerably. Once people lose all of their Sanity points (and become permanently insane), they can no longer go temporarily insane, either due to Sanity loss or certain attacks such as the Mind Blast spell. If this happens to an NPC who is a [[Cthulhu Mythos]] worshipper, they can act effectively even though they're completely nuts.
* ''[[Dungeons and& Dragons]]'' 1st Edition. Psionic attacks could cause various forms of mental disorders in their victims, but insane creatures were immune to psionic attack.
** There's a "Cloak of Insanity" spell in the ''[[Forgotten Realms]]'' [[Sourcebook]] ''Menzoberranzan'' that emulates this effect. It shields the caster's mind from being influenced or read by both magic or psionics, but itself isn't completely safe in(causes itself.
* Witches and sorcerers from ''[[Pokethulhu]]'', who are immune to anything that requires a sanity save, because they have no sanity at all.
* [[Vampire: The Masquerade|Vampires]] in the [[Old World of Darkness]] who drink Changeling blood or otherwise become Enchanted (infused with Fae Glamor, allowing them perceive and otherwise be affected by Chimerical reality) must, due to the inherently Banal nature of vampirism, make a Courage roll in order to avoid succumbing to Bedlam (Glamor induced insanity). The vampires of Clan Malkavian are explicitly said to be immune to this effect as they are already mad.
* In ''[[Dark Heresy]]'', characters ignore fear effects that equal their (insanity points/10)/2: Their minds have simply seen so much sanity-blasting horror already that they've gone insensitive to the little stuff. A character with 80 or more insanity points is literally immune to fear and can stare down a [[Eldritch Abomination]] with no ill effects, although at that point that's peanuts compared to the effects the cumulative mental derangements has on that character's mind anyway.
* One standout example from ''[[Exalted]]'' is Lilith, a Lunar who spent most of the First Age married to [[Villain with Good Publicity|Desus]], who kept her in line with regular doses of [[Mind Rape]]. She fled into [[World of Chaos|the Wyld]] after the Usurpation, and actually got better over the centuries. That's how bad her marriage was -- yearswas—years after years spent in the heart of screaming, primordial madness were effectively therapy.
* In ''Ironclaw'' the Enraged status effect makes the character unable to defend, focus or do mental actions, however it also negates the next mental debuff they would be affected with, (removes Enraged as well). It's more harmful version, Berserk, also does this, but also causes the character to attack the nearest target. Note that for Avarist, Enraged is important for some of their abilities, but helps compensate their low Mind stat.
 
== [[Video Games]] ==
* In the ''[[Touhou]]'' game "Imperishable Night", when [[Cute Witch]] Marisa Kirisame {{spoiler|is exposed to "pure" lunar rays, which can drive humans mad, she isn't concerned because, in her own words, "I'm insane to begin with."}} This is the only time she comes out and says this, however.
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== [[Web Original]] ==
* Medibot made it through [[Pokecapn]]'s Let'sPlay of [[Sonic the Hedgehog 2006 (Let's Play) Sonic 2006|Sonic the Hedgehog 2006]] in considerably less psychological distress than the other three who made it to the end (there was a fifth guy, John Condit, but he wisely bailed partway through). This was partly because he left to take a nap partway through, but mostly because:
{{quote|'''Kung-Fu Jesus:''' He seemed really out of it.
'''pokecapn:''' As he always does? }}
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[[Category:Madness Tropes]]
[[Category:Disability Superpower]]
[[Category:Insanity Immunity]]
[[Category:Alliterative Trope Titles]]
[[Category:Insanity Immunity{{PAGENAME}}]]