Living Battery: Difference between revisions

We generally don't feel too bad if such living batteries are plants or insects, but the more intelligent, humanoid and sentient the creature, the more likely this will be [[Played for Drama]]. The story may reveal the battery is being taken advantage of, if not outright enslaved, and the extraction of the [[Living Battery]]'s energy is harmful, traumatizing, or even lethal. Often the justification for why it is necessary is some form of Higher-Species-Rights, [[Fantastic Racism]], the fact that the parasitic species created the [[Living Battery]] in the first place, or simple desperation and need on the part of the extracting species. Or the extractors might just be [[Villain|Villains]] who don't care who they hurt in the name of gaining power.

 

{{examples}}

 

* In ''[[Trigun]]'', the people couldn't survive on Gunsmoke without the plants, giant humanoid alien things that were placed in equally giant bulbs from which energy was extracted, which powered just about everything.

* The machines in ''[[Kakurenbo]]'' use the children they captured for this.

* ''[[Sailor Moon]]'' villains, especially Alan and Ann, quite often extract some sort of energy directly from human victims to supply to awakening some evil [[Big Bad]].

* ''[[Black Bird]]'' has this, with a twist. The living battery (the heroine) isn't harmed by having her energy used. She just gives it off like a fire gives off heat. Though the ''other'' things that she can provide aren't nearly as non-invasive to harvest...

== Comics ==

 

* In the story "Fountains of Youth", in issue #22 of ''The Vault of Horror'', an elderly woman that went through a series of young female companions turned out to be a centuries-old creature that was sucking the life force from them.

 

* The machines in ''[[The Matrix]]'' were powered by a mixture of fusion and the energy produced by humans which they grew and harvested in fields like livestock or produce.

* ''[[eXistenZ]]'': The biological game device runs on the energy of the user, since it plugs directly into a "bioport" (sort of an extra anus artificially installed in the lower back). It's suggested that all gaming devices operate the same way.

 

== Literature ==

* The titular "beast" from the ''[[Doctor Who]]'' episode "The Beast Below". It was revealed that {{spoiler|the entire cityship was being powered entirely by its own energy.}}

* In the fourth season of [[Buffy the Vampire Slayer]], there was an episode where Buffy and Riley were living batteries in a frat house via nonstop sex.

 

== Tabletop RPG ==

 

* ''Dark Conspiracy'' supplement ''Darktek''. A number of the Dark Minion items can only be recharged by draining the user's [[Life Force]].

 

== Web Comic ==

 

* The webcomic ''[[Machine Gun Angel]]'' has the [[Mega Corp]] who took over the world [[After the End]] running power plants on energy harvested from genetically manipulated humans (originally, they used sentient human clones, but they caved to public pressure and made clones that were [[Empty Shell|Empty Shells]]).

* In ''[[Breakfast of the Gods]]'', Cookie Jarvis the Wizard forsaw the coming of [[It Makes Sense in Context|Count Chocula and his forces]] and needed someone pure of heart to act as a battery to boost Cerelia's defenses. This turns out to be the reason {{spoiler|King Vitaman was missing for nearly the entire story}}: he volunteered to be the battery.

 

== Video games ==

 

** In ''[[Shadow the Hedgehog]]'', Black Doom wants to use ''humans'' as a power source instead.

* In the ''[[Mega Man Zero]]'' series, Cyber Elves are sentient beings of energy that will sacrifice themselves to the benefit of the player. The nurse types specifically are converted into usable energy. The Dark Elf is the only one that is used as a continuous power source without dying.

* In ''[[Mario and Luigi Partners In Time]]'', the Shroobs use Toads to power their flying saucers. A used-up Toad turns into a small purple (ordinary) mushroom.

* In ''Ecco: Defender of the Future'', there's a level in the evil version of the future where evil dolphins are using humpback whales as a living power source.

* While they don't require one to ''operate'', {{spoiler|Lares and Lemures}} from ''[[Solatorobo]]'' will turn you into one in exchange for controlling them.

 

* In ''[[Generator Rex]]'' there's a whole country that gets its electricity from a single EVO.

* [[The Secret Saturdays]] once visited a small nation that got its power from two imprisoned cryptids. What's more, they're ''baby'' cryptids, [[Monster Is a Mommy|and momma isn't happy about it.]]

 

{{reflist}}