Muggle Power: Difference between revisions

''Option 2: If you can't join 'em, kill 'em!''

 

 

Whether the story chooses to address the underlying insecurity or not [[Debate and Switch|varies]]. When it does, it usually justifies baseline human's existence with a nice [[An Aesop|aesop]] like: [[Humans Are Special|our limitations drive us to excel]], only humans [[Creative Sterility|can truly create]], a world of all supers would devolve into planetary [[Let's You and Him Fight|civil war]] (like [[Sarcasm Mode|we normals have done such a good job keeping peace without supers]])... or, that we're so [[Humans Are Bastards|fundamentally bad]] that only a handful should have these powers, if at all. Since super-powered heroes are usually the focus of these stories, it's not rare to see a perfectly sensible initiative by the government to have [[Super Soldier|its own supers]], either to stop supervillains or to stop a hero if he should go rogue, turned into paranoid and militant [[War On Straw|strawmen]] bent on killing all heroes on the off chance of a super powered [[Social Darwinist]] takeover.

* The manga eV from James Farr seems to be experimenting with this somewhat. The main character was exposed to a serum that turns her into something approaching theity in terms of power...but only after the previous 77 candidates for receiving the serum had been murdered by fearful religious zealots.

* ''[[Darker Than Black]]'' shows [[The Masquerade|the few humans aware of Contractors]] having a "if you can't beat 'em, '''employ''' them" attitude, with the majority of the Contractors being aggressively headhunted and employed as <s>human weapons</s> 'special operatives' by various national security agencies like [[MI 6]], the CIA, or by [[The Syndicate|the mysterious criminal 'syndicate']] that employs Hei. {{spoiler|It eventually turns out that all these agencies are part of a single conspiracy to wipe contractors clean off the face of the Earth. This led to the formation of a [[La Résistance]]-style group determined to wall off the Gates so that the Contractor-genocide wouldn't be possible, even though they would have wiped out all of Japan in the process. Hei [[Take a Third Option|does not approve of either option.]]}}

** It has to be noted, however, that Level 0s are potentially even weaker than [[Muggle|normal humans]], as they do not possess any esper powers, and are additionally incapable of using magic.

*** Not quite accurate, an esper can increase his level by training (while there are some innerently broken powers, most of the time the level is related to how good/creative a person is at controling his powers), there are however some people labeled as 0's because their skills simply can't be measured (for example Touma, the main character, who's power is to cancel other's powers and it is implied that there's a limit to what he can nullify, but finding out would kill him since he already counters abilities strongh enough to kill a person).

* [[S-Cry-ed]], basically the Japanese take on X-Men.

* ''[[Gundam Seed]]'' does the second option: there are a group of Naturals (unmodified humans) known as Blue Cosmos who seek to eradicate Coordinators (genetically-enhanced humans) because they believe they're "impure". In fact, Blue Cosmos' motto is "For a Blue And Pure World". Their actions have started two massive wars because of this. Not bad for a group that started out as an environmental protection group!

 

== [[Comic Books]] ==

{{quote| '''Steve "Jetlad" Traynor''': ''Th-This is '''nuts'''. '''Everybody's''' a [[Differently-Powered Individual|science-hero]]! I mean, this will never work, the government, this whole relocation thing, it's just...''<br />

'''Leni "Sky Witch" Muller''': ''The war's over, ''mein junge'', and now nobody wants us living next door to them.'' }}

* The first version was averted with [[Marvel Comics 2|American Dream]]. She idolized Captain America and decided to ask superheroes for training to become one (of the [[Badass Normal]] type). It worked.

* ''Zenith'' uses this extensively in its backstory. In the end, it turns out that [[Properly Paranoid|the fear was dead-on]], and they really ''did'' need to [[Beware the Superman]], with a handful of exceptions.

** ''Ultimate X-Men'' has a similar exchange during Brian K. Vaughun's run; as two police officers investigate the murder of a young mutant (probably the Ultimate equivalent of Marrow), one of them makes a comment on the nature of mutants. The other officer says that she was born with a thirteenth rib, and asks if that makes ''her'' a mutant.

*** One bit that happened during one X-men storyline where a Mutant Registration Act was being proposed...''again''...but having Congress stop dead in its tracks in enacting it when they were quietly informed that a significant number of Representatives and Senators themselves were mutants, possessing assorted weak abilities capable of unconsciously influencing people which had, unknowingly, given them the advantage when they'd become politicians.

** We must have read different books, because when I read it, that was not treated like a good thing at all, with other mutants showing up and killing all the fanatics. With their helicopter. Yeah.

*** I think he means the people in the helicopter are the genuinely superpowered mutants.

* ''[[The House of Night]]'' books have Option 2. Churches decide that vampyres are sinners and start killing teachers at Zoey's school. Neferet, the head of the school, decides to wage war against them.

* ''Odd John'' justifies this trope, arguing that superhumans would see ordinary humans the same way we would see most animals. The title character even says that he sees the narrator as a 'pet'. Apparently, none of the superintelligent mutants in the book are [[Values Dissonance|animal-rights activists]].

* Most of the conflict in Nancy Kress's "Beggars" trilogy revolves around this trope.

* ''[[Skinned]]'' by Robin Wasserman contains A LOT of this, especially the second book ''Crashed''. Lia Kahn gets in a car accident and is [[Brain Uploading|uploaded]] into a new body. Rejected by society, she moves in with rebel Jude and his gang. Jude believes that people, or "orgs", are weak and need their bodies to survive, whereas he, a mech, can do anything. Mechs have ceramic bones and titanium skulls, their bodies heal instantly, and they never tire or need food. All they are required to do is shut down occasionally and back up their memories in case their bodies are destroyed.

 

== [[Live Action TV]] ==

** And all the villains they have in storage that got released in season 3 as yet another [[Idiot Plot]], despite Company's [[Knight Templar|willingness to kill much more decent people in the pursuit of stability]].

** The Company is only a partial example- while they do have a lot of muggle members, they have plenty of superpowered members too, and are in fact ''run'' by a group of superhumans, several of whom are actually pretty sinister.

** Before the series was canceled, it is revealed that {{spoiler|chipping a second-generation Neuro like Jane does nothing; at least, it did not work on the Chameleon.}}

* In ''[[The X-Files]]'', no one even believes mutants and monsters exist (other than those 2 nobodies working out of the basement whom no one takes seriously), and 90% of them are psychotic spree killers who get killed by the end of the episode anyway. This is a damn shame, as they'd be one HELL of an advantage for the Earth Home Team when that Alien Invasion finally hits.

** ''The Psi Corps Trilogy'' novels reveal that, when the existence of telepaths became public knowledge, many telepaths were lynched simply for fear of having this ability. This is even after the Pope proclaimed that telepaths are still children of God and should not be harmed, although one Italian mobster does let a card-cheating telepath live because of this in exchange for help in catching other cheaters.

* An episode of ''[[That's So Raven]]'' had psychic teens who called it "the Normie Problem". In the end, of course, they learn that the greatest power of all is [[The Power of Friendship]].

*** Except that, according to their ideology, Hunt himself is an abomination, as his mother was a genetically-engineered [[Heavyworlder]].

* In ''[[Star Trek]]'', we had Eugenic Wars between genetically engineered and other humans, leading to genetic augmentation becoming a forbidden technique. They apparently got over this in later years; genetic modification for mundane purposes (correcting congenital defects, for example) is perfectly okay, but physical and mental augmentation is still illegal.

* [[Buffy the Vampire Slayer|The Watcher's Council]] is basically a group of Muggles who got together and decided that they and they alone were going to be in charge of the fight against evil, and they employ and monitor various agents (the most important of which being the Slayer) in their fight. The fact that most of them are incompetent dullards and piss-poor mages (which still qualifies as Muggledom, as most everyone in the Buffyverse is capable of magic) doesn't seem to occur to anyone until Buffy comes along.

** Meanwhile, the Initiative is basically a government-run version without the shitty mages. It fails even more than the Watcher's Council, who are destroyed by a single psychotic preacher using a bomb.

** It turns out the Muggles DO have something to fear from the Novas - the use of Quantum powers eventually mutates them into dramatically inhuman Aberrants, who form the primary enemy for its predecessor, ''Trinity''. Oddly enough, the heroes in ''Trinity'' are, themselves, no longer Muggles - they're powerful psychics, instead.

* In the titular continent-sized [[Monster Town]] of [[Mortasheen]], humans are treated like lab rats by the mutants and monsters that inhabit the city, sometimes as test subjects, sometimes as pets and sometimes as food. of course, this is slightly [[Subverted Trope|subverted]] by the fact that nobody inside the city is really bothered by this, including the humans themselves, as they see it as "just the way things go". Some humans will even volunteer themselves for experiments in the hopes of getting a more powerful form.

** Oddly, according to those who have read it, the ones who match that description are the ''villains'' among the Wraeththu in the original books, and the heroes were a group the RPG doesn't bother giving even a passing mention.

** Played for laughs, of course. ([[Don't Explain the Joke|The joke being]] that ''every'' person in the setting - other than the theoretically subservient [[A Is]] - is a mutant... and everybody seems to ''know'' it... except for the all-seeing, all-knowing Computer which designates mutants as inferior, genetically treasonous creatures.)

*** Well, the players know it, the characters don't necessarily. In particular, Anti-Mutant characters may be ignorant or in denial about their own mutant powers.

* Many Exalts in ''[[Exalted]]'' are less than careful with normal people in the area surrounding them (in the case of countering third-circle spells, an area totalling roughly nine square miles). The Realm in particular has based its 800-year empire on the idea that Terrestrial Exalted are manifestly superior to mortals. (One of the few exceptions to this kind of thing: Paragon is adamantly pro-mortal because its ruler is a mere enlightened mortal himself, although he's currently a little bitter that with Solar Exaltations flying around he hasn't had a shot at becoming a Twilight Caste yet.)

 

== [[Video Games]] ==

** And Buddy never notices that he nearly gets blown to pieces in his first appearance as Incrediboy. No wonder Mr. Incredible doesn't want a kid sidekick.

** The special features on the DVD reveal that actually most of the superheroes are mentally unstable, stupid or just ordinary people trying to attain, maintain and deal with fame. Only a few of them are actually more cost-effective/useful than the regular authorities.

** Don't forget that evil psychopathic Supergirl clone, or that 'super soldier' serum that turned the general into a mutant monster, or...

** The Justice Lords were an example where humans ''did'' have something to fear from metahumans. This knowledge is what drove [[The Question]] into [[Go Mad From the Revelation|such a tizzy]].

* [[Rich Bitch|Princess]] from ''The [[Powerpuff Girls]]'' wanted to be a Powerpuff Girl, but she didn't have any powers, so she got technology that imitated their powers. When the girls still wouldn't let her join the team (primarily because she got in their way), she became a villain, continuing to use powers similar to the Powerpuffs' granted by the tech.

** It ''does'' go a bit farther than that, though more psychologically -- Sokka, for example, seems to feel inferior to his teammates, which is why he [[Took a Level In Badass|Takes a Level In Badass]] by becoming a sword master. Growing up with Katara (a Bender) probably also explains his general distrust of "magic," as a way of coping with his own inferiority complex.

** Actually, the series takes a fairly realistic approach in that there's no single, over-arching reaction to someone with the power. There's rarely outright oppression simply *because* you're a bender - not counting POW camps the Fire Nation sets up - but individuals range the entire spectrum from awe and wonder, to jealousy and bitterness, to "Meh, so he can punch a fireball."

*** Except that a majority of the major societies we see have benders in charge. The Fire Nation has the royal family and many of the officers seem to be fire benders and the cities of Omashu and Ba Sing Se are governed by an earth bending king and an earth bending secret police respectively. Not much is known about how important water benders were in the North or South tribes and the Air Nomads policy on regular humans is a moot point if almost all of them were air benders.