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Phlebotinum Dependence: Difference between revisions

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Phlebotinum Dependence (view source)

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== [[Film]] ==
* ''[[Iron Man (Filmfilm)|Iron Man]]'': Tony Stark needs to keep his electromagnet on so that shrapnel in his chest won't migrate to his heart. {{spoiler|Said electromagnet is powered by [[Toxic Phlebotinum]].}} JARVIS even lampshades the irony of the situation. {{spoiler|In the sequel he creates a new element to replace the [[Toxic Phlebotinum]].}}
 
== Literature ==
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** Tretonin, a chemical used to remedy the Jaffa's dependence on the Goa'uld for survival.
** The Ilempiri were incapable of being used as hosts by the Goa'uld, so they were fed a highly addictive drug that only the Goa'uld could manufacture, until the entire species was addicted.
* The title character of the Sci-Fi Channel's ''[[The Invisible Man (TV series)|The Invisible Man]]'' series needed periodic injections, to keep him from going [[Ax Crazy]] from the [[Applied Phlebotinum|Quicksilver]] in his system. {{spoiler|In the [[Series Finale]] he's given a permanent cure to the insanity problem.}} This flaw is deliberately introduced by the [[Big Bad]] to keep his buyers dependent on him. {{spoiler|The original bigfoot gland has the same flaw, as the over-saturation of quicksilver causes madness}}.
* Paul Turner on ''Strange World'' was pressured to work as a double agent in exchange for a serum that would keep his aplastic anemia in remission. {{spoiler|Subverted when it turned out it wasn't the serum that was responsible.}}
* The Jem'Hadar of ''[[Star Trek: Deep Space Nine]]'' are addicted to the substance Ketracel White, to keep them loyal to the Founders. It provides all the sustenance they need to survive, removing the need to eat or drink, but they also ''can't'' take nourishment from any other source. Depriving a Jem'Hadar of the White causes them to go [[Ax Crazy|violently insane]] and then drop dead. There are a few very rare mutants who don't need the White, but in general even they don't know it.
** So rare in fact that only one was ever found. [[Reset Button|And then quickly]] [[Status Quo Is God|forgotten about.]]
** Two, if you count Taran'atar from the [[Expanded Universe]], specifically chosen for his experience and immunity to the White by Odo to be the Dominion representative on Deep Space Nine.
* Played with in '''[http://en.memory-alpha.org/wiki/Symbiosis_%28episode%29 Symbiosis]''', a first season episode of ''[[Star Trek: theThe Next Generation]]''. The Ornarans contracted a plague two hundred years earlier, and believe they need continued "treatments" provided by the Brekkans to stay alive. Upon witnessing two Ornarans receiving a "treatment", Dr. Crusher instantly realizes that the "treatment" is actually a ''narcotic''; the plague is long gone, but the Ornarans find withdrawal so traumatic that they're sure that they're still sick - not to mention that [[Drugs Are Bad|the drugs are making them so stupid]] they can no longer effectively perform basic maintenance on their ships, let along think clearly about the plague. The Brekkans are fully aware of this, but no longer need to work as long as they can trade the "treatments" for Ornaran goods. While the [[Alien Non-Interference Clause|Prime Directive]] forbids [[The Captain|Picard]] from revealing the truth to the wronged race, he finds a way to correct the situation by refusing repairs to their few remaining ships. Without the ships, they will have no way to get the "treatments" and will eventually realize they're not actually sick.
** Of course, the Brekkans are going to have an [[Inferred Holocaust|economic holocaust]], but after ''two centuries'' of enslaving the other world with needles to the point that they're no longer coherent enough to ''repair their own ships'', you might call it [[Laser-Guided Karma]].
* In ''[[Lexx]]'', Divine Assassin Kai needs protoblood {{spoiler|the blood of an Insect}} to maintain his undead existence. It stops being an issue after the first season when the crew manages to get a good supply of protoblood.
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== [[Video Games]] ==
* In ''[[Bio ShockBioshock]]'', people taking ADAM will go insane if they do it too often... and if they stop after that, there's a good chance it'll kill them. And worse still, Rapture's various businesses used it for almost everything, from sport to cosmetic surgery- up until people started going crazy and attacking other citizens for their ADAM.
* [[Mage Killer|Templars]] in the ''[[Dragon Age]]'' series develop Lyrium addiction over time, officially, because their [[Anti-Magic]] powers run on it. Unofficially, it's pretty clear that the [[The Church|Chantry]] hooks them up on Lyrium on purpose to keep them on a short leash.
* In ''Deus Ex: Human Revolution'', all augmented humans (with the exception of the main character) must take Neuropozene regularly. Otherwise, their body rejects the augments, the results are... not fun.
** Lest you think this merely sci-fi mumbo jumbo, many [[Real Life]] recipients of organ transplants need to do this too.
* The ''[[Fallout]]'' games are full of a wide assortment of [[Fantastic Drug|Fantastic Drugs]] (and mundane ones), any of which can potentially become addictive after only a couple of uses, with the withdrawal symptoms causing stat debuffs whenever you aren't on the drug in question. Luckily, it's pretty straightforward for any doctor to rid you of your addictions (and in ''[[Fallout: New Vegas]]'' there's a consumable item that does it for you).
 
== [[Western Animation]] ==
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