7,917
edits
Psychic Powers: Difference between revisions
no edit summary
(→Live-Action TV: Adding example) |
HLIAA14YOG (talk | contribs) No edit summary |
||
| (4 intermediate revisions by 3 users not shown) | |||
Line 2:
[[File:JeanUXM1p9frm6 3447.jpg|link=X-Men (Comic Book)|frame]]
{{quote|''"Also? I can kill you with my brain."''|'''River Tam'''|''[[Firefly (TV series)|Firefly]]''}}
[[Telepathy]], clairvoyance, [[Playing with Fire|pyrokinesis]]—the powers are supernatural, but the names are scientific, which is good enough for [[Mohs Scale of Sci Fi Hardness|soft]] [[Sci Fi]]. [[Pointy Ears|Pointy-eared]] [[Our Elves Are Better|elves]] mumbling ancient spells on shiny spaceships [[Fantasy Kitchen Sink|would be incongruous]]; [[Star Trek|pointy-eared]] [[Telepathic Spacemen|aliens reading minds]] on shiny spaceships doesn't raise any eyebrows.
Line 35:
** [[Shock and Awe|Fulgurkinesis]]/Astrakinesis - the ability to create electrical discharges and lightning bolts, and/or to control the flow of electrons inside machines. Sometimes encompasses the control of magnetic fields, too, if the author had a passing grade in high school science. (Note that the word "[[wikipedia:Electrohydrodynamics#Electrokinesis|electrokinesis]]" actually has a real-world scientific meaning that has nothing to do with '''Psychic Powers''', but most writers/fanboys who use the term [[Did Not Do the Research|don't seem to know that]].)
*** A variant of this is [[Technopath|Machine Empathy or Technopathy]]—the ability to mentally link to and control computer systems.
** Biopsychokinesis, or Bio-PK—the ability to influence living tissue on the cellular or molecular level. Used for [[Healing Hands|psychic healing]], [[Healing Factor|regeneration]], [[Psychic Surgery]] or as a darker power the ability to [[Touch of Death|kill people with]] [[Firefly (TV series)|your brain]], traditionally by stopping their heart, but can also cause a massive stroke, simply shut the brain down, prevent the lungs from working...
** Basically, [[Fan Boy|Fanboys]] love to stick -kinesis as a suffix on anything and describe it as a psychic power. Thus you get bastardized terms like Chlorokinensis ([[Green Thumb|controlling plants]]), Chronokinesis ([[Time Stands Still|controlling time]]), Umbrakinesis ([[Casting a Shadow|controlling shadows]]), Hydrokinesis ([[Making a Splash|controlling water]]), [[Hurricane of Puns|Terrakinesis]] ([[Dishing Out Dirt|controlling stone and soil]]), [[What Do You Mean It's Not Awesome?|Curvacionubiliterriclothokinesis]] (The ability to [[Fan Service|whip the towel off a co-ed]] in a locker room without being physically present) etc., etc., Ad Infinitum.
*** Which is especially funny given that -kinesis is "movement" or "motion", and [[You Keep Using That Word|has nothing to do with psychic powers]]. The word pyrokinesis originated with Stephen King [[Did Not Do the Research|not knowing which of tele- and -kinesis meant "remote"]] in "telekinesis" (lit. "remote movement") and [[Blind Idiot Translation|picking the wrong one]]...
Line 123:
* In ''[[Serenity]]'', River Tam's psychic powers are finally confirmed.
* The telepath Kuato and various other mutants in ''[[Total Recall]]''.
* The lame superhero film ''Zoom'' has a [[Heroes Want Redheads|hot red-headed]] telekinetic teen (hmm, [[X-Men (Comic Book)|where did they get that idea?]]) and the [[Invisible]] Man also develops "mindsight".
* Samara Morgan and her Japanese counterpart Sadako Yamamura, from ''[[The Ring]]'' films wield all these abilities, and then some, to tremendous effect. However, in contrast to [[Person of Mass Destruction|the novel version]] (see below) their powers are more sedate.
* ''[[Push]]''. The premise that people are born with different powers, and each are given a shorthand term for whatever power they are born with:
Line 230:
* ''[[Babylon 5]]'': Telepathy, telekinesis, and in the case of the Centauri, a form of precognition.
** The Centauri took this [[Up to Eleven]]: Specially trained-from-birth teams of telepaths could communicate with each other across interstellar distances.
* ''[[Firefly (TV series)|Firefly]]'': River Tam demonstrates uncontrolled telepathy and empathy. It's [[Fanon|theorized by some]] that her combat prowess may be partly attributable to low-level precognition—seeing seconds into the future to determine an enemy's next move. She also has other abilities, such as an ability to discern health problems and locate dead bodies, find her way through strange environments with no guidance, and locate electronic devices or discern problems with machinery. Interestingly, the bonus feature on the ''Serenity'' DVD title "The R.Tam Sessions" implies that River already ''had'' some form of latent psychic ability before the Academy started working on her.
* ''[[Heroes (TV series)|Heroes]]'' has several characters with Psychic Powers, among them a mind-reader, a precognitive painter, and a man who can delete memories and "damper" other characters' powers by creating a psychic static. In fact, it's implied all the characters' powers are technically Psychic Powers, as the "seat of power" is universally in the brain.
* ''[[Medium]]'': precognition, postcognition, psychometry, communicating with ghosts, empathy/telepathy, and the ability to be possessed by ghosts. The show is inspired by the real-life Allison Dubois, who [[Phony Psychic|claims to be]] a medium.
Line 258:
* A running joke on ''[[The Mentalist]]'' is someone asking Patrick Jane if he has these, [[Subverted Trope|only for him to state that psychics don't exist.]] He "reads" people by [[Sherlock Scan|observing details about their wardrobe, surroundings, and/or nonverbal tics.]] Of course, this doesn't stop anyone on either side of the fourth wall from asking questions.
** Shawn Spencer does pretty much the same thing on ''[[Psych]],'' except he doesn't mind grabbing the [[Phony Psychic]] trope with both hands and giving it a big, warm, wet kiss in every episode. Even if doing so freaks everyone else out. Which only makes it even more hilarious.
* In ''[[Wednesday]]'', the title character has
== Tabletop Games ==
| |||