The Virus: Difference between revisions

[[File:TheVirus 4102.png|link=Cyanide and Happiness|frame|Well, that [[Pun|bites]].]]

 

 

 

If the converted still resemble their previous selves, they will use their personal knowledge to prevent their former loved ones from doing them harm, or from trying to [["I Know You're in There Somewhere" Fight|get them back]]. Despite the [[Grand Theft Me|body snatching]], if The Virus is only able to crudely mimic human behavior it may lead to a [[Glamour Failure]] that's [[Virus Victim Symptoms|especially noticeable]]. Some strains of The Virus are so powerful the infected can even mutate [[Walking Wasteland|environments]]. This tends to lead to the [[Womb Level]] and [[Organic Technology]].

 

{{examples}}

* ''[[Galaxy Express 999]]'''s Machine Empire is an intriguing subversion, for while they are rather obviously cut from the same cloth as the Cybermen and the Borg, and wage brutal wars of conquest, they ''don't'' generally convert conquered races by force. In a late episode featuring a planet whose government, a minor satrap of the Empire, had recently begun forcibly converting humans, a leader of the Empire actually rebukes a local official for the damage this policy was doing to their cause.

* The Invaders from the [[Anime]] ''[[Gate Keepers]]'' and its dark sequel, ''Gatekeepers 21''.

* The Kanshuu from ''[[World Embryo]]''. Traveling through cell phone signals, any person who listens to their phones and hears these signals mutates and contorts into another Kanshu. It gets worse since anyone who knew those victims in life, be it parents, friends, siblings, etc., will have their existence completely wiped from their memories, causing them horrible mental trauma.

 

* The OMAC from [[The DCU]] are complex nanomachines that hide in a person's body until they are kickstarted through a command by Brother I. They proceed to take over the inhabitant's body and turn him into one of the electric blue, one-eyed killing machines. Ironically, they were spread through tainted flu shots.

** It's an awfully sexist virus, too, as it will seemingly convert even a female human into a male OMAC!

* This was the power of Weapon XII, a villain appearing in [[X-Men (Comic Book)|New X-Men]] 129-130. Every person or animal he touches develops glowing eyes and permanently becomes an extension of his mind. By the time Xavier and Jean Grey arrive to deal with him, he's infected most of the humans in the Chunnel, several hundred of Multiple Man's bodies, and a collection of birds, bats, and dogs.

 

* In ''[[Divine Blood]]'', Kodachi Kuno is this via [[The Matrix|Agent Smith]] style [[Mind Rape]] targeted at anybody with mental powers or borrowing mental powers via a spell. She mostly targets her own [[Cloning Blues|mass-produced biological daughters]] early on.

* In ''[[Project Tatterdemalion]]'', a [[Sci Fi]]/horror AU of ''[[Bleach]]'', Hollows are the result of an alien [[Synthetic Plague]] called "Madsen's Hollow". It transforms one-fifth of the infectees- those with all of a set of genes that make them vulnerable to it- into monsters with [[Combat Tentacles]] and a drive to infect others to reduce their loneliness. The other eighty percent die messily from the incomplete effect. Interestingly, there is a vaccine- although it does have some side effects.

** By [[Vathara|the same author]], in Upon A Fiery Steed, this is what Shin no Yami used to be.

 

== Films ==

* As the name implies, the antagonist from creepy 1999 film ''Virus''. A transmission from space takes control of a (seagoing) ship's computers and begins building something. When the heroes ask the program what it wants, it replies with a list of ''body parts''.

* The alien in ''[[Slither]]'', which spreads through parasites that turn hosts into drones for the [[Hive Queen]], controlled through a [[Hive Mind]].

 

== Folklore ==

* Zombies in some more modern versions.

* That most dreaded and contagious of schoolyard infections: Cooties!

 

== Literature ==

* In [[Harry Potter]], [[Our Werewolves Are Different|lycanthropy]] is basically a giant metaphor for AIDS.

* In Neil Lee Thompsett's ''Becoming Human'', humanity itself [[Humans Are the Real Monsters|is this]]. Not a species, a [[Shaped Like Itself|disease]].

 

== Live-Action TV ==

* In ''[[Community]]'' episode "[[Community/Recap/S2/E06 Epidemiology|Epidemiology]]" Greendale becomes the epicenter of the outbreak for an experimental virus designed by the army.

* Episode 5 of ''[[Danger 5]]'' features a contagion that's turning the Allied soldiers into [[Those Wacky Nazis]]. Its source is a literal wellspring of the "Aryan seed" {{spoiler|and it is sexually transmitted. Exposing it to Swiss blood is the antidote, since in the Dangerverse, [[Artistic License: Biology|Swiss blood is... made of gold...]]}}

 

== Tabletop Games ==

* The Exsurgent virus family in ''[[Eclipse Phase]]''. Different strains can infect computers...or flesh...and the result is never, ''ever'' pretty, usually featuring [[Body Horror]] and ''always'' featuring [[Mind Rape]]. Oh, and they're very, very adaptive. Like, normal-viruses-on-crack adaptive.

{{quote|"What’s worse to contemplate, though, is that we may get another major outbreak that spreads to multiple habitats before we can contain it. That might get very, very bad, very, very quickly."}}

 

== Theater ==

* The opera ''Help, Help, The Globolinks!'' has [[Alien Invasion|invading aliens]] called Globolinks whose only known weakness is music. Humans touched by Globolinks are gradually transformed into Globolinks, first losing the ability to speak human language.

* In Eugene Ionesco's absurdist play ''Rhinoceros'', the townsfolk are all spontaneously transforming into rhinos.

 

== Toys ==

* The Makuta's virus and the Dreaming plague in ''[[Bionicle]]'', although it's ambiguous as to whether the latter was actually transmitted virally or not.

 

== Video Games ==

* The virus blocks in ''Astro Pop''. They can't be grabbed, and you can only get rid of them by making a match next to them. They also "infect" other blocks, turning them into more virus blocks. You can interrupt the transformation if you grab the block before it's transformed.

 

* The Dimension of Pain demons from ''[[Sluggy Freelance]]'' possess a spear that can turn human beings (and ferrets, apparently) into demons, and they use it frequently during their [[Demonic Invaders|invasion]] of the Dimension of Lame. However, since the spear can't completely get rid of the humans' inherent wussiness, the result is an army of pretty wussy demons.

** A human-made version ([[Wild Mass Guessing|or is it...?]]) has appeared in the main dimension now. None of the resulting demons has been seen for more than a strip or two, so it remains to be seen if the results are Lame or otherwise weaker than real demons.

== Web Original ==

* The ''[[Global Guardians PBEM Universe]]'' included the aptly named Virus, a villain who takes control of people using a tailored genetic infection that slowly transforms them into copies of itself. Its ultimate goal is to make all life on earth a copy of itself.

* The ''[[SCP Foundation]]'' have a dossier on [http://scp-wiki.wikidot.com/scp-217 SCP-217], which is basically The Virus plus [[Cybernetics Eat Your Soul|Clockwork Eats Your Soul]].

* ''[[Whateley Universe]]'' examples: The Palm is a [[A.I. Is a Crapshoot|living artificial intelligence in the internet]], trying to replicate and wipe out all human life. In a much creepier variant, in the story "The Op", this is what the heroes face, complete with [[Body Horror]] and [[Womb Level]].

* In the ''Prolecto'' series of stories, found here: http://www.furaffinity.net/view/6721353, this is how the Succubus transformation spreads. in a subversion, people are ''generally'' pretty much themselves...except for the compulsion to spread. Which wears off after they spread once, unless they take a deep breath. Unfortunately, at least one of them has [[Contractual Genre Blindness]]. [[Hilarity Ensues]].

 

== Western Animation ==

* Beautiful joke example from ''[[The Tick (animation)|The Tick]]'': when reminiscing about past adventures, Captain Decency remembers the time a villain built a superweapon known as the "Ray Gun". This gun functioned by turning anyone it shot into a duplicate of "some guy named Ray", depicted as a gas station attendant with the nickname "Ray" on his coveralls. Cue incredibly creepy ''[[Twilight Zone]]''-style black-and-white shot of a town filled with identical Rays saying "Hi, I'm Ray!" to each other over and over. Captain Decency then begins to reminisce about a similar adventure involving a "Tommy Gun" before being cut off.

* In ''[[The Pirates of Dark Water]]'', the eponymous Dark Water had the ability to kill people outright, or [[The Corruption|corrupt them]] into mutated minions or mindless slaves. In one of the more [[Nightmare Fuel]]-laden episodes, an elderly woman tries ingesting a drop of it in a youth potion and it winds up ''consuming her completely from the inside''.

* In ''[[Code Lyoko]]'', some of XANA's attacks follows this route, the specter first possessing one animal then spreading the control to others (rats in "Plagued", wasps in "Swarming Attack"). In "Attack of the Zombies", a possessed Kiwi can transmit The Virus to humans, [[Zombie Apocalypse]]-style.

* A robot from a planet of robots fears humans are The Virus in the ''[[Futurama]]'' episode, "Fear of a Bot Planet".

** Also, don't forget the Brain Slug.

{{quote|'''Hermes:''' The flight had a stopover on the Brain Slug Planet. Hermes liked it so much he decided to stay of his own free will.}}

* The Xenocites from ''[[Ben 10: Alien Force]]'', when placed on a carbon-based lifeform, transform them into a DNAlien under the thrall of the [[Scary Dogmatic Aliens|Highbreed]]. {{spoiler|Thankfully, the Omnitrix has the power to revert the genetic damage and restore the original form of the victims.}}

** The [[Nano Machine|nanite]] [[Hive Mind|hive]] from the Alien Swarm movie is another example.

* An episode of ''[[Samurai Jack]]'', "The Aku Infection", dealt with Jack being infected by Aku's spirit, which began to [[Body Horror|transform Jack into Aku from within]]. Jack had to defeat Aku in a [[Battle in the Center of the Mind]] to purge him, drawing on his experiences and the good he's done in the future for power. [[The Power of Friendship|Aku never stood a chance]].

* The Fudd from ''[[Duck Dodgers]]'', a parody of the Flood which transformed people into goofy-looking bald men with speech impediments.

 

== Real Life ==