Spider Sense: Difference between revisions

{{trope}}

 

A character has the [[Psychic Powers|psychic ability]] to know when something is about to happen, and react accordingly to prevent some kind of harm. Named after [[Spider-Man (Comic Book)|Spider-Man]]'s iconic super-power.

 

Compare and contrast with [[Super Reflexes]], the non-psychic version of this power.

{{examples}}

== Anime and Manga ==

* The Newtypes in ''[[Gundam]]'' have the ability to sense (amongst other things) hostility directed at them, which allows them to dodge attacks much faster than any normal humans can. Whenever it happens, you see a [[Beam of Enlightenment]] around the character with a distinctive sound effect, widely referred to now as the "Newtype Flash."

* ''[[Suzumiya Haruhi]]'': The trope turns up a lot; Kyon refers to his "danger sense tingling". You develop this pretty quick around Haruhi. It's a survival trait.

* The martial artists in ''[[Ranma ½]]'' can sense if someone is about to attack them. Ranma's is so good, he sometimes dodges attacks in his ''sleep''. This includes Akane, who really is "a martial artist, too." Takahashi just wasn't ever interested in giving her ''fair'' fights. Akane's the damsel, Ranma's the hero. (Though she manages to help him out in both the Ryugenzawa and Phoenix Mountain battles.) Unfortunately for Ryoga, his "danger sense" is also [[The Exit Is That Way|affected]] by his terrible sense of direction.

* In ''[[Naruto]]'', several characters, most notably Hinata's father, have demonstrated the ability to detect the intent to kill. Probably all ninjas have this skill—Naruto felt the "killing intent" of the girls in his class (who beat him up for accidentally kissing Sasuke). At this time, he hadn't even finished ninja school yet.

** Actually, it would seem that the ability to "sense" chakra is implied to be quite exclusive. Generally, all ninja can sense chakra, but there are types classified as sensors. Sensors are usually much more proficient than ordinary ninja at sensing chakra. The Hyuugas fall into this type of ninjas for their Byakugan, the Inuzuka and Aburame also falls into this type.

* Sousuke from ''[[Full Metal Panic!]]'' has an uncanny, sixth sense-like ability to sense "killing intent." He could actually feel other people's malice and intentions to kill him, which allowed him to determine that assassins were nearby. This, of course, helps to allow him to set traps for them ahead of time.

** This was also used to torment him. {{spoiler|One of Mithrils agents would observe him via the scope of a rifle, and find that Sousuke actually got visually agitated when he did this. It's implied that much of Sousuke's misbehavior in school is caused by the agent remotely triggering Sousuke's danger sense, causing to lash out against people near him.}}

* Haruo Niijima from ''[[Kenichi: The Mightiest Disciple]]'' has one of these in the thanks to his alien like features. It manifests as either two arrow-tipped antennae, or a sharp lock of hair that erects and twinges on top of his head whenever there is incoming danger. Apparently, he has been known to gauge the level of threat that an opponent posed though this manner and can even function as a radar or sorts (he once was able to avert certain death after detecting the incoming missiles locked on to the boat that he and his entourage were using to infiltrate a Yami base, and then later on, discern the presence of a number of murderous elite soldiers lurking in the dense woods during a beach field trip)

* In ''[[One Piece]]'' a specific form of Haki can be used to predict an opponent's movements.

* Rose Wilson aka Ravager, a former member of the [[Teen Titans (Comic Book)|Teen Titans]] and Deathstroke's daughter, has the power of minor precognition that lets her predict a person's actions a few seconds before they happen. She is able to match Cassandra Cain in hand-to-hand combat since this power helps her to counter Cassandra's ability to read a person's body language to predict movements. The new Clock King is crazy about Rose because her natural abilities can counter ''his'' near identical powers.

* ''[[The Flash]]'' villain Brother Grim can sense the Speed Force, allowing him to anticipate and hit or block Flash no matter how fast he attacks. To bypass this, Flash has to fight him at normal speed.

 

== Film ==

* The 2002 ''[[Spider-Man (film)|Spider-Man]]'' movie depicted his Spider Sense using [[Bullet Time]]. Whenever something bad was about to happen, time would slow down from Peter's perspective, allowing him ample time to react. Later on in the film (and its sequels), the use of this power is mostly left to be assumed by the audience.

** There are still visual cues in the sequels, like when Peter senses the tram he's on is soon going to run out of track in Spiderman 2.

** More subtle cues can be seen in Spiderman 3. Peter face becomes visibly shocked a split second before {{spoiler|Harry tackles him off his scooter}}.

*** Later, when Peter and Harry are fighting at Harry's pad, a strange whistling sound can be heard whenever Harry's arm-mounted blades gets in close range of Peter. At first the noise seems to be caused by wind resistance, since Harry is swinging the blades around, but the noise lingers while Harry attempts to push the blades into Peters face, hence it's the spider sense.

* ''[[Buffy the Vampire Slayer]]'' had this as a featured power of the title character, but it was modified for the television series (see below.)

* In the ''[[Mystery Science Theater 3000]]'' episode ''[[Puma Man]]'', the main character of the film "get[s] this way when [he] sense[s] danger." Tom Servo mocks him: "A Post-It note senses danger better than this guy!"

* Earl has it on ''[[Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs]]'':

{{quote|My chest hairs are tingling. Something's wrong!}}

 

== Literature ==

* [[Robert Heinlein]]'s novel ''[[The Number of the Beast]]''. Zebadiah Carter has a danger sense that alerts him to trouble just before it occurs, allowing him just enough time to react to it.

* The [[Star Wars Expanded Universe]] novel ''Death Star'' had Nova Stihl and 'blinking', a spider-sense of his own that allowed him to excel as a martial artist and stormtrooper. {{spoiler|But it's actually the Force.}}

* In ''[[The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy]]'' Zaphod Beeblebrox's ''Joo-Janta 500 Peril Chromatic Sunglasses'' provide spider senses to anyone who can buy a pair. At the first hint of danger, they turn totally opaque and black, preventing their wearer from seeing anything which might alarm them and thus reducing the amount of stress in their life.

* [[Dexter]]'s Dark Passenger acts like this, or at least gives him impulses.

* In the ''[[Ciaphas Cain]]'' novels, Cain always feels a strange tingling in the palms of his hands just before whatever harmless adventure he is on turns out to be pure unadulterated nightmare fuel. The tingling is usually just in time to let him anticipate the first strike, but never in time for him to avoid the situation altogether.

 

* The live TV version of ''[[Spider-Man]]'' redefined the Spider Sense completely. Instead of just the sense that something bad was about to happen, Peter would get the full-on Phoebe Halliwell/Cordy Chase flash (only conventionally shot with a red filter). This would be accompanied by a shot of Parker (played by Nicholas Hammond) standing still while his eyes flashed.

* Curiously, while this was the ''only'' superpower she possessed in the film, the titular character of ''[[Buffy the Vampire Slayer]]'' did not possess this ability in the TV series. One early episode played with it and featured Giles chastising Buffy about her lack of the intuition and the fact that she instead (correctly) deduces vampires based on their outdated wardrobe.

* ''[[Kamen Rider Ryuki]]'' and ''[[Kamen Rider Dragon Knight|Kamen Rider: Dragon Knight]]'' had the titular character and his fellow Riders be able to sense when something had come through the mirrors to Earth from Ventara. This was displayed by the use of an odd keening noise that only those with Advent Decks or who had been in contact with a deck or abducted by the Mirror Monsters could hear.

* In ''[[MacGyver]]'', Frank Colton's eye twitches when something isn't right about a situation.

 

== Myths ==

* Yagy Munenori, also known as Tajima no Kami, was a samurai renowned both for swordsmanship and (later) for philosophy. He made a reputation of a man seeing the trouble coming. One story about him tells how he once sensed "incoming danger" but failed to see any. It turned out that his assistant merely looked at him and ''mused about whether it would be possible'' to attack him from behind.

 

== Tabletop Games ==

* Several [[Superhero]] [[Tabletop RPG|role-playing games]] have Danger Sense as an allowable power.

** In the ''[[Champions]]'' system, "Danger Sense" is marked with a stop sign, indicating it's a potential [[Story-Breaker Power]], since it can be difficult for the GM to run certain plots with this power in the vicinity. (Particularly if the player bought the character's power up to "planetary" level.)

* In the ''[[Old World of Darkness]]'', Danger Sense is a relatively cheap merit that gives you a bonus on reacting to imminent threats. Almost any game also includes a spell like this, usually very high-leveled.

* In ''[[Dungeons & Dragons]]'' 3rd edition there is a class feature called Uncanny Dodge that allows a character to keep their Dexterity bonus to Armor Class, even when caught unawares. In other words, even though they don't see where an attack is coming from they can still dodge it.

* An example in the ''[[Amber Diceless]]'' system of the Warfare skill is an invisible Player Character trying to attack Benedict (the Universe's greatest warrior) from behind and still being blocked, merely because Benedict's skill told him that it was an ideal time for an invisible attacker to attack him from behind.

 

== Video Games ==

* Larry Holland's ''[[Star Wars: X-Wing]]'' series (including ''[[TIE Fighter]]'') would actually encourage ''players'' to develop sense of [[The Force]], thanks to nimble fighters mounted with blasters and turbolasers significantly slower than bullets, one had to be able to predict how her target would jink to hit it.<ref>...or just get lucky.</ref>

* In Fire Emblem (Blazing Sword), Nils and Ninian can sense danger.

 

== Web Comics ==

* In ''[[Girl Genius]]'', Lars is able to sense if a town is dangerous. When the troupe visited [[Town with a Dark Secret|Sturmhalten]], he is visibly trembling with fear since has ''never'' sensed a town this dangerous in the past.

* In ''[[El Goonish Shive]]'', Greg and Elliot (and by extension Ellen) can sense immediate danger. However, Elliot's (and Ellen's) ability to do this is [http://www.egscomics.com/?date=2011-04-13 not completely reliable].

 

== Web Original ==

*** Of course, this may simply be that he's had a lot of experience dealing with a lot of very weird things, and has been in the job long enough to subconsciously recognize when something's not right.

* In the ''[[Global Guardians PBEM Universe]]'', there are too many characters who can sense dangerous situations before they happen, ranging from a quick adrenaline rush that warns them that they, personally, are about to be in trouble to vague clairvoyant flashes that tell them [[A Storm Is Coming]]. Second Sight, a precognitive hero, uses this ability to "read" the intentions of those she is fighting, and thus is often able to counter their maneuvers before they make them. Agniputra, on the other hand, has senses that are so heightened her "danger sense" is less her actually sensing danger and more her simply being able to react to it faster than anyone else.

 

== Western Animation ==

*** Sometimes, even though he knew something painful was about to happen to him, he couldn't do anything about it because there were a few instances in which his Spider-Sense went off so strongly it ''caused him pain and slowed down his reaction time''.

** Spider-Sense in ''[[The Spectacular Spider-Man]]'' is accompanied by smoky, wavy lines surrounding Peter's head.

*** Occasionally, especially while at school, the lines are omitted and the only clue to the spider-sense going off is a sudden look of surprise on Peter's face, followed by a nonchalant dodge of whatever random object Flash just threw at him.

* ''[[The Fairly OddParents]]'' gave several on-point [[Shout-Out|Shout Outs]] to Spidey's power over the course of the series, due primarily to series creator Butch Hartman's love of Spider-Man comics. Some, better than others:

* This is also apparent in Hartman's other, [[Superhero]]-based show, ''[[Danny Phantom]]''. Whenever a ghost is near, a wisp of blue mist comes out of the main character's mouth, and he shivers. This is often called his "Ghost Sense." At one point he used it to borrow one of Spidey's most cherished lines:

{{quote|'''Danny''': Man, there are so many ghosts here, my ghost sense is going crazy.}}

{{quote|'''Grim:''' My Spidey Sense is indicating that whatever is making that music is turning everything into a retro cartoon.

'''Mandy:''' Grim, you don't ''have'' Spidey Senses.

* Pinkie Pie's appropriately named Pinkie Sense from ''[[My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic|My Little Pony Friendship Is Magic]]''. Random reactions in her body let her know when something's about to happen, such as her tail twitching when something's about to fall.

** In the second season {{spoiler|she uses it for actual super-heroics, saving ponies from a collapsing building while using her sense to avoid the falling rubble.}}

 

== Real Life (Truth in Television) ==

** There is also a ''Red Sense'' that some firefighters possess and may even develop<ref>though not necessarily called ''Red Sense'' within fire departments, nor related to [[wikipedia:The Red Sense|the movie]].</ref> that guides them to fire-victims in unnavigable smoke-filled rooms, or warns them of impending explosions.

** It should be noted that these senses are notoriously difficult to monitor or quantize and as such are treated with skepticism by many. The amount of stories, legends, and attributed cases would seem to indicate that there ''is'' something there, but blue sense is more of a catch-all than the definitive case of this trope reflected in real life.

* ''[[wikipedia:Situation awareness|Situation Awareness]] Training'' as it is applied to front line soldiers also includes development of intuition, and the awareness of bodily reactions (e.g. neck-hair creep) that are responses to hunches, ''bad feelings'', etc. In frenetic situations (such as battlefield conditions), our senses are aware of much more than we can consciously recognize as our brains try to process out the Essential Elements of Data (actually called ''EEDs'').<ref>also called ''Situational Understanding'' or ''So What?''.</ref> So intuition is awareness of our instinctive responses to perceived but not observed dangers, whether through our familiar senses, or through ones less commonly known.

 

 

{{reflist}}

[[Category:Alliterative Trope Titles]]

[[Category:Sensory Tropes]]