The Assimilator: Difference between revisions

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== Anime & Manga ==
* Szilard Quates of ''[[Baccano (Light Novel)|Baccano]]!'' routinely absorbs other [[Immortality|immortals]] to gain scientific knowledge, and just 'cause he's off his rocker. All immortals have [[Identity Absorption|this ability]], supposedly so that [[Who Wants to Live Forever?|immortals who have grown tired of living]] have a way to commit suicide, but Szilard's the only one who uses it without consent in anything other than the most desperate of circumstances, even going so far as to ''make'' people immortal just so that he can absorb them in this manner.
* From ''[[Bleach]]'', Aaroniero can devour dead hollows, gaining their strength and powers, unlike other Arrancar/Hollows who only gain strength.
* B't Raphaello from ''[[B't X (Anime)|Bt X]]'', fits this to a T.
* This was more or less the entire goal of Cell in ''[[Dragonball Z]]''. He was created to consume humans, Saiyans, and the other androids to become the perfect fighter; every victim increased his energy and their cells were stored in him.
** Majin Buu first displayed this ability after becoming Super Buu; on consuming his enemies he would gain a small measure of their intelligence, power, and... fashion sense.
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* ''[[Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann]]'': In a very rare heroic example, the mecha Lagann is capable of assimilating other mecha into itself, {{spoiler|resulting in the titular mecha of the series in the finale, big enough to use galaxies as shuriken.}}
** This initially [[Subverted Trope|appears to fail]], as the Gurren just stabs into the cockpit of the Lagann and almost kills Kamina. It's only because of the [[Heroic Spirit|Spiral Power]] of the pilots that it works later on.
* Nrvnsqr ([[Spell My Name Withwith an "S"|or Nero]]) Chaos is a vampire in [[Tsukihime]] whose main power is to incorporate the lifeforce of animals into his body, which is then made up of the [[Meaningful Name|chaos]]. He uses these animals to fight, and sends out progressively stronger and more legendary creatures as he his cornered by {{spoiler|[[Badass|Nanaya]] [[One-Hit Kill|Shiki]].}}
* [[Getter Robo|Shin Getter]] has shades of this, as its massive Getter Ray reservoir allows it to fuse with pretty much anything - at one point it combines with ''a nuclear missile in mid-flight.'' Its implied evolution, the Getter Emperor, is a ''much'' more straight example, at one point absorbing ''a planet'' by ''flying into it.''
* In [[Naruto]], several of the villains fit this, most notably Orochimaru and Kabuto.
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== Comic Books ==
* The Makuta from ''[[Bionicle]]'' have the ability to absorb other beings to increase their mass.
* ''[[Green Lantern (Comic Book)|Green Lantern]]'' has Agent Orange, who absorbs the form and memory of those he kills, allowing him to create duplicates of them as subordinates. Having become the living embodiment of Avarice, he desires to own everything, including the very identities of his enemies.
* Recent promos for upcoming ''[[Sonic the Hedgehog (Comic Bookcomics)|Sonic the Hedgehog]]'' issues state that the [[Dragon Lady|Iron Dominion]] will be "[[I Am Legion|legionizing]]" our heroes. What that entails is thus far open to discussion, but considering this comes right off the heels of the [[Machine Worship|Dark Legion]] (who are allied to the Iron Dominion) being installed with computer chips that allows the Dominion and their leader Lien-Da to mindlessly control them remotely (the former using [[Magitek]]), and, well... let's just say that there's room for one more ''[[Star Trek]]'' reference, in the comic.
** Than there is Robotnik who uses animals as a power source for his robots.
*** When he's not turning them '''into''' robots.
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== Film ==
* The Master Control Program, [[Big Bad]] of ''[[Tron (Film)|Tron]]'', appropriates other (sentient) computer programs to obtain their functions.
** [[Big Bad|Clu]] in ''[[Tron Legacy (Film)|Tron: Legacy]]'' "rectifies" other programs, brainwashing them into becoming an army of [[Faceless Mooks]]
* The entire ''modus operandi'' of the alien entity in ''[[The Thing (Filmfilm)|The Thing]]''.
* The Immortals in the ''[[Highlander (Franchise)|Highlander]]'' series absorb the skills and memories of everyone they kill. Some of the nastier ones get off on this.
{{quote| '''[[Highlander Endgame|Jacob Kell]]:''' [[Squick|Don't you want to be inside me?]]}}
** [[Highlander (TV series)|The series]] explores the implications of this at one point, with a build up of all the evil absorbed from killing evil immortals eventually overpowering one guy, turning him evil, requiring some good immortal to defeat him (and thus absorb all that evil and become overpowered by it him/herself)
 
 
== Literature ==
* The One in ''[[Animorphs (Literature)|Animorphs]],'' as well as Father from one of the prequels. (Coincidence? ...yeah, probably.)
* The horror novel ''Full Tilt'' takes a more impersonal approach to the trope: if you die in the [[Amusement Park of Doom]], your face appears somewhere--in a cloud, on a rock, even on a billboard--with a smile on your lips but a scream in your eyes. If you don't get out by sunrise, but you survive, you're enslaved for the rest of your (un)natural life, but you retain your memories and a certain degree of freedom. And if you're really, really unlucky, you go to [[Body Horror|the Works]]. (It's never clear what precisely is taken, but the [[Big Bad]] says at one point that as the park grows in power it comes closer to being real and all other realities come closer to being imaginary).
* In the ''[[Nightside]]'' novel ''Agents of Light and Darkness'', a minor character in the story named Belle does this. She hunts down powerful creatures, taking contracts on them if possible, and incorporates their skin into either her leather outfit or herself. She has a personal power letting her preserve and use the magic of the skin's original owners. (Her last acquisition before showing up was a pair of boots made of the skin of a minor Greek god with speed-based powers.) She lasts as long as most antagonists in these books: just long enough to explain in detail how dangerous she is before offhandedly nullifying her.
* The Swarm from ''[[Wild Cards]]''.
** Also, the Righteous Djinn.
* A mix between this and [[Grand Theft Me]] is one of the abilities of {{spoiler|The Cunning Man}} from [[Discworld (Literature)/I Shall Wear Midnight|I Shall Wear Midnight]].
* The Vord in [[Jim Butcher]]'s ''[[Codex Alera]]'' series has elements of this. They start out as a [[Hive Mind]] with a caste system; most of them are [[Insectoid Aliens]] ranging from the size of a dog to a bear, but some are much smaller and capable of serving as [[Puppeteer Parasite|Puppeteer Parasites]] to animate and control people. This is a permanent condition and basically turns the victim into zombies. However, over the course of the series they learned the value of intelligent slaves, so they began using a version of the local [[Functional Magic]] to cause [[Happiness in Slavery]] so people would serve them while still physically alive and well.
* [[Harry Potter and The Half Blood Prince]] contains a possible example. Voldemort used Inferi, reanimated corpses, to guard one of his [[Soul Jar|Horcruxes]]. These inferi overwhelm Harry and try to drown him. Harry suspects that he himself will become an inferi after he dies.
* ''[[FateoftheFate of the Jedi]]'' has [[Eldritch Abomination|Abeloth]]. Interestingly, {{spoiler|when she absorbs Callista, Callista's feelings for Luke Skywalker cause her to fall in love with him too. This goes away when Luke manages to free Callista's spirit from her.}}
 
 
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** In the [[Matt Smith]] episode "The Pandorica Opens", a [[Only Mostly Dead|mostly dead]] Cyberman's head actually ''[[Lampshade Hanging|says]]'' "You will be assimilated." The use of the phrase by the Cybermen in ''Doctor Who'' pre-dates the ''Star Trek'' use, as it was featured in the Cybermen's debut story, ''[[Doctor Who/Recap/S4 E2 The Tenth Planet|The Tenth Planet]]'' in 1966. It's likely an in-joke too. As River Song is examining transmitters in that same episode, the radio traffic of the Cybermen, which is audible in the background, sounds very much like the Borg Collective.
** [[Doctor Who/NS/Recap/S1 E9 The Empty Child|"Are you my mummy?"]]
* Sylar from ''[[Heroes (TV series)|Heroes]]'', whereas Peter is more [[Mega Manning]].
** ''Doubly'' so now that Sylar can {{spoiler|assimilate other peoples very identities, through a combination of a shapeshifting power that lets him copy anyone whose DNA he samples via touch, and a psychic power that lets him absorb memories via touch.}}
* The Borg from ''[[Star Trek]]'' are the [[Trope Namers]] and [[Trope Codifier|Trope Codifiers]]. Oddly enough, the Borg as originally conceived and depicted in ''[[Star Trek: theThe Next Generation]]'' were a bit more modest on the whole "you will be assimilated" angle. The early Borg were only interested in taking all the ''technological prowess'' that other species possessed, not the assimilation of their members, as they bred all of their own offspring themselves. Even the assimilation of Picard in the "Best of Both Worlds" two-parter was carried out only for strategic reasons. It wasn't until ''[[Star Trek: First Contact]]'' that they were retooled to [[Rule of Scary|physically resemble decaying corpses]], and just began to [[Flanderization|hostily assimilate entire civilizations]] into [[Hive Mind|their collective]].
** Debatable, since in "Best of Both Worlds" they do say "Your culture will be adapted to service us." While certainly their first appearance only reference technology they were after humans themselves the second time.
** It could be that the Borg we not interested in assimilating humans in general, simply because they did not really need more drones and it was much easier to annihilate anyone resisting and then grab the rest after the defenders were killed off. In ''[[Star Trek: First Contact]]'' the Borg were noticeably short on man power so they were probably just grabbing everyone they could to increase their strength.
*** Dialogue between Locutus and Worf in ''Best of Both Worlds Part II'' indicates that the Borg do at this point intend to assimilate entire races.
{{quote| '''Locutus''': Worf, Klingon species, [[Proud Warrior Race Guy|a warrior race]]. You too will be assimilated.<br />
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** Formian Dominators are charged with bringing under Formian power anyone who is unwilling to join the Formians peacefully. Each one can [[Charm Person|control]] four or five beings at once.
* The [[Warhammer 40000|Tyranids]] want to use your genetic material for its evolutionary advantages and for raw material.
* The Phyrexians from [[Magic: theThe Gathering]].
 
 
== Video Games ==
* The [[Horde of Alien Locusts|Eaters]] of ''[[Chimera Beast]]'' devour all life on a planet, and add the best features to themselves. In this case, one is also the [[Villain Protagonist]].
* Jedah of ''[[Darkstalkers (Video Game)|Darkstalkers]]'' fame is on a holy quest to unite all souls into himself in order to stop the endless wars engulfing both the Demon Realm and the human world. He often uses phrases like "Now, you are a part of me."
* The Necromorphs in ''[[Dead Space (Franchiseseries)|Dead Space]]''.
* In ''[[Guild Wars]]'', it's the only way to acquire Elite skills: find the boss, beat the crap out of him, apply the Signet of Capture.
* There is every indication that [[The Empire|The Combine]] from ''[[Half-Life]] 2'' and its Episodes do this to the planets/universes/borderworlds they conquer, most obviously with their Synth units (gunships, dropships, [[Humongous Mecha|Striders]] and [[Boss in Mook Clothing|Hunters]]). They appear to be in the process of doing this to humans, with designs for far more altered human soldiers created in production but removed from the final game. They also assimilate and adapt technology that they find: they're on Earth specifically for our [[Teleporters and Transporters|teleportation technology]] perfected at Black Mesa.
** It's also implied that it's actually a ''favor'' to those who surrender; they are [[The Juggernaut|powerful enough]] to exterminate ''anything'' that gets in their way, and you need to ''convince'' them that your species more use to them alive and enslaved than dead. That's essentially what [[Misanthrope Supreme|Dr. Breen]] did to stop the Seven Hours War.
* ''[[Halo]]'': The Flood will turn you into an [[I Will Fight Some More Forever|inhuman]] [[Body Horror|combat drone]] so you can help [[The Virus|spread the infection]]. Once your body is battered beyond the point of usefulness it will [[Painful Transformation|adapt itself]] into a [[Chest Burster|spore carrier]] that will release [[Fetus Terrible|infection forms]] to continue assimilation. However, when the Flood come across individuals of particular intelligence, such as pilots, captains, and scientists, they will be captured and absorbed into a gigantic [[Hive Queen|Gravemind]] intelligence that can allow the parasite to continue its [[Zombie Apocalypse]].
** The Flood are so dangerous, that they have twice caused a GALACTIC [[The End of the World Asas We Know It|apocalypse]], one of which was narrowly averted, only because [[Precursors|an ancient race]] decided that the only way to stop them was to [[Weapon of Mass Destruction|kill all sentient life in the galaxy]], [[Heroic Sacrifice|themselves included]]. Which was after [[Hopeless War|a million other plans were tried and failed]] over the course of centuries.
*** The obliteration of the elder race was not an act of suicide, they merely {{spoiler|didn't manage to get to their save dison-sphere-like "world" (which is a real Paradise) within the space paradox}}. Read the books.
* {{spoiler|The Reapers}} from ''[[Mass Effect]]''. {{spoiler|Every fifty thousand years, they "harvest" all life in the galaxy to turn into more Reapers}}.
{{quote| '''{{spoiler|Harbinger}}''': We are the harbingers of their perfection!}}
* The X parasites in ''[[Metroid]] Fusion'' absorb DNA from anything they infect in order to copy, multiply, and spread.
* Alex Mercer of ''[[Prototype (Videovideo Gamegame)|Prototype]]'' [[I'm a Humanitarian|eats people and other Infected]] to add their biomass and knowledge to his own. Eating the more powerful Infected like Hunters even grants him new combat powers in the storyline (though the Hunters themselves don't have those abilities). Eating people also grants him the ability to shapeshift into them. Chances are that by the end of the game the player will have had Alex consume ''hundreds if not thousands'' of victims. [[Black and Grey Morality|And he can still be considered something close to a hero in this game.]]
** It helps that as he picks up their memories, he gets a bit of their ''personalities'' as well, slowly going from a [[Complete Monster]] to simply a [[Anti-Hero|very bad individual]].
*** With Alex as the [[Big Bad]] of ''[[Prototype 2 (Video Game)|Prototype 2]]'', James Heller, the new protagonist, shares many of the same attributes as Mercer did in the first game, though he's a better person from the start.
* ''[[Resistance]]'' against the Chimera is futile.
* Cervantes in the [[Soul Series]]. Most "hosts" of [[Artifact of Doom|Soul Edge]] too.
* Like the above [[Warhammer 40000|Tyranids]], the [[Starcraft|Zerg]] ''also'' want to use your genetic material for its evolutionary advantages and for raw material. The effects of this become more apparent in ''[[Starcraft II]]'', where the Queens take on a more human-like (or possibly [[Humanoid Aliens|protoss]]-like) appearance.
* The Aparoids in ''[[Star Fox (Video Gameseries)|Star Fox: Assault]]''.
* Seth from ''[[Street Fighter]] IV''. His trademark phrase being "Become a part of me."
** Gill from ''[[Street Fighter]] III'' also wants to do this. His ending implies that he succeeds too and even wants his followers to dress like him if Alex is anything to go by.
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{{quote| '''Beer Cube:''' We are Beer. You will be intoxicated. Resistance is futile.}}
* ''[[Evolva]]'' gives us a rare heroic example. Your Genohunters absorb their enemies' bodies to obtain their DNA and use it to get their attacks and skills.
* the Alien Death Slug from [[The Visitor (Video Game)|The Visitor]]. It eats everything it comes across to absorb their DNA, and uses it to rapidly evolve from a worm to a bizarre mashup of features
 
 
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* The [[Akinator]] will succesfully guess the character you're thinking about, then use your answers to add to its own knowledge of this character. Or if he fails to best you, he'll still increase his knowledge anyway.
* Mr. Popo does this to Blue Popo in [[Dragonball Z Abridged]] in a video advertising their visit to Youmacon 2010.
* This ends up being the goal of {{spoiler|Missingno}} during The Entity arc of [[Atop the Fourth Wall (Web Video)|Atop the Fourth Wall]], to absorb all existence into {{spoiler|itself.}}
 
 
== Western Animation ==
* Alpha from ''[[Men in Black (Animationanimation)|Men in Black]]: [[Animated Adaptation|The Series]]'' used to provide the page picture. He was the original head of MIB but now hunts aliens for body parts to make himself more powerful. The first time we see him, he's still humanoid but has a small arsenal of [[Combat Tentacles]] concealed in his body, and he only gets freakier from there. Interestingly, he moves away from this trope during the last season, modifying himself using {{spoiler|''robot'' parts}} instead.
* Lockdown from ''[[Transformers Animated]]'', a bounty hunter who takes a "prize" from each of his targets, is the [[Humongous Mecha]] version of Alpha.
{{quote| "I remember you... EMP generator, right? I'm not good with names and faces, but I never forget a trophy."}}
** Oh, and in the tie-in comic, it's revealed that his payment includes parts from an associate of the Decepticon who hired him. That's right, he wants parts from his ''employers'' too.
* The Bugs from ''Roughnecks: [[Starship Troopers]] Chronicles'' do this to the most badass lifeforms on each planet they conquer.
* The Spirit Drinker in ''[[X-Men (Animationanimation)|X-Men]] seems'' to be this, though it could just be a hungry beast, and once the souls are fully consumed, they're just gone.
** The Phalanx, on the other hand, do assimilate people. In fact, the animated version ''[[Lampshade Hanging|actually said]]'' "Resistance is futile; you will be assimilated."
* The Brains in ''[[Futurama]]'' seek to copy and store record of everything, thus preventing anything new from happening and having complete, universal knowledge.
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* The [[Real Life]] head of the [[Mega Corp|Standard Oil Corporation of New Jersey]], [[Uncle Pennybags|Mr John D Rockefeller Sr]], referred to the process of using trusts to take control of independent oil companies as assimilation. Absorbing competitors into his monopoly was promoted as being more benevolent than driving them out of business. Possibly the [[Ur Example]].
* The [http://falconpl.org Falcon] programming language is basically this trope applied to language design. It purports to have integrated ''six'' different paradigms, and seem to have the overall philosophy that "if it exists, we want it".
* [[Tropes Will Ruin Your Life|This wiki]]. It doesn't matter if you stopped in here for a moment just to read a couple of pages on a lark; eventually, you're going to be tempted to add an example to one of them. And then another. And another. And ''another''. Before you know it, you'll have launched a dozen tropes through [[YKTTW]], created at least one page for a film, book, or series, and participated in one debate where [[All Thethe Tropes Will Ruin Your Vocabulary|ninety percent of the conversation is entirely in Wiki Words]]. But don't feel too bad. If it likes you, it rewards you by pushing you towards new media in which you previously had no interest. As masters of your time and attention go, [[Stockholm Syndrome|TV Tropes is kind]].
* Besides trying to [[Final Solution|murder every single Jewish person they could find]], and to turn Eastern Europe into a German colony and the Slavs into a [[Slave Race]], this trope is essentially what [[Those Wacky Nazis]] wanted to do to the "Teutonic" states of Western and Northern Europe (Norway, Denmark, the Netherlands, etc.): force their inhabitants to accept the Nazis' racist dogma and to integrate them directly into the totalitarian society of the [[Nazi Germany|Third Reich]].
* This is a basic tactic of any military empire. As an empire grows, its army must grow to defend the new land, and the only way to do that is to get the people you just conquered to join your army. This allowed tiny backwater settlements like Rome and Macedon to conquer the known world simply by doing it one nation at a time and getting a larger army every time. Some of the greatest generals of all time, such as Pyrrhus of Epirus and Hannibal, won every battle they fought but ended up losing the war because they couldn't get the allegiance of the local people.
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* A benevolent form of this can be found in the United States of America. The national motto of "E pluribus unum" means "out of many, one" the Statue of Liberty says "give me your tired and hungry, you huddled masses." Only instead of going out to aggressively incorporate other peoples (early days notwithstanding), citizens of other nations are invited and encouraged to add their culture to our own. Hence, "the Melting Pot". [[Your Mileage May Vary]].
* [[Hugo Chavez]] [[Card-Carrying Villain|describes socialism as a virus]] with which he intends to infect all other countries.
* You will be assimilated into [[My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic (Animation)|the herd]]; resistance is futile.
 
{{reflist}}
Retrieved from "https://allthetropes.org/wiki/The_Assimilator"