The Assimilator: Difference between revisions

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There are villains that want your stuff, villains that want you to do what they want, villains that want you dead. This guy is nowhere near as wasteful. He wants what makes you ''you'', and he wants it for himself.

When he beats you, he will take your abilities, your uniqueness, your ''[[Your Soul Is Mine|everything]]'' and make them his own. He usually does this by literally absorbing or consuming you. But more than that, the whole reason he is fighting you is to get this stuff. The more he gets, the stronger he gets. The stronger he gets, the more people he gets. This is his motivation.

This trope is about the motivation ([[Bad Powers, Bad People|usually for villains)]]. The article about the plot is [[Assimilation Plot]], oddly enough. Sometimes overlaps with [[The Virus]] and/or [[All Your Powers Combined]]. Distinct from [[Power Copying]] as it requires death or injury to the other party. A form of [[Human Resources]], assuming the victims started as human. Compare [[Cannibalism Superpower]] and [[Unwilling Roboticisation]] which describes methods for acomplishing this trope. The replacement by assimilation may be part of a plan to make things over [[In Their Own Image]].

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== Media in General ==

* Zombie Hordes tend to become more dangerous the more zombies are in them, so by zombifying humans they are essentially adding that human's strength to themselves.

== Anime & Manga ==

* Szilard Quates of ''[[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.

* Szilard Quates of ''[[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|Bt X]]'', fits this to a T.

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* 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/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.

* ''[[Fate 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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* The Krillitane from the episode "School Reunion" of ''[[Doctor Who]]'' alter their DNA with DNA from races they conquer. Also The Abzorbaloff from "Love & Monsters".

** Despite this always having been a large part of their characterization, the new-series version of the Cybermen do this somewhat more markedly than the Classic Cybermen "upgrading" people by converting them into more Cybermen now being their main shtick - this being the intention of their very human (well, until the Cybermen forcibly "upgrade" him into the Cyber Leader) creator. One group of Daleks wasn't above using humans as raw materials in a similar way, either.

** It was also a large part of their appeal in the black-and-white days ([[Doctor Who/Recap/S19 E6 Earthshock|before they turned into camp men in suits with Darth Vader voices]]). [[Doctor Who/Recap/S5 E1 The Tomb of the Cybermen|"You belong to us. You shall...be like us."]]

** It was also a large part of their appeal in the black-and-white days ([[Doctor Who/Recap/S19/E06 Earthshock|before they turned into camp men in suits with Darth Vader voices]]). [[Doctor Who/Recap/S5/E01 The Tomb of the Cybermen|"You belong to us. You shall...be like us."]]

** 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.

** 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/E02 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?"]]

** [[Doctor Who/Recap/NS/S1/E09 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: The 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 />

'''Worf''': The Klingon Empire will never yield.<br />

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== Western Animation ==

* Alpha from ''[[Men in Black (animation)|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."}}