The Empath: Difference between revisions

If this sounds a bit [[What Kind of Lame Power Is Heart Anyway|lame]], it's no wonder [[Superhero|Super Heroes]] with such powers generally get upgraded to mind bullets. However, this may be used as a variant of [[Combat Clairvoyance]].

 

 

[[The Empath]] tends to suffer frequently from [[The Worf Effect]]. Whenever a telepathic [[Big Bad]] or [[Sealed Evil in A Can]] gets loose, [[The Empath]] usually gets reduced to a blubbering temple-clutching wreck in the first encounter, just to put the emphasis on exactly how ''bad'' the villain's mojo is ([[Darker and Edgier|alternatively]], [[Evil Feels Good|they could get]] ''[[Drunk On the Dark Side|drunk]]'' [[Blessed With Suck|on its evil]]). On the positive side, they're usually the first to create a [[Glamour Failure]] for supernatural opponents.

In [[Darker and Edgier]] works [[The Empath]] is sometimes allowed to attain [[Badass]] status if she, or more commonly he, is evil (most likely due to being driven nigh-insane from [[Power Incontinence|automatically empathizing with]] ''[[A Mind Is a Terrible Thing To Read|everything]]'' [[Power Incontinence|around them]] - [[The Power of Love|good]] ''and'' [[Humans Are Bastards|bad]]). Through the power of emotional manipulation an evil empath becomes the ultimate [[Chessmaster]]. Expect to see at least one very cruel [[Batman Gambit]]. If the evil influence is due to chronic [[Power Incontinence]] rather than malicious intent, [[The Empath]] may become the [[Fisher King]].

 

 

== Anime and Manga ==

 

== Films -- Animated ==

 

 

** The Icemen use a variant form of watercrafting that has allowed them to develop their empathic abilities to the point of being effectively telepathy. Unfortunately, this also lead to their conflict with the Alerans- their sensing human fear and hostility towards themselves, and sending it back magnified, wound up creating ''centuries'' of continuous, tactically pointless warfare.

* Jasper Hale. Vampire from ''[[Twilight (Literature)|Twilight]]''. Can infuse emotions of other sentient beings and can also feel them. One of the reasons he became a [[Vegetarian Vampire]] was because he could feel the pain of his many, many victims.

* Played with in [[Octavia Butler]]'s ''[[Parable of the Sower]]'' and its sequel. People afflicted with hyperempathy syndrome only ''hallucinate'' that they are able to feel the pain of others. The effect is real to them, but they feel only what they imagine others are feeling, so it's more of a psychological condition.

* ''Planet of the Damned'''s main character had empathy that he used in fights to read the subtle change in his opposition's emotions, effectively predicting their attacks before they happened.

** There is also a rare example of a male Empath in the TNG episode "Tin Man" with Tam Elbrun (Harry Groener, [[Affably Evil|the Mayor]] in ''[[Buffy the Vampire Slayer|Buffy]]'') as an unstable Empath that boards an alien life-form to get away from everybody else.

** Vulcan telepathy can also double as empathy, but both are limited to physical contact. (With the exception of [[Mindlink Mates|bonded couples]].)

* In later seasons, Phoebe in ''[[Charmed (TV)|Charmed]]'' developed the abilities of an empath in addition to being able to see [[Spider Sense|disjointed images of the future]]. This is one of the few times that a person with such abilities is actually referred to as an empath. Of course her powers were slightly cooler than normal empaths as all magic in ''[[Charmed (TV)|Charmed]]'' is linked to emotions; control of emotions allows you to control other people's powers.

** There was a more dangerous version featured in an earlier episode. Thinking they were saving an innocent, they transferred empathy from a demon to Prue, only to find out she was feeling all the emotions, and the demon was being punished with it.

== Web Animation ==

* Shandala is not only [[The Empath]] in ''[[Broken Saints]]'', she's also [[The Chick]] and [[The Messiah]] ''and'' (sometimes) The [[Distressed Damsel]] (and to a lesser extent a [[Pollyanna]]--though even she's capable of a [[Heroic BSOD]]). However, despite all of this, she never comes off as the stereotypical [[The Smurfette Principle|token girl]], and her abilities as an empath have a [[Plot Twist|perfectly non-gender-oriented explanation]].