They Would Cut You Up: Difference between revisions

[[File:cit tsukihime c47 - ciel - 43rd procedure.jpg|link=Tsukihime|frame|[[Who Wants to Live Forever?|A downside to immortality.]]]]

 

 

A standard justification for any unusual character to maintain a [[Masquerade]], because [[The Government]] is Evil and [[Science Is Bad]] and if [[Government Conspiracy|the authorities]] got their hands on them, they'd [[Pounds Are Animal Prisons|stick them in a concrete box]] and [[Playing with Syringes|perform all sorts of cruel experiments]] to find out what makes them and/or their special powers tick, either [[What Measure Is a Non-Human?|destroying their quality of life, or killing them outright]] in hopes of getting [[Captured Super Entity|all sorts of goodies.]]

This trope also happily ignores the fact that when you only have ''one'' specimen, it is a good idea to take good care of it because once it stops working it is hard to figure out how it used to. Of course, this is cold comfort to said specimen - it just means the torture will be of a greater duration, and would still result in them being locked away somewhere.

 

 

Possibly fated to become a [[Discredited Trope]], at least in the literal pass-me-the-scalpel sense, as sonography, MRIs, and other imaging techniques have made hands-on vivisection unnecessary for the internal examination of research subjects, given sufficient funding and resources. Depending on who exactly might be after you and why, however, you may still want to be very careful not to get discovered and/or captured just the same. A lot of stories involve characters who don't want to be locked up for the rest of their lives with tests being performed on them.

 

{{examples}}

== Anime and Manga ==

* Agito, the short-tempered fire fairy from ''[[Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha]]'', can only remember being confined in a lab, which had left her almost completely broken, physically and mentally. According to her, she was only days away from death by exhaustion before being rescued.

** Later on in the anime, at least, it's implied that most people know he's a living suit of armor, but since the government already knows how to create those [[Unusually Uninteresting Sight|nobody really gives a damn]]. At the time of the exam, Colonel Mustang wasn't ''quite'' high enough in the chain of command to realize this.

* ''[[Narutaru]]'' plays with this; Akira is really worried that something along these lines will happen if people find out about the "shadow dragons" because "[[Genre Savvy|that's how it always happens in manga...]]"

* Dr. K-ko's antagonist status in ''[[Magical Pokaan]]'' comes from her intent to fool around with the girls in a lab.

* In the early episodes of ''[[Keroro Gunsou]]'', this is part of the reason (along with imprisonment and [[Arson, Murder, and Jaywalking|potential traffic accidents]]) why the alien frogs are not allowed to go out on their own, at least before they develop their [[Mobile Suit Human]]s.

* [[Mad Scientist|Mayuri Kurotsuchi]] in ''[[Bleach]]'' wants to cut up and experiment on anybody who demonstrates abilities he's unfamiliar with.

* In ''[[Nichijou]]'', miss Nakamura wishes to do this to the robotic Nano, so she can take credit for inventing her. If Nakamura weren't so inept at her repeated attempts to kidnap Nano, this would be quite dark for such an upbeat show.

 

 

== Comic Books ==

* A different example has [[Deadpool]] supporting character Montgomery at the mercy of a corporation that keeps him hooked up to machines, the better to utilize his precognition to their advantage.

* In ''[[G.I. Joe]] vs. the [[Transformers]]'', the Joes are ordered to do this to [[Kid Appeal Character|Bumblebee]] and Wheeljack by their superiors, who [[What Measure Is a Non-Human?|only see them as machines]]. They almost carry them out, until a stunned Wheeljack reveals that the army's plans of nuking Cobra Island will have disastrous consequences...

* This was the motivation behind mutated child Batwing's rampage in ''[[Untold Tales of Spider Man]]''. When Spider-Man discovers him and promises to get him help, he freaks out completely because, as he put it, "Not going... get cut up by scientists... like mom said!"

* [[Nikolai Dante]] refuses to report back to the the Makarov Dynasty after the Romanov Dynasty Weapon Crest fuses with his body for fear that the Makarovs would cut him up to learn how to design a similar Weapon Crest for themselves.

* ''[[The Sandman]]'': One of the reasons Hob keeps his immortality a secret from most people he knows, including the mortals he falls in love with. It's too easy for him to imagine a bunch of "Noble-prize wannabes examining slices of my pancreas."

 

 

{{quote|''First, blanket statement: we're not going with your ridiculous military scientists. No poking, no prodding, no examinations, no experiments. If you're that curious you can ask nicely, but we reserve the right to say no. And especially don't do the cliché kidnap-them-in-the-middle-of-the-night-when-they're-off-guard thing.''}}

* In ''[[With Strings Attached]]'', Shag points out that John can't go home with [[Winged Humanoid|wings]] because he'd be dissected; Paul unknowingly echoes this when he tries to talk John into finding a way to change back. Much later, after he really is facing the return home, John sourly reflects that at least the scientists won't be able to hang onto him.

** Also, Jeft refers to extremely powerful psionics as suffering this fate while Shag is yelling at him for apparently inducing psionic powers in Ringo.

 

== Films -- Live-Action ==

* ''[[Repo! The Genetic Opera]]''. Plot involves a future society in which 90% of the population has required organ transplants to survive a horrible illness. Unfortunately, the company that gives the operations demands steady repayment for the organs they provide. If not...a 'repo man' comes to 'repossess' your organs. Also, it's a musical. Yes, a musical. Also... Giles can sing.

** [[Buffy the Vampire Slayer|Well, we already knew]] ''[[Musical Episode|that...]]''

** However, this is ''exactly'' the reason that Wikus goes on the run, {{spoiler|since they actually ''were'' about to vivisect him (unanesthetised and fully aware, no less!) when he managed to get free and escape.}}

* And lest we forget, "disassemble" is practically an [[Arc Words|arc word]] in ''[[Short Circuit]]''.

* Invoked in [[Robert A. Heinlein]]'s ''The Star Beast'' by John's ancestor when he acquires a native pet {{spoiler|(or rather, inadvertently kidnaps a native princess)}} while exploring an alien planet.

* Flinx of the ''[[Humanx Commonwealth]]'' series was [[Designer Babies|genetically manipulated]] by the [[Evilutionary Biologist|Meliorare Society]] as part of their secret program to produce [[Genetic Engineering Is the New Nuke|supermen]]. When their [[Body Horror|more spectacular failures]] came to light, they were outlawed and hunted down along with all their experimental subjects. Those that could be "made normal" were corrected; those that could not were destroyed. Despite being superficially normal, Flinx is possessed of strong [[Psychic Powers]], which alone would be enough to get him put in a fishbowl and studied for the rest of his life, but that plus his affiliation with the Meliorares means he is exceedingly careful to reveal his talents only to people he absolutely trusts. Even then, he runs afoul of this trope on several occasions, most specifically in ''Flinx in Flux'', where not just one but two separate antagonists join the hunt—one to "fix him" and the other to "study him". On several occasions, he also runs afoul of surviving members of the Meliorares who see him as an opportunity for vindication of their cause.

 

== Live-Action TV ==

* This is pretty much the reason the Diffy family in [[Phil of the Future]] try to hide the fact that they come from the year 2121.

** Besides which, if anybody found out how his powers worked, he'd be arrested for murder (probably third degree) for reviving Chuck when he knew that it would result in an [[Equivalent Exchange|innocent person dying.]]

* In a less extreme example, the main character of ''[[Kyle XY]]'' keeps his abilities a secret because he wants to live a normal life, rather than spending all his days being tested by scientists.

 

== Theater ==

 

 

* The resident [[Mad Scientist]]s of the [[Fallout: New Vegas|Big Mountain Research Facilty]] were fond of this, needing no real excuse other than to [[For Science!|do Science]]. [[Memetic Mutation|Vivisection can get boring!]]

* In [[Infamous (video game series)|inFAMOUS,]] Cole receives several warnings that the government wouldn't treat him kindly if they got their hands on him. It turns out to be a subversion: they already know how to endow someone with superpowers, they just want to control Cole and choose what direction he's pointed in since his powers are already very offensively oriented. Between the games, every government agent who has this goal for him is killed anyway. The mentalist Alden Tate, however, ''is'' vivisected.