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{{trope}}
[[File:ZurTheEnchanter 1159.jpg|link=Magic: The Gathering|
{{quote|'''EPA Official''': Sir, I'm afraid you've gone mad with power.
'''Russ Cargill''': Of course I have! You ever tried going mad ''without'' power? It's boring! No one listens to you!
|''[[The Simpsons]] [[The Movie|Movie]]''}}
It seems like any major military or corporate backed venture to give a [[Muggle|mundane person]] [[Stock Super Powers|super powers]] or just enhance their [[Badass Normal|normal abilities]] always results in the test subject going [[Psycho Prototype|uncontrollably berserk]] as a [[Gone Horribly Wrong|side-effect.]]
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{{examples}}
== Anime and Manga ==
* During an episode of ''[[Magical Project S]]'', Misao dreams about having magic powers and the "fun" she would have using them. When she actually ''got'' said powers, she becomes the arguably insane persona of Pixy Misa (who tortures the entire main cast).
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**** Although, that wasn't the ''first'' time he'd gone a bit crazy...
** This was [[Lampshade]]d in the ''Assault on Weapon Plus'' story arc, where the Weapon Plus files stated that super soldier experiments on criminals and psychopaths yielded less than reliable results, prompting them to find a different method of creating anti-mutant super soldiers.
** Another X-related example has to do with Omega Red, the [[Soviet Russia, Ukraine, and So On|USSR]]'s attempt to engineer its own [[Captain America (comics)|Captain America]]-like super soldier. [[Idiot Ball|The brain trust in charge of the program chose
* The evil and non-evil versions of insanity pop up in a ''lot'' of the [[Marvel Universe]]'s more powerful human characters, apparently as a way of [[Holding Back the Phlebotinum]]. Scarlet Witch, Phoenix, The Sentry, or anyone else like that being able to use their maximum power levels while fully themselves would remove all drama. [[Scarlet Witch]] is currently the most powerful and resultantly has it the worst. We haven't seen her mind in stable condition for quite some time now that her power's gone from "[[Winds of Destiny Change|I point and my opponent slips on a banana peel]]" to "[[Reality Warper|whatever I decide simply]] ''[[Reality Warper|is.]]'' She'll ''never'' get to have that kind of power and the ability to think "Wouldn't it be nice if the Skrulls (okay, except [[Runaways|Xavin]], [[Fantastic Four|Lyja]], and [[X-Men|Cadre K]], and the Super Skrull if [[Heel Face Turn|he keeps playing nice]]) turned into rice pudding?" at the same time.
* Apparently, getting hopped up on Chaos Emerald Energy in the [[Archie Comics]] ''[[Sonic the Hedgehog (comics)|Sonic the Hedgehog]]'' series makes you do crazy things. Examples:
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==
* In the ''[[Oneiroi Series]]'' (for ''[[The Order of the Stick]]''), this fits [[Split Personality Takeover|Deirdre]] to a T. (Though to be fair, she had a few screws loose before she got the Great Power...)
{{quote|'''Deirdre''': You want me. And you hate it. I suppose it's only natural. I look a lot like {{spoiler|Vaarsuvius,}} don't I?
{{spoiler|'''Redcloak [[Oedipus Complex|(her father)]]'''}}: {{spoiler|Tia}}, you've gone insane! Please lie down for a second. Take a deep breath. Calm down…
'''Deirdre''': Of course I've gone insane! I'm infused with the magic from a being of pure chaos! But just because I'm insane doesn't mean I'm ''wrong…'' }}
* Shinji Ikari in ''[[Points of Familiarity]]''.
== Film ==
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{{quote|'''Grif:''' "Simmons, I think you've gone mad with imaginary power."
'''Simmons:''' "Oh no, Grif. I've gone mad with very real power." }}
* ''[[Cwen's Quest]]'': This seems to be case with the [https://web.archive.org/web/20100430184121/http://www.drunkduck.com/Cwens_Quest/index.php?p=467213 Witch Queen]. She is easily the most magically inclined character in the series and while normally smart she seems incapable for mentioning the word magic without bursting into bouts of insane [[Maniacal Laugh]]ter that would scare most versions of the joker. It is even more clear she is brilliant but insane in her Twitterings.
* In Mark Shallow's current webcomic, ''[[Antihero for Hire]]'', Wizard is an example of this, despite being extremely intelligent. Waterfall, an adversary using the same technology, snaps with the same kind of insanity at the sight of her sisters being threatened, which invoked ''[[It's Personal]]''.
* In ''[[El Goonish Shive]]'', this is [http://www.egscomics.com/?date=2010-06-30 revealed to be] the reason why Immortals "reset" every two hundred years. As time goes by, they become "more bored, more powerful, and less sane," which as Jerry notes is "kind of a bad combo." This could explain why {{spoiler|Pandora}} acts the way she does, since alleviating boredom through certifiably insane plots is her entire reason for doing things. She may have never "reset" in her life.
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== Western Animation ==
* ''[[Teen Titans (animation)|Teen Titans]]'': Raven must suppress her anger,
* ''[[Superman: The Animated Series]]'': Luthortech has two examples of experimentation causing insanity.
** [[Lex Luthor]] creates a super suit ostensibly to help the police fight crime. The officer testing it builds an unhealthy bond with it and becomes drunk with power, forcing the Man of Steel and John Henry Irons to take him down. Irons later worked out the flaws in the suit and created his iconic "Steel" armor.
** Luthor poisons
* In ''[[Ben 10: Ultimate Alien]]'', this is revealed to be the reason behind Kevin's villainy in the
▲** Luthor poisons unwitting gangster John Corben, then offers to save his life with the Metallo project. Corben, advised only that there may be "some adjustments needed" to help him live a normal life after the process, accepts. But in his new robot body, the hedonistic Corben can't feel, smell, touch or taste anything, and becomes destructive in his rage at his human sensations being lost.
**
* Dark Danny of ''[[Danny Phantom]]'' arguably.
▲* In ''[[Ben 10: Ultimate Alien]]'', this is revealed to be the reason behind Kevin's villainy in the first show. Absorbing energy causes insanity in people with his powers: before he'd even met Ben he was hooked on electricity and was planning to do things like crash trains full of people together to make a buck. After accidentally absorbing energy from Ben's Omnitrix he ''really'' goes nuts, and turns into a full on [[Psycho for Hire]]. After the [[Time Skip]] in Alien Force and Ultimate Alien, he is noticeably wary about doing it.
▲** {{spoiler|Kevin ends up proving it by absorbing Omnitrix energy to stop Aggregor, but looses his sanity and takes the power Aggregor stole in the process. He then proceeds to try to drain energy from anyone with power, right after giving out [[Disproportionate Retribution]] to anyone he's had problems with. He is barely stopped long enough to cure him.}}
▲* Dark Danny of ''[[Danny Phantom]]'' arguably. Though the whole thing about watching helplessly as your family and friends get blown up and getting your super-powered ghost half removed did give a good start... but he only started a murderous rampage ''after'' getting his enemy's power. His [[Future Me Scares Me|past self]] is extremely horrified.
▲*** Well, except that his one true love went and married their idot friend who Vlad thinks caused the accident anyhow.
* In ''[[The Batman]]'', when good cop [[Face Heel Turn|Ethan Bennet becomes Clayface]], he goes on a murderous vendetta against his former Captain. It's later asserted that the incident that turned into Clayface damaged his mind, and that, the more he keeps his form, the less unstable he will be. In fact, whenever he stays in his normal form, he's polite and rational, but the moment he uses his powers he tends to become violent and unhinged.
* In ''[[Avatar: The Last Airbender]]'', Aang can enter the Avatar State, channeling the power of all his previous incarnations. You'd think channeling all those former Avatars would make him calm, wise and experienced, but no... Instead he gets all [[Glowing Eyes of Doom|incandescent]] and frags everything in sight. However, true mastery of the Avatar State includes being able to control it, {{spoiler|which he finally manages to achieve in the series finale}}.
** In the series finale, {{spoiler|after being made Fire Lord, Azula}} ''loses it''. {{spoiler|In an inversion, it's because she's ''losing'' power and she knows it - her friends had shown themselves insufficiently scared of her and even defied her, and her dad appointed her Fire Lord right before turning the position into "irrelevant figurehead". Paranoia of further betrayals if she didn't instill fear in everyone around her, and insecurity that no one (especially her [[Missing Mom|mother]]) truly loved her for who she was, caused her to finally snap
* In ''[[The Spectacular Spider-Man]],'' three [[Super Villain
** More recently,{{when}} John Jameson was infected by alien spores, which made him super massive, super strong, and essentially a [[Flying Brick]] without the flying, but, over time, messed with his head, making him filled with rage and aggression. After Venom threw him into a rage (making him think the one messing with him was Spiderman), Spidey was able to purge the spores from his system, making his body return to normal, but he was severely addicted to the power, and had to be admitted to an insane asylum. The effect was made more evident due to John having a cell right next to the now completely insane Electro, who babbles on about how [[That Man Is Dead|he has no more human identity]].▼
▲** More recently, John Jameson was infected by alien spores, which made him super massive, super strong, and essentially a [[Flying Brick]] without the flying, but, over time, messed with his head, making him filled with rage and aggression. After Venom threw him into a rage (making him think the one messing with him was Spiderman), Spidey was able to purge the spores from his system, making his body return to normal, but he was severely addicted to the power, and had to be admitted to an insane asylum. The effect was made more evident due to John having a cell right next to the now completely insane Electro, who babbles on about how [[That Man Is Dead|he has no more human identity]].
* ''[[Swat Kats]]'':
▲*** Eddie Brock would also qualify as an example. When he's stripped of the symbiote in a battle at Peter's high school, he is strapped to a stretcher and removed by two hospital orderlies, screaming at a crowd of spectators that "WE'RE VENOM!"
**
** The otherwise peaceful Dr. Greenbox invented Zed, a robot that could repair any mechanical device. When said robot went on a rampage, he initially came along to help stop it...but was so delighted with how powerful his creation was that he tried to sabotage the mission and ended up merging himself with Zed.
* An episode of ''[[Samurai Jack]]'' centers around Jack defeating three shadowy warriors with amazing powers who attack anyone who comes near. After the battle, it turns out that the warriors were actually three men who used a magic well to wish for the power to be the greatest warriors in the land. While the well granted their wish, it also made them blind and took their free wills.
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** Optimus Primal had a couple of instances too. When he carried the spark of Optimus Prime, he not only got a new body out of the deal, but took on some of Prime's mannerisms. Prime was an incredibly ''good'' character, so Primal didn't get the nasty side effects Megatron got. In another episode, he gets injected with a serum that was [[Gone Horribly Wrong|supposed]] to turn him into a coward. However, it instead ''removed'' all fear, turning him into an unstoppable berserker. He didn't get stronger, just ''fully'' utilized his already considerable strength.
* Ratchet on ''[[Transformers Prime]]'' goes nuts when hopped up on synthetic Energon.
* <s>Professor Lapton</s> [[Insistent Terminology|Professor Von Madman]] in the ''[[Buzz Lightyear of Star Command]]'' episode
* In ''[[Static Shock]]'', the Big Bang was occasionally thought to invoke this in earlier episodes. Notably, it's why [[Secret Keeper|Richie]] refused to trust Static when the metahuman Replay was framing him, believing that Static just took longer to go nuts then the others. However, since the Big Bang took place in the middle of a gang war, the guys who got the highest doses were generally not great people to begin with, and later episodes introduce other perfectly sane superpowered characters.
* Inverted and then played straight in ''[[
* ''[[Adventure Time]]'' has {{spoiler|the Ice King, or, rather, Simon Petrikov as an example of this}}. An antique merchant from [[Just Before the End]] who put on a magic crown that gave him immense magical power and immortality... but also slowly drove him so insane he doesn't remember being any other way anymore.
** Lemongrab. He's quite... "special," to put it nicely. Let's just say this "specialness" did NOT serve him, or anybody else, well when he inherited the throne to the Candy Kingdom. Being the result of a failed experiment, he has a lot of anger issues, and took out his anger on his subjects. To get him to leave the kingdom, the protagonists decide to play several pranks on him, which made his disposition even worse.
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* ''[[Eerie Cuties]]'' arc "[[Happy Fun Ball|Doom Panties]]". Chloe always a shy nice girl, except when her friend shared a bottle and "her inhibitions just melted". When her [[Succubus]] powers got boosted, she began to "[[Power High|feel awesome]]" and put up quite a show, quickly rolling to the "scary" side. No malice at all, but Chloe won't let anything stand on the way of her fancy—and since she got an excess of power to begin with, for almost anyone else it's a cue to take cover.
* Nerissa of ''[[WITCH (animation)|WITCH]]'' is a sad example of this. She was actually pretty well-adjusted until she gained control of the Heart of Candracar. The Oracle tried to cut her off at the pass, making her hand it over to her best friend, Cassidy. All it did was drive Nerissa farther into needing it, in which she killed her friend in cold blood. A good generation later, she comes back, pulling off a massive [[Xanatos Gambit]] to obtain more Hearts "for the greater good of the universe".
* ''[[Teen Titans Go! (animation)|Teen Titans Go!]]'':
** Beast Boy ends up falling [[The Hobbit|Gollum]]-style to the allure of Jessica Cruz's [[Green Lantern]] ring during the second part of the ''[[DC Super Hero Girls]]'' [[Crossover]] episode "Space House". Granted it's not a proper [[Artifact of Doom]] [[Artifact of Attraction|or Attraction]], [[Green-Eyed Monster|he just ''really'' really wanted it]] - though once he finally puts it on, the Power Ring interacts badly with his own superpowers and drives him feral.
== Web Original ==
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* ''[[Pay Me, Bug!]]'': [[Telepathy|Telepaths]] are in danger of going insane if they aren't trained to handle their power early enough.
* ''[[The Questport Chronicles]]'': The Master of Darkness, one of the most powerful sorcerers in the world, is also utterly insane. It's implied that part of this is due to returning from death.
== Real Life ==
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{{reflist}}
[[Category:Applied Phlebotinum]]▼
[[Category:Corruption Tropes]]▼
[[Category:Face Monster Turn]]▼
[[Category:Horror Tropes]]▼
[[Category:Madness Tropes]]
[[Category:Older Than Radio]]▼
[[Category:Power]]
[[Category:Power At a Price]]
▲[[Category:Older Than Radio]]
▲[[Category:Applied Phlebotinum]]
▲[[Category:Just for Pun]]
▲[[Category:Face Monster Turn]]
[[Category:Truth in Television]]
[[Category:Villains]]
▲[[Category:Horror Tropes]]
▲[[Category:Power]]
▲[[Category:Corruption Tropes]]
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