With Great Power Comes Great Insanity: Difference between revisions

{{trope}}

 

{{quote|'''EPA Official''': Sir, I'm afraid you've gone mad with power.

 

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.]]

 

{{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).

**** 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.

* 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:

 

 

{{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…'' }}

 

== Film ==

 

== Western Animation ==

* ''[[Superman: The Animated Series]]'': Luthortech has two examples of experimentation causing insanity.

* 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.

** 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.

** 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.

* 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.

* ''[[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.

* ''[[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".

 

== Web Original ==

* ''[[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 ==

 

{{reflist}}

[[Category:Madness Tropes]]

[[Category:Power At a Price]]

[[Category:Truth in Television]]

[[Category:Villains]]