History Main / SupernaturalSuffocation

* ''WesternAnimation/TheLegendOfKorra'': The season 3 BigBad Zaheer weaponizes airbending in a far more {{lethal|HarmlessPowers}} way than we've ever seen and [[AscendedFridgeHorror only postulated in fandom before]]: he executes [[AssholeVictim the Earth Queen]] by drawing all the air from her lungs and letting her suffocate.

[[caption-width-right:350:You think freedom is something you can give or take on a whim. But to your people, freedom is something just as essential as... ''air''. And without it, there is no life. There is only... '''''Darkness.''''' [[note]]Screencaps from defunct [=AvatarSpirit=].net via Wayback Machine[[/note]]]]

* ''Manga/JojosBizarreAdventure'':

* ''Literature/LazyDungeonMaster'': Keima's favorite technique for killing powerful monsters in Dungeon Battles is to create a horde of small creatures and control some of them to climb up the monster's body and jump into its throat.

* ''Manga/OnePiece:'' One application of Caesar Clown's "Gas Gas" Devil Fruit power is to deprive everyone else around him of oxygen, suffocating them.

* ''ComicBook/{{The Outsiders|DCComics}}'': New Wave, who was the leader of the villain team the Masters of Disaster, can turn her entire body into water and drown her opponents.

* ''ComicBook/{{Robin|1993}}'': Monsoon uses her water manipulation powers to drown people, and nearly drowns Tim by trapping him in water in a Bludhaven alley. If Tim hadn't been accompanied by members of ComicBook/{{Shadowpact}} at the time he'd have died with no way to defend himself.

* ''ComicBook/XMen'': ComicBook/{{Storm|MarvelComics}} has [[WeatherManipulation all-encompassing control of weather]]. On occasion, she's put her control of air pressure to use to deny her opponents their breath.

* Sci-fi variant in ''Film/BlackWidow2021''. Through her research into mind control, Melina Vostokoff has gained complete control over her test subjects' brains, and can compel them to stop breathing altogether. She brings a pig to near-death (eleven seconds away from total suffocation) as part of her demonstration, to her surrogate daughters' discomfort. Fortunately, we don't see this used on a person, though the Black Widows can be forced to commit suicide.
* Another sci-fi version in ''Film/Bloodshot2020''. KT has an artificial respirator in her clavicle that filters out toxic inhalants and enables her to breathe underwater. In one scene when she refuses to obey an order, her BadBoss remotely shuts down her respirator to [[AnOfferYouCantRefuse remind her that her life is in his hands]].

* ''Literature/JohnBarringtonCowles'': An unaddressed curiosity is that Kate Northcott's former fiances all drowned. William Prescott certainly dies from drowning, Archibald Reeves's [[DrowningMySorrows insanity-induced alcoholism]] is a major factor in his body giving up, and John Barrington Cowles's death is a toss-up between the fall off a cliff and drowning in the waves below. This recurrence has an equal chance of being Kate's MO, of being a manifestation of her true nature's influence, or of being all mere coincidence.
* ''Literature/ForestKingdom'': In book 2 (''Blood and Honor''), this is how King Malcom was murdered -- [[spoiler: his daughter Gabrielle]] used air magic to draw the breath from his lungs.
* ''Literature/HauntingChristmasTales:'' In short story ''Jingle Bells'', young Anna, following a tapping at her bedroom window, briefly suffers unaccountable suffocation. It seems to be [[spoiler: a phantom reiteration of her baby brother Andrew's cot death]].
* ''Literature/TheNameOfTheWind'': Early in his magic training, Kvothe {{Sympathetic|Magic}}ally binds the air in his lungs to the air around him, hoping for SuperBreath. However, Sympathy runs on EquivalentExchange, so he starts to suffocate because his lungs can't shift the greater mass of air; he almost dies before he can break the spell.
* "Literature/TheSpider1908": Clarimonde's method of killing her victims once they're her puppets is to have them hang themselves and die from suffocation. During their death struggles, she crawls into their mouths for undisclosed purposes, although it's hinted she gets her nourishment from them during this moment.
* ''Literature/TheKingstonCycle'' by C.L. Polk has two examples in ''Stormsong'':

--->'''Grace:''' "It took three minutes... three minutes where she was terrified. Three minutes where she saw her death coming and couldn't do anything to stop it."

* "The Staff in the Stone" by Creator/GarthNix: An infamous spell in {{Wizard Duel}}s is the Asphyxiation of Lygar, which conjures an impenetrable globe that seeks out and constricts the target's head, either suffocating them or crushing their skull -- in either case, substantially impeding their own spellcasting.

** "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS8E2TheMindOfEvil The Mind of Evil]]" sees the "Keller Machine", supposedly an experimental treatment designed to [[HeelFaceBrainwashing cure criminals of their malignant tendencies]]. As the Doctor discovers to his horror, it's in fact an extremely dangerous alien mind parasite that feeds on the negative impulses in the brain and can kill people by making them [[IKnowWhatYouFear physically experience their worst fears]]. Early in the storyline, it kills one of the scientists who fears water by making him experience drowning at sea while he's on dry land.
** "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS29E2TheShakespeareCode The Shakespeare Code]]": The witches plunge a VoodooDoll with the victim's hair sample attached into a barrel of water, causing the poor victim to spew water from his mouth and start drowning. The witches then finish him off with a needle to the voodoo doll's heart.

* ''Series/{{Misfits}}'': One episode has a villain of the week with the power of "lactokinesis", or control of dairy products. One of the things [[LethalHarmlessPowers he does]] is to manipulate cheese in people's digestive systems to choke them to death.

** "[[Recap/SupernaturalS07E14PluckyPennywhistlesMagicMenagerie Plucky Pennywhistle's Magical Menagerie]]": At the end, Dean defeats Howard, who is killing people by bringing their worst fears to life, by using the same spell to summon the spirit of Howard's younger brother who drowned under his watch whilst they were both children. The angry ghost kills his brother by making him experience his own death.

** The Kineticist class has a power called Suffocate, which is ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin. The specific method depends on the Kineticist's element of choice -- [[MakingASplash water-users]] drown the victim, [[BlowYouAway air-users]] evacuate their lungs, and [[MindOverMatter aether-users]] do a [[Franchise/StarWars Darth Vader-style]] [[PsychicStrangle Force Choke]].

** The Kaukau Nuva, the [[MaskPower Mask of]] [[ArtificialGill Underwater Breathing]], can do this by sharing its power with others in the vicinity before withdrawing the power, but the Toa consider this immoral to do.

[[folder:Web Original]]

* ''Website/SCPFoundation:'' [[https://scp-wiki.wikidot.com/scp-1812 SCP-1812]] is Earth's second moon and appears to simply not exist to people that haven't had it pointed out to them. Those aware of it, however, will perceive its pronounced tidal effects upon the ocean and have been known for drowning in seawater that isn't there to anyone else; most coastal cities are a death sentence to people in the know, who will drown in absolutely nothing in the middle of the street.

* ''WebVideo/{{Smosh}}'': In "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mtODX-055g8 REAL DEATH NOTE!]]", Ian gets ahold of an actual Death Note that causes people to strangle themselves to death when he writes their name down in it.

* ''WesternAnimation/TheLegendOfKorra'': The season 3 BigBad Zaheer weaponizes airbending in a [[AscendedFridgeHorror far more lethal way than we've ever seen and only postulated in fandom before]]: he executes the [[AssholeVictim Earth]] [[GodSaveUsFromTheQueen Queen]] by drawing all the air from her lungs and letting her suffocate.
* ''WesternAnimation/StevenUniverse'': Lapis Lazuli, who has hydrokinetic abilities, nearly drowns Steven and Connie by trapping their heads inside giant blobs of water.
* ''WesternAnimation/TeenTitans2003'': Aqualad tries to down Speedy using his hydrokinesis during their round in the "Tournament of Heroes".

* ''Franchise/TheDCU'':
** ''ComicBook/BatmanAndTheOutsiders'': New Wave, who was the leader of the villain team the Masters of Disaster, can turn her entire body into water and drown her opponents.
** ''ComicBook/{{Robin|1993}}'': Monsoon uses her water manipulation powers to drown people, and nearly drowns Tim by trapping him in water in a Bludhaven alley. If Tim hadn't been accompanied by members of ComicBook/{{Shadowpact}} at the time he'd have died with no way to defend himself.
* ''Franchise/MarvelUniverse'':
** ''ComicBook/SpiderMan'': Hydro-Man, an ElementalShapeshifter supervillain who can turn himself into water, has this as his preferred combat technique. During a battle, he typically turns parts of himself into water with which to fill his foes' respiratory tracts or simply fills the room they're in with, well, himself until they drown.
** ''ComicBook/XMen'': ComicBook/{{Storm}} has [[WeatherManipulation all-encompassing control of weather]]. On occasion, she's put her control of air pressure to use to deny her opponents their breath.

Suffocation isn't usually an especially fast or efficient method of killing someone -- a typical human can last for several minutes before succumbing to oxygen deprivation and will likely attempt to free themselves all the while, growing more aggressive and desperate as their air runs out. As such, suffocation is usually only a useful combat option in very situational circumstances. Some characters, however, possess skills that render this kind of kills a much more viable murder or combat method, most often by allowing them to supernaturally cause someone to no longer to be able to breathe.

** The Kineticist class has a power called Suffocate, which is ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin. The specific method depends on the Kineticist's element of choice-- [[MakingASplash water-users]] drown the victim, [[BlowYouAway air-users]] evacuate their lungs, and [[MindOverMatter aether-users]] do a [[Franchise/StarWars Darth Vader-style]] [[PsychicStrangle Force Choke]].

** New Wave, who was the leader of the villain team the Masters of Disaster, can turn her entire body into water and drown her opponents.

** ''Franchise/SpiderMan'': Hydro-Man, an ElementalShapeshifter supervillain who can turn himself into water, has this as his preferred combat technique. During a battle, he typically turns parts of himself into water with which to fill his foes' respiratory tracts or simply fills the room they're in with, well, himself until they drown.
** ''Franchise/XMen'': ComicBook/{{Storm}} has [[WeatherManipulation all-encompassing control of weather]]. On occasion, she's put her control of air pressure to use to deny her opponents their breath.

** ''ComicBook/RobinSeries'': Monsoon uses her water manipulation powers to drown people, and nearly drowns Tim by trapping him in water in a Bludhaven alley. If Tim hadn't been accompanied by members of ComicBook/{{Shadowpact}} at the time he'd have died with no way to defend himself.

* ''Manga/SoulHunter'': One of the enemies that Taikoubou faces has a paopei (magic artifact) that controls water, which he uses to create a permanent, inescapable water bubble just large enough to engulf his head. Furthermore, said water is seawater, so Taikoubou can't even try to escape by drinking it... which is why he uses a special peach to turn the seawater into saké so that he can safely gulp it down and remove the sphere.

* ''WesternAnimation/StevenUniverse:'' Lapis Lazuli, who has hydrokinetic abilities, nearly drowns Steven and Connie by trapping their heads inside giant blobs of water.
* ''WesternAnimation/TeenTitans'': Aqualad tries to down Speedy using his hydrokinesis during their round in the "Tournament of Heroes".

* ''WebOriginal/{{Mortasheen}}'': Stingg, an entity whose powers revolve around the production and delivery of a seemingly endless variety of poisons, includes in her repertoire a toxin whose effects simply cause the victim's lungs to rapidly fill with fluid.

* ''WesternAnimation/TheLegendOfKorra'': The season 3 BigBad Zaheer weaponizes airbending in a [[AscendedFridgeHorror far more lethal way than we've ever seen and only postulated in fandom]]: he executes the [[AssholeVictim Earth]] [[GodSaveUsFromTheQueen Queen]] by drawing all the air from her lungs and letting her suffocate.

[[caption-width-right:350:You think freedom is something you can give or take on a whim. But to your people, freedom is something just as essential as... ''air''. And without it, there is no life. There is only... '''''Darkness.''''' [[note]]Screencaps from defunct AvatarSpirit.net via Wayback Machine[[/note]]]]

* ''WesternAnimation/TheLegendOfKorra'': The season 3 BigBad Zaheer weaponizes airbending in a [[AscendedFridgeHorror far more lethal way than we've ever seen and only postulated in fandom]]: he executes the Earth Queen by drawing all the air from her lungs and letting her suffocate.

[[quoteright:350:[[WesternAnimation/TheLegendOfKorra https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/supernaturalsuffocation.png]]]]
[[caption-width-right:350:You think freedom is something you can give or take on a whim. But to your people, freedom is something just as essential as... ''air''. And without it, there is no life. There is only... '''''Darkness.''''' [[note]]Screencaps from defunct AvatarSpirit.net via Wayback Machine[[/note]]]]

* ''WesternAnimation/TheLegendOfKorra'': The season 3 BigBad Zaheer weaponizes airbending in a far more lethal way than we've ever seen: he executes the Earth Queen by drawing all the air from her lungs and letting her suffocate.

** In the ''Manga/JojosBizarreAdventureStardustCrusaders'' OVA, N'Doul's Stand, Geb, mixes itself with water from a canteen, then forms a bubble around Polnareff's head, almost drowning him despite Jotaro's attempts to punch the water away with Star Platinum. Fortunately, Avdol uses Magician's Red to evaporate most of the water before Polnareff suffocates.
** In ''Manga/JojosBizarreAdventureStoneOcean'', the minor antagonist Thunder [=McQueen=] is a severely suicidal man whose Stand, Highway to Hell, copies any injury he inflicts upon himself onto another person. When he tries to drown himself, the Stand turns into a liquid blob that wraps itself around Ermes' nose and mouth, suffocating her until she manages to stop him from drowning.

* In ''Manga/RurouniKenshin'', Udo Jin-e captures Kaoru to lure Kenshin out and paralyzes her with a glance from his HypnoticGaze, gloating that she only has a few minutes before she asphyxiates and Kenshin's only chance of saving her is to break his ThouShaltNotKill oath. He very nearly does until Kaoru manages to break out of the spell by [[{{Determinator}} sheer willpower]].

** In "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS29E2TheShakespeareCode The Shakespeare Code]]", the witches plunge a VoodooDoll with the victim's hair sample attached into a barrel of water, causing the poor victim to spew water from his mouth and start drowning. The witches then finish him off with a needle to the voodoo doll's heart.

* ''Literature/HauntingChristmasTales:''' In short story ''Jingle Bells'', young Anna, following a tapping at her bedroom window, briefly suffers unaccountable suffocation. It seems to be [[spoiler: a phantom reiteration of her baby brother Andrew's cot death]].

* ''Wiki/SCPFoundation:'' [[https://scp-wiki.wikidot.com/scp-1812 SCP-1812]] is Earth's second moon and appears to simply not exist to people that haven't had it pointed out to them. Those aware of it, however, will perceive its pronounced tidal effects upon the ocean and have been known for drowning in seawater that isn't there to anyone else; most coastal cities are a death sentence to people in the know, who will drown in absolutely nothing in the middle of the street.

-->-- '''Storm''', "[[ComicBook/XMen Worlds Apart, Part 1]]"

Suffocation isn't usually an especially fast or efficient method of killing someone -- a typical human can last for several minutes before succumbing to oxygen deprivation, and will likely attempt to free themselves all the while, growing more aggressive and desperate as their air runs out. As such, suffocation is usually only a useful combat option in very situational circumstances. Some characters, however, possess skills that render this kind of kills a much more viable murder or combat method, most often by allowing them to supernaturally cause someone to no longer to be able to breathe.

* Another sci-fi version in ''Film/Bloodshot2020''. KT has an artificial respirator in her clavicle that filters out toxic inhalants and enables her to breathe underwater. In one scene when she refuses to obey an order, her BadBoss remotely shuts down her respirator to [[AnOfferYouCannotRefuse remind her that her life is in his hands]].

* ''LightNovel/DungeonMasterWantsToSleepNowAndForever'': Keima's favorite technique for killing powerful monsters in Dungeon Battles is to create a horde of small creatures and control some of them to climb up the monster's body and jump into its throat.

* In ''Manga/RurouniKenshin'', Udo Jin-e captures Kaoru to lure Kenshin out and paralyzes her with a glance from his EvilEye, gloating that she only has a few minutes before she asphyxiates and Kenshin's only chance of saving her is to break his ThouShaltNotKill oath. He very nearly does until Kaoru manages to break out of the spell by [[{{Determinator}} sheer willpower]].

* ''Wiki/SCPFoundation:'' SCP-1812 is Earth's second moon and appears to simply not exist to people that haven't had it pointed out to them. Those aware of it, however, will perceive its pronounced tidal effects upon the ocean and have been known for drowning in seawater that isn't there to anyone else; most coastal cities are a death sentence to people in the know, who will drown in absolutely nothing in the middle of the street.

* ''VideoGame/DivinityOriginalSinII'': The "Suffocating" StatusAilment is inflicted by specialized {{Necromancer}} and [[BlowYouAway Aerotheurge]] spells and can be countered by an Aerotheurge ProtectiveCharm. It's a NonIndicativeName; the status destroys the target's Magic Armor over time but causes no direct harm.