History Main / TheAssimilator

* ''WebComic/DemonEater'': All demons have the ability to assimilate the characteristics of other demons by eating them. It's performed by either consuming the defeated demon's lifeless corpse or performing a FusionDance and absorbing their personality as well. It's also worth noting that demons cannot do this to humans and the only one that tried ended up having his body saturated with rotting flesh that he couldn't consume.
* ''WebComic/DragonBallMultiverse'': Zen Buu attempts this with [[spoiler: [[OhCrap Broly]], but is thwarted by the efforts of U16 Vegetto, Gohan, Bra, and the Namek that pushed the button to send him back because he didn't think leaving [[NotQuiteDead Broly]] in their universe was a good idea.]]
** Later played straight with Xeniloum's armor.
** And he says he did that in his universe with one of the musicians at the Figrindan orchestra.

* The Demiurge Gog-Agog from ''Webcomic/KillSixBillionDemons''. She is a WormThatWalks. If you eat one of the worms, you ''become'' her, completely and in every single way, adding [[MesACrowd a new copy of Gog-Agog]] to TheMultiverse that can go on to coax ''more'' people into consuming a piece of her. It says something about the state of the world in ''Kill Six Billion Demons'' that some people who become Gog-Agog apparently do it ''willingly''.

* ''WebAnimation/FTLKestrelAdventures'': What SAI-1 has done to Peter Tiedrich, and it looks like General Key will follow. Other troops seem to have fallen to the same fate..

* Nosferatu in ''Fanfic/VoyagesOfTheWildSeaHorse'' is a bacterial hemorrhagic fever that [[UpliftedAnimal became sapient]] by [[CannibalismSuperpower absorbing the former bearer]] of the [[HumanShifting Human-Human, Model Type Child]] Zoan Devil Fruit. As each individual bacteria is part of a singular HiveMind, Nosferatu can not only exist as either a BlobMonster of bacteria-rich blood and slime, a human girl, or a HumanoidAbomination, but it can also infect others and take over their bodies by manipulating them as puppets, with the original consciences [[AndIMustScream aware but completely unable to control themselves]].

* The Immortals in the ''Franchise/{{Highlander}}'' series absorb the skills and memories of everyone they kill. Some of the nastier ones get off on this.
-->'''[[Film/HighlanderEndgame Jacob Kell]]:''' [[{{Squick}} Don't you want to be inside me?]]
** [[Series/{{Highlander}} The series]] explores the implications of this at one point, with a build up of all the evil absorbed from killing evil immortals eventually overpowering one guy, turning him evil, requiring some good immortal to defeat him (and thus absorb all that evil and become overpowered by it him/herself).

*** In the [[Creator/MattSmith Eleventh Doctor]] episode "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS31E12ThePandoricaOpens The Pandorica Opens]]", a [[OnlyMostlyDead mostly dead]] Cyberman's head actually ''[[LampshadeHanging says]]'' "You will be assimilated" when looking to turn Amy into spare parts for itself. The use of the phrase by the Cybermen in ''Doctor Who'' predates the ''Star Trek'' use, as it was featured in the Cybermen's debut story, [[Recap/DoctorWhoS4E2TheTenthPlanet "The Tenth Planet"]], in 1966. It's likely an in-joke too. As River Song is examining transmitters in that same episode, the radio traffic of the Cybermen, which is audible in the background, sounds very much like the Borg Collective.

** The Krillitanes from [[Recap/DoctorWhoS28E3SchoolReunion "School Reunion"]] alter their DNA with DNA from races they conquer.
** The Abzorbaloff from [[Recap/DoctorWhoS28E10LoveAndMonsters "Love & Monsters"]] works on an individual level, absorbing individuals into his body.

* The primary conflict laying in and behind ''VideoGame/{{Changed}}''. A virus is killing off humanity, and the only alternative is letting the recently-created race of assimilating BlobMonster creatures absorb your personality to keep you immune and alive (if not whole). Throughout the game we see a few surviving human characters grappling with this plot, and every GameOver ends with your assimilation.

* In ''Videogame/CivilizationV'', Austria's unique ability, called [[AltarDiplomacy "Diplomatic Marriage"]], allows it to recreate its [[UsefulNotes/TheSoundOfMartialMusic real-life]] image of a patchwork empire by annexing, for a considerable Gold payment, those city-states that have been in an alliance with Austria for a long enough time[[note]]turning them into puppets is also possible, but in this case they retain self-governance in internal affairs[[/note]]. From a gameplay perspective, married city-states are treated as if they were founded by Austria, which means that they do not need a courthouse, do not generate extra unhappiness, and cannot be liberated by other civs. Of course, [[DownplayedTrope there is no literal absorption occurring here]] but rather a non-violent integration in which the citizens of the assimilated city-state gradually abandon their previous self-identity in favor of the Austrian one.

* In ''Videogame/EndlessSpace2'', [[CloneArmy the Horatio]] gain a certain element of this. They're able to splice another alien population's genes into themselves, thus gaining their improvements and boons and rising above what they were before, improving their "perfection" even more. Do note that the process is ''not'' innate; Horatios start out as more or less baseline, if mutated humans cloned from a single guy. The assimilation is done [[GeneticEngineeringIsTheNewNuke the old-fashioned way]], and judging by [[HumanResources the casualty rate among the aliens in question]] the process is more than a little messy.

* In ''VideoGame/FateGrandOrder'' the FinalBoss of Lostbelt 7, [[UltimateLifeForm TYPE-ORT Cloud]], has this ability and is the primary reason why it's so absurdly dangerous a threat. Anything it kills is [[TakenForGranite crystallised]] and [[YouWillBeAssimilated absorbed]] into ORT's body to augment its skills and abilities further. And as Chaldea learns the hard way when they fight it, Servants are NOT immune to this, with any that ORT kills having their Servant data ''[[DeaderThanDead erased entirely]]'' from Chaldea's records, meaning that they ''can't be re-summoned'' [[DeathIsCheap like usual]]. Even worse, ORT can [[AllYourPowersCombined mix-and-match]] its assimilated abilities to flat out '''[[BeyondTheImpossible break the rules of reality]]''', as cnce its physical body is ''[[StayingAlive finally]]'' destroyed, it flat-out ''hacks'' the Servant summoning system, by combining the Servant Data from all of Chaldea's Servants its killed plus the RealityWarper abilities of the Tree Of Emptiness it consumed far earlier on, to feed the Throne of Heroes a false history that allows it to come back as a Servant itself. Specifically, as the Grand Foreigner...when Extra Classes ''can't even'' HAVE Grand Servants to begin with.
* In ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyIX'', one of the evil plots our heroes have to foil is that [[spoiler: Garland]] is trying to assimilate [[spoiler: Gaia]] into [[spoiler: Terra]] in an attempt to avert the death of his world. [[spoiler: And it turns out that Kuja, previously thought to be the BigBad of the game, was actually working for him in starting wars across Gaia.]]
* ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyXI'''s blue mage (or Immortal) fit this trope, a rare player-character example. Although the exact mechanism by which they get the powers of defeated enemies is never quite described, [[AllthereInTheManual The Vana'diel Tribune]] said they [[YourSoulIsMine absorbed the essence]] from creatures they killed and graft it onto their soul. It also mentions that "No Immortal in history has ever reached the end of his natural lifespan" due to [[AssimilationBackfire the effects of the absorbed creatures on their hosts]]. Just to [[LampshadeHanging hang a lampshade on it]], the armour upgrade for the Blue Mage is the Assimilator's Attire.

* In ''VideoGame/GuildWars'', it's the only way to acquire Elite skills: find the boss, beat the crap out of him, apply the Signet of Capture.
* There is every indication that [[TheEmpire The Combine]] from ''VideoGame/HalfLife2'' and its Episodes do this to the planets/universes/borderworlds they conquer, most obviously with their Synth units (gunships, dropships, [[HumongousMecha Striders]] and [[BossInMookClothing Hunters]]). They appear to be in the process of doing this to humans, with designs for far more altered human soldiers created in production but removed from the final game. They also assimilate and adapt technology that they find: they're on Earth specifically for our {{teleportation}} technology perfected at Black Mesa. It's also implied that it's actually a ''favor'' to those who surrender; they are [[TheJuggernaut powerful enough]] to exterminate ''anything'' that gets in their way, and you need to ''convince'' them that your species is more use to them alive and enslaved than dead. That's essentially what [[TheQuisling Dr. Breen]] did to stop the Seven Hours War.

* The Beast from ''VideoGame/HomeworldCataclysm'' exhibit both this and [[TheVirus Virus]]-like traits.

* Ansem from ''Franchise/KingdomHearts'' does this to Riku because he has no body.
** It's revealed in ''VideoGame/KingdomHearts3DDreamDropDistance'' that this was the main reason Xemnas founded Organization XIII. Nobodies, having no hearts, make perfect vessels for the disembodied Ansem. In fact, had everything gone according to plan, Xemnas could have turned half the Organization into duplicates of [[BigBad Xehanort]].
** This comes after a rather cruel reveal. [[spoiler: It turns out that nobodies quickly develop new hearts from whatever is around them, and CAN have emotions. This incredibly hopeful reveal is immediately quashed by Xemnas revealing the above plan.]]
* In a subversion of this normally being a villainous trope, this is the power of the protagonist in the ''Franchise/{{Kirby}}'' series.
** But for an example that's ''truly'' villainous, look to ''VideoGame/KirbyAndTheForgottenLand''. [[spoiler: The BigBad, Fecto Forgo, planned the game's events to reunite with their good half, Elfilin. They do succeed eventually, but not before assimilating [[KingOfBeasts Leongar]] and various other memebers of the Beast Pack to form themself a temporary BlobMonster body.]] Ironically, in the post-game, [[spoiler: Fecto itself is assimilated by [[{{Psychopomp}} Morpho Knight]], which eventually [[AssimilationBackfire works it to their advantage]] by using Morpho's power to become [[TrueFinalBoss Chaos Elfilis]].]]

* [[spoiler:The Reapers]] from ''Franchise/MassEffect''. [[spoiler:Every fifty thousand years, they "harvest" the most technologically advanced species in the galaxy; the species deemed most worthy has members of its population turned into a new Reaper, while members of species slightly less worthy are turned into Destroyers. The rest are turned into cyborg abominations that hunt down and eliminate the rest of the target populations]].
-->'''[[spoiler:Harbinger]]''': We are the harbingers of their perfection!

* ''Franchise/MegaMan''. Once a robot master is defeated, all iterations of Mega Man gain the boss' skills.
* The ''VideoGame/MegaManBattleNetwork'' series has two sides of this: one for [=MegaMan=], and one for Bass. In the case of the hero, after losing the Style Change ability, he gains the Double Soul power, wherein he may gain powers from a Navi he's shared a profound connection with. In the case of Bass, he goes for more of a ''[[Manga/DragonBallZ Cell]]'' route through his [=GetAbility=] Program, wherein he ''consumes and kills'' a virus, program or Navi to gain their power.

* In ''VideoGame/PokemonUranium'', people who fail to make it through the Anthell (the largest bug nest in West Tandor) are assimilated into the hive to serve Seikamater, a legendary bug pokemon.
* Alex Mercer of ''VideoGame/{{Prototype}}'' [[ImAHumanitarian eats people and other Infected]] to add their biomass and knowledge to his own. Eating the more powerful Infected like Hunters even grants him new combat powers in the storyline (though the Hunters themselves don't have those abilities). Eating people also grants him the ability to shapeshift into them. Chances are that by the end of the game the player will have had Alex consume ''hundreds if not thousands'' of victims. [[BlackAndGreyMorality And he can still be considered something close to a hero in this game.]]
** It helps that as he picks up their memories, he gets a bit of their ''personalities'' as well, slowly going from the completely remorseless sociopath he was before he got killed to simply a [[AntiHero very bad individual]].

* The Strogg in ''VideoGame/QuakeII'' and ''VideoGame/QuakeIV'' do this via UnwillingRoboticisation, and the protagonist of the latter game gets the treatment himself, though he was rescued before the procedure was complete.

* Morphius from ''VideoGame/ReturnToZork,'' is in the habit of looking for new character traits he can incorporate into himself, often watching potential subjects through the [[AnimalEyeSpy eyes of vultures]] or [[DreamSpying manifesting himself in their dreams]]. If he finds anything of value, he has the vultures carry them off to his Citadel, where he [[TakenForGranite turns them to stone]] and goes about assimilating their characteristics. By the endgame, his eyes are on the player character--specifically for your strategic gifts.
* The Bydo in ''VideoGame/RType'' have the ability to possess and/or transform other creatures into more Bydo. They only tend to do this to really powerful individuals or weapons, though: most of the time they'll just kill you./
* ''VideoGame/ShadowForce'' have the playable heroes doing this with their special move, which transforms them into souls and possessing a weakened enemy, taking over their bodies and forcing the captured mook to attack his ex-comrades. This doesn't work on [[ContractualBossImmunity bosses]], though.
* Cervantes in the VideoGame/SoulSeries. Most "hosts" of [[ArtifactOfDoom Soul Edge]] too.

* ''VideoGame/StarControl Origins'': Overmind is an AI that is dedicated to spreading itself (and misery) to all living beings and computers it can. It's mostly played for laughs though: it's only managed to take over one civilization (which weren't even its creators), and even if you do install it on your ship, it just makes annoying comments every now and again until you remove it, and is generally pretty harmless. A weird juxtaposition to the horror of lost free will it inflicts on those it ''has'' managed to control. [[spoiler:It can even become your ally in the battle against the Scryve.]]
* The Aparoids in ''VideoGame/StarFoxAssault'' are a particularly nasty example, as they can assimilate both organics and machinery. Worse yet, they can even fuse organics and machines ''together,'' creating some of the most nightmarish monstrosities in the series. [[spoiler: Pigma Dengar ends up fused with a mining station, and General Pepper is found slowly becoming one with his own flagship. The Star Fox team end up having to kill Pigma, while they barely manage to save Pepper.]] The [[HiveQueen Aparoid Queen]] birthed this race of nano-machines in [[EvilutionaryBiologist a cataclysmic bid to surpass all evolution in the galaxy.]]
* The final boss of ''VideoGame/SteamworldDig'' is this. [[spoiler:He has assimilated the main character's uncle and [[DownerEnding assimilates the main character when you defeat it.]]]]
* In ''Videogame/{{Stellaris}}'', "Driven Assimilator" is a dedicated archetype you can play -- a race of machines and cyborgs whose goal is assimilation by way of forcible cyborgization of all organic species in the galaxy. While this is usually done through conquest and conversion of individuals, they eventually gain an superweapon capable of instantly transforming all organics on a planet into loyal cyborgs. Hiveminds can also be played in this fashion if you're not playing a genocidal variant -- sufficient mastery over the genome allows non-hiveminded species on conquered planets to be linked into the swarm.
* Seth from ''VideoGame/StreetFighterIV''. His trademark phrase being "Become a part of me."
** Gill from ''VideoGame/StreetFighterIII'' also wants to do this. His ending implies that he succeeds too and wants his followers to dress like him if Alex is anything to go by.
* The ODE System of ''VideoGame/SuperRobotWars''. If you don't wanna get assimilated, you'll be killed in cold blood. More importantly this is what the Aerogaters want (and in some cases have succeeded) to do from the first ''VideoGame/SuperRobotWarsOriginalGeneration'' game.

* The Many in ''VideoGame/SystemShock2''. They're the ultimate evolution of the biological experiments bred by SHODAN in the first game and have a complete HiveMind and are intent on absorbing everyone else. Throughout the game, they will even calmly urge you to join them, contrasting SHODAN's cold metal with the "attractive" warmth of their combined biomass.
** Even so, they're not above creating cyborgs to better protect their hatchlings. The half-skeletal Cyborg Midwives, fitted with laser weapons and created from ship's nurses, are some of the most difficult and disturbing enemies in the game.
* The Alien Death Slug from ''VideoGame/TheVisitor''. It eats everything it comes across to absorb their DNA, and uses it to rapidly evolve from a worm to a bizarre mashup of features.
* In ''VideoGame/WorldOfWarcraft'', the Forsaken were originally a faction of undead who managed to break free from the Scourge--a force consisting of cultists, necromancers, and scores of undead, all seeking to do the Burning Legion's dirty work on Azeroth. After the Scourge's leader was destroyed, the Forsaken's leader Sylvanas Windrunner hired some of the Scourge's old minions who were capable of raising undead. While some of those that were raised by the Forsaken were free of mind like most of them, in warzones, she would raise enemy troops to be unquestionably loyal to her and force them right back onto the battlefield for her side. This got to the point where humans in the Alliance outright refused to fight the Forsaken, leaving only non-human forces (and the [[OurWerewolvesAreDifferent worgen of Gilneas]]) to face Slyvanas' forces (as only humans were susceptible to this form of raising undead).

* In ''Videogame/CivilizationV'', Austria's unique ability, called [[AltarDiplomacy "Diplomatic Marriage"]], allows it to recreate its [[UsefulNotes/TheSoundOfMartialMusic real-life]] image of a patchwork empire by annexing for a considerable Gold payment those city-states that have been in an alliance with Austria for a long enough time[[note]]turning them into puppets is also possible, but in this case they retain self-governance in internal affairs[[/note]]. From a gameplay perspective, married city-states are treated as if they were founded by Austria, which means that they do not need a courthouse, do not generate extra unhappiness, and cannot be liberated by other civs. Of course, [[DownplayedTrope there is no literal absorption occurring here]] but rather a non-violent integration in which the citizens of the assimilated city-state gradually abandon their previous self-identity in favor of the Austrian one.

* In ''Videogame/CivilizationV'', Austria's unique ability, called [[AltarDiplomacy "Diplomatic Marriage"]], allows it to recreate its [[UsefulNotes/TheSoundOfMartialMusic real-life]] image of a patchwork empire by annexing for a considerable Gold payment those city-states that have been in an alliance with Austria for a long enough time. From a gameplay perspective, married city-states are treated as if they were founded by Austria, which means that they do not need a courthouse, do not generate extra unhappiness, and cannot be liberated by other civs. Of course, [[DownplayedTrope there is no literal absorption occurring here]] but rather a non-violent integration in which the citizens of the assimilated city-state gradually abandon their previous self-identity in favor of the Austrian one.

* In ''Videogame/CivilizationV'', Austria's unique ability, called [[AltarDiplomacy "Diplomatic Marriage"]], allows it to recreate its [[UsefulNotes/TheSoundOfMartialMusic real-life]] image of a patchwork empire by annexing for a considerable Gold payment those city-states that have been in an alliance with Austria for a long enough time. From a gameplay perspective, married city-states are equivalent to those founded by Austria, which means that they do not need a courthouse, do not generate extra unhappiness, and cannot be liberated by other civs. Of course, [[DownplayedTrope there is no literal absorption occurring here]] but rather a non-violent integration in which the citizens of the assimilated city-state gradually abandon their previous self-identity in favor of the Austrian one.

* In ''Videogame/CivilizationV'', Austria's unique ability, called [[AltarDiplomacy "Diplomatic Marriage"]], allows it to recreate its [[UsefulNotes/TheSoundOfMartialMusic real-life]] image of a patchwork empire by annexing for a considerable Gold payment those city-states that have been in an alliance with Austria for a long enough time[[note]]or making them puppets, though in this case, they retain domestic self-governance[[/note]]. Of course, [[DownplayedTrope there is no literal absorption occurring here]] but rather a non-violent integration in which the citizens of the assimilated city-state gradually abandon their previous self-identity in favor of the Austrian one.

* In ''Videogame/CivilizationV'', Austria's unique ability, called [[AltarDiplomacy "Diplomatic Marriage"]], allows it to recreate its [[UsefulNotes/TheSoundOfMartialMusic real-life]] image of a patchwork empire by directly annexing those city-states that have been in an alliance with Austria for a long enough time[[note]]or making them puppets, though in this case, they retain domestic self-governance[[/note]]. Of course, [[DownplayedTrope there is no literal absorption occurring here]] but rather a non-violent integration in which the citizens of the assimilated city-state gradually abandon their previous self-identity in favor of the Austrian one.