History Main / TheyWouldCutYouUp

* In ''VampireTheMasquerade: Bloodlines'', the PlayerCharacter is warned to never break TheMasquerade, but one quest sees a resourceful human capturing you and performing sick survivability experiments you have to survive to get back at him.

* Averted twice in TheSalvationWar: once, the National Security Advisor attempts to get a succubus so that he can dissect her, but George Bush prevents this. Later, Abigor offers some of his soldiers so that they can vivisected and humans can understand how demons are on the inside, but the general he is talking to tells him that it would be against their laws and doesn't follow on the offer.

* In ''TheWorldOfDarkness'' game ''[[HunterTheVigil Hunter: the Vigil]]'', the Cheiron Group is a MegaCorp which does just this - it captures supernatural creatures, figures out how their powers work, and then [[LegoGenetics cuts out bits and implants them into field agents so they can use those powers]]. This is one of the few times where the ''player'' is doing the cutting-and-utilizing.

* Parodied in GrrlPower [[http://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/317 here]]

* Justified in ''DannyPhantom'', where his ghost-obsessed parents aren't getting ethics approval for their research and have explicitly said they'd like to dissect or kill any ghost they find. However, it's odd that Danny was so certain they'd do the same to their own child, a ''half''-ghost.

* In the ''XCom'' series, it's the standard procedure when dealing with captive aliens.

* Tessla in the ''{{Trigun}}'' manga didn't have a chance to run away. Her life and death make up Vash and Knives' tragic [[http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/Backstory backstory]].

* This trope is why Rose didn't call a doctor for the Doctor in "[[DoctorWho The Christmas Invasion]]".

* 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!"

* Averted in CloseEncountersOfTheThirdKind. [[spoiler: Both humans and aliens always planned to return everyone unharmed at the end, except for volunteers who agree to be taken to the aliens' planet.]]
* Played straight in ''{{Starman}}''.

* In ''TheManWhoFellToEarth'', the title character is [[spoiler: captured by the U.S. government and experimented upon for ''years'', no matter how much he begs; on at least one occasion they take advantage of his alcoholism to distract him long enough to perform an experiment which accidentally binds his contact lenses to his eyes. Oh, the prison is a nice hotel suite, he never wants for food, etc. and he even has a final tryst with his Earth mistress...but his imprisonment seals the fate of his dying race back home, and he is finally released a broken, stranded soul]].

* In ''TheManWhoFellToEarth'', there is a [[spoiler: double subversion. When Thomas is captured his prison is a hotel suite; provisions are plentiful and he is even allowed a visitor in Mary-Lou (his Earth mistress). But he's experimented on for ''years'', no matter how much he begs; on at least one occasion they take advantage of his alcoholism to distract him long enough to perform an experiment he was protesting -- which accidentally binds his contact lenses to his eyes. Freedom comes for him eventually, but he isn't able to return to his homeworld, and it's too late to save it (and his family) anyway]].

* The reason that Nancy, heroine of LoisDuncan's AGiftOfMagic, gives for wanting to keep her psychic powers a secret. She's isn't afraid of being dissected, but she is afraid of being dragged off by the government and being turned into a lab rat. [[spoiler: The government already knows about her powers and respects her right to keep them to herself if that's what she wants.]]

--> '''Minionbot''': ''Ow!'' Right, enough! [grabs hammer] [[IronicEcho While subject does not appear to have any obvious connection points]], I am sure that with correctly applied force it will disassemble nicely. I begin now with the elbow...

* When {{Vexxarr}} is first captured, the lab geeks started running tests on Minionbot, mostly consisting of finding out that none of their tools can affect his casing. They get to "hammer" before Minionbot gets mad.

* In ''BabylonFive'', Talia's telepathic abilities had been enhanced to an unknown degree by her AGodAmI ex-boyfriend, Jason Ironheart. A while after she left the show due to being revealed to have a sleeper personality, Bester mentioned that the Psi Corps had learned a lot when they "dissect--I mean debriefed" her. This is probably Bester trying to [[IShallTauntYou put people off their guard]] and/or just being a JerkAss, as the sleeper agent program was initiated by the Shadow-allied faction of the Corps, and he's not part of that, nor was he aware of Talia's sleeper personality before it was exposed.

* A couple of decades ago [[{{Tropers/SKJAM}} This Troper]] was in a Tabletop "superhero" RPG where the premise was that superhuman beings were just now popping up in an otherwise ordinary world. (Yes, like ''Series/{{Heroes}}''.) Most of the players had their characters believe in this trope, and sneak around trying to conceal their existence. "But my character had non-concealable powers. He decided that the best thing to do was go to Hollywood and become a celebrity on the grounds that it's a lot easier to "disappear" someone whose existence is unknown to the general public. As it turned out, the other players knew the GM's habits better than I did, and the secret government labs came for my character -- in the middle of the day, in public, with no saving throw or tactics allowed, and no repercussions for the kidnappers. [[TroperTales And that was the end of my character.]]"
** Sounds like you need a new GM.
*** Or at least one who's forgotten about Waco or Ruby Ridge, or Kent State, or the Bonus Army...

* In XCom series it's the standard procedure when dealing with captive aliens.