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| 4 | %% This list of examples has been alphabetized. Please add your example in the proper place. Thanks! |
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| 7 | %% Image selected per Image Pickin' thread: https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/posts.php?discussion=1462903518013177100 |
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| 10 | [[quoteright:350:[[Webcomic/{{Oglaf}} https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/acquired_poison_immunity.jpg]]]] |
| 11 | [[caption-width-right:350:You won't be wanting that, then?]] |
| 12 | |
| 13 | ->''"Mithridatism, it's called. Isn't that a funny name? The process of eating poison to build up immunity. So long as I don't die from it, I'll be harder to kill."'' |
| 14 | -->-- '''Jude Duarte''', ''[[Literature/TheFolkOfTheAir The Cruel Prince]]'' |
| 15 | |
| 16 | In short, this trope references the development of immunity to a particular drug or poison [[CharlesAtlasSuperpower by taking small doses for a long time.]] |
| 17 | |
| 18 | Here's a typical scenario: The hero has finally appeared at his confrontation with the BigBad, who's seated at his [[TableSpace ridiculously long table]], just about to take his evening meal. "There's no reason to be uncivil," the villain says. [[NoMrBondIExpectYouToDine Would the hero like some wine]]? The hero takes a drink and immediately starts choking. The villain laughs -- that fool, the hero, should have known that the villain would poison the wine with the dreaded juice of the [[NamesToRunAwayFromReallyFast Ultramurder]] fruit! |
| 19 | |
| 20 | But what's this? The hero's standing back up! "I knew you'd poison the wine with the dreaded juice of the Ultramurder fruit. That's why I've spent years eating small pieces of Ultramurder fruit, to develop an immunity to the poison!" The hero then [[EpicBattleBoredom kicks the villain's tail]]. |
| 21 | |
| 22 | In some cases, the poison builds up and actually turns the poison-proof character into a PoisonousPerson. |
| 23 | |
| 24 | This can be TruthInTelevision, or not, depending on the poison in question. For some (chiefly organic) poisons, the body produces antibodies to clear them from the system; so, with repeated exposure to small amounts, you can build up a level of circulating antibody that grants immunity to a typical dose. This is the principle upon which real-life vaccines are based, injecting a deactivated variant of the poison so the body can develop antibodies that will work on the active variant. In the past ages, [[ScienceMarchesOn the few metallic poisons]] known were rare and expensive; therefore most poisons were plant-based alkaloids. |
| 25 | |
| 26 | Should a non-organic poison enter the equation however, this trope becomes a lot less realistic. There are plenty of other poisons that ''don't'' [[JustForFun/TelevisionIsTryingToKillUs get cleared from the system and simply build up in your tissues until you reach a lethal dose]]. This includes nearly all heavy metals to which modern civilians and industrial workers are exposed, such as compounds of lead, radium, mercury and cadmium; it's why metalworkers in the old days could end up with permanent skin discolorations, and why metalworkers in ''these'' days typically have full protective gear. |
| 27 | |
| 28 | The official term for immunizing oneself to poison this way is Mithridatism, after a king who made use of the effect. It backfired when he was defeated and [[BetterToDieThanBeKilled tried to commit suicide]]; his immunity to poison [[GoneHorriblyRight worked so well]] that he ended up needing to [[ICannotSelfTerminate hire a mercenary]] to [[ImpaledWithExtremePrejudice run him through]]. |
| 29 | |
| 30 | Could be considered a sub-trope of AdaptiveAbility. A particularly CrazyPrepared person may be immune to several -- or even ''all'' -- poisons via this method, though again it's important to note that in real life, not all poisons can be defended from in this manner. This trope is often key to the survival of someone who is pulling a SelfPoisoningGambit. |
| 31 | |
| 32 | See also and closely related to RemovedAchillesHeel, which is when a character gradually gains immunity to an inherent weakness by repeatedly exposing themselves to it. Compare RadiationImmuneMutants, for people and creatures who become immune to what changed them. |
| 33 | ---- |
| 34 | !!Examples: |
| 35 | |
| 36 | [[foldercontrol]] |
| 37 | |
| 38 | [[folder:Anime & Manga]] |
| 39 | * In ''Manga/AkumaNoRiddle'', Haru Ichinose has gone through so many surgeries that she has started to become resistant to sleep-inducing drugs. Even if she does get affected, she wakes up a lot faster than a regular person would. |
| 40 | * In ''Manga/ApothecariusArgentum'', Argent was fed a number of poisons at a young age so he could be sold as a food taster/assassin. As a side effect, they also turned his blood into some kind of killer acid, and just touching him is enough to make his love interest, the princess faint. |
| 41 | * The main character, Maomao, from ''Literature/TheApothecaryDiaries'' has built up a level of immunity to most poisons due to her frequent experimentations with various poisons. This comes in handy when she becomes a poison taster, but unlike the other poison tasters she actually [[TooKinkyToTorture looks forward to a poisoned meal.]] |
| 42 | * Subverted in ''Manga/{{Bleach}}''. During Mayuri's fight with Szayelaporro, as his Bankai's poisonous gases seep over to the injured Ishida and Renji, Ishida initially believes that unlike Renji, he will be safe from the poison, as he was poisoned before in his previous battle with Mayuri. Ishida then shows symptoms of poisoning, and Mayuri mocks the idea that someone could become immune to his poison, saying that it is constantly adapting itself. |
| 43 | ** Earlier, during the Bount arc, Sui-Feng is poisoned by one of their dolls. While this poison does affect her, she has built up an immunity to her Zanpakuto's and several others. If she ever comes across a poison she isn't immune to, she stabs herself with her own poison which eats the strange poison without affecting her. |
| 44 | * In ''Manga/Brave10'', this is a common part of ninja training as demonstrated by Anastasia, Saizo and Sasuke during the Goemon gang's KnockoutGas attack. They aren't immune to every kind of poison and even the ones they are cause them to become weak the longer their exposure is, but the three proper {{ninja}} of the team are all able to keep fighting even when the rest of the team is completely out because ninja are CrazyPrepared. |
| 45 | * In ''Manga/{{Dokuhime}}'' little girls are purchased for the purpose of bringing them up to be Poison Princesses and exposed from the time they're in their cradles to poison in order to build up immunity. Many don't make it, the successes are trained to be assassins whose very touch is deadly. They have to keep ingesting poison to function properly. |
| 46 | * ''Manga/FairyTail'': |
| 47 | ** In a similar vein to the ''Pokémon'' example below, the heroes face an enemy that uses colored magical confetti to produce various elemental effects. When said enemy attempts to use yellow [[ShockAndAwe lightning-producing]] confetti on Mirajane, the latter laughs, as (having had Laxus for a guildmate during his entire [[JerkAss jerkass]] phase) she's been zapped enough times that the yellow confetti can't produce enough voltage to faze her. |
| 48 | ** The demons of Tartaros capture Mirajane and inject her with demon blood, intending to convert her into a minion. However, the demons didn't know that Mirajane specializes in Satan Soul Takeover magic, where she converts her body into a demon and has complete control of herself. As a result, the demon blood fails to control her and increases her power enough to break her bonds and escape. |
| 49 | * ''Manga/HolyCorpseRising'': Amala's parents died and her older brother abused her and kept her prisoner, feeding her poisoned food in an attempt to kill her. Determined to survive, she ate the food little by little, eventually developed an immunity to the poison, and grew strong enough to kill her brother. In the present, [[MasterPoisoner Mylitta's]] poisons only affect her for about a minute. |
| 50 | * Killua from ''Manga/HunterXHunter'' is immune to virtually all forms of poison due to his family's TrainingFromHell, and is seen happily downing five cans of laxative-laced juice before the Hunter Exam starts. He's also been subjected to enough ElectricTorture that electric weapons only cause a slight tingle, and he later develops ShockAndAwe powers. |
| 51 | * Downplayed in ''Anime/LittleWitchAcademia2017''. For Akko, [[ComedicSociopathy getting repeatedly poisoned]] by [[TokenEvilTeammate Sucy]] finally pays off when it allows her to briefly resist the bites of a couple of venomous snakes [[spoiler:controlled by [[EvilAunt Lady Daryl Cavendish]]]], but she soon collapses and requires urgent medical attention. |
| 52 | * In ''Manga/MissionYozakuraFamily'', the titular spy family doses their meals with poison on a regular basis to build up an immunity as part of their TrainingFromHell. It proves essential when facing enemies with poisoned weapons in the field and saves Taiyo's life on several occasions (at least after getting over the [[PottyFailure initial bouts of diarrhea]]). |
| 53 | * While it never comes up as a major plot point, it's mentioned a few times in ''Manga/MusukoGaKawaikuteShikataganaiMazokuNoHahaoya'' that demons do produce antibodies when exposed to [[PowerNullifier anti-demonization gas]] and can theoretically build up a resistance, though no one is ever seen with an outright immunity. [[spoiler:However, Lorem does have an incredibly high resistance to Zeke's poison (which the gas was derived from) thanks to passively breathing the stuff in for the several years they were living together in secret, to the point that she could generate enough heat to keep herself warm in the middle of a blizzard around the time of Gospel's conception.]] |
| 54 | * In ''Anime/NinjaScroll'', Kagero's body absorbs toxins instead of processing them. It makes her ideal for working as her master's food taster, but it's also made her bodily fluids highly toxic, which is good for assassination -- [[BlessedWithSuck not so much for potential love interests]]. [[spoiler:However, the kiss she and Jubei share just before she dies is implied to be enough to counteract the poison in his body.]] |
| 55 | * Assassin Shao Li from ''Anime/{{Noir}}'' kills using poisoned fingernail polish and inflicting a small nick on her victim, and in one scene she kills a man using incense that contains a poison she's built up an immunity to and remarks as he's choking on the ground that to her it just smells pleasant. |
| 56 | * ''Manga/OnePiece'': |
| 57 | ** PlayedForLaughs with [[PoisonousPerson Magellan]], whose Devil Fruit powers allow him to manipulate and create all kinds of poisons; this naturally made him immune to poisons himself, meaning he enjoys eating poisoned meals. Unfortunately for him, his fruit didn't give him the power to ''digest'' poisons on top of his immunity, so his dining habits leave him stuck on the toilet for ten hours a day. |
| 58 | ** Less for laughs and more for awesome after the TimeSkip, when Luffy's clash with Magellan gives him immunity to a ''crapload'' of poisons. As if he hadn't [[TookALevelInBadass taken enough levels in badass]] already... Even then, his antibodies still have limits; a strong enough poison (as in, one that would cause instant death in a normal person) will still make him extremely sick and eventually kill him without treatment. |
| 59 | ** [[spoiler:Sanji's estranged sister]] Vinsmoke [[RedBaron "Poison Pink"]] Reiju has this as well. At some point, Luffy is ''very'' sick after being given a very powerful poison, but she went up to him and gave him a KissOfLife to absorb it and heal him. She has no physical side-effects afterwards. |
| 60 | * In a later chapter of ''Manga/{{Onidere}}'', it's revealed that Tadashi has been rendered completely immune to all forms of poison due to constantly eating [[LethalChef his girlfriend's cooking]]. |
| 61 | * ''Anime/PokemonTheSeries'': |
| 62 | ** Ash has gotten fried by Pikachu so mch that he's built up a near-total immunity to electric shocks, surviving jolts that were outright ''exploding'' whatever they hit in a later episode. And on a couple occasions Team Rocket have also shrugged off electric shocks after being zapped by Pikachu so many times, with Meowth even making use of his Pikachu-induced shockproofing once. |
| 63 | ** AJ's Sandshrew has Acquired Water Immunity. As Ground-types, Sandshrew are typically weak to water. This one can ''swim''. |
| 64 | * Zen of ''Manga/SnowWhiteWithTheRedHair'', being a prince and thus having a good chance of being poisoned, spent an extended amount of time becoming immune to many different poisons. |
| 65 | * Yor Forger from ''Manga/SpyXFamily'' alongside other [[ProfessionalKiller contract killers]], built up a high tolerance against poisons. This gets PlayedForLaughs in a bonus chapter where she gets ShotInTheAss on a hit job and a surviving member of the terrorist group she slaughtered on said job, who while posing as a waiter, [[TamperingWithFoodAndDrink gave her a blowfish poison martini]]. This actually ''helps'' her since the poison took the pain away from the wound in her behind. |
| 66 | * Most of the Gourmet Hunters in ''Manga/{{Toriko}}'' have resistance to various poisons due to incidental or deliberate exposure. Coco is an extreme example, having been exposed to so many toxins that he's able to [[PoisonousPerson synthesize them within his body]], and on the rare occasion that he's hit with a poison that he ISN'T immune to, he can adjust his immune system within seconds. |
| 67 | ** Grinpatch, a member of the Gourmet Corps, is even better than Coco. His entire body is structured like a filtration system that allows him to neutralize any poison. When he was injected with a poison that adapts itself against the victim's immune system, it just ended up being endlessly shuffled between Grinpatch's various "filters" without producing any actual effect. |
| 68 | * ''Manga/ToYourEternity'': The character Tonari has developed an immunity to nearly all poisons as a result of exposure therapy over the course of 40 years. She does this in order to make her body into a useful vessel for the main character Fushi. |
| 69 | [[/folder]] |
| 70 | |
| 71 | [[folder:Comic Books]] |
| 72 | * ''ComicBook/{{Batman}}'': |
| 73 | ** One issue revealed that the title character regularly devises antidotes and methods of controlled exposure to Scarecrow's fear gas. However, every time Scarecrow attacks Batman with gas, he changes the formula afterwards so that immunizing against the previous has no effect. Batman does it [[CrazyPrepared simply on the off chance that Scarecrow didn't change it this one time]]. In ''ComicBook/BatmanRIP'', Batman reveals that he is immune to many toxins and poisons, [[ProperlyParanoid and carries antidotes for all the ones he isn't immune to]]. |
| 74 | ** On the topic of Dr. Crane, [[ComicBook/BlackestNight apparently]] he's gassed himself so often he's become unable to fear ''anything''...except Batman. |
| 75 | ** ComicBook/TheJoker has built up immunity to his trademark poison to the point that mosquitoes ''writhe in pain'' after sucking his tainted blood. |
| 76 | *** PlayedForLaughs in ''ComicBook/BatmanAndCaptainAmerica'', where the Joker and the ComicBook/RedSkull discover that their signature poisons are so alike that each is immune to the effects of the other. |
| 77 | *** Same deal with Harley; in her own title, she once tried to bluff Batman into thinking she was committing suicide by drinking it. (Didn't work; he knew she was immune to it.) |
| 78 | ** Also, the Joker is apparently immune to Scarecrow's fear gas, as one comic has them team up before Scarecrow sprays the Joker with his fear gas, which only resulted in the Joker smashing Scarecrow over the head with a chair. |
| 79 | *** In one instance, the fear gas caused the Joker to ''laugh uncontrollably''. |
| 80 | *** Since it's the ''Joker'' we're talking about, it's less likely that it's a result of ''acquired'' immunity and more that he's simply ''too crazy'' to be afraid. |
| 81 | ** It's often established that Joker is immune to many toxins including his own Joker Venom due to years of dedicated substance abuse. |
| 82 | ** Harley Quinn is immune to Poison Ivy's poisons owing to their time as sexual partners. In the animated series, this is {{Handwave}}d by having Ivy just give her a vaccine against them. |
| 83 | * ''ComicBook/BlackMoonChronicles'': The master of the ThievesGuild that Pilou grew up in kept the other criminals in line by putting poison in their food and providing an anti-toxin at the end of every day if they had fulfilled their quota. Pilou starts to take a small portion of the poison every day to build up an immunity so he can one day escape. |
| 84 | * ''ComicBook/{{Blade}}'': Blade once fought with [[HeroKiller Draconis]], a [[SinisterMinister vampire priest]] that developed immunity to all traditional weaknesses like holy symbols and sunlight with small gradual exposures to it, in addition to his unshakable faith turning him into a "[[ReligiousVampire Holy Vampire]]". |
| 85 | * ''ComicBook/TheBoys'': The Russian mob attempts to kill the team with poison but while most of them were knocked out but kept alive by the [[SuperSerum Compound V]] in their system, Hughie and Love Sausage are completely unaffected due to them drinking Love Sausage's [[VodkaDrunkenski brake fluid cocktail]] which happened to build up their tolerance for poison. |
| 86 | * ''ComicBook/HarleyQuinn'': In one issue, Harley rapidly throws off an attempt by Dr. Hugo Strange to drug her and explains to him that it's a bit silly to try to poison someone who's had long-term sexual relationships with both [[MasterPoisoner the Joker]] and [[PoisonousPerson Ivy]]. |
| 87 | * It's actually a somewhat common martial arts technique in the comics Jademan translated for US release in the '80s and '90s. Indeed, most poison immune characters could actually manipulate their immunity so they could cure someone else's poison by drawing a bit of their own blood and feeding it to them. |
| 88 | * In the comic ''ComicBook/NewXMen'', Laurie Collins aka Wallflower is the daughter of Sean Garrison, a mutant with extremely powerful pheromone production and control, who had Laurie's mother Gail in his thrall until Laurie was conceived. Because Laurie inherited her father's mutation, carrying her made her mother immune to Sean's pheromones and enabled her to break free of his control. |
| 89 | * ''ComicBook/RedRobin'''s opponents the [[MurderInc Council o]][[HuntingTheMostDangerousGame f Spiders]] have a couple of poison users who are [[RequiredSecondaryPowers immune]] to their own poisons. |
| 90 | * ''ComicBook/SpiderMan'': Spider-Man seems to be developing an immunity to the gas used by the Green Goblin to nullify his Spider-Sense. Originally, the stuff rendered him unconscious and would make him unable to use the power for several days. Most recently, when the Hobgoblin used it in the "Revenge of the Sinister Six" story, he was able to stay conscious and recover in little over ''one'' day. |
| 91 | ** In ''ComicBook/SpiderIsland'', Mary-Jane is one of the last people to be infected with Spider Flu. [[ComicBook/FantasticFour Reed Richards]] theorizes that the delay was due to her having been sleeping with Peter Parker for years. |
| 92 | * ''ComicBook/{{Superboy}}'': In issue #58, Superboy deliberately exposes himself to pieces of kryptonite, to build up an immunity to those particular pieces, so he can later use them against Kryptonian criminals without being affected himself. |
| 93 | * ''ComicBook/{{Superman}}'': |
| 94 | ** Nearly every depiction of one of his future incarnations has them demonstrate considerably more tolerance to the effects of Kryptonite, implying that this trope is in effect. Particularly if the story has them paired up with his counterpart from the present day, where Future!Supes will often shrug it off while the Present!Supes is vastly weakened. This depends on the incarnation, however; some continuities justify his resistance with other sources, such as a vastly increased store of solar energy. |
| 95 | %% ** [[http://goodcomics.comicbookresources.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/kryptonite.jpg This image from an old comic book]] has him deliberately trying to acquire immunity to kryptonite by exposing himself to it. |
| 96 | ** And even as early as the first year of comics, it was established that Superman is naturally immune to many poisons simply because they weren't compatible with Kryptonian biology. |
| 97 | * ''ComicBook/TheTick'': Spoofed with a minor character [[ItRunsOnNonsenseoleum who claims to have been building up an immunity to bullets this way.]] The character was an expy of ComicStrip/DickTracy, who has been shot an absurd number of times over the decades. |
| 98 | * ''ComicBook/UsagiYojimbo'': [[{{Ninja}} Chizu]] takes a small dose of poison every day for this reason. |
| 99 | * ''ComicBook/{{Venom}}'': The Venom symbiote has been stated to have become increasingly resilient to flames and sonics through repeated exposure. How much more resilient it's become depends on the writer. |
| 100 | * ''ComicBook/{{Wolverine}}'': The assassin Reiko invoke this trope with blowfish toxin, which Jubilee learns while dodging attacks. |
| 101 | * ''ComicBook/ElectricWarriors'': The series is set somewhere in the post-apocalyptic world of ComicBook/{{Kamandi}} where humanity has somewhat recovered and is coexisting with uplifted animals. The Earth has settled into a galactic community that avoids war over scarce resources through a hunger games kind of ritual where they [[SuperEmpowering empower]] champions to battle on their civilization's behalf. The food stocks from Earth are stuff known to be highly toxic like [[ComicBook/ElongatedMan Gingold]] or the Joker's [[Recap/BatmanTheAnimatedSeriesE34TheLaughingFish laughing fish]]. |
| 102 | * ''ComicBook/TeenTitans'': [[Characters/TeenTitansCheshire Cheshire]] is a MasterPoisoner who has made herself immune to countless types of toxins and poisons in this fashion. In one ''ComicBook/BirdsOfPrey'' storyline, shot took down ComicBook/LadyShiva by simply flooding the room with an odorless and [[TheParalyzer paralyzing toxin]]. Shiva soon fell to the floor while Cheshire herself was immune to the effects. |
| 103 | * One version of [[Franchise/GIJoe Cobra Commander]] was given treatments against cobra and other snake venom. (This particular version [[CompositeCharacter was previously]] Baron Ironblood, the main villain of the European ''Joe'' equivalent, ''[[Franchise/ActionMan Action Force]]''. When Hasbro bought out Palitoy, they proceeded to [[CanonImmigrant bring in various characters and concepts]] from the US ''GI Joe'' line, resulting in Ironblood becoming [[YouHaveOutlivedYourUsefulness fed up with the Red Shadows' failures]] and intentionally leaking info about their bases, while he went to Southeast Asia to form this continuity's version of Cobra.) |
| 104 | [[/folder]] |
| 105 | |
| 106 | [[folder:Comic Strips]] |
| 107 | * Spoofed in the NewspaperComic ''ComicStrip/CloseToHome'', where a golfer subjects himself to gradually stronger shocks of electricity to build immunity to lightning strikes. |
| 108 | * ''ComicStrip/GetFuzzy''. In the strip for [[http://assets.amuniversal.com/be9076709a390130392c001dd8b71c47 May 18th, 2013]], Bucky says that he consumed two spiders per day for the last four years to build up an immunity to poison. When Satchel points out that the spiders in their house aren't poisonous, Bucky doesn't feel so good. |
| 109 | [[/folder]] |
| 110 | |
| 111 | [[folder:Fan Works]] |
| 112 | * ''Fanfic/AeonEntelechyEvangelion'' combines this with ConditionedToAcceptHorror in Asuka's EVA pilot training, which included controlled desensitizing to anything that causes sanity loss. |
| 113 | * In the Italian version of ''Fanfic/BattleFantasiaProject'', fairies suffer brain damage when exposed to iron for too long, but [[WesternAnimation/WinxClub Bloom]] became immune to iron poisoning by growing up on Earth, [[KryptoniteIsEverywhere where iron is used for everything]], since before developing her powers and thus the vulnerability. |
| 114 | * ''Fanfic/TheEndOfTheWorldFernWithy'': Twenty-five years of hard drinking's effect on Haymitch's liver (plus the regular detox pills he takes to try to counter that) make it hard to poison him in a way that will look like a natural death from drinking too much, as both Snow and Coin discover. |
| 115 | * Being a trained Sheikah, Impa notes that she is immune to many toxins in ''Fanfic/BlindCourage''. |
| 116 | * In ''Fanfic/FateIngensCor'', Assassin picks up one of Archer's missed poisoned arrows and stabs herself. The poison weakens her a bit, but she quickly recovers and gloats that the poison will never affect her again. |
| 117 | * In ''Fanfic/GlitterForceIntoTheGlitterverse'', the [[Anime/SmilePrecure Smile]] and [[Anime/DokiDokiPrecure Doki Doki]] Anime/PrettyCure teams are immune to the Glitter Force infection, due to having been infected in the past. |
| 118 | * In ''Fanfic/MyHeroAcademiaUnchainedPredator'', the Slayer is heavily resistant to all forms of gas, from sleeping gas to extremely deadly nerve agents due to him surviving in Hell for literal eons. Not that the heroes and villains don't know, but in the end, Midnight's trick failed to even make the man dizzy. |
| 119 | * ''Fanfic/NotTheIntendedUseZantetsukenReverse'': One of the souls that Soma stole allows him to eat rotten food. He uses it to keep the fridge clean and make bets with his - clueless at the point - roommates. Unfortunately, it can't do anything about his nut allergy because [[ExactWords nuts are not inherently poisonous]]. |
| 120 | * In ''Fanfic/{{Origins}}'', a ''Franchise/MassEffect''[=/=]''Franchise/StarWars''[[spoiler:[=/=]''[=Borderlands=]''[=/=]''[=Halo=]'']] MassiveMultiplayerCrossover, Samantha Shepard has to ''turn this off'' in order to get drunk since she's now [[Franchise/StarWars more machine than woman]]. Mordin Solis even has to adjust the power in her cybernetic legs to let her dance! |
| 121 | * ''Fanfic/TheRigelBlackChronicles'': Harry doesn't exactly build up ''immunity'' to poisons, but in preparation for the Fifth Triwizard Task, and under Professor Snape's careful supervision, she trains herself to flush them out of her system with magic, after allowing them to progress to varying degrees. [[spoiler:The Draught of Delirium still leaves her confused, weak, and struggling, partly because her dose was tampered with, but she handles it well enough that she wins the Task.]] |
| 122 | * In ''Fanfic/RubyAndNora'' Oobleck thinks he has this trope. While one tranquilizer doesn’t knock him out, a heck of a lot more do. |
| 123 | * in ''Literature/TheHungerGames'' short story ''Secrets'', a companion piece to "Fanfic/TheVictorsProject" it's mentioned that using this trope was the only thing that kept Luster Lancaster (leader of District One's career victors in the author's previous fanfics) from being killed by one of his own victors (who was prostituted by Snow at Luster's suggestion) several times during the fifth decade of the games. |
| 124 | * In ''WebVideo/UltraFastPony'', [[WeaksauceWeakness Rarity is allergic to water]]. In "Copywrong", she tries to build up immunity by soaking in a pool. Twilight points out that her allergic reaction seems to be getting worse, not better. |
| 125 | * The titular badger in ''Fanfic/TheUrthbloodSaga'', among his other powers, has built up an immunity to all but the strongest poisons from this method. One poor ferret who tried to poison him and take over his army learned this the [[CruelAndUnusualDeath hard way...]] |
| 126 | * In ''WebVideo/YuYuHakushoAbridged'', it is implied that this is how Suzaku learned to control ''lightning''. |
| 127 | [[/folder]] |
| 128 | |
| 129 | [[folder:Films -- Animation]] |
| 130 | * Clownfish Marlin and Nemo from ''WesternAnimation/FindingNemo'' have built up a resistance to venom stings from living in a sea anemone. [[ChekhovsSkill This ends up coming in handy when Marlin and Dory end up in a swarm of jellyfish.]] |
| 131 | -->'''Dory''': Hey, why didn't it[[note]] (the little Jellyfish, AKA "Squishy")[[/note]] sting you? |
| 132 | -->'''Marlin''': ''It did''. It's just... I-I live in this anemone, I'm used to these kind of things. |
| 133 | [[/folder]] |
| 134 | |
| 135 | [[folder:Films -- Live-Action]] |
| 136 | * In Creator/WoodyAllen's ''Film/{{Bananas}}'', Gen. Vargas has a servant on hand to taste his meals in case they are poisoned. One meal does turn out to be poisoned, but the General eats it, anyway, claiming that he's been poisoned so many times to have developed immunity. |
| 137 | * In the short film ''Film/TheBloodyOlive'', the female lead explains to a bystander that she was vaccinated against all types of poisons, which rendered the villain's poison dart ineffective. |
| 138 | * In the 2008 movie ''Film/GetSmart'', 99 sprays Max with knockout gas. Max says that he developed an immunity to it, then passes out while cursing, "That's new stuff." |
| 139 | * ''Film/{{IO}}''. Sam has a line of scar lumps on her midriff from where she keeps dabbing her skin with tiny doses of toxin in the hope of adapting to Earth's changed atmosphere. [[spoiler:When Micah tries to force her to leave the planet with him on the last shuttle, [[ItsTheOnlyWay she removes her gasmask to prove]] she has indeed adapted. Fortunately she's right.]] |
| 140 | * Creator/PatMorita's character Hashimoto in ''Film/KingCobra1999'' is a snake handler who regularly injects himself with doses of snake venom to develop immunity. He's able to shrug off getting bitten by the giant snake once, but after getting bitten a few more times, [[TheWorldsExpertOnGettingKilled he weakens and dies]]. |
| 141 | * ''Film/TheKingsMan'': The attempt to poison Rasputin failing is attributed to him consuming a small amount of poison every morning. Though he also [[VomitIndiscretionShot vomits up]] the poisoned cake. |
| 142 | * ''Film/ThePrincessBride'': The Man In Black challenges Vizzini to drink from two cups, one of which has been poisoned with iocaine. After they both drink [[spoiler:and Vizzini dies, the Man in Black reveals that he poisoned both cups because he'd spent the last few years developing an immunity to iocaine]]. |
| 143 | * In the third ''Film/{{Riddick}}'' movie, Riddick has to get through a narrow pass to get out of the desert into the fertile grasslands beyond. The pass houses a muddy pool with a poisonous scorpion creature that paralyzes its prey. He captures a younger, smaller creature, and extracts the poison. He tests it on a young desert dog first, then injects himself with small doses until he's built up an immunity. |
| 144 | * In ''Film/ThankYouForSmoking'', terrorists [[spoiler:try to kill the main character by covering him in nicotine patches, which would overwhelm any normal person, and leaving him naked on the lap of the Lincoln Memorial]]. He survives and recovers fairly quickly because he'd been chain smoking for years and had built up a [[BlessedWithSuck superhuman tolerance to nicotine.]] Unfortunately (fortunately?) it also means [[CursedWithAwesome he can never smoke again.]] |
| 145 | * ''Film/UnderSiege2DarkTerritory'' has a thug who has been pepper-sprayed so many times, all it does is clear out his sinuses. And then he proves it by using it as a breath freshener. |
| 146 | * In ''Film/YourHighness'', The Wise Wizard, Fabious, and Thadeous smoke herbs together. The Wise Wizard and Fabious get stoned immediately and suffer hallucinations, but Thadeous (who regularly smokes pot) is unaffected. |
| 147 | [[/folder]] |
| 148 | |
| 149 | [[folder:Jokes]] |
| 150 | * Shoot yourself with lower-caliber bullets to build up an immunity to higher ones. |
| 151 | [[/folder]] |
| 152 | |
| 153 | [[folder:Literature]] |
| 154 | * ''[[https://www.royalroad.com/fiction/72301/1-lifesteal/ 1% Lifesteal]]'': The "Hundred Wet Hells" body tempering technique works by making ''every particle of water in the user's body'' turn against them. The first time Freddy uses it, he immediately passes out, presumably from something in his brain being affected. However, the more the user becomes accustomed to the technique, the more their body becomes resilient to the effects, with the result that they can largely ignore all kinds of pain, disorientation, nausea, etc. [[spoiler:Freddy later empowers it with the essence of Turbulence, escalating its effects for greater rewards.]] |
| 155 | * In ''[[Literature/BofuriIDontWantToGetHurtSoIllMaxOutMyDefense BOFURI: I Don't Want to Get Hurt, so I'll Max Out My Defense]]'' (seen on the Video Examples page for this trope), the main character Maple uses this to maximize her skill (via using potions when she's about to die) to develop a higher level of immunity and to have a chance to defeat a poison dragon. |
| 156 | * One ''Literature/SixteenThirtyTwo'' short story centers around a poisoning that was originally suspected to be a murder until it was discovered to be an accidental suicide. The dead man had been dosing himself with arsenic regularly in an attempt to build up an immunity. Unfortunately, his regular supplier had been selling him adulterated drugs, so his immunity wasn't built up anywhere near as much as he thought. After buying a new supply from a different chemist, who sold him pure arsenic, he took what he thought was the appropriate dosage for his regimen, which was based on the weaker drugs of his first supplier. The massive dose of pure arsenic overpowered his limited immunity and killed him. |
| 157 | * The eponymous heroine of the ''Literature/{{Angelique|Golon}}'' novels (set during King UsefulNotes/LouisXIV's reign) survives an assassination attempt when the killers force her to drink a cup of poison. Unbeknownst to them, she had already taken for some years a pill each day, filled with minute amounts of the most common poisons [[TheCavalierYears of that age]]. This got played [[RealityIsUnrealistic realistically]], as despite the acquired tolerance and the fact she throws up just after the assassins leave, [[DoNotTryThisAtHome she still got very sick for the next few days and barely survived]]. |
| 158 | * In ''Literature/AveXiaRemY'' Liu Jin's training under Old Jiang starts with Jiang feeding him a fruit that leaves Jin paralyzed until he is able to use KiManipulation to purge the poison. After several months of learning how to deal with progressively more potent toxins, the next step of his training is a test by the Nine-Headed Snake God that causes his body to constantly produce poison that he needs to neutralize for three years. By the end of this trial Jin is able to shrug off poisons that would kill cultivators vastly above him in PowerLevels and neutralize almost anything that attempts to affect his body. |
| 159 | * In ''Literature/{{Aztec}}'' by Creator/GaryJennings, the travelers all take their snakebite prevention medicine, which involves being injected with venom from a tooth of each kind of poisonous snake. The doctor who performs the procedure advises Mixtli that his bite will now be venomous; when he finds out it's not, he assumes he is not immune to snakebite. |
| 160 | * Poisoning is the de facto assassination method of the Nyissans in the ''Literature/{{Belgariad}}''. So much so that any government official who lives for very long (case in point: Sadi) has not only long since acquired immunity to some poisons, but is trained to recognize much more, and doses himself with antidotes frequently, just in case. It's explicitly noted that the poisons taste much better than the antidotes. As an interesting side effect, Sadi is also UnaffectedBySpice, able to finish off a meal that had ''[[NiceGuy Durnik]]'' break out swearing. |
| 161 | * In ''Literature/BestServedCold'' by Joe Abercrombie, poison-master Morveer keeps himself resistant to many of his own poisons by regularly consuming them. |
| 162 | * ''Literature/BewareOfChicken'': Lu Ri once encountered a senior disciple capable of manifesting her [[KillingIntent Intent]] as an oppressive aura. He wasn't the target at the time, but he seized on the opportunity, requesting that she give him the opportunity to experience it and learn to cope. It's a hellish month for him afterward, as she unleashes it on him at random, but it works, training him to keep his composure in the face of pressure that could crush those of lesser spirit, which equips him well to deal with ''highly displeased'' sect elders after Jin Rou's departure. |
| 163 | * In the Creator/DashiellHammett [[Literature/TheContinentalOp Continental Op]] short story "Fly Paper" (1929) a woman wants to poison her abusive boyfriend but is afraid he'll be suspicious if she gives him something without drinking it herself. After reading ''Literature/TheCountOfMonteCristo'' she takes small doses of arsenic (extracted from flypaper) to build up an immunity, but instead fatally poisons herself. In discussing the case afterward the detectives reveal that the book is wrong; while some people have a natural resistance to arsenic, it's not possible to build up immunity through controlled exposure. The poison of choice in ''The Count of Monte Cristo'' is in fact [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brucine Brucine]], and '''is''' subject to Mithridatism. |
| 164 | * In ''Literature/TheCountOfMonteCristo'', old Monsieur Noirtier survives a murder attempt using poison because he has been taking a medicine that contains the same compound, and has built up a resistance to it. Realizing that his granddaughter and heir Valentine is also a target, he starts giving her small doses of his medicine; this saves her life when the poisoner has a go at her. The poisoner later tries again using a different poison, but by then Valentine's LoveInterest Maximilien has called in his friend the Count of Monte Cristo, who saves the day in his own inimitable style. |
| 165 | * In Creator/AgathaChristie's ''Literature/{{Curtain}}'', Literature/HerculePoirot drugs the murderer using his own sleeping pills, which he has been taking for many years. He uses the same gambit as Westley does in ''The Princess Bride'', poisoning both cups while implying that only one cup is poisoned. |
| 166 | * In Creator/JohnWyndham's ''Literature/TheDayOfTheTriffids'', the narrator is only alive at the beginning because a career of working with Triffids has led to him building up enough resistance to survive the sting that put him in hospital. Simon Clark's sequel, ''Literature/TheNightOfTheTriffids'', develops the idea, with a way being discovered for people to deliberately cultivate an immunity, offering a way in which humanity can finally take the world back from the Triffids. |
| 167 | * {{Downplayed|Trope}} in "Different Kinds of Darkness" by Creator/DavidLangford, wherein "basilisks" are printable images that [[BrownNote short out the human brain when viewed]]. A group of schoolchildren makes an endurance contest out of staring at a weak version they call "the Trembler", [[AchievementsInIgnorance unknowingly]] building up a resistance to the basilisk effect; when a truly deadly basilisk is left in the school, a member is able to destroy it and only passes out from the sight. |
| 168 | * ''Literature/{{Discworld}}'': |
| 169 | ** A novel or two mentions a food-taster who has ingested so many poisons that he's not only immune to them but can recognize them by taste (very handy). He can also tarnish silver by breathing on it (not so handy). He reputedly eats a toad a day to stay in practice. |
| 170 | ** The [[OurVampiresAreDifferent vampires]] in ''Literature/CarpeJugulum'' have also built up a resistance to garlic, sunlight, holy water, [[BeatItByCompulsion vampiric OCD,]] and holy symbols by this method. [[spoiler:It backfires, sort of. When they lose the immunity, they realize they're surrounded by ''the shapes'' of holy symbols they wouldn't recognize if they hadn't been shown so many different ones becoming immune in the first place]]. |
| 171 | ** Played with in ''Literature/{{Mort}}''. The first King that Mort sees die asks Death how he was killed. Death explained it was by a crossbow. The king laughed and said "And here I have been making myself immune to all of these poisons. There's no immunity to cold steel, eh?" |
| 172 | * The ''Franchise/{{Disgaea}}'' [[Literature/DisgaeaNovels novels]] gives an explanation as to why [[Characters/DisgaeaHourOfDarkness Laharl]] survived being poisoned by [[Characters/DisgaeaHourOfDarkness Etna]] in the [[VideoGame/DisgaeaHourOfDarkness game]], the reason was that his crazy aunt [[Characters/DisgaeaNovels Yasurl]] gave him the same poison when he was little and in her care. |
| 173 | * In ''Literature/{{Dreamsnake}}'', [[FrontierDoctor Healer]] training involves becoming immune to several types of snake venom, since they use genetically engineered snakes to heal. They still get sick if one of their snakes bites them, but they won't die. However, it has some nasty side effects, such as making most of them sterile (most of their children are adopted) and giving Snake premature arthritis. |
| 174 | * ''Literature/TheDresdenFiles'': Harry Dresden does a mental version of this in ''Literature/TurnCoat'', bludgeoning his mind with the memory of every horrible, nasty thing he's ever seen and experienced in order to desensitize himself and recover his stability after viewing [[spoiler:The Naagloshi]] with his Sight. |
| 175 | * Harnrim Starangh, a Red Wizard from ''[[Literature/TheElminsterSeries Elminster's Daughter]]''. "It had taken two years of retching weakness to build up a resistance to killing doses of staeradder", but being able to use a fast-acting poison freely was worth it since his most dangerous foes were other wizards whom he couldn't expect to quickly defeat by magic. |
| 176 | * In ''Literature/EmilyTheStrangeStrangerAndStranger'', Emily does this with the Black Jackal spider. Even so, the bite still partially paralyzes her. |
| 177 | * In the ''Literature/ErebusSequence'', this is given to someone without their knowledge; Rafaela has been secretly building up Lucien's immunity to the poison Golia uses due to the (correct) fear that it will eventually be needed. |
| 178 | * ''Literature/FateStrangeFake'': False Assassin mentions that she trained to be able to imitate Hassan of Serenity's technique Zabaniya: Delusional Poison Body, which turns her into a PoisonousPerson. Her training made her immune to many poisons. |
| 179 | * In ''Literature/TheFolkOfTheAir'', Jude Duarte has been intentionally ingesting small amounts of the various Fae poisons in order to gain an immunity to their deadly effects over time. This backfires though as she eventually becomes addicted to these poisons. |
| 180 | * In the ''Literature/GauntsGhosts'' novel ''Traitor General'' it is mentioned that the Nihtgane partisans have built up immunity to the poisons in the Untill fauna. |
| 181 | * In Kim Newman's ''Literature/TheHoundOfTheDurbervilles'', in an international meeting of bad guys, Rupert of Hentzau passes around a flask that no one takes since nobody trusts the others. Even after Rupert openly takes a drink, Colonel Moran thinks to himself that he could have built up an immunity, and mentions that Madame Sara (another Victorian villain) who does take a drink, likely has made herself immune to all poisons. |
| 182 | * In ''Literature/TheHungerGames'' [[spoiler:President Snow tried to build up a resistance to all of the poisons used to kill his opponents, but wasn't always successful, hence the smell of blood from the long-term injuries he's suffering from]]. |
| 183 | * This is a plot point in Sharyn [=McCrumb's=] novel ''If I'd Killed Him When I Met Him''. |
| 184 | * In Literature/TheCulture novel ''Literature/{{Inversions}}'', a doctor called Vosill is called to treat a man being tortured, [[MercyKill only for him to die suddenly]]. Suspicious, the TortureTechnician insists that Vosill taste the medicine that she just gave the deceased, but it has no effect. Later when the doctor's assistant goes to taste the medicine out of curiosity Vosill quickly stops him, implying this trope. [[spoiler:It's strongly implied that Vosill is a [[AliensAmongUs Culture agent]], so would be immune to poisons and disease thanks to their advanced technology.]] |
| 185 | * In ''The Journey of The Catechist" Etjole Ehomba can talk to animals, and a snake puts a very slight poison into his waterskin due to his politeness. He then shrugs off a poisoned dart after having built up an immunity. At which point the dart shooter decides to switch to much more effective magic, and kills Etjole outright. |
| 186 | * ''Literature/JourneyToChaos'': Tiza states that her apprentice training included small doses of different poisons to develop an immunity. She refuses to say which ones because it is a secret but one of them comes in handy [[spoiler: when a trio of zombies try to kidnap her using chloroform.]] |
| 187 | * The murderer in the Literature/LordPeterWimsey novel ''Strong Poison'' builds up an immunity to arsenic in this way. This does ''not'' work in RealLife... though the reference books Lord Peter reads really do exist, and they really did [[ScienceMarchesOn claim that it worked]]. |
| 188 | * ''Literature/TheLastAdventureOfConstanceVerity'': After subsisting on moldy bread and troll blood for a week, the blood gave Constance Verity an immunity to all poisons. Considering all of the enemies she's made, she's put it to good use. |
| 189 | * ''Literature/MalusDarkblade'' develops dermal immunity to poison after years of smearing himself with venomous slime of the huge fearsome lizard he uses as a mount, which he'd been doing so that the beast would allow him near it. |
| 190 | * In the ''Literature/{{Paradox}}'' novel ''Even the Wingless'' after almost being poisoned with hekkret, a recreational drug for the Chatcaava but a deadly poison to most Alliance races, Eldritch ambassador Lisinthir starts smoking small amounts of hekkret to build up an immunity. Unfortunately, he becomes addicted, and it doesn't provide total immunity against the daily attempts to poison him as he starts vomiting blood. |
| 191 | * ''Literature/PhoenixAndAshes'': The aftermath of his World War I experiences has Reggie taking ''lots'' of sedatives in order to sleep at night (enough that he's getting concerned). Alison isn't aware of this, so when she injects him with opiates to keep him prisoner the dosage isn't nearly enough to do the job. |
| 192 | * Liz Williams' ''The Poison Master'' averts this: the Master Ari Ghairen modifies his own body with spider and snake genes to be both resistant and toxic, in an effort to keep up with the cold war in his Guild. |
| 193 | * The Battle of Wits scene in William Goldman's ''Literature/ThePrincessBride''. The Man In Black has just tricked Vizzini into consuming poisoned wine, and reveals to Buttercup that the wine he'd consumed was also poisoned; [[OutGambitted he had developed immunity to the poison via this method]]. |
| 194 | * ''Literature/RappaccinisDaughter'': Rappaccini's lifelong obsession with poison inspired him to nourish his daughter with poison from birth. The result is that Beatrice is poisonous herself and also immune to the vegetable poisons she's been fed on. A short but promising romantic interaction between Beatrice and the student Giovanni prompts Rappaccini to lure Giovanni to his garden repeatedly so that he becomes like Beatrice and can stay with her. |
| 195 | * A plot point in Creator/GaryJennings' ''Literature/{{Raptor}}'', becoming something of a ChekhovsGun. The idea is that a ''person'' can become poisonous, by taking small amounts of poison, and kissing or sleeping with that person will poison his or her partner. |
| 196 | * Inverted in the ''Literature/RavnicaCycle''. Agrus Kos has used so many [[HealingPotion teardrops]] to patch himself up over his long career as a Wojek officer that he has become resistant to their effects. Worse, the toxic buildup of residual mana in his body means that every 'drop he uses brings him one step closer to a potentially fatal heart attack. |
| 197 | * In ''Literature/RiverOfTeeth'', [[MasterPoisoner Hero]] has acquired a poison immunity by taking small doses of poison with their iced tea each day, though it's never specified which poison in particular it is. |
| 198 | * ''Literature/SaintessSummonsSkeletons'': The [Venerable Physique of the Primeval Void] skill is primarily focused on gaining resistances or immunities through prolonged exposure to things, such as enduring fire or force damage to gain explosion resistance, or exploring pitch-black dungeons to gain InnateNightVision. [[spoiler:Sofia makes extensive use of [False Immortality] runes to speed things up, letting her blow herself up, or get killed in the dark by True Shades, over and over.]] |
| 199 | * In Kalki's classic Tamil novel ''Sivakamiyin Sabadam'' (''Sivakami's Vow''), the villainous monk Naga Nandi builds up an immunity to cobra venom. It gets to the point that it runs through his veins instead of blood, and cobras come flocking to him, attracted by the scent. |
| 200 | * The Dornish in ''Literature/ASongOfIceAndFire'' are rumoured to put extremely low doses of snake venom in their food along with all the spices, which may be an allusion to this trope. It's supposedly done more for the mild numbing, tingly effect and/or MachoMasochism (''a la'' fugu) than a conscious attempt to build up immunity, though... that is, if it's not just a lie they tell to outsiders. |
| 201 | * Lily of ''Literature/SpyClassroom'' is naturally immune to virtually all toxins, which is why her spy speciality is making and using them on other people. |
| 202 | * In the ''Literature/TalesOfTheFiveHundredKingdoms'' book ''The Snow Queen'', the Godmother Aleksia is using her MagicMirror to gather information on a tyrant that she will need to deal with. She notes that the tyrant visits his Alchemist daily for a concoction made of thirty common poisons, which gives him immunity to all but truly exotic poisons (and the reason why he doesn't need to employ a tester). For the truly exotic poisons (which are usually slow acting), the alchemist would have the antidote handy. |
| 203 | * The Creator/AEHousman poem "[[http://www.bartleby.com/123/62.html Terence, This Is Stupid Stuff"]]" retells the legend of Mithridates, a king who over the course of his life ate small doses of poison in his food to slowly build immunity to poisons and thus foil potential assassins. This story is used as an allegory; Housman's poem claims that the purpose of his poetry is to inoculate the reader against the evils of the world by describing them in palatable verse. |
| 204 | * ''Literature/ThreeDarkCrowns'': Thanks to her Arron training Katharine has this for a variety of poisons, but it has come at the cost of her health. |
| 205 | * Sam of ''Literature/VillainsByNecessity'' has developed one of these to every poison he's likely to encounter in his career as an assassin -- [[CantHoldHisLiquor except alcohol]]. He actually chides his EvilTwin for poisoning a knife with a toxin they are both immune to while they fight. |
| 206 | * ''Literature/SoImASpiderSoWhat'': |
| 207 | ** The heroine gets a rather high poison resistance (and Corrosion resistance, too) from being forced to hunt for prey in a dungeon where every creature is poisonous to various degrees. She even ups this by creating globules of Poison that she uses ''on herself'' to build it up further: something that many other Magic Users thought was impossible to accomplish. |
| 208 | ** Turns out in this RPGMechanicsVerse, you can build resistance to ''anything'' this way. Including building resistance to the Earth element by flinging boulders at yourself. |
| 209 | * ''Literature/TheStoryOfSaiunkoku'': |
| 210 | ** Ryuuki built up a resistance to various poisons mostly thanks to growing up as TheUnFavorite at the bottom of a pecking order of six princes and their mothers. He once realized that [[TamperingWithFoodAndDrink Shuurei had been handed a poisoned drink]] and drank it himself before she gulped it down, counting on the trope to work; it did and he lived to tell, but it still made him rather sick. |
| 211 | ** Sa Sakujun in the same series built up a similar resistance through bored experimentation, not that it does him a lot of good in the end. |
| 212 | * The entire Agriche family in ''Literature/TheWayToProtectTheFemaleLeadsOlderBrother'' practices this due to their rather [[ChronicBackstabbingDisorder unorthodox]] [[TheSpartanWay way]] of raising children. {{Exaggerated|Trope}} by Roxana, who consumes so much poison (albeit it has less to do with acquiring immunity and more with feeding her [[TheSwarm butterflies]]) she eventually becomes a PoisonousPerson. |
| 213 | [[/folder]] |
| 214 | |
| 215 | [[folder:Live-Action TV]] |
| 216 | * In ''Series/OneThousandWaysToDie'', a man decided to pick up a spider and let it bite him to gain immunity to its venom. Naturally, since he had no idea what he was doing, the bite kills him. |
| 217 | * ''Series/BabylonFive'': |
| 218 | ** In "Intersections in Real Time", Sheridan is being held prisoner by Earthgov and subjected to interrogation. At one point, the interrogator is eating a sandwich with delight and offers it to Sheridan, pointing out that he's eating it with no ill effects. And he assures Sheridan [[FalseReassurance they have no desire to kill him until after he's been broken]]. It's only after Sheridan finishes eating that the interrogator mentions that it contained a powerful toxin that the latter has built an immunity to. The toxin doesn't kill Sheridan but makes him ''very'' sick, as intended. |
| 219 | ** When Mollari becomes Emperor but ends up a Drakh thrall, he eventually discovers that the parasite the Drakh implanted in him to keep him under control CantHoldHisLiquor, something Londo himself can, having indulged in wine, women and song regularly for decades. This allows him to act against his controllers if he drinks the Keeper into a stupor first. Unfortunately, over the course of nearly twenty years together, the Keeper gradually develops a tolerance, eventually reaching a point where the amount of privari needed to incapacitate the Keeper is close to the amount needed to incapacitate Londo himself, reducing his ability to act when he's finally free. |
| 220 | * ''Series/TheCape'', a 2010-2011 series, used it when the titular character, learning he was dealing with a poisoner, took it upon himself to work up immunity to everything the guy was likely to utilize. [[spoiler:We didn't get to see if the immunities actually HELD, [[SubvertedTrope because the guy just tried to run him through.]] ]] |
| 221 | * In the ''Series/{{Community}}'' episode "[[Recap/CommunityS1E07IntroductionToStatistics Introduction to Statistics]]", Jeff invokes this trope as the reason Annie's crying would no longer work on him. It does not work. |
| 222 | * ''Series/ForeverKnight''. Dr. Natalie Lambert tries to wean Nick Knight off his vampirism (which she thinks is mostly psychological) by encouraging him to eat small amounts of food, take garlic pills and use a sunbed. He's also shown touching candle flames and exposing himself to religious symbols to deal with his fear of them. In the past just trying to touch a cross caused Nick's hand to burst into flame, whereas now he only gets a minor burn. This proves useful when he's able to ward off his sire [=LaCroix=] by holding a cross; even though it should affect Nick just as much, [=LaCroix=] breaks and flees before he does. |
| 223 | * In the Halloween episode of ''Series/GameShakers'', "Scared Tripless, this was part of the prank Double G played on the kids, primarily his son. [[spoiler:Since the previous Halloween, he had been taking small amounts of venom so he can fake his death after being bitten by a snake.]] While it is successful, he forgets that [[spoiler:snake bites can become infected and the doctors have to give him a shot in his butt to prevent it.]] |
| 224 | * ''Series/H2OJustAddWater'': [[{{Lunacy}} The light of the full moon]] grants mermaids extra power, but also makes them loopy or suffer from a SuperpowerMeltdown. The more full moons a mermaid experiences, the better control she has over the moon spell; by mid-season two the mermaid trio was able to remember what happened while they were under the effects. By the third season, it was no longer a problem. The cast of ''Series/MakoMermaidsAnH2OAdventure'' were able to figure out that placing a mermaid in the Moon Pool during the full moon was far more beneficial to helping her control the moon spell than trying to avoid it altogether. |
| 225 | * In a sketch in ''Series/HumanGiant'' a contestant practices for a literal gas guzzling contest (as in ''drinking'' gallons of petrol and yes it was shown to be as deadly as that sounds) by drinking various poisons including paint thinner to build up an immunity. [[spoiler:he wins but doesn't have a car.]] |
| 226 | * An inadvertent version in ''Series/IClaudius''. The wife of a Roman official is drugging his wine so she can have an affair with Sejanus while he's asleep. Sejanus convinces her they have to MurderTheHypotenuse instead, as he'll eventually become resistant to the drug. |
| 227 | * In ''Series/{{Iron Fist|2017}}'', Colleen claims that Bakuto made her swallow tarantulas whole in order to develop an immunity to their venom, but Danny doesn't buy it and she admits she made it up. |
| 228 | * ''Series/LawAndOrderSpecialVictimsUnit'' episode "Wet". A man is believed to have committed murder by poisonous mushroom spores. He built up an immunity to them through years of exposure. |
| 229 | * On ''Series/MyNameIsEarl'', Catalina has been given some tea spiked with sleeping pills by a vengeful "Crazy Witch Lady" (played by Creator/BettyWhite). She winds up in the woman's basement with Earl and company...but she ends up tying herself up, saying that because [[FridgeHorror her drinks have been spiked with so many date-rape drugs over the years]], she's developed a tolerance, but couldn't make a woman who reminded her of her aunt back home feel bad. |
| 230 | * In one episode of ''Series/{{NCIS}}'', the victim turns out to have been a hitman and his murderer is one of his intended victims. He used snake venom, and the woman kept snakes and developed immunity, although she didn't specify whether this was her intention or just a side-effect of her preferred pets. |
| 231 | * In the ''Series/{{Psych}}'' episode "This Episode Sucks", Lassiter is put to sleep with chloroform and then wakes up saying he's been building up an immunity to chloroform over the years. |
| 232 | * Christopher Walken's ''Series/SaturdayNightLive'' [[CasanovaWannabe smooth-talking ladies' man]] character "The Continental" has been maced so many times he's built up an immunity to it. This, however, doesn't keep him from getting punched in the face. |
| 233 | * Franchise/StargateVerse: |
| 234 | ** In ''Series/StargateSG1'', a single shot from a Zat'nik'tel will typically cause extreme pain and/or unconsciousness in subjects. However, it seems that years of exposure to hits from this kind of weapon is enough to build up a tolerance. In later seasons, we routinely see team-members who've been shot with a Zat suffer only mild discomfort and quickly shrug it off, while those who've ''never'' been Zatted before get consistently knocked out. This ends up being a plot point in an episode, where O'Neill has to run to the stargate in order to activate it and force the local EnergyBeings away, allowing the rest of the team to flee. He uses zat shots to temporarily make his ionized body repel the creatures, but the effect wears off after a minute or so. He can't zat himself again, as a second zat shot within a certain time frame is fatal. Luckily, Teal'c shows up just in time and zats ''the ground'' next to O'Neill to the same effect. Wonder why no one thought of that one before. |
| 235 | ** Wraith stunners from ''Series/StargateAtlantis'' seem to have the same effect as well: a glancing hit to a limb sometimes fails to knock out characters like Ronon who have been shot many times before. |
| 236 | * ''Series/StarTrekDeepSpaceNine'': In the episode "[[Recap/StarTrekDeepSpaceNineS05E19TiesOfBloodAndWater Ties of Blood and Water]]" the Vorta Weyoun reveals that Vorta are immune to most known forms of poision, which he demonstrates by drinking from a bottle of kanar that had been spiked with enough poision to kill a dozen Cardassaians. Weyoun comments that it's a useful ability for a diplomat. |
| 237 | * ''Series/TheTwilightZone1959'': In "[[Recap/TheTwilightZone1959S5E29TheJeopardyRoom The Jeopardy Room]]", the Soviet commissar Vassiloff tricks the defector Major Ivan Kuchenko into drinking wine mixed with a sleep drug by drinking first. He built up an immunity to the drug by repeatedly taking increasing doses over time. |
| 238 | * In ''Series/TheVampireDiaries'' Katherine has built up an immunity to vervain, she can still get disabled by it if taken by surprise by a large enough dose but she gets over it much faster. Stefan uses this technique to get over his addiction to human blood. |
| 239 | * One clip on ''Series/WorldsDumbest'' features mystics from India who spend their lives building up a tolerance for cobra venom. They then hold a competition to see who can take the most bites before conking out. |
| 240 | [[/folder]] |
| 241 | |
| 242 | [[folder:Radio]] |
| 243 | * Horribly subverted in the ''Radio/SherlockHolmesBBCRadio'' episode "The Saviour of Cripplegate Square". [[spoiler: The murderer regularly doses the victims with arsenic until they build up a tolerance ... so that they can subsequently be subjected to arsenic ''withdrawal'' and die without a trace of it in their systems.]] |
| 244 | [[/folder]] |
| 245 | |
| 246 | [[folder:Tabletop Games]] |
| 247 | * ''TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons'' |
| 248 | ** 1st Edition Advanced D&D supplement ''The Rogues Gallery''. The NPC Lassiviren the Dark has taken steadily increasing doses of poison over the years. As a result, few poisons affect him. |
| 249 | ** TabletopGame/ForgottenRealms |
| 250 | *** Supplement ''Drow of the Underdark''. During their training, drow have successively larger doses of drow sleep poison and various spider venoms administered to them. This gives them poison resistance ranging from +4 vs. random ingested poisons to +7 vs. spiders' and their own sleep poison. |
| 251 | *** ''Menzoberranzan'' boxed set. Over his life, the drow Mage Lord Jalynfein (AKA the Spider Mage) has eaten spider venoms of increasing strength. This has caused him to develop an immunity to the poisons of most known spiders. |
| 252 | *** 2nd Edition supplement ''The Code of the Harpers''. The Dark Dagger is a group of drow thieves who often use poison. They are mostly immune to their own poison because they have taken gradually increasing amounts of it over their lifetimes. |
| 253 | ** ''TabletopGame/DarkSun'' boxed set [=DSE1=] ''Dragon's Crown'', book "The Road of Fire". The poisoner Wheelock is immune to all poisons found on Athas because of years of exposure to them. |
| 254 | ** ''Magazine/{{Polyhedron}}'' magazine |
| 255 | *** Issue #64 adventure "Short People". Two halfling thieves try to trick the PlayerCharacters into drinking wine and ale laced with paralysis poison. They will drink along with the {{PC}}s because they have built up an immunity to the poison over the years and are not affected by it. |
| 256 | *** Issue #94 article "Elminster's Everwinking Eye". Fanaeth Torslar is a master thief who has exposed himself to so many poisons over the years that he is not affected by most common poisons. |
| 257 | *** Issue #98 adventure "A Handful of Dust". The thief Pence has created a system of immunizing people against specific ingested poisons by feeding them gradually increasing amounts of the poison at regular intervals. |
| 258 | ** ''Magazine/{{Dungeon}}'' magazine, issue #53 adventure "Spellbook Masquerade". Kelsey Kincaid has spent years building up her immunity to many poisons. As a result, she receives a +4 to all saving throws vs. poison. |
| 259 | ** 3rd Edition: |
| 260 | *** Members of the Assassin PrestigeClass received increasing saving throw bonuses to poison as they went up in level due to their use of and exposure to poisons. |
| 261 | *** Supplement ''Creature Collection''. The Ubantu tribesmen coat their weapons with poison. They've developed a racial immunity to it due to generations of exposure. |
| 262 | *** The 5th edition version of the Eberron setting gives us the Artificier (Alchemist subclass) that can become resistant to both 'Acid' and posion. |
| 263 | * ''TabletopGame/HollowEarthExpedition'', supplement ''Mysteries of the Hollow Earth''. Cannibal tribes are known for their skill in creating poisons. Some of them include small doses of poison in their meals to build up an immunity to them. |
| 264 | * In ''TabletopGame/MiceAndMystics'', the first mouse to be captured with at least one poison wound will not receive poison wounds until the end of the chapter. |
| 265 | * ''TabletopGame/{{Pathfinder}}'': The Alchemist class slowly gains resistance to poison over the first nine levels of their career before finally becoming completely immune at level ten, presumably using this method. |
| 266 | * ''TabletopGame/SpiritOfTheCentury'' features an endurance stunt called Developed Immunities that makes a character flat-out immune to "common" poisons and gives +2 or +6 to rolls to resist uncommon ones, depending on whether or not the character has encountered them before. A character who combines this stunt with a sufficiently high Endurance trait has nothing to fear from any save perhaps the most outlandish poisons. (As they run on their own versions of the same system, the exact same stunt can also be found in ''TabletopGame/StarblazerAdventures'' and ''TabletopGame/LegendsOfAnglerre''. The also related but somewhat less pulp-ish ''TabletopGame/TheDresdenFiles'' omits it.) |
| 267 | * ''TabletopGame/{{Traveller}}'': ''SORAG: Handbook of Organization and Equipment'' gives the option during {{PC}} creation for a SORAG agent to be assigned to the Medical Division. During the assignment, the agent can be given immunity to Truth Drug by injections of small doses of the drug over an extended period under carefully controlled conditions to build up the body's natural resistance. There is a small chance of the agent's body resisting the treatment, in which case no immunity is gained and the agent's Endurance drops by 1 point. |
| 268 | * ''TabletopGame/{{Warhammer}}'': Ogre butchers (wizards that eat all kinds of dangerous things to cast spells) have the immune to poison rule, so one would assume they have built up a very handy poison immunity. |
| 269 | * ''TabletopGame/Warhammer40000'': Orks of the Snakebites clan keep a variety of extremely venomous snakes as pets that they allow to bite them throughout their lives, sucking out most of the venom after each bite but allowing some to remain. Over time, this allows them to develop a considerable resistance to poison. |
| 270 | [[/folder]] |
| 271 | |
| 272 | [[folder:Video Games]] |
| 273 | * The {{Roguelike}} game ''[[VideoGame/AncientDomainsOfMystery ADOM]]'' gives poison resistance to players who eat corpses of giant spiders. |
| 274 | * ''VideoGame/BaldursGateIII'': Minthara takes small doses of various toxins with her meals to build up an immunity, which can result in an accidental DruggedLipstick if the player is romancing her. |
| 275 | * In ''VideoGame/BatmanArkhamKnight'', Scarecrow has acquired partial immunity to his own fear toxin. However, [[spoiler:a large enough dose can overpower it, and like in the ''Blackest Night'' example, he still does fear Batman.]] |
| 276 | * Because of all the [[ProfessorGuineaPig experimenting she did on herself]], Beatrix from ''VideoGame/{{Battleborn}}'' has acquired an immunity to her own toxins. That along with half of her body [[{{Cyborg}} being mechanical]]. |
| 277 | * ''VideoGame/BlasterMasterZero3'': Jason starts [[NotTheIntendedUse misuing]] his [[DeadlyUpgrade Accel Charger]] in order to traverse [[HyperspaceIsAScaryPlace Super-dimensional Space]], and comments over time that he's getting more and more comfortable with it, wondering out loud if he's just getting acclimated to the hostile nature of the place. [[spoiler:Eventually he's able to enter Super-Dimension Space without VRV and survive without life support... and an extended stay completes his transformation into a Super-Dimensional Being who can't safely exist in ''normal'' space. The same happened to Eve, [[YouAreWorthHell so he's fine with it]].]] |
| 278 | * In ''VideoGame/DragonAgeOrigins'', Oghren has spent so many years mistreating alcohol, that he no longer suffers any negative effects from whatever he drinks. Taken further in ''Awakening'' where during the Joining ceremony, upon drinking the concoction (which contains darkspawn blood among other unpleasant ingredients), which typically renders the new Wardens unconscious, he merely ''burps'' and claims it was "not bad". |
| 279 | ** In addition ''Awakening'' introduces the Vitality skill tree, which provides health bonuses. One of the [[FlavorText descriptions]] mentions the character consuming small amounts of toxic materials to build up resistance. |
| 280 | * In the final route of ''VideoGame/DuelSaviorDestiny'' following the end of [[spoiler:Mudou and Kaede's DuelBossFight]] the latter collapses after winning the fight due to poison. She returns in the endgame citing this for why it wasn't an outright double kill. |
| 281 | * ''Franchise/TheElderScrolls'' |
| 282 | ** Throughout the series, this is a racial trait of the [[LizardFolk Argonians]]. Living in the [[DeathWorld Black]] [[SwampsAreEvil Marsh]] with so many poisonous and toxic lifeforms has made the Argonians almost totally immune to natural and magical poisons. Likewise, the [[OurElvesAreDifferent Bosmer (Wood Elves)]] and [[HumansAreWarriors Redguards]] typically have lesser (around 50%) natural racial resistances to poisons. |
| 283 | ** In background lore, the [[CatFolk Khajiit]] are far less susceptible to the FantasticDrug, Moon Sugar. Moon Sugar is sacred in their culture, and they believe it to be "crystallized moonlight." Nearly all of their food uses it in some form or another, hardening their bodies to it. Still, overeating the sweetest of Khajiit foods can overwhelm even their resistance. |
| 284 | ** In ''[[VideoGame/TheElderScrollsVSkyrim Skyrim]]'', an alchemy perk 'snakeblood' gives you 50% resistance to poison, which follows perks that involve creating poisons and eating ingredients -- implying you've had so much passive exposure to the various poisons that they don't work on you anymore. |
| 285 | * ''VideoGame/EtrianOdyssey'' has a mechanic where inflicting a status ailment or bind on an enemy or ally will increase that character's resistance to that effect for the remainder of the battle. In ''[[VideoGame/EtrianOdysseyIVLegendsOfTheTitan Legends of the Titan]]'', Arcanists have a skill called "Release Spell" that undoes this. |
| 286 | * ''VideoGame/FalloutNewVegas'': |
| 287 | ** Having your limbs crippled 50 times gives you increased resistance to future broken limbs with the notification that "Repeatedly breaking bones has led them to become stronger (somehow)." This is actually truth in television - because adult bones usually lose calcium slowly after time, they tend to become stronger after the process is reversed during the knitting of bones. |
| 288 | ** In the ''Dead Money'' DLC, Dean Domino is resistant to the poisonous cloud of the Sierra Madre due to having been a resident of the place for 200 years. Having him as a companion will grant you a temporary immunity towards the cloud. |
| 289 | * In ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyCrystalChronicles1'', you meet the Selkie De Nam, who decides that the best way to deal with the deadly Miasma is to try to build up a resistance to it by drinking water with miasma mixed in. [[spoiler:It doesn't end well]]. |
| 290 | * In ''VideoGame/GreenHell'', it's mentioned early on that the natives are immune to the local poisonous frogs because of this. [[spoiler: Becomes a ChekhovsGun later when the frog poison turns out to be the missing ingredient of the miracle cure that Jake has been hunting the whole game.]] |
| 291 | * ''VideoGame/{{Grounded}}'': The mutation "Mithridatism" grants resistance to poison, and is acquired by killing wolf spiders; the more, the better. The description suggests that it's a result of all the poisonous bites you've received, although don't actually have to get bitten for it to work. (Good luck with that, though.) |
| 292 | * In ''VideoGame/Injustice2'', Harley Quinn mentions using Scarecrow's gas as a [[NightmareFetishist recreational drug]], which comes in handy in a fight against him. |
| 293 | * After extensive exposure to the powers of [[CastingAShadow darkness]], it's revealed in ''VideoGame/KingdomHearts3DDreamDropDistance'' that [[TheAtoner Riku]] has become immune to the corruptive nature of darkness, [[spoiler:meaning Xehanort is unable to use him as a vessel any longer]]. |
| 294 | * ''VideoGame/KnightBewitched2'': Malady has the Innoculated passive, which grants her immunity to poison. She gained this ability due to constantly working with poisons and chemicals. |
| 295 | * ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaBreathOfTheWild'': The [[FishPeople Zora]] are portrayed as being especially vulnerable to [[ShockAndAwe electricity]], which is inconvenient because Shock Arrows are needed to incapacitate the [[HumongousMecha Divine Beast Vah Ruta]] that has been causing havoc for the Lanayru Province. King Dorephan and Prince Sidon decide to seek help from [[HumansAreAverage Hylians]], who lack said vulnerability, but one Zora named Seggin instead tries to develop an immunity to electricity by repeatedly touching a Shock Arrow. He is apparently making some progress, as it's mentioned that he can hold it far longer than any other Zora, but it's still excruciatingly painful. |
| 296 | * In ''VideoGame/LostSoulsMUD'', once you have any degree of poison resistance, exposure to poison will develop it further. |
| 297 | * In ''VideoGame/MassEffect2'', failure to realize that without constant supervision, a sedated Shepard won't stay that way for long, ends up foiling [[spoiler:the [[BrainwashedAndCrazy Indoctrinated]] Alliance agents]] in ''The Arrival''. One medical report in ''The Arrival'' even mentions their frustration that it was necessary to ''increase'' every round of sedatives administered because Shepard's system simply grew immune to the previous dose, given only ''four'' hours earlier. It's justified by their cybernetics, which also allows them to survive otherwise fatal poisons (and [[GargleBlaster ryncol]]). |
| 298 | * In ''VideoGame/MegaManBattleNetwork'', deliberately ignoring the rules of the Navi Customizer results in [=MegaMan=] getting random bugs that impede his abilities in battle. However, in the [[VideoGame/MegaManBattleNetwork3WhiteAndBlue third game]], persisting through enough battles with these bugs will unlock the [=BugStyle=] Change, which comes with [=BugStop=], allowing [=MegaMan=] to use the Customizer without worrying over bugs. |
| 299 | * In the ''VideoGame/MonsterHunter'' series, the titular monsters get an increase in poison resistance each time the poison status effect is applied. The same is true for KO, paralysis, and traps. |
| 300 | * ''VideoGame/NetHack'' (what else?) features varieties of poisonous meats that have a slight chance of providing permanent poison resistance when consumed. You can similarly gain resistance to heat, cold and electricity by eating certain corpses. You can even get immunity to {{Disintegrator Ray}}s that way. |
| 301 | * ''VideoGame/NeverwinterNights'': |
| 302 | ** Acquired poison resistance is one of the perks of the assassin class. |
| 303 | ** One quest has a werewolf character who claims to have overcome his weakness to wolfsbane herb by posing as a merchant and selling it to werewolf hunters, while secretly exposing himself to small quantities of it. |
| 304 | * ''VideoGame/OctopathTravelerII'': [[CombatMedic Castti]], according to banter she has with Osvald, is immune to most poisons as a result of creating herbal medicines and testing them on herself. While this doesn't mean she's immune to poison from enemies, it ''does'' mean she's able to survive in [[spoiler:Trousseau's poisonous rain]] much longer than anyone else. |
| 305 | * ''VideoGame/Persona3'': It's extremely strenuous traversing inside Tartarus, the reasoning is explained by Akihiko and Mitsuru after the Protagonist, Yukari and Junpei experience its effects. Gameplay wise in the beginning it won't take many fights to put the Protagonist, Yukari and Junpei into "tired" status. As the group levels up more and more their resistance to the exhaustive effects of Tartarus strengthens but does not disappear entirely. |
| 306 | * Subverted in ''VideoGame/RagnarokRoguelike''. While it's possible to acquire poison immunity in a similar manner (though most venomous animals are still poisonous to eat), the poison of the phantom asp is so potent it has a chance to kill even through supposed "immunity." |
| 307 | * In ''VideoGame/RuneFactory3'', your protagonist has a "Poison" skill that goes up whenever he is poisoned by the enemy, or whenever he successfully poisons one of them with an attack. One of the benefits of raising it is it makes you harder to be poisoned. |
| 308 | * ''VideoGame/SuikodenII'': |
| 309 | ** One country has a sighting ceremony where the knight and the ruler mix drops of their blood in a bowl and sip from it. One character builds up a tolerance until he can make his ''blood'' lethal to others. |
| 310 | ** The only reason that [[TheHero Riou]] can eat his sister's [[LethalChef "food"]] is that he's ''developed an immunity to it''. |
| 311 | * One of ''Franchise/TouhouProject''[='s=] protagonists, CuteWitch Marisa Kirisame, is revealed in supplementary materials to have exposed herself to so many poisons and toxic substances over the course of her magical research that she's developed a resistance to ''mercury poisoning''. |
| 312 | * One ''VideoGame/WorldOfWarcraft'' Horde quest has the player fight venomhide ravasaurs (venomous raptors) and gets splashed with their toxic blood in order to become immune. This is the first step to getting a [[BraggingRightsReward venomhide ravasaur mount]]. |
| 313 | ** Worgen have a racial ability, Aberration, which reduces the duration of curses and diseases they are afflicted with. Presumably, because they're [[OneCurseLimit already afflicted with the Worgen curse]]. |
| 314 | ** Traveling through Gorgrond, players can stumble across a pool of water filled with snakes and the corpse of an Orc floating in the middle. Looting the body reveals that the Orc was attempting to invoke the trope to make him immune to snake venom; only for the snakes to wind up killing him. |
| 315 | [[/folder]] |
| 316 | |
| 317 | [[folder:Web Comics]] |
| 318 | * ''Webcomic/TheAdventuresOfDrMcNinja'': Dan [=McNinja=] doesn't need to develop an immunity to poisons. His body separates it out and stores it up so he can squirt it out of his eyes. "Like a toad." |
| 319 | * ''Webcomic/DeadWinter'': Black Monday Blues' mother [[http://deadwinter.cc/page/448 evokes]] "building a tolerance" right before a pair of bad guys collapse. |
| 320 | * ''Webcomic/EnsignSueMustDie'': Mary Sue built up an immunity to ''phaser blasts'' this way. |
| 321 | * [[InvokedTrope Invoked]] and then immediately [[SubvertedTrope subverted]] in this ''Webcomic/{{Exiern}}'' [[http://www.exiern.com/2012/05/03/pass-the-iocaine-powder-2/ page]]: |
| 322 | -->'''King Urtica:''' I trust I have a resistance to the poison in this wine. (''sips'')\ |
| 323 | '''Madam Amalia:''' Any poison I would use wouldn't give you the opportunity. |
| 324 | * ''Webcomic/GirlGenius'': |
| 325 | ** Gilgamesh Wulfenbach has immunity to many many things. Because his father "figures that a ruler should be... ''hard to kill''", what with the people across all of Europe who're upset at killing that MadScientist or the process of bombing this town... which extends to [[OverlordJr his heir]]. [[spoiler:This came in useful in the arc where Tarvek suffered a particularly nasty and rare disease -- Gil was able to disregard the risk of infection]]. |
| 326 | ** Those with Smoke Knight training are also immune to ordinary soporifics, as seen with Violetta and Martelus during the [[http://www.girlgeniusonline.com/comic.php?date=20150429 tea break at the Corbettites]]. [[spoiler:Unfortunately for Martelus, those training sessions didn't include immunity to a sap to the head.]] |
| 327 | * In ''Webcomic/HowToBeAWerewolf'' getting scratched by a werewolf provides immunity to their bite. Vincent was clawed up by his sister Malaya when he was a toddler, with the result that he doesn't turn after one of Connie's pack bites him. |
| 328 | * ''Webcomic/KeychainOfCreation'': |
| 329 | ** Besides [[FunctionalAddict disturbing quantities of alcohol]], Ten Winds has reportedly been exposed to toxins, drugs and pharmaceuticals of all kinds and quantities from across [[TabletopGame/{{Exalted}} Creation]] over his multi-century lifespan. Stack that on top of his already supernatural Exalted metabolism and you have someone who is ''very'' hard to poison, as illustrated [[http://keychain.patternspider.net/archive/koc0144.html here]]: |
| 330 | --->'''Ten Winds:''' ''[Sipping drink]'' Why, this is quite a classy sedative.\ |
| 331 | '''[[spoiler:Nova's maid]]:''' It's imported. |
| 332 | ** {{Invoked|Trope}} on Marena by her mother [[http://keychain.patternspider.net/archive/koc0317.html in her childhood]], as it turns out -- one of Marena's many resentments towards her. |
| 333 | * ''Webcomic/LatchkeyKingdom'' has princess Rosaline Lannistark, though her parents were [[https://latchkeykingdom.com/comics/comic/minion-11/ a bit mean-spirited]] in teaching her. |
| 334 | * One (SFW) ''Webcomic/{{Oglaf}}'' comic shows an unexpected downside of this trope. In it, a very experienced food taster [[http://www.oglaf.com/naturalcauses boasting that he's immune to pretty much everything by now]] to his latest client. Said client then keels over after one bite of the poisoned meal that the taster was completely unaffected by. |
| 335 | -->'''Food Taster:''' You won't be wanting that, then? |
| 336 | * ''Webcomic/RiversideExtras'': Subverted. [[FemmeFatale Ophelia]] does drug both drinks, foiling Simon's attempted PoisonedChaliceSwitcheroo, making a dramatic exit as Simon lies on the floor twitching...only to stumble and see double once she's left the room. She just had the advantage of anticipating the effects of the ether. Fortunately, the ether's effects are nonfatal for both of them. |
| 337 | * In ''Webcomic/SomethingPositive'', Kharisma tries to kill Avagadro with cyanide, which he has built up an immunity to after being poisoned by so many people over so many years. He says that he has grown accustomed to the taste, and now puts it on his cereal. |
| 338 | * ''Webcomic/{{Spacetrawler}}'': Dmitri believes that a person can become immune to stun guns, and has started shooting himself repeatedly in order to acquire it. Results: [[spoiler:he acquires [[StrangelyArousing a taste for stun-gun shots]]. And immunity. In that order.]] |
| 339 | * ''Webcomic/YourThrone'': Lady Medea Solon knows a lot about poisons and has aquired immunity to most. Unfortunately, it is her ''own father'' who tries to poison her, and he knows the few combinations of poison she isn't immune against. |
| 340 | * [[TokenWizard Isaac]] of ''Webcomic/ValAndIsaac'' has managed to achieve this by ''[[https://tredlocity.tumblr.com/post/180114719416 accident]]'' due to him drinking poison that his colleague [[TheEngineer Minow]] keeps putting next to his coffee. |
| 341 | -->'''Pirate:''' That doesn't explain-\ |
| 342 | '''Isaac:''' It happens twice a week. |
| 343 | [[/folder]] |
| 344 | |
| 345 | [[folder:Web Original]] |
| 346 | * In ''Roleplay/DinoAttackRPG'', Amanda Claw built up immunities to several different poisons and toxins by taking small doses during her years as Silencia Venomosa. This protected her from the poisonous gas in the Mindstorms, Inc. office building. She also hoped this would protect her from the XERRD toxins, but evidently that is one immunity she never acquired; still, she held out longer than most of her fellow Dino Attack agents. |
| 347 | * ''WebAnimation/DSBTInsaniT'': [[PoisonousPerson Michael and Ashley]] are immune to their own poisons...but not each other's. This is key in defeating them. |
| 348 | * In ''Roleplay/FenQuest'', it's mentioned that immunity to [[{{Mutants}} Tomato]]'s deadly venom must be periodically "maintained" by ingesting some of it, otherwise, it wears off over time. When his sister [[ThemeNaming Cheese]] is accidentally stung after months apart, they determine she still has enough resistance to survive unaided, but will nonetheless get gravely ill without an antidote. |
| 349 | * A milder example, as it's not really a poison. In WebVideo/TheNostalgiaCritic's music video "F**king Love Christmas", Critic sings a psychotic metal song about how much he loves the holiday. He terrifies Malcolm and Tamara so much that Malcolm has to tranquilize him. He then sings that he built up an immunity to tranquilizers because of his insane love of Christmas. |
| 350 | * In ''The Orphan and the Jeweler'' (a companion story to ''VideoGame/{{Diablo III}}''), Stepfather Yao administers tea poisoned by a lethal plant known as scorpion root to Covetous Shen. After drinking the tea and remaining unharmed, Shen remarks that his immunity comes from a time when he was trapped on an island full of scorpion root and poisonous snakes and was forced to eat them to survive, thus granting him immunity to most poisons. As one might expect, Yao is properly baffled by this. |
| 351 | * In the ''WebVideo/SuperMarioLogan'' episode "[[Franchise/{{Shrek}} Shrek's]] Diet", it is revealed that the diabetes Shrek got from eating nothing but [[TrademarkFavoriteFood cheesecake]] his entire life has caused his body to build up an immunity to diabetes. |
| 352 | * Sylvester, in ''Literature/{{Twig}}'', is the recipient of the Wyvern formula, which consists of a variety of natural toxins and poisons which is regularly ''injected into his brain'' in order to improve brain plasticity and healing, which grants him the ability to rapidly retrain himself in different skillsets. As a side effect, he's developed resistance to a variety of common poisons, though there's still more that can beat him. |
| 353 | * Parodied in [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3pJwua1DwAI&t this]] [=CalebCity=] skit where the bad guy who liberally uses YouHaveFailedMe for the slightest inconvenience tries to choke out his last surviving minion for backtalking him over it, only for the minion to tell him he's been choked out so many times he no longer needs oxygen. |
| 354 | * Played for laughs in ''WebAnimation/CampCamp'', where deranged cult leader Daniel [[SelfDisposingVillain accidentally poisons himself]] with his own [[DrinkingTheKoolAid punch]]. When he comes back in a later episode, he reveals that he's done this [[TooDumbToLive so many times]] he's built up an immunity. Of course, [[SurprisinglyRealisticOutcome it was still bad enough to hospitalize him]], so he might be lying about that. |
| 355 | [[/folder]] |
| 356 | |
| 357 | [[folder:Western Animation]] |
| 358 | * ''WesternAnimation/{{Arcane}}'': Silco is completely immune to the toxic mine air he uses to punish his disgruntled chembaron allies, only wearing a mask briefly to taunt Finn. It suggests he has suffered far more in the aforementioned slave mines than those present in the meeting. |
| 359 | * The eponymous ''WesternAnimation/{{Archer}}'' has been poisoned and drugged so many times in his line of work, he can metabolize and shake off toxins with ludicrous speed. |
| 360 | * Dan from ''WesternAnimation/DanVs'' has been hit with tear gas and pepper spray so many times that he doesn't feel their effects anymore. He can even tell the differences. |
| 361 | * Similar to the SNL example above, in ''WesternAnimation/FamilyGuy'', Quagmire has also built up [[BlackComedyRape an immunity to mace]] after being pepper-sprayed so many times. |
| 362 | * In ''WesternAnimation/FriskyDingo'', Killface tries to poison Phil with a "vitoxin" poison but finds out Phil built up an immunity to it, coincidentally using small doses to help him lose weight. Unfortunately for Phil, he didn't build up an immunity to be accidentally shot in the head by a sniper aiming for someone else. |
| 363 | * Snake Eyes in ''WesternAnimation/GIJoeRenegades'' takes multiple hits from poison darts thanks to a built up immunity. They're still enough to weaken him though. |
| 364 | * Similarily, but on a more technological level, Old Man [=McGucket=] from ''WesternAnimation/GravityFalls'' has a built-up immunity to the effects of the Mind-Wiper Gun due to using it on himself so much. PlayedWith in that the Mind-Wiper Gun doesn't have any effect on him because it has already done [[DisabilityImmunity all the damage]] [[InsanityImmunity it possibly could.]] |
| 365 | * Dale Gribble in ''WesternAnimation/KingOfTheHill'' was unaffected by police tear gas stating that he kills squirrels with stronger gases. Given that he's an exterminator spraying poisonous gases without wearing a mask and while his health slowly deteriorates (alongside with smoking). |
| 366 | * ''WesternAnimation/TheLifeAndTimesOfJuniperLee'': Toward the end of the series, June lets her brother Dennis in on TheMasquerade partially because they've used [[LaserGuidedAmnesia memory erasing powder]] on him so much that he developed an immunity to it. |
| 367 | * In ''WesternAnimation/{{Metalocalypse}}'', Pickles is immune to the mind-erasing effects of Totally Awesome Sweet Alabama Liquid Snake, and every other drug as well, as the result of doing "government weed" daily since the age of 6. |
| 368 | * In the "Cartoon Smokers" sketch from the ''WesternAnimation/RobotChicken'' episode, "Triple Hot Dog Sandwich on Wheat", [[ComicStrip/{{Popeye}} Olive Oyl]] is among the famous cartoon characters being treated for lung cancer in a hospital, due to years of exposure to secondhand smoke from Popeye. Ironically, Popeye is just fine due to immunity to lung cancer developed by the antioxidants in his spinach. |
| 369 | * ''WesternAnimation/RockyAndBullwinkle'': In one segment of ''Peabody's Improbable Histories'', Mr. Peabody uses this trope to help the husband of Lucrezia Borgia. |
| 370 | * Downplayed variant in ''WesternAnimation/SallyBollywood''. When everyone in school gets sick except for Sally, it turns out it was because the lunch that day used an extra strong pepper. Sally was the only one unaffected thanks to her heritage meaning that she was used to eating food that spicy, having eaten that same pepper her entire life. |
| 371 | * Nigel Thornberry claims in ''WesternAnimation/TheWildThornberrys'' that he's developed an immunity to poisonous plants by rubbing their juices all over his body. |
| 372 | * In ''WesternAnimation/YoungJustice2010'', Aqualad reveals that he is "largely immune" to the jellyfish toxin that Cheshire uses to coat her darts. Largely doesn't mean completely, though: he was weakened by it, more with each dose. Of course, this may be a result of his Atlantean biology and not an acquired trait. |
| 373 | [[/folder]] |
| 374 | |
| 375 | [[folder:Real Life]] |
| 376 | * As noted above, the official term for this (Mithridatism) comes from King Mithridates VI, a king of Pontus. He feared assassination so badly that he took small doses of poison regularly in order to become immune to the poison's effects. This backfired when the king was eventually conquered. He attempted to commit suicide by poisoning himself only to find that he was immune; depending on the version of the story you hear, he then either fell upon his sword or had an underling run him through. In either case, the poem says it best: [[http://www.bartelby.net/123/62.html "Mithridates, he died old."]] |
| 377 | * Supposedly this was a very common practice amongst the upper classes in AncientRome. At any rate, it is referenced in the Cambridge Latin textbook series with a similar outcome to Mithridates. |
| 378 | * Human body quickly builds up a tolerance to most alkaloids (ranging from the relatively harmless caffeine to opiates, nicotine, atropine or cocaine), which drives people slowly to higher doses and addiction. Nicotine from tobacco, in pure form, can kill a fully grown human in amounts as small as 30 mg, [[HiroshimaAsAUnitOfMeasure which is 1/16th of a peppercorn]], and during the 19th century had been used for assassinations, until forensic physicians discovered a way to detect it. |
| 379 | * [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bill_Haast Bill Haast]] was one of these until his death at the age of 100. He became immune to most snake venom by injecting himself with diluted venom over a period of time, which was a good thing, because he had garnered 172 bites in his lifetime, and had even survived a [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Krait blue krait]] bite - without antivenom, which was something that he didn't think was possible. [[http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/obituaries/bill-haast-dies-at-100-florida-snake-man-provided-venom-for-snakebite-serum/2011/06/18/AGgZjfaH_story.html His blood has been used to help more than 20 snake-bite victims.]] |
| 380 | --> '''Haast:''' "It was risky, but I was cautious. When I started in 1948, a doctor said he wouldn't give me a nickel for me living two years. Well, I'm still here, but the doctor died of a coronary." |
| 381 | * According to ''Series/DeadliestWarrior'', the African warlord Shaka Zulu spat poison into his opponent's eyes during battle. He avoided its effects himself by this method, eating small pieces of the plant it came from for years. This may or may not be true. |
| 382 | * While you can't build up an immunity to arsenic, you can build up a ''tolerance.'' When American soldiers came to the UK in World War II those stationed in Cornwall often came down with arsenic poisoning from the water that the locals could drink with no problems. |
| 383 | ** One episode of ''Series/ForensicFiles'' featured a woman who survived doses of arsenic that would have killed a person several times over, mainly because her husband who had been poisoning her gave her small amounts at first and unknowingly made her more tolerant of it. |
| 384 | ** Both these cases are likely actually due to a [[https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/centuries-poison-laced-water-gave-these-people-tolerance-arsenic-180954491/ genetic mutation]] that results in higher resistance to arsenic. |
| 385 | * This trope ended up backfiring when a man from Russia attempted to swallow small quantities of toxic mushrooms, arsenic, and cyanide daily to strengthen his body and protect himself from death. He later went into convulsions, slipped into a coma, and died without regaining consciousness. [[http://www.darwinawards.com/darwin/darwin2007-18.html As seen here.]] |
| 386 | * African Honey Badgers. Over their lifetime, they develop some immunity from the poisonous snakes, scorpions, and bees they regularly prey on. In fact, a male bitten on the cheek by a highly toxic puff adder showed signs of severe pain but recovered fully within five hours. [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c81bcjyfn6U Watch it here.]] |
| 387 | * According to some theories, the Aztecs got their red skin tone from the arsenic in their systems obtained by taking it over time to build up immunity. |
| 388 | * A famous urban myth is UsefulNotes/GrigoriRasputin - he supposedly had been taking minute doses of cyanide over a long period, and when his meal was poisoned, he ate it and walked away. Given that it ''should'' be impossible to build a resistance to cyanide, it's likely that it's not true. More likely is that the poison had either been broken down during cooking by mistake, counteracted by something else he ate during that meal, or even that he didn't eat it at all due to his bad stomach. In any case, later records revealed that Rasputin died of being shot, not poisoned. |
| 389 | * In her autobiography, Venezuelan musician and metaphysician Conny Méndez claimed that, when she was young, one of her uncles decided to make the family immune to cyanide, and convinced them of sprinkling tiny quantities of the substance on their food then increasing the doses little by little. The thing allegedly ended some years later when an apothecary, alarmed with the huge quantities of cyanide bought by the family, sicced the police on them; by then the kids of the family were ingesting without ill effects enough cyanide to kill a normal adult. |
| 390 | * The Rough-Skinned Newt has enough tetrodotoxin to kill a room full of adult humans, as a result of a ridiculous [[LensmanArmsRace evolutionary arms race]] with garter snakes. The evidence suggests that each newt eaten adds more to the snake's overall resistance. |
| 391 | * [[http://www.webmd.com/allergies/allergy-shots Allergy immunotherapy]] is a process that gradually reduces immune responses through exposure to minute doses of the allergen. After a few months, the patient only needs a booster shot a couple times a year to maintain it. |
| 392 | * Poison Ivy and certain breeds of Stinging Nettles can have their worse effect counteracted by eating parts of the plant, "Stinging Nettle Tea" is even a known home remedy in some southern US states. Though it's worth noting that most people don't have the famous reaction to poison ivy, so the idea of eating the plant to reduce its effect is moot, while the people who ''do'' have that reaction to it... probably shouldn't be letting something that causes swelling anywhere near their throat. |
| 393 | * In feral animal control scientists are working to refine poisons from native plants, the idea being that introduced species will have less tolerance than native species who have been exposed to the same poison for thousands of years. |
| 394 | * Tiger butterflies lay their eggs on toxic plants. When the caterpillar hatches, it first nibbles the plant little by little to build up immunity. Once it becomes immune, then it gorges on the plant. |
| 395 | * This is how vaccines work (though notably not the mRNA ones against [[UsefulNotes/COVID19Pandemic COVID-19]]). Patients are given small doses of often inactivated pathogens, and the immune system learns to fight them. Toxoid vaccines use an inactivated toxin in a literal version of this trope. |
| 396 | ** mRNA vaccines go one step further by inducing your body to make small amounts of the poison (in the form of inactive protein components that duplicate parts of the pathogen) that you are being immunized against. |
| 397 | *** Traditional vaccines could not be made against viruses like [[ThePlague Ebola]], since there is no "small dose" biologically possible: 5 viral particles are enough to ignite [[NightmareFuel the hemorrhagic fever and the horrible death that comes after]]. [[GeneticEngineeringIsTheNewNuke It took very complex recombination of DNA]] to make a vaccine just to imitate the surface proteins of the Ebola virus. |
| 398 | [[/folder]] |
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