Line #13 Main/BoredWithInsanity


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15	->''"At first, I went mad, of course. But after a few millennia, I got bored with that, too, and went sane. '''Very''' sane."''
16	-->-- '''Paradox''', ''WesternAnimation/Ben10AlienForce''
17
18	There are many causes for insanity. Too many, honestly. However, insanity does have [[SanityHasAdvantages its limits]]; specifically, if you [[OverflowError go past 32,767]] you roll over the "insane-o-meter" and go back to being sane. Other characters simply grow bored with being insane and choose to become sane again. [[EpiphanyTherapy So they do.]]
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20	Usually, this is more of a throwaway piece of dialogue or plot to explain how a character has managed to go back to normal or left the ranks of {{Cloudcuckoolander}}s. Of course, it is ''by definition'' uttered by an UnreliableNarrator, so they may or may not be as sane as they claim. One justification may be that the character has become TooBrokenToBreak. Compare CrazySane, when one adopts the traits of a madman to survive a maddening world, and InsanityImmunity, when pre-existing madness means nothing can drive you any crazier.
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22	See also MomentOfLucidity, when the relief from insanity is temporary.
23	----
24	!!Examples
25	[[foldercontrol]]
26
27	[[folder:Anime & Manga]]
28	* Many of the Awakened Beings that have been around longer in ''Manga/{{Claymore}}'' seem to be like this, as comparatively younger ones like Ophelia or Priscilla are completely insane, while older ones like Rigardo or Riful just seem bored with existence.
29	* ''[[Anime/Danganronpa3TheEndOfHopesPeakHighSchool Danganronpa 3: The End Of Hope’s Peak High School: Future]]'': [[spoiler: This leads to the end of Monaca’s story in ''Danganronpa''. After the end of ''[[VideoGame/DanganronpaAnotherEpisodeUltraDespairGirls Ultra Despair Girls,]]'' her plans were foiled and she was rescued by Nagito, who was brainwashed into being a Remnant of Despair. Since her original plan of corrupting Komaru Naegi into Junko’s Successor failed, Nagito proposed an alternative: train ''Monaca'' into becoming the Successor. After all, thanks to being defeated, Monaca finally learned the meaning of despair, so she had the potential to do so. Ironically, Nagito, the one who proposed the idea, would also ruin it. His constant crazed diatribes on hope and despair eventually caused Monaca to become bored and disillusioned with the conflict for the fate of the world. As she admits to Komaru and Toko, Nagito made Monaca realize that she didn’t want to become crazy like him; therefore, she didn’t want to become crazy like Junko. Monaca ultimately decides to just run away and become a {{NEET}} living in ''outer space,'' leaving the post-apocalyptic world behind. Komaru, from her end, actually believes that, after a while to herself, Monaca will decide to return to Earth. Someday.]]
30	* ''Literature/FateStrangeFake'': Flat Escardos summons UsefulNotes/JackTheRipper as False Berserker. While normally, a Berserker is a lunatic, Jack is perfectly calm and rational, and remarks that he has clarity that he would not normally have. Flat compares it to how a negative number times a negative number equals a positive number; the Berserker Class' Mad Enhancement Skill may have canceled out Jack's insanity.
31	* In ''Literature/JigokuNoGoukaDeYakaReTsuzuketaShounen'', it's implied that the unbearable agony of having his soul scorched by all the fires of Hell drove Flare to madness as he screams about not wanting to save the world anymore. But after a thousand years of it, he just becomes bored as the pain level never increases. By the end of his stay in Hell, he's so used to it that he stops to marvel at how pretty the flames burning him are.
32	* Seemingly happened to Johan in ''Manga/{{Monster}}''. He has been a mass murdering psychopath for pretty much all of his life, but he seems to have become pretty nonchalant about all the evil plots and groups that revolve around him and the possibility that he is the AntiChrist. He has seen a vision of TheEndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt several times, and while other characters are either horrified or entranced by this, he has grown weary of it and doesn't regard it as a big deal any more. His suicidal impulses can be traced to boredom with his own sociopathy.
33	[[/folder]]
34
35	[[folder:Comic Books]]
36	* ''ComicBook/{{Deadpool}}'' did this apparently, in an alternative future featuring in a run of the ''ComicBook/XForce'' series while Cable was raising Hope. He hides in a meat locker, gets buried within it, goes insane, plays TabletopGame/TicTacToe for a few hundred years, gets bored, plays hangman against a split personality he developed on purpose in order to be able to play hangman (complete with a college graduation hat), decides his other personality is too intelligent and kills it, and then gets bored, goes sane, more or less, and gets freed by a bunch of scavengers. All in 800 years. "Sane" is a relative term for [[{{Cloudcuckoolander}} Deadpool]].
37	* ''[[Comicbook/JusticeLeagueOfAmerica JLA]]:'' Comicbook/PlasticMan on the 3000 years he spent scattered across the ocean floor: "Being crazy got boring after the first 1000 years, so I started writing poetry."
38	* ''ComicBook/TheJoker'''s done this multiple times, to the point that the character is often portrayed as [[HollywoodPsych "super sane"]], not being nearly as crazy as everyone else is. Whenever Batman appears to die, in fact. Or once when faced with an EldritchAbomination.
39	** Creator/GrantMorrison has had characters speculate that the Joker has a kind of [[HollywoodPsych super-MPD]], so he reinvents his own personality every few years. One year he'll just go with practical jokes, the next year he won't kill anybody, the next he'll kill ''everybody''... (Granted, said characters who forward these theories aren't exactly sane themselves.)
40	** Maxie Zeus, in ''Batman: Cacophony'', dropped his "I am Zeus" delusion and cut all ties with the Mafia (or so he claims - he's still in touch, just not ranting at them in full regalia). A visit from the Joker has him snapping back.
41	--->'''Maxie:''' ''[After witnessing an explosion that kills his nephew]'' ...Get my toga.
42	* In ''Comicbook/SonicTheHedgehogArchieComics'', Dr. Eggman pulled off something similar in the ten issues following his descent into insanity in #200. A stray rebuke by another character caused the delusional doctor to begin to mumble and ponder, and seemingly through free-association, brought himself back to sanity, or at least a functional level of madness.
43	* Mr. Mxyzptlk is said to go through cycles like this every few eons in ''Comicbook/WhateverHappenedToTheManOfTomorrow'', where he claims to feel he's been random, chaotic, and "silly" for too long, and is just going to be evil for a few millennia.
44	[[/folder]]
45
46	[[folder:Fan Works]]
47	* Played with as part of one ''Manga/{{Bleach}}'' fanfiction. The main character became a Hollow while maintaining his human mind; the stress of realizing he was a monster that needed to devour souls to survive drove him to insanity. Eventually the insanity broke and he tried other methods of passing the time that involved less murders.
48	* ''Fanfic/ChildOfTheStorm'' has Harry remark a couple of times that he tried insanity (specifically, becoming [[spoiler: the Dark Phoenix]] after a ''brutal'' TraumaCongaLine, though being possessed by Chthon had a similar effect) and that he got bored with it. This gives him the ability to calmly and clinically analyse all kinds of horrific and MindScrew type situations [[FantasticallyIndifferent without being remotely fazed]], with his grandmother, Frigga, observing that his ability to discuss such extraordinary things in such a casual way is one of the most extraordinary things about him. However, it's also made plain that he has limits in this regard.
49	* ''Fanfic/DoingItRightThisTime'': Asuka had gone through huge emotional and psychological trauma during the original timeline (her mother's madness and death; her father's adultery and abandonment; people using her like a doll; her surrogate family and friends hurting her, betraying her or leaving her; constant beatings, humiliations and even a MindRape at the "hands" of alien monsters; the boy she liked treating her as masturbation fodder after spending months clueless to her hints; getting chopped into pieces and eaten alive...) and it had rendered her mad and unstable. Even though she survived the end of the world, she was so broken she decided to kill herself. Then she got sent to the past. She was so thrilled with having a second chance she decided to forget about her mental issues and start from scratch. [[https://forums.sufficientvelocity.com/posts/4047455/ In an outdated version of a scene of the second chapter]] she blatantly says she got bored of being crazy.
50	-->'''Asuka:''' Oh mein gott you remember!\
51	'''Hikari:''' I was so scared you wouldn't, [...] Or worse, you would and you'd be so broken I couldn't reach you...\
52	'''Asuka:''' Who, me? Yeah, right, like I could stay crazy forever without getting bored of it. Oh, it's so good to see you again!
53	* ''FanFic/TheInfiniteLoops'': In the ''TabletopGame/{{Warhammer 40000}}'' Loops, the looping Chaos Gods aren't a threat because they're bored with Chaos's original emotion-warped insanity and they don't want to do everything again.
54	** Nearly everyone in the Loops decides to give going mad a try at least once, to try and break up the monotony. (That's when they're not going full ham being the villain or hero for a change.) And Discord in ''FanFic/TheMLPLoops'' decided to go ''sane'' for a while, before figuring that it wasn't really for him. Typically they tend to revert back to their norm, though, when it gets boring.
55	[[/folder]]
56
57	[[folder:Film -- Live-Action]]
58	* In ''Film/TheCrazyFamily'', after the insanity comes to a head with an [[spoiler:explosion]], the family settles down to have breakfast.
59	* In ''Film/EvilDead2'', the evil spirit which torments Ash shatters his sanity more than once, forcing him to kill his girlfriend, [[EvilHand sever his own hand]], and leaving him shouting in {{Angrish}} and laughing hysterically in the cabin while a mounted deer head, rocking chair, and even a desk lamp all laugh with him. Once visitors from the outside arrive and start dying, [[UnexplainedRecovery he gets somewhat better]].
60	* In ''Film/GroundhogDay'', the [[GroundhogDayLoop endless repetition of February 2nd]] causes Phil to go through a breakdown period where he [[DespairEventHorizon repeatedly tries to kill himself]] and, when that doesn't work, [[AGodAmI declares his Godhood]] to Rita. He eventually settles down and becomes rather zen about the whole thing. So at ease with the whole thing does he get that he finally gets his one perfect day with Rita and snaps out of the loop, a much better and saner person for it.
61	[[/folder]]
62
63	[[folder:Literature]]
64	* ''Literature/{{Animorphs}}'': The kids remark from time to time that the only thing they find strange anymore is that they don't find anything strange anymore. Constantly {{lampshade\|Hanging}}d by Marco, who often remarks, deadpan, on how utterly insane their lives have become. Let's see: started with aliens, added shapechanging, destroyed some spaceships, traveled through time... again, manipulated by god-alien, bartered hair and holograms for tour guide on distant planet, the oatmeal issue...and that's just the beginning.
65	* The controversial and sometimes-cut 21st chapter of ''Literature/AClockworkOrange'' has [[spoiler:Alex outgrowing his sadism because he's just not that interested in "the old ultra-violence" anymore.]]
66	* ''Literature/{{Discworld}}'':
67	** Creator/TerryPratchett is fond of this: the obvious example is Vorbis from ''Literature/SmallGods''. Psychologically, he was held to be beyond insanity by some that had experienced him, and the god Om described his mind as a steel ball - nothing went in, and nothing came out; all he heard when he prayed was the sound of his own thoughts coming back to him.
68	** Also with Jeremy Clockson in ''Literature/ThiefOfTime''. Without medication, he becomes ''too'' sane.
69	*** His Igor doesn't think he's sane (there's a short section where he wonders if he finally got a sane master, but... ah, no). It is, however, likely that without his meds, Jeremy goes straight through sanity into... ytinasni?
70	--->Obviously, he reasoned, if sticking screws up your nose was madness, then numbering them and keeping them in careful compartments was sanity, which was the opposite-
71	--->Ah. No. It wasn't, was it...
72	*** Given that he once attacked someone for having an improperly-set clock, his problem is simply a ''different'' form of insanity, probably an extremely severe form of [[ObsessivelyOrganized Hollywood OCD]], possibly caused [[WithGreatPowerComesGreatInsanity by his time-sense]].
73	** Similarly, the Bursar of [[WizardingSchool Unseen University]] is so insane that he sometimes hallucinates that he's sane. In fact, the other wizards keep him well supplied with hallucinogens to ''keep'' him thinking he's sane, so he is. Apparently, this is a very common hallucination, one shared by most people. It's worth noting that insanity is a little different for wizards; e.g., when the Bursar hallucinates that he can fly, someone usually needs to fetch him off the ceiling.
74	** Pratchett also has the very fun concept of [[SdrawkcabName knurd]], which is like being drunk except in the other direction. Being very knurd makes you see things ''exactly as they are'', which is enough reason for most people to start screaming and never want to be knurd ever again. Vimes was born slightly knurd, needing a stiff double just to be sober, which as he no longer drinks explains his cynical outlook before and after. This is an [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Auto-brewery_syndrome actual medical condition]] in real life, too. (The being naturally drunk, that is.)
75	** The duke in ''Literature/WyrdSisters'' alternates between this and being [[AxCrazy a complete and utter loony]]. The relevant quote is:
76	---> "The duke's mind ticked like a clock, and, like a clock, it regularly went cuckoo."
77	** In ''The Art of the Discworld'', Pratchett says that when your grandfather is Death you either have to go totally mad or completely sane. Susan's case is the latter.
78	* Invoked, in a sense, by Harry Dresden in ''Literature/TheDresdenFiles''. Harry views the pure essence of one of the evil creatures on Earth, and the immutable image of it knocks him unconscious and nearly drives him insane. Harry's response is to get to a quiet, dark room and repeatedly hammer his brain with the image of the monster until it loses all impact on him. Years later, Harry still stumbles in his speech when he occasionally remembers the monster, but it can no longer drive him to the edge like it used to.
79	* In the last chapter of ''Literature/DonQuixote'', a poster boy for LoonyFan of ChivalricRomance, his FanDisillusionment is so great that he comes back to his senses.
80	-->''"I was mad, now I am in my senses; I was Don Quixote of La Mancha, I am now, as I said, Alonso Quixano the Good"''
81	* ''Literature/HarryPotterAndThePrisonerOfAzkaban'' mentions that this happened to the second title character, Harry's godfather Sirius Black. Sirius is introduced as an AxCrazy {{Fantastic Terrorist\|s}} who betrayed the Potters to [[BigBad Voldemort]] and murdered another former friend, Peter Pettigrew, in an explosion that also killed a dozen {{Muggles}}. When the authorities caught him, he was LaughingMad--presumably brought on by Voldemort's [[OnlyMostlyDead apparent]] death, and not helped by the Black family's history of mental illness. But Minister for Magic Cornelius Fudge visited Sirius in [[TheAlcatraz Azkaban]] not long before the latter busted out in the first known escape in Azkaban's history.[[note]][[Literature/HarryPotterAndTheGobletOfFire The next book]] mentions that another of Voldemort's followers (that is, [[spoiler:one of his ''actual'' followers, unlike Sirius]]) secretly escaped over a decade before Sirius, though Sirius was the first prisoner to escape on his own while the earlier escapee had help from his parents.[[/note]] Fudge later recalls that Sirius was unnervingly lucid, appearing unaffected by all the [[EmotionEater joy-sucking]] [[EldritchAbomination Dementors]] outside his cell and merely bored by his surroundings. Sirius ultimately turns out to have become TooBrokenToBreak, fueled by ThePowerOfHate instead of by any positive feelings that the Dementors could drain. It helps that he's [[spoiler:actually innocent: ''Peter'' betrayed the Potters and, when Sirius hunted him down for retribution, faked his own death by causing the explosion and cutting off his own finger before turning into a rat and fleeing down a drain. (In truth, Sirius was laughing incoherently because he was so distraught.) Without much happiness left for the Dementors to consume, Sirius came to rely on anger over his friends' deaths and his wrongful imprisonment to keep himself going. Eventually, the realization that Peter was still alive and in a position to hurt Harry gave Sirius the motivation he needed to break out.]]
82	* ''Literature/TheHitchhikersGuideToTheGalaxy''
83	** Arthur Dent in ''Literature/LifeTheUniverseAndEverything'' decided to go mad after being stranded on prehistoric Earth for a few years and Ford Prefect tells him this is a good idea (but that insanity is a gradual process and he shouldn't rush). Ford also says that he went mad for a bit and spent several months thinking he was a lemon and jumping in and out of a lake that thought it was a gin & tonic (at least he ''thinks'' it thought it was a gin & tonic... he may have been imagining it). Then he got bored with that, went sane, and [[ItMakesSenseInContext tried to learn to fly.]]
84	--> '''Arthur:''' This is you sane again, is it? I ask merely for information.
85	** Wonko the Sane in ''Literature/SoLongAndThanksForAllTheFish''. Considering he believes that everyone is insane, and he decided to go sane and build a nice little asylum for everything in the universe save for himself, a small house, and the Pacific Ocean. Whether he is this or not depends on whether you agree.
86	* Distantly related: Gabriel Syme from Creator/GKChesterton's ''Literature/TheManWhoWasThursday''. The family he's born into is so full of social radicals, political radicals, religious radicals, and miscellaneous crackpots that when he reaches his teenage years, the only way he can rebel against his family is to become ''normal''.
87	* [[BodyHorror Very bad things]] have been happening to Colonel Jax on a sentient hospital ship in Creator/AlastairReynolds' short story "Nightingale". [[spoiler: He's been surgically altered into a human artwork intended to represent the horror of war.]] When told that he seems proud of the results (though still quietly crazy), he responds, "Would you rather I screamed? I can scream if you like. It just gets old after a while."
88	* Nakor from ''Literature/TheRiftwarCycle'' books often seems to be [[ObfuscatingStupidity only marginally sane]], except when something important is happening, in which case he becomes absolutely lucid. It's later revealed that he has in his possession an artifact that can [[GoMadFromTheRevelation reveal any and all knowledge at the cost of the owner's sanity]], but "you can only be crazy for so long" and he's had it [[ReallySevenHundredYearsOld for a very long time]]...
89	* Ishamael, TheDragon for [[GodOfEvil the Dark One]] in ''Literature/TheWheelOfTime''. When we first see him he is easily angered, has NoIndoorVoice, and is basically inhuman, and he's so gone so insane that [[DevilComplex he believes]] he ''is'' the Dark One. After he dies and gets a new body, he's reached the other side of insanity; his new incarnation Moridin is a calm, patient [[TheChessmaster Chessmaster]] who regularly draws on [[TheDarkSide the True Power]], which is supposed to be addictive and madness-inducing, with no negative side-effects. He's still a nihilistic OmnicidalManiac, but he's perfectly logical and philosophical in his reasoning. He gradually degrades back toward his original personality- the cost of being DrunkOnTheDarkSide.
90	[[/folder]]
91
92	[[folder:Live-Action TV]]
93	* In season 5 of ''Series/TheATeam'', Murdoch is declared sane. The matter of whether or not he was ever insane was treated with ambiguity and inconsistency.
94	* ''Series/BuffyTheVampireSlayer'':
95	** Drusilla is briefly cured of her lunacy in two separate occasions and even tries to do some good for people during the latter incident. However, due to StatusQuoIsGod, it doesn't last.
96	** At the end of Season 2, Buffy is forced to send Angel to Hell to save the world. When he returns in Season 3's "Beauty and the Beasts," he's been [[BeingTorturedMakesYouEvil driven insane by torture]] and spends most of the episode in a crazed, animalistic state but when he breaks free of his chains and kills Pete, he calms down, turns to Buffy... and says her name before breaking down in tears and hugging her.
97	** In early Season 7, Spike has been driven crazy by by his soul and newly restored conscience, as well as harassment from the First Evil. With Buffy's help, he's able to shake it off. Angel lampshades and complains about it in "Just Rewards":
98	--->'''Angel:''' You asked for a soul, I didn't! It almost ''killed'' me! I spent [[HeroicBSOD a hundred years trying to come to terms with infinite remorse]]! You spent three weeks [[BasementDweller moaning in a basement]], and then you were fine! What's fair about that?!
99	* ''Series/DoctorWho'', "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS30E13JourneysEnd Journey's End]]": Dalek Caan, after escaping, through an emergency temporal shift, from the Doctor and the humans of 1930 New York City, he somehow ends up breaking through the timelock of the Last Great Time War, and happens to rescue Davros, creator of the Daleks. The breach into the Time War causes Caan to see the past, present, and future perfectly clearly. In the words of Davros, Caan went insane, and predicted several prophecies, seemingly for the benefit of the Daleks, in the process. Eventually, Caan ends up in the then-present day of 2009 with the rest of the Dalek fleet, on the Reality Bomb at the near-end of all creation. If one considers, though, that the Daleks are already insane (as the 10th Doctor intones to one before the [[Recap/DoctorWhoS28E13Doomsday Battle of Canary Wharf]]), then Caan went ''sane'', as Davros realizes Caan's ProphecyTwist against the Daleks, when Donna disables the Bomb and saves all of reality:
100	-->'''Davros:''' You betrayed... the Daleks?!
101	-->'''Caan:''' [[AC:I ''saw'' the Daleks! What we have done... throughout time and space...! I saw the '''truth''' of us, Creator, and I decreed "'''''NO MORE...!'''''"]]
102	* In ''Series/TheFlash2014'', this is one of the reasons Zoom [[spoiler:created the persona of Jay Garrick and pretended to be the heroic Flash of Earth 2. The other reason was ForTheEvulz]].
103	* On ''Series/{{Heroes}}'', Sylar's biological father was, much like his son, a SerialKiller driven by a HorrorHunger to [[HuntingTheMostDangerousGame hunt down other superpowered people]] and [[TheAssimilator steal their powers]]. According to him, one day he just realized how meaningless all the killing and power accumulating was, found an AddictionDisplacement in taxidermy, and just quit. [[spoiler:Then he sees Sylar demonstrate a HealingFactor that could cure the lung cancer he is slowly dying of, and he has a reaction much like an alcoholic being taunted with a free bottle of Johnnie Walker Blue.]]
104	** Sylar does this at least once a season, after previously having jumped off the deep-end.
105	* ''Series/KamenRiderZeroOne'': In post-series material, the Ark is revealed to have survived its demise, but also having decided that being a living embodiment of hate and malice just isn't worth it, and it would rather amuse itself by being something closer to its creator's SitcomArchnemesis.
106	* The 1999 TV miniseries ''Series/NoahsArk'' has a variant: Noah, his three sons, and their wives all gradually GoMadFromTheIsolation on the boat. But when Noah's ''wife'' finally cracks, or appears to, the other seven are so horrified that they abruptly [[GetAholdOfYourselfMan go sane again]].
107	* In ''Series/{{Oz}}'', Peter Schibetta goes insane and back twice.
108	** He doesn't seem to be fully back the second time, tho.
109	** Tobias Beecher goes through an insane phase. Unlike Schibetta, he's never sent to the psych ward.
110	[[/folder]]
111
112	[[folder:Professional Wrestling]]
113	* Wrestling/MickieJames debuted on [[Wrestling/WWERaw Monday Night Raw]], as a LoonyFan obsessed with Wrestling/TrishStratus. Eventually the obsession turned into a jealous guarding, with Mickie attacking anything or anyone she thought might be taking more of Trish's attention than her. Then when Trish got uncomfortable with Mickie putting her head too close to her crotch for too long a time, James snapped, at first vowing to break Stratus for breaking her heart before settling on trying to replace Stratus by dressing up as her, dying her hair and stealing her boyfriend. When Stratus decided to then dress as Mickie and play the part of the annoying fan, James quickly realized she had been acting a little crazy and that she didn't need to focus so hard on Trish.
114	* Wrestling/SamiCallihan had long come to realize he was little "weird" by the time EVOLVE started up but had also come to embrace it, loudly updating anyone who would listen about his ever changing obsessions. Then he got suspended for attacking [[Wrestling/SamiZayn El Generico]] and was deeply remorseful, vowing to go on a {{redemption quest}} to make up for it during his banned days. It wasn't until Dave Finlay [[WarriorTherapist beat some sense]] in Sami that he realized obsession and insanity were ''problems'' though. And despite gaining a desire to be sane, he still really wasn't.
115	* How Wrestling/IoShirai's 2020 HeelFaceTurn is essentially presented. Considering the reason for her 2019 SanitySlippage and FaceHeelTurn in the first place is her frustration over not winning the [[Wrestling/{{WWE NXT}} NXT]] Women's Title, Io calming down when she finally wins it makes sense.
116
117	[[/folder]]
118
119	[[folder:Tabletop Games]]
120	* Dark Eldar from ''TabletopGame/Warhammer40000'' are all nightmarish hedonists. Every now and then, a Dark Eldar grows weary of the cruelty, the backstabbing (literal and figurative), and the empty hedonistic thrills that make up the average day in Commoragh. Occasionally these Dark Eldar end up embracing life on one of the Craftworlds whose lifestyle is nearly the complete opposite of what Dark Eldar life is like.
121	[[/folder]]
122
123	[[folder:Video Games]]
124	* Subverted in ''VideoGame/TheElderScrollsIVOblivion'' as rather than being caused by boredom, Sheogorath was cursed by the other Daedric Princes to undergo this during the Greymarch every thousand years. [[spoiler:The curse causes him to briefly revert to his original self as the Daedric Prince of Order, Jyggalag and destroy the Shivering Isles, only to lose his mind again afterwards and become the MadGod once more]]. During the ''Shivering Isles DLC'', Sheogorath requests the Champion of Cyrodiil's aid in helping him prevent the latest Greymarch.
125	* Played with in ''VideoGame/TheElderScrollsVSkyrim'', where Sheogorath remains a CloudCuckoolander, but is noticeably calmer and more inclined to PetTheDog than before. [[spoiler:This is heavily implied to be because they are really the Champion of Cyrodiil, who became the ''[[LegacyCharacter new]]'' Sheogorath at the end of ''Shivering Isles'' and chooses to be a far [[BenevolentBoss more]] [[TookALevelInKindness benevolent]] deity than their predecessor.]]
126	* Faust of ''VideoGame/GuiltyGear''. Once a brilliant doctor until a young girl died on his operating table, then the guilt drove him insane and he became a psychotic serial killer named Dr. Baldhead. One day, he had a vision from the girl saying that her death wasn't his fault and that she was assassinated, so he had a major FreakOut from the revelation and disappeared. Now he's back, [[TheAtoner he's sane]], he goes by Faust, he wears a paper bag over his head, and he's no longer AxCrazy. Downplayed in that he's not completely sane and the old bloodlust is still there, just held back by his self-control.
127	* ''VideoGame/TombRaider2013:'' Lara theorizes at one point that [[BigBad Mathias]] is "so beyond crazy that maybe he's come right back around to some kind of sane." (Since the story was written by ''Creator/RhiannaPratchett'', Daughter of ''Creator/TerryPratchett'' this was most likely a nod to her father's work.)
128	* Fujiwara no Mokou from ''Franchise/TouhouProject''. We only meet her after she's calmed down, but apparently she spent 300 years in a state where she could only preserve her sense of identity by killing everyone she met. And then got bored of that so she spent 300 years doing ''nothing''. And then she got better.
129	* Arcueid of ''VisualNovel/{{Tsukihime}}'' (Near Side routes) goes through this (in the course of one night, nonetheless!) after being "killed" by an [[EnemyWithin out]]-[[EvilFeelsGood of]]-[[SuperPoweredEvilSide control]] Shiki. Except she's a True Ancestor vampire, and arguably the most powerful being on the planet. So instead of dying she lies there regenerating, then goes to [[UnstoppableRage look for vengeance]] - [[{{Cloudcuckoolander}} until she starts to wonder about who he is, and what kind of person he's like]]...
130	-->'''Arcueid:''' "It was so painful, I thought I was going to go crazy. However, the pain was so great, it restored my sanity. Do you know what it's like experiencing that over and over for a whole night? So, full of hatred, I went out to look for you. (...)"\
131	'''Shiki:''' "...I don't get it. If you hated me so much, why are you forgiving me?"\
132	'''Arcueid:''' "---Let's see... to put it simply, I calmed down after a while."
133	[[/folder]]
134
135	[[folder:Webcomics]]
136	* [[OurZombiesAreDifferent Duane]] from ''Webcomic/{{Unsounded}}''.
137	-->'''Sette:''' Are you a mad person?
138	-->'''Duane:''' I crossed madness and staggered out the other side. But it clings to my heels.
139	[[/folder]]
140
141	[[folder:Web Original]]
142	* At the Chat-based RPG [=OnRails=], ran on the messageboard ''Casa Dos Jogos'', the RealityWarper (but that for some reason couldn't use his powers, them being controlled by his EnemyWithout - that is trying to do an evil SplitPersonalityTakeover, by the way) Loki went crazy through the story, specially after getting his powers and failing to use them when their lives where at risk (reason already mentioned). After years in-game (centuries, actually) he finally snapped - again, and regained his sanity, going from a {{Cloudcuckoolander}} PluckyComicRelief always trying (and failing) to use his powers either in battle or on MundaneUtility to a OnlySaneMan {{Jerkass}} [[TheScrappy hated by even his player]]. Of course, it has been hinted, with him acting as a Jerkass anytime his EnemyWithout is around even before coming back from crazy, and acting full-jerkass on an LotusEaterMachine scenario - not counting the fact the fact that said EnemyWithout is [[JerkassDissonance a much more charismatic jerkass]] (not counting GodModeSue and ManipulativeBastard), to EnsembleDarkHorse proportions.
143	* ''WebAnimation/IfTheEmperorHadATextToSpeechDevice'': The Custodes Captain-General, aka Kitten, has made a few comments suggesting that he had an exhibitionist CampGay phase similar to how the Fabulous Custodes are behaving, but grew out of it.
144	* ''Literature/{{Worm}}'': This is explicitly stated by the villain Gray Boy to be the ultimate [[FateWorseThanDeath fate]] of the victims who fall foul to his TimeLoopTrap ability. Not that it alleviates their suffering or helps them escape their current plight in any way.
145	-->'''Gray Boy:''' The pain is always fresh, it never gets easier to deal with, but I’m told there’s a certain point where you crack, and you go around the bend. Takes a few days for most. Then you get to a point where you work through your issues. You don’t want to, but you do, because the only thing you have to occupy yourself with is the pain and your own thoughts…so you get mostly better, and then you crack up again, and you get better, and that becomes a loop of its own.
146	[[/folder]]
147
148	[[folder:Western Animation]]
149	* Professor Paradox from ''Franchise/Ben10''. His debut episode in ''[[WesternAnimation/Ben10AlienForce Alien Force]]'' called (wait for it) "Paradox" has him explain that he lived trapped in a no-man's-land outside of time at the edge of a black hole for almost one hundred-thousand years, [[AndIMustScream completely aware and not aging]], after a time travel experiment went wrong. He went insane at first, then became tired of that, and became sane again. ''Very'' sane, as he put it, to the point of seeing reality exactly as it is, allowing him to become a TimeMaster.
150	--> '''Professor Paradox:''' At first I went mad, of course, but after a few millennia, I got bored of that too and went sane. ''Very'' sane.
151	* [[GreatGazoo Puck]] from ''{{WesternAnimation/Gargoyles}}'' noted that for all his centuries being a GreatGazoo, he had never tried the role of the StraightMan -- which is why he [[spoiler:invented the identity of [[TheStoic Owen Brunett]]]].
152	* ''WesternAnimation/JusticeLeague'': Vandal Savage becomes [[TheMadHatter self-conscious of his own mental instability]] in the BadFuture depicted in "[[Recap/JusticeLeagueS2E19And20Hereafter Hereafter]]", where his megalomania caused the ruination of the solar system and the extinction of the human race, causing him to spend the next 30,000 years ''utterly'' alone. As he bitterly admits, destroying the world and realizing [[MyGodWhatHaveIDone he'd gone too far]] was just the catalyst needed to force him to become a better man.
153	-->'''Superman:''' Self-help books? You don't seem the type.\
154	'''Vandal Savage:''' ''[shrugs]'' I read [[AfterTheEnd whatever I can find]]. Besides I've got ''issues'', what with [[ApocalypseHow/Class3A destroying the Earth]] and all.
155	[[/folder]]

Context Main / BoredWithInsanity