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| 3 | %% This list of examples has been alphabetized. Take care to put your example in its proper place in accordance with Administrivia/HowToAlphabetizeThings! |
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| 6 | |
| 7 | ->''Ain't got no distractions; can't hear no buzzers and bells\ |
| 8 | Don't see no lights a-flashin'; plays by sense of smell\ |
| 9 | Always gets a replay -- never seen him fall\ |
| 10 | That deaf, dumb, and blind kid sure plays a mean pinball.'' |
| 11 | -->-- '''Music/TheWho''', "[[Music/{{Tommy}} Pinball Wizard]]" |
| 12 | |
| 13 | This is a subtrope of DisabilitySuperpower where, rather than a character's disability giving them an actual power it instead renders them immune to some sort of attack, trap or ploy that would otherwise be effective. |
| 14 | |
| 15 | Examples include: |
| 16 | |
| 17 | * A lack of senses protecting someone from the effects of a BrownNote, HypnoticEyes, [[MasterOfIllusion hallucinogenic illusion]], etc. because they aren't capable of sensing it in the first place. |
| 18 | * Already being harmed in such a way so it makes no difference. ([[TheLastDance You're already dying]], perhaps of a ConvenientTerminalIllness resulting in SuicidalOverconfidence. The ultimate example is being DeadToBeginWith: since YouCantKillWhatsAlreadyDead you're NighInvulnerable until someone figures out how to render you DeaderThanDead.) |
| 19 | * Not having the frame of mind to be affected which would otherwise be a disadvantage (being TooDumbToFool, [[LackOfEmpathy too nasty]] to be [[{{Gaslighting}} emotionally]] {{blackmail}}ed, TooKinkyToTorture, [[TooBrokenToBreak too messed up]] to EmotionBomb, etc.). |
| 20 | * Characters with a CranialPlateAbility being immune to mind control, telepathy, and other PsychicPowers. |
| 21 | |
| 22 | See also: DisabilitySuperpower (for when this grants other abilities to compensate), YourBrainWontBeMuchOfAMeal, TooKinkyToTorture, TooDumbToFool, TooBrokenToBreak, InsanityImmunity (which falls under the "frame of mind" variation), OrganDodge (which can overlap with "already harmed in such a way"), KryptoniteFactor (for the opposite; someone being ''more'' vulnerable to something to balance out their power) and FictionalDisability. |
| 23 | |
| 24 | Similar to NoSell except this trope justifies the immunity. See also OneCurseLimit when being affected by one thing grants immunity to being affected by ''anything'' else. Compare CurseThatCures when a sick or injured character is cured as a side effect of being {{Curse}}d. If the disability is being infected with a disease it's a BeneficialDisease. HandyShortcoming is for those whose disability doesn't necessarily give them an immunity, but does become useful in situations. |
| 25 | |
| 26 | The idea that IdiotsCannotCatchColds is a subtrope. |
| 27 | |
| 28 | Contrast ImmunityDisability, the inverse of this trope where being immune to something gives you a drawback. |
| 29 | ---- |
| 30 | !!Examples: |
| 31 | |
| 32 | [[foldercontrol]] |
| 33 | |
| 34 | [[folder:Anime & Manga]] |
| 35 | * In ''Manga/{{Basilisk}}'', [[spoiler: Koushiro]] is blinded when [[spoiler:Oboro's power-nullifying gaze causes him to lose control of his own ninjutsu]]. His blindness is what lets him defeat [[spoiler: Hyouma Muroga]], as [[spoiler:Hyouma's powers are dependent on eye contact and useless on someone who cannot see anything. And then is cruelly inverted when Saemon takes note and uses his ''voice'' against Koushiro, buying enough time to have Kagero get closer and kill Koushiro with a KissOfDeath]]. |
| 36 | * In ''Manga/BlackClover'', Asta has no magic power whatsoever, which is shown to be extremely rare. This means Asta cannot use magic. This also means that the technique of sensing magic aura to track other people's movements and locations does not work on him. It's also what allows him to wield his AntiMagic swords: they automatically drain the magic of anything that touches them, so only a person with no magic at all could wield them effectively. [[spoiler: It also makes him a real pain in the ass for the devils to deal with.]] |
| 37 | * ''Manga/{{Bleach}}'': |
| 38 | ** Aizen's Shikai only affects those who see it. Being blind, Tosen is immune to it. Aizen recruited him specifically because of this; having somebody around with considerable natural talent who's immune to his illusions wasn't something he was willing to risk. |
| 39 | ** Kenpachi was immune to Berenice Gabrielli's ability to fill people with self-doubt and make them question themselves because he was temporarily deaf from enduring a sonic attack from his previous opponent. |
| 40 | ** Rose's bankai only affects those who can hear its MagicMusic. [[spoiler:Mask de Masculine]] [[EarAche gouges out his eardrums]] to make himself immune. |
| 41 | * ''Manga/BoboboboBobobo'' has Don Patch do this in the fight against Poet; an attack that takes away his teammates' memories does nothing to him because he is, by his own admission, apparently [[TheDitz too stupid to have memories]]. |
| 42 | * In ''Manga/ChainsawMan'', Denji reveals that he can NoSell MindRape by abusing his HealingFactor and giving himself brain damage, temporarily becoming even more TooDumbToFool [[IdiotHero than he is normally]]. |
| 43 | * In ''Anime/CrossAnge'', the norma, while having no physical disability to speak of, are unable to interact with Mana and shatter it on impact, which results in them getting discriminated against, isolated from everyone else and used as CannonFodder against [=DRAGONs=]. [[spoiler:As it turns out, this also renders them immune to everything that affects mana users, such as debilitating DRAGON screams and mind control, and [[BigBad Embryo]]'s ability to remotely control and influence them.]] |
| 44 | * ''Franchise/DragonBall'': |
| 45 | ** In ''Manga/DragonBall'', Krillin once faced a horribly stinky opponent in the tournament. He was getting mauled until Goku [[StylisticSelfParody reminded him that he had no nose.]] It does beg the [[EarlyInstallmentWeirdness question]] [[FridgeLogic how could Krillin flick boogers at Master Roshi later that day at the same tournament?]] |
| 46 | ** ''Anime/DragonBallZLordSlug'': Piccolo orders Gohan to whistle during the final showdown, since Namekians like himself and Slug can't stand the noise due to their [[SuperSenses super-hearing]]. So he himself doesn't have to hear it, Piccolo rips his own ears off; once the crisis is resolved, he [[GoodThingYouCanHeal regenerates them]]. |
| 47 | ** In ''Anime/DragonBallSuper'', during the multiverse tournament, Krillin uses the Solar Flare on Majora - only to discover that he's ''blind'', and tracks his enemies by sense of smell. In what almost seems like a nod to the above scene, Krillin wins by chucking his shoe at Majora's nose and "blinding" him with foot odour. |
| 48 | * ''Manga/FairyTail'' |
| 49 | ** Erza Scarlet [[EyeScream lost an eye to torture]] as a child. We never get to see the damage thankfully, since it scares her closest friend who just proved that, in spite of this flashback being ''before'' he [[BrainwashedAndCrazy lost it]], he was perfectly capable of murder. She gets a magical artificial eye in its place which lessens the effects of [[NoEyeInMagic spells that require eye contact]], such as [[TakenForGranite Stone Eyes]]; the effect is stronger when she closes her real eye, to the point she's immune to things like illusions. |
| 50 | ** Ichiya [[ButtMonkey apparently has so many weaknesses]] that [[AwesomeByAnalysis Wall Eehto's]] EnemyScan gets tripped up in the process... at least until Wall decides to just forgo relying on a weakness and pummel him directly while calling him "weak". |
| 51 | ** Ichiya himself has several times gone up against enemies that he's tried to take out with the effects of his perfumes (such as intense smells or even poisons), but they fail because his opponents don't have noses to detect them (such as a Rock Dragon or the aforementioned Wall). |
| 52 | * ''Manga/FistOfTheNorthStar'': |
| 53 | ** One enemy, Souther, is immune to Kenshrio's PressurePoint's based martial art, because he suffers from [[HeartInTheWrongPlace Dextrocadria]]. So in their rematch, Ken just solves the issue by switching which sides of his body he attacks. |
| 54 | ** In one of the video games adaptation, another is also immune to Kenshiro's attacks, because, being a {{cyborg}}, he doesn't have any pressure points on his body left. So Kenshiro decides to directs his attacks toward [[YourHeadASplode his only organic part remaining, his brain]]. |
| 55 | * Alluded to a couple times in ''Manga/FullmetalAlchemist''; for example, when the Elric brothers break into the Fifth Laboratory, Ed remarks that his metal hand and Al's armor body allow them to climb over the barbed wire on the fence without injury, and when climbing through a duct, Ed thinks to himself [[TheNapoleon with increasing horror]] that if he weren't so short, he wouldn't fit through the ducts. |
| 56 | * On one episode of ''Manga/{{Inuyasha}}'', the main characters encounter [[SmallNameBigEgo an elderly "exorcist" with no actual spiritual powers]]. When they encounter the MonsterOfTheWeek, everyone is paralyzed by the monster's extremely high negative energy level -- except for the old woman, who doesn't notice anything. |
| 57 | * In ''Manga/JojosBizarreAdventureStoneOcean'': Pucci has the power to [[PowersAsPrograms remove abilities and turn them into CD-like discs]]. He temporarily removes his eyesight [[MakesJustAsMuchSenseInContext so that a rainbow won't turn him into a snail with subliminal messages]]. |
| 58 | * ''Manga/JujutsuKaisen'': [[spoiler:After [[VengefulGhost Naoya returns as a cursed spirit]], he evolves to the point that he can use [[DomainHolder Domain Expansion]]. However, Time Cell Moon Palace only targets people with even the slightest trace of cursed energy: because [[UnSorcerer Maki has absolutely no cursed energy whatsoever]] (thanks to her [[CursedWithAwesome Heavenly Restriction]]), she's able to move freely and suffer no damage, allowing her to sneak behind Naoya and stab him InTheBack before exorcising him.]] |
| 59 | * In ''Manga/MonsterMusume'', Satyrs are known for having probably the strongest sex-drives of any monster girls. This makes them immune to the effects of the full moon, which normally [[{{Lunacy}} drives most monster girls into a lust-driven frenzy]] -- the satyrs are used to feeling that way all the time, so they have an easy time controlling themselves. |
| 60 | * In ''Manga/MyHeroAcademia'' it is eventually revealed that this is the case for [[spoiler:Izuku and Toshinori]]. [[spoiler:One For All puts strain on the body of a Quirk user who inherits it, and this eventually leads to them dying of RapidAging. However, since Toshinori and Izuku are both Quirkless, neither of them have this issue. This also helps out Toshinori during the FinalBattle as he can battle All For One in PoweredArmor without worrying about losing his Quirk as he has none while the monster usually fights long ranged to weaken them before taking those Quirks.]] |
| 61 | * ''Manga/OnePiece''. |
| 62 | ** Usopp is unaffected by Perona's negative hollow because he already has self-esteem issues. In fact, the hollows ''themselves'' get depressed by passing through him! |
| 63 | --->''"I'M ALREADY NEGATIVE!!!"'' |
| 64 | ** The fishman Sebastian from the [[Recap/OnePiece3D2Y 3D2Y special]] is immune to [[WorldsMostBeautifulWoman Hancock]]'s charm due to being blind. Unfortunately for him, that just means that [[ActionGirl Hancock]] is forced to ''actually'' attack. |
| 65 | ** During the TimeSkip, Captain Kid lost his left arm in a battle offscreen. This ends up proving crucially beneficial much later when he's used as a voodoo doll by Hawkins (which makes it so any damage Hawkins takes is transferred to someone nearby). Kid's crewmate Killer is able to bypass Hawkin's voodoo protection by attacking Hawkin's left arm, because Kid doesn't have a left arm to transfer the damage to. |
| 66 | * In ''Manga/SaintSeiya'', Shiryu has to blind himself to fight Algol's TakenForGranite powers.[[note]] (He DID try closing his eyes and blindfolding himself, but the magic went through cloth and closed eyelids.[[/note]] This even enables him later on to avoid being fooled by Gemini's illusion of an empty suit of armor, preventing Seiya from striking the illusion (Hyoga was not so lucky, and Shun managed to save himself with his chains but couldn't help Hyoga), and actually sensing the temple exit where Seiya would only see a suit of armor and a wall behind it. Bonus points for the BigBad pointing out [[LampshadeHanging that he should have known Shiryu would be immune]], though it doesn't matter. Cue EvilLaugh. |
| 67 | ** Later on, the nigh-invincible God Warrior Siegfried was beset by the hypnotic flute of Siren Sorento. He gouged out his own eardrums... but it was revealed that Sorento's music [[SubvertedTrope pierced the victim's brain directly, and it was impossible for Siegfried to defend himself from it]]. |
| 68 | * In ''Anime/UmiMonogatari'', Kanon's evil aura protects her from Sedna's darkness. |
| 69 | * ''Manga/YuYuHakusho'' has an example where the arc's BigBad likes to use a shrinking spell on people. But when he uses it on Yusuke, [[spoiler:it [[HoistByHisOwnPetard shrinks]] ''[[HoistByHisOwnPetard him]]'' [[HoistByHisOwnPetard instead]]. Genkai explains that the spell enters the body through the ear canal and [[DeusExMachina doesn't work if the opponent can't hear it clearly, making countering it]] [[UselessUsefulSpell as simple as covering one's ears]]. Yusuke has water and moss in his ears from being dunked in a pond earlier, so he qualifies]]. |
| 70 | [[/folder]] |
| 71 | |
| 72 | [[folder:Audio Plays]] |
| 73 | * ''AudioPlay/BigFinishDoctorWho'': In [[Recap/BigFinishDoctorWho013TheShadowOfTheScourge "The Shadow of the Scourge"]], this is specifically invoked. The Seventh Doctor, Ace, and Benny are fighting an alien species with a CompellingVoice that they use to force people to do whatever they tell them. Ace's solution? Get someone to destroy her eardrums! She knows the TARDIS medbay can patch her back up at the end of the adventure, but until then, she's running around completely deaf and with blood coming out of her ears. |
| 74 | [[/folder]] |
| 75 | |
| 76 | [[folder:Card Games]] |
| 77 | * In ''[[TabletopGame/YuGiOh Yu-Gi-Oh! TCG]]'', the equip spell Flint is an annoying equip spell that weakens the host monster and prevents it from attacking. However, the monster Flint Lock is designed to be immune completely to the negative effects of Flint, and even benefits from extra powers while equipped with Flint, such as being indestructible by battle. Cherry on top, it can even manipulate Flint to contaminate other monsters, or relieve a monster from it to use its protection. This double counts as CripplingTheCompetition and DisabilitySuperpower.[[note]]The two come from the videogame ''Xexex''. The Flint is an alien life form that instinctively reaches out and saps enemies. The Flint Lock was built specifically to control and employ it.[[/note]] |
| 78 | [[/folder]] |
| 79 | |
| 80 | [[folder:Comic Books]] |
| 81 | * In ''[[ComicBook/TheAvengers Avengers]]/[[ComicBook/TheInvadersMarvelComics Invaders]]'', ComicBook/{{New Avenger|s}} Echo is able to outmaneuver the villain D'Spayre because she's deaf and therefore unable to hear his attempts to influence her into despair. |
| 82 | * A ''ComicBook/{{Batman}}'' and ''Franchise/{{Predator}}'' crossover had Mr. Freeze survive a Predator attack because his body temperature issues made it nearly impossible for it to see him. |
| 83 | * Bianca Steeplechase, the [[GenderFlip female]] version of [[Characters/BatmanTheJoker the Joker]] in the ''Creator/{{Elseworlds}}'' comic ''ComicBook/BatmanThrillkiller'' is hard of hearing, which leaves her unaffected by Batgirl’s sonic weapons. |
| 84 | * ''ComicBook/BirdsOfPrey'': During ''Last Laugh'', Copperhead and Hellgrammite were shown to be immune to ComicBook/BlackCanary's '[[SuperScream canary cry]]' because they doesn't have ears. |
| 85 | * ''ComicBook/BuffyTheVampireSlayer Season 10'' exploits this in one issue. When Spike and Xander have been seduced by [[OurSirensAreDifferent sirens]], Xander, in a moment of clarity, takes two plastic drink swords and shoves them in Spike's ears, poking out his ear drums. The deaf Spike is thus immune to the sirens, and manages to kill them before [[GoodThingYouCanHeal his ear drums grow back]]. |
| 86 | * In ''ComicBook/{{Crossed}}'', an insanity virus pandemic sweeps the entire world and destroys human civilization. The infected are turned into utter psychopaths and sadists, though symptoms vary: many are practically feral, but some retain enough intelligence to lay traps and use guns. A rare few individuals, however, retain most or all of their intelligence and emotional control: these "super-Crossed" are so rare they're considered a scary campfire tale by survivors, but where they do appear they rise up as leaders of organized hordes of the infected. It seems that these super-Crossed were people with atypical brains, either from genetic conditions or drug abuse: their brains were structurally/chemically different enough from baseline humans that the infection didn't match them as much. Examples include a criminal who abused ketamine, a young nun in Britain who had epilepsy, and mention of an "autistic kid" in Montreal. Worst of all was the serial killer Salt, who was ''already'' a psychopath before he was infected, so there was nothing to change. The super-Crossed are usually just as sadistic as regular Crossed, though one or two even retain human empathy. |
| 87 | * This happens a lot to ''ComicBook/{{Daredevil}}'', since he's blind (despite his DisabilitySuperpower). |
| 88 | ** An early ''ComicBook/TheAmazingSpiderMan1963'' issue featured a guest appearance from Daredevil, who attended a circus where the ringmaster hypnotizes everyone in the audience except Matt. Unfortunately, Spider-Man gets hypnotized too and [[LetsYouAndHimFight ends up fighting Daredevil.]] |
| 89 | ** One of his recurring enemies in MediaNotes/TheSilverAgeOfComicBooks was the Masked Marauder, who used "opti-blasts" that blinded people. |
| 90 | ** The 600th issue of ''[[ComicBook/SpiderMan Amazing Spider-Man]]'' begins with Spidey and Daredevil cleaning out a BadGuyBar. One of them has the power to render someone blind by touching them, and grabs Daredevil, much to Spidey's amusement. |
| 91 | ** A ''ComicBook/MarvelTwoInOne'' story has Daredevil win a one-page battle with minor villain Mirage, whose only ability is projecting convincing holograms. |
| 92 | ** Jester once tried to push Matt into a HeroicBSOD by having a dummy of Foggy hung by its neck from a banister with a suicide note. Since he couldn't see ''who'' it was supposed to be, Matt only detected that the body was a cheap fake and the letter was laced with cyanide to kill him with. [[DramaticIrony He then wonders what Jester was trying to accomplish]] as Jester watches through a hidden camera. |
| 93 | --->'''Jester:''' ''React'', damn you! That's your ''best friend'' hanging from a noose! Anyone who's ever seen Matt Murdock in a fight knows the "blind lawyer" gag is a [[ObfuscatingDisability put-on!]] OPEN YOUR EYES! |
| 94 | ** His 2014 series features a flashback to a fight with Hawkeye, back before the hero community knew about his blindness. Hawkeye held a phosphorous arrow in front of him, and it took him a few seconds to recognize his "cue". |
| 95 | --->'''Daredevil:''' AAAAAH! My eyes! [[LargeHam The pain! The PAAAAIIIN--!]]\ |
| 96 | '''Foggy:''' ''[narrating]'' Fun Daredevil fact: ''every single time'' Matt has to improv, he course-corrects by overacting. |
| 97 | ** On the flip side, Daredevil himself has occasionally had his LivingLieDetector abilities (which rely on his ability to hear stress-induced changes in heartbeat when someone lies) tripped up by a pacemaker. |
| 98 | ** Occasionally referenced in confrontations with the Purple Man; Daredevil is still affected by the villain's mind-control powers, but as his blindness means he's only picking up ''some'' of the signals that allow the Purple Man to control people, he's better equipped to resist the rest. |
| 99 | ** And speaking of the Purple Man: his power allows him to control people with his CompellingVoice, apart from people who are deaf for obvious reasons. |
| 100 | * ''Magazine/DoctorWhoMagazine'': In "Sticks and Stones", being dyslexic made people immune to Monos' attack (which was transforming people into language). |
| 101 | * In the graphic novel ''ComicBook/FallOfCthulhu'', one of Nyarlathotep's minions is a shapeshifter who takes the form of its victim's loved one. One of the protagonists has [[AmnesiacHero lost his memory]], and as such is not fooled when the shapeshifter changes into his wife (as he doesn't recognize her). |
| 102 | * ''ComicBook/FantasticFour'': It is occasionally noted that the ''ComicBook/InvisibleWoman'''s powers, at least those not related to the application of main force, are trivially countered by those who could not see her or anything she does in the first place. |
| 103 | ** She first met Alicia Masters when the Pupper Master's [[MadScientistsBeautifulDaughter stepdaughter]] alerted the man who had seized control of ComicBook/TheThing to the the fact that ''two'' strangers just came in their home. |
| 104 | ** When ComicBook/{{Daredevil}} came across the [[DressedLikeADominatrix gimp-mask-&-fetish-gear-wearing]] woman who was mopping the floor with [=3/4=] of the FF he asked what the amorphous blob the heroes were fighting was, a critical clue that they were dealing with a BrainwashedAndCrazy Invisible Girl. |
| 105 | * ''ComicBook/GhostRider''[='=]s Penance Stare forces the victim to endure every mote of suffering they've inflicted on others throughout their entire lives by making them look into Ghost Rider's eyes. Naturally, it doesn't work on blind people. |
| 106 | * ''ComicBook/GreenLantern'': The [[Characters/GLRedLanternCorps Red Lanterns]] have their circulatory functions controlled by their [[RingOfPower rings]] instead of their hearts, what makes them dependant on the rings to survive [[note]]Not counting some DependingOnTheWriter cases, it needs a Blue Lantern to heal this dependence (or in [[ComicBook/RedDaughterOfKrypton Supergirl's case]], a very close proximity to a yellow sun to heal her solar-powered Kryptonian physiology)[[/note]]. On the other hand, it also makes them immune to attacks aiming their hearts, as the [[ComicBook/BlackestNight Black Lantern Corps]], whose ''modus operandi'' is [[AndShowItToYou ripping their victims' hearts from their bodies]], learned the hard way. |
| 107 | * Done for laughs in one ''ComicBook/GrooTheWanderer'' story, where an evil wizard is attempting to read Groo's mind... and fails spectacularly, because Groo is so dumb ''there's nothing to read.'' |
| 108 | * ''ComicBook/{{Hawkeye}}'': In a [[MediaNotes/TheBronzeAgeOfComicBooks Bronze Age]] issue of his first miniseries, Hawkeye invoked this, using one of his sonic arrows to fry his own eardrums, rendering him immune to a bad guy's sonic mind control. Since then, Hawkeye has used hearing aids. |
| 109 | * Looking into the true face of ''ComicBook/JusticeSocietyOfAmerica'' enemy Johnny Sorrow results in instant death. Dr. Mid-Nite, however, proves immune due to his blindness. Naturally, he's a big part of the team's eventual defeat of Sorrow. |
| 110 | * ''ComicBook/LockeAndKey'': Rufus Whedon's unspecified mental disability makes him immune to the mind-tampering effects of the Head Key. |
| 111 | * ''ComicBook/{{Memetic}}'' is about an image that becomes a viral sensation, and turns whoever looks at it into mindless and murderous "Screamers". The main characters are colorblind college student Aaron and legally blind war vet Marcus, who are immune to the meme's effect. Later on, the Screamers' screams become a chant that can lure/hypnotize those who haven't been turned: Aaron is also deaf, so that too doesn't affect him. [[spoiler:In the end he decides to join the horde anyway.]] |
| 112 | * ''ComicBook/{{Nextwave}}''. Forbush Man decides to torment the heroes with their worst nightmare. Apparently Boom-Boom simply didn't have enough of a mind to torment. Compared to Aaron Stack's whose mind was programmed in... |
| 113 | * ''ComicBook/{{Preacher}}'': Starr sends a number of operatives who don't understand English to capture Jesse, as they're unable to understand his CompellingVoice and thus are immune to it. |
| 114 | * ''Rover Red Charlie'', by the same creator as ''Crossed'', is about an insanity-inducing virus that appears not to affect the neurologically impaired, like [[BullyBulldog Hermann's]] "shit boy" slave or the passengers on the crashed short bus that the canine protagonists at one point come across. |
| 115 | * ''ComicBook/StarWarsTheHighRepublic2021'' features a roundabout example with Keeve Trennis's Jedi Master Sskeer. During the last arc of the Phase I run, [[spoiler:Sskeer reveals that he's been diagnosed with Magrak syndrome, a Trandoshan-specific brain disease that causes him to regress to his species' more primal and savage instincts, explaining why he has had a number of episodes of being a ruthless [[TheBerserker berserker]] throughout the comic. He's been using the Force to slow the disease's progression, but it has also caused him to slowly lose his connection to the Force. This loss becomes a blessing in disguise when the Nihil start weaponizing the Nameless - {{Eldritch Abomination}}s that can attack Jedi through the Force by [[BrownNoteBeing passively triggering hallucinations]] before feeding on them. This ability exclusively affects Force-users, and because Sskeer has been losing his connection, he is unaffected. He uses this to his advantage to save Keeve and Avar Kriss from certain death, and then [[BolivianArmyEnding buys time holding off the Nameless]] on Starlight Beacon while the other two Jedi help evacuate the doomed station.]] |
| 116 | * In ''ComicBook/SuicideSquad'', Rick Flag strongly suspects he has BrainwashResidue after extensive torturing and personality modification on the orders of General Wade Eiling, so he consults Bronze Tiger, himself a sufferer, and gets an idea. When, predictably, Eiling pops up and invokes a TriggerPhrase, Flag falls into compliance... until Eiling hands him a detonator and orders him to kill Amanda Waller. Cue Eiling's brain blowing into chunks and Flag revealing he was wearing ear plugs. |
| 117 | * ''ComicBook/TeenTitans'': |
| 118 | ** Jericho can possess a person after making eye contact with them; his body turns insubstantial and enters the subject. Cyborg, whose body is half-cybernetic, was able to prevent this by closing his human eye and looking at Jericho through his cybernetic eye. |
| 119 | ** During ''ComicBook/TitansBeastWorld'', Cyborg is able to NoSell an attempt by a Starro spore to control him partially because he's missing half the things it would normally use to possess someone. |
| 120 | * ''ComicBook/TheTransformersMoreThanMeetsTheEye'': The mind-influencing nudge gun is a very powerful device capable of booth implanting ideas as well as removing memories from people. But it has one major flaw in that it relies on its victim having a fully working brain module. Riptide (who is implied to have some kind of learning disability) just got knocked out without it removing any memories and [[KnightTemplar Tyrest]] (who may have suffered brain damage due to [[SelfHarm constantly drilling holes in himself]]) instantly recognised the idea implanted as foreign. |
| 121 | * In ''ComicBook/TheTransformersSinsOfTheWreckers'', Verity, being an ordinary human whose senses are much more limited than those of a Cybertronian, is much better at handling the Noisemaze once the characters get trapped there. To her, it's merely unpleasant rather than completely debilitating, and she's able to guide the rest of the heroes out of it. |
| 122 | * ''ComicBook/WonderWoman'' [[ComicBook/WonderWoman1987 Vol 2]]: During Creator/GregRucka's run Diana unhesitatingly ''blinds herself with snake venom'' to defeat a gorgon without falling prey to her petrifying gaze (she couldn't reliably just keep her eyes closed as Medusa had a CompellingVoice and kept ordering Diana to look at her). Athena then uses this blindness in a ploy to overthrow Zeus via their respective champions, by having Diana use Medusa's severed head to petrify Zeus' champion. |
| 123 | * ''ComicBook/XFactor2006'': In Issue #233, Siryn uses her CompellingVoice to make the members of an anti-Mutant hate group drop their firearms and surrender peacefully. Unfortunately, one of them is deaf and his attack makes Siryn lose her concentration starting a fight betweex X-Factor and the hate group. |
| 124 | * In ''[=XXXenophile=]'' by Creator/PhilFoglio, supervillain the Eunuch is immune to Orgasm Lass's primary superpower: the ability to [[{{Orgasmatron}} cause orgasms in others by touching them]]. |
| 125 | [[/folder]] |
| 126 | |
| 127 | [[folder:Fan Works]] |
| 128 | * A psychological variant of this featured in the ''[[Film/TheChroniclesOfNarnia Chronicles of Narnia]]'' fic ''[[https://www.fanfiction.net/s/4353281/1/Across-the-Worlds Across the Worlds]]''; when the dimension-spanning villain known as the Darkness captured the Pevensies and Caspian to stop them interfering in his plans, the Darkness left Susan alone because he assumed her current lack of belief in Narnia would prevent her being a threat. As a result, Aslan had time to recruit Susan and three new allies, and instruct them that they would need to travel across the worlds and oppose the Darkness, before his strength failed and he was captured too. |
| 129 | * Referenced in the ''Fanfic/BlackAsNight'' sequel ''Blind Spots''; in this version of events, when facing the paralysis-inducing Flightmare, the writer changed how this dragon's ability worked by making it that people had to see the beast to be frozen by it, resulting in the blinded Hiccup being unaffected by its attack. |
| 130 | * "[[https://archiveofourown.org/series/3566581 The Beginning of Uncertainty]]" begins in an AU aftermath of ''Film/TheFlash2023'' where Barry's actions create a new timeline. This series reveals that Kara (who exists in the new timeline while [[RippleEffectProofMemory retaining memories of the reality where she ‘first’ met Barry]]) suffers from a Kryptonian variation of this; her genetic imprinting failed to take in utero, and she lacks the genetic markers for suitable reconditioning, so while Kara was raised as a member of the Thinkers’ Guild she actually has none of the programming that would make her a traditional member of Kryptonian society. The other heroes speculate that this lack of genetic conditioning is basically why Kara and Kal are the only two Kryptonians not in favour of Zod’s plan to destroy Earth and rebuild Krypton, as they are able to accept that the planet has gone and move on where the other Kryptonians are fixated on rebuilding what they lost (Aquaman describes it as the Supers being “the two Kryptonians out there that aren’t cuckoo for Krypton-puffs.”), |
| 131 | * In ''[[http://das-mervin.livejournal.com/tag/revamp%3A%20the%20blue%20hour The Blue Hour]]'', a ''[[Literature/TheTwilightSaga Twilight]]'' Spite Fic, Bella is noted to have a metal plate in her head from a car accident. Presumably this would have explained why Edward cannot hear her thoughts. |
| 132 | * ''Fanfic/BothSyllables'': {{Implied|Trope}} in the SpinOff ''Policy of Truth'', where Irkens' ability to pass in {{Paper Thin Disguise}}s is explained by a mild kind of CompellingVoice. At one point [[HeroAntagonist Dib]], who's immune, mentions that he's tone-deaf; [[MadScientist Jumba]] wonders if this might be related, but we never get an answer. |
| 133 | * ''Fanfic/CheatingDeathThoseThatLived'': [[https://www.fanfiction.net/s/13173434/29/Cheating-Death-Those-That-Lived Teff Withers]] has been deaf since birth. This renders her immune to the [[OurSirensAreDifferent siren mutts]] and their hypnotic song, which killed the Career pack, letting her win the Hunger Games. |
| 134 | * In ''Fanfic/CivilizationVPeaceWalker'', UsefulNotes/AlexanderTheGreat has HypnoticEyes, which combined with his natural charisma allows him to try to hypnotize Snake's men into believing that Snake is the true enemy. Snake {{No Sell}}s the effect because a) [[VideoGame/MetalGearSolidPortableOps he's seen it before]], and b) [[EyepatchOfPower he only has one eye]]. |
| 135 | * In ''Fanfic/DailyEquestriaLifeWithMonsterGirl'', Cerea is the only sapient being on the planet with no magic whatsoever. This means that she can handle platinum with relative safety (it still might explode in her hands, but it won't drain her if improperly prepped), and makes her the only being on the planet who can safely handle her AntiMagic sword. It also means she's the only person in the world [[spoiler:who can enter Tartarus in an attempt to evaluate Tirek without having her magic drained. There's nothing for him to steal]]. |
| 136 | * In the ''Franchise/HarryPotter'' fic ''[[https://archiveofourown.org/works/44950582/ Disrespecting Authority]]'', it's suggested that Sirius's years in Azkaban have left Sirius essentially immune to legilimency as his mind has been left an addled mess that makes it hard for others to see his memories properly. |
| 137 | * ''Fanfic/GettingBackOnYourHooves'' has the Ropen, a blind monster that as a result is immune to Fluttershy's [[DeathGlare Stare]]. |
| 138 | * In ''[[http://www.tthfanfic.org/Story-16860/MMcGregor+I+Am+What+I+Am.htm I Am What I Am]]'', the reason [[Series/BuffyTheVampireSlayer Xander]] survived Willow's attacks at the end of Season 6 is revealed to be that he has so little magic[[note]]The only magic present in his body is the amount that comes from having a soul[[/note]] that he's functionally AntiMagic. On the upside, it turns out that it's actually ''easier'' to forge magical weapons the less magic the forger has. On the downside, while he ''can'' learn magic, it's so slow going that it took Xander decades to be able to hold a minor enhancement spell for a full minute. |
| 139 | * In ''Fanfic/LeftBeyond'', Aki Lattinen is coded as neurodivergent and actually turns out to have an unusual cerebral anatomy. While this does not make her immune to the Antichrist's mind-compulsion powers, she remembers that he has them, and helps build a partial countermeasure. |
| 140 | * ''Fanfic/MariaCampbellOfTheAstralClocktower'': PlayedForLaughs. Nicol is so ridiculously pretty that most people immediately faint upon first meeting him; there are servants dedicated to clearing away the unconscious people at any ball he attends. Furthermore, if people can make it past that hurdle, he's also TheStoic, so most people are put off by his lack of any obvious expression. Combined, these have made it very difficult for him to court anyone. At a diplomatic function, he ends up having a perfectly ordinary conversation with a blind woman, and his sister wonders why they never thought of that before. |
| 141 | * ''Fanfic/NobodyDies'' has a quite disturbing example of this trope; Asuka ends up weaponising her AbusiveParents-induced mental illness at least twice. |
| 142 | * Old Man Henderson of ''Fanfic/OldManHenderson'' infamy was already so crazy and had smoked so much marijuana that he dismissed the various BrownNote {{Eldritch Abomination}}s as hallucinations or really ugly poodles, and his dyslexia means that he was unable to read the Necronomicon, rendering him immune to most of its effects. |
| 143 | * ''Fanfic/OpeningTheBox'' {{Deconstruct|ion}}s this; after experiencing just how debilitating Perona's Negative Ghosts were, Sanji is ''deeply concerned'' about the fact Usopp was able to NoSell them due to his self-esteem issues. |
| 144 | -->Still, the thought that Usopp was thoroughly familiar even with a toned-down version of what Sanji had felt when the ghosts attacked him – familiar enough to build up immunity to the real thing – was deeply unsettling. Sanji didn't like it one lousy bit. |
| 145 | * Hanna in ''Fanfic/TheSecretReturnOfAlexMack'' has no fear response at all, which can get her into dangerous situations. However, it also means that the Midwich Cuckoos are unable to MindRape her; replaying the memory of her mother being murdered just makes her thrilled to see her mother. |
| 146 | * ''Fanfic/TwoSidesOfACoin'': Kate [=McMillan=] is unharmed by a disruptor shot to her leg, on account of [[ArtificialLimbs that leg being a prosthetic]]. |
| 147 | * ''[[https://archiveofourown.org/works/49579075/chapters/130638598 The Vampire Spawn with the Green Hand and a Tadpole]]'': Like all [[Franchise/DragonAge Grey Wardens]], Stroud is slowly dying to Darkspawn Taint. The taint also protects him from vampire bites, because his blood is like poison to them. |
| 148 | * In ''Fanfic/ViridianTheGreenGuide'', [[TheDragon Queen Bee]]'s poison works by attacking a person's [[Manga/MyHeroAcademia Quirk factor]], which allows them to use their Quirk. When her bees attack Izuku Midoriya, who is [[UnSorcerer Quirkless]], he doesn't even notice it. [[spoiler:When the BigBad tries to steal Izuku's Quirk, it fails to work, giving Izuku the opening he needs to kill him.]] |
| 149 | * In ''Fanfic/WhatIf'', this basically applies to Neo from the Machines’ perspective. As a glitch in the Matrix without access to his body, he can’t actually take any form of sustenance, and must make a conscious decision to come in contact with anything. On the other hand, his lack of an external link to the system means that the Machines can’t even try and hold him prisoner unless he lets them, and he eventually learns how to fight the Agents. |
| 150 | * In one ''VideoGame/XCOMUFODefense'' novelization, one soldier is described as having the psychic potential of a brick, which makes him the only one ''completely unable'' to use PsychicPowers in any way, shape or form in the entire organization. Which becomes extremely useful when it turns out that the Etherals, who rely on their psychic powers to replace most of their bodily functions, are absolutely unable to detect him, since he emits the same psychic aura as any furniture. |
| 151 | * ''Fanfic/YourAlicornIsInAnotherCastle'': From [[https://www.fimfiction.net/story/373989/1/your-alicorn-is-in-another-castle/the-kaizo-trap "The Kaizo Trap"]]: |
| 152 | --> In this case, Chief Kaizo had arrived in Canterlot three days prior to the meetings, mostly because it took three days for the embassy to properly consecrate itself for his stay and he had to personally oversee all of it, generally while leading the extremely loud cleansing chant which continued under both Sun and Moon before starting all over again at the moment anyone dropped a note. (Property values tended to be rather low in the vicinity of that embassy, and anypony who was hearing-impaired took happy financial advantage.) |
| 153 | [[/folder]] |
| 154 | |
| 155 | [[folder:Films -- Animation]] |
| 156 | * In ''WesternAnimation/BarbieFairytopia'', Elina's lack of wings normally earns her ridicule or pity from other fairies. However, when the BigBad Laverna spreads a mist throughout the land that weakens those with wings, Elina is unaffected, which enables her to stop Laverna and save the day. |
| 157 | * In ''WesternAnimation/HomeOnTheRange'', Grace is the only cow immune to Slim's hypnotic yodeling because she's tone deaf. |
| 158 | * In ''WesternAnimation/HotelTransylvania'', it's crossed over with NoEyeInMagic: {{Dracula}} tries to use his HypnoticEyes on [[BoyMeetsGhoul Jonathan]] to make him leave, but Jonathan's contacts somehow mess it up. |
| 159 | * The baby dragons in ''WesternAnimation/HowToTrainYourDragon2'' are not susceptible to the Alpha dragon's brainwashing because their brains are not mature enough yet. |
| 160 | * ''WesternAnimation/KungFuPanda1'': Po is TheChosenOne not just because [[TimeToUnlockMoreTruePotential he has a lot of potential]], but because he is [[{{Kevlard}} just too fat]] to be affected by Tai Lung's PressurePoint attacks. |
| 161 | * In ''WesternAnimation/{{Minions}}'' the Hypno Hat doesn't work on the blind keeper of the royal jewels. |
| 162 | * In ''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyEquestriaGirlsRainbowRocks'', [[OurSirensAreDifferent the Dazzlings']] song does not affect people who are protected by magic or cannot hear it. The main heroes were protected by magic, and Vinyl Scratch [[HeadphonesEqualIsolation never stops listening to her headphones]]. |
| 163 | [[/folder]] |
| 164 | |
| 165 | [[folder:Films -- Live-Action]] |
| 166 | * In ''Film/TheAvengers2012'', Loki {{brainwashe|dAndCrazy}}s people by tapping them on the chest with his staff. He tries this on Tony Stark to no effect, because Tony has an arc reactor in his chest keeping shrapnel from entering his heart. |
| 167 | --> '''Loki:''' ... This usually works.\ |
| 168 | '''Tony Stark:''' Well, [[DoesThisRemindYouOfAnything performance issues]]. It's not uncommon. One out of five-- |
| 169 | * ''Film/BirdBox'': |
| 170 | ** Deranged individuals do not kill themselves when exposed to the creatures. Instead, they see it as beautiful and are driven to show others what they've seen. |
| 171 | ** Blind people cannot be affected by the creatures at all. |
| 172 | * Bane in ''Film/TheDarkKnightRises'' relies on a gaseous painkiller to numb the pain from his old injuries that would otherwise incapacitate him. And if his fights with Batman are anything to go by, the painkiller has the added effect of reducing pain in combat. |
| 173 | * In ''Film/{{Dobermann}}'', Nat the Gypsy is deaf. She uses this to her advantage during the raid in Joe's club. She manages to shove the cop who is trying to arrest her up against the speaker bank, and then cranks the volume of the club's sound system to maximum. The cop falls to the floor, deafened and nearly unconscious, while Nat is largely unaffected. |
| 174 | * In ''Film/{{Eternals}}'', Makkari's deafness also accounts for her RequiredSecondaryPowers, as it makes her immune to the sonic booms caused by her SuperSpeed. |
| 175 | * In ''Film/{{Faster}}'', [[spoiler:Driver survives being shot in the head by Cop because he has a metal plate in his skull: a metal plate that is there because of the injuries he sustained the the first time Cop shot him in the head 10 years ago.]] |
| 176 | * One of the rules in ''Film/TheHumanRace'' is that touching the grass anywhere on the race course will result in YourHeadASplode. Eddie, a veteran who lost a leg in Afghanistan, is so skilled with his crutches that he is able to use them to safely traverse grass without his remaining leg touching the ground, something which is revealed when he is shoved onto a road-adjacent field by "Deaf Female." |
| 177 | * [[ExploitedImmunity Exploited]] in ''Film/{{Hush}}''. The protagonist is a deaf woman in a remote house, under attack from a serial killer. At the climax, she uses her [[ChekhovsGun exceptionally loud fire alarm]] (which is designed to be so loud that she can ''feel'' the vibrations throughout the house), to disorient her attacker, while it doesn't impact her at all. |
| 178 | * In ''Film/TheKunoichiNinjaGirl'', the eunuch Shimotsuki {{organ dodge}}s Kanna's GroinAttack. |
| 179 | * In the Creator/{{Troma}}-distributed anthology ''Macabre Pair of Shorts'', two vampires find themselves unable to feed on their prospective victim due to his blood disease. One vampire subsequently insists that the man be KilledToUpholdTheMasquerade, but the other decides against it in favor of making him a vampire too (with the added benefit that the disease can't kill him now). |
| 180 | * Due to his inability to form new memories, the hero of ''Film/{{Memento}}'' is the perfect assassin: he acts like a normal guy, doesn't feel guilt over the people he's killed, and can never confess any of his crimes ''because he genuinely doesn't remember committing them''. |
| 181 | * In ''Film/MyFavoriteMartian'', [[BrainlessBeauty Brace Channing]] is a borderline case. Uncle Martin uses a sort of mind meld on her while copying her form and while the copying ''works'' he's left seriously disorientated by her lack of brains. |
| 182 | -->'''Martin:''' Boy, her head was dark and empty. |
| 183 | * The villain in ''Film/{{Orgazmo}}'' is blasted with the orgazmo ray so many times in the "[[{{pun}} climax]]" of the film that he returns in the epilogue for a SequelHook, proclaiming himself to be a eunuch, and thus immune to Orgazmo's weapon (just like the villainous character they created in the movie-within-a-movie to bump off Orgazmo's character). |
| 184 | * ''Film/Serenity2005'': Mal is immune to [[spoiler:The Operative's PressurePoint FinishingMove because his back was injured in TheWarOfEarthlyAggression, and the nerve cluster The Operative meant to hit is gone]]. |
| 185 | * ''Film/{{Signs}}'': Creator/MelGibson's son has asthma, and an asthma attack prevented him from breathing in the aliens' poisonous fumes. |
| 186 | * In ''Film/SpeciesII'' an alien organism sneaks aboard the first manned Mars space flight and attacks the three-man crew, rendering them unconscious for most of the trip back to Earth. Two of the astronauts are infected and turned into [[HalfHumanHybrid Half-Human Hybrids]]. The reason the third astronaut is spared because he carries genes for sickle-cell anemia, though he himself doesn't manifest it. As established in [[Film/{{Species}} the first film]], the alien can detect genetic defects just by touch and avoids procreating with humans who have those. As a side note, the astronaut in question is black, and [[ShownTheirWork most cases of sickle-cell anemia are encountered in people with sub-Saharan African ancestry]]. Ironically, as mentioned in the RealLife section below, sickle-cell anaemia is an example itself; an asymptomatic carrier for the gene like the aforementioned carrier is naturally immune to malaria. |
| 187 | * ''Franchise/StarWars'': In ''Film/RevengeOfTheSith'', Darth Vader's prosthetic arm enables him to climb to safety even after being burned by [[ConvectionShmonvection proximity to lava]]. |
| 188 | * The BigBad of ''Film/TheWorldIsNotEnough'' is highly resistant to pain because of a bullet slowly moving through his brain. [[spoiler: The fact he is dying also means he's willing to engage in TheLastDance in order to further the plans of [[BitchInSheepsClothing Electra]].]] |
| 189 | * In ''Film/WorldWarZ'', [[spoiler:the zombies instinctively seek out capable host bodies to make new zombies. A soldier with a crippled leg is indicated to have been a low priority target, and people with terminal illnesses are ignored completely]]. |
| 190 | [[/folder]] |
| 191 | |
| 192 | [[folder:Folklore]] |
| 193 | * In ''Literature/ThePiedPiperOfHamelin'', at most three children can get left behind when the Piper plays his alluring music, and are thus able to tell the adults what happened to the others. One is deaf and can't hear the music, one is blind and can't follow the Piper, and one is lame and can't keep up. Different versions use different variations. |
| 194 | * One piece of Japanese folklore holds that IdiotsCannotCatchColds. |
| 195 | * The One-Armed Judo Competitor, a motivational story commonly told in martial arts schools, tells of a one-armed boy learning from an old master who only ever teaches him one move. He does very well at his first tournament, breezing through his first few matches, struggles in his next few, but ultimately managing to win and become champion even when apparently outmatched. When he asks how he managed to win with only one move, the master knowingly tells him that the move he mastered, which happens to be one of the most difficult throws in Judo, has only one known defense against it: grab your opponent by the left arm. |
| 196 | * One folktale about not succumbing to ToxicFriendInfluence tells the story of a group of frogs who decide to climb to the top of a tall tower in the forest. Other animals gather to watch and state that there's no way the frogs can make it, they're too small and weak, it will never work, etc. One by one, the frogs lose steam -- except one frog that does get all the way to the tower's peak. When that frog descends and the animals express shock, it's revealed that he is deaf and thus couldn't hear their negativity, which in turn gave him the strength to reach the top. |
| 197 | [[/folder]] |
| 198 | |
| 199 | [[folder:Jokes]] |
| 200 | * One joke involves a man in a hat making a DealWithTheDevil in exchange for all his earthly desires to be granted. Years later, the devil returns to collect, only for the man to remove his hat, revealing a magnificent flame-red mane. The joke, of course, being that [[WesternAnimation/SouthPark gingers have no souls]]. |
| 201 | * Do you know what dumb people have in their heads? Brain-eating maggot. What is it doing in there? Starving. |
| 202 | [[/folder]] |
| 203 | |
| 204 | [[folder:Literature]] |
| 205 | * In ''Literature/TheAndromedaStrain'', the titular Strain kills an entire town save a baby and an old man. Turns out that the contagion was actually extremely sensitive to abnormal [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PH pH]] levels. The old man was a nutcase who drank drain cleaner, resulting in the pH of his blood being thrown off, and the baby had colic, and had cried himself into oxygen alkalosis. Previously subverted. If you have normal coagulation, Andromeda will cause your death by increasing it to the point that all of your blood will become solid in the blink of an eye. If you '''don't''' have normal coagulation? It migrates to the brain and destroys all of your blood vessels there. |
| 206 | * ''Literature/{{Animorphs}}'': |
| 207 | ** {{Invoked|Trope}} -- the Arn, a species adept at genetic modification, purposefully altered themselves so that they cannot be infested by a [[PuppeteerParasite Yeerk]] without rupturing a blood vessel and dying. They assumed this would make the Yeerks leave them alone; instead the Yeerks made the Arn slaves and used them for target practice. By the main events of the series [[LastOfHisKind only one is left]]. They also can't infest a species called the Hawjabrans because their brains are spread in bits throughout their bodies instead of being centralized. So they just murder all eight thousand ones they capture. |
| 208 | ** A variant: Yeerks are perfectly able to infest disabled humans, but why bother when there are billions of better hosts available? ([[TortureTechnician Taylor]] was apparently an exception, useful due to her mother's position rather than her own physical ability, and the Yeerks' first priority was to make her physically capable anyway.) When the Animorphs finally decide to expand their ranks they go after the handicapped, knowing that they can actually be trusted. |
| 209 | * ''Literature/ArtemisFowl'': The LEP recruit Mulch Diggums to infiltrate Fowl Manor because being a criminal, he's long since lost his magic due to [[MustBeInvited entering human dwellings without permission]], while all of them are unable to do so without losing their magic (and severe bodily distress). |
| 210 | * ''Literature/TheBalladOfBlackTom'': Otis is saved from being driven insane by a TomeOfEldritchLore because he's illiterate; you can't exactly GoMadFromTheRevelation if the revelation looks like nothing but indecipherable scribbles to you. |
| 211 | * ''Literature/TheBelgariad'': Polgara the Sorceress is well-known for her PsychicRadar. [[spoiler:Zakath]] counters this in ''The Malloreon'' by deploying sentries who are so profoundly stupid that she doesn't hear their thoughts at all. |
| 212 | * ''Literature/BruceCovillesBookOf'': |
| 213 | ** ''Bruce Coville's Book of Spine Tinglers'': ''The Sight of the Basilisk'' is narrated by a basilisk, who was left to guard a treasure-filled tomb a long time ago. Some robbers force [[BlindAndTheBeast a blind boy]] into the tomb to steal stuff for them, and the basilisk strikes up a conversation with him when he realizes the boy is still alive despite "seeing" him. The story ends with the boy hiding the basilisk in his clothes when he leaves the tomb. Then the robbers attack him and demand to see whatever he found... |
| 214 | ** ''Bruce Coville's Book of Monsters II'': ''Optical Illusion'' features a man in a crowded restaurant sharing a table with someone who turns out to be a mutant with powerful psychic abilities, and reveals that he and others like him are going to take over the world, then uses his HypnoticEyes to try to erase the protagonist's memory of the conversation. Once the bad guy leaves the protagonist notes that he has to warn somebody, and thankfully mankind has some hope -- the smug villain wasn't even smart enough to realize that [[TwistEnding the protagonist is blind]]. |
| 215 | * Invoked in ''Literature/ACertainMagicalIndex'': when Index is using a spell called "Sheol Fear" that induces paralyzing confusion in people of faith via a sort of song/wail, a group of nuns counter it by rupturing their eardrums with pens. Sheol Fear doesn't work on the deaf, since they cannot hear the song. |
| 216 | * In ''Literature/ChantersOfTremaris'', Trout has hearing loss from his days in a machine shop, so he can't hear the high notes needed to perform the [[MasterOfIllusion Power of Seeming]] and is immune to illusions. |
| 217 | * Billy Raven from the ''Literature/ChildrenOfTheRedKing'' series is immune from another character's HypnoticEyes because he has albinism, which impairs his eyesight prevents him from being able to focus on them. |
| 218 | * In ''Literature/TheChroniclesOfThomasCovenant'', Covenant attributes his ability to resist MindRape at the hands of Lord Foul in part to his being a leper: a lot of his nerve endings have died, making him numb against pain, and he's suffered so much scorn, abandonment, and isolation since contracting his disease that it's difficult for Lord Foul to make Covenant any more miserable than he already is. Much later on, his numb hands enable him to use a magic weapon that becomes hot enough to severely burn them. |
| 219 | * Could arguably apply to Eddie O'Hare, the protagonist of ''Literature/{{Colony}}'', when he is brought back in a robotic body a few centuries after his 'death'. It is later observed that Eddie came through the reanimation process with his sanity intact because his low self-worth (regarding himself as the unluckiest man in the universe) meant that, where anyone else would have been driven insane by the sheer horror of it, Eddie expected so little from life that he actually benefited from his ‘transformation’. |
| 220 | * ''Franchise/ConanTheBarbarian'': In "Literature/TheFrostGiantsDaughter", an incredibly beautiful and seductive woman named Atali mesmerizes men and lures them to her lair... where her monstrous brothers kill them for food. Conan falls under her spell, but manages to slay the brothers, forcing Atali to flee. Later, Conan tries to tell his comrades about this, but only an old warrior named Grom believes him. Grom explains that he encountered the ageless Atali as a youth, where she mesmerized and lured his unit to their deaths. He wasn't immune to it, but he survived because his injuries prevented him from following her. |
| 221 | * The villain of ''Literature/TheCrowTheLazarusHeart'' was struck by lightning as a child, giving him untreated brain damage that caused him to grow up to be a psychotic ConspiracyTheorist. The chemistry and electrical impulses of his brain are apparently so chaotic and cross-wired that he is almost completely immune to the telepathic powers of the new Crow. |
| 222 | * ''Literature/DarkDaysOfHamburgerHalpin'': Smiley learns that he, Will, and Will's ex-girlfriend Ebony (who Smiley gets a crush on) can break in to the school to watch the police's interrogation tapes (made while interrogating the students about Chambers' death). However, there's still faculty in the school on Saturdays, so they won't be able to use the volume. Fortunately, Will and Ebony (who's as deaf as he is) are experts at lip-reading, meaning they can tell what the interviewees are saying without sound. |
| 223 | * In the ''WesternAnimation/DarkwingDuck'' tie-in book "Literature/TheSillyCanineCaper", Launchpad gets hit with a silliness-inducing ray while protecting Darkwing. He's completely unaffected. Darkwing initially assumes that this is because [[CloudCuckoolander Launchpad's]] already too goofy for it to have any effect on him; it turns out it's actually because Launchpad [[InvokedTrope turned on his headphones]], which shorted out the signal. |
| 224 | * The protagonist of ''Literature/TheDayOfTheTriffids'' retains his vision because he was temporarily blinded and could not see the beautiful meteor shower that (permanently) blinded humanity. |
| 225 | * Subverted in ''Literature/{{Deathbell}}'' by Guy N. Smith, which is about a cursed Tibetan bell whose ringing drives people insane and eventually kills them. "Deaf Donald" is introduced and set up to be potentially immune to the bell's effects, but when he hears, he goes insane and dies like the others, as a way of showing the evil bell's noise can even affect the deaf. |
| 226 | * ''Literature/{{Discworld}}'' mentions one prison guard as being "[[TooDumbToFool too stupid to fool]]". As in, he would shoot you with a crossbow without a second thought if you try something funny or try to fool him. He keeps keys to the cells safely locked in table drawer on the second floor (cells are in the cellar) and when he does need to use them to open cells, he always has at least two other guards with him. That guard? Fred Colon. |
| 227 | * In ''Literature/{{Dune}}'', one of the two men who kidnapped a Bene Gesserit was deaf, making him immune to her CompellingVoice. [[spoiler: But only ''one'' of them. Oops.]] |
| 228 | * In the ''Literature/FelixGomez'' series of novels by Mario Acevedo, two people have been immune to vampiric hypnotism, most likely because it needs total eye contact, and these people both had a lazy eye. |
| 229 | * Creator/IsaacAsimov's ''Literature/FoundationSeries'': "Literature/SearchByTheFoundation": The Second Foundationers have near unstoppable PsychicPowers, but Dr Darell discovers that he can disable them by broadcasting a loud psychic static with a special electrical apparatus he calls the "mental static" device, [[ExploitedImmunity while leaving normal people unaffected]]. He compares this to [[SensoryOverload flashing a bright light in somebody's eyes]]; somebody without sight (i.e. normal people, without the psychic powers) are not even aware of the light, whereas [[LogicalWeakness people who can see will be hurt and incapacitated]]. |
| 230 | * ''Literature/GentlemanBastard'' has a crime lord, the Grey King, intruding on the business of the master of Camorr's underworld, Capa Barsavi. No blade or bolt can harm the Grey King, thanks to his keeping a mage on contract and he can kill with a touch. After accepting the idea of the mage, Barsavi expects that the magic protection is a case of ExactWords and that the death touch might be a rumor the Grey King spreads so nobody tries just braining, drowning or strangling him. He tests this theory by finding a dying old man and offering a generous pension to his family if he'll only touch the Grey King, and if he lives he can live out a life of purest hedonism for his final months. Even so, the old man is held up as the bravest man in Camorr. [[spoiler: Even the Grey King, after murdering Barsavi and taking the name Capa Raza, salutes his courage and agrees to honor Barsavi's deal to him. It's unclear in all that followed if the old man actually got his happy ever after.]] |
| 231 | * ''Literature/HarryPotter'': |
| 232 | ** In ''Literature/HarryPotterAndTheChamberOfSecrets'', looking a basilisk in the eyes causes instant death, but Nearly Headless Nick stares down a basilisk and is merely Petrified (a condition which, fortunately, is curable) because... um... [[OurGhostsAreDifferent he's already dead]]. A few students and a cat also survive seeing the basilisk, and only end up temporarily Petrified, but that's not because of any negative condition like being dead; it's because they didn't look ''directly'' into the eyes. For example, several people (and the cat) saw its reflection, one student saw it through a camera lens, and another student saw it through Nearly Headless Nick's translucent form. |
| 233 | ** In ''Literature/HarryPotterAndThePrisonerOfAzkaban'', [[TheAlcatraz Azkaban]] is guarded by joy-eating Dementors that normally drive prisoners insane. Sirius Black was wrongly imprisoned there for alleged mass murder and for the alleged betrayal of his best friends (and Harry's parents), James and Lily Potter. But he still manages to get past the Dementors and escape. This is partly because he switches back and forth between human form and dog form, meaning that in his dog form, his simple animal emotions are harder for Dementors to detect and consume. Also, Sirius is so unhappy already, over the deaths of Harry's parents and over his own wrongful imprisonment, that there isn't really much joy left for the Dementors to eat. This in turn is aided by the fact that he is consumed by thoughts of revenge, which fuel him enough to stave off despair, but aren't happy thoughts, so the Dementors can't take them away from him. And finally, Sirius is so emaciated from his twelve years in prison that (at least in dog form) he's skinny enough to slip right through the bars of his cell. |
| 234 | *** There's also a popular fan theory which states that people suffering from clinical depression would have a measure of natural resistance to a Dementor's aura simply because [[ConditionedToAcceptHorror they're used to it]]. |
| 235 | * In one ''Literature/HorusHeresy'' novel, a Morlock Terminator is rendered totally deaf during a defensive action on the ''Sisypheum''... which proves extremely convenient for him when they come up against the Kakophoni of the Emperor's Children. The resultant clash ends very badly for [[spoiler:Marius Vairosean]]. |
| 236 | * In ''Literature/TheIrregularAtMagicHighSchool'', Elemental magicians are genetically engineered[[note]]by their own ancestors, to stave off {{Witch Hunt}}s[[/note]] servants compelled to obey whatever "master" they imprint on. This is recognized as an violation of their free will, and causes many negative emotions on the Element's part, but it's not without upsides: for one, it enables them to NoSell brainwashing. There is no sort of intimidation or torture stronger than what is already in an Elemental's genes. |
| 237 | * In ''Literature/IsThisAZombie'', Kyoko made herself immune to Eu's reality bending words by gouging out her eardrums. |
| 238 | * ''Literature/TheMagicians'': In ''The Magician King'', Quentin is attacked by a random swordsman who tries to slice him down the middle. Unknown to the swordsman, Quentin was badly mauled by [[HumanoidAbomination the Beast]] in the previous book, requiring him to have several parts of his skeleton replaced with enchanted wooden prosthetics, including two thirds of his collarbone. Consequently, instead of delivering fatal injuries, the swordsman ends up getting his blade stuck in Quentin's prosthetic collarbone. |
| 239 | * ''Literature/MagnusChaseAndTheGodsOfAsgard'' has Hearthstone, Magnus' elven friend who was born deaf. While his deafness isn't generally very useful, it does make him the only one of the heroes immune to the mental attacks caused by [[KillerRabbit Ratatosk's]] shouts. [[spoiler: His disability also saves everyone's lives during the confrontation with Fenris Wolf in ''The Sword of Summer'', as he's equally unaffected by the monster's CompellingVoice and keeps everyone else from falling for Fenris' attempts to lure them into his striking range]]. It ''further'' saves the heroes from the DespairEventHorizon inducing Nokk lament. |
| 240 | ** Another example involving Hearthstone is that his deafness causes him and his circle of friends to all be fluent in ASL... which turns out to be very useful whenever the group wants to communicate without whatever Jotun they are dealing with hearing. |
| 241 | * ''Literature/TheNothingEquation'': Captain [=McDowell=], who takes the scientists to and from the bubble, keeps grumbling that it would be better to leave one of his roustabouts to man the bubble because they're too dumb to get spooked like the scientists. |
| 242 | * In the science fiction short story "The Ruum", a rogue alien robot [[SuperPersistentPredator pursues a man across the Canadian wilderness]], intent on preserving him in an AndIMustScream state as a specimen ForScience [[spoiler:When the robot finally catches him, though, it lets him go because he's been running so hard and starving for so long that he's no longer within the weight range of creatures the robot was programmed to preserve.]] |
| 243 | * ''Literature/TheRook'' features a variation of this in the character of Myfanwy Thomas, the protagonist who suffers total amnesia at the start of the novel. This complete loss of memory makes her immune to an attack by an entity that makes her experience the sensory input of herself and several others being attacked; where other people would have been overwhelmed by being made to recall ''everything'' they have ever experienced in their lives, Myfanwy's current persona has only been active for a few weeks, which makes it easier for her to focus on the events that she knows are hers and ignore the input from the others. |
| 244 | * In ''Literature/TheSalvagers'' series, Boots has arcana dystocia, making her a rare UnSorcerer. While this inconvenienced her for most of her life, Mother's otherwise unbeatable time manipulation magic breaks down whenever it tries to ensnare her. |
| 245 | * In the ''Literature/ShadowlandsChronicles'' books by Andy Cooke, the character David proves to be immune to a villain's mind control due to being autistic. |
| 246 | * ''Literature/TheStand'' has Tom ("M-O-O-N spells [insert important item here]"), a good-natured but mentally handicapped man whose intellectual capacity is stated to be around the third grade level. Turns out that his mind is so befuddled or clouded that it frustrates any attempt by BigBad Randall Flagg to locate him using his powers of telepathy: "All I see is... M-O-O-N spells moon." |
| 247 | * ''Literature/StarTrekEnterpriseRelaunch'': At one point Trip Tucker (who is disguised as a Romulan for reasons too complicated to go into here) and a genuine Romulan are almost caught out by an ultrasonic booby trap that should have caused both of them extreme pain, but it operates in a frequency range that the human ear can't perceive at all. This nearly blows Trip's cover, but he plays it off by claiming he has hearing damage thanks to a taste for too-loud music in his youth, selling the story by adding that he'd never mentioned this before because [[DreamCrushingHandicap it prevented him pursuing his dream career in the armed forces]] and he finds it painful to talk about. [[spoiler:It ''almost'' works.]] |
| 248 | * Jim Gardner from ''Literature/TheTommyknockers'' is immune to the effects of the spacecraft of the titular aliens, as he has a metal plate in his head due to a ski accident. Two other characters experience this to a lesser extent, Ev Hillman (smaller plates in head from a war injury) and Anne Anderson (extremely extensive metal dental work). |
| 249 | * In ''Literature/{{Transpecial}}'', Suza is autistic and understands body language intellectually rather than instinctively. As a result, she's one of the few people who can communicate with the ky'iin, whose movements cause instinctive fear and aggression in most humans. The government had a hard time finding someone who's autistic enough to be immune but also verbal enough to learn the ky'iin's language. |
| 250 | * ''Literature/TheTwilightSaga'': Bella thinks there's something wrong with her when Edward reveals that he can't read her mind, even though he can read everyone else's thoughts. Edward calls her out on the ridiculousness of that concern, under the circumstances. Spoony and the guys from Podcast/RiffTrax all have a theory about this: Edward ''can'' read her mind, [[TooDumbToLive but there's just nothing there.]] |
| 251 | * In Creator/ArthurCClarke's story "The Ultimate Melody", a scientist analyzes music to create the ultimate EarWorm... which renders the scientist [[BrownNote permanently catatonic]] when he hears it. His assistant is unaffected because he's completely tone-deaf. |
| 252 | * In ''Literature/TheWaterfireSaga'' by Jennifer Donnelly, one of the six talismans needed to seal away Abaddon is guarded by Okwa Naholo, monsters so terrifying that merely seeing one [[DeadlyGaze will kill you]]. Ava, the BlindSeer of the group, has no problems. Invoked, as the talisman's original owner (and Ava's distant ancestor) was a BlindSeer who knew his descendant would also be blind, and thus chose monsters that would deter others but let her through. |
| 253 | * In ''Literature/{{Watersong}}'', Daniel was in a boating accident which damaged his hearing. As a result, he is immune to the sirens' song. |
| 254 | * The Oddity from ''Literature/WildCards'' is an amalgamation of three bodies and personalities in a constant state of flux, which normally means loads of pain and [[BodyHorror Body Horror]]. However, when a villain capable of [[GrandTheftMe switching minds]] comes along and tries to pull this trick on them not knowing what they are the pain catches him by surprise and the other two personalities are able to subdue him at least for a while. |
| 255 | * The Tin Woodsman from ''Literature/TheWonderfulWizardOfOz''. His entire body was reconstructed out of tin after a series of axe injuries, so he's immune to fire and noxious poppy fumes. (The Scarecrow is also immune to the poppy fumes, but he's not disabled, he's...well...a scarecrow. And he's definitely not immune to fire, because straw burns easily.) |
| 256 | * ''Literature/WorldOfTheFiveGods'': In ''The Curse of Chalion'', Cazaril refuses substantial bribes from the king of Ibra because he has a stomach tumor he expects will kill him shortly. |
| 257 | * In ''Literature/WorldWarZ'', one survivor has no legs. A crawling zombie attacks him, and only gets his wheelchair, alerting him to its presence and giving him the time to dispatch it. |
| 258 | * ''Literature/XWingSeries'': At the climax of ''Wedge's Gamble'', the Rogues need to get into a room that turns out to be filled with DeadlyGas. Fortunately, it turns out it's an inhalation-based agent, so their Gand member Ooryl Qrygg just walks right in: due to his BizarreAlienBiology, he derives the oxygen he needs from his food and therefore doesn't breathe (which was alluded to in less detail in the previous book ''Rogue Squadron''). |
| 259 | [[/folder]] |
| 260 | |
| 261 | [[folder:Live-Action TV]] |
| 262 | * Gary of ''Series/{{Alphas}}'' is immune to Nina's [[CompellingVoice "push"]] power because he's autistic. Similarly, a character with lie-detector powers is unable to read him because of his lack of affect. |
| 263 | * In the ''Series/{{Angel}}'' episode "[[Recap/AngelS01E14IveGotYouUnderMySkin I've Got You Under My Skin]]", a boy is possessed by a demon. When the main characters exorcise the boy, the demon reveals that he had ''no'' control over the boy's body -- the boy was a sociopath (and possibly literally soulless), so there was nothing to corrupt, trapping the demon powerlessly inside him. |
| 264 | * ''Series/AreYouAfraidOfTheDark'': |
| 265 | ** An episode has kids being abducted by aliens who use sonic weapons. A deaf girl is immune to the weapons and helps the kids escape. |
| 266 | ** "The Tale of the Ghastly Grinner" features the titular character, a VillainousHarlequin and MonsterClown who can turn people into drooling, mindless, giggling idiots by staring them in the eyes. When he captures the protagonist's nerdy friend Hooper, he tries the same trick--only to discover his power is completely ineffective. In a MeaningfulEcho, Hooper reveals that she "doesn't have much of a sense of humor" and thus ''can't'' fall victim to an attack based on that. Another possibility, given evidence throughout the episode, is that Hooper has an some kind of mental disorder (she seems to be autistic) and has a brain wired differently than everyone else the Grinner seizes. |
| 267 | * In ''Series/BattlestarGalactica2003'', the ''Galactica'' avoids Cylon computer infiltration and destruction because it's not connected to any wireless networks, using such obsolete technology as corded phones. Commander Adama, who was in the last war with the Cylons where they did the same thing, is ProperlyParanoid of this and refused to upgrade them. |
| 268 | * In an episode of ''Series/TheBionicWoman'', extraterrestrial aliens use mind control on the residents of a small town. One young girl is immune, and Jaime is partially immune. The mind control is based on hearing, and the girl is deaf and one of Jaime's ears is artificial. |
| 269 | * ''Series/BuffyTheVampireSlayer'': In the episode "[[Recap/BuffyTheVampireSlayerS3E6BandCandy Band Candy]]", chocolate bars sold all around Sunnydale cause anyone who eats them to revert to their teenage personalities. None of the young heroes are affected, despite Xander eating a large amount of his own chocolate, because they are ''already'' teenagers. |
| 270 | * One the abducted women in the ''Series/CriminalMinds'' episode "[[Recap/CriminalMindsS5E12TheUncannyValley The Uncanny Valley]]" was diabetic, which somehow allowed her to metabolize the paralytic drugs she was given at a faster than usual rate. [[TruthInTelevision The show did state that there was a significant chance of the drugs being absorbed into her system faster, killing her in less than a day, however.]] |
| 271 | * A man in ''Series/{{CSI}}'' is only mildly injured after being stabbed in the chest with a fork [[OrganDodge because the position of his heart is off]] due to situs inversus -- the organs in his body are mirror-swapped. |
| 272 | * In the ''Series/DarkAngel'' episode "Fuhgeddaboudit", Max and Co. meet a transgenic with the ability to control a person's actions. It turns out that [[spoiler:a man with narcolepsy is immune due to his brain "being wired differently"]]. |
| 273 | * ''Series/DoctorWho'': |
| 274 | ** In "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS10E3FrontierInSpace Frontier in Space]]", the Ogrons are stated to have the best defense against {{mind probe}}s: stupidity. "There's no mind to probe!" |
| 275 | ** An ExpandedUniverse story has an elderly professor at the prep school "Harry Saxon" attended in his youth, who becomes increasingly disturbed by his colleagues' extremely vivid memories of the boy... who he simply can't remember. When the man himself returns for a photo op at the school, he hears a faint buzzing and turns down his hearing aid. Unfortunately, later on, Saxon catches on, and it turns out that while the professor can somewhat resist the Archangel Network's background brainwashing due to his deafness, a direct blast from the Master's laser screwdriver is a completely different beast. |
| 276 | ** "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS34E9Flatline Flatline]]": The psychic paper that's fooled everyone except geniuses is defeated by a community service supervisor who [[TooDumbToFool lacks the imagination to picture anything on the paper]]. |
| 277 | ** In a more mundane example, [[Recap/DoctorWho60thASTheStarBeast The Star Beast]] sees wheelchair-bound Shirley Bingham avoid being hypnotised with the other UNIT members because they had to climb a staircase to get to the area they were hypnotised. |
| 278 | * ''Series/{{Farscape}}'': |
| 279 | ** In the episode "[[Recap/FarscapeS02E04CrackersDontMatter Crackers Don't Matter]]", John Crichton is resistant to something that is affecting the crew (implied to be some sort of light frequency) because humans have eyesight which is far too poor to see whatever it is that caused it. |
| 280 | --->'''Chiana:''' You've got the worst eyes out of all of us. That's why your optic nerves aren't being affected.\ |
| 281 | '''Crichton:''' I got GREAT eyes! They're better than 20/20 and they're BLUE!\ |
| 282 | '''Chiana:''' Okay, so can you read the symbols on the basin over there?\ |
| 283 | '''Crichton:''' (''looks'') There's nothing there.\ |
| 284 | '''Rygel:''' (''reading'') Warning...\ |
| 285 | '''D'Argo:''' ....don't flush corrosives...\ |
| 286 | '''Aeryn:''' (''with a hand over one eye'') ...down the waste tunnel. |
| 287 | ** Crichton has also been resistant to {{brainwash|ed}}ing because given the number of people who've messed around with the contents of his skull, trying to control his mind is rather like trying to drink milk with a butter knife. |
| 288 | * In the ''Series/{{Fringe}}'' episode "[[Recap/FringeS03E02TheBox The Box]]", the titular box, upon being dug up, emits an ultrasound that kills everyone nearby except for a deaf man. |
| 289 | * Ros from ''Series/GameOfThrones'' attempts to seduce Lord Varys but fails because he's a eunuch (he claims to have been asexual even before then, but it definitely seals the deal, or lack thereof). On the physical side of things, Theon Greyjoy is able to NoSell several repeated [[GroinAttack knees to the groin]] because he, too, is a eunuch (so OrganDodge meets BallsOfSteel). |
| 290 | * ''Series/{{Haven}}'': |
| 291 | ** Nathan is immune to Jordan's AgonyBeam ability because he [[FeelNoPain feels no pain]]. In fact, in several episodes Nathan's lack of sense of touch/pain allows him to function in situations (extreme cold, extreme pressure, etc.) that others can't. In these cases, it's pointed out that he ''will'' still be damaged by whatever the hazard is, but since he can't feel it he can last longer than anyone else. |
| 292 | ** In the episodes "Morbidity" and "Mortality", Dwight is immune to the Trouble that is activating people's Troubles without their usual emotional triggers because Dwight's Trouble is always active. |
| 293 | * ''Series/LegendOfTheSeeker'', like [[Literature/TheSwordOfTruth the books]] it was based on, has the "pristinely ungifted" who can neither use nor be affected by anything magical. This is put to use by forcing a pristinely ungifted person to go past magical protections surrounding a magic box that the villains want and retrieving it. |
| 294 | * A more mundane example crops up in an episode of ''Series/LondonsBurning'' in which Blue Watch are called to a fire in the basement of a public library, which happens to contain the Braille section. The two firefighters who go down to search for anyone trapped find a blind woman, who ends up being a great help in getting back out again; between the smoke and the power going out neither of the firefighters can see more than a couple of feet anyway, but the woman they're ostensibly rescuing has considerably more practice navigating by feel. |
| 295 | * ''Series/MacGyver1985'': In "Jenny's Chance", a deaf racehorse is key to a race-fixing scam involving a high-frequency tone generator due to his immunity to it, as a result of his deafness. |
| 296 | * An episode of ''Series/MightyMorphinPowerRangers'' involved Kimberly's hearing-impaired friend being immune to the MagicMusic used by the MonsterOfTheWeek, and as a result, being able to warn Kimberly and thus ruin said monster's plans to ambush the Rangers. |
| 297 | * ''Series/{{Misfits}}'': In one episode, we meet a man who can telekinetically control dairy products. [[HeartIsAnAwesomePower Though the power is seen as lame, he uses it to great effect]] by [[LethalHarmlessPowers suffocating people with the dairy they consumed prior]]. Luckily, one of our heroes is lactose-intolerant, so he has no dairy in his system to begin with. However, the villain just resorts to stabbing immediately after learning this fact. |
| 298 | * ''Series/TheOuterLimits1995'': |
| 299 | ** One episode titled "[[Recap/TheOuterLimits1995S2E13FromWithin From Within]]" stars a disabled guy who is immune to the parasitic mind control worms that take over everybody else in town. When one tries to get him, it shrivels up and dies of starvation. It appears to come out a different ear than it went in. He has a form of Fetal Alcohol Syndrome/Fetal Alcohol Affect Disorder that results in him having reduced neurotransmitters that affect emotions -- the same neurotransmitters that the parasites happen to feed on. FAS can result in a smaller brain as well. |
| 300 | ** Another episode titled "[[Recap/TheOuterLimits1995S3E5StreamOfConsciousness Stream of Consciousness]]" posits a future in which all brains are networked and have access to the world database, except for the protagonist, whose body rejected the procedure. This makes him pretty much useless except as A.) a janitor, and B.) the OnlySaneMan when the network becomes malevolent. |
| 301 | ** In "[[Recap/TheOuterLimits1995S6E20Nest Nest]]", the polar mites are unable to survive in Robby Archer's body as he suffers from polycythemia, which leads to an overabundance of red blood cells. |
| 302 | * In an episode of ''Series/SledgeHammer'', the bad guys try to turn Hammer into a ManchurianAgent by using subliminal messages in a television to alter his subconscious. It doesn't work - Hammer doesn't ''have'' a subconscious. |
| 303 | * ''Franchise/{{Stargate|Verse}}'': |
| 304 | ** In "[[Recap/StargateSG1S1E4TheBrocaDivide The Broca Divide]]", Daniel and Dr. Fraser's allergies make them immune to the week's malady because of the antihistamines they take, [[spoiler:conveniently preventing the only two named characters with the skills and knowledge to synthesize a cure from being afflicted by the evolutionary regression that turns everyone else into cavemen]]. |
| 305 | ** An episode of ''Series/StargateAtlantis'' has Sheppard as the only character unaffected by a mind-altering perfume because he has a cold and can't smell it. |
| 306 | ** The SGC's stargate dialing system in ''Series/StargateSG1''. They did not find the original Egypt Stargate's Dial Home Device,[[note]]"DHD" for short; a more streamlined usable operating interface than the integrated manual dial in the Gate itself, as well as a power source for the gate[[/note]] so the US Air Force kludged together their own system that works on the gate's integrated manual dial. The SGC's gate-dialing system has a very incomplete set of error code report interpretations, and is far slower to dial out than the "touch-tone" dialing that [=DHD=]s provide, and requires a rigged-up system to power the gate from the local electrical grid. However, this kludged system made the SGC's gate the only operable gate left in the galaxy after the Goa'uld System Lord Ba'al infected a vast number of [=DHD=]s in the galaxy with a virus that corrupted their dial-out protocols and made them gate to random incorrect addresses. It spread through a "correlative update protocol" that helps the Stargate network compensate for stellar drift, and since the SGC's gate ''has'' no such DHD... |
| 307 | * In the ''Series/StarTrekTheOriginalSeries'' episode "[[Recap/StarTrekS3E5IsThereInTruthNoBeauty Is There in Truth No Beauty?]]", there is a race of aliens said to be so ugly that anyone who sees them goes insane. The GirlOfTheWeek is able to look at them through special glasses, but it's later revealed that the glasses are to hide what she's really doing and she's actually blind and pretending to be able to see (with the aid of a sophisticated sensor mesh draped over her clothes). |
| 308 | * This little exchange from ''[[Series/TheSuiteLifeOfZackAndCody The Suite Life on Deck]]'' episode "Lost at Sea", when the characters are debating whether or not to eat wild fish and risk mercury poisoning. |
| 309 | -->'''Woody:''' Wait, what are the symptoms of mercury poisoning?\ |
| 310 | '''Bailey:''' It causes bad skin, profuse sweating, weird behavior and muscle weakness.\ |
| 311 | '''Woody:''' I won't even notice! |
| 312 | * ''Series/{{Supernatural}}'': |
| 313 | ** Everyone in the vicinity of Famine is eventually driven to extremes of overindulgence, except [[spoiler:Dean, who is so broken that there's no hunger, literal or metaphorical, left in him]]. |
| 314 | ** Sam is immune to a god who forces people to speak the truth [[spoiler:because he has no soul at that point]]. |
| 315 | * A frame of mind example occurs in ''Series/TeenWolf'': One of season 3's big bads causes four of the werewolves to hallucinate their worst fears in an attempt to push them over the DespairEventHorizon. This works on Scott, Boyd, and Ethan who each attempt suicide. Not so with Isaac, who has spent years of his life being horribly abused by his father. Upon hallucinating that it's happening again, he simply endures it as he always has. |
| 316 | * Todd from ''Series/ToddAndTheBookOfPureEvil'' proved to be immune to one antagonist's mind control powers because of his attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. This is (sort of) TruthInTelevision; severe mental disorders that prevent concentration can actually prevent a person from being hypnotized, but normal ADHD isn't generally sufficient for this. |
| 317 | * ''Series/TheXFiles'': |
| 318 | ** In "[[Recap/TheXFilesS03E23Wetwired Wetwired]]", Mulder proves immune to some subliminal brainwashing because of his red/green colorblindness. |
| 319 | ** In "[[Recap/TheXFilesS06E02Drive Drive]]", all the living creatures in a given area die horrifically when their inner ears pressurize and explode out of their skulls. Amazingly, a single old woman is found sitting in her home, unaffected as death surrounds her for miles. It turns out that the cause of the hemorrhages is [[BrownNote a high-frequency sound]], and the woman was born without eardrums, meaning that there was nothing for the pressure to build up against. |
| 320 | [[/folder]] |
| 321 | |
| 322 | [[folder:Music]] |
| 323 | * It's discovered in Music/TheWho's "Pinball Wizard" that the main character, Music/{{Tommy}}, is fantastic at pinball, something his rivals completely fail to understand given that he can't even see or hear what's going on. Supposedly, anyway, given that he actually ''can'' see and hear but simply has mental blocks that stop him from actually ''reacting'' to stimuli most of the time. [[AmbiguousSituation He might very well be playing the same way as everyone else, evading his complex thanks to the fun he's having.]] |
| 324 | -->''Ain't got no distractions; can't hear no buzzers and bells\ |
| 325 | Don't see no lights a-flashin'; plays by sense of smell\ |
| 326 | Always gets a replay - never seen him fall\ |
| 327 | That deaf, dumb, and blind kid sure plays a mean pinball'' |
| 328 | [[/folder]] |
| 329 | |
| 330 | [[folder: Mythology and Religion]] |
| 331 | * According to ''Literature/TheTalmud'', [[Literature/BookOfDaniel Daniel and his companions]] got cleared of sexual immorality charges by virtue of being eunuchs. |
| 332 | [[/folder]] |
| 333 | |
| 334 | [[folder:Podcasts]] |
| 335 | * ''Podcast/{{Malevolent}}'' starts with Arthur Lester, loosing his eyesight and having to rely on a mysterious entity to tell him what he sees. However, said lack of eyesight ends up being an advantage, as it makes him immune to [[TheseAreThingsManWasNotMeantToKnow the insanity inducing sights of the various eldritch abominations he comes across]]. |
| 336 | [[/folder]] |
| 337 | |
| 338 | [[folder:Roleplay]] |
| 339 | * In the PBEM RPG ''Star Trek: Shadow Operations'', humans do not have nearly the hearing range of Carnora (a group of related races specific to that RPG). Which means [[CuteButCacophonic Reepchip's]] defensive shriek--which can incapacitate other Carnora--simply makes a human's ears feel a little uncomfortable. |
| 340 | [[/folder]] |
| 341 | |
| 342 | [[folder:Tabletop Games]] |
| 343 | * This is why the Quiet Knights exist in ''TabletopGame/BlueRose'': they recruit [[HandicappedBadass knights with disabilities]] so that there are, for example, deaf warriors on hand if a siren starts causing trouble, or blind knights to fight medusae. |
| 344 | * ''TabletopGame/{{Champions}}'' powers defined/bought as "No Normal Defense" can become this. An example power from several editions of the rulebook is a sonic [=NND=] attack that bypasses armor, but won't affect a deaf character. |
| 345 | * Leonardo de Montreal of ''TabletopGame/ChuubosMarvelousWishGrantingEngine'' ripped his heart from his chest and used it to power a machine that runs the sun. (It's complicated.) While his heartlessness has inconvenient effects both physical (he loses some power in the light and has a world of blood and fear trapped in there) and emotional (he loses ''lots'' of power if he ever admits to having friends), it also means that the one time Billy Sovereign impaled him it did basically nothing to him. |
| 346 | * ''TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons'': |
| 347 | ** In module A2 ''Secret of the Slaver's Stockade'', the fort's commander is blind and therefore immune to the petrifying gaze of the medusa he uses to guard his treasure. |
| 348 | ** This is pretty common in the ''D&D'' universe: blind characters are immune to gaze attacks, deaf characters are immune to sonic attacks, unliving creatures and creatures without a discernible anatomy are immune to critical hits, etc. Medusas often use morlocks -- a species who live their entire lives underground and are blind -- as mooks for this reason. |
| 349 | ** There's even a spell that lets you use one sense instead of another for the same effect. The example given was that the caster was "hearing" light to see and immune to the gorgon on the page. It's specifically meant to utilize this trope against monsters. |
| 350 | ** ''D&D'' also contains the infamous ''explosive runes'', which detonate when read -- unless you're a barbarian, who has illiteracy as a class "feature". |
| 351 | ** in 3.5 "Mindless" creatures are immune to mind-influencing effects. |
| 352 | ** Averted in the fourth edition, where blind creatures can be hit by gaze attacks, formless puddings can be stabbed in the foot, mindless automatons can be affected with fear spells, and so forth. |
| 353 | * In the ''TabletopGame/NewWorldOfDarkness'': |
| 354 | ** Not quite a disability, but there's one [[EldritchAbomination Abyssal entity]] in ''TabletopGame/MageTheAwakening'' that manipulates human behaviour by meddling with social cues -- but autistic people are less susceptible to this, because the entity manipulates neurotypical social cues, which autistic people are not wired for. |
| 355 | ** Vampires in ''TabletopGame/VampireTheRequiem'' have {{Damaged Soul}}s and a feral EnemyWithin that cause them no end of trouble. However, their undead minds are resistant to dream manipulation, they're immune to the shadow-stealing power of Fetches, and the soul-rending Thorns of Arcadia in ''TabletopGame/ChangelingTheLost'' (which leave humans {{Empty Shell}}s) only scratch them up a bit. |
| 356 | ** Averted in one case in ''Vampire'': The gamebook specifies that a vampire's use of the Majesty discipline -- which requires eye contact -- does not fail automatically if the target is blind, though it will raise the difficulty for the vampire's attempt. |
| 357 | * This is the main premise of ''Out of a Violent Planet'' by Greg Stolze of ''TabletopGame/UnknownArmies'' fame. Fauna from Earth are the only known sentient species without PsychicPowers, whereas anything more complex than a housecat on any other planet has at least some psychic capability. This means that, without having evolved MoreTeethThanTheOsmondFamily or psychic powers, humanity is the only species that ever developed weapons technology and [[AliensNeverInventedTheWheel non-psychic technology]]. It also means that humans are immune to the psychic powers of other species -- The intro blurb describes Earth being bombarded with enough [[PsiBlast psychic power to leave the sentients of any other planet drooling husks or straight-up dead]], and only those with even the slightest psychic potential ''[[NoSell felt anything more than a passing breeze.]]'' This also gives humanity the unique niche as the [[CadreOfForeignBodyguards ultimate mercenaries]], referred to as "souls" (short for soldier), since human military units armed with modern firearms can go toe-to-toe with nasty psychic alien monsters and come out on top. |
| 358 | * In ''TabletopGame/{{Pathfinder}}'', characters with peg legs take massive penalties to their ability to walk and jump, however they're immune to {{caltrops}} (partly if they have one leg replaced, completely if they have both legs replaced). |
| 359 | * ''TabletopGame/Warhammer40000'': |
| 360 | ** In this universe, the Tau (named for their position on the settings Greek psychic scale, about two steps down from "psychically inert") are about the only race that have no powers of mind -- at all. Now, it sucks because you need powers of mind to feel the Warp, and without the Warp, you're not going to be going through the galaxy all that quickly. BUT, given that the Warp is also the home of the forces of Chaos, not having to worry about Chaos being drawn to them through nonexistent Psykers is seen by the Tau as a Good Thing. |
| 361 | ** Some humans are considered Blanks, meaning they have a negative effect on the Warp around them. On the downside, Blanks are social pariahs because their aura of non-Warp creeps out other humans (at best), and their lack of impact on the Warp means they're TheSoulless. On the plus side, having a negative effect on the Warp means they can NoSell even the most devastating of magical attacks, and particularly powerful Blanks can completely shut down psykers within a given radius (such specimens are sought out by the Imperium to use as jailers for powerful and/or unstable psykers) |
| 362 | * [[RecursiveAdaptation The tabletop RPG]] version of ''AudioPlay/LeDonjonDeNaheulbeuk'' features a skill called "Empty Head", which makes the character immune to spells that affect the mind – for they simply do not possess enough of a mind to get a hold of. |
| 363 | [[/folder]] |
| 364 | |
| 365 | [[folder:Theatre]] |
| 366 | * ''Theatre/PokemonLive'': Ash Ketchum is all set to battle a deaf trainer, and Ash sends out his Pikachu, while his opponent sends out his Jigglypuff. Jigglypuff wins the battle by singing Pikachu, Ash, Misty, and Brock to sleep... which being deaf, the other trainer can't hear, so the Jigglypuff's trainer is perfectly matched as one of the few people who can't be put to sleep by his own Pokémon's attack. |
| 367 | [[/folder]] |
| 368 | |
| 369 | [[folder:Video Games]] |
| 370 | * ''VisualNovel/NineHoursNinePersonsNineDoors'' has the "bracelets" integral to the [[DeadlyGame Nonary Game the players are trapped in]], which trigger [[ExplosiveLeash the bombs placed in their systems]] in most circumstances like breaking the rules and can only be removed if their assigned player escapes the Gigantic used in the game or if their heartbeat reaches zero. [[spoiler:This was actually the trump card of "Snake" since his bracelet was unknowingly placed on his artificial left arm which has no pulse to speak of and thus disconnected his bracelet, meaning that he wasn't under threat of his bomb exploding but decided to play along the rules until the time was right. In the "Safe" ending, he uses this loophole to freely follow his teammates through doors without needing to register his bracelet since he could just compress his fake hand to take his bracelet off. Subverted when it turns out that Zero never put a bomb into him in the first place since Snake wasn't one of Zero's targets.]] |
| 371 | * ''VideoGame/BugFablesTheEverlastingSapling'': MindControl magic gets into bugs' heads through their antennae. If one or both of their antennae are damaged, such as the case with [[spoiler:any non-hostile Wasps that were neither protected by other means nor out of range of the spell -- Zasp (bent crooked), the imprisoned scout (broken off), and Voi (crumpled flat) --]] then it doesn't work. |
| 372 | * ''VideoGame/{{Bugsnax}}'': The player character has allergies that prevent them from eating the titular {{Phonymon}} [[spoiler: which comes in handy when it's revealed that eating them eventually transforms the would-be predator into more Bugsnax]]. |
| 373 | * [[spoiler:Supposedly,]] the reason J.C. Denton and his brother were chosen for experimental nano-augmentation procedures in ''VideoGame/DeusEx'' is due to the both of them having a crippled immune system, which means their bodies would not be able to "fight" the nanomachines (a problem that killed or hurt the other subjects, who suffered from severe allergic reactions). |
| 374 | * In ''VideoGame/DragonQuestVIII'', TheHero was cursed as a child, a curse so strong it overrides any other curses. This results in the hero escaping the ForcedTransformation curse on Trodain, and [[SlidingScaleOfGameplayAndStoryIntegration makes them immune to the Curse status in battle.]] |
| 375 | * Undead enemies in ''VideoGame/DwarfFortress'' were at one point almost totally immune to piercing damage because their internal organs are defunct, meaning that the normal CriticalHit and bleeding mechanics didn't apply to them. They also don't need to draw breath so they can't be dispatched by drowning traps. |
| 376 | * ''VideoGame/EVNova'': The Vell-os, a telepathic offshoot of humans, were made SlaveMooks first by the Colonial Council and now by [[PeoplesRepublicOfTyranny the Federation]] centuries ago by means of a RestrainingBolt implanted into their nanite-producing organ. In theory, a powerful-enough psychic could bypass the organ long enough for the chip to be disabled, but doing so would be lethal to a Vell-os: they can't free themselves and the chip prevents them from having another Vell-os do it for them. However, in the Vell-os storyline, [[spoiler:the PlayerCharacter's slavemasters in the [[StateSec Bureau of Internal Investigation]] never realize that the PC isn't actually a Vell-os, but rather the first of an entirely new subspecies of human telepaths that doesn't have the nanite organ, and therefore never realized they might need a different method to control the PC until it was far too late]]. |
| 377 | * In ''VideoGame/FalloutNewVegas'' the Courier is shot in the head and left for dead in the opening sequence. In the "Old World Blues" DLC, the Courier is kidnapped and lobotomized by mad scientists, but the bullet wound causes something to go wrong, and the Courier loses virtually nothing by having their brain scooped out and replaced with a Tesla coil, instead gaining some resistances. Though what happens to the Courier is actually how the process is intended to work, it just failed to do so on everyone else it's been tried on. |
| 378 | * ''Franchise/FinalFantasy'': |
| 379 | ** ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyV'' features a Siren boss who charms her victims into submission by conjuring illusions of their loved ones. It works on everyone except the team's elder member who, having suffered from amnesia, doesn't recognize his "granddaughter." |
| 380 | ** In ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyX'', being Zombified makes you immune to Death. This means that refraining from curing your Zombification is actually one of the best ways of beating [[spoiler:Yunalesca]], who uses Death on every party member at the end of each round (as long as you remember she also [[ReviveKillsZombie casts high-level healing spells on zombiefied characters]]). |
| 381 | *** As a consequence of ReviveKillsZombie, TheUndead in ''Final Fantasy'' games tend to be not only IMMUNE to instant death attacks, but actually HEALED by them. Using Zombie status this way is just making this factor work in your favor. |
| 382 | ** In various games, Silence and loss of MP can cripple casters since Silence prevents casting spells and damage to their MP can render casters unable to use their stronger spells if they don't have the MP for it. Characters that rely on brute strength don't have to worry about Silence or keeping their MP high since they don't/can't rely on magic to begin with. |
| 383 | * In ''VideoGame/FiveNightsAtFreddysSecurityBreach'', you can remove one animatronic's eyes after [[spoiler:Roxanne realizes too late that she DidntThinkThisThrough when she jumped in front of a go-kart going full speed, as it rams into her and disables her temporarily, allowing Gregory to take Roxanne's eyes for Glamrock Freddy]]. Unlike other animatronics who are left crippled after their boss fights, this actually makes the blind animatronic that much more of a threat. In particular, the animatronic gets better hearing, so stealth becomes a lot harder. Also, the blind animatronic stops being affected by the Faz-Cam or Fazerblaster, because they rely on blinding the target with light, and that doesn't affect something that can't see. |
| 384 | * In ''VideoGame/GuildWars2'' the sightless [[MoleMen Dredge]] are immune to blind effects. |
| 385 | * Sergeant Johnson from ''Franchise/{{Halo}}''. After "liberating" a crate of plasma grenades to help save his men, he got radiation poisoning which resulted in Boren's Syndrome. According to ''Literature/HaloFirstStrike'', this disease degraded his DNA so much that the Flood wasn't able to synch with his nervous system, giving immunity to infection. [[spoiler:Subverted, as that was just his cover story; he's actually a [[SuperSoldier Spartan-I]]. Boren's Syndrome, a real disease in TheVerse, kills a person before it could ever be weaponized this way.]] |
| 386 | * The ''VideoGame/HeroesOfMightAndMagic'' series gives us the troglodyte, a blind creature of the deep. Their inability to see renders them immune to the spell blind, known to stop stronger creatures in their tracks. By removing the right creature from the fight for several turns, a single well placed casting of blind has been known to steer the course of entire battles. The thing is, troglodytes are some of the weakest units in the game--even if they were susceptible to blind, chances are no one would have actually wanted to cast it on them anyway, either due to bigger threats taking priority, or the trogs not even being worth the mana cost it would take to disable them. Whether their incompetence lies from their blindness or simply being primitive hunchbacks with spears in a world full of bigger, more vicious fish is unknown. |
| 387 | * This is the primary story premise of ''VideoGame/{{Howl}}''. The werewolf curse transmits via the howl of other werewolves, and the main character is immune due to her deafness. |
| 388 | * A very amusing and twisted example from ''VisualNovel/KatawaShoujo'': after having anal sex for the first time, Emi comments that being in a wheelchair means she won't have to tell anybody why she's walking funny. |
| 389 | * ''VideoGame/LeagueOfLegends'' initially declared that Lee Sin, the Blind Monk, would be immune to blind effects. This didn't carry through to release, mostly because out of about a hundred champions, only two of them have abilities that cause blind. |
| 390 | * ''VideoGame/MetalGear'': |
| 391 | ** Fortune survives being shot by Revolver Ocelot in ''VideoGame/{{Metal Gear Solid 2|SonsOfLiberty}}'' because, thanks to her [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dextrocardia Dextrocardia,]] [[HeartInTheWrongPlace he misses her heart]]. |
| 392 | ** Naked Snake in ''VideoGame/MetalGearSolid3SnakeEater'' has a bout of this not long after gaining the disability. After Ocelot grazes Snake's eye with a bullet in a scuffle, he's forced to wear an eyepatch and spends time adjusting to the limited vision, eventually learning how to ignore his missing eye. When the two meet up in their last encounter, Ocelot tries to poke Snake in the eye... the exact same eye that he shot out and has an eyepatch over it for good measure. All Snake does is smirk. |
| 393 | ** In ''[[VideoGame/MetalGearSolid4GunsOfThePatriots MGS4]]'', Johnny has no nanomachines to enhance his abilities (He has trypanophobia and always dodges medical checkups that would've given him them). So, when there was an attack on the Patriot A.I. system that affected everyone with nanomachines, Johnny was fine. |
| 394 | * In ''VideoGame/MonsterHunter'', monsters without eyes are (obviously) unaffected by Flash Bombs. This includes [[DoesThisRemindYouOfAnything Khezu]], [[DarkIsEvil Gore Magala]] and [[CastingAShadow Meraginasu]]. |
| 395 | * ''Franchise/MortalKombat'': |
| 396 | ** In [[VideoGame/MortalKombat3 the third game]], Cyrax and Sektor are unaffected by Shao Kahn's invasion where he steals the souls of Earthrealm's inhabitants; as cyborgs, [[CyberneticsEatYourSoul they have no souls to take.]] |
| 397 | ** During the events of ''[[VideoGame/MortalKombatDeception Deception]]'', Kenshi saves Sub-Zero from an ambush when they're attacked with a flash bomb generated by [[MagmaMan Hotaru's powers]]; being blind, he's unaffected. He also says it [[MundaneUtility saves him from]] [[ShowWithinAShow Johnny Cage films]]. |
| 398 | * In ''VideoGame/NetHack'', when you are (temporarily) blinded, you are immune to gaze attacks (such as from a floating eye) and flashes of light (from a yellow or black light). This is incredibly useful when combined with the telepathy ability, which can be acquired by among other things, eating the corpse of one of the aforementioned floating eyes, which allows you to see most enemies while blinded. |
| 399 | * ''VideoGame/{{Oddrietta}}'': The titular deaf heroine, Henrietta, is immune to the wind that is turning everyone else into horrible monsters, allowing her to investigate the phenomenon. |
| 400 | * In the ''Forgotten Sanctum'' of ''VideoGame/PillarsOfEternityIIDeadfire'', there's the Collections, which [[spoiler:slowly drains away the memories of all its prisoners]]. With one exception: [[spoiler:Bekarna, a brilliant astronomer and AbsentMindedProfessor]]. It's never stated for certain, but after being rescued, she theorizes that [[spoiler:her already-existing issues with memory]] preserved her against the similar effects of the Collections. |
| 401 | * In the ''Franchise/{{Pokemon}}'' games, there's an aversion: Abra can still be afflicted with sleep despite being said to spend most of its day sleeping and its psychic powers allowing it to function while asleep. In fact, it's one of the best ways to catch one so it doesn't teleport away. Aside from that, the game has several abilities that are disabilities of some kind, but works in favor of the Pokémon for blocking certain statuses. |
| 402 | ** The ability Insomnia, fittingly, protects the user against sleep. |
| 403 | ** The Klutz ability, which renders a Pokémon's held item useless, is often mixed with an item that has a harmful effect that can then be tossed at or swapped to the opponent. |
| 404 | ** The ability Comatose effectively makes a Pokémon suffer from permanent Sleep, protecting it from other status conditions. Fortunately, Comatose also lets the Pokémon attack while asleep, so outside of effects that target sleeping Pokémon (which are pretty rare), it might as well just be immune to status conditions. |
| 405 | ** Due to game mechanics, Pokémon that are afflicted by [[StatusEffects Poison, Burns, Sleep, Paralysis, or Freezing]] become immune to all of the others for as long as they're affected. Some players use the Toxic Orb or Flame Orb item to invoke this by poisoning or burning their own Pokémon intentionally (statuses that don't hinder the afflict's attempts to attack, unlike the other three), though there typically has to be some other benefit (usually from Abilities like Quick Feet or Guts) for them to resort to it. |
| 406 | * In ''VideoGame/Portal2'', after [[spoiler:Wheatley [[FaceHeelTurn turns evil]], [=GLaDOS=] tells him a paradox in an effort to kill him with a LogicBomb. Unfortunately, it doesn't work, due to him being TooDumbToFool]]. |
| 407 | * In ''VideoGame/{{Psychonauts}},'' [[LittleMissBadass Lili]] is kidnapped by the villains shortly after coming down with a cold. Ironically, this means she's too stuffed up for [[MadScientist Loboto]]'s powder to make her sneeze her brain out. |
| 408 | ** [[InvertedTrope Inverted]] in the game's final level, the Meat Circus: [[spoiler: Raz's naturally high levels of protection from psychic influence actually ''hinder'' him, as his father--who's also a psychic--has been trying to enter his son's mind to protect him, only to fail to do so until it's nearly too late.]] |
| 409 | * In ''VideoGame/RogueLegacy'', your character can sometimes receive Peripheral Artery Disease, which disables pulsing of your feet. There are also retracted spike traps that shoot out their spikes when they detect foot pulse. Naturally, PAD makes your character effectively immune to these traps. |
| 410 | * ''VideoGame/SekiroShadowsDieTwice'' has the item "Contact Medicine", which is actually a weak poison. The benefit is that, while you're affected by the weak poison, you're completely immune to all other kinds poisons. Additionally, since you're taking damage, you can spam [[FlashStep Mist Raven]] at will. |
| 411 | * In ''VideoGame/ShadowOfTheComet'' the main character has a heart condition which makes him prone to passing out in moments of extreme stress. How is this helpful? Well, the game happens to take place in a [[Creator/HPLovecraft Lovecraftian]] setting, and this effectively limits how much exposure he can have to visions of otherworldly horrors before he quickly passes out. |
| 412 | * In ''VideoGame/TacticsOgre''; Hobyrim is immune to [[TakenForGranite stone gaze]] attacks because he's blind; and thus can't see the Medusa or Basilisk. |
| 413 | * In ''VideoGame/TalesOfZestiria'' in the cutscene before the Medusa boss fight, Dezel proves immune to Medusa's gaze because he's blind, [[SlidingScaleOfGameplayAndStoryIntegration this carries into gameplay as well.]] |
| 414 | * Some works featuring undead make them invulnerable, what with being already dead. The AnimateDead spell in ''[[VideoGame/{{Warcraft}} Warcraft III: The Frozen Throne]]'' works like this. (In the original ''Warcraft III'', the units were vulnerable, but lasted longer.) |
| 415 | [[/folder]] |
| 416 | |
| 417 | [[folder:Web Animation]] |
| 418 | * In ''WebAnimation/XRayAndVav'', the titular heroes/zeroes [[spoiler:can't be mind controlled because they are so empty-headed they don't have a mind to control]]. |
| 419 | -->'''Rusty:''' [[spoiler:You need to have a mind to control it! These two morons have the emptiest skulls I know.]] |
| 420 | [[/folder]] |
| 421 | |
| 422 | [[folder:Webcomics]] |
| 423 | * In ''Webcomic/CaptainSNES'', The Sovereign Of Sorrow's [[MindRape "Touch"]] causes those affected to lose their hope, happiness, and sanity. [[VideoGame/FinalFantasyVI Kefka]] is immune because he's a [[MonsterClown deranged]], [[StrawNihilist murderous nihilist]], so he didn't have any hope or sanity to lose, and no happiness beyond mad laughter at his own cruelty; he's too horrible a person to be driven to despair. To be more accurate but also more spoilery: [[spoiler:The Sovereign's Touch teaches victims the AwfulTruth that their life is meaningless, they're nothing more than characters in a game suffering and dying [[HumansAreCthulhu for the amusement of humans]]. Kefka already considered life meaningless and had no greater ambition than destroying things for fun, so, aside from the video game angle being a surprise, he's just been proven absolutely right]]. |
| 424 | * ''Webcomic/ComicBookSNAFU'': Jeanette's Death Wail breaks Hawkeye's hearing aids, but doesn't disable him like the other heroes. |
| 425 | * ''Webcomic/{{Darken}}'' has a temporary example: a {{Body Surf}}er is unable to possess a character who's too drunk to think straight, because their mind is too muddled to get a grip on. |
| 426 | * Chapter 52 of ''Webcomic/{{Drowtales}}'' has two master [[TheEmpath empaths]], [[ShrinkingViolet Faen]] and Bae'rali, engaging in a psychic MindRape duel. Bae attempts to break Faen's mind with a sense of weakness and helplessness... but Faen, who has endured severe anxiety issues and psychological abuse for much of her life, [[NoSell No-Sells]] it with ease. She then returns fire with a blast of terror strong enough to make Bae weep actual TearsOfFear. |
| 427 | * In ''Webcomic/{{Freefall}}'', Florence foils a sound-based remote control that would render her unconscious by [[http://freefall.purrsia.com/ff2500/fc02436.htm filling her ear canals with water]]. |
| 428 | * ''Webcomic/GrrlPower'': Sydney's ADHD makes her functionally immune to {{truth serum|s}} -- it gets her talking all right, but then [[https://grrlpowercomic.com/archives/comic/grrl-power-910-jabber-blabber/ she just KEEPS ON talking]] about anything and everything that pops into her head, [[GoneHorriblyRight making it nigh-impossible to get the actual desired information out of her]]. |
| 429 | * ''Webcomic/LastRes0rt'': |
| 430 | ** "Light Children" in general tend to be resistant to a Celeste's [[CompellingVoice Tones]], but they share that immunity with species that naturally have keen hearing. |
| 431 | ** Jason turns out to be entirely [[http://www.lastres0rt.com/comic/where-the-sunny-dont-shine/ Tone-deaf]] (too dumb to recognize the commands) in [[OurWerewolvesAreDifferent dog form]]. |
| 432 | ** Daisy reveals that her therapy to manage her fear of eye contact (being autistic), helps with Geisha's [[http://www.lastres0rt.com/comic/love-hurts/ petrifying gaze]]. |
| 433 | * ''Webcomic/TheOrderOfTheStick'': |
| 434 | ** In the second major arc, Belkar is hung after the Order are captured by bandits, which he survives since he's a 30-pound {{halfling}}, and his weight doesn't even pull the rope taut enough to strangle him, let alone break his neck (although hanging upside down for a while does eventually make him a little delirious). |
| 435 | --->'''Belkar:''' You know, that's the problem with humans, always thinking other races are the same as they are, so they assume the same methods of execution are valid. |
| 436 | ** There's also the, ahem, "squid thingy" that [[TooSpicyForYogSothoth refuses to eat]] [[QuirkyBard Elan's]] brain because his low Int score makes it seem [[YourBrainWontBeMuchOfAMeal as nutritious as diet Coke]]. [[GeniusBruiser Roy]] isn't as fortunate, though... |
| 437 | ** Invoked in [[http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0860.html comic #860]]. Roy sets it up so Durkon's ''[[https://www.d20srd.org/srd/spells/holyWord.htm Holy Word]]'' spell (which, among other effects, deafens any non-good-aligned characters in range unless their HD is greater than the spell's caster level) also affects [[TokenEvilTeammate Belkar]], so that Nale can't use [[CompellingVoice Suggestion]] to make him attack them, as he did in an earlier strip. |
| 438 | --->'''Roy:''' It's not a bug, it's a feature. |
| 439 | * Rob from ''Webcomic/TailsGetsTrolled'' has no ears and therefore can't hear the trolls' insults, which is why he was recruited into the Troll Slaiyers. |
| 440 | * In ''Webcomic/ThatDeafGuy'', [[https://thatdeafguy.com/2013-10-31-2/ Desmond and his friends enter a haunted house]], but aren't scared of its spooky noises because they're Deaf. |
| 441 | * ''Webcomic/UnintentionallyPretentious'' often runs on this. |
| 442 | ** Only bald Luthor and blind Mia can pull off [[http://www.unintentionallypretentious.com/index.asp?c=94 these costumes]] |
| 443 | ** In one HalloweenEpisode, she's also immune to the effects of the Necronomicon. |
| 444 | ** In another HalloweenEpisode, she remains human after being bitten by a werewolf because [[http://www.unintentionallypretentious.com/index.asp?c=192 she can't see the moon]]. |
| 445 | * ''Webcomic/{{Unsounded}}'': Matty is fully blind, rendering him immune to the deadly Weeping Plauge. |
| 446 | * In ''Webcomic/WhenSheWasBad'', Anthony, who's been deaf since birth, is immune to Gail's mind-reading. She can't hear his thoughts because he doesn't associate words with sounds. |
| 447 | * ''Webcomic/YetAnotherFantasyGamerComic'', in a ''Lord of the Rings'' plot. Turns out the rings tempt and take over their wearers by working around inhibitions. One of these [[http://yafgc.net/comic/0581-unexpected-test-result/ is given]] to [[TheDitz Charlotte]]. Yeah, [[http://yafgc.net/comic/0597-s-he-who-isnt-with-me/ good luck]] with ''that''. |
| 448 | -->'''Cyclops:''' Any creature with half a brain will totally submit to its power! |
| 449 | [[/folder]] |
| 450 | |
| 451 | [[folder:Web Original]] |
| 452 | * A [[http://porcelain-requiem.deviantart.com/art/A-Gorgon-s-Happily-Ever-After-196089530 romantic variation]] with a GorgeousGorgon and a blind man. |
| 453 | * ''Literature/AHerosWar'': Cato's life force is odd, making him poor at sensing magic and completely unable to manipulate it. All the medical experts he meets are baffled. However, it does mean that life-force-disrupting attacks generally don't affect him. |
| 454 | * ''Literature/LoomingGaia'': |
| 455 | ** Deaf children are immune to the undines' mind-controlling song. |
| 456 | ** Crystal fiends, abusers of [[FantasticDrug pyre dust]], suffer symptoms such as hallucinations, mood swings, sores on skin, tooth decay, and even spontaneous combustion. However, they are immune to vampires, as any vampire trying to drink from them will instantly burst to flames and die. |
| 457 | ** Goblins are magically forced to obey any command given by someone who uses their full name, but only if they hear the command. Some goblins stab themselves in the ears in order to escape slavery. The commanding can also be done by an experienced telepath, though. |
| 458 | * In ''Literature/{{Phaeton}}'', [[spoiler: Siren's blindness protects her from gorgons]]. |
| 459 | * ''Website/SCPFoundation'': |
| 460 | ** The Foundation notes that people with diabetes are somehow immune to [[http://www.scp-wiki.net/scp-081 SCP-081]], a virus that causes SpontaneousHumanCombustion. |
| 461 | ** A number of [=SCPs=] are harmless to the blind or the deaf. (In fact, including "blind guards" as a part of the containment procedure is considered an annoying cliché.) An early example would be [[http://www.scp-wiki.net/scp-689 SCP-689]], a statuette that kills people after they stop looking at it and teleports atop their corpses, preferring those who died in crowds. The blind can't look at it in the first place, and all non-blind guards have to wear a visored, vision-blocking helmet during their shifts. |
| 462 | ** [[https://scp-wiki.wikidot.com/scp-2774 SCP-2774-A]] is an image of a sloth costume that appears non-live media. 40% of those who see it will eventually begin to [[AndIMustScream lose the ability to use cognitive functions or make higher level decisions]] (except for a lucidity period of 150 seconds every 24 hours). However, 2774-A only can affect those who can see red or green hues, and those with red- or green- colorblindness will thankfully be immune. |
| 463 | * Jericho from ''Literature/WhateleyUniverse'' is immune to the effects of seeing the [[spoiler:Voodoo wolves]] despite a lack of psychic protection because he's blind. Note this is a partial immunity because [[spoiler:he can still be clawed by them]]. |
| 464 | * One ''Blog/TextsFromSuperheroes'' gag revolves around this when Daredevil gets in a fight with Spider-Man villain Mysterio, whose schtick is using lots of visual illusions and projections to confuse his enemies. Daredevil is confused as to why the guy spent the entire fight standing in a corner and playing random sound effects; Spider-Man promply offers to switch villains. |
| 465 | [[/folder]] |
| 466 | |
| 467 | [[folder:Web Videos]] |
| 468 | * Déborah Levinsky from ''Series/FlandersCompany'' is very much TheDitz... to the point it's her actual superpower, as she's immune to PsychicPowers (trying to read her mind invokes the image of an empty grotto). In this 'verse this means even ''very'' powerful telepaths (who can usually makes YourHeadASplode) are powerless against her. She's even used as a human shield against such an antagonist in season 3. |
| 469 | [[/folder]] |
| 470 | |
| 471 | [[folder:Western Animation]] |
| 472 | * In ''WesternAnimation/TheAdventuresOfJimmyNeutronBoyGenius'', Sheen is so bad at singing that he's the only kid in Retroville who doesn't end up angering the Twonkies, aliens who hate good music but fall asleep to bad music. |
| 473 | * ''WesternAnimation/AdventuresOfSonicTheHedgehog'': In the episode "Attack on Pinball Fortress", Dr. Robotnik creates a [[StupidityInducingAttack Stupidity Ray]] to use on Mobius, to make them too stupid to do anything against him. When Scratch gets hit by the ray, it has no effect, because he's already [[TheDitz a complete moron]]. |
| 474 | * In ''WesternAnimation/TheAdventuresOfSuperMarioBros3'' episode "Do the Koopa", Bowser has a cold which impairs his hearing. When one of his Koopalings tries to use the Doom Dancer Music Box's MagicMusic on him, he can't hear it and is thus not affected. |
| 475 | * ''WesternAnimation/AdventuresOfTheGummiBears'': |
| 476 | ** Duke Igthorn's ogres are as dumb as bricks, but this can actually be a benefit for them sometimes. In one episode, Igthorn's plan involves using [[MagicMusic magical bagpipes]] that hypnotize people, which only work on intelligent creatures. (That leaves his men out, so they don't have to do anything while he uses them, the only precaution he has to take being stuffing cotton in his own ears.) In another episode, it's implied that a [[TheFairFolk slumber sprite's]] spell might put Gruffi to sleep forever, but it only works on the ogres for about a minute, because as the sprite says, "they're so dumb!" |
| 477 | ** In the aforementioned episode with the mind-control bagpipes, Grammi herself is immune to their effects due to a loud clang from a metal pot leaving her temporarily deaf. |
| 478 | ** Toadwart a very [[ShorterMeansSmarter undersized]] for an ogre, which usually leave him to be abused and insulted both by [[BadBoss Duke Igthorn]] and his fellow ogres. One episode had the Duke searching for a set of armor said to make its wearer invincible, only to discover the suit was useless to him because it was made for someone the size of a Gummi Bear... or Toadwart. Naturally Igthorn was quite eager to use Toadie as his new weapon, but he couldn't stop belittling his minion, which led to [[TheDogBitesBack consequences.]] |
| 479 | * ''WesternAnimation/{{Archer}}'': After having guns, grenades and bombs go off next to him for years, Sterling Archer's [[SteelEardrums hearing]] is so bad that he can put people out of commission by firing guns in enclosed spaces and not be affected himself. |
| 480 | -->'''Archer:''' To me, it sounds like bubble wrap. |
| 481 | * ''WesternAnimation/CodenameKidsNextDoor'': In Operation: L.I.C.E., the titular giant lice target the other members of the KND to eat their hair, but since Numbuh 1 is bald, they have no interest in him. |
| 482 | * ''WesternAnimation/CourageTheCowardlyDog'': |
| 483 | ** In the episode "Tower of Dr. Zalost", the eponymous villain fires [[{{Magitek}} cannon balls that are engineered by science to magically make the people of Nowhere depressed (and green tinted) when hit]], but their power doesn't affect Eustace as he's already [[GrumpyOldMan cranky and bitter]]. |
| 484 | ** Another episode had a small bitter man use a machine that lets out a "Curtain of Cruelty" to blanket the entire area of Nowhere and turn all inhabitants cruel so he can be elected mayor. While Courage and Muriel both remain who they are thanks to Muriel's homemade fabric softener, Eustace, already a cruel man to begin with, is completely unfazed by the curtain (in fact he's so cruel that when Courage tampered with the machine using the same fabric softener, managing to create a "Curtain of Kindness" that returns the people of Nowhere to normal (redeeming the bitter man in the process), this curtain '''DID NOT''' affect Eustace either). |
| 485 | * In the first episode of ''WesternAnimation/DragonsRaceToTheEdge'', "[[Recap/DragonsRidersOfBerkS3E1DragonEyeOfTheBeholderPart1 Dragon Eye of the Beholder, Part 1]]", upon exploring ''The Reaper'' (a booby-trapped shipwreck), the first trap Hiccup triggers is a BearTrap that closes on his leg. Thankfully, it's his prosthetic pegleg that got caught. |
| 486 | ** In the third episode"[[Recap/DragonsRidersOfBerkS3E3ImperfectHarmony Imperfect Harmony]]", the Thunderdrums' being hard of hearing makes them immune to the Death Song's siren-like call. |
| 487 | * In the ''WesternAnimation/EarthwormJim'' episode "Lounge Day's Journey Into Night", Jim, despite being without his PoweredArmor, is resistant to evil lounge singers because, as an earthworm, he has no ears. |
| 488 | * ''WesternAnimation/FamilyGuy'': |
| 489 | ** An entire subset of jokes involve Joe getting his legs smashed, mangled, or otherwise horribly injured, only for him to laugh it off (or at the very worst, become mildly annoyed), because they're already useless. |
| 490 | ** Also, in "[[Recap/FamilyGuyS4E3BlindAmbition Blind Ambition]]", when Peter becomes temporarily blind, he walks into the Drunken Clam bar during a fire and rescues the trapped bartender. When asked, his reply is priceless. |
| 491 | --->'''Peter:''' [[HowDidYouKnowIDidnt That freaking place was on fire?!]] |
| 492 | * ''{{WesternAnimation/Futurama}}'': |
| 493 | ** [[IdiotHero Philip J. Fry]] lacks the Delta Brain Wave that all other sapient beings have, due to an incident involving TimeTravel and doing "[[SurpriseIncest certain actions]]" that make him [[MyOwnGrandpa his own grandfather]]; his own sapience is only possible due to the rest of his brain waves cobbling themselves together like "a prom dress made of carpet fragments". The end result is that Fry is [[TheDitz significantly dumber]] than most other creatures, but also [[ImmuneToMindControl completely immune to all types]] of [[PsychicPowers psychic attacks]]; such as the [[BrainMonster Brain Spawn]]'s ability to [[StupidityInducingAttack rob people of their intelligence]], or the evil influence of the [[PuppeteerParasite Brain Slugs]]' and [[HypnoticCreature Hypnotoad]]'s MindControl powers. |
| 494 | ** The [[MutagenicGoo toxic sewer waste]] that can turn normal people into {{mutant}}s has no effect on anyone who's already a mutant, even if they're relatively normal like [[spoiler:Leela]]. |
| 495 | * In ''WesternAnimation/{{Gargoyles}}'', Demona goes on TV and casts a spell to make "all who see this, all who hear this" [[TakenForGranite turn to stone]] during the night. One of the few people unaffected was Jeffrey Robbins, a BlindBlackGuy, [[ExactWords who could hear the spell but obviously not see it]]. The gargoyles themselves quickly mute Jeffrey's TV when they hear what she's saying. |
| 496 | * In ''WesternAnimation/GravityFalls'', Old Man [=McGucket=] is immune to [[SecretCircleOfSecrets the Society of the Blind Eye]]'s memory ray because of InsanityImmunity. [[PlayingWithATrope Played with]], because we soon learn that overuse of the memory ray is what messed him up in the first place. |
| 497 | -->"You can't break what's already broken!" |
| 498 | * ''WesternAnimation/TheGrimAdventuresOfBillyAndMandy'': |
| 499 | ** One episode had a brain eating alien come to Endsville. The first person he runs into: Billy, [[YourBrainWontBeMuchOfAMeal who's got no brain for him to eat]]. |
| 500 | ** In another episode Mandy attempts to invoke this when attacked by zombies by sending Billy to fend them off, only to realize they aren't after brains, but rather [[spoiler: [[ItMakesSenseInContext Billy's stinky brownies that Grim hid in his skull (literally)]]]]. |
| 501 | ** In [[TheMovie "Billy and Mandy's Big Boogie Adventure"]], the main characters quest after a MacGuffin called Horror's Hand, which can [[IKnowWhatYouFear manifest whatever a person fears the most.]] Billy, Irwin, and even Mandy all fall victim to its power, but Grim is able to easily claim it. Why? Because ''his'' biggest fear is being forced to live with Billy and Mandy, and he's ''already doing that'' because of the bet he lost in the pilot! |
| 502 | --->'''Grim''': I live me worst nightmare ''every day'' living with YOU two jerks! |
| 503 | * While "disability" might be a touch strong, it never-the-less pops up in ''WesternAnimation/KingOfTheHill'' when Cotton learns the Military School that Bobby is attending has dialed back the brutality to the point of coddling the students instead, and so takes it over and goes full DrillSergeantNasty to turn it back the way it was when he went through. Bobby takes all the abuse he throws at them with a doofy smile, cracks wise at both the physical and psychological abuse, and outlasts Cotton's record in solitary confinement ''by napping''. In the end Hank explains that while Bobby's soft physique and complete wimpiness mean he'll ''never'' be able to be tough, it also means he's so soft and such a complete pushover that abuse like that simply has no significant effect on him: you can't break what was never built up to begin with. |
| 504 | -->'''Cotton:''' I guess he was just born a pile of mush.\ |
| 505 | '''Hank:''' Well, I guess you could say that, but maybe mush isn't so bad. You can keep stomping on it, but it's all give. It just stays mush. You can't build it up, but you can't break it down either. In a funny way, mush has the edge.\ |
| 506 | ''[{{beat}}]''\ |
| 507 | '''Cotton:''' ''[[[ActuallyPrettyFunny starts laughing]]]'' Can you imagine that pile of mush in the P.O.W. camps? He would have driven them Tojo's crazy! Three days with Bobby and they would've quit the war! |
| 508 | * ''WesternAnimation/LoveDeathAndRobots'': In "[[Recap/LoveDeathAndRobotsJibaro Jibaro]]", the titular knight is immune to the [[EnthrallingSiren Golden Woman]]'s song due to his deafness, which causes the Golden Woman to develop an interest in him. [[spoiler:After he knocks her out and strips her of her gold scales, he suddenly begins to hear, which [[LaserGuidedKarma makes him as susceptible to the Golden Woman's song as anyone else]].]] |
| 509 | * One episode of the ''WesternAnimation/MegaManRubySpears'' animated series featured a deaf little girl who was immune to Dr. Wily's sonic form of mind control. |
| 510 | * In ''WesternAnimation/TheOwlHouse'', Hunter is a witch who [[FictionalDisability lacks the innate magic other witches have]], meaning he's unable to cast spells by himself and has to rely on his artificial magic staff or Palisman for casting. [[spoiler:This does, however, appear to grant him some degree of immunity to the Draining Spell in "King's Tide", since there's not really anything there for it to drain. Hunter is still fully conscious and functional even when all the adults around him have been rendered completely catatonic, and while he's in obvious pain and too weak to stand on his own by the time the Collector ends the spell, he never passes out like the others did and recovers almost instantly.]] |
| 511 | * Mort from ''WesternAnimation/ThePenguinsOfMadagascar'' is ''too stupid to comprehend pain''. This led to an odd sort of inverted FlowersForAlgernonSyndrome episode, which involved the penguins lowering their intelligence down to Mort's level so they wouldn't feel the stings when they took on a hive of wasps. |
| 512 | * ''WesternAnimation/{{The Powerpuff Girls|1998}}'' once fought a brain-sucking villain dubbed "The Robbing Leech" because he sucks on people's heads like a leech to steal their memories of riches, and then uses those memories to steal them for himself. The girls defeated the leech by tricking him into attacking the Mayor, who didn't have enough brains to really be affected. |
| 513 | * ''WesternAnimation/RockyAndBullwinkle'': |
| 514 | ** Bullwinkle is immune to Boris and Natasha's [[StupidityInducingAttack Goof Gas]] Attack. |
| 515 | --->"Goof Gas affects the brain and -- no brain, no effect!" |
| 516 | ** Similarly in [[Film/TheAdventuresOfRockyAndBullwinkle the movie]], he is impervious to their mind-numbing television programs. |
| 517 | * ''WesternAnimation/ScoobyDooMysteryIncorporated'': |
| 518 | ** In "Where Walks Aphrodite", Angel Dynamite is immune to Aphrodite's pheromone attack because she suffers from anosmia (i.e. she has no sense of smell). |
| 519 | ** In a later episode, Shaggy and Scooby are immune to music that forces people to dance to exhaustion because Shaggy's tone deaf and to dogs, music is little more than noise. |
| 520 | * ''WesternAnimation/SheRaAndThePrincessesOfPower'': [[spoiler:Beast Island]] is permeated with a {{Magitek}} [[BrownNote signal]] that artificially induces crippling depression. Entrapta, however, proves extremely resistant to it, because she's autistic with a hyperfixiation on First One technology, so she's too focused on constantly examining and tinkering with the surrounding tech to think about anything else. [[spoiler:Notably, it's when Adora and Bow show up and force her to deal with her unresolved emotional baggage that she begins to succumb. And while she ''appreciates'' Bow's friendship speech, it's Adora bringing her attention back to First Ones tech that snaps her out of the trance.]] |
| 521 | * ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'': |
| 522 | ** In "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS4E5TreehouseOfHorrorIII Treehouse of Horror III]]" a bunch of zombies leave Homer completely unharmed. They were looking for brains to eat, and [[YourBrainWontBeMuchOfAMeal after a brief inspection, they decided that Homer just wouldn't do]]. |
| 523 | ** In "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS7E1WhoShotMrBurnsPartTwo Who Shot Mr. Burns? Part Two]]", Smithers initially believed that he shot Mr. Burns in his drunken rage, but it soon turns out that he actually shot Jasper in his wooden leg. |
| 524 | ** Ultimately {{subverted|Trope}} in "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS9E13TheJoyOfSect The Joy of Sect]]"--Homer proved immune to a cult's standard brainwashing technique because his attention span was so short that he didn't pay attention to it long enough for it to work. After struggling with this for a while, they then manage to brainwash Homer by singing the theme to the old '60s ''Series/Batman1966'' TV show with the word "Leader" in place of the word "Batman". |
| 525 | * An episode of ''WesternAnimation/SkunkFu'' had the ninja monkeys attacking the valley while invisible. The only one who could see them was the token dumbass Ox. Panda explains that the invisibility works by using the opponent's thoughts as a distraction, and Ox has no thoughts. |
| 526 | * ''WesternAnimation/TheSmurfs1981'' special "Smurfily Ever After" has Laconia the mute wood elf getting married to her beloved Woody, which is crashed by Gargamel and his evil MagicMusic machine. Fortunately, Laconia's deafness makes her immune to Gargamel's magic music, which zaps the rest of the heroes. |
| 527 | * Gobbles the turkey from ''WesternAnimation/SouthPark'' is sent to a slaughterhouse where turkeys are killed by a blade that whirs across the room at the level of their necks, decapitating them. But since Gobbles is deformed and his head and neck drag along the ground, the blade goes right above him and doesn't hurt him at all. |
| 528 | * ''WesternAnimation/StarWarsTheBadBatch'': The main plot is kicked off when the titular [[EliteMooks elite clone squad]] fail to follow [[ThePurge Order 66]], which the Empire quickly determines is because the unique genetic aberrations that make them so effective ''also'' impair [[ManchurianAgent the mind-controlling biochips that Order 66 is supposed to activate]] (Echo, the only "reg" clone in squad, had his damaged as a result of the Techno Union messing with his brain while in their captivity). Unfortunately, [[spoiler:this only applies to ''most'' of the squad; [[ColdSniper Crosshair's]] mutation is slight enough that his biochip is intact and merely working at reduced effectiveness, allowing the Empire to make adjustments to the signal and [[FaceHeelTurn turn Crosshair against the others]]. After too many concussions, Wrecker starts to feel the effects of the chip through increasingly frequent headaches. When the squad meets up with [[WesternAnimation/StarWarsTheCloneWars Captain Rex]], he makes it clear that this is a sign the rest of the squad is still at risk, and they need to get their chips removed before they become a threat to Omega. By the end of "[[Recap/StarWarsTheBadBatchS1E7BattleScars Battle Scars]]" (and after Wrecker falls under the full influence of the chip), the whole squad gets their chips removed (minus Omega, who never had a chip to begin with)]]. |
| 529 | * ''WesternAnimation/StevenUniverse'': Lapis' history of abuse, and the mental turmoil associated with it, has made her capable of [[NoSell shrugging off]] [[spoiler: Blue Diamond's sadness EmotionBomb]]. |
| 530 | --> '''Lapis:''' ''[Wiping a SingleTear]'' I've felt worse. |
| 531 | * In the ''WesternAnimation/TeenageMutantNinjaTurtles1987'' episode "Corporate Raiders from Dimension X", Shredder's plan involves taking over the Octopus Inc. corporation with a brainwashing device. However, because the CEO is hard of hearing and his hearing aid is broken, the device doesn't work on him, so they tie him up and lock him in a closet. When the heroes find him and Donatello fixes the aid, he's able to help them defeat the villains. |
| 532 | * ''WesternAnimation/ThunderCats1985'': A partial example with the blind Lynx-O. Since he cannot see, he can resist Alluro's hypnosis. However, it is pointed out that he can still hear Alluro's voice, so he can get hypnotized eventually. |
| 533 | * In the short, "Drooley Davey" from the ''WesternAnimation/TinyToonAdventures'' episode, "[[Recap/TinyToonAdventuresS1E34TheWideWorldOfElmyra The Wide World of Elmyra]]", when [[BabysittingEpisode Elmyra babysits Davey]], she warms his bottle to eight million degrees. She is not immediately affected by the hot bottle, because as Buster and Babs explain to the viewers, it takes longer for pain sensations to reach Elmyra's brain than those of more intelligent life forms. [[BrickJoke The pain does eventually reach her brain]] when she follows Davey into his bedroom. |
| 534 | * In ''WesternAnimation/UltimateSpiderMan2012'', even Iron Fist and Dr. Strange can't fight their worst fear, but Spidey's worst fear is reliving the day Uncle Ben died. Since he lives with this fear constantly, it doesn't even slow him down, and he actually gets to have a little chat with Uncle Ben. |
| 535 | * In one episode of ''WesternAnimation/TheVentureBrothers'', the Monarch tries to kill Dr. Venture by [[JourneyToTheCenterOfTheMind going inside his mind]] and unleashing waves of sanity-breaking mental trauma upon him. But, as Dr. Venture explains, he's ''already'' so miserable that nothing the Monarch does can even faze him. "What can I do to this guy that life hasn't already?" |
| 536 | * An example happens in the "Blind Alley" episode of ''WesternAnimation/XMenEvolution'': Scott's ruby visor is stolen by Mystique, and he can't open his eyes without destroying whatever's in front of him, effectively blinding him. But he manages to even the odds by blowing up the lights. |
| 537 | [[/folder]] |
| 538 | |
| 539 | [[folder:Real Life]] |
| 540 | * People with cardiac arrhythmia (irregular heartbeat) are immune to polygraphs (lie-detector tests) that measure stress-induced changes in heart rate, since they're having them all the time anyway. Then again, polygraphs are notoriously inaccurate even for people with normal physiology, and their use has fallen out of favor for this reason. |
| 541 | * The Thalassemia trait that appears in some people because of a genetic mutation may provide some protection against malaria. |
| 542 | * This is also true of another genetic disorder, [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sickle-cell_disease sickle-cell disease]] (a.k.a. sickle-cell anemia). Though the heterozygous "carrier" version is even better as you have no symptoms and immunity to malaria, just a chance your kids will have sickle-cells. As a result of this natural selection, [[https://cdn.britannica.com/84/126284-050-F08FB570/distribution-malaria-gene-sickle-cell-anemia-overlap.jpg areas with a high incidence rate of malaria also have a high distribution of the sickle-cell gene.]] Similarly, heterozygous carriers of the cystic fibrosis gene are much less likely to die from cholera or tuberculosis. |
| 543 | * It's not a disability, but being bald pretty much assures your head will be lice-free. |
| 544 | * Many disabilities can exempt people from {{conscription}}, although this depends on the intensity of the war and the disability. |
| 545 | * Some fighter pilots were aided by the fact that they lost their legs. While their counterparts with legs could lose consciousness when the blood in their body ended up in their legs due to intense G-forces, these legless fighter pilots could pull off more intense maneuvers without succumbing to those same effects. The most famous example, Douglas Bader, took this one step further; his leg got caught somehow or other when he tried to bail out of his aircraft, and where a fully able-bodied pilot would have been killed, Bader merely had to ask his German captors to retrieve it from the wreckage. |
| 546 | * People with weaker immune systems are less likely to suffer from allergies, since they're the result of an overactive immune response to something harmless. They're also less vulnerable to certain diseases, since in some cases the most lethal element is not the disease itself but the immune response to it. This is why people killed in the 1918 influenza pandemic were mostly otherwise healthy young adults. The very young and old were relatively unaffected, due to their less robust immune systems, which reduced the damage that could be done. |
| 547 | * Some of the diseases listed in [=SciShow=]'s video [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e3jlXm6CLns How 6 Rare Diseases Are Changing Everyday Medicine]] |
| 548 | ** Niemann-Pick (Type 1C) causes cholesterol to build up inside cells, causing patients to suffer dementia as early as childhood, but it also has the effect of making patients completely immune to Ebola. This discovery is helping scientists to invent new drugs for treating Ebola. |
| 549 | ** [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laron_syndrome Laron syndrome]] causes [[LittlePeople dwarfism]] and often obesity, but strangely they have normal blood pressure despite the obesity and almost never get diabetes or cancer. This may help scientists figure out new ways to prevent those diseases. |
| 550 | ** Plasminogen Activator Inhibitor Type 1 Deficiency causes poor blood clotting but people who have it actually live about 10 years longer on average and are less likely to get diabetes. Researchers are testing a therapy that imitates this disease. |
| 551 | * In one Story Corps piece, a man [[http://storycorps.org/listen/lendall-hill-lori-fitzgerald/ tells the story of his father's wooden leg]] and different potentially-dangerous scenarios where he avoided pain because of his leg. |
| 552 | * According to Website/{{Cracked}}'s article on "[[http://www.cracked.com/blog/4-modern-countries-with-surprisingly-backward-technology/ 4 Modern Countries With Surprisingly Backward Technology]]," the US military keeps using obsolete technology partly to make infiltration harder: |
| 553 | -->''Then there's what I like to call the "Galactica" factor. In'' Franchise/BattlestarGalactica, ''the decrepit Galactica is the only starship able to escape computer infiltration and destruction by the enemy Cylon race, purely because it's an old, crappy ship that relies on obsolete technology. Similarly, if anyone wants to bring down America's store of nuclear missiles from the inside, they'll have to somehow figure out computer technology that no normal person has used in decades. This means that America's potential missile-silo enemies are now limited to really, really old people and extreme {{hipster}}s.'' |
| 554 | * Speaking of military technology, during UsefulNotes/WorldWarII, the [[AmazonBrigade all-female]] "Night Witches" of the [[UsefulNotes/RedsWithRockets Soviet Air Forces]] dropped bombs from wooden crop dusters -- which were advantageous precisely ''because'' they weren't military planes. They flew so slowly that the UsefulNotes/{{Nazis|WithGnarlyWeapons}}' planes couldn't engage them while remaining aloft, and they were light enough to sneak up on ThoseWackyNazis at night without running their engines. The crop dusters' light weight often also let the Night Witches land gently even when they got shot down. |
| 555 | * Although strictly speaking not a disease, people with [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gilbert%27s_syndrome Gilbert-Meulengract syndrome]] might well have a slightly more sensitive liver and might be prone to jaundice (hyperbilirubinemia) when their energy is slightly displaced (not enough food/water/sleep) or they've been drinking and some might experience kidney or liver pains after a night of drinking, and some medications might result in severe diarrhoea, there are indicators that they are more resistant to cardiovascular diseases. It is specifically linked to the raised levels of bilirubin, so occasionally pulling an all-nighter, skipping a few meals, or getting drunk is good for your heart! |
| 556 | * There are a few autoimmune diseases that attack the osteoclasts preventing osteoporosis and bone loss. However this imbalance in osteoclasts and osteoblasts can create a few problems: loss of skeletal flex (bend don't break,) the fusing of joints, calcification of organs, hypocalcemia, paralysis if the backbone grows into the spinal cord, and bone cancer. Salmonella can aggravate this, because of its similarity to osteoclasts. (Immune systems can be dumb.) |
| 557 | * Castrated men [[http://vitals.nbcnews.com/_news/2012/09/24/14070451-upside-to-castration-eunuchs-lived-longer-study-finds tend to live longer]]. This is attributed to the lack of testosterone, which has been shown to weaken the immune system and increase risk of heart disease. Castration also prevents the onset of acne and male pattern baldness. |
| 558 | * Contrary to popular belief, UsefulNotes/RasputinTheMadMonk didn't "survive poisoning" -- even if the poison survived the baking process, his stomach problems may have prevented him from eating those poisoned cakes at all. Of course, that wasn't much help after he was shot in the head. |
| 559 | * Autistic people are not only to various degrees immune to PolitenessJudo due to not being wired for neurotypical social tact and awareness, but are also more likely to see through the tricks of illusionists since the subtle body language tricks and diversions that illusionists employ are far less effective against people who process those sorts of things differently (or pay little to no attention to them in the first place). For a similar reason, many magicians hate performing for very young children, since they've not yet learned these subtler social cues (and may also lack the politeness that would prevent them from shouting out what the magician is doing). |
| 560 | ** Cognitive and perceptual differences in autistic people also make them more resistant to optical illusions and various cognitive biases. |
| 561 | * During the Blitz, blind men were often recruited to guide people to shelters. They couldn’t be disoriented by blackout conditions, star shells couldn’t dazzle them, and they were very good at avoiding concealed fires started by incendiary bombs. |
| 562 | * Owls' poor sense of smell makes them a SmellySkunk's worst enemy. |
| 563 | * Birds cannot taste spiciness, allowing them to eat peppers other animals cannot. This is actually a result of evolutionary selection by the plants because their seeds can pass through an avian digestive system unharmed and get deposited far from the original plant, whereas a mammalian digestive system destroys the seeds. |
| 564 | * Some armies have actively recruited colorblind people as snipers since, in their eyes, many varieties of camouflage don't blend in. |
| 565 | * Corgis were originally bred as herding dogs because their dwarfed legs kept them too close to the ground for cattle to kick. Dachshunds, which have the same sort of dwarfism that corgis do (hence the back problems common in both breeds), were bred to hunt badgers and rabbits because they're small enough to fit in burrows. |
| 566 | * [[https://www.timesnownews.com/the-buzz/article/turkish-man-with-dwarfism-is-using-his-small-size-to-rescue-earthquake-victims-trapped-beneath-rubble/677843 Ridvan Celik]] rescued survivors trapped in the rubble after the Izmir earthquake, since his dwarfism let him reach places that other rescue workers couldn't access. |
| 567 | [[/folder]] |
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