Line #425 Main/PersonOfMassDestruction


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7	[[quoteright:250:[[Comicbook/{{Watchmen}} https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/manhats.jpg]]]]
8	[[caption-width-right:250:Dr. Manhattan, giving "[[FlippingTheBird the finger]]" a whole new meaning.]]
9
10	->''"I'm a walking nightmare, an arsenal of doom\
11	I kill conversation as I walk into the room\
12	I'm a three line whip, I'm the sort of thing they ban\
13	I'm a walking disaster, I'm a demolition man."''
14	-->-- '''Music/ThePolice''', "Demolition Man"
15
16	A Person of Mass Destruction is a character with powers, abilities, or skills capable of causing damage on the level of a WeaponOfMassDestruction. As a SpeculativeFiction trope, it is frequently used as a metaphor for real-world technology -- often [[AtomicHate nuclear weapons]]. The source of their destructive powers varies; they may have won the SuperpowerLottery, have knowledge of ThingsManWasNotMeantToKnow or be a PhysicalGod. What gives them their destructive potential is less important than the fact that they have it.
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18	The reaction to a [=PoMD=] is often [[AllOfTheOtherReindeer fear, anger, and hate]], which may cross over into [[BullyingADragon outright abuse]]. Despite this, their chances of being either a Hero or a Villain are about the same, and depend on whether they believe WithGreatPowerComesGreatResponsibility or MightMakesRight. A person of mass destruction is more likely than normal to undergo SuperpowerMeltdown at some point, channeling the fear of losing control of a conventional weapon of mass destruction, as with an EmptyQuiver situation.
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20	They will almost always score at least as a Class 4 on the JustForFun/SuperWeight scale or higher.
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22	Compare with HumanWeapon, for when someone is literally treated as a weapon. See also DestructiveSaviour and WalkingDisasterArea. A person like this is almost always a OneManArmy, which is usually a ''downplayed'' version of this trope.
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24	----
25	!!Examples:
26	[[index]]
27	* PersonOfMassDestruction/AnimeAndManga
28	* PersonOfMassDestruction/ComicBooks
29	* PersonOfMassDestruction/FanWorks
30	* PersonOfMassDestruction/{{Film}}
31	* PersonOfMassDestruction/{{Literature}}
32	* PersonOfMassDestruction/LiveActionTV
33	* PersonOfMassDestruction/TabletopGames
34	* PersonOfMassDestruction/VideoGames
35	* PersonOfMassDestruction/{{Webcomics}}
36	* PersonOfMassDestruction/WesternAnimation
37	[[/index]]
38
39	[[foldercontrol]]
40
41	[[folder:Myths & Religion]]
42	* In Myth/IrishMythology, Balor of the Evil Eye, as told about in ''Literature/TheBattleOfMaghTuireadh'', was a king of monstrous giants called the Fomor who used his eye as a weapon: "The Evil Eye was no ordinary eye but a deadly weapon that was never opened except on the battlefield. It was 'a ruinous venomous weapon' that needed four strong men to raise the lid from the eye with a polished grappling iron hung on massive wheels and pulleys. As the Evil Eye swept the battlefield its deadly gaze destroyed all who stood before it; whole troops of warriors lay withered in its wake and the tide of battle turned against the Tuatha Dé Danann."
43	* Literature/TheBible:
44	** {{Satan}} is said to be so large that he can wipe 1/3 of the stars out of the sky with his tail, yet is still ''infinitely'' less powerful than God himself.
45	** The angels count, too: God once punished Israel because David heed Satan's advice. Result? An angel was sent to wipe out many, many places off the face of the Earth, before God stopped him just as he was about to lift his finger to wipe out Jerusalem. But they are ''especially'' this during the [[EndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt time of Revelation]].
46	* Myth/ClassicalMythology:
47	** The Hekatonkheires were the [[ElementalEmbodiment embodiments]] of natural disasters, each with fifty heads and one hundred arms. Their primary tactic during the Titanomachy was continuously throwing ''entire mountains''.
48	** The Olympians themselves were no slouches, as shown when Zeus repeated the mountain-throwing trick on Typhon, throwing Mount Etna at him so hard the mightiest enemy of the gods was literally ''buried under it'' with no way to get out.
49	** Mars is introduced in ''Literature/TheThebaid'' riding towards Olympus just after finishing a day of destroying cities and slaughtering foreign nations by his lonesome.
50	[[/folder]]
51
52	[[folder:Pinball]]
53	* ''Pinball/{{Raven}}'' is a OneWomanArmy fighting a horde of {{Mooks}} in a southeast Asian jungle.
54	[[/folder]]
55
56	[[folder:Podcasts]]
57	* In ''Podcast/TheAdventureZoneBalance'', anyone who gets their hands on a Grand Relic becomes this.
58	[[/folder]]
59
60	[[folder:Roleplay]]
61	* ''Roleplay/DawnOfANewAgeOldportBlues'':
62	** Ivy's power grants her random bursts of genius that allows her to create any invention from what materials she has on hand. This means that, at any given moment, it's possible for her to create a nuke, or anything else of an equally destructive power.
63	** Vivian's superpower is to rewrite reality [[ClapYourHandsIfYouBelieve based on her belief]]. One {{flashforward}} shows a future where she's been detained by the government after using her power to casually wipe entire cities off the map.
64	[[/folder]]
65
66	[[folder:Visual Novels]]
67	* The Mastermind/[[spoiler: Junko Enoshima]] from ''VisualNovel/DanganronpaTriggerHappyHavoc''. You kinda earn the title when you're almost single-handedly responsible for an event literally called ''The biggest, most awful, most tragic event in human history.''
68	* In ''VisualNovel/HatofulBoyfriend'' it is revealed in [[OmegaEnding BBL]] that [[spoiler: Nageki, while alive,]] harbored a disease that killed any human he came in contact with within minutes. When he was imprisoned and his virus started to be weaponized, [[spoiler: [[SelfImmolation he killed himself]].]] But the researcher wasn't finished - [[spoiler: he worked to weaken Ryouta and gave him that same virus, five years later]].
69	* Hajun from ''VisualNovel/KajiriKamuiKagura'' is this trope taken to probably highest possible extreme. In this setting attaining godhood allows one's inner desire to [[RealityWarper warp]] [[MultiversalConqueror countless universes]] on conceptual level as their fundamental law. Hajun's inner desire is destruction of everything that isn't him. This gives him such power that his presence alone is enough to annihilate everything in the setting.
70	** Special mention also goes to Tenma Yato, the second strongest Hadou God after Hajun. His power is so great, wouldn't his Law constantly hold the multiverse inside a time-stasis field, the world would immediately collapse, should time ever flow normally again. He has so much spiritual mass that he is compared as a "mountain" (Yato) supported by a "thin paper" (the multiverse) . The scale of the world can't keep up with Yato, even at the bottom of those on the "Almighty Domain" of Shinza. It is stated at the end that Yato has enough power to curbstomb all characters in the setting minus Hajun, which he could barely defend against.
71	** Any [[CosmicEntity Hadou God]] counts as this, as they utterly transcend the concept of size and therefore have no problems erasing a universe or two. They can warp their surroundings towards their own desire on a conceptual level, ignore any law of physics or replace them with their own laws and can only be stopped by a stronger God.
72	* Quite a lot of people in the Franchise/{{Nasuverse}} are like this.
73	** For ''VisualNovel/{{Tsukihime}}'' you have Arcueid, who has to use 70% of her power to stop herself from going into an UnstoppableRage and even with the remaining 30% can apparently use her Marble Phantasm to pull the moon from 1000 years into the future into the sky for one night. See also: Zelretch, Aozaki Aoko, some of the Dead Apostles and even Shiki if he had the time to actually prep himself before his brain burned out. Example, killing the ''world'' around the entire school area in order to partially depower Arcueid and make her somewhat more vulnerable in Ciel's True End. Imagine if the 'point of death' of the entire world happened to be nearby him.
74	*** ''All'' of the Aristoteles, or [[UltimateLifeForm Ultimate Ones]], are prime examples this, taking it to apocalyptic levels. Type-Jupiter alone flattened the entire continent of North America in the backstory of ''Literature/AngelNotes'', and Type-Mercury is considered the strongest being on Earth in terms of raw power, which is an impressive feat, given it has to share space with all the other Nasuverse examples above and below. The most notable example is probably Archetype-Earth (who, by the way, is Arcueid at full power), though, on the basis that most of the Nasuverse's stories take place on Earth. Since she's the Ultimate One of the Earth, she has total control of it (with the exception of humans and anything created by them, and she can still affect those, just not directly), so she can do just about anything with a mere thought. Swallowing cities into the earth? Done. Melting the ice caps? Done. Tilting the Earth of its axis? Done. Tearing the Earth in two? ''Done''. The kicker is that if an Aristotele comes up against something that is somehow stronger than it, their patron planet will just pump more raw power into it until the Aristotele is stronger anyway.
75	** ''VisualNovel/FateStayNight'' has, surprisingly, [[spoiler:Dark Sakura]] because she has more magical energy than she could ever possibly use no matter what and can summon up apparently infinite giant freaky monster things if she has time. Is also the avatar of all the evils in the World.
76	*** Any Servant with an anti-fortress/city phantasm counts, as their phantasm is specifically designed to annihilate a fully-defended castle in one shot. Heck, even an anti-army phantasm probably would count (though on the low end of the scale, being designed to kill hundreds of {{Muggles}} rather than wiping castles and [[EldritchAbomination supernatural]] [[Literature/FateZero horrors]] completely off the face of the earth.) Also, Gilgamesh can canonically pierce through Gaeia's Ultimate [[MentalWorld Reality Marble]] which manifests all over the planet, the results of which would no doubt be catastrophic.
77	* ''VisualNovel/PhoenixWrightAceAttorneyDualDestinies'' has [[BigBad the phantom]] (a.k.a. [[spoiler:Detective Bobby Fulbright('s imposter)]]). In the very beginning of the game, he bombs an '''''entire courtroom''''' just to destroy a tiny piece of evidence against him. And it's one of his past crimes that ultimately caused the "Dark Age of the Law" (an InUniverse-"TooBleakStoppedCaring" era where defense attorneys, prosecutors, etc., are more distrusted than ever, and everyone pulls increasingly filthy tricks (devaluing the system further) simply because no one cares anymore). Essentially, while not directly destroying much physically, the man practically killed the entire justice system singlehandedly.
78	[[/folder]]
79
80	[[folder:Web Animation]]
81	* ''WebAnimation/DeathBattle'': Naturally in a show that is about [[UltimateShowdownOfUltimateDestiny two beings from different franchises fighting to the death]], they will bring in combatants who are already this trope. Usually, the being with greater levels of destruction takes the win. Notable examples include:
82	** ''[[Franchise/DragonBall Son Goku]]'' vs ''ComicBook/{{Superman}}''. Both in their battles are capable of destroying planets and future references to them has them scale to beings that can destroy universes. [[spoiler: Superman wins because the destruction he scales to are consistently much bigger than Goku's.]]
83	** ''Goku Black vs [[Franchise/TheFlash Reverse-Flash]]''. Both are capable of destroying our universe many times over. [[spoiler: Reverse-Flash wins because while Goku Black can destroy our universe at least 650 times over, with a bigger possible number of 650,000 universes, Eobard can destroy our universe a ''billion'' times over, with further scaling to Barry Allen and Wally West racing each other almost destroying the DC ''multiverse''.]]
84	** ''ComicBook/ScarletWitch vs. ComicBook/{{Zatanna}}''. Both magic users have shown reality warping powers that can wipe out a huge portion of both the Marvel and DC ommniverse respectively. [[spoiler: Zatanna wins this one because she's able to keep a cooler head around Wanda and exploit those openings for a finishing blow. Notable, this is one of the few matches where the level of destructions is not the reason for the victor.]]
85	* Parodied with Kotomaru in ''WebAnimation/GirlChanInParadise'' when he unleashes his secret power. Kenstar and Yusuke react with shock, while Green Guy comments that last time this happened, he destroyed a ''WHOOOOOOOOOOOLE'' kitchen.
86	* ''WebAnimation/{{RWBY}}'':
87	** The Four Maidens are women with access to magical ElementalPowers (some of the only magic in the world, in fact), capable of [[WeatherManipulation altering the weather on a large scale]], [[SpontaneousWeaponCreation creating elemental weapons out of thin air]], {{Flight}}, and are surrounded by a SphereOfPower when they get serious. Unfortunately, due to a quirk of the way the powers are transferred, it's possible to obtain the powers through murdering the previous wielder, so there's an entire BenevolentConspiracy dedicated to protecting them.
88	** [[BigBad Salem]] [[spoiler:and her husband Ozma are the last original humans left, meaning they have full access to the magic humanity once had. Early on in Remnant's history, they posed as gods by destroying anything that opposed them, and when they had a falling out their battle destroyed their castle ([[OffingTheOffspring and killed their daughters in the crossfire]]). Ozma gave up much of his power to create the Maidens, but Salem is still the most powerful single entity on the planet, never mind the fact that she has CompleteImmortality and an endless army of [[TheHeartless Grimm]]]].
89	[[/folder]]
90
91	[[folder:Web Original]]
92	* Explored and deconstructed in Sam Hughes' ''Literature/FineStructure'' science-fiction series. Here's a relevant quote discussing why superhumans make terrible weapons of mass destruction:
93	-->Because they're weapons, the superhumans, but they're not weapons of mass destruction. They're in one place, at one time. And you can't send a human into a city and tell him to kill ten thousand people. He'd have to do it personally, hand to hand, in twos and threes, hurling cars, taking heads, pulling down buildings on crowds. He'd have no choice but to look into the eyes of at least one in every ten of his victims, and, if he wasn't hopelessly deranged to begin with, he'd be driven there by the end. If he didn't simply resign. Either way, he'd be out of your control. And that is much more important.\
94	It's more humane, in a way. Walking up to your enemy and pushing your finger through his heart and out the other side is much more ''costly'' than doing the same from fifty yards away with a gun, or from the other side of the river with a mortar, or from another hemisphere with an intercontinental ballistic missile. Psychologically, that is.\
95	It makes you think.
96	* The Knights of Grabacr from ''Literature/{{Lambda}}'' are each capable of singlehandedly wiping out entire armies. Their leader, [[LadyOfWar Lady]] [[BilingualBonus Weiss]][[Franchise/LyricalNanoha teufel]], does this on a ''regular basis''.
97	* Being a pilot in ''Literature/{{Pilots}}'' requires a mindset that is more or less directly antithetical to militarism or aggression, and you can't coerce them because that breaks the mental state required to "switch", a.k.a {{Teleport\|ationWithDrawbacks}}. However, the mechanics of [[StuffBlowingUp the power]] can be quite destructive--there are several cases of accidental pushback or too-small switch spheres that cause many deaths--and it gets even worse with the [=ADPs=]. X is discovered when he creates pushback that is initially mistaken for a major earthquake, [[DoesNotKnowHisOwnStrength by accident]].
98	* Many of the humanoids housed by the Website/SCPFoundation (and that may or may not include the ''researchers''), particularly the ones with the object class Keter. [[http://scp-wiki.net/scp-076 SCP-076]] ("Abel") is the prime example: He can survive sustained fire from multiple .50 cal machine gun, several direct anti-personnel rocket strikes, having an incendiary grenade placed ''inside his chest'', being crushed by nearly 14 metric tonnes of steel, and fight through entire squads of heavily-trained close-combat experts. And then tears through several meters of heavily reinforced metal before [[LightningBruiser covering nearly seventy meters in three seconds]] to escape. He can swat bullets out of the air with a metal bar, summon an endless armory of indestructible weapons, and, as shown above, survive basically anything short of a [[NukeEm tactical nuclear warhead]]. His entire containment zone is built several miles underwater as a last ditch to kill [[ResurrectiveImmortality his latest body]] if nothing else succeeds, and ''he doesn't die for over an hour'' even then. And he is utterly AxCrazy, having the time of his life as he gleefully slaughters everything in his path, knowing eventually he'll get to do it all over again. Although he ''is'' shown to sometimes show twisted VillainRespect towards tough opponents, and be upset if they die. At one point his coffin activated under unknown circumstances, and the key to his vault vanished, leading to a three-year manhunt with an untold amount of casualties before he was finally put down.
99	* From the ''Union'' series, Tank born Shadow Agents, depending on the Country/Colony of origin, have a kill switch installed, resulting in TheBerserker. To quote a passage from the story:
100	-->We popped the Kill Switch on a Schatten once, just to see what it could do. It tore through nearly half the Londinium ground forces before it died of blood loss. [[OhCrap It took three days.]] We never made that mistake again.
101	* Tennyo, of the ''Literature/WhateleyUniverse''. What, the whole "antimatter in her body" thing doesn't bother you? What about the "neutron star blast" thing she did in her combat final? Or the death-blow that dissolved Killbot and ''disintegrated his soul''? Or the thing she did when defending herself from over a hundred bad guys that ripped a hole in space-time? Or when she ''ate'' the demonically-tainted Weres that attacked the school Or what we found out in "Ayla and the Great Shoulder Angel Conspiracy": the part of her that is not Billie Wilson is older than [[TimeAbyss the Earth itself]] and has destroyed entire interplanetary civilizations. And that's not even counting [[ApocalypseHow/ClassZ the stuff Sara is holding back]] from Billie...
102	[[/folder]]
103
104	[[noreallife]]

Context Main / PersonOfMassDestruction