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Beat the Curse Out of Him
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Oh, no! Your best friend has been entranced by Pazuzu! Bummer! No need to call any specialists, though; just pull up your sleeves and you can deal with this yourself. In many works of fiction, the best way to free a possessed or cursed person is to simply beat the crap out of them. You won't need to worry about hurting your friend, either; it's just the curse / demon you're punching, not them. Once you punch them into unconciousness, they should wake up perfectly fine (albeit probably with a massive headache).
This is especially common in Video Games where combat is the standard reaction to anything anyway, and can result in making a new friend or getting a new player character. This comes up a lot in stories with a villain with a Dark and Troubled Past or a Freudian Excuse—it turns out their mothers, grandmothers, aunts, or somebody thought they were evil / cursed / possessed and tried to beat the evil out of them, or to prevent them from becoming evil ( which is precisely what made them evil).
Compare: Get A Hold Of Yourself Man, Dying as Yourself (If the curse dies, but so does the cursee), and "I Know You're in There Somewhere" Fight for when the battle is with words. See also Defeat Means Friendship for when the enemy isn't cursed or possessed, just opposed to the hero for personal reasons. Mostly unrelated to Hollywood Exorcism.
Examples
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Anime & Manga
Film
Literature
- Averted in Fablehaven: Tanu the potion master knows that using this trope on Berrigan would cause physical harm, so he uses a potion that causes hallucinations of excruciating pain, which doesn't actually hurt Berrigan.
- In the not so acclaimed novelisation of Baldur's Gate II: Shadows of Amn, Irenicus turns Imoen into a monster to attack the elves. The monster's form breaks free from under her skin. It's all right, though, because all the protagonist Abdel Adrian needs to do to free her is tear the monster apart, because obviously she would be intact inside the monster that burst out from inside her.
Live Action TV
- In Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers (and all following series), this was typically the way to free people who had been turned into monsters by spells (and thankfully so, otherwise the Rangers would have unwittingly killed Kat). When the transformation had been done by means other than a direct spell the Rangers had to seek alternate cures.
Myths & Religion
- Many exorcism rituals involve physical abuse.
Video Games
- Batman Arkham Asylum. When Poison Ivy takes over the guards, you just beat the everloving crap out of them. Though to be honest, this is more of a "I'll beat you unconscious so you don't try to kill me while I deal with that gigantic plant over there" kind of deal.
- In RPGs, attacking one's own teammate is usually the quickest way to cure Charm or Confuse status.
- Wrexsoul in Final Fantasy VI brings this to a different level. To start, the boss will "possess" one of your party members at random. There is no way to tell which party member is possessed (because the party member in question will continue to attack and behave normally), and there is no way to damage the boss until the party member who is possessed by Wrexsoul dies, when the boss then rematerializes and becomes available to attack. Expect to repeat this process multiple times... unless you decide to take the easy route and just X-Zone/Banish the Soul Savers.
- This is one of the methods you can do to Adelle in Final Fantasy Tactics A2. The other method is to keep talking until the person returns to normal.
- This is the standard method for dealing with the "Confuse" side-effect in almost any Final Fantasy game, hit the affected character with a physical attack in order to regain control of them. Can become dangerous if/when your party members are high enough level to start killing each other in one or two physical strikes.
- A variation in Dragon Quest VIII - The best and only permanent way to get rid of curses in the setting is to beat the crap out of the person who placed the curse.
- In EarthBound, most humans and animals that you fight are "turned back to normal" after you defeat them.
- The Legend of Zelda, full stop. Anything affected by dark magic, up to and including Princess Zelda herself, can be fixed with a good butt-whupping.
- In Kirby 64, Kirby needs to do this to free Waddle Dee, Adeleine, and King Dedede from Dark Matter.
- In Chrono Cross, the Porre military has used a cursed fruit to bring out Orcha's evil nature. As soon as you beat him, he immediately regains normality.
- In Penny Arcade Adventures, characters can get brainwashed and attack their own team. Either you wait until they're damaged, or hit them yourself—they take far less damage and are cured instantly.
- In Disgaea 4, the repentant former Big Bad Nemo gets corrupted by the power of the Lord of Terror, which he had originally been intending to use, forcing Valvatorez and company to beat some sense into him for the final battle.
- In Donkey Kong Country Returns, when a boss character is possessed by a Tiki the only way to release it is to defeat the boss in battle.
- At the end of Paper Mario The Thousand Year Door, when Peach is possessed by the Shadow Queen's spirit, the only way to free her is to lay out a massive beatdown. It's not an easy task.
- In Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga before you meet Prince Peasley you fight him as a dragon who was previously trapped in an egg that Blablanadon was incubating.
- In Spider-Man: Web of Shadows, you can save people who have turned into Symbiote Zombies... by hitting them a lot. Apparently, you can knock the symbiote off of them with long enough combos. (This has the added bonus of making it easier to 'cure' people if you're playing as 'Normal' Spider-Man, since he's got longer combos - his 'Black Suit' version focuses more on huge area-effect attacks and powerful blows.)
- This has also occasionally happened in the comics - beating the symbiote off of someone, I mean - but it's somewhat rare and usually has serious complications. Mostly, they resort to their classic Kryptonite Factor of sound instead.
- In the first Metal Gear Solid, Psycho Mantis mind controls Snake's love interest to force her to commit suicide (its a Game Over if she succeeds) with her pistol. To prevent this you need to deal enough non lethal damage (with punches, tranquilizer darts (in Twin Snakes only) or stun grenades) to knock her out (complicated by the fact that she wakes up every so often).
- At the end of the recent Mythsong saga in Adventure Quest Worlds, you do this to the sixth Lord of Chaos, who turns out not to be Discordia, but Kimberly of One Eyed Doll, the special guest of the big Friday event, in order to get Drakath's mind-controlling Ear Worm out of her head.
- Interesting variation: in Super Smash Bros. Brawl, the villains use "shadow bugs" mined from Mr. Game & Watch to create evil, purple-tinted versions of some of the heroes, like Peach and Diddy Kong. Most of the time, the real hero is trapped in trophy form and can't be brought back to life until the cursed version is defeated. However, it is possible for Diddy to fight his own Evil Twin, and at one point, Bowser does this to himself so he can be in two places at once.
- In Resident Evil 5, you are attacked by former partner Jill Valentine, who is under the influence of a mind control device (which is attached to the chest, naturally). Administering a beating is a bad idea, since if you do too much damage to her, you'll accidentally kill her. Instead, you have to work with your partner to hold her still while one of you tries to pry off the device.
- Variation of this trope in Yu-Gi-Oh!: Nightmare Troubadour: When Joey Wheeler gets possessed, you have to tie him in a card battle.
- In Ar tonelico, how do we confine I.P.Ds? Blast them apart! This is strange when you use 100 Replekia amplification and the ultimate song magic, that's Overkill.
- World of Warcraft includes this at least once each expansion.
- In Throne of the Tides (Cataclysm) you face off against Erunak Stonespeaker, a shaman who saved your life multiple times throughout the preceding storyline who is being controlled by a Face Hugger. After knocking him to half health, the boss himself becomes attackable (though he may jump onto one of your own party members during the fight.)
- In Ulduar (Wrath of the Lich King) you must fight the four Titan Keepers — Freya, Thorim, Hodir, and Mimiron. Wait, aren't they good guys? Well, yes, but they're being mind-controlled by Yogg-Saron, Old God of insanity and death. (Mostly insanity.) Punching them sufficiently will cure the mind-control; once they reach 1% health they turn friendly and will help you in your battle against Yogg-Saron.
- In the Sunwell (Burning Crusade,) you must fight against Kalecgos, a blue dragon who till now has always been one of the good guys. While you battle his body in the real world, you also get a chance to go inside his mind and punch out the evil forces enslaving him.
- In Mists of Pandaria, reluctant zombie Lilian Voss has become a Death Knight who hunts down necromancers. Can you see the logical conclusion of a zombie trying to take down a magician who specializes in controlling zombies? Anyway, after you beat her up enough she breaks free of his control and helps you take out the Big Bad.
- In Girls Love Visual Novel Aoi Shiro, the fastest way to free someone from the <<Sword>>'s influence is by beating the crap out of her —lethally, even, in case of Kaya at the end of Migiwa Route.
- In Dragon Age: Origins, you do this to Bann Teagan to free him from a demon's mind control. Which is kinda startling given that going with the Darker and Edgier nature of the setting, fighting mind-controlled people usually means having to kill them.
- The Legacy expansion of Dragon Age II features the party storming the prison of ancient Darkspawn Corypheus. If your party includes "ex"-Grey Warden Anders, he starts hearing voices as Corypheus communicates through the darkspawn taint in his blood. He eventually becomes a mini-boss fight, after which he manages to resist for the rest of the DLC. Since Anders is also sharing a body with a particularly hacked-off spirit of Justice, it's kind of unclear which part of him you're fighting.
- In Sonic Adventure, both the game and the Archie Comics adaptation, Super Sonic defeats Perfect Chaos this way. The comics have him used this method again against a cursed Knuckles, even going so far as to compare it to the previous Perfect Chaos example as "beat[ing] the evil out of you."
- In the Sega Genesis Ghostbusters game, you must battle your possessed teammates in the Castle level. In order to repossess them, you must get behind them and attact the very visible possessor. In the 2009 game, the Slime Blowers have the same effect.
- In Golden Axe III, you choose one or two of four available characters, the rest will become level bosses wich you have to beat. They're said to have been cursed by Death Adder, and once you beat them, they become normal again. They won't join you, though, since we're in a Beat 'em Up, not a Role-Playing Game.
- In Mega Man X2, you'll be forced to fight a reprogrammed Zero if you failed to get all his parts from the X-Hunters. Once you beat him, he comes back to his senses and helps you stop Sigma.
- Cynder from The Legend of Spyro series was a dragoness the same age as the titular hero, only for the series Big Bad to corrupt her with his dark powers, causing her to unnaturally grow to her adult size. Fortunately, upon being defeated by Spyro, her mind was released from the dark spell and she returned to her normal age, upon afterwards, she spent the remainder of the series becoming friends with Spyro and eventually falling in love with him.
- In The Crooked Man, at one point David, the player character, gets possessed and is being compelled to shoot himself. And then David's best friend comes to save him. You are given three options, one of them being to punch David. It's the only option that's any good; the other two lead to bad endings.
Western Animation
- In The Powerpuff Girls, Him turned the entire town evil and all attempts to resolve the matter peacefully failed... until the girl beat the tar out of the Townsville citizens. Somehow, it works.
- More specifically, the girls convinced themselves the Brainwashed and Crazy Townsvillians actually were not their loved ones (Since, as the heroes of Townsville, everyone adored the girls). The curse only breaks after the girls beat the tar out of Him and force him to retreat.
- This happened once, indirectly, in Code Lyoko. XANA had possessed Aelita, but needed her alive as much as the children did. To coerce XANA into releasing her, Odd shot at her repeatedly until she was an inch away from dying, at which point he surrendered.
- Note that XANA's process of extracting what he wanted from her would kill her, so the kids had nothing to lose by threatening to kill her themselves.
- One episode of Dexters Laboratory has Dexter's family infected by alien parasites. Dexter is forced to equip his Powered Armor to beat up his family until the parasites abandon ship, after which Dexter immediately stomps the aliens flat. Afterwards his family members don't recall any of what happened, though they don't feel particularly well after the beating they received. "This flu stuff hits you hard..."
- If Danny Phantom fires a ray of ectoplasm at a person possessed by a ghost, it pushes it out, leaving the person unhamred. if it turns out that person was Not Brainwashed, however, it does hurt.
Real Life
- Truth in Television, at one point in history. See, elves weren't always nice creatures - actually for most of history they were downright evil. Changeling Fantasy was not about being super-awesome because you were really the fairy king's daughter when people actually believed in it. Kids with birth defects or mentally retarded or autistic children were thought to be elf children, and the elves had taken your normal, beautiful child and replaced it with their ugly, stupid one. Beating these supposed elf children - sometimes to the point that they died - was standard practice, because this was thought to be the only way to convince the elves to give you your normal child back.
- And unfortunately Truth in Television today. Some preachers such as Michael Pearl still advise parents to beat the crap out of their kids on the excuse that insubordinate or bratty behavior is caused by demons.
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