Troperville
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The human version of Explosive Overclocking. A hero, often one who is already able to transform into a super-charged mode, discovers, is granted, or reveals that he is capable of a further transformation which gives him unstoppable power.
This transformation comes at great cost, though, as, once he uses it, it's only a matter of time before he dies, explodes, goes insane, becomes a mindless super-powered beast, or ascends to a higher plane of existence. Even if it doesn't poison him, he still may have to use his own life force to attack.
When he's forced to pull it out, his friends will have to talk him down, coaxing him into reverting to his former form. He may have to go away for a few episodes to live among the gods or somesuch.
Often, the extreme bodily stress will be demonstrated by the character's blood slowly oozing from one nostril.
Examples:
Video Games
- In Baldurs Gate 2, the PC is granted the ability to assume the form of the Slayer, a manifestation of his dead father Bhaal, the God of Murder. Not only does maintaining the transformation kill you, using it is an inherently evil act that lowers your reputation, and may cause you to turn on party members.
- It also isn't much of an upgrade, seeing that you can't cast spells in this form, and if you're a combat class already, can actually make you less formidable. Perhaps more an example of Awesome But Impractical.
- Front Mission 3 had the Imaginary Numbers and Real Numbers, groups of genetically engineered individuals to gain extraordinary abilities, such as reaction time, piloting ability, or tactical knowledge. The Imaginary Numbers were insane to start with, but both they and the Real Numbers got significantly less stable as they used their capabilities more until the individual eventually snapped.
- Front Mission 5 applies this trope in a similar fashion. Certain individuals have Type S devices implanted in their brains, which give super-human reaction times and allow some pilots to interface directly with specific mecha. Such devices aren't without cost, though: those so enhanced lose portions of their memory and even basic functionality, with even the best-case results losing upwards of 20% of their memory.
- In Castlevania: Portrait of Ruin, it is revealed that the Vampire Killer whip drains the life force of any non-Belmont who uses its true power. Jonathan Morris is warned against relying on it too much. Luckily for him, though, there is no in-game penalty for using the whip.
- The dragon transformation in Breath Of Fire: Dragon Quarter results in rapid accumulation of points on the D-Counter, which constantly increases at a much slower rate, cannot be lowered by any means, and results in a Nonstandard Game Over when it hits 100%, strongly discouraging you from using it at all.
- Earthbound has the party become robots in order to time travel, because time travel does not work on organic matter. No guarantee exists that the characters' souls will find their way back from the robots afterward, though naturally they do.
- In one of the Fate Stay Night game's routes, Heaven's Feel, Shirou gets Archer's arm transplanted onto him after his own is lost and Archer is dealt a fatal wound. He starts losing his mind because the power from the arm is too much for him to handle, and his body is destroyed from the inside everytime he uses the Circuits. He still manages to overcome Black Berserker, Black Saber, Kotomine, project Excalibur, and fire it at the corrupted Grail before his body dies.
- In Dot Hack, Kite has Data Drain, which weakens enemies to the point where they can be taken out with a single hit. But using it can result in level and stat reductions or an instant game over. He gets an upgrade that allows him to use it on multiple targets and yet another that increases the chance of getting a rare item, but both increase the likelihood of negative effects occuring.
- In the video game Haze you have access to a super-drug called Nectar which gives you enhanced speed, accuracy, and grenade range, but overdosing could result in losing control of your character or even death.
- A central point of Metroid Prime 3, Samus gets a powerful phazon-pack added to her suit that allows her to transform into a hyperactive killing machine, but over-use of it will cause her to become 'Corrupted' and end the game.
- Partially used in Kingdom Hearts 2 with Anti-form. Engaging a Drive form (other than Final Form) has a chance of instead turning into Sora into something akin to The Heartless (suggested to be his connection to when he briefly changed into one in the first game). Though not having any real gameplay drawbacks other than not being able to use items or spells, it is implied that shifting into Anti-form is Sora giving in to his darker instincts. This Troper's favorite transformation, despite the loss of Magic and Allies.
- Actually, it has two very significant downsides - AntiForm is completely unable to gain experience, and it's completely unable to recover health. Slightly related to both, it's also the only form that Sora can't cancel partway through. It's not bad if you're just starting against a boss, and at full health. But if either recovery or experience points are in the coming, you will be affected by the downsides.
- In Prince of Persia: The Two Thrones at certain points, the Prince transforms into the Dark Prince, who is faster and stronger, but cannot use his left hand for grappling or picking up weapons, instead he has a spiked chain-whip. In addition, he slowly loses life to the darkness, which can be replenished by absorbing Sands of Time. He reverts back to the original Prince if he touches water.
Anime
- Kaoru Akashi when she is how to use her power to deflect bullets and produce force rays (by the White Haired Pretty Boy Evil Mentor who is older then he looks )
- Goku's transformation into a giant, mindless ape in Dragonball. Also, the "Kai-Oh-Ken" technique from Dragonball Z risked permanent damage to Goku's body whenever he used it -- especially when he overclocked it. However, thanks to My Kung Fu Is Stronger Than Yours, by the time he's fighting against Freezer, he can multiply it by thirty-fold!
- And at one point even goes to one hundred fold, if this troper recalls. Not to mention the fact that Super Saiyan is basically the same technique taken to ridiculous levels without the risk.
- Don't forget Tienshinhan, who is the badass normal, manages to almost keep up during the Cell Saga by using the Tri-Beam attack. It was only so powerful because he fed it with his own life force.
- Inu Yasha's transformation into his full-demon form.
- Almost every extremely powerful technique in Naruto is some version of this:
- The later phases of Naruto's demon transformation. The excessive amount of chakra disintegrates his body's cells, while at the same time the regeneration ability it provides heals him. In the end, it works to eat away at his lifespan.
- Tsunade possess a technique that allows her to instantaneously regenerate, but it also speeds up her cell division and shortens her lifespan.
- Naruto also has a Badass Normal, Rock Lee, whose power revolves solely around the Deadly Upgrade, in that he can open up certain chakra gates to gain large power boosts at the expense of damaging his body. The more gates he opens, the more injured he becomes, and if he were to open up all gates, he would become extremely powerful for a short time and then die.
- Choji's Three Colored Pills each give as successive boost in Chakra, but burn out the user's body. The final, red pill instantly burns all the fat from his body and converts it to energy, but nearly kills him in the process. It would likely be fatal to anyone who's not as fat as he is.
- If he eats the last pill, he will definitely diet
- Uber-recently in the manga, it was revealed that the Mangekyo Sharingan will eventually render its user blind. Of course, there's a way around it, but that way involves plucking out your brother's eyes.
- And don't forget Orochimaru's Curse Seal, which allows the person to use more chakra, and increases their attack power, but using for too long will corrupt them and the seal will completely take over.
- People who possess the Death Note in the anime of the same name can give up half of their remaining life span to gain the ability to discover the true name (which, by the rules, they need to know to kill a person) of anyone whose face they can see. An even larger downside is that if they lose their Death Note, they lose the power -- but not the half of their remaining life they sacrificed. If they find their Death Note again, they have to sacrifice half of their remaining life again to regain the power, meaning they'd only have 25% of their original remaining life span left.
- In Prince Of Tennis, no one's life is literally in danger, but junior high tennis is taken very seriously, so permanent physical damage may well be equal to death, or even worse.
- One of the earlist example is the Hadoukyuu, a powerful shot that hurts the arm of whoever hits it, as well as whoever is bold, or stupid, enough to try to return it. Used initially by Ishida Tetsu, who then passes it on to Kawamura Takashi, who develops a Dash version which is even more destructive. Then we meet the big brother of Tetsu, Gin, who has 108 levels of this move, of which level ONE is equal to the Dash version. Despite this, Gin loses to a fluke which is widely seen as a cop out.
- Tezuka Kunimitsu, widely regarded as one of the best players in the series has several Deadly Upgrades. The Zero-Shiki Drop Shot and the Invincible Tezuka Zone place considerable stress on his left arm, but he still manages to go into a 37-35 tiebreaker, which is ridiculous for tennis. Later on, these both get upgraded into a serve version, making it literally unreturnable, and a Reverse Zone, which places SIX times the burden on his arm, making it bleed a deep purplish hue by the end of the match. Obviously, none of his teammates want him to sacrifice his arm for the sake of victory, seeing that he has a promising professional career in his future. Ironically, in the matches where these are first unveiled, he loses, creating blots on an otherwise perfect official record.
- Another ridiculous technique will ruin one's shoulders, since these players have only hit puberty, and their bodies are still maturing. Yet another one ruins the player's legs, because he's been running at hyper speeds. There's even a player who literally becomes a devil, complete with bloodshot eyes and newly-turned-white hair.
- The most ridiculous example of this trope is the Pinnacle of Perfection, which appears to take the player who achieves this state to a higher plane of existence, but at the cost of losing all of his memories, including those of how to play tennis, rendering this upgrade, at face value, essentially useless. Currently, not surprisingly, the main character is believed to have obtained this state, seeing as how the manga is finally coming to an end.
- In One Piece, Tony Tony Chopper (a reindeer who can become a humanoid with the power of the Person-Person Fruit) can access four additional forms besides his animal, human, and hybrid forms with the use of pills called "Rumble Balls". However, if Chopper takes more than two Rumble Balls within six hours, he turns into a mindless hulking monster.
- Not only is this move dangerous to those around him (due to his mindless rampaging), but for some reason it causes internal bleeding (shown by the blood coming from his mouth, despite never being harmed), making it lethal for himself as well.
- In Digimon Adventure, when Greymon was pushed by Taichi into evolving, it changed into the dark SkullGreymon, a mindless monster. When it evolved "naturally", it became its true Perfect form, MetalGreymon.
- Takato in Digimon Tamers had a similar experience: When Beelzebumon kills Leomon, Takato's rage and grief is so intense that it corrupts WarGrowmon's evolution and he becomes Meggidramon, which would be fine, except Megidramon's power is so great, that it begins to destabilize the fabric of the Digital World. It's not until Takato gets a hold of himself that Megidramon devolves back into Guilmon, and together, they Matrix Evolve into Dukemon.
- Digimon Savers and its associated tamagotchi introduces Burst Mode, a Deadly Upgrade version of Season 2's Mode Change. In the tamagotchi, if the Digimon runs out of "Burst Points," it dies. In the anime, Masaru combines Takato and Taichi's mistakes, and mis-activates Burst Mode, changing his partner ShineGreymon to Ruin Mode, who quickly ran out of energy and died. Though, since the Minions of The Arc's Big Bad died first, he got better.
- Ichigo in Bleach is able to throw around massively powerful kuroi getsuga tenshō energy blasts, but doing so too often risks losing his personality to his Hollow side. He can allow his Hollow side to come out in times of distress, whose violence and power is usually enough to annihilate any opponent. After training with the Vizard, he can even do so without going evil, but only for eleven seconds.
- Meanwhile, Ishida's final "upgrade" is one-use-only, at the end of which he loses his powers altogether. He gets his power back later, though, in a highly improbable manner: by receiving a Quincy "cross" shaped scar on the middle of his chest.
- EVA-01 and EVA-02 in Neon Genesis Evangelion were given strength and capabilities in accordance to the Sync Ratio between the pilot and machine, but the higher the values, the more likely that the pilot might suffer the injuries the mecha did, go insane, or get absorbed into the mecha.
- Sailor Moon can transform into Princess Serenity and blow the Big Bad away with her silver crystal and The Power Of Love... but she dies every time from all the energy output.
- The anime Claymore almost entirely revolves around the caveat that when the series' eponymous half-demons overclock their powers too far they turn into monsters far more dangerous than those they were created to destroy; some of the more powerful of these 'awakened ones' are the primary villains of the series.
- The Rockman.EXE series did this in their final two seasons, with a twist - Rockman didn't control his transformation, a child named Trill did. Sometimes this worked out, like when Rockman was fighting the very giant Cyber Beasts he was drawing his transformation from, and sometimes it didn't, forcing the other characters to devise a complicated plan to capture him and settle him down which usually failed several times.
- The parallel game, Mega Man Battle Network 6, played with the same mechanic. In battle, you can take the beast form for three turns, after which you drop into a weakened, untransformed state. Of course, you can do it again, which puts you totally out of control and attacking randomly, and if that doesn't win you the battle, you go into a state so tired and weakened that you have to continue the battle at a pretty significant disadvantage. Of course, it doesn't stop the writers from arranging chapters where Mega Man is forced into uncontrolled transformation and you have to lug some other character over to put him down and get him back to normal.
- In Rave Master, Sacrifar, the appropriately-named 9th form of Ten Commandments sword bestows the wielder with overwhelming power, at the cost of being gradually consumed by the sword both physically and mentally. At its first appearance, there is quite a bit of Lampshade Hanging over how crazy the man who forged the sword was to put in that form.
- A member of the Dragon Race (like Let, Julia, or Jegan) can invoke the great power of the Dragon God, but only by sacrificing their lives to the deity.
- The lead character of Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha has a little something called Blaster Mode, which raises her already considerable magical capabilities far beyond the limits of her body. Of course, by the time she receives this, she already has a known tendency to use techniques and upgrades that pushes her body to the breaking point, so instead of telling her not to use it, her long-time partner tells her not to overuse it.
- In Chrono Crusade, Rosette is able to make Chrono, a demon who has the power level of a human child, into his true form, a badass bishounen demon, at the price of her lifespan. She's probably going to die before she hits thirty, and it's a big risk for her to use even a couple of minutes.
- In Yu-Gi-Oh, the Spell Power Bond can double the attack strength of any Machine-type Fusion monster; however, at the end of the turn in which it is used, it decreases the user's Life Points by the original attack power of the monster. Possibly another example of explosive overclocking. Similarly, the Spell Limiter Removal can double the attack strength of all the user's Machine-type monsters for one turn. After which, they are destroyed.
- In Witch Blade (the anime anyways) any woman who puts on the Witchblade or a clone of it will have her body start to deteriorate. In some cases it will also corrode their mind as well.
- In Outlaw Star, the three rare Caster Shells, numbered 4, 9, and 13, are so powerful that it also takes away part of Gene Starwind's life whenever he uses it. On a side note, 4 and 9 are considered unlucky numbers in Japanese culture, and 13 is an unlucky number in western culture.
Television
- Stargate SG-1 did this repeatedly:
- "The Fourth Horseman": An ascended ancient reverts to human form to help SG-1, but effectively overclocks his own brain to hold on to his godlike knowledge, eventually causing severe brain damage.
- "The Fifth Race" and "Lost City" both dealt with a device used to put information directly into one's brain; however, human brains are not advanced enough for it, and one's mind would eventually be totally overwritten by the knowledge transmitted.
- "Upgrades": An alien device which gives one super-speed and super-strength but makes you reckless and slowly kills you.
- The concept is lampshaded in the episode "200" where it is mentioned that to maintain the Status Quo, all that had to be done was to add a dangerous side-effect to any super-powers the characters may obtain.
- Also Stargate Atlantis -- Lt. Ford is addicted to a Wraith enzyme that gives the user superior strength and durability, but causes a kind of madness. Ford's men eventually die in Wraith custody from withdrawal. McKay takes an obscenely-high amount of the enzyme, becoming a small colossus; he overpowers his guards and races back to the stargate, collapsing on the Atlantis control room floor and has to ride out the withdrawal in the infirmary.
- Also in Stargate Atlantis, Dr. McKay gets zapped by an Ascension Machine (I defy anyone to come up with a less ridiculous description) and gets a few superpowers. But of course (in a hilarious scene) he finds out he has to ascend or die.
- Doctor Who: "The Parting of the Ways". Rose absorbs the Time Vortex, gaining godlike powers which would have killed her had the Doctor not sacrificed himself instead.
- Angel: The deadlier sort of Hilarity Ensues when Lorne has his sleep removed for a party.
- Albeit, unlike most other examples of this trope, this was deadly to everyone else, rather than to Lorne himself...
- Star Trek Deep Space Nine: An alien woman seduces Jake Sisko, and heightens his creativity so that she can absorb the resulting energy, causing him to write compulsively to the point of collapse and beyond. Needless to say, the heroes discover what is happening just in time to save his life.
- In one of the more recent Invisible Man TV series, Darien Fawkes can make himself invisible by the means of "Quicksilver", a substance secreted by an artificial gland implanted in his brain -- but the gland also secretes toxins that will drive him mad and kill him, if not neutralized with a shot of "counteragent."
- Most of the more recent Kamen Rider series have used this trope as a plot point.
- In Kuuga, the main character has an "ultimate form" that he can assume, at the risk of becoming evil.
- In Agito, one of the riders (Gills) suffers cellular decay from continued transformations.
- The first version of the G3-X Armour would cause several physical strain on a user that wasn't completely submissive to its "perfect" AI system. The G4 Armour, while being the most powerful version, would eventually kill the user from overexertion.
- In 555, the Orphenochs seem to be the embodiment of Deadly Upgrade:
- Orphenochs are dead humans who either become Orphenochs after suffering some accidental death, or are "sired" by other Orphenochs. The process requires the human to die either way.
- The Orphenochs are subject to physical degeneration over time. The way to prevent this decay, however, destroys any remaining vestige of their prior humanity.
- The Kaixa Gear consumes Orphenoch DNA as fuel, consuming so much that most users die after a single use. The Faiz Gear works much the same way, but has a warning system that rejects users that it would kill. The Delta Gear works for anyone, but carries a risk that the user will become addicted to the power.
- In Blade, the main character can assume his "King form" through a process that fuses all 13 of the monsters he's sealed as opposed to merely the "Ace". However, prolonged use of this form will turn him into a monster himself.
- In Hibiki, there is a sword that can transform a Rider into an "Armed" form; however, if the Rider is not "ready" for the transformation, he loses the ability to transform.
- In Kabuto, the Big Bad forcibly transforms himself from his human form in a final attempt to destroy the hero.
- In Den-O, Zeronos uses cards that consume the memories that others have of his older self to transform.
- Later, his Palette Swap upgrade Zero Form changes things so that the memories consumed are of his present self.
- In Kiva, the prototype IXA system causes incredible strain on the body of those who use it.
Western Animation
- On Justice League Unlimited, The Flash goes really, really, really fast, and ends up nearly pulled into another dimension, communing with a quasi-mystical "speed force," one of the show's many Shout Outs to the comics.
- One episode of the Men In Black cartoon had Agent Jay accidentally use an intelligence-improving device that would eventually cause his head to explode. After using his new brain to help deal with a time-traveling villain who was erasing the founding members of the Men In Black from history, Jay managed to deal with this by hijacking the baddie's time machine and preventing it from happening in the first place.
- In the second season finale of WITCH, the heroines must unleash "their dragons within", literally becoming the elements water, fire, earth, air, and quintessence. Because water, fire, earth, air, and quintessence aren't human, the girls lose their humanity as a consequence, and must be brought back to normal by their loved ones after the end of the fight.
Literature
- Literary example: Isaac Asimov's Foundation series had a scientist character whose ability to make intuitive logical leaps was overclocked in this way by an emotion-controlling telepath, which brought him to the brink of death.
- In A.E. Van Vogt's Isher stories, the vibratory technology that enables the Weapon Shops can also be used by humans to grow into a several hundred foot tall giant that's practically invincible... but it will also cause you to age at an exponentially increased rate. This is, of course, no impediment whatsoever to secretly immortal benevolent puppeteer of humanity Robert Hedrock.
- The Young Wizards book series features spells of this magnitude on occasion, which involve trading part or all of the caster's life to cast.
- The Sword Of Truth series has "Wizard's Life Fire", an overclocked version of the already powerful Wizard's Fire that kills the user.
- In the world of Wheel Of Time, all males who have magic powers gradually go insane, or begin rotting before they're dead. Doesn't help that they're generally much stronger than their female counterparts. They fix it late in the series, but those who already are tainted aren't getting any better.
TabletopGames
- One of the mutant powers in Paranoia is Adrenalin Control, giving the character superhuman strength by having his body working at maximum capacity. This is never a good thing: "he's Superman for a minute, but...pays for it."
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