History Main / DamagedSoul

* The Nameless One from the ''VideoGame/PlanescapeTorment''. He had an evil hag strip his mortality from him and thus render him immortal –
he could resurrect from the dead and even completely heal all but the most severe wounds. But because of some unaccounted flaws in the process, each time he resurrected, he would lose his memory. His mortality on the other hand gained consciousness and became an InhumanHuman. It regained all memories and abilities it acquired (and even channeled those the Nameless One got) but its body deteriorated until it was but a specter clad in enchanted wicker armor.

* The Nameless One from the ''VideoGame/PlanescapeTorment''. He had an insane evil hag strip his mortality from him and thus render him immortal- he could resurrect from the dead and even completely heal all but the most severe wounds. But because of some unaccounted flaws in the process (or perhaps because the executant was an insane evil hag) each time he resurrected, he would lose his memory. His mortality on the other hand gained consciousness and became an InhumanHuman. It regained all memories and abilities it acquired (and even channeled those the Nameless One got) but its body deteriorated until it was but a specter clad in enchanted wicker armor.

* In one ''TabletopGame/MageTheAscension'' gamebook, a fiction section dealing with the Hollow Ones (think renegade goth mages) included a Technocracy mole failing to infiltrate a Hollower group. They kill him, but catch his soul before it gets away. One body-reassembly and a soul-reinsertion spell later, and the mole's back among the living. But now, he's bound to the service of the Hollow mage who brought him back. It's implied that he's now a mole in the Technocracy, working to protect the Hollowers.

* In ''Film/ReAnimator'' (based on the Creator/HPLovecraft story "Herbert West, Re-Animator"), Dr. West actually does manage a couple successful resurrections where the resurrectees come back pretty much the same as they were in life. Unfortunately, in both cases the resurrectees were utterly evil bastards in life, and continued to be so after being revived.

* Creator/HPLovecraft: In "Herbert West -- Reanimator", Dr. Herbert West's attempts to bring people back from the dead at first result in either the subject coming back to life for a few seconds, letting out a terrifying scream and dying again, or in the Damaged Soul, becoming insane cannibalistic zombies. Dr. West believes this to be because the brain gets damaged even during brief periods of death (or, as he explains after one of his test subjects breaks loose, "Damn it! It was not ''quite'' fresh enough!"). In the end he succeeds in perfecting his methods, resulting in a SoullessShell as well as some actually intelligent zombies that eventually lead a horde of mindless ones to kill him.

* Creator/HPLovecraft: In "Reanimator", Dr. Herbert West's (the titular reanimator) attempt to bring people back from the dead at first resulted with either the subject coming back to life for a few seconds, letting out a terrifying scream and dying again, or in the Damaged Soul, becoming insane cannibalistic zombies. Dr. West believed this to be because the brain gets damaged even during brief periods of death (or, as he explains after one of his test subjects breaks loose "Damn it! It was not ''quite'' fresh enough!"). In the end he succeeds in perfecting his methods, resulting in a SoullessShell as well as some actually intelligent zombies that eventually lead a horde of mindless ones to kill him.

* Spock has a very mild case of this in ''Film/{{Star Trek IV|The Voyage Home}}''. His intelligence and memories are intact, but there's just ''something'' missing at the start of the film. Fortunately he's back to normal at the end of the film.
* Julie Walker in ''Film/ReturnOfTheLivingDead 3'' had her neck broken in a motorcycle accident, but her boyfriend sneaks her into an army base to use new reanimation technology on her. She comes back, with her soul, but she has an intense craving to devour human flesh and mutilate herself.

** Similarly, Primordials recover automatically from fetich death, but come back fundamentally ''wrong'' -- Adrian, the River of All Torments, was reborn as an insane [[SelfDemonstrating/TheJoker Joker]]/Buddha hybrid known as Adorjan, the Silent Wind, and is one of the few individuals to scare even her fellow [[DemonLordsAndArchdevils Yozis]].

* ''Series/TheTwilightZone1959'' episode "The Last Rites of Jeff Myrtlebank" has the titular young man (played by a very young [[TheDukesOfHazzard James Best]]) wake up at his own funeral. He can't explain it, but counts himself lucky to be alive, and some of the townspeople are scared that he's actually a demon possessing the man's body. Eventually, after he gives a CrowningMomentOfHeartwarming speech, his family and fiance put aside their doubts and trust that it's a miracle and he's the same man they've always known. And then he lights a match without striking it on anything so he can light his pipe. When his fiance points this out, he says she must be imagining things. As they walk off, the gate to their house closes behind them of its own accord.

Unfortunately, something [[GoneHorriblyWrong goes horribly awry]], causing them to [[CameBackWrong come back wrong]].

* In the film of ''Film/ReAnimator'' (based on the Creator/HPLovecraft story), Dr. West actually does manage a couple successful resurrections where the resurrectees come back pretty much the same as they were in life. Unfortunately, in both cases the resurrectees were utterly evil bastards in life, and continued to be so after being revived.

* The Nameless One from the ''PlanescapeTorment''. He had an insane evil hag strip his mortality from him and thus render him immortal- he could resurrect from the dead and even completely heal all but the most severe wounds. But because of some unaccounted flaws in the process (or perhaps because the executant was an insane evil hag) each time he resurrected, he would lose his memory. His mortality on the other hand gained consciousness and became an InhumanHuman. It regained all memories and abilities it acquired (and even channeled those the Nameless One got) but its body deteriorated until it was but a specter clad in enchanted wicker armor.

* ''VideoGame/ShadowHeartsFromTheNewWorld'' has this happen, rather than the soulless monsters of Koudelka and the original ''VideoGame/ShadowHearts''. Both Johnny Garland, and his sister were brought back by their father. Johnny gets away with the occasional BSOD mode... his sister comes back emotion-less and conscience-less, and turns out to be Lady, the mysterious woman you're chasing down. It turns out that originally ''Grace'' was the successful resurrection, but she sacrificed her Will and absorbed the Malice into herself to save her brother.

* ''VideoGame/ShadowHeartsFromTheNewWorld'' has this happen, rather than the soulless monsters of Koudelka and the original ''VideoGame/ShadowHearts''. Both Johnny Garland, and his sister were brought back by their father. Johnny gets away with the occasional BSOD mode... his sister comes back emotion-less and conscience-less, and turns out to be Lady, the mysterious woman you're chasing down.

* Happens in the furry webcomic ''Webcomic/{{Jack|DavidHopkins}}''. After Emma Volpe is killed by a virus, her husband uses the advanced technology of the pre-genocide humans and MadScientist Kane to resurrect her. She was driven insane after seeing Hell and Heaven and eventually killed herself in front of him to return to her Heaven. Made all the more tragic as suicide is a ticket to Hell in the comic. Even worse than that; she was trying to kill herself to get back into heaven; the real world was intolerable to her after that. (Despite that her version of heaven was just "earth with the things that annoy me gone"). There is a way out of hell in this series, but very few damned people make it.

* [[UltimateMarvel Ultimate Deadpool]] was originally a [[FantasticRacism mutant-hunter]] killed off in the comics. In ''SpiderManShatteredDimensions'' he's back from the dead, now a CrazyAwesome TV Show Host) ItMakesSenseInContext...kinda.

* In ''{{Eberron}}'', when Dolurrh, the Realm of the Dead, is coterminous with the titular plane of existence, resurrection spells have a chance to go awry and either summon a batch of ghosts, have the wrong soul inhabit the body (the original comes back as a ghost), or a demon either [[DemonicPossession possesses]] or animates the body.

* In ''BatmanUnderTheRedHood'', Jason Todd comes back a screaming, murdering mess after being resurrected in a Lazarus Pit, and from that moment on he's a conflicted soul edging between homicidal rage and self-destruction. Whether this is an example of this trope or [[NietzscheWannabe him deciding after coming back to life that all that came before is not worth it]] is not only left to the viewer to decide, it's actually [[LampshadeHanging lampshaded as such by Jason himself.]]

* The Undead in ''VideoGame/DarkSouls'' are cursed with a flawed form of ResurrectiveImmortality; they can resurrect from the total destruction of their body and can stay young by consuming humanity, but each death rots their body and soul a little further, eventually turning into "Hollow" (AKA zombies).

* The Undead in ''VideoGame/DarkSouls'' are cursed with ResurrectiveImmortality, but the longer they spend without humanity the more likely they are to go Hollow and become zombies.

* In the ''{{Avernum}}'' series, the souls of exceptionally revered vahnatai are brought back as Crystal Souls to advise the rest of their tribe. Unfortunately, the odds of the soul going mad in the process seems to be rather high. It is not so much in the process of becoming a Crystal Soul as the thousands of years of being one - particularly the hundreds where the entire Vahnatai race is sleeping to let the environment recover... except for the immobile crystal souls, which just stay there, awake and alone.
* In ''[[OgreBattle Tactics Ogre: The Knight of Lodis]]'', the summoner Elrik tries to resurrect his dead wife, but her soul comes back corrupted and possesses his daughter Euphaire. The protagonist must both free Euphaire and stop Elrik from killing her in an attempt to undo his mistake.

* In ''Comicbook/{{X-Factor}}'', bringing people back from the dead but with damaged souls was revealed to be Layla Miller's real power. The "knowing stuff" power turns out to be as a result of a stable time loop.

* The ''{{Sten}}'' series has the Eternal Emperor, who has earned his title by always coming back to the dead shortly after his assassination. However, when he comes back from the dead in ''Return of the Emperor'', something goes a bit wrong with the process, changing him from a ReasonableAuthorityFigure to TheCaligula.

* ''Series/TheTwilightZone'' episode "The Last Rites of Jeff Myrtlebank" has the titular young man (played by a very young [[TheDukesOfHazzard James Best]]) wake up at his own funeral. He can't explain it, but counts himself lucky to be alive, and some of the townspeople are scared that he's actually a demon possessing the man's body. Eventually, after he gives a CrowningMomentOfHeartwarming speech, his family and fiance put aside their doubts and trust that it's a miracle and he's the same man they've always known. And then he lights a match without striking it on anything so he can light his pipe. When his fiance points this out, he says she must be imagining things. As they walk off, the gate to their house closes behind them of its own accord.

* An odd form of Damaged Soul resurrection occurs with Bubba (Elvis) in the ''[[TheSookieStackhouseMysteries Sookie Stackhouse]]'' novels. Elvis was turned into a vampire and is explicitly described as having 'come back wrong' - due to the combination of drugs and embalming chemicals. However, the outcome isn't nearly as bad as most Damaged Soul resurrections - Bubba isn't much more dangerous than any other vampire, but acts kind of mentally disabled. (Though reminding him of who he was constitutes a big fat BerserkButton for him).

* ''Shadow Hearts'': From the New World has this happen, rather than the soulless monsters of Koudelka and the original ''VideoGame/ShadowHearts''. Both Johnny Garland, and his sister were brought back by their father. Johnny gets away with the occasional BSOD mode... his sister comes back emotion-less and conscience-less, and turns out to be Lady, the mysterious woman you're chasing down.

* ''Shadow Hearts'': From the New World has this happen, rather than the soulless monsters of Koudelka and the original ShadowHearts. Both Johnny Garland, and his sister were brought back by their father. Johnny gets away with the occasional BSOD mode... his sister comes back emotion-less and conscience-less, and turns out to be Lady, the mysterious woman you're chasing down.

* ''ShadeTheChangingMan'' came back deranged, not due to the death, the resurrection, or even the hell of fighting in the Land of the Dead, but because the Angels took a part of his psyche in order to have a hook into him. Far from the worst example of the trope, as this was Shade's most entertaining incarnation.

* "FanFic/ImmortalitySyndrome": A ''[[WesternAnimation/ThePowerpuffGirls Powerpuff Girls]]'' DarkFic, in which several characters are brought back from the dead as mass-murdering psychopaths.
* "Fanfic/SlayerAcademy": A virtual spin-off of MZP's ''Series/BuffyTheVampireSlayer'' continuation. Those brought back by the Cabal's resurrection machine do so being able to feel very little emotion.

[[folder:Fan Fiction]]