History Main / HeroicWillpower

* Bill of the ''VideoGame/Left4Dead'' mythos, in the starting wave of the infection, is being put under for surgery on his knee which had been damaged [[RetiredBadass during his tour of duty in Vietnam.]] The nurse prepping him for surgery turns in the middle of it and attacks him. He forces himself to stay conscious through ''modern anesthetics'', fends off the now turned nurse, and runs down the hall ''on said knee that required surgery'' to find himself a weapon. For reference, the reason said knee needed surgery is that it still hadn't and probably never would fully recover from being torn up by shrapnel during his tour in 'Nam. And Bill would go on to fight Tanks on it ''anyway''.

** Also from Zhu's Hope is Ian Newstead. Upon first meeting him, he appears to be a rambling lunatic who just ran off to the sewers and randomly seems to double over in agony during plain conversation (which renders him unable to talk about . . . something). However, when you find out how being under the [[spoiler:Thorian]] literally makes rebellious thought a horrible torture, and controls people via psychic Pavlovian Conditing, Ian suddenly becomes one of the most strong willed persons in the series for deliberately and continuously defying the [[spoiler:Thorian]] as well as provoking it to hurt him so he knows that he's still himself.

-->'''[[spoiler:Leviathan]]:''' [[AC:Your confidence is singular.]]

-->'''Batman''': ...Oracle, how long have I got?\\

* ''VideoGame/BatmanArkhamCity'': Both Batman and the Joker are infected with a poison (Joker poisoned a few people in Gotham too, just for good measure) and are both dying. Even as it ravages his body, Batman fights on, doing what he has to to get the cure.

* ''VideoGame/BatmanArkhamCity'' both Batman and the Joker are infected with a poison (Joker poisoned a few people in Gotham too, just for good measure) and are both dying. Even as it ravages his body, Batman fights on, doing what he has to to get the cure.

** The first game, ''Videogame/BatmanArkhamAsylum'', also has this to the point he's borderline ImmuneToDrugs - sure, he's still having hallucinations from the fear toxin, but Scarecrow angrily notes the dosage Batman is taking would be enough to drive ten men insane. He also manages to be injected with Titan and not undergo the same BodyHorror PainfulTransformation others (including the Joker) went through before taking an antidote.

** [[spoiler:Sentibeings can overcome commands from their amoks through strong will and desire. Adrien unknowingly frees himself when he fights off his father's command to keep out of danger so he can save Marinette from a public execution by Cerise, while Kagami frees herself directly to stop her mother from making her kill Felix]].

** In the GrandFinale, BigBad Bill Cipher, a MagnificentBastard extraordinaire, seals protagonist Mabel in an [[LotusEaterMachine enchanted bubble]] called "Mabelland." In Mabelland, people can have their deepest desires and wishes granted effortlessly; Bill, a RealityWarper extraordinaire, calls it his "best trap ever" and remarks that a "will of titanium" is needed to resist it. When Dipper, Wendy, and Soos enter the bubble to free Mabel, the latter two almost instantly give in to its powers, and [[Characters/GravityFallsDipperPines Dipper Pines]] is sorely tempted when Wendy (the older girl he's [[PrecociousCrush loved for the whole series]]) points out that in Mabelland, he could be aged up and they could be together. Dipper considers it...''then turns it down'', which in turn causes a massive GlamourFailure that helps him free Mabel from her world's influence. And he does this all at ''twelve years old.''

* A {{Subver|TedTrope}}sion occurs in ''Webcomic/TheOrderOfTheStick'', when [[spoiler:Durkon]] gets turned into a vampire. Once freed from his sire's mind control, he seems to revert to his normal personality... until it's finally revealed that the vampire spirit is impersonating him while his own soul watches helplessly from within his body.
** Played straight with the paladin O-Chul, who is captured by Team Evil after [[spoiler:they successfully invade and take over Azure City]]. He is repeatedly tortured, both for information by Redcloak and ForTheEvulz by Xykon. Despite everything they do to him, he never betrays his principles or breaks. He even takes the chance to put The Monster In The Darkness on the path to a HeelFaceTurn and learned most of Xykon's spell list "one saving throw at a time", meaning he took every one of them.

* The Ice King, of all people, from ''WesternAnimation/AdventureTime''. It's shown that when someone else claims the ArtifactOfDoom that is his crown, that person tends to go insane in minutes, hours at the most. The Ice King has held onto most of his sanity for at least 20 ''years'', and [[SanitySlippage although it was a losing battle]], even during the time of the show centuries later he has many relatively lucid periods in which he's harmless and even friendly, compared to the rampaging lunatic [[spoiler: Farmworld Finn]] became almost immediately.

* In ''WesternAnimation/Ben10Omniverse'', Ben as Big Chill broke free from his alien species predator, Hypnotick, hypnosis's through his willpower by remembering that he's a hero for doing what's right instead of fame.
* [[DoubleSubversion Double-subverted]] in the ''WesternAnimation/{{Futurama}}'' episode "Fry and the Slurm Factory", where Fry and his friends are put in several death traps, his being force-fed an [[ImpossiblyDeliciousFood Impossibly Delicious]] "super-Slurm" that tastes so good that he'll keep consuming it until he explodes. Once he gets force-fed only a spoon of it, he tries ''really'' hard to ignore it so he can save his friends, but he can't resist returning to the giant steel trough full of the stuff. Realizing he will ''not'' let his friends die, [[TakeAThirdOption he instead musters up the strength to pull the entire thing along with him]] as he frees his friends from their traps.

** In the GrandFinale, BigBad Bill Cipher, a MagnificentBastard extraordinaire, seals protagonist Mabel in an [[LotusEaterMachine enchanted bubble]] called "Mabelland." In Mabelland, people can have their deepest desires and wishes granted effortlessly; Bill, a RealityWarper extraordinaire, calls it his "best trap ever" and remarks that a "will of titanium" is needed to resist it. When Dipper, Wendy, and Soos enter the bubble to free Mabel, the latter two almost instantly give in to its powers, and Dipper is sorely tempted when Wendy (the older girl he's [[PrecociousCrush loved for the whole series]]) points out that in Mabelland, he could be aged up and they could be together. Dipper considers it...''then turns it down'', which in turn causes a massive GlamourFailure that helps him free Mabel from her world's influence. And he does this all at ''twelve years old.''

** In "Miraculer", Chloé becomes the first person to ''successfully'' resist akumatization.
** In "Cat Blanc", Cat Noir manages to resist akumatization for a while before succumbing, a feat made more impressive by the sheer amount of emotional trauma he's suffering at that moment.

** In "Gabriel Agreste", Félix successfully resists being akumatized much like Chloé. What's notable about this is that unlike the other characters who have resisted or broken akumatization, he's the first one who hasn't been akumatized previously.

* In ''WesternAnimation/StevenUniverse'', Lapis Lazuli is practically the walking embodiment of this.

* When Korra gets mercury poisoned at the end of season 3 of ''WesternAnimation/TheLegendOfKorra'', she manages to fight off going into the [[SuperMode Avatar state]] for an extended period of time out of pure willpower. She knows if she stays in it for too long, they’ll be able to kill her and end the Avatar cycle for good. Once the poison starts to take its toll, she can’t fight it off anymore but manages to win the fight against Zaheer while poisoned.

* ''WesternAnimation/SheRaAndThePrincessesOfPower'': Both Adora and Glimmer exhibit this in the fourth season. First, Adora manages to fight off the depression caused by the Signal on [[spoiler:Beast Island]], taking out both her self-doubt and the Signal's effects at once and saving the rest of the group. Later, [[spoiler:Glimmer has managed to get Scorpia to attune to the Black Garnet, which has activated a terrible First One weapon. The effects of this paralyse the five runestone princesses, and Adora finds herself being forced to direct its power with the sword. Glimmer manages to fight off the paralysis, drag herself to her feet, and set off to smash the Black Garnet and save the world (it doesn't work, but given that Scorpia, who's built like a linebacker, had only managed to crawl ten feet and give Perfuma and Frosta a hug under the same effect, that she was even standing is impressive), and Adora fights off the control signal for long enough to snap Light Hope out of her programming, giving her a chance to destroy the sword and prevent the weapon from firing.]]
* On ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'', one of [[TeamMom Marge's]] HiddenDepths is her absolutely unbreakable willpower in every situation. In "The Joy of Sect," she is one of the only people in town able to resist the Movementarian Cult, and in the original "Treehouse of Horror," she's the only member of the family who doesn't go BrainwashedAndCrazy and try to kill the others, instead delivering a powerful TheReasonYouSuckSpeech to the ''demon-infested house'' and telling it to shape up.

* ''WesternAnimation/TheMummy:TheAnimatedSeries'': In the episode "Howl" [[spoiler:Rick O'Connell doesn't attack his son Alex even though Rick has turned into a werewolf.]]

** Subverted in "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS31E12ThePandoricaOpens The Pandorica Opens]]". [[spoiler:Auton Rory]] has enough Heroic Willpower to hold onto his identity and memories, [[spoiler:but not enough to keep him from shooting Amy]].
** "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS34E12DeathInHeaven Death in Heaven]]": [[spoiler:The recently-dead Danny Pink and lately dead Brigadier Alistair Gordon Lethbridge-Stewart]] overcome their Cyberman programming to help save the Doctor and Clara by the love they have for those closest to them (Clara for Danny, The Brigadier's daughter).

-->'''Ancestor:''' Many fall in the face of chaos, but not this one. Not today.

* In Jeramey Kraatz's ''Literature/TheCloakSociety'', most superheroes trapped in [[{{Mordor}} the Gloom]] faded away; the survivors are mere husks, incapable of speech, but they remember they are heroes and get those who could survive to the portal that will let them out.
* Creator/TerryPratchett's ''Literature/{{Discworld}}''
** In ''Literature/CarpeJugulum'', Granny Weatherwax pulls this one off with vampiric infection. An interesting twist is that she uses the blood connection to make the ''vampires'' weaker, [[AssimilationBackfire rendering them unable to drink blood or harm humans and giving them an unnatural addiction to tea and cookies]].
*** In fact it's a feature of every witch. Even ones as soppy as Magrat, who manages to throw off the Elf Queen's MindRape.
%% ** Sam Vimes in ''Literature/{{Thud}}''. ''[[PunctuatedForEmphasis That! Is!! Not!! My!! Cow!!!]]'' Dwarves forever will fear those words.
%% ** Vimes is freakin' made of this trope. It happened to him in ''Literature/MenAtArms'', and got a metaphor too: "The pounding spirit of the gonne flowing up Vimes' arms met the armies of sheer stoneheaded Vimesness surging the other way."
** And, at the end of ''Literature/{{Jingo}}'', he tells off one of the Ankh-Morporkian aristocrats while holding [[Film/LawrenceOfArabia a burning coal in his hand]].
** In almost all the Discworld books, [[OurWerewolvesAreDifferent Angua]] has Heroic Willpower about her werewolf shape, doing her best to make sure she doesn't hurt people (unless they're criminals, and then she hurts them just enough to arrest them or make them stop what they're doing.)
* ''Literature/{{Dragonlance}}'' has some not-quite-but-close examples. Raistlin who whilst opening the portal to the Abyss realizes he has failed just like his predecessor before him and was about to die and cause great destruction all around him as the portal was closing, through sheer force of will alone held the portal open long enough to enter it. The difference here is that Raistlin was not a hero, so it was more like Villainous Willpower, if there is such a thing.
** His nephews Palin and Steel managed through will to brave their way through the Shoikan Grove -- a passage that no mortal had ever passed before without an invitation from the master of the Tower.

* The first encounter between young Druss and Nosta Khan the Nadir shaman in the Literature/{{Drenai}} saga. [[spoiler:During an argument Nosta puts Druss under a paralyzing spell, which causes agonizing pain with every attempt to move, and proceeds to gloat about how Druss is in his power now. Druss then grabs him by the throat and threatens to break his neck if the spell isn't removed.]]
* In ''Literature/TheDresdenFiles'':

*** [[spoiler: Harry becomes the Winter Knight]]. All throughout ''Cold Days'', [[spoiler: his psychopathic side threatens to slip out a terrifying number of times. He always snaps back within a few seconds and redoubles his efforts to suppress it.]]

* Literature/HarryPotter regularly fights off various threats that attempt to weaken or control his mind, such as the [[EmotionBomb despair-inducing]] power of the dementors, although he is overcome by these the first few times. He also seems to be nearly immune to the Imperius Curse, a strength few other character shows, and in one case fought off [[DemonicPossession bodily possession]] by Voldemort himself. His resistance is explained as a combination of this trope and ThePowerOfLove.
** It's also Subverted by the werewolf [[spoiler: Remus Lupin]], as (without the Wolfsbane potion) he cannot keep his mind when transformed, and attacks his own friends.
* In ''[[Literature/LegacyOfTheForce Invincible]]'', Admiral Wedge Antilles can apparently prevent Jacen Solo from reading his mind through sheer determination.
* Subverted in ''Literature/TheLordOfTheRings''. [[spoiler: Frodo resists the lure of the Ring and the terrifying presence of Sauron...until he gets to Mount Doom, where he's finally overcome and refuses to destroy it.]] Sam and Faramir possess a level of it as well to resist the Ring for the short time they're exposed to it.

* In ''[[Literature/TheHungerGames Mockingjay]]'', [[spoiler:Peeta Mellark]] gets hijacked and brainwashed into wanting to kill [[spoiler:Katniss, believing she's a mutt who's out to kill him]]. The main characters are told that there's no cure for hijacking and that nobody has ever recovered from it. In the end [[spoiler:Peeta recovers almost entirely]] through sheer force of will.
* ''Literature/{{Necroscope}}'s'' [[spoiler: Harry Keogh]] contains his vampirism until he feels he can do so no more and then leaves Earth. Unfortunately he continues to try to do so when among his own kind, which ends very badly for him and everyone he cares about.

* In ''Literature/SecondApocalypse'' Kellhus displays Heroic Willpower in shrugging off mind control.

* Creator/HenrikWergeland wrote a short tale, ''the thistle gatherer'' about a boy who had resolved himself to rid his father´s field of thistles, and at the end of the day had only managed to cover a few square metres of it. But the aesop of that story is simply: "God counts only the will to carry on, even if your results seem feeble".
* In ''Literature/TheTommyknockers,'' by Creator/StephenKing, Bobbi Anderson's sister Anne is a lifelong bully and control freak who makes everybody around her frightened and/or miserable. She has "heroic willpower" in exactly the sense Hitler claimed to have "fanatical will power." But when she is turned into a living battery for the Havenites, her ultradominant personality at least enables her to rebel and subvert the machinery.
* Edward Cullen in ''Literature/{{Twilight}}'' is a poster boy for this. Even though Bella is his singer, the one human whose blood is absolutely irresistible to him, he painfully prevents himself from killing her, since he "doesn't want to be a monster" and because he eventually falls in love with her. Of course, his blood lust is a metaphor for real lust, which he's also experiencing, and which he also has to demonstrate incredible willpower to resist, since he's sure sex would kill Bella.
** All this in spite that Bella is more than willing to take a chance at the risk and its not shy of trying every waking moment.

* In ''[[Literature/RachelGriffin The Unexpected Enlightenment of Rachel Griffin]]'', [[spoiler: Valerie]] discovers she is under a geas that has made her leak information to the villains, and immediately [[FightingFromTheInside tries to break free.]] Despite [[DeadlyNosebleed potentially deadly]] side effects, she is able to reveal her situation to the person she was supposed to hide it from and secure help, before passing out from blood loss and pain.

** "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS34E12DeathInHeaven Death in Heaven]]": [[spoiler:The recently-dead Danny Pink and lately dead Brigadier Alistair Gordon Lethbridge-Stewart]] overcome their Cyberman programming to help save the Doctor and Clara by the love they have for those closest to them.

See also SheepInWolfsClothing, ClapYourHandsIfYouBelieve, CursedWithAwesome, TheDarkSide, EvilIsCool, NoOntologicalInertia, TheVirus, ViralTransformation, DoomedProtagonist.

* Revealed to be very important to a certain werehog in ''VideoGame/SonicUnleashed''. [[Franchise/SonicTheHedgehog Sonic]] apparently has so much of this trope that he can practically guzzle down the power of an EldritchAbomination yet be almost completely unaffected mentally. What's even more impressive is that he wasn't even ''aware'' that he was doing it.
** Makes you wonder how he would act if he had learned [[spoiler:that just before the final boss, Eggman had shot down Tails' Biplane, and subsequently flipped his shit.]]

** Also used in the VideoGame/SonicStorybookSeries entry ''VideoGame/SonicAndTheBlackKnight'' as this was one reason how [[spoiler:Sonic was able to summon Excalibur and become Excalibur Sonic!]]

** [[Recap/DoctorWhoS5E1TheTombOfTheCybermen "The Tomb of the Cybermen"]]: Toberman manages to retain enough of his humanity after partial conversion to turn on the Cyber-Controller and sacrifice himself to seal the tomb.
** [[Recap/DoctorWho20thASTheFiveDoctors "The Five Doctors"]]: The Doctors combine their willpower to free themselves from being PeoplePuppets.
** [[Recap/DoctorWhoS28E13Doomsday "Doomsday"]]: Torchwood leader Yvonne Hartman, who helped cause an invasion of Cybermen by interfering with the Doctor, is captured by the Cybermen and undergoes Cyber-conversion. She manages to maintain her free will through her love of “Queen and Country” (or the fact that she was already robotic enough that the Cyberman procedure had no effect,) and [[YouShallNotPass holds off several of the Cybermen]], [[RedemptionEqualsDeath at the cost of what was left of her own life]], while the Doctor saves the day.
** Subverted in [[Recap/DoctorWhoS31E12ThePandoricaOpens "The Pandorica Opens"]]. [[spoiler:Auton Rory]] has enough Heroic Willpower to hold onto his identity and memories, [[spoiler:but not enough to keep him from shooting Amy]].
** [[Recap/DoctorWhoS34E12DeathInHeaven "Death in Heaven"]]: [[spoiler:The recently-dead Danny Pink and lately dead Brigadier Alistair Gordon Lethbridge-Stewart]] overcome their Cyberman programming to help save the Doctor and Clara by the love they have for those closest to them.

** [[Recap/DoctorWhoS36E12TheDoctorFalls "The Doctor Falls"]]: [[spoiler:Bill Potts]] manages to resist the effects of being converted into the first Mondasian Cyberman and fights alongside the Doctor to the very end of the FinalBattle.
*** By the end of the episode the Doctor has been beaten, electrocuted and survived an entire spaceship floor exploding and ''still'' manages to hold regeneration for [[Recap/DoctorWho2017CSTwiceUponATime one last adventure]].
** [[Recap/DoctorWho2019NYSResolution "Resolution"]]: Lin does her best to fight off the influence of the [[spoiler:Dalek recon scout]] controlling her while it forces her to build it [[spoiler:a new casing]].
* ''Series/{{Farscape}}''
** Zhaan has a variation of this happen to her. Tahleen, an evil member of her race, telepathically tore from her mind the knowledge she used to overcome a wasting insanity she suffered by telepathically murdering her former lover for being a traitor. The result was that she became borderline-sociopathic with [[RedEyesTakeWarning red eyes]]. She managed to SnapBack thanks to sharing minds with Crichton, showing her that the kindness she was capable of was inherent and couldn't just be ripped out. As a result, she also became more spiritually powerful, and destroyed the evil priestesses' chance to grow stronger.

* ''Series/GameOfThrones'': King Baelor Targaryen. How else would he have survived getting bit by vipers to save his cousin? Unfortunately for him and the Seven Kingdoms, HeroicWillpower was not enough to prevent his being driven mad by the cumulative effects of the venom, at least according to Prince Oberon.

* Parodied in the ''Series/KeyAndPeele'' sketch "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a-C9q-Na6_w Georgina and Esther and Satan]]." Two stereotypical [[SassyBlackWoman black church mothers]] spend several minutes saying how they'll torture the Devil "with their prayers" for tempting their loved ones before Georgina suddenly becomes [[DemonicPossession possessed]] by Satan himself. But only a few mere seconds after possessing her, Satan finds that her willpower is so strong that not only can Georgina easily maintain control of her body, but she can in fact hold him inside her and torture him. She quickly passes him to Esther to torture, as they drag him outside screaming for help.
* In one episode of ''Series/KnightRider'', Michael gets poisoned and becomes steadily weaker as he searches for the antidote. Towards the end, as KITT monitors Michael's vitals, he actually ''says'' “You're now operating on sheer willpower!”
* ''Series/{{Lucifer|2016}}'': Lucifer has the ability to draw out someone's hidden desire. While he is very confused by Chloe's [[NoSell complete immunity]], he does admit that sometimes it doesn't work on "complicated" people. A few times people have been shown struggling against the compulsion enough for Lucifer to make note of it, but they ultimately give in. Everyone except for Linda, the psychotherapist Lucifer meets in the first episode. While she is clearly affected, she is able to resist, and Lucifer has to make a deal for the information they need instead.

* In the short-lived show ''Series/OdysseyFive'', Chuck Taggart is infected with {{Nanomachines}} that are slowly turning him into a "Synthetic", or cyborg servant to an [[AIIsACrapshoot Evil AI]]. As the process is about to complete and he links with the AI, he resists becoming its servant and instead steals the knowledge needed to reprogram the nanites to turn him human again.

** In the episode "Operation: Annihilate!", Spock is infected with a PuppeteerParasite that causes violent madness through excruciating pain. Spock overcomes it through sheer force of will and is able to operate almost normally, with flashes of discomfort, until cured. Unlike Kirk, this is justified in that he is a Vulcan and as such, has significant MindOverMatter powers.

** Shown by John in "Devil's Trap" when he is able to resist and trap the possessing Azazel for a moment.\\
Later, he [[spoiler: refuses to torture in hell to escape torture for ''one hundred years''.]]
** For ''thirty years'', Dean resisted Alastair's offer to escape torture in Hell by torturing other souls.\\
In "The Magnificent Seven", he resists Lust's charms.
** Displayed by a demon-possessed [[spoiler:Bobby]] in "Sympathy for the Devil" when he breaks the demon's hold just before it can kill Dean, and instead, stabs himself with Ruby's "kill-all" knife.
** Sam's a big invoker of this trope. In season five "My Bloody Valentine" [[spoiler:through sheer willpower he manages to stand in Famines presence without being completely consumed by his hunger for Demon Blood; Famine urges him to give in by offering his henchmen but Sam instead uses his powers to exorcise them, responding with a badass [[LittleNo "No"]]]]. In the season 5 finale "Swan Song" [[spoiler:he took control of his body while the Devil was riding it]] just so he could [[spoiler:throw himself and the Devil into [[FateWorseThanDeath Hell's solitary confinement]]]]. In the season six finale, he drags himself to assist Dean and Bobby in the battle [[spoiler:against Castiel and Crowley despite obviously suffering under the strain of his "hell memories".]] In season 9 "Road Trip" [[spoiler:he kicks a possessing Gadreel out of his body after a [[BattleInTheCenterOfTheMind mental beatdown]].]]

* ''Series/TeenWolf'': As the page quote shows, this is how a Beta can become a True Alpha:
** In "Currents", Dr. Deaton is taken. Knowing it would (most likely) be Scott who'd come to save him, Dr. Deaton was surrounded by a ring of Mt. Ash - which supernatural creatures cannot cross. Scott indeed does come to the rescue and tries to break through anyways, and in the process, Scott's eyes turn [[{{Foreshadowing}} red]] - but he is still a Beta. This also confirms what Dr. Deaton reveals he had believed. Their conversation post Dr. Deaton's rescue:
--->'''[[MentorArchetype Dr. Deaton]]''': Your eyes were red! ''Bright red''!\\
'''[[AllLovingHero Scott]]''': [[HowIsThatEvenPossible How is that possible?]]\\
'''[[{{Druid}} Dr. Deaton]]''': It's rare. It's something that doesn't happen within 100 years, but every once in a while, a Beta can become an Alpha without having to [[ThouShallNotKill steal]] or [[ThisIsNotMyLifeToTake take]] that power. They call it a True Alpha. It's one who rises purely on the [[TurnTheOtherCheek strength]] of [[AllLovingHero character]], by [[IncorruptiblePurePureness virtue]], by [[HopeBringer sheer force]] of [[HeroicWillpower will]].\\
'''[[TheHeart Scott]]''': You knew this would happen.\\
'''[[ParentalSubstitute Dr. Deaton]]''': [[SoProudOfYou I believed. From the moment I knew you were bitten]], '''''[[SoProudOfYou I believed]]'''''.