History Main / ScrewTheRulesIHaveSupernaturalPowers

* BrianBendis' ''Powers'' also briefly explores this fallen-hero theme (very much like irredeemable, but only on a short story arc).

* In AnneMcCaffrey's Talent series, in the early days the psychics form a group with a code of behavior in order to try to avert this trope. When a girl more powerful than any other psychic in the world learns how to use her powers (ironically because she saw a public service announcement by the group) she goes on a crime spree which eventually results in murder [[spoiler: and her own death]]. In later books, every Talent of significant strength is [[MutantDraftBoard brought into the fold early]] and [[ComesGreatResponsibility taught to use their powers responsibly]].

[[folder:Tabletop RPGs]]

* The [[Quotes/{{Masquerade}} third quote]] for {{Masquerade}} illustrates a problem with this train of thought. That said, vampires in ''[[TabletopGame/VampireTheRequiem Vampire: The Requiem]]'' (and most supernaturals, for that matter) can get away with ''a '''lot''''' considering both the CrapsackWorld they live in means people just don't care about most crimes, and their Masquerade clean up is top notch. (Provided you have the expertise/pull to have the clean up done for you without getting staked, mind you.)

* ''TabletopGame/{{Exalted}}'': How many players think this since you are, after all, the chosen of Gods and superior to normal mortals in everyway! If you can cut down mortals with ease, why should you bother with their petty morals? You are a ''Living God!'' compared to them!
** Not just players. Attitudes like that led to the depravities of the First Age.
** Or yet, sometimes, just the characters. The player himself might not agree with such philosophy, but power corrupts and the exalted are ''powerful.''
** Indeed, a character's quest to avoid this trope can make for a particularly epic storyline within a campaign regardless of success or failure.
* Player Characters in TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons or ''TabletopGame/{{Pathfinder}}'' will try this. Any GameMaster worth his or her salt should have a thousand ready tricks to foil them, or else should simply embrace their decent into SociopathicHero or even CardCarryingVillain status.

Compare DrunkWithPower, WithGreatPowerComesGreatInsanity. Related to BeneathTheMask because super powers reveal how a person would act without any fear of reprisal.In this trope case that HiddenSelf is anything but [[LawfulGood lawful]].

* ''MagicalProjectS'' Subverted by [[TheHero Pretty Sammy]] when she tried to break the rules, a classmate informs her that even Magical Girls have to abide by the rules.

* The first thing almost anybody who gets esper powers in ''ZettaiKarenChildren'' is this. While PANDRA members manage to get away with doing it a lot, most of the other espers end up caught and jailed.

* From ''HellGirl'', this is tried out by [[spoiler:Mikage Yuzuki after she succeeds Ai Enma to send the one who sent her friend to hell... to hell.]] It doesn't go over too well and even before then, Ichimoku Ren and Honne-Onna leave.
* ''NaruTaru'' is basically a {{Deconstruction}} of your typical {{Mons}} series, where the children with powerful critters at their beck and call [[KidsAreCruel are quick to abuse that power]].
* Pretty much the concept behind both ''CodeGeass'' and ''Manga/DeathNote'', with a clever teenager lamenting the state of the world, accidentally obtaining superpowers in the first episode, and [[UtopiaJustifiesTheMeans immediately going on a world-changing killing spree]].

* In a way, the [[CorruptChurch Orzhov Syndicate]] from Magic: The Gathering. As expressed in [[http://www.magiccards.info/rav/en/108.html this card]]'s flavor text:

* Not just typical supervillains either. Some are former heroes...
* Mark Waid and Peter Krause's ''{{Irredeemable}}'' shows us what happens when a superman-level hero suddenly decides that he's completely sick of humanity and it's infantile whining. During the first few pages we learn that the Plutonian has already killed millions by basically nuking a city and we personally see him incinerate one of his former allies in his own home, killing his wife and children as well. The series takes us along as his former mates try to stop him, but even they fear him as they would an angry god.
* Brian Michael Bendis' ''Powers'' also briefly explores this fallen-hero theme (very much like irredeemable, but only on a short story arc).

* And in Mark Millar's classic work ''Red Son'' we actually get asked the question - What if a certain last son of a dying planet landed in a field in Soviet Ukraine instead of the middle of Kansas. Some really brilliant writing and plotting on this that explores what a truly good-hearted man will do when raised on the ideals of Lenin, Marx, and Collectivism. Will he "save the world" by essentially enslaving it?

* U-Go-Girl of ''XMen'' spinoff team ''XStatix'' originally decided to use her teleportation to commit crime, intelligently - stealing tons of petty stuff and not challenging any superheroes. She got bored of it after 15 minutes when she got everything she always wanted and ended up returning it and becoming a superheroine instead.

* Pretty much the basic premise of ''{{Wanted}}''. The Fraternity were a group of supervillains who had triumphed and actually retconned the superheroes out of their reality. As a result, anyone with super powers was a member of the Fraternity, and anyone wearing a Fraternity badge, or driving a car with Fraternity plates could get away with ''anything'' and ''everything''.

* The Invisible Man from ''{{The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen}}'' uses his invisibility to kill a police officer and steal his clothes because he was cold.

* {{Invincible}} mentions this during a crossover with The AstoundingWolfMan. When Wolf-Man asks if Invincible will get in trouble for breaking government property and beating up superheroes, Invincible shrugs it off, saying that as long as he's strong enough to save the earth, he gets a pass.
* {{TheAuthority}}, though for their case it might be more of 'ScrewTheRulesIHaveSupernaturalPowers - And I Will Make New Rules!'

* When Hal gets powers in {{Megamind}}, even before [[FromNobodyToNightmare going on a destruction spree throughout the city]] he was using his powers to steal money, bikes, and arcade games. (This was screwing ''super'' rules as well, since he was supposed to fight Megamind but didn't bother showing up.)

* The basic plot of Marlowe's version of {{Faust}}. He gains supernatural powers through a DealWithTheDevil and decides he can do whatever the heck he wants. After they do that, he grows [[EvilIsPetty increasingly petty]], stooping to playing pranks on ThePope, amusing the Emperor's court, and eventually just dying alone, realizing how badly he wasted his potential.

* In an extreme example, in the RiftWar novels, the Great Ones of Tsuranuanni were ''legally'' outside the law. They could literally do ''anything'' unless the Assembly of Magicians (A council formed of all of the Great Ones) ruled that they couldn't (only done once in story - to declare that they could not free slaves). Beyond that, they could arbitrarily declare - and be obeyed - that people shut down their businesses, entire noble clans commit mass suicide, wars be arbitrarily ended, or anything else they could think of.
* The StarWarsExpandedUniverse discusses this in FateOfTheJedi. It's nice that the Jedi listen to a higher authority nobody else can hear.

* ''{{Sliders}}'' had a world in which a group that could kill through dreams flagrantly broke the law and killed people right in front of the police with their powers.

* Kind of the entire point of most plots - romantic and non - in the first few seasons of ''{{Smallville}}''. The meteor [[MonsterOfTheWeek freak of the week]] suffers "Kryptonite Psychosis" and uses their meteor-given powers for their own selfish gain, perfectly willing to commit multiple murders to further their goals before Clark stops them and they get sent to the Belle Reve mental institution. {{Lampshaded}} numerous times by characters [[FantasticRacism biased against meteor freaks]].
* In ''Series/BuffyTheVampireSlayer'', Faith and, in the episode ''Bad Girls'', Buffy herself. Also [[MySpeciesDothProtestTooMuch the majority]] of [[AlwaysChaoticEvil vampires and demons]].

* There was an episode of ''StarTrekTheNextGeneration'' where a guy would enter people's dreams and do terrible things to them. He enters Dr. Crusher's and Counselor Troi's dreams and rapes them, and he enters Riker's dream and beats him within an inch of his life. When confronted, he claims to see nothing wrong with doing something for fun. Until he tries it again on Troi and Worf comes to her rescue.
* The ''TwilightZone'' episode "It's a Good Life" is built on this, although six-year old Anthony is convinced that he's just doing good things. Including getting rid of bad people. And of course, only bad people would think that the things he does could be bad...

* OlderThanFeudalism: The [[ClassicalMythology Greek myth]] of Gyges (most well known from Plato's Republic) is about a man who finds a ring of invisibility and uses it to commit all sorts of crimes, culminating in seducing the queen and killing the king.

* Player Characters in TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons or ''TabletopGame/{{Pathfinder}}'' will try this. Any GameMaster worth his or her salt should have a thousand ready tricks to foil them, or else should simply embrace their decent into [[HeroicSociopath heroic sociopath]] or even CardCarryingVillain status.

** This also gets refrenced in ''Alien Force'' after his parents find out not only about the Omnitrix, but that Ben had been lying to them for years to cover up his superheroing [[YouAreGrounded they very quickly ground him]]. He actually plays along until he points out that they don't actually have the power to ''enforce'' this punishment, transforms, and flies out the window to help his friends. This shows how much Ben has matured since the first series in that he's still willing to break some rules, but only because they were stopping him from doing good and helping people.

* [[Manga/DeathNote Light]] in ''FanFic/ThePrinceOfDeath'' decides to be more of a JerkAss than usual when L [[CrazyJealousGuy isn't paying enough attention to him.]] [[AttentionWhore He regains L's attention]] by telling the room full of cops he's the original Kira (and instigating a (cat)fight with Naomi by [[EvilGloating gloating]] [[KickTheDog over the fact that he killed Raye Penber]]) [[StoryBreakerPower knowing full well that there is absolutely nothing they can do about it now that he has become a literal God of Death]]:

-->'''Light''': That it is my job to kill. ''summons deathscythe'' [[LargeHam I am Kira. The Prince of Shinigami... I live and thrive off death and thus do not think to threaten me. All I am familiar with is the filth, the madness, the rottenness that constructs this world. Do not attempt such a thing again...]]

* Light in ''FanFic/ThePrinceOfDeath'' decides to be more of a JerkAss than usual when L [[CrazyJealousGuy isn't paying enough attention to him.]] [[AttentionWhore He regains L's attention]] by telling the room full of cops he's the original Kira (and instigating a (cat)fight with Naomi by [[EvilGloating gloating]] [[KickTheDog over the fact that he killed Raye Penber]]) [[StoryBreakerPower knowing full well that there is absolutely nothing they can do about it now that he has become a literal God of Death]]:

* Light in ''FanFic/ThePrinceOfDeath'' decides to be more of a JerkAss than usual when L [[CrazyJealousGuy isn't paying enough attention to him.]] [[AttentionWhore He regains L's attention]] by telling the room full of cops he's the original Kira [[StoryBreakerPower knowing full well that there is absolutely nothing they can do about it now that he has become a God of Death]]:

* Pretty much the concept behind both ''CodeGeass'' and ''DeathNote'', with a clever teenager lamenting the state of the world, accidentally obtaining superpowers in the first episode, and [[UtopiaJustifiesTheMeans immediately going on a world-changing killing spree]].

* The main character uses his ability to rob banks in ''{{Jumper}}''.

* The [[Quotes/{{Masquerade}} third quote]] for {{Masquerade}} illustrates a problem with this train of thought. That said, vampires in ''[[VampireTheRequiem Vampire: The Requiem]]'' (and most supernaturals, for that matter) can get away with ''a '''lot''''' considering both the CrapsackWorld they live in means people just don't care about most crimes, and their Masquerade clean up is top notch. (Provided you have the expertise/pull to have the clean up done for you without getting staked, mind you.)
** Most sourcebooks for ''TheWorldOfDarkness'' specifically warn Storytellers that this might be the case, and advises them to bring the hammer down if it happens. (A vampire kills a cop? Cop murders ''never'' go cold-case, and they might break through the Masquerade if they search enough; cop-killers tend to be left for the sunrise once the Prince finds out.)
* {{Exalted}}: How many players think this since you are, after all, the chosen of Gods and superior to normal mortals in everyway! If you can cut down mortals with ease, why should you bother with their petty morals? You are a ''Living God!'' compared to them!

*** Or yet, sometimes, just the characters. The player himself might not agree with such philosophy, but power corrupts and the exalted are ''powerful.''
*** Indeed, a character's quest to avoid this trope can make for a particularly epic storyline within a campaign regardless of success or failure.
* Player Characters in DungeonsAndDragons or ''{{Pathfinder}}'' will try this. Any GameMaster worth his or her salt should have a thousand ready tricks to foil them, or else should simply embrace their decent into [[HeroicSociopath heroic sociopath]] or even CardCarryingVillain status.

* This is part of what makes the original ''{{Ben 10}}'' so enjoyable, because in a rare protagonist example, Ben does what pretty much any ten year old boy with super powers would do, switching between beating up super villains in the streets, to using his powers to find the prize in a box of cereal without buying it.

--> -- '''Faith''', ''BuffyTheVampireSlayer''

* The basic plot of Marlowe's version of {{Faust}}. He gains supernatural powers through a DealWithTheDevil and decides he can do whatever the heck he wants. After they doj that, he grows [[EvilIsPetty increasingly petty]], stooping to playing pranks on ThePope, amusing the Emperor's court, and eventually just dying alone, realizing how badly he wasted his potential.

* In the {{Animorphs}} series, David sees nothing wrong with using his newly acquired powers for casual theft. Fortunately, the other heroes are a bit more moral.

* In ''BuffyTheVampireSlayer'', Faith and, in the episode ''Bad Girls'', Buffy herself. Also [[MySpeciesDothProtestTooMuch the majority]] of [[AlwaysChaoticEvil vampires and demons]].

* The title character of HGWells' ''The Invisible Man'':
--> "The game is only beginning. There is nothing for it, but to start the Terror. This announces the first day of the Terror. Port Burdock is no longer under the Queen, tell your Colonel of Police, and the rest of them; it is under me -- the Terror! This is day one of year one of the new epoch -- the Epoch of the Invisible Man. I am Invisible Man the First..."

*** In a moment almost ripped from a buddy comedy, he kidnapped both the terrorist leader, and the FBI agent following him, then locked them in a room together.

* OlderThanDirt: The [[ClassicalMythology Greek myth]] of Gyges (most well known from Plato's Republic) is about a man who finds a ring of invisibility and uses it to commit all sorts of crimes, culminating in seducing the queen and killing the king.

** That work is essentially biased against communism so its a bad example.
** I always assumed it was simply an example of how not to be a communist...

* When Hal gets powers in {{Megamind}}, even before [[FromNobodyToNightmare going on a destruction spree throughout the city]] he was using his powers to steal money, bikes, and arcade games. (This was screwing ''super'' rules as well, since he was supposed to fight Megamind but didn't bother showing up.)

Rather than try to be a hero who got TheCall, they will use their powers for petty crime. Want a million dollars? They'll use EyeBeams to melt the bank vault. A lover cheated on her? SuperStrength to turn the guy's car into a cube. That beautiful house? She'll summon up a ghost to scare the owners away and move in once the price drops. "But what if the cops find out?!" Well, with most cases of this trope, the newly empowered criminal will either make short work of them or be uncatchable. In truly disgusting extremes, they may walk into a restaurant (where they're ''known'' as a SuperVillain), [[EvilIsPetty be rude to the waiter]], not pay, and then fight their way through the city's police force for it.

Most of the time, these villains will be very small time thinkers, at most terrorizing local authorities into making him a sort of king, but when one ''does'' [[VisionaryVillain see the big picture]] you [[{{Anti-Human Alliance}} can expect her to want]] to TakeOverTheWorld or even, [[TranshumanTreachery try to enslave humanity]]!

* My GM once criticized the ''[[TrinityUniverse Aberrant]]'' system on the grounds that if a Nova (superpowered person) turned to crime, there was little the police could do to stop them. I pointed out that the game isn't supposed to be about ordinary people.

* Pretty much the concept behind both ''CodeGeass'' and ''DeathNote'', with a clever teenager lamenting the state of the world, accidentally obtaining superpowers in the first episode, and [[UtopiaJustifiesTheMeans immediately going on a world-changing killing spree]].

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