History Main / TakenForGranite

* This is Loki's fate in ''Film/WizardsOfTheLostKingdomII''. It's unclear whether this kills him or just traps him forever.

Petrification happens a lot in children's media [[NeverSayDie in lieu of killing them proper]], [[SortingAlgorithmOfDeadness since it is usually reversible]] if NoOntologicalInertia is in play. However, if a villain knows that this effect can be potentially reversed, you can expect them to consider [[LiterallyShatteredLives smashing the "statue"]] to ensure the person cannot be brought back.

Petrification happens a lot in children's media, because, [[NeverSayDie unlike death]], [[SortingAlgorithmOfDeadness it is usually reversible]] thanks to NoOntologicalInertia.

If a villain knows that this effect can be potentially reversed, you can expect them to consider [[LiterallyShatteredLives smashing the "statue"]] to ensure the person cannot be brought back.

* In ''Anime/FullmetalAlchemist'', one of the filler episodes involves a town being infected with a disease that turns everyone's skin into some sort of bark/stone substance.
* In the ''Manga/InuYasha'' special "The Woman Who Loved Sesshoumaru," a one-shot villain turns an entire village full of people, and later on Miroku, Sango, and Kirara, into ''glass''.
* After Kars from ''Manga/JoJosBizarreAdventureBattleTendency'' gets launched into space, he tries to return to Earth, only for his body to freeze over and become hard as rock, dooming him to float through space for all eternity. And even though he wished for death, there was nothing out there to kill him. Eventually, his brain shuts down and he stops thinking all together.

* In Manga/MakyouNoShanana, Shanana is turned into a crystal statue during one of the earlier chapters. Thankfully, it's reversible.
* ''Anime/MegaManNTWarrior'':

* ''Anime/{{Pokemon}}'':
** In "The Ghost of Maiden's Peak", according to lore, a woman waited on a cliff for her beloved to come home from war. He never returned, and she eventually turned into a statue.

** Also happens in the very end of the ''[=FireRed/LeafGreen=]'' saga of ''Manga/PokemonAdventures'', when [[spoiler:one of the villains blasts the main characters with an attack from Darkrai. It colliding with Mewtwo caused a reaction that turned the main characters into stone. The next arc uses this as Emerald's reason to pursue Jirachi -- to wish the effect reversed.]]
** Pokémon Hunter J has a bracelet device that she uses to petrify Pokémon in order to steal them. It apparently also works on people, because [[spoiler:Pyramid King Brandon gets turned to stone when he jumps in front of the beam. He is healed though, thanks to Regigigas.]]

* ''Animation/PleasantGoatAndBigBigWolf'': In the seventh movie, the goats have to battle a big stone dragon that can turn anything into stone [[BreathWeapon with its breath]]. The dragon uses this ability to turn several characters into stone a couple of times.

* ''WesternAnimation/TheOwlHouse'': In "Young Blood, Old Souls", Eda is sentenced to be petrified for the crime of bucking the coven system and using wild magic. Not only is it supposedly irreversible once the spell is complete, but from the faces on previously-petrified witches it's [[PainfulTransformation very painful]]. Thankfully, Eda escapes this fate.

[[folder:Films — Live-Action]]

* In the WesternAnimation/BettyBoop's ''Snow White'', the wicked queen/witch thwarts Bimbo and Koko by turning them into statues (they get better) -- just another turn in a massively surreal cartoon.

** A variation in the episode "Northwest Mansion Noir", where the MonsterOfTheWeek turning people to wood.
** In "Weirdmageddon Part 1", [[spoiler:[[BigBad Bill Cipher's]] eyeball minion turns several townsfolk to stone, and Bill turns Ford into gold to use as a back scratcher. Later it's revealed that Bill has turned most of the occupants of Gravity Falls into stone and assembled them all into a throne of frozen human agony.]]
** In the GrandFinale [[spoiler: this ended up being Bill's fate. With Bill's mental form erased, his physical form is stuck as a statue with one hand outstretched. The final seconds of the show implies that the statue exists [[TheFourthWallWillNotProtectYou in the real world]], and finding that became the focus of an AlternateRealityGame during Summer 2016, with a warning not to shake his hand. The statue was found and Bill's hand was shook by a baby.]]

* ''ComicBook/TheMightyThor'': Grey Gargoyle has the power to turn anyone into an immobile statue for one hour (or himself into a very mobile rock bruiser.) He has to touch the target with his right hand. In a two-part story in ComicBook/IronMan, the Gargoyle passed himself off as sculptor Paul St. Pierre, with his "works" actually being his victims, encased in a clear polymer coating so they would remain immobile. Tony Stark discovered his secret when he took a slight chip off the heel of one statue to analyze it, and the victim immediately reverted to her normal form, fainting from the shock.

* The demon lord Kaikhosru from ''LightNovel/AvestaOfBlackAndWhite'' has to ability to turn people to statues made out of gemstones with his breath. The heroes attempt to capitalize on this by having Alma call in a huge favor from him in order to deal with another demon lord, Frederica, whose obnoxious HealingFactor makes it nigh impossible to deal with her otherwise. And it was working fine, but unfortunately, the battle maniac of the group, Magsarion, arrived and decided to attack her, shattering her and thus triggering her regeneration and undoing what had been done.

* In ''LightNovel/TheExecutionerAndHerWayOfLife'', Ivory's weapon, the Sword of Salt, transforms anything it pierces into salt.

** Creeped Out: Sam is turned into a statue when exposed to the sun.

* ''Series/{{Charmed|1998}}'':

* In the third season of Series/ChillingAdventuresOfSabrina a group of Pagans arrive in town. One of them is a gorgon who turns several characters into stone, including Rosalind Walker, Dorcas Night, Nicholas Scratch and also Mary Wardwell in the [[spoiler: BadFuture]]. Another variation occurs when [[spoiler:Caliban traps Lucifer, Lilith and later Sabrina in stone in the 9th Circle of Hell. After traveling back in time, Sabrina turns the tables on him and traps him in stone as well.]]

* Franchise/KamenRider

** "Under The Bed": A monster that seems to be the boogeyman only comes out at night because sunlight turns it to stone. This even happened to some of its spilled blood when light shown on it. When the heroes overpower and drag it into the light, one then smashes it to pieces with a lead pipe.
** "Feasibility Study": An alien disease causes anyone infected to gradually petrify.

* There's a ''Series/StarTrekTheOriginalSeries'' episode, "By Any Other Name" where aliens turn the crew of the ''Enterprise'' (except for Kirk, Spock, [=McCoy=] and Scotty) into little styrofoam polygons.

* In the ''Series/WonderWoman'' episode "The Fine Art of Crime" art thieves use people temporarily placed in suspended animation as living statues to be the inside person to pull off museum robberies.
* In the 1998 series ''Literature/TheWorstWitch'', Ethel turns Mildred into a stone statue and enters her into an art competition.
* In the 2017 series Indigo Moon got turned into a statue by herself due to her being gifted with magical powers but taking advantage of them. Thirty years later, Indigo was revived accidentally by Mildred. A year later on her birthday as she turns 14, Indigo begins becoming a middle-aged woman. Just as Indigo begins transforming again permanently, she is sent back in time by Miss Hardbroom causing her to stop ageing early and forgetting her memory of magic with forgetting powder. Indigo finds her mother and gets a happy childhood. She then grows into a nice woman and her daughter, Azura, attends Cackle’s, having inherited her powers from her mother, despite them not knowing.

* {{Series/Creeped Out}}: After trolling people online, Sam becomes an actual troll. He then becomes a statue when exposed to the sun.

** At the end of one WesternAnimation/FoghornLeghorn cartoon, after his big prank on the dog backfires, Foggy ends up covered with concrete and turned into a facsimile of Auguste Rodin's ''[[ThinkerPose The Thinker]]''. ("Don't bother me, dog!" he manages to mutter. [[SarcasmMode "Can't ya see I'm thinkin'?"]])

* ''Series/TheTwilightZone1985'': In "The Call", Norman Blane is turned into a bronze sculpture so that he and Mary Ann Lindeby, [[HauntedFetter whose spirit inhabits her bronze self-portrait]], can spend all eternity together and end their terrible loneliness. As such, this is a rare example of this trope leading to a HappyEnding.

* The [[DistressedDamsel Lost Lady]] in the fourth year of ''Literature/TheQuestportChronicles'' was turned to stone by [[LoveMakesYouEvil a wizard that she scorned]].

* The fact that that he possessed an "Off" Switch meant ''Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration'''s Data often fell victim to being deactivated unexpectedly or against his will. This usually resulted in a [[UncannyValley somewhat disturbing slump]] (he reacted just as any human would do if they were knocked unconscious). On at least two occasions, however, unexpected deactivation of energy charges brought on total paralysis, effectively rendering him a mannequin.

* Happens to Jackie in the ''WesternAnimation/JackieChanAdventures'' episode "The Rock" as the result of magical venom, [[PoisonAndCureGambit with Valmont offering the antidote in exchange for the talismans in Section 13]]. Although unlike most other examples here, he becomes petrified bit by bit, starting with the hand the venom was injected into and gradually spreading to the rest of his body, his head being last. In the intervening time, [[CursedWithAwesome his stone fists and chest become useful in fights]].

[[caption-width-right:350:We'd ask whether that hurt, but we're afraid the fox is a little too [[IncrediblyLamePun stoned]] to answer.]]

* In the ''VideoGame/{{Culdcept}}'' series, Medusa and Cockatrice both have variations on this effect. The stronger (and more expensive) Medusa can transform creatures into Statues, colorless creatures that can't use items and also can't recover HP. The weaker-but-cheaper Cockatrice turns enemies into Stone Walls, which still have a color (Green), can use a few items, and will still recover HP when their owner makes a lap. However, even Cockatrice's Stone Walls might still be preferable to [[OlympusMons they had to deal with before.]]

* In the ''VideoGame/{{Culdcept}}'' series, Medusa and Cockatrice both have variations on this effect. The stronger (and more expensive) Medusa can transform creatures into Statues, colorless creatures that can't use items and also can't recover HP. The weaker-but-cheaper Cockatrice turns enemies into Stone Walls, which still have a color (Green), can use a few items, and will still recover HP when their owner makes a lap. However, even Cockatrice's Stone Walls might still be preferable to [[OlympusMons had to deal with before.]]

* ''ComicBook/LegendsOfBaldursGate'': This happened to Minsc at some point after the games in which he originally appeared, enabling the TimeSkip. People just thought he was a statue of himself. He's revived by a spell that Delina (a [[WildMagic Wild Mage]] was aiming at some gargoyles.

* In the ''WebAnimation/DeathBattle'' between [[Franchise/DragonBall Vegito and Gogeta]], this is is ultimately how [[spoiler:Gogeta dies. Gogeta charges through Vegito's Kamehameha with a Stardust Breaker, and his attack connects, but the damage dealt ultimately leads to Gogeta turning to stone a la Vegeta's Final Explosion against Buu. A heavily wounded but ultimately victorious Vegito then sends Gogeta off with a fist bump, causing the Metamoran fusion to crumble to dust.]]