History Main / ThePowerOfBlood

* ''ComicBook/{{Runaways}}'': Staff of One has been summoned whenever Nico is bleeding, though it's [[NoPeriodsPeriod not too picky on how]].

* In ''ComicBook/DetectiveComics'' #833 Zatanna is shot in the throat by the Joker and dunked into a tank filling with water, effectively keeping her from reciting her incantations backwards. When Batman escapes his own deathtrap to free her in #834, he finds her throat completely healed. Upon inspection, Bats discovered she'd used her own blood to write "HEAL ME" backwards on the inside of the tank's lid.
-->'''Batman:''' A spell written in blood. For a mage like Zatanna, no enchantment is more powerful.
* Another parody happens in ''ComicBook/LenoreTheCuteLittleDeadGirl'', when she pricks her finger and spills a drop of blood on a doll. It turns out to be a vampire that was cursed to be an inanimate plaything, and her blood broke the curse. Unfortunately, he realizes he's still in a doll's body because the curse didn't break properly; she'd been embalmed.
%%* ''ComicBook/{{Runaways}}'': "When blood is shed, let the Staff of One emerge."
* In ''ComicBook/{{The Sandman|1989}}: A Game of You'', menstrual blood is used to power a spell to send the characters to the land of the dead and come back alive ([[spoiler:mostly]]). In ''The Time of Your Life'', the same spell is powered from blood from Foxglove's hand.

* ''ComicBook/SpiderMan'': ComicBook/{{Carnage}} has an alien symbiote mixed into his bloodstream that allows him to shape his blood and use it as a weapon. This is sometimes played for a more horrific effect, particularly in Creator/WarrenEllis and Kyle Hotz's BodyHorror laden graphic novel "Mindbomb"
-->'''Carnage''': My blood wants to kill you!

* Within the world of ''WesternAnimation/TheOwlHouse'', the single strongest source of magic is Titan's Blood, which is so powerful that just a few drops of the stuff is enough to rip holes in the fabric of spacetime.[[note]]For comparisons sake, four [[{{Familiar}} palismen]] working in tandem were able to power a PortalDoor leading to the VoidBetweenTheWorlds that lasted for a fraction of a second before collapsing. A tiny bit of partially dried out Titan's Blood was able to achive the same effect and remain semi-stable for several hours.[[/note]] As a resut of this, [[GiantCorpseWorld the fossilized caves that were once their veins]] are pretty much immune to all known forms of magic and every known deposit has been harvested long before the present day.

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* Being deemed negro was an important plot point in ''Theatre/{{Showboat}}''. By sharing a drop of blood, the hero was now deemed negro and could marry his sweetheart without violating the miscegenation laws.
** Note that this wasn't, strictly speaking, either a legal or magic thing: his sweetheart was mulatto (half-black, half-white). He cut her finger and sucked out a drop of blood so that he (and the people who witnessed it) could say that he "had negro blood in him" without actually ''lying.''

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* The idiom "blood is thicker than water". Exactly what this means has had a few different definitions over the centuries, but the binding aspect is always clear.

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* In ''Manga/FullMetalAlchemist'', Ed and Al use drops of their blood to stand in for "information of the soul" when trying to bring back their mother from the dead using alchemy. [[spoiler:It was later revealed that this didn't work. When they later dug up and examined the remains of the failed body that they created, they found that it had features that their mother didn't have and also wasn't even female. And further proving that their mother's soul was never in the body they made, Al regained memories of what happened and remembered that ''he'' was actually the soul inside of the body for the short time it was alive.]]
** Philosopher's Stones also [[StatesOfPhlebotinum comes in various forms]]. Solid, liquid, they're all blood red.

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* In Creator/AGnosis' comics on [[Myth/ClassicalMythology Greek myth]], ghosts can drink blood offerings to strengthen their link to their old lives for a short time. This helps one ghost in ''Webcomic/{{Nekyia}}'' overcome her GhostAmnesia and another in ''[[Webcomic/DaddysGirl Daddy's Girl]]'' communicate with the living.
* ''Webcomic/KillSixBillionDemons'': [[OurDemonsAreDifferent Devils]] enter [[DealWithTheDevil pacts with mortals]] to feed on some of the mortal's SoulPower and stabilize their own chaotic spirits. Those who don't want to be bound can get the same benefit from human blood and flesh.

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* ''ComicBook/{{Runaways}}'': "When blood is shed, let the Staff of One emerge."

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* Common in the TabletopGame/{{Ravenloft}} setting, both as a power-source for certain kinds of evil magic and as a means for vampires to bequeath temporary vigor and prolonged life to their mortal minions.

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* In the ''VideoGame/{{Dominions}}'' series, spells from most schools of magic are cast using "gems" which are basically elemental forces (fire, water, etc...) concentrated into portable form, and the casting prices of spells are listed in these gems. Instead of gems, however, one school of magic lists spell prices in blood. These prices are listed in increments of one ''blood slave'', each of which must be drained completely empty, with high-level spell costs running into the ''hundreds''.
** And true to the trope, blood magic is enormously powerful. Going deep into blood magic and relying completely on the armies of demons it allows you to summon is a valid strategy all by itself. Some of the strongest nations in the game are that way because of how well-suited they are to that strategy.

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* Shows up in ''Webcomic/{{Underling}}''.

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* ''WesternAnimation/AvatarTheLastAirbender'' and its SequelSeries ''WesternAnimation/TheLegendOfKorra'' have bloodbending. A twisted version of [[MakingASplash waterbending]] that essentially allows the user to manipulate the blood flowing through living creatures' bodies: crushing internal organs, [[PeoplePuppets controlling living bodies like puppets]], [[spoiler:[[DePower severing chi pathways]]]]. [[WhatDoYouMeanItsForKids Ya know, for kids]]!
* Within the world of ''WesternAnimation/TheOwlHouse'', the single strongest source of magic is Titan's Blood, which is so powerful that just a few drops of the stuff is enough to rip holes in the fabric of spacetime.[[note]]For comparisons sake, four [[{{Familiar}} palismen]] working in tandem were able to power a PortalDoor leading to the VoidBetweenTheWorlds that lasted for a fraction of a second before collapsing. A tiny bit of partially dried out Titan's Blood was able to achive the same effect and remain semi-stable for several hours.[[/note]] As a resut of this, [[GiantCorpseWorld the fossilized caves that were once their veins]] are pretty much immune to all known forms of magic and every known deposit has been harvested long before the present day.
* ''WesternAnimation/SkullIsland2023'': The [[Recap/SkullIsland2023S1E7YoureNotAKingYoureJustAStupidAnimal origin episode]] reveals that the BigBad, an extremely malevolent [[KrakenAndLeviathan Kraken]], was originally hibernating underwater until contact with a drop of Kong's blood awoke it. As observed by Goji Center in [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8mODshEahmY this vid]], the implications that the Kraken likely slept through the tumultuous events of ''Film/KongSkullIsland'' undisturbed (which included seismic charges carpet-bombing the island) would have to mean that Kong's blood contains some special property as an Alpha {{Kaiju}} that was needed to make the Kraken wake up and become fully active again.

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* In ''Webcomic/HannaIsNotABoysName'', Hanna's blood is apparently particularly disgusting, at least according to a vampire. He attributes this to his use of magic (before quickly changing the subject).
-->'''Hanna:''' It must be because I use magic, it taints my blood, but ANYWAYS.
* In ''Webcomic/{{Roza}}'', [[http://www.junglestudio.com/roza/?date=2007-05-03 her blood is magical]]. [[PowerGlows It glows.]]

** ''Bloodpunk - A Guide to Tolia'', a recent 3rd-party setting for ''TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons'', blood is the catalyst for a magic crystal known as Angst to produce light and energy. Now blood engines are used to power zepplins, trains, weapons and other technology, bringing the setting to about the Victorian period.

* Franchise/SpiderMan villain ComicBook/{{Carnage}} has an alien symbiote mixed into his bloodstream that allows him to shape his blood and use it as a weapon. This is sometimes played for a more horrific effect, particularly in Creator/WarrenEllis and Kyle Hotz's BodyHorror laden graphic novel "Mindbomb"

* This is part of the plot to ''VideoGame/ZeldaIITheAdventureOfLink''. Link killed Ganon in the [[VideoGame/TheLegendOfZelda original game]], but several of his minions are still running amok in Hyrule. While he goes on the eponymous adventure to return six crystals to six palaces, he has to be careful; the minions want to kill him so they can scatter his blood on Ganon's ashes and return him to life.

* Within the world of ''WesternAnimation/TheOwlHouse'', the single strongest source of magic is Titan's Blood, which is so powerful that just a few drops of the stuff is enough to rip holes in the fabric of spacetime. As a resut of this, [[GiantCorpseWorld the fossilized caves that were once their veins]] are pretty much immune to all known forms of magic and every known deposit has been harvested long before the present day.

* ''Bloodpunk - A Guide to Tolia'', a recent 3rd-party setting for ''TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons'', blood is the catalyst for a magic crystal known as Angst to produce light and engery. Now blood is used to power zepplins, trains, weapons and other technology, bringing the setting to about the Victorian period.

-->-- '''{{God}}''', ''[[Literature/TheBible Leviticus 17:14]]''