History Main / TragicIntangibility

** ''WesternAnimation/BatmanBeyond'': An unscrupulous reporter named Ian Peek stole a device that gave him the ability to activate [[IntangibleMan this power]] at will, so he could spy on anyone he pleased and [[CutLexLuthorACheck made a fortune as a celebrity gossip anchor]]. In the end, he subverted the trend and did suffer the KarmicDeath (he not only stole the device, but killed the inventor with a fire he set to cover his tracks). Just a day or so before revealing the identity of Batman, he found that abusing the device would make him permanently intangible. Despite begging [[Franchise/{{Batman}} Bruce]] to help him with the promise of retracting his piece, Bruce [[PragmaticHero coldly walks away]] triggering a fight scene with the then-Batman, until Peek permanently turned intangible and fell through each individual floor of the building he's in, then falling through the basement into the ground, as he [[LaughingMad laughed helplessly]]. Terry asked what was going to happen to Ian, and Bruce remarks that he was likely going to [[AndIMustScream keep falling until he hit the core of the Earth]]. Cue BondOneLiner, and [[StatusQuoIsGod everyone moves on]].

[[folder:Visual Novel]]

[[/folder]]

* ''Series/TheFlash'' episode "The Last Temptation of Barry Allen" has the Flash try and touch his potential child in a vision of the future, only for his hands to go right through it. This is part of the temptation he feels not to face a HeroicSacrifice in the upcoming crisis.

* [[Wiki/SCPFoundation SCP-085]] is a drawing of a young woman on a sheet of paper who can move around on the sheet and speak to people. However, as a two-dimensional drawing, she cannot physically interact with anyone else, and this has caused her to become depressed.

* The extended edition of ''Film/SupermanTheMovie'' features a scene between the now-grown-up Superman(Christopher Reeve) and the holographic AI of his Kryptonian father Jor-El(Marlon Brando) at the crystalline Fortress of Solitude. It culminates in Jor-El acknowledging that - if Krypton had not been too vain to forestall its own destruction - he could embrace his adult son right then and there. Kal-El instinctively raises his arms, only to look around self-consciously when the hologram ends and he finds himself alone among the crystals again.

* WesternAnimation/TheAmazingWorldOfGumball: As a ghost, Carrie Krueger cannot experience things like touch and taste. At one point she asks to posses Gumball to do things like eat. She goes overboard and keeps possessing Gumball to experience more.

* In ''WesternAnimation/AvengersEarthsMightiestHeroes'', Kang reaches to touch his beloved in "Meet Captain America" only to find his hand move through her as she begins to fade out of his existence. He tries to touch her face again at the beginning of "The Man Who Stole Tomorrow," only to feel nothing and redouble his determination to keep his future from being destroyed.

* At one point in ''Machinima/RedVsBlue'', the AI Epsilon laments lacking a body and being unable to feel or touch anyone as part of coming to terms that his memories and identity for a long time were never real.

* The extended edition of ''Film/SupermanTheMovie'' features a scene between the now-grown-up Superman(Christopher Reeve) and the holographic AI of his Kryptonian father Jor-El(Marlon Brando) at the crystalline Fortress of Solitude. It culminates in Jor-El acknowledging that - if Krypton had not been too vain to forstall its own destruction - he could embrace his adult son right then and there. Kal-El instinctively raises his arms, only to look around self-consciously when the hologram ends and he finds himself alone among the crystals again.

* ComicBook/{{Deadman}}'s first appearances would often have him try to touch something, pass through it, and rant aloud about how the killer has taken everything from him. In the first issue, it's just a mouse but in the second issue, he fails to wipe a tear from his lover's face and despairs.