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| 14 | [[quoteright:350:[[VideoGame/SpaceQuestIIVohaulsRevenge https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/space_quest_villain.jpg]]]] |
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| 16 | %%Removed via discussion General Page Quote Discussion https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/posts.php?discussion=1327331003042025100&page=216#5379 Please go to that thread before posting a new quote. |
| 17 | |
| 18 | ->''"See what I have become? Mere shadow and vapor...I have form only when I can share another's body...but there have always been those willing to let me into their hearts and minds..."'' |
| 19 | -->--'''Voldemort''', ''Literature/HarryPotterAndThePhilosophersStone'' |
| 20 | |
| 21 | An event has left a villain severely injured or drained of power. So, their minions hook them up to a device that will keep them alive for the time being. It doesn't have to be a machine; it can be the inability to survive without attaching to another body. |
| 22 | |
| 23 | This can be a way of creating sympathy for the villain by showing that they are weak or dependent. The weakness can be exploited by someone attacking them -- the EvilOverlord may not have full strength because of what's happened to them or may be stuck in one place. Dependence means that TheHero can destroy the support system to destroy their enemy (although [[IfYouKillHimYouWillBeJustLikeHim there might be moral issues with dealing the killing blow to a villain who can't fight back]]). Frequently, the very thing that made the DarkLord this way was done by the hero, sometimes in a battle that didn't succeed in completely killing the villain. This can be a sign that the hero wasn't ready to fight the villain, that they did so rashly, etc. |
| 24 | |
| 25 | Please note that it is possible for said Dark Lord to recover from this, [[CameBackStrong maybe even come back stronger than ever]]. |
| 26 | |
| 27 | Aesthetically, this trope associates the villain with illness and death, which in turn makes them seem creepier than he would be otherwise. |
| 28 | |
| 29 | Usually a subtrope of ManInTheMachine. This may result in a DragonInChief and/or TheHeavy, as well as a case of WeakBossStrongUnderlings. May or may not be an EvilCripple. Can also be a good reason to employ OrcusOnHisThrone and may be a GreaterScopeVillain. See also RedRightHand, BrainInAJar, CyberneticsEatYourSoul, and NoImmortalInertia. May also be a trait of a villainous [[TheSymbiote Symbiote]]. Compare and contrast WeCanRebuildHim for when this makes a villain ''stronger'', not weaker. For when the dark lord creates themself [[BodyBackUpDrive a new body to replace their old one]], see SelfConstructedBeing. See also StrongEmpireShriveledEmperor, which this can be a particularly extreme version of when the Dark Lord on Life Support also happens to rule a powerful force. Compare SealedEvilInACan, when the above-mentioned defeat ''completely'' incapacitated him, but there's still a danger they could come back from it. |
| 30 | |
| 31 | ---- |
| 32 | !!Examples: |
| 33 | |
| 34 | [[foldercontrol]] |
| 35 | |
| 36 | [[folder:Anime & Manga]] |
| 37 | * The ''Anime/BubblegumCrisis: Toyko 2040'' version of Gemon's CEO, Quincy, was depicted as being hooked up to a throne that included life support equipment. |
| 38 | * ''Anime/CowboyBebop'': Dr. Londes from the episode "[[Recap/CowboyBebopSession23BrainScratch Brain Scratch]]" is revealed to be [[spoiler:a teenaged hacker on life support who used his connection to the internet to [[DigitizedHacker become digitized]] and create a virtual persona]]. |
| 39 | * ''Anime/DragonBallSuper'': Freeza technically qualified for this trope for a brief time at the beginning of the Resurrection "F" arc, where he was brought back to life but in the form of a bunch of chopped-up pieces that needed to be reconstituted in a healing tank. |
| 40 | * ''Literature/FullMetalPanic The Second Raid'': Gauron has been reduced to lying in a bed tied to a machine after he was defeated in the previous season, but still manages to ruin everyone's day. |
| 41 | * After having his life saved by Heaven Canceller, Creator/AleisterCrowley from ''Literature/ACertainMagicalIndex'' has only ''once'' ever been seen someplace other than floating upside down in his tube. It's debatable if he was actually physically present at that one time. |
| 42 | * In ''Anime/MonsterRancher'', due to the process of his body and soul merging [[ImperfectRitual not being done correctly]], Moo ends up being [[WeakenedByTheLight weakened by the sun]], leaving him in bad shape. As a result, he has to be kept alive via life support while his Baddies work to resolve the problem. After the Magic Stone is used to perfect the process, Moo ends up [[CameBackStrong returning stronger than ever]]. |
| 43 | * In ''Manga/MyHeroAcademia'', All for One needs a life support system while in his mansion but has a portable one that allows him to venture outside for short periods of time. Like many other cases of this trope, All for One is in this condition in the first place due to a duel against [[TheCape All Might]]. The inverse is true too, however -- while not on life support, All Might's health has deteriorated considerably and requires frequent medical care because All for One dealt a near-lethal injury to All Might too. |
| 44 | * ''Manga/{{Naruto}}'': |
| 45 | ** Orochimaru became bedridden after his arms were sealed by the Third Hokage, and eventually he gets progressively weaker and more sickly when he has not transferred his mind to a new body every three years. [[spoiler:Sasuke takes advantage of this, and defeats him in his sickly state]]. |
| 46 | ** Madara Uchiha managed to survive his defeat by the First Hokage, but by the time he rescued [[spoiler:Obito]] he was an old man only alive thanks to using the [[EldritchAbomination corpse of the Ten Tails]] as [[MundaneUtility life support]]. This didn't stop him from plotting to manipulate [[spoiler:Obito and Nagato]] into unwittingly restoring him to full strength in the future so he could carry out his master plan. |
| 47 | * In ''Manga/OnePiece'', Whitebeard of the Four Emperors is a Dark Lord from the perspective of the World Government (who are far from saints themselves to be fair). He's actually something of a ReasonableAuthorityFigure compared to the others: Big Mom is an immature [[PsychopathicManChild Psychopathic Womanchild]] who wants to create a twisted utopia, Kaido is a bored DeathSeeker who is willing to start a world war just to see if it would be able to kill him, and Shanks is too laidback to be much of an authority figure though he is also pretty reasonable. In his youthful prime, he was rightly considered one of the strongest men in the world if not ''the'' strongest. But time has caught up with him. When we first see him, he's a hulking giant of a man... hooked up to life support and being monitored by nurses. He's ''still'' incredibly strong and capable of causing destruction on a massive scale thanks to his Tremor-Tremor Fruit power, but he's a shadow of what he was in his youth. |
| 48 | * ''Anime/QueensBlade Rebellion'' has an interesting twist in this trope: [[spoiler:The physical body of the Swamp Witch is the one from a demon princess named Werbellia, who needs her for being able to survive in the mortal realm, since the Swamp Witch uses her body in a GrandTheftMe scheme, as Werbellia turns to be a NobleDemon at worst. When the Swamp Witch is defeated for good, Werbellia is forced to return to her realm, leaving her daughters Annelotte and Aldra behind her]]. |
| 49 | * In ''Anime/TheVisionOfEscaflowne'', BigBad Dornkirk [[spoiler:(who is actually Isaac Newton transported to Gaia)]] is perpetually hooked up to a massive life-support machine keeping him alive well past when he should have died of old age. In the last episode, he rips free of it and lets Folken kill him to set in motion his ThanatosGambit. |
| 50 | * Kagemaru, the BigBad of ''Anime/YuGiOhGX'''s ''Sacred Beast/Phantom Demon'' arc, is at first confined to a full-body life support mechanism. During his duel with Judai, with each Phantom/Sacred Beast he summons, the more duel spirit energy he absorbs, restoring his youth, to the point that he's able to emerge from the mechanism and duel Judai without it. |
| 51 | [[/folder]] |
| 52 | |
| 53 | [[folder:Comic Books]] |
| 54 | * ''ComicBook/AgentsOfAtlas:'' The Golden Claw always remains one step ahead of Woo and the Agents, save for a brief run in at Fiji. When they finally meet him again in the final issue, he's dying, admitting the trip to Fiji took a lot out of him. [[FaceDeathWithDignity He's very okay with this, and calmly goes to his death with a smile.]] |
| 55 | * Mr. Freeze from ''ComicBook/{{Batman}}'' can't survive outside his suit for long due to his heat sensitivity. {{Exploited|Trope}} in ''Film/BatmanAndRobin'', where Arkham Asylum's administrators build a TailorMadePrison out of some sort of refrigeration beam. |
| 56 | * Though a less visibly obvious example than some others, this is [[Characters/NewGodsDarkseid Darkseid]]'s state in ''ComicBook/FinalCrisis''. He's essentially stripped of his physical presence, and only able to persist by possessing a series of human hosts, which [[TransformationOfThePossessed decay to resemble his own form]] and [[PossessionBurnout burn out as he uses them]]. He's simultaneously stronger and weaker than ever -- the Anti-Life Equation allows him to crush the free will of nearly everyone on Earth, reducing them to extensions of his own will, but at the same time he's irrevocably dying, [[OmnicidalManiac and his primary goal is to drag Earth and the universe into oblivion with him]]. |
| 57 | * ''ComicBook/GreenLantern'' foe Baron Tyrano is a brilliant-minded multi-millionaire. However, due to an ailing condition, he is restricted to wearing an iron lung. He became an enemy of the Green Lantern as he desired to transfer his mind into the hero's body. |
| 58 | * Harry Cooper of ''ComicBook/{{Hellblazer}}'''s "Son of Man" arc; once known as ''the'' LondonGangster to end all London Gangsters, an unknown illness has left him confined either to his bed or an armchair, unable to do much more than dribble and mumble out the lyrics to songs from his younger days. For good measure, he appears to have picked up a rather unsightly growth on his midsection that's left his limbs to slowly wither away. Until he recovers, his affairs are carried out by his brother [[TheDragon Norman]] or his son [[EnfantTerrible Ronnie]]. [[spoiler:It turns out that he's actually ''[[MisterSeahorse pregnant]]'', the father being Ronnie -- or rather, the entity inhabiting Ronnie's corpse.]] |
| 59 | * ''ComicBook/{{Preacher}}'': Marie L'Angelle, the monstrous matriarch of the L'Angelle family is a wheelchair-bound, wretched, and withered old crone of a woman hooked on oxygen tanks. She rules over her family with an iron fist with absolutely no tolerance for defiance. At some point, she punished Jesse by locking him inside a weighted down coffin with an air tube put in the bottom of the swamp, without food or water, to stir and crawl within his own urine and feces for a month after he refused to become a priest like she wanted. She meets her end after Tulip sets her mansion on fire and the flames reach her oxygen tanks. The subsequent explosion launches her decrepit corpse like a rocket right into Hell. |
| 60 | * The Arch-Hierophante in ''ComicBook/RequiemVampireKnight'' has such a desiccated body that he needs to be kept in a liquid tank all the time. In order to move on his own, he needs his minions to [[ReplicantSnatching flay someone else alive so he can wear their skin]], and even then it's for a limited time since it degenerates at a very rapid rate. |
| 61 | * Dimitri of ''ComicBook/SonicTheHedgehogArchieComics'' was quickly drained of his Enerjak power and left decrepit. The Dark Legion was forced to turn him into a cyborg to keep him alive. Dr. Finitivus, seeking to learn the power of Enerjak, disassembled him, leaving him as just a head in a floating bubble. |
| 62 | * This was supposed to be the case with Gaunt, a ''ComicBook/SpiderMan'' villain in a cybernetic life support suit who first appeared during ''ComicBook/TheCloneSaga''. Gaunt was intended to be the mastermind behind the whole mess, the then-dead Harry Osborn. However editorial nixed the idea, resulting in Gaunt being revealed as former one-shot villain Mendell Stromm and a flunky to the real BigBad. |
| 63 | * In ''[[Franchise/StarWarsLegends Star Wars]] ComicBook/{{Legacy}}'', Darth Krayt suffers from a parasitic infection that is slowly killing him, and needs to go into stasis for long periods of time to slow the spread. He spends most of the series hell-bent on capturing the young Jedi Cade Skywalker, whose unique Force powers could be used to heal Krayt. It's a bit of a {{downplayed|Trope}} example, as Krayt is still a very powerful Sith Lord and can wipe the floor with much younger opponents during the times when he's not in stasis. [[spoiler:After coming back from the dead, Krayt has been cured of his affliction.]] |
| 64 | * King Ommin of Onderon in the ''Franchise/StarWarsLegends'' comic book ''The Freedon Nadd Uprising'' (part of the overarching ''ComicBook/TalesOfTheJedi'') is a wannabe version of this: after years of keeping himself alive with Dark Side abilities learned from Freedon Nadd, he has been reduced to an [[EvilOldFolks extremely aged]], apparent invalid kept in a secret laboratory on a special armature. It turns out that the Dark Side sustaining him makes him still a dangerous threat that the Jedi make the mistake of underestimating, but the armature itself is what allows him to stand, walk, move, and fight by supporting his aged flesh and softened bones. Naturally, it is destroying this that results in Ommin's rather disgusting but well-earned death. |
| 65 | * ''ComicBook/{{Superman}}'': [[Characters/SupermanLexLuthor Lex Luthor]] was twice afflicted with terminal illness during MediaNotes/{{the Dark Age|OfComicBooks}}, first cancer contracted from his kryptonite ring, then later [[CloneDegeneration a degenerative illness in his new cloned body]]. The latter left him in a near vegetative state, unable to so much as close his own eyes. |
| 66 | [[/folder]] |
| 67 | |
| 68 | [[folder:Fan Works]] |
| 69 | * ''Fanfic/CodexEquus'' has High-Roller/Mr. Scratch, a DiabolicalMastermind running a criminal empire that's been running behind the scenes for over a hundred years and is one of [[TheDreaded most feared and dangerous ponies on Equus]] at the time. However, when he finally reveals himself in person, it turns out being over a hundred years old means that he's extremely elderly and his deathbed, only kept alive by life support. He's decidedly not happy about this, particularly because he knows [[DraggedOffToHell he's going to Hell]] when he dies. [[spoiler:So he tricks Prince Maestro, an Alicorn, into a trap and [[GrandTheftMe swaps bodies with him]] to both avoid death and become stronger than ever.]] |
| 70 | * In ''Fanfic/TheWeaverOption'' the AmbiguouslyEvil [[spoiler:Primarch Omegon]] was nearly killed by Guilliman but survived with severe phosphex burns across his entire body. His followers have sealed him in a healing tank where he is kept in a near-permanent slumber, only waking for a few minutes every few years to get a briefing and update his strategies. He can also use a Primarch-sized Dreadnought with a built-in healing tank to go into battle but only does so as a last resort. |
| 71 | [[/folder]] |
| 72 | |
| 73 | [[folder:Film]] |
| 74 | * In the DisasterMovie parody ''Film/TheBigBus'', the Big Bad lives in an iron lung. |
| 75 | * Bane in ''Film/TheDarkKnightRises'' wears a metallic mask which constantly supplies him with anesthetic gas to keep the crippling pain from his old injuries at bay. It's ''frightening'', to say the least. Unlike many examples, unless it is [[AchillesHeel damaged]], the apparatus [[HandicappedBadass does little]] [[CharlesAtlasSuperpower to hamper]] [[CurbStompBattle his combat ability]]. As a matter of fact, the cocktail of drugs dispensed by the mask [[FeelNoPain suppresses his sense of pain]], which contributes to his [[MadeOfIron durability]]. |
| 76 | * In ''Film/DunePartTwo'', it's shown that the Baron Harkonnen suffered lasting damage from [[Film/Dune2021 Leto's poison gas]]. When not using the oil healing bath that saved his life, he is hooked up to a set of floating machines which maintain his vitals. |
| 77 | * {{Downplayed|Trope}} as he's not exactly evil ([[AmoralAttorney just a lawyer]]), but the Senior Partner in ''Film/IntolerableCruelty'' is portrayed like TheDreaded evil overlord and generally represents Massey's bleak fate if he remains {{married to the job}}; heartless, work-obsessed and [[LiteralMetaphor quite literally]] dying at his desk, surrounded by tubes and pumps and sucking in painfully labored {{Vader Breath}}s. |
| 78 | * ''Film/TheJurassicDead'': Dr. Wojick Borge, the villain of the movie, starts out as a fully-abled, healthy human. However, after he gets hit by a car, his health seems to start deteriorating. When he's encountered in his bunker, he's shown to have developed the need of an oxygen tank and wheelchair. |
| 79 | * Immortan Joe from ''Film/MadMaxFuryRoad'' is introduced being put into his armor, allowing us to see that his back is covered in angry, raw red flesh and weeping sores that need to be debrided regularly. He also always wears a mask that seems to provide him supplemental oxygen and/or medicine that gives him VaderBreath, and while he's a BadassDriver par excellence his mobility is limited. It's not clear what exactly caused him to get like this but radiation poisoning or some manner of massive infection seem likely, and while not explicitly stated it's implied he's SecretlyDying, making his moniker an IronicName. |
| 80 | * Lt. Muldoon in ''Film/PlanetTerror'' has to breathe from a tank of some kind, though he's able to go short periods without it. [[spoiler:It's revealed the tank contains the [=DC2=] virus and breathing large quantities of it is the only known means of preventing an [[ZombieInfectee already infected person]] from mutating, and that while an enemy he's [[AntiVillain actually not such a bad guy]].]] |
| 81 | * Jigsaw in the [[Film/SawII second]] through [[Film/SawIV fourth]] ''Franchise/{{Saw}}'' movies. His cancer has finally reduced him to the point that he's permanently bedridden [[spoiler:and relying on his assistants to carry out his plans]]. |
| 82 | * Overdog in ''Film/SpacehunterAdventuresInTheForbiddenZone'' is a cyborg who is linked to a life-support system that lets him suck the life force out of his victims and infuse it into his body. The apparatus also serves as a means of moving around in his lair as he has no lower body and instead is connected to a crane-like structure. |
| 83 | * ''Franchise/StarWars'': |
| 84 | ** Darth Vader is probably the TropeCodifier. Following his duel with Obi-Wan Kenobi on Mustafar, Vader had lost the rest of his limbs and suffered third- to fourth-degree (yes, those exist) burns all over his body and his lungs had collapsed from smoke inhalation. His sealed black armor contains life support systems (his VaderBreath is his cybernetic lung doing the breathing for him) and in the old canon removing it for any significant period of time outside a sealed environment with a carefully controlled atmosphere (Such as the dome in his quarters as shown in ''Film/TheEmpireStrikesBack'' -- as the dome opens, you can briefly see him without the helmet, which quickly lowers onto his head, suggesting that he can go without the helmet in the dome while it's sealed) would be fatal (which is unfortunate for him, since it's relatively badly crafted and leaves him in constant pain, exactly as Sidious planned).[[note]][[MagnificentBastard As Sidious well knew]], this was ''particularly'' infuriating due to the fact that [[GadgeteerGenius Vader was a mechanical genius who could have effortlessly designed far better cybernetics himself]]. Thus, Vader knew ''exactly'' what the flaws in his armor and life support system were, but was powerless to fix them. (''Literature/DarkLordTheRiseOfDarthVader'' even devotes an entire chapter to Vader going over every single flaw in his suit and how torturous the whole thing is for him.) Vader is in ''such'' bad shape without the armor that he wouldn't survive the process of being transferred into a better-functioning life support system, so the best he can do is try to make minor refinements (probably why he has slightly different chest panels in each movie).[[/note]] In the new canon he can stay out of it for some time, but only by floating in his bacta tank, so if he wants to actually ''do'' anything, into the suit it is. Incidentally, this is the reason why he never uses [[ShockAndAwe Force Lightning]], despite it being one of the most powerful Dark Side techniques; it would short out his systems. [[spoiler:Hence his death at the end of ''Film/ReturnOfTheJedi''.]] |
| 85 | ** In ''Franchise/StarWarsLegends'', after an engineered shuttle crash nearly killed him, General Grievous's brain and vital organs were transplanted into a robotic frame. His film version doesn't seem to be in the best of health either, as he's constantly coughing and hunched over. [[spoiler:This was a GameBreakingInjury for him thanks to his fight with Mace Windu in ''WesternAnimation/StarWarsCloneWars'', where Windu [[PsychicStrangle Force-"choked"]] (more like crushed) the container that held his organs save for his brain]]. In [[Franchise/StarWarsExpandedUniverse current canon]], Grievous augmented himself to fight Jedi until he was more mechanical than organic. |
| 86 | ** In ''Film/RogueOne'', while not a bad guy per se, Saw Gerrera has still become a delusional and paranoid rebel leader on Jedha. He also needs an oxygen mask to stay alive (making the Darth Vader breathing noise when he uses it) and can barely walk with his replacement legs, using a staff to support himself. The implication seems to be that he has become not so different from Darth Vader, having fallen to the Dark Side while [[HeWhoFightsMonsters fighting the evils of the Empire]]. |
| 87 | ** In ''Film/TheRiseOfSkywalker'', [[spoiler:a NotQuiteDead Sheev Palpatine/Darth Sidious has become this, leading the Final Order from his life support throne on the Sith homeworld of Exegol. He only becomes whole again by absorbing the life energy of both Rey (his granddaughter) and Ben Solo]]. |
| 88 | * Brainiac is this in the unproduced ''[[Franchise/{{Superman}} Superman Lives]]'' [[http://scifiscripts.com/scripts/supermanlives_kevin_smith.txt script]] by Creator/KevinSmith. |
| 89 | * In ''Film/TheySavedHitlersBrain'', UsefulNotes/AdolfHitler's head has been [[BrainInAJar saved in a jar]] by Nazi scientists and is orchestrating a plot to restart the Holocaust. |
| 90 | * Inability to survive without attaching to another body is pretty much was describes the plot in the infamous SoBadItsGood movie ''Film/TheThingWithTwoHeads''; a racist CorruptCorporateExecutive attaches his head to an unwilling black man. |
| 91 | * ''Film/XMenApocalypse'' has the title villain, who would periodically transfer his essence into a new host body whenever the old one started to wear out. At the start of the movie, he's old and relying on a life support suit, and about to perform a body swap with a mutant that has a HealingFactor to finally be able to "live forever". |
| 92 | [[/folder]] |
| 93 | |
| 94 | [[folder:Literature]] |
| 95 | * In ''Literature/ArtemisFowl'', Opal Koboi goes into a self-induced coma after her goblin uprising fails, and depends on others to feed, wash, and otherwise take care of her. |
| 96 | ** This may not count, as Opal essentially put herself into this state on purpose just to deflect attention from herself until the clone she had created to take her place was ready while she put her new plan of revenge into motion. |
| 97 | * In ''Literature/TheBelgariad'', Torak spent thousands of years in a near-coma after his attempt to use the Orb crippled him. After the Battle of Vo Mimbre, he spent another couple of centuries recovering from the fatal stab wound he received during a one-on-one duel. |
| 98 | * ''Literature/TheBlackCompany'': [[OmnicidalManiac The Limper]] spends most of ''The Silver Spike'' in this state. The events of ''The White Rose'' left him as nothing but a disembodied head, but a temporary alliance with the demon, Toadkiller Dog, see him resurrected as "The Wicker Man." In this state, he can walk and exercise the full force of his sorcerous might, but can speak only as a loud whisper (and that's an improvement over the first draft of his wicker body, which initially didn't let him speak at all) and is painfully aware of the threat that fire poses to his "toy body". Later in the novel, he gets a new body, this time made of enchanted clay, and goes full-on OneWingedAngel. |
| 99 | * In ''Literature/CountZero'', multibillionaire Josef Virek has incurable cancer and has been at the center of a massive complex of life-support machinery for decades now, it's implied that his tumors now comprise the majority of his body weight. For obvious reasons he only communicates through the matrix, using a DigitalAvatar based on his former self. His attempts to seek out [[spoiler:the remnants of Literature/{{Neuromancer}}, the AI that can create sentient {{virtual ghost}}s,]] drive the novel's multiple plot threads. |
| 100 | * In "Donovan's Brain", a scientist recovers said organ from an evil millionaire killed in a plane crash unaware that, freed of its physical body, the brain would grow and gain telepathic powers. The brain takes over the body of the scientist and even hypnotizes someone who knows too much into crashing their car, killing them. |
| 101 | * Mason Verger in the film and book ''Literature/{{Hannibal}}'' is a depraved child molester who was attacked by Hannibal Lecter but survived as a disfigured paraplegic, and therefore utterly depends on his caretaker to carry out his scheme of vengeance against Lecter. As a result of what Lector did to him at their last meeting, he is now on a respirator, bedridden and relies on a machine to moisten his lidless right eye. In both versions, [[spoiler:Lecter convinces his caretaker to kill the helpless Verger in retaliation for years of abuse]]. |
| 102 | * ''Franchise/HarryPotter'': |
| 103 | ** Voldemort lives off [[spoiler:Quirrel]] in ''Literature/HarryPotterAndThePhilosophersStone''. Since he was nearly destroyed, he is too weak to survive alone and even has to have unicorn blood to stay alive. This means he's weak enough that he can barely talk; when [[spoiler:Quirrel is killed]], he flees like a ghost. |
| 104 | ** And even more repulsively when he's reduced to a helpless fetus that relies on Wormtail's care-giving and lives on a cocktail of snake venom and unicorn blood while waiting for the ingredients needed to get his original body back. Even then, he's still got an attitude. |
| 105 | * [[GodIsEvil The Authority]] from ''Literature/HisDarkMaterials'' is so old and withered that he has to live in a crystal globe to ''prevent air currents from disintegrating him''. |
| 106 | * Sauron in ''Literature/TheLordOfTheRings'' relies entirely on the existence of the One Ring. If it is destroyed, then his ability to interact with the physical world is destroyed as well. [[spoiler:When the ring is cast into the Cracks of Doom in Mount Doom, Sauron's body is destroyed as is his entire castle and his [[CurbStompBattle armies are defeated easily]].]] |
| 107 | * ''Literature/MasksOfAygrima'': [[spoiler:The Autarch has to constantly sap magic from the Child Guard in order to stave off the problems caused by his age. Shortly before the first book, he started creating new masks that make people more submissive and allows him to take magic from any Gifted person.]] |
| 108 | * In ''Literature/{{Mistborn}}'', the Lord Ruler maintains his youth by being a [[GameBreaker Compounder]] who can use [[AppliedPhlebotinum atium]]. [[spoiler:Without constant contact with his atium, he has NoImmortalInertia.]] |
| 109 | * The ''Literature/JamesBond'' novel ''Literature/NobodyLivesForEver'' reveals that current SPECTRE head Tamil Rahani ended up on life support after his previous encounter with Bond in ''Literature/RoleOfHonour'' and is slowly dying. The conflict of the book stems from Rahani putting a price on Bond's head ([[OffWithHisHead literally]]) in the hopes of seeing him dead before he goes. |
| 110 | * In ''Literature/{{Otherland}}'', Felix Jongleur is nearly 200 years old, having been born prior to UsefulNotes/WorldWarI. Throughout his long life he's devoted himself to the singular purpose of conquering death, and through his wealth has constructed a fantastic virtual reality simulation that he can play God in (and to the world, via his VR avatar). The truth is that his real body is a shriveled, useless ''thing'' that lives permanently in a life support tank, with little more than the heart and brain functioning. The [[BodyHorror horror]] of his circumstances is one of the few things he fears to confront, and his ultimate plan is to achieve immortality through BrainUploading. |
| 111 | * The Wizard King Ahm Y'Zir, youngest son of [[PredecessorVillain Xhum Y'Zir]] from ''The Psalms of Isaak'' is eventually revealed to be this; kept alive for more than two thousand years by [[{{Magitek}} a combination]] of BloodMagic and being turned into a {{cyborg}}. Of course, either the process or his great age has left him ''quite'' insane, [[spoiler: and he's the guiding hand of the Empire of Y'Zir, the most powerful and aggressive nation on the planet...]] |
| 112 | * Ah Ling/Hendrik van Eeden/Tzaddik from the ''Literature/SallyLockhart'' series is this. Although Sally shoots him in ''The Ruby in the Smoke'', we find out in ''The Tiger in the Well'' that he survived, but her bullet had pierced his spinal cord, leaving him paralyzed. |
| 113 | * {{Inverted|Trope}} in the Creator/DaleBrown novel ''Starfire'': [[spoiler:Patrick [=McLanahan=], the hero, is revealed to be NotQuiteDead, but his badly mangled body is dependent on a CID's life support systems nearly all the time]]. |
| 114 | * A variation in ''Literature/TheWheelOfTime''. [[TheDragon Ishamael]] used the [[BlackMagic True Power]] ''way'' more than was good for him, which did quite a number on his body (superficially, he may still look like a handsome middle-aged man, but those flames constantly coming out of his [[GlowingEyesOfDoom eyes]] and [[ThroatLight mouth]]? They're ''real''). Apparently the only thing keeping him alive was his connection to [[GodOfEvil the Dark One]], and when he dies his body has burnt-out holes where eyes and mouth should be, and rots away almost immediately. It's no wonder that Rand mistakenly thought Ishamael ''was'' the Dark One in the first book. |
| 115 | [[/folder]] |
| 116 | |
| 117 | [[folder:Live-Action TV]] |
| 118 | * ''Series/AgentsOfSHIELD'' plays with this trope a bit in the latter end of the first season: |
| 119 | ** "[[Recap/AgentsOfSHIELDS1E16EndOfTheBeginning End of the Beginning]]" has Garrett and Coulson track down Thomas Nash, who they believe to be [[BigBad the Clairvoyant]]. They discover that he's in a wheelchair and requires breathing tubes, and can only communicate through a speech synthesizer. [[spoiler:He's a {{subver|tedTrope}}sion; the real Clairvoyant set him up as a fall guy and had someone else running the synthesizer before having Ward shoot him.]] |
| 120 | ** "[[Recap/AgentsOfSHIELDS1E21Ragtag Ragtag]]" reveals that [[spoiler:Garrett, [[BigBadFriend the real Clairvoyant]], really is one. He actually has a cybernetic implant feeding him [[SuperSerum Centipede serum]], yet he has no super-strength because he's so far gone that the serum only brings him up to "normal". Even with the implant, he's going to die unless he takes the GH serum]]. |
| 121 | * In ''Series/BlackScorpion'', StarterVillain Breathtaker is confined to suit of armor that breathes for him after having been shot through both lungs. |
| 122 | * Hector Salamanca from ''Series/BreakingBad'' fits this trope, since he used to be a cruel killer for the Cartel and is now confined to a wheelchair, needs a nasal cannula and can only communicate by using a bell thanks to suffering a debilitating stroke. His rival and ArchEnemy Gus Fring loves rubbing it in his face, [[spoiler:at least until Hector uses that bell to trigger a makeshift bomb and [[TakingYouWithMe kill Gus and himself]] in revenge]]. |
| 123 | * ''Series/DoctorWho'': |
| 124 | ** All of the Daleks. [[LittleGreenManInACan Inside those fearsome "travel machines"]], they're just [[http://www.thedoctorwhosite.co.uk/dalek/inside/ these helpless little squid-like things]]. |
| 125 | ** Davros, the creator and for a while the ruler of the Daleks, kept alive by a life-support system inside his high-tech wheelchair which can be turned off by pressing a button. |
| 126 | *** In "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS22E6RevelationOfTheDaleks Revelation of the Daleks]]", he appears to be reduced to a [[BrainInAJar head in a tank]]. [[spoiler:His subsequent appearance reveals that the head was just a robotic decoy.]] |
| 127 | *** When we see him in "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS35E1TheMagiciansApprentice The Magician's Apprentice]]"/"[[Recap/DoctorWhoS35E2TheWitchsFamiliar The Witch's Familiar]]", either age or disease has worn him down to the point that he needs to be wired to [[spoiler:the energy of every Dalek on Skaro]] to keep himself alive, and he's permanently confined to his life-support chamber. [[spoiler:That changes after he convinces the Doctor to spare him some regeneration energy -- and tricks him into powering up every Dalek on the planet, to boot.]] |
| 128 | ** A most extreme example is Queen Xanxia of Zanak from "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS16E2ThePiratePlanet The Pirate Planet]]". She is an extremely old, withered crone, kept one second away from death with time dams. The gigantic, hollow planet Zanak materializes around other, smaller planets and [[PlanetLooters sucks them dry in order to fuel these time dams]]. ''[[ImmortalityImmorality Entire planets die to keep one woman on 'life support']],'' and the Doctor mockingly tells her when they meet that it won't work forever, even if she tries to take the energy from suns, as there simply isn't enough energy in the universe for that plan to work. |
| 129 | ** Lady Cassandra O'Brien.Δ17 from "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS27E2TheEndOfTheWorld The End of the World]]" and "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS28E1NewEarth New Earth]]" considers herself to be the last human being, but has undergone 708 cosmetic operations and is now nothing more than skin with a face, stretched over a screen, with her {{brain in a jar}} underneath, needing to be constantly moisturized. |
| 130 | ** "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS28E5RiseOfTheCybermen Rise of the Cybermen]]"/"[[Recap/DoctorWhoS28E6TheAgeOfSteel The Age of Steel]]": John Lumic, the creator of the alternate universe Cybermen, due to an illness. He created the Cybermen partially as a way to help him find a way to extend his lifespan. When his machine is damaged, [[spoiler:the Cybermen [[UnwillingRoboticisation forcefully install him into their Cyber-controller]]]]. |
| 131 | ** Max Capricorn in the Christmas special "[[Recap/DoctorWho2007CSVoyageOfTheDamned Voyage of the Damned]]". Thanks to an almost two-century long lifespan, he's [[BrainInAJar only a head attached to a machine]]. |
| 132 | ** The villain in "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS37E10TheBattleOfRanskoorAvKolos The Battle of Ranskoor Av Kolos]]", [[spoiler:Tzim-Sha (a.k.a. Tim Shaw)]] is in pretty bad shape when the Doctor meets him: he needs a mask to breathe properly, and is attached to a pair of pumping bellows that seem to function as supports for his heart or lungs. [[spoiler:Having five DNA bombs explode under your skin will do that to you, even three thousand years later.]] |
| 133 | * [[BigBad Scorpius]] in ''Series/{{Farscape}}''. A Sebacean-Scarran hybrid, his body chemistry is literally at war with itself; Sebaceans become delirious and risk death if they get too hot, while Scarrans constantly produce massive amounts of heat, and so Scorpius required an extensive cybernetic cooling system (including rods inserted into his brain) just to maintain a functional condition. Enemies who learn of this weakness frequently try to take advantage of it to kill or disable him. |
| 134 | * ''Series/TheFlash2014'': Season 4 BigBad Clifford [=DeVoe=], a.k.a. the Thinker, gained his SuperIntelligence through an experiment that heightened the energy flowing to his brain. But as a side effect, that energy is being drained from the rest of the body, giving him a form of ALS that crippled and is slowly killing him. Only the hoverchair he has to routinely plug himself into is keeping him alive, and even that is revealed to be merely delaying the inevitable [[spoiler:until he uses a telepath's powers to transfer his mind into a new body]]. And then he's forced to [[spoiler:BodySurf the bus metas until finally settling in Ralph Dibny's body, whose flexible cellular structure is not only immune to [=DeVoe=]'s degradation but enables him to shift back into his original form]]. |
| 135 | * ''Series/Forever2014'' ends with [[spoiler:the immortal sociopath Adam confined to a hospital bed after Henry injects an oxygen bubble into his brain, leaving him with locked-in syndrome. In a flashback, Adam avoids a similar fate in a hospital by slitting his own throat, thus triggering his ResurrectiveImmortality, which returns him to the same state as before the injury]]. |
| 136 | * ''Series/{{Heroes}}'': |
| 137 | ** Samson Grey is [[spoiler:found by his son, Gabriel "Sylar" Grey]], hooked up with tubes and IV because of his terminal disease. He reminisces on his younger days, when he was a great hunter. |
| 138 | ** [[spoiler:Arthur Petrelli is bedridden after a near-fatal poisoning until he managed to absorb the healing-factor of another superhuman]]. |
| 139 | * God Neros of ''Series/ChoujinkiMetalder'' is this -- it's heavily implied his throne is the only thing really keeping him alive, as he never leaves it, even to fight Metalder.[[note]]His counterpart [[Series/VRTroopers Grimlord]] doesn't have this limitation, but still doesn't leave his throne until he upgrades into a new US-exclusive form in season 2.[[/note]] |
| 140 | * In ''Series/PowerRangersBeastMorphers'', [[spoiler:[[BigBad Evox]] took over [[GrandTheftMe the body of Mayor Daniels]] as part of his master plan to seize the Morphin' Grid. However, prolonged exposure to human DNA caused his data to corrupt and corrode. Upon [[EnemyWithout being separated from Mayor Daniels]], he was left weakened to the point that he required massive amounts of Morph-X to stay alive, which prevented him from being too active for several episodes. It wasn't until the finale that he was brought back to full power by absorbing his [[Series/PowerRangersRPM source code]]]]. |
| 141 | * In ''Series/PowerRangersSamurai'' and its ''Franchise/SuperSentai'' counterpart, ''Series/SamuraiSentaiShinkenger'', after leaving the Netherworld to attack the Rangers (and viciously [[CurbStompBattle curbstomping]] them), [[BigBad Master Xandred]][=/=]Chimatsuri Dokoku dried out to the point that he needed to be immersed in the Sanzu River for several episodes. [[spoiler:He eventually returned when the destruction of Daiyu's harmonium[=/=]shamisen caused the Sanzu River to rise enough for him to recover almost immediately]]. |
| 142 | * William Raines in ''Series/ThePretender'' had to wheel an oxygen tank around with him wherever he went. |
| 143 | * Season 8 of ''Series/{{Smallville}}'' turns Lex Luthor into one. Strapped into the back of a truck, fed by tubes, and hooked up to a respirator after the Fortress of Solitude landed on him, Lex is reduced to acting through his intermediary, Winslow Schott. |
| 144 | * Jackie "The Chemo-sabe" Aprile Sr. in ''Series/TheSopranos'' is a realistic example, until the cancer finally kills him. |
| 145 | * ''Series/StargateSG1'': |
| 146 | ** The [[PuppeteerParasite Goa'uld]] are a form of this, due to requiring a host body to do anything more complicated than swimming in a lake. |
| 147 | ** Anubis as well. Due to having {{ascend|ToAHigherPlaneOfExistence}}ed and then getting kicked partway back down to our plane of existence, he currently exists as an {{Energy Being|s}} that requires some form of assistance in order to interact with our world. From season 5 until "[[Recap/StargateSG1S7E21LostCityPart1 Lost]] [[Recap/StargateSG1S7E22LostCityPart2 City]]", that assistance was a force-field suit. After its destruction, he had to BodySurf between hosts whose bodies reacted to him as if he were a disease and eventually suffered immune system failure. |
| 148 | * Mobius from ''Series/TeamKnightRider'', who is left confined to a wheelchair and needing the use of tubes to talk due to an unspecified illness. |
| 149 | * The Cigarette-Smoking Man of ''Series/TheXFiles'' is eventually confined to a wheelchair due to [[spoiler:alien technologies implanted into his brain and]] [[GoodSmokingEvilSmoking heavy smoking]]. |
| 150 | [[/folder]] |
| 151 | |
| 152 | [[folder:Tabletop Games]] |
| 153 | * In 5th Edition ''TabletopGame/{{Champions}}'' the leader of the [[ReligionOfEvil murderous cult/criminal organization DEMON]] is the [[EvilSorcerer dark sorcerer]] Luther Black. He plans to [[SealedEvilInACan unleash the]] [[EldritchAbomination Kings of Edom]] to [[GodhoodSeeker join their ranks]] and enslave humanity. He's actually gotten pretty close to this goal by the time we see him. Unfortunately for him, absorbing that much [[TheCorruption physically and spiritually corrupting Qlippothic energy]] has both made him the world's most powerful black magician and [[AndIMustScream left him a helpless cripple on constant life support]]. |
| 154 | ** Came to an end about a year and a half ago, as his ascension to EldritchAbomination status was set to coincide with the winter solstice of 2012. WordOfGod says it failed. |
| 155 | * ''TabletopGame/{{Exalted}}'' features Ragara, the founder of one of the [[ElementalPowers Dragon-Blooded]] Great Houses of [[TheEmpire the Realm]]. Where the typical maximum lifespan of Dragon-Blooded is around three hundred years, Ragara is more than six hundred and twenty years old, sustained in the modern setting by a magic sword slowly feeding him the life force of the captured soul of a Solar Exalt. The decrepitude of his state is enough that he's been forced to retire from running his House personally and lives surrounded by full time carers. |
| 156 | * The module ''Goldfinger II: The Man With The Midas Touch'' from Victory Games ''[[Franchise/JamesBond James Bond 007]]'' RPG includes alternate stats for Auric Goldfinger if the players [[NeverFoundTheBody "killed" or seriously injured him]] during a previous encounter. In that case, a near-quadriplegic Goldfinger trundles around in an armored, golf cart-like mobile life support system equipped with a waldo and a concealed Uzi. |
| 157 | * In ''TabletopGame/{{Warhammer}}'', Malekith the Witch King failed to pass through the flames of Asuryan and was horribly burned for being unworthy. He was saved when his followers encased him in black Armor of Midnight which fused with his flesh. Malekith is kept alive, thanks to the armor, his followers' magic, and his [[PowerOfHate hatred of the High Elves]]. |
| 158 | ** Meanwhile, all Chaos Dwarf sorcerer-priests suffer from a unique form of PowerDegeneration that causes their bodies to [[TakenForGranite gradually petrify into inanimate statues]] as a result of their continuous usage of magic [[note]]which Dwarfs aren't well-disposed to by nature, even in their chaos-tainted state. [[/note]] The oldest of all the sorcerer-priests, Astragoth Ironhand, has circumvented his ongoing paralysis by equipping himself with a [[{{Steampunk}} steam-powered]] {{cyborg}} frame: it's kept him mobile and alive for the time being, but it's only a matter of time before he's reduced to another statue lining the roads to [[{{Mordor}} Zharr-Naggrund]]. |
| 159 | * [[GodEmperor The Emperor of Mankind]] in ''TabletopGame/Warhammer40000'' is kept on the Golden Throne, an enormous life support machine powered by [[PoweredByAForsakenChild consuming the souls of a thousand psykers]] every single day. While his body crumbles, his mind is said to remain intact, guiding space travel and holding the [[TheCorruption forces of Chaos at bay]]. His direct actions have led to the [[ShootTheDog deaths of billions]] in pursuing his long term goal [[DarkMessiah of preserving humanity]] and could easily qualify him for Dark Lord status in most other settings. Due to [[HaveYouSeenMyGod his state of unlife]] and the ridiculously grimdark setting, though, the living version would probably still be horrified by what the [[CrapsackWorld Imperium of Man]] has become. DependingOnTheArtist the Emperor is in various states of mummification, ranging from an almost living corpse in a sitting position to a giant skeleton with wires hanging out of it. |
| 160 | ** Huron Blackheart, a renegade Space Marine Chapter Master, led a failed secession attempt against the Imperium that ended with close to half his body being blown off. His Chapter managed to save his life by rebuilding him with extensive cybernetic implants. Huron is now a powerful space pirate lord aligned with Chaos, living in perpetual, near maddening agony due to his extensive injuries and requires frequent medical treatments to manage his condition. |
| 161 | * Later books in ''TabletopGame/VampireTheMasquerade'' reveal that Tremere himself has been trapped in a very unique form of Torpor for the last few centuries; quite apart from being effectively comatose and only intermittently capable of awakening, he also suffers from violent fits and spasms, requiring around-the-clock care to ensure that he doesn't hurt himself. At times, for reasons his lieutenants have been unable to fathom, Tremere even [[BodyHorror mutates into a grublike monstrosity covered in eyeballs]]; needless to say, the clan founder's condition is a best-kept secret, and apprentices have been killed to ensure it remains so. [[spoiler: [[LaserGuidedKarma This is actually a direct result of Tremere diablerizing Saulot]]; [[CannibalismSuperpower the Usurper was able to devour the Salubri founder's soul]], but not quite capable of ''digesting'' it, forcing him into torpor in his attempts to stop Saulot [[GrandTheftMe from taking over his body]].]] During [[TheEndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt Gehenna]], [[spoiler: Tremere loses the battle altogether and is evicted from his own body, allowing Saulot to live again and forcing Tremere to seize control of Goratrix.]] |
| 162 | * During the ''TabletopGame/WerewolfTheApocalypse'' book ''Subsidiaries: A Guide To Pentex,'' it's revealed that Dexter King, founder and former president of King Breweries, is currently bedridden and dependent on a respirator. Ironically, he only ended up this way thanks to the only good deed he ever performed in his life: opposing his son's partnership with [[EvilInc Pentex]]. Cursed with a degenerative lung condition by his son's new allies, he's been effectively ousted from power and left to slowly die - slowly, so Jeremy can keep his father informed on how well the company's doing without him, and so Dexter's suffering can linger on for decades. Of course, the book notes that Dexter still has a few contacts within the company - and, [[EnemyMine if the player can stomach an alliance with him]], a means of taking revenge. |
| 163 | [[/folder]] |
| 164 | |
| 165 | [[folder:Video Games]] |
| 166 | * ''Franchise/BatmanArkhamSeries'': |
| 167 | ** In ''VideoGame/BatmanArkhamCity'', the Joker has to be kept on life support because [[spoiler:he's dying from [[PsychoSerum Titan]] poisoning. The Titan serum that mutated him and gave him superhuman strength at the end of ''VideoGame/BatmanArkhamAsylum'' actually had unforeseen side-effects; he has a sickness that is slowly killing him]]. |
| 168 | ** ''VideoGame/BatmanArkhamKnight'', "Season of Infamy" [[DownloadableContent DLC]]: Ra's Al Ghul has developed severe complications from extensive use of the Lazarus Vector (as seen in ''Arkham City''). He can't be moved from the city and Batman blew up the local Lazarus Pit, so he's forced into a giant life-support throne while his army of ninja bunnies guard him. This has caused Nyssa Raatko, Ra's other daughter, to attempt to take control of the League of Shadows and sparks a civil war within the organization. Batman can choose to save Ra's with what little remains of the Lazarus Pit liquid, or destroy the life support and send him to police custody until he dies. |
| 169 | * The Domz Priest from ''VideoGame/BeyondGoodAndEvil''. The weird statue is the only thing that's keeping it alive. |
| 170 | * Zachary Hale Comstock in ''VideoGame/BioShockInfinite'' is revealed early on to be suffering from terminal cancer and is in the process of grooming his daughter Elizabeth to rule Columbia in his place and carry out his plan to destroy the world below. [[spoiler:Later in the game, it's also revealed that the cancer, his apparent old age, and his sterility are the result of over-exposure to the Luteces' InterdimensionalTravelDevice; he's actually the same age as Booker.]] |
| 171 | * [[ZigZaggingTrope Zig-zagged]] in ''VideoGame/DarkSouls'', where the Lord of Light Gwyn, who may either be the BigBad or BigGood of the series, depending on your interpretation the lore (remember, he's the creator of the world of Dark Souls as we know it, and [[DarkFantasy we know damn well what kind of world that is]]), has ''become'' the life support for the [[CosmicKeystone First Flame]] by offering himself as fuel to it. By the time we meet him as the final boss of the first game, he has become a disheveled mummy, whose previous strength as the God-king of Lordran and the world has faded to such an extent, his attacks can be parried as if he was a common {{Mook|s}}. |
| 172 | * ''VideoGame/Destiny2'': It is revealed in the Presage lore that the reason [[FriendlyEnemy Emperor Calus]] fights using [[ActuallyADoombot robot doubles]] rather than facing you personally is because [[spoiler:he's actually [[BrokenAce an extremely old and sickly man suffering from severe drug addiction]] thanks to his long lifetime of [[TheHedonist hedonism]], so much so that he needs to be sealed in a [[Franchise/StarWars Darth Vader]]-esque mechanical frame that constantly pumps [[FantasticDrug royal wine]] into his veins in order to walk around. The robot duplicates you've been fighting all this time are actually [[IWasQuiteALooker representations of Calus in his youth]]]]. |
| 173 | * ''VideoGame/DevilMayCry5'': [[spoiler:After Vergil split himself into [[BigBad Urizen]] and V, both halves were left still dying, so Urizen merged himself with the Qliphoth tree so he could survive until it bore the fruit that would heal him.]] |
| 174 | * Mr. Hat in the ''VideoGame/{{Dishonored}}'' [[DownloadableContent DLC]] ''The Brigmore Witches'' is unwillingly hitched up to one while his "nurse" usurps his leadership. To stop anybody from ending his life he's hooked up to a kill switch that'll flood the building with a deadly toxin. |
| 175 | * In ''VideoGame/DreamfallTheLongestJourney'', Alvin Peats, the founder of [=WATICorp=], is alive at the age of 150 as machines are keeping him alive. |
| 176 | * ''VideoGame/ElShaddaiAscensionOfTheMetatron'' has Semyaza on angelic life support after his [[FallenAngel fall from heaven]]. Worse, he seems to have died down to the soul [[TheUnfought before you even reach him]]. |
| 177 | * Pyramid in ''VideoGame/EnslavedOdysseyToTheWest'' turns out to be an old man hooked up to a variety of tubing and wires [[spoiler:feeding his memories of the old world to survivors his robots kidnapped. Trip unplugs him while he is showing Monkey the old world]]. |
| 178 | * ''Franchise/{{Fallout}}'': |
| 179 | ** The Master in the original ''VideoGame/Fallout1'' is integrated into his Vault lair and cannot leave it. |
| 180 | ** Frank Horrigan, the final boss of ''VideoGame/Fallout2'', is essentially welded into his PoweredArmor. |
| 181 | ** ''VideoGame/Fallout3'': |
| 182 | *** MadScientist Dr. Stanislaus Braun has spent the past 200 years in a VR/life support pod overseeing the Tranquility Lane simulation, and is terminally dependent on it, as he tells the Lone Wanderer in the sim. |
| 183 | *** The "Point Lookout" DLC features a feud between the ghoul Desmond and the BrainInAJar Professor Calvert. Calvert is the more obviously villainous of the two (though you can side with him if you like) and is utterly dependent on machinery to survive. |
| 184 | ** ''VideoGame/FalloutNewVegas'': |
| 185 | *** Mr. House (though his villainy depends on who you ask), who has managed to prolong his life by confining himself to a sophisticated life support chamber. [[spoiler:Opening the chamber will ensure his eventual death due to being exposed to outside contaminants.]] |
| 186 | *** Caesar isn't technically on life support, but has a crippling brain tumor, hence Lanius being DragonInChief. A Legion-aligned player can attempt to rectify this by either fixing an Autodoc, getting a capable-enough surgeon or (with sufficient-enough medical skill/[[AchievementsInIgnorance luck]]) doing the surgery themselves. |
| 187 | *** The six scientists of Big Mountain in the "Old World Blues" DLC are all little more than a BrainInAJar, having been converted to "Think Tank" life support systems in order to continue their research long past their natural lifespans. Their "Dark Lord" status is a little nebulous, but in true ''Fallout'' fashion, the player can side with either group of them, or with neither. |
| 188 | ** ''Videogame/Fallout4'': [[spoiler:Shaun]], the director of the Institute, is a 60-year-old man dying from cancer. Assuming you haven't killed him, in your final encounter with him, he's on his deathbed and only has enough time to give you some parting words. |
| 189 | * Jon Gravelli, TheDon of the Gambetti crime family from ''VideoGame/GrandTheftAutoIV'', has been confined to a hospital bed for the past three years when the player meets him. [[spoiler:After the last mission, he passes away in his sleep.]] |
| 190 | * Makaan in ''VideoGame/{{Homeworld}} 2'' qualifies: He is [[WetwareCPU Unbound]], and as such requires machinery to keep his body alive and linked up. While it is entirely possible for an Unbound to be extracted the process is extremely difficult and potentially fatal. |
| 191 | * ''VideoGame/{{ICO}}'' plays with this. The Queen has been living in her own body, but [[spoiler:she'll soon need to sacrifice Yorda and use her as a host to keep living]]. |
| 192 | * ''VideoGame/JadeEmpire'' has a more [[SufficientlyAdvancedMagic magical version]] in Death's Hand. [[spoiler:He is the ghost of a dead prince, whose soul was bound into [[MagnificentBastard his brother]]'s armor by [[GodEmperor his other brother]].]] |
| 193 | * The BigBad of ''VideoGame/KirbyAndTheForgottenLand'', [[spoiler:Fecto Forgo]], is unable to leave the "[[TailorMadePrison Eternal Capsule]]" they're trapped in [[spoiler:because they're incomplete without [[HelplessGoodSide Elfilin]], a "small, benevolent heart" who split off from them during a Warp Experiment Incident. As a result, they're [[NeverGrewUp stuck as a larva]], and will [[ImMelting immediately melt]] should they escape. This does end up happening, but Fecto Forgo finds [[TheAssimilator a way around this]], with the help of [[BadBoss the Beast Pack]]...]] |
| 194 | * ''VideoGame/MetalGear'': |
| 195 | ** [[spoiler:Major Zero]] is revealed to be this at the end of ''VideoGame/MetalGearSolid4GunsOfThePatriots'', right before he gets unplugged by [[spoiler:Big Boss]]. |
| 196 | ** ''VideoGame/MetalGearSolidVThePhantomPain'' reveals how he got in this state: [[spoiler:Skull Face sent him a pin filled with parasites designed to reduce their victims to a vegetative state.]] |
| 197 | * ''Franchise/{{Metroid}}'': |
| 198 | ** {{Subverted|Trope}} with Mother Brain, the BigBad of the series, a [[BrainMonster giant brain]] [[BrainInAJar in a highly impact-resistant glass casing]]. After breaking through the shield, you still have to fire multiple missiles (regular beams do nothing) directly at her bare grey matter in order to finish her off proving that the transparent casing is clearly for protective reasons only. |
| 199 | ** Samus' ArchEnemy Ridley is subject to this over the course of the ''VideoGame/MetroidPrimeTrilogy'', where after being defeated by her in the events of the first ''VideoGame/Metroid1'', he survived, crippled, and the Space Pirates gave him cybernetic implants to restore him to battle capacity. Eventually, thanks to his strong HealingFactor, he sheds the implants by the time of ''VideoGame/SuperMetroid'' [[spoiler:(as shown in ''VideoGame/MetroidSamusReturns'')]] and is back to being fully organic. |
| 200 | * ''VideoGame/{{Mother}}'': |
| 201 | ** In ''VideoGame/EarthBound1994'', Giygas' mind is destroyed from being inside the Devil's Machine. When you eventually fight him, [[spoiler:Porky]] explains to you that he's the one running the show, deriding Giygas as an AlmightyIdiot who is now trapped inside the machine before he shuts it down and reveals his true form. |
| 202 | ** In ''VideoGame/Mother3'', [[spoiler:Porky himself]] is ultimately revealed to be trapped inside a machine, being immortal but physically unable to function outside of it due to time travel, and even hacking and coughing while either talking or fighting you. |
| 203 | * ''VideoGame/NintendoWars'': [[MadScientist Von Bolt]], the BigBad of ''Advance Wars: Dual Strike'', has to be kept in a life-support chair with his head in a dome of liquid to keep him alive. [[ImmortalitySeeker Three guesses what his goal is]]. |
| 204 | * Ex-hitman Volkov in ''VideoGame/NoOneLivesForever 2'' rolls around in a wheelchair, following his [[spoiler:fight against Cate in ''NOLF 1'']]. The wheelchair has a built-in rocket launcher, though, so it's all good. |
| 205 | * ''VideoGame/{{Portal}}'': |
| 206 | ** Technically, [=GLaDOS=] falls under this trope, since she is bound to the facility and dependent on the emotion cores and the local power supply. |
| 207 | ** By the end of his life, [[spoiler:Cave Johnson]] counted as this too, slowly dying from [[spoiler:moon-rock poisoning]]. |
| 208 | * ''Franchise/ResidentEvil'': Umbrella president Oswell E. Spencer is confined to a wheelchair and life support system when we seem him in flashbacks in ''VideoGame/ResidentEvil5'' due to his old age. [[spoiler:He expects Alex Wesker to reverse this condition by engineering an Immortality virus, although Albert Wesker kills him to become the BigBad after Spencer reveals that Wesker was one of many {{Unwitting Pawn}}s for Umbrella known as "Wesker children" in a project done to create the perfect breed of humans.]] |
| 209 | * ''Franchise/SonicTheHedgehog'': |
| 210 | ** The final boss of ''VideoGame/SonicAdventure2'', [[spoiler:the Biolizard, the original "UltimateLifeForm"]], while NighInvulnerable, has a life-support machine on its back, which it needs in order to survive, and even then it needs to stop and take a breather after attacking. As such, the system itself is his AchillesHeel and is what you have to attack. Makes sense, considering [[spoiler:it's the ''prototype'' of the ultimate lifeform. The final product, Shadow, gets along just fine without any such equipment]]. |
| 211 | ** Lyric the Ancient in ''VideoGame/SonicBoomRiseOfLyric''. His ongoing research into [[GreenRocks the Ancient Crystals]] left his body in a sickly, dammaged state, so much so that he had to partially mechanize himself to keep his failing body going. That along with SanitySlippage making him become obsessed with fully mechanizing the world forced the hand of his fellow Ancients and he was forcibly cut off from the crystals and [[SealedEvilInACan imprisoned for all of eternity.]] At least until [[NiceJobBreakingItHero Sonic accidentally breaks him out of his prison.]] |
| 212 | * Sludge Vohaul, the primary antagonist of the ''VideoGame/SpaceQuest'' series and an {{Expy}} of Darth Vader, is permanently attached to a life support machine, as first seen in ''VideoGame/{{Space Quest II|VohaulsRevenge}}'' and the page image. Roger manages to shut it off, which kills him, but he returns as a computer virus in [[VideoGame/SpaceQuestIVRogerWilcoAndTheTimeRippers the fourth game]]. |
| 213 | * In ''VideoGame/SpiderManPS4'', [[spoiler:Doctor Octavius has a degenerative muscle disease that will eventually render him a brilliant mind in an immobile body, prompting him to create advanced prosthetic technology that eventually results in the invention of his iconic tentacle arms. As a result, one of his greatest fears as he's thrown in prison is being separated from his arms]]. |
| 214 | * Darth Malgus in ''VideoGame/StarWarsTheOldRepublic'', courtesy of [[BadassNormal Republic Trooper]] Jace Malcom rushing him with a live thermal detonator. ''Franchise/StarWarsLegends'' had him as an in-universe inspiration for Darth Vader's fighting style, as they both suffered similar injuries and handicaps. |
| 215 | * Crime boss syndicate Mr. X in the ''VideoGame/StreetsOfRage'' series is brought down to this by the end of the 3rd game via BrainInAJar. |
| 216 | * ''VideoGame/TeamFortress2'': |
| 217 | ** The teams' owners, Blutarch and Redmond Mann, are ([[spoiler:or rather were]]) among the closest things to evil overlords in this universe. Both of them are on life support/extender machines to try and outlast each other. Since the machines are about a hundred years old, they don't run perfectly, and thus the brothers die every now and then. |
| 218 | ** [[spoiler:Gray Mann, the heretofore unknown third brother, has a life extender machine embedded into his spine. It works far better, as it is smaller, is never shown malfunctioning, and has left him ambulatory and in much better shape than his brothers after all these years. The ''Ring of Fired'' comic reveals that it runs off liquid [[AppliedPhlebotinum Australium]], which is why he seeks to retake Mann Co. and Hale's stash of Australium.]] |
| 219 | ** [[spoiler:[[CannedOrdersOverLoudspeaker Helen]], TheAnnouncer, is only alive because of similar technology that TheEngineer has to keep on updating.[[note]]Though whether she's the BigBad or the BigGood is presently up to your personal interpretation.[[/note]] At the end of "''Team Fortress'' #6: The Naked and the Dead'', she uses the last bit of Australium on the planet to give herself one last hour at her prime.]] |
| 220 | * In ''VideoGame/WolfensteinIITheNewColossus'', after all the years fighting [[ThoseWackyNazis Nazis]], B. J. Blazkowicz finally comes face to face with Mr. Hitler himself... and finds out that the once-charismatic Fuhrer has been reduced to a frail, doddering old man whose grip on reality seems tenuous at best and regularly cycles between pissing blood, ranting about "Jewish conspiracies", whimpering for his mother, vomiting all over the floor, casting people for his new "cinematic masterpiece", and shooting people who displease him. It's pretty much implied that his subordinates have him distracted with his artistic pursuits in order to keep him as far away from leading the Reich as possible. |
| 221 | * In ''VideoGame/{{Xenogears}}'', there is Emperor Cain of Solaris, [[spoiler:who actually spends most of his time throughout the game proper trying to atone for what he's done during his many years alive. He was the first human created by Deus and has been on extended life support for nearly ''10,000 years'', what is actually seen of him is a mask that accounts for part of the system that keeps him alive; when he's finally killed later on -- the mask comes off and all that remains is a blackened husk]]. |
| 222 | [[/folder]] |
| 223 | |
| 224 | [[folder:Webcomics]] |
| 225 | * Count Tarrorviene of ''Webcomic/{{Annyseed}}'' is hooked up to a blood machine which he is dependent on for survival. He also keeps his most capable servant at his side all the time, rather than sending her out to accomplish tasks that are difficult for his lesser servants, because he's incapable of defending himself and fears for his safety. |
| 226 | * In ''Webcomic/{{Erfworld}}'', the BigBad, [[spoiler:Charlie, was reduced to a pitiable state by his treacherous sociopathic daughter, Olive Branch. At first, she tried to control him with a FantasticDrug and tried to murder him with poison when that failed. While he managed to survive, it was at a terrible price. In the present era, his body is overweight, mostly limp, and cold to the touch. He is hooked up to machinery and requires the aid of his closest followers to even move his hands]]. |
| 227 | * ''Webcomic/IrregularWebcomic'': Hitler was burnt at the Reichstag fire and is a BrainInAJar. |
| 228 | * The [[GodEmperor Demiurge]] Jadis in ''Webcomic/KillSixBillionDemons'' is a withered wreck [[http://killsixbilliondemons.com/comic/ksbd-4-77/ entombed in glass]], whispering unfailingly accurate prophecies to her priests. Her condition comes from forcing herself to witness the true Shape of the Universe -- effectively punching through a YouCannotGraspTheTrueForm of cosmic scale -- which granted her perfect knowledge of its workings but scoured away her mind and body. |
| 229 | * ''Webcomic/{{Recursion}}'': [[https://recursioncomic.com/0006 Dr. Deathe]] suffers from a genetic disorder that left her with an extremely frail body dependent on a hover chair to move and supplemental oxygen to breathe. It actually [[https://recursioncomic.com/0068 motivates]] her world conquest plans, she wants to make sure that no Kassan is born with conditions like hers again, via eugenics. |
| 230 | [[/folder]] |
| 231 | |
| 232 | [[folder:Web Original]] |
| 233 | * It's not clear how Dark a Lord she is, but James Ng's [[http://jamesngart.com/immortalempress.html Immortal Empress]] would otherwise qualify. (See also ''[[http://archiveofourown.org/works/302764 蒸汽]]'', her backstory in fanfic.) |
| 234 | * In the ''Website/SCPFoundation'' verse, [[CorruptCorporateExecutive Mr. Carter's]] life support is [[YouHaveFailedMe underlings who failed him]]. As in, he keeps the guy's limbless shell strapped to the back of his wheelchair, with tubes connecting their organ systems. |
| 235 | [[/folder]] |
| 236 | |
| 237 | [[folder:Western Animation]] |
| 238 | * ''WesternAnimation/BatmanBeyond'': As shown in "[[Recap/BatmanBeyondS1E5TheWinningEdge The Winning Edge]]", Bane is wholly dependent on life support, his life of [[PsychoSerum Venom]] use [[DrugsAreBad having turned him into a shell of the man he once was]]. (Unlike what some think, it wasn't from Venom ''abuse''; THAT does the same to you within months.) |
| 239 | * Vilgax must command his armies from a tank of goop until the first season finale of ''WesternAnimation/Ben10'' due to the space battle in the series premiere. ''WesternAnimation/Ben10UltimateAlien'' also sees him needing to work through others while regaining his strength. |
| 240 | * Mother Brain in ''WesternAnimation/CaptainNTheGameMaster'' as a BrainInAJar depends entirely on her minions for survival. |
| 241 | * The Egg in ''WesternAnimation/CountDuckula'' is... [[EggFolk a literal egg]]. In a [[WorldOfFunnyAnimals world of anthropomorphic birds]], the Egg never hatched, is confined to a chair and he communicates through special machines connected to his eggshell. |
| 242 | * The ''WesternAnimation/EekTheCat'' episode "Eek's International Adventure", a SpyFiction parody, shows a villain with ''several'' organs displayed in different jars. |
| 243 | * Hector Con Carne of ''WesternAnimation/EvilConCarne'', a spinoff of ''WesternAnimation/TheGrimAdventuresOfBillyAndMandy'', is a BrainInAJar (and stomach, in a separate jar) set atop a ''bear''. He's a possible parody of the Brain from ''ComicBook/DoomPatrol''. |
| 244 | * As ''WesternAnimation/GIJoeRenegades'' went on, it was revealed that its version of [[BigBad Cobra Commander]] was afflicted with a disease that ultimately forced him to don a breathing mask similar to the Commander's traditional silver visor. |
| 245 | * Following the first season finale of ''WesternAnimation/JackieChanAdventures'' in which Jade destroyed his body, Shendu was reduced to a spirit and for part of the second season (thanks to a spell by his brothers and sisters) [[DemonicPossession was stuck possessing Valmont's body]]. He eventually regained his body in the third season thanks to Dalong Wong. |
| 246 | * Jeremiah Surd from ''WesternAnimation/JonnyQuestTheRealAdventures''. Quadriplegic and wholly dependent on life support after being shot by Race Bannon, Surd's main strength lies in his ability to hack the [[{{Cyberspace}} QuestWorld]]. |
| 247 | * Alpha in ''WesternAnimation/MenInBlackTheSeries'' is kept like this in one of the MIB dungeons after the [[BodyHorror alien parts that gave him]] {{Lovecraftian Superpower}}s were removed in one of his defeats. |
| 248 | * In ''WesternAnimation/MonsterAllergy'', after being eaten by [[OurGhostsAreDifferent Bristlebeard the Pirate]] and ending up a blob of gunk, BigBad Mangacat was forced to reside in a HealingVat for several episodes in order to regain his physical form. |
| 249 | * Galiel from ''WesternAnimation/TheNewAdventuresOfOceanGirl'' is essentially reduced to a decrepit corpse attached with umbilical cords to a crystal, due to his fading power. |
| 250 | * ''WesternAnimation/TheOwlHouse'' has Emperor Belos, [[spoiler:who's true form is that of an oozing skeletal monster. It's eventually revealed that he's actually a human that came to the Boiling Isles centuries ago, with the oozing form being a result of the magic he has used to stay alive for so long. To maintain his life and his normal form, he has to regularly feed on the essence of [[{{Familiar}} Palismen]]]]. |
| 251 | * Hordak in ''WesternAnimation/SheRaAndThePrincessesOfPower'' relies upon his cybernetic armor to stay alive, since a medical condition has weakened his body. Eventually, his first set of armor breaks, and he becomes so weak that Entrapta has to build him a second cybernetic exoskeleton to keep him going. [[spoiler: In season 5, Hordak is healed and healthy-looking following his "reconditioning" by Horde Prime. The implication is that he was destroyed, ''then'' remade]]. |
| 252 | * Krang's android body from ''Franchise/TeenageMutantNinjaTurtles'' is a variation. He doesn't need it to survive, but without it, he's a barely mobile brain-like creature. |
| 253 | ** This is also carried over to the Utrom Shredder, Ch'Rell, in the [[WesternAnimation/TeenageMutantNinjaTurtles2003 2003 version]] of the series. Much like Krang, Ch'Rell is a barely mobile brain-like creature inside a very capable robotic double of this series's original incarnation of Oroku Saki, who is the actual Shredder in every other version of the franchise (an ancient Oroku Saki appears as a demon Shredder down the line, but Ch'Rell Shredder is the main antagonist of this series). |
| 254 | *** Somewhat subverted, as while not quite the Implacable without the suit, Ch'Rell outside it was still a KillerRabbit who used his suit more often for [[MobileSuitHuman his human cover]]. |
| 255 | ** For an added example, following his fourth battle with the Turtles in which he was caught in the implosion of the [=TCRI=] building, Ch'Rell had to stay in a HealingVat while alien bacteria healed his wounds, with Karai having to manage the Foot till his return. |
| 256 | ** In Season 4 of the [[WesternAnimation/TeenageMutantNinjaTurtles2012 2012 version]], during "Earth's Last Stand," Shredder tries to break the EnemyMine against the Triceratons and stab Splinter InTheBack, and he initially succeeded back in Season 3's finale... [[SetRightWhatOnceWentWrong but thanks to some time travel intervention, Splinter (now with knowledge of Shredder's impending betrayal) manages to avoid the hit this time]] and is so pissed at Shredder for trying to [[RevengeBeforeReason ensure Earth's destruction for the sake of revenge]] that he dishes out a NoHoldsBarredBeatdown. The next time we see Shredder, he's bedridden and hooked up to an IV machine and a breathing mask, and wrapped in casts and bandages like a mummy. In response, Stockman begins pumping mutagen into Shredder to heal him, eventually turning him into the Super Shredder. |
| 257 | ** In the 2003 version, Baxter Stockman slowly goes through worse and worse events: first he's crippled, missing an arm and an eye whilst being confined to a wheelchair, only being able to fight in an Utrom Exo-Suit. And then he's just a head on a mechanical spider body until he's allowed to use an Utrom suit... until 'that' is destroyed and he's left a brain, eye, and spine floating in a tank, confined to robot bodies. In the episode "Same as it Never Was", Stockman is in a tank connected to Hun, himself stuck in a wheelchair. |
| 258 | * [[https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/brushogun2_1655.jpg This]] is the villain of ''WesternAnimation/TeenTitansTroubleInTokyo'', capable of creating an entire ink monster army. [[spoiler:He's not actually the villain; the real villain took over him and keeps him in that condition.]] |
| 259 | * ''Franchise/{{Transformers}}'': |
| 260 | ** After being heavily damaged in the [[FiveEpisodePilot pilot movie]] of ''WesternAnimation/TransformersPrime'', Megatron has to be attached to extremely large power cables just to remain in a catatonic state, leaving him very vulnerable especially with [[TheStarscream his subordinates threatening to unplug him]]. He eventually recovers. |
| 261 | ** This is a common way for saving the big battle with Megs for a big moment. The movie keeps him frozen until the climax, and ''WesternAnimation/TransformersAnimated'' keeps him a disembodied head until the first season finale. |
| 262 | ** Another example came from ''Anime/TransformersCybertron'', where Megatron ends up in a life support bubble of some kind after [[spoiler:having {{Atlantis}}, an ancient Cybertronian starship, explode with him aboard]]. He fully recovers several episodes later, but in his absence, Starscream starts [[TheStarscream plotting to usurp him, as per usual]]. |
| 263 | * Monstroso from the fourth season of ''WesternAnimation/TheVentureBros'', after recovering from a mid-season surgery. |
| 264 | * At the end of season two of ''WesternAnimation/VoltronLegendaryDefender'', [[spoiler:Zarkon]] ends up in critical condition after his most recent battle against Voltron. |
| 265 | * In ''WesternAnimation/YoungJustice2010'', this is the case for [[spoiler:the real [[MadScientist T.O. Morrow]]]], who is extremely old and in a coma. The person running his plans is ActuallyADoombot. |
| 266 | [[/folder]] |
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