Stages of Monster Grief: Difference between revisions
→Comic Books: Added example
m (Mass update links) |
(→Comic Books: Added example) |
||
| (12 intermediate revisions by 5 users not shown) | |||
Line 1:
{{trope}}{{Needs Image}}
Characters who have been transformed from human into something else tend to get quite a shock, and change as much in morality and mind as they do in body. Much like the [[Five Stages of Grief]] in real life, these formerly human characters may transition from stage to stage, though not necessarily in any order.
Line 10:
Compare [[Sheep in Wolf's Clothing]], when a human who's been infected uses their "new allegiance" to [[Pro-Human Transhuman|betray the monsters in favor of their human friends.]]
'''In
[[Hey, You]]! Yeah, ''you,'' the one drinking the rats' blood. Don't act so surprised, you're not the only freak in this town, and lucky you, I'm in a sharing mood.
Line 25:
Anyway, nice talking to you kid. If you have any questions, need advice, or a shoulder to cry on... [[Sink or Swim Mentor|find someone else!]]
{{examples}}
== Anime and Manga ==▼
▲== Anime ==
* Ophelia of ''[[Claymore]]'' when she becomes an [[Body Horror|"Awakened Being"]], which she had previously had a fetish for hunting. At first, she's in such denial that she hasn't noticed any changes, even her new [[Horror Hunger]] for guts doesn't tip her off when she attacks Clare. However, when confronted with her visage reflected in the water, she become immediately distraught and self-pitying. She then blames the heroine she was fighting for all that's happened to her {{spoiler|(Accusations that are surprisingly accurate, but whether or not Ophelia knew they were true or was just lashing out from grief is a matter of speculation)}}. She then attacks the heroine, but soon realizes her situation, as having lost control and turned into a monster, she cannot complete her quest for revenge. Accepting this, she then allows Clare to kill her, as they had the same target for revenge and Clare would continue on.
* Hakkai
== Comic Books ==
* In 1990 Marvel Comics presented an ongoing story of Lifeform, a hideously mutated young man, through annual issues of ''[[The Punisher]],'' ''[[Daredevil]],'' ''[[Incredible Hulk
* Invoked on ''Crimson''. [[Fully-Embraced Fiend|Joe]] tells Alex that "smart vampires have something called "the five phases of the undead", and that he is on the third, Denial. Later, Alex finds the vampiress that infected him and discovers that she killed his girlfriend to provoke him, making him go into Defiance, so he pursues and kills her. After that, he finally admits that he is a vampire and starts his Acceptance. Joe even lampshades it saying that he is "not anymore in Denial".
* Marvel's most well-known lycan is Jack Russell - the ''Werewolf by Night''; he claims he has been through all five stages, and seems to have settled on Acceptance. Vampires in Marvel usually degrade into Betrayal, but there are exceptions. [[Private Eye|Hannibal King]] tends to be in the Denial stage, and is a sworn enemy of other vampires. [[Morbius the Living Vampire|Morbius]] despises himself (not surprising, seeing as his condition is mostly his fault) and by his own admission, doesn't care whether he lives or dies, and can usually be placed in Defiance. [[X-Men|Jubilee]] was in Acceptance for the most part, doing her best to cope (usually only using her vampire powers to [[Mama Bear|defend her adopted son Shogo]]) until she was cured by the Phoenix Force.
* [[The Fantastic Four|Ben Grimm]] was in the Depression stage for a long time, but is usually in Acceptance, though he is occasionally prone to short bouts of Depression.
* [[The Incredible Hulk|Bruce Banner]] has always - and ''will'' always - despised what he has become, but by now he has realized that the Hulk is a burden he will ''never'' permanently rid himself of, and has reluctantly reached Acceptance. Of course, there has ''always'' been the fear - among himself and others - that he might someday lose control and reach Betrayal. [[Elseworld|There are many alternate realities]] (some of which he has witnessed) where that has indeed happened.
▲== Fan Fiction ==
* In ''[[The Not So Short Second Life of Bree Tanner|The (Not So) Short Second Life of Bree Tanner]]'' by Oy! Angelina, Bree struggles to adopt the Cullens' human-friendly diet and explores the emotional repercussions of living up to that decision, the temptation to abandon it and {{spoiler|some really compelling arguments by Alec on why the Cullens aren't role-models}}.
* Many ''[[Jak and Daxter]]'' fanfics tend to focus on this, due to Jak's [[Super-Powered Evil Side]].
* ''[[The Return (fanfic)|The Return]]'' has charted the protagonist's descent through all stages from denial (ended rather harshly with the creation of a new demonic daughter), defiance (allow her to denigrate and abuse her inadvertent transformers), acceptance with the creation of a whole brood of fellow demons and daughters), all the way through to the cusp of betrayal. Only the fact her new human "friends" are a bunch of [[NGO Superpower|above the law mercs]] who let her kill and feast on flesh with impunity is preventing that final step.
* One now
== Film ==
* Because Seth Brundle's painful and humiliating metamorphosis into the titular creature of ''[[The Fly]]'' was a ''slow'' one, he
* Michael goes through this in the ''[[Underworld (film)|Underworld]]'' movies, completely disbelieving what he's seeing, forcing himself to eat normal food and then deciding ah screw it; living forever with [[Kate Beckinsale]], it could be a lot worse.
Line 55:
== Live
* ''[[Being Human (UK)]]'' has the title characters transition through these stages as they attempt to stabilize in the Acceptance stage. No easy task for a setting on the mid to low levels of [[Sliding Scale of Vampire Friendliness]]. Horrifyingly, {{spoiler|Mitchell}} actually goes to the Betrayal stage in the season 2 finale.
* On one episode of ''[[The X-Files]]'', the [[Monster of the Week]] was a cannibal who viewed his compulsion to eat meat (i.e., human brains) as an addiction, and even went to Overeaters Anonymous. He bonded with another attendee, his downstairs neighbor... but eventually he ate her brain. Goes through 1-3.
* Stage One perfectly played on ''[[The Vampire Diaries]]'' by {{spoiler|Caroline Forbes}} in Season two, episode two, "Brave New World."
* Subverted on ''[[True Blood]]'': Jessica's immediate reaction to finding out that she's a vampire is a little happy dance and a shout of joy. She doesn't start to think that she's a freak of nature until later.
* An episode of ''[[Forever Knight]]'' featured a vampire girl with multiple personalities. In two of her three personalities she was so strongly Stage One that she could go out in the daylight. The third personality was Stage Four, of course.
== [[Video Games]] ==
* The Forsaken and the Blood Elves in ''[[World of Warcraft]]'' cover the entire spectrum. Playable characters generally vary between Defiance and Acceptance, although the Apothecary quests, pre-Wrath Gate quests and many of the new quests in the Cataclysm expansion veer heavily towards Betrayal.
** So do the Worgen, the cursed people of Gilneas who have found a way to control their lycanthropy curse and use their werewolf strength for the benefit of the Alliance.
** Player Character Demon Hunters seem able to handle themselves pretty well; NPCs, not so much. [[The Leader| Illidan himself]] had... [[Heel Face Revolving Door| issues with the transition.]]
** One rather tragic story is that of Lilian Voss. One of the first quests a Forsaken character has is to console some other Forsaken who are in the Denial stage, and Lilian reacts rather badly, running away when you try. Later, you find her being held prisoner by [[Corrupt Church| the Scarlet Brotherhood]] (which is odd, seeing as they usually simply kill undead on sight) and she's still in Denial, claiming her father will save her. Then she finds out that her father - who is a member of the Brotherhood - has [[That Thing Is Not My Child| disowned her and has ordered her execution.]] This nudges her past the second stage into the third, and dangerously close to the fourth in mere seconds, killing the guards, and sending her on a [[Roaring Rampage of Revenge]] the next few times you see her (often leaving dead members of the Brotherhood in her wake) and [[Archnemesis Dad| eventually killing her father.]] She seems to be handling herself well from there, but still despises necromancers of all types.
== [[Tabletop RPG]] ==
Line 86:
[[Category:Characterization Tropes]]
[[Category:Werebeast Tropes]]
[[Category:Self Demonstrating Article]]▼
[[Category:Horror Tropes]]
[[Category:Stages of Monster Grief]]
| |||