History Main / MugglePower

* For the most part, this is avoided in the ''GlobalGuardiansPBEMUniverse'', even by the villains. Of course, there is a reason why there are so many derogatory slang words for normal humans. "Mere" (as in "merely man"), "flatline", "baseline", and "Norman" (as in "Normal Normal") are just four examples.

** It turns out the Muggles DO have something to fear from the Novas - the use of Quantum powers eventually mutates them into dramatically inhuman Abberants, who form the primary enemy for the prequel game, Trinity. Oddly enough, the heroes in Trinity are, themselves, no longer Muggles - they're powerful psychics, instead.

* ''DarkerThanBlack'' shows [[TheMasquerade the few humans aware of Contractors]] having a ''if you can't beat 'em, '''employ''' them'' attitude, with the majority of the Contractors being aggressively headhunted and employed as [[strike:human weapons]] 'special operatives' by various national security agencies like MI6, the CIA, or by [[TheSyndicate the mysterious criminal 'syndicate']] that employs Hei. [[spoiler:It eventually turns out that all these agencies are part of a single conspiracy to wipe contractors clean off the face of the Earth. This led to the formation of a LaResistance-style group determined to wall off the Gates so that the Contractor-genocide wouldn't be possible, even though they would have wiped out all of Japan in the process. Hei [[TakeAThirdOption does not approve of either option.]]]]

* Explored further in ''ToAruKagakuNoRailgun'' in the Level Upper arc, in which the eponymous Level Upper is making its way into the hands of Level 0s, allowing them to temporarily gain abilities (or increase the level of ability users) [[spoiler:at the cost of eventual comatose]].

** Later played straight in the sequel series, ''AvatarTheLegendofKorra'', where an anti-bending revolt threatens to tear the metropolis of Republic City apart.

* ''Skinned'' by Robin Wasserman contains A LOT of this, especially the second book ''Crashed''. Lia Kahn gets in a car accident and is [[BrainUploading uploaded]] into a new body. Rejected by society, she moves in with rebel Jude and his gang. Jude believes that people, or "orgs", are weak and need their bodies to survive, whereas he, a mech, can do anything. Mechs have ceramic bones and titanium skulls, their bodies heal instantly, and they never tire or need food. All they are required to do is shut down occasionally and back up their memories in case their bodies are destroyed.

* In {{Gone}}, the [[ANaziByAnyOtherName Human Crew]] is a group of "[[{{muggles}} normals]]" who go with option 2.

* Played annoyingly straight in ''[[SoBadItsHorrible Wraeththu]]'', where the titular [[TheVirus magical hermaphrodites]] having nothing but contempt and genocidal urges towards the surviving humans, [[WallBanger despite that the Wraeththu are supposed to be the heroes of the setting AND each one was originally human themselves]].

PostCyberpunk stories that include TheSingularity often have conflicts between humans and post-humans. Earlier stories had {{Mutants}} on higher EvolutionaryLevels that likewise were generally incapable of coexisting with their predecessors.

* The Paladins in ''Jumper'' seem to be hunting town the eponymous teleporting mutants mostly because they're too powerful to be permitted to exist.

Whether the story chooses to address the underlying insecurity or not [[DebateAndSwitch varies]]. When it does, it usually justifies baseline human's existence with a nice [[AnAesop aesop]] like: [[HumansAreSpecial our limitations drive us to excel]], only humans [[CreativeSterility can truly create]], a world of all supers would devolve into planetary [[LetsYouAndHimFight civil war]] (like [[SarcasmMode we normals have done such a good job keeping peace without supers]])... or, that we're so [[HumansAreBastards fundamentally bad]] that only a handful should have these powers, if at all. Since super-powered heroes are usually the focus of these stories, it's not rare to see a perfectly sensible initiative by the government to have [[SuperSoldier its own supers]], either to stop supervillains or to stop a hero if he should go rogue, turned into paranoid and militant [[WarOnStraw strawmen]] bent on killing all heroes on the off chance of a super powered {{Darwinist}} takeover.

* The third story in the ''Infinity's Prism'' collection of ''Star Trek'' novels has an AlternateUniverse wherein Khan Noonien Singh won the Eugenics Wars. He then proceeded to create TheEmpire, which subjugated the rest of the ''Trek'' 'verse. The story concerns "Princeps" Julian Bashir of the ''Defiance'' (who is also genetically enhanced in the "normal" universe) finding the ''Botany Bay''. In the ''[=TOS=]'' episode ''Space Seed'', the ''Bay'' carried Khan and his followers, but in this universe, it carried regular humans on the run from the Wars. Does WhatMeasureIsANonSuper ensue? Oh, yeah.

* One of the secret societies in ''{{Paranoia}}'' is the mutant supremacist group Psion.
** Played for laughs, of course. (The joke being that ''every'' person in the setting - other than the theoretically subservient AIs - is a mutant... and everybody seems to ''know'' it... except for the all-seeing, all-knowing Computer which designates mutants as inferior, genetically treasonous creatures.)

*** One bit that happened during one X-men storyline where a Mutant Registration Act was being proposed...''again''...but having Congress stop dead in its tracks in enacting it when they were quietly informed that a significant number of Representatives and Senators themselves were mutants, possessing assorted weak abilities capable of unconsciously influencing people which had, unknowlingly, given them the advantage when they'd become politicians.

** [[NebulousEvilOrganization TAROT]] funds a lot of anti-superhuman "grassroots" organizatons, and bribes politicians worldwide to legally restrict superheroes. The ultimate goal, of course, is to make it harder for the heroes to interfere with their operations, but a side effect is a growing hostility in some quarters between normal human beings and supers.

[[AC:TabletopGames]]
* In ''Aberrant'', Novas refer to non-Nova humans as "baselines", which technically is just a scientific term for their inability to become a Nova, but is treated as derogatory. Baselines usually fall within two camps: adoring fans or xenophobic champions of genetic purity. Since there's actually no way of telling whether a particular human is able to erupt (become a Nova) or not, a small minority try to provoke their eruption in various ways. Since lethal hazards can give you powers to survive those hazards, you can imagine ''how'' they go about this.
** It turns out the Muggles DO have something to fear from the Novas - the use of Quantum powers eventually mutates them into dramatically inhuman Abberants, who form the primary enemy for the prequel game, Trinity. Oddly enough, the heroes in Trinity are, themselves, no longer Muggles - they're powerful psychics, instead.
* Played annoyingly straight in ''[[SoBadItsHorrible Wraeththu]]'', where the titular [[TheVirus magical hermaphrodites]] having nothing but contempt and genocidal urges towards the surviving humans, [[WallBanger despite that the Wraeththu are supposed to be the heroes of the setting AND each one was originally human themselves]].
* One of the secret societies in ''{{Paranoia}}'' is the mutant supremacist group Psion.
** Played for laughs, of course. (The joke being that ''every'' person in the setting - other than the theoretically subservient AIs - is a mutant... and everybody seems to ''know'' it... except for the all-seeing, all-knowing Computer which designates mutants as inferior, genetically treasonous creatures.)
* Many Exalts in ''{{Exalted}}'' are less than careful with normal people in the area surrounding them (in the case of countering third-circle spells, an area totalling roughly nine square miles). The Realm in particular has based its 800-year empire on the idea that Terrestrial Exalted are manifestly superior to mortals. (One of the few exceptions to this kind of thing: Paragon is adamantly pro-mortal because its ruler is a mere enlightened mortal himself, although he's currently a little bitter that with Solar Exaltations flying around he hasn't had a shot at becoming a Twilight Caste yet.)
* ''[[WarhammerFortyThousand Warhammer 40K]]'' doesn't so much use type 2 as it inverts the trope -- "[[PsychicPowers psykers]]" are the ones who're considered tools rather than people. Understandable, since it's best not to get attached to someone who has the potential to accidentally open a gateway to Hell. ([[CrapsackWorld this is not exaggeration]])

The Paladins in ''Jumper'' seem to be hunting town the eponymous teleporting mutants mostly because they're too powerful to be permitted to exist.

* ''[[WarhammerFortyThousand Warhammer 40K]]'' doesn't so much use type 2 as it inverts the trope -- "[[PsychicPowers psykers]]" are the ones who're considered tools rather than people. Understandable, since it's best not to get attached to someone who has the potential to accidentally open a gateway to Hell.

<<|SpeculativeFictionTropes|>>

*The new manga eV from james Farr seems to be experimenting with this somewhat. The main character was exposed to a serum that turns her into something approaching theity in terms of power...but only after the previous 77 candidates for receiving the serum had been murdered by fearful religious zealots.

* One of the earlier examples of this trope, BadassNormal [[Comicbook/{{TheAvengers}} Hawkeye]] decided that a quiver full of trick arrows wasn't enough, and started using Hank Pym's old Giant-Man gear to become the first Goliath. He eventually went back to his Hawkeye persona, but has occasionally donned the Goliath suit on a situational basis.

* Alan Moore's {{Comicbook/Miracleman}}[=/=]Marvelman was one of the first to use this trope. The government created supers turn out to be too powerful for the government's liking, so it tries to kill them all. [[spoiler:It doesn't work, and the supers and aliens take over the world for its own good. Eventually, everyone is offered the chance to become superhuman. There is some musing on some fundamental humanity that they have lost in becoming superhuman.]]

* {{The 4400}} has Jordan Collier's faction. By the end of the series, he has no problem with mass promicin injections (the chemical that was used to give the 4400 super powers). This might be fine, if it weren't for that 50% casualty rate. Disturbingly enough, he may be right.
* ''PainkillerJane'' was part of an organization who worked to find and "[[PowerNullifier chip]]" all Neuros-- even the ones who never did anything. Jane is the only superhuman member of the group, and even ''that's'' only allowed because she's not technically a Neuro.

* On BabylonFive, some telepaths (especially those [[TheCorpsIsMother raised by Psi Corps]]) disdain "[[{{Muggles}} mundanes]]". The worst, like Bester, consider them entirely disposable.

* An episode of ThatsSoRaven had psychic teens who called it "the Normie Problem". In the end, of course, they learn that the greatest power of all is ThePowerOfFriendship.
* In {{Andromeda}} the Nietzscheans consider humans worthless - and the Knights of Genetic Purity consider the Nietzscheans (and all others with genetic mods) an abomination.
* In StarTrek, we had Eugenic Wars between genetically engineered and other humans, leading to genetic augmentation becoming a forbidden technique.
** In StarTrekDeepSpaceNine, the Founder Changelings derogatorily call all non-shape-shifters "solids" and struggle to either control or destroy them. This in turn was caused by Changelings being hunted by other species in the past because of their abilities (in "Shadowplay" we see such attitude). Even those Changelings who do not belong to Dominion (like Laas) actually hold very little of "solids".

* Taken to every logical conclusion within ''CityOfHeroes'' and ''CityOfVillains''. While the setting holds enough HeroicWillpower for even the most ridiculous [[CharlesAtlasSuperpower Charles Atlas Superpowers]] to work, there are still a lot of {{Muggles}}. Reactions vary from essentially worshiping Heroes like the Paragon City Civilians do, putting on the kevlar and facing down the super-powered villains like the Paragon City Police, living in terror like Rogue Island civilians, putting on the kevlar and facing down the super-powered heroes for later brainwashing like Malta, or joining the various villain groups for PsychoSerum or protection.

* Almost completely averted on AvatarTheLastAirbender. Both benders and non-benders are pretty much treated the same, except for situations where the ability to bend would be necessary or useful. Toph does once, however, make the comment that their team consisted of ''three'' people (Aang, Katara and herself), because Sokka couldn't bend. When Sokka protests, she amends it to: "Okay, three people ''[[MyFriendsAndZoidberg plus Sokka]]''".
**It ''does'' go a bit farther than that, though more psychologically---Sokka, for example, seems to feel inferior to his teammates, which is why he [[TookALevelInBadass Takes a Level In Badass]] by becoming a sword master. Growing up with Katara (a Bender) probably also explains his general distrust of "magic," as a way of coping with his own inferiority complex. (Or maybe I'm reading too much into this...)

* On ''SabrinaTheAnimatedSeries,'' [[FantasticRacism Tim the Witch Smeller]] came to hate witches because of this trope---he grew up mocked for being a MuggleBornOfMages, apparently a unique case in this series.

* ''[[WarhammerFortyThousand Warhammer 40K]]'' doesn't so much use type 2 as it inverts the trope--"[[PsychicPowers psykers]]" are the ones who're considered tools rather than people. Understandable, since it's best not to get attached to someone who has the potential to accidentally open a gateway to Hell.

* The 4400 has Jordan Collier's faction. By the end of the series, he has no problem with mass promicin injections (the chemical that was used to give the 4400 super powers). This might be fine, if it weren't for that 50% casualty rate. Disturbingly enough, he may be right.

* In ''The X-Files'', no one even believes mutants and monsters exist (other than those 2 nobodies working out of the basement whom no one takes seriously), and 90% of them are psychotic spree killers who get killed by the end of the episode anyway. This is a damn shame, as they'd be one HELL of an advantage for the Earth Home Team when that Alien Invasion finally hits.