History Main / TheEmpath

** A rare villainous example with [[TheDragon Grant]] [[DragonAscendant Ward]]. Due to psychological damage from his abusive parents, overexposure to ''positive'' emotions drives him to outright murder his TrueCompanions (which he then denies is his fault or responsibility), while exposure to negative emotions leads to loyalty and respect. After Garrett repurposed his {{Tykebomb}} mentality and then suddenly died from insanity, Ward flailed around as a PsychopathicManchild (on the inside), growing worse with rejection from his former Team, until achieving [[BlueAndOrangeMorality a level of hypocrisy and sadism so twisted]] that the GreaterScopeVillain (who's ''Eldritch'') considered him the best of HYDRA. As Daisy puts it, his problem isn't that he doesn't feel anything, he feels ''too much''.

* ''Series/AgentsOfShield'': Season 7 sees Melina May become one of these, due to her NearDeathExperience on an alien planet. She starts the season feeling nothing at all herself, then begins to feel other people's emotions in place of her own. Then she gets her own emotions back, but still senses those of others.

* In ''ComicBook/AstroCity'', Zo the Zirr is a Binder who can touch other beings and make them share their thoughts and feelings.
* Morphea of ''ComicBook/AtariForce'' is described as this, being a member of a race of empathic insectoids that can sense the emotions of others.
* ''ComicBook/TheAuthority'''s shaman "the Doctor", had this power, as well as incredible amounts of magic, as a result of an acquired connection to all life. Particularly interesting for the origins of the various Doctors shown in the comic- a utopian anarchist, a dot-com billionaire drug addict, and an Islamic suicide bomber. It's explained that the powers go to the one person in the world who wants them the least. The suicide bomber was about to set himself off when he acquired his powers: Bang! instant HeelFaceTurn. Not only of himself, but he immediately used his powers to create peace in the Middle East

* The Black Lanterns in ''ComicBook/BlackestNight'' have the ability to see the emotions of living beings. As part of their MO involves ripping out the hearts of living beings to fuel their powers, they use this ability to manipulate the victim into strongly feeling one emotion, then ripping out their heart in that state so it will provide a charge.
* Meggan, of the Marvel team ''ComicBook/{{Excalibur}}'', was The Empath and since her (mostly) VoluntaryShapeshifting powers were tied to her emotions, she often changed to reflect people's expectations of her. Eventually, other people's expectations no longer affected her.

* In addition to their more obvious powers, the Emotion Entities introduced in the ''ComicBook/GreenLantern'' series have empathic powers. Parallax can sense and manipulate fear, the Butcher feeds on and instigates rage, Proselyte induces compassion into others, etc. They can do all of this because they ''are'' those emotions.
* ComicBook/{{Madman}} has been able to do this, which helped him determine if an alien was aggressive or not.
* This is sort of ComicBook/ManThing's deal. He's a super-strong being made of plant matter, and if his body's destroyed, he can reconstitute himself in his home swamp. But he also senses emotions; in general, he doesn't like negative ones. Specifically, fear causes him to immolate tings; hence the tagline "Whatever knows fear burns at the Man-Thing's touch". Though despite the fact that he's a mindless swamp creature with an appearance that borders between terrifying and UglyCute, typically only bad guys get incinerated, bystanders don't.
* Empath (Manuel de la Rocha) from ''ComicBook/NewMutants'' is a gender flip. He could ''control'' emotions in addition to passively sensing them.
* ComicBook/{{Raven|DCComics}} in the original ''[[ComicBook/TeenTitans New Teen Titans]]'' comic book started out with this power, in addition to healing, teleportation, and some spellcasting. She was useless in combat and was always the first to be knocked out. It wasn't until the success of the cartoon that she was given flight and telekinesis.
* In the ''ComicBook/{{WITCH}}'' comics, Will had this power with animals; that is they react to her mood and at least one parrot who could speak in English/Italian (the latter being the original language) could literally read her mind. This power is missing in the [[WesternAnimation/{{WITCH}} show]] though.
* ComicBook/WonderWoman's daughter Stephanie Trevor, who became ComicBook/WonderGirl and later the second Wonder Woman in ''ComicBook/SupermanAndBatmanGenerations'', is one who can sense when Kara Kent (Supergirl), who was born around the exact same time as her, experiences pain.
* ''ComicBook/WonderWomanWarbringer'': All of the Amazons can feel each other's pain, so they know immediately when one of their own is hurt. Diana uses this to trick the BigBad into modifying Amazonian blood to try to gain an Amazon's strength, and feeling the rest of the Amazons quickly overwhelms them into a blubbering non-threat.
* Cordelia Frost (sister of ''ComicBook/XMen'''s Emma Frost) possesses the power of empathy. Described as the "Professor X of empaths" Cordelia can not only sense the emotions of others but implant emotional states into them, shoot mind bullets and even use her powers for makeshift mind control by implanting an entirely new personality into someone. Somehow...

** In later seasons, Phoebe develops the abilities of an empath in addition to being able to see disjointed images of the future. This is one of the few times that a person with such abilities is referred to as an empath. Her powers were slightly cooler than normal empaths as all magic in-series is linked to emotions; control of emotions allows you to control other people's powers.
** A more dangerous version is featured in an earlier episode. Thinking they are saving an innocent, they transfer empathy from a demon to Prue, only to find out she is feeling all the emotions, and the demon is being punished with it.
** There is one rather {{Squick}}y moment where Phoebe realizes that a guy they are talking to is having erotic thoughts about her sister and, due to her powers, she is too. Cue Phoebe running out of the room.

* ''WebOriginal/CodexInversus'': The omen birds of the Infernal Empire can sense emotions using their horns. Each species of bird is attuned to a particular set of emotions, and uses this ability to aid in its survival strategy. Sorrow hawks, for instance, can perceive despair, sadness, disorientation and gloom, which they use to hunt lost, wounded or frightened animals; bloodshed vultures perceive rage, bloodlust and antagonism, allowing them to find areas where dead bodies will soon be available; and joy quails perceive happiness, satisfaction and fulfillment, which leads them to animals that have finished their meals and celebrations that are winding down so that they can eat the leftovers.

** Dawn can sense the feelings of Pokémon, which is the reason why Mespirt chose to connect with her on the first day of her journey.

** Bonnie has this ability as she knew that her new friend Squishy, Zygarde, was asking for help during the time they first met. Also, over time, Bonnie's ability increased through her bond with Squishy as she was able to feel and sense its feelings or pain.

** [[spoiler:After ingesting blood taken from Anko's father ten years ago, Yamori experiences the emotions he went through during the days leading to his death; he then realizes that Kyouichi hit the DespairEventHorizon after learning he was dying, and that after Kiku turned him into her offspring [[MyGreatestSecondChance he resolved to reconnect with his family and repair his marriage]]. Sharing this revelation with Anko allows her to finally get some closure.]]