History Main / TraumaticSuperpowerAwakening

* Psycho Mantis of ''MetalGearSolid'' had his powers fully awaken after he accidentally read his father's mind and thought his father would kill him, resulting in the destruction of his entire village.

'''Not to be confused with DieOrFly''', in which superpowers awaken in response to a life-threatening situation, as a manifestation of a self-preservation instinct. See also AngstNuke and CameBackStrong, which are very extreme variations on this. If the superpowers attained are related to the cause of the trauma, it's an AdaptiveAbility.

When a character has latent powers or potential, there are three standard ways to unlock it: [[PubertySuperpower hit puberty]], [[TimeToUnlockMoreTruePotential find a mentor to train them]], or just have [[DieOrFly something really, really bad happen]]. Any form of trauma, physical or mental, can do the trick, but emotional blows are the most prevalent. The death of a loved one is especially common.

When a character has latent powers or potential, there are three standard ways to unlock it: [[PubertySuperpower hit puberty]], [[TimeToUnlockMoreTruePotential find a mentor to train them]], or just have something really, really bad happen. Any form of trauma, physical or mental, can do the trick, but emotional blows are the most prevalent. The death of a loved one is especially common.

* Ryu in BreathOfFireIV gains the ability to transform into a dragon early on in the game, but for the first half of the game he only has access to his weakest form, Aura. It takes him seeing [[CompleteMonster Captain Rasso]] massacre a village full of innocents (and forcing him to duel with a monster shortly afterwards) for him to unlock the much more powerful Kaiser transformation.

* In the lore of ''TabletopGame/MagicTheGathering'', one in every million sentient beings in the Multiverse is born with a "spark", or the potential to become a Planeswalker. Igniting that spark and actually becoming a Planeswalker usually happens as a result of some kind of trauma or epiphany.

* In ''OrderOfTheStick'' Prequel, ''Start of Darkness,'' [[spoiler:Xykon's talent for sorcery first manifests itself when, as a four year old child, he finds the corpse of his dog, Barky. His grief causes him to accidently cast an animate dead spell, which resurrects Barky as a zombie, much to his delight.]]

* In ''OrderOfTheStick'' Prequel, ''Start of Darkness,'' [[spoiler:Xykon's talent for sorcery first manifests itself when, as a four year old child, he finds the corspe of his dog, Barky. He accidently casts an animate dead spell, which resurrects Barky as a zombie, much to his delight.]]

** Likewise in ''Film/XMen1'', Rogue first discovers her life draining abilities when she nearly kills her boyfriend.

* A fairly mild example occurs in ''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic''. Young Twilight has to take an entrance examination to get into the School for Gifted Unicorns. She repeatedly fails the magic test which has been set up for her, leading her to become increasingly nervous, tense, and embarrassed. Then a large explosion occurs in the distance. Getting startled by the sudden noise when she is already strung tight as a wire triggers an enormous burst of random magic to burst from her horn.

* Haku from ''Manga/{{Naruto}}'' discovered the full extent of his powers when his father tried to kill him.

** Nagato got his Rinnegan when he saw his parents die (when they were stupid enough to act aggressively against soldiers). There might be more to it than that, as Tobi (a known liar) says he gave Nagato his Rinnegan. Whether this means he at least partly engineered the situation, did something else, or if it is just another lie, is completely unknown.

* As mentioned above, the X-Men movie franchise has many examples.
** In the ''XMenFirstClass'' film, Magneto is originally only able to use his powers when extremely angry. The first two times, it involves maternal separation.
** Likewise in ''Film/{{X-Men}}'', Rogue first discovers her life draining abilities when she nearly kills her boyfriend.

* In the orginal novel of ''{{Literature/Matilda}}'' her telekinesis first appears when she grows uncontrollably angry over being (loudly and violently) accused of something she did not do.

* Haku from ''{{Naruto}}'' discovered the full extent of his powers when his father tried to kill him.

* In ''InuYasha'' Kagome unwittingly uses the power of the magic Jewel of Four Souls which is inside her body to blast a demon which attacks her. Ultimately subverted, since the Jewel is released from her body almost immediately afterwards, meaning she no longer has that power. (Though this sequence of events does lead to her discovering and being trained in other latent powers.)
* In ''FairyTail'', a flashback shows Erza first using magic after seeing a friend die.
* In ''TigerAndBunny'' Lunatic's power manifested when he tried to stop his father from beating his mother.
* Shiki in ''{{Tsukihime}}'' gains his Mystic Eyes of Death Perception as a result of his near death experience as a child.

* ''{{Angel}}'', "Untouched". Bethany, the girl with telekenesis, had it awakened when she was abused physically and sexually by her father. It also flared up when someone threatened her in an alley early in the ep.

* In ''GirlGenius'' this is typically how Sparks awaken.

* In ''AvatarTheLastAirbender'' Aang is forced into the Avatar State when he is either in mortal danger or experiencing emotional trauma. A major focus of the story is him learning to control that power and to only use it when he wants to.

* In ''ElGoonishShive'' this is known as an Angst-Induced Awakening, and is the typical way for people to unlock magical powers.

* In the ''XMenFirstClass'' film, Magneto is originally only able to use his powers when extremely angry. The first two times, it involves maternal separation.

* A fairly mild example occurs in ''MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic''. Young Twilight has to take an entrance examination to get into the School for Gifted Unicorns. She repeatedly fails the magic test which has been set up for her, leading her to become increasingly nervous, tense, and embarrassed. Then a large explosion occurs in the distance. Getting startled by the sudden noise when she is already strung tight as a wire triggers an enormous burst of random magic to burst from her horn.

* Garion of the ''{{Belgariad}}'' comes into his power this way. Though he is sensitive to sorcery for a while, and his first use of it is actually, unconsciously, to heal a brain-addled man, he first uses it intentionally against a man who has just slapped his Aunt Pol, and kills him when he learns the same man killed hi parents.\\

* The premise of summoning a Persona in ''VideoGame/Persona3'' was that apparently, something traumatic has to have happened to you in order to summon it. MC was attacked by shadows. Junpei got the potential in a fetal position hiding from shadows. Fuuka's friend had to almost be eaten by shadows before she got hers. Mitsuru waas desperately trying to protect her father after seeing one of Kirijo's scientist turn into a shadow. It is unclear when Akihiko, Ken, and Yukari were found with the potential, but it might have had something to do with Akihiko's sister dying, Ken's parents dying, and Yukari's dad being in an exploding laboratory.

* In ''Literature/{{Jumper}}'' David's first jump happens as he's drowning in a frozen lake.

* Dragon Ball Z, Goku was able to reach the Super Saiyan Level when he saw Frieza Kill Krillin. Also, Gohan and Trunks from an alternate future obtained Super Saiyan this way (Gohan when the androids killed Piccolo, Trunks when they killed Gohan).

When a character has latent powers or potential, there are three standard ways to unlock it: [[PubertySuperpower hit puberty]],[[TimeToUnlockMoreTruePotential find a mentor to train them]], or just have something really, really bad happen. Any form of trauma, physical or mental, can do the trick, but emotional blows are the most prevalent. The death of a loved one is especially common.

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* In ''AvatarTheLastAirbender'' Aang is forced into the Avatar State when he is either in mortal danger or experiencing emotional trauma. A major focus of the story is him learning to control that power and to only use it when he wants to.