Basic Trope: A virgin (almost Always Female) has special powers, simply because she's a virgin. Exactly What It Says on the Tin.
- Straight:
- Virginia can ride unicorns and cast spells, just because she's a virgin.
- Seamus O'Taku loves anime, manga, comic books, sci-fi shows, and video games, but has never slept with a girl. Because of the latter case, he can ride unicorns and cast spells.
- Exaggerated:
- If she even so much as thinks about sex, she will lose her powers.
- If he ever masturbates to a 2D girl, he will lose his powers.
- Downplayed:
- So long as it isn't "sex" in a very particular sense, she's still a virgin no matter how many guys Virginia sleeps with.
- Alternatively, she can have sex and keep her powers, but she can only sleep with one person for the rest of her life.
- Virginia can have sex and keep her powers as long as she is faithful to her boyfriend or husband.
- Virginia only loses her power if she has consensual sex.
- Virgina will undergo having her powers change to a different form as she shifts in archetype.
- Justified:
- Virginia is a Miko, and because virgins are considered to be more pure and closer to the god(s) they serve, her ability to do what she does is contingent upon her virginity.
- Virgina worships a virgin goddess, who only grants power to her disciples if they remain celibate.
- Virginia worships a god who will choose a virgin among his flock to give birth to a messiah someday, and gives his virgin followers immortality so they don't die out before that happens.
- Inverted:
- Slutterella gains more power the more sex she has.
- Seamus suffers from a curse that can only be broken by losing his virginity.
- Virginia gains power by preventing others from having sex.
- Having sex is required for powers.
- Subverted:
- Virginia is a virgin and thus is expected to have powers, but it turns out that she's prevented from having powers by being otherwise impure, or simply not nice.
- Virginia doesn't actually have powers tied to her virginity, but her society does place a high value on a girl's virginity.
- The virgin power is actually a very impure form of magic - it is exploiting Blood Magic with their own blood as a supply of virgins' blood without so much as needing to nick herself!
- The purity is actually ritual in nature - one can regain it by a year of celibacy and appropriate cleansing rituals.
- Virginity is incidental to the power. It depends upon a delicate symbiote which would die from any host illness. The virgin myth occurred because of power loss from non-obvious STDs or complications from pregnancy.
- The Magically-Binding Contract granting Virginia her powers specifies she will lose said powers if she ever lies with a man. Did we mention Virginia is a lesbian?
- Seamus thinks (or at least claims) his powers derive from his lack of sex life. Then he meets Mary at a convention, begins sleeping with her... and finds out he can still ride unicorns and cast fireballs. Turns out it was actually his obsession with fantasy fiction and desire to do so that magically enabled his abilities.
- Double Subverted:
- But because she's an Apocalypse Maiden, she can still use special powers that are tied to her virginity.
- Because of that, Virginia is expected to be (and remain) "pure", and powers come from whatever society considers pure, granting Virginia powers after all.
- However it is the most ethical way to practice Blood Magic.
- Parodied:
- Because of her powers, Virginia Can't Have Sex, Ever.
- Virgina worships a horny god who only wants hot virgins to serve him, and doesn't consider homosexual action to "count".
- Seamus is desperately trying to get laid, and is dismayed when he ends up winning the Superpower Lottery. (And his powers only grow more potent when he jacks off.)
- Seamus gets laid and loses his powers, but he wants them back. The Powers That Be make a deal with him; in order to regain his virginity, he must go on a quest to spend 1,000 hours playing video games.
- Zig Zagged:
- Some virgins have special powers, other virgins do not. Some lose their powers with their virginity, others don't, still others gain, or switch, powers.
- The power may only be gained by virgins. However this is because it is always gained at birth. It is usually transferred at the birth of a firstborn daughter, barring a few wild cases when the mother apparently lacked the power. Virgin still actually fits in the archaic assumptions of 'not a mother or married and if she is then she is retired'.
- Averted:
- No virgins have special powers.
- Magical powers are not contingent upon one's virginity or lack thereof.
- Enforced: The author thinks virgins are better, and gives them special powers to show that.
- Lampshaded: "Great supernatural powers....this means I'll die a virgin".
- Invoked: Virginia already was a Celibate Heroine (or asexual) before acquiring her power. The person/entity that granted her the ability knew it would be easier for a person devoid of romantic/sexual interest to maintain this power.
- Exploited:
- Virginia (or someone close to her, like her father) learns about the existence of the Virgin Power, so she's infused with it in order to protect her virginity.
- Draco, an Empire's double agent and consummate manipulative bastard learns about the virgin-clause on Virginia's power, so he decides to charm her in order to fall in love with him and eventually take away her gift.
- Defied: Virginia doesn't want her powers anymore, and screws Bob the first chance she gets.
- Discussed: "What makes virgins so special, anyway?" "I dunno...maybe it's their rarity. Or their perceived purity. You know, like a diamond, or something".
- Conversed: "Is that character a virgin? Is that why she has powers?"
- Implied:
- Seamus' sex life was ambiguous, but his hobbies, as well as his powers, weren't.
- Either Virginia or Seamus has powers, and they're occasionally hinted to be asexual (turning down people's advances, being immune to sirens, etc.)
- Virginia has powers, and she's an unmarried woman in a society where premarital sex is heavily frowned upon.
- Deconstructed:
- Virgin Tension makes Virginia's love life awkward. She also can't help but feel like she's being used... She's also constantly fighting off villains who try to seduce her so she'll lose her powers.
- Seamus gains powers from his virginity... But because he's a bitter outcast, he gains dark powers. And his unicorn is not a pretty little pony, but an ebon steed with glowing red eyes and a jagged horn. He's become the living embodiment of Pure Is Not Good.
- With such a powerful incentive for chastity, birth rates are dangerously low.
- To create an army of unicorn riders, boys are forcibly conscripted and castrated en masse. (Cue the "eunuch-corn" puns.)
- Reconstructed:
- Virginia decides that her powers are incredibly awesome, and that being a Celibate Heroine is a small price to pay for them. She accepts her role as Barrier Maiden. And she's a more well-rounded person because she's focused on things other than romance.
- Artificial insemination becomes a popular way to have children, since it doesn't count as sex.
- Played For Laughs: Virginity Makes You Stupid + Superpower Lottery = An Egregious Destructive Saviour
- Played For Drama:
- Seamus was pressured for not being a virgin, despite his powers.
- Draco learns that Virginia's powers are dependent of her virginity, and rapes her when he fails to seduce her. Virginia not only loses her powers, but is also psychologically broken and gets PTSD as a result of the ordeal. She ends up resenting the powers she once had, as well the goddess that gave them to her.
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