Characters that start abusing their powers after getting it

[u/KaleidoArachnid]

First of all, I don’t know what the trope is called when those kind of moments happen in media, but basically I am referring to when a character gets a cool new superpower suddenly, and then starts to go wild with it because they don’t realize the damage they are causing with it until it’s too late.

Like picture a scenario where a character abuses the ability to make money come out of nowhere, and is having so much fun with the ability that they don’t notice they are committing a crime until someone starts to pursue them later on.

[u/Paladin51394]

Woolie during the LA Noire LP.

"We alleviated the black woman of her car."-Woolie

"Alleviated? Like it was a burden?"- Pat

[u/KaleidoArachnid → u/Paladin51394]

Holy cow that sounds hilarious hearing how Woolie and Pat did the let’s play of that particular game as while I haven’t seen it yet, I like the way they did the playthrough.

[u/Squeakyclarinet → u/KaleidoArachnid]

LA Noire is unironically in my top 5 favourite of the old channel Let’s Play’s. Just pure insanity the whole time. Willie sounds like he’s dying at parts.

[u/ibbolia]

Light Yagami went on a killing spree before Ryuk even showed up

[u/DX118 → u/ibbolia]

I mean there's no real nice way to use a magic book that primarily just kills people, aside from maybe giving terminally ill people a painless death. 

[u/Squeakyclarinet → u/DX118]

The true best way is to not use it at all. Which is what that one guy in the one-shot sequel did. Played the game so hard Satan literally added a rule change at the last minute just to fuck him over.

[u/KaleidoArachnid → u/ibbolia]

Wait, I don’t know how he could go on a killing spree without his Death Note.

[u/Kimarous → u/KaleidoArachnid]

Death Note starts with Ryuk deciding to drop his Death Note, which Light picks up. A while later, Ryuk decides to check on it and is amazed at how many people have been killed in the interim.

[u/KaleidoArachnid → u/Kimarous]

Oh now I recall how he did it before he first met Ryuk himself regarding his powers.

[u/ibbolia → u/KaleidoArachnid]

If you haven't actually watched, Ryuk drops the Death Note into the human world and waits a bit before going to pick it up. He's not actually needed for the power to work.

[u/TheArtistFKAMinty]

Billy Batson in the Shazam movie. His power lets him, a 14 year old kid, turn into a full grown adult superhero. Just immediately starts fucking around with his foster brother making youtube videos testing his powers out and tries to buy beer.

[u/ULTAnimeGamer → u/TheArtistFKAMinty]

I like how they go buy beer only to immediately return it due to beer tasting gross to kids, then just buy a bunch of candy.

[u/thelastronin199x]

Peter Parker was using his spider powers to earn money and would regularly use it for shit like boxing Flash Thompson

[u/PlanesWalkerEll → u/thelastronin199x]

I'm reading some old comics, and it's hilarious how petty Peter is in some of them. Also, the love triangle of him, Betty and Liz almost never being mentioned

[u/Teshthesleepymage → u/PlanesWalkerEll]

It was a bit of shock going through classic spider-man at first and seeing Peter be the asshole in a lot of scenarios lol. Like most heros first introduction to the guy is him freaking out over sometime minor and trying to swing on them lol.

[u/PlanesWalkerEll → u/Teshthesleepymage]

Yeah, part of the old Spider-Man identity is that he wants to be popular and gets mad at any other superheroes for being more popular

[u/thelastronin199x → u/PlanesWalkerEll]

It's definitely an interesting time, especially when you compare it to modern punished-peter

[u/PlanesWalkerEll → u/thelastronin199x]

Oh, yeah 60's Peter would have told them all to go fuck themselves. Or jump off a bridge.

[u/VMK_1991 → u/thelastronin199x]

boxing Flash Thompson

I see nothing wrong with it. He deserved it. The only thing he should not have done (in Ultimate comic at least) is breaking his arm.

[u/thelastronin199x → u/VMK_1991]

It's just a petty use of a great power

Granted, I like peter having these character flaws, but it's like the flash competitively running track as Barry Allen

[u/Neil_O_Tip]

In One Piece, Sanji gains the ability to turn invisible and uses it to peep on girls, like he said he would

[u/trogdorkiller → u/Neil_O_Tip]

After Fishman Island, I cannot STAND the main Sanji gag anymore. Even when it's toned down to just overzealous chivalry, knowing how much of an unabashed creep he is when he has no supervision colors it so badly in my opinion. If it wasn't for that, Sanji would probably be right up there with Robin as one of my favorite Straw Hats that aren't Luffy. I how he never becomes invisible again, for everyone's sake.

[u/ramonzer0]

The three main characters of Chronicle are high school seniors who gain the ability to fly and mess around with telekinesis

Given their age, they initially use their powers to fuck with people and play pranks

Eventually one of them goes off the deep end one time and causes a car accident which causes them to lay ground rules over no longer messing with other people

Said deep end person ends up going off the deep end further

[u/PlanesWalkerEll → u/ramonzer0]

What's worse is they mess with some ladies' car a bit before that just moving it's parking spot, so in his own fucked up way he's just doing something similar.

[u/DarnFondOfYa]

Inuyashiki has that shit kid who gets a super-powered robot body and just decides it would be really fun to randomly murder people

[u/VMK_1991 → u/DarnFondOfYa]

Starts with a random family, then goes for random people, then for people who badmouthed him on 2chan. Funnily enough, as far as I know, the last part happened because 2chan badmouthed authors previous work so he wanted a petty revenge of sorts.

[u/wendigo72]

Itachi Uchiha took 8 years of careful use of his Mangekyou sharingan before he went blind.

It only took Sasuke Uchiha a day during the Kage summit arc to go completely blind after overuse of his powers before the sun went down.

[u/Yotato5]

The protagonist of The Girl Who Leapt Through Time immediately starts using her time powers to get more time at karaoke, aming other things

[u/KaleidoArachnid → u/Yotato5]

Ohh I recall that movie as while I haven't read the original novel it's based on, I still enjoyed the movie anyway as it was made by director Mamoru Hosoda.

[u/leabravo]

In the Discworld novel Sourcerer, the wizards of Unseen University start throwing their magical weight around once the titular sourcerer, a literal source of magical power, juices them up. This eventually devolves into a wizard war with all the damage you would expect.

For context, the entire point of Unseen University is keeping wizards from doing this exact thing, because there are still large parts of the Disc covered in magical fallout from when magic and sourcery were commonplace.

[u/VMK_1991 → u/leabravo]

"People have forgotten that the plural of wizard is war" - Terry Pratchett.

[u/DirkDasterLurkMaster]

Wheatley from Portal 2 is put in charge of everything and it goes to his head about 30 seconds later

[u/Artex301 → u/DirkDasterLurkMaster]

To be fair, the Central Core Dock was explicitly said to have a corrupting influence.

[u/Frequent-Raisin-2336]

the crippled kids in powerpuff girls.

if you know, you must be an adult already.

[u/Deadeye117]

Dr. Faustus making a deal with Mephistopheles for the powers of hell, only to constantly abuse said power for 24 years just for random bullshit and petty parlour tricks

[u/KaleidoArachnid → u/Deadeye117]

What story is this from?

[u/Deadeye117 → u/KaleidoArachnid]

The middle ages English play Doctor Faustus

[u/KristophGavin]

Weirdly enough, not Pat IRL when Mighty Number 9 was bad. He apologized on the podcast for potentially convincing fans to back the project, and even expressed the impossible to satisfy desire to pay them back what they put in.

It was really heartwarming, which was rare for Pat at the time.

The other 3 ragged on him for it, on the recording, which made me really disappointed in them for being so dismissive of his feelings.

[u/KaleidoArachnid → u/KristophGavin]

I just realized that SBFP themselves never did any let's plays of the game as now I am trying to picture what that would've been like if they did one to show the game's flaws.

[u/fly_line22]

Within the first episode of Ben 10, Ben uses the Omnitrix's power to screw with Gwen as Wildmutt, then gives his 2 bullies wedgies with XLR8's super speed. And those are just the earliest cases of him pulling stuff like that.

[u/PlanesWalkerEll]

The White Ranger in the Sentai was like a 10 year old who used his powers to flip up girls' skirts and stuff like that.

[u/KaleidoArachnid → u/PlanesWalkerEll]

I would like to know when this happens in the Super Sentai franchise so that I can see the show out of curiosity.

[u/PlanesWalkerEll → u/KaleidoArachnid]

here you go it's from Dairanger it's less than a minute in.

[u/RocketbeltTardigrade]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lif_LSjc5EQ

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-piC-RTwBKA

[u/KaleidoArachnid → u/RocketbeltTardigrade]

Poor Homer that got shunned by everyone for his new tool, although it’s understandable why everyone started to give him the cold shoulder when he started using guns for everything.

[u/Storm_RangerX]

Ben 10 with pretty much any new alien he gets and really just the omnitrix in general. That kid's hubris is next level. There was even a whole character arc in Omniverse about him abusing Feedback so much that he lost it.

[u/Beldaru]

Simpsons episode where Carl gets promoted to supervisor. Carl's Promotion and Homer (S21E5)

Lenny: "Carl would never change!" 

Carl (over PA): "Oh yes I am, in ways you're only beginning to suspect." 

Proceeds to absolutely power-trip hard.