Power Draining/Stealing & Stealing Power Items

[GeekyPornCritic]

I've read several stories about a villain stealing powers by either draining the heroine's powers from her body or stealing the heroine's power item such as a belt or bracers. There are also stories about villains removing a superheroine's powers and changing her to a normal woman. I have enjoyed many stories with this concept on this site and others.

I prefer stories about villains stealing power items. It creates the challenge for the heroine to use her natural talents to defeat the villain and regain her power items. There will be setbacks of humiliation due to not having her powers. She would continue to adjust until she regains her powers. Her early defeat and comeback to save the day are satisfying to me.

Also, stealing power items can lead to stealing the superheroine's identity if the villain steals the suit or makes a copy of the suit. It opens the door for more perils such as committing crimes as the superheroine. The police would think the their resident superheroine has become a villain. Now the real heroine may have problems from the police and her archenemy.

On the other hand, I have mixed feelings about a villain permanently stealing and draining a superheroine's power. The concept sounds cool and is one of the most nightmarish perils for a superheroine. She would not only be powerless. She would also lose her identity as a superheroine. Thus, her life will change forever and could led to depression. This occurs in Marvel comics with Rouge and Captain Marvel.

However, the heroine is unable to regain her powers as they were natural from her physiology. The writer would need to write a solution to recreate her powers or retake those powers from the villain. We would otherwise have a useless character without any ability to regain her status. The only other solution would be to kill the heroine after stealing her powers.

Another solution is the power draining does not permanently drain a superheroine's powers. For example, Leach can drain all of Supergirl's powers. Then, she would regenerate her powers from sunlight. Leach will still have the powers that were stolen. Another example would be the heroine's natural physiology will eventually replenish the natural cells or tissues that give powers to the superheroine. Our body replaces dead cells with new cells everyday. This would be the best solution for a writer to use.

[DrDominator9]

GPC, you say:

"...The writer would need to write a solution to recreate her powers or retake those powers from the villain. We would otherwise have a useless character without any ability to regain her status. The only other solution would be to kill the heroine after stealing her powers."

As a writer, my feeling about killing off a heroine who no longer has her powers permanently is to go in the opposite direction and seeing how her character reacts to such a devastating blow. If she's a true heroine in heart, it seems to me she would try to find alternate ways to help people. For example, Barbara Gordon became Oracle after the Joker shot her and paralyzed her. I think if a writer has actually created an original heroine and used her in a series of stories, he or she would be interested in seeing if there was a logical place to take that character's journey in a new direction sans her powers.

Thanks for the thought-provoking post!

[Damselbinder]

Thought provoking indeed.

I had two major power-loss plotlines in the run of Enhancegirl, and I did two different things with them. In Enhancegirl 9, a villain named Adrienne strips Enhancegirl herself, and secondary heroes Stellar and Spectra of their powers. In this case, I never intended the power loss to extend past this episode, so I didn't need to worry about the long term consequences. The purpose of the story was to create a situation of emotional vulnerability for Enhancegirl and Spectra in particular, allowing both of them to see that the other valued them and cared for them as a person, not just as a superhero. It was also a way of showing the stoic Spectra had a delicate, vulnerable side, that she depended too much on her powers for her personal identity, and didn't really think anyone would value her without them. This was useful because my plan was to have her and Enhancegirl get together at some point, and while Spectra as the more experienced heroine had often been the one providing support, strength and advice, it was useful to see her needing someone, coping worse with the power loss than EG herself.

With the other power loss plot I did, I basically flip-reversed the whole thing on its head. I inflicted the power loss on Insyte, a telepath who had always hated her powers, and for her their loss was a cruel, tantalising glimpse of what she wanted. Her powers returned quickly, but in this case it showed her that, actually, she WASN'T cut out for being a superhero. She'd done it out of a sense of duty, more than anything else, but was able to come to the conclusion that it was unfair for anyone, including herself, to expect her to devote her life to fighting crime. She was an architect, not a martial artist, and she was able to confidently come to terms with that because of her power loss.

[Femina]

Firstly, I am a fairly big fan of 'power drain' as a peril-device. A certain incident in a TV show I watched as a youngin' involving such a device is probably my earliest memory of realizing that this sort of thing turned me on... that being said I have reservations about the plot device as a whole... entirely as a personal preference of tastes.

My issue with power drain in storytelling 'overall' is that I generally dislike the idea of 'nerfing' characters in fiction. It's my opinion that if you make your characters so powerful that you can't imagine a villain or circumstance to match them... you probably just aren't trying hard enough, but that isn't to say I think this personal tick of mine is necessarily a norm that needs to be adhered to, just the sort of thing that's liable to turn my own personal attentions away from a particular story... utitlizing a 'nerf' on your characters to make them less of a problem for a villain is probably a narrative tool I've seen (like, in ordinary storytelling) so often that when I see it in a show or film or read it in a novel it breaks my immersion and makes me roll my eyes in frustration... one of the banes of writing is that you want dramatic tension, you want conflict... but actual FRUSTRATION from your readers is the other edge of your sword. Your readers want to be entertained more often than not, and active frustration isn't entertaining... it never helped that most commonly when I'd see such a thing, it was a heroine being nerfed to ensure she wasn't too powerful more often than a man... (Anime in particular I often can't abide as there's a general rule of thumb there, in my experience, that a heroine can only ever be 'almost' as amazing as the most amazing male in the series) but I digress.

Now, as for 'SHIP' which to me is sort of separated from the 'mainstream' mentality (what I find sexy in a SHiP story for instance, might activelly piss me off in a mainstream film... Black Widow being 'damsiled' in 'Age of Ultron' just so that Bruce Banner could rescue her comes to mind) so out here, I find power drain in general to be a perfectly shmexy Peril utility in the toolbox... you'd probably never find me using it as a 'permadrain' in one of my own stories though... I'd probably utilize it as a temporary plot device to be overcome 'in the moment' but not a major theme.

[brdiy]

I like this plot device since it serves as a great equalizer. By the use of a power draining device, ordinary thugs get the chance to take down a once cocky super powered heroine. I bet it's a dream come true for criminals who otherwise could only fantasize about what they would do to a powerless superheroine.

[CaptainHanna]

Huge fan of power/energy draining also of course and it's the main kink for me and what I do More a fan of the temporary energy drainings rather than perma drains

[GeekyPornCritic]

Thanks everyone for the amazing responses! You guys have a lot of interesting ideas. I am impressed by Damselbinder using this concept to develop characters.

GPC, you say:

"...The writer would need to write a solution to recreate her powers or retake those powers from the villain. We would otherwise have a useless character without any ability to regain her status. The only other solution would be to kill the heroine after stealing her powers."

As a writer, my feeling about killing off a heroine who no longer has her powers permanently is to go in the opposite direction and seeing how her character reacts to such a devastating blow. If she's a true heroine in heart, it seems to me she would try to find alternate ways to help people. For example, Barbara Gordon became Oracle after the Joker shot her and paralyzed her. I think if a writer has actually created an original heroine and used her in a series of stories, he or she would be interested in seeing if there was a logical place to take that character's journey in a new direction sans her powers.

Thanks for the thought-provoking post!

Changing a character to be similar to Batman after losing her powers is an interesting approach. I don't think Barbara Gordon is the best example since she was disabled. That's just my opinion. A power draining normally does not lead to disability, but leads to a regular life without being a superheroine.

A heroine standing up to crime without her powers would be an interesting plot and major shift in any series. She would train in martial arts, use awesome weapons, and have a new uniform with special armor. Then, she would create a new superheroine identity and persona. Her old name cannot be used. Villains would notice how much weaker she is, and may be more bold in combat. She can handle typical burglars, thieves, and gangs. However, she is not unstoppable and these guys have a chance to defeat her.

There is also a problem with her facing the villain who stole her powers. How would she resolve this conflict and defeat this all-powerful person? The task may be too large for her to handle.

Let's take a look at this power scale.

The heroine's power level before losing her powers.

Heroine: 10,000
Villain: 2,000

The heroine's power level after her powers are stolen by the villain.

Heroine: 0
Villain: 12,000

The heroine's power level after training and gaining a new identity as a superheorine.

Heroine: 1,000
Villain: 12,000

[Visitor]

At one time Wonder Woman gave up her powers and spent several issues as an ordinary human with martial arts skills (version 1, issues 178-204). It wasn't a very good run and they went back after about two years. Basically it was Diana Prince as a heroine.

I prefer having a hero or heroine's powers drained temporarily like the Parasite draining Superman's powers and then keeping him around as a rechargeable battery. Initially you had the Parasite explode after being overloaded beyond his body's capacity to have that much power, but later versions had him able to use them and survive. It made it more interesting to see Superman having to use his brain instead of his brawn to recover and defeat a villain with his abilities.

[Abductorenmadrid]

The way the stealing / draining is done can no doubt satisfy a myriad of peril fetishes - whether it be by the clever removing of items, use of technology, magic or whatever. Of course the nature of some choices depend on the material, be it mainstream or more "adult" type entertainment. And although obvious it should be said that even "mainstream" peril choices can stir "adult" entertainment responses, many of us are here because of what we have been exposed to in the mainstream afterall.

Parasite has been mentioned and I did enjoy SGs fight with him in SE04 E05. It was all too brief but the re-scaling of SGs power level after a bit of draining from Parasite I felt was well done. I would have liked more merciless progression of the stealing, robbing her of various powers as she tried to use them (and some dialogue to go with it) but it was not to be.




I don't think it has been mentioned here yet but there is also the concept of not just stealing powers but the heroines entire body instead, like a mind swap or something. Losing your powers is one thing but losing your entire self, your identity, everything, is something else! I currently have a storyline ongoing in my SG series which has this theme in it and in my comic "What if? #2" elsewhere on the forum I touched on it too. This of course leaves the heroine with the body of whoever took hers. Is that person old or young? Rich or penniless? Good looking or ugly as sin?!

[Femina]

I don't think it has been mentioned here yet but there is also the concept of not just stealing powers but the heroines entire body instead, like a mind swap or something. Losing your powers is one thing but losing your entire self, your identity, everything, is something else! I currently have a storyline ongoing in my SG series which has this theme in it and in my comic "What if? #2" elsewhere on the forum I touched on it too. This of course leaves the heroine with the body of whoever took hers. Is that person old or young? Rich or penniless? Good looking or ugly as sin?!

The concept of losing ones entire identity being different from losing ones powers is a fallacy I think? There might be a tendency to write out a line like 'whelp she lost/sacrificed her powers but at least she didn't lose her life/mind'... and fails to take into account that those powers are undoubtedly a part OF her identity and self so losing them isn't as bare bones simple as just being weaker than before... its essentially equivalent to having ones limb cut off. There's this thing you could do before, that you did often... and now you CANT ever do that thing again. A heroine (or any character really) losing her powers PERMANENTLY is essentially a form of mutilation... and if you're half a storyteller and not JUST in it for quick cheesy thrills, that concept is something you suddenly have to start your character wrestling if its something you are going to do... because no amount of physical therapy or becoming Batman is going to completely wipe away that characters phantom limb of severed power.

While I'm sure it's not a well known series way out here, the 'Avatar the Last Airbender' series about people who have the innate ability to 'bend'(aka cast magic... albiet martially) the elements ended its first series....... uh Spoiler alert?

Spoiler

by having its pacifist protagonist Aang defeat the main villain by choosing to strip his bending permanently rather than kill him because he refused to take a life...

The series has recently continued on in the form of comic books and has begun to approach the question of if it wouldn't be kinder to just kill somebody than it is to strip them of their bending permanently... and in fact in the sequel series to TLA, we do in fact see some of the mental strain that hits people who at least BELIEVE they've been stripped of their powers permanently.

So really... since I don't ordinarily want to have to think about all of that and apply it realistically, its normally easier and more enjoyable if its a 'temp' situation.

[Dazzle1]

At one time Wonder Woman gave up her powers and spent several issues as an ordinary human with martial arts skills (version 1, issues 178-204). It wasn't a very good run and they went back after about two years. Basically it was Diana Prince as a heroine.

I prefer having a hero or heroine's powers drained temporarily like the Parasite draining Superman's powers and then keeping him around as a rechargeable battery. Initially you had the Parasite explode after being overloaded beyond his body's capacity to have that much power, but later versions had him able to use them and survive. It made it more interesting to see Superman having to use his brain instead of his brawn to recover and defeat a villain with his abilities.

The WW change was made supposidly because of low sales.

It ranks along with Superman losing his powers due to magic and the current Rick Grayson story arc as major D.C mistakes.

[Abductorenmadrid]

I don't think it has been mentioned here yet but there is also the concept of not just stealing powers but the heroines entire body instead, like a mind swap or something. Losing your powers is one thing but losing your entire self, your identity, everything, is something else! I currently have a storyline ongoing in my SG series which has this theme in it and in my comic "What if? #2" elsewhere on the forum I touched on it too. This of course leaves the heroine with the body of whoever took hers. Is that person old or young? Rich or penniless? Good looking or ugly as sin?!

The concept of losing ones entire identity being different from losing ones powers is a fallacy I think? There might be a tendency to write out a line like 'whelp she lost/sacrificed her powers but at least she didn't lose her life/mind'... and fails to take into account that those powers are undoubtedly a part OF her identity and self so losing them isn't as bare bones simple as just being weaker than before... its essentially equivalent to having ones limb cut off. There's this thing you could do before, that you did often... and now you CANT ever do that thing again. A heroine (or any character really) losing her powers PERMANENTLY is essentially a form of mutilation... and if you're half a storyteller and not JUST in it for quick cheesy thrills, that concept is something you suddenly have to start your character wrestling if its something you are going to do... because no amount of physical therapy or becoming Batman is going to completely wipe away that characters phantom limb of severed power.

I was merely putting that peril out there. And it wasn't meant to be a either or, more a "as well as". The topic is about power stealing and draining and I was just suggesting that hopping into the heroines body was another means of getting those powers. The side effect of course is that if you sort of body swap then the heroines mind has to go somewhere else. And no, I've not really written this plot line as a quick thrill, it's been set over several stories, not yet resolved and if the plot happens to run a certain way then when the heroine understands what has happened it's going to hit hard because like you said, the severity of what has happened is just too great to get away with lightly.

[Ricky89]

Yours Power Draining/Stealing Power story Top 3?