Taken for Granite

"Defeated by an ugly crone,
From mortal man to standing stone,
With sun and rain upon you blown,
Through carven locks the wind shall moan,
Here you will be through years unknown,
And slowly crumble when time has flown."
—Game Over Screen, Conquests Of Camelot
A character has been petrified — literally. Transformed into stone (or another inanimate substance) by someone else, the archetypal result is a perfectly sculpted gray (concrete?) statue, complete with matching gray clothes and accessories, frozen in whatever position they were in when the spell took effect, presumably for all time. Heed well, traveler: Should you ever stumble upon a cave filled with impeccably detailed life-size statues showing expressions of terror on their faces, be Genre Savvy and turn back now.
The ability to transform someone in this manner is a fairly common Stock Superpower, especially if combined with an Evil Eye. Definitely Older Than Feudalism, being fairly common in Classical Greek myth as well as Fairy Tales. If the victim isn't killed outright, he might be in some sort of stasis. At worst, he'll remain conscious while frozen in a form of locked-in paralysis, sometimes accompanied by inescapable pain or anguish. However, it's generally accepted that shattering the statue kills the person held within... hopefully.
More likely to produce Tears from a Stone than most rock — but still not very likely.
It does not count if they transform and untransform on their own (unless they cannot move, such as in Dragon Tails and Super Mario Bros. 3). If the character can transform on their own and remain mobile, then this is an Elemental Shapeshifter.
Being Taken for Granite happens a lot in children's literature, because, unlike death, it is (probably) reversible. Usually.
If a villain knows that this effect can be potentially reversed, you can expect them to consider smashing the "statue" to ensure the person cannot be brought back.
There is often an ambiguity as to whether the petrified person is completely turned to stone, or whether they are 'encased' in a thin layer of stone in a manner similar to Harmless Freezing. You can often see this when a character is only partially petrified - they will seem only to be encased in stone, and may break out. This is probably to avoid the obvious circulatory problems with having a completely petrified limb.
See Wax Museum Morgue for a similar trope when the monster (or whatever) that petrified the people decides to put them on display in a gallery.
==Examples:==
===Anime and Manga===
*In Mega Man NT Warrior (anime), the viruses Pharaohman.exe creates can turn Net Navis to stone. He uses them to prevent people from stopping him (because in that universe, most people are absolutely useless without a Net Navi during a crisis). Net Navis turned to stone can't even log out, trapping them in the network. The effects seem to not happen instantly, however, as Sharkman.exe is able to successfully shut off the electricity (Pharaohman.exe was attempting to hijack a Kill Sat) before he completely turns to stone. However, it was all in vain as Pharaohman.exe manually turns the power and hijacks the satellite anyway. Thankfully, every Navi turned to stone reverts to normal after Pharaohman.exe is deleted.
**Stoneman.exe can also do this, on people in the real world, because The Ditz businesswoman, who picks him up, accidentally expressed her wish to turn her boss into a stone so he'll stop yelling at her. The result is Stoneman turning everyone in her office into the stones.
*In Melody of Oblivion the Monster named Medusa does this and then collects the statues, she especially likes pubescent boys (each Monster does something like this to people who see their true form).
*In SD Gundam Force, the Bagu-Bagu inject a chemical that turns organic life forms into stone. All life on Zero's home planet Lacroa was given this treatment. Near the end, they turn most of the residents of Neotopia to stone, but after regaining his Soul Drive, Captain Gundam reverses the petrifaction by reprogramming them in the Brain World.
*Cockatrimon in Digimon Adventure and (briefly) Digimon Savers.
*Ash in the climax of Pokémon: The First Movie, after he's hit by two blasts that Mew and Mewtwo fire at each other while he's trying to stop them. He was revived by a slew of Swiss Army Tears from the surrounding Pokémon.
**Also happens in the very end Fire Red/Leaf Green saga of Pokémon Special, when one of the villains blasts the main characters with an attack from Darkrai. It colliding with Mewtwo caused a reaction that turned the main characters into stone. The next arc uses this as Emerald's reason to pursue Jirachi — to wish the effect reversed.
**Another Pokémon example: Pokemon Hunter J has a bracelet device that she uses to petrify Pokémon in order to steal them. It apparently also works on people, because Pyramid King Brandon got turned to stone when he jumped in front of the beam. He is healed though, thanks to Regigigas.
*Dabura of Dragon Ball Z could turn people to stone with his spit.
**Majin Buu has a slight twist on this in that his antenna can turn people into food, which he then eats (or in one case, steps on). This creates a Crowning Moment of Funny when he turns Vegetto into a coffee candy, but Vegetto's immense power means he remains sentient and mobile, resulting in a little hard candy ball beating the stuffing out of a galaxy-destroying monster.
**He also turned the people of a small village in clay, so probably he can petrify people as well.
*Algol Perseus in Saint Seiya turns people into stone with his "Medusa Shield". Destroying the shield and killling Algol reverse the process.
*Hayate of Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha has a spell called Misteltein which does this. With it, she managed to turn the giant, bio-mechanical Cosmic Horrorof a Big Bad into stone. At least, before it broke free by shedding its old body for a more grotesque form.
*The villain of the manga-faithful Violinist of Hameln movie was basically Medusa with a chip on her shoulder, and she turns Hamel's companions Oboe, Sizer, and Raiel, into stone statues. Not that this deters Hamel in the least — he goes on to use these statues as missiles to hurl at her. Unfortunately for Raiel, she gets fed up with this very quickly and smashes him into pieces when Hamel tosses him at her...
**Then, paying heed to the trope, the petrified victims return to normal as soon as she's defeated, leading the panicked Hamel and Flute to reassemble Raiel before he returns to normal.
*The eventual Big Bad of Mahou Sensei Negima!, Fate Averruncus, did this to multiple people in his first appearance in Kyoto ( the only one who's unaffected is Asuna, due to her Anti-Magic). And he's threatened to do it again.
**A minor villain, Count Herrman, had permanent petrification as his most powerful weapon.
**Then there is Negi's tragic backstory, wherein almost everyone in his home village except for him, Nekane and Anya was turned to stone. Said Count is one of the demons who did that.
**More recently, Fate lived up to his threat: he used magical darts to do this to Beatrix, Sayo and Yuna, when they attacked him in an attempt to rescue Asuna.
*There is a manga, King of Thorn, that features a disease with petrifying effects. Within a few days you get seizures and turn to stone.
*In her first appearance in Keroro Gunsou, Alisa Southerncross does this to two pursuers by turning her headband (actually a part of her amorphous alien adoptive father) into a cluster of snakes (a clear reference to the Gorgon, which another character recognizes).
*In the InuYasha special "The Woman Who Loved Sesshoumaru," a one-shot villain turns an entire village full of people, and later on Miroku, Sango, and Kirara, into glass.
*A demon in the original Shadow Lady story liked to prey on pretty, young girls, so he could take them to his house and turn them into naked stone statues. He smashed one of them to pieces to prove a point to Shadow Lady just before fighting her, bringing up all sorts of grisly implications when he was defeated and all the girls returned to normal.
*Anacondy, a member of the Quirky Miniboss Squad in Yes! Precure 5GoGo!, has the ability to do this. It's implied that this is where all the statues in the Eternal Museum came from...
*Happened to Yui, Freeze and others in a second season episode of Corrector Yui. (And as a bonus, since she's petrified inside the Net.Com, Yui actually falls in a coma in the real world.) The previously retired Corrector Haruna has to come back to action to save them.
*In Fullmetal Alchemist, one of the filler episodes involves a town being infected with a disease that turns everyone's skin into some sort of bark/stone substance.
*In One Piece, Boa Hancock has the ability to turn people into stone with the power of her Devil Fruit, the Mero Mero no Mi. Though said people have to be at least remotely smitten with her, that's not too big of a problem. The effect is perfectly reversible however, only resulting in minor memory loss to the victims (that is, if she revives them before they're shattered, such as the case with the shattered limbs of pirates at the Battle of Marineford]].
**Mr. 3 of the Baroque Works can also use his hardening wax to petrify people, and unless the victim is saved in time, the effect is slightly less reversible than Hancock's.
*In the first season of Magic Knight Rayearth, this happened to Clef after he was struck by a spell from Zagato.
*During a filler arc in Yu-Gi-Oh!! the villain Noah turns the Kaiba Bros. into stone after Seto loses by risking to use Last Turn, causing Yugi to take over and continue the duel. When Noah gets fed up with everybody, he threatens to turn all of Yugi's supporters into stone, including Chris' friends and does, in this order: Duke, robot-monkey Tristan, Serenity, and Joey. And when he turns Tea into stone, even Danny and Frances, Yugi goes through an over-the-top Heroic BSOD, until Yugi tells Yami that he's not alone, while Chris uses VWXYZ-Dragon Catapult Cannon to kill Hino-Kagu-Tsuchi. When XANA makes William magic-proof and tells Noah that he turned everyone to stone in the use of the negative energy of the friendship, preventing them from giving Yugi support, Chris takes Odd's suggestion, which eliminates Yugi's original purpose of saving everybody in order to win the duel. Using the positive energy of Aelita, Helen, Ulrich, Yumi, Odd and Jeremie from the real world, Chris' deck master VWXYZ-Dragon Catapult Cannon shatters everybody that was solidified into many pieces, to the shock of Yugi and Yami and the enrage of XANA. Aelita and Jeremie create a artificial sparks as everyone's lifeforces that emerge from the broken statues making stone pieces crumble into dust that blows away. Everyone was recreated by Jeremie's program that revive everybody with the copy of XANA's shields.
*In Kannazuki no Miko, Souma's Orochi-granted powers eventually petrify him.
*In Samurai Deeper Kyo, the "true" Mekira turns Yuya to stone from the waist down, and completely statue-fies the newly heel face turned Santera. They recover after Akari gets seriously peeved and does away with Mekira.
*The premise of Crystal Blaze is a series of incidents in which women were discovered transformed into glass statues. Fittingly, the alternate title of the series is Glass Maiden.
*Xanxus from Katekyo Hitman Reborn! has a Cool Pet liger who has the power to turn people to stone when it roars. Then Xanxus shoots them through the head...
*Just one of the many Dark Bring in Rave Master
*Rosario + Vampire's Ishigama-sensei, the school's art teacher, is a Medusa. Rather than her stare turning people into stone, it's the bite of her snake-like hair that does the job. She's swears she is only turning the school's pretty girls into statues for the art.
*Not a typical attack, but a real danger of using senjutsu in Naruto. If the user's body draws more natural energy than it can balance with its own chakra, their body transforms into a stone frog.
**Actually used as an attack against Pein's chakra-absorbing body. As it lacked the knowledge to balance the natural energy, Naruto was able to overload it with the energy and transform it into stone.
**On Third Movie, one of the main villains, a ninja called Ishidate has a gauntlet/glove with an Medusa-esque eye on it that can turn anyone he touches into a statue. Sakura can cure any limbs he petrifies, but not when he goes Literally Shattered Lives on his opponents. That's at least two Red Shirt Soldiers helping Naruto and his team.
**The Tsuchikage is also able to use an Earth technique to petrify anyone he is touching, as well as greatly increasing their mass.
*The demons do this to Dr Hibiki in Brave Raideen.
*Minor villain Evergreen from Fairy Tail uses this as her magic, which is done through eye contact.
*Basho Matsuo from Yaiba can turn people to stone with his magic needles. However, even if they're broken, they return to normal after the needle is removed or broken.
*In Saint Beast, while plotting to break Judas and Luca out of hell, the other four Saint Beasts are betrayed by the Goddess and turned to stone. After years pass, Saki manages to free Goh.
===Films — Animated===
*In The Snow Queen's Revenge, the Snow Queen falls into lava. The ending of the movie shows her body to be intact, but completely turned to stone along with her staff. Her eyes glow before the credits roll, hinting that she is still alive. Given that no sequels have been made since, and that she is the SNOW queen fallen into LAVA, however, we can assume she doesn't survive for much longer, and even if she does, her staff (which unfroze her at the film's beginning) isn't doing anything this time, so it's safe to assume she's not going anywhere.
*The fate of the villain Saluk in Aladdin: The King Of Thieves, when he grabs the movie's MacGuffin, The Hand of Midas, with his bare hands during the climax, accidentally transforming himself into a statue of gold.
===Films — Live Action===
*It's okay, everyone. Admit that it happens in The Rocky Horror Picture Show. C'mon — that movie's practically a historical landmark of culture now anyway.
**Okay. After Frank-n-Furter turns Colombia, Janet, Rocky and Brad into statues, he dresses them up in makeup and corsets, turns them back to normal, forces them to do a floor show, then makes them join him in a synchronized pool orgy. You asked for it.
**And they find themselves enjoying it.
*In Hellraiser III: Hell on Earth, Pinhead is trapped as a statue, but frees himself after a certain amount of blood.
*In Part 2 of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, this is what happens to Bellatrix Lestrange before she gets blown to pieces.
*In Ernest Scared Stupid, the troll Trantor's signature power is to turn kids into little wooden dolls that give him his power.
*Medusa in Clash of the Titans (1981) turns a few of Perseus' soldiers into stone statues before being killed and beheaded by Perseus. After she's dead Perseus uses her head (and eyes) to petrify the Kraken.
*Han Solo, frozen in carbonite in The Empire Strikes Back, later put on display in Jabba's palace then eventually unfrozen in Return of the Jedi.
*In Willow, the village sorcerer gives Willow a pouch of magical acorns and says, "Anything you throw them at, turns to stone." This turns out to be true.However, at no point do they actually do Willow any good. He tries to use them in a fight with a troll, but he drops the acorn and instead of turning the troll to stone, it just petrifies the wooden plank it lands on. He actually manages to hit Queen Bavmorda, but it turns out that Bavmorda's magical kung fu is rather stronger than the village sorcerer's, and she shakes off the effect with ease.
**One of the acorns did Willow some good in the novelization. After rescuing Fin Raziel from the island; a monster which Bavmorda had summoned or created to guard the lake came after Willow and Raziel, and Willow threw an acorn down its throat.
*The 50's Monolith Monsters features growing towers of crystals that fall and shatter; anyone exposed to their shards begins to turn to stone. What makes it worse is that the crystalline stones expand and even explode when coming in contact with water.
*The Monkey King's petrification is at the center of the plot of The Forbidden Kingdom.
*A weapon turning living beings into ash was developed in Star Trek: Nemesis.
*In 7 Faces of Dr. Lao, Medusa turns a disbelieving townswoman to stone. (She gets better.)
*In Hellboy 2: The Golden Army, when elves die, their bodies turn to yellow stone.
===Live Action TV===
*There's an episode of The Sarah Jane Adventures about an alien race who were the basis of the Medusa myth.
*The Weeping Angels from Doctor Who have this happen as a defense mechanism whenever they're seen "because you can't kill a stone".
**The Doctor defeated the angels by having someone run into the TARDIS and letting the "angels" converge on it, and then dematerializing at the last second. The angels all turn to stone, because they're left standing in a circle looking at each other.
**The original novel, The Stone Rose, involves this happen on an involuntary basis to a certain Rose Tyler. And later the Doctor.
**Progressive Petrification: In the new Doctor Who series, the episodes New Earth (2e01) and The Fires of Pompeii (4e02) feature people gradually turning to stone due to an illness.
**"The Five Doctors" involves a villain looking for Rassilon's secret of immortality. It turns out, though, that the supposed "immortality" is a trap Rassilon laid for megalomaniacs. Borusa becomes immortal by being turned into a paralyzed, living stone face on the base of Rassilon's coffin.
**In The Big Bang all matter in every point in history in the universe is erased except for the Earth, and if not stopped in time all universes everywhere will have never existed. Several Daleks and Cybermen were present at Ground Zero, and as a temporary side-effect of their histories never existing are turned into stone after-images before being erased permanently.
***Eventually one of the petrified Daleks becomes partially restored and functional after being exposed to fragments of the original universe before its destruction. When history is fully restored everything is back into place.
**Subverted in The Time of Angels, when the Angel in Amy's mind makes her think she's turning to stone. She isn't, but it takes the Doctor biting the affected hand to snap her out of it.
**Also in the old series, this happened in the Season 26 serial "Ghost Light" - the victims were petrified by the story's Big Bad, Light, because of his fear of change and evolution (they had 'adapted' to a new situation, and so he ensured they would 'never change again').
*The second season of Big Wolf on Campus ended with Merton a stone statue, after he put himself between Tommy and the gaze of Medusa.
**He gets doubly screwed too, turns out that the cure is also a poison so when he gets turned back he finds himself blind, sweating horribly from a fever, totally unable to care for himself, and with a touch of leprosy (apparently he spits out some teeth).
*In the first episode of Hercules: The Legendary Journeys, Iolaus takes on a "she-demon" while Hercules is in a 10-Minute Retirement after the murder of his family, and gets petrified for his trouble. Naturally this impels Hercules to go kill the she-demon, which, of course, restores all of her victims, including Iolaus.
*Happened to Madison in Power Rangers Mystic Force, at the hands of a cockatrice-themed Monster of the Week, so she was naturally sympathetic when it happened to Jenji later on at the hands of a Medusa-themed one. This also occurred to Urara, Madison's counterpart in Mahou Sentai Magiranger (the Mystic Force episode was in fact a near copy of the Magiranger episode).
**Of course, it also happened to Jason, the original Red Ranger, many years before in Power Rangers Zeo, only he was turned to gold.
***Who was, somewhat ironically (or not), the Gold Ranger at the time.
**Engine Sentai Go Onger: Sousuke is turned into a bronze statue in GP 35-36. He gets better though.
*A book in the Goosebumps series was called Be Careful What You Wish For and showcased the trope of this name. In the ending of the TV adaptation, which differed considerably from the book, a girl wishes that "wherever I go, people will come to admire me" - and instantly turns into a statue.
**In the TV adaptation of "Revenge of the Lawn Gnomes," Major McCall (Mr McCall in the book) is turned into a lawn ornament at the end.
*Occurs to Farscape's Crichton in the second-season episodes "I Do, I Think" and "The Maltese Crichton" (a.k.a. the "Look at the Princess" trilogy).Crichton actually gets his head cut off and thrown in acid in this state. (Temporarily.)
*Played for laughs in Look Around You series 2, which has an item about a disease called Geodermic Grantitis (Cobbles), which turns people into vaguely human-shaped piles of rock. Victims can slide around, and can see, hear and talk despite their lack of visible eyes, ears or mouths. The disease has one compensation: its victims can fly. A leaflet, "Coping with Cobbles", is available at pharmacies and quarries, price 1p.
*In the instructional series Storylords, the evil Storylord Thorzuul turned anyone who couldn't understand what they read into statues for his collection.
*One recurring obstacle (well, we see it twice but this was a year when no one won) on Knightmare was a giant gorgon head that once turned not just the Dungeoner but the Guides (who are normally immune to harm) to stone.
*The fact that that he possessed an "Off" Switch meant Star Trek: The Next Generation's Data often fell victim to being deactivated unexpectedly or against his will. This usually resulted in a somewhat disturbing slump (he reacted just as any human would do if they were knocked unconscious). On at least two occasions, however, unexpected deactivation of energy charges brought on total paralysis effectively rendering him a mannequin.
*Done on Blood Ties.
*In Kamen Rider Kiva, people who have their Life Energy drained by Fangire become glass-like and translucent. Only once do we see anyone actually shattering because of this, however. On the other hand, the show completely averts No Ontological Inertia since once somebody's been drained, they're effectively dead.
**Kamen Rider Fourze had a Monster of the Week, modeled on Perseus, whose left arm was an armored gauntlet with a relief of Medusa's head on it. Initially it only worked with physical contact, but his One-Winged Angel form upgraded it to Eye Beams. However, when he used it on the main character it wore off after some time, apparently since he was in the middle of a Heel Face Turn and his heart wasn't in it.
*There's a Star Trek TOS episode, By Any Other Name where aliens turn the crew of the Enterprise (except for Kirk, Spock, McCoy and Scotty) into little styrofoam polygons.
*Queen Admira from The Hugga Bunch special has the power to freeze people in place, which she uses on Bridget after the girl accidentally insults her. Later, Bridget's friends from the Hugga Bunch are able to restore her to normal through The Power Of Hugs.
*In an episode of Are You Afraid of the Dark, a villain put on a ring that was purported to make one immortal. It "immortalized" him in a way he hadn't bargained for. Removing the ring did not restore him.
*Friday The 13th: The Series: The Shard of Medusa is a jagged piece of black rock. Those who hold it for long periods become paralyzed. Stabbing such victims with the Shard turns them into stone. What do you do with your new statues? If you're an artist with more ambition than conscience, you put them on display for fame and fabulous fortune, of course!
*Bob Bishop from Heroes can turn anything he wants into gold. It was only used on inanimate objects in the series itself, but in the webcomic we see it being used on a person. That person was then hauled away and melted down.
*Eureka features several people petrifying in the aptly titled episode "Stoned".
*Warehouse 13 has a variation with a knife that turns people into glass.
**And, of course, there is the process known as Bronzing, which is said to be done to those that have the potential to do the most damage to the world.And they're conscious the whole time!
**There's also a hybrid of an artifact and a computer virus, which changes people's DNA into a silicon-based configuration, changing their body parts into diatomacious earth. Needless to say, this is incompatible with life.
*One villain in Charmed shrinks witches and turns them into clay figurines.
**One of the Titans can turn people to stone. She turns Whitelighters to stone and shatters them to steal their teleporting powers. Paige is turned to stone, but is saved from the shattering and later returned to normal.
*The Adventures Of Sinbad had a Mad Artist villain who could turn anything he touched while wearing magic gloves into stone, and gathered a collection of beautiful women this way. He's defeated when Sinbad grabs his wrist and shoves his hand into his face.
===Video Games===
*In the beginning of King's Quest: Mask of Eternity, everyone in Daventry are turned to stone by the Big Bad. It's only dumb luck that our hero managed to grab a piece of the titular MacGuffin to protect himself.
**In King's Quest III: To Heir Is Human, the hero must defeat a Medusa-like creature that lives in the desert. He takes his cue from Perseus, and shows the monster her own reflection (though in a hand mirror, and not a polished shield).
**Also, near the end of King's Quest V: Absence Makes The Heart Go Yonder!, Cedric the Owl gets turned to stone by accident via Mordack's weakened wand magic (don't worry, he gets better). Graham ends up like this too if he didn't save Cedric from the harpies, as the owl is the only reason for Taking the Bullet. Of course, this only happens on the MS-DOS PC version and any other adaptation except the PC CD-ROM adaptation, where he is just killed by Mordack's magic.
*In Tomb Raider, Lara can be turned to gold by standing on the hand of a giant statue of King Midas.
**This also happens in the remake, Tomb Raider: Anniversary, and in this edition Lara is also encased in stone in a boss battle (which she can somehow break out of).
*Happens temporarily in Legend of Mana during one of the three main plots. Here "temporarily" means about 5 seconds of cutscene.
**Also, one of the questlines has this happen to Casanova Wannabe Gilbert, who got "hard" on a half-basilisk woman. When he pushed her too far, he gothard, indeed.
*Palom and Porom do it to themselves in Final Fantasy IV to stop a deathtrap.
**Also, "Stone" is a status effect in nearly all the games in the series, most of which treat it similarly to Death; since it never wears off through time, if all party members are petrified, the fight's over. Later games in the series have it so that if a petrified character is struck with a physical attack, they shatter and can't be revived until the battle's over.
**Red XIII's father from Final Fantasy VII ended up as such defending his home. Much like how Phoenix Downs couldn't revive Aerith, Softs couldn't be used to fix this. Parodied here.
**Early on in Final Fantasy IX Blank is turned into stone to protect the heroes from the Evil Forest. He is eventually cured much later in the game.
**The Fayth in Final Fantasy X are people who are turned into statues so that their souls can be used to summon large beasts. It's unclear if they become the summon themselves (all we know is that a summoning "draws energy from them"), but they are shown being able to manifest as spirits within the chambers that hold their statue.
***Given in battles where you're fighting specific Fayth you can't call them in yourself... this troper thinks it's pretty much as good as said that the Fayth are the summons themselves.
**Llednar Twem in Final Fantasy Tactics Advance. What's worse? He crumbled shortly after that.
**Final Fantasy XIII, a curse of l'cie will turn a subject who achieves his/her focus into a crystal, giving him/her an eternal life at least until a new mission is given or the subject is fleed from the curse.
***Also, a l'cie who had transformed into a cie'th for long enough will eventually turn into a cie'th stone
*This has been used in the premise of two Legend of Zelda games: Minish Cap and Phantom Hourglass, both of which feature Zelda turning to stone, and Link questing to cure her.
**Also used by Link in the ending of Wind Waker. Link stabs Ganondorf in the head with the Master Sword, turning him to stone. Then the tower they're on starts to collapse. Then the magic bubble keeping the entire ocean from falling on them finishes bursting.
**Wind Waker features Dark Chuchu that turn to stone in the sunlight. This is the only way to destroy them: petrify them, then smash them.
**Also in Wind Waker, your initial visit to the underwater castle of Hyrule has Moblins and Darknuts petrified in the middle of combat.
***That actually falls under Time Stands Still.
**The boss of the 8th dungeon in Oracle of Seasons, the aptly named "Medusa Head", has Eye Beams that turn Link into stone if they hit you.
***And in Oracle of Ages, when Veran starts fucking around with the past, some people disappear and some turn to stone. Including a little kid, whose grandmother spends most of the game crying over.
*Elaine in The Curse Of Monkey Island was turned into a gold statue by a cursed ring. And Guybrush set off to cure her while leaving the statue in the beach of an island inhabited by pirates. Obviously, it was promptly stolen and he had to go and search for them afterwards.
*The PC in Neverwinter Nights: Shadows of Undrentide goes through this, for a blessedly short time.
**You do get to see the effects of the other people/creatures who stood in the way of medusa, you can restore them, unfortunatly all but one (a sphinx) will attack you the instant they are freed.
**Poked fun at in the sequel: you can hear a tale about an elf whose stare can turn people into a stone. Not into stone, but into a stone.
*Philia of Tales Of Destiny is first discovered by the heroes in a petrified state.
*Mario loves this trope.
**In the initial Super Mario Bros Bowser turned all of Peach's subjects into brick blocks. The manual actually said Peach's subjects were the ? boxes that look like bricks, and they're rewarding you for freeing them.
**Mario could turn into a still statue with the Tanooki suit that was invincible and could kill nearly anything by falling on it.
**In the Nintendo Power Super Mario World comic, Bowser gave Peach the ultimatum that if she didn't marry him, he'd turn all her subjects into stone. To prove he was serious, he turned all her subjects at the castle to stone. Mario was hit with the blast. Fortunately, Luigi and Toad found the world's greatest Masseuse who manages to - after 3 hours of chiropracticy - loosen Mario's tension back to flesh.
*The cockatrices in Nethack. Hearing their hiss produces a delayed action petrification which can be cured by eating a lizard or drinking something acidic. On the other hand, touching one with your bare flesh, will instantly petrify you. The statues of petrified monsters can be destroyed in order to retrieve the items they were wearing or carrying.
**More interestingly, their corpse still turns anything it touches to stone. Meaning an adventurer (or monster) with a pair of gloves can wield it as a one-hit-killing weapon. With the right equipment, you can even turn yourself into a cockatrice, lay a few dozen eggs, and throw them at your enemies for instant petrification.
***The problem remains that you turn to stone automatically if you are wielding a cockatrice/chickatrice and fall afoul of a trap. "Whatever you do, never move while wielding a cockatrice." See here for a more detailed list of ways you can be killed by a dead cockatrice.
**Even more interestingly, with a bit of luck and magic, you can get your own pet cockatrice. Good, because you never have to worry about any living enemies — from Shopkeepers to Dragons, if it's flesh, your pet will kill it in one hit. Bad, because the game is balanced around the idea of you eating the corpses of your fallen enemies, and without them, you starve to death later in the dungeon. You do want to keep it away from flesh golems, though...
**Nethack also contains the Medusa as a unique monster. Just like the mythological version, it possesses a petrifying gaze attack.
*This happens at the end of the climactic fight between Martin Septim and Mehrunes Dagon in The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion.
*A variation occurs in Super Smash Bros. Brawl: characters are turned into trophies when they are defeated in battle or through machines used by the Nintendo villains. They can usually be revived just by touching the trophy stand that appears beneath them.
*In a pretty solid mimicry of the Dragon Tails example at the top, Mage Knight: Apocalypse allows Sarus, a biped dragon, to turn himself to crystal, making himself completely immobile for 10 seconds. See it here.
*In God of War, Medusa can petrify Kratos, making him vulnerable and easily shattered. After defeating her, he can use her severed head to petrify enemies, who can be shattered and thus easily killed, aerial enemies shatter instantly upon hitting the ground. They can shake it off it not shattered though, and other gorgons are immune to the gaze.
**In God of War II, Kratos does it again with Medusa's sister Euryale. There is one game, and one more Gorgon, left.
**Despite this, Kratos doesn't fight Stheno. Instead, your main method of turning enemies to stone on the third game is to summon a Gorgon Serpent once you upgrade your Hades's Claws to level three. Also, doing the brutal kill on a Gorgon will freeze every nearby enemy, much like if you block a Gorgon Flash on the second game.
*In Part IV of Fire Emblem: Radiant Dawn, the order goddess Ashera lets out bursts of energy which were intended to have this effect on the warring humans and laguz. Everybody who is not indoors, sufficiently strong, Branded, or fighting for Ashera is Taken for Granite, Part IV accordingly concerns itself with stopping her before she can do it again and reversing the effect.
**In Fire Emblem: Thracia 776'', this is stated to be the final fate of the Fire Emblem: Genealogy of the Holy War first generation playable characters who survived or escaped the Barhara massacre.
*Total Annihilation Kingdoms features the Basilisk and the Acolyte's Turn To Stone spell, which does Exactly What It Says on the Tin. The expansion pack introduced the Creonite freeze weapons, which have a similar visual effect but are supposedly turning the target into frozen ice statues.
*Happens for about five seconds in Jade Empire.
*Seen in Sailor Venus's subplot of Sailor Moon: Another Story.
*Earthbound has the Diamondized status effect, forcing you to lug the perma-paralyzed body until he was healed.
*The Nashkel Carnaval in the game Baldur's Gate has a stone fighter as one of the attractions. If you decide to use a stone to flesh spell on it, it will turn back into a NPC that can join your party.
**Basilisks will also pop up in several areas, including one set controlled by an insane gnome. One of your dialogue choices when talking to him is funny, but when you think about it later, is truly callous - "Okay, Mr. psycho gnome, I hope you don't take this the wrong way, but we're really not interested in your rock garden". Those are real, very unfortunate (or stupid) people, not just statues!
*Castlevania III's Sypha Belnades is first discovered as a petrified statue, as an effect of the Cyclops' Evil Eye. Strangely, you (Trevor) are never in danger of any petrifying Evil Eye.
**Medusa makes an appearance in Lament of Innocence, along with a shot of the many soldiers who've tried to kill her that she's turned to stone. Leon can only be petrified as a status ailment, though.
**Many of the Post-SotN games add Gold Medusa Heads, which can petrify you on contact.
***See also the Cockatrice card in Circle Of The Moon, which can add a petrification effect to your weapons or abilities.
*In Fate Stay Night, Rider, being that she is Medusa, comes up with a pair of petrifying eyes. However, the one time she actually uses them nobody actually does get turned to stone. Except for Archer's legs. They got better.
*Kirby can obtain a power that functions like the Mario-turns-self-into-statue variant.
*Malcolm, the evil jester in the original Legend of Kyrandia game absolutely loved doing this to whoever crossed him, including Brandon at the end if the player wasn't careful.
**In particular, Kallak, the royal wizard, was turned to stone at the beginning of the game, but his eyes were left alive so that he could watch his homeland being destroyed. At the end of the game Malcolm himself is petrified, only to be revived and become the protagonist in the third installment.
*If you have a good relationship with Magoichi in the second Onimusha, there will be a bit where the PC is turned to stone and you'll play as Magoichi while searching for a cure, and to help various peasants who've also been petrified. It's an easy sidequest.
*Xenosaga Episode III had a medicine called "Seven Moons," which, aside from reviving your characters, also has a slow-acting Petrification effect - apparently an effect of an "inert" virus which has a chance every so often of mutating into an active form. Completing a certain sidequest unlocks an enhanced version of the medicine, without the petrification side effect. Oddly, this effect can be easily countered by applying anti-Crystallization shots to the main characters. Gnosis do not have petrification abilities per se, but they had the ability to turn any human they touched to a pillar of salt.
*King of Fighters villain Rugal Bernstein had a hobby of taking fighters he killed in combat and turning them into statues... by dipping their corpses in liquid bronze. And that's just the start of what this Complete Monster likes to get up to.
**Also in The King of Fighters 2003, the final boss Mukai has the ability to petrify you for a few seconds either by grabbing you, or through a full screen petrifying flash attack.
*Azelf from the Pokemon Diamond And Pearl games can petrify anyone who harms it for all eternity, unless it wishes to reverse it. There's no such move in the game capable of this, however.
*In Tales Of Symphonia, this exists as a Standard Status Effect as well as a plot device- When someone is using a Cruxis Crystal, there is a one-in-a-million chance that it could cause the rare disease called Chronic Angeleus Crystallius Inofficium, which would cause the victim's body to turn into a huge mass ofthe aforementioned crystal. Colette is quick to be afflicted with it. And disc 2 hits, it comes into light due to a shot from Forcystus's Arm Cannon, and curing it leads to a couple Scrappy Levels.
**Near the end of the sequel, the entire Guest Star Cast minus Lloyd ('cuz he's special) get turned to stone due to a trap set by Ratatosk for the holder of the Derris Emblem. Though the charm was meant to protect you in the original game, it serves the reverse purpose because Ratatosk originally gave it to Mithos, who betrayed him. Of note is the fact that according to everyone when you free them, they were all still conscious. Ugh....
*The Romans in Spartan: Total Warrior have a superweapon that uses a Medusa to fire a paralzying beam. After you beat the boss you can use the Medusa Shield, based on Athena's Aegis shield from Greek mythology after Perseus slew Medusa, to petrify groups of enemies.
*In Dragon Quest VIII, a curse covers an entire kingdom with thorny vines and turns all the people and a cat into statue-like plants (except the King, the Princess and one soldier- all of whom have their own curses.)
**In Dragon Quest VII, there is a town turned into stone by a strange purple rain. You use "Angels Tears" to restore the one inhabitant whose statue isn't to eroded to restore. You later visit a DIFFERENT town and the same rain starts to fall, but you discover the monster responsible for it and stop him before serious mayhem occurs.
**In Dragon Quest V, the Hero and his wife were turned to stone by the Big Bad. During the Time Skip, the hero was sold off by treasure hunters and became a lawn ornament. He's eventually restored to normal by his children and later had to search for his wife.
*Atelier Iris 2 features this trope as a Deus Exit Machina for the main character Felt, forcing Viese to follow his footsteps in order to find out what happened to him (and later restore him to normal). Several major characters are petrified the same way by the Big Bad, all of which can eventually be restored. In fact,the entire population of Eden is turned to stone near the end and an optional subquest is to run around "unstoning" every single one.
*In Ico, Yorda is turned stone late in the game. She gets better. Ico is turned to stone if Yorda is captured, and if he loses the final battle.
*Lost Odyssey has a version of this. The King of Gohtza and many of Gohtza's citizens are frozen alive. Unusually, the recipients of this condition areconsidered dead by suffocation, clearly in violation of the existing trope, and definitely Darker and Edgier.
*The Magi-Nation video game for the Game Boy Color had the Big Bad Agram turn anyone who opposed him into stone, including most people from The Underneath and Arderial, plus a few dozen magi from about a hundred years ago who fought him. Reversed after his death, but everyone who was petrified remained conscious for all those years. A short story from the website was from the point of view of one such magi who spent what felt like eternity staring at the same spot in the room because he couldn't move his petrified eyes.
*In Ogre Battle, the way to recruit Saradin is to cure his petrification. The problem is, there's a statue of him in every town in the region, and only one has Saradin trapped inside of it.
**Fortunately, the sacred bell used to fix him will only be used up when you actually use it on the right statue.
*In Tales Of Phantasia, Arche suffers this fate at the behest of a lovestruck elf, to serve as collateral in ensuring the remaining heroes would do as she demanded.
*This is essentially the entire motivation behind the original Star Ocean.
*In Dimitri's ending in Darkstalkers Vampire Savior has him defeating Morrigan, and about to drink her blood. Cut to Dimitri's tower, him sitting on his throne, and a Statue of Morrigan. He states that she turned herself into stone to resist Dimitri's power. He goes on to state that resistence is futile and one day he'll reach into her closed mind, and wait forever, if need be. Giving us a rare example of self-imposed Taken For Granite. Given the ending, its doubtful she'll ever return to normal... at least in this ending.
*Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess: Jovani turned into a golden statue after selling his soul to the Poes. Also a case of And I Must Scream.
*On the backstory of Guild Wars Factions, when the Big Bad Shiro was defeated the first time his death released an explosive wave which turned both an inland sea into solid jade and the entire Echovald forest into stone, along with any living creature unfortunate enough to be caught in it, this event was called "The Jade Wind" in the game.
*Sunlight does this to every normal human in Digital Devil Saga 2. This means that only a fraction of the Earth's population isn't petrified; the statues we do see are all very crumbled, so it is safe to assume that everyone turned to stone is also dead as a doornail. Yikes.
**From the same game, the Stone ailment is very much like the Final Fantasy type - with the added caveat of every physical attack which hits a Petrified character instantly counting as a Critical hit, furthering the damage and possibly giving more turns to the attacker, depending on the game's mechanics. Hit 'em enough and... well, there's no need to explain that, is there... Plus, if a petrified caracter is hit by a Force, Earth, Gun or Physical-type attack, there's always a high chance of it instantly killing the character. You'd be surprised by how many of the demons can do this. On the other hand, at least it reduces or nullifies most other forms of damage, barring the non-elemental Almighty.
*Adventures of Lolo has Medusa and its cousin, Don Medusa. Both are capable of petrifying Lolo (and/or Lala in Lolo 3), and will zap on sight, even if Lolo/Lala isn't looking their way. Don Medusa is the more dangerous of the two, because it can move back and forth.
*One area in Jade Empire features a guardian fox-spirit attacking the locals by petrifying them and smashing the statues because said locals are trying to free an imprisoned demon. It tries it on the PC as soon as it sees you, but the petrification doesn't take due to the PC's Spirit Monk powers.
**The Big Bad Master Li also uses this tactic towards the PC to break his resolve and see the futility of his battle resulting into a Battle in the Center of the Mind.
*In Team Fortress 2, the Engineer has a weapon called the Golden Wrench that was given to 100 users during the Engineer update. The only difference between it and his regular wrench is that when you kill someone with it, they turn into a Australium statue instead of a ragdoll.
*The final boss of Monster World IV has an undodgeable attack that temporarily petrifies you. Your pet Pepelagoo then sacrifices himself to block the boss's petrifying gaze.
*The Hippogriff boss in Demon's Crest starts the fight as a statue. When you headbutt it, it awakens and fights you. Throughout the fight, it sometimes turns back to stone and must be headbutted again. Once you defeat it, the Hippogriff turns to stone one last time... at which point you smash it to pieces with a final headbutt.
*This seems to be part of the reason the Patapon empire falls again in the soon to come Patapon 3 (as one of the side effects of opening the Pandora Box.)
*Neopets love doing this to their faeries.
**The Darkest Faerie was turned to stone by Fyora for 1,000 years, 1,000 years before Neopets: The Darkest Faerie. And in the end was turned to stone again for another 1,000 years.
**Additionally, one of the statues as seen in the Altador plot, was really a faerie turned to stone.
**And all of the faeries were turned to stone at the start of The Faeries' Ruin plot.
***Which ends up happening to most of the heroes, and eventually Hanso and Xandra.
*The Medusa Gun from Will Rock. The name speaks for itself.
*In Elite Beat Agents's last stage, the agents (or divas) are turned to stone by the Rhombulans. They are brought back thanks to the help of all the people they helped.
*In Dragon Age II, this is the final fate of Meredith.
*In The Magic Candle II, one level of the Big Bad's fortress is decorated with members of a nomadic tribe who had this done to them.
*As expected, given the source material, the Dungeons & Dragons series of Gold Box games contain numerous enemies with the ability to petrify the heroes. Luckily, mirrors (and, later, polished silver shields) allow the heroes to reflect the creatures' horrid gaze and turn the enemy to stone.
*Emil of NieR has the uncontrollable ability to cause this with his gaze, and so he spends hundreds of years cooped up in a mansion with a blindfold. He later gains the ability to control it after fusing with his sister into the ultimate weapon.
*The introductory Dwarf adventure in The Lord of the Rings Online, which has you getting Dwarves out of the Silver Deep mine, ends with Gimli battling a cave troll, but before you can help him, both of you are hit with a stun effect. Before the troll can finish off Gimli though, Gandalf shows up with Gormr and blasts away part of the mine with his magic, letting in the sunlight and turning the troll to stone (see Literature above).
**In addition, quests in Monster Play often involve you looting pieces of stone from trolls petrified this way (called "Sun-Touched Trolls").
*Archibald Ironfist, the Big Bad of Heroes of Might and Magic II: The Succession Wars is sentenced to this in the canonical ending, "for some future generation to take mercy upon". The main characters of Might and Magic VI: The Mandate of Heaven frees him from that state a decade or so after the Succession War, but for very good reasons (they need to learn something from him to keep the world from blowing up when they save it). The main characters of the RPGs can also be turned to stone as a status effect, but that is more easily reversible*, while HoMM appears to take the stance that if you are turned to stone in the midst of battle, you are effectively dead.
*In Desktop Dungeons, the Gorgon have a Death Gaze ability, which causes instant petrification when a player's health is less than half (or, for the boss form,Medusa, anything less than full).
*Getting Cursed in Dark Souls will cause this for you.
*Franklin in Drawn: The Painted Tower is turned to stone by a curse. In the sequel, you can free him from the spell.
*In World of Warcraft, in the Deepholm area, there is a group of basilisks that petrify their enemies. Their work is scattered around them. It's worth noting that their targets were already made of stone, but now they're made of stone and can't move.
===Western Animation===
*Mystique is turned to stone by Apocalypse in X-Men: Evolution. In this case, it's eventually revealed that Apocalypse turned Mystique's shape-shifting abilities against her, and if Rogue absorbed her powers for just a moment, Mystique could break free.
**She shoves her off a cliff instead, shattering her.
***However, it's not the real Mystique after all.
*Several episodes of Adventures Of Sonic The Hedgehog involve Sonic getting turned into stone. He gets better.
*Happens to Jackie on Jackie Chan Adventures as the result of magical venom, although unlike most other examples here, he becomes petrified bit by bit, starting with the hand the venom was injected into and gradually spreading to the rest of his body, his head being last. In the intervening time, his stone fists and chest become useful in fights.
*Used several times in Gargoyles, understandably considering the main characters always turn to stone during the day. Various characters will do this, most notably the Magus of the first few episodes, which sets off the entire series by having the Gargoyles be stone even during the night.
*A favorite punishment of Zordrak from The Dreamstone is to turn the offender to stone and throw him into a pit where he gets broken down into gravel by ravenous monsters.
*Similar to Shadow Master from the Double Dragon cartoon trapping failing Mooks in his mural.
*Happens to Monkey Fist in Kim Possible. It's uncertain if it's permanent or not, but he's still turned to stone in his brief cameo in the final episode.
*The Iron Man animated series had the aforementioned Grey Gargoyle as one of the Big Bad's go-to goons.
*The garden-full-of-statues variety cropped up in The Challenge of the Superfriends. No need to worry, though. (Flash resists the effect and then speeds up everyone's molecules or something and that changes them back... 'cause he's fast, you see.) In another episode, in a scene that was bizarre even bySuperfriends standards, this effect threatens the heroes for no discernible reason at all.
*Teen Titans has a major example. During the first part of the season 4 finale, almost everyone in the world gets turned to stone. And they don't get turned back until the end of the third part.
**Also, at the end of the season 2 arc, Terra turns to stone while using her powers to extreme effect to stop the volcano from forming under the city.
*One of the central goals of Conan The Adventurer was to undo this and save his family.
*One of XANA's attacks in Code Lyoko is to turn everybody in school into stone with a greenish gas (episode "Triple Trouble").
*This becomes the fate of Omnifarious from Static Shock.
*As per mythology, the Gorgons can do this in their appearance in American Dragon Jake Long.
*Freakazoid In the episode "Statuesque", Jeepers invents a watch that turns people into stone with the help of a demon named Vorn the Unspeakable (who looks very familiar). He ends up turning Steph to stone, but they rescue her and turn Vorn into stone.
*The animated Men In Black has Agent K turned to living stone by an alien amplifier device in one episode.
**Lampshaded by Agent J at the end of the episode.
*The fate of TMNT villains The Ultimate Ninja and Drako at the end of their season 3 arc. One case turns out to be more permanent than the other.
*The effect of King Basilisk's special ability in Huntik: Secrets and Seekers.
*The fossil beam used by the Dinosaucers.
*In Spider-Man 2000, the Sandman — by letting him connect with cement, thus creating beton.
*ReBoot has the Medusa Bug, with the additional effect of disintegrating anything infected for too long.
*An episode of Goldie Gold and Action Jack featured a villain who used chemicals to turn people into stone. He managed to get Jack's hand.
*On Rocky and Bullwinkle, the Moon Men Gidney and Floid were armed with "skrooch guns" that could paralyze people for a set amount of time, ranging from a few seconds to decades.
*Subverted on The Herculoids, when a medusa tried to use her power on Igoo, but accomplished nothing because Igoo is already made of stone.
*In My Little Pony Friendship Is Magic, a cockatrice turned Twilight Sparkle and a chicken to stone, and was in the process of turning Fluttershy to stone, when she stares the monster down, while sternly lecturing it on its rude behavior. This is also a good example of the ambiguity between complete petrification and encasement - Twilight and the chicken are obviously completely solid stone, but Fluttershy only has a layer of stone around her, from which she breaks out.
**Discord was imprisoned in a statue by Celestia and Luna for being a evil tyrant that ruled Equestria in everlasting chaos and suffering. He found it quite lonely being encased in stone (bonus points for said imprisonment having lasted well over one thousand years at the very least), but then again they wouldn't know that, would they? Because he doesn't turn ponies into stone.
*The Smurfs in one episode were a victim to a spell that petrified them and half their forest, and would have stayed that way had Peewit not been able to convince two feuding sorcerers to stop fighting with each other and recite the incantation together that reverses the condition
**Gargamel himself was a victim of a potion that turned him and his cat Azrael into stone. Papa Smurf restored him to normal.
*In the series finale of DuckTales, the Golden Goose has the ability to turn anything it touches to gold...then it's revealed that it also works on people. The episode revolves around trying to reverse the effects of the touch affecting everything on earth... They manage it, but not before everyone on earth is briefly turned to gold.
*An episode of Beetlejuice has Delia, Lydia's mom, enter a Neitherworld art contest where it turns out if they win they must agree to become a part of the art museum by being turned to stone. Eventually, Lydia and Beetlejuice are able to rescue her and turn her back to normal.
*The Looney Tunes short "Porky's Hero Agency" involved Porky dreaming he is in Greek myths and has to save people from a Gorgon (presumably Medusa) who turns people to stone with a special camera.
*Happens to Roderick in Tiny Toon Adventures in the episode "The Acme Bowl" after running through and smelling a cloud of Fifi's stink, and to Hamton when he gets hit by a blast of Fifi's stink in "The Just-us League Of Supertoons".
**Also happens to Hamton in "Pluck O' the Irish" when a banshee turns him to stone with her hypnotic stare, the only way to break the spell is to get the banshee to laugh.
*In the Betty Boop's "Snow White", the wicked queen/witch thwarts Bimbo and Koko by turning them into statues (they get better) - just another turn in a massively surreal cartoon.
*In Princess Gwenevere and the Jewel Riders, it happens to Fallon and Tamara and their animals (temporarily) and then to Lady Kale and her crew (pernamently?) at the end of the second season. Also, all of the people and animals in New Camelot are cursed into suspended animation in the finale of the first season, and Archie turns into a crystal for a while in one episode.
Category:Miscellaneous