Women crazed by power
Female characters are often shown disempowered or in subordinated position, but when they are shown to be empowered, this is sometimes handled in a gendered fashion. In particular, empowered women are frequently disempowered in horrible ways (see women in refrigerators), and sometimes crazed by their power.
Obviously, just about all of the examples in this page are SPOILERS. They are therefore arranged chronologically, with more recent examples at the end.
Examples:
1990s
- Nancy Downs in The Craft (1996)
2000s
2006
- Jean Grey in The X-Men: The Last Stand (X-Men movie 3) -- "had" to be mind-blocked from accessing her full mental powers by Professor X when she was a child; when they are released she kills her husband, becomes sexually dominant with Wolverine, joins the villains, goes on a destructive rampage and "has" the be killed to stop the destruction.
- Niki Sanders in Heroes -- has a sociopathic split personality, while her "normal" self is unable to access her super-strength.
2007
2008
- Irina Spalko in Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull -- is disintegrated by knowledge she sought.
- Donna Noble in the Doctor Who S4's final episode, "Journey's End" -- gains Time Lord knowledge then "has" to be mind-wiped and forget all of her adventures because she would explode if she remembered any of it!