Esper

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For other uses, see Esper (disambiguation).
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Esper refers to an individual capable of using telepathy and similar paranormal mental abilities; it apparently derives from extra-sensory perception ("ESP") via the English occupational suffix, thus being literally "ESP-er" with different capitalization.

The term was apparently coined by Alfred Bester in his 1950 short story "Oddy and Id".[1]

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[edit] Science fiction and espers

The concept of the esper appears often in science fiction, much less often in fantasy, and is used by name much less frequently than it is referred to. Especially salient appearances of psychic abilities, although never attended by the usual name for them, are in Isaac Asimov's Foundation Trilogy, especially Second Foundation, where psychological research turns up a means of direct mental contact between humans which was lost with the development of language; in George Lucas' Star Wars films, where The Force, from a practical standpoint, essentially equates esperism plus telekinesis; and in Jean Auel's The Clan of the Cave Bear, which although not science fiction in a strict sense does contain the same view of the mental processes as Asimov described in the Foundation novels.

In Alfred Bester's novel "The Demolished Man", many of the main characters are espers.[2]

In Andre Norton's Moonsinger novels, the main characters are all espers.

In Ridley Scott's Blade Runner, there is scene featuring a device called an "ESPER" which is used to manipulate photographs. The scene and features of the "ESPER" have influenced many films.

In the third episode of Star Trek, "Where No Man Has Gone Before", Gary Mitchell and Dr. Elizabeth Dehner become ESPers when the Enterprise crosses the great barrier.

[edit] Esper in games

Esperism has appeared sporadically in science-fiction games from fairly early on, more often given its actual name in these than in most other sci-fi sources. One especially remarkable case is the Avalon Hill board game (later adapted to computer systems) Star Command, in which characters formally called Espers are available as support troops in infantry squads, and have abilities more or less matching the parapsychological theories of what an esper would be capable of.

The term is used differently in the English release of Square Co., Ltd. Super Nintendo RPG Final Fantasy VI (released as Final Fantasy III in North America), in which beings called "Espers" are essentially demigods who wield magical abilities, and can be killed to allow these abilities to be transferred to humans. In the original Japanese version of the game, these creatures were known as 幻獣, (げんじゅう, genjū) which translates roughly into English as "phantom beast." The English translator of the game, Ted Woolsey, sought to find a word which he felt conveyed the same meaning with as few letters as possible; the English text files for the game were essentially expanded versions of the Japanese text files, taking up far more memory space than was available. In the end, he chose the word Esper. For more information regarding Espers in Final Fantasy VI, see Summon Magic. Espers also appear in Final Fantasy XII as disgraced deities and seraphs, banished from the heavens due to acts of rebellion, corruption and the desire to destroy life. There are a total of thirteen Espers appearing in the game: one for each sign of the astrological zodiac, and the thirteenth; Serpentarius.

Espers have also been a recurring race in Sega's Phantasy Star series; Part 1, 2 and 4 all featured important, sometimes playable Esper characters; the most notable being the character Lutz.

The Psychic type of the Pokémon franchise is referred to as the "Esper type" in Japanese versions. The psychic form of Eevee is called Espeon; this is also a reference to ESP (Eon is the suffix for all of Eevee's evolutions).

Espers are also present in Yu-Gi-Oh! Following in the line of Cybers (Cyber Dragon representing the Chinese dragon, Cyber Phoenix representing the Fenghuang, and Cyber Kirin representing the Qilin), a monster named Cyber Esper exists that has a telepathic ability to see the opponent's cards whenever they're drawn.

In the Accolade game Star Control 2, there are events where crewmen with high esper ratings react in interesting ways.

The Xbox game Phantom Dust has a group of individuals that include the main protagonist called Espers, individuals that have lost their memories but in return gain control over psychic powers (which include moving objects at will and manipulating/producing fire, ice, telekinetic blades, wind, etc.)

[edit] Esper in Anime

[edit] References

  1. ^ SF Citations for OED. OED. Retrieved on 2007-12-18.
  2. ^ Bester, Alfred [1951] (1996). The Demolished Man. Random House, pp. 8. ISBN 0-679-76781-9. “"E for Esper," he muttered. "Esper for Extra Sensory Perception ..."”