Dem Bones: Difference between revisions

{{trope}}

 

 

 

[[Sesquipedalian Loquaciousness|Beings made entirely of ossific material]] are a very common form of [[The Undead]] in video games, but much rarer in other media. They're a cousin to the [[Zombie Apocalypse|Zombie]] in spirit, but remain explicitly separated in the public consciousness by the lack of muscles and other juicy bits. This raises a [[Fridge Logic|troubling question]]: [[A Wizard Did It|where do the motor skills come from]]? And [[The Dead Have Eyes|how are they capable of seeing and hearing?]] What makes these [[Perpetual Motion Monster|Perpetual Motion Monsters]] keep going? In some depictions, even the connective tissue physically binding bones into a coherent whole are optional, making this creature firmly an inhabitant of [[Fantasy]] works. You might know them as [[Skeletons]]. We call 'em "Dem Bones."

 

 

Often enough, Dem Bones are reused in the same game ''à la'' [[Underground Monkey]]. Expect, in the spirit of a Zombie Minotaur, to find [[Hybrid Monster|double-category monsters]], like a skeletal mammoth or dragon. Also for some odd reason, many games have even tougher skeletons that are [[Palette Swap|colored red]].

In [[Useful Notes/Mexico|Mexico]], [[Dem Bones]] are called ''calacas'' and are associated with the Day of the Dead holiday much the same way bunnies are associated with Easter, making them less common as stock spooky elements (they tend to be more comedic). It helps that said calacas are made of sugar and chocolate.

 

 

 

{{examples}}

 

== Anime ==

* Used by a [[Nightmare Fuel Station Attendant|Faust VII]] in ''[[Shaman King]]'', quite drastically - in his fight against the main character, he insisted it be held on a Western (Christian) graveyard, where the dead were not cremated, so he could use their skeletons to launch a mass attack at our protagonist. On top of it, he carried his deceased wife's skeleton under his clothes and used it as a secret weapon.

* Morborgran of ''[[Mahou Sensei Negima]]'', the massive, [[Multi-Armed and Dangerous]], skeletal demon member of the Canis Niger bounty hunters in the Magic World. He's actually a pretty friendly guy, though with a bit of a complex about his appearance.

* Shiro from ''[[Shakugan no Shana]]''. His true form, though, is a [[Bishonen]].

 

 

== Card Games ==

 

 

== Comicbooks ==

 

* Mr. Bones, a man whose body is invisible except for his skeleton, has been a recurring ''[[Infinity Inc]]'' villain, before his [[Heel Face Turn]], at which time he briefly joined Infinity Inc.

* In DC's [[Blackest Night]] event, black power rings re-animate dead characters, typically making them look like slightly-decayed versions of their former selves. The body of Boston Brand, aka ''Deadman'', however, had been dead so long that his Black Lantern version is little more than a skeleton with a black version of his costume stretched over it.

 

== Fan Works ==

 

 

 

* Extraordinarily common in early cinema. Sprightly, dancing and otherwise animated skeletons appear with great regularity in the trick films of Georges Méliès and his contemporaries.

** Another Ray Harryhausen movie example: ''[[The 7th Voyage of Sinbad]]''. The Skeleton was later re-used in the aforementioned film.

** There (used to be) a ''most'' amusing video online of Phil Tippett, Harryhausen's [[Spiritual Successor]] of a sort, singing "Happy Birthday To Ray" - accompanied by the Skeletons.

* ''[[Return of the Living Dead]]'' features a brief but memorable (and inexplicable) scene where a reanimated skeleton rises from a grave. It's never seen again after that. There is also Tarman, a zombie so decayed he's a skeleton held together with rotting tissue; unlike the skeleton, Tarman shows up in movie after movie.

* In ''[[Pirates of the Caribbean]]'', the crew of the ''Black Pearl'' are revealed as being skeletons when exposed to moonlight, primarily to provide the most contrast from their normal appearance as ordinary (but immortal) people.

* Parodied in ''[[Scary Movie]] 2'', when Cindy is being chased by a skeleton, only to be reprimanded by Brenda for being afraid of a skeleton. To illustrate her point, Brenda pulls the skeleton apart and reassembles him badly.

* In ''[[A Nightmare On Elm Street 3 Dream Warriors]]'', Freddy's bones come to life when the characters try to give him a proper burial.

 

 

* The Osteomechs from ''[[Dark World Detective]]''. They use advanced computers stored in their skulls and micro tractor/pressor beams as muscles. Strong as hell, but very light.

** And now there's Charlie, the Department of Necr- Post-Mortem Communications' resident skeleton, who's been there "forever".

* In the books of the ''[[Malazan Book of the Fallen]]'' series, there is an entire race called the T'lan Imass, who manage to be both skeletal and cool. Their ancestral enemy started an ice age to wipe them out, but they made themselves immortal and continued to beat their enemies for the next several millenia. Having won that war, they are now 125 millenia out of purpose, having plenty of combat experience and an inability to feel pain.

* A number of animated skeletons, including a skeletal ''dragon'', appear in ''Pillars of Pentagarn'', the first D ''[[Choose Your Own Adventure]]'' book.

* The Boneys in ''[[Warm Bodies]]'' are basically zombie skeletons.

* Inverted in the [[Fafhrd and The Gray Mouser]] stories: "Lankhmar Ghouls" are perfectly normal, living, breathing humanoids who just happen to have invisible body tissues--except for their bones.

 

== Live Action TV ==

 

** In "Gone" after Buffy reveals to her friends that she's been turned invisible, she picks up a skull and works the jaw to mimic what she's saying.

* ''[[Mighty Morphin Power Rangers]]'': Season 1 gives us Bones, Season 3 gives us Rita Repulsa's halfwit brother Rito Revolto. Who's based on Gasha Dokuro from ''[[Ninja Sentai Kakuranger]]'', who's based on an actual folklore creature of a gigantic skeleton.

* Erm....does [[The Late Late Show With Craig Ferguson|Geoff Peterson]] count?

{{quote| '''Pierce:''' "Those floating Mexican skeletons are right! My life is over!"<br />

'''Jeff:''' "Well, when we go to floating skeletons with our problems, we get what we pay for, don't we?" }}

== Music ==

 

* The [[Trope Namer]] is the spiritual song [[wikipedia:Dem bones|"Dem Bones."]]

* Chiodos' ''Bone Palace Ballet'' (and the [[Updated Rerelease|subsequent re-release]] ''[[Updated Rerelease|The Grand Coda]]'') features two of these on the cover.

== Tabletop RPG ==

 

** Apart from the lich, D&D featured many other skeletal sentient undead, like the [http://www.wizards.com/DnD/Article.aspx?x=dnd/dreo/20071003a Death Knight] (skeletal warrior), the Huecuva (skeletal divine spellcaster), or skeletal Ancient Dead (variant of the [[Mummy]] from the [[Ravenloft]] setting).

** Should also be noted that, in 3rd edition anyway, just about ''anything'' with bones that isn't already dead can be turned into [[Dem Bones]] through application of the Skeleton template. This includes everything from normal humanoids, to dragons, to bizarre aberrations with bone structures such have never been seen by mortal eyes.

== Video Games ==

 

* The ''[[Castlevania]]'' series is an obligatory mention here - there are dozens of varieties in each game, including a lot of simple [[Underground Monkey]] recolors. The red ones keep getting back up.

** Don't forget the laser-firing skeletons, the armor-wearing blade Masters, and the amusing skeletons in ''Aria of Sorrow'' that kick their skulls at you. There's even a medal-wearing champion runner Skeleton in ''Circle of the Moon'', the Skeleton Bartender who tosses drinks at you in ''Portrait of Ruin'', the Farmer Skeleton, the Waiter Skeleton, the [[Kamen Rider|Rider Kicking]] Skeleton, and the Ape skeleton that [[Donkey Kong|throws barrels at you]].

*** You know what the skull-kicking skeletons are called? [[Alas, Poor Yorick|Yorick]]. Hahahahahahahaha.

*** In the original japanese, they were called "Soccer Boy".

* ''[[Diablo]] II'', of course, with both enemy and summonable skellies.

** The summonables are quite strange, in that you can assemble a (human) Skeleton from the corpse of any monster, up to and including giant spiders, pygmies, ghosts, small rat-like creatures, swarms of locusts and ''other skeletons''. The last of which begs the question: Where do the [[Ludicrous Gibs]] come from?

*** [[Hand Wave|The new Diablo 3 information states that the undead are not from a single corpse.]] Instead, they essentially turn a corpse into bone powder and reconfigure it into a skeleton. When you raise any skeleton, it's really like you're raising a thousand tenths of a percent of a thousand different skeletons and sticking them together.

** And Revenants in ''Doom II''.

** There's also Kingfin in Super Mario Galaxy, a skeletal shark ([[Art Major Biology|Yeah, we know]]) with [[Glowing Eyelights of Un-Death]]. That apparently summons robotic piranha fish.

{{quote| '''Murray:''' I'm a powerful demonic force! I'm the harbinger of your doom! And the forces of darkness will applaud me as I ''stride'' through the gates of hell carrying your head on a pike!<br />

'''Guybrush:''' Stride?<br />

'''Murray:''' All right then, roll! ''Roll'' through the gates of hell. Must you take the fun out of everything? }}

* Floating skulls are also in some of the ''[[Might and Magic]]'' games.

** The sequel, ''Baldur's Gate II'', especially with ''Throne of Bhaal'', features several floating skulls, which are infinitely more nasty than their full-bodied counterparts.

* Like Dry Bones, skeletons in ''[[Prince of Persia]]'' don't tend to stay down for the count.

* In keeping with its El Día de los Muertos theme, nearly all of the characters in ''[[Grim Fandango]]'' are skeletons. The rest are demons native to the Land of the Dead.

** While their top tier unit is usually a skeleton ''dragon''. Like most undeads, they tend to be weaker than their live version but come in greater numbers.

* Gruntilda in ''Banjo-Tooie''.

* There's one skeleton enemy type in ''[[Nethack]]'', but while the game is swarming with low level zombies and mummies, the skeleton is a high level enemy encountered near the end who steals speed from the player.

** Obviously, these types (minus the orc version) made it into [[World of Warcraft]] as common monsters, as well as NPC necromancers which can summon them. No such class skill exists, although the first Hero Class, the Deathknight, comes close with summoning Ghouls. Unlike the RTS, these can only be raised from humanoid corpses or using Corpse Dust which can be bought from vendors. Better not to think about that one too much.

** [[World of Warcraft]] actually has a surprising amount and diversity of [[Dem Bones]], from typical meleeing mooks, to spellcasting mooks (often referred to as Bonecasters), to more elaborate skeleton mooks such as Bone Golems with their scythe hands, as well as many unique skeletons (including one rare mob who can return from the dead if not killed fast enough and is therefore rather hard to kill), and some Skeleton bosses, as well as Liches of course. The newly introduced Lord Marrowgar tops most of them, being a 10 to 25-man boss in the hardest raid so far (though an early one), and is basically a floating mass of bones with 4 heads armed with a massive bone axe.

** ''The Shivering Isles'' (''[[Oblivion]]'' add on) takes this further with creatures made of different creatures' bones named [http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Shivering:Shambles Shambles] These ones do have leather straps holding them together and creak rather unnervingly.

** [[Skyrim]]'s skeletons are unique among video game skeletons in that they fall apart as easily as you might expect a skeleton would without any connective tissue holding it together.

* ''[[Divine Divinity]]'': while there are several kinds of skeletons around, the trope is lampshaded early in the game: two philosophic skeletons are having a debate about their existence. {{spoiler|They notice that they think without a brain, move without muscles... and that they don't have any joints to keep them together. [[Puff of Logic|Then they fall apart]].}}

* The Lich class in ''[[Nexus War]]'' can raise skeletons as pets, or combine five skeletons into a fossil monster (essentially a bone golem). The Necrotic Tower, which was the home of the first Lich, is built entirely out of bone.

* In ''[[Light Crusader]]'', the only way you can kill this type of enemy is the "Turn Undead" spell or kill the wizard controlling them.

* In ''[[Runescape]]'', in addition to the [[Mook|Mooks]], there is a skull postman.

* ''[[Monster Rancher]] 2''. Dragon + Joker = Death Dragon

* ''The [[Final Fantasy Legend]]/SaGa'' games feature families of skeletal monsters, which all dress as pirates for some reason. They mostly appear as enemies, but can also be recruited into your party, or existing monsters in your party can transform into them.

* The Bone Fish and [[Punny Name|Bone to be Wild]] dream eaters in ''[[Kingdom Hearts 3D]]'' are skeletal variants of the Torpedo Fish and Tyrant Rex dream eaters. The latter can be very troublesome to deal with, for the fact that its head detaches after it receives a solid hit and start attacking independently of its body.

* [[Dem Bones]] appear as mooks in ''[[Dungeon Siege]]''.

** And in ''[[Titan Quest]]''. Ther color indicate their power, starting from the white ones in Greece and ending with the Gilded Skeletons in China.

** ''Pool Of Radiance: Ruins of Myth Dranoor'' features a skeletal dragon as the [[Big Bad]].

** ''[[Lego Batman]]'' does the same thing in {{spoiler|the [[Boss Battle]] against Scarecrow}}.

* ''Mr Bones'': Another skeleton protagonist is the aptly-named title character in this [[Sega Saturn]] game.

* In ''[[Threads of Fate]]'', one of Rue's monster forms that he can transform to is a skeleton warrior. It has a standard slashing attack while its special attack, is to... ''break down into a pile of bones'' (of course, pressing Triangle again makes Rue reattach himself). It does form a useful function in solving puzzles where he encounters it, as well as defense; the broken form is invincible against certain enemies.

* In the arcade game ''Warzaid'' the objective is to stop these from taking over the world.

* In [[Ever Quest]] they are everywhere - crawling out of the woodwork, wandering around in the woods, hanging out under the water waiting to grab your ankles as you swim by. Necromancers can even have them as pets. Heck, there's even a skeletal '''band''' in Paineel.

* In ''[[Skate|Skate 3]]'' Dem Bones is the name of a playable character model in free-skate mode. He is unlocked after completing half of the Hall Of Meat challenges in the career.

* Skeletal undead are seen in both the original ''[[Guild Wars]]'' campaign and the third campaign, ''Nightfall''. However, they are still garbed in the armor or clothes they wore in life, which can add or subtract from their horror.

* ''[[Dragon Age|Dragon Age: Origins]]'' has them as enemy mooks. Like other undead in the game, they are corpses possessed by minor demons that largely operate independently as a master; most just attack anything they see, as the demons inhabiting them are driven insane. They exhibit certain special abilities based on the demon possessing them and they swing swords and shoot bows.

* ''[[ADOM]]'''s Necromancy skill lets you raise humanoid corpses as skeletons. Only Necromancers will have high enough skill/stats to make the more powerful skeleton kings. Skeletons are common [[Mooks]].

* ''[[Tomb Raider]]: The Last Revelation'' features skeletons armed with swords. Many weapons are completely ineffective against them. A shotgun blast will knock them over temporarily, but, if you want to permanently destroy them, you'd better have the grenade launcher or the explosive arrows at the ready.

* ''[[Puyo Puyo]]'' features two playable characters, Oshare Bones and Skeleton T, who happen to be animated skeletons. Neither of them are terribly threatening.

* [[Kingdom of Loathing]] has pet skeletons, skletons, Spooky Pirate Skeletons, Misshapen Animal Skeletons... The list goes on.

* The skeletons in ''[[Minecraft]]'' [[Oh Crap|can fire arrows]], and [[It Got Worse|ride giant spiders!]]

* Skeletons are a common foe in the [[Ultima]] series, but only gained the ability to revive continuously in Ultima 8 if the player did not kill them with the [[Turn Undead|Grant Peace spell]]. Taken to ridiculous heights in the horribly broken Ultima 9, where a defeated skeleton would break into its component parts and could reform again if there were enough parts for a whole skeleton. Cue frantic body-part looting mid-battle in a game where inventory space was already at a premium, and the skeletons kept respawning whenever you returned to the area.

* ''Montezuma's Revenge'' had rolling skulls as enemies.

* The skeletons in ''[[Dark Souls]]'' aren't that tough. However, nearby necromancers (which fortunately don't respawn if you rest at a bonfire) will revive them if they aren't slain with a Divine weapon. The ''giant'' skeletons are much tougher but fortunately don't revive immediately like their weaker cousins.

 

* Spoofed in [http://www.theprincessplanet.com/?p=19 this] ''[[The Princess Planet|Princess Planet]]'' strip.

* Part of the cast of ''[[Carnies]]''.

* In ''[[Endstone]]'', [[Grave Robbing]] [http://endstone.net/2009/03/30/issue-1-page-9/ rouses one].

* In ''[[Beyond the Canopy]]'', skeletons are The Baron's standard [[Mooks]]. They're intelligent, and seem to have individual personalities.

** The early Merrie Melodie ''Hittin' the Trail to Hallelujah Land'' (1931) features dancing skeletons too.

** [[Columbia Cartoons]] had the [[Ub Iwerks]]-directed remake of The Skeleton Dance, called "Skeleton Frolic" (1937).

** In the reboot, his face was dissolved by acid in the first episode.

{{quote| "You have the right to rest in pieces!"}}

* Jack Skellington, of ''[[The Nightmare Before Christmas]]''. He's the hero, so that's OK.

* The Cauldron Born in ''[[The Black Cauldron]]''. In the book, they were more like zombie bodybuilders.

* Skull Boy of ''[[Ruby Gloom]]''

* One of Youngblood's minions in the ''[[Danny Phantom]]'' episode "Pirate Radio". Also, one of the ghosts Vlad sent after Danny in "Kindred Spirits" looked like a [[Bedsheet Ghost]]?8364; in reality, the bedsheet was covering one of these, albeit with black bones. Not to mention Pariah Dark's army which is composed of skeleton warriors.

* One of the baddies in ''[[Super Ted]]'' is a skeleton accidentally awakened by Texas Pete who comes along for the ride.

* ''[[El Tigre]]'': The [[Big Bad]], Sartana of the Dead and her undead army. Her ethnicity makes her a ''genuine'' calaca.

* In the ''[[G.I. Joe]]'' episode "The Phantom Brigade" a skeleton rises up from the floor to threaten Cobra Commander into giving up control of three spirits. The Commander is resonably freaked out and even the Joes who walk in on the scene can't believe what they're seeing.