Giant Hands of Doom

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A character, usually a video game boss, who fights only with giant hands. Due to the versatility of the human hand, this provides a large variety of attacks, not to mention the inexplicable bombs, missiles, etc. they'll inevitably drop. Sometimes, the hands will be accompanied by a giant head. Expect this to be the weak spot, especially the eyes. Bonus points if the hands have eyes on them, too. Expect a certain number of common attacks across games:

Often done by way of Cognizant Limbs. Sometimes done with Raymanian Limbs. Compare Creepy Long Fingers.

Examples of Giant Hands of Doom include:

Video Game Examples

Nintendo

Nintendo absolutely loves this trope, to the point that only a handful of its franchises do not have it in some way.

Other

  • Ōkami
    • The final form of Yami, the final boss is a giant hand attached to an orb.
      • This is repeated in Tatsunoko vs. Capcom, where Yami is again the final boss. Its grab super is downright lethal.
    • His successor in Okamiden, Akuro, goes with the more standard approach to this trope in his first form.
    • In the sunken ship area, there is a room where a giant seaweed-monster thing lives. When you enter the room, two gigantic hands rise out of the water and attempt to crush Ammy and/or push her off into the waters below. Fortunately, the monster can be killed by draining the water from the room, and then rolling spiked cylinders across its face until it dies.
  • Queen Zeal's second form from Chrono Trigger, though her head also fires spells.
    • Giga Gaia and Lavos's second form are also like this.
  • Several Mega Man X and Zero games have the final boss transform into their giant form, then attack with massive hands and lasers... and hands shooting lasers.
    • 2 Keeper minibosses in Mega Man 10 in Strike Man's stage is a good example of giant hands punching a ball and Mega Man in order to attempt to do damage.
    • The final boss of Mega Man 3 sometimes takes a break from raining projectiles on you and tries to punch you. You can jump on the fist to reach his head and attack his weakpoint.
  • In Dragon Quest VI, the final boss Deathtamoor, "discards this worthless body" and becomes a giant demonic head and pair of hands in his last phase.
  • The final boss of Pulseman for the Genesis is another "Head and Hands" type boss who shoots energy balls from his hands, punches, and pounds the ground to summon minions.
  • Bomberman Generation has one as a boss in one of the desert stages.
  • The third Boss in Contra III.
  • The first Boss in Illusion of Gaia.
  • Sonic the Hedgehog:
    • Sonic 3 and Knuckles
      • Lava Reef's miniboss is comprised of two threats, one of them being a giant hand that rises from the lava below and tries to crush Sonic.
      • In the first stage of the final boss fight, you must destroy all six of its Malicious Fingers.
    • Sonic 3D: Flickies' Island
      • The boss of the Rusty Ruin Zone attacks solely by trying to crush Sonic with its conveniently platform-shaped paws.
      • One stage of the final boss features two disembodied hands that first try to crush him, then to run him over by racing across the arena.
    • Sonic Advance Trilogy 2's Sky Canyon boss is basically a rotating doughnut wheel thing with the cockpit and weak point, a laser, and a gigantic hand on a springy arm. The hand hurts like hell, and if it hits you directly, you are likely to die instantly. Makes this That One Boss.
    • The final boss of Sonic Advance Trilogy 3 is a Humongous Mecha that attacks with such hands, and you have to use them as platforms to hit the boss.
  • The fourth level boss of the licensed Tale Spin game for the NES, the massive "invisible gentleman". It defends itself with punches from its floating, white-gloved hands. The weak point? The bow tie, obviously.
  • The Red Dragon from the Dungeons & Dragons arcade games is much like this. Tower of Doom's Flamewing attacked not only with the claws, but with fireballs, rockfalls, and his fire breath. He was by far the toughest boss in the entire game.
  • The final form of Julius in Final Fantasy Adventure is technically one of the "disembodied head and hands" variety, even though all he did was teleport and shoot fireballs. This was apparently a fan-favorite boss, however, as one of the most common complaints about the remake Sword of Mana is that this form wasn't present.
  • Kologarn, a boss in World of Warcraft's donjon Ulduar. He's an entire giant golem, but most of his attacks come from his two hands (which are also directly killable). Also, yes, his eyes shoot laser beams.
  • While not exactly giant, the titular Glover and the Big Bad Cross-Stitch were gloves. Cross-Stitch was certianly a lot more Doomy, though.
  • The final battle versus Abaddon in Guild Wars Nightfall.
  • Vysage, Lefty, and Righty are usually found together in Final Fantasy VIII. At one point, though, the three make up the first stage of a boss battle.
  • Eversion. Any more description would be a spoiler.
  • The Clock Tower boss in Epic Mickey is this type of boss.
  • The Boss battle with Electro in Spider-Man: Shattered Dimensions does this with electricity-shooting hands.
  • Stlunko from Stinkoman 20 X 6.
  • Ys has several:
    • The Shrine boss, Dorman, and Jabir's second form in V.
    • Orjugan in The Ark of Napishtim.
    • Galbalan in The Oath in Felghana.
  • The Super Fighting Robot from Scott Pilgrim attacks with detachable hands, which also happen to be the only parts you can damage. Meanwhile the rest of the body chills in the background, invincible but still attacking you with lasers, missiles, and a flamethrower.
  • Balore from Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow punches at you with his hands at first, then switches to a laser fired from his eye (which is his weakpoint). The sequel as well as Portrait of Ruin also feature Balore, but he's a little different and only alternates between his laser and hands.
  • Alice: Madness Returns uses this for the final encounter.
  • The first boss in Catherine is a pair of Katherine's hands holding a giant fork.
  • The player can use these in the Deception series as a type of trap. Typically, the either grab an invader to lock him in place for a while, or they bash him/her around to cause high amounts of damage.
  • Defense System Gepetto from NieR, being an Expy of Gohdan, has two giant floating hands as his main weapons. They can not only smash you, but they also shoot Frickin' Laser Beams from their fingertips.
  • One of the early level bosses from the Amiga classic Turrican is a giant mechanical fist flying around trying to crush the player.
  • In Valis IV for the TurboGrafx-16, the second stage boss is a floating head and pair of hands.

Non-Video Game Examples

Anime and Manga

  • Strength in Black★Rock Shooter.
  • In the Narutaru manga humanity meets its end being slapped away to oblivion by gigantic hands coming out from the Earth itself. Seriously.
  • In Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann, the heroes face loads and loads of Moon-sized, hand-(or foot-)shaped mechas. With faces. Thank you, Anti-Spiral.
  • In Yu-Gi-Oh 5 Ds, Z-one uses these and a giant Deck to duel.

Comic Books

Film

  • In the 1963 movie Captain Sindbad starring Guy Williams, the final peril at the top of El Kerim's tower is a giant mechanical hand.

Literature

  • The novel "The Philosophical Strangler" by Eric Flint has an entity called "Even Worse Hands." Picture a giant pair of disembodied hands. Got it? These are Even Worse.
  • In Bridge of Birds, The Hand That No One Sees ( it's actually a giant invisible spider).

Tabletop Games

  • Dungeons & Dragons has the Bigby's Interposing Hand spell and its more powerful variants.
    • Vaarsuvius from Order of the Stick uses a special variant, the "Flicking Finger".
      • And the "Expressive Single Digit".

Western Animation

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