Hard Head: Difference between revisions

{{trope}}

 

Concussion? What's that?

 

Not to be confused with [[Hollow-Sounding Head]].

 

* Killy, the protagonist from ''[[Blame]]'', takes more physical punishment than any normal human would ever be able to survive. Most notably in one chapter, where he gets half his head ''blown off''. It has its consequences, naturally, but he still gets better.

* In one episode, ''[[Sailor Moon]]'' is thrown upside down into the air and hits the ground with her head without any lasting consequences. To be fair, all Sailor Senshi are regularly tossed around by the [[Monster of the Week]] and usually don't sport any visible injuries, but that example was particularly jarring.

 

 

* Notoriously, ''[[The Spirit]]''. "Hand me that chair, Lorelei, this one's got a head like concrete...."

* The horrid comic ''Rock Heads'', MiSTed [http://www.misterkitty.org/extras/stupidcovers/stupidcomics158.html here.]

** In William King's ''[[Warhammer 40,000]]'' novel ''[[Space Wolf]]'', when Ragnor considers that injuries can be more severe than they look, he remembers stories of men who suffered a light blow to the head, fought through a battle—and dropped dead.

* Subverted and [[Lampshade Hanging|lampshaded]] in [[Dorothy L. Sayers]]' ''Murder Must Advertise''; [[Lord Peter Wimsey]] comments on how the hero in an in-universe piece of fiction lightly shrugs off all injuries, while Charles Parker has been incapacitated by one head injury.

* Kahlan, in ''[[Sword of Truth]]'', becomes determined to sneak out of a palace at one point, and is very reluctant to hit any guard who might insist she stay inside for her own safety, as she knows that she could as easily kill them as knock them out.

* In the two-part ''[[Doctor Who]]'' [[Eighth Doctor Adventures]] novel ''Interference'', Sarah Jane [[Lampshade Hanging|lampshaded]] this, by pointing out the risk of severe damage, and asks an alien exactly how they manage to do it without inflicting said severe damage, ''every damn time''.

* Justified in ''Supernaturalist'', when Cosmo has a metal plate implanted in his skull during surgery. It becomes a [[Chekhov's Gun]] later on when he needs to headbutt his way out of a containment vat.

 

* In the episode of ''[[Happy Days]]'' where {{spoiler|the restaurant burns down due to Chachi being, well, Chachi}}, Fonzie and the gang are trapped in the bathroom, and the Fonz gets the bright idea to open up a pathway by putting on his motorcycle helmet and bashing a hole in the wall. After crashing through the wall, he pulls his head out, and one of his friends asks what the wall was made out of because it broke so easily. The Fonz calmly replies "Concrete" and falls unconscious. Other than knocking himself out, he suffered no injuries from headbutting through a concrete wall.

* ''[[Dexter]]'': Dexter headbutts Doakes in the face and walks away apparently unaffected by the impact. The only effect on Doakes is to infuriate him into attacking Dexter -- [[Wounded Gazelle Gambit|in front of everyone else]].

** Morgana as well. Between the two of them, it's not wonder the show can run on [[Idiot Plot]]s.

 

* Generally considered a trait of all Samoans, whether they are [[Wild Samoan]]s or not.

* The Missing Link also famously used his head as a weapon.

* Japanese indy wrestler Keni'chiro Arai has a head so hard that hitting him over the head with a chair revitalizes him.

* Averted by Al Madril of Pacific Northwest Wrestling: he was known to lose matches when he attempted to head-butt his opponent and then fell back unconscious.

* Tragically averted in the case of [[Chris Benoit]]. Benoit was known for his Diving Headbutt finisher, but using it so often throughout his career contributed to the massive number of concussions he suffered, resulting in brain damage and one of the factors in his [[Pater Familicide|ultimate]] [[Tear Jerker|fate]].

 

== Tabletop Games ==

* Averted in ''[[GURPS]]''. Blows to the head do quadruple damage, have a good chance of causing unconsciousness and the "critical head blow" table is pretty nasty.

 

== Toys ==

* Nearly all characters in ''[[Bionicle]]''- [[Justified Trope|Justified]] due to their being heavily armoured cyborgs with [[Artificial Intelligence]]. Hitting one of them in the head tends to knock them out with no adverse side effects.

** [[Boisterous Bruiser|Hewkii]], in particular, has been known to smash rocks with his head- ''for fun''.

 

== Video Games ==

* Played straight in ''[[Batman: Arkham Asylum]]'' and ''[[Batman: Arkham City]]'', where Batman, being against killing, gets rid of the thugs by combat, which consist in many kinds of strikes, some ones on the head, and takedowns, which includes bone breaking and hitting heads against the floor, letting the enemies like "unconcsious", but being absolutley still in the floor, just breathing and with a blood pressure half the normal. Also we had to consider Batman had so much medical skills, so, he would must be aware of the fatal effects of the hits on the head.

* Possibly played straight in ''[[World of Warcraft]]: Cataclysm''. A quest in Vasj'ir has the player relive a naga's memories of fighting kvaldir. The memory starts off with a naga remarking that "The skulls of these kvaldir are hard as rock!" since the player controlled naga had apparently just broken her trident over a kvaldir's head. Since this event is off-camera whether or not the kvaldir survived the blow to the head isn't known, but naga throughout the memories only kill kvaldir with torso-targeted attacks.

 

== Web Comics ==

** Oggie is in the position to give ''professional opinions'' on stupidity, judging by the fact that he told Lars he was knocked out by a brick from the bridge that exploded shortly before he was knocked out. And proceeded to prove it by showing him a brick with a confession note (reading "I HITT MR LARZ (SYNED) A BRIK") written on it.

*** Justified in that Oggie ''is'' a Jägermonster. When a monstrous-looking [[Super Soldier]] offers you an obvious lie as part of an overture of friendship, it's generally considered a smart idea to accept it.

* Subverted in ''[[Survival of the Fittest]]'' in the case of Sean O'Cann. Upon his introduction to the game, Sean is already suffering from a head wound as a result of landing on something hard after being thrown onto the island. After this wound is bandaged, it's seemingly forgotten... up until a couple of days later, when Sean ''really'' starts to suffer, his vision blurring frequently and he himself collapsing on more than one occasion.

** Averted in the v4 Pregame when Christopher Carlson gets the crap beaten out of him by Monty Pondsworth at lunch; he's stated to have spent a good week with a headache and spent the rest of the day having trouble walking.

 

== Western Animation ==

 

{{reflist}}

[[Category:Television Is Trying to Kill Us]]

[[Category:Head Tropes]]

[[Category:Artistic License Biology]]

[[Category:Alliterative Trope Titles]]