Losing Your Head: Difference between revisions
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[[File:TF2 head in fridge 3706.jpg|link=Team Fortress 2|frame|[[Fate Worse Than Death|"Kill me."]]<ref>''"Later!"''</ref>]]
{{quote|''"Now tho' you'd have said that head was dead''
''(For its owner dead was he),''
''It stood on its neck, with a smile well-bred,''
''And bowed three times to me!"''
|'''Pooh-Bah'''|''The Mikado'' ("The Criminal Cried")}}
A [[Off with His Head|beheading]] can be a messy and extremely painful thing to see, let alone experience. While it's been said that, theoretically (It's understandably hard to confirm), consciousness may continue for a few seconds after decapitation, it seems to last much longer in speculative fiction. [[Science Marches On|It has been shown that random brain activity can continue for many minutes, ending in a flurry of activity reminiscent of a brain seizure]].
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The head generally possesses the ability to audibly speak despite the lack of lungs. Robots could probably have their entire vocal system in their head, but anything else should only be able to mouth words. May or may not be capable of independent movement by either bouncing, rolling or levitating.
Sometimes the body will still be functional and capable of independent movement, resulting in the head trying to tell it to pick it up and reattach it. The [[Fridge Logic]] that the body has no ears to hear this is rarely
See
Related: [[Head Transplantation]], [[Headless Horseman]], [[Pulling Themselves Together]], [[Appendage Assimilation]], and [[Having a Heart]].▼
▲Related: [[Headless Horseman]], [[Pulling Themselves Together]], [[Appendage Assimilation]], and [[Having a Heart]].
Contrast [[Decapitation Required]].
{{deathtrope}}
{{examples}}
== [[Advertising]] ==
* A TV advertisement for Gusto, a European snack food resembling shoestring potatoes, has a man's severed head lying on the floor, still talking, as his body stumbles around aimlessly.
* A banner ad for Treximet, a prescription headache remedy, has a woman who says, "My migraines are so excruciating, I just want to take my head off."
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** In a similar vein, the ad for Gushers Magic Pieces ended with a girl making a candy "disappear," only for her head to vanish in a puff of smoke. Her voice says, "Hey, where'd I go?" suggesting that the head has turned [[Invisibility|invisible]] or gone [[Another Dimension|somewhere else]]. 'Cause, y'know, [[A Wizard Did It|it's magic.]]
== [[Anime]] and [[Manga]] ==▼
▲== Anime and Manga ==
* Dio Brando decapitates himself to avoid being killed by the Ripple in the first part of ''[[JoJo's Bizarre Adventure|Jojo's Bizarre Adventure]]''. He later {{spoiler|steals Jonathan Joestar's body to replace his own}}. In the second part, Wham briefly survives getting his head blown off, but the Ripple is already destroying it, so he dies not too long afterward.
** In the third part, Vanilla Ice decapitates himself using his own Stand so he can offer his blood to Dio. Dio then uses his own blood to revive Ice, claiming "you don't need to die." {{spoiler|Since Dio used his blood, Vanilla Ice becomes a vampire, making him unkillable until Polnareff exposes him to sunlight. Unfortunately for Ice, although he knew about the weakness, he didn't realize ''he'' was a vampire.}}
* ''[[One Piece]]''
**
** There's also Trafalgar Law, who apparently can do similar things to other people. The first instance of him using tricks like that in the manga involves a
** Crocodile recently got his head sliced off by {{spoiler|Doflamingo}}, but because he can use his [[Elemental Powers|Logia fruit's]] [[Pulling Themselves Together|reformation power]] by reflex he attached it just a second later.
** This only happened in the manga, but after being attacked by Dalton, Wapol's troupe of doctors were quick to patch him up... except for the fact that they hadn't reattached his head to his body, which they did off-panel.
** In the Egghead Arc, Pythagoras (one of Dr. Vegatunk’s Satellites) is a robot who can detach his head from his body; it can then levitate and move independently of his body. This ability is useful in his role as an engineer and mechanic.
* ''[[Princess Mononoke]]'': "[[Chekhov's Gun|Cut off a wolf's head and it still has the power to bite]]."
* Hidan from ''[[Naruto]]'' is immortal, but one time it was cut off he couldn't move until Kakuzu used his threads to sew it back on. Later {{spoiler|Kakuzu isn't around to reattach it, and Shikamaru cuts his head off, but decides to be more thorough and blows up his body while [[And I Must Scream|throwing his head into a deep pit in the private land of the Nara clan and then buries it in an avalanche. While the head is screaming curses at him]]}}.
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* Literally Celty's character arc in [[Durarara!!]]: She's a dullahan (a Celtic fairy that takes the form of a person carrying their own severed head) whose head has gone missing, and she's looking for it.
== [[Comic Books]] ==▼
== Card Games ==▼
* This trope appears in the diamond suit in John Littleboy's [http://www.wopc.co.uk/usa/inky-dinky/bag-of-bones.html Bag of Bones] playing cards, published in 2008.▼
▲== Comic Books ==
▲* ''[[The Amazing Screw On Head]]'' is built on this trope.
* An early issue of ''[[Transformers]]'' did this, with Optimus Prime's head held captive and his body under the Decepticons' remote control.
* The comic book series ''[[Wildguard]]'' had a character named Segmented Man who could segment his body parts. He demonstrates with his head.
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** Also in ''Marvel Zombie'', Zombie Hawkeye is a disembodied head who talks.
* Brick of the ''Doom's IV''.
** [https://web.archive.org/web/20130908091428/http://thatguywiththeglasses.com/videolinks/linkara/at4w/3024-dooms-iv-2 "Clumsy Me."]
*** Syber-Idol is no better...
* The Scarecrow demonstrates in the cover of the ''[[The Wonderful Wizard of Oz]]'' [https://web.archive.org/web/20130415050857/http://skottieyoung.deviantart.com/art/Wonderful-Wizard-of-Oz-7-Cover-116965645 #7]
* Niles Caulder of the ''[[Doom Patrol]]'' has spent time as a disembodied head in a jar. Hard to say if this is still true as of the latest retcon, though.
* [http://littlestuffedbull.com/images/comics/ten/newadvssuperboy25.jpg New Adventures of Superboy #25]
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* In the ''[[Robo-Hunter]]'' reboot, Sam has been reduced to this, forcing his granddaughter to take over running the business.
▲== Fan Fiction ==
* In the [[Harry Potter]] fic ''Can't Have It Both Ways'', Nearly-Headless Nick stretched his head up by the hair so that Harry could cut it off properly with the Sword of Gryffindor. This resulted in the head shooting across the room while his body stumbled about blindly.
* In part one of the ''[[Sailor Moon]]/[[Ranma ½]]'' [[Crossover]] ''[http://www.genom-research.com/sfr/stories/drafts/SSMM Shin Silver Millennium Monogatari]'' by W. Suika Roberts, Ranma experiences a full-immersion [[Flashback (
* In the [[Alternate Universe Fic|AU]] [[Spice Girls]]/[[S Club 7]] [[Crossover]] fic, ''[https://www.wattpad.com/story/186178291-spice-fortress Spice Fortress]'' short, "Is There a Medic in the House", Geri The Hacker has this misfortune. She tells Victoria the Medic, who's keeping Geri's head alive, to just kill her. Victoria rejects this while working on Melanie The Fighter.
** In ''[https://www.wattpad.com/767371838-spice-fortress-getting-some-take-out Getting Some Take-Out]'', Emma meets this fate thanks to a [[Killer Rabbit| random giant chicken]]. Emma asks the others to get her headless body despite the fight with the Cucco Chicken. {{Spoiler|Most of the others suffer the same fate, leading Jo and Victoria fixing the mess}}, with comical results.
* ''[https://www.deviantart.com/betamat86/art/Case-of-the-Missing-Technology-798979001 Case of the Missing Technology]'' features this. First, the narrator explains to Jay about what happened [[Girls Aloud]] members being decapitated yet surviving thanks to being placed in a device to keep them alive. Later, {{spoiler| [[Spice Girls| Melanie]]}} meets the same fate, while kept [[Human Popsicle| frozen]] in [[An Arm and a Leg|PIECES]]. Yeh, even the narrator was disgusted by that.
* [[Alternate Universe Fic]]/[[Real Person Fic]], ''[https://archiveofourown.org/works/20994830 Spice Force Logic: Mind Games]'' had both [[Spice Girls| Melanie and Emma]] going on a medical operation called 'Brukhonenko' Method on Mars to save their lives after an accident onboard the space station called the Ira. {{Spoiler|The operation was successful, but this results in them with [[Brain In a Jar| "cabinets"]] as substitutes until their bodies are rebuilt.}}
== [[Film]] ==
* [[Men in Black (film)|Agent Kay]] once [[Cool and Unusual Punishment|blasted off an alien gun-seller's head]] for attempting to obstruct him in his duty. The gun-seller immediately grew a new one, and started cursing him.
{{quote|'''Jeebs:''' You insensitive ''prick!'' Do you have any idea how much that ''stings''?"
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** Subverted in that the severed head could only mouth words, not speak aloud.
** Also on [[Mystery Science Theater 3000]]: ''[[The Brain That Wouldn't Die]]'', where a scientist keeps his fiancée's head alive in a pan until he can retrieve a new body for her.
** And in yet another episode, ''[[Tormented]]'': although the deceased girlfriend was not beheaded or otherwise dismembered, she can send selected bits of herself to vex her unfaithful beau. Her
* In the horror-comedy movie ''[[Idle Hands]]'', Elden Henson's character Pnub is decapitated by a thrown circular saw blade, and as his head bounces down a flight of stairs, he looks up at the killer and says "Whoa, cool."
* [[Evil Twin|"Evil"]] Ash in ''[[Army of Darkness]]''
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* In ''[[The Last Starfighter]]'', the android Beta removes his own head to repair it.
* In ''Cyborg 2'', Angelina Jolie's character has her head removed when being interrogated.
* The Borg Queen
* While not completely decapitated, Ash in ''[[Alien (franchise)|Alien]]'' and The Terminator in ''[[Terminator]] 3: Rise of the Machines'' are able to operate with only a few wires keeping their heads on their shoulders.
** Bishop from ''Aliens'' is torn in half in that film, but in ''Alien³'', after his ship crashes only his head (and part of the chest) "survives".
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* In the film version of ''[[The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy]]'', Humma Kavula takes one of Zaphod Beeblebrox's heads as collateral while they retrieved the POV gun. He mounted it on a hula girl bobblehead and put a sign that read "Idiot". (No, he's not bitter about losing the election to Zaphod. Why'd you ask?)
* Alsatia in ''[[Toys]]''. {{spoiler|[[Robotic Reveal|She's a robot]], and does wind up needing a fair amount of repair work as a result of her decapitation.}}
* ''[[X Men Origins:
** And this scene is still not
* ''[[Corpse Bride]]'': Paul the [[Incredibly Lame Pun|"Head Waiter"]] He can't move under his own power very efficiently, so he is carried on the backs of cockroaches.
* This happened to a soldier ant in ''[[Antz]]'' during a battle; he was still alive which made for a pretty bizarre death scene.
* The two friends in ''nothing'' eventually [[Be Careful What You Wish For|wish away everything around each other]] in an argument until they're both down to just their heads... [[The Power of Friendship|which they find they can't bring themselves to wish away because they still like each other after all]]. Awwwwww.
* [[
** In the movie Barbara decapitates Adam to scare the living folks out of their house - unfortunately the two of them are [[Invisible to Normals]] {{spoiler|except [[I See Dead People|Lydia]]}}.
* ''[[The Nightmare Before Christmas]]'': And since I am dead, I can take off my head/To recite Shakespearean quotations!"
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* In the first ''[[Scary Movie]]'', a female victim is subjected to decapitation by Ghostface, but she keeps taunting him. Surprised to see that his victim is still alive, Ghostface just dumps his victim's head in a random dumper because she was just annoying.
== [[Literature]] ==
* ''[[Skulduggery Pleasant]]'''s real [[Dem Bones|skull]] was stolen by goblins. The one on his neck now is an entirely different on, which he won in a poker game. After the third book, the original skull becomes the [[MacGuffin]].
* Princess Langwidere, a character in [[L. Frank Baum]]'s [[Land of Oz|Oz novel]] ''Ozma of Oz''. She has 30 different heads that she can place on her neck.
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* [[Worzel Gummidge]] only has three heads—swede, mangel-wurzel, and turnip -- "for different occasions".
* Ant heads remain alive for some time in Bernard Werber's ''[[Empire of the Ants]]'' novels (only the first was translated to English), and this is at times a crucial plot point.
* [[Sleepy Hollow (Film)
** And the Green Knight.
* The Denizens of the House in Garth Nix's ''[[Keys to the Kingdom]]'' series have the ability to survive being decapitated, so of course one bad guy announces himself by flinging talking severed heads at the main character's feet.
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* Vampires in the ''[[Discworld]]'' have to be staked as well as decapitated to kill - Otto loses his head in ''The Truth'' and merely has to put it back on the stump. They find it embarrassing to reattach their heads in public (he compares it to using the facilities in front of people).
** Likewise, zombies on the Discworld can survive almost any dismemberment.
** ''[[
** Invoking this trope on King Lorenzo the Kind ([[Moral Event Horizon|who wasn't]]) made "Old Stoneface" Vimes infamous in Anhk-Morpork's history. No one else would dare to wield the ax.
** In ''The Last Continent'', this is mentioned as an occasional side effect of the hangman's not adjusting the length of the rope properly.
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* In a poem by Shel Silverstein, the protagonist complained about losing their head and about the fact that they couldn't look for it ("'cause my eyes are on it"), call to it ("'cause my ears are on it") or even think about it ("'cause my brain is in it") - "so I guess I'll sit down on this rock/and rest for just a minute." (Three guesses what the "rock" was.)
▲== Live Action TV ==
* JD in ''[[Scrubs]]'' has three odd daydreams of Head and Body Doctor where he imagines life as a floating head with his body doing something else. [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bw4lajMiMN4\]
*
**
**
** Mack of ''[[Power Rangers Operation Overdrive]]'' discovered that he was a robot when he woke up to see his headless body lying on a slab nearby.
* Rhonda Shear did this in wraparounds on ''USA Up All Night''.
* Orpheus spends most of the ''[[Xena: Warrior Princess]]'' episode ''Girls Just Wanna Have Fun'' without his body.
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** Lorne gets his head sent to Cordelia on a platter in another episode. His people can survive this, however; as he explains, his species of demon only die if their body is mutilated too.
* ''[[Red Dwarf]]''. Kryten has multiple spare heads on a shelf that argue with one another.
* The ''[[Amazing Stories (TV series)|Amazing Stories]]'' episode "Go to the Head of the Class" has [[Sadist Teacher]] B.O. Beanes, after accidentally being killed by the hiccups spell, coming back to life with his head
* ''[[In Living Color]]'''s segment "The Head Detective"
* The comedy/documentary ''50 Outrageous Animal Facts'' includes a clip of a CGI cockroach that loses its head. Its decapitated body taps the ground in front of it a few times, finds a tiny rock, sticks the rock where its head used to be, and scuttles off. [[Truth in Television]], as roaches can live for days after decapitation.
* Happens in the ''[[Good Luck Charlie]]'' episode ''Gabe Turns 12-½'' when Bob Duncan goes to the fridge to get some cake in a platter only to find P.J.'s very much alive head instead, which then asks where his body is at (which is never directly explained). Bob then realizes his son's unable to stop him so he eats a cupcake in front of his face. Of course, since it's an end credits gag, this never really happened.
* In the "Look at the Princess" trilogy of ''[[Farscape]]'', John and his alien princess bride are turned into fully conscious statues so they can observe the workings of the Senate until it is time for them to begin their reign. The jealous prince chops Crichton's head off in an attempt to render him unable to rule. The head is still able to talk (via magic headsets) until it is successfully reattached.
* [[Snick]] had a series of shorts called "Ted The Head", about a kid named [[Exactly What It Says on the Tin|Ted who's just a human head]]. Despite the lack of a human body, he's just like other kids, who often wonders how he is able to alive. [[Hilarity Ensues]].
* A one-shot character in ''[[Beetleborgs]]'' was a Headless Horseman type who initially lost his head after a bad case of hay fever, literally sneezing his head off. When he shows up to recover it, it seems Little Ghoul had found it and was using it as a bowling ball.
== [[Music]] ==▼
▲== Music ==
* [[The Arrogant Worms]]'s "Johnny Came Home Headless", about a tall and forgetful man who walked into doorways so often that one time apparently knocked his head off—and his body didn't notice.
* Basement Jaxx's ''Where's Your Head At''. Although the song doesn't imply it, a lot of people seem to make fan videos associating with this trope.
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* Happens to a [[Creepy Doll]] and Chibi in [[The Birthday Massacre|The Birthday Massacre's]] video for [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kp1FRKc24Zk Blue]
* [[Missy Elliott]] does it to herself in the video to "One Minute Man."
* In [[Insane Clown Posse]]'s "Headless Boogie", Violent J jumps into a
== [[Newspaper Comics]] ==▼
▲== Newspaper Comics ==
* Horace Graevsyte in ''[[Non Sequitur]]''.
* Jeremy's head has popped off his body and went about
** Connie's head also floats away like a balloon to depict her "airheaded-ness".
== [[Oral Tradition]], Folklore, Myths and Legends ==
* [[Older Than Feudalism]]: [[Greek Mythology|Orpheus]], according to Roman writer Ovid: his severed head continued to sing for a while after his murder.
* The Christian martyrology has [[wikipedia:Denis|Saint Denis]] (Bishop of Paris, executed by pagan Romans during the Imperial prosecutions) and [[wikipedia:Solange|Saint Solange]] ([[Mysterious Waif]] murdered by a
** [[Incredibly Lame Pun|So I guess he's always depicted as heading into town?]]
* The Welsh have Saint Winefride, who was decapitated by a jealous suitor when she announced her intention to become a nun. Her head is said to have rolled down a hill, with a healing spring bursting forth where it stopped. If that's not enough, Winefride's uncle, Saint Beuno, then picked up the head and attached it to the body, bringing her back to life.
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** Similar monsters are recorded in a number of East Asian countries, with perhaps the best-known being the Malaysian penanggalan.
* Baba Deep Singh. The legend says that his head was cut completely or almost completely off and still was able to fight.
* The [[King Arthur|Arthurian]] story "Gawain and the Green Knight" starts with Gawain cutting off the Green Knight's head... which doesn't kill him. The Green Knight expects Gawain to present himself in a year's time to receive the same blow in return.
== [[Tabletop Games]] ==▼
* The [[Our Orcs Are Different|Orks]] of ''[[Warhammer 40,000]]'' are so tough that their decapitated heads can survive for up to an hour, more than enough time for a [[Deadly Doctor|Mad Dok]] to easily attach it to a new body. (Then again, they are [[Plant Person|sapient fungi]] and thus hardier in many ways than meat-folk.)▼
▲== Tabletop Games ==
* ''[[Dungeons & Dragons]]'':
▲* The [[Our Orcs Are Different|Orks]] of ''[[Warhammer 40,000]]'' are so tough that their decapitated heads can survive for up to an hour, more than enough time for a [[Deadly Doctor|Mad Dok]] to easily attach it to a new body.
** [[All Trolls Are Different|Trolls]]
** One of the [[Mystara]] supplements described trollish games, some of which involve using the head of one of the participants as a living football. Which tries to bite the feet that kick it.▼
** In earlier editions iron golems could continue to function after losing their heads, including breathing out poison gas.
▲** One of the ''[[Mystara]]'' supplements described trollish games, some of which involve using the head of one of the participants as a living football. Which tries to bite the feet that kick it.
* Unsurprisingly, the ''[[Ravenloft]]'' setting plays with this trope:
** Jacqueline Montarri is a headless NPC villain who steals the heads of women to wear, and has an enormous collection of decapitated ''and still conscious'' female heads in her basement. Supposedly, this curse can be broken if she ever finds her real head, and the only way she can be killed is if her real head is destroyed - nobody, much less Monrarri herself, knows where it is, the location intentionally left open for anyone who wants to use her in their game.
** Lebendtod, a zombie-like undead template, can remove their heads and limbs at will.
** In the 5th Edition, Viktra Mordenheim (Darklord of Lamordia, a Domain that now has a [[Steampunk]] setting) can remove the head or brain of a victim and transplant it onto a golem. This ability is a benefit she gets [[Blessed With Suck| from being a Darklord.]] The guidebook even has a chilling illustration of her preparing to use the process on three decapitated mercenaries (their heads kept alive in jars of fluid) who tried - but failed - to take her down. She can also reverse the process, assuming she has incentive to and the victim's body is intact; the guidebook does suggest she might [[An Offer You Can't Refuse| use this as a means of extortion.]]
* The ''[[Deadlands]]'' [[Beethoven Was an Alien Spy|incarnation]] of [[wikipedia:Joaquin Murrieta|Joaquin Murrieta]] died. [[Back from the Dead|He came back.]] Then, he got beheaded. Now, his (understandably insane) body's looking for his head, and is more than happy to "borrow" yours until he finds it. {{spoiler|The best part? Undead Joachin Murrieta can only be stopped if you destroy his head. Happy hunting!}}
* ''[[Exalted]]'' has an odd version of this from the dangerously powerful Charcoal March of Spiders supernatural martial art. The user delivers a punch so ludicrously hard that the head not only explodes, but the person whose head did explode has several seconds thereafter to think and react because they, and reality itself, haven't caught up to the fact just yet.
* In ''[[GURPS]]'' 3rd Edition, one of the supplements full of fantasy magic spells had a spell called Decapitate, which [[All There in the Manual|did exactly what its name says]]. Not only that, both the head and body were still alive, and since the head was still magically able to speak, if it knew any spells, it could still cast them! Of course, without the head, the body could not eat or drink, and would eventually die of dehydration or starvation. But this was not a problem either! Another spell allowed you to turn everything
▲* This trope appears in the diamond suit in John Littleboy's ''[https://web.archive.org/web/20130528033752/http://www.wopc.co.uk/usa/inky-dinky/bag-of-bones.html Bag of Bones]'' playing cards, published in 2008.
=== Gamebooks ===
* In the ''[[Fighting Fantasy]]'' gamebook ''Space Assassin'', the protagonist finds the head of an android bartender who still believes it is doing its job, offering cocktails to anyone it sees. {{spoiler|Giving it to a group of primitive aliens will get you the second half of the [[Dismantled MacGuffin|Pan Dimensional Homing Device]].}}
==
* In a ''[[Ravenloft]]'' skit performed at GenCon 1999, "One Piece At A Time", a lady surgeon attempts to bring her
* In ''[[Pippin]]'', Pippin has a poignant conversation with the head of a fallen Visigoth soldier. In a later scene, after Pippin has been crowned king, a headless man comes up to him and asks for his head to be reattached.
* In ''[[Primal]]'', the Wraith can apparently survive being decapitated. A group of severed heads in Raum's torture chamber (all of whom hate each other) eventually take time out from arguing to help the PCs. One, however, calls the guards, simply to antagonize the rest. Other severed heads are scattered almost randomly throughout the upper mansion, giving comments, advice, and encouragement. One somehow knows Scree's name.▼
▲* In ''[[Primal]]'', the Wraith can apparently survive being decapitated. A group of severed heads in Raum's torture chamber (all of whom hate each other) eventually take time out from arguing to help the PCs. One, however, calls the guards, simply to antagonize the rest.
* In ''[[Chrono Cross]]'' one skeleton character, which you have to assemble, starts off as a talking skull.
* In ''[[Resident Evil 3: Nemesis]]'', {{spoiler|when you fight Nemesis in the Treatment Room. Douse him with a remarkable strong acid two times and his head will come off. But rather than die like the zombies, he continues attacking,
* ''[[Killer7]]'' has Susie, a severed head you tend to meet in very enclosed spaces (the first one being a washing machine). She always has a ring in her mouth when you find her. She's also a ghost. She's also completely loopy.
* Murray the Talking Skull in ''[[The Curse of Monkey Island]]''. Justified in that he was actually dead and re-animated by spooky voodoo magic well before he became a disembodied skull.
* In ''[[Animamundi: Dark Alchemist]]'': The hero's little sister was beheaded, but still survived. Granted, by the game's universe rules, it was part of a [[Burn the Witch|"Test"]] - only witches can survive beheading.
* A head in a jar is a "work of art" that you can purchase in the console version of ''[[The Sims]]''.
* Boomer in ''[[
* ''[[Tekken]] 6'' has Alisa Boskonovitch who can remove her head and have it explode in front of his opponent. Of course, a new one emerges shortly after.
* Kangaxx from ''[[Baldur's Gate]] II'', when you first meet him was just a skull. Helps he's a
* Kratos in the ''[[God of War (series)|God of War]]'' games not only is able to tear off the head of the Gorgons, but proceed to use their (apparently still living) heads as weapons, petrifying enemies with their eye-beams. In the third game he does the same for the god Helios, using him as a Lantern.
* The Recapitator ([[Dem Bones|skeleton enemies]]) in ''[[Wario Land]] The Shake Dimension'' have their sole attack being to detach and throw their head at Wario like a boomerang, catching it afterwards. They also come back to life when killed like the Dry Bones in the [[Super Mario Bros.]] series, and can only permanently be killed by destroying their body while their head is in mid air.Or, if you're feeling saucy, destroy the head and leave the body hanging for awhile before it collapses into a heap.
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* Although very loosely, ''[[Dynamite Headdy]]'' surely counts as the main character throws his head around and switches it with power-ups. Not to mention [[Your Head Asplode|it explodes]] when he dies and it gets replaced with a game over sign.
* The main character of ''[[Video Game/Never Dead|Never Dead]]'', a game about an immortal gunslinger fighting a demonic invasion. Even if dismembered, he can put himself back together again. He loses his head (both figuratively and literally) in the [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jt9z2lOoe4Y&feature=related first trailer]. "My story was just getting interesting too!"
* In ''[[Darkstalkers|Vampire Savior]]'', Jedah has a move called "Spregio" that has him doing this to ''himself'' and blasting the opponent with the resulting rush of blood!
* This is the entire plot and gameplay gimmick of ''[[Dead Head Fred]]''.
* Some enemies in ''[[Unreal]]'' will feel for their head for moment after decapitation.
* Several enemies from ''[[Dead Space (series)|Dead Space]]'' can remove Isaac's head, one will take over his body after his death. Instant decapitation results in Isaac feeling for his missing head for a second.
* In ''[[Avernum]] 3'', you can get a talking skull, which will shout random phrases at random times. [[Crowning Moment of Funny|One of the most hilarious ones is:]] [[The Lord of the Rings|"Aragorn! Boromir! Come quick... Oh, never mind."]]
* ''[[RuneScape]]'''s "A Clockwork Syringe" quest features a severed zombie pirate head, which the [[Player Character]] has to torture for information.
* The original ''[[Kung-Fu Master]]'' has the [[Evil Sorcerer|Black Magician]]: any mid/high attack would result in his head falling off, and he teleporting back to reappear complete and unharmed.
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* Pictured above is a scene from a ''[[Team Fortress 2]]'' promotional video. The head of the BLU Spy, which the RED Medic keeps in his fridge, is being sustained by some eldritch and surely illegal medical technique involving dry-cell batteries.
* ''[[Skullgirls]]'' has Ms. Fortune, an undead catgirl who was chopped up into pieces by the mob after stealing and swallowing a gem that made her body undying. Her fighting style revolves around extending, detaching, and reattaching her limbs—most notably her head, which functions not only as a weapon but is capable of propelling itself around and attacking independently of her body.
* In the ''Best Friends Forever'' DLC of ''[[Shantae|Shantae: Half Genie Hero]]'', Rottytops does this as one of her attacks, hurling her own head. Being a zombie, she isn't harmed by this unless it hits a hazard like lava or spikes. After doing so, her entire body reforms where the head lands. While this can do moderate damage to an enemy, it is more useful for avoiding them or crossing barriers.
== [[Web Comics]] ==▼
▲== Web Comics ==
* Happened in ''[[Bite Me]]'' via ''guillotine''; her head was later located by the main character being asked to list head puns (in a room full of severed heads) until she groaned loudly enough to be found.
* An entire storyline of ''[[Narbonic]]'' revolves around how Dave's disembodied head ''is forgotten on the bus''.
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* ''[[Daisy Is Dead]] ''[http://www.daisyisdead.net/Comic241.htm has]'' [http://www.daisyisdead.net/Comic199.htm two instances].
* Probably the single most infamous comic from ''[[Sexy Losers]]'' involved Shiunji, a necrophiliac, a corpse whose head fell off, and what he did to its neck. The comic's subtitle read "I am certain that at some point in the future, I will be prosecuted for this comic in a court of law."
* In ''[[Sluggy Freelance]]'', Torg invented the "[https://web.archive.org/web/20121018192846/http://www.sluggy.com/daily.php?date=090216 Zombie-Head-On-A-Stick]." It's [[Exactly What It Says on the Tin]].
** To say nothing of the time Riff managed to disconnect his own head (and trap Torg and Gwynn's upper halves in another dimension) by thinking with portals.
* ''[[Dan and Mab's Furry Adventures]]'': "[http://www.missmab.com/Comics/Vol_904.php You would be amazed how difficult it is to aim when your head is in a box across the room.]"
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** Also, Richard is beheaded but still able to maintain his normal levels of [http://www.lfgcomic.com/page/328 awesome].
* ''[[Stubble Trouble]]'' features the decapitated characters of Gynette the spidertaur and Lilith the Headless Goth Vixen. Gynette's boyfriend really seems to like her ability and her friends are unfazed as she often takes her head off. Lilith the Headless Goth Vixen was a former model who was famous for her decapitation.
* Done in ''[[Fanboys (webcomic)|Fanboys]]'' in a [https://web.archive.org/web/20140917030256/http://fanboys-online.com/index.php?comic=329 very nightmarish fashion].
* Done in [[Khatru]], where [[Healing Factor]] powered Ranger unwittingly agrees to test one of [[Gadgeteer Genius]] Kira's medical scanning devices. She tries everything to fix him, but in the end, he recovers all on his own.
* In ''[[Girl Genius]]'', Tinka's head continues to talk after being sliced off.
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** Rudolf Selnikov ended up, as Vole put it, "[http://www.girlgeniusonline.com/comic.php?date=20080528 in need ov medical atttention]".
* In the ''[[Girls in Space]]'' storyline The Protoype, Fergus Macrumble punches the Henchbot's head off.
* Runcible Spoon in ''[[Dominic Deegan]]'' is known for sending his own head flying. Also once happened to [https://web.archive.org/web/20140912104412/http://www.dominic-deegan.com/view.php?date=2008-02-13 Quilt], including the "hey, body, over here" routine.
* Nostrom in ''[[Jack (webcomic)|Jack]]''.
* Hector in [[No Songs for The Dead]] got his [http://nosongs.thecomicseries.com/comics/pl/152523 head punched off] {{spoiler|by Romeo, after which Hector taunted Romeo, saying "You punch like a girl."}}
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* ''Optipess'' has the superhero [http://www.optipess.com/2009/01/19/chickenman/ Chickenman].
== [[Web Original]] ==
* [[Homestar Runner|Strong Bad]] couldn't leave well enough alone. [https://web.archive.org/web/20180208202031/http://homestarrunner.com/sbemail148.html
* Lance M. Donavan display this characteristics in [[I'm a Marvel And I'm a DC|DC/Marvel Happy Hour]]
* [[Red vs. Blue|Lopez]] seems to handle life without a head quite well.
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* [http://www.cartoonthrills.org/blog/spumco/Bjork/bjorktubsmall.mov Bjork] in the video for "I Miss You."
* Gary from [[Nintendo Week]] begins hosting one episode as a disembodied head, with his body stumbling into walls in the background. He promptly explains this is a nod to ''Face Raiders'' for the [[Nintendo 3DS|3DS]].
* From the ''[[SCP Foundation]]'', SCP 374 (the "Oracular Guillotine") Zigzags this Trope. An antique guillotine, if someone (always a D-Class) is beheaded by it, the head remains alive, aware, and able to talk for 35 minutes, but it has been possessed by the spirit of a man named Jean-Phillipe-Horace-Donatien, a criminal who was executed during the French Revolution; presumably, Donatien's soul was somehow [[And I Must Scream|trapped in the guillotine]] and remains there at other times. Donatien is required to answer any questions the SCP researchers have during the 35 minutes (exactly why, he will not say), but he's a nasty, foulmouthed jerk who always tries to [[Be as Unhelpful as Possible]]. He hates the Foundation, calling them slavers and murderers. [[Jerkass Has a Point| He's not wrong]]; D-class personal ''are'' slaves, and the Foundation has to kill one simply to use the device.
== [[Western Animation]] ==▼
▲== Western Animation ==
* [[Kevin Spencer]] fantazises about this in one episode: he imagines himself living in an old age home as a head, refusing to die. The staff decide to just run him over with a car. {{spoiler|This trope is played with in the final episode, with Percy.}}
* ''[[Futurama]]'' with The Heads in Jars.
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*** That was only in the Bender's Game fantasy world. Whether it works in the regular crazy world is anyone's guess.
** As well as Hermes in the ''[[Futurama]]'' movie, ''Bender's Big Score''.
* Grim from ''[[The Grim Adventures of Billy
** There was an episode parodying "The Fly" in which Mandy unzips her head and accidentally zips onto a fly's body.
*** Grim inflicts this on Jack O'Lantern, a one-episode villain from the Halloween special. Justified in that he had wished for [[Who Wants to Live Forever?|immortality before he was decapitated.]]
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* ''[[Arthur]]'' "Meek for A Week" Arthur and his friends imagine Francine, who has recently taken to bottling up her natural aggression, will build up enough pressure that her head will pop off. We then see an [[Imagine Spot]] of just such happening with Francine's disembodied head complimenting the beautiful lawn she just landed in.
** Similarly, a different episode had Buster's head fly away instead, only his head broke into pieces upon landing.
* ''[[The Batman]]'' "The Joining" Part 1, Batman and J'
* Homer's costume (which becomes real) in ''[[The Simpsons (animation)|The Simpsons]]''' "Treehouse of Horror XVI."
** In "Treehouse of Horror IV", he was decapitated while spending a day in Hell.
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'''Fender:''' Owww! Daddy! }}
* ''[[The Venture Brothers]]'': Dean during "Escape to the House of Mummies".
* Absorbing Man after his battle with the Hulk in ''[[The Avengers: Earth's
* ''[[Swat Kats]]'' had this in the episode "Metal Urgency": the Metallikats were reduced to heads scuttling around on spider legs after their bodies were crushed. This doesn't prevent them from driving the Metallikat Express ''or'' operating a pair of gigantic combat robots.
* An episode of ''[[Jimmy Two-
** An earlier episode has Jimmy ending up like this thanks to some [[Hollywood Voodoo]].
** Happens to Heloise in the episode "Heads Will Roll."
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* Jenny on ''[[My Life as a Teenage Robot]]''.
* ''[[Drawn Together]]'': Toot's body manages to flash her boobs at Xandir after she chops her head off in the first episode.
* Cindy Vortex, Carl Wheezer, Sheen Estevez and Betty Quinlan in ''[[The Adventures of Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius|The Adventures of Jimmy Neutron]]'s'' magic themed episode "Vanishing Act" became floating heads once they entered a [[Acid Trip Dimension|strange dimension]] and were looking for their headless bodies. [[Portal Picture|Once they enter a picture of a desert]] they find their headless bodies are searching around the desert feeling the ground for them. They [[Pulling Themselves Together|reattach
* In the [[Reality Warper|Larry]] episode of ''[[Teen Titans (animation)|Teen Titans]]'' ("Fractured"), Starfire briefly gets little wings grown on her head, and she needs to hold onto her head to avoid it flying away.
* ''[[Mega Man (animation)|Mega Man]]'': At the beginning of "The Incredible Shrinking Mega Man", Mega says "don't lose your head" to a disassembled Roll.
* ''[[Courage the Cowardly Dog]]'' had, among its multiple ghosts, ghouls and monsters, a group of ghostly skeleton vandals who would try to lay waste to the couple and their dog whenever their windmill stopped turning. [[Hilarity Ensues]] when Courage, Eustace and Muriel have their heads chopped off by the Windmill Vandals' weapons (with their headless bodies frantically looking around for their lost heads) and [[
** Moreover, this isn't the first time Eustace has lost his head. In an earlier episode, a space chicken that Courage defeated and left featherless and headless in the pilot episode returned to replace its missing head by using Courage's head as a replacement. It only partially succeeds with its plan, taking Eustace's head instead. Although defeated, the head never returns to its original body (at least until the next episode), culminating with the appearance of a headless walking Eustace that scares Courage.
* The Canadian short ''[http://www.nfb.ca/film/land_of_the_heads Land of the Heads]'' where a headless vampiress forces his husband to go out into the village and collect the heads of younger people to replace her old and wrinkled one.
* It happened to ''[[Beetlejuice (animation)|Beetlejuice]]'' several times in the animated series, perhaps most unfortunately when he fell in with a group of headhunters.
* An episode of the 1980s version of ''[[Flash Gordon (animation)|Flash Gordon]]'' featured a race of aliens that could remove their heads.
*On an epsiode of [[The Owl House|''The Owl House'']], Eda gets her head sliced off. Yet, Eda survives this, being a witch after all, and just complains on how her [[Major Injury Underreaction|beheading is just annoying]]. {{spoiler|This is later revealed to be a side effect of the curse that causes her to transform into the Owl Beast.}}
== [[Real Life]] ==▼
* A series of controversial experiments showed that it is possible to transplant a monkey's head onto a different monkey's body, although establishing spinal communication between the two was not possible. Originally proposed by the surgeon as a means of prolonging the lives of
▲== Real Life ==
▲* A series of controversial experiments showed that it is possible to transplant a monkey's head onto a different monkey's body, although establishing spinal communication between the two was not possible. Originally proposed by the surgeon as a means of prolonging the lives of quadraplegics whose own bodies are failing, this technique has been soundly rejected by bioethicists ... not because it's gruesome, but because donor organs can save more lives if they're distributed among many transplant patients, rather than the whole body being used to aid one.
* [[wikipedia:Mike the Headless Chicken|Mike the headless chicken]].
* [http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=fact-or-fiction-cockroach-can-live-without-head Cockroaches] can live for weeks after decapitation.
* Back in the days
** One such curious person was Dr Beaurieux, whose [https://guillotine.dk/pages/30sek.html description] of Monsieur Languille's post-chop responses became famous for a century or more. As the link explains, there is room for doubt: Beaurieux said the head landed on its neck stump so he didn't need to touch it, but those familiar with the time say the head should have dropped into a bucket and would have to be lifted out. [[YMMV|Then again]], the good doctor was there to experiment and considered Languille a good candidate, so who's to say what preparations he was allowed to make on the day?
* ''Internal'' decapitation, in which the skull is forcibly separated from the spinal column but the soft tissues of the neck remain intact, can be survivable if the injured person receives artificial respiration and other care. If the spinal cord isn't broken, a full recovery is also possible.
{{reflist}}
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[[Category:Death Tropes]]
[[Category:Autonomous and Artificial Appendage Index]]
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[[Category:Horror Tropes]]
[[Category:Older Than Feudalism]]
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