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Organ Dodge: Difference between revisions
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Where a character gets stabbed or shot - usually in the kidney - and it should be fatal. Only it isn't, because they donated that kidney. Or they have dextrocardia. Or that limb was actually prosthetic. Usually given as justification for [[Only a Flesh Wound]], but sometimes the central conceit around which a climax - or entire plot - is built. Usually used as an ironic counterpoint to the original injury. This is all but guaranteed to happen to people cheated out of organs earlier in the plot, because it's a good way of suggesting ambiguity - after all, if they still had that kidney they were tricked into donating, they'd be dead now.
If a character is shown to have donated an organ and the genre isn't [[Medical Drama]], they're extremely likely to suffer injury to that area later in the work. Anyone with dextrocardia - where the heart is on the right side of the body instead of the left - is virtually guaranteed to be shot or stabbed where the heart "should be" at some point.
The inverse, where a character who's learned to cope with a handicap or life-altering injury is injured in a way making the handicap ''worse'', is fairly common in [[Darker and Edgier]] works. This is where, for example, a character who's just undergone extensive cosmetic surgery to repair fire scarring ''gets caught in another disfiguring fire''. Sometimes applies to wheelchairs, canes, and other forms of assistive technology as well, where the short-term consequences can be dire without automatically leading to [[Nightmare Fuel]]. Noticeably more common in [[Police Procedural]] and [[Medical Drama]] genres, if only because this usually shows up as a plot twist in a mystery story.
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* The ''[[Parasyte]]'' "Jaws" {{spoiler|can reach into his host's upper torso and move, say, the heart to avoid an otherwise fatal stab.}}
* Happens early on in ''[[Fullmetal Alchemist]]'', revealing Ed's arm to be automail.
** Happens quite frequently, actually.
** It's also implied that Frank Archer from the first anime had Dextrocardia, since the side of his body that got vaporized and replaced with automail was the one his heart was supposed to be on.
* Andrew Waltfeld does the prosthetic limb version in ''[[Gundam Seed Destiny]]'', blocking a knife with his arm and then revealing the [[Arm Cannon|gun hidden underneath]] to finish off the attacker. The damage from the knife doesn't appear to do more than cosmetic damage to the prosthetic either.
* [[Dragon Half|Damuramu]] survives being stabbed in the head with his own energy blade, because his brain is that small - and he ''is'' the most stupid character in a show that handled out [[Idiot Ball|idiot balls]] to everyone!
* In one of Kazuki's fights in ''[[Busou Renkin]]'', he gets stabbed in the heart. But it doesn't do anything, because he had already been stabbed in the heart and had it replaced with a [[Mineral Mc Guffin|Kakugane,]] which is now in his hand as his Busou Renkin.
** And at another time he is wounded in the chest and survives because the Kakugane stops the blade before it can cut too deeply.
* Ani Toguro of ''[[Yu Yu Hakusho]]'' could rearrange the organs in his body at will, theoretically making it impossible to strike a fatal blow to him. Kuwabara just finds a way to hit every single point on his body simultaneously. {{spoiler|That is enough to stun Toguro, yet still winds up being nonfatal.}}
* Souther in ''[[Fist of the North Star]]'' is immune to Kenshiro's first attack because he has dextrocardia, meaning all his pressure points are on the opposite sides of where they're supposed to be.
* Before the events of ''[[Full Metal Panic!]]'', Sousuke had thought Gauron dead after shooting him in the head, only for him to show up and hijack his flight during the first story arc. It turned out that Gauron had been injured there before, and had a metal plate in his skull from the treatment of that earlier injury that stopped the bullet.
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* A missing organ is a pretty standard revelation in the [[Autopsy Scene]], although ''[[CSI]]'' has also done at least two episodes about ironically-fatal dextrocardia.
* On ''[[Lost]]'', Locke survives being {{spoiler|gut-shot by Ben}} because he donated his kidney. Though the Island's healing powers and {{spoiler|Taller Ghost Walt}} may have been involved.
* The Doctor suddenly revealing he has a respiratory bypass system' as an explanation for him surviving strangulation in the ''[[Doctor Who]]'' serial "[[Doctor Who/Recap/S13
* In ''[[Stargate SG-1]]'', the most efficient way to kill Jaffa is to aim for the symbiote pouch in their abdomen, which both kills the symbiote and causes a serious gut injury ... unless said Jaffa uses tretonin, a drug that obviates the need for a symbiote. Thus in "Lost City", Bra'tac survived being stabbed in his pouch by [[The Mole]].
== [[Video Games]] ==
* In the [[Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty/Recap|endgame]] of ''[[Metal Gear Solid]] 2'', {{spoiler|Ocelot disables the electromagnetic force field that protects Fortune from gunfire, and shoots her straight through the heart...which doesn't seem to faze her at all, because as Ocelot remembers afterwards, her heart is on the right. Of course, she still dies from the gaping hole in her chest some minutes later, but not before figuratively flipping him the bird}}.
* In the first [[X-COM]], Etherals have the highest hitpoint and armor value of all the non terror unit aliens. Their [[Monster Compendium|UFOPaedia entry]] after an [[Alien Autopsy|autopsy]] reads {{spoiler|"The muscles are severely atrophied and the internal organs appear to be under-developed. The sensory organs, including the eyes, do not appear to function at all. The brain, however, is well developed and draws on a high proportion of the body's blood supply. It is a mystery as to how this creature can sustain itself without external support." They are that tough because they don't have many organs to damage.}}
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