Organ Dodge: Difference between revisions

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.

 

 

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.

* 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.

** 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!

** 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.}}

* 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.

* 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]].