Pulling Themselves Together: Difference between revisions

{{trope}}

 

{{quote|'''Mr. Potato Head:''' Where's my nose?

'''Mr. Potato Head:''' Here's your arm.

'''Mrs. Potato Head:''' Gimme that.

 

 

 

See also [[Helping Hands]], [[Losing Your Head]], [[Who Needs Their Whole Body?]], [[Appendage Assimilation]] and [[Good Thing You Can Heal]]. For [[Dem Bones]], this is a [[Sliding Scale of Undead Regeneration|way for them to "heal" from damage]].

 

Not to be confused with the other kind of [[Get a Hold of Yourself, Man!|pulling yourself together]].

{{examples}}

== Advertising ==

* Happens to a minivan in a Liberty Mutual auto insurance ad, after a collision causes the (unoccupied) car to fly apart into dozens of components.

 

* In ''[[Naruto]]'':

** Sasori does this after being punched to pieces by Sakura, because {{spoiler|his body is just a shell that he can reassemble and his heart is the only important part.}}

* ''[[Hellsing (anime)|Hellsing]]: Alucard. He's started battles by being shot to pieces, just to freak people out more when his blood runs back into his body.

* ''[[One Piece]]''

** The Logia users can do this too, turning their body into their element and moving it back into them. Aokiji (and Crocodile and Kizaru to a lesser extent) seems to be the best examples of this, as most other logia users just let attacks pass through them without effect rather than actively "pulling themselves together".

** After the Timeskip, {{spoiler|it is revealed that Brook can put his bones back together if they are knocked apart.}}

* [[Mecha-Mooks]] Decoe and Bocoe claimed to have done this in Episode 48 of 4Kids's ''[[Sonic X]]''. The original Japanese version says Chuck Thorndyke repaired them.

* Nosferatu Zodd from ''[[Berserk]]'' can reattach his own severed limbs on the rare occasions someone is able to deal that much damage to him.

* Akasha Bloodriver from ''[[Rosario + Vampire]]'' has this ability, as apparently do all Shinso vampires. Even better, if her body parts are completely destroyed, she's implied to be able to regenerate on a [[From a Single Cell]] level.

* Arcueid Brunestud was able to assemble pieces of her body back together after being killed and torn apart by Shiki in ''[[Tsukihime]]''. This process happened off-screen, though.

* Members of the [[Winged Humanoid|Fly]][[Dem Bones|bone]] Tribe from ''[[Kyo Kara Maoh!]]'' can do this -- at least as long as they're still put together enough to ''move'' anyway. Otherwise, they require assistance. Being a [[Naive Newcomer]], Yuuri didn't know this at first, and [[Poor Communication Kills]] might've struck had Conrad not stopped him before he could accidentally doom the flybone that saved him. It got smashed protecting him, and he was trying to give it a proper burial when Conrad appeared on the scene. [[Played for Laughs]] when the misunderstanding was cleared up.

 

== Comic Books ==

* In a [[Mad|Don Martin]] ''Captain Klutz'' story, the Captain gets ripped to comedic shreds by an enemy. Told literally to "pull himself together", he yanks at one of the wings on his hat and his various pieces all slither back together and reconnect.

* In ''[[Cattivik]]'' he'll usually do this to himself after being tore apart or destroyed. In a particular episode this happens twice to some mummies. In both cases, the results of their efforts were laughable to say the least.

 

== Fan Works ==

* [[Snarky Non-Human Sidekick|Jack]] from ''[[Calvin and Hobbes: The Series|Calvin and Hobbes The Series]]'' has this. [[Exploited Trope|Exploited]] by Calvin at one point, taking him apart to make him fit in his backpack.

 

== Films -- Animation ==

* [[The Iron Giant]] can do this to an amazing degree when {{spoiler|the ending reveals that even after [[Heroic Sacrifice|being blown up in the atmosphere]] by a ''nuclear explosion'', his countless paperweight-sized pieces can be seen migrating to an unknown location so he can reassemble himself.}}

* [[Butt Monkey|Mr.]] and [[Housewife|Mrs. Potato Head]] in the ''[[Toy Story (franchise)|Toy Story]]'' [[film]]s. For Mr. Potato Head, it becomes something of a [[Running Gag]].

 

== Films -- Live-Action ==

* In ''[[Ghost Rider (film)|Ghost Rider]]'', Johnny blasts {{spoiler|Legion}} apart with a Hell-powered shotgun. He just pulls himself back together like nothing happened.

* Hector does this in ''Saturn 3''.

 

== Literature ==

* Ted Hughes' ''The Iron Man'' (on which the ''The Iron Giant'' is loosely based) starts this way. The Iron Man walks out of nowhere and falls over a cliff. One hand scuttles about blindly until it finds an eye, then picks up an arm and reassembles the whole body from there.

* ''[[Discworld]]''

* Stephen King's ''[[Christine]]'': Both the novel and movie adaptation involves a murderous vintage automobile that can heal itself from ANY damage, via a sort of time reverse power. Even after being crunched under the car crusher, Dennis still has nightmares four years later of Christine finally repairing herself and coming after him for revenge. Just look at the impressive visuals in this clip from the movie on 8:54 - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4yTcspRQHXo&feature=related

* In ''[[Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell]]'' the [[The Fair Folk|Gentleman with the Thistledown Hair]] keeps trying to put his body back after it's been ground to powder, but the pressure keeps up and he eventually dies.

* The vampires in Stephenie Meyer's ''[[Twilight (novel)|Twilight]] Saga'' can do this if they aren't incinerated after dismemberment. This process is only alluded to in the main novels, but is prominently featured in the novella ''The Short Second Life of Bree Tanner''.

* In [[Robert E. Howard]]'s ''[[The Scarlet Citadel]]'', Tsotha-lanti tells [[Conan the Barbarian]] that "''if you hack me in pieces, the bits of flesh and bone will reunite and haunt you to your doom!'' The next moment, Conan [[Losing Your Head|cuts off his head]]. [[Nightmare Fuel|The head remained alive, and the body attempted to recover it]]. Fortunately, at that moment, a friendly sorcerer took away the head, the body ran after him, and the king was rid of the need to find a solution.

 

== Live-Action TV ==

** One of the more memorable [[Monster of the Week]] types was Hatchasaurus, a very strong dino-bird thing who could reassemble himself no matter how thoroughly trashed, because [[Soul Jar|the important part was elsewhere]].

** An even more memorable monster was Bones, who is pretty much Hatchasaurus, except that his [[Soul Jar]] is his head.

* ''[[Kamen Rider Double]]'': On the [[Darker and Edgier]] side of the Toku coin, the Clay Doll Dopant's ability, asides from shooting large blasts, is to reassemble herself after she's been crushed to a billion pieces. In fact, [[Kamen Rider Double/Recap/E13 E14 The Radio Q|an arc]] from Double shows this power in action. It's [[Darker and Edgier]] because {{spoiler|you don't know it's going to happen the first time, and it ''looks'' like a sympathetic character just got completely crushed. You don't learn the truth [[To Be Continued|until next week]]}}.

* The Djieiene spider in the ''[[Lost Girl]]'' episode "Arachno Faebia" can do this as long as its heart is safe in its [[Soul Jar]].

* ''[[The Young Ones]]'': The episode "Bambi" reveals that Vyvyan is apparently capable of this, despite it not being explicitly shown.

 

* From [[Egytpian Mythology]], the sorcerer Nefrekeptah had to face a serpent both [[Anti-Magic|immune to magic]] and who had this ability as the [[Final Boss]] guarding the [[MacGuffin|Book of Thoth]]. When standard freezing spells didn't work, Nefrekeptah went for the direct approach and cut of the serpent's head, and threw it far into the river. However, the head came back almost instantly and blocked his path again. Nefrekeptah again cut off its head, threw it into the river, and this time put sand on the neck before the head could come back. The head couldn't reattach, and though the serpent couldn't die, it just lay there, helpless.

 

== Tabletop Games ==

* Necrons in ''[[Warhammer 40,000]]'' are known to do this, sometimes even reforming after being reduced to molten slag.

* ''[[Dungeons & Dragons]]''

** Trolls, and anything with regeneration, can reattach body parts, including heads if they have a spare.

** Lebendtod from [[Ravenloft]] don't regenerate, but these undead can remove and re-attach their heads or limbs at will. An anecdote in their 3E monster description tells how a necromancer sent several boxes of loose body parts to a rival's home; [[Trojan Horse|once inside]], the parts re-assembled themselves and the lebendtod attacked.

** Some skeletal undead have been depicted with the ability to reassemble themselves, in various D&D editions and ''Dragon'' articles. One type of skeleton, once several are knocked to pieces, even combine their bits into a bigger, more dangerous monster.

 

== Toys ==

* [[The Worm That Walks|Zaktan]] is able to do this in ''[[Bionicle]]''. {{spoiler|Which makes his recent "death" somewhat questionable...}} Really, almost ''any'' character is capable of doing this if their pieces are still intact and they know the secret of how to rebuild themselves. One of the most memorable instances is in the teaser for the planned game that never made it out, showing Onua spill out of his canister in pieces and assemble himself. Had the game been finished we would have gotten to see such a sequence for each of the original six Toa.

 

== Video Games ==

* The zombie robots from the game ''[[Metal Arms]]: Glitch in the System''. Using the tether to bodyjack an enemy robot causes Glitch to have to do this afterwards. {{spoiler|One [[Boss Fight]] also requires you to do this to yourself to escape an impossible situation.}}

* It seems a ''lot'' of [[Dem Bones|skeletal enemies]] do this trick when defeated:

** The Stalfos in ''[[The Legend of Zelda]]''

** The skeleton in ''[[Prince of Persia]]''.

* Trailers for ''[[Portal 2]]'' have shown [[GLaDOS]]'s mainframe and the entire Enrichment Center itself repairing and reassembling themselves, presumably years or decades after they were destroyed and overgrown with plantlife.

* For a player example, some of the hazards and enemies in ''[[Loco Roco]]'' can split Locoroco up into several pieces. However, a bit of "Noi! Cheburatta roi!" and they're back together in no time.

* The Hunter, a recurring boss from ''[[Dead Space (video game)|Dead Space]]'' is capable of both of this and regenerating its limbs. It's not as perfect as some of the other examples, though, but the only ways to stop it are {{spoiler|freezing it solid and burning to a crisp with a rocket engine.}}

* In ''[[Space Quest]] 6'', the endodroid can pull the same stunt as the T-1000. Just [http://tmd.alienharmony.com/rw/sq6/1/e.htm don't let it happen around Roger].

 

== Web Comics ==

* The demon K'Z'K from ''[[Sluggy Freelance]]'' pulls this trick after Bun-Bun [http://www.sluggy.com/comics/archives/daily/990217 runs him through a meat grinder].

* ''[[Elijah and Azuu]]'' has Legion, which repairs damage done to their possessed host simply by tying wounds closed with the host's own veins and sinew.

 

== Web Original ==

* ''[[Loading Ready Run]]'' plays with this in the video [http://loadingreadyrun.com/videos/view/227/Pull-Yourself-Together Pull Yourself Together]. The main character has accidentally been leaving different aspects of his personality at his friends' houses.

 

== Western Animation ==

* The Dummies of the CGI animated short [[The Incredible Crash Dummies]] regularly had limbs knocked off with no problems.

{{quote|''(Slick and Spin crash a motorcycle)''

 

{{reflist}}

[[Category:Autonomous and Artificial Appendage Index]]

[[Category:Speculative Fiction Tropes]]