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The Heartless: Difference between revisions
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[[File:the-heartless2 642.jpg|link=Scott Pilgrim|frame|"Nega-Scott" picture by [http://scarecrowartist.deviantart.com ScarecrowArtist]]]
{{quote|''"All they know is how to hurt and destroy and kill. Admirable when you need someone hurt, destroyed or killed, but what about the times when you just want them to sit down and shut up? Oh, FORGET that."''
|'''Dark General Cobalt''', ''[[Sailor Nothing]]'', about the problems with working with Yamiko}}
'''The Heartless''' are different from the average [[Monster of the Week]] in that they're basically born out of people's negative emotions, like a poltergeist. They can be a special case of the [[Body Horror]], but can also be a part of the victims [[Anatomy of the Soul|Soul Anatomy]] that has been [[Enemy Without|separated from them]], and [[Living Memory|may not]] [[Intangible Man|have a physical body at all]]. This is convenient for the right villain, since it can be an unlimited resource; the [[Victim of the Week]] always seems loaded with problems and angst for The Heartless to feed on. It can also have a [[Viral Transformation|self-propagating]] "[[The Virus|zombie]]" effect.
The trouble for the heroes is these are difficult to get rid of, especially if The Heartless still display an awareness of the world (usually, as a ruse of the [[Enigmatic Minion]]). If an established character becomes one of The Heartless, they may act as if they had undergone a [[Face Heel Turn]].
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{{examples}}
== [[Trope Namer]] ==
* The ''[[Kingdom Hearts]]'' videogames have the Heartless, which fit the definition of this trope. However, they were described as starting out as decidedly less destructive before the series' [[Big Bad]], Xehanort, started his experiments on them.
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* A repeated, enigmatic symbol—particularly suggestive shadows—in the movie version of ''[[Revolutionary Girl Utena]]'' hints that Anthy is missing her heart. However, in an inversion, it is because she is the victim/captive of a monster, not the monster itself. This (probably deliberately) echoes the line about "a doll without a heart" in the TV series.
* The Zonder, in the [[Humongous Mecha]] series ''[[GaoGaiGar]]'' are a variation on this; they don't feed on or arise from negative emotions in general so much as they feed on stress specifically. The forms they take on when they transform into [[Robeast]]s typically have something to do with the source of their hosts stress, and destroying them leaves the victim feeling quite mellow.
* Yatagarasu, {{spoiler|Shiho's Child,}} is described as residing in the darkness of the human heart in ''[[
* The fear of Shonen Bat/Lil' Slugger in ''[[Paranoia Agent]]''.
* Akuma in ''[[D.Gray-man]]'' are souls of the dead who have been bent to the will of the Millennium Earl. Often grieving for a lost loved one the bereaved person calls their soul down into an Akuma at which point the soul of the lost loved one is imprisoned and has no will of its own. The Millennium Earl orders the newly made Akuma to kill the person that made them an Akuma and [[
** One of Noah claims that if an Akuma self-destructs, rather than freeing the soul, the human soul is ''destroyed''. She then demonstrates this to Allen, who watches in horror as [[Fate Worse Than Death|the soul is torn into screaming pieces]].
** More generally, it's stated that the human soul will be released only if the Akuma are killed by an Innocence weapon. Any other method will destroy the soul. It's just that since normal humans don't have a chance in hell of of killing an Akuma in the first place, the question never comes up.
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* Also at a metaphorical level, the homunculi from ''[[Fullmetal Alchemist]]'' may be seen as embodying the 'darkness' or despair in the heart of {{spoiler|the alchemists who created them and whose memories of a lost loved one they often carry}}. Or even of {{spoiler|the original person}} or humankind itself. Of course, their [[Theme Naming]] following the [[Seven Deadly Sins]] helps this interpretation. In the manga, they are manifestations of {{spoiler|Father's cruelty and sins - what he is and whether he could be The Heartless himself is up for debate, though}}.
* The X-charas in ''[[Shugo Chara]]'' can be seen as a form of this: Usually, when a child needs help in fulfilling their dreams, these dreams materialize and become a "Guardian-chara". However, if the child has already GIVEN UP all hope, the dreams instead get corrupted with lack of self-esteem, the feeling of being useless and other negative-emotions and become an "X-chara" instead: A little, black creature, determined to destroy everyone and everything around it with the power of the dream, it was originally supposed to embody. The owner of the X-chara usually falls in a comatose-state, with his or her inner voice mourning about how useless he/she is. Amu usually tries to heal such Charas, by using the powers of the humpty-lock, while others, like Ikuto and Rima (at least in the beginning) prefer to simply destroy them—turning the owner into a child without any hopes for his/her life.
* The [[Big Bad]] of ''[[Digimon Tamers]]'' {{spoiler|started out as a [[
* In ''[[Digimon Adventure 02]]'', Dagomon's realm is formed by people's dark desires.
* The {{spoiler|Idea of Evil}}, the [[God Is Evil|God]] of the ''[[Berserk]]'' universe, is {{spoiler|created from mankind's desire for an explanation for [[Crapsack World|why we suffer]]}}. Qlippoth creatures are also reflections of humanity's darkest side.
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*** It's because {{spoiler|being lied to sours people on the idea of things that aren't real.}}
*** The book is big on emphasizing the difference between {{spoiler|lies, things made up to decieve, and stories, things made up to entertain and inspire.}} It also implies that {{spoiler|lies}} are themselves the Heartless, being the dark side of creatures from Fantasia. {{spoiler|Any creature from Fantasia who is caught by the Nothing is transformed into a lie and taken to the real world.}}
* The curse in ''[[
* The Pink Slime in ''[[Ghostbusters]] II'' was generated by the negative emotions of New York. The substance itself is actually neutral, but New York is just that cynical and negative a city.
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** Additionally, while they're more like normal people than most, the [[Walking Techbane|Clockstoppers]] are pretty much anti-Geniuses; they possess no spark of creativity and reduce wonder and [[Weird Science|Wonders]] to emptiness. Did I mention the part where in place of a creative "spark" they possess a gnawing "void" that essentially means they ''run on spite?''
* In ''[[GURPS]] Fantasy II'', the various monsters infesting the Mad Lands not only are often humans corrupted by their dark sides, but their naming even follows the "-less" format. E.g. people who don't speak out when they should become Soundless, people who are too quick to take offense become Skinless, etc.
* The four gods of Chaos in ''[[Warhammer
* The Circles of Hell in ''Obsidian''.
* In ''[[Dungeons
* The Nightmares from ''[[Don't Rest Your Head]]'' are things from unfeeling bureaucracy to sleazy journalism to hatred itself given flesh, either by [[Body Horror|a person transforming into one due to severe insanity]], or by more exotic means—the Ladies in Hating are either trained in the High School or created from young girls poisoned by the blood of other Ladies in Hating, while legend has it that Mother When came from... somewhere else when someone tried to pick the lock on a door out of the Mad City during the Thirteenth Hour. They are almost universally cruel, twisted, and vicious, incapable of mercy, compassion, or kindness... and the very fact that the Wax King ''doesn't'' match this description is sometimes taken as proof that he isn't actually a Nightmare at all.
* Most ''[[Deadlands]]'' monsters are of this variety. The setting runs on [[Clap Your Hands If You Believe|Clap Your Hands If You]] <s>Believe</s> Fear, and the [[Big Bad]]s, who are the primary Heartless of this verse, harvest human fear and use it to animate anything the local populace fears, be it jackalopes, wendigos or living blast shadows. These created abominations are powered by fear too, so they are also The Heartless.
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* The "blot" versions of eaten residents of wasteland in the final level of "[[Epic Mickey]]"
* The Ixupi from [[Shivers]] are ancient [[Mayincatec]] demons that suck away the life essence of any nearby human beings.
* The Negativitron of ''[[
* The enemies in the final chapter of ''[[Disgaea 4: A Promise Unforgotten]]'' are physical manifestations of the [[Big Bad]]'s malice, appearing as [[Palette Swap|darkly colored versions]] of the various generic classes that speak with his voice.
* In [[Ultima IX]], the Guardian, dimension conquering threat from the previous several games, is [[retcon]]ned into the Avatar's [[Enemy Without]]: specifically, the embodiment of all the evil and darkness he cast off when he became the Avatar.
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** It's a bit more complicated than that. He feeds on planets, but the energy from hatred and violence is what gives him the strength to metaphorically get out of bed in the morning.
* [[Hannibal Lecture|Penelope Spectra]] from ''[[Danny Phantom]]'' was a [[Our Ghosts Are Different|ghost]] posing as a school guidance counselor. She made her patients ''more'' depressed, however, because she needed their negative emotions to keep herself young. {{spoiler|At least, until she was able to make herself a new ectoplasmic body that wasn't falling apart.}}
* Serpentor from the ''[[G.I. Joe]]'' cartoon. Initially, a clone created via gene splicing some of the most notorious tyrants and conquerors in history, any and all humanity and morality the donors had seemed lost when made into this soulless gestalt. Serpentor was a sociopathic monster fueled by hate and rage, a quality which often blinded him and caused him to make mistakes that led to failure.
{{reflist}}
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[[Category:The Heartless]]
[[Category:Hatred Tropes]]
{{DEFAULTSORT:Heartless, The}}
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