The Heartless: Difference between revisions

* 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.

* 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 [[Replicant Snatching|wear their body]]. So they're sad and in pain and become increasingly tortured and tormented as the Akuma develops its own personality around them. The main character, [[The Messiah|Allen Walker]], has a special eye that allows him to see these trapped souls, and aims to release them from their pain... which means killing them. The rest of the Exorcists kill them just because they're monsters, and most of them wouldn't understand or take kindly to Allen's sympathy for them. It's not that the Exorcists don't ''know'' how the Akuma are made, but rather that they tend to forget, because they're not constantly seeing it.

* 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.

* 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.

*** 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 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.

 

** 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 Circles of Hell in ''Obsidian''.

* 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.

* 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 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.

[[Category:The Heartless]]

[[Category:Hatred Tropes]]