The Heartless: Difference between revisions

[[The Messiah]]'s power is usually to combat The Heartless, or even to heal them. The [[Anti-Hero]] or [[Ineffectual Loner]] usually insists the victims are [[Mercy Kill|too far gone]] and [[I Did What I Had to Do|should be offed]] before more people get hurt. Occasionally, a victim who is [[Fighting From the Inside]] can resist The Heartless' control.

 

 

Obligatory [[Heart Drive]] link thrown in for good measure.

* The Virus from ''[[Venus Versus Virus]]''.

* 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.

* Yatagarasu, {{spoiler|Shiho's Child,}} is described as residing in the darkness of the human heart in ''[[Mai-HiME]]''.

* The fear of Shonen Bat/Lil' Slugger in ''[[Paranoia Agent]]''.

** 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.

* Miss Michiko from ''[[Dennou Coil]]'', while not technically a monster, {{spoiler|is literally born from Isako's rage and hatred}}.

* Naraku, the [[Big Bad]] of ''[[Inuyasha]]'', was partly born from a man's cruelty.

* At a metaphorical level, Knives in the ''[[Trigun]]'' manga fulfills the definition too, as he might be viewed as an embodiment of the worst 'sins' of humankind. It is significant that in ''[[Trigun Maximum]]'', he starts of as {{spoiler|a loving and philanthropic kid and grows extremely fast into a crazed sociopath as a result of trauma or, more symbolically, of absorbing humans' violence and hatred}}. As such, he fits the [[Shadow Archetype]] not only for Vash but also for humans.

* The Reibi from the second ''[[Naruto Shippuden]]'' Movie is a demon made from the hate or other dark thoughts of others. {{spoiler|It can also [[Demonic Possession|posses people]] feeling these emotions}}.

* 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 [[AI Is a Crapshoot|computerized]] cleanup system that takes its programming [[Gone Horribly Right|a bit too seriously]]}}, but once it {{spoiler|[[Mind Rape|gets inside the head]] of [[Break the Cutie|Juri]], the [[Mooks|agents]] it starts conjuring begin to take the shape of her worst memories.}} Not to mention that {{spoiler|This is how it finally figures out how to "delete" organic matter}}.

* 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.

** In addition, there's {{spoiler|the Hellhound, Guts's personal Heartless and [[Super-Powered Evil Side]], which was born from all the negative emotions that arose in Guts after the Eclipse went down, and which worked in concert with him during the Retribution/Conviction arc, but now works against him as his focus has turned to protecting Casca}}.

* Shikabane in ''[[Shikabane Hime]]'' are formed when someone dies with regrets or an attachment to this world, which turns them into a monster.

* In the ''[[Shaman King]]'' manga, Oni, which are dangerous spirits conjured by a shaman's ridiculously strong negative emotions. Namely loneliness.

* The armor bugs in ''[[Letter Bee]]''. They are insects that lost their heart. In fact, you kill them by [[Revive Kills Zombie|giving them heart]], i.e. shooting them with your [[Empathic Weapon]].

* In ''[[Forbidden Planet]]'', the Monsters from the Id are invisible, [[Nigh Invulnerability|invincible]], incredibly strong [[Implacable Man|beings of pure vengeance]]. Their existence is a side effect of the [[Deadly Upgrade]].

* ''[[The Brood]]'' is about a woman who literally gives birth to her inner demons.

** However, [[Older Than They Think|in the original book]], it's implied to be more a result of increasing cynicism and loss of imagination, as it's spread by {{spoiler|people lying}}.

*** [[Fridge Logic|Hard to see]] how {{spoiler|people lying, i.e. ''making stuff up'', equals loss of imagination}}.

*** 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.

 

* The Spectres of ''[[His Dark Materials]]''.

** {{spoiler|The truth is much worse than that: as it turns out, they're really [[Eldritch Abomination|Eldritch Abominations]] spawned from the Abyss, the great void of nothingness between the universes. They devour the souls of unfortunate people that happen to be near them. And they're also created whenever the Subtle Knife is used to cut between the worlds. And they pretty much destroyed civilisation in the world that originally created the Knife. Oh, and did I also mention that you can't kill them by physical means?}}

** As are boggarts, whose shape depends on what the person nearest them is most afraid of.

** The series also does something of an extension on the the trope by having the Infernal Devices (swords) chosen to ''fight'' the demon armies capable of burning the humanity right out of the user, in essence making them the same or worse than the things they're fighting.

* ''[[The Strange Case of Doctor Jekyll and Mr. Hyde]]'' is about how Jekyll tries to chemically rid himself of negative impulses and emotions, but instead leads to his transformation into the embodiment of them.

** Hyde could be seen as the Ur-example of this trope. Also unmentioned above but relevant to this trope and the quote, the story not only makes much of Hyde's utter lack of any kind of positive emotion or morals, but also points out that because he has none of these things, and hence no limits, he has an unrivaled love for life. It is this addictive sensation that actually draws Jekyll into continuing the experiment until it is absolutely too late to turn back.

* The Serpents in the ''[[Death Gate Cycle]]'' were created by magic gone mad fused with their creators' fear and hatred- their goal is to turn the universe into "a prison house of suffering and death" because negative emotions give them power and prolong their existence. Unlike a lot of examples they're actually very smart (most of the time), and can take whatever shape they want to further their goals, though they prefer appearing as hideous snakelike creatures in order to best terrify people.

* The Overlook Hotel in [[The Shining]] is depicted as basically being The Heartless in architectural form, if you go by the interpretation that the paranormal side of what's happening in it is genuine.

** From the same author, the feeders in ''[[The Word and The Void]]'' are creepy, shadowy beings that feed on negative emotions, and induce them in people to boot. The demons, on the other hand, are closer to [[The Soulless]].

 

 

== [[Live Action TV]] ==

** In one episode, the crew land on a moon that forms itself to mimic the mind of Rimmer, who is... pretty much all the worst traits of humanity. They are trapped, and decide to build up Rimmer's self-esteem in order to escape. This culminates in giving Rimmer a group hug.

** "Polymorph", which featured a monster which feeds on emotions such as fear, guilt, rage and vanity, and changes its shape in response to each person's inner demon in order to elicit these emotions.

* The Horrors from ''[[Garo]]''.

* In one episode of ''[[Amazing Extraordinary Friends]]'', [[Applied Phlebotinum]] splits the heroes into separate beings embodying their good and evil sides (although their 'evil' sides are basically selfish more than anything else).

** An interesting example in that Armus is defeated by confronting him with that fact that he is less heartless than he first appears.

* ''[[Ultraman]] 80'' had a whole series of monsters created by negative emotional energy that was called "Minus Energy." One of these monsters was an [[Evil Twin]] of Ultra Seven.

* Though [[Word of God]] says that the Devilbirds are supposed to be [[Mortasheen]]'s [[Our Demons Are Different|demon-equivalents]], they fit equally well under this trope. For those who don't know, they're Boschian bird-monsters each embodying a negative emotion, which [[Emotion Eater|feed by inducing said emotions in other people]] . Let us take the [http://www.bogleech.com/mortasheen/gluttony.htm Devilbird of Gluttony] for example. It feeds by [[Horror Hunger|inducing a hunger so fierce in a bystander that they will eat anything in sight]]. They then are psychically forced to go back to the Devilbird's nest and [[Nausea Fuel|vomit up what they've eaten in said Devilbird's mouth]]. In the advanced stages of this hunger they may become so ravenous that they begin to eat themselves just to fill their hunger. And yes, almost all of the Devilbirds are this horrible. Even [http://www.bogleech.com/mortasheen/phasmoria.htm the one based on positive emotions] [[Light Is Not Good|turns its victims into hopeless addicts]]. The only exception is the Devilbird of Sloth, which is so overcome with its negative emotion that it doesn't do '''anything''' -- harming and exploiting others or even ''hatching from its egg'' are far too much work for a creature that completely slothful.

** Oh, and by the way, there's actually going to be an area in the upcoming game dominated by these things. Not many details have been released on it by way of [[Word of God]] except for the fact that it's [[Oh Crap|"Worse than you can possibly imagine"]].

** However, the reverse is also true: Spectres have a Psyche, the voice of life and hope that tries to talk them into doing 'the right thing'.

** 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.

* 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|Big Bads]], 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 Horrors of ''[[Earthdawn]]'' and ''[[Shadowrun]]'' are [[Eldritch Abomination|Eldritch Abominations]] from another dimension that feed on pain and negative emotions. They vary wildly in their intelligence and habits, from near-mindless beasts that slaughter indiscriminately to diabolical masterminds who start wars and plagues. Then there are those like Yserthgrathe and Chantral's Horror, who go for quality over quantity - find a single "perfect" victim and dedicate your existence to inflicting misery on them, including making the immortal so that there is never any escape.

 

 

== Video Games ==

* The Poes from ''[[The Legend of Zelda]]'', which are described in ''Ocarina of Time'' as spirits of hatred.

** Also, Dark Link.

** The Aeons on the other hand are the manifestation of the souls in a more positive way. By technicality they still are pretty darn close to the monsters in concept because they chose to become an unsent. However, unlike the monsters, they willingly gave up their bodies to aid the summoners so they retain their humanity.

*** The fiends a particularly tragic example, as unlike most they are not forcibly converted. Rather, they're left in an [[And I Must Scream]] state until the combination of their latent emotions and the solitude drives them [[Ax Crazy|completely insane]].

* The monsters in the ''[[Silent Hill]]'' series.

* In ''[[Persona 2]]'', Nyarlathotep is revealed to be {{spoiler|the [[Anthropomorphic Personification]] of the negative emotions of ''humanity as a whole'' -- fear, hatred, anger, and all our other weaknesses. He's the [[Evil Counterpart]] to Philemon, who is similarly an [[Anthropomorphic Personification]] of human strength and positive emotions... and it's further revealed that the entire series up to that point was little more than a contest between the two to see which was truly the more powerful aspect of humanity. And you ''do'' actually get to punch Philemon for this.}}

* In ''[[Raidou Kuzunoha vs. the Soulless Army]]'', the Hiruko are what happens when [[The Heartless]] gets combined with [[Body Horror]], resulting in a race of parasitic monsters bred from the despair, hate and fear of the residents of the Capital who at the slightest provocation will erupt in a [[Nightmare Fuel]]-laden scene, converting the hapless victim into a Red Cape, or outright bursting out of the body. Neither variant is particularly pleasant.

** This is understandable, since this game was made by the same people who made Kingdom Hearts, and the Noise resemble Heartless with tattoos.

* Darth Nihilus from ''[[Knights of the Old Republic|KotOR 2]]'' became a living entity of pure hunger when [[The Dark Side]] consumed him. His most infamous power is a life drain that can instantly cause the extinction of an entire planet.

* Darkling from ''[[Ghost Master]]''

* Dark Brain of ''The Great Battle'' and later ''[[Super Robot Wars]]'', who feeds on negative energy and gets more powerful. He CAN get punched out by the heroes, but they can't kill him, since there's no way they can destroy the negative energies of humanity.

** To that extension, ''[[Super Robot Wars Destiny|Destiny]]'''s evil group Ruina also feeds on negative energies to make them powerful, doubled that they reside in a [[Crapsack World]] where lots of such things exist.

{{quote| '''Mega Man:''' Living creatures all have both good and evil in their heart. No duh!}}

* The demons of the ''[[Shadow Hearts]]'' universe thrive on and are fueled by the negative emotions and hatred of the world, Malice. One of the perils of being a Harmonixer, one who [[Voluntary Shapeshifting|takes on demonic form]] to fight against the demons, is that killing them causes Malice to build up in one's soul, as well, risking [[With Great Power Comes Great Insanity|the destruction of the Harmonixer's mind]].

* The [[Pokémon]] Shuppet feeds on the negative emotions of people.

{{quote| '''Pokedex''': "Shuppet grows by feeding on dark emotions, such as vengefulness and envy, in the hearts of people. It roams through cities in search of grudges that taint people."}}

* The Final Boss Devil in ''[[Battle Moon Wars]]'' is a [[Giant Space Flea From Nowhere]] that is the this trope, also apparently any land area that has magic will generate evil spirits that oddly looks like [[Shout-Out|Shout Outs]] to various anime series.

** The Censors are, in some ways, the ''opposite'' of this---they're essentially antibodies of the mind that destroy thoughts that don't belong, such as forms of insanity. Unfortunately, since ''you'' don't belong in other people's minds, they consider you fair game.

* Dracula in the ''[[Castlevania]]'' series is occasionally described as this; people describe him as the product/manifestation of [[Humans Are Bastards|the collective evil in humankind]] and our bastardry is what's bringing him back, and as of the ''Sorrow'' series, he's described as God's [[Evil Counterpart]] who comes back because the balance of nature requires it (or something like that).

* 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 ''[[Little Big Planet]] 2'' was born of the negative personality aspects of the creators of Craftworld. This is technically a spoiler, but the name alone is kind of a giveaway, and it's foreshadowed to hell and back along the way besides.

* In [[Ultima IX]], the Guardian, dimension conquering threat from the previous several games, is [[Retcon|retconned]] into the Avatar's [[Enemy Without]]: specifically, the embodiment of all the evil and darkness he cast off when he became the Avatar.

* The Sha in the upcoming ''[[World of Warcraft]]'' expansion are said to be physical manifestations of negative energy. For example, fighting on the island of Pandaria releases energy that can form Sha.

* The Gohma from ''[[Asura's Wrath]]''.