The Soulless: Difference between revisions
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{{trope}}
{{quote|I need a soul, Ralph. Any soul. ''Yours.''|'''Bart Simpson''', ''[[The Simpsons]]'' "[[The Simpsons (animation)/Recap/S07/E04 Bart Sells His Soul|Bart Sells His Soul]]"}}▼
[[File:FetchSpawn3.jpg|link=Changeling: The Lost|frame|[[Creepy Child|It's]] [[Knife Nut|playtime.]]]]
{{quote|I need a soul, Ralph. Any soul. ''Yours.''
▲
When people use the phrase "soulless monster," they usually mean the person they're referring to [[Kick the Dog|isn't acting]] like a (decent) human being, not that they actually lack a soul and are a monster.<ref>* (well, a literal as opposed to a [[Complete Monster|figurative one, anyway]])</ref> In fiction, some characters really ''are'' soulless, and often act like monsters because of it.
When a character loses their [[Our Souls Are Different|Soul]], they normally become a listless [[Empty Shell]] or transform into [[The Heartless]];
If they do get it back, expect a reaction along the lines of ''"[[My God, What Have I Done?]]!"'' as the backlogged ennui catches up with them. At least, they can get better.
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{{examples}}
* Vampires are typically said to have no souls, having lost them along with their morality. This is often stated to be the reason they have no reflection.
* Zombies are usually depicted as soulless, mindless creatures.
* When a [[Ridiculously Human Robot]] is depicted seriously, there is often debate over whether it even ''can'' have a soul. The Trope [[Just a Machine]] often overlaps.
== [[Anime]] and [[Manga]] ==
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* In [[Umineko no Naku Koro ni]], [[Unreliable Narrator|according to Beatrice]], furniture is like this, including [[Shrinking Violet|Shannon]], [[Pinocchio Syndrome|Kanon]], and [[Extreme Doormat|Genji]]. Presumably not Kumasawa though.
* ''[[Tsubasa Reservoir Chronicle]]'' has an instance of something that is not technically alive ({{spoiler|a clone of the protagonist... magical clones do not count as "alive" in this series}}) gaining a soul anyway. Without said soul (or a fragment of someone else's soul), that being was devoid of any personality or morals, and single-mindedly pursued its main objective in a manner not unlike the Terminator.
▲== [[Card Games]] ==
* ''[[Magic: The Gathering]]'' features a zombie literally called the "Soulless One".▼
{{quote|'''Soulless One''': Surrender your soul to me!}}▼
== [[Comic Books]] ==
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* In ''[[Secret Six]]'', {{spoiler|Ragdoll}} was born without a soul, something highly valued in Hell; only a handful of beings since the beginning of time have been born like that. Like Sebastian Faust, being soulless doesn't seem to have had any impact - {{spoiler|Ragdoll}} is the comparative 'white sheep' of a family of utter monsters.
* {{spoiler|Lyla Miller}} of [[X Factor]] has recetnly demonstrated the ability to bring people back to life, in addition too {{spoiler|[[Phrase Catcher|Knowing Stuff]] }}. The only problem is they come back sans their soul, resulting in them feeling next to no joy from anything, and being a little bitter. {{spoiler|This was first used on formerly [[Fun Embodied]] Guido, and the worry she had done this to Jamie after he [[Comic Book Death|"died"]] and woke up nearly caused Monet to kill her/leave the team.}}
* ''[[Ghost Rider]]'' villain Master Pandemonium sold his soul to Mephisto in exchange for demonic powers. He claims that the [[Red Right Hand|star-shaped hole in his chest]] is the result of this.
== [[Film]] ==
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* Explored in ''[[Warbreaker]]'' because of how the magic system, Awakening, is powered by Breaths, a form of mystical energy everyone possesses and is considered analogous to the soul in-universe (though per [[Word of God]], a Breath seems more like ''part'' of a soul). Everyone is born with one breath, but they can be given away- someone who holds a lot has various innate supernatural abilities, and using Awakening requires a pretty large supply. To the Austrist religion, a Drab (someone with no Breaths) is conisdered to have suffered [[A Fate Worse Tha Death]], while to the state religion of Hallandren, it's seen as no big deal. [[Word of God]] puts it somewhere in between- a Drab's humanity is still intact in all meaningful ways he or she retains identity, memory, personality, and such, but they ''are'' more irritable, more prone to sickness, and have duller senses.
== [[Live
* Vampires in ''[[Angel]]'' and ''[[Buffy the Vampire Slayer]]'' have no souls. Instead a demon takes up residence in the body, having all the original person's memories and seemingly believing themselves to be that person. Essentially a human soul is replaced with a demonic one, but retains the same mind.
** Angel
** Also, the [[Angel]] episode ''I've Got You Under My Skin'' reveals {{spoiler|what happens when a human is born without a soul. The [[Enfant Terrible|boy]] ended up being possessed by a body snatching demon. He responded by [[Eviler Than Thou|imprisoning it within him]] and tried to burn his family alive. When it was exorcised the demon let itself be killed, more afraid of the void inside the child than death.}}
*** {{spoiler|More like the boy was a complete sociopath, and the demon explained this condition in terms of him not having a soul. Possibly soullessness is either the cause or a side effect of all sociopathy in this Verse.}}
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* We've yet to see a soulless individual on-panel in ''[[Candorville]]'', but apparently it's common practice for at least one secret faction to feed children's souls to monsters—the resultant shells are still capable of following orders, [[Tyke Bomb|and can easily be trained as assassins]].
== [[Tabletop
* Every. Single. [[Promethean: The Created|Promethean.]] The imbalance of being a soulless homunculus makes every Promethean emotionally unstable and at odds with humanity. Though they never had one to begin with, they can create one for themselves when their pilgrimage succeeds. If they live that long, anyway.
** This has some interesting theological implications. One of the books in the line states that some Ulgans are rather enthusiastic about creating new Prometheans - after all, every time a Promethean completes the Pilgrimage, it brings a new soul into the world. (Most, however, note the rate of attrition and keep their expectations minimal.)
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*** If you can even detect or hurt the bugger. Fetch-Spawn are insanely hard to see unless they want to be (which, given that they're unemotional murderers, is ''not often''), and are not only immune to magic, but can drain it with a touch.
* Yet again from the nWOD, the Illuminated from ''[[Genius: The Transgression]]'' are described as having had their souls burnt away to nothing by the light of Inspiration within them. Some of them [[Ax Crazy|act like]][[Complete Monster|you expect]], others act [[Eldritch Abomination|even MORE strangely]].
* The Necrons of ''[[Warhammer
** Pariahs and blanks, humans who don't register to psykers (and in fact disrupt psychic powers), are generally considered to be humans born without souls. The Necrons can turn pariahs into more of their own, which does lend some credence to the theory.
** The Necrons technically still have souls—souls trapped in their undying metal shells. It's just that after millions of years of dormancy and poor maintenance in mechanical bodies the Necrons are little more than automated killing machines. The souls are still ''there'' but they about as important to the Necrons as a human appendix.
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*** As a whole, the Necrons qualify more for status as [[Empty Shell|empty shells]] than anything else. They are not crazy in any sense of the word, rather ruthless, cold and calculating.
* The explicit premise of ''[[Dead Inside]]'', where the player characters all start out having lost their souls through various means. All Dead Inside are impaired when it comes to social behavior, because their lack of soul makes it harder for them to feel emotions, but they're not stunted to the point they're completely amoral (well, not all of them). The setting and rules explicitly maintain that acting in a moral, positive manner can encourage the regrowth of a soul, while amoral bastardry will destroy what little you have left, though if you're lucky and clever you can trade or steal soul from others and keep doing whatever you feel like doing.
* In the ''[[Ravenloft]]'' setting:
** This is true for nine out of ten citizens of Barovia who are not Vishanti. The soulless ones seem human for all practical purposes, but they are, in effect, born out of the consciousness of Barovia's ruler, the Darklord Strahd von Zarovich. He subconsciously causes these loyal subjects to come into being to feed his massive ego. Soulless Barovians are dour, grim, cynical folk, who can experience no emotions except fear; while not cowards, they learn from childhood to fear the night and "That Devil Strahd" as they call their king. As a vampire, Strahd cannot draw nourishment from drinking the blood of soulless Barovians, and if a soulless Barovian leaves his domain, he or she fades away into nothing. The few ''with'' souls are more energetic and emotional, and seem to be part of the curse that made him a Darklord. When one of them dies, his or her spirit is trapped in Barovia for years - possibly decades - before being reincarnated in a body that resembles the one they previously had. The reason for the soulless Barovians is [[Fridge Logic|actually easy to discern]]; the souls of the original residents of Barovia can never go to any afterlife, and are instead reincarnated endlessly; however, after many centuries the population has grown, and more children are born than there are souls available. This is why Strahd is constantly tormented by women who look exactly like Tatyana, the woman he loves but can never have. They all ''are'' Tatyana given new life.
*** This is expanded in the 5th Edition, where this phenomenon is not unique to Barovia. Any Domain with positive population growth spawns soulless citizens, their presence endlessly reminding the Darklords of their crimes and failures, causing them to be tormented by their doubt and self-loathing.
** Also in Ravenloft, Tindal, The Amazing Soulless Man, a barker at the Carnival. He has no reflection or shadow; while his memory of the event is a little vague, he claims his soul fled from him due to a magical experiment gone wrong. {{spoiler|In truth, [[Inverted Trope|he has it backwards]]; he ''is'' the escaped soul of an [[Evil Sorcerer]] named Tindafulus who botched one of his diabolical spells. Oddly, Tindal is a far more benevolent person than Tindafulus is.}}
▲* ''[[Magic: The Gathering]]'' features a zombie literally called the "Soulless One".
▲{{quote|'''Soulless One''': Surrender your soul to me!}}
== [[Video Games]] ==
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* The Collectors of ''[[Mass Effect 2]]''. In the words of Mordin: "No glands, replaced by tech. No digestive system, replaced by tech. ''[[Cybernetics Eat Your Soul|No soul, replaced by tech]]''."
* In the first ''[[Baten Kaitos]]'', one fortune teller notes she can't sense {{spoiler|Kalas}}'s inner magnus. Latter conversations reveal that {{spoiler|it's just a very different soul (The fortune teller is noted as looking for red blood and not noticing blue blood) caused by his [[Artificial Human]] status}}.
* In ''[[Mortal Kombat 3]]'', this is the stated reason Sector and Cyrax were unaffected by Shao Kahn's invasion and theft of all mortal souls in the Earthrealm. Becoming [[Cybernetics Eat Your Soul|cyborgs made them soulless machines]] with nothing for Shao Kahn to take. Oddly, this is not true for Smoke, but he still remains unaffected by Shao Kahn's spell.
== [[Web Comics]] ==
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== [[Web Original]] ==
* [[Cracked.com|Robert Brockway]]'s ''[http://www.cracked.com/blog/extra21-mario-lopez-has-no-soul21/ EXTRA! Mario Lopez has no soul!]'' portrayed Mario Lopez as this, while a drugged and drunk Cracked reporter followed him around after asking him to drop the act and just "[[Be Careful What You Wish For|be himself]]". It started with absolutely all expression leaving his face, and culminated with him breaking into an old children's hospital so he could eat feathers from the beds on which children had died.
* A rare ''heroic'' example: Gireon Arkiof from ''[[Chaos Fighters]]: Chemical Warriors-RAKSA''. He doesn't even want his soul back. This is lampshaded when Mifrent lamented why people with souls mostly fight against themselves and with a chapter titled ''Soulless Hero VS Soulful villain''.
== [[Western Animation]] ==
*
**
* Solomon Grundy from ''[[Justice League]]'' started off as a villainous, gray [[Hulk]] [[Expy]]. Then in the episode "The Terror Beyond", Grundy learned his own backstory—that he was a [[Our Zombies Are Different|zombie]] and had no soul. Once he realized this, regaining his soul suddenly became Grundy's first priority.
* In Transformers: [[Beast Machines]], {{spoiler|Rhinox, the [[Genius Bruiser]] and [[Reluctant Warrior]] in [[Beast Wars]], undergoes a [[Face Heel Turn]] and becomes an example of this trope in [[Beast Machines]]. When Rattrap inadvertently discovers that Rhinox's [[Our Souls Are Different|spark]] has been removed and reprogrammed into evil general Tankor, he makes a plan to simply reprogram the Tankor out of him, reverting him to the happy good guy that was a shining example of all the Maximals represented. Optimus Primal decides that because Rhinox says he actually [[Evil Tastes Good|prefers being the evil thing]] he has become, it would would make the Maximals just like [[Big Bad|Megatron]] to [[Utopia Justifies the Means|to force him to change back.]] }}
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[[Category:Otherworld Tropes]]
[[Category:Tropes of the Soul]]
[[Category:{{PAGENAME}}]]
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