We Can Rebuild Him: Difference between revisions

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[[File:we-can-rebuild-him-dx hr-001 9862.png|link=Deus Ex: Human Revolution|frame| ''Better, stronger, more badass.'']]
 
{{quote|''"Steve Austin, astronaut. A man barely alive. 'Gentlemen, [[Trope Namer|we can rebuild him]]. We have the technology. We have the capability to build the world's first bionic man. Steve Austin will be that man. Better than he was before. Better, stronger, faster.'"''|'''[[The Six Million Dollar Man]]''', [[Opening Narration]].}}
 
|'''[[The Six Million Dollar Man]]''', [[Opening Narration]].}}
{{quote|''"Steve Austin, astronaut. A man barely alive. 'Gentlemen, [[Trope Namer|we can rebuild him]]. We have the technology. We have the capability to build the world's first bionic man. Steve Austin will be that man. Better than he was before. Better, stronger, faster.'"''|'''[[The Six Million Dollar Man]]''', [[Opening Narration]].}}
 
A villain is defeated and suffers a horrific [[Disney Death]]. Their body is shattered beyond repair. [[No One Could Survive That]]!
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{{examples}}
 
== Anime and Manga ==
* ''[[Dragon Ball]]'':
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* [[Franken Fran]] rebuilds lots of people, not always for the better, some of whom didn't actually ''need'' rebuilding before Fran got her hands on them.
* ''[[Ichiban Ushiro no Dai Maou]]'' has Eiko killing {{spoiler|her father to become the new Teruya head}}. She's in for a bit of a surprise when he returns as a cyborg.
 
== Card Games ==
* While not actually involving cybernetics, the necromantic Golgari guild of [[Magic: The Gathering|Magic]]'s Ravnica setting is apparently quite casual about reanimating and 'improving' their dead with plant life, as illustrated on cards like [http://ww2.wizards.com/gatherer/CardDetails.aspx?&id=88986 Vigor Mortis].
* In ''[[Yu-Gi-Oh!]]'', Gagagigo was rebuilt as the cybernetic Giga Gagagigo in order to fight the Invader of Darkness; however, [[Cybernetics Eat Your Soul|the transformation corrupted him,]] eventually leading him to become a mindless half-mechanical monstrosity. Another example would be Inpachi, a tree golem which was burned into charcoal and resurrected as the cybernetic Woodborg Inpachi.
 
 
== Comic Books ==
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* Several characters in [[Marvel Star Wars]]. In the very first non-film comic a town proves unwilling to let a man be buried in the graveyard set aside for offworlders because he was a cyborg, so you know there's a lot of [[Fantastic Racism]]. A stormtrooper named [http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Beilert_Valance Valance] who was badly injured and had to be made into a cyborg became a bounty hunter who mostly expressed [[You Are What You Hate|hatred towards droids]].
** Then there's Shira Brie/Lumiya. Originally Luke's [[Wing Man|wingmate]] and love interest, he shot her down without knowing who she was while on a mission and later found that she was actually an assassin/agent [[Go Seduce My Arch-Nemesis|sent by his father]]. At the end of that arc she was seen floating in a bacta tank, observed by Vader. Later she resurfaced with three prosthetic limbs and extensive scarring as Lumiya, Dark Lady of the Sith.
== Fan Works ==
 
* [[Alternate Universe Fic]]/[[Real Person Fic]], ''[http://fav.me/dd7ow55 Case of the Missing Technology]'', {{spoiler| [[Girls Aloud]] members, Nichoa and Kim,}} were found in left as [[Brain In a Jar| heads in jars]] after their run-in with [[Mad Scientist|Monty]]. {{spoiler|[[Spice Girls|Melanie C]]}} meets the same fate, forcing those who found her in [[An Arm and a Leg| pieces]] to resort to this option.
 
== Film ==
* ''[[Bolt]]'', in the TV show within the movie.
* This is how Chucky of the [[ChildsChild's Play (TV series)|Child's Play]] movies always comes back, and indeed it's why he didn't die as a human, at the beginning of his first movie.
* In ''[[Dogma]]'', Rick Wakeman's Metatron utters the words "''She'' can rebuild you, ''she'' has the technology", with 'she' being Alanis Morisette's [[King of All Cosmos|God]]. The emphasis is on 'she' rather than 'we' (from the original source), highlighting the femininity of the Deity.
**Previously {{spoiler|infertile Bethany is made not only fertile, but also impregnated by the [[God|omnipotent being]], who does so silently with the laying on of hands. This trope is subverted (because it is a supernatural occurrence not scientific), downplayed (subverted at any rate), exaggerated (improvement), justified (the character is the last scion of Jesus) and parodied}} at the same time.
* {{spoiler|Wang the Perverted}} came back as {{spoiler|Evil Presence}} in ''[[Parallel Porn Titles|Flesh Gordon Meets the Cosmic Cheerleaders]]''. Since the same actor portrayed both characters, with no attempt to hide his voice, it's obvious to everyone who watches.
* The original [[Godzilla]] went from [http://i281.photobucket.com/albums/kk210/xolta_99/1810602_780cf736b9_m.jpg this] to [http://i145.photobucket.com/albums/r212/MasterGodzilla/kiryu03.jpg this] when he was rebuilt as Kiryu (The latest version of Mechagodzilla)
** [http://i292.photobucket.com/albums/mm24/ecsegar/kingghidorah8.jpg Say "Hi" to Mecha-King Ghidorah]
* ''[[Inspector Gadget]],'' at least according to [[The Movie]].
* When Jason is killed in ''Jason X'', there's not enough left of him for the futuristic medical beds to reconstruct as he was, so he is instead reconstructed as a cyborg ([[Oh Crap|much to the heroes' chagrin]]).
* [[Nemesis (film)|Nemesis]]: The protagonist, Alex.
{{quote|'''Narrator''': It took them six months to put him back together. Synthetic flesh, bioengineered organs. It always scared him that they might take out his soul... and replace it with some matrix chip.}}
* The title character in ''[[RoboCop]]''. Ditto for the villain Cain in ''RoboCop 2'' who lost [[Brain In a Jar|his whole body]]. Especially monstrous as OCP killed Cain explicitly so they could rebuild him. Another interesting side note is that several other attempted RoboCops committed suicide; the implication is that people need a level of motivation found mostly in psychotics to be able to tolerate a cyborg's existence. It's also implied that [[Body Horror]] played a significant part in those suicides. Those failed batches were ''much less'' human in appearance than the RoboCop model Murphy was converted into.
* ''[[Inspector Gadget]],'' at least according to [[The Movie]].
* In the [[So Bad It's Good]] sci-fi comedy ''Space Truckers'', the [[Corrupt Corporate Executive]] betrays the [[Mad Scientist]] by turning his [[Killer Robot]] creations against him. Fortunately for him, he's able to rebuild himself, turning himself into a grotesque mish-mash of man and machine, and takes up a new life as a pirate.
* {{spoiler|Wang the Perverted}} came back as {{spoiler|Evil Presence}} in ''[[Parallel Porn Titles|Flesh Gordon Meets the Cosmic Cheerleaders]]''. Since the same actor portrayed both characters, with no attempt to hide his voice, it's obvious to everyone who watches.
* The most well known example in the whole wide galaxy would be...[[Star Wars|Darth Vader]]!
** Before we knew about him, we saw Luke lose his hand and get a new prosthetic. Like his father before him, he tended to wear a glove on that hand, even though with synthflesh Luke's hand looked entirely organic. He sometimes wears it, sometimes doesn't in the [[Star Wars Expanded Universe]] - it's a sign of what's [[In the Blood]].
** And for another Star Wars example, General Grievous, who is arguably [[Beyond the Impossible|even more heavily reconstructed than Vader]], with only the brain, the heart, the lungs and the eyes remaining organic.
*** If you're going just by the original trilogy, Luke only puts on a glove partway through ''[[Return of the Jedi]]'' when his prosthetic hand is damaged. In the DVD version, you can see the little wires exposed as he examines it before he covers it with the glove.
* The title character in ''[[RoboCop]]''. Ditto for the villain Cain in ''RoboCop 2'' who lost [[Brain In a Jar|his whole body]]. Especially monstrous as OCP killed Cain explicitly so they could rebuild him. Another interesting side note is that several other attempted RoboCops committed suicide; the implication is that people need a level of motivation found mostly in psychotics to be able to tolerate a cyborg's existence. It's also implied that [[Body Horror]] played a significant part in those suicides. Those failed batches were ''much less'' human in appearance than the RoboCop model Murphy was converted into.
* The original [[Godzilla]] went from [http://i281.photobucket.com/albums/kk210/xolta_99/1810602_780cf736b9_m.jpg this] to [http://i145.photobucket.com/albums/r212/MasterGodzilla/kiryu03.jpg this] when he was rebuilt as Kiryu (The latest version of Mechagodzilla)
** [http://i292.photobucket.com/albums/mm24/ecsegar/kingghidorah8.jpg Say "Hi" to Mecha-King Ghidorah]
* ''[[Bolt]]'', in the TV show within the movie.
* This is how Chucky of the [[Childs Play]] movies always comes back, and indeed it's why he didn't die as a human, at the beginning of his first movie.
* In the [[So Bad It's Good]] sci-fi comedy ''Space Truckers'', the [[Corrupt Corporate Executive]] betrays the [[Mad Scientist]] by turning his [[Killer Robot]] creations against him. Fortunately for him, he's able to rebuild himself, turning himself into a grotesque mish-mash of man and machine, and takes up a new life as a pirate.
* When Jason is killed in ''Jason X'', there's not enough left of him for the futuristic medical beds to reconstruct as he was, so he is instead reconstructed as a cyborg ([[Oh Crap|much to the heroes' chagrin]]).
 
 
== Literature ==
* An interesting example is from Terry Pratchett's ''[[Discworld/Feet of Clay (novel)|Feet of Clay]]'', where {{spoiler|the [[Golem]] Dorfl is destroyed in the final battle against the golem Mesugah.}} Afterwards, Captain Carrot actually says, in a [[Shout-Out|direct reference]] to ''[[The Six Million Dollar Man]]'', the line: "We can rebuild him. We have the pottery." And they do.
** Subverted, the character wasn't alive to begin with, or at least had no biological components.
* [[Peter David]]'s ''[[Psi-Man]]'' series had Beutel return with less and less organic parts each time, after getting trashed in the previous appearance's [[No One Could Survive That]] moment. We ''think'' the finale got him for real...
* The hero in one [[Arthur C. Clarke]]'s short story is a man who was, delicately speaking, badly hurt in blimp crash, and was more reconstructed (with cybernetics) than healed. The doctors were nice enough to make him additional 20 centimeters taller, the height to make up for being half-machine.
* Played for laughs by [[Edgar Allan Poe]] in {{spoiler|''The Man Who Was Used Up''}}.
* The Tin Man from the ''[[Oz]]'' books may be the [[Ur Example]].
* The ''[[Star Wars Expanded Universe]]'' is loaded with characters good and characters evil who end up as cyborgs. There's some [[Fantastic Racism]] directed towards those who lose more than a limb. Admiral Krennel literally has a skeletal prosthetic right hand [[Red Right Hand|that glows red]]. ''Darklighter'' reveals that [[Ace Pilot|Hobbie Klivian]] has at least an arm and a leg, and ''[[Luke Skywalker and the Shadows of Mindor]]'' shows readers that he also lost his ''other'' leg. [[X Wing Series|Ton Phanan]] lost limbs, half his face, and eventually more and more, and found that [[Cybernetics Eat Your Soul|cybernetics ate his future]].
** ''[[Death Star]]'' has a surgeon looking at Darth Vader from a safe distance and thinking that it's pretty obvious that the Dark Lord is largely cybernetic. But it seems that ''this'' book is a little divorced from the rest of the EU, since the surgeon seems to think that cybernetics are rare and most people opt to have the missing tissue cloned and grafted on.
** Supplementary material for ''[[Star Wars: Dark Forces|Dark Forces]]'' reveals that the prototypes for darktroopers - robotic stormtroopers - were aging veteran clone troopers, too old to fight well but very experienced, who had seventy percent or more of their bodies replaced. [[Cloning Blues|No one asked them about this beforehand]], so while they were effective in the battlefield, a lot of them committed suicide.
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* People in [[Honorverse]] generally prefer a regen therapy, but there's a sizable minority for whom it doesn't work, including the main character. These unfortunates have to do with prosthetics, up to and including becoming a [[Hollywood Cyborg]], depending on the extent of damage. Honor, for example, has an artificial eye and an artificial arm ([[Arm Cannon|with a built-in gun]], no less), and Emily Alexander is basically [[Man in the Machine|built into]] her life support chair.
 
== Live -Action TV ==
 
== Live Action TV ==
* The [[Trope Namer]] is ''[[The Six Million Dollar Man]]'', where Steve Austin is rebuilt and given cybernetic implants to become the eponymous hero after a crash.
* ''[[The Bionic Woman]]'', being a spin-off of The Six Million Dollar Man, follows on with the same concept. As does the 2007 remake, ''[[Bionic Woman]]''.
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== Tabletop Games ==
* [[A Mech by Any Other Name|Dreadnoughts]] in ''[[Warhammer 4000040,000]]'' is much the same - veteran [[Space Marine]]s who have been mortally injured in battle, now kept in their heavily-armored chassis. Fortunately, since the darkness of the far future has only war, there's never a shortage of... materials. Also, since they are fanatic [[Warrior Monk|warrior monks]], they have (slightly) less mental problems than most other people.
** Dreadnaughts are less 'we can rebuild him', more 'we don't wanna lose him, so we'll keep what's left of him alive and have him pilot a mech'. Augmetics, on the other hand, play this one totally straight. Pretty much all the species of 40K have various versions of this trope - there are even entire [[Space Marine]] chapters who do this prophylactically. Except the Tyranids.
*** For the Necrons, it isn't a case of We Can Rebuild Them, but rather [[Implacable Man|They Have Already Been Rebuilt]]. Because they already have walked this road to the bitter end - being turned into soulless machines. When their robotic bodies take too much damage they are instantly teleported back home for repairs.
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** A more traditional example might be the Half-Golem template, which has people repaired with magically powered mechanical parts. Eventually they go nuts because [[Cybernetics Eat Your Soul]].
 
=== Card Games ===
* While not actually involving cybernetics, the necromantic Golgari guild of [[Magic: The Gathering|Magic]]'s Ravnica setting is apparently quite casual about reanimating and 'improving' their dead with plant life, as illustrated on cards like [httphttps://ww2web.wizardsarchive.comorg/gathererweb/CardDetails20200409101059/https://status.aspx?&id=88986wizards.com/ Vigor Mortis].
* In ''[[Yu-Gi-Oh!]]'', Gagagigo was rebuilt as the cybernetic Giga Gagagigo in order to fight the Invader of Darkness; however, [[Cybernetics Eat Your Soul|the transformation corrupted him,]] eventually leading him to become a mindless half-mechanical monstrosity. Another example would be Inpachi, a tree golem which was burned into charcoal and resurrected as the cybernetic Woodborg Inpachi.
 
== Toys ==
* This also turned out to be a popular method of justifying new versions of [[Transformers]] characters to sell more toys. Since they're already robots to begin with, it usually works out fine.
* {{spoiler|Gaardus}} from ''[[Bionicle]]'' was rebuilt by a bunch of rogue engineers [[For Science!]]!. Although he was already a cyborg, and didn't directly suffer from [[Cybernetics Eat Your Soul]], he was upset enough to [[I Hate You, Vampire Dad|murder those responsible for his transformation]] and become an outcast.
 
 
== Video Games ==
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* This might be the case for Yoshimitsu from ''[[Soul Calibur]]''.
* Yokuba and {{spoiler|Claus}} in ''[[Mother 3]]''.
* Raiden returns as a cyborg in ''[[Metal Gear Solid]] 4''. And he's ''[[Took a Level Inin Badass|awesome.]]'' It's also one of The Patriots' atrocities: he didn't need rebuilding.
** Before Raiden, there was... Cyborg Ninja, a.k.a. {{spoiler|Gray Fox.}}
*** And before even the Cyborg Ninja, there was {{spoiler|Schneider}} in ''[[Metal Gear]] 2: Solid Snake''.
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* Hugo Medio from ''[[Super Robot Wars MX]]'' has this in his backstory, whereas an attack by a powerful enemy (the Jetzt in [[Super Robot Wars Original Generation|OG Gaiden]], or the [[G Gundam|Devil Gundam]] in MX, the latter uses the zombified version of his old friend Foglia) left him in very grave wounds the only way to save him was to add up cybernetic parts on his body.
* ''[[World of Warcraft]]'' has a magic example for Kael'Thas. After his first defeat, he was brought back to life by a demon, apparently by shoving a crystal through his chest.
* According to the backstory, this is the source of all the Protoss Dragoons in ''[[StarcraftStarCraft]]''. Most notable is [[Meaningful Name|Fenix]], who you get to control both before and after gets almost killed.
** Then there are the Immortals of ''[[Star Craft 2]]'', Dragoons on steroids. Due to desperation and the loss of the old Dragoon shrines on Aiur, the Protoss had to refit the ones they had with hardened energy shields to squeeze every iota of use out of them. They represent a dying breed who will give ''everything'' to buy even a ''second'' more for their people. The ''definition'' of [[Badass]] [[Determinator]]s.
* Averted but later subverted in the ''[[Mega Man X]] series''. When [[Ensemble Darkhorse|Zero]] dies at the end of the first game, the Maverick Hunters try their best in rebuilding him, but Zero's designs are too complicated to duplicate. In the second game, however, he was indeed rebuilt, but by the ''villains''. {{spoiler|This situation, however, only happens in the non-canon ending; the true ending has X obtain Zero's parts (which are implied to be created by the villains nonetheless), and the Hunters use them to truly revive Zero}}.
** This sort of subversion happens again later, in ''[[Mega Man X]] 6'', where Zero reappears once again [[Back Fromfrom the Dead]], but there's absolutely no idea as to who actually rebuilt him this time.
** And rebuilt one last time into an even more powerful body by [[Mega Man Zero|Ciel.]]
* [[Big Bad|Mr. X]] in ''[[Streets of Rage]] 3''.
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* All the [[Bonus Boss]]es in [[Terraria]] are improved robotic versions of the older bosses. Which leads one to believe that ''[[Fridge Horror|something]]'' [[Fridge Horror|had to rebuild them for a reason]]
 
== [[Web Comics]] ==
 
* ''[[The Order of the Stick|]]'': Xykon's]] transformation from forcibly de-powered old man to Lich Sorcerer was shown in this fashion, 'Xykon. sorcerer. A man barely alive. Gentlemen, we can rebuild him. We have the magic. We have the magic to make the world's next undead sorcerer lich. Xykon will be that lich. Deader than he was before. Deader, faster, stronger.' and so on, in the print only ''[[Start of Darkness]]'' prequel.
== Webcomics ==
* [[Order of the Stick|Xykon's]] transformation from forcibly de-powered old man to Lich Sorcerer was shown in this fashion, 'Xykon. sorcerer. A man barely alive. Gentlemen, we can rebuild him. We have the magic. We have the magic to make the world's next undead sorcerer lich. Xykon will be that lich. Deader than he was before. Deader, faster, stronger.' and so on, in the print only [[Start of Darkness]] prequel.
* Done to a raccoon in ''[[The Intrepid Girlbot]].''
* {{spoiler|Frans Rayner}} from ''[[The Adventures of Dr. McNinja]]''.
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** Later, [[Author Avatar|Andrew Hussie]] does this for {{spoiler|Spades Slick}} after saving him from his {{spoiler|dying universe}}.
* In one one-page comic from ''[[Freefall]]'', Helix is kidnapped, and his kidnappers mail Sam and Florence Helix's body parts, [[What an Idiot!|forgetting that Helix, being a robot, can be reassembled.]] Even ''Sam'' says that these guys aren't criminal masterminds.
* ''[[Dresden Codak]]'': During "Hob", happens offscreenoff-screen to [[Dresden Codak|Kimiko]], {{spoiler|then she gets ripped apart, and rebuilt ''again''}}. She's had her [[Artificial Limbs]] ever since, despite the comic's ambiguous continuity.
* In ''[[Girl Genius]]'' one formerly walking AI backup reminds Agatha that since it's a machine, it cannot "die" - move the mind to its original chassis, then repair the mechanical body at leisure, transfer ''its'' original mind from where it is stored, and everything will be in order.
 
 
== [[Web Original]] ==
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* [[Red vs. Blue]] Plays With this trope a bit. In this case, the person turned into a [[Cyborg]] (Simmons) isn't actually the one who needed rebuilding; instead, he's rebuilt as a cyborg so his body parts can be used to save Grif after an unfortunate incident with a Warthog and the wall of a base. Why Grif wasn't the one to be made a cyborg is a testament to Sarge's determination to never let common sense get in the way of scientific progress.
** Though technically, he was already planning to make Simmons a cyborg (so he could fix the warthog), it just happened that it left a bunch of spare organs lying around.
 
 
== Western Animation ==
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** Arguable, as he ''intentionally'' upgraded himself with cyber-parts. Cyborg, however, in both comics and cartoons, fits this trope to a "T" ([[Incredibly Lame Pun|ouch, sorry]])
* Baxter Stockman in ''[[Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 2003|Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles]]'' (2003) lost more and more body parts as the show went on, becoming a more monstrous cyborg with each appearance, until he eventually ends up as a [[Brain In a Jar]].
* Hexadecimal from ''[[Re BootReBoot]]'' had this treatment after being blown up when a game cube ([[Nintendo|No, not THAT one]]) cut the giant laser she was using in half, but instead of a cyborg she was turned into a [[Fetish Fuel|BDSM slave]]. [[Squick|By]] [[Incest Is Relative|her]] [[Brother-Sister Incest|brother]].
** Well, technically, it was Herr Doctor that made her like that.
*** Or possibly the brick-footed binome.
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* In the second season finale of ''[[Archer]]'', the KGB turns {{spoiler|Barry}} into a bionic man to hunt down Archer and Katya. His introduction is a straight-up homage to the oft-quoted ''[[The Six Million Dollar Man]]'' opening.
* In the ''[[Aqua Teen Hunger Force]]'' episode "Total Re-Carl", Meatwad declares they can rebuild him after Frylock's Super-Toilet prototype destroyed Carl's body (leaving him a severed head). After several mishaps, Frylock just shoves Carl's head onto a remote-control toy truck and calls it a day.
 
 
== [[Real Life]] ==
( [http://scienceblog.com/40448/new-spinal-implant-will-help-people-with-paraplegia-to-exercise-paralyzed-limbs/ We're getting there]. [[A Storm Is Coming|It's inevitable]].
* Some intraocular lens implants used in cataract surgery are reported to give better vision than natural vision at its youth peak.
* There is a debate over whether prosthetic legs such as those used by sprinter [[wikipedia:Oscar Pistorius|Oscar Pistorius]] give users an unfair competitive advantage over "able-bodied" (rather makes a mockery of that term...) athletes.
 
{{reflist}}
[[Category:{{PAGENAME}}]]
[[Category:Unisex Tropes]]
[[Category:Robot Roll Call]]
[[Category:Transformation Causes]]
[[Category:IndexitisMedical Tropes]]
[[Category:Superhero Tropes]]
[[Category:Speculative Fiction Tropes]]
[[Category:The Turing Option]]
[[Category:Disability Superpower]]
[[Category:Transhuman Tropes]]
[[Category:WeRebirth Canand RebuildReincarnation HimTropes]]