History Main / ArmlessBiped

* ''Film/{{Freaks}}'' combines this with BizarreHumanBiology, as two of the eponymous [[TheFreakshow sideshow]] performers have no arms. As with the rest of the sideshow, this overlaps with DisabledCharacterDisabledActor: [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frances_O%27Connor_(performer) Frances O'Connor]] and Martha Morris, who portray them, didn't have arms either.

* Several creatures in ''Literature/{{Expedition}}'', such as the Arrowtongue and Bladderhorn.

* ''TabletopGame/TheAwfulGreenThingsFromOuterSpace'': The titular things are two-legged globs with single eyes. Despite the lack of a mouth, they exist only to devour the crew of the spaceship they have infested.

** Digesters are portrayed a vaguely birdlike/reptillian bipeds with no arms. The run around spitting acid on things, and then slurp up the dissolved remains.

* ''TabletopGame/SnitsRevenge'': The Snits. They attack by kicking.
* ''TabletopGame/{{Talislanta}}'' has Lopers and Striders, which are used as mounts by the Orgovians and the Kang, respectively.

** ''TabletopGame/{{Warhammer}}'', ''TabletopGame/WarhammerAgeOfSigmar'', ''TabletopGame/Warhammer40000'' and their [[GaidenGames spin-offs]] feature Squigs, best described as half animal, [[PlantAliens half fungus]], half mad [[MoreTeethThanTheOsmondFamily and half teeth]]. They're famed and feared for their unpredictable bounding gait and voracious ferocity, but Squigs form a surprisingly complex part of the greenskin ecosystem, serving as guard dogs, garbage disposals, livestock, and in one extremely specialized sub-species' case, ''hair plugs''. Other races rarely appreciate this, however, as their encounters with the toothy critters come when goblins herd a bouncing horde of the things onto the battlefield, or orks strap them with explosives and send the beasts to chase tanks (or try to use the aforementioned hair-squigs as trade goods).

* ''TabletopGame/{{Warmachine}}'' has light 'jacks from Cryx and Rhul factions. They come in 'necro-gothic' and 'boxy armored' flavours respectably. Some creatures from [[TabletopGame/{{Hordes}} Legion of Everblight]] fit the trope too -- for those who favours the creepy organic look.

* Furby looks like a fuzzy penguin with bat ears and no flippers.

* ''VideoGame/AdventureQuest'':
** There are dozens of variations on the Frogzard, esentially a toothy lizard's head, a frog's back legs, and an inexplicably furry body.
** Also the Gizzard, with a more developed head and body. Said to be a "missing link" between Frogzards and Dragons.

* ''VideoGame/TheElderScrollsIIIMorrowind'' has Alit and Kagouti, native species of predatory reptilians roughly the size of a cow with massive heads on stubby, armless, two-legged bodies. Alit are more crocadilian in their heads while Kagouti have dinosaurid frills and tusks.
* ''VideoGame/TheEternalCylinder'': The Trebhums are this, though they make up for it by having prehensile elephant-like trunks.
* ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyXII'': Slavens and other same-class enemies. They attack by kicking, stomping and biting.
* ''VideoGame/{{Geneforge}}'': Glaahks were genetically engineered as this for no apparent in-game reason, and out-of-game to make them absolutely ''weird''. They attack with barbed tails, which are apparently coated in some kind of poison--a hit stuns you, and in a SoloCharacterRun two of them working together can prevent you from acting at all, [[GoddamnBats whittling you down to nothing with you unable to respond.]]

* ''VideoGame/{{Gothic}}'': Scavengers, Snappers and their subspecies in the first two games of the series. For the third game, the Snappers are redesigned and given arms.

* ''VideoGame/{{Jumper}}'': Ogmo is a lab creature [[{{Cephalothorax}} consisting entirely of a rectangular head on two tiny legs]].

* ''VideoGame/LogicalJourneyOfTheZoombinis'': Any Zoombinis that you create with shoes or rollerblades for feet will be this, as will Fleens generated with high heels or boots.

** The Glukkons, bipedal suit-wearing executives, look like this, but actually walk on their hands, their legs having shriveled in disuse.
** The slogs are a canine variety, with big mouths with sharp teeth on a pair of fast, powerful legs about the height of a dog.
* ''VideoGame/MetalGearSolid4GunsOfThePatriots'': The Gekko are depicted this way. And yes -- [[spoiler:the legs are organic]]. 'Armless they are not.

*** ''VideoGame/MetroidPrime2Echoes'': Grenchlers are armless creatures that look quite similar to the Sheegoths from the first game, except they're more amphibian in appearance and are MUCH more aggressive and more dangerous, with abilities Sheegoths don't have, like firing electricity at long range and ''leaping'' across entire rooms. And then there's the one room in Dark Torvus with the Dark possessed Grenchlers, and the Grapple Guardian, which is a KingMook.

* ''VideoGame/PathwaysIntoDarkness'': The Headless consist of a gaping fanged mouth at about torso level with a giant tongue waving around in the air, they bend over to vomit green brains at you.

* ''VideoGame/{{Purple}}'': Several enemies are {{waddling head}}s with no limbs besides two legs. However, the similarly designed player character has arms that vanish when not using weapons, so it's possibly the case for those enemies as well.

* ''Franchise/SilentHill'' has the Numb Bodies of ''[[VideoGame/SilentHill3 3]]''. The first enemy encountered in ''[[VideoGame/SilentHill2 2]]'', Lying Figures, can appear this way at a glance but actually have unusable arms bound in their own flesh. Inverted with the Twin Victims in ''VideoGame/SilentHill4TheRoom'', creatures with no legs but a pair of arms.
* ''VideoGame/{{Spore}}'': You'll usually have one of these at the beginning of Creature stage. Any more legs and you probably won't be able to afford many other parts.

** The Goombas, and by extension the Galoombas, Goombrats and all other related subspecies, all lack arms.

* ''VideoGame/{{Undertale}}'': The Monster Kid resembles a bipedal lizard with no arms, and wears a sweater that's essentially just a tube of fabric. [[SurprisinglyRealisticOutcome They tend to trip a lot as a result]].
* ''VideoGame/UnrealI'': Na Pali's fauna includes a few two-limbed critters, including a rabbit-like species, tiny raptor-like creatures (appearing in ExpansionPack ''Return to Na Pali'') and lumbering creatures that are used by (four-armed) Nali people as livestock.

* ''VideoGame/{{XCOM}}'': The original trilogy has one alien with this design in each game: the [[EatenAlive carnivorous]] Reapers from ''UFO Defense'', the [[{{Cyborg}} cybernetically enhanced]] Triscenes from ''Terror from the Deep'', and the [[ActionBomb explosive]] Poppers from ''Apocalypse'' .

* ''WebAnimation/HomestarRunner'': The title character, along with Marzipan, the King of Town, Homsar and a gaggle of minor characters. This doesn't stop any of them from holding things or typing on keyboards; whether they appear to have [[InvisibleAnatomy invisible arms]] or telekinesis varies. Marzipan and the King of Town don't even have visible ''legs''; it's unclear whether their legs are hidden by their clothes, or if they outright lack them.
* ''WebAnimation/{{Kiwi}}'': This is actually a plot point. The titular kiwi wants to fly, but doesn't have functional wings; its "wings" are tiny barely-visible nubs. As such, the kiwi tries to ''simulate'' flight instead.

* First popularized by ''[[WebAnimation/BattleForDreamIsland BFDI]]'', many ObjectShows, such as ''WebAnimation/BrawlOfTheObjects'', ''WebAnimation/InanimateInsanity'', and ''WebAnimation/ObjectOverload'' [[FollowTheLeader to name a few]], will feature characters with no arms. Over time, variants emerged like [[InvertedTrope inversions]], where one has arms but no legs, and those who have no limbs at all. As such, these objects use their feet as hands but are still hindered by their condition (Except for the ones [[InvisibleAnatomy exhibiting telekinesis]] depending on the show). There used to be a stereotype associated with armless objects being useless (From other objects' [[FantasticRacism perspective]]) and [[TheDitz lacking in brains]].

* ''ComicBook/BuckGodotZapGunForHire'': Beemahs [[KillerRabbit don't look dangerous]] for an engineered species of spies and assassins who [[TurnedAgainstTheirMasters made their creators completely extinct]]. [[spoiler: The Beemahs' physiology was intended to make them wholly dependent on a master; they literally cannot ''eat'' without assistance.]]

* ''Webcomic/TiffanyAndCorey'': Corey encounters two of them in one cartoon, depicted [[https://tiffanyandcorey.blogspot.com/2018/01/big-and-tall.html as aliens from outer space.]]

* Many of ''Website/{{Mortasheen}}'''s inhabitants fit this trope, the most recognizable being [[http://www.bogleech.com/mortasheen/chainsawkid.htm Chainsaw Kid]].
* ''Creator/{{Nitrome}}'': In ''Square Meal'', you play as a [[AllTrollsAreDifferent troll]] that's one of these. It attacks by swallowing blocks (which comically distend it into a squared-off shape), then spitting the blocks enemies.

* ''Website/{{Serina}}'': The water snuffle is an aquatic platypus-like descendant of the canary that entirely lost its wings to become a more streamlined swimmer. Its descendants, the softbill birds, never redevelop forelimbs but later evolve prehensile facial tentacles from their soft fleshy snouts, giving rise to the club-wielding bludgebird, the squid-headed squork, and the predatory grapplers, as well as boras and terries, groups of tentacle-faced flightless birds [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin that are arboreal and terrestrial]], respectively.

* The moas. Large, extinct ostrich-like birds from New Zealand that completely lacked wings. Other flightless birds had their wings reduced to a few bones, but moas lost even the joints to which the wings were attached.

* [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amelia_(birth_defect) Amelia]], the congenital absence or underdevelopment of one or more limbs, can result in this trope among humans. As alluded to under Film, the [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Armless_wonder armless wonder]] was a popular feature of TheFreakshow. A related condition called [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phocomelia phocomelia]], most infamous as a side effect of [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thalidomide thalidomide]] (specifically manifesting in infants whose mothers took the drug for morning sickness), can also result in this.

%%[[folder:Film -- Animation]]
%%* ''WesternAnimation/MonstersInc'': The original designs for Mike Wazowcski have him as one of these.
%%[[/folder]]

* ''VideoGame/{{Undertale}}'': The Monster Kid resembles a bipedal lizard with no arms, and wears a sweater that's essentially just a tube of fabric. They tend to trip a lot as a result.

*** '''VideoGame/MetroidPrime''': The Sheegoths are dangerous ice-breathing predators who only have weakspots on their backs, and no arms. Then you realise that they are the babies when you scan them — an adult one appears later, who is much bigger and meaner, and then becomes a DegradedBoss.

** The giant monster, [[NamesToRunAwayFromReallyFast the Imprisoned]], is a mouth with legs. No eyes. No nose. And covered in black scales and feathers that wave like fire on its back. It laters gains arms, a tail, and a halo that allows it to fly. [[OneWingedAngel And that isn't even its final form...]]

* ''TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons'': Digesters are portrayed a vaguely birdlike/reptillian bipeds with no arms. The run around spitting acid on things, and then slurp up the dissolved remains.

* The 2007 meme [[https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=dyMXYE_50Ts "Retarded Running Horse"]] [[note]]Note the obvious ValuesDissonance in the title[[/note]], featuring a photoshopped two-legged horse running to the gibberish lyrics of El Chombo's "Chaccaron Maccaron". Naturally, this spawned numerous copycats with other animals, including a two-legged elephant [[https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=MyafZmZjSOY (that runs with its trunk, no less)]], [[https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=yVwtro6uQ2c a two-legged giraffe]], [[https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=dYK8docRdhg a two-legged sheep]], [[https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=upCf1XufrQQ a two-legged polar bear]] and even a [[https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=FfdMxfvpg2A "Retarded Running Ostrich"]], which is supposed to have only two legs anyway, of course.

* Many of ''WebOriginal/{{Mortasheen}}'''s inhabitants fit this trope, the most recognizable being [[http://www.bogleech.com/mortasheen/chainsawkid.htm Chainsaw Kid]].

* ''WebOriginal/{{Serina}}'': The water snuffle is an aquatic platypus-like descendant of the canary that entirely lost its wings to become a more streamlined swimmer. Its descendants, the softbill birds, never redevelop forelimbs but later evolve prehensile facial tentacles from their soft fleshy snouts, giving rise to the club-wielding bludgebird, the squid-headed squork, and the predatory grapplers, as well as boras and terries, groups of tentacle-faced flightless birds [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin that are arboreal and terrestrial]], respectively.

* ''WebOriginal/{{Snaiad}}'' has the Titaniformes and the Monoanticheirans, two clades of Snaiadi vertebrate-analogues that lost their forelimbs entirely. Subverted with the Tromobrachids, who initially appear to be this trope, but their "jaws" actually ''are'' their arms, playing a role in chewing food and funnelling it into their [[BellyMouth chest-located oral cavity]].

* ''ComicBook/BuckGodotZapGunForHire'': [[http://www.airshipentertainment.com/buckcomic.php?date=20081120 Beemahs]] [[KillerRabbit don't look dangerous]] for an engineered species of spies and assassins who [[TurnedAgainstTheirMasters made their creators completely extinct]]. [[spoiler: The Beemahs' physiology was intended to make them wholly dependent on a master; they literally cannot ''eat'' without assistance.]]

[[quoteright:300:[[VideoGame/MetroidPrime https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/babysheegoth.png]]]]
[[caption-width-right:300:Who needs arms (or eyes) when you have teeth like that?]]

* The moas. Large, extinct ostrich like birds from New Zealand that completely lacked wings. Other flightless birds had their wings reduced to a few bones, but moas lost even the joints to which the wings were attached.

A creature with two legs but no arms (and sometimes wings). May be used to make a creature look more alien. Or they make something appear harmless until it's too late. They can also be used to stylistic effect for cartoons with less realistic character designs.

* Creator/DougalDixon:
** ''Literature/AfterManAZoologyOfTheFuture'':
*** The wakka have evolved from South American field rodents into long-legged and very fast runners that resemble mammalian ostriches, only without the vestigial wings.
*** The fin lizard is a bipedal lizard found in deserts, having likewise adapted to a lifestyle of fast running and having lost its arms in the process.

* ''Literature/HaloHuntersInTheDark'': The morolaath, aka "blind wolves", that live on the Ark resemble two-legged lizards with no eyes. They were actually going to be in the [[VideoGame/HaloCombatEvolved first]] ''Franchise/{{Halo}}'' game, but had to be cut out before release.

* ''Literature/TeddyRuxpin'': Tweeg's EvilMinions are the red, armless, bipedal Bounders.

* Several creatures in Wayne Barlowe's ''[[Literature/{{Expedition}} Expedition/AlienPlanet]]'', such as the Arrowtongue and Bladderhorn.
* Many of WebOriginal/{{Mortasheen}}'s inhabitants fit this trope, the most recognizable being [[http://www.bogleech.com/mortasheen/chainsawkid.htm Chainsaw Kid]].

* ''Videogame/{{Journey}}'': The player figure has no arms which was meant by the developers so people wouldn't wonder why they can't climb or pick things up.

** ''TabletopGame/{{Warhammer}}'', ''TabletopGame/WarhammerAgeOfSigmar'', ''TabletopGame/Warhammer40000'' and their [[GaidenGames spin-offs]] feature Squigs, best described as half animal, [[PlantAliens half fungus]], half mad [[MoreTeethThanTheOsmondFamily and half teeth]]. They're famed and feared for their unpredictable bounding gait and voracious ferocity, but Squigs form a surprisingly complex part of the greenskin ecosystem, serving as guard dogs, garbage disposals, livestock, and in one extremely specialized sub-species' case, ''hair plugs''. Other races rarely appreciate this, however, as their encounters with the toothy critters come when goblins herd a bouncing horde of the things onto the battlefield, or orks strap them with explosives and send the beasts to chase tanks.

** ''VideoGame/MetroidPrime3Corruption'' has the Defense Drone, a boss fought in Elysia. It is a large mechanoid that relies on high jumps instead of walking, shooting powerful missiles, unleashing balls of plasma, and performing electrified {{Shockwave Stomp}}s. Its weak point is the core behind its face, but to unveil it Samus has to hit the three antennae at its top and then use the Grapple Lasso to open up the core's carapace.

** ''VideoGame/MetroidPrime'' has the Sheegoths, ''VideoGame/MetroidPrime2Echoes'' has the Grenchlers, and ''VideoGame/MetroidPrime3Corruption'' has the Defense Drone (a boss). The Sheegoths are dangerous ice-breathing predators who only have weakspots on their backs. Then you realise that they are the babies when you scan them -- an adult one appears later, who is much bigger and meaner, and then becomes a DegradedBoss. Grenchlers look quite similar, except they're more like amphibian reptiles and are MUCH more aggressive and more dangerous, with abilities Sheegoths don't, like firing electricity at long range and ''leaping across entire rooms''. And then there's the one room in Dark Torvus with the Dark possessed Grenchlers, and the Grapple Guardian, which is another boss example. Lastly, the Defense Drone is a large mechanoid that relies on high jumps instead of walking.

** [[http://megamitensei.wikia.com/wiki/Take-Minakata Take-Minakata]], a recurring [[{{Mons}} demon]], has no arms. In mythology, his arms were cut off in a duel.

* ''Webcomic/TiffanyAndCorey'': Corey encounters two of them in one cartoon, depicted [[https://tiffanyandcorey.blogspot.com/2018/01/big-and-tall.html as aliens from outer space]].
%%* ''Webcomic/UserFriendly'': Dust Puppy play Quake with his feet, and is very good at it.

* First popularized by ''[[WebAnimation/BattleForDreamIsland BFDI]]'', many ObjectShows, such as ''WebAnimation/BrawlOfTheObjects'', ''WebAnimation/InanimateInsanity'', and ''WebAnimation/ObjectOverload'' [[FollowTheLeader to name a few]], will feature characters with no arms. Over time, variants emerged like [[InvertedTrope inversions]], where one has arms but no legs, and those who have no limbs at all. As such, these objects use their feet like but are still hindered by their condition (Except the ones that [[InvisibleAnatomy exhibit telekinesis]] depending on the show). There used to be a stereotype associated with armless objects being useless (From other objects' [[FantasticRacism perspective]]) and [[TheDitz lacking in brains]].

* This trope is quite commonplace in ObjectShows such as ''WebAnimation/BattleForDreamIsland'', ''WebAnimation/InanimateInsanity'', and ''WebAnimation/ObjectOverload'' ([[FollowTheLeader to name a few]]). Some objects learn to use their feet like hands while some are [[TheDitz not that smart]] which used to be a stereotype associated with them. But even so, all armless objects are hindered by their condition except the ones that [[InvisibleAnatomy use telekinesis]] if the object show allowed it.

%%* ''Film/{{Tremors}}'': Shriekers and Ass-Blasters.