History Main / DetachmentCombat

* The second boss in ''[[Franchise/{{X-Men}} Wolverine: Adamantium Rage]]'' had four bladed arms, which he would detach and fling around at will.

* ''{{Wildguard}}'' featured the Segmented Man, who could detach his body parts at the joint and become a living tornado, debris and all.

[[quoteright:350:http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/split2.jpg]]

* In his fight with Sunny, Tommyrod from ''{{Toriko}}'' loses his hand. Then turns out, he deliberatly let this happen, so his hand (which can live on it's own for few hours, due to insect-like nervous system of Tommyrod) can attack enemy from behind. Surprisingly, Sunny [[spoiler:been doing exact same thing with his hair, that Tommyrod ripped earlier]]

* In his fight with Sunny, Tommyrod from ''{{Toriko}}'' loses his hand. Then turns out, he deliberatly let this happen, so his hand (which can live on it's own for few hours, due to insect-like nervous system of Tommyrod) can attack enemy from behind. Surprisingly, Sunny [[spoiler:benn doing exact same thing with his hair, that Tommyrod ripped earlier]]

* ''WildCards'' has an Ace who can do this. The parts can even regrow is not reattached in time.

* ''MegasXLR'': The RECR could separate its limbs and torso and later recombine.

* There's an alien from ''Film/MenInBlack II'' who starts out looking like a single tall humanoid. But when it begins to fight Agent Jay, it [[TotemPoleTrench turns into five or six smaller aliens]] that fly around and attack Agent Jay by dive-bombing him.

** ''GreatMazinger'' and ''UFORoboGrendizer'' also did, not only by [[RocketPunch shooting their punches]] but also by detaching their {{MidSeason Upgrade}}s and attacking with them.

** Not to be confused with two [[{{Saw}} villainous]] [[ThePunisher examples.]]

* Hisoka of HunterXHunter allowed an opponent of his to ''cut off'' both his arms during combat. He then used the FunctionalMagic of his world, Nen, to control one of the detached arms to ''punch'' his opponent in the face. He had to get both arms surgically reattached later though.
* ''Manga/OnePiece''

* Gundam series

* Several of the giant robots fought by ''MazingerZ'' had this ability: Deimos F3, Velgas V5 (its parts had individual rocket propulsion and could attack separately), and a third one. Mazinger Z itself and one of its successors, ''{{Mazinkaiser}}'', also did it sometimes (detaching [[MidSeasonUpgrade the]] [[RazorWings Scrander Jet/Scrander Kaiser]] off themselves. Moreover, Mazinkaiser used its wings like a cutting, oversized boomerang).

* ''KotetsuJeeg'' -another GoNagai robot- is an expert in this. Given that it uses magnetism to combine its body parts, replace them or shoot them, Jeeg can use any of them to attack (including its head). Also, it employs of variants or RocketPunch!
* [[Manga/JoJosBizarreAdventure Jolyne Kujo]] pulls this off while fighting Enrico Pucci due to her ability to unravel herself.
** In Part 5, Ciocolatta can do this with some improvisation from his stand Green Day. This leads to one of the nastiest, most gruesome useages of this trope.
** Also in Part 5, Buccelatti can do this with his zippers, detaching an arm and reeling it out on a length of zipper.

* GetterRobo has used "Open Get" (decombining) to escape from enemy attacks as well as to split up and deliver a barrage of guns or wipe out a horde of minor enemies. Also, they have been known to Open Get, then combine into Getter-3 in midair and ''fall'' on the enemy as an attack.
* Big Volfogg of {{Gaogaigar}} fame could split back into his smaller form along with his support units Gundober and Gunglue for a rush attack, then re-combine.
* Gatchaman. Called BattleOfThePlanets in the West. The five heroes can either go into battle in their individual craft, or combine into their super vehicle.

* ''{{Raideen}}'': '''[[AC:God Bird, Change! Head Cutter!]]'''
* In ''{{Macross}}'', the Zentraedi command ship can detach the forward weapons section to use as a separate flagship leading the assault, while the rear section acts as a rear command post.
* In ''GenesisClimberMospeada'', The Alpha - Beta heavy fighter splits into the light Legioss (Alpha) fighter and the Tread (Beta) fighter - bomber.

* Cluster bots in Series/RobotWars, going into the arena as one unit, splitting up when the battle starts. The first and most notable was Gemini, and in the middleweight division, there was Typhoon Twins - which consisted of the lightweight bots Typhoon Lightning and Typhoon Thunder connected with essentially a piece of string and a sheet of paper at the start of the match. Originally a cluster bot was judged to have lost if one of the units was rendered immobile, but this was later changed...and then changed back.

* The FightingFantasy world has the [[http://fightingfantasy.wikia.com/wiki/Living_Corpse Living Corpse]], a shabby zombie-like being that, when hit for the first time, splits into six parts, all floating around and attacking independently leading to a long frustrating fight as each time you won an attack round you randomly rolled to see which part you hit and if you hit a part you'd already disabled the hit was wasted.

* The classic (fourth edition!) ''MagicTheGathering'' card [[http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=2073 Tetravus]] functions much like this. It has slightly more modern descendants such as [[http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=244251 Pentavus]] and [[http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=247519 Triskelavus]].
* Lebendtod, a variant undead from {{Ravenloft}}, have this trope as their signature ability, although it's more useful to compel Horror Checks than to fight.
* The Anatomic Separation power in ''MutantsAndMasterminds''.
* In DungeonsAndDragons 4th edition, shard minds can break into shards and use it as movement and disorientation. It's not very effective though.

* An Infernal artifact armor in {{Exalted}} allows the wearer to split their body into pieces that may float around and fight independently.

* TheThing in the [[Film/TheThing2011 prequel movie]] does this; its arms drop off and scuttle about assimilating people. This only happens once, and may be a response to its body being fatally injured.

* In ''WesternAnimation/{{Futurama}}'', Bender]] once beat the slime out of sewer monster after it tore his arms off - the arms just crawled up monster's back and punched it in the face.

* MFEnterprises' Captain Marvel could separate any of his limbs from his body by yelling "Split!", as shown in the page pic. (No relation to [[{{Shazam}} Fawcett's]] or [[ComicBook/CaptainMarVell Marvel Comics']] characters with the same name.)

Contrast with CombiningMecha. See also LosingYourHead and DroneDeployer. Does not mean that the combatant appears not to care about the fight - that's TranquilFury.

** Buggy's ability is that all parts of his body can fly around at will, but only if his feet are grounded, and he is also immune to being cut.

* The FightingFantasy world has the [[http://fightingfantasy.wikia.com/wiki/Living_Corpse Living Corpse]], a shabby zombie-like being that, when hit for the first time, splits into six parts, all floating around and attacking independently.

* In one of the ''Sorcery!'' ''FightingFantasy'' gamebooks, you can end up fighting a living corpse. Your first hit splits the corpse into six pieces that attack you independently leading to a long frustrating fight as each time you won an attack round you randomly rolled to see which part you hit and if you hit a part you'd already disabled the hit was wasted.

* An Infernal artifact armor in {{Exalted}} allows the wearer to split their body into pieces that may float around and fight independently.

** The game allows you to detatch your (and your opponents') limbs through powerful enough strikes or pulls (using grabbing arms). Although you will get the equivalent of a stun if you lose a limb/body part, on your next turn you will still be able to control that body part, along with your fighter. As with nearly any situation that spawns out of the game, this can create some...[[HilarityEnsues interesting]] situations. For example, if someone tears off your arm, you better damn well grab his arm (or other body part) with the severed limb so he can't throw it down to the ground to disqualify you.

** In ''Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration'' the saucer of the ''Galaxy''-class can separate and fight independently of the stardrive. However this is only actually seen in "The Best of Both Worlds, Part II".

* TheThing in the [[Film/TheThing2011 prequel movie]] does this; it's arms drop off and scuttle about assimilating people. This only happens once, and may be a response to its body being fatally injured.

* MFEnterprises' Captain Marvel could separate any of his limbs from his body by yelling "Split!", as shown in the page pic. (No relation to [[{{Shazam}} Fawcett's]] or [[{{Captain Mar-vell}} Marvel Comics']] characters with the same name.)