History Main / FlyingFace

** Beholderking resemble floating heads with a single eye and fang-lined maws, and topped by a varying number of eyestalks. There is considerable speculation in-universe as to how they make this body shape work, and they have some interesting organ placement to compensate -- their stomachs are in their lower jaws, for instance.

** ''TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons'' adventure [=OA6=] ''Ronin Challenge''. The last manifestation of General Goyat is a 50 foot tall floating head. Once the {{PC}}s do enough damage to it the flesh flakes away, leaving a giant flying skull.
** The ''TabletopGame/ForgottenRealms'' setting has Skullport, an underground city ruled by flying, spellcasting skulls that order the inhabitants to perform bizarre actions (and punish them if they don't).

* Music/{{Overkill}}'s winged skull mascot Chaly

%%* ''VideoGame/{{Skylanders}}'': Dreamcatcher in ''Skylanders: Trap Team''.

* [[SkullForAHead Skull]] or [[CoresAndTurretsBoss Core]] with a [[MadeOfAir less real body]]: Such as a [[OurGhostsAreDifferent ghost]] or [[BlobMonster slime]] with an ectoplasmic body and a bony skull or a robot with a mechanical core and a bunch of wires.

Comes in a few artistically styles

* ''VideoGame/StarFox'': Andross, the BigBad of most games, usually appears as a flying head paired with disembodied hands.

* DFeng Shao-ping, the BigBad of the game, ''VideoGame/HongKong97'', is a giant disembodied head dripping with blood.

[[caption-width-right:350:"When I said the target should be just ahead, I didn't mean literally!''"]]

[[caption-width-right:350:"When I said the target should be just ahead, I didn't mean ''a head!''"]]

[[caption-width-right:350:"When I said the target should be just ahead, not ''a head''!"]]

[[caption-width-right:350:"When I said the target should be just ahead, I didn't mean literally!"]]

%% Image selected via crowner in the Image Suggestion thread: https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/crowner.php/ImagePickin/ImageSuggestions82
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* Yuurei Shoujo of ''Anime/GateKeepers21'' with her "pretty" skull-in-a-ball.

* In ''Manga/HellTeacherNube'', one of the {{Obake}} the eponymous Nube runs into is a human head with bat wings.
* The Gamin-sama from ''Manga/UshioAndTora'' are a family of five Youkai (Grandfather, father, mother, son and daughter) taking the form of huge floating heads. According to Tora, they come from China and their clan is Hitoban.

* The ''ComicBook/{{Madballs}}'' comic book published by defunct Creator/MarvelComics subsidiary Star Comics depicted the titular Madballs as heads that were able to get around by flying.

* The Bowler, In ''Film/MysteryMen'', has her father's skull embedded in her weapon, a bowling ball. She talks to it, and it, apparently, to her. It saves the day.
* The eponymous ''Film/{{Zardoz}}'', [[spoiler:which is actually a vehicle]].

* Fritz the robot from ''Literature/{{Dinotopia}}''.

* Zelda from the old TV HorrorHost Series/{{Svengoolie}}, and Tombstone from his successor Son of Svengoolie (which is now just called Svengoolie).

* Music/AvengedSevenfold's mascot, the Deathbat, is a skull [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin with bat wings]].

** Demiliches.
** Vargouilles, whose "kiss" [[ViralTransformation can turn you into one of them]].
** ''Basic D&D'': the sacrol and druj monsters.

* ''TabletopGame/{{Warhammer 40000}}'' has skull probes.
* One of the monsters in the ''TabletopGame/{{Munchkin}}'' card game has a ''Mortal Kom Bat'': a flaming skull with bat wings.

* ''VideoGame/ZeldaIITheAdventureOfLink'' had it's infamous Skull Balls that took seemingly hundreds of hits to kill. Yet were worth such good exp that people would spend hours grinding on them.
** ''VideoGame/DistortedTravesty 3'' [[https://youtu.be/SGhrWIek-30?t=27s brought these back]] as an homage to Link.
* Morte and the mimirs from ''VideoGame/PlanescapeTorment''.
* ''Franchise/TheLegendOfZelda'':
** Several games from the series have flying skulls as enemies called ... [[FluffyTheTerrible Bubbles]].
** In ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaOracleGames'', the second part of ''Seasons''' next-to-last's dungeon boss is against his giant flying skull, which spits fireballs at you.
* There's a floating ghostly skull available as a non-combat pet in ''VideoGame/WorldOfWarcraft''. Floating ghostly skulls also appear during the fight against Yogg-Saron. Looking at them makes you lose sanity.

* Skelly, one of the [[LoadsAndLoadsOfCharacters many]] optional party members in ''VideoGame/ChronoCross'', starts out as this. You have to find and assemble the rest of him to recruit him.

* Ghosts in ''VideoGame/SepterraCore'' are huge, ghostly floating skulls. Their damage reduction and magic attacks make them DemonicSpiders
* The Sargassoes of ''VideoGame/DevilMayCry'', appearing in the first two games as recurring enemies.
* In the ''Franchise/{{Castlevania}}'' series, recurring villainess [[TheVamp Carmilla]]'s OneWingedAngel form is that of a gigantic, [[BarbieDollAnatomy naked]] woman riding an equally oversized skull that cries [[TearsOfBlood bloody tears]] (as a VisualPun for her theme, "Bloody Tears"). Other examples periodically show up in this series, such as [[TheGrimReaper Death]]'s [[OneWingedAngel OWA]] in [[VideoGame/CastlevaniaIIIDraculasCurse the third game]].
** Also the [[GoddamnBats Medusa Heads]].
* The ever-annoying flying heads in ''VideoGame/PrinceOfPersia2: The Shadow and the Flame''.
* Some ''Franchise/{{Pokemon}}'', like Glalie (which is even classified as the "Face Pokémon") and Cryogonal.
** Solosis and it's evolutions are psychic slime-esque mons.
* ''VideoGame/FaceRaiders'' involves being attacked by a number of flying heads with the faces of anyone you've photographed.

* The Yukkuri head appears as the main adversary of Yukkuri Take in ''[[VideoGame/{{Something}} Something Else]]''. It is a sprite-swap of the Angry Sun, so it can fly and mercilessly pursue Luigi.
* ''VideoGame/HolyDiver'' has the zigzagging flying head Lyer. Besides being [[GoddamnedBats annoying]], it's one of the most common enemies in the game.
* Dreamcatcher in ''[[VideoGame/{{Skylanders}} Skylanders: Trap Team]]''.
* Andross, the BigBad of most ''VideoGame/StarFox'' games, is a flying head paired with disembodied hands.
* Chaos from ''Videogame/SonicAdventure'' is a character of the third type with a liquid like main body and core organs.
* ''VideoGame/CommandAndConquerRedAlert3'': The Giga-Fortress is built as a floating pile of laser cannons and missiles, but transforms into a giant floating head with a ridiculously overpowered laser that outranges AntiAir defenses, kills most ground units in one or two shots, does SplashDamage, ''and'' self-heals, so that the only reliable way of killing it involves lots of fighters as it can't attack air. Unless it's over water, in which case it just needs to land to take out the fighters and take off again.

* Strong Bad considers becoming one of these in the ''WebAnimation/StrongBadEmail'' "disconnected", on top of having an autonomous headless body.

[[folder:Web Comics]]
* ''Webcomic/SchlockMercenary'': Ennesby the robot.
** averted by the various AI characters, who (mostly) appear as flying heads but are actually holographic projections.
* averted by Motor Minx in ''Webcomic/CassiopeiaQuinn'' - her (robotic) body is stolen, and the remaining detached head can’t move by itself, but is carried about by Penny.

[[folder:Web Original]]
* Holly in ''WebVideo/CaptainDisillusion''.
[[/folder]]

* ''Tom and Jerry: Shiver Me Whiskers'' the pirate skull(and crossbones) with OffScreenTeleportation.

* One episode of ''WesternAnimation/BuzzLightyearOfStarCommand'' had the smuggling of Warhead {{Attack Drone}}s.
* Flying Pizza monster from ''WesternAnimation/TheAdventuresOfJimmyNeutron'' is somewhere between this and FloatingMask.
* The Giant Floating Baby Head from ''WesternAnimation/PhineasAndFerb'', which is more of a recurring phenomenon than a character.
* Megatron spends most of the second season of ''WesternAnimation/BeastMachines'' as an absolutely ''enormous'' airborne head-fortress.

* Flying Princess Pony Head from ''WesternAnimation/StarVsTheForcesOfEvil'' is... [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin a flying unicorn head who happens to be a princess.]]
* Dr. Screwball Jones from ''WesternAnimation/WanderOverYonder'' is basically a clownish face with [[PrehensileHair a prehensile mustache]] attached to a flying banana.

[[caption-width-right:350:"When I said the target was just ahead, I didn't mean literally!"]]

[[caption-width-right:350:When I said the target was just ahead, I didn't mean literally!]]

[[caption-width-right:350:"When I said the target was just ahead, I didn't mean literally!"]]

[[caption-width-right:350:"When I said the target was ahead, I didn't mean literally!"]]

[[caption-width-right:350:"This is Fox speaking. The target is... [[StealthPun just ahead!]]"]]

[[caption-width-right:350:[[StealthPun "The enemy is ahead!"]]]]

[[caption-width-right:350:"The enemy is [[StealthPun ahead]]!"]]

[[caption-width-right:350:"Watch out, boys! I see a head up ahead!"]]