History Main / GoodProstheticEvilProsthetic

Another related pattern is how the character got the augments in the first place. Almost always the Good Prosthetic was installed either because of the medical necessity (replacing a missing arm) or without the consent of the recipient, while all cases of voluntary cybernetic enhancements result in Evil Prosthetic and are treated as the [[CyberneticsEatYourSoul morally wrong thing to do]].

Another related pattern is how the character got the augments in the first place. Almost always the Good Prosthetic was installed either because of the medical necessity (replacing a missing arm) or without the consent of the recipient, while all cases of voluntary cybernetic enhancements result in Evil Prosthetic and treated as the [[CyberneticsEatYourSoul morally wrong thing to do]].

* ''Film/InspectorGadget'': Gadget has an entire cybernetic body stuffed with all manner of bells and whistles, yet it's otherwise indistinguishable from the human form. Meanwhile, Claw is mostly human, but has replaced his left hand with a [[StealthPun sinister]], ferocious-looking, stainless-steel pincer that's as much a weapon as an appendage.

** The protagonist of the series, Hiccup Horrendous Haddock III, loses his left leg after [[spoiler:defending his village from and evil dragon called the Red Death]]. Not only does his prosthetic leg match the prosthetic tail fin he built for Toothless (making them even), but it can be seen as a badge of honor for defending his people and wears it proudly.

* ''WesternAnimation/Ducktales2017'' provides an example with Della Duck and Black Heron. [[spoiler: Della ended up losing her leg in a rocket crash on the moon; replacing it with a prosthetic made from scrapped parts. She is an eccentric from being away from earth for ten years; but is ultimately good-hearted. Heron, however; is an Agent of F.O.W.L. who lost one of her arms in a fire during a mission with Beakley, replacing it with a mechanical one when she's next seen.]]

* ''WebAnimation/{{RWBY}}'': The protagonists who have prosthetic replacements have limbs that are made with advanced Atlesian technology which function like their missing limbs and also incorporate their style of fighting to ensure they can still function as Huntsmen. General Ironwood uses clothing to completely hide the prosthetic part of his his body, even when it means wearing one hand gloved and one hand ungloved, and he only uses his prosthetic arm in battle against the Grimm where its great physical strength allows him to fight without weapons. [[spoiler:The Volume 3 finale sees both Yang and Cinder lose an arm which is replaced in Volume 4 by General Ironwood and Salem respectively. Yang chooses to paint her prosthetic in her signature colour scheme (yellow with black accents), incorporating it into her asymmetrical fashion style and therefore displaying it openly. Cinder hides her prosthetic behind an overlong sleeve which allows her to use her new arm as a surprise attack: her new limb is a Grimm arm which is capable of stretching well beyond its normal range. It also enables her to easily steal the power of other Maidens, absorbing it as her victim dies in agony.]]

* ''WebAnimation/{{RWBY}}'': The protagonists who have prosthetic replacements have limbs that are made with advanced Atlesian technology which function like their missing limbs and also incorporate their style of fighting to ensure they can still function as Huntsmen. General Ironwood uses clothing to completely hide the prosthetic part of his his body, even when it means wearing one hand gloved and one hand ungloved, and he only uses his prosthetic arm in battle against the Grimm where its great physical strength allows him to fight without weapons. [[spoiler:The Volume 3 finale sees both Yang and Cinder lose an arm which is replaced in Volume 4 by General Ironwood and Salem respectively. Yang chooses to paint her prosthetic in her signature colour scheme (yellow with black accents), incorporating it into her asymmetrical fashion style and therefore displaying it openly. Cinder hides her prosthetic behind an overlong sleeve which allows her to use her new arm as a surprise attack: her new limb is a Grimm arm which is capable of stretching well beyond its normal range. It also enables her to easily steal the power of other Maidens by absorbing it as her victim dies in agony.]]

* This trope is present InUniverse in ''TabletopGame/{{Shadowrun}}'': Obvious cybernetic limbs, especially if they're not covered in appropriate clothing, tend to be viewed with suspicion (or at least as ''gauché'') in polite company and reduce your social skill rolls because people think you're up to no good. Lifelike-looking cybernetic limbs (designed to look like a natural limb for the wearer) do not suffer this penalty, but are more expensive and have less internal space for useful (and illegal) modifications. Depending on the character's role in the CaperCrew, subtle cybernetics may be the way to go.

* This trope is present InUniverse in ''TabletopGame/{{Shadowrun}}'': Obvious cybernetic limbs, especially if they're not covered in appropriate clothing, tend to be viewed with suspicion (or at least as ''gauché'') in polite company and reduce your social skill rolls because people think you're up to no good. Lifelike-looking cybernetic limbs (designed to look like a natural limb for the wearer) do not suffer this penalty, but are more expensive and have less internal space for useful (and illegal) modifications. Depending on the character's role in the HeistCrew, subtle cybernetics may be the way to go.

* [[{{Cyborg}} Augmentations]] in the ''VideoGame/DeusEx'' series run the gamut from barely noticeable to [[CyberneticsEatYourSoul barely human]], but the good guys tend towards the subtle. For example, Adam Jensen of ''[[VideoGame/DeusExHumanRevolution Human Revolution]]'' and ''[[VideoGame/DeusExMankindDivided Mankind Divided]]'' has all four of his limbs replaced, but his BadassLongcoat is custom-tailored to conceal his augments and allow them to operate without taking it off. [[TheDragon Jaron Namir]], on the other hand, has full-body augmentations that make him look [[EvilIsVisceral like a cadaver with no skin below the neck.]]

* ''WesternAnimation/Ducktales2017'' provides an example with Della Duck and Gandra Dee. [[spoiler: Della ended up losing her leg in a rocket crash on the moon; replacing it with a prosthetic made from scrapped parts. She is an eccentric from being away from earth for ten years; but is ultimately good-hearted. Gandra, however; is an Agent of F.O.W.L. who lost one of her arms in a fire during a mission with Beakley, replacing it with a mechanical one when she's next seen.]]

** In the first game, JC even [[LampshadeHanging lampshades]] this trope when confronting Walter Simons, a fellow nano-Aug who got the ugly end of the stick:

* [[{{Cyborg}} Augmentations]] in the ''VideoGame/DeusEx'' series run the gamut from barely noticeable to [[CyberneticsEatYourSoul barely human]], but the good guys tend towards the subtle. For example, Adam Jensen of ''[[VideoGame/DeusExHumanRevolution Human Revolution]]'' and ''[[VideoGame/DeusExMankindDivided Mankind Divided]]'' has all four of his limbs replaced, but his BadassLongcoat is custom-tailored to conceal his augments and allow them to operate without taking it off. [[TheDragon Jason Namir]], on the other hand, has full-body augmentations that make him look [[EvilIsVisceral like a cadaver with no skin below the neck.]]

* [[{{Cyborg}} Augmentations]] in the ''VideoGame/DeusEx'' series run the gamut from barely noticeable to [[CyberneticsEatYourSoul barely human]], but the good guys tend towards the subtle. JC in the first game even [[LampshadeHanging lampshades]] it when confronting Walter Simons, a fellow nano-Aug who got the ugly end of the stick:

* [[{{Cyborg}} Augmentations]] in the ''VideoGame/DeusEx'' series run the gamut from barely noticeable to [[HumanoidAbomination barely]] [[MechanicalAbomination human]], but the good guys tend towards the subtle. JC in the first game even [[LampshadeHanging lampshades]] it when confronting Walter Simons, a fellow nano-Aug who got the ugly end of the stick:

* {{Deuteragonist}} Imperator Furiosa in ''Film/MadMaxFuryRoad'' possesses a make-shift DieselPunk left arm that she is more than capable of functioning without. This is in contrast to TheAntagonist Immortan Joe, a DarkLordOnLifeSupport kept alive through a breathing apparatus designed to look like a menacing skull mask that gives him VaderBreath.

[[caption-width-right:350:Top: LifeOrLimbDecision. Bottom: CyberneticsEatYourSoul.]]

* Played straight in the [[Anime/FullmetalAlchemist 2003 Fullmetal Alchemist series]]. Good guys like Edward and Paninya have streamlined [[ArtificialLimbs automail]] which mimics the proportions of normal human limbs to the point that it can pass for the real thing provided the character is wearing long sleeves/pants and gloves/shoes. Antagonists, such as [[spoiler:Frank Archer]] or the train bandit, have bulkier automail which is heavily weaponized and impossible to hide. The [[Manga/FullmetalAlchemist original manga and Brotherhood]] avert this by including heroic characters like [[spoiler:Lan-Fan]] and Buccaneer whose automail limbs are clearly built for combat.

[[quoteright:350:[[Manga/FullmetalAlchemist https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/fmaarms2_6.png]]]]

[[quoteright:350:[[WesternAnimation/HowToTrainYourDragon2 https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/prosthetic_hiccup_drago.jpg]]]]
[[caption-width-right:348:Above: HeroicSacrifice.\\
Below: StartOfDarkness.]]

You can tell how good TheHero or bad the [[{{Villains}} Villain]] is by how deep their [[GoodScarsEvilScars scars]] were cut. Take it a few steps further and then imagine the kind of stories one can tell when they're missing a leg. Or two.

Heroic-types usually try to make their arms and legs look similar to their original ones. If they could not put artificial skin of some kind on it, they at least try to make it look as unrobotic and nonthreatening as possible. Bad guys on the other hand try to make their robot arms and legs as bulky and obvious as possible, showing it off to show that they will [=NOT=] be a victim again, not unlike how one would brandish a gun in their belt to intimidate. At times they could even see their ''non''-robotic components as a weakness, [[CyberneticsEatYourSoul losing more and more of their humanity as they replace their bodies with soulless tech.]] And some really nasty types have artificial limbs with [[ArmCannon permanently-installed weaponry]].

* Played straight in the [[Anime/FullmetalAlchemist 2003 Fullmetal Alchemist series]]. Good guys like Edward and Paninya have streamlined [[ArtificialLimbs automail]] which mimics the proportions of normal human limbs to the point that it can pass for the real thing provided the character is wearing long sleeves/pants and gloves/shoes. Antagonists, such as [[spoiler:Frank Archer]] or the train bandit, have bulkier automail which is heavily weaponized and impossible to hide. The [[Manga/FullMetalAlchemist original manga and Brotherhood]] avert this by including heroic characters like [[spoiler:Lan-Fan]] and Buccaneer whose automail limbs are clearly built for combat.
* ''Anime/CowboyBebop'' has a variation with two of the main characters. Former police officer Jet Black has a mechanical right arm, while [[spoiler:ex-assassin Spike Spiegel has a fake eye]]. For the former, it symbolizes his willingness to confront danger and his humility; he could have had the arm reconstructed, but goes with the prosthetic to remind himself to watch himself better. For [[spoiler: Spike]], the prosthetic is a symbol of how he's not fully cut off from his past and is something of a RetiredMonster.

** The protagonist of the series Hiccup Horrendous Haddock III loses his left leg after [[spoiler:defending his village from and evil dragon called the Red Death]]. Not only does his prosthetic leg match the prosthetic tail fin he built for Toothless (making them even), but it can be seen as a badge of honor for defending his people and wears it proudly.

* ''TabletopGame/Warhammer40K''::

* In ''Webcomic/{{Spacetrawler}}'', Yuri loses all four of her limbs and takes the opportunity to become fully {{transhuman}}. She upgrades her prosthetics multiple times during the comic. As she lets bloodlust and post-traumatic stress take over, her prosthetics become increasingly inhuman--for example, giving herself the body of a giant spider or mantis. Near the end, she crosses the BishonenLine, and her most powerful form looks human again.

* ''Franchise/StarWars'': At the end of ''Film/TheEmpireStrikesBack'', Darth Vader cuts off Luke's hand with his lightsaber, and Luke replaces it with a prosthetic with synthetic skin that looks nigh-indistinguishable from a real hand. It's only exposed as a cybernetic when it gets shot by blaster fire in ''Film/ReturnOfTheJedi'', and is a sign that despite everything Luke's keeping his humanity. By contrast, the prosthetic arm Anakin gets in ''Film/AttackOfTheClones'' after Count Dooku severs his real arm is brass and obviously robotic, the only thing concealing it being a thick leather gauntlet rather than any synth-skin. [[spoiler:This sets up his eventual fall to the Dark Side as Darth Vader, during which he loses the rest of his limbs and [[DarkLordOnLifeSupport is confined to a life-support armor.]]]] Much later when ''Film/TheLastJedi'' rolls around Luke's cybernetic hand is completely skinless and skeletal, symbolizing that, while he hasn't become ''evil'', he's certainly given up being the good hero in favor of {{Death Seek|er}}ing self-loathing.

* ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyXV'': High Commander Ravus Nox Fleuret of the Niflheim Empire has had his left arm replaced by a metallic prosthetic that looks like the gauntlet of a TinTyrant's armour suit. ''[[DownloadableContent Episode Ignis]]'' reveals that [[spoiler:he was present during the false-treaty betrayal in Insomnia. When King Regis was killed, Ravus picked up the [[McGuffin Ring of the Lucii]] and slipped it onto his finger, believing that he was [[TheChosenOne the one destined to cleanse the Starscourge]]. The Ring, carrying the souls of past Kings of Lucis, deemed him unworthy of Lucian power and [[BodyHorror incinerated his arm]].]]