History Main / HalfTheManHeUsedtoBe

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* ''WebAnimation/{{Dreamscape}}'': Happens twice in episode 7. First is when [[spoiler: Melinda turns into Ghost Melinda and slashes Keedran's serpentine body into pieces with her SinisterScythe. This also doubles as TongueTrauma, since she slices CHEN's tongue into pieces too. The second time is when she horizontally bisects Betty, but since she has a cybernetic lower-half, she feels no pain.]]

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[[caption-width-right:279:"It's me, dear friends -- alive and kicking! [[BlackComedy Well, alive, anyway.]]"]]

** In "Naked to the Limit, One More Time", a guy in a flashback rips Jeff in half after Jeff protests him wearing a fur coat, and in the present, he's showing Roger the scar where he was sewn back together. Later in "The Devil Wears a Lapel Pin", he's bisected again by a roided-up Bullock.
** In "Eight Fires", when Stan's brain is pierced by a nail and he loses the ability to speak in exchange for developing piano skills, he meets the manager of a Nordstrom at the mall who exploits his newfound talent. When the nail is removed, Stan immediately loses his skills, and when the guy tries to put another nail in his head, Stan throws him and he gets quite graphically torn in half between two escalators. In the same episode, when Roger is mauled by a bear on a remote island, he and Francine have to eat his bottom half to survive. Roger shrugs it off because his body will just grow back, then freaks out at the thought that it might not.

** [[When Kanaya returns as a [[OurVampiresAreDifferent rainbow drinker]], she chainsaws Eridan, who originally killed her, in half.]]

* The Krall in the original ''[[VideoGame/UnrealI Unreal]]'' sometimes lose their lower half when taking damage. This doesn't keep them from crawling towards the player and firing their {{boomsticks}}.

* ''WesternAnimation/OKKOLetsBeHeroes'' has a moment where K.O.'s alter-ego T.K.O. does this... to the '''sun.'''

--> '''Buffy:''' He had to split.(laughs)

* Very common in ''Franchise/MortalKombat'' [[FinishingMoves fatalities]]. Usually a horizontal cut, as it's easier to animate, but Kung Lao can do vertical cuts in a few games.

* ''WesternAnimation/OKKOLetsBeHeroes'' has a moment where K.O.'s alter-ego T.K.O. does this... to the ***sun.***

* ComicBook/SuperboyPrime uses his heat vision to cut the superhero Bushido in half in ''ComicBook/InfiniteCrisis''.

* In ''Film/JusticeLeague2017'', a few Parademons felled by Diana's sword end up in two pieces.

* ''{{Manga/Berserk}}'':

* Iron Shadow from episode 7 of Manga/CuteyHoney meets her end when Honey cuts her in half from the head down.

* ''Anime/FullmetalAlchemist2003''

* ''{{Manga/Gantz}}'':

* ''Manga/JoJosBizarreAdventure''

* ''Manga/MahouSenseiNegima''
** [[spoiler:Dynamis]] became a victim of this trope during [[spoiler:his fight with Negi's SuperpoweredEvilSide]]. [[spoiler: He lived to tell, possibly due to his LargeHam tendencies, and later one of the many Fates restored him.]]
** Later, this happened to [[spoiler:Chachamaru]]... [[spoiler:Being a {{Ridiculously Human Robot|s}}, she lived to tell: Takane kept her alive with her magic, and once the human and magical world collided and [[HotScientist her creator Hakase]] got a hold of her, she got fixed.]]
** Almost immediately afterward, [[spoiler:Quartum gets chopped in half by Negi after he sees that Quartum did this to Chachamaru]].

* Appropriately enough, this is how [[TwoFaced Baron Ashura]] (as Hell King Gordon) is finished off in ''Anime/MazinKaiser''

* ''Manga/{{Naruto}}''

* ''Anime/PrincessTutu''

%% * Only 2 people so far was cut in half in Gunner's Genocide, Joker was trying to say that the fighters never reject Gunner but She kills him in half anyways and in part 22, Corrin sacrifices himself to prevent byleth from dying.

%%* Happens to Miss Collins in ''Film/{{Carrie 1976}}''.

* ''Film/ChildrenOfTheCorn''

* ''Franchise/{{Terminator}}''

* ''Series/BuffyTheVampireSlayer''

** [[spoiler:Anya ]]meets the same fate in the final episode. Not from the groin up, though.

* ''Series/TheWalkingDead''

* Music/IronMaiden 's mascot, Eddie, on the cover of ''Seventh Son Of A Seventh Son''.

* A lot of the ''TabletopGame/{{Warhammer 40000}}'' backstory has this, usually about Space Marines. Particularly about World Eaters. And ESPECIALLY about Kharn the Betrayer, whose axe, [[NamedWeapons Gorechild]] is stated as capable of splitting an armoured space marine from crown to crotch, or something along those lines. Also, the damage rules from 40k roleplay games mention that characters can lose legs from enemy attacks.

* VideoGame/BrothersInArms: Hell's Highway featured this early on; following an ambush on Baker's squad, a priest who had handed out cigars to the squad for saving his town loses the lower half of his body to a German antitank shell.
* ''VideoGame/ClayFighter''

* ''VideoGame/{{Darkstalkers}}'',

* ''VideoGame/DeadRising2''

* Occurs in a cutscene during the [[VideoGame/DragonAgeOriginsAwakening Awakening]] expansion for ''VideoGame/DragonAgeOrigins'', when the massive [[IncendiaryExponent Inferno Golem]] literally tears a Darkspawn in half with both hands.

* ''VideoGame/EternalDarkness''

* In ''VideoGame/{{Fallout 3}}'''s ''Broken Steel'' [[DownloadableContent DLC]], Liberty Prime is blown in half by a KillSat strike.

* ''VideoGame/SilentHillHomecoming''

* Played with in ''VideoGame/{{Xenoblade}}'', during the fight with [[spoiler:Egil, piloting Yaldabaoth. Halfway through the fight, you receive a vision; Egil is planning to use a technique called [[TotalPartyKill 'Bionis Slash X']], which, if it succeeds, will ''[[ApocalypseHow cut the Bionis in two]]'', dealing ''infinite'' damage. The player then receives a quest mid-battle to destroy the three devices around Egil to prevent this from happening.]]

* ''Webcomic/LookingForGroup''

* ''WebComic/VampireCheerleaders'': This is how [[spoiler: [[http://www.vampirecheerleaders.net/strips-vc/suki_dies Suki]]]] dies, during the ''"Adventures in Space... and Time?!"'' arc in vol.4, when she gets blown in half [[{{BFG}} by a railgun.]] Though it's {{subverted}}, shortly after their next time jump when [[spoiler: Suki recovers [[MyOwnGrandpa by feeding on Lorna Thurston]]]].

* The mutants in the hospital level in ''VideoGame/MachineHunter''. They are humans stripped of their humanity after being experimented upon by aliens, with their lower bodies missing, and attacks everything in sight - including you- by crawling around with their hands.

* In ''Film/CaptainsCourageous'': It happens when [[spoiler: the Portuguese fisherman]]suffers an accident while deep sea fishing. [[spoiler: Because he was submerged up to his neck in the ocean, his wounds were not visible. He announced his predicament through an interpreter, so the boy he had been taking care of wouldn't know how bad it was.]]

** In ''Film/AvengersInfinityWar'', a few Outriders try forcing their way past the barrier surrounding the Wakandan army. Some of them ends up getting bisected at the waist.

* Guts hands these out to {{Mooks}} on occasion with the [[{{BFS}} Dragon Slayer]] in ''{{Manga/Berserk}}'', and [[spoiler:killed Colette this way after she was killed and taken over by the evil spirits after Guts in the second story from the manga]].

* In ''Manga/FullmetalAlchemist'', this happens to Gluttony [[GoodThingYouCanHeal at least twice]].
** In the [[Anime/FullmetalAlchemist 2003 anime version]], Frank Archer gets half of his body incinerated vertically during the creation of the Philosopher's Stone. Somehow he survives this and turns into a destructive war machine when he gets it replaced with machinery. Apparently he [[FridgeLogic didn't have any vital organs on the right side of his body]]...

* In the first arc of ''Manga/JoJosBizarreAdventure'', [[spoiler: Zeppeli]] is bisected at the waist by a chain.
** [[spoiler:Stroheim]] is bisected at the waist by Cars in the second arc. Being [[{{Cyborg}} a product of]] [[StupidJetpackHitler NAZI SCIENCE]] it doesn't bother him terribly.

* [[spoiler:Dynamis]] of ''Manga/MahouSenseiNegima'' became a victim of this trope during [[spoiler:his fight with Negi's SuperpoweredEvilSide]]. [[spoiler: He lived to tell, possibly due to his LargeHam tendencies, and later one of the many Fates restored him.]]

*** Almost immediately afterward, [[spoiler:Quartum gets chopped in half by Negi after he sees that Quartum did this to Chachamaru]].

** This happens a lot across Franchise/{{Gundam}}, given the series' penchant for [[LaserBlade beam swords]]. Given that the cockpits of most Mobile Suits are in the abdominal area, it's rarely survivable for the pilot.
* [[spoiler: Nena Trinity]] of ''Anime/MobileSuitGundam00'' died after being ripped in half by [[spoiler: Louise Halevy, using the claws of her mobile suit.]] The novelizations add more gruesome detail to this, stating that [[spoiler:the only thing holding her torso together was a few strands of muscle, right before her mobile suit was blown up.]]

* Orochimaru of ''Manga/{{Naruto}}'' once got ripped in half by Naruto's [[SuperpoweredEvilSide 4-tailed form]], but he [[PullingThemSelvesTogether has the halves of his body rejoin]] ''before they even touch the ground''.

* This is [[spoiler:Fakir]]'s fated death in ''Anime/PrincessTutu'', witnessed repeatedly in visions--the Raven will slash [[spoiler:his]] torso in half vertically as [[spoiler:he]] tries to protect Mytho. [[spoiler:It ''appears'' to happen at the end of the first season, but it turns out he was [[ScrewDestiny tougher than that]].]]

* In the [[HorrorAnimeAndManga horror manga]] ''Manga/{{Region}}'', when Kanon's ankle is grabbed by a man who is pleading for help, she is horrified that everything below the man's waist is covered with rats, happily gorging themselves on what little remains of his flesh.

* This is the fate of ''Manga/RurouniKenshin'' villain Uonuma Usui, torn in half at the waist by the force of Saito Hajime's point-blank Gatotsu in the manga.
** He was merely impaled in the anime, which is a huge step down from the manga scene, which is pretty much outright gorn. You can see Usui's intestines hanging down and everything. The Toonami version edited the scene further so that he wasn't even impaled, just sliced bloodlessly.

* This is the final fate of [[spoiler:Aki Honda]] in ''Manga/ShadowStar'', to the point of FanDisservice. Her death was so utterly violent ([[spoiler: before being cut, she gets ''raped with the same dragon claw'' that ultimately ripped her in half]]!), that the last part was cut out in the international versions of the manga and was [[BowdleRize censored in the anime]] (the viewer only get to see the shadow, not the action itself]].

* In ''ComicBook/ScottPilgrim Gets it Together'', [[spoiler: Roxy Richter]] suffers this fate after a SingleStrokeBattle with Scott.

* In one ''Belvedere'' strip Belvedere and his owner are both in karate gis, with Belvedere in an attack pose and his owner neatly cut in two at the waist.

* In ''WesternAnimation/YellowSubmarine,'' as the Beatles and Old Fred are regressing in age going through the Sea of Time, Paul (in a nod to his own song "Yesterday") quips "Hey, Ringo, you're not half the man you used to be!"

* Happens to Miss Collins in ''Film/{{Carrie 1976}}''.

* [[spoiler:Moochie Welch]] dies this way in ''Film/{{Christine}}''.

** For at least one on-screen killing. It's implied that the messes he usually leaves behind are a lot worse.
* ''Film/{{Immortals}}'' climaxed with a massive battle between the Gods led by Zeus, against the Titans. More than one Titan gets graphically bisected, with Zeus slicing a random Titan diagonally into two with plenty of CG-{{Gorn}}.

** ''Film/AvengersEndgame'' have Hawkeye slicing at least one Outrider into two with his katana.

* ''Film/PacificRim'': Fast-swimming {{kaiju}} + {{BFS}} = [[InertiaIsACruelMistress this]].

* ''Film/PitchBlack'': "Where's [[spoiler: Johns]]?" "Which half?"

* In ''Film/{{Signs}}'', Graham's wife is hit by a car and he is told that she is basically cut in half and the car is the "only thing holding her together," but [[GoryDiscretionShot we don't see it.]]

* Happens to one guy in ''Film/{{Slither}}''.

*** Referenced for laughs in ''LEGO Star Wars: The Padawan Menace'': a poster reads "Darth Maul's Emporium: Prices Cut in Half!"
*** At the end of ''The Empire Strikes Out'', he gets split in half again when he gets sucked into space.
*** Darth Maul's [[spoiler:[[NotQuiteDead supposed]]]] death is itself an apparent ShoutOut to [[spoiler: Slag]]'s in ''Film/BlindFury''.

** In ''Film/TheLastJedi'', [[spoiler:[[DiscOneFinalBoss Supreme Leader Snoke]] gets sliced in half by [[TheStarscream Kylo]] [[DragonAscendant Ren]], allowing him to [[KlingonPromotion usurp leadership of the First Order]].]]

* ''Literature/{{Genome}}'' begins with protagonist leaving a hospital where he recovered after being bisected. His legs had to be regrown for several months since the ship where the accident happened had only one spare medical chamber and thus only one half could be saved; otherwise, legs could just have been reattached.

* Darth Vader [[YouHaveFailedMe executes someone]] in ''Literature/SplinterOfTheMindsEye'' by using his lightsaber to bisect him from the crown of his head right down.

* [[ActionGirl Mara]] [[FieryRedhead Jade]] does this to some wolvkils in the Franchise/StarWarsExpandedUniverse novel ''Literature/SurvivorsQuest''.

* This happens in the novel ''Literature/TheWarlockInSpiteOfHimself''.

** Bonesaw at one point is cut in half. She's more annoyed at how long it's going to take to find a new set of legs that match her than about the damage; she'd reinforced her body and set up enough redundancies that she was still mobile and using her ''spine'' as a third limb.

* In ''Series/BuffyTheVampireSlayer'', the final fate of Caleb, via the slayer's axe. [[GroinAttack From the groin up.]]

* [[spoiler: Uncle Marty]] in the first episode of ''Series/HarpersIsland,'' as well as [[spoiler: Beth]] in a later episode.
** The first one happens in particularly gruesome fashion: he falls through a sabotaged [[RopeBridge footbridge,]] and while he's struggling to pull himself back up, the killer hacks him apart from below with a big knife. While he tries to shoot him through the bridge. It looks for a minute like he might win out, but... [[CruelAndUnusualDeath No.]] Many episodes later they [[PeekABooCorpse find the body]] [[CallingCard strung up in a tree...]] In two pieces.

* In ''Series/RobotCombatLeague's'' Commander vs. Scorpio match, [[spoiler: Scorpio damages Commander so badly, it breaks in half at the waist]]; resulting in a KO.
** [[spoiler: Scorpio does this AGAIN in their next match against A.X.E.]]

* One of the early shown zombies in ''Series/TheWalkingDead'' is the rotted upper half of one, who continues crawling about by pulling itself along with its hands.

** Long before "half-golem" became a standard template in 3E, the ''TabletopGame/{{Ravenloft}}'' setting was home to Desmond [=LaRouche=], an NPC from Nova Vaasa who'd lost one side of his body in a laboratory explosion, and had it replaced with a golem half.

* A lot of the ''TabletopGame/{{Warhammer 40000}}'' backstory has this, usually about Space Marines. Particularly about World Eaters. And ESPECIALLY about Kharn the Betrayer, whose axe, [[NamedWeapons Gorechild]] is stated as capable of splitting an armoured space marine from crown to crotch, or something along those lines.
** Also, the damage rules from 40k roleplay games mention that characters can lose legs from enemy attacks.

** One surprising aversion is [[http://warhammer40k.wikia.com/wiki/File:Chapter_Master_Sarpedon.jpg Sarpedon]], who runs around on spider legs due to mutation and not a botched surgery.

* Similarly, this also happens in the ''VideoGame/ClayFighter'' games as a "Claytality". Since this is supposed to be a parody, it's nothing but slapstick.

* In ''VideoGame/{{Darkstalkers}}'', ghostly samurai Bishamon's victory taunt consists of him threatening you with this: "Horizontal, vertical or diagonal?"

* At the climax of ''VideoGame/DeadRising2'', [[spoiler:Sullivan]] uses a sky hook to try to airlift himself out of Fortune City. Chuck, however, uses a set of handcuffs to clip one of the belt loops of his trousers to a railing, and makes good on his promise that he 'wouldn't make it out of here in one piece.'

* In ''VideoGame/EternalDarkness'' some of the larger swords (such as the long sword found in the church levels and Kareem's ram dao) can do this to zombies.

* In almost every one of his various ''Franchise/FinalFantasy'' appearances, Odin's [[OneHitKill Zantetsuken]] slices enemies in two for instant death, and [[DiagonalCut the halves slide apart]]. ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyVIII'' had Seifer counter the Zantetsuken and slice ''Odin'' in half. When Gilgamesh inherits the Zantetsuken, the upper half of the sliced enemy (and parts of the scenery) fly off violently.
** He uses this in his fight in the flashback of his battle in the War of the Magi in the castle sequence of ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyVI'', cutting apart several Mooks in the process. Then [[TheWorfEffect it fails to even faze]] [[OhCrap that last foe]]...

* In ''VideoGame/HalfLife2'' you come across [[PuppeteerParasite headcrab]] zombies who are just a torso. You can use the gravity gun to fire a circular saw blade through a zombie's torso and cut them in half... but it only works on zombies, and only cutting them in half, no decapitations or amputations.
** And [[WhoNeedsTheirWholeBody it doesn't necessarily stop them coming at you]]...

* Pit does this to [[spoiler:Hades]] via a giant energy blade three-fifths of the way through the final battle of ''VideoGame/KidIcarusUprising''. Unlike most examples, [[PhysicalGod he is just barely hurt]] and simply grows an entirely new lower half. The seam between his new and old halves becomes a valid weak spot for the next phase of the battle, however.

** In a memorable example of this, when the [=YouTuber=] Tear of Grace played the game, he did this to the Orc who was brought over via the Nemesis forge system -- who also ended up coming back with the "Machine" title and becoming next to impossible to kill.
* Very common in ''Franchise/MortalKombat'' {{f|inishingMove}}atalities. Usually a horizontal cut, as it's easier to animate, but Kung Lao can do vertical cuts in a few games.

* ''VideoGame/NoMoreHeroes'': Travis can chop enemies in half with the finishing blow.

** The [[SmashingHallwayTrapsOfDoom crashing blades]] in ''VideoGame/PrinceOfPersia1'' and the wall scythes in ''VideoGame/PrinceOfPersia2'' could cut the Prince or {{Mooks}} in two.

** He'll also say "You're half the man you used to be!" as a ShoutOut to the Stone Temple Pilots song.
* ''VideoGame/SilentHillHomecoming'' [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v-JMSERC8sA will do this to Alex if you fail to escape]] a Schism.

* In the notoriously gory ''VideoGame/SoldierOfFortune'' series, enemies can be bisected at the waist by the shotgun, large caliber arms, or explosives.
** It's also how [[spoiler: the BigBad, Sergei Dekker, dies in the first game.]]

** [[spoiler:And then there's what happened to Eridan...]]

* Krunch of ''Webcomic/LookingForGroup'' does this to the dwarf that [[spoiler: killed his father]] by grabbing each arm and pulling. There were LudicrousGibs, of course.

** "[[http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2009/8/26/ You understand there's more to]] ''VideoGame/{{Dissidia|Final Fantasy}}'' [[TakeThat than murdering]] [[VideoGame/FinalFantasyX Tidus]] [[CatharsisFactor over and over.]]"

* In ''Webcomic/SluggyFreelance'', Cindy is [[http://sluggy.com/daily.php?date=000711 rendered "topless" in a most unpleasant way]]. This is actually one of the ''less'' gruesome deaths during the "KITTEN" StoryArc.

* Can be done to enemy ninjas, with a katana, in ''VideoGame/ShadowWarrior''.