Line #36 Main/DetachableLowerHalf


1	[[quoteright:300:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/Bob__Alice-Detachable_Lower_Half_1888.jpg]]
2	[-[[caption-width-right:300:This person is putting his abilities to good use.]]-]
3
4	In real life, people can survive bifurcation, but the lower body can't survive because the nerves are no longer being connected to the brain and it lacks a source of oxygenated blood, therefore victims need either [[ArtificialLimbs prosthetics on the lower body area]] or [[DisabilityTropes have to use a wheelchair]] for mobility. In fiction, on the other hand, people can survive without a lower body and the lower body survives without being attached to the back nerves and blood vessels: not only that, but they can also reunite both halves and become whole again. Unlike LosingYourHead regrowing it never happens. Sometimes used as a superpower, and rarely uses psychic powers to control it. Usually used as an ability.
5
6	It is usually justified for robots, because they either have a power source that keeps the lower body and upper body to keep going even when separated from the hip, or might have a normal core processor (which is the most common case). TheUndead may also exhibit this ability to have the upper body and lower body apart.
7
8	See: HelpingHands, DetachmentCombat.
9
10	Related: AppendageAssimilation, HalfTheManHeUsedToBe, HavingAHeart, PullingThemselvesTogether, SawAWomanInHalf, and WhoNeedsTheirWholeBody.
11	----
12	!!Examples
13
14	[[foldercontrol]]
15
16	[[folder:Advertising]]
17	* There are two commercials that play this trope the most bizzare way possible one happens to [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lIRzsrTKz3A Males]] another to [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QkFK_PhdeJw Females.]]
18	* A [[WhatWereTheySellingAgain commercial of unknown reason]] on [=PubliTv=].com titled [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0XhlkuCQLDg Goody's Por Partes.]]
19	* A Shower Gel commercial by the name [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=WMJ0odAM6Vg Lactacyd]] has this happen to two girls.
20	* [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=UfAmTvHtkuw This Pepsi ad.]]
21	* [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R1UDVhj0tNo&list=FLrdFV5z8dY0Rk9vdTVYBhsA This commercial for Cherry Coca-Cola]] has it happen to a ballet dancer [[MakesJustAsMuchSenseInContext after a guy takes a glass of the advertised beverage that was standing on her butt]].
22	[[/folder]]
23
24	[[folder:Anime and Manga]]
25	* Subverted in ''Manga/{{Naruto}}'' with Suigetsu in the anime-only expansion of Chapter 347 called "Zebuza's Blade".
26	* Den, the leader of Barjack from ''Manga/BattleAngelAlita'', is... well, not a cyborg, but a separate personality of another character who operates a drone body via radio waves; he maintains two different lower bodies, a humanoid one and a horse-like one, which makes him resemble a centaur when he uses it. It's a bit of a mystery why, since he's about twelve stories tall and attaching the two halves of his body is a big operation.
27	* ''Anime/DragonBallZ'': Majin Buu gets bisected by Goku. He's not slowed down by it at all since he's made of what is basically bubblegum and can regenerate, so Buu pulls himself together quickly. And uses his separated legs to knock out Tien.
28	* In ''Manga/OnePiece'', Luffy and crew encounter the living lower half of a samurai on the island of Punk Hazard. They later find the rest of the samurai, scattered across the island. Inflicting this fate on foes is revealed to be one of Trafalgar Law’s special abilities.
29	[[/folder]]
30
31	[[folder:Comic Books]]
32	* ''ComicBook/Robin1993'': Tapeworm can leave behind part or all of the flat segmented tail he has in place of legs and just regrow it.
33	* ''[[ComicBook/UltimateMarvel Ultimate Wolverine Vs. Hulk]]'': Wolverine's upper and lower halves become separated when he fights the green giant.
34	[[/folder]]
35
36	[[folder:Comic Strips]]
37	* In ''ComicStrip/TheWackyAdventuresOfPedro'', a time-jumping adventure inspired by [[OfficialFanSubmittedContent readers' fanart]] has a crack in Pedro's mirror-turned-time machine send his bottom half to AD 2 Tarentum, Italy, and his top half to AD 71,000 IO.
38	[[/folder]]
39
40	[[folder:Films -- Live-Action]]
41	* Happen in the NotSafeForWork C-Budgeted movie ''[[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin Erotic Ghost Story 2]]''. [[spoiler:In the climax of the movie, where two demons are having a threesome with a woman, which is at first a {{Foreshadowing}} of what happens a few minutes after where she '''REALLY''' gets split in half by the BigBad male demon called Wu Tung. And like the foreshadowing, both halves are still alive. She pleads for her lower half back, because of her no longer feeling arousal, due to both halves being no longer attached. Once Wu Tung notices another girl who was watching and is out to stop him, he stops and tells the girl in half to put herself back together.]]
42	* ''Film/InspectorGadget2'': One of G2's own gadgets is splitting herself in half, so her legs and torso can work as separate combatants.
43	* Like a MatryoshkaObject all but the smallest of [[MonsterClown the Polichinelles]] from ''Film/TheNutcrackerAndTheFourRealms'' are able to split themselves in half to store their smaller members inside themselves[[spoiler:, This is later used as a plot point as the largest of them ends up storing Mother Ginger inside itself to escape the the soldier army]].
44	[[/folder]]
45
46	[[folder:Live-Action TV]]
47	* Happens to Amanda in episode 39 of ''Series/TheAmandaShow'', where her lower half runs away from her offscreen because "It doesn't like the pants". Her upper half stays floating and completely oblivious of what happened until one of the audience members points it out to her. She then asks for someone to find her lower half. One of the employees walks over to her with her lower half, as she explains to why it left and has [[PullingThemselvesTogether both halves taped back together]].
48	* Played with in ''Series/{{Scrubs}}'' with the running theme of the detachable head.
49	* In the ''Series/RedDwarf'' episode "[[Recap/RedDwarfSeasonIIQueeg Queeg]]", Rimmer starts suffering glitches after a meteor collision damages the hologram projection suite. The first symptom is when the top half of his body finds itself hovering in mid-air, while his legs have walked off on their own.
50	* [[ShirtlessScene Clearly happens to]] [[PrettyBoy Miguel]] in an episode of ''Series/{{Passions}}'' as a result of [[AloofDarkHairedGirl Kay]] [[MagicMisfire botching up a spell]].
51	[[/folder]]
52
53	[[folder:Music]]
54	* The stop-motion video for the song "Prison Sex" by Music/{{Tool}} depicts a doll placed in time-out. To keep the doll from running off, its legs have been detached and hung up out of reach and are seen still twitching.
55	[[/folder]]
56
57	[[folder:Myths & Religion]]
58	* Myth/PhilippineMythology: Manananggals are vampires with this ability. The upper half detaches at night and flies away to feed (a favorite treat is using its long tongue to feast on fetuses); if it does not rejoin the lower half by daybreak, the manananggal dies. The best way to prevent the manananggal from becoming whole is to sprinkle either salt or garlic on the lower half which remains stationary during its nightly sortie.
59	[[/folder]]
60
61	[[folder:Toys]]
62	* This was the gimmick of the Duocon figures from ''Franchise/TheTransformers'' G1's 1987 toyline. Each one was a robot that was made up of two vehicles- Battletrap had a helicopter for his upper body and arms and an SUV for his lower body and legs, while Flywheels had a jet and a tank, respectively. Transforming the robots involved splitting their bodies in half, then folding them into the vehicles (this was easy due to both having very simple transformation mechanics with almost no articulation in either mode).
63	[[/folder]]
64
65	[[folder:Video Games]]
66	* The Muda Kingdom in ''VideoGame/SuperMarioLand'' has robot enemies called Mekabons who throw their heads at Mario. Both halves can be {{Goomba Stomp}}ed separately.
67	* Gimghamphatts from ''VideoGame/Onimusha2SamuraisDestiny'' does this during the last boss fight.
68	* ''VideoGame/MetroidPrimeHunters'': The cyborg Weavel can do this, with his lower body functioning as a turret.
69	* The Harvester from ''[[VideoGame/DragonAgeOrigins Dragon Age: Origins - Golems of Amgarrak]]'' is a massive boss who detaches the large lower part of its body when it goes OneWingedAngel.
70	* In at least one of the ''Franchise/TeenageMutantNinjaTurtles'' {{video games}}, Krang will attack this way. Justified in that it's an android body.
71	* In the SNES classic ''VideoGame/ChronoTrigger'', many of the bosses upper and lower halves that act independently of each other, and have different strengths and weaknesses. In many cases, killing one section leaves the other to keep fighting, but a few will fully die only when the primary section is taken out.
72	* Sword Man of ''VideoGame/MegaMan8'' has his torso float independent of his legs. Dr. Wily built him that way when the ancient sword that he modified into Sword Man's Flame Sword proved too heavy to use without an anti-gravity device built into the upper half.
73	* ''VideoGame/NinjaShadowOfDarkness'' has [[DemBones skeleton mooks]] who breaks into half from the waist after receiving enough hits, but surprise surprise, both halves can continue attacking your hero independently. The lower half being a flailing pair of skeletal legs is as hilarious as it sounds.
74	[[/folder]]
75
76	[[folder:Web Originals]]
77	* The Website/SCPFoundation has [[http://scp-wiki.wikidot.com/scp-1319 SCP-1319]] who is a research assistant of the foundation that got separated into 2 separate individuals consisting of his upper and lower body due to both halves getting sick of eachother. [[AnimateBodyParts Unlike any other example of this trope both the upper and lower half have individual personalities that are nothing like the original researcher's]].
78	[[/folder]]
79
80	[[folder:Western Animation]]
81	* Commander Hoek and Lieutenant Stimpy have this happen in the episode "Black Hole" of ''WesternAnimation/RenAndStimpy''.
82	* In the ''WesternAnimation/StarTrekTheAnimatedSeries'' episode "[[Recap/StarTrekTheAnimatedSeriesS2E2Bem Bem]]", the titular alien (Ari bn Bem) can detach parts of his body, including [[LosingYourHead his head]] and lower torso. Justified by Bem being a colony creature, meaning he is [[TheWormThatWalks made up of several separate organisms]] that share a single collective sentience.
83	* Megabyte from ''WesternAnimation/ReBoot'' does this on occasion, usually to sit in his CoolChair.
84	* In ''WesternAnimation/Phantom2040'', Hubert Graft detaches his lower half from his everyday legs to an attack droid. It is quite clear from his reaction that doing this is quite painful for him.
85	* Rushu from ''WesternAnimation/{{Wakfu}}'' can do this. And ironically can travel much faster because of it.
86	* Tends to happen in ''WesternAnimation/TexAveryMGMCartoons''.
87	* ''WesternAnimation/LEGOStarWarsTheYodaChronicles'' has this as a RunningGag with Darth Maul. He is knocked off of his robot lower body and runs around chasing it or the legs run around on in the background.
88	* In ''Animation/DayoSaMundoNgElementalia'' (known in the English Dub as "Niko: Journey to Magika"), Anna and the Manananggals - like their mythological equivalents - can split their bodies in half at the waist, which allows them to reveal their wings to fly, although they must rejoin their body halves together again before sunrise or it will kill them. Oddly enough, this only applies when they're in the human realm - in their home realm of Elementalia/Magika, they can survive in sunlight and can use their wings without splitting in half.
89	[[/folder]]

Context Main / DetachableLowerHalf