History Main / ArmlessBiped

%%[[folder:Film -- Animation]]
%%* ''WesternAnimation/MonstersInc'': The original designs for Mike Wazowcski have him as one of these.
%%[[/folder]]

* ''VideoGame/{{Undertale}}'': The Monster Kid resembles a bipedal lizard with no arms, and wears a sweater that's essentially just a tube of fabric. They tend to trip a lot as a result.

*** '''VideoGame/MetroidPrime''': The Sheegoths are dangerous ice-breathing predators who only have weakspots on their backs, and no arms. Then you realise that they are the babies when you scan them — an adult one appears later, who is much bigger and meaner, and then becomes a DegradedBoss.

** The giant monster, [[NamesToRunAwayFromReallyFast the Imprisoned]], is a mouth with legs. No eyes. No nose. And covered in black scales and feathers that wave like fire on its back. It laters gains arms, a tail, and a halo that allows it to fly. [[OneWingedAngel And that isn't even its final form...]]

* ''TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons'': Digesters are portrayed a vaguely birdlike/reptillian bipeds with no arms. The run around spitting acid on things, and then slurp up the dissolved remains.

* The 2007 meme [[https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=dyMXYE_50Ts "Retarded Running Horse"]] [[note]]Note the obvious ValuesDissonance in the title[[/note]], featuring a photoshopped two-legged horse running to the gibberish lyrics of El Chombo's "Chaccaron Maccaron". Naturally, this spawned numerous copycats with other animals, including a two-legged elephant [[https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=MyafZmZjSOY (that runs with its trunk, no less)]], [[https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=yVwtro6uQ2c a two-legged giraffe]], [[https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=dYK8docRdhg a two-legged sheep]], [[https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=upCf1XufrQQ a two-legged polar bear]] and even a [[https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=FfdMxfvpg2A "Retarded Running Ostrich"]], which is supposed to have only two legs anyway, of course.

* Many of ''WebOriginal/{{Mortasheen}}'''s inhabitants fit this trope, the most recognizable being [[http://www.bogleech.com/mortasheen/chainsawkid.htm Chainsaw Kid]].

* ''WebOriginal/{{Serina}}'': The water snuffle is an aquatic platypus-like descendant of the canary that entirely lost its wings to become a more streamlined swimmer. Its descendants, the softbill birds, never redevelop forelimbs but later evolve prehensile facial tentacles from their soft fleshy snouts, giving rise to the club-wielding bludgebird, the squid-headed squork, and the predatory grapplers, as well as boras and terries, groups of tentacle-faced flightless birds [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin that are arboreal and terrestrial]], respectively.

* ''WebOriginal/{{Snaiad}}'' has the Titaniformes and the Monoanticheirans, two clades of Snaiadi vertebrate-analogues that lost their forelimbs entirely. Subverted with the Tromobrachids, who initially appear to be this trope, but their "jaws" actually ''are'' their arms, playing a role in chewing food and funnelling it into their [[BellyMouth chest-located oral cavity]].

* ''ComicBook/BuckGodotZapGunForHire'': [[http://www.airshipentertainment.com/buckcomic.php?date=20081120 Beemahs]] [[KillerRabbit don't look dangerous]] for an engineered species of spies and assassins who [[TurnedAgainstTheirMasters made their creators completely extinct]]. [[spoiler: The Beemahs' physiology was intended to make them wholly dependent on a master; they literally cannot ''eat'' without assistance.]]

[[quoteright:300:[[VideoGame/MetroidPrime https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/babysheegoth.png]]]]
[[caption-width-right:300:Who needs arms (or eyes) when you have teeth like that?]]

* The moas. Large, extinct ostrich like birds from New Zealand that completely lacked wings. Other flightless birds had their wings reduced to a few bones, but moas lost even the joints to which the wings were attached.

A creature with two legs but no arms (and sometimes wings). May be used to make a creature look more alien. Or they make something appear harmless until it's too late. They can also be used to stylistic effect for cartoons with less realistic character designs.

* Creator/DougalDixon:
** ''Literature/AfterManAZoologyOfTheFuture'':
*** The wakka have evolved from South American field rodents into long-legged and very fast runners that resemble mammalian ostriches, only without the vestigial wings.
*** The fin lizard is a bipedal lizard found in deserts, having likewise adapted to a lifestyle of fast running and having lost its arms in the process.

* ''Literature/HaloHuntersInTheDark'': The morolaath, aka "blind wolves", that live on the Ark resemble two-legged lizards with no eyes. They were actually going to be in the [[VideoGame/HaloCombatEvolved first]] ''Franchise/{{Halo}}'' game, but had to be cut out before release.

* ''Literature/TeddyRuxpin'': Tweeg's EvilMinions are the red, armless, bipedal Bounders.

* Several creatures in Wayne Barlowe's ''[[Literature/{{Expedition}} Expedition/AlienPlanet]]'', such as the Arrowtongue and Bladderhorn.
* Many of WebOriginal/{{Mortasheen}}'s inhabitants fit this trope, the most recognizable being [[http://www.bogleech.com/mortasheen/chainsawkid.htm Chainsaw Kid]].

* ''Videogame/{{Journey}}'': The player figure has no arms which was meant by the developers so people wouldn't wonder why they can't climb or pick things up.

** ''TabletopGame/{{Warhammer}}'', ''TabletopGame/WarhammerAgeOfSigmar'', ''TabletopGame/Warhammer40000'' and their [[GaidenGames spin-offs]] feature Squigs, best described as half animal, [[PlantAliens half fungus]], half mad [[MoreTeethThanTheOsmondFamily and half teeth]]. They're famed and feared for their unpredictable bounding gait and voracious ferocity, but Squigs form a surprisingly complex part of the greenskin ecosystem, serving as guard dogs, garbage disposals, livestock, and in one extremely specialized sub-species' case, ''hair plugs''. Other races rarely appreciate this, however, as their encounters with the toothy critters come when goblins herd a bouncing horde of the things onto the battlefield, or orks strap them with explosives and send the beasts to chase tanks.

** ''VideoGame/MetroidPrime3Corruption'' has the Defense Drone, a boss fought in Elysia. It is a large mechanoid that relies on high jumps instead of walking, shooting powerful missiles, unleashing balls of plasma, and performing electrified {{Shockwave Stomp}}s. Its weak point is the core behind its face, but to unveil it Samus has to hit the three antennae at its top and then use the Grapple Lasso to open up the core's carapace.

** ''VideoGame/MetroidPrime'' has the Sheegoths, ''VideoGame/MetroidPrime2Echoes'' has the Grenchlers, and ''VideoGame/MetroidPrime3Corruption'' has the Defense Drone (a boss). The Sheegoths are dangerous ice-breathing predators who only have weakspots on their backs. Then you realise that they are the babies when you scan them -- an adult one appears later, who is much bigger and meaner, and then becomes a DegradedBoss. Grenchlers look quite similar, except they're more like amphibian reptiles and are MUCH more aggressive and more dangerous, with abilities Sheegoths don't, like firing electricity at long range and ''leaping across entire rooms''. And then there's the one room in Dark Torvus with the Dark possessed Grenchlers, and the Grapple Guardian, which is another boss example. Lastly, the Defense Drone is a large mechanoid that relies on high jumps instead of walking.

** [[http://megamitensei.wikia.com/wiki/Take-Minakata Take-Minakata]], a recurring [[{{Mons}} demon]], has no arms. In mythology, his arms were cut off in a duel.

* ''Webcomic/TiffanyAndCorey'': Corey encounters two of them in one cartoon, depicted [[https://tiffanyandcorey.blogspot.com/2018/01/big-and-tall.html as aliens from outer space]].
%%* ''Webcomic/UserFriendly'': Dust Puppy play Quake with his feet, and is very good at it.

* First popularized by ''[[WebAnimation/BattleForDreamIsland BFDI]]'', many ObjectShows, such as ''WebAnimation/BrawlOfTheObjects'', ''WebAnimation/InanimateInsanity'', and ''WebAnimation/ObjectOverload'' [[FollowTheLeader to name a few]], will feature characters with no arms. Over time, variants emerged like [[InvertedTrope inversions]], where one has arms but no legs, and those who have no limbs at all. As such, these objects use their feet like but are still hindered by their condition (Except the ones that [[InvisibleAnatomy exhibit telekinesis]] depending on the show). There used to be a stereotype associated with armless objects being useless (From other objects' [[FantasticRacism perspective]]) and [[TheDitz lacking in brains]].

* This trope is quite commonplace in ObjectShows such as ''WebAnimation/BattleForDreamIsland'', ''WebAnimation/InanimateInsanity'', and ''WebAnimation/ObjectOverload'' ([[FollowTheLeader to name a few]]). Some objects learn to use their feet like hands while some are [[TheDitz not that smart]] which used to be a stereotype associated with them. But even so, all armless objects are hindered by their condition except the ones that [[InvisibleAnatomy use telekinesis]] if the object show allowed it.

%%* ''Film/{{Tremors}}'': Shriekers and Ass-Blasters.