History Main / OrganDodge

* ''Film/HotShots'': Admiral/President Benson [[UpToEleven takes this trope to absurdity]] [[PlayedForLaughs for laughs.]] He has apparently been through so many conflicts and sustained so many injuries that his entire body is artificial and immune to damage. For example, he survives being thrown into a fireplace because ''his skin is made of asbestos'' owing to a [[NoodleIncident tanning parlour accident at Dien Bien Phu.]] He can also pass a handkerchief in one ear and out the other because a bullet once went through his brain. At the [[AnachronismStew Little Big Horn.]]

* In ''[[VideoGame/SoulSeries Soulcalibur III]]'', Siegfried says he {{Invoked|Trope}} this for one of his win quotes. One has to wonder how he did it, though, with his weapon of choice being a {{BFS}}.

* In ''VideoGame/TeamFortress2'''s "Expiration Date" short, the RED Scout accidentally throws a fork into the RED Demoman's left eye. However, that eye was already gone due to a childhood incident [[ItMakesSenseInContext with a wizard]], so Demo's only injury is a few tiny holes in his EyepatchOfPower.

* In ''TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons'' 3.5th edition, the Warshaper is a PrestigeClass open to shapeshifters. One of the first powers gained is "Morphic Immunities", which allows them to redistribute vital organs whenever in a different form than their own, gaining immunity to stunning and critical hits.

* In ''Film/RevengeOfTheSith'', DarthWiki/DarthVader's prosthetic arm lets him climb to safety even when the rest of his body is burned by lava. Its also the only limb that wasn't cut off, but it being metal (and as such not burning) helped.

** It's also implied that Frank Archer from the first anime had Dextrocardia, since the side of his body that got vaporized and replaced with automail was the one his heart was supposed to be on.

* A missing organ is a pretty standard revelation in the AutopsyScene, although ''Series/{{CSI}}'' has also done at least two episodes about ironically-fatal dextrocardia.

* ''WesternAnimation/AdventureTime'': In the episode "[[Recap/AdventureTimeS1E12Evicted Evicted!]]", Jake survives a vampire bite by moving all his blood and guts into his thumb. He can do that.

* In the [[Recap/MetalGearSolid2SonsOfLiberty endgame]] of ''VideoGame/MetalGearSolid2'', [[spoiler:Ocelot disables the electromagnetic force field that protects Fortune from gunfire, and shoots her straight through the heart... which doesn't seem to faze her at all, because as Ocelot remembers afterwards, her heart is on the right. Of course, she still dies from the gaping hole in her chest some minutes later, but not before figuratively flipping him the bird]].
** Similarly, in ''VideoGame/MetalGearSolid3'', [[spoiler: Ocelot attempts to jab a finger into Naked Snake's eye during a close-quarters fight... which was one that Ocelot already shot out by accident earlier in the story. Snake just taps his eyepatch with a smug grin and continues the fight.]]

* In ''Film/RevengeOfTheSith'', DarthWiki/DarthVader's prosthetic arm lets him climb to safety even when the rest of his body is burned by lava.

** In ''Beyond The Blue Moon'', a sorceress who's fighting a zombie horde is attacked from behind by one of their number. It grabs her lush mane of curly black hair ... only to find itself holding a wig, which confuses the slow-witted undead long enough for the outraged (because revealed as bald) sorceress to blast it.

* ''Manga/BusoRenkin'': In at least one of his fight's [[StockShonenHero Kazuki]] he gets stabbed in the heart, only for it not to do anything as his heart had already been destroyed and replaced with the a [[MineralMacGuffin Kakugane]] that can transform into the {{Magitek}} weapon that he was holding in his hand at the time.

* ''Manga/{{Bleach}}''

* ''LightNovel/KaraNoKyoukai'''s Shiki does this with her arm.

* In one of Kazuki's fights in ''Manga/BusoRenkin'', he gets stabbed in the heart. But it doesn't do anything, because he had already been stabbed in the heart and had it replaced with a [[MineralMacGuffin Kakugane,]] which is now in his hand as his Buso Renkin. Later in the same fight he deactivates his Buso Renkin, returning the kakugane to his chest as a shield against [[HalfTheManHeUsedToBe being chopped in half]].

* In ''Series/StargateSG1'', the most painful way to kill Jaffa is to aim for the symbiote pouch in their abdomen, which both kills the symbiote and causes a serious gut injury... unless said Jaffa uses tretonin, a drug that obviates the need for a symbiote. Thus in "Lost City", Bra'tac survives being stabbed in his pouch by TheMole. Using tretonin instead of a symbiote also renders Jaffa immune to a Tok'ra-developed chemical weapon that targets Goa'uld symbiotes (the dying symbiote unfortunately produces a toxin that also kills the host).

* Sylar from ''Series/{{Heroes}}'' can avoid mortal harm by using his shapeshifting powers to move his organs around.

* During the Unification War, Mal Reynolds of ''Series/{{Firefly}}'' had a certain cluster of nerves moved due to getting torn up by a piece of shrapnel. As a result, during the Big Damn Movie ''Film/{{Serenity}}'', the nerve strike that the Operative uses to paralyze people and set them up for being killed with his sword doesn't work on him.

* In one of Kazuki's fights in ''Manga/BusouRenkin'', he gets stabbed in the heart. But it doesn't do anything, because he had already been stabbed in the heart and had it replaced with a [[MineralMacGuffin Kakugane,]] which is now in his hand as his Busou Renkin. Later in the same fight he deactivates his Busou Renkin, returning the kakugane to his chest as a shield against [[HalfTheManHeUsedToBe being chopped in half]].

[[folder:Web Orginal]]

Where a character gets stabbed or shot -- usually in the kidney -- and it should be fatal. Only it isn't, because they donated that kidney. Or they have [[BizarreHumanBiology dextrocardia]]. Or that limb was actually [[ArtificialLimbs prosthetic]]. Or they only '''look''' human when [[HumanOutsideAlienInside their insides are decidedly not]]. Hell, even if they're not humanoid, the placement of certain organs (e.g. brain and heart) is practically universal among real-life non-microscopic animals that possess, so [[BizarreAlienBiology an alien having their brain in their foot rather than their head]] would be completely unexpected, to the misfortune of anyone who tries to [[BoomHeadshot kill them by headshot]].

* One character on ''Series/GameOfThrones'' (whose name would be a major LateArrivalSpoiler) shrugs off a GroinAttack in the seventh season because he was castrated during a period of ColdBloodedTorture in the third season.

* ''WesternAnimation/AdventureTime'': In the episode "Evicted", Jake survives a vampire bite by moving all his blood and guts into his thumb. He can do that.

Where a character gets stabbed or shot -- usually in the kidney -- and it should be fatal. Only it isn't, because they donated that kidney. Or they have [[BizarreHumanBiology dextrocardia]]. Or that limb was actually [[ArtificialLimbs prosthetic]]. Or they only '''look''' human when [[HumanOutsideAlienInside their insides are decidedly not]]. Hell, even if they're not humanoid, the placement of certain organs (e.g. brain and heart) is practically universal among real-life non-microscopic animals that possess, so [[BizarreAlienBiology an alien having their brain in their foot rather than their head]] would be completely unexpected, to the misfortune of anyone who tries [[BoomHeadshot kill them by headshot]].

Where a character gets stabbed or shot - usually in the kidney - and it should be fatal. Only it isn't, because they donated that kidney. Or they have [[BizarreHumanBiology dextrocardia]]. Or that limb was actually [[ArtificialLimbs prosthetic]]. Or they only '''look''' human when [[HumanOutsideAlienInside their insides are decidedly not]]. Hell, even if they're not humanoid, the placement of certain organs (e.g. brain and heart) is practically universal among real-life non-microscopic animals that possess, so [[BizarreAlienBiology an alien having their brain in their foot rather than their head]] would be completely unexpected, to the misfortune of anyone who tries [[BoomHeadshot kill them by headshot]].

* Happens occasionally with Professor X's wheelchair/hoverchair in ''ComicBook/XMen''.

* ''ComicBook/TransformersRobotsInDisguise'': Ironhide finds the severed head of Sludge's beast mode yet the [[HatePlague frenzied]] Sludge attacks him later, this is because his [[CranialProcessingUnit brain module]] is in the head of his robot mode.

* The Doctor suddenly revealing he has a respiratory bypass system' as an explanation for him surviving strangulation in the ''Series/DoctorWho'' serial "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS13E3PyramidsOfMars Pyramids of Mars]]".
* In ''Series/StargateSG1'', the most painful way to kill Jaffa is to aim for the symbiote pouch in their abdomen, which both kills the symbiote and causes a serious gut injury ... unless said Jaffa uses tretonin, a drug that obviates the need for a symbiote. Thus in "Lost City", Bra'tac survived being stabbed in his pouch by TheMole. Using tretonin instead of a symbiote also renders Jaffa immune to a Tok'ra-developed chemical weapon that targets Goa'uld symbiotes (the dying symbiote unfortunately produces a toxin that also kills the host).

* Jasper (the old guy with the long beard) on ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'' was shot by Waylon Smithers (offscreen) in "Who Shot Mr. Burns Part 1." It was revealed in Part 2 that he was shot in his heretofore unrevealed wooden leg, and didn't even know it. (Didn't know that he was shot that is; he knew he had a wooden leg.)

[[folder:Other]]
* There is a [[StockLateralThinkingPuzzle lateral thinking puzzle]] about a man who "lived because his brother nearly died" which when solved is revealed to be a man stabbed who managed to survive due to an organ dodge; having donated his kidney to his brother earlier when his brother was sick.
** Another more gruesome and challenging puzzle is the exact inverse of this. I don't recall the setup, but the final reveal ends up involving three scientists who were studying some newly discovered primitive/superstitious peoples culture when they accidentally anger the primitives and are going to be killed for it. In an attempt to save the others one of the men claimed that they were special beings sent by the gods and that they only look like humans, when the primitives don't believe him he tells them to kill him first. When they do they discover the man had four kidneys(from kidney transplants he had received, they leave the old ones in and keep adding new ones). Since the primitive people consider kidneys to be the source of power in a man they conclude that any man with four must be special and thus this man was telling the truth about being sent by the gods. The primitives let the other two scientists go in hopes of not angering the gods any more then they already had by killing one of their representatives.
** For added fun, combine the two above puzzles by having one brother donate a kidney to the other, then have the first's life saved when he is stabbed, but lacks a kidney, and the other sacrifices himself to the primitives. Properly phrased, this puzzle will take many hours to solve and drive even the most skilled puzzler crazy.
* In one [=StoryCorps=] piece, a man [[http://storycorps.org/listen/lendall-hill-lori-fitzgerald/ tells the story of his father's wooden leg]] and different potentially-dangerous scenarios where he avoided pain because of his leg.
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