History Main / SerialProstheses

%%* ''ComicBook/TheWarlordDC'': Deimos.

* ''Anime/CyberpunkEdgerunners'' shows this as one sign of cyberpsychosis, specifically a desire to add increasingly more cybernetic augmentations to your body until you snap and go completely insane. The cyberpsycho in the prologue is disconnected from reality by all his enhancements, and massacres dozens of people before he's finally brought down by [=MaxTac=]. Maine also flirts with it and [[spoiler:goes completely over the edge when his friend is killed]]. Finally, [[spoiler:David starts with the Sandevistan augment, and by the end of the show is a barely more than a brain in a massive robot tank, going increasingly insane despite ''massive'' injections of anti-psychotic medication every few minutes]]. The RPG notes that this is a common outcome of more extreme augmentations, where things constantly perceiving time as moving much more slowly certainly makes you move and react faster than everyone else, but you'll go increasingly crazy when people are slow to ''move out of your way''.

* ''Manga/MyHeroAcademia'': [[spoiler:Miruko has this happen to her during the Paranormal Liberation War. In the process of trying to kill Shigaraki before he can fully assimilate into his modified body, the Nomu she fights destroy an arm and a leg of hers. In the subsequent war, he uses prosthetics to make up for her lost limbs, and even switches them out when they get damaged. During the battle, she loses yet another arm to Shigaraki before finally being beaten unconscious and unable to continue.]]

* Deathborn's bio alludes to this in ''VideoGame/FZero GX'', to the point where the only organic part of his body is [[BrainInAJar his brain]]. This is in contrast with another character, [[FragileSpeedster Mighty Gazelle]], who was an obvious case of WeCanRebuildHim.

* In ''Film/LittleBigMan'', the traveling SnakeOilSalesman Mr. Merriweather Jack loses several minor body parts over the time that Jack knows him, usually to an [[TorchesAndPitchforks angry mob]]. When Jack meets him a few years later, Merriweather comments that there isn't much more he could lose.

* Hakuryuu from ''Manga/MagiLabyrinthOfMagic'' keeps getting limbs cut off and replacing them with magical wooden prostheses. Definitely a case of a HandicappedBadass and he trounces our heroes. He loses an arm in Zagan's dungeon, onyl to replace it with a wooden on once he claims the djinn for his own, but he loses both his legs to Alibaba during their fight in the Kou Empire arc and also has to replace them with prosthetic wooden limbs.

** On the public beach, Dekao has an ElectronicEye (right) installed, plus rocket-propelled fists and six shoulder-mounted missiles. Gets splashed with seawater, shorts out, explodes.

* [[spoiler: Miruko from ''Manga/MyHeroAcademia'' has this happen to her during the Paranormal Liberation War. In the process of trying to kill Shigaraki before he can fully assimilate into his modified body, the Nomu she fights destroy an arm and a leg of hers. In the subsequent war, he uses prosthetics to make up for her lost limbs, and even switches them out when they get damaged. During the battle, she loses yet another arm to Shigaraki before finally being beaten unconscious and unable to continue.]]

* Blackjack from ''FanFic/FalloutEquestriaProjectHorizons'' loses [[AnArmAndALeg all four limbs]], [[EyeScream both eyes on separate occasions]], and has to have her heart replaced with an artificial blood pump due to [[TheCorruption Taint]] damage. [[spoiler: And then [[OurHeroIsDead she dies]] [[DeathIsASlapOnTheWrist (again)]] and her [[BrainUploading consciousness is placed]] in the body of an [[WingedUnicorn alicorn]] android.]]

* The traveling ConMan that the main character hooks up with in ''Film/LittleBigMan'' loses several minor body parts over the time that he knows him, usually to the AngryMob. When he meets him a few years later, he comments that there isn't much more he could lose.

* Nebula from ''Film/GuardiansOfTheGalaxy2014'' was punished by Thanos every time she failed to best her sister Gamora by having a piece of her body replaced by machinery. In the [[Film/GuardiansOfTheGalaxyVol2 sequel]], she goes into detail to Gamora.
-->'''Nebula:''' You're the one who wanted to win, but I just wanted a sister. You were all I had, but you just needed to win. Thanos pulled my eye from my head. He tore my brain from my skull, and my arm from my body... because of you.
* ''Film/HotShots'' and its sequel uses the comedic version with Admiral (later President) Benson. Any time a quick gag is called for, he reveals that he's had some body part replaced by something ridiculous due to an old war injury or accident. Asbestos skin, a basset hound's tongue, etc.

* Goldeneyes Silverhand Dactylos, one-off character from ''Literature/{{Discworld}}'' (the first book, in fact). His backstory consists of him inventing marvels for various royals, only for his employers to mutilate him so that he couldn't repeat the invention for anyone else. When his latest employer asks why he didn't just give it all up and try flower arranging, he replies "I'm good at it."

* This is the basis of a short story by Creator/StanislawLem, where a man who had his entire body replaced by prostheses (including first one, then the other hemisphere of the brain) is sued for nonpayment by the prosthesis producer, who argues that since there is not a single organic part left in the man, he's just an inanimate collection of prostheses which lawfully belongs to the company.
* This was the eventual fate of [[Creator/EdgarAllanPoe "The Man Who Was Used Up"]]. It's played for bleak laughs when he is shown to be a squeaking heap without his protheses, and his manservant "assembles" him piece by piece in front of the narrator.

* Creator/MichaelMoorcock, possibly prompted by parodic references to his works by people like Creator/TerryPratchett, wrote a deliberate self-parody acknowledging that things like ''Literature/TheElricSaga'' might have gone a teeny-weeny bit over the top, called ''The Stone Thing; A Man of Many Parts''. in which a typical Moorcock hero admits to a woman he is wooing that life has taken its toll somewhat and practically every part of his body has, at one time or another, been replaced by a prosthetic. the deal-breaker, for the lady involved, is [[TheReveal the Stone Thing]] of the title...[[note]]Most incarnations of the Eternal Warrior in Moorcock's opus have had at least one physical component severed and replaced.[[/note]]

* ''Series/DoctorWho'' had this as the backstories for Davros and the Cybermen. It's absolutely chilling and heartbreaking in the Fifth Doctor [[AudioPlay/BigFinishDoctorWho audio adventure]] ''[[Recap/BigFinishDoctorWho034SpareParts Spare Parts]]''.

* ''Magazine/{{MAD}}'' published a collection of parodies of famous novels. The parody of ''Literature/MobyDick'' had this happening to Captain Ahab, with him having a wooden prothesis added every time he lost a body part in pursuit of the whale. By the end of the story, his entire body was wood except for his nose; which was iron because the carpenter had run out of wood.

[[folder:Music]]

* Wilhelm, a boss in ''VideoGame/Borderlands2'' and a PlayerCharacter in ''VideoGame/BorderlandsThePreSequel'', was born with a bone disease which was treated with cybernetic implants... which also caused an addiction to cybernetics and gave him a new goal in life; to turn himself into a robot. In the latter game, he's still visibly human but certain upgrades in his skill tree replace some of his body parts with metallic replacements. By the time of the former game, he is more metal than meat.
* Scaly Pete in ''VideoGame/{{Maneater}}'' loses first an arm to the shark protagonist, then a leg, then gets scarred in an explosion. The ''WebAnimation/ZeroPunctuation'' review parodied his gradual VillainDecay with a picture where he had ''all four limbs and the top of his head'' replaced by hooks.
* The player can invoke this in ''VideoGame/{{Kenshi}}'', due to the game allowing limbs to get cut off if they get damaged enough during combat. It's perfectly possible (and actually quite likely) for at least one member of your squad to lose all of their limbs on four separate occasions, and subsequently replace them with prosthetic limbs.
* ''VideoGame/ShinMegamiTenseiIf'': Otsuki, an insane teacher fanatically devoted to the Emperor Deity, rebuilt himself each time he's defeated by the protagonists: first he replaces his right arm with an hydraulic hammer, then his legs with tank treads and finally his entire body with a hulking mech.

* [[spoiler:Clarice]] from ''Webcomic/AGirlAndHerFed'' is already a cyborg when first appearing, but later starts adding more cybernetic implants between run-ins with the protagonists.
** The titular Girl is shown to have kept the robotic arm she ripped off in one violent encounter as a trophy on her mantel at home.

* A self inflicted non-damaged variation in an episode of ''WesternAnimation/{{Futurama}}'' has Hermes fired and replaced by a robot. He gains an inferiority complex over it and each scene has him replace body part after body part until he's nothing but a brain in a robot body, which he also wants to replace.
* Major Bludd of ''WesternAnimation/GIJoeRenegades'' lost an eye the first time he ran into the Joes, and his arm the second time. If this kept up, he'll practically be a robot down the line.

* Baxter Stockman in ''WesternAnimation/TeenageMutantNinjaTurtles2003'' is forced to replace more and more of his body thanks to Shredder's [[YouHaveFailedMe attitude towards failures]]. He loses an eye, a hand, and ends up in a wheelchair before trying to take his revenge in a MiniMecha. When that fails, he's reduced to [[WetwareCPU a head attached to a robot body]]. [[BrainInAJar It gets worse from there.]]
* ''WesternAnimation/CyberpunkEdgerunners'' shows this as one sign of cyberpsychosis, specifically a desire to add increasingly more cybernetic augmentations to your body until you snap and go completely insane. The cyberpsycho in the prologue is disconnected from reality by all his enhancements, and massacres dozens of people before he's finally brought down by [=MaxTac=]. Maine also flirts with it and [[spoiler: goes completely over the edge when his friend is killed]]. And finally, [[spoiler: David starts with the Sandevistan augment, and by the end of the show is a barely more than a brain in a massive robot tank, going increasingly insane despite ''massive'' injections of anti-psychotic medication every few minutes]]. The RPG notes that this is a common outcome of more extreme augmentations, where things constantly perceiving time as moving much more slowly certainly makes you move and react faster than everyone else, but you'll go increasingly crazy when people are slow to ''move out of your way''.

Compare WeCanRebuildHim, in which a single devastating injury [[BackFromTheDead or death]] necessitates all new body parts in one go. Goes hand-in-hand with MutilationConga.

* ''Literature/TheWonderfulWizardOfOz'': The Tin Man's backstory involved him chopping off his limbs, one by one, after a witch put a curse on his axe. He even had to replace his ''torso'' and ''head'' with tin prostheses. This creates a weird TheseusShipParadox in later books: Eventually through the gradual process the Tin Man becomes entirely made of tin, but due to the NobodyCanDie nature of Oz, his original body ''[[AndIMustScream remains sentient]]'' and wants nothing to do with his tin counterpart.

* Hakuryuu from ''Manga/MagiLabyrinthOfMagic'' keeps getting limbs cut off and replacing them with magical wooden prostheses. Definitely a case of a {{Disabled Badass}} and he trounces our heroes. He loses an arm in Zagan's dungeon, onyl to replace it with a wooden on once he claims the djinn for his own, but he loses both his legs to Alibaba during their fight in the Kou Empire arc and also has to replace them with prosthetic wooden limbs.

* Blackjack from ''FanFic/FalloutEquestriaProjectHorizons'' loses [[AnArmandaLeg all four limbs]], [[EyeScream both eyes on separate occasions]], and has to have her heart replaced with an artificial blood pump due to [[TheCorruption Taint]] damage. [[spoiler: And then [[OurHeroIsDead she dies]] [[DeathIsASlapOnTheWrist (again)]] and her [[BrainUploading consciousness is placed]] in the body of an [[WingedUnicorn alicorn]] android.]]

* ''Literature/TheWonderfulWizardOfOz'': The Tin Man's backstory involved him chopping off his limbs, one by one, after a witch put a curse on his axe. He even had to replace his ''torso'' and ''head'' with tin prostheses.

* Starr from ''ComicBook/{{Preacher}}'' loses his leg to underground Texan cannibals and later his penis to an AngryGuardDog.

* The Linear Man from the 1990s ''ComicBook/{{Superman}}'' comics says that he had to constantly replace parts of himself whenever he time-traveled, which explains his half-cybernetic look.
* Dekko from ''ComicBook/{{Zot}}'' underwent repeated amputations and bionic replacements in an attempt to cure a disease that kept popping up again in what remained of his organic body. Along the way, he [[CyberneticsEatYourSoul lost contact with his humanity]] and embraced his new robotic form.
%%* Deimos in ''Comicbook/TheWarlord''.

%%* Dekko from ''ComicBook/{{Zot}}''

[[folder: Anime/Manga]]

[[folder: Comic Books]]

* The Linear Man from the 1990s ''Franchise/{{Superman}}'' comics says that he had to constantly replace parts of himself whenever he time-traveled, which explains his half-cybernetic look.

[[folder: Fan Fiction ]]

[[folder: Film -- Animated ]]

* The Man-Droids from ''WesternAnimation/StarChaserTheLegendOfOrin''. They are, as their name suggest, cyborgs composed of machinery and organic body parts. ''Rotten'' organic body parts, so they get by with capturing people and robots lost in the swamp so they can dismember them and use their parts.

[[folder: Film -- Live-Action ]]

* Nebula from ''Film/GuardiansOfTheGalaxy'' was punished by Thanos every time she failed to best her sister Gamora by having a piece of her body replaced by machinery. In the [[Film/GuardiansOfTheGalaxyVol2 sequel]] she goes into detail to Gamora.

[[folder: Literature ]]

* Creator/MichaelMoorcock, possibly prompted by parodic references to his works by people like Creator/TerryPratchett, wrote a deliberate self-parody acknowledging that things like Literature/TheElricSaga might have gone a teeny-weeny bit [[UpToEleven over the top]], called ''The Stone Thing; A Man of Many Parts''. in which a typical Moorcock hero admits to a woman he is wooing that life has taken its toll somewhat and practically every part of his body has, at one time or another, been replaced by a prosthetic. the deal-breaker, for the lady involved, is [[TheReveal The Stone Thing]] of the title... [[note]]Most incarnations of The Eternal Warrior in Moorcock's opus have had at least one physical component severed and replaced[[/note]]

[[folder: Live Action TV ]]

* ''Series/DoctorWho'' had this as the backstories for Davros and the Cybermen. It's absolutely chilling and heartbreaking in the Fifth Doctor audio adventure ''[[AudioPlay/BigFinishDoctorWho Spare Parts]]''.

[[folder: Magazines ]]

[[folder: Music ]]

* ''TabletopGame/Warhammer40000'': Done deliberately by the Tech-Priests of Mars and the more tech-oriented [[SuperSoldier Astartes]] Chapters, who view flesh as weakness and get mechanical replacements for their various bodyparts as they go up in rank.

[[folder: Video Games ]]

[[folder: Webcomics ]]

* Yuri from ''Webcomic/SpaceTrawler'' becomes a cyborg, loses some limbs (gets some PTSD), gets some mechanical replacements, engages in some violence, then gets some alien organ transplants and some more mechanical augmentation. She's currently been forcibly downgraded back a step from her form as a laser-wielding mech-spider back to her basic bipedal form.

[[folder: Western Animation ]]

* Hakuryuu from ''Manga/MagiLabyrinthOfMagic'' keeps getting limbs cut off and replacing them with magical wooden prostheses. Definitely a case of a {{Disabled Badass}} and he trounces our heroes.

** On the public beach, Dekao has an ElectrocicEye (right) installed, plus rocket-propelled fists and six shoulder-mounted missiles. Gets splashed with seawater, shorts out, explodes.

[[folder: Comic Books ]]

* The space tyrant Sador from ''Film/BattleBeyondTheStars'' has a fondness for replacing his own body parts with ones taken from defeated enemies. This turns out bad for him when his soldiers capture a Nestor clone (Nestor being a HiveMind consisting of its entire race, who joins the heroes with a group of clones because it wants new experiences). After the clone is killed by torture, Sador claims its arm... and then discovers that ''Nestor can still control it''. His goons manage to cut it off before it successfully chokes him to death, unfortunately.

* Baxter Stockman in ''WesternAnimation/TeenageMutantNinjaTurtles2003'' is forced to replace more and more of his body thanks to Shredder's [[YouHaveFailedMe attitude towards failures]]. He loses an eye, a hand, and ends up in a wheelchair before trying to take his revenge in a MiniMecha. When that fails, he's reduced to a head attached to a robot. [[BrainInAJar It gets worse from there.]]

* Hakuryuu from ''Magi: The Labyrinth of Magic'' keeps getting limbs cut off and replacing them with magical wooden prostheses. Definitely a case of a {{Disabled Badass}} and he trounces our heroes.

** Luke's gone through some of this. He's only ever lost his right hand, but it's been taken off more than once. There was the original, in the movie. A one-off comic has it get infected with technological parasites, and he cuts it off himself. In ''ComicBook/DarkEmpire'' the Emperor Reborn had it removed and replaced with one [[InTheBlood more like his father's]]. Years later it's destroyed in ''Literature/LegacyOfTheForce''. Each time, he has it replaced again.

* Similarly, the clockwork villain Nemesis in ''VideoGame/CityOfHeroes'' replaced his body piece by piece as it was either shot off him (he lost his legs during the UsefulNotes/AmericanCivilWar) or wore out. By the start of the 21st century, he's pretty much just a brain in a robot body (or several), and one of the story arcs covers his (possibly successful) plan to replace even ''that''.

* Wilhelm, a boss in ''VideoGame/Borderlands2'' and a PlayerCharacter in ''VideoGame/BorderlandsThePreSequel'' is an interesting case, as he was born with a bone disease which was treated with cybernetic implants... which also caused an addiction to cybernetics and gave him a new goal in life; to turn himself into a robot. In the latter game, he's still visibly human but certain upgrades in his skill tree replace some of his body parts with metallic replacements. By the time of the former game, he is more metal than meat.