Search/Recent Changes
DBTropes
...it's like TV Tropes, but LINKED DATA!

Spare Body Parts

 Spare Body Parts
type
FeatureClass
 Spare Body Parts
label
Spare Body Parts
 Spare Body Parts
page
SpareBodyParts
 Spare Body Parts
comment
A Subtrope of either Bizarre Alien Biology or Body Horror, depending on how many of which parts the creature or person is "meant" to have. Humans have two eyes, two legs, two arms, two lungs, one mouth, etc., as do most of our most familiar animals. Want to make a race seem alien? Give them extra of something.
Advertisement:propertag.cmd.push(function() { proper_display('tvtropes_mobile_ad_1'); })Subtropes include:
 Spare Body Parts
fetched
2023-03-09T03:28:28Z
 Spare Body Parts
parsed
2023-03-09T03:28:28Z
 Spare Body Parts
processingComment
Dropped link to AnthropomorphicPersonification: Not an Item - FEATURE
 Spare Body Parts
processingComment
Dropped link to Beck: Not an Item - IGNORE
 Spare Body Parts
processingComment
Dropped link to LittleBitBeastly: Not an Item - FEATURE
 Spare Body Parts
processingComment
Dropped link to LogicalExtreme: Not an Item - FEATURE
 Spare Body Parts
processingComment
Dropped link to ThrownOutTheAirlock: Not an Item - FEATURE
 Spare Body Parts
isPartOf
DBTropes
 Spare Body Parts / int_2f4271ed
type
Spare Body Parts
 Spare Body Parts / int_2f4271ed
comment
The Tyrathca of The Night's Dawn Trilogy. Females of the breeder caste have multiple sets of ovaries, each becoming fertile at a different time in her cycle, and each producing a different kind of egg that hatches into a different caste. (The Tyrathca are a Eusocial species with multiple castes that evolved to perform specialized tasks such as Hunter, Soldier, Farmer, etc. Only the Breeders are fertile and fully intelligent. All other castes are little more then beasts of burden lacking the intelligence to do anything but the task they evolved for.)
 Spare Body Parts / int_2f4271ed
featureApplicability
1.0
 Spare Body Parts / int_2f4271ed
featureConfidence
1.0
 The Night's Dawn Trilogy
hasFeature
Spare Body Parts / int_2f4271ed
 Spare Body Parts / int_2fa6ab16
type
Spare Body Parts
 Spare Body Parts / int_2fa6ab16
comment
In Coneheads, we learn that the Remulakians have at least four rows of teeth.
 Spare Body Parts / int_2fa6ab16
featureApplicability
1.0
 Spare Body Parts / int_2fa6ab16
featureConfidence
1.0
 Coneheads
hasFeature
Spare Body Parts / int_2fa6ab16
 Spare Body Parts / int_468bebb0
type
Spare Body Parts
 Spare Body Parts / int_468bebb0
comment
Discworld: It's offhandedly mentioned that banshees have two hearts in Going Postal. This can also apply to Igors - they're not born with the extras, they're just very good at Self-Surgery.
 Spare Body Parts / int_468bebb0
featureApplicability
1.0
 Spare Body Parts / int_468bebb0
featureConfidence
1.0
 Discworld
hasFeature
Spare Body Parts / int_468bebb0
 Spare Body Parts / int_5755b96a
type
Spare Body Parts
 Spare Body Parts / int_5755b96a
comment
Dwarves in The Order of the Stick have two livers. This is the in-story justification for their +2 fortitude save against poison, and why it is so hard for them to die from alcohol poisoning. Actually managing to die of alcohol poisoning counts as a death in battle for religious reasons, in respect for the valiant stand against the inevitable the livers made.
 Spare Body Parts / int_5755b96a
featureApplicability
1.0
 Spare Body Parts / int_5755b96a
featureConfidence
1.0
 The Order of the Stick (Webcomic)
hasFeature
Spare Body Parts / int_5755b96a
 Spare Body Parts / int_5b3356f8
type
Spare Body Parts
 Spare Body Parts / int_5b3356f8
comment
In Turning Red, when partially transformed, Mei keeps both her human ears alongside her panda ears.
 Spare Body Parts / int_5b3356f8
featureApplicability
1.0
 Spare Body Parts / int_5b3356f8
featureConfidence
1.0
 Turning Red
hasFeature
Spare Body Parts / int_5b3356f8
 Spare Body Parts / int_62570927
type
Spare Body Parts
 Spare Body Parts / int_62570927
comment
Part 6 of the Marvel Fact Files says that the Kree have duplicates of several internal organs.
 Spare Body Parts / int_62570927
featureApplicability
1.0
 Spare Body Parts / int_62570927
featureConfidence
1.0
 Marvel Universe (Franchise)
hasFeature
Spare Body Parts / int_62570927
 Spare Body Parts / int_6b85085e
type
Spare Body Parts
 Spare Body Parts / int_6b85085e
comment
The Shokan (the race of Goro and Sheeva) in Mortal Kombat all have four arms.
 Spare Body Parts / int_6b85085e
featureApplicability
1.0
 Spare Body Parts / int_6b85085e
featureConfidence
1.0
 Mortal Kombat (Franchise)
hasFeature
Spare Body Parts / int_6b85085e
 Spare Body Parts / int_6e1d5f36
type
Spare Body Parts
 Spare Body Parts / int_6e1d5f36
comment
The warrior race, Luxans from Farscape have two hearts.
 Spare Body Parts / int_6e1d5f36
featureApplicability
1.0
 Spare Body Parts / int_6e1d5f36
featureConfidence
1.0
 Farscape
hasFeature
Spare Body Parts / int_6e1d5f36
 Spare Body Parts / int_7129b6f9
type
Spare Body Parts
 Spare Body Parts / int_7129b6f9
comment
S.L. Viehl uses this a lot in the Stardoc series. For example, there's an alien in the first book with two separate digestive tracts.
 Spare Body Parts / int_7129b6f9
featureApplicability
1.0
 Spare Body Parts / int_7129b6f9
featureConfidence
1.0
 Stardoc
hasFeature
Spare Body Parts / int_7129b6f9
 Spare Body Parts / int_7988cb68
type
Spare Body Parts
 Spare Body Parts / int_7988cb68
comment
In Mass Effect, the batarians have four eyes. When humans, or other two-eyed races have conversations with them they get confused because they don't know what to focus on, leading to the batarian attitude that humans are stupid.
Then there's the memorable quote about krogan testicle transplants: "Some go for as much as 10,000 credits a piece, that's 40,000 for the full set." Humans say someone's got a pair - krogan have a quad.
The krogan take this trope to its Logical Extreme, having evolved redundant internal organs as a result of living on a Death World. At one point EDI mentions a krogan's tertiary organ systems, meaning even their spares have spares. And when one of the redundant ones kick in, it triggers an intense adrenaline surge that permits them to knock people aside like ragdolls. Never attack a krogan with anything less than what you'd use to demolish a building. You'll just make him mad.
See the page quote for how Wrex reacts to discovering that humans don't have a redundant nervous system to survive being spaced.
 Spare Body Parts / int_7988cb68
featureApplicability
1.0
 Spare Body Parts / int_7988cb68
featureConfidence
1.0
 Mass Effect (Franchise)
hasFeature
Spare Body Parts / int_7988cb68
 Spare Body Parts / int_81692f99
type
Spare Body Parts
 Spare Body Parts / int_81692f99
comment
Star Trek's Klingons have a number of physiological redundancies such as an extra liver, eight-chambered heart, a double set of ribs, redundant nerve systems and an extra lung. In at least one episode where that's brought up, the show also points out that this has its disadvantages; while it allows for survival if one of them fails, the fact that there are more of them increases the chance of one going wrong in the first place, causing problems in the process. It's not just internal organs; Star Trek: Discovery once shows a Klingon taking a leak, and there are two streams.
 Spare Body Parts / int_81692f99
featureApplicability
1.0
 Spare Body Parts / int_81692f99
featureConfidence
1.0
 Star Trek (Franchise)
hasFeature
Spare Body Parts / int_81692f99
 Spare Body Parts / int_87e00d8e
type
Spare Body Parts
 Spare Body Parts / int_87e00d8e
comment
Teen Titans (2003): Starfire is quite happy she has nine stomachs when she is spoonfed some Mind Controlling pie and spits it back before digesting it.
 Spare Body Parts / int_87e00d8e
featureApplicability
1.0
 Spare Body Parts / int_87e00d8e
featureConfidence
1.0
 Teen Titans (2003)
hasFeature
Spare Body Parts / int_87e00d8e
 Spare Body Parts / int_90c73dda
type
Spare Body Parts
 Spare Body Parts / int_90c73dda
comment
In Animorphs, Andalites sort of resemble centaurs, which obviously means extra legs, but even their humanoid parts have seven fingers on each hand, two extra eyes on stalks, and apparently three hearts.
 Spare Body Parts / int_90c73dda
featureApplicability
1.0
 Spare Body Parts / int_90c73dda
featureConfidence
1.0
 Animorphs
hasFeature
Spare Body Parts / int_90c73dda
 Spare Body Parts / int_9e603778
type
Spare Body Parts
 Spare Body Parts / int_9e603778
comment
The biblical Book of Revelation contains many beasts with extra heads, eyes, horns, and so on, including a beast with seven heads and four heavenly creatures that are completely covered in eyes.
 Spare Body Parts / int_9e603778
featureApplicability
1.0
 Spare Body Parts / int_9e603778
featureConfidence
1.0
 Book of Revelation
hasFeature
Spare Body Parts / int_9e603778
 Spare Body Parts / int_a183d57f
type
Spare Body Parts
 Spare Body Parts / int_a183d57f
comment
Futurama:
In one episode, Bender is in an accident that costs him the use of his arms. Beck gives him tiny replacement arms mounted on his neck (which Beck uses to play the harmonica). Later, when Bender regains the use of his original arms, he uses both pairs in expressions.
Zoidberg as well. He's got several of everything, and can even talk through a vivisection (much to the dismay of the vivisectors).
 Spare Body Parts / int_a183d57f
featureApplicability
1.0
 Spare Body Parts / int_a183d57f
featureConfidence
1.0
 Futurama
hasFeature
Spare Body Parts / int_a183d57f
 Spare Body Parts / int_a81325d3
type
Spare Body Parts
 Spare Body Parts / int_a81325d3
comment
Gilgamesh from the Final Fantasy series had at least eight arms.
 Spare Body Parts / int_a81325d3
featureApplicability
1.0
 Spare Body Parts / int_a81325d3
featureConfidence
1.0
 Final Fantasy (Franchise)
hasFeature
Spare Body Parts / int_a81325d3
 Spare Body Parts / int_aa930998
type
Spare Body Parts
 Spare Body Parts / int_aa930998
comment
Serix: The specs for Rees's clone bodies list her as having four lungs, four hearts, and three stomachs. The Made of Iron Sheriff Ludo also boasts about having thirty-seven hearts after getting a hole blown through his torso.
 Spare Body Parts / int_aa930998
featureApplicability
1.0
 Spare Body Parts / int_aa930998
featureConfidence
1.0
 Serix (Webcomic)
hasFeature
Spare Body Parts / int_aa930998
 Spare Body Parts / int_b4fe32c9
type
Spare Body Parts
 Spare Body Parts / int_b4fe32c9
comment
In the Invader Zim episode "Dark Harvest" when there's a physical coming up and Zim realises the nurse would figure out he's not human after examining him, he goes around stealing organs from the other students. Of course, with Zim being Zim he goes over the top and steals more organs than he really needs. Lucky for him the nurse is an idiot and doesn't see anything amiss.
 Spare Body Parts / int_b4fe32c9
featureApplicability
1.0
 Spare Body Parts / int_b4fe32c9
featureConfidence
1.0
 Invader Zim
hasFeature
Spare Body Parts / int_b4fe32c9
 Spare Body Parts / int_bb8d2f1a
type
Spare Body Parts
 Spare Body Parts / int_bb8d2f1a
comment
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy's Zaphod Beeblebrox: Two heads, three arms. The extras aren't standard for his race, he had them added.
 Spare Body Parts / int_bb8d2f1a
featureApplicability
1.0
 Spare Body Parts / int_bb8d2f1a
featureConfidence
1.0
 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
hasFeature
Spare Body Parts / int_bb8d2f1a
 Spare Body Parts / int_bcadd7cb
type
Spare Body Parts
 Spare Body Parts / int_bcadd7cb
comment
In Warhammer 40,000, the Genestealer Hybrids, an Alienesque cult designed by the equally Alienesque Tyranids, have six limbs, four of which are the normal mammal-human ones, and the two (or sometimes only one) others are clawed and chitin-ed.
For that matter, the Space Marines have 19 extra organs implanted although only two of them are actually spares for existing organs (an extra heart and lung).
 Spare Body Parts / int_bcadd7cb
featureApplicability
1.0
 Spare Body Parts / int_bcadd7cb
featureConfidence
1.0
 Warhammer 40,000 (Tabletop Game)
hasFeature
Spare Body Parts / int_bcadd7cb
 Spare Body Parts / int_c43df4d8
type
Spare Body Parts
 Spare Body Parts / int_c43df4d8
comment
Doctor Who:
Time Lords have two hearts. The Doctor is no exception. Some of the spinoff novels have added a great deal of lore regarding Time Lord hearts, including:
Time Lords have only one heart in their first incarnation and the second one develops, along with other physiological advantages like the respiratory bypass system, as a result of their first regeneration.note This bit of lore was devised primarily to clear up the continuity issue of the First Doctor having only one heart, with the two-hearted Doctor not being established until the Third Doctor's debut story. (Although some other novels say otherwise.)
The hearts are categorised as a "primary" and a "secondary". Quite what this means in a physiological sense (e.g., is one heart more powerful than the other, do they have somewhat different functions) is never made quite clear.
The Eighth Doctor novel The Adventuress of Henrietta Street suggests that the second heart might be the source of some sort of psychic link between the Time Lords and Gallifrey, and the control centre for their various alien traits (regeneration, rapid healing, sensitivity to time etc).
Both the spinoff novels and the new series indicate that the Doctor is capable of living with only one functioning heart, though it's very painful and can't be kept up for long.
"The Woman Who Fell to Earth" reveals that the two hearts result in two separate pulses.
"Extremis", meanwhile, reveals Time Lords also have three brainstems.
"The Girl Who Waited": The Apalapucians are another Human Alien species with two hearts.
Iris Wildthyme and the Panda Invasion shows that Iris has two livers as a nod to The Doctor having two hearts.
In Doctor Who Meets Scratchman, Charon mentions having to take a Martian Warlord to Hell after taking a sickle to his third spleen.
 Spare Body Parts / int_c43df4d8
featureApplicability
1.0
 Spare Body Parts / int_c43df4d8
featureConfidence
1.0
 Doctor Who
hasFeature
Spare Body Parts / int_c43df4d8
 Spare Body Parts / int_d461a59f
type
Spare Body Parts
 Spare Body Parts / int_d461a59f
comment
The lounge singers in Battlestar Galactica (1978) have two mouths each. Meanwhile, those insectoid things have four arms. Eek, in both cases.
 Spare Body Parts / int_d461a59f
featureApplicability
1.0
 Spare Body Parts / int_d461a59f
featureConfidence
1.0
 Battlestar Galactica (1978)
hasFeature
Spare Body Parts / int_d461a59f
 Spare Body Parts / int_d78e771e
type
Spare Body Parts
 Spare Body Parts / int_d78e771e
comment
In The Mote in God's Eye and its sequels, Moties have one large, powerful hand on their left side, and two smaller, more dexterous hands on their right side.
 Spare Body Parts / int_d78e771e
featureApplicability
1.0
 Spare Body Parts / int_d78e771e
featureConfidence
1.0
 The Mote in God's Eye
hasFeature
Spare Body Parts / int_d78e771e
 Spare Body Parts / int_eecf4fdd
type
Spare Body Parts
 Spare Body Parts / int_eecf4fdd
comment
Iris Wildthyme and the Panda Invasion shows that Iris has two livers as a nod to The Doctor having two hearts.
 Spare Body Parts / int_eecf4fdd
featureApplicability
1.0
 Spare Body Parts / int_eecf4fdd
featureConfidence
1.0
 Iris Wildthyme (Franchise)
hasFeature
Spare Body Parts / int_eecf4fdd
 Spare Body Parts / int_f74b5f80
type
Spare Body Parts
 Spare Body Parts / int_f74b5f80
comment
Babylon 5: Centauri have two hearts. Unlike Klingons, Centauri can die if either heart fails. In the season five episode "The Very Long Night of Londo Mollari", in which Londo suffers a heart attack, we find out more details: the right heart is a large and simple muscle, much like a human heart, whereas the left heart is a knot of blood vessels that gives the blood pressure an extra kick and also functions much as a human kidney (mollusks on earth have a somewhat similar system). Surgery on the left heart is correspondingly difficult due to its complexity. The left heart is considered the seat of the soul in traditional Centauri culture. Males also have six prehensile penises sprouting from their backs (aligned in pairs along the spine), corresponding to six similarly-arranged slits in the female.
 Spare Body Parts / int_f74b5f80
featureApplicability
1.0
 Spare Body Parts / int_f74b5f80
featureConfidence
1.0
 Babylon 5
hasFeature
Spare Body Parts / int_f74b5f80
 Spare Body Parts / int_f7558a18
type
Spare Body Parts
 Spare Body Parts / int_f7558a18
comment
Men in Black: The Series features the Sintillians. Not only do they have two hearts, but neither heart ever stops working; so long as they have at least one and "nobody drops a piano on them", they're effectively immortal. When Alpha steals a Sintillian's heart, K makes it clear to J that the Organ Theft is still a big deal. "You have ten toes. You wake up one morning with one missing, how would you feel?"
 Spare Body Parts / int_f7558a18
featureApplicability
1.0
 Spare Body Parts / int_f7558a18
featureConfidence
1.0
 Men in Black: The Series
hasFeature
Spare Body Parts / int_f7558a18
 Spare Body Parts / int_f9603330
type
Spare Body Parts
 Spare Body Parts / int_f9603330
comment
Gamma World. The mutant race known as the orlen were humanoids with two heads and four arms. Additionally, players could create mutant characters with any number of extra parts.
 Spare Body Parts / int_f9603330
featureApplicability
1.0
 Spare Body Parts / int_f9603330
featureConfidence
1.0
 Gamma World (Tabletop Game)
hasFeature
Spare Body Parts / int_f9603330
 Spare Body Parts / int_fdbace96
type
Spare Body Parts
 Spare Body Parts / int_fdbace96
comment
In Gravity Falls, Mermando, a merman, casually mentions that he has "like, seventeen hearts. Horrifying but true!"
 Spare Body Parts / int_fdbace96
featureApplicability
1.0
 Spare Body Parts / int_fdbace96
featureConfidence
1.0
 Gravity Falls
hasFeature
Spare Body Parts / int_fdbace96

The following is a list of statements referring to the current page from other pages.

 Spare Body Parts
processingCategory2
Anatomy Tropes
 Things Mr. Welch Is No Longer Allowed to Do in an RPG (Blog) / int_d7e7326c
type
Spare Body Parts
 Elementals of Harmony / Fan Fic / int_d7e7326c
type
Spare Body Parts
 Saving Blitzo (Fanfic) / int_d7e7326c
type
Spare Body Parts
 ElementalsofHarmony
seeAlso
Spare Body Parts
 Miscellaneous
seeAlso
Spare Body Parts
 Book of Revelation / int_d7e7326c
type
Spare Body Parts
 Colony / int_d7e7326c
type
Spare Body Parts
 Guards! Guards! / int_d7e7326c
type
Spare Body Parts
 Life Unlimited
seeAlso
Spare Body Parts
 The Night's Dawn Trilogy / int_d7e7326c
type
Spare Body Parts
 The Seven Deadly Sins (Manga) / int_d7e7326c
type
Spare Body Parts
 The Kenny Everett Video Show / int_d7e7326c
type
Spare Body Parts
 Gamma World (Tabletop Game) / int_d7e7326c
type
Spare Body Parts
 The Strange (Tabletop Game) / int_d7e7326c
type
Spare Body Parts
 XCOM: Enemy Unknown (Video Game) / int_d7e7326c
type
Spare Body Parts
 Akaya Akashiya Ayakashino (Visual Novel) / int_d7e7326c
type
Spare Body Parts
 Serix (Webcomic) / int_d7e7326c
type
Spare Body Parts
 Men in Black: The Series / int_d7e7326c
type
Spare Body Parts