History Main / HeartTrauma

* In ''[[Film/{{OzTheGreatAndPowerful Oz: The Great and Powerful]]'', [[spoiler: Theodora]] eats an apple that withers the heart in her chest, leaving nothing but wickedness.

* Tony Stark becomes ''IronMan'' after sustaining a nearly fatal chest wound. Tony implants himself with a powerful reactor which prevents deadly shrapnel from reaching his heart; this very reactor later powers his suit. To be fair, the radical change in his outlook on life is primarily due to his newly gained first-hand knowledge of the horrors of war, as opposed to the changes in his cardiovascular system.
* The MarvelComics villain Master Pandemonium has a star-shaped hole in his chest where his heart (and supposedly his [[OurSoulsAreDifferent soul]]) used to be, after he makes a life-saving DealWithTheDevil. Turns out the soul fragments he's been reclaiming [[EvilPlan aren't actually his, however]].

* In ''[[Film/{{OzTheGreatAndPowerful}} Oz: The Great and Powerful]]'', [[spoiler: Theodora]] eats an apple that withers the heart in her chest, leaving nothing but wickedness.

* Although this trope is different from TheHeartless, the Nobodies from ''VideoGame/KingdomHeartsII'' are still a good example of this trope. They are the shell left behind when a Heartless steals a person's heart. Apparently, losing your heart gives you [[SuperpoweredEvilSide superpowers]] and a taste for black robes. [[TinMan They say they can feel no emotion, although there's some debate in the fandom about whether or not that's true.]] At the very least, they [[LackOfEmpathy lack empathy]].

** It's revealed in KingdomHeartsDreamDropDistance that [[spoiler: unlike most examples, Nobodies can ''regain'' their hearts, or at least develop new ones to fill the void through interaction with other people. Xemnas kept this part secret in order to manipulate the rest of the Organization in a [[GrandTheftMe GrandTheft]] [[MesACrowd Mes A Crowd]] scheme.]]

* Hisao Nakai, the protagonist of the VN KatawaShoujo, finds out in the very first scene (where he gets a life-threatening heart attack in the middle of being confessed to by his crash, no less) that he suffers from chronic arrhythmia. This results in him being transferred into a school that specializes in accommodating students with various physical disabilities, where the game itself is set. The first Act revolves in large around Hisao's coming to terms with his now suddenly-frighteningly-tangible mortality (represented by his defective heart) and the fact that he must now start thinking of himself as "disabled" and completely change his lifestyle (no more playing soccer, watching his diet, having to take all his medicines every day, etc.), and each of the game's routes continues his internal conflict regarding this in a different fashion (because in each route his personality is slightly changed by falling in love with a very different sort of girl - although in all cases he does eventually learn to accept his short life expectancy one way or another, except for the extremely short "Bad Ending" route, which is achieved by constantly making choices implying Hisao cannot deal with his problem and ends up becoming a lonely, depressed man). Hearts are a constant theme in the game, especially where Hisao is concerned, and in fact, the game's very logo is that of a heart with a band-aid on it.

* In one of the Series/DoctorWho {{Tie In Novel}}s, [[BizarreAlienBiology one of the Doctor's hearts]] is [[OrganTheft stolen]]. While he's awake. [[NormallyIWouldBeDeadNow Normally he'd be dead]]; as it is he's still capable of [[TheDeterminator putting some serious effort towards saving the world again]], sleeps for a week, and is [[TheStoic quietly traumatized]] and has BadDreams. It also makes him [[HumanityEnsues more like a regular old human being]]. Also, the fact his heart has been transplanted to someone else results in some kind of weird SoulJar arrangement, where [[{{Synchronization}} if one of them is hurt, it hurts the other]], but neither can be seriously harmed as long as the other is okay. Resulting in the Doctor [[TheUndead walking around clinically dead]] for a while, [[TheWoobie poor thing]]. He [[HealingFactor eventually grows a new one]].

* Hisao Nakai, the protagonist of the VN KatawaShoujo, finds out in the very first scene (where he gets a life-threatening heart attack in the middle of being confessed to by his crash, no less) that he suffers from chronic arrhythmia. This results in him being transferred into a school that specializes in accommodating students with various physical disabilities, where the game itself is set. The first Act revolves in large around Hisao's coming to terms with his now suddenly-frighteningly-tangible mortality (represented by his defective heart), and each of the game's routes continues his internal conflict regarding this in a different fashion (because in each route his personality is slightly changed by falling in love with a very different sort of girl). Hearts are a constant theme in the game, especially where Hisao is concerned, and in fact, the game's very logo is that of a heart with a band-aid on it.

* Discussed in the BattleRoyale manga. Shougo insists that the heart is just a muscle. Everything about humanity, whether good, bad or indifferent, comes from the brain.

* Tsubaki Kakyouin from ''Manga/YamiNoMatsuei'' also got a heart transplant due to hers being too weak. [[spoiler: It belonged to her best friend Eileen, the local InnocentFlowerGirl, who was kidnapped and killed for it. Tsubaki came to learn about it and was so emotionally crushed... that she developed a SplitPersonality that called herself "Eileen" and started killing people.]]

* Anju Kitahara from the ''Manga/MarmaladeBoy'' anime series is an IllGirl with a weak heart, and [[spoiler: suffers an almost fatal seizure in Christmas]]. After this [[spoiler: she gets PutOnABus, and when [[TheBusCameBack she comes back to Japan]] it's revealed that she was operated and has gotten better.]]

* Tom from ''MortalEngines'' has a wound in his heart from being shot by Pennyroyal; it weighs heavily on his mind and makes him weaker and weaker over the course of the third and fourth books, [[spoiler:eventually killing him at the climax of the fourth.]]

* The driving force behind male lead Hisao Nakai's character development in ''VisualNovel/KatawaShoujo'' is his diagnosis of [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arrythmia congenital arrythmia]], a heart condition that could kill him at any time. This diagnosis results in his transfer to a new school (thus the plot of the game) and also forces him to look at himself and his life. [[spoiler: He suffers ''at least'' two heart attacks through the story itself.]]
** In the April's Fools Prank from 2011, one of the prospect "new girls" was [[WhiteHairedPrettyGirl Rika]] [[ReiAyanamiExpy Katayama]], a young girl with [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hypoplastic_left_heart_syndrome hypoplastic left heart syndrome]]. Unlike Hisao, Rika was diagnosed quite early in her life and thus she has been in and out of treatments for years already.

* Tsubaki from ''Manga/YamiNoMatsuei'' also got a heart transplant due to hers being too weak. [[spoiler: It belonged to her best friend Eileen, who was kidnapped and killed for it. She came to learn about it and was so emotionally crushed that she developed a SplitPersonality that called herself "Eileen" and started killing people.]]

* In ''Anime/HowlsMovingCastle'' Howl is [[spoiler:''literally'' heartless because of a DealWithTheDevil]].He gets better eventually.

* A possible example in the musical of ''Theatre/{{Wicked}}'': Elphaba's sister Nessarose is in love with a Munchkin named Boq, who in turn is in love with Glinda. Nessarose steals the Grimmorie (a book of extremely powerful, irreversible, arcane magic) from Elphaba and tries to cast a spell that will make Boq's heart belong to her. [[spoiler: It fails: she ends up destroying his heart. The only thing Elphaba can do to save Boq is turn him into a tin golem, so that he doesn't need a heart.]]

* The driving force behind male lead Hisao Nakai's character development in ''VisualNovel/KatawaShoujo'' is his diagnosis of [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arrythmia congenital arrythmia]], a heart condition that could kill him at any time. This diagnosis results in his transfer to a new school (thus the plot of the game) and also forces him to look at himself and his life.
** In the April's Fools Prank from 2011, one of the prospect "new girls" was [[WhiteHairedPrettyGirl Rika]] [[ReiAyanamiExpy Katayama]], a young girl with [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hypoplastic_left_heart_syndrome hypoplastic left heart syndrome]]. Unlike Hisao, Rika was diagnosed early in her life and thus she has been in and out of treatments for years already.

** It's revealed in KingdomHeartsDreamDropDistance that [[spoiler: unlike most examples, Nobodies can ''regain'' their hearts, or at least develope new ones to fill the void through interaction with other people. Xemnas kept this part secret in order to manipulate the rest of the Organization in a [[GrandTheftMe GrandTheft]] [[MesACrowd Mes A Crowd]] scheme.]]

* In ''Literature/HowlsMovingCastle'' Howl is [[spoiler:''literally'' heartless because of a DealWithTheDevil]]. He gets better eventually.

* In ''{{Dragonheart}}'', future king Einon is given a piece of the heart of a dragon to save his life. While he'd actually been a bit of a bastard from the start, the invincibility which sharing Draco's life grants him leaves Einon free to act up a ''lot'' more than he might've dared, had he remained an ordinary mortal.

[[AC:LiveActionTelevision]]

[[AC:{{Theater}}]]

* Although this trope is different from TheHeartless, the Nobodies from ''KingdomHearts II'' are still a good example of this trope. They are the shell left behind when a Heartless steals a person's heart. Apparently, losing your heart gives you [[SuperpoweredEvilSide superpowers]] and a taste for black robes. [[TinMan They say they can feel no emotion, although there's some debate in the fandom about whether or not that's true.]] At the very least, they [[LackOfEmpathy lack empathy]].

* In ''Film/HowlsMovingCastle'' Howl is [[spoiler:''literally'' heartless because of a DealWithTheDevil]].He gets better eventually.

* Captain Picard of ''StarTrekTheNextGeneration'' fame had a WonderfulLife episode about the incident that resulted in his having to have his original heart replaced with a mechanical one. The episode had Q give Picard the chance to go back to his youth and prevent the fight where he was stabbed through the heart. He avoids the fight and his future is changed. Instead of being Captain, he is just a lowly science officer who never takes any risks, always plays it safe, and leads a boring, mundane life. Realizing that it was his near-death experience that made him appreciate life and taught him to live life to the fullest even if means taking risks, he begs Q to take him back to the fight in his youth again. This time, he goes through with the fight, and as he is laying on the ground with a knife through his heart, he realizes this event is what makes him the man that he is.

Compare SoulJar, where the thing done to the heart affects their vulnerability, and LiteralChangeOfHeart, which involves replacing a missing or damaged heart.

** In the second season [[spoiler:the Prince's heart is tainted by the Raven's blood, which causes him to [[FaceHeelTurn become evil]] and serve the Raven. Toward the end of the season he [[TransformationTrauma turns into a crow]] and is only saved from giving his life to the Raven by ThePowerOfLove coming from the DarkMagicalGirl, who has to pull out an HeroicSacrifice to make herself heard.]]

* In TowaKamoShirenai, Kosumo has a very weak heart, which she describes as "a defective product". She has a near fatal seizure and must get a transplant... and it happens. Then, the heart that was given to her turned out to belong to a {{Miko}} and MagicalGirlWarrior...

* ''Comicbook/{{X-Men}}'' doesn't usually [[YouFailBiologyForever fail biology forever]] to quite ''this'' extreme, but The Stepford Cuckoos were forced to keep their hearts in diamond form all the time to contain the Phoenix fragment within them, resulting in loss of emotions (instead of the more probable effect of loss of ''life.'')

* In HansChristianAndersen's FairyTale "Literature/TheSnowQueen", a boy named Kai has a piece of a mirror that shows a negative view of the world pierce his heart, which causes him to become cold and distant towards his childhood friend Gerda, before he's taken away by the Snow Queen. Gerda goes on a journey to find him and eventually rescues Kai, again through ThePowerOfLove. (It's possible the second-season Princess Tutu example was a reference to this fairytale.)

** The Grinch example was pastiched on South Park. "And what happened next? Well, in South Park, they say Johnny Cochrane's small heart grew three sizes that day!"

* One of the tales of ''{{Tales of Beedle the Bard}}'', a supplemental book to the ''Harry Potter'' series, is "The Warlock's Hairy Heart", where the title warlock removes his own heart in order not to fall prey to the "foolishness" of love.

* Captain Picard of ''StarTrekTheNextGeneration'' fame had a WonderfulLife episode about the incident that resulted in his having to have his original heart replaced with a mechanical one. The episode had Q give Picard the chance to go back to his youth and prevent the fight where he was stabbed through the heart. He avoids the fight and his future is changed. Instead of being Captain, he is just a lowly science officer who never takes any risks, always plays it safe, and leads a boring, mundane life. Realizing that it was his near-death experience that made him appreciate life and taught him to live life to the fullest even if means taking risks, he begs Q to take him back to the fight in his youth again. This time, he goes through with the fight, and as he is laying on the ground with a knife through his heart, he realizes this event is what makes him the man that he is.

* ''Prince Trevor Amongst the Elephants'' has the titular character's heart taken for offending [[TheHecateSisters The Three Graces]].

* Although this trope is different from TheHeartless, the Nobodies from ''KingdomHearts II'' are still a good example of this trope. They are the shell left behind when a Heartless steals a person's heart. Apparently, losing your heart gives you [[SuperpoweredEvilSide superpowers]] and a taste for black robes. [[TinMan They say they can feel no emotion, although there's some debate in the fandom about whether or not that's true.]] At the very least, they [[LackOfEmpathy lack empathy]].

[[AC:WesternAnimation]]
* The animated TV series based on Disney's ''Disney/{{Aladdin}}'' had an episode where Aladdin's head is magically separated from his body. The head and the body both survive as independent beings, but without the influence of his heart Aladdin's head becomes logical and emotionless. Meanwhile, his body without the head's influence becomes headstrong and impulsive. And clumsy.

* In ''PrincessTutu'', [[spoiler: Prince Siegfried]] uses a "forbidden spell" to shatter his heart, which is then used to seal away the Raven (who is the BigBad of his fairytale). Without it, he's an ExtremeDoormat who does whatever anyone suggests and is unable to express emotions or opinions. The MagicalGirl named in the title has the task to restore his heart, one piece at a time.

* The Hollows in ''{{Bleach}}'', who have developed a big hole in their chest where their heart ought to be, in a not-so-subtle symbol of their heartlessness.

* Tsubaki from YamiNoMatsuei also got a heart transplant due to hers being too weak. [[spoiler: It belonged to her best friend Eileen, who was kidnapped and killed for it. She came to learn about it and was so emotionally crushed that she developed a SplitPersonality that called herself "Eileen" and started killing people.]]
* In ''{{Gankutsuou}}'', [[spoiler:the Count of Monte Cristo underwent a treatment that makes him invulnerable to injury at the same time he devoted himself to vengeance. The point is made that his heart is now both metaphorically and literally cold and hard]].

* Anju Kitahara from the MarmaladeBoy anime series is an IllGirl with a weak heart, and [[spoiler: suffers an almost fatal seizure in Christmas]]. After this [[spoiler: she gets PutOnABus, and when [[TheBusCameBack she comes back to Japan]] it's revealed that she was operated and has gotten better.]]

* In ''PiratesOfTheCaribbean: Dead Man's Chest'', Davy Jones is said to have cut out his heart and hid it partially so he could stop the pain he felt from his lover's betrayal.

* In one of the Series/DoctorWho {{Tie In Novel}}s, [[BizarreAlienBiology one of the Doctor's hearts]] is [[OrganTheft stolen]]. [[HighOctaneNightmareFuel While he's awake.]] [[NormallyIWouldBeDeadNow Normally he'd be dead]]; as it is he's still capable of [[TheDeterminator putting some serious effort towards saving the world again]], sleeps for a week, and is [[TheStoic quietly traumatized]] and has BadDreams. It also makes him [[HumanityEnsues more like a regular old human being]]. Also, the fact his heart has been transplanted to someone else results in some kind of weird SoulJar arrangement, where [[{{Synchronization}} if one of them is hurt, it hurts the other]], but neither can be seriously harmed as long as the other is okay. Resulting in the Doctor [[TheUndead walking around clinically dead]] for a while, [[TheWoobie poor thing]]. He [[HealingFactor eventually grows a new one]].

* Captain Picard of ''StarTrekTheNextGeneration'' fame had a WonderfulLife episode about the incident that resulted in his having to have his original heart replaced with a mechanical one.
** The episode had Q give Picard the chance to go back to his youth and prevent the fight where he was stabbed through the heart. He avoids the fight and his future is changed. Instead of being Captain, he is just a lowly science officer who never takes any risks, always plays it safe, and leads a boring, mundane life. Realizing that it was his near-death experience that made him appreciate life and taught him to live life to the fullest even if means taking risks, he begs Q to take him back to the fight in his youth again. This time, he goes through with the fight, and as he is laying on the ground with a knife through his heart, he laughs hysterically because he knows that this event is what makes him the man that he is.
** Actually he tells Wesley on the shuttlecraft earlier that he laughed the first time that it happened as well, not just the second time. Since we never see the first stabbing take place though, it's hard to tell whether the reaction the second time was due to the act or because he knew what was going to happen later.

* An episode of ''{{Angel}}'' concerned a vampire that removed his heart surgically so that Angel would be unable to stake him. His heart being removed was symbolic of the fact that Angel was responsible for the death of his lover. His final comment, when he eventually runs out of steam, at least left an impression, since it was directed at Angel, and his well-known curse never to know the greatest joy. "I lived. You just existed."

* In ''Film/HowlsMovingCastle'' Howl is [[spoiler:''literally'' heartless because of a DealWithTheDevil]]. [[IGotBetter He gets better eventually.]]

* In ''Literature/HowlsMovingCastle'' Howl is [[spoiler:''literally'' heartless because of a DealWithTheDevil]]. [[IGotBetter He gets better eventually.]]

* The driving force behind Hisao's character development in ''VisualNovel/KatawaShoujo'' is his diagnosis of congenital arrythmia, a heart condition that could kill him at any time. This diagnosis results in his transfer to a new school (thus the plot of the game) and also forces him to look at himself and his life.

* The Shadow {{Pokemon}} in ''[[PokemonColosseum Colosseum]]'' and ''XD Gale of Darkness'' have their hearts sealed off by the bad guys, which prevents them from leveling up, gives them different moves and causes them to go into a periodic self-injurious state similar to Confusion. Forming an emotional bond with the Pokemon is required (but not sufficient) to cure them.

-->''"Someday I'll meet someone''
-->''Whose heart joins with mine''
-->''Aortas and arteries all intertwined''
-->''They'll beat so much stronger''
-->''Than they could apart''
-->''Eight chambers of muscle to hustle''
-->''The love in our heart"''
-->-'''{{Urinetown}}'''

[[AC:WesternAnimation]]
* The animated TV series based on Disney's Disney/{{Aladdin}} had an episode where Aladdin's head is magically separated from his body. The head and the body both survive as independent beings, but without the influence of his heart Aladdin's head becomes logical and emotionless. Meanwhile, his body without the head's influence becomes headstrong and impulsive. And clumsy.
* Mildly subverted, in the first episode of {{Silverhawks}} Steelwill's and Steelheart's hearts fail while they're being cyborgized and are replaced with mechanical ones. The doctor then points the appropriateness of their names. However they seem unaffected (possibly the only bit of good science in the series.)