Sometimes, when a character is angry or deranged and is just about to snap, they start moving head down, everything limp, lurching as if they were a marionette that's had its strings cut.Kubrick Stare, andinability to form coherent sentences optional. This is sometimes taken as a sign ofUnstoppable Rage—any character that dares to get close risks serious injury, especially if the character is alsodragging a weapon across the ground.

Probably taken from Western horror flicks, where it's associated with zombified/possessed characters. Compare withPrimal Stance,Marionette Motion andZombie Gait.

Anime andManga

• Occurs a few times inCode Geass.
• Guaranteed inThe Familiar of Zero with Louise every time her and Saito's relationship gets rocky.
• Since the two main female leads ofSchool Days areYandere for Makoto, they do this towards the end.
• Done by the moreWoobie characters inNaruto. Namely Sasuke, Gaara, and Naruto.
  • Maybethat kind of Woobie.
• Genshiken - when Saki gets called an otaku by Ogiue.
• The Wallflower - Sunako cracks after her chocolate is destroyed by theInstant Fanclub.
  • She also does this when the four mainBishonen characters first meet her.
• Non-aggressive example: in theRead or Die TV series, Maggie is forbidden to go into any bookshops in a town full of them, despite her being a total bibliomaniac. Cue lurching from shopfront to shopfront.
• InElfen Lied, whenever Nyuu flips over to Lucy her head drops so her hair covers/shades her eyes.
• When brutally questioned byThe Men in Black about her family, Lain fromSerial Experiments Lain does this.And then reverts to her Wired persona and chews him out.
• AfterhisFreak-Out,Shinji fromNeon Genesis Evangelion does this. He also stranglesAsuka in this pose.
  • The Evangelions themselves could be considered toalways be assuming this pose.
• Most of the main cast inHigurashi no Naku Koro ni tend to do this eventually, but Satoshi and Keiichi usually bring theirWeapon of Choice, thebaseball bat with them.
  • Shion walks around like this whenever she's pacing about the Sonozaki Theater and Torture Chamber during Maekashi-hen.
• InMinami-ke, Chiaki does this briefly when Kana challenges her to decide who goes out for drinks in the rain.
• Kuro, an early villain fromOne Piece, goes like this and sways back in forth in order to put himself into a blind trance where he slashes up everything around him.
  • Luffy himself does it inMovie 6, afterLily eats his friends, turns into millions of arrows, and shoots them all into his skin. It's one of thecreepiest things inOne Piece history.
• Mai inMy-HiME does this for a little in the midst of herTrauma Conga Line.
• Soul Eater: Crona and Maka when they use the black blood.
  • The 'marionette' description is particularly apt for Crona's first appearance. Firstly, they look as though being dragged by Ragnarok rather than wielding him, secondly they're being at least provoked into killing Maka by Medusa, if not physically controlled by her.
• Rurouni Kenshin uses this in one of theOVAs.
• Noa briefly inYu-Gi-Oh!.
• Sumire inVenus Versus Virus gets this when fighting Luca. HerBerserker mode gets shot withlightning tono effect.
• Ginias fromMobile Suit Gundam: The 08th MS Team ends up like this once he goes over the edge towards the end of the series.
  • It's worth noting it could stem from the fact that he seems two steps away from falling on the floor and going into cardiac arrest at this point, presumably due to neglecting even his most basic health needs in favor of working on his pet project.
• Invoked by Haruko in the first episode ofFLCL, while attacking Naota in the hospital.
• Dragon Ball: If memory serves, Goku struck this pose when Frieza killed Krillin.And the rest,as they say,is history.
  • Majin Vegeta
• Fairy Tail: Juvia Loxar, after herImplied Love Interest Gray Fullbuster's life is threatened.

Film

• This is Septimus' fighting style inStardust afterLamia kills him and uses him as apuppet.

Professional Wrestling

• Randy Orton tends to do this as part of the setup for his finisher, the RKO. He also tends to just move like this overall, especially when acting as aHeel, as part of his "viper-like" persona.

Theatre

• Most stage portrayals ofSweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street have the title character do this after the most decent character in the play royally bollixes up his revenge.

Video Games

• First Encounter Assault Recon: Alma.
• Riot of the Blood Iori's (The King of Fighters) default stance is this, complete withGlowing Eyes of Doom and steam coming out of his mouth.
  • Leona too. Also Vice in herKOF 98 fighting stance.
• Zappa fromGuilty Gear adds some additionalNightmare Fuel intohis version.
• InDiablo 2, a certain type of skeletal enemy fits this trope to a T. They shamble around dragging enormous broadswords, but if a player gets too close they can swiftly attack.
• The Tails Doll fromSonic R isn'tovertly malevolent, but the way it remains almost constantly limp has given it a legendary reputation.
• Dissidia Final Fantasy does this toTerra in theOnion Knight's storyline. However, it doesn't quite work due tothe limited expressive range of the character models used, and she ends up looking hung over more than anything.
• Persona 4 In the battle againstAdachi.
• Oichi in the thirdSengoku Basara game, due to being little more than a living puppet animated by malevolent shadows. Mitsuhide and Mitsunari also have tendencies towards acting like this, highlighting their mental instability.
• Kyojiro Kagenuma inWay of the Samurai 2 stands neutral with her sword to the side, but her combat stylemost assuredly fits, underlying her bloodthirsty nature.
  • Alsoyou inWOTS 2 and 3, if you obtainOkyo's sword,Biteikotsu.
• Asura fromAsura's Wrath does this when inWrath Form. Goes into aPrimal Stance occasionally, too.
• Dark Souls: In the trailer for theUpdated Rerelease, Abysswalker Artorias does this after impaling a monster with his sword.

Web Original

• In the final video of theR. Tam Sessions, River is shown sitting behind a table with her head bowed....right before shestabs her interrogator in the throat with a pen.

Western Animation

• Azula goes like this during her final battle withZuko inAvatar: The Last Airbender, as a sign of herVillainous Breakdown.

• Trope
• Madness Tropes
• Body Language
• Alliterative Trope Titles
• Limp and Livid