The Needless

A character that doesn't require the same physical or mental needs to survive or remain healthy as humans. Or, at least, they lack one need. It could be anything from eating, "waste excrement", heat/warmth, sleep, breathing or even companionship (we're talking an entire lifetime of complete isolation here, not just being The Stoic). They just don't need it, unlike those poor old Homo Sapiens. They may still choose to do these things (if they can, for that matter), but it's not a requirement.

Super-Trope of The Sleepless, Batman Can Breathe in Space and Super Not-Drowning Skills.

Compare Perpetual Motion Monster.

Not to be confused with NEEDLESS.

Common character types that fit this trope:

• Anthropomorphic Personification
• Artificial Human
• Transhumans
• Merfolk
• Aliens with Bizarre Biologies
• Cosmic Being
• Physical God
• Plant People
• Ghosts, Vampires, and other supernatural beings.
• Mechanical Lifeforms and just about every Robot in fiction.
• Eldritch Abominations

Examples of The Needless include:

Anime and Manga

• The Namekians of Dragonball Z don't need food, only water. Justified, in that they're actually a type of humanoid, sentient plant species. On a related note, Frieza (and presumably the rest of his family) doesn't need to breathe.
  • Piccolo does eat—apparently he got in the habit of it while on Earth. Justified since, unlike the rest of his species, he doesn't get as much sunlight (Namek is close enough to multiple suns that it never has night).
• Played for Drama in Fullmetal Alchemist. Alphonse Elric, whose soul is currently bound to a suit of armor, cannot eat or sleep and it brings him much sadness and frustration on his quest to get his body back.
• Angels in Neon Genesis Evangelion are said to have eaten from the "Fruit of Life", thus they require nothing to continue living, and will never die of old age or disease. Their Core, the S2 Organ, provides an inexhaustible amount of energy for them. NERV is able to control the Evas because they don't have S2 Organs. If the Evas go out of control NERV can simply cut off the power. Problems arise when Eva-01 eats an Angel to claim the Angel's S2 Organ for itself.

Comics

• In comic books, "Self-sustenance" (on varying levels) is an actual superpower for many characters.
  • Here is a list of DC Characters with that ability.
  • And a list of Marvel characters with it.
• In Superman/Shazam: The Return of Black Adam, Black Adam has spent millenia flying through space to get back to Earth after the Wizard Shazam hurled him into deep space as punishment for his Face Heel Turn. He was not happy. Interestingly, because it was his magic based Flying Brick powers that kept him alive and at full strength, when he's forced to revert to his civilian identity, he crumbles to dust because he should have died millenia ago.
• In the post-Flashpoint continuity, Superboy states that he doesn't need to eat or sleep.

Literature

• This is the case for the mechs in Robin Wasserman's Skinned trilogy. Being human consciousnesses uploaded into mechanical bodies, they're unable to eat, sleep, and breathe, have bodies that are self-healing and cleaning, and are unable to die. Of course, they think of it as Blessed with Suck.
• In the Land of Oz, the Sawhorse is a saw horse which Pip brought to life using Old Mombi's life-giving powder. Later Jim the (real) Cab Horse comes to Oz, and tries to convince the Sawhorse that being a meat and bones horse is better than being a wooden horse magically brought to life, but all the examples that Jim gives actually come out in the Sawhorse's favor: for example Jim says that he can bleed and that's good because people can know where he's hurt - the Sawhorse points out that he doesn't get hurt, so he doesn't need to bleed. Jim is the only animal from our world who, having come to Oz where he can talk, begs to go back to the real world where he's just a dumb animal.
• Melisandre, the red priestess of R'hollor, does not need food or sleep. However, she keeps up the pretense needing a bed and eating breakfast so as not to unnerve her companions.
• The vampires in Twilight don't need to breathe, eat or sleep.

Live Action TV

• On Star Trek, Vulcans are always immune to some disease or can do things "illogical humans" can't do.
  • Speaking of Trek; on Star Trek: Deep Space Nine the Jem Hadar, soldiers of the Dominion, don't need to eat or sleep. Instead they need a very specific chemical for the rest of their lifes, or they'll die.
  • In Star Trek: The Next Generation, the Borg are also an example, as we see them travel around in the vacuum of space with no difficulty. It's left vague what food sources they need to sustain their biological components. Data, being an android, also doesn't need the regular biological neccesities to sustain himself.

Multiple Media

• In Bionicle, the Makuta race lost almost all their needs after their evolution into Energy Beings. The only thing they do need to survive is an intact armor to house this energy.

Tabletop Games

• In Dungeons and Dragons, many types of creatures do not need food or sleep, excluding the obvious Constructs, the most prominent are Outsider creatures (beings Made of Evil, or good, and/or law, and/or chaos).
  • This is also attainable by Player Characters as well. There are several magic items and spells that allow you to never eat, sleep, drink or even breathe again.
• The "Life Support" power in Champions.
• A slew of advantages in GURPS. Doesn't Eat/Drink, Doesn't Breathe, and Doesn't Sleep are only the beginning.

Video Games

• This is part of why Wiseman wants to turn everyone into Magnus in Baten Kaitos Orgins.
• In Touhou magicians who are turned into youkai don't need food or sleep, though they do both out of habit or leisure. They don't age, either.
• Most player characters don't have normal needs but Fallout: New Vegas has a optional hard core mode where you need to eat, drink and sleep to stay healthy.

Western Animation

• In the Men in Black animated series, it's revealed that Jeebs (whose species can regenerate from being blown to pieces) and his Psycho for Hire brother don't need to eat. Then the former brags that they don't even need to breathe oxygen to live, only to regenerate. Since they're in space at the time, J promptly opens the airlock and shoots said brother.
• Action Man: After assuming his metallic form in the series finale, Dr. X no longer needs food, water, or air to survive.

Real Life

• Anaerobic Organisms may qualify depending on how you define this trope, as they do not need Oxygen in order to survive (and in fact it typically is toxic to them). However, they use other chemicals in place of Oxygen, which Aerobic organisms use as a waste electron acceptor, meaning while they don't use Oxygen, they use other chemicals to fulfill the same function.