Dead Guy on Display: Difference between revisions

 

{{examples}}

* The villainous variant happens in the ''[[Berserk]]'' manga after the Griffith rescue arc. The King sends the Black Dog Knights, a band of Midland's worst rapists and murderers and all around scum, to kill Griffith and the Hawks. Their leader, the Apostle Wyald, establishes his monster credentials by raping and murdering a woman who helped the Hawks and the girls under her care before proceeding to carry the naked, dismembered bodies of their victims on poles into battle with the Hawks.

* During the funeral scene in ''[[Tower of God]]'', it is apparent that people in the Tower receive individual water graves (coffin-sized pits filled with water or another clear liquid).

* This is what {{spoiler|Sosuke Aizen}} was planning to do to {{spoiler|Ichigo's human friends}} in ''[[Bleach]]'', after {{spoiler|reaching for the real Karakura city and starting to chase them around.}}

 

* In [[The DCU]], [[Jonah Hex]], an outlaw of the old West. His body was stuffed, dressed in a "singing cowboy" outfit, and put on display in a wild west show. The ignominy (and the fact that he's used to represent the opposite of who he is) is palpable.

** In one story Jonah, having been transported to a post-apocalyptic future, ''finds his own preserved corpse in a museum'' (or storage facility or something). He takes comfort in the fact that eventually he'll go back home.

* In the ''Transformers'' Generation 2 comic, Megatron puts Bludgeon's head on display after killing him.

 

* ''[[Pirates of the Caribbean]]'' had a trio of pirate corpses that were hung out in the ocean as a warning towards pirates. Jack took his hat off in reverence to them as he passed by.

* The villainous variant occurs in ''[[Unforgiven]]'' to Ned, William Munny's friend. This triggers Munny's [[Roaring Rampage of Revenge]].

* The Emperor has the head of the incompetent governor "Beast" Rabban on display in front of his throne in [[David Lynch]]'s ''[[Dune]]''.

 

** [[The Quisling|Dolores Umbridge]], in a particularly sickening example, also does this {{spoiler|to Mad-Eye Moody... or his eye, at least.}}

* The ''[[Animal Farm]]'' scene with Old Major is an analogue of Lenin's Tomb (see below).

* In ''[[The Hitchhikers Guide to The Galaxy (novel)|The Hitchhikers Guide to The Galaxy]]'' universe, the last Galactic Emperor was put into stasis a few seconds before his death, thus shifting power a few rungs down the ladder. No doubt this was a commentary on the (perceived) uselessness of the British Royal Family.

* In ''Deathlands: Encounter'', {{spoiler|Baron Zeal uses a torture pit to burn his victims to a leathery brown, then hoists their heads on his wall. This is also how he gets [[Hoist by His Own Petard|killed in the end]].}}

* One of the ''[[Dune]]'' prequel books had the Baron Harkonnen build a secret retreat with glass walls containing the decaying corpses of the construction crew. [[Genre Savvy|Evidently the builders died with resigned expressions on their faces]].

* In the ''[[Sword of Truth]]'' series, Richard kills one of Emperor Jagang's life-long friends and his closest advisor during the climax of one book. During the next book, he sends the head to his allies up north, magically enchanted to stay preserved. It ends up on a pike right in front of the Confessor's Palace, where Jagang gets to watch it rapidly decompose in front of him. Needless to say, he's [[Villainous Breakdown|a little angry about it]].

* [[The Phantom of the Opera]]: The final line of the novel is the author’s plea for giving Erik's body (the titular phantom) this treatment. Oddly enough, It seems to be a Type 1, when the person was an honored figure (despite the fact that Erik was a [[Psychotic Man Child]] unrepentant killer, he was a truly great [[Mad Artist]]), and his body would be preserved as a relic/object of reverence:

{{quote|And, now, what do they mean to do with that skeleton? Surely they will not bury it in the common grave! ... I say that the place of the skeleton of the Opera ghost is in the archives of the National Academy of Music. It is no ordinary skeleton.}}

 

* In an episode of ''[[Mission: Impossible (TV series)|Mission Impossible]]'', the IMF stole the body of a deceased leader while it was lying in state and replaced it with a fake as part of a plot to convince his successor that the old leader was still alive.

* In the ''[[Doctor Who]]'' serial ''The Space Museum'', the Doctor and his companions see themselves, in permanent suspended animation, in a museum. Kind of like futuristic taxidermy. Then they find themselves earlier in time and have to prevent that future from happening.

{{quote|'''Vir''': I want to live just long enough to be there when they cut off your head and put it on a pike as a warning to the next ten generations that some favors come at too high a price.<ref>[[Earn Your Happy Ending|And he did]]!</ref>}}

* Used in ''[[Jericho]]'' to show that the USA is a ''very'' different place now.

** Also the ep where people were being posed before they were killed so they died in the position they were displayed in. One was a guy with a bike, one was a guy on a bench...there was a kid next in line but they found him in time.

* The second episode of ''[[Blackadder]] II'' revolves around heads on spikes in Traitor's Cloister.

* In the 1966 tele-musical ''Evening Primrose'', those who do not comply with the storepeople's rules are turned over to a group known as "the Dark Men" and turned into display mannequins for the store. {{spoiler|Charles and Ella, our protagonists, end up becoming a bride-and-groom display.}}

 

* In King Geedorah's song "The Fine Print", Geedorah, an alien space monster and budding [[Evil Overlord]]/[[President Evil]], details his usual method of dealing with people who decry him: He has their heads cut off and mounted on pikes in the middle of town, where peasants throw stones at the heads until vultures eventually eat their flesh. As he says, "Maybe ''then'' they'll know the right words to speak out loud, at home, in the world, or in the streets."

* The country song ''Prop Me Up Beside the Jukebox If I Die''.

 

* ''[[Warhammer 40,000]]'': The body of the Ultramarines primarch Roboute Guilliman is kept in stasis on his Chapter's homeworld, awaiting a time when he can be safely revived and returned to full health.

** Most ''40k'' examples are less optimistic. Even the "good guys" see the advantage of leaving traitors' corpses hanging from the gallows, while gibbets containing the charred and warped skeletons of psykers and mutants line the streets of some Imperial worlds. The [[Robot War|Necron]] unit type dubbed Flayed Ones uses a disturbing variant of the trope, by draping their victims' bloody skin on their metallic forms. [[Our Orcs Are Different|Orks]] of course are fond of the "skull-on-a-stick" variant, and in one case a Warboss ordered a troublesome [[Mad Scientist|Mekboy]] nailed upside-down to the front of his new battlewagon after the Mek broke the previous vehicle down for parts. Orks as well as Chaos forces are also fond of impaling the skulls of their enemies on their armor's [[Spikes of Villainy]].

* In ''[[Legend of the Five Rings]]'', after Hida Sukune lost the First Battle of Beiden Pass, his father Hida Kisada, Daimyo of the Crab Clan, had him executed and his corpse nailed to the Terrible Standard of Fu Leng. The card text of the Standard even lets you kill Sukune during a game to give the Standard a Force bonus.

 

* [[Older Than Feudalism]]: In the play ''[[Antigone]]'', the eponymous daughter of Oedipus is buried alive in a cave by Creon, for the crime of attempting to steal and bury the exposed corpse of her brother.

* ''[[Macbeth]]'' ends with Malcolm displaying Macbeth's head at his (Malcolm's) [[Awesome Moment of Crowning]].

* In the initial battle of ''[[Henry VI]], Part 3'', the Lancastrians capture Richard, cut his head off, and put it over the gates of York wearing a paper crown.

 

* ''[[Fallout 3]]'' takes this to an absolutely absurd extent, with corpses in various stages of dismemberment stakes and strung up even ''inside'' raiders' homes.

* In ''[[Dwarf Fortress]]'':

* The villainous variant occurs in ''[[Heavenly Sword]]'' with Flying Fox's [[Moral Event Horizon|most despicable act]], which was stuffing and mounting the body of poor Kai's mother, whom the [[Complete Monster]] had previously murdered, as a display piece.

* In ''[[Chrono Trigger]]'', the final part of the Black Omen is a hallway where the party members (or their future doppelgangers) are being held in suspended animation, much like the ''[[Doctor Who]]'' example above.

* In ''[[Batman: Arkham Asylum]]'', the Riddler does this with three security guards as part of a riddle challenge.

** Technically, it was actually Victor Zsasz who did it. It's made clear by the riddle itself: "Zsasz is counting on you finding his work."

* {{spoiler|Guybrush Threepwood}} in ''[[Tales of Monkey Island]] Chapter 5: Rise of the Pirate God''. {{spoiler|His entire corpse is standing on display wearing a [[Nice Hat|party hat]] and [[Funny Moments (Sugar Wiki)|holding a dartboard]] during a wake in Club 41 when Bugeye and W.P. Grindstump are considering [[Due to the Dead|burning the corpse in effigy]]; Guybrush eventually [[Inhuman Human|repossesses his own decaying corpse]], though.}}

* In ''[[Dark Forces Saga|Dark Forces II: Jedi Knight]]'', it's revealed that {{spoiler|Kyle Katarn's father}} had his head displayed on a pike by an Imperial warlord.

* Implied in ''[[The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim]]'' if you join the legion and kill [[Rebel Leader]] Ulfric Stormcloak.

 

* The glass jars from ''[[Girl Genius]]''. Doesn't that look ''fun''?

** Trope only applies for part of their tenure in those jars. Gotta be Dead to be a Dead Guy On Display.

* ''[[The Order of the Stick]]'' presents this in the form of a [[Up to Eleven|Dead ARMY On Display,]] albeit it's easy to miss. After taking Azure City, the goblins can be seen on the wall to have mounted the severed heads of several soldiers on pikes and planted them on the wall, both serving as a warning to others not to mess with the Goblins, and to raise the spirits of the Goblins inside, since the Azurites were some of their most hated enemies. Seen [http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0510.html on this page's last panel.]

 

* The body of The Flying Dutchman from ''[[SpongeBob SquarePants]]'' became a window display.

* What almost happened to [[Kim Possible]] in "Graduation, Part 2".

* In [[American Dragon: Jake Long]] full Huntsclan members use as helmet the skull of the first dragon they killed. Also, Rose had to show the Huntsman the skin of her first dragon to prove she had actually done it and not faked it (she had faked it, and showed him the skin Jake shed naturally).

 

** Spoofed on ''[[The Simpsons (animation)|The Simpsons]]'', where in a perceived revival of the [[Soviet Union]], Lenin comes back to life and smashes through his glass coffin.

*** "Must... crush... Capitalism!"

**** So China murdered someone that looked like Mao?

* In the Old West, bodies of famous outlaws would often be displayed (and people charged to see them) before they were buried. Quite a few [[Western]] movies have shown this practice.

** Also for an episode of ''[[Bones]]''.

* Jeremy Bentham, one of the founders of University College London, willed his body to the University. They had to put his head in storage due to drunk freshers stealing it but the rest of him is on display, in the front entrance of the main building. (There used to be a somewhat ghoulish tradition of carrying the body into faculty meetings, where it was listed on the minutes as "Present but not voting.")

* Hernan Cortes was supposedly buried in a glass urn.

* Vlad "The Impaler" Tepes was famous for impaling whole villages and leaving the bodies to rot. Some historians (and Wallachian folklore) say that these gory displays were instrumental in stopping the Turkish push into Europe (allegedly, a Turkish invasion force turned back in horror when they came across one of his "forests").

** And when Vlad himself was killed in battle, his head was sent back to Istanbul to assure the Turks that he was actually dead.

* When he was captured and killed by the [[Libya]]n rebellion, [[Muammar Gaddafi]]'s body was carried around and paraded. He was still alive for part of the humiliation. His corpse was eventually moved to an industrial freezer where members of the public were permitted to view it for a few days.

* Firmly [[Defied Trope|defied]] with [[Osama Bin Laden]]. He was killed, identified, and buried at sea all within 24 hours.

 

{{reflist}}