Blood-Splattered Wedding Dress: Difference between revisions

{{trope}}

 

 

There's something about seeing a [[Woman in White|Woman In a White]] [[Fairytale Wedding Dress|bridal gown]] which is covered in blood. The juxtaposition of the joyous event the wedding dress is supposed to signify with the brutality or tragedy that the blood indicates makes for a striking image. The fact that the red of the blood stands out well against the white of the dress adds to this.

 

What a bride might wear when her [[Wedding Day]] goes ''really'' bad. Compare with [[White Shirt of Death]], [[Bloodstained-Glass Windows]] and [[Snow Means Death]].

 

== [[Anime]] and [[Manga]] ==

* Not a true example of this trope as it isn't a wedding gown, but ''[[Murder Princess]]'' has an archetypal "Disney Princess" dress that gets repeatedly covered in blood, that evokes much the same striking image.

* In [[Gun X Sword]], the bloodstained wedding dress is ''all'' we see from Van's late bride.

* Not truly a good example but in the final chapter of ''[[Haou Airen]]'', we see {{spoiler|Hakuron, the groom, in a blood-splattered white suit after getting shot.}}

* The imagery is used in [[Detective Conan]] when [http://www.detectiveconanworld.com/wiki/File:EP18_Case.jpg a beautiful Bride] is the victim of the week, {{spoiler|having been poisoned by her Groom in revenge for her Dad's part in the death of said Groom's Mother, 20 years ago.}} {{spoiler|Unusually for this trope, said Bride gets better.}}

* In [[Gunnm]] Alita kicks some mecha ass wile wearing a wedding dress at one point. She wasn't going to marry anyone tough.

 

== [[Film]] ==

* ''[[Little Shop of Horrors]]'' features this, although because at the last second a new ending was tacked on, the blood appears and disappears depending on the shot.

* It wasn't a wedding dress, but the horrific humiliation of the titular character of ''[[Carrie]]'' with the pig's blood saturating her prom dress is real close.

** Another not-wedding-dress example: Bette Davis' character in the flashback opener of ''Hush, Hush, Sweet Charlotte.''

* After everything goes to hell at the end of the obscure horror film ''The Stepfather II'', the female main character staggers in a daze down the aisle in a blood-drenched wedding dress.

** That's not a typo by the way: there were three of the films. And there's a remake as well.

* In the obscure [[Anna Nicole Smith]] thriller ''To The Limit'', a bride and groom are machine-gunned as they're leaving the church following the wedding ceremony.

* The Hong Kong action movie ''[[Film/Black Cat|Black Cat]]'' (based on the original ''[[La Femme Nikita]]'' movie) has a scene where the titular assassin bursts into a Jewish wedding and shoots the bride in the head.

== [[Literature]] ==

* As part of his motif of blood-splattered white things to emphasize how the violence of World War II affects a rural Quebec village, Roch Carrier includes a blood-splattered wedding dress in ''La Guerre, Yes Sir!''.

** A notable aversion though. Rosalie specifically made sure to NOT spill blood because she was a newborn vampire and would not be able to avoid drinking their blood if she did. She didn't want ANY part of them inside her.

* In the last act of Federico Lorca's ''Bodas de Sangre'' (''Blood Wedding''), the bride enters the church where her wedding was to have taken place; her white dress drenched with the blood of both her groom and her true love who have slain each other over her.

* The titular heroine of ''Lorna Doone'' is shot at the altar as she is about to marry the man she loves. {{spoiler|She survives.}}

* The second ''Firekeeper'' book, Wolf's Head, Wolf's Heart starts off with a wedding between the new heir to Bright Bay and Hawk Haven, former enemies. Lo and behold, it is interrupted by assassins from the former ruler of Bright Bay not happy with losing her kingdom to a proper leader. The bride takes a massive wound, bleeding all over her dress, while her husband suffers only a very minor wound. Which, you know, is bad, because the weapons were poisoned, and bleeding all over her dress allowed the bride to get the poison out of the blood stream.

 

* The season 3 finale of ''[[Dexter]]'' ends with a drop of Dexter's blood from his injured wrist falling onto the back of Rita's wedding dress as they dance at their wedding. Possibly a foreshadowing of how marrying a serial killer is going to {{spoiler|get Rita killed by Trinity at the end of season 4}}.

* ''[[Smallville]]'' - {{spoiler|Chloe Sullivan in season 8, episodes 10 & 11.}}

** Also, in the episode where she actually got married, she immediately has to go into the OR, and is only wearing a scrub apron over her wedding dress as a bit of protection.

* Kamen Rider has done this once in [[Kamen Rider Kiva|Kiva]]. {{spoiler|Mio attempts to kill Taiga during there wedding ceremony. However the blood is later shed on her by Bishop, making this a possible subversion.}} It should be noted this is the only time we see a [[Our Vampires Are Different|Fangire]] bleeding, and even then its [[Black Blood|blue]].

** Another subversion comes in [[Kamen Rider Decade|Decade]] where in her visions Natsumi is always wearing a white dress. It is revealed it the last episode to be a wedding dress. It also crosses with ''Blood Spattered Innocent'' as she is forced to watch either [[Omnicidal Maniac|Decade]] kill everyone or Decade get killed. {{spoiler|The season finale hints at the latter, though he survived for two new movies to end the series in December}}

 

== [[Music]] ==

* Kate Bush's "The Wedding List": "God help the bride / She's a widow, all in red / With his red still wet."

* There is an English ballad called "The Rose and the Lily" that invokes this trope. Done by Eliza Carthy and Norma Waterson on the album "Gift".

 

== [[Theater]] ==

 

== [[Opera]] ==

 

== [[Video Games]] ==

* The backstory of the character Bloody Mary from the game ''[[Twisted Metal]] Black'' tells how she finally snapped at a friend's wedding, tired of always being the bridesmaid and never the bride. She stabbed the bride to death and stole the bloodstained dress to wear herself.

* Magazine scans of the upcoming ''[[Parasite Eve]]'' sequel show Aya Brea toting her guns while wearing a wedding dress. Got to wonder who she's marrying...

** Especially unique is that you can get that dress as equipment if you {{spoiler|don't attack Dan in the martial arts tournament}}

* As pictured above, during the city elf origin in ''[[Dragon Age]]: Origins'' the Warden (if female) {{spoiler|is kidnapped by the arl's son during her wedding, which results in this as she proceeds to slaughter the entire guard of the castle she was held captive in.}} While you get better armor almost immediately, nothing stops you from playing through the entire scenario in the wedding dress for some extra badassery. It's really just a bit fancier looking clothing though (unlike the one shown in the concept art), but given that the character is a commoner in a medieval era it is probably closer to reality.

** There's an [[Bragging Rights Reward|achievement]] for playing the song, [[Schmuck Bait|designed to trick players into that trap]].

 

== [[Tabletop Games]] ==

 

== [[Web Comics]] ==

* [http://browse.deviantart.com/?q=corpse%20bride&order=9&offset=24#/d1celsc This little] gown from [[Deviant ART]].

** It's Rosalie Hale from Twilight, see Literature section

 

== [[Real Life]] ==

* [[Angelina Jolie]] decided she wanted one of these when she married [[Jonny Lee Miller]], so she wrote the groom's name on the white shirt she wore to her wedding, in her own blood.

 

{{reflist}}

[[Category:Dresses, Gowns, and Skirts]]

[[Category:Wedding and Engagement Tropes]]

[[Category:Costume Tropes]]

[[Category:Bloody Tropes]]