Decapitation Presentation: Difference between revisions

{{trope}}

 

 

Basically, a scene where, after killing someone, they are beheaded and the head is held up to demonstrate it.

 

Compare [[Dead Guy on Display]].

{{examples}}

* In the manga for ''[[Rurouni Kenshin]]'', Souzou Sagara, Sano's old commander, was executed and his head displayed after being betrayed by the government.

* ''[[Violence Jack]]'': One scene in the beginning of the "Hell's Wind" arc has this scene after Jun's boyfriend, Tetsuya, gets dismembered.

* When {{spoiler|Governor Gekkei}} confronts {{spoiler|Queen Kekai, Princess Shoukei and Hourin the kirin}} in ''[[The Twelve Kingdoms]]'', he shows them the head of {{spoiler|King Chuutatsu, whom he decapitated as punishment for his [[Knight Templar]] misdeeds.}}

 

* Many artistic depictions of David after his battle with Goliath.

* Perseus is often depicted [[wikipedia:File:PerseusSignoriaStatue.jpg|holding]] [[wikipedia:File:Persus-with-the-head-of-med.jpg|Medusa's head]]

 

* Infamously, the cover of [[EC Comics]]' ''Crime SuspenStories'' [http://www.comics.org/issue/11216/cover/4/ #22].

* In one ''[[Predator]]'' comic, one of the characters held the titular Predator's head as a trophy at the end.

** In the [[Darker and Edgier|MAX]] series. Kingpin tells Bullseye he wants the Punisher's head. He quickly realizes that Bullseye is [[Ax Crazy]] enough to [[Literal Genie|take that literally]], so he explains "That is a figure of speech. Do not bring a human head into this office." Bullseye looks disappointed.

 

 

* Near the end of ''[[Conan the Barbarian]]'', Conan holds Thulsa Doom's head aloft before the crowd. The reboot movie of the same name also features multiple decapitations on Conan's part.

* Used by the secondary villain in ''[[The Brothers Grimm (creator)|The Brothers Grimm]]''.

* In ''[[Tropic Thunder]]'', Ben Stiller goes back to his [[Captain Oblivious]] roots and holds up what he thinks is a prop made to look like the director's head to explain that it's all a ruse to get the actors to [[Enforced Method Acting|feel like they're really in the Vietnam war]]. He even sticks the head on the tip of his rifle [[Nausea Fuel|and eats the things dangling from the severed neck]]. This kind of plays with the trope not only in that the presenter didn't kill the head's owner, but that it wasn't a traditional decapitation, since the director died by stepping on a land mine.

* At the very end of ''[[Freddy vs. Jason]]'', Jason Voorhees emerges from Crystal Lake holding Freddy Krueger's severed head... which smiles and winks to the audience! In an earlier dream scene, Freddy produces the decapitated head of Jason's mother to inflict psychological damage to Jason's child-like psyche.

* The opening battle of ''[[Gladiator (film)|Gladiator]]'' is preceded by a head delivery.

* Near the end of ''[[Apocalypse Now]]'' {{spoiler|Colonel Kurtz walks up to Willard and drops Chef's severed head in his lap.}}

* ''[[Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia]]''.

 

* The Green Knight holds up his own head by the hair after Sir Gawain chops it off in ''[[Sir Gawain and the Green Knight]]''.

* The cover of Issue 2 of ''[[Nintendo Power]]'' drew some fire from [[Moral Guardians]] for displaying Simon Belmont from ''[[Castlevania]]'' with Dracula's severed head.

* Pushed up a notch by [[Complete Monster|Leo Bonhart]] in ''[[Tower of the Swallow]]'', who [[Forced to Watch|forces Ciri to watch]] as he saws off her [[True Companions]]' (whom he previously slaughtered) heads off, leaving her [[First Love]] ([[Bury Your Gays|a girl, to boot]]) for last, and then presents them proudly to her. Ciri doesn't take it very well, to say the least.

* [http://www.gutenberg.org/files/32032/32032-h/32032-h.htm The Second Variety]: Decades before Ahnuld played an unstoppable assassin robot, Philip K. Dick showed him how it's done. The cover art shows a man holding up the severed head of a destroyed assassin android {{spoiler|that looks like a 13 year old boy, not a giant thug}}

 

* In ''[[The Mighty Boosh]] Live'', the Hitcher does this with {{spoiler|Vince and Howard}}. [[I Love the Dead|He doesn't just hold them up]].

* In ''[[Blackadder]]: The Cavalier Years'', Baldrick's cunning plan to substitute a pumpkin instead of a head sort of fell apart when this moment came.

* Used for [[Black Comedy]] in ''[[Angel]]'' when a vampire is shown holding up a human head, which he then bowls down a bowling alley.

 

* Hawkwind's "Days of the Underground":

* Eddie, the mascot of Iron Maiden, has done this pose with the heads of Paul Di'Anno (on the original, rejected cover for Maiden Japan) and Satan (on the cover of the "The Number of the Beast" single)

 

* A [[The Bible|Biblical]] example would be Judith with the head of Holofernes (only in the Apocrypha; the book of Judith isn't in the Protestant Bible). Possibly also Salome with the head of John the Baptist (non-Apocryphal).

** Let's also not forget that this is what David did to the head of Goliath.

* The dullahan carries its head around like this.

 

** The same goes for their counterparts in ''[[Warhammer Fantasy Battle]]''. One Orc banner takes it a step further and has an ''entire'' Dwarf hanging on it.

 

* There are lots of disembodied heads floating around in [[William Shakespeare|Shakespeare]]'s ''[[Henry VI]]'' plays, and although this action is not mentioned explicitly in the stage directions many directors do it anyway, 'cause it looks <s>awesome</s> terrifying.

* At the end of [[Christopher Durang]]'s ''[[The Actors Nightmare]]'', when the actor is stuck in a production of ''[[A Man for All Seasons]]'' as Sir Thomas More and is beheaded:

* In the opera ''[[Turandot]]'', the Prince of Persia is decapitated offstage and his head is brought back impaled on a stake, as a warning to would-be suitors of Turandot.

 

* ''[[God of War (series)|God of War]]'': Kratos to Medusa, her sister and Helios in each respective game.

* Maw mentions doing this to Kyle's father in ''[[Star Wars: Dark Forces|Jedi Knight: Dark Forces II]]'', but the actual decapitation and subsequent public display of the head on a spike occurs offscreen.

** There's also a subversion in twilight highlands where you bring someone the heads of two ogre-magi, the horde version plays it straight, but in the alliance version the quest giver is squicked out at the heads and tells you he would have just taken your word for it.

** Orgrim Doomhammer is seen doing this to Blackhand in the instruction manual for [[Warcraft]] II.

* Another weird example is ''[[Serious Sam]]'' with its line of 'Beheaded' enemies. As it sounds, they are undead enemies who have been beheaded...but, upon being raised from their graves, then proceed to carry around ''their own'' heads in the manner of this trope, ostensibly so they can aim their bombs and rocket launchers. [[Action Bomb|Don't ask about the guys]] [[Suicide Attack|whose heads they couldn't find.]]

* {{spoiler|After occupying the Viscount's Keep}}, the Arishok in ''[[Dragon Age II]]'' appears briefly to lift the head of {{spoiler|Viscount Dumar}} for display, but dispenses with drama to dismissively roll it down the carpet.

* In ''[[Killer7]]'', Curtis Blackburn hands {{spoiler|his former partner Pedro}} a paper bag holding his daughter's severed head. This is merely [[Moral Event Horizon|the last of the many horrors Curtis inflicts on him]].

* It's (deliberately?) a little ambiguous, but have a look at the [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jnt2qiQFG6Q Tekken 3 intro]. Is that Jun's ''head?????''

 

* ''[[Homestuck]]''

** During [http://www.mspaintadventures.com/?s=6&p=002771 Dave and Bro's fight], Dave does this using the head of one of Bro's puppets, drawing a line across his throat after Bro gives him a "you're going down" thumbs down. Later parodied by Vriska when {{spoiler|Tavros}} does the same thing to her, and she responds by holding up {{spoiler|his replaced, severed legs and drawing a line across her waist.}}

* Used in [http://www.smbc-comics.com/?db=comics&id=1554#comic this] [[Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal|SMBC]] strip, though not exactly as expected.

 

 

* At the end of the "Terror at 5 1/2 Feet" segment of ''[[The Simpsons (animation)|The Simpsons]]''' fourth [[Halloween Episode]], when the gremlin displays Ned Flanders's severed (and [[Losing Your Head|still-living]]) head to Bart in the window of the ambulance.

{{quote|"Hi-dilly-ho, Bart!"}}

* A ''[[Family Guy]]'' manatee gag has a group of nuns dealing with some Nazis. One pulls out engine parts to show she disabled their ride; another whips a head out.

 

* This actually used to be standard practice, possibly to discourage followers of beheaded people from pretending they were still alive. "Behold the head of a traitor!" was the usual formula. Alas, when they tried it with [[Mary Queen of Scots]]... the headsman failed to realize she was wearing a wig so it all went a bit wrong and her head rolled away. Bit of a [[Chew Toy]] was Mary.

* This was, of course, common in [[The French Revolution]], with or without the benefit of the guillotine. Bernard, Marquis de Launay (the Governor of the Bastille) and several of his guards, Marie-Louise, Princess de Lamballe, and Joseph-François Foullon de Doué all had their heads hacked off by Revolutionary mobs and carried around on pikes.

* According to legend, when the Roman general Crassus was defeated, they brought his head to an enemy king, who was watching a play that ended with a severed head being displayed. They switched Crassus' head for the prop.

 

{{reflist}}

[[Category:Death Tropes]]