Due to the Dead: Difference between revisions

 

'''[[No Real Life Examples, Please]].'''

{{examples}}

* In ''[[Fruits Basket]]'', Tohru and her friends visit her mother's grave, and find that her grandfather had also come to pay his respects.

* The manga version of ''[[Chrono Crusade]]'' shows a crowd of mourners at {{spoiler|Rosette Christopher}}'s grave, and many years later a minor character states that flowers are placed on the grave every year, even though the grave's location wasn't revealed to the public. {{spoiler|[[Tear Jerker|It's implied that Chrono is the one leaving flowers on her grave every year, showing that he still cares for her several decades after her death.]]}}

 

 

* In some variants of the [[Child Ballad]] ''The Famous Flower of Serving Men'', the heroine must dig her husband and child's grave. When the magical ending is used, a milk-white hind leads the king to the grave, where a [[Our Ghosts Are Different|bird]] laments how his love had become a serving man, and explains to the king how they had been murdered by the heroine's mother.

{{quote|''They left me nought to dig his grave but the bloody sword that slew my babe

 

 

* ''[[Magic: The Gathering]]'' gives us cards like Remember the Fallen, which grant the player either recursion or a bonus for each card in the graveyard. On the evil side, [[Complete Monster|Phyrexian]] cards on these mechanics tend to be flavored as cannibalism or the like.

 

 

* The [[Legion of Super-Heroes (comics)|Legion of Super-Heroes]] and [[Teen Titans (Comic Book)|Teen Titans]] have a hall of statues commemorating their dead.

* In ''[[Star Wars Legacy]]'', [[Evil Overlord]] Darth Krayt keeps the lightsaber of Jedi Master Kol Skywalker inside a case of transparisteel to pay respect to what he considers a [[Worthy Opponent]].

 

 

* In "[http://www.surlalunefairytales.com/cinderella/stories/birch.html The Wonderful Birch]", after a [[Wicked Witch]] had [[Involuntary Transformation|turned the mother into a sheep]], [[Grand Theft Me|taken on her shape]], and gotten the father to agree to kill the sheep, the daughter tells the mother that, and the mother tells her not to eat any part of her, but to bury her bones. A birch tree grows from her grave and helps the daughter.

* In [[The Brothers Grimm (creator)|The Brothers Grimm]]'s "[http://www.surlalunefairytales.com/authors/grimms/47junipertree.html The Juniper Tree]" and [[Joseph Jacobs]]'s "[http://www.surlalunefairytales.com/hanselgretel/stories/rosetree.html The Rose Tree]", when the stepmother kills the stepchild, the little half-sibling refused to eat the dish she makes of it, and buries the bones.

 

 

* In ''[[White Devil of the Moon|The White Devil Of The Moon]]'', during the heroines' expedition to the moon the present-day Sailor Mars builds a gigantic funeral pyre for the dead of the Moon Kingdom.

* ''[[Night of the Seance]]'', [[ABBA| Frida]] opts to have a private funeral for {{spoiler| Agnetha}} via, funeral pyre, which {{spoiler| would've been chosen anyways.}} It was out of respect for the other families, who also were grieving their losses.

 

* The ''[[Star Wars]]'' films show us that Jedi respectfully burn the bodies of their dead. ''[[The Phantom Menace]]'' has Qui-Gon's funeral, and ''[[Return of the Jedi]]'' has Luke burn the body of Darth Vader/Anakin Skywalker.

** In contrast, Vader is fond of strangling people, dumping them on the floor, and storming off in a rage.

 

 

* Book 8 of the ''[[Lone Wolf]]'' series ''The Jungle of Horrors'' has a few examples. If you take the Barge to Tharro at the beginning of the book you get to witness both sides of this trope. The [[Complete Monster]] [[Necromancer]] that you fight and kill on the barge has his corpse weighted with rocks and tossed overboard like so much garbage. OTOH, the friendly NPC that was killed by that necromancer is laid to rest in a casket and given a respectful burial in the river. If you take the Great North Road, you might end up at an abbey. The monks of said abbey {{spoiler|are actually undead Vordaks that murdered the real monks and took their place}}. After {{spoiler|dealing with the Vordaks}} [[Lone Wolf]] discovers {{spoiler|the bodies of the real monks}} and takes the time to bury them.

 

 

* In Norse legends, Skald or Scef [[Moses in the Bulrushes|drifted ashore as a child]] and became king. When he died many years later, his people sent back to sea on a ship laden with treasure—described as not less than he had been sent with.

 

 

* In [[J. R. R. Tolkien|JRR Tolkien]]'s Middle-earth, people generally try to give the dead as adequate a funeral as possible with the means at hand, be it a burial, a cairn, or something else, and bemoan the fact if the dead had to go unburied. In ''[[The Lord of the Rings]]'', having no other options, they put {{spoiler|Boromir's}} body in a boat and send it down a waterfall, as the river would keep the orcs from it.

** In the Appendices, Tolkien recounts the story of a battle after which the dwarves had to cremate their dead, being too numerous to bury them in the traditional stone tombs, and earth burials being unacceptable. As a consequence, to say of one's father that "He was a burned dwarf" came to be a boast that he had fought and died in this battle.

 

 

* The ''[[Star Trek]]'' franchise shows many different funerary customs for the various races.

** Spock's funeral has his body shot out of the torpedo tube, a sort of [[Space Is an Ocean|burial at sea.]]

** [[Proud Warrior Race|Klingons]] will hold open the eyes of a dying warrior and howl at the moment of death as a warning to the afterlife. After keeping watch over the body for a night (to protect it from predators), once the spirit has had time to make the trip to Stovakor, they then just dump the body, believing it to be an empty shell, but will celebrate the honorable dead with feasting, drinking and singing.

** One species on ''[[Star Trek: Voyager|Star Trek Voyager]]'' reproduce by reanimating the dead as members of their own race. Harry Kim becomes angry when he discovers they did this to the body of his love interest; her alien "father" is equally angry that they would have just "abandoned" her into space.

* ''[[Rome]]'' has several accurate representations of ancient Roman funeral customs. Niobe is cremated and her ashes buried. Caesar is, of course, burned on a huge pyre in the Forum. Eirene asks not to be burned, but buried with hers and Pullo's child, which he does. Pullo later strangles Gaia after she confesses to killing Eirene, and Pullo unceremoniously dumps her body in the river, thus condemning her spirit to unrest.

** Also, after the conquered leader of the Gauls is finally executed during Caesar's Triumph, his body is unceremoniously dumped, but we see some Gauls living in Rome retrieve it, dress it and burn it on a pyre hidden in the woods somewhere.

 

 

* Elephants, cows, apes, monkeys, magpies, and other social animals are the only species other than humans to have been documented to mourn their dead.

 

 

* One surviving work of the Roman poet [[Catullus]] records his journey from Rome to Anatolia to make sacrifices at his brother's grave. The description of how he feels at the tomb are heart-wrenching.

 

 

* ''[[Warhammer 40000]]'' Space Marines go to great lengths to recover their dead brothers, and the individual chapters have additional and often elaborate practices to remember their dead. However, the body itself is not really important, the important things are the progenoid glands, that generate and store the geneseed necessary to create new Space Marines, and the expensive and in some cases outright irreplacable weapons and armor.

* Not a burial place, but the "San Angelo" setting for 4th edition [[Champions]] has the Liberty Square plaza. Memorials to several fallen heroes, including the WWII-era team the Liberty Corps, are placed here. Most supers in San Angelo, regardless of where they fall on the hero - villain scale, refuse to fight here out of respect to the dead.

 

 

* [[Sophocles]]:

** In ''[[Antigone]]'': before the beginning of the play's action, Eteocles and Polyneices, two brothers leading opposite sides in Thebes' civil war, died fighting each other for the throne. Creon, the new ruler of Thebes, has declared that Eteocles will be honored and Polyneices disgraced. The rebel brother's body will not be sanctified by holy rites, and will lie unburied on the battlefield, prey for carrion animals like worms and vultures, the harshest punishment at the time. Antigone and Ismene are the sisters of the dead Polyneices. In the opening of the play, Antigone brings Ismene outside the palace gates late at night for a secret meeting: Antigone wants to bury Polyneices' body, in defiance of Creon's edict. Ismene refuses to help her, fearing the death penalty, but she is unable to dissuade Antigone from going to bury her brother herself. Tragedy ensues.

 

 

* Used as [[Character Development]] in ''[[Assassin's Creed II]]''. When Ezio kills his first target after he completes his preliminary Assassin training (his first kill was before that training), he continues to shake the body over and over, shouting that it's not enough that he died (not least because he died unwilling to apologize or even explain his crimes). His uncle and mentor calmly explains that in death all things should be at peace, even those whose only purpose in life was evil. From then on, Ezio usually kills his target with a single stab of the Hidden Blade to their throat, followed by a parting line before almost lovingly saying, "''Requiescat in pace''" ("Rest in Peace"). At the end of the game, {{spoiler|he doesn't kill [[Complete Monster|Rodrigo Borgia]] ([[The Pope|Alexander VI]]), instead telling him that doing so won't bring his father and brothers back. Ezio's happy to leave him with the knowledge that he wasn't the Prophet and that his entire life's work was for naught.}}

** In ''Brotherhood'' {{spoiler|after Rodrigo is killed by his son Cesare}}, Ezio performs the rite once more with no malice, and for all of the Templar Agents (the single-player counterparts of the multiplayer characters). Only {{spoiler|Juan Borgia}} and {{spoiler|Octavian, Baron de Valois}} survive long enough to actually talk back to him though.

 

 

** Not to mention the rather impressive gravestone he gave to {{spoiler|Therkla}}.

** Durkon [[Tearful Smile|cries for joy]] on hearing that his dead body will be returned home for proper burial.

 

 

* In ''[[Beast Wars]]'' the Maximals "recycle" Dinobot's body, following the ''Predacon'' funeral traditions. In addition, Optimus, Cheetor, and Silverbolt fly overhead in the "missing man" formation.

 

 

* In the ''[[Chrono Crusade]]'' manga, when Aion kills Pandaemonium, he cuts off her head and then mercilessly hacks up her body. {{spoiler|However, considering that Pandaemonium is the body of his human mother, Lilith, grafted onto the body of the demon's [[Hive Queen]], Aion views it as "freeing" her, and probably also as revenge for the desecration the demons subjected his mother's body to.}} Also, throughout the series several demons are shown as being cruel, disgusting or evil because of their treatment of the bodies of their human victims.

* The ''[[Berserk]]'' manga has Wyald establishing his [[Complete Monster|monster credentials]] in a big way by not only {{spoiler|raping and murdering a woman who helped the Hawks as well as the girls in her care}}, but also {{spoiler|[[Dead Guy on Display|carrying their naked, dismembered bodies into battle with the Hawks]]}}.

 

 

* In "[http://www.surlalunefairytales.com/authors/grimms/47junipertree.html The Juniper Tree]" and in "[http://www.surlalunefairytales.com/hanselgretel/stories/rosetree.html The Rose Tree]", the [[Wicked Stepmother]] kills the stepchild, cooks the body, and serves the dish to the child's father.

 

 

* In horror films, the classic reason why the [[Mummy]] stirred was to avenge itself on those who broke into the tomb.

** Indeed, more generally this trope is a persistent theme in horror films. One example: ''[[The Amityville Horror]]'', where the basis for the haunted nature of the house is (eventually) revealed to be the fact it was built on an ancient [[Indian Burial Ground]].

 

 

* In [[J. R. R. Tolkien|JRR Tolkien]]'s ''[[The Lord of the Rings]]'', the siege of Gondor features heads, struck from the dead, being launched into the city via catapult to horrify the defenders.

** In ''Two Towers'' when Theoden throws off Saruman's enchanting voice, he cites the mutilation of Hama's corpse (along with the [[Children Are Innocent|dead children]]) as proof that Saruman does not deserve peace.

 

 

* In ''[[Buffy the Vampire Slayer]]'', after killing Jenny Calendar, Angelus takes her body to Giles' apartment and places it in his bed before the latter arrives. Then, Angelus sets up his living room as if for "romantic evening" with champagne, roses, music and a note that says "upstairs." When Giles arrives he believes Jenny, with whom he has just reconciled, is expecting him.

* An episode of ''[[Star Trek: Voyager|Star Trek Voyager]]'' had the crew get caught up in a conflict between two warring nations, at least one of whom brainwashes aliens to serve as grunt troops (in this case, Chakotay). During the brainwashing process, the "nemesis" desecrate fallen soldiers to enhance the brainwashing training.

 

 

* The painting of Albert Edelfelt: ''Duke Karl Insulting the Corpse of Klas Fleming''. It is depicting a probably fictional episode of the Swedish Civil War when the [[Notable Swedish Monarchs|Regent Karl]] burst into the room where the body of his enemy, Admiral Klas Fleming's body lay, pulled on his beard and insulted him in front of her widow.

 

 

* ''[[Warhammer 40000]]'':

** Both Orks and Chaos forces use corpses and heads as trophies. The Orks in particular only do it to enemies they considered worthy of it - think of it as [[Values Dissonance]].

 

 

* [[Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street (theatre)|Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street]]'s victims tend to end up as meat pies at Mrs. Lovett's pieshop.

* [[William Shakespeare]]'s ''[[Hamlet]]'': Queen Gertrude's quick remarriage did not take a proper period of mourning:

 

 

* "Return to Ostagar," a [[DLC]] mission for ''[[Dragon Age]],'' has the protagonist find the body of {{spoiler|King Cailan}}, which the darkspawn have stripped, crucified, and apparently used for target practice. The player may then decide whether to give the corpse a proper funeral pyre, cut it down, or simply leave it hanging there. Characters like [[Knight in Sour Armour|Alistair]], [[Team Mom|Wynne]], [[The Atoner|Leliana]], [[Blood Knight|Oghren]] and [[Proud Warrior Race Guy|Sten]] will support proper treatment of the dead. Characters like [[Jerkass|Morrigan]], [[Punch Clock Villain|Zevran]] and {{spoiler|[[Well-Intentioned Extremist|Loghain]]}} will find it a waste of effort, and support cutting it down and giving it to the wolves or leaving it there.

** Though Sten is an odd case since it was revealed that the Qunari don't do anything special with their dead.

 

 

* In ''[[Our Little Adventure]]'', [http://danielscreations.com/ola/comics/ep0258.html Angelika thinks bringing on Emily so soon after Pauline's death is disrespectful.] Really. Not jealousy at all.

 

 

* After the first battle of the Tower in [[Were Alive]], those who were killed were given a funeral complete with the reading of their names.

 

 

* The trope was also lampshaded and parodied in ''[[South Park]]'': a shop owner suffering from an influx of evil pets explains how he selected the site of an Indian bural ground for his store, then dug up the bodies, pissed on them, and then reburied them the wrong way up. [[It Makes Sense in Context|He was drunk at the time.]]