History Main / DeadGuyonDisplay

* ''VideoGame/EatMe'':
** The fens outside the castle are filled with human corpses impaled on skewers planted in the ground. Examining them tells you:
--->Enemies all, and planted for a cautionary wood. Challenge the castle: here's what will happen.
** The fur of the defeated mouse king can be found in the chapel, adorning the altar.
--->You wouldn't think a rodent would have such sumptuous fur, but this royal fur's better groomed than any mortal king's coiffure. It's found a higher purpose here than its skinned bearer could have given it.
* ''VideoGame/{{Fallout 3}}'' takes this to an absolutely absurd extent, with corpses in various stages of dismemberment staked and strung up even ''inside'' raiders' homes. The ubiquitousness of them likely is meant to indicate rampant cruelty and sadism in the Wasteland instead of the usual uses of the trope.
** ''VideoGame/FalloutNewVegas'' does the same thing with victims of Caesar's Legion. The people they crucify, such as the Powder Gangers from the town of Nipton, aren't ''quite'' dead yet, but they may as well be. They also [[DecapitationPresentation display the severed heads]] of the [[LotteryOfDoom "lucky losers"]] on pikes.
** ''VideoGame/{{Fallout 4}}'' has Pickman, an artist who has his own gallery in Boston's North End, where he displays his works made out of his preferred medium: [[PayEvilUntoEvil the blood and corpses of raiders]]. There's also the Fens Phantom, a pre-war serial killer who laid out his victims (including [[WouldHurtAChild at least four babies]]) in macabre displays in his [[AbsurdlySpaciousSewer sewer lair]].
* In ''VideoGame/DwarfFortress'':
** You can put coffins anywhere you want. You could make part of a large hallway into some noble's tomb if you really wanted to. And you can make the coffins out of glass.
** Adventurers who are killed in a failed attempt to kill a bandit group will often have their bodies impaled on and propped up by wooden spears on display around the camp.
* In ''VideoGame/CommandAndConquerRenegade'', Kane has Seth (who tried to usurp him in the original ''VideoGame/CommandAndConquer'') in suspended animation (and a lot of pain) as a warning.
* The villainous variant occurs in ''VideoGame/HeavenlySword'' with Flying Fox's [[MoralEventHorizon most despicable act]], which was stuffing and mounting the body of poor Kai's mother, whom the villain had previously murdered, as a display piece.
* In ''VideoGame/ChronoTrigger'', 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 ''Series/DoctorWho'' example above.
* In ''VideoGame/{{BioShock|1}}'' the butchered corpses of political dissidents are a common enough sight in Rapture, but the most striking examples would be the body of a smuggler, who was apparently running Bibles, pinned to a wall in a parody of the crucifix, Sander Cohen's "Statues," throughout Fort Frolic, and Andrew Ryan's "Trophy" room, where failed assassins, political adversaries, and his former friends are staked to pillars.
* In ''VideoGame/TheBoogieMan'', this is the antagonist's favorite way of doing things for his little game. He not only uses [[SadisticChoice horrifying]] contraptions to potentially kill the characters, but also loves to leave the bodies on open display to not just mock and shock the others, but also because it amuses him.
* In ''VideoGame/BioShockInfinite'', Lady Comstock's body is on display in the Columbia cemetery, sealed in a glass case. During the game, Booker [=DeWitt=] and Elizabeth must go to the cemetery to get Lady Comstock's hand so that they could get access to the gate to Comstock House, but Zachary Comstock knows what Elizabeth is up to and uses her powers to "resurrect" Lady Comstock by merging her dead form with her living form from another timeline, causing her to break out of her case.

* In ''VideoGame/{{GUN}}'', corrupt mayor Hoodoo Brown's corpse is displayed in a vertical coffin in the town square after you kill him. For [[VideoGameCrueltyPotential extra cruelty points]], you can destroy the corpse with dynamite (either the normal or TrickArrow version).
* In ''VideoGame/AssassinsCreedII'', Ezio does this to Francesco de Pazzi's body after killing him, as a warning to the rest of the Pazzi and their supporters, particularly Francesco's uncle, Jacopo, who takes off running when he sees it.
** TruthInTelevision. After the Pazzi Conspiracy failed, not only was Francesco's (naked) body hung from the walls of the Palazzo della Signoria but so were many of the other conspirators Ezio kills in the game.
* Guybrush Threepwood in ''VideoGame/TalesOfMonkeyIsland Chapter 5: Rise of the Pirate God''. His entire corpse is standing on display wearing a party hat and holding a dartboard during a wake in Club 41 when Bugeye and W.P. Grindstump are considering [[DueToTheDead burning the corpse in effigy]]; Guybrush eventually [[InhumanHuman repossesses his own decaying corpse]], though.
* In ''VideoGame/DeadlyPremonition'', it turns out that Anna Graham's body was displayed on the tree as a way of reverence.
* In ''VideoGame/JediKnightDarkForcesII'', it's revealed that Kyle Katarn's father had his head displayed on a pike by an Imperial warlord.
* In ''VideoGame/RedDeadRedemption'' you can find this in the town of Thieves' Landing. Appropriately named this place is filled with thieves and murders and has no law enforcement so people shooting at each other (sometimes even you) and other crimes are a common sight. When you visit the saloon you see a dead body on display that has a sign on it telling any passerby that the crime he committed that warranted this fate was '''cheating''' in a card game. This shows you how without law enforcement it is anyone's game to seek whatever retribution they see fit.
* In ''VideoGame/{{Halo 2}}'', the Prophet of Truth states that the specific details of the Arbiter's death sentence were that he be hung by his ''entrails'' until death, and his corpse "paraded through the city". Of course, the sentence is not ultimately carried out, because the Prophet of Truth thinks it would be a waste of resources (the Arbiter is the Covenant's greatest living warrior and commander), so instead, he offers to make him the new Arbiter, with both explicitly understanding that it is a suicide mission.

* It's hard to know what to make of Castle Bulugha in ''VideoGame/MountAndBlade.'' Anytime the player visits, a grand feast is laid out on the table, and there might be a lord also in attendance. The key word is 'also' because there is a dried-up skeleton in ragged robes sitting at the table, clutching a cup. Close inspection reveals [[BackStab a dagger between its shoulder blades]]. While a literal [[MummiesAtTheDinnerTable mummy at the dining table]], it doesn't apply to that trope because no one seems to relate to it, positively or negatively. In all fairness, [[UnusuallyUninterestingSight no one seems to even notice it,]] but that's more GameplayAndStorySegregation, especially considering how little story there is in ''Mount & Blade.''
* In ''[[VideoGame/DawnOfWar Soulstorm]]'', one of the Dark Eldar buildings can be upgraded to have cages with the tortured corpses of their victims, which demoralizes and scares enemies.
** Warboss Gorgutz 'ead'unter... well... takes the heads of enemy commanders and fits them on his pointy bosspole so everyone can see. After all, he'd look "pretty stoopid wif sumwun's ''foot'' on me pointy stikk".

* Noob-Smoke's bio in ''VideoGame/MortalKombatDeception'' states that Noob Saibot found Smoke's deactivated cyborg body in Shao Kahn's trophy room, where the late emperor kept the cyborg assassin as a memento from his Earthrealm invasion.
* [=GLaDOS=] tells Chell early into ''VideoGame/Portal2'' that if/when Chell dies, they'll display her skeleton in the Enrichment Center lobby. Chell never dies during the story, so they never get to do so.

* The manual of ''VideoGame/MegaMan4'' has Dr. Cossack threatening to do this to Mega Man if his robot masters beat him.
* In ''VideoGame/MegaManX4'', Frost Walrus has the partially dismembered and frozen-solid corpses of Chill Penguin from ''X1'' and Blizzard Buffalo from ''X3'' decorating the background of his stage. Either he doesn't like competition for the title of "best [[AnIcePerson ice based]] Maverick" or he's one morbid SOB.

* In ''VideoGame/DayOfTheTentacle'', Dead Cousin Ted - a mummified corpse - is put on display throughout history. In 1793 he's displayed behind the lobby counter, wearing a tricorne hat. In 1993 he's placed out in the front yard, holding up a birdbath. In 2193, he can be found in a museum-like room upstairs that commemorates 1970s human culture, wearing a leisure suit.
* In ''Videogame/LandsOfLore 2'', the Draracle has the corpse of the god Belial (whom he himself executed) on display in his museum. The museum guide explains that the corpse is there "not as a trophy, but as a warning."
* At various places in ''VideoGame/{{Borderlands 2}}'', you'll find dead people nailed to signs, dead people tied to broken vending machines, or dead people hanging from the ceiling. These are most assuredly ''not'' suicides since most of them show up in bandit or psycho territory. [[GeniusDitz Scooter]] admits he sometimes [[BigBrotherInstinct does this to people who disrespect his sister]].
** After Handsome Jack kills Bloodwing, a Hyperion news report announces that her body will soon be on display in the city of Opportunity. Go there a while later, and you'll see that they were telling the truth.
* This is one of the fates of the player pilots in ''VideoGame/{{Warhawk}}'' if they are unable to complete the game. Their bodies are brought back and the head is mounted on a pike outside the BigBad's lair.

* Discussed but not ultimately carried out in ''VideoGame/FireEmblemAwakening'', after [[spoiler: Emmeryn [[HeroicSuicide leaps off the precipice]] in [[WhamEpisode chapter nine]] to undo Gangrel's SadisticChoice. Which is {{foreshadowing}} of her [[DisneyDeath ultimate survival]]]].
* ''VideoGame/BlackAndWhite 2'' has punishment spikes and torture pits available to 'motivate' your followers if you're that kind of god.
* In ''VideoGame/{{Crysis}}'''s first level, Aztec's mutilated corpse is found hanging upside down from a tree after getting his parachute caught and being massacred by the as-yet-unseen Ceph.
* In ''VideoGame/{{Doom}}'' and ''Doom II'', dead guys on display are a common sight, whether hanging from the ceiling, crucified, [[ImpaledWithExtremePrejudice impaled]] [[AlmostDeadGuy and still twitching]], or their [[DecapitationPresentation decapitated heads mounted on pikes]].
* ''VideoGame/CrusaderKingsII'' has an event that can happen if your character's rival dies. You can send someone to dig up their skull as a trophy.

** ''VideoGame/FalloutNewVegas'' does the same thing with victims of The Legion. The people they crucify aren't ''quite'' dead yet, but they may as well be. They also [[DecapitationPresentation display the severed heads]] of the [[LotteryOfDoom "lucky losers"]] on pikes.

* ''VideoGame/EatMe'': The fens outside the castle are filled with human corpses impaled on skewers planted in the ground. Examining them tells you: "Enemies all, and planted for a cautionary wood. Challenge the castle: here's what will happen."

* In ''Anime/CowboyBebop'', Vicious kills his former boss Mao for attempting to make peace with another [[TheSyndicate Crime Syndicate]], then takes Mao's body to the opera Mao was going to see and has the corpse sit through the performance in Mao's private box, where he can be seen by the public. Presumably, this was both to make a statement about Mao's actions and to tempt Mao's other protege, Spike, out of hiding.

* ''Film/{{Asylum}}'': In "The Weird Tailor", Smith is keeping his son's unpreserved corpse in an open coffin in an otherwise empty room.

* ''TabletopGame/{{Warhammer 40000}}'': The body of the Ultramarines primarch Roboute Guilliman was kept in stasis on his Chapter's homeworld, awaiting a time when he can be safely revived and returned to full health. That time came shortly after Cadia was destroyed by the 13th Black Crusade, and he was revived with a combination of Mechanicus technology and Eldar magic.
** His Brother Primarch Rogal Dorn of the Imperial Fists has his skeleton displayed, encased in Amber.

*** Konrad Curze, Primarch of the Night Lords, is extremely fond of (and creative with) displaying his victims, sometimes even going so far as to booby-trap the bodies to kill whoever comes to take them down.

* In the Literature/{{Worm}} x Videogame/{{Dishonored}} crossover fanfic, ''FanFic/AChangeOfPace'', [[spoiler:New Wave finds Tattletale's body like this in one of the Bone Carver's hideouts]].
* ''Fanfic/ADropOfPoison'': Gato displays a collection of the severed heads of his enemies for intimidation purposes. [[spoiler: Naruto's clones add Gato's own head to the collection.]]
* After Lucius and Narcissa are executed in ''Fanfic/TheAwakeningOfAMagus'', Voldemort orders their bodies to be placed among the ruins of their manor – positioned to spell the first letter of his name.

* In ''Literature/{{Stardoc}}'', [[CulturedWarrior Jorenian warriors]] have a habit of doing type 2 to [=ClanKill=] targets. Specifically, they string them out by their innards.
* In ''Literature/TheIliad'', Achilles kills Hector to avenge the death of Patroclus. He takes it too far by dragging Hector's corpse behind his chariot right outside the city of Troy's walls. Hector's father King Priam musters the courage to go behind enemy lines to beg Achilles to allow him to bury his son. Achilles is moved by the grieving father's pleas and returns Hector's body.
* ''Literature/ThePhantomOfTheOpera'': 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, with the person being an honored figure (despite the fact that Erik was a PsychopathicManchild and unrepentant killer, he was a truly great MadArtist), and his body would be preserved as a relic/object of reverence:
-->''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 the ''Literature/LeftBehind'' book ''Assassins'', Nicolae Carpathia kills the two witnesses, Eli and Moishe, at the Global Gala and leaves their bodies dead and unburied for 3 1/2 days, according to [[Literature/TheBible The Word of God]], before they are resurrected and taken to heaven. Nicolae Carpathia himself has his body put on public display during his wake in New Babylon when on the same day it would be "resurrected" by Satan indwelling him.
* ''Literature/TheTripods'': Turns out that in addition to enslaving humanity, the Masters are also preserving particularly beautiful specimens in their museum. Will is horrified to see the body of his love interest, Eloise, on display like a butterfly.
* In ''Literature/TheBookOfTheDunCow'', Chauntecleer confirms the death of the evil Cockatrice by ripping off its head, parading it around, and displaying the body to his animals.
* ''Literature/JohnCarterOfMars'': This is the normal and respectful treatment of the dead in the Barsoomian city-state of Mantos where the honored dead are perfectly preserved and displayed in their best clothes on roof and balconies of the family home. Dead enemies are given a treatment that shrinks them into small mummies and displayed in niches in the main city gate.
* In ''Literature/{{Aliss}}'', the Red Queen creates art exhibits, usually family scenes, from taxidermied corpses. Charles (the {{Expy}} for the White Rabbit/Charles Dodgson) has been working for some time on a sculpture of his ideal of beauty, using parts from various corpses -- the reader discovers this after he receives a [[FingerInTheMail Head in the Mail]].
* In ''Literature/EvaLuna'', several years before the story started, a well-known lawyer who opposed the dictatorship was gunned down by the military. To say "fuck you!" to the tyrants, the family hired [[AbsentMindedProfessor Dr. Jones]] (the boss of Eva's mother Consuelo) to embalm the corpse and then put him on his favorite seat at his studio, even with his pipe in his hand. The "Benefactor" aka the leader of the military government didn't dare to go further, so the lawyer's body was on display for decades. [[spoiler: Until the new (and ''also'' dictatorial) government forced the family to bury him. This causes the already old Jones to have a stroke, and he never recovers.]]
* In Creator/AliceWalker's short story "Elethia", the title character who worked at a restaurant called Uncle Albert's found out that the Uncle Albert mannequin used to invite people inside to dine was actually a preserved corpse. Eventually, she and her friends broke into the restaurant and stole Uncle Albert from the display, burning his body in an incinerator, with Elethia keeping some of the ashes as a reminder that "Uncle Alberts" (people of other ethnicities used as a racist form of commercial promotion) shouldn't exist.
* ''Literature/{{Spellsinger}}'': The town of Lynchbany got its name from the long-ago lynching of confidence trickster Tilo Bany, whose corpse is preserved in resin and hung up as a signpost.
* In ''Literature/EightCousins'', Dr. Alec Campbell has an actual skeleton on display in his studio. When he catches the younger cousins playing with it, he explains the skeleton's story: [[spoiler: it belonged to one of his patients, a man with a ''horrible'' illness (probably cancer or tuberculosis), whose last wish was to have his corpse donated to science so it would be used to help others]]. When the boys learn this, they leave the skeleton alone.
* In the ''Literature/ReconstructionSeries'', the first time Isaac walks into Lawrence, Kansas it's dubbed 'The Town Without a Graveyard.' The {{Outlaw}} has only been burying those he feels deserve the honor and leaving the rest out front of the town like this.
* In the ''Literature/{{Boojumverse}}'' story "Boojum", Captain Edwards of the ''Henry Ford'' once tried to double-cross Captain Song of the ''Lavinia Whateley''. Captain Song now keeps Captain Edwards's head in a jar on her bridge as a warning to others.
* ''Literature/MalazanBookOfTheFallen'':
** This trope is first presented during flashbacks of Duiker in ''Literature/DeadhouseGates'' when he remembers how Empress Laseen crucified the defeated Wickan warlocks to the city wall in Unta.
** Then encountered by Kalam, also in ''Literature/DeadhouseGates'', before the ruins of a sacked City. Hundreds of Children have been impaled and left to die, once again hitting home how deep the hatred of the Malazans runs in the ranks of the apocalypse.
** At the end of ''Literature/DeadhouseGates'', there is the horrifying crucifixion of Coltaine and the ''entire'' Seventh Army, much to the horror of everyone watching from Aren's city wall.
* ''Literature/MistbornTheOriginalTrilogy'': The Steel Inquisitors have been known to perform violent raids on the criminal underworld, be it thieves or rebels. They always have been known to never clean up the carnage left afterward, as a sign to the others of the lower class. When someone abuses Allomancy, this world's primary magic system, the Inquisitors force a hook down the abuser's throat and hang them to deter anyone from doing likewise.
* In ''Literature/AliBabaAndTheFortyThieves'', after Cassim is trapped in the cave and killed by the thieves, they quarter his corpse and display the pieces at the cave's entrance as a warning to others who might enter.
* A former Nazi soldier turned mercenary has no qualms about invoking this trope in ''Literature/TheDogsOfWar''.
-->''Kurt Semmler was forty, and it was he who, in the early days back in the enclave, had devised the skull-and-crossbones motif that the mercenaries and their African trainees wore. It was also he who had cleared a five-mile sector of Federal soldiers by marking out the front line with stakes, [[DecapitationPresentation each bearing the head]] of one of the previous day's Federal casualties. For a month after that his was the quietest sector of the campaign.''

* In the ''Literature/SectorGeneral'' novellas "Tableau" and "Accident", we discover that the Earth-humans and the Orligians, the first sentient alien species they made contact with, fought a war after their FirstContact. It ended when two wounded soldiers, one from each side, trapped in wreckage with little hope of survival actually ''talked'' to each other and resolved the painfully unfortunate misunderstanding that started the whole mess in the first place. Against all probability they were rescued and put into suspended animation, then displayed together as a war memorial. When medical science had developed to the point that both their lives could be saved, they were revived.
* In the first ''Literature/{{Ultramarines}}'' short story featuring Captain Ventris, captured heroic {{Space Marine}}s are cut open and their ribs splayed before being crucified on the front of the enemy tanks, mainly as an insult to their comrades but also because that's just what they do [[FaceHeelTurn now they're Chaos Marines]].
* Many of the non-{{Samurai}} criminals in the ''Literature/SanoIchiro'' series await this fate after they are executed; their heads are displayed as a warning to other criminals who would think of offending the shogun. For reasons of honor, most samurai who are responsible for crimes are instead allowed to commit {{Seppuku}}, though a few of them have also been displayed, showing that the shogun considered them to have no honor.
* At the end of Ellis Peters's ''A Bloody Field by Shrewsbury'', Henry IV decides to do this with the corpse of his friend-turned-enemy Harry "Hotspur" Percy to quench rumors of his survival. Prince Hal, his son and Hotspur's former pupil, begs him not to do it as it will only turn against him, especially since he had given leave to bury Hotspur only the day before. The King doesn't listen, but Prince Hal is proven right when the action cements Harry Hotspur's status as a legend and haunts King Henry to his dying day.
* This happens a lot in ''Literature/TheStand'', as Randall Flagg likes to crucify people and leave them hanging on telephone poles.
* ''Literature/InTheMidstOfWinter'': In an example that also falls under DesecratingTheDead, Gregorio Ortega, Evelyn's brother is found nailed to a bridge, his body covered in dried blood and [[ExcrementStatement feces]], with a sign around his neck with the letters M.S. (for Mara Salvatrucha, the gang to which he belonged). On the back, the sign reads that traitors and their families died like that.
* ''Literature/{{Animorphs}}'':
** Courtesy of BlueAndOrangeMorality, the Helmacrons have a corpse as the captain of their ship, ceremonially pinned to the command chair with several swords -- the living are fallible, see, and only the dead can be trusted not to make any mistakes, so the captain is always executed as soon as they take the position. Marco and Cassie simply consider this too insane for words, and when the suggestion is made, they dread a similar "promotion". This isn't quite as crazy as it seems due to a quirk in Helmacron biology (a "dead" Helmacron's mind is reabsorbed into the species and is eventually reborn) ensures that no Helmacron ever truly dies.
** The Nartec, a race of sea-dwelling mutants, do this to captured ships' crews in their city. The Animorphs eventually find that the Hork-Bajir Controllers who fell into the city with them also suffered this fate.

** The Law of God, as stated in the book of Deuteronomy, forbids the Israelites from leaving the bodies of deceased people who were punished for their sins hanging on trees, for "everyone who is hanged on a tree is cursed by God". This practice was carried out during the Israelites' conquering of the land of Canaan in the book of Joshua, and even in [[Literature/TheFourGospels the Gospels]] in regard to Jesus being put to death on a cross, fulfilling the prophecy in [[Literature/BookOfIsaiah Isaiah]] that "He was assigned a grave with the wicked, and buried with the rich at His death."

* ''Anime/KillLaKill'': As seen in the page image, a student in the intro who stole a Goku uniform was killed, stripped, and hung from the walls to warn anyone else what will happen to them if they do the same. [[EarlyInstallmentWeirdness It's rather strange in hindsight]], as the student council weren't shown as being remotely as harsh in later episodes.

** Memorably averted in the ''Jinchuu'' arc. It looks like it has been played straight by Kaoru, whose body was found PinnedToTheWall of the Kamiya dojo [[ImpaledWithExtremePrejudice with]] Enishi's {{BFS}}, but it turns out it was a "doll" made of corpses. The real Kaoru is still alive and a prisoner of Enishi.

* Rikako Oryou (and Kozaburou Touma before her) of ''Anime/PsychoPass'' specializes in this, turning her victims into works of grotesque art and leaving them in public places.
* A quite nightmarish version happens in ''Manga/{{Basilisk}}'': Gyoubu Kasumi is stabbed to death by Tenzen when he's merged with a wooden panel, and since his death doesn't allow for the corpse to be de-merged, the ''whole'' panel is exhibited in the nearest port as a warning to the Kougas.
* In ''Manga/CaseClosed'', more than one murder case involves the victim's corpse specifically arranged to this effect. I.e., in a {{filler}} case a girl is first strangled to death, then placed on a sèance table with her arms outstretched [[CrucifiedHeroShot as if she was tied/nailed to a cross]].
* One of the most horrifying moments in ''Manga/ShadowStar'' takes place when Takeo and Shiina's parents find a CreepyDoll... '''with the severed head of Takeo's murdered best friend, Norio, mounted on it'''. Naturally, [[HeroicBSOD none of them take it well at all]].
* In ''Anime/GrimmsFairyTaleClassics's'' rendition of the tale ''Literature/BlueBeard'', when Bluebeard's newest and ultimately last wife Josephine steps into the forbidden cellar, she sees the corpses of his murdered wives mounted on the nearby walls like trophies.
* ''Anime/PatemaInverted'': Shortly after Patema is captured by the Agian government, their leader, [[SinisterMinister Izamura]], shows her [[MakeAnExampleOfThem what'd become of the only other "of her kind" to visit the surface:]] [[spoiler: Lagos' dead body, perfectly preserved in a glass stasis chamber]]. Which is how she finally learns why he hadn't returned, after all those years.
* In ''Anime/PsychoPass'', Tsunemori and Kugami investigate a series of killings where the suspect preserves her victims' corpses through plastination, rearranging their body parts to form macabre sculptures.

* In ''Franchise/TheDCU'', ComicBook/JonahHex, 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 representing 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. [[spoiler:While he ''does'' go back, the body is not his, it's an impostor's.]]
* ComicBook/TheJoker often does this to intimidate the public. Probably a few other Franchise/{{Batman}} foes as well.
* In the ''ComicBook/TeenTitans'' relaunch, ComicBook/{{Deathstroke}} is possessed by his son Jericho, who murders Slade's loyal butler Wintergreen and mounts his head on a wall.
* In ''ComicBook/GIJoeDevilsDue'' comic "America's Elite", Cobra Commander kills his son Billy and hangs the body from a flag pole.
* A Franchise/{{Marvel|Universe}} villain takes the name Zodiac and kills every single member of a team by the same name before mounting their heads on his wall.
* In ''ComicBook/{{Marvel 1602}}'', Comicbook/DoctorStrange is beheaded for treason and his head is put on a pike. Luckily it's all part of a ThanatosGambit. Pretty much Strange is forbidden from telling knowledge that could prevent a crisis [[LoopholeAbuse while he is living]].

* This was originally Victor Zsasz' modus operandi. He would kill people, mark them and himself with a stitch mark, and then put them in lifelike poses to be found. Unfortunately, most writers have forgotten this and tend to focus only on the stick marks in later appearances. Luckily the makers of the ''VideoGame/BatmanArkhamSeries'' have given him back this little quirk.
* In ''Tales of the Black Freighter'', a ShowWithinAShow of ''Comicbook/{{Watchmen}}'', the Captain saw the severed heads of his two daughters hanging by their hair, and his wife's head in a pike. They were calling for him to save them. However, it was just a hallucination, they are alive and safe. However, when he does make it home (but believing he's too late to save them), [[MyGodWhatHaveIDone he almost beats his own wife to death (thinking she was a pirate), right in front of his daughters]].
* In the ''ComicBook/TransformersGeneration2'' comic, Megatron puts Bludgeon's head on display after killing him.

* ''ComicBook/WonderWoman1987'': The Sangtee Empire likes to have prominent dissenters viewable by the public following their executions. This is discussed and not seen in action unless some of the bones on Hope's End were preserved where other slaves would have to walk by them instead of thrown to the scavenger worms for this reason.

* In ''Film/OnHerMajestysSecretService'', Bond's Swiss contract attempts to climb a privatised mountain in order to check up on him, only to get caught in doing so. He is killed when Bond's cover is blown and unceremoniously hung upside down from a rock with mountaineering equipment right next to a thin window that Blofeld makes sure to lead Bond past while locking him up.

* In ''Franchise/TolkiensLegendarium'', various sides display (parts of) their dead enemies. A notable example is Sauron having the dead body of Celebrimbor carried before his armies as a standard during the war in Eriador.

* Subverted in the opening scene of ''Literature/{{Valhalla}}'' when the protagonist's father is about to be crucified by the gang that killed him. As the gang hoists the dead man, his daughter uses the opportunity to kill them all.
* The ''Literature/AnimalFarm'' scene with Old Major is an analogue of Lenin's Tomb (see below).

** One more notable case, this time of the first variant; Tywin's body is put on display at his funeral. It doesn't go very well, due to the advancing decomposition of his body.

* In ''Literature/TheHandmaidsTale'', the ultra-religious government strings the corpses of abortion doctors, scientists, and gay people to the walls as a warning.
* ''Literature/TheActsOfCaine'': In ''Blade of Tyshalle'', the body of Caine's late rival and master swordsman Berne is kept as a tourist attraction on Earth in the Studio Curiouseum. Ultimately subverted as his body is kidnapped and reanimated so it can kill Pallas Ril.
* In ''Literature/TheHitchhikersGuideToTheGalaxyTrilogy'', 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 ''Literature/{{Deathlands}}: Encounter'', 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 [[HoistByHisOwnPetard killed in the end]].
* Creator/RobertAHeinlein does this sort of thing rather often:
** In ''Literature/CitizenOfTheGalaxy'', the heads of executed criminals are displayed on pikes in the city of Jubblepore, Capital of the Nine Worlds.
** In ''Literature/StrangerInAStrangeLand'', Gillian shows Michael a popular religious group, the Fosterites. Foster, their founder, had died in the chair in which his body still sits, and the Fosterites' Tabernacle had been built around the body.
** In ''Literature/TimeEnoughForLove'', the head of a robber killed by a restaurant owner (in self-defense) is displayed on a spike outside the door. After a while, it is replaced by a plastic replica. This is required by custom in the society the restaurant owner lives in.
* Janet Philp's book ''Burke - Now and Then'' is written from the perspective of William Burke (of the real-life murderous duo Burke and Hare). Specifically, it is written from the perspective of his skeleton which hangs in the Anatomical Museum of Edinburgh University. He muses on the wrong decisions he made that led him to be executed and dissected.
* One of the ''Franchise/{{Dune}}'' prequel books has the Baron Harkonnen build a secret retreat with glass walls containing the decaying corpses of the construction crew. Evidently, the builders died with resigned expressions on their faces.
* In ''Literature/{{Phenomena}}'', this happens to [[KillTheCutie Ilke]], a majority of the fans' favorite character...

* ''Literature/{{Discworld}}'':
** A parody of Jeremy Bentham (see below) is former Archchancellor Hopkins of Unseen University. According to ''[[UniverseCompendium The Discworld Companion]]'', he asked that the University complete a process he spent most of his life attempting; to be pickled in alcohol. As with Bentham, this has provided many opportunities for student humor.
** Ankh-Morpork used to have a gibbet on which a former criminal permanently swung as a warning. Parents would take their children to see the terrible consequences of a life of crime, and the kids would say "Wow, brilliant" and use it as a swing. The weathervane on the Thieves' Guild building is also a former (unlicensed) criminal.
** There's a pub in Ankh-Morpork called "The Klatchian's Head". The current pub sign is wooden, but it used to be a genuine war trophy. In addition, Commander Vimes has forced the removal of a trophy troll's head from the Morporkian embassy in Bonk, Uberwald, during the events of ''Literature/TheFifthElephant'' and a goblin's head from the Goblin's Head pub in ''Literature/{{Snuff}}''. There's also a Troll's Head in the Shades mentioned in ''Literature/{{Sourcery}}'', with the comment "The thing on the pole isn't a sign. When they called it the Troll's Head, they didn't mess about". Presumably, in modern multicultural Ankh-Morpork, this has been rethought.
** In ''Literature/SmallGods'', a heretic was sentenced to be taken to all the towns in the empire so that they could see the errors in his ways, with the footnote stating that since there were so many towns, he had to be cut up quite small.
** In the second ''Literature/TheScienceOfDiscworld'', the darker aspects of Shakespeare-era London are summed up using several references to the "heads on spikes" phenomenon.
* In ''The Literature/{{Ringworld}} Throne'', it is mentioned that the body of one Harvey Mossbauer is kept on display in the House of Patriarch's Pride, the royal museum of the Kzinti. In response to having his family killed and eaten during one of the Man-Kzin wars, Mossbauer had landed on the Kzinti homeworld, fought his way into the harem of the Patriarch, and detonated a bomb there. After killing him, the Kzinti stuffed him and put him on display as an "honored foe".
* In a notorious set piece from Mrs. Sherwood's ''The History of the Fairchild Family'', the paterfamilias inculcates some moral lessons by taking his young children to see a man hanging from a gibbet. The man has been hanging there a very, ''very'' long time.
* ''Literature/RevelationSpaceSeries'': In ''Chasm City'', the crucified body of Sky Hausmann has been displayed for centuries in view of everyone using the space elevator on Sky's Edge.
* Though disapproved by the clergy, the practice of publicly displaying the head of a dead enemy did still occur on occasion in the ''Literature/{{Deverry}}'' novels.

** Joffrey forces Sansa to look at the heads mounted on spikes in "Fire and Blood".

* ''Series/SquidGame'': After the frontman finds out [[spoiler:that a group of the game workers have been running an OrganTheft racket with the help of one player, who is a doctor, in exchange for information on what the next game will be, he proceeds to get all of them killed and displays their corpses in the main hall for all the other players and workers to see]]. This is not because of the criminal activity, but because [[DoWrongRight he finds deplorable that one player was being given unfair advantage over the others]].

* Discussed in ''Film/TheManWithTheGoldenGun'', when Film/JamesBond confronts Francisco Scaramanga.
-->'''Scaramanga:''' [[WhyDontYouJustShootHim I could have shot you down when you landed]], [[NoChallengeEqualsNoSatisfaction but that would have been ridiculously easy]]. You see, Mr. Bond, like every great artist, [[MagnumOpus I want to create an indisputable masterpiece once in my lifetime]]: The death of 007, mano a mano, face to face, will be mine.
-->'''Bond:''' You mean stuffed and mounted over your rocky mantelpiece?
-->'''Scaramanga:''' It's an amusing idea, but I was thinking more in terms of history. [[UltimateShowdownOfUltimateDestiny A duel between titans]]. My golden gun against your Walther PPK. Each of us with a 50-50 chance.
-->'''Bond:''' Six bullets to your one?
-->'''Scaramanga:''' [[BadassBoast I only need one]].

* Near the end of the Western ''Colorado Territory,'' the two back-stabbing robbers wind up dangling by their necks in front of a crowd.

* ''Series/GameOfThrones'': Lots.
** Joffrey forces Sansa to look at the heads mounted on spikes in "Fire and Blood".
** When he encounters some wildlings, Robb decides to have them put on pokes and left to the crows.
** Tyrion provides the page quote, "Heads, spikes, walls," as his father's solution if the small council troubles him.
** Theon displays the charred bodies of his victims to proclaim the success of his hunt in "A Man Without Honor".
** Jaime and Brienne discover several women who were hanged by Stark men because "They Lay With Lions."
** Multiple characters such as Oberyn Martell recall that after Clegane murdered Elia and her children, Tywin Lannister laid the bloodied bodies of Prince Rhaegar's children before Robert Baratheon in the Throne Room, wrapped in Lannister banners, as tokens of fealty at the end of Robert's Rebellion. In the books, Tywin would justify this as both him playing the bad guy for Robert Baratheon, and having had to go to such extremes to prove his loyalty since the Lannisters effectively took until war's end to pick a side.
** Robb Stark gets a particularly nasty desecration when his head is swapped with that of his direwolf in mockery of his rumored supernatural abilities, [[EveryoneHasStandards which even horrifies]] [[TheBrute Sandor.]]
** The Great Masters of Meereen crucify 163 slave children, one for every mile, along Daenerys' invasion route. Daenerys punishes them by ordering that a like number of the city elders be crucified in turn.
** House Bolton's coat-of-arms displays a flayed man and legend speaks of them wearing their enemies' skins as cloaks and storing them in a room in their castle.
** After defeating [[FauxActionGirl Obara and Nymeria Sand]] (and ''easily'', at that) during a battle, Euron Greyjoy then adds insult to injury by pinning Obara to the prow by her own spear and hanging Nymeria from the end of it by her whip.
* ''Series/HouseOfTheDragon'': During TheCoup of the Green faction to crown Aegon king against the will of the late King Viserys to have Rhaenyra become queen, Rhaenyra supporter Lord Caswell is hanged in the courtyard of the Red Keep and his body is left in tha position for all to see.
* In an episode of ''Series/MissionImpossible'', 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 ''Series/DoctorWho'' 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.
* ''Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration'': In "The Defector", when the ''Enterprise'' falls into a Romulan trap thanks to them tricking a Romulan defector, Commander Tomalak boasts to Picard that "after we dissect your ''Enterprise'' for every precious bit of information, I intend to display its broken hull in the centre of the Romulan capital as a symbol of our victory. It will inspire our armies for generations to come, and serve as a warning to any other traitor who would create ripples of disloyalty.".
* One episode of ''Series/PushingDaisies'' had the rather gruesome reveal that the episode's villain had kept the corpse of the man he considered his best friend (who he himself had killed) on display in his office, disguised as a mannequin in a mascot costume.

* Used in ''Series/Jericho2006'' to show that the USA is a ''very'' different place now.
* ''Series/{{CSI}}'' has an 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.

* Brandon's mutilated body in season one of ''Series/TheWire'' was left on display, on the hood of a car, as a warning to Omar and anyone else who might care to mess with the Barksdale drug crew.
-->'''Avon Barksdale:''' You know how them cracker motherfuckers do when they kill a deer? Or, like, when they go out killing animals, whatnot? Got them on the front of the truck, tied up, stretched out, so everybody could see it? You feel me? I'm serious: that's what I want. I want that motherfucker on ''display''. I'm gonna send a message to the courtyard about this motherfucker, so people know we ain't playing.
* On ''Series/{{Rome}}'', a soldier loyal to UsefulNotes/JuliusCaesar executes Pompey when the latter tries to flee to Egypt. Rather than being pleased, Caesar is livid that a nobleman was so desecrated and orders the Egyptians to turn the man over. The soldier (not realizing this) [[PleaseShootTheMessenger is given a note to deliver to Caesar in Egyptian (which he cannot read), naming him as Pompey's killer]]. His OhCrap face as he realizes the trap he walked into is creepy, and the man's body is displayed for Type 2 reasons.
** Mark Antony and Cleopatra end up Type 2'd during the SeriesFinale as part of Augustus Caesar's triumphal parade.
* ''Series/TerminatorTheSarahConnorChronicles'' uses this as a threat: "I'm going to kill John Connor. Then I'm going to put his head on a pike for the whole world to see."
* The corpse of a bushranger ends up on public display in Hopetoun in one episode of ''Series/WildBoys''.

* On ''Series/MyNameIsEarl'', Earl has to arrange a funeral for the man he and his ex-wife accidentally kidnapped. (The man died in an unfortunate MurphysBed incident and having been an accidental victim of Earl, is now on Earl's list.) Earl speaks to a funeral director, who simply loves arranging the deceased in what he calls a "living pastiche," showing their favorite pastime. (This is not always popular with the families of the deceased, who often wish for a more traditional funeral with an actual casket.) Earl asks him to do a traditional funeral, but that doesn't work out since the man evidently had no family or friends...at least not in RealLife. It turns out all his friends were online, and when they are informed of his death, they arrange a funeral in which he can get a proper eulogy...and he is put on display in front of a computer, just as he always loved.

* In the ''Series/{{Supernatural}}'' episode [[Recap/SupernaturalS02E21AllHellBreaksLoosePartOne "All Hell Breaks Loose, Part One" (S02, Ep21)]], the demon leaves Lily's body hanging from the town's windmill.
* On ''Series/{{The 100}}'', the Grounders attack three people from the Ark and leave their bodies strung up on a tree as a warning to the other Ark survivors.
* On ''Series/{{Bones}}'', the heroine's estranged father, Max Keenan, butchers an FBI Deputy Director who threatens his family, and leaves the corpse prominently displayed in case anyone else has similar notions in the episode "Judas on a Pole".
* ''Series/MidsomerMurders'': In "A Dying Art", the killer places the bodies of their victims as parts of sculptures on display in a sculpture park.
* On ''Series/LALaw'', Mike Kuzak handled a case where an old man with a terminal heart condition wanted to be freeze-dried and displayed in his backyard (the old man's backyard, not Mike's). Opposing him was the state, who insisted that health laws demanded that human remains had to be disposed of by either burial or cremation. Eventually, though, the judge in the case and the man's wife convinced him to accept a traditional approach, so this trope was [[AvertedTrope averted]].

* ''Series/SharpObjects'': Natalie Keene's body is propped up in an alley to be found by the police and citizens of Wind Gap. The police speculate that the killer wanted to show off.

* ''Series/ChariteAtWar'': During the last hours of the war, Artur, one of the doctors, leaves the hospital to get colleagues and patients some desperately needed water. He passes a soldier hanged outside the front gate, with a sign that says "That's how deserters die."
* ''Series/{{Survivors}}'' (1975). In "Gone Away", while obtaining food and other vital supplies from a supermarket, Abby, Greg and Jenny discover the body of a man who has seemingly been hanged on display. The body has a sign reading "Looter" stuck to it and as such is intended to serve as a warning. It turns out the person who put him up didn't actually kill him, having merely found the body down the road. He notes that it is a more effective deterrent than putting up a "Keep Out" sign.

* ''Series/SquidGame'': After the frontman finds out [[spoiler:that a group of the game workers have been running an OrganTheft racket with the help of one player, who is a doctor, in exchange for information on what the next game will be, he proceeds to get all of them killed and displays their corpses in the main hall for all the other players and workers to see]]. This is not because of the criminal activity, but because [[DoWrongRight he finds deplorable that one player was being given unfair advantage over the others]].

* Along with the other FauxSymbolism in ''Franchise/{{Batman}}: Fortunate Son'', the body of [[CaptainErsatz Not Elvis]] is preserved like Lenin's.

* After the [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M%C3%BCnster_rebellion Münster rebellion]] was defeated in 1536, three o the ringleaders—John of Leiden, Bernhard Krechting, and Bernhard Knipperdolling—were tortured and executed in the town square, and their remains were hung from the steeple of the church. The baskets still remain today.

* ''Fanfic/TheUltimateEvil'': During the [[RewritingReality Demon World duology]] part of ''WesternAnimation/JackieChanAdventures'', it's revealed that a year ago [[HunterOfMonsters Nataline Homato]] was killed by [[EvilOverlord Shendu]] after months of torture and her body was placed on Hong Kong's wall to [[MakeAnExampleOfThem discourage the human slaves from even considering to defy him and his siblings]].

* In Creator/JRRTolkien's Middle-Earth universe (''Literature/TheLordOfTheRings'', etc.), various sides display (parts of) their dead enemies. A notable example is Sauron having the dead body of Celebrimbor carried before his armies as a standard during the war in Eriador.
* In the Literature/{{Deryni}} books:

** [[BigBad Voldemort]] did this to Harry in the FinalBattle of ''[[Literature/HarryPotterAndTheDeathlyHallows Deathly Hallows]]'', to prove to the defenders of Hogwarts that their hero was really dead... except that he wasn't.

* Subverted in the opening scene of ''{{Literature/Valhalla}}'' when the protagonist's father is about to be crucified by the gang that killed him. As the gang hoists the dead man, his daughter uses the opportunity to kill them all.

* In ''[[Literature/TheActsOfCaine Blade of Tyshalle]]'' by Matthew Woodring Stover, the body of Caine's late rival and master swordsman Berne is kept as a tourist attraction on Earth in the Studio Curiouseum. Ultimately subverted as his body is kidnapped and reanimated so it can kill Pallas Ril.
* In ''Literature/TheHitchhikersGuideToTheGalaxy'' 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 ''Literature/StrangerInAStrangeLand'', Gillian shows Michael a popular religious group, the Fosterites. Foster, their founder, had died in the chair in which his body still sits, and the Fosterites' Tabernacle had been built around the body.
** Heinlein does this sort of thing rather often:
*** ''Citizen of the Galaxy'': The heads of executed criminals are displayed on pikes in the city of Jubblepore, Capital of the Nine Worlds.
*** ''Time Enough For Love'': The head of a robber killed by a restaurant owner (in self-defense) is displayed on a spike outside the door. After a while, it is replaced by a plastic replica. This is required by custom in the society the restaurant owner lives in.

* One of the ''Franchise/{{Dune}}'' prequel books had the Baron Harkonnen build a secret retreat with glass walls containing the decaying corpses of the construction crew. Evidently, the builders died with resigned expressions on their faces.

* In the Literature/SwordOfTruth 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 [[VillainousBreakdown a little angry about it]].
* A parody of Jeremy Bentham (see below) is former Archchancellor Hopkins of ''Literature/{{Discworld}}'s'' Unseen University. According to ''[[UniverseCompendium The Discworld Companion]]'', he asked that the University complete a process he spent most of his life attempting; to be pickled in alcohol. As with Bentham, this has provided many opportunities for student humor.
** Ankh-Morpork used to have a gibbet on which a former criminal permanently swung as a warning. Parents would take their children to see the terrible consequences of a life of crime, and the kids would say "Wow, brilliant" and use it as a swing.
*** The weathervane on the Thieves' Guild building is also a former (unlicensed) criminal.

* In ''The Literature/{{Ringworld}} Throne'' it is mentioned that the body of one Harvey Mossbauer is kept on display in the House of Patriarch's Pride, the royal museum of the Kzinti. In response to having his family killed and eaten during one of the Man-Kzin wars, Mossbauer had landed on the Kzinti homeworld, fought his way into the harem of the Patriarch, and detonated a bomb there. After killing him, the Kzinti stuffed him and put him on display as an "honored foe".
* In a notorious set piece from Mrs. Sherwood's ''The History of the Fairchild Family,'' the paterfamilias inculcates some moral lessons by taking his young children to see a man hanging from a gibbet. The man has been hanging there a very, ''very'' long time.
* In ''[[Literature/RevelationSpaceSeries Chasm City]]'' by Creator/AlastairReynolds, the crucified body of Sky Hausmann has been displayed for centuries in view of everyone using the space elevator on Sky's Edge.
* Though disapproved by the clergy, the practice of publicly displaying the head of a dead enemy did still occur on occasion in the ''{{Literature/Deverry}}'' novels.
* In the Literature/SectorGeneral novellas "Tableau" and "Accident", we discover that the Earth-humans and the Orligians, the first sentient alien species they made contact with, fought a war after their FirstContact. It ended when two wounded soldiers, one from each side, trapped in wreckage with little hope of survival actually ''talked'' to each other and resolved the painfully unfortunate misunderstanding that started the whole mess in the first place. Against all probability they were rescued and put into suspended animation, then displayed together as a war memorial. When medical science had developed to the point that both their lives could be saved, they were revived.
* In the first ''Ultramarines'' short story featuring [[TabletopGame/{{Warhammer 40000}} Captain Ventris]], captured heroic {{Space Marine}}s are cut open and their ribs splayed before being crucified on the front of the enemy tanks, mainly as an insult to their comrades but also because that's just what they do [[FaceHeelTurn now they're Chaos Marines]].

* Happens a lot in ''Literature/TheStand'', where Randall Flagg likes to crucify people and leave them hanging on telephone poles.

* Courtesy of BlueAndOrangeMorality, the Helmacrons in ''Literature/{{Animorphs}}'' have a corpse as the captain of their ship, ceremonially pinned to the command chair with several swords - the living are fallible, see, and only the dead can be trusted not to make any mistakes, so the captain is always executed as soon as they take the position. Marco and Cassie simply consider this too insane for words, and when the suggestion is made, they dread a similar "promotion". This isn't quite as crazy as it seems due to a quirk in Helmacron biology (a "dead" Helmacron's mind is reabsorbed into the species and is eventually reborn) ensures that no Helmacron ever truly dies.

* In S.L. Viehl's ''Literature/{{Stardoc}}'' series, [[ProudWarriorRaceGuy Jorenian]] [[CulturedWarrior warriors]] have a habit of doing type 2 to [=ClanKill=] targets. Specifically, they string them out by their innards.

* ''Literature/ThePhantomOfTheOpera'': 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 PsychopathicManchild unrepentant killer, he was a truly great MadArtist), and his body would be preserved as a relic/object of reverence:
-->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 the Literature/LeftBehind book ''Assassins'', Nicolae Carpathia kills the two witnesses, Eli and Moishe, at the Global Gala and leaves their bodies dead and unburied for 3 1/2 days, according to [[Literature/TheBible The Word of God]], before they are resurrected and taken to heaven.
** Nicolae Carpathia himself had his body put on public display during his wake in New Babylon when on the same day it would be "resurrected" by Satan indwelling him.

* In ''Literature/{{Aliss}}'', the Red Queen creates art exhibits, usually family scenes, from taxidermied corpses.
** Charles (the {{Expy}} for the White Rabbit/Charles Dodgson) has been working for some time on a sculpture of his ideal of beauty, using parts from various corpses. The reader discovers this after he receives a [[FingerInTheMail Head in the Mail]].
* In Literature/EvaLuna, several years before the story started, a well-known lawyer who opposed the dictatorship was gunned down by the military. To say "fuck you!" to the tyrants, the family hired [[AbsentMindedProfessor Dr. Jones]] (the boss of Eva's mother Consuelo) to embalm the corpse and then put him on his favorite seat at his studio, even with his pipe in his hand. The "Benefactor" aka the leader of the military government didn't dare to go further, so the lawyer's body was on display for decades. [[spoiler: Until the new (and ''also'' dictatorial) government forced the family to bury him. This causes the already old Jones to have a stroke, and he never recovers.]]

* ''Spellsinger'': the town of Lynchbany got its name from the long-ago lynching of confidence trickster Tilo Bany, whose corpse is preserved in resin and hung up as a signpost.

* In the Literature/{{Boojumverse}} story "Boojum", Captain Edwards of the ''Henry Ford'' once tried to double-cross Captain Song of the ''Lavinia Whateley''. Captain Song now keeps Captain Edwards's head in a jar on her bridge as a warning to others.

-->Kurt Semmler was forty, and it was he who, in the early days back in the enclave, had devised the skull-and-crossbones motif that the mercenaries and their African trainees wore. It was also he who had cleared a five-mile sector of Federal soldiers by marking out the front line with stakes, [[DecapitationPresentation each bearing the head]] of one of the previous day's Federal casualties. For a month after that his was the quietest sector of the campaign.

* ''Literature/ByronyAndRoses'': When the [[spoiler: rose]] begins its attack, it makes a sequence of gruesome and obscene displays in the windows using the skeletal corpses of [[spoiler: the prince's former servants.]]

* Guybrush Threepwood in ''VideoGame/TalesOfMonkeyIsland Chapter 5: Rise of the Pirate God''. His entire corpse is standing on display wearing a [[NiceHat party hat]] and holding a dartboard during a wake in Club 41 when Bugeye and W.P. Grindstump are considering [[DueToTheDead burning the corpse in effigy]]; Guybrush eventually [[InhumanHuman repossesses his own decaying corpse]], though.

* [[spoiler:After Chelsea is horrifically murdered and cut to pieces by Kurome, her head is stuck on a pole in the center of a settlement]] in ''Manga/AkameGaKill'' by TheEmpire. [[spoiler: The rest of poor Chelsea's body is fed to Seryu's pet dog/Imperial Arm, Koro. A terrifying and undeserving end for Night Raid's newest member.]]

* '''Intimidation''': This person was an enemy, criminal, or another nasty figure, and TheEmpire[=/=]TheGovernment[=/=]{{Proud Warrior Race Guy}}s are keeping him around to [[MakeAnExampleOfThem show everyone else what happens when you mess with them]]. Particular favorites include heads on poles and skeletons hanging from gibbets. This one's quite popular with villains, and is a ''very'' effective way to KickTheDog, [[TargetedToHurtTheHero particularly if the person was special to the hero in any way]]. This is also a very common way to discourage [[GraveRobbing tomb robbers]].[[note]]In fiction, this is usually due to unfortunate souls who triggered the booby traps in the first place. A frequently overlooked detail is that there is often nobody around who is responsible for resetting the booby traps after the first wave of unlucky would=be thieves met their fate, thus making the warning a moot point.[[/note]]

* '''Intimidation''': This person was an enemy, criminal, or another nasty figure, and TheEmpire[=/=]TheGovernment[=/=]{{Proud Warrior Race Guy}}s are keeping him around to [[MakeAnExampleOfThem show everyone else what happens when you mess with them]]. Particular favorites include heads on poles and skeletons hanging from gibbets. This one's quite popular with villains, and is a ''very'' effective way to KickTheDog, [[TargetedToHurtTheHero particularly if the person was special to the hero in any way]]. This is also a very common way to discourage [[GraveRobbing TombRobbers]].