History Main / HumanPinCushion

%%* The villain of the 2007 film ''Film/ThePromiseKeeper''.

* Due to AnnoyingArrows it's very possible for people in any number of games to take many, many attacks from a bow during a given fight

** In ''[[VideoGame/TheElderScrollsIVOblivion Oblivion]]'', characters can be turned into human pincushions with literally dozens of arrows sticking out of them. If their health is high enough they can keep going.
** Ditto in ''[[VideoGame/TheElderScrollsVSkyrim Skyrim]]''. It's perfectly permissable to hear a guard whine about how his adventuring career was cut short after an archery-related knee injury while you yourself have an arrow stuck in your face. Or, in case you've had a run-in with a mage, an ice shard the size of a small log shoved through your neck. Guards have really wimped out since Oblivion.

* ''Series/AmericanGods'' features a version lacking from the book. In the book, the first Vikings to reach the shores of America are use a man from a local Native American tribe who came to befriend them as a HumanSacrifice to Odin. In the series, presumably the gods of the Natives warned them about the danger these Vikings posed, because the first time one of the Vikings tries to step off the beach their ship landed on he is shot by unseen archers until he is covered from head to toe with arrows. ([[http://p.fod4.com/p/media/9015cde16b/mdw2dqnDShdfJhitsZkQ_Arrows-American-Gods-1.gif Literally]]) The increasingly desperate Vikings pull a ScrewThisImOuttaHere, and will try ''anything'' to get a favorable wind from Odin just so they can leave the place.

** It happens again in ''Side Despair's'' episode 10, when [[spoiler: [[http://shieni.tumblr.com/post/150450446562/nanamis-death-dr2-dr3 the real Chiaki Nanami]] is first stabbed through the chest and ''then'' impaled from the ground by many other lances, as [[KillTheCutie the corollary]] to a huge BreakTheCutie process.]]

* ''LightNovel/TheMelancholyOfHaruhiSuzumiya'': in Yuki's memorable battle with [[spoiler:Ryoko]], she is impaled by a large number of metal spikes, but doesn't seem concerned at all.

* Being simultaneously pierced with multiple implements is actually FetishFuel for some.

** It happens again in ''Side Despair's'' episode 10, when [[spoiler: [[http://handda.tumblr.com/post/150450446562/nanamis-death-dr2-dr3 the real Chiaki Nanami]] is first stabbed through the chest and ''then'' impaled from the ground by many other lances, as [[KillTheCutie the corollary]] to a huge BreakTheCutie process.]]

* The villain of the 2007 film ''Film/ThePromiseKeeper''.

* ''VideoGame/DevilMayCry'': In the third installment, Dante is interrupted in eating a slice of pizza by a large group of scythe wielding demons warping in around him and turning him into an inhuman scythecushion. Up until Dante ''grins'', walks a few steps ''dragging the demons still holding onto their scythes'' and proceeds to kill every single one of his attackers '''with the scythe blades that are still stuck in him.'''

* ''VideoGame/MetalGearSolid'': In the third game, you can be turned into one by The Fear. If you use the medical screen to heal your wounds ''except'' for pulling out the arrows, Snake will spend the entire game with arrows sticking out of his body.

* In ''VideoGame/TheElderScrollsIVOblivion'' characters can be turned into human pincushions with literally dozens of arrows sticking out of them. If their health is high enough they can keep going.

Either way, having a character with multiple objects sticking out of them adds a touch of dramatic tension, while highlighting that character's BadAss qualities, even if they die. Note, however, that for this trope to have been truly invoked, the work must feature a character with a sufficient amount of projectiles/weapons stuck in their body, typically at least 4 or 5. Otherwise, the atmosphere created isn't quite the same.

** It happens again in ''Side Despair's'' episode 10, as [[spoiler: [[http://handda.tumblr.com/post/150450446562/nanamis-death-dr2-dr3 the real Chiaki Nanami]] is first stabbed through the chest and ''then'' impaled from the ground by many other lances]] as [[KillTheCutie the corollary]] to a huge BreakTheCutie process.]]

** In the original game's AnimatedAdaptation, [[spoiler: [[http://i44.tinypic.com/e9hef5.jpg "Junko Enoshima's"]] original "ImpaledWithExtremePrejudice" death is turned UpToEleven and becomes this trope. The spears that go through her ''thighs'' look specially painful.]]

** It happens again in ''Side Despair's'' episode 10, as [[spoiler: [[http://handda.tumblr.com/post/150450446562/nanamis-death-dr2-dr3 the real Chiaki Nanami]] is first stabbed through the chest with a sort-of lance and ''then'' is impaled from the ground by many others]].

* Takes placce twice in the animated versions of the visula novel ''VisualNovel/{{Danganronpa}}'':

* In Literature/TheBalladOfTheWhiteHorse Eldred takes seven spears to the torso before he finally goes down, and that's only because the seventh spear was enchanted.
* The current page image is titled [[{{Understatement}} Der verwundete Mann (The Wounded Man)]] from page 21 of the book ''Feldbuch der Wundarzney'' (Field Book of Surgery) by Hans von Gersdorff and illustrated by Hans Wechtlin. The Wounded Man has several swords and knives sticking out of multiple places, three arrows lodge in others, a crossbow bolt in his leg, a spear in his foot and stomach, two spiked clubs sticking out, several pieces of shrapnel stuck in his already wounded leg, what appears to be a cannon ball in his forearm and calf, a broken wrist, ''the head of a war-hammer sticking out of his upper arm'', and what may be a pointy stick poking his foot.

[[quoteright:170:[[Literature/FeldbuchDerWundarzney http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/picushion_human_489.jpg]]]]

* The current page image is titled [[{{Understatement}} Der verwundete Mann (The Wounded Man)]] ''Feldbuch der Wundarzney'' (Field Book of Surgery) by Hans von Gersdorff and illustrated by Hans Wechtlin. The Wounded Man has several swords and knives sticking out of multiple places, three arrows lodge in others, a crossbow bolt in his leg, a spear in his foot and stomach, two spiked clubs sticking out, several pieces of shrapnel stuck in his already wounded leg, what appears to be a cannon ball in his forearm and calf, a broken wrist, ''the head of a war-hammer sticking out of his upper arm'', and what may be a pointy stick poking his foot.

** In the anime prequel ''Anime/{{Dangan Ronpa 3}}'s'' ''Side Despair'' part, the OP shows [[spoiler: Seiko "Ultimate Pharmacist" Yoshida]] [[https://67.media.tumblr.com/3e32d260cebda134266bd1386e87e64b/tumblr_obznjzUoP51vxf82qo4_1280.png being stabbed all over]] with syringes. [[spoiler: [[BaitAndSwitchCredits It never happens]], since she's [[https://67.media.tumblr.com/2db93fa6b9f4459c7aac67084a48df7a/tumblr_obznjzUoP51vxf82qo1_1280.png stabbed in the chest]] ''and'' placed in a CrucifiedHeroShot instead.]]

* In [[TheAnimeOfTheGame the anime of]] ''VisualNovel/{{Danganronpa}}'', [[spoiler: [[http://i44.tinypic.com/e9hef5.jpg "Junko Enoshima's"]] original "ImpaledWithExtremePrejudice" death is turned UpToEleven and becomes this trope. The spears that go through her ''thighs'' look specially painful.]]

* In ''Webcomic/EightBitTheater'', Black Mage does this to his teammates on a fairly regular basis - i.e., whenever they really piss him off. They're all fine in the end, though.

* PlayedForLaughs in ''WesternAnimation/TheAmazingWorldOfGumball''. When Darwin suddenly starts to sneeze, Gumball and Mr. Small try to cure him with acupuncture. Darwin then sneezes and they fly onto Gumball and Mr. Small.

* Subverted by RebelliousPrincess [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philomena Saint Philomena of Mugnano]]. Her ([[YouFailhistoryForever almost surely false]]) myth says that she ''was'' to be executed just like Sebastian (after [[ATasteOfTheLash flogging her to almost death]] and [[KillItWithWater tossing her into a river]] didn't work), but God used His Powers to save her [[RuleOfThree by the third time]] and [[KarmicDeath shoot the arrows back to the archers, killing several of them.]] So Philomena "had" to [[OffWithHisHead be decapitated]] instead.

** Archer is seen to have died this way in a flashback [[note]]although Ufotable's ''[[Anime/FateStayNightUnlimitedBladeWorks Unlimited Blade Works]]'' adaptation uses the version found in ''VideoGame/FateExtra'' instead, wherein he was executed by hanging[[/note]]. Then it happens in-game thanks to Gilgamesh, but this time ''[[NormallyIWouldBeDeadNow he sticks around for a day after.]]''

* [[Myth/StEdmundOfEastAnglia King Edmund "the Martyr" of East Anglia]] supposedly was killed by Viking invaders in this way in 869 AD, when his captors tied him to a tree and riddled him with arrows. Some 120 years later, his biographer Abbo of Fleury gives a particularly vivid description of the event:

* Literature/{{Discworld}}: the first death of soon-to-be Zombie Reg Shoe, when the thwarted revolutionary is stuck with eight arrows but can still shout defiance at his attackers before dying. He soon recovers from this, and as a zombie proves it's impossible to kill him twice. In ''Discworld/{{Jingo}}'' he confounds the Klatchians by blithely fighting on even after losing an arm, devising a new form of unarmed combat by using his severed limb as a club to hit people with. As a policeman, he concludes arrests with arrows sticking out of him, often while complaining about the holes in his armour and uniform that he will have to make good himself.

** ComicBook/{{Wolverine}} invokes this every so often thanks to his HealingFactor. Ranges from things like arrows to multiple [[http://i.annihil.us/u/prod/marvel/i/content/69274comic_storystory_full-6284508..jpg swords]].

* ''ComicBook/TheDemon'', as seen in [[http://www.comics.org/issue/88998/cover/4/ this cover]].