History Main / PrecautionaryCorpseDisposal

[[folder:Film]]

[[folder:Tabletop Game]]

[[folder:Video Game]]

* ''Series/{{Angel}} had two seperate occasions where someone's corpse is dismembered by a loved one (Holtz by Connor, and Lilah by Wesley) due to the incorrect belief that they were killed by vampires. Holtz had someone [[ThanatosGambit kill him in a manner that would frame Angel for the deed]], while Lilah was actually killed by a possessed human and a vampire came across the body afterwards.

!Examples:

[[folder: Fan Fiction]]

[[folder:Live Action Television]]

* In ''Videogame/TheElderScrolls'' setting, the Divine of life and death, Arkay, protects the bodies of the deceased through Arkay's Law, which prevents them from being raised as undead. Priests of Arkay carry out the funerary rites to protect the dead, and this makes them and Arkay the enemy of many necromancers. The only time that Arkay's Law can be bypassed is the rare points when the Necromancer's Moon eclipses [[OurGodsAreDifferent Arkay's planet-body]] in the skies over Nirn.

Prevention can be as simple as performing proper funeral rites to prevent the dead coming back to haunt the living. Or even (especially in more science fiction-y settings), just making sure the corpse is properly destroyed (often via FireKeepsItDead). It's also not unheard of for a setting to [[ClarkesThirdLaw split the difference]], and make a setting's funerary rituals the result of the correct procedure for disposing of the dead. Of course "simple" is relative; you can expect a ForbiddenZone which became an AbandonedArea after too many people died at once to do anything about it.

Many ZombieApocalypse settings have a subtrope, where any fresh corpse will soon rise and join the undead horde (making anyone close to death a ZombieInfectee). If this is a game mechanic, expect a RevivingEnemy. Compare AntiRegeneration, for preventing a still living monster from healing itself. This may overlap with UnfinishedBusiness, if the reason a ghost may come back is because its remains weren't properly dealt with.

* Film/NightOfTheLivingDead1968 ia a TropeCodifier - in the film, a news broadcast directs the viewers to drag any corpse out into the street and burn it lest they rise up as a "[[NotUsingTheZWord flesh eating ghoul]]".

* In the ''Literature/OldKingdom'' series by Creator/GarthNix, dead bodies are disposed of by cremation because any intact corpse is a risk to become an undead monster of some kind (either reoccupied by a dead spirit that refuses to go on to the afterlife, or reanimated as a servant by a necromancer).

* ''Literature/GalaxyOfFear'': The planet Necropolis is said to be {{Curse}}d by an ancient {{Necromancer}}, forcing people to pay DueToTheDead or suffer [[ZombieApocalypse their vengeful return]], so they have massive gated cemetaries and rigid burial customs. Zombies do start to show up when outsiders trespass on the cemetary, due to [[spoiler:a MadDoctor experimenting with a "[[ImmortalitySeeker cure for death]]".]]

* In ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyX'' anyone who dies (especially in the wake of Sin's attacks) needs to have their soul sent to the farplane by a summoner, or they'll eventually begin to hate humanity and turn into a fiend (i.e., the RandomEncounter monsters). The exceptions being Unsent; strong willed individuals who can hang on to their human forms (often with [[Main/UnfinishedBusiness some purpose in mind]]).
* In ''VideoGame/DeathStranding'', monsters called BT[=s=] roam the Earth. Anyone who dies turns into one around 48 hours later. If they eat a person it causes an AntiMatter explosion. Live people cause city destroying explosions and dead bodies cause smaller, but still devastating ones. [[DeathIsCheap Repatriates]], like Sam, cause small explosions. It's heavily implied that the initial wave of deaths/explosions more or less wiped out most populated areas. The only solution is to incinerate corpses as soon as possible (with nobody present but the courier team who brought them to the crematorium). This also serves as [[GameplayAndStoryIntegration a gameplay mechanic]]; should [[PlayerCharacter Sam Bridges]] get eaten by a BT, the explosion leaves a permanent crater in the game world. If an NPC gets eaten you have to go back to an earlier save. If you kill an NPC, you are expected to bring their corpse to an incinerator and are docked "likes" if you don't.

* In ''VideoGame/DwarfFortress,'' corpses not given a proper burial will spawn a ghost to haunt the area. What that ghost will do ranges from generic haunting shennanigans to [[CheerfulFuneral organizing their own Wake]]. Unburied remains are also at risk of being turned against you if a necromancer shows up, unless placed in a coffin[[note]]whether this means that AnimateDead no longer works on them because their souls are at rest or because they just can't force the lid open is unspecified[[/note]] or otherwise disposed of. This applies to [[RaisingTheSteaks any dead animals that might be around as well]], unless their remains have been processed in some way.

[[/folder]]

Prevention can be as simple as performing proper funeral rites to prevent the dead coming back to haunt the living. Or even (especially in more science fiction-y settings), just making sure the corpse is properly destroyed (often via FireKeepsItDead). It's also not unheard of for a setting to [[ClarkesThirdLaw split the difference]], and make a setting's funerary rituals the result of the correct procedure for disposing of the dead. Of course "simple" is relative; you can expect a ForbiddenZone which was abandoned after too many people died at once to do anything about it.

* In ''VideoGame/DwarfFortress,'' corpses not given a proper burial will spawn a ghost to haunt the area. What that ghost will do ranges from generic haunting shennanigans to [[CheerfulFuneral organizing their own Wake]].

* In ''VideoGame/DeathStranding'', monsters called BT[=s=] roam the Earth. Anyone who dies turns into one around 48 hours later. If they eat a person it causes an AntiMatter explosion. Live people cause city destroying explosions and dead bodies cause smaller, but still devastating ones. [[DeathIsCheap Repatriots]], like Sam, cause small explosions. It's heavily implied that the initial wave of deaths/explosions more or less wiped out most populated areas. The only solution is to incinerate corpses as soon as possible (with nobody present but the courier team who brought them to the crematorium). This also serves as [[GameplayAndStoryIntegration a gameplay mechanic]]; should [[PlayerCharacter Sam Bridges]] get eaten by a BT, the explosion leaves a permanent crater in the game world. If an NPC gets eaten you have to go back to an earlier save. If you kill an NPC, you are expected to bring their corpse to an incinerator and are docked "likes" if you don't.

* In ''VideoGame/DeathStranding'', monsters called BT[=s=] roam the Earth. Any corpse left in the open will be inevitably eaten by them, causing an AntiMatter explosion. It's heavily implied that the initial wave of deaths/explosions more or less wiped out most populated areas. The only solution is to incinerate the corpses as soon as possible (with nobody present but the courier team who brought them to the crematorium). This also serves as [[GameplayAndStoryIntegration a gameplay mechanic]]; should [[PlayerCharacter Sam Bridges]] get eaten by a BT, the explosion leaves a permanent crater in the game world.

* In ''VideoGame/DeathStranding'', monsters called BT[=s=] roam the Earth. Any corpse left in the open will be inevitably eaten by them, causing an AntiMatter explosion. It's heavily implied that the initial wave of deaths/explosions more or less wiped out most populated areas. The only solution is to incinerate the corpses as soon as possible (with nobody present but the courier team who brought them to the crematorium). This also serves as [[GameplayAndStoryIntegration a gameplay mechanic]]; should [[PlayerCharacter Sam Bridges]] die, the explosion leaves a permanent crater in the game world.

* In some versions of [[Myth/NorseMythology Norse paganism]] the body had to be destroyed for the spirit to depart, else the corpse might rise as a [[{{Revenant}} Draugr]] and torment its family. In places where lumber was scarce, like Iceland, cremation was only practical for the upper classes and others resorted to elaborate rituals to confuse the Draugr like knocking out walls to carry the corpse out and burying it upside down.

* In ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyX'' anyone who dies (especially in the wake of Sin's attacks) needs to have their soul sent to the farplane by a summoner, or they'll eventually begin to hate humanity and turn into a fiend (i.e. the RandomEncounter monsters). The exceptions being Unsent; strong willed individuals who can hang on to their human forms (often with some purpose in mind).

* In ''VideoGame/DwarfFortress,'' corpses not given a proper burial will spawn a ghost to haunt the area. What that ghost will do ranges from generic haunting shennanigans to [[TheFunInFuneral organizing their own Wake]].

* In Series/{{Supernatural}}, Hunters must burn a body and anything associated to it in order to either destroy an existing ghost causing problems or, as a precaution, to keep one from forming. When done for fallen comrades, this is called a Hunter's Funeral.

* In ''Film/KingdomOfHeaven'', there's a more mundane example near the end of the film. It becomes necessary to cremate the bodies of people who died in battle rather than giving them a proper burial because otherwise everyone else would die of disease in days.

* In ''ComicBook/TheWalkingDead'', anyone who dies will come back as a [[NotUsingTheZWord walker]] shortly afterwards, unless their brain is destroyed.

Many ZombieApocalypse settings have a subtrope, where any fresh corpse will soon rise and join the undead hoard (making anyone close to death a ZombieInfectee). If this is a game mechanic, expect a RevivingEnemy. Compare AntiRegeneration, for preventing a still living monster from healing itself. This may overlap with UnfinishedBusiness, if the reason a ghost may come back is because its remains weren't properly dealt with.

Accepting submissions for a snappier name that still gets the idea across.

Name suggestions: '''[[https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/crowner.php/AlternativeTitles/PosthumousHazard VOTE HERE]]'''
* CantKeepCorpses
* DangerousIntactCorpse
* DeadlyDead
* HazardousCorpseDisposal
* MandatoryCorpseDisposal
* PosthumousHazard
* PrecautionaryCorpseDisposal

Indexes:
* DeathTropes
* FuneralTropes
* DeadBodyIndex
* ResurrectionTropes
* UndeadIndex
* WeaknessTropes

Draft begins below the line.
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