History Main / AtopAMountainOfCorpses

* [[BigBad Amagi]] [[KillAllHumans Miroku]] of ''Manga/{{Psyren}}'', shortly after his big massacre TV debut, does [[http://www.mangareader.net/346-41896-4/psyren/chapter-99.html this]] after he and his sempai-slash-subordinate Grigori #01 (later known as Commander Grana) take out the Special Defense Force unit sent to hunt them down. [[MagnificentBastard Man always has perfect poise.]]

* ''Fanfic/BoldoresandBoomsticks'': Zwei is introduction to Absol doing this. The corpses being ''Grimm'' corpses, he's back at ground level in a few seconds.

* In ''Literature/BlueMoonRising'', the last army of the Forest Kingdom slay so many of their demonic attackers that they're shielded, for a time, by the mounded corpses of their enemies. At one point, Rupert climbs over the pile to rush to Julia's assistance.

** in the tabletop game many horde armies can end up with a rather impressive "dead pile" at the end of a game even more impressive if things go badly for them

** Rob Lucci, who manages this while resolving a situation where a kingdom's entire army were taken hostage. [[TykeBomb When he was]] ''[[TykeBomb thirteen]]''. With the corpses consisting '''[[KnightTemplar of the hostages]]'''.

* In ''ComicBook/{{Legacy}}'', Kol Skywalker pulled this off [[http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/File:Legacybattle1.jpg during the the first issue.]]

* In a segment of ''ComicBook/{{Maus}}'', Art imagines himself drawing the comicbook, while wearing a mouse mask, on top of a pile of anthropomorphic mouse corpses, mirroring his guilt and self-doubt related to the publishing of the first half of the book.

* ComicBook/TheJoker invokes the villainous version of trope in a bizarre way in ''ComicBook/TheKillingJoke'' by using a pile of half-broken kewpie dolls and a tilt-a-whirl cart as a throne. While not strictly a pile of dead bodies, it's pretty damn close...

* ''ComicBook/WonderWoman2011'': The the cover of issue 24 depicts Diana riding a black horse with a raised sword atop a pile of human bones which are mostly skulls, though there is at least one rib cage in the mix.

* ''WesternAnimation/WallE'' features this with robot "corpses" after the berserk spa-bot HAN-S is realased on the Steward-bots. Combined with OffhandBackhand.

* At one point in ''Film/TheGamersDorknessRising'' Leo starts replacing his frequently dying bard character with spare character sheets instead of resurrecting and losing levels. During a big battle so many die that the rest of the party use the pile of dead bards as cover.

* There's a short story by Creator/TimothyZahn and Micheal A. Stackpole where [[Literature/XWingSeries Corran Horn]] works briefly with a disguised [[Literature/TheThrawnTrilogy Grand Admiral Thrawn]], and the subject of art comes up when Corran says the graffiti on walls they're passing isn't [[HoldYourHippogriffs the work of Venthan Chassu]], but it's more interesting than peeling Star Destroyer White. Pressed for his opinion, Corran mentions that he liked the early and middle works by Chassu, but the man's final work, ''Palpatine Triumphant'', was of Palpatine on a throne of mutilated bodies, and in the narration Corran adds that the most disturbing thing about it was the Emperor's expression of homicidal joy. Thrawn dryly says that his loss was a pity, thus implying that Chassu was killed for this depiction.

[[folder:Live Action TV]]
* ''Series/{{QI}}'' made fun of this Trope in a discussion about prejudice against people over their height, and idle wonderings if short people are more likely to be power-hungry. Stephen Fry then informs the panel that historically, rulers and despots are no more likely to be short than any other figure, and that even Napoleon was of above-average height for his time.

** The iconic full page illustration from the first Dark Eldar codex has a random Dark Eldar warrior standing atop a hill of skulls. The bonus? An attached poem that set the theme for the entire army:

** in the table top game many horde armies can end up with a rather impressive "dead pile" at the end of a game even more impressive if things go badly for them

* In ''VideoGame/NemesisTheWarlock'' the corpses of the mooks you kill do not disappear, they remain and stack on top of each other and can be used as platforms. In fact the completion of some levels requires you to pile enough corpses to be able to jump to the exit to the next level.

* The Dreaded Red Arremer is first seen sitting atop a mountain of skulls in ''[[VideoGame/GhostsNGoblins Ghouls n Ghosts]]'' which it throws at at the player. This is the Red Arremer character's fight intro in ''Ultimate VideoGame/MarvelVsCapcom3''.

* The KillerRabbit from ''VideoGame/DragonsCrown'' starts the battle by landing on top a a massive pile of Northern army corpses. It uses the corpses to its advantage, scattering their weapons when it jumps around and during its TornadoMove.

* This is actually a game mechanic in ''VideoGame/LifeGoesOn'' where previous failed attempts at the level leaves behind corpses which can be used as platforms. At least one section requires quite a few bodies to pile up before [[DesecratingTheDead you can use them as a jumping point to get over a ledge]].

* During the Mexican American War there were several reports of corpse walls of Mexican solders forming. One officer even described how they formed. Apparently, the Americans were trained to shoot the enemy only within a certain range and this caused a lot of corpses to start falling in a narrow band. It became harder for the Mexican Soldiers to pass these bands so they became even easier to shoot. This caused little walls of bodies that the Mexicans literally had to climb over only to themselves be shot and add to the wall. Some reports say these grisly barricades were several stories tall and the victorious forces literally had to climb over them to advance.

* Legault of ''VideoGame/FireEmblemElibe'' claims this is where the assassin Jaffar was found as an infant, sleeping on the corpses of everyone else in his destroyed village.

* In ''Manga/{{Berserk}}, this imagery is referenced and shown before Griffith [[FaceHeelTurn joins the God Hand,]] convinced that if he does not achieve his dream, all the deaths of the Band of the Hawk (who died for his cause) will have been for nothing. It's enough to tip him over the edge.

* In ''Manga/{{Berserk}}}}, this imagery is referenced and shown before Griffith [[FaceHeelTurn joins the God Hand,]] convinced that if he does not achieve his dream, all the deaths of the Band of the Hawk (who died for his cause) will have been for nothing. It's enough to tip him over the edge.

* Seen in the box art of ''VideoGame/SeriousSam - The First Encounter HD''. Also seen one of the cutscenes in VideoGame/SeriousSam II.

** It's also mentioned in ''Discworld/InterestingTimes''. The Silver Horde are informed that the proper means of conquering the empire is through rivers of blood or over a mountain of skulls. They discuss how in their experience skulls are quite hard to pile up, so they'll need a lot of them. When faced with 100,000-to-1 odds, they remain confident that even after they've gotten tired killing the first few thousand, that the remaining soldiers will be tired too, because by then the soldiers will have to run uphill just to get to them.

* The final shot of ''Film/{{Fury 2014}}''.

* The soundtrack album cover for VideoGame/{{OFF}} depicts [[TheProtagonist The Batter]] atop a mountain of dead [[BedsheetGhost Spectres]].

* Gimli the dwarf from ''Film/TheLordOfTheRings'' sat on top of orc #43. It still moved because his ax was lodged in the orc's spine.
** In ''Return of the King'': the Orcs use a BatteringRam against the gates of Gondor. It proves woefully ineffective, and the defenders kill so many Orcs, that they are soon literally running up a pile of Orc corpses to smash the battering ram into the gate. Their commander yells that them for being stupid, and orders a ''much'' larger battering ram to be brought out.

* Lemon Demon's "The Ultimate Showdown of Ultimate Destiny" ends like this. The guy on top? [[spoiler:Mr. Rogers]].

** ...and then the New 52 version decided to top that with a literal throne of human corpses. [[GoOutWithASmile But boy were they smiling.]]

* The soundtrack album cover for VideoGame/{{OFF}} depicts [[TheProtagonist The Batter]] atop a mountain of dead [[BedsheetGhosts Spectres]]

* The soundtrack album cover for VideoGame/{{OFF}} depicts [[TheProtagonist The Batter atop a mountain of dead [[BedsheetGhosts Spectres]]

* The poster for the teen comedy ''Film/TheNewGuy'' has the titular character standing atop a pile of [[JerkJock jocks]] and [[TheBully bullies]] with a bunch of hot chicks (two of whom are Creator/ElizaDushku and Creator/ZooeyDeschanel) at his side.

* ''[[Franchise/StarWarsExpandedUniverse My Brother, My Enemy]]'' has Janek "Tank" Sunber, one of Luke Skywalker's childhood friends who became an Imperial officer, has [[http://images.plurk.com/1027ba6c3da04605ed2cd287b91a6152.jpg this dream]] about Luke. It's notable that Tank is an infantry officer, the kind who ''doesn't'' see his stormtroopers as FacelessMooks.

[[folder:Tabletop RPG]]