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alt title(s): What Do You Mean Its Not Symbolic; ptitlebqmxtrir9bav
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redirected from Main.WhatDoYouMeanItsNotSymbolic
If you have to ask what it symbolizes, it didn't.
So you have yourself a Mind Screw, a Dream Within A Dream, or an episode with lots of Foreshadowing. You have the plot, you have the characters... but something's missing. What could it be...?
I know! Let's add some random symbolism and a few religious shout outs, rip something off The Bible, make the registration plate a Bible index, place some pentagrams in the background of the chase scene, and have a character die with his arms outstretched so that people will compare him to Jesus. As long as it looks meaningful, people will love it!
Not all such references are arbitrary; this trope specifically applies only when someone has added random symbolism as an afterthought to add (illusory) depth and meaning to an otherwise-standard story. Comparing your main character to the Devil or Jesus seems popular; the latter can be easily done by giving him the initials "JC."
This technique is particularly popular in Anime, because the Japanese generally only have a passing familiarity with Christianity, and will often use names or apocrypha without regard for their actual significance. And of course the corollary being that Western productions likewise only have a passing familiarity with Eastern philosophies.
Be wary though that this trope can be used not to point out use of fake symbolism but to shut down discussion of what may actually be legitimate observation. When this trait is exhibited in music, it may overlap with Not Christian Rock.
Compare Crystal Dragon Jesus, Everyone Is Jesus In Purgatory, What Do You Mean Its Not Awesome.
Contrast Rule Of Symbolism, when something actually is symbolic.
Examples:
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Anime & Manga
- NEON. GENESIS. EVANGELION. How much of the religious imagery in Neon Genesis Evangelion is truly relevant and how much was added by this trope is up for debate; however, things like the cross-shaped energy blasts probably qualify. Producer Kazuya Tsurumaki admits that a lot of the material that the staff co-opted from Judeo-Christian esoterica is there specifically to Mind Screw the viewing audience, who, being Japanese, wouldn't be very familiar with it. But even NGE couldn't resist the temptation to throw in one gratuitous Buddhist reference, in the form of a One Hundred And Eight. European and American audiences are Mind Screwed not by its unfamiliarity but by the fact that it appears in totally unexpected contexts.
- There's actually a good collection of Buddhist and even Shinto imagery scattered around NGE — but it's handled a bit more subtly because the (intended) audience could be expected to pick up on it more easily.
- Don't forget the Sephirot
 (Yes, it's his namesake) you see behind EVA-01 (the image is also in the opening). Oh, and it's in Full Metal Alchemist's opening as well.
- The Sephirot aren't just in the opening. They're on the floor of Gendo Ikari's office and briefly appear during the crucifixion (speaking of this trope) of Unit 01 in End of Evangelion.
- There's much more symbolism in NERV itself:
- There are 22 layers of armor protecting the Geo-Front. This is taken from the number of paths between the 10 sephiroth in the Tree of Life.
- Also in Terminal Dogma are the Malebolge trenches. Malebolge was the eight circle of Hell in Dante's Divine Comedy and also consisted of trenches.
- Not to mention that the weapon used to restrain Lilith on her cross happens to bear the same name as the weapon used to impale Jesus on his cross, according to apocrypha.
- The Rebuild version gives us some more of this trope. 2.0 depicts the Second Impact with a pretty vivid set of drawings such as a quarter of white humanoids with halos above their heads. During the battle with Zeruel, Unit 01 also manifests a halo which eventually widens into a huge red-black vortex. Finally, as Third Impact is about to happen, Unit 01 is impaled by Mark.06/Kaworu is descending from the Moon with... yup, yet another halo. The original series had Unit 00 turn into a giant Rei figure with a halo before it exploded. Oh and did I mention Sachiel has a halo too?
- All of the angels have halos, though they're rather faint and seem to have been added in for DVD, for the most part. Case in point: Shamshel◊. Considering the Eva's origins, it's fair enough that they get in on the halo-wearing action too.
- Most of Eva's symbolism actually is, to some degree, meaningful, but Hideaki Anno and the other higher-ups have admitted that they did throw in some things just for the sake of provoking interest with no real meaning. Eva straddles this trope and Rule Of Symbolism.
- Yu-Gi-Oh: Many of the characters and monsters in the ancient Egyptian Memory World are named after figures from Egyptian mythology (Isis, Set, Osiris, Ra) and have absolutely nothing in common with their namesakes or their stories (though it makes great inspiration for Fan Fic writers and Shippers).
- Completely justified because it's Egypt. Naming your children after the god you worship was very common in the Middle East and around the Mediterranean. Actually, it's common in English, too, it's just that the names in question are all in Hebrew.
- Yu-Gi-Oh! GX has three demon monsters and their fusions named for Judeo-Abrahamic angels, and the name of the organization pursuing them are the "Seven Stars" in the original version, a reference to the Book of Revelation.
- For all the philosophical rambling and half-symbolism in Ghost In The Shell: Stand Alone Complex they mostly avoid religious imagery. But in the last episode of Second Gig, Batou grabs a cross beam and holds it over his shoulder before using it to free Motoko. And, well... judge for yourself if this is supposed to be symbolic◊.
- Not to mention the Tachikomas' self sacrifice at that same moment.
- The original film has an interesting moment where the enemy-controlled tank shoots the hell out of an evolutionary-tree stone relief in attempt to ventilate Motoko; the last round blows the 'homo sapiens' clean off the wall.
- Jo Jos Bizarre Adventure Part 3 introduced Stands, spiritual entities named after tarot cards. Note the "named after", not "based on"; few of them have anything in common with their namesakes, the author's handwaves nonwithstanding. For example, Tower of Gray is a superfast fly, so named because it brings calamity; Death 13 is a dream-controlling Stand named only because it looks like The Grim Reaper (while the actual card, ironically, does not), The Emperor is a handgun, and The Empress is a sentient wart which grows on its victim. About the only Stand that was really accurate was The Sun, a miniature sun. But, there weren't enough Tarot cards to have all the requisite enemy Stand users, so the author started naming them after similarly unrelated Egyptian gods. See Horus, an ice Stand named after the sun god. When the author ran out of those he decided to just use name them after bands, and has continued to do so throughout parts 4, 5, 6, and 7, though even those can be sort of wonky at times, such as Super Fly, the tower Stand.
- Death Note contains several religious allusions. Some notable examples are Michaelangelo's ''Creation of Adam'' (Ryuk and Light) and ''Pietă '' (Ray Penbar and Naomi Misora) in the first opening credits, as well as the washing of Light's feet by L. Not to mention the symbolism of the apples Ryuk is always chomping on. This was actually the result of a mistake on the part of the manga artist, as it was a suggestion from the author who just thought it'd look cool.
- Not to mention the huge number of objects in the series that just "happen" to look like crosses:
- While L washes Light's feet, it cuts to a shot of a catwalk arranged like a cross.
- In the final scenes of Episode 37, an oil refinery tower looks suspiciously like a cross.
- The "Wammy House" is just littered with crosses.
- Well it was previously a church.
- L is the world's three greatest detectives. Three entities in one person — where have we heard that before?
- Most of Hellsing's religious symbolism was put there simply because Kouhta Hirano was aiming to make a manga that "looked cool".
- In Haruhi-chan, Haruhi (with Kyon's aid) ties Mikuru to a cross and decorates her with balloons. This is an obvious reference to Haruhi's nature as God, and thus the Cruxifcation of Mikuru shows Her love for the world in that she would sacrifice her favourite chew-toy for... no, I am just making it up here. It certainly means something, though.
- As far a Kyon and Haruhi knew Mikuru was dead before she was tied to the cross, so it doesn't involve her being a sacrifice of any sort.
- Mercuremon from Digimon Frontier stages a huge Church Shootout against Takuya, complete with Ominous Pipe Organ (physical and musical) and a Crucified Hero Shot. The grand finale even involves stuffing him in a coffin. They are fighting inside Sefirotmon, which is a living cabbalistic figure.
- In the DVD extras for Eureka Seven, voice actor Crispin Freeman discusses how the names of the main Humongous Mecha and its associated Applied Phlebotinum are derived from Buddhist mythology, as well as the series' references to The Golden Bough.
- The Buddhist elements actually are central to the plot from the very begining, however.
- The Big O has giant kaiju-like artificial constructs named for the Biblical Leviathan and Behemoth - in addition, it's theorized that Big O corresponds to Behemoth, Big Fau to Leviathan, and Big Duo to the non-Biblical Ziz, rounding out the trio of legendary beasts from Jewish mythology. Sure enough, pamphlet copies of William Blake's painting of Behemoth and Leviathan are mysteriously dropped onto the city at one point.
- D Gray Man. The villains are descendants of Noah (yes, that Noah), the Millennium Earl has commandeered Noah's Ark, the Black Order works for the Vatican, General Yeeger is crucified by the Noah, most Innocences have Creepy Cool Crosses on them, all Akuma have pentagrams on their faces (as does the hero), the Noah have lines of scar-like crosses across their foreheads...
- Um...technically, if you actually believe the story of the Ark, ALL of humanity is descended from Noah.
- Fafner In The Azure Dead Aggressor outdoes its rivals with twice the pointless mythology: meaningless German myth for the heroes (see: Fafner), and vague Egyptian-ness for the villains.
- Trigun goes for the subversion; Nicholas D. Wolfwood carries around a cross that's actually a minigun, rocket launcher, and holster for several handguns. The grip is shaped like a skull. However, his religious beliefs turn out to be very important to the story.
- The third season of Sailor Moon (Sailor Moon S) features a lot of this trope. "The Messiah" has to use the Holy Grail to save the world from evil, but there's nothing particularly religion-related about this evil force — it's pretty similar to the Big Bads of the other seasons that don't have religious imagery. The episode where the Holy Grail makes its first appearance takes place largely in a cathedral.
- The Holy Grail appears when the three Talismans are brought together. Interestingly, these talismans are a sword, a mirror, and a garnet, which are three sacred objects in the traditional Japanese Shinto religion.
- There's one more level to the whole mess: The Grail (cup) plus the Space Sword, Garnet Rod (staff) and Deep Aqua Mirror (coin) match the 4 suits of a Tarot deck.
- In the Downer Ending of episode five of Mnemosyne, Big Bad Apos rapes Rin's sidekick Mimi while she is chained and nailed to a stone lamp post as Ominous Latin Chanting and Ominous Pipe Organ plays in the background. This is only one in at least three incidents of Nightmare Fuel in the last five minutes before the end credits roll.
- In the manga Samurai Deeper Kyo, Mibu Kyoshiro calls himself the son of God and goes around healing
leper wounded children. In a spectacular mix-up of biblical stories, he also kills his own brother, which leads to his leaving the Garden of Eden Mibu lands.
- Naruto's Big Bad Pain manipulates six bodies named after Buddhism's Six Paths of Rebirth: Animal Realm summons giant animals, Demon Realm is a friggin cyborg armed to the teeth with Schizo Tech hidden in his body, Hungry Ghost Realm absorbs chakra (the power source for 90% of the attacks in the series), God Realm had all kinds of weird shit with gravity and junk, Hell Realm could summon a monster that could revive the other bodies if they were too damaged plus kill someone if they lied or refuse to answer your question, and Human Realm reads your mind and can rip out your soul.
- It eventually turns out that the statue Akatsuki uses is something Nagato summoned to kill Hanzo and Danzo's men in revenge which is called "Gedo Mazo". "Gedo" means "outer path", referencing the term in Buddhism for a false path to enlightenment (as opposed to the inner path, which is the correct one).
- On top of that, Konan reveals that Nagato himself is another "path" of Pain called the "Outer Realm" and can also revive the recently deceased..
- When Lelouch's body falls down from the throne in the very end of Code Geass, his blood forms a large cross with the red line on the Britannian flag spread out in front of it. Interpret it however you wish.
- That one actually makes sense, given the details of his Heroic Sacrifice. After all, he died hated, but it was his choice to die so that others could live in peace. A Christ reference isn't that weird in the situation.
- Utena lives off weird symbolism and the fandom goes crazy, what with the extreme wackiness that is Ikuhara. Miki's stopwatch holding the secrets to the universe is not believed, Ikuni-sama.
- Not to mention all the scenes in Akio's car.
- In Zone Of The Enders Dolores, I, the story of Radium Lavans is highly similar with the story of Sekhmet, Goddes of War and Destruction who get turned into Goddess of Love and Childbirth, Hathor. Guess the name of Radium's frame.
- In Gao Gai Gar, the leader of Green Planet was named Cain, while the leader of Red Planet was Abel. Interestingly enough, Abel was apparently female.
- The demise of Colin Mcleod's dead love interest Moya in the OVA {{Highlander: Path of Vengeance}}, put up on a cross and forced to see her people getting wiped out by the Romans. Partly justified trope, due to that part of the movie set in Roman times, but still...
- Gundam is known for weird names in the UC era, but Gundam 00 takes symbolism to the far end. The Innovators is an example... Ribons Devine Almark Hilling Care Regene Revive Tieria Erde, Bring Anew Stability which when you look at it in one way: Reborn Divine Angel's Healing Care Regenerates and Revives the Green Earth, Bringing Anew Stability.
- Crona from Soul Eater... his/her name, when spoken, is said as "Kuro na" which translates to "dark one". What with the black blood, this is fitting.
- The final fight between Shinigami and Asura has their souls briefly meeting in a yin-yang symbol, though without each side having aspects of the other. Insignificant detail in the scheme of things, but oddly appropriate given how the anime decided to use order and chaos as analogus to good and evil.
- In addition to more explainable symbolism (a stray dog as the main character's self, paired bullet casings for the two killers, puppet strings, masks), the first couple episodes of Phantom~Requiem for the Phantom has random crosses or shadows in the shapes of crosses cropping up around the two young assassins, Ein and Zwei.
- Chrono Crusade teeters back and forth on the "significant/insignificant" line. The series is about a nun that hunts demons, so a lot of the religious symbolism is justified. But some moments push it, particularly in the anime. For example, after Chrono is badly injured in a battle and caught up in an explosion, Father Remington finds him buried in rubble marked by two steel beams welded together in the shape of a cross.
- Yami No Matsuei. Period. It's practically an advertisment for this trope.
- The main characters of Haibane Renmei are humans with grey wings and golden halos. Word Of God states that this is not supposed to be symbolic, but was instead chosen because it looked nice. It's hard to agree with that though, since the entire story seems to be a metaphor for Purgatory.
- It's perhaps worth noting that the entire series first originated from a gag doujinshi which revolved around the practical problems that cute Moe girls could get from having halos and wings, like being unable to put on a bra, or getting the halo stuck between subway train's doors. The setting and the symbolism came in later. The Japanese are incidentally not necessarily inclined to read the story's metaphor from the Christian perspective that the Western fans do.
- The main trio of leads in NEEDLESS are named Adam, Eve and
Yamada Cruz ("Cross"). These elements seem to be almost purely decorative, considering the sheer wacky and over-the-top nature of the series.
- Bloody Monday has this in spades, which isn't unusual considering the antagonists are an evil cult bent on killing millions of people to rebuild Japan. Off the top of my head, when the cult's imprisoned long-haired leader Simon is busted out he somehow manages to change into Jesus-like robes inside an Absurdly Spacious Sewer. He dubs his most trusted operatives Michael, Judas (who does what you'd expect him to do), Cain And Abel (even though that applies better to another pair of siblings) Eventually Simon is killed by a faithless operative (not Judas); the child of Simon who takes his place because they planned all this is also killed (by Judas, but because he felt the new leader was faithless, not to mention completely psychotic). On top of all that the cultists use the Babylonian calender for no reason other then Rule Of Cool.
- This tends to be all over the place in the Riki Oh manga (The Story Of Ricky is basically regarding the pre-symbolism part).
- All of the homonuculi in Full Metal Alchemist are named after the seven deadly sins.
- It doesn't end there: The manga version's Greed is more or less a walking example of this. Like every homonculi he was born from a single parent, (Father) he was later hunted down and ended up crucified on Father's orders. Father then killed him on the cross and absorbed his Philosopher's Stone back into his body. Then later on he is returned to life by Father. Sound similar to anything?
- Rather impressive for a world in which Christianity does not exist.
- Pokémon: Arceus and the Jewel of Life has some of this, mainly due to the fact that Arceus is supposed to be God.
- The short story 'Lucifer Rising', found in the scifi manga 2001 Nights is MADE of this. A giant anti-matter planet named Lucifer, orbitted by the moons Brutus, Cassius, and Judas, whose creation is described with quotes from Paradise Lost and images from religious art, and a Villainous Breakdown being preceded by Satan's famous quote "As good to me is dead, Evil, be thou my good!" The final page has the famous image of God and Adam drifting apart to represent man's leaving the solar system for deep space. That symbolic enough for you?
Comic Books
- In Huntress: Year One #4, the Huntress essentially crucifies Stephen Mandragora, but even though Huntress is all about the Catholic imagery, she only does it to restrain him, and presumably because impaling someone through the palmar radial nerve is one of the most excruciatingly painful injuries one can inflict on someone. Lampshaded when Mandragora points out to her, with his dying breath "You honor me, with...with the stigmata...I knew...I'd be a saint someday."
- The trope is parodied in Preacher when someone pointed out that Jesse Custer's name has "J.C." for initials and Jesse says it's a ridiculous idea.
- The X Men went through a phase in the Dark Age when a lot of new characters had Biblical or religious names, sometimes appropriately (Apocalypse, Nimrod), vaguely appropriately (Babel spires), or for no particular reason at all ( Bishop, Gideon). Ahab would count, except that he's an obvious reference to Moby Dick.
Fan Fic
Film
- The ending of Final Fantasy Advent Children is basically a bit fat wad of this. Cloud is temporarily killed by Loz and Yazoo, vanishes in a blur of light, and reappears in a CHURCH that has been flooded with magical healing water. As if it isn't blatant enough, he wakes up surrounded by kids suffering from geostigma, whom he heals by cupping water in his hands and "baptizing" them on top of the head.
- Applied in the fictional universe itself, Jules Winnfield's recitation of "Ezekiel 25:17" in Pulp Fiction, which couldn't be any more off to anyone who's read the actual excerpt. Winnfield himself openly admits that he never actually gave the verse much thought, he's just always thought of it simply as some cold-blooded shit to say to a mother fucker before popping a cap in their ass. The verse is deliberately built out of a patchwork of indistinct Bible references in order to emphasise that Jules wants to sound Biblical, rather than caring about his quotations and is actually taken from The Bodyguard starring Sonny Chiba. Then he gets a reason to sit and think about what he has been saying all these years and it turns out to be moderately applicable.
- The Doom Generation was so full of this it was pretty much tripping over itself. The main characters' surnames are Redd, White and Blue. The female lead smokes Death brand cigarettes, and has a skull-shaped lighter. The penultimate scene involves "The Star-Spangled Banner" playing behind a scene probably better not described. The whole thing is pretty much Clueless meets Evangelion.
- This movie is a great example of the trope; there is so much Faux Symbolism, thrown around like holy water across what is still unmistakably just a road movie.
- I Know Who Killed Me, which with its strange "symbols" (persistent use of the colors blue and red, an animated heart tattoo, an owl on a tree branch) made the already ridiculous premise even more insane and inane.
- The final shootout of John Woo's The Killer has this in spades. The shootout itself takes place in a church, the Killer's last place of peace and refuge, with doves flying everywhere at key points in the battle. At one point, the Killer gets shot, and his arms are outstretched in a Crucified Hero Shot. And just to drive home the point that the church is no longer a sanctuary for him and his blinded love interest, one of the bad guys blows up the church's centerpiece, a statue of Mary, at which point the Handel's Messiah Overture starts playing.
- 28 Days Later: Are all the statues of Laocoon in the manor house supposed to mean something? How about the Infected priest? How about the running horses? How about the "hell"/"hello" sign at the very end? Well, how about it?
- In Kenneth Branagh's Hamlet, the eponymous tragic hero's body is hoisted awkwardly so that the arms splay and the head flops back giving a brief cruciform. This would only make sense if there were any other sacrificial/messianic imagery in the rest of the film.
- Paradise Now has a chilling, ironic ShoutOut to Da Vinci's Last Supper. When Khaled and Said eat a supposedly last time with the preparers of their suicide bombings, for some reason they all cluster on the far side of the long table, facing the camera.
- Blade Runner has the Replicant Roy Batty attempting to kill Deckard before his body dies. His arm begins to stiffen and numb, and so he drives a nail through the palm. He and Deckard fight on the roof — Deckard is soon driven off the edge and dangles for his life, weakening. Roy grabs him and pulls him up onto the roof just as Deckard's hands slip, the nail through his hand in full view, and sits there, cradling a white pigeon in his hands, before finally dying. At least he had the decency not to splay his hands out in a crucifix pose.
- One draft of The Spy Who Loved Me would have Bond hide out in a church during a shootout, and hide behind the crucifix, arms spread and all. It was removed well before filming starting, due to the Unfortunate Implications Bond shooting people in a church would have.
- Westworld is a secular relative of this, with symbols both representing its Lost Aesop (the rebellion of the Roman slave-bots, for instance) and seemingly being thrown in for kicks (the Dark Knight on the throne).
- The use of a robotic snake to herald imminent disaster is also rather suggestive.
- In Equilibrium, the enforcers of Libria are the Grammaton Clerics, shortened from "Tetragrammaton", the Clerics' organization. The Tetragrammaton is a Greek term for the four-letter name of God in Hebrew. Utterly meaningless in the context of the film, but it sounds cool, right?
- All of Lars Von Trier's Antichrist: The protagonist couple, known only as He and She, retreat to their cabin in the woods called "Eden" where they torture each other (He psychologically, She physically, with garden tools) following the untimely death of their child.
- The film Gigantic has several scenes in which the main character is attacked by a seemingly invulnerable homeless man for no apparent reason; near the end of the movie, the main character stabs his assailant with a knife, who then disappears without a trace. No explanation for this is ever given in the film itself; the writer/director said in an interview that the assailant is was a metaphor for the main character's subconscious demons.
- At a Q&A session, the writer/director of We Are The Strange admitted to viewers that the Creepy Cool Crosses were put in just as an afterthought or because he thought it'd look cool.
Literature
- Mark Z. Danielewski's House Of Leaves is chock-full of religious and mythological symbolism, some of it seemingly irrelevant. The most obvious allusions are to the Greek myth of
the Labyrinth and the Minotaur because of the nature of the house, but other mythologies and religions have their place. For instance, Will Navidson's injuries mirror similar injuries sustained by figures in Norse mythology: Odin lost an eye, Tyr lost a hand, and Heimdall lost his hearing, which are similar to the one blind eye, the frostbitten (and rendered useless) hand, and the lost ear he ends up with. The house is located on Ash Tree Lane, and the world-tree Yggdrasil is said to have been a giant ash tree. Danielewski doesn't stop at Greek and Norse mythology, but to list them all here would take up too much space.
- The book also contains numerous examples parodying this tendency. Most of the book is taken up by a critical examination of the Fictional Document The Navidson Record, a film which in the universe of the novel has already gone extensive critical analysis, of the Epileptic Trees, Freud Was Right, Everyone Is Jesus In Purgatory nature. For example, two of the characters in the film are brothers, and based on this evidence alone, numerous critics surmise that they are meant to symbolically represent the Biblical characters Jacob and Esau. One review of the novel went so far as to describe as "a satire on the business of criticism".
- Parodied in Vladimir Nabokov's Pale Fire. This is actually Charles Kinbote's catch phrase when he's doing the footnotes to John Shade's poem "Pale Fire". He keeps relating very minor lines of the poem with some epic romance about a homosexual king fleeing a country in the grips of socialist revolution. Obviously John Shade was so subtle a poet that any mention or imagery of the color gray in "Pale Fire" alluded to the name of the assassin hired by an Omniscient Council of Vagueness to track the forementioned king down.
- Ironically, Kinbote actually recounts a conversation with Shade in which Shade talks about how much he hates this trope, stating that, after "not having read the required book," "looking for symbols" and more generally "having read [the book] like an idiot" are the worst crimes an interpreter can commit.
- Done deliberately in Ender's Game with the mind game imagery. While much of it is drawn from various mythologies, and much of it makes sense in itself, taken as a whole it's incoherent. Word Of God explains:
Second, I did not want to create a "plotted" mind game ... When I caught myself having a plan, I subverted it.
- The Chosen: It is possible that Danny Saunders represents the Jewish people. He is a dutiful son trying to convince himself that his inscrutable father loves him, he and his father never talk except when studying Talmud. Oh yes, and his father led the congregation's immigration to America thus delivering them up out of the land of Russia.
- Good Lord, The Confidence Man. It's considered by some to be the first Po Mo book, written by Herman Melville in the 1800's. Mostly it was a social satire, but his own views on morality, religion, and Idealism Vs Cynicism were in there through ridiculous amounts of religious symbolism. The Gainax Ending makes it so open to interpretation that scholars have been mulling over the meaning since it was first published. Just from one introduction, about the book's symbolism
Most authorities trace the origin of All Fools' Day to a Hindu vernal celebration, a masquerade called Huli... The avatars of the Confidence man are quite literally avatara, that is, successive incarnations of the Hindu god of salvation, Vishnu. The first major avatar of Vishnu is as a fish who recovers the lost sacred books; the first avatar of the Confidence man is an "Odd fish!" who brings to the world injuctions from The Bible. The second avatar is a tortoise who upholds the world; the second avatar of the Confidence man is a "grotesque" man who slowly stumps around, lives "all 'long shore" and holds his symbolic "coal-sifter of a tambourine" high above his head. After this comes eight other major avatars and innumerable minor ones; the Guinea avatar lists eight other men and innumerable minor ones... The teachings of Buddha aimed for nirvana, which means literally the extinguishing of a flame or lamp. According to Hindus, Buddha was Vishnu incarnate as a deceiver, leading his enemies into spiritual darkness. The last avatar of the Confidence man, the Cosmpolitan, finally extinguishes the solar lamp and leads man into ensuing darkness.
- The protagonist of the novel Neuropath is called Thomas Bible. His unusual surname is lampshaded but it's not clear if it's meant to signify anything.
Live Action TV
Music
Theater
- Most of the second half of The Fantasticks is a parade of symbols. The El Gallo number "Round and Round" is particularly trippy in its symbolism; even the actors in the production this editor attended didn't know what it meant.
- If you think The Fantasticks is symbol-laden, check out the authors' follow-up, Celebration. The bookwriter and lyricist Tom Jones even admits that the symbols were pretentious and overbearing, culminating in a song about the young hero's final battle with the old villain called "Winter and Summer."
- Gilbert And Sullivan were mocking this way back in 1880 (making this trope Older Than Television):
- Ye gads the Sera Myu. The Third Stage (AKA the Dracul Arc) is particularly bad. Combine a Kudzu Plot with nearly everything in the musical being a biblical or historcial referance and you have four horribly confuseing musicals. There are far to many to list and doing so would ruin the plot but here are a few anyways.
- The Bible was witten by the Big Bad to get himself killeld. Also After Cain killed Abel the latter became a vampire who became the basis for Dracula. And that's just the tip of the iceberg.
Video Games
- In Deus Ex, the main character has the initials JC. Symbolic? Probably not, actually. Word of God says it's because they originally wanted the option to choose a female character and "JC" was gender-netural.
- Xenogears and Xenosaga are notorious among Video Games for being chock-full of pretentious religious symbolism. Much like Neon Genesis Evangelion, matters are complicated by the fact that the core story really is based around religious symbolism—Xenogears in particular is heavily inspired by the Gnostic interpretation of Christianity.
- Some of this was lost in translation. The Elementals were named for four of the nine choirs of angels. Cherubina (Kelvena), Throne (Tolone), Seraphita and Dominia. Mr. Inferiority Complex Ramsus has a phonetic Japanese spelling that makes his surname pronounced like Rameses. And Miang's surname is a shout-out to Eve (Hawwa/Chavah).
- Bioshock carries quite a bit of seemingly gratuitous religious symbolism, from crucified corpses, to discarded Bibles lying around, to the name of the game's Applied Phlebotinum, ADAM (which gives you powers that are fueled by EVE), to the name of the city itself, Rapture. One could argue that Rapture is actually named after "diver's rapture", a state of narcosis caused by gas absorption at high pressure, which would actually be symbolic of madness made by descending to the depth.
- A developer interview stated that the name "Rapture" was chosen not so much for its heavenly implications but because it implied exclusivity. Not everyone will get into Heaven, and not everyone can get into Rapture. I'm not sure where the names for ADAM and EVE came from, but the crucified corpses were hung up deliberately in spite of the fact that people had everything they thought they wanted in Rapture, still weren't satisfied, and turned to God (remember how fussy Andrew Ryan got when talking about the Bible?). En masse. That random Splicer singing "Jesus Loves Me" isn't just doing it for a scare factor. Boxes and boxes of Bibles are strewn throughout the game from start to finish, giving Ryan one more reason to cut off contact with the surface world.
- Mega Man X8 contains plenty of examples of this. The first stage is called "Noah's Park", a space elevator is named "The Jakob Project"
for apparently no reason after Jacobs Ladder, and the final boss appears as a fallen angel whose ultimate attack is called "Paradise Lost".
- The last example is actually also a Title Drop, since "Paradise Lost" is the subtitle of the game.
- Sigma's true form is called Belial Sigma. Fans have also likened Lumine's name to that of Lucifer, the "light-bearer" and fallen angel who would eventually become Satan, due to the aforementioned angel motifs. Similiarly, the Maverick's plot to migrate to the Moon and escape a war-torn (and thus useless) Earth is seen as an allusion to the story of Noah and the Flood.
- In Drakengard, you have the Cult of the Watchers, which is a vague allusion to a concept in Judeo-Christian theology and some books of the Apocrypha. The book of Enoch, specifically. Monstrous children of the grigori, the Nephilim = those crazyass giant demon babies? Well, maybe?
- Fire Emblem games generally name characters and weapons after people and weapons in mythologies from EVERYWHERE in Europe. The names don't go any deeper than being names. Fire Emblem: The Sacred Stones has a character named Tethys (a Greek Goddess), the sacred spear Siegmund (named after a Norse Hero) and the sacred sword Sieglinde (named after Siegmund sister/lover Ironically, they're wielded by Lords who are twin brother and sister * and* have quite the twincest-y vibes). They just sound cooler than boring names, nothing more.
- Also in Sacred Stones, there is a bow named "Nidhogg" which the game refers to as the "Serpent Bow". In Norse myth, Nidhogg is the name of the serpent that gnaws at the roots of Yggdrasill.
- In Sword of Flames/Blazing Blade, Eliwood receives a sword named Durandal, said to have been wielded by the hero Roland. Both of these names are taken directly from a French legend.
- Not to mention
Mars Marth. Uh, nevermind, I guess.
- Digital Devil Saga is a rare example of a game that uses random Hindu symbolism and mythology. From your ultimate goal being Nirvana, after you pass through Muladhara, Svadisthana, Manipura, Anahata, a few side dungeons, Ajna, and Sahasrara, to fighting Ravana, the Junkyard is practically made of random Hindu symbolism. And this being a Shin Megami Tensei game, of course you kill God, who happens to be Brahman in this reincarnation.
- It's a bit more complicated than that. It's actually supposed to be random Aryan (no, not that way) symbolism, but because we don't actually know a lot about Aryan mythology, they use Hinduism to fill in the gaps — it's the closest surviving religion.
- "Jesus Beams" Joshua from The World Ends With You. A God Is He.
- To clarify: Joshua's the freakin' Composer.
- Two of the first towns your party visits in Final Fantasy III are Canaan and Ur.
- Silent Hill: Homecoming has a lot of sexually-related imagery. None of it seems to mean a damn thing, as sexual themes aren't part of the plot nor do they relate to any of the characters. This is a particularly grating example, because, as others have speculated, the most likely cause is the American development team simply failing to grasp that the symbolism the Japanese devs employed through the rest of the series, especially with monster design, was actually symbolism specific to those characters.
- The entire series is also filled with occult references that include Metatron, Samael, the Olympic spirits and tarot cards, and eventually grows to include an entirely fictional mythology and pantheon featuring such names as Xuchilbara the "Red God" and Lobsel Vith the "Yellow God". The idea any of these references are truly relevant to the story lead to loads of fan theories which the third game then specifically had the job of Jossing.
- Metal Gear Acid 2 names the Test Subjects (Golab, Harab Serap, Chagadiel) after the Kabbalist Qliphoth for no good reason, and names the Metal Gear Chaioth Ha Kadosh (host of angels) and gives it a choral piece as a Leitmotif.
- The opening scene of Metal Gear Solid 2 shows Snake (who had at this point abandoned his dream of having a normal life in order to fight against Metal Gear proliferation, as his 'duty to the coming generations') throwing himself off a bridge with his legs together and his arms outstretched in a wide crucifix pose. He's in Active Camo at this point, so the effect is made even more extreme by the fact that all that's visible is the outline of his long-haired, nearly-naked silhouette. Oh, and an ethereal choral song plays as he does it. For a while during development, it would have been more extreme, with Snake wearing a brilliant white parachute that would spread out behind his body like a pair of angel wings. A lot of the symbolism is mollified, though, by the fact that when he lands on the surface of the Tanker there's a big Homage Shot to, of all things, Terminator.
- The final series of bosses in Final Fantasy VI screams this. The first three bosses are grotesque figures shaped out of human bodies with seemingly no relevance whatsoever to the storyline. Then, for the four and absolutely final boss in the game, the characters rise out from a dark and dreary background to shining light and clouds to fight an angelic and God-like being. The most plausible explanations are that this is based on Dante's Inferno with the first three bosses representing the different circles of Hell and the three major categories of sin or, respectively, the bosses themselves are Hell, Purgatory, Heaven, and then God.
- This can also be seen as Kefka specifically trying to make a mockery of religion by putting himself in all that religious imagery. The man is a textbook Nietzsche Wannabe after all.
- It's actually even more direct than that. Besides the symbolism of repeating the number 3 in several places (Boss tiers, Warring Triad, etc.) and the Heroes climbing an artificially created mountain to fight him, (much like Dante's journey up Purgatory's mountain to find God) the Final Boss Tiers represent Dante's entire journey throughout the Divine Comedy. The First Tier is meant to represent Lucifer frozen up to his waist in ice, as he is in the Inferno. The next Tier's exact illustration isn't clear, but the number of different people in it is probably a reference to Purgatory, which Dante travlled to after Hell. The Third Tier is a parody of Jesus lying underneath the guise of Mary, of course since this is Kefka the image involves machinery adopting the visage of Mary and Jesus looks a lot like Kefka. In the end of the Divine Comedy, God descends from Heaven to tell Dante the meaning of life, whereas here, Kefka descend as an artificial God and tells the heroes that life is meaningless
- It's pretty fair to say that so many fights wouldn't have been had about Final Fantasy VII if the villain hadn't been named after the Kabbalist 'Sephiroth' and he hadn't been obsessed with becoming a god and there wasn't a sacrificed martyr character.
- Add onto that a possible corrected translation of his final form, Sepher Sephiroth, and watch more heads explode.
- In Final Fantasy VII: Crisis Core, the character Genesis comes from a town famous for its apple harvest, and is producing clones of himself in an abandoned apple factory. When attempting to incite Sephiroth into rebellion against the Shinra, he offers him an apple. The rest of the final dungeon had a large amount of Faux Symbolism, too, what with Dante's Inferno references and a statue that looked like the Virgin Mary (at least in Japan).
- Speaking of apples, one can certainly slap some Faxu Symbolism onto the burning apple when Tseng blows up Banora really, what could it mean? Especially its connection to not only Genesis but also Angeal...speaking of names and symbolism...
- Yet more examples from Final Fantasy: The Summons. Yeah, Odin, Lakshmi, Quetzalcoatl and the like make sense in the context of being gods, but Eden? Ark?
- Eden = Garden of Eden. The schools where the See Ds are educated? They are called gardens as well. And Eden bears some resemblance to the flying gardens.
- The Aeon Anima wears a tag with Mary on it.
- It makes more sense when you realize it's actually a portrait of Anima's human form who is Seymour's mother. Seymour views himself as a messiah, albeit a dark and evil one from the viewpoint of anyone sane. He seeks to save Spira from the cycle of pain and suffering by destroying it.
- The Tattered Spire in Fable 2 is, at its full height, a model of Hell from Dante's Inferno.
- Inverted entirely in Max Payne, when most people missed the oodles of valid and proper Norse symbolism.
- In the Sakura Taisen manga (and possibly by extent the game, but correct me if I'm wrong), the character Setsuna has a scene during his Mind Rape arc torturing Maria with her tied to a cross.
- Silhouette Mirage contains notable examples, such as references like Megido, Zohar, and Metatron.
- Let's not forget EVE Online, wherein humanity discovers a wormhole (the titular EVE) which delivers mankind to the New Eden system in another galaxy. It only gets better from this point onward, especially if you take the time to read the names of some of the systems and constellations.
- This seems to be more an example of the sort of names humans would actually come up with rather than unsubtle references.
- A little-known game called Adventures of Darwin features a tribe of monkeys that have to evolve into humans in time to survive the coming apocalypse. They are led by a monkey named Darwin, a shout out that would make the actual Charles Darwin spin in his grave. Where does the symbology come in? The final boss is God Himself. Well, okay, according to the bestiary, He is actually Zeus, but given the context, he's clearly meant to be a monotheistic God, not one of a pantheon.
- In The King Of Fighters, SNK Boss Goenitz is a priest, and in his waiting for turn animation, he is seen reading a book (presumibly a Bible). He serves and awaits the return of a powerful, supernatural entity who would bring The End Of The World As We Know It, who ended reincarnating in a the body of a boy named Chris; and to top it, he would throw phrases like "pray to your god" before fighting. In addittion, the Spin Off dating simulation games Days of Memories has him, Chris and Shermie wearing crucifixes. Also, Kyo wears a black shirt with a cross in the NESTS saga.
- In SNK Vs Capcom: SVC Chaos, you fight Bonus Boss Athena in a Fluffy Cloud Heaven and, after defeating her, an unnamed character who is a clear Captain Ersatz of God appears to sends you back to Earth. Akuma returns to challenge him, though.
- Alternatively, you go to
Hell Makai, the Demon World, and face Red Arremer of Ghosts 'n Goblins fame. Arremer, despite only being something of an underling to recurring Big Bad Astaroth, is the closest thing this game has to Satan (despite the fact that said character already appears in the Ghost 'n Goblin series... as a lackey to Astaroth), being a cross between a devil and a gargoyle in appearance. Lose to him, and you're turned into a demon and then forced into servitude.
- In Street Fighter IV, it's implied that either Abel was cloned from Seth, or that Seth was cloned from Abel. In the Old Testament, Abel and Seth were the sons of Adam and Eve, which leaves one question: Where's Cain?
- Street Fighter III: 3rd Strike has Gill, who in the previous SF3 was little more than a Big Bad with a weird color scheme. In the Dreamcast version of Double Impact compilation, where he was playable, his ending gave a cryptic Bible-sounding verse predicting a future calamity, and in 3rd Strike he becomes a self-proclaimed savior who, in his ending in the console version, splits an ocean that leads to a paradise. We are all very impressed.
- In The Legend Of Zelda: The Wind Waker, Link's sister Aryll is kidnapped by the Helmaroc King because Ganondorf ordered that all girls with pointy ears be brought to him, as one of them was the promised Princess Zelda. Meanwhile, in The Bible, King Herod ordered that all babies under three years be killed, as one of them was the promised Messiah.
- The game Baroque is littered with crosses and minor religious messages. If you explore the Outer World, you can find a graveyard of metal framework crosses in the background.
- La-Mulana sure has a lot of maternal symbolism. One quest requires you to take a statue of a woman to an area where you can see sperm swimming around in the background, and then stand under a diagram of the uterus.
- The backstory concerning the destruction of the Echidna clan in Sonic Adventure somewhat mirrors the story of Noah and the Flood.
- Then there's the Heaven/Hell imagery in Sonic Riders and in the Chao Gardens of Sonic Adventure 2.
- In Tales Of Monkey Island: The Trial and Execution of Guybrush Threepwood, Morgan Le Flay betrays Guybrush and brings him to the Mad Doctor DeSinge in Floatsam Island. When she arrives the doctor pays her with 30 Thousand pieces of eight in silver.
- Like some earlier examples, Tales Of Symphonia has a lot of mythological names for things, particularly places given names from Norse mythology, most of which have little or no connection to the things they're named for. There are a couple of exceptions, though.
- Tales Of The Abyss carries it to a whole new extreme. Nearly all the towns' names, the "Qlipoth" underworld, and even the title — all drawn directly from the Qabalah in ways that make it clear there was absolutely no understanding of the original material.
- In Brutal Legend, Satanic circles are used as waypoint markers. It's supposed to fit in with the Metal theme. The Demons have a five-pointed emblem as well, but it's a Cheveron with a "V" superimposed.
- A Star Ocean Till The End Of Time example. The layout for the second last room before the final boss is shaped like the Sephirot. Whether it has general meaning or is just randomness is left ambiguous.
- Well, considering that the last boss—named Lucifer, at that—has one very severe god complex with regard to his creation, it's probably yet another part of his claim to divinity over the Eternal Sphere.
- If you look carefully, you can find this sprinkled through Star Ocean The Second Story. Krosse/Cross (although the continent is shaped like a plus rather than a crucifix), Salva/Salvation, Ell/El, etc. There probably isn't much to most of it, beyond Theme Naming with various other occult/mysticism elements in the series. Nede and the God's Ten Wise Men are a bit more germane; Nede is a major place of Precursor Aliens, and the Wise Men, named for the ethnarchs of the nine angelic choirs (plus Lucifer), were the collective Super Prototype of their latest way of maintaining control. It's worth noting that when you leave Lucifer out, you have the reverse of the actual pseudo-Dionysian hierarchy. There, Metatron ranked highest, and Gabriel ranked lowest; here, it's the other way around. Nonetheless, the milieu makes it clear that you're not expected to look that deeply.
- How symbolic can Final Fantasy XIII be? The final boss is a trinity melded into one who rules Eden. The party are Pulse l'Cie, of which Pulse is considered Hell by the citizens of Eden.
Web Comics
- Summed up by this image◊ (Aptly titled "It makes you sound deep"), brought to you by RPG World.
- This Questionable Content comic showes perfectly how easily good-sounding symbolism can be created over pretty much anything.
Web Original
- Cody Jenson's discovery of a motorcycle in Survival Of The Fittest, a mundane occurrence tooled up with as much symbolism and imagery as was humanly possible. Oh, and he named it too.
Western Animation
Real Life
- Seventh Sanctum has the Symbolitron, whose purpose is to generate random symbolism to use in your own writings.
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