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MARK IT ZERO!
- Lelouch vi Britannia, Code Geass (pictured top-left)
In real life, zero is a pretty undesirable number (unless you have zero bad things, which is good). If you have zero dollars on you, you can't buy anything. If you multiply by zero, you get nothing. If you divide by zero, you create an universe-breaking black hole. If your friends call you a zero, your friends are jerks. If you have a Zero Percent Approval Rating, you're a jerk.
However... if a character in a story is named "Zero", or has "zero" as part of their name, then that character has at least one unique attribute that makes him/her/it significantly stand out from everyone else. Usually, they're some form of Bad Ass.
Often, 'Zero' may simply be used for its convenient Xtreme Kool Letterz. However, there is sometimes justification in that the "zero" model of something may be the prototype — thus, if The Ace is number one, the Phlebotinum Rebel is number zero. Or "zero" might be the Super Prototype, Flawed Prototype... or Psycho Prototype. The "zeroth" example of something thus makes a nice candidate for a Sixth Ranger. It may follow the format of a "top ten list," where number one is the best...therefore Zero must be even better.
As a side note, the name "Cypher" or "Cipher" has the meaning "zero", but is rarely a good or lucky name. For various reasons (for the French-language version, see Le Chiffre). As well, "Rei" means "zero" in Japanese, and (spelled a different way) is also a common name there; thus, it is sometimes used in this sense.
Zero may be one of those Names To Run Away From Really Fast.
Only tangentially related to The Zeroth Law Of Trope Examples. May be good at using the Zeroth Law Rebellion. See also You Are Number Six. Not to be confused with Zorro, despite the spelling (and many other) similarities.
The name comes from a segment about the number zero in Schoolhouse Rock.
Examples:
Anime and Manga
- The protagonist Lelouch of Code Geass is this trope incarnate, using the alias Zero while working to obliterate the Britannian empire and build a new world in its place. He's not so much a Bad Ass as an absolutely Magnificent Bastard. It makes sense once you learn that Britannia names conquered areas and people with numbers (Ex: Area 11 and Elevens), so Zero signifies both his rebellion and his secret oppressed royal lineage.
- If one notices, on top of Lelouch's alter-ego naming, anything that associates with him on some personal level in the rebellions will have "Zero" in the title. The Order of Black Knights has the Unit Zero, Zero's Personal Guard (of sorts) that is composed of Kallen as it's leader among other pilots, and, there's the Type 0/0A Shinkiro, Zero's personal KMF, with it's Structural Phase Transition Cannon... Er, "Zero Beam".
- Ironically subverted. The Type 0/0A Shinkiro was made AFTER the Type 02 Guren. And the Type 03, 04, and 05. And made using the prototype Druid System computer in the Gawain. So it's not even remotely a prototype.
- In R2 episode 21, Lelouch becomes emperor of Britannia, and awards his best friend Suzaku the custom rank "Knight of Zero" as part of an inside joke for the people who know his dual identities. He creates this title as the highest knightly position, whereas the previously highest was the Knight of One.
- In Nightmare Of Nunnally, Nunnally's Geass is known as "The Zero." Which makes things DIE.
- Zero Enna in Candidate For Goddess was supposed to be The Messiah or something, and probably would have gotten there had the show not been cancelled/abandoned.
- Zeromaru, the Veedramon from the Digimon V-Tamer manga. "Maru" means "zero"; thus, the two zeroes in his name combined with the "ichi" (meaning "one") in his partner Taichi's name leads to their Catch Phrase "Our combination is 100 percent!"
- Furthermore, after first explaining this Catch Phrase, Holy Angemon notes that zero and one are the basis for binary code and, thus, the Digital World.
- EVA unit 00 in Neon Genesis Evangelion. And its pilot is Rei Ayanami, with the "zero" connection as above.
- The Zero Cyborgs from Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha.
- The Gundam Wing Zero in Gundam Wing. It and the Epyon are have a "Zero System" which enhances the pilot's abilities at the price of making him psychotic.
- The first Gundam to appear in Gundam 00 is the 0 Gundam. The second season brings us the 00 Gundam itself, possessing the 0 Gundam's GN Drive, and abilities never seen before with any of the Gundams that appeared before it.
- Goes all the way back to the classic Mobile Suit Gundam with Amuro Ray/Rei. His name is an anagram of the notorious WWII-era fighter, the Mitsubishi A 6 M Zero (A-Roku-Mu Rei).
- A example from a villain; in Bleach, Yammy reveals that the ranks of the espada go from 0 to 9, not 1 to 10 as previously thought, when he proceeds to grow in immense strength and size as he loses the 1 from his 10 tattoo.
- This won't help him, of course, as he is pitted against Kuchiki Byakuya and Zaraki Kenpachi, two of the most Bad Ass shinigami.
- Bleach also offers us the nihilistic villain Ulqiorra Cifer.
- Louise, the titular Zero from Zero No Tsukaima is a Double Subversion. Her nickname comes from her apparently non-existent magical prowess, and nothing about her implies any level of Bad Ass... until it turns out that her inability to cast any normal spell properly comes from her alignment with the forgotten branch of "void magic" — which, needless to say, includes some insanely powerful combat spells.
- Let's not forget Saito's Big Damn Gunship moment with a World War II Zero aircraft.
- In Loveless, a series chock full of meaningful pair names, there are two teams called Zero — one whose members are both boys, and one who are both girls. They are called the Zero series because they are Artificial Humans who cannot feel pain, and, in theory, are undefeatable.
- Zero Kiryu from Vampire Knight for obvious reasons. His name actually is "Rei" in Japanese kanji, but it gets pronounced in English, presumably because it sounds cool.
- This Japanese troper would like to point out that zero is actually an legitimate alternate pronunciation of the kanji rei now, and is more common than the original pronunciation.
- Sifr Fran from Mai-Otome 0/Sifr OVA, has the double whammy of a meaningful name and prequel name. (Note that the first trailers had the title rendered as "Mai-Otome Sifl" before they got around to fixing it. "Sifr" means "zero" in Arabic, and is the origin of words for "cipher" and "digit" in some languages.)
- Back when Harmony Gold was dubbing Dragon Ball, they named Goku "Zero". Luckily, they only ever completed three episodes (which weren't even in order).
- Zeroro from Keroro Gunsou became quite the badass assassin before he became an invader. However, he changed his name to Dororo after coming to Earth to get rid of that hateful moniker.
- Similarly, Zero from Bomberman Jetterz.
- A villainous Zero is Mr. Zero aka Crocodile in One Piece.
- Liger Zero from Zoids: New Century Zero.
- In the DearS universe, "Ren" means "zero" in the DearS' language. Having the main character say the equivalent of "My name is nothing" really pisses off some of the DearS.
- Tenchi Muyo has Dr. Clay's robot assistant Zero, who captured Ryoko then became her duplicate. Or something.
- Not even Pokemon is safe from the wrath of Zero. In the new movie, Giratina and The Sky Warrior, the main villain was a rather yandere (not to a person, but a place) young man named, guess what... Zero
 !
- Oddly, Zero seems out of place in the Pokemon anime. He's more Higurashi-ish then Pokemonish, minus the drastic murder.
- Zero's name is in contrast to his Spaceship Girl named Infi (short for Infinity), and his former mentor Mugen, which in Japanese means infinity.
- There's also Missingno. in the games, who is Pokémon #000 in the Pokédex.
- Chachazero of Mahou Sensei Negima. A deadly, Ax Crazy Perverse Puppet With Psycho Weapon who serves as Evangeline's Ministra. Laments the fact that her master's gone soft these days.
- In the fourth episode of Umineko No Naku Koro Ni when Kanon grabs the bill-hooked cleaver on the wall and begins to talk (yell) to Kinzo and Beatrice (both of which aren't really there...we think) he says that he's "the Zero on (their) roulette." Jokingly enough, his resemblance to Lelouch in his introduction made this much less serious than it should have been. He then gets stabbed in the chest.
- Kurohime's beloved is the heroic Zero... who also has a slightly Ax Crazy twin brother named Rei.
- Change 123. Motoko, the main character, while normally a rather shy girl, has three distinct personalities, whose names start with 1, 2 and 3 (Hi Fu Mi) and are able to use first class fighting skills. And then there is the (hopefully) last personality, who calls herself zero, who has the abilities of the HiFuMis, thus the most likely strongest fighter in the whole world, and the urge to kill everyone she sees.
- Variation: (Genesic) Gao Gai Gar is the God of Destruction that "bring hope of a new start from zero."
- Cosmo Warrior Zero, a Leijiverse series, has titular main character Captain Warrius Zero.
- Renton and Eureka of Eureka Seven pilot the Nirvash typeZero, the first LFO ever discovered. *
The Humongous Mecha of the Eurekaverse aren't so much machines as they are cyborgs based on the organic Archetypes excavated from the scub coral covering the planet.
- Zero, the most powerful member and Superpowered Evil Side of Guildmaster Blaine of the Oracion Seis in Fairy Tail. In this case, his name is most likely intended to bring to mind 'nothingness' because he explicitly wishes to destroy all of creation.
Comic Books
- Waaay back when Jack Kirby was drawing the 2001: A Space Odyssey tie-in comic book, he introduced one character who was participating in a superhero LARP as White Zero. The very disappointing ending to the game convinces the character to go into space, where he encounters the Monolith and fulfills his true special destiny.
- Black Zero is an alternate, evil version of Superboy who kicked his super ass all around the court when they met.
- And who took his codename from the Kryptonian suicidal cult/terrorist group who started a chain reaction in Krypton's core that, a few thousand years later, would make it blow up.
- Are you sure Superboy isn't the evil alternate?
- The main character of the short-lived Ghost Rider 2099 was a hacker named Kenshiro "Zero" Cochrane.
- Secret Agent Zero is the name of the Danger Girl's only male Badass.
- Stryfe, Cable's evil clone had a teleporting robot named Zero.
Film
- In the film Zero Effect, the title character Darryl Zero is possibly the world's most skilled detective, to the detriment of his personal hygiene and social skills.
- Let's not forget the agents in the James Bond films and books whose numbers start with "00" — indicating their "license to kill". In Casino Royale, it's revealed that to become a Double-0, you need two kills on your record; it's possible the "00" is meant to represent those kills.
- Le Chiffre from Casino Royale's name comes from the word cipher, and Fleming supposedly based the character on occultist Aleistor Crowley.
- Since Cipher counts, there's the traitorous Cypher (AKA Mr. Reagan) from The Matrix.
- In Wild America, the protagonist is nicknamed Zero by his older brothers.
- Subverted in X-Men Origins: Wolverine with Agent Zero, a rather two-dimensional throwaway villain. (He dies painfully.) To be fair, he's actually pretty dangerous - if you don't have a skeleton made of adamantium and the original Healing Factor.
- His comic version, on the other hand, can absorb the kinetic energy, can't be tracked via smell, has a Healing Factor of his own, and a "Anti-healing factor" which can turn other people to mush..
- Jack Skellington's heroic ghost dog is named Zero.
- Sub-Zero from The Running Man is a murderous hockey player.
- Smokey's bowling score in The Big Lebowski.
Literature
- In Isaac Asimov's Robot stories, the "Zeroth Law" is the one that supersedes and overrides all the other law of robotics and more or less gives the robots free will. Only robots that are Sufficiently Advanced consider it to be a real law, as it was deduced from philosophy rather than encoded into their original programming.
- Count Zero is the (nickname of the) hero of the William Gibson novel of the same name.
- It's short for "Count Zero Interrupt", a computer term in the novels universe.
- Subverted with Captain Zero in Last Of The Summer Wine, the supposedly heroic human cannonball who turns out to be disappointingly prosaic.
- Hector Zeroni from Holes. Called "Zero" by everybody else in the camp, it's later discovered that he's the descendant of the old woman who put a curse on the great-great-grandfather of Stanley Yelnats IV who helps him undo the Murphy's Curse placed upon the Yelnats family. Sploosh!
Live Action TV
- Zero, a powerful minion in the miniseries Tin Man.
- Mr. Zero, the mysterious employer of Spenser, Tracy, and Kong: The Ghost Busters (Not the famous ones).
- In Heroes, when Sylar was being studied by Chandra Suresh, he was referred to as "Patient Zero." This comes from medical research, where the focus patient of an investigation is referred to as the index case, or the patient zero. Nevertheless, it signified the Bad Ass portion of this trope as well.
- In Kamen Rider Den-O, The Rival Rider is called Zeronos, his time-travelling train is the ZeroLiner, his motorbike is the ZeroHorn, his weapon is the ZeroGasher and his Deadly Upgrade is called Zero Form.
- The tokusatsu series GARO ("Wolf"), has the title character's rival go by the name "Zero". And his civilian name is, of course, Rei.
- Japanese-American prison chaplain Ray Mukada from Oz, one of the closest things to a hero you're likely to find there. The fact that Rei is a possible reading of both the kanji for spirit & zero was probably not lost on the creators, as he often struggles with the possibility that his spiritual guidance amounts to nothing in an awful place like Oz.
Mythology
- God, if you are Sufi, Muslim, or Baha'i! The Ninety Nine or Hundred Names of God always begin with Al-Ilah, contracted as Allah as name number zero! If it wasn't counted that way there would be one to many names!
Newspaper Comics
- The character Zero from Beetle Bailey averts the trope. He's nothing more or less than The Ditz, and it seems likely that the reason for his name is that "zero" is his IQ.
- He's also from near the very beginning of the comic's run, when Beetle was a college student (before he enlisted). "Zero" was an... endearing term older students had for the freshmen who they forced to do demeaning and degrading tasks to earn the approval of their betters. And now you know... the true story.
- Also averted in the comic strip "Little Annie Rooney" (a "Little Orphan Annie" imitator) where the title character travelled with her dog, Zero.
Web Comics
Real Life
- The Zeroth Law of Thermodynamics, the thermodynamic equivalent of the transitive property in mathematics, is so named because, having named the first, second and third laws, scientists realized that it was important to state a very simple and obvious law which underwrote the others.
- Arguable Real Life example: The Mitsubishi A6M Zero (or Type 0 Carrier Fighter). While its name derives from the perfectly mundane fact that it was originally produced in 1940 (or 2600 by the Imperial Japanese calendar), its name carries a historical feeling of menace (or presumably pride on the other side of the Pacific) due to it being Japan's primary naval fighter in World War Two.
- Zero Mostel may not have been a hero, but he was a good enough actor that he deserves mention here.
- In computer science, the first position in arrays/strings/other list-type data structures in most languages has the index of zero, not one. There is a practical reason for this, however, as this has its origins in assembly language and other early languages like C, which let (or pretty much forced) the programmer to work directly with memory addresses of variables, and in which the name of the variable is simply a pointer to the address where the structure began, and the indexes of elements of the structure are really memory offsets from the "base" address of the structure, allowing you to easily obtain the address of any given element by simply adding the base address and the index (offset). Naturally, the first element of the structure logically goes right where the structure starts, at the base address, so this scheme requires that that element must have an index of zero.
- Similar to the computer science example, outside of the United States, Japan, Russia (primarily in Latin America and Europe), the floor one most commonly enters a building on (the one at "ground-level") is not referred to as the "first floor." Instead, the floor above this floor is called the "first-floor", and the numbering scheme continues from there. Many languages in these regions call the "ground-level" floor roughly the lingustic equivalent of the "zeroth floor," even if the floor isn't literally called that. Given that the numbering schemes for floors in buildings can often be quite inconsistent and ad hoc, this is definitely a much weaker example than the comp. sci. one above, but it does follow the same logic of starting counting at zero as opposed to one.
- Buldings in downtown Milwaukee typically have "basement", "ground floor", and "first floor". One side of the building will typically have an entrance on the "ground floor", the other side will have an entrance on the "first floor". This has to do with changes in elevation between streets.
Video Games
- In Mega Man X and Zero, Zero is a nigh-unstoppable, badass Maverick-turned-Maverick-Hunter-turned-freedom-fighter fighting for humanity and fellow Reploids alike, disregarding the fact that he was created by Dr. Wily, Big Bad of the original Mega Man series. Out of all the other heroes in the Mega Man universe, he's the first to achieve true peace at the end of the latter series, although at the cost of his own life.
- ...who wields a lightsaber.
- "Nigh-unstoppable" may be an understatement. Even killing him doesn't seem to keep him down for long.
- Keiji Inafune, father of the franchise, wanted Zero to be the main character. Capcom only made him change his mind, eventually creating the blatant expy that took on the name. Big mistake.
- Zero the Kamikaze Squirrel... he's a ninja squirrel.
- Zero, the robot from Sonic Adventure, is invincible until Amy's boss battle against him.
- In Final Fantasy VII, the Bahamut ZERO summon is the strongest of the three versions of Bahamut, and the second-strongest summon altogether.
- Zeromus in Final Fantasy IV and the Ivalice games.
- Grungust Type 0 from Super Robot Wars Original Generation(s). Unlike Eva-00 above, its primary pilot doesn't share the Theme Naming. It's still incredibly powerful, though.
- May be justified - wasn't it a prototype?
- One of the more common Japanese mecha in Front Mission 3 is known as the "Zeros", possibly in reference to the Mitsubishi A6M Zero.
- The Main Character in Persona 3 is stated to represent a "zero", in sense of possessing unlimited potential. It also refers to his arcana, The Fool, which is also represented with a zero.
- Major Zero from the Metal Gear Solid games - he's your commander in the third game, and Big Boss reveals all his plans at the end of the fourth. On a related note, Gray Fox once had the codename "Null", according to Metal Gear Solid: Portable Ops.
- Antagonistic video game example: In some of the Kirby games, the pink hero faces Dark Matter, whose core is called Zero.
- And then Dark Nebula in Squeak Squad, who was called Dark Zero in Japan.
- The newest Castlevania storyline seems to have renamed Sypha into Cipher. On the plus side, her name now matches the depth of her storyline.
- She goes back into Sypha in Judgment, though.
- Princess Rei in Saga Frontier is supposedly important, despite her uselessness in battle. Also, ZEKE's Japanese name includes "Reishiki", or "Type-Zero", to denote its badassity. (Bahamut Zero was also known as Bahamut Reishiki in Japan. Japanese love Reishiki.)
- In The King Of Fighters, there are two bosses who go by the name Zero. The Zero you fight in 2000 is a traitorous clone who tries using a Kill Sat to take over NESTS. He gets killed by Kula, but succeeds in nuking Southtown. You fight the real Zero in 2001. Turns out he's actually an old man who prefers a fair fight. So he calls upon 3 strikers-a boss from a previous game, a Ninja, and a black mountain lion-to assist him in fighting you because he's a sub-boss. He dies in the end too. Both are capable of producing black holes.
- How did we get this far without mentioning Sub-Zero from Mortal Kombat?
- Mass Effect has Subject Zero (known to companions as Jack). Who will mess you up if you look at her funny, or maybe just because.
Web Original
Western Animation
- The title comes from the Schoolhouse Rock song, "My Hero Zero", in which the literal number zero is a hero.
- In The Nightmare Before Christmas, Jack's pet ghost-dog Zero and his glowing nose assist the protagonists many times.
- Numbuh 0 in Codename Kids Next Door.
- There once was a show called Zeroman. It's about a senior citizen who lives with his mother, and happens to be a mail carrier. He finds an alien super suit, and becomes a super hero... so I guess you could say He fights crime. It's a comedy.
- Agent Triple-Zero, AKA Secret Squirrel.
Thematic use of zero numbering:
Anime and Manga
Comic Books
- Several of the Star Wars comic series have zero-based numbering.
- Comic books numbered "zero" are very common. It's a very old idea, dating back to the days of underground comics, and probably reached its pinnacle in Zero Hour, where every comic book from DC at the time got an issue #0. Marvel eventually outdid them by having every comic in their lineup have a #-1 (that's negative one) issue.
Video Games
- The Japanese tend to do this in titles of prequels, especially for video games: Ace Combat Zero, Street Fighter Zero, Resident Evil Zero. (Metroid Zero Mission however is not a prequel but a remake of the first game.)
- Similarly, the Silent Hill prequel was called Silent Hill Zero in Japan, and Silent Hill: 0rigins (with a zero instead of an O) elsewhere in the world.
- Interestingly, the player character of Ace Combat Zero has the codename Cipher, but rather than being bad luck, he actually managed to avert several apocalypses.
- Well, he was bad luck for everyone he met, friend and foe.
- Zork Zero, though not of Japanese origin, follows this convention
- When the ROM image of the completed-but-unreleased English translation to Mother was leaked, it was dubbed Earth Bound Zero.
- In Rumble Roses, the Japanese main character(there are two, but this one is..."mainer") is named Reiko and has the nickname "Zero Fighter" as a pun on her name. Somewhat averted in that she's not stronger than the others, though she is pretty easy to use.
Films
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