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Seven antagonists to defeat.

"The Norse had seven sleepers. The Blackfoot, seven stars. As a boy, I heard the legend of the seven bells. All these stories are the same."
Reginald Hargreeves, The Umbrella Academy (2019)

Right after three, seven is the most commonly used "meaningful" number in fiction. This can be traced back to ancient times; just think of the Seven Wonders, the Seven Days of Creation, or the Seven Hills of Rome. It is also common in many fairy tales.

In the natural world, one of the origins of this significance comes from the seven celestial bodies that could be seen with the naked eye, (Sun, Moon, and the planets up to Saturnnote ), that were worshiped as deities, and the days named after them were the days of the week.

Later, natural phenomena were intentionally shoehorned into this "significant" number, for example, the colors of the rainbow and the number of continents can be seven, depending on how you count them.

Since The Bible, especially the Book of Revelation, uses it repeatedly, seven became even more famous as a divine number, or as the number of perfection.

Lucky Seven is a subtrope about examples where it is considered a lucky number. Also see Magical Seventh Son, The Magnificent Seven Samurai, Seven Deadly Sins, and Seven Heavenly Virtues.


Example subpages

Other examples:

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    Anime & Manga 
  • Dragon Ball has the seven titular orbs that can summon the wish-granting divine dragon, Shenron who will grant one wish before disappearing and scattering the Dragon Balls across the globe. Throughout the franchise, the Dragon Balls have played key roles and similar ones have appeared outside of Earth.
    • Dragon Ball Z introduced the Dragon Balls of Planet Namek, which are also seven in number and summon a stronger dragon than Shenron, Porunga, who can grant three wishes instead of only one per summon (before Shenron's upgrades, that is).
    • Dragon Ball GT has the Black Star Dragon Balls, which summon Ultimate Shenron, a mightier divine dragon whose wishes exceed his own power. They also invert the usual trope meaning of the seven's luck by blowing up the planet they're used on after a year if they aren't gathered again. The final arc introduces the seven Shadow Dragons, evil entities born from the Dragon Balls who will destroy the entire Universe if not stopped; they are taken down one by one across the finale as well.
    • Dragon Ball Super introduces the Super Dragon Balls, planet-sized Dragon Balls (and the original ones) which summon Super Shenron, the most powerful Dragon entirely omnipotent and can grant any wish.
  • In the first Sailor Moon anime, the Sailors must find the Seven Rainbow Crystals, which are in the power of The Seven Great Youma, some of the strongest enforcers of the Negaverse.
  • Seven Celestial Warriors in Fushigi Yuugi.
  • One Piece:
    • The Shichibukai/Seven Warlords of the Sea, a group of 7 powerful pirates sanctioned by the World Government.
    • There were also seven Straw Hat Pirates for a considerable length of time (then they gained more crew members).
  • Naruto:
    • Seven Swordsmen of the Mist. Also, the ninja academy graduates each year are assigned to numbered squads. Guess which squad the main character ended up in.
    • The chapter where Hinata finally sincerely confesses her love to Naruto is Chapter 437 (4+3=7). The manga itself ends with the epilogue in Chapter 700, where Naruto is the Seventh Hokage and is Happily Married to Hinata. Their romance unfolds during the seventh Shippuden movie, The Last: Naruto the Movie. Also counts as Lucky Seven.
  • Nana uses this rather prominently: both of the main characters are named Nana (a Japanese reading for the number 7), and they share an apartment numbered 707. Subverted in that neither of the two main characters' names use the kanji for 7.
  • Diamond Cut Diamond's story starts off Seven Years after the in-universe show Esper Shounen was cancelled.
  • Fairy Tail:
    • All the dragons (except, apparently, the jerkass black dragon) disappeared seven years ago. On July Seventh of the year 777. Seven years later, Black Mage Zeref decides to end his exile, and the dragon Acnologia appears and assaults the strongest member of Fairy Tail on Tenrou Island, who disappear for seven years. And then after the Grand Magic Games, Future Rogue brings seven dragons from the past, and seven Dragonslayer mages fight them. The final battle with the aforementioned jerkass black dragon involves seven Dragon Slayers fighting him.
    • Regarding the Grand Magic Games, after the disqualification of Raven Tail, seven teams participated until both Fairy Tail teams are combined into one in the second-to-last day. On the other hand, the eight teams were participating for seven different guilds.
  • Shuya Nanahara from Battle Royale, with the "Nana" in his last name meaning seven. Used to be nicknamed "Wild 7" when he played baseball, which is also the brand of cigarettes Shogo Kawada smokes.
  • Seven types of Dying Will Flames. Because of this, all important groups of people also come in sets of seven.
  • Yu-Gi-Oh!:
    • The seven Millennium Items in the original Yu-Gi-Oh!. Later subverted with the Millennium stone.
    • In Yu-Gi-Oh! GX, Johan's Crystal Beast monster spirits. When all 7 are gathered he can summon his ace monster Rainbow Dragon. (Its evil twin Rainbow Dark Dragon works in a similar fashion). Subverted with the Shadow Riders of which seem to have 7 yet later revealed to have their leader thus 8. On the other hand, there are seven keys necessary to unlock the Sacred Beasts, and seven Key Keepers hold those keys.
    • Inverted in Yu-Gi-Oh! 5Ds, where Season 1 antagonists the Dark Signers and their signature monsters, the Earthbound Gods, number seven in all.
    • Yu-Gi-Oh! ZEXAL gives us the Seven Barian Emperors who wield the seven Over-Hundred Numbers. Subverted once Don Thousand comes with 2 more over hundred numbers.
    • And then there's Yu-Gi-Oh! SEVENS, where most of the setting is patterned around the number... six. It is, after all, the signature motif of the Goha Corporation. Seven is instead associated with our main characters, the new Rush Duel game they are trying to popularize even as Goha attempts to shut them down, and overall the Dawn of an Era.
  • Pokémon: Jirachi: Wish Maker: Wishing Star of the Seven Nights.
  • Saint Seiya has seven Odin Saints (each guarding one of the seven Sapphire Stones), as well as seven Marine Saints.
  • YuYu Hakusho has the anti-villainous seven espers, the seventh of which has seven personalities.
  • Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind takes place 1000 years after the world was nearly destroyed by the God-Soldiers in the "Seven Days of Fire".
  • Though not all were revealed, both the 777 Tools of Demon World (which also uses the Rule of Three) and the 7 Weapons of the Demon Emperor from Majin Tantei Nougami Neuro.
  • In Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha StrikerS, seven of twelve Numbers make a Heel–Face Turn. Ironically, Sette, the number VII among them, doesn't.
  • Father from Fullmetal Alchemist has seven Homunculi as his children. They are based of the Seven Deadly Sins.
  • The Seven Stakes of Purgatory from Umineko: When They Cry are also based of the Seven Deadly Sins.
  • The titular witches of Yamada-kun and the Seven Witches. Except that there have always been at least two separate groups of seven witches, making it fourteen, but still, the seven part counts for the first party of the story.
  • In Monster Rancher, the Searchers, the heroes seeking the Phoenix, were a group of seven.
  • In Digimon Adventure, there were originally seven Digidestined/Chosen Children, then they gained a Sixth Ranger.
  • In Made in Abyss, the titular Abyss is divided in seven layers, each more twisted and dangerous than the last.
  • As a direct consequence to "Snow White", seven Leafe Knights in Prétear
  • Symphogear: This is the key to defeating the Mad God Shem-Ha, and rewriting her divine will. Carol is able to substitute for a 7th wielder during one battle, while Miku takes her place as the true 7th wielder by using Shen Shou Jing for the final battle.
  • The Level 5 Espers from A Certain Magical Index and A Certain Scientific Railgun. Only seven people from an entire city have achieved this rank. Although one of the Level 5 hasn't official debut yet.
  • Gjallarhorn in Mobile Suit Gundam: Iron-Blooded Orphans is ruled by a council of the seven descendants of the families who originally formed the organization. Although by the time we see them, they only have six members, the seventh died of an unspecified illness offscreen and his successor died in battle against Tekkadan as a result of another Gjallarhorn member's machinations for power.
  • In Moldiver, the Machinegal Dolls are a group of seven gynoids developed by Professor Amagi/Machinegal. They consist of Isabelle (their leader), Brooke, Vivien, Elizabeth, Jennifer, Nastassja, and Sayuri.

    Arts 
  • Statue of Liberty: In keeping with the theme of sanctity and holiness, there are seven rays coming from her head, the same as the Biblical number of perfection.

    Asian Animation 
  • In Pleasant Goat and Big Big Wolf, Wolffy's relatives Darker, Worley, Wonky, Rolly, Raoul, Wizard, and Wolfram form a group known as the Seven Evil Wolves who help Wolffy in certain situations where he needs the assistance.

    Comedy 

    Comic Books 
  • DC's Seven Soldiers of Victory, both in the Golden Age and in the anthology series by Grant Morrison. In Seven Soldiers of Victory (2005) issue #0, a team is assembled with only six members because one didn't show up. Dan the Dyno-mite remarks that the significance of the number 7 can't be overstated, especially since 6 is extremely unlucky in comparison. Then they all die.
  • Justice League of America:
    • The League's seven founding members: Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, Green Lantern, The Flash, Aquaman and the Martian Manhunter. The League's roster has changed a lot over the years, but these guys were the first, and are thus considered the "Big Seven" for the DCU as a whole.
    • In JLA (1997), the original seven are reunited, except with Legacy Characters for the then-dead Green Lantern and Flash.
      • As part of the same title, Mark Waid penned a filler story arc titled "Synchronicity," where various occurrences resulting from a probability-altering machine including seven separate villains attacking Washington DC simultaneously to Martian Manhunter calling in the Atom because he was the seventh "new member" since the League's inception.
    • In Justice League (2011), Cyborg is now a founding member rather than the Martian Manhunter, but the number is still seven.
  • Warren Ellis often used this in his WildStorm work: the faux JLA in Stormwatch, the pulp era heroes in the first issue of Planetary (and the other faux JLA that they fight), and the members of The Authority (whose leader Lampshades the trope).
  • "The Seven" are the main superhero team in The Boys.
  • Scott Pilgrim: Seven Evil Exes. Gideon is especially fixated on the number 7 in The Movie, even stating after he swallows his gum that "It's gonna be in my digestive tract for SEVEN YEARS!"
  • The Mexican superhero Kalimán is The Seventh Descendant of the Seventh Dynasty of the goddess Kali, and must renew his vow to fight injustice every seven years.
  • The seven Endless from The Sandman (1989); Destiny, Death, Dream, Destruction, Desire, Despair and Delirium.
  • The seven aspects of the emotional spectrum from 2000s-era Green Lantern, and the Lantern Corps that use each of them: red rage (Red Lantern Corps), orange avarice (Agent Orange), yellow fear (Sinestro Corps), green willpower (Green Lantern Corps), blue hope (Blue Lantern Corps), indigo compassion (Indigo Tribe), and violet love (Star Sapphires).
  • For some time, The Avengers were forced into a seven-member roster by the government. It's since become the average roster size.
  • In Blaze, seven is identified as a powerful mystical number that can hurt demons and undead beings.
  • In Supergirl story arc Death & the Family, Silver Banshee believes she can undo her curse if she assembles her clan's seven magical relics.
  • Tintin: The Seven Crystal Balls: Seven cursed explorers after uncovering an ancient Inca temple, seven crystal balls hurled at them and placing them in comas.

    Fairy Tales 
  • In the Child Ballad "Young Beichan", he promises to come for her and marry her within seven years, in most variants.
  • "Snow White": Seven dwarfs.
  • "The Wolf and the Seven Young Kids": Seven little goats.
  • "The Brave Little Tailor": The main character kills seven flies in one blow.
  • Blue Beard: Blue Beard had seven wives.
  • Sleeping Beauty: Seven good fairies were invited upon the eponymous princess' birthday.
  • The Seven Ravens: The children are changed into seven ravens.
  • Hop-o'-My-Thumb uses the "Seven Mile boots" to cross great distances in a small amount of time.
  • In Bearskin, the hero must wear the bearskin for seven years. Also neither bathe nor cut his hair nor pray for that time.
  • In The One-Handed Girl, the girl is found after seven days in the woods.
  • The Seven Foals
  • "The Giant Who Had No Heart in His Body": The king has seven sons.
  • The Nutcracker and the Mouse King: the Mouse King has seven heads.
  • Seven Simeons: a Russian fairy tale about seven brothers, each being an expert in his chosen trade.
  • In "Maid Maleen", the titular princess spends seven years locked away in a tower.
  • In "The Cat on the Dovrefell", a pack of trolls who have been invading Halvor's cottage every Christmas are chased out by a guest-traveler's bear (who they believe to be a cat). One year later, when the trolls ask Halvor if he's kept his big cat, he shrewdly answers he does, and "she" has now got seven "kittens".
  • "The Swan Maiden": In a Swedish version of the folktale, the huntsman and the maiden remain married for seven years until the maiden gets her dress back and flies away. Often, the human male protagonist finds seven maidens bathing in a lake or river, and steals the clothes of one of them or of the youngest one. The seven maidens may be swans turned into humans, or, as is common is East Asian and Southern Asian tales, seven "heavenly nymphs" (e.g., bidadaris in Java, Indonesia, and apsaras in India).
  • In "The Old Dame and her Hen", the old widow waits in vain "seven lengths and seven breadths" for her second daughter's return.
  • In Franz Xaver von Schönwerth's "The Three Flowers", Katie and her brothers fall victim to a spell when she picks three blossoms she had been told to not touch: for seven years she will be unable to speak, and they will remain transformed into deers.
  • "Reygoch": Curlylocks rides her black steed for seven days and seven nights through an icy, barren plain until reaching the city of Frosten.
  • A recurring motif of tale type ATU 425, "The Search for the Lost Husband", is that, after her husband disappears, the heroine is instructed to wear out seven pairs of iron shoes (or, rarely, steel shoes), until she can find him again.
  • In Latin American variants of tale type ATU 530, "The Princess on the Glass Mountain",note  the youngest of three brothers holds a vigil on his father's fields and discovers a horse of seven colours has been trampling/eating their fields. He tames the horse and it becomes his friend.

    Fan Works 
  • Played with in A Voice in the Wilderness. USS Bajor science officer Birail Riyannis observes that the Borg ziggurat's dimensions are in multiples of seven kilometers and that the number recurs in civilizations across the galaxy, but first officer Tess Phohl short-circuits her with the question of whether the Borg even use kilometers.
  • Hop to It has the seven Miraculouses and Kwamis created by Omega Labs, each suggested to be cloned from the canon Kwamis: Rabbit (equivalent to Ladybug), Dog (equivalent to Black Cat), Swan (equivalent to Butterfly), Chameleon (equivalent to Fox), Mantis, Dragonfly (equivalent to Peacock) and Firefly.
  • In Fialleril's Star Wars fics, seven is a sacred number in the Amavikka culture of Tatooine. This is the reason for the seven in the name of KD-7, Anakin's medic droid in Double Agent Vader.
  • In Infinity Train: Blossoming Trail. the Cage of Flauros ritual Walter wishes to enact on the Apex needs seven components. Walter even discusses this trope to his prisoner.

    Films — Live-Action 
  • Demolition Man: Simon Phoenix overrides a security program on a computer using a string of '7's, causing a cop to become electrocuted.
  • Escape Room (2019): There are ostensibly six contestants in the Escape Room challenge, but there is actually one more contestant: the Game Master, who doesn't know that he took part in the game until he is about to die. Repeated in the sequel, in which there are initially six contestants, only for one more to be added in the form of a previous Escape Room contestant who was supposed to die in the previous film.
  • Hot Fuzz: Nicholas Angel's badge number is 777.
  • James Bond: Bond's designation as 007.
  • Kong: Skull Island: When taking stock in the immediate aftermath of the Sky Devils' helicopters' destruction, Glenn Mills reports to Preston Packard that there are seven confirmed survivors and seven confirmed casualties among their own.
  • The Magnificent Seven.
  • Na Cha and the Seven Devils.
  • Nanny McPhee: Mr. Brown's seven children.
  • Se7en, featuring a serial killer theming his crimes around the Seven Deadly Sins.
  • Seven Samurai
  • Scott Pilgrim vs. The World: Ramona Flowers' seven evil exes.
  • There's Something About Mary: "Seven's the number. Like a mouse on a wheel."
  • To Kill A Mastermind: The powerful syndicate of assassins known as the Qi Sha gang has seven leaders, which the heroes must defeat one at a time.
  • Wish Upon: The music box grants seven wishes.

    Gamebooks 
  • Lone Wolf: In the backstory, Nyxator the Dragon created the seven Lorestones for the forces of Good. In mockery, Agarash the Damned created seven Doomstones.
  • Sorcery!: The third adventure, The Seven Serpents, has the hero crossing the treacherous Baklands while being pursued by seven deadly, elemental serpents sent by the Archmage. They will encounter the serpents throughout the adventure, some (like the Air, Earth and Time Serpent) which are unavoidable, and at the end of the adventure their quest's performance is assessed by the number of serpents they've slain.

    Jokes 
  • (NOTE: This joke comes from an earlier time when husbands did not go into the delivery room with their wives, but waited in a waiting room to be told the result of the birth. This was also before couples knew the gender of their babies before birth, or whether or not there was a multiple birth.) There are four men waiting in the maternity ward of a fancy private hospital that only rich people can afford. A nurse comes in, walks up to one of the men and says, "Congratulations! Your wife just gave birth to one healthy boy!" The man says, "What a coincidence! I'm the CEO of Capital One!" He goes off with the nurse to meet his wife and son. A few minutes later, another nurse comes in, walks up to another one of the men, and says, "Congratulations! Your wife just gave birth to twins!" The man says, "What a coincidence! I'm the business manager of the Minnesota Twins!" And he goes off with the nurse to meet his wife and twins. A few minutes later, another nurse comes in, goes up to one of the men, and says, "Congratulations! Your wife just gave birth to triplets!" The man says, "What a coincidence! I'm the CEO of Triple Crown!" And he goes off with the nurse to meet his wife and triplets. There is only one man left in the waiting room, and after awhile, he starts crying. A nurse comes in and asks him what's wrong. He replies, "I'm the CEO of 7-Up!"

    Live-Action TV 
  • Extreme Makeover: Home Edition built seven homes for seven families in seven days in their finale.
  • Battlestar Galactica (2003): The "significant seven" Cylons. Subverted: There used to be eight, and #7 was unlucky enough to be Abel to Cavil's Cain.
  • Seven mysterious Plot Coupons in Defying Gravity, each located on a different astronomical object.
  • Game of Thrones:
    • The Seven Kingdoms is the name given to the realm that controls most of the continent of Westeros and numerous offshore islands, ruled by the King of the Andals and the First Men from the Red Keep in the city of King's Landing. Its name dates back to the time prior to the War of Conquest, during which seven independent kingdoms existed in the continent.
    • The Faith of the Seven is the main religion of the Seven Kingdoms. In death, the Faith believes that there are Seven Heavens and Seven Hells.
    • The Kingsguard is an elite group of seven knights, supposedly the greatest and most skilled warriors in all of Westeros, who serve as the royal bodyguard of the King of the Andals and the First Men.
    • Seven positions on the Small Council: Hand of the King, Grand Maester, Master of Coin, Master of Ships, Master of Whisperers, Master of Laws, and Lord Commander of the Kingsguard.
  • Survivor season seven winner Sandra Diaz-Twine became the first (and, so far, only) two-time winner by winning season 20, seven years after her first win.
  • Doctor Who's A Good Man Goes to War was the 7th episode in its series, and the 777th in the show's nearly fifty-year run. Three days after it aired, on June 7, the BBC officially announced Series 7.
    • This was later followed by one of the Executive Producers announcing her departure from the show, at the end of the season, on 7/7.
    • Series 7 was the 49th (7 times 7) year of Doctor Who.
    • In a meta sense, the series went on hiatus during the Seventh Doctor's era.
  • Merlin had the seven Knights of Medhir.
  • In Power Rangers:
    • Season 7, Power Rangers Lost Galaxy, was the one where the franchise broke away from the continuous storyline of previous years and began telling a new separate story each year.
    • Due to escalation of the use of the Sixth Ranger, Power Rangers S.P.D. and Power Rangers RPM eventually got seven full-time members each. (A bit of a subversion with SPD, though, as the numbers on their suits were 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, VI for 6, and... 100.)
    • RPM also finished its run, and with it Disney-produced new episodes, with the franchise's 700th episode. Incidentally, it was Season 17.
  • In the Star Trek: The Original Series episode Amok Time, we learn that Vulcans go through heat every seven years (pon farr).
  • The second season of Star Trek: Discovery kicks off with the revelation that Starfleet suddenly detected seven red signals. The Enterprise was on her way to investigate one of them when she suffered multiple system failures, so Captain Christopher Pike takes command of the Discovery to carry out his mission.
  • The Pyramid game show series has employed this seven rule. During the ABC run, they made up to seven correct answers the standard. The "Big 7" category offered a cash prize for running seven out of seven. On the 80s version (CBS, syndication), the category holding the "7-11" card offered an $1100 cash prize for getting seven answers, and the "Mystery 7" offered a prize (trip, TV, video camera, car). The 1991-92 version had "Double Trouble 1" and "Double Trouble 2" (seven 2-word answers) and "Gamble For A Grand."
  • Seven Keys, an ABC game show from the early 60s, pitted a single contestant trying run a board of 75 squares to acquire one of seven keys to open a vault full of prizes. Running the board seven straight times wins everything automatically while failing at any time during the run causes all acquired keys to be forfeited.
  • The Lucky Seven game on The Price Is Right presents seven $1 bills to the contestant who must predict each number in the price of a car with $1 deducted for the difference in each number.
  • The Umbrella Academy (2019): Seasons 1 and 3 feature two teams of seven superpowered children groomed by billionaire inventor Reginald Hargreeves to become heroes. The third season reveals his goal was to send them to a pocket dimension, defeat its guardians, and sacrifice their life forces for the seven sigils in said pocket dimension to hit the universe's Reset Button to bring his wife back. He discusses the trope when manipulating them into agreeing with him, citing the number seven's significance to the Norse and the Blackfoot.

    Music 
  • Muddy Waters: "I'm The Hoochie Coochie Man".
    On the seventh hour
    On the seventh day
    On the seventh month
    The seven doctors say
    He was born for good luck
    And that you'll see
    I got 700 dollars
    Don't you mess with me
  • Blue Öyster Cult's Imaginos album saga follows the eon-spanning manipulation of humanity by seven alien deities called "Les Invisibles". "Seven seven seven seven seven seven seven..."'
    And I roll a seven on the floor of the sea (Perfect Seven!)
  • The Monkees: "Seven days in a week made to choose from /But only one is right for me..."
  • Pink Floyd: "The seven is the number of the young light /It forms when darkness is increased by one" from "Chapter 24" from The Piper at the Gates of Dawn.
  • "Lucky Seven" by The Skatalites.
  • French rap group IAM wrote an entire song about the symbolic virtues of the number seven.
  • Iron Maiden's Seventh Son of a Seventh Son. The opening track even goes: "Seven deadly sins, Seven ways to win, Seven holy paths to hell, and your trip begins..."
  • With Märchen being Sound Horizon's seventh "story album", Revo amused himself by making use of the number seven constantly (over a hundred times, in his own words) throughout it: The album's story revolves around Märchen granting revenge to seven dead women from seven fairy tales, each associated with one of the Seven Deadly Sins. One of them is "Snow White". The lyrics booklet is seventy-seven pages long, and the number seven always appears in red.
  • The Dark Secret Saga features seven black books, seven demons, seven wars, seven white books, seven wizards, seven eclipses...
  • The White Stripes: "Seven Nation Army" from Elephant. Starts out with seven singular notes.
  • "7 Days, 7 Weeks" from dEUS' album Pocket Revolution, written about the sister of the lead singer.
  • In King Diamond's concept album Abigail, the title character was stillborn on July 7th, 1777.
  • Lucas Graham's 7 Years Old uses 7 (and, more specifically, the age of 7) as an Arc Number.
  • The 7-member group BTS announced a release titled MAP OF THE SOUL : 7 on the 7th year of their career since debut.
  • Prince's song 7 uses 7 as an Arc Number, tying into the contexts in Myths & Religion below.
  • Xandria's "Eversleeping" uses the number: the singer talks about travelling 7 seas and 7 rivers, having forgotten her name for 7 years and sung 7 songs, and stating she would walk 7000 miles and die 7 deaths to find her beloved.
  • Hawkwind's "Seven by Seven":
    7 signs rode on 7 stars
    7 ways to find the long lost bards
    7 days became 7 years
    While Pocus laughed and called foul jeers
    7 times he cursed the 7 tears
    Each one became their 7 fears

    Myths & Religion 
  • Several religions regard 777 (Rule of Three and Rule Of Seven united) as special:
    • According to the American publication, the Orthodox Study Bible, 777 represents the threefold perfection of the Trinity. Satan the arrogant and imperfect is represented with 666.
    • A collection of Aleister Crowley's writings is entitled 777 and Other Qabalistic Writings of Aleister Crowley.
  • The Seven Deadly Sins
  • The Seven Heavenly Virtues
  • In Catholicism, there are seven sacraments: Baptism, Communion, Confirmation, Matrimony, Holy Orders, Reconciliation, and Anointing of the Sick,
  • Seven occurs all over The Bible — seven days of creation; David was the seventh of his father's sons. In Revelation, The Dragon has seven heads, The Beast has seven heads with seven crowns, seven churches in Asia Minor, seven seals, seven last plagues...
  • The Book of Revelation is perhaps a notable example here. From seven letters to the churches and seven seals to seven spiritual figures and seven trumpets, it generally indicates the state of perfection. The number is also very frequently used in the Gospel of John, who may or may not be the same John who wrote the book of Revelation.
  • Many Abrahamic traditons include seven heavens.
  • The Seven Sleepers
  • Any jolly sailor worth his salt will brag about his encounters along the Seven Seas (actually oceans), and brave adventurers in the days of old Arabia will travel across the Seven Deserts.
  • The Seven Lucky Gods of Japanese Mythology.
  • The seven Maskim in Mesopotamian Mythology, described in a famous poem beginning, "They are Seven! They are Seven!"
  • The Jade Emperor of Chinese Mythology has seven daughters, the youngest (seventh) is the one that has the most stories associated with her.
  • The Qixi festival is held on the 7th day of the 7th month in the lunar calendar, and is supposed to be the day that its two namesake stars (Altair/Cowherder and Vega/Weaver Girl) are closest to each other.
  • In the Book of Judges, the phrase "The children of Israel did evil in the sight of the LORD" is mentioned 7 times, which states that the Israelites begin return to their sin after God saves them.
  • In Islam odd numbers in general, and especially odd primes, are considered auspicious, as they represent the unity and indivisibility of God. As seven is odd and prime, it shouldn't be any surprise that seven shows up at several points in Islam, although not as much as five.
    • The most prominent is probably the Iman al-Mufaṣṣil, or Detailed Statement of Faith, in Sunni Islam, which states: "I believe in God [1] and His Angels [2], His Books [3] and His Messengers [4], in the Day of Judgment [5], that all things good or ill are the will/fate of God [6], and in resurrection after death [7].
    • The Hajj includes the Tawaf, circumambulation of the Kaaba that is performed seven times counterclockwise, and Sa'i, ritual walking between the hills of Safa and Marwah seven times.
    • "Al Fatihah", the first chapter of The Qur'an and a required reading in all salah prayers, has seven verses.
  • The seven main chakras note out from Hindu culture, source of Esoteric Motifs for the likes of Yoga, Theosophy and assorted occultists, probabily derivative from those.
  • Pagan ritual magick tends to consider seven a powerful number for women, as it's closely linked to the moon.
  • Classical Mythology has the Pleiades, the seven daughters of the Titan Atlas and companions of Artemis. The eldest, Maia, gave birth to Zeus' son Hermes, the other five also gave birth to the children of Olympians, while the youngest, Merope, married a mortal (Sisyphus) and faded away. They are the namesake of a star system, which features not only them but also their parents, Atlas and Pleione.
  • Stories about the origin of the real life Pleiades constellation occur all around the world, and the common trait that seems to recur among most of them is that seven people (e.g., seven sisters, seven boys, six man and one woman) originate the asterism.

    Pinballs 
  • The Doctor Who pinball game has the player "collecting" (so to speak) the seven Doctors. It may not have been intentional, since there were only seven of them when the game was made in 1992, but it still counts.

    Tabletop Games 
  • Dungeons & Dragons:
    • The Rod of Seven Parts is a Dismantled MacGuffin whose pieces are quite powerful in and of themselves. When reassembled, they have a tendency to break back apart and kill the wielder if overused.
    • In the Forgotten Realms setting, the Seven Sisters are Chosen by the goddess Mystra and are (sort of) daughters of her.
    • The Lawful Good afterlife is the "seven Heavens" of Mount Celestia, each tier of which is ruled by its own Celestial Paragon. The spirits of the dead have a chance to move up the Heavens and ultimately reach the unknown seventh Heaven, which is implied to bring some kind of Abstract Apotheosis as they join the substance of Celestia itself.
  • 7 Wonders:
    • The game supports up to seven players who represent leaders of "the great 7 cities of the ancient world". Also, they start the game with a seven-card hand.
    • The titular 7 Wonders. In the original game, each player can build one Wonder. In the Duel two-player spin-off, each player gets access to four Wonders, but once the seventh has been built, the last one permanently becomes unavailable.

    Toys 
  • Mostly averted in BIONICLE, which had six as its Arc Number, though Takanuva becoming the "Seventh Toa" was a big deal, and the stairway to the chamber holding the Mask of Life has 777 steps.

    Visual Novels 
  • In the Holy Grail Wars of Fate/stay night and related works, the Grail chooses seven Masters, who summon seven Heroic Spirits as Servants, which manifest in seven different classes. Although this rule seems to have some loopholes. Each Master also has three Command Spells.

    Webcomics 
  • In Koan of the Day, a reader receives 7 bodhi for every page they visit.
  • In American Barbarian, Yoosamon has seven sons.
  • xkcd:
    • One number line strip says 7 indicates a false statistic.
    • This strip comments on how every list of seven things is indistinguishable, as it confuses the seven dwarfs, levels of taxonomic classification, continents, Deadly Sins, layers in seven-layer dip, layers of the OSI model, and Wonders of the World.
  • In Erstwhile, Maid Maleen is locked up for seven years.
  • In No Rest for the Wicked, the soldier has to survive seven years to win his bargain with the devil.
  • In Cucumber Quest, there are seven kingdoms of Dreamside, and the Nightmare Knight created seven Disaster Masters.

    Web Original 
  • In The Angry Video Game Nerd's review of Kid Kool (whose full name is Kid Kool and the Quest for the Seven Wonder Herbs), the Nerd says that the game has a story that says that the king has a terminal illness, and that Kid Kool has to find the aptly named Seven Wonder Herbs.
    AVGN: Yeah, I bet the game designers were smoking seven different herbs.
  • PeanutButterGamer always has 7 people in his Hardcore series.
  • PlayStation Access has a weekly list video series about gaming, and almost all have seven entries for each respective topic.
  • "SCP Foundation":
    • In SCP-231, there are seven entities (SCP-231-1 through -7). The secret text starts with "seven seals, seven rings. seven brides for the scarlet King."
    • One of the triggers for SCP-2747 is the importance of the number 7.

    Western Animation 
  • Seven original members of the Justice League.
  • On Wacky Races, car #7, the Bulletproof Bomb, is occupied by seven little mobsters, the Ant Hill Mob. The Ant Hill Mob appeared a year later on The Perils of Penelope Pitstop.
  • My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic:
    • According to the trading cards, there are seven Elements of Harmony, instead of the six shown in the show proper, though this appears to have been made in error, especially in light of the two-part episode "Shadow Play" showing that there were no more than six Pillars of Equestria, who played a direct role in creating the Elements of Harmony.
    • Starlight Glimmer joined the main cast in Season 6, making the Mane 6 into the Mane 7.
    • Similar to the above, with the addition of Sci-Twi to the cast of My Little Pony: Equestria Girls, the main cast of the EG universe is now referred to as the HuMane 7.
  • Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs: Takes the fairy tale's "seven dwarfs" and kicks it up a notch.
    Queen: Magic mirror on the wall, who now is the fairest one of all?
    Mirror: Over the seven jewelled hills, beyond the seventh fall, in the cottage of the seven dwarfs, dwells Snow White, fairest one of all.
  • In The Flight of Dragons, Peter is said by Antiquity to be the 777th descendant of the Great Peter, who taught dragons to speak.
  • Miraculous Ladybug has the seven core Miraculouses and Kwamis: Tikki the Ladybug, Plagg the Black Cat, Trixx the Fox, Pollen the Bee, Duusuu the Peacock, Nooroo the Butterfly and Wayzz the Turtle. There are others, but these ones are the first to be used and get central placement in the Miracle Box.
  • Zak Storm has seven main characters on a mission to defeat the seven guardians of the seven Waypoints across the Seven Seas of The Bermuda Triangle. The main character can also undergo a transformation harnessing one of seven Elemental Powers. This may end up being averted in the second season with the revelation of an eighth sea as well as the potential of an eighth member joining the crew.

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