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What Do You Mean, It's Not Symbolic?
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alt title(s): What Do You Mean Its Not Symbolic 
Washizu's mahjong power could kill Akagi Jesus.
"Boy, there's nothing worse than an inscrutable omen."
"Everyone always thinks that directors are super smart if they use symbolism, like somehow conveying something visually gives the movie some validity it wouldn't have had if the same message was conveyed through dialogue alone. But nobody ever asks: why? Why do pretentious artsy dipshits think symbolism is the holy grail of filmmaking?"
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, 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.
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.
Compare Crystal Dragon Jesus. The secular equivalent is What Do You Mean Its Not Awesome? Contrast Rule Of Symbolism, which is when the symbolism is worked into the story intentionally and has genuine meaning.
Related Tropes:
Examples
Anime
- 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 that giant image 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 pink cross-shaped energy beam actually made sense in End of Evangelion, since it symbolized Asuka's "resurrection".
- Washizu associates his mahjong power with Noah's Ark and his opponent Akagi with Jesus being crucified.
- 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).
- 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 Puppetmaster-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.
- The tank was controlled by a thug employed by Section 6. The Puppetmaster wanted the Major to live and connect to it, while the Section 6 either wanted to retreive the Puppetmaster or in worst case scenario to destroy it, and kill the Major.
- 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 ''Pietà'' (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.
- 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 Big O had this in spades.
- D Gray Man. The villains are descendants of Noah (yes, that Noah), the Millenium 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...
- 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.
- 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 Pain: Animal summons giant insects, [Fighting] Demon hides missiles in his body, Hungry Ghost, God (heaven/Pain himself (not really)), Hell, and Human steals your soul/chakra.
- 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 was the Gedo Pain, and could 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.
- 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.
- In Code Geass, Lelouch orchestrates his own death to redeem the world. Nunally sobs heart breakingly over his body and is gradually drowned out by the watching crowd chanting the name of their savior and Lelouch's killer, Zero, who was originally Lelouch. Suzaku took up the mantle in order to atone for his sins. So Yeah...
- 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~Requiemforthe 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.
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.
Fan Fic
Film
- John Coffey in The Green Mile (also the book) is a blatant analogue of Jesus Christ, and the entire book/movie essentially a deconstruction of the legends and how JC would be received and cope in the modern world.
- The latter portion of that description arguably makes the book an aversion of this trope, at least insofar as the religious imagery and message is not meaningless and arbitrary.
- The Matrix trilogy has hundreds of Bible references, everything from the registration codes of the hovercraft to the dialogue between Smith and Neo. The films' creators were so worried that people might not see Neo as Messiah that they added these arbitrarily just to avoid confusion. (A few of the subtler ones actually meant something, but they got lost in the general noise.)
- Let's not forget the cross-shaped explosions and other eratta in Revolutions.
- This troper's mileage varies, as she actually found The Matrix more evocative of Dragonball than the Bible...
- The Matrix: The Path of Neo has the directors appear as pixels and address the player by saying the ending to The Matrix: Revolutions was so deep and filled with philosophical subtext and symbolism, until being interrupted by the other director who agrees that yes, the movie was too deep, so instead the video game adaptation requires a mindless boss fight and a simple ending. That's right, Dragonball Z was too deep.
- The Matrix draws a lot from Ancient Greek mythology and philosophy in the first movie, most notably Plato's Cave.
- While the official site and TOW have essays insisting on how deep and meaningful The Matrix is, critics say it has the exact opposite level of deepness. Most philosophy teachers tell students not to write papers on The Matrix because it makes them ill.
- Superman Returns is rife with Bible Shout Outs, but the most blatant one is the scene when one of Lex Luthor's henchmen holds Superman up, with his arms outstretched, as Luthor stabs him in the side with a shard of Kryptonite. To be fair, Superman has been compared and made similar to Jesus for years in the comics — somewhat of an irony, considering that his creators were both Jewish. He's also Moses, what with the "sent away from home in a small vessel to save his life and taken in by a foreign family" and all.
Live as one of them, Kal-El, to discover where your strength and your power are needed. Always hold in your heart the Pride of your special heritage. They can be a great people, Kal-El, they wish to be. They only lack the light to show the way. For this reason above all, their capacity for good, I have sent them you... my only son.
- 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. Quite frankly, Winnfield himself openly admits that he never actually gave the verse much thought, he's just always thought of it simply as some
cool cold-blooded shit to say to a mother fucker before executing his targets popping a cap in their ass.
- This is more
outright theft an "homage" to The Bodyguard starring Sonny Chiba. It still counts, since old movies might as well be the bible to Tarantino.
- Considering the fact that the actual verse is about taking vengeance and dealing out punishment, I think it's more a case that Tarantino didn't bother looking it up. He probably would have used it if he had.
- 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.
- 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.
- Southland Tales contains constant, inexplicable references to the Book of Revelation.
- Not really inexplicable, the whole movie is a retelling of the Book of Revelation.
- Magnolia is filled with cryptic references to the numbers 8 and 2, and eventually brings on a plague of frogs straight out of Exodus 8:2.
- Not so cryptic are the people in the audience at the gameshow holding up signs reading: "Exodus 8:2".
- 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. Which would make sense if there were any other sacrificial/messianic imagery in the rest of the film.
- Charlies Angels: Full Throttle has Demi Moore falling down a trap door with a leaking gas pipe, which her gunshots ignite. It's not just symbolic, it's awesome.
- 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.
- The tagline from Interview With The Vampire is "Drink from me and live forever." Of course, this is completely appropriate, considering that the (modern) vampire mythology is now seen as darkly mirroring Christ's—where Jesus gave his blood so that others may live forever in paradise, the vampire steals other's blood so that he may live forever, and so on.
- When you see the heavenly father and son scene in The Lion King, do you think of Christianity first, or Star Wars? This troper thought of ''StarWars'' first, only since it was the same voice actor.
- This troper always thought that scene was simply mirroring the scene in Hamlet where Hamlet sees his father's ghost, since The Lion King is just Hamlet with lions.
- Star Wars itself, aside from some actual symbolism, has a few uses of random asian words and ideas to make it sound exotic and interesting (the word Jedi for instance, the Force and Chi etc). This gets turned on its head when it appears that the Chinese translation for Episode III' used ideas for western culture and Christianity. They translated the Jedi Council as the Presbyterian Church.
- Or, rather, they translated it as "the Meeting of Elders", but the term also happened to be the translation for "Presbyterian Church" (as it's ruled by Presbyters, or elders).
- Don't forgot that Shmi Skywalker became pregnant by the Force and her child is the Chosen One and stuff. and then in the next episode she dies by crucifixion.
- In the Terminator series, John Connor has those initials for a reason.
- James Cameron?
- Where can we even begin on the latest movie?
- In Gran Torino, Clint Eastwood dies after being shot by the gangsters and lies in the classic Jesus pose, sacrificing himself for his new friends.
- You have in Metropolis machines named after Biblical monsters, a Jesus Pose with a clock, the Seven Deadly Sins dancing around, a tower called the New Babel Tower and the Mary Sue called Maria... This almost reaches the Neon Genesis Evangelion scale of meaningless symbols...
- Not to mention the main character is repeatedly said to be the "mediator" who heals the bond between his all-powerful father and the masses toiling below the city. Subtle, Fritz.
- In Mission Imposible 2, big explosion, bad guy's eyes shown full of fire, white doves fly through the air, as Tom Cruise emerges from the flames. I am not making this up.
- Good hell, this has been around for so long, and David Lynch is not even mentioned? His movies are so rife with symbolism, he probably has a swimming pool filled with it.
- 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.)
- Is this troper the only one who thought that the "I'm flying" scene from Titanic looked like a cross? Especially when the camera pans downward with a wide shot?
Literature
- The Wheel Of Time takes this to 11. Entire characters are based off of mythological characters, and religious characters.
- Rand Al'Thor (Jesus) battles Ishamael (the Anti-Christ), and Shai'tan (Guess)
- Not to mention the Crown of Swords (thorns), the wound in his side, and the herons branded onto his palms.
- Also, the wound in his side and his recent near-blindness are references to the Fisher King.
- He's also King Arthur.
- Mat Cauthon is based off of Odin right down to getting hanged for knowledge
- Perrin Aybara is based off of Thor, and the Baltic god Perkons
- Gareth Bryne, and Gawyn Trakand are heavily based off of their King Arthur counterparts
- The history of Tar Valon, and the Amyrlin Seat is based off of Catholic Church and Pope, right down to them splitting apart and electing different Amrylin (popes).
- The Forsaken all have heavy Nazi influences. Consider Semirhage as Dr. Josef Mengele.
- The Asha'man, who are ostensibly good guys, are based directly on the Nazi SS, right down to the uniforms and titles ("Storm Leader").
- Most of this is just the nature of the books — a lot of the characters are supposed to represent something/someone in our 'age', and the repetitiveness of the Wheel of Time. This sort of "legend fades into myth" recycling is a large theme of the series. There are theories that the stories Thom mentions in The Eye of the World are parallels of people/things from our world.
- Some examples: "Materese the Healer", "Lenn who flew to the Moon on an eagle of fire", and the giants "Mosk and Merk who strode the world and fought with spears of fire".
- Those are probably distorted legends about mother Teresa, john Glenn, and the cold war respectively.
- You know what, just read this for all the similarities Arthurian, Judeo-Christian, Asian, Norse, Greek, too many other legends to count.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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 apple on the cover of Twilight, according to the author, represents the apple from the Garden of Eden, because, like Bella and Edward's love, it was forbidden.
- And because it also brought suffering and tribulation into the world (for those who love and understand vampire literature, anyway. Your Mileage May Vary, of course
- This troper has always wondered whether Joseph Curwen, the evil necromancer who rises from the dead in H.P. Lovecraft's The Case of Charles Dexter Ward had those initials on purpose. Considering Lovecraft's antipathy towards religion, he might have made a bit of an inside joke.
- Harry Potter! Come on, he is killed at the hands of a serpent motif villain and comes back to life. Gee, who could he represent?
- wait wait, I know this one....uhm. Habbakuk?
Live Action TV
Music
Real Life
- This troper saw an anti-Christian ad at the top of this very page that stated "Take Christ out of Christianity and you are left with inanity." No, you silly ad, you're left with "ianity," which means absolutely nothing.
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."
Tabel Top Games
- Even Dungeons And Dragons itself isn't immune to this: Especially clerical spells (used to be) heavily biblically themed. Part Water, Flaming Chariot, Sticks to Snakes, ring any bells?
Video Games
- 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.
- 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 euphoria brought on by "the bends" — still symbolic, but not in the same way.
- While the rest are valid, the first two are more literal — the character inspired by the heroes of Ayn Rand, Andrew Ryan (easy to anagram, isn't it?) outlawed religion and hunted down smugglers who brought Bibles into Rapture.
- Mega Man X 8 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, and the final boss appears as a fallen angel whose ultimate attack is called "Paradise Lost".
- The last example is actually a Title Drop, since "Paradise Lost" is the subtitle of the game.
- Likewise Mega Man Zero. Where to begin? The Obi Wan X is now something close to a ghost wearing a cassock and a halo on his head. His Evil Knock Off Copy-X, has blood-red eyes and an angel motif in his Powered Armor and One Winged Angel. The latter form even has the eyes spamming a laser to burn the floor.
- More notable examples in Mega Man Zero:
- Omega's "I am the messiah!" phrase; add the fact that he is called the God of Destruction by many. His name is also worth mentioning, as one of its basic meanings is "the end", and he's literally instrumental in the End Of The World As We Know It.
- His creator, Dr. Weil, has almost the same phrase: "I am the devil!" Justified, this is exactly what he is.
- In Devil May Cry 4's opening cutscene, Dante puts his sword through the forehead of a statue of his father. Later on, he gets impaled by his sword on the same statue. Even if Dante gets impaled on his own sword by an enemy in every game but the second, it does make one consider the symbolism of using this on a statue of his father.
- 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?
- In Assassins Creed, mild-mannered bartender Desmond Miles is suspiciously modeled with the exact same face as Altair, his ancestor from 1191AD. It also goes in reverse, as Desmond's white hoodie is obviously patterned to resemble Altair's assassin's robe. It's a rather sly application of the Identical Grandson, because Altair wears his hood up and his face is harder to see. This goes in reverse as well, because Desmond doesn't wear his hood. Arguably subverted with the Animus, as it could be simply replacing Altair with Desmond's looks, since Desmond is reliving the memories. This would mean Altair didn't have the cool scar that causes much squee, sadly.
- 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.
- Persona 3 involves shooting yourself in the head to let the voices out. Of course, the shooting device is apparently not a real gun, and just induces the mental trauma of being shot, causing your innermost psyche to emerge and attack the enemy with magic.
- Not to mention the two crucifixion poses the main character is in (once before Ikutski tries to sacrifice the protagonists, and again after he makes the Great Seal), and the fact that the last "voice in his head" is named Messiah.
- Also, he sacrifices his own life in order to save humanity from the consequences of its vices.
- 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.
- "Jesus Beams" Joshua from The World Ends With You. A God Is He.
- The first half of Final Fantasy X draws so many parallels between Yuna and Jesus that it's almost not a surprise when it's revealed that Yuna will die saving Spira if she completes her pilgrimage as intended. The second half of the game then completely subverts this as it's revealed that this way of dealing with Sin, at best, puts a temporary patch on the problem anyway and looks for another way to defeat it.
- Two of the first towns your party visits in Final Fantasy III are Canaan and Ur.
- Master Chief's name is John 117. John 1:17 is "For the law was given by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ.". This troper has no idea what that means, or whether Master Chief is supposed to be Moses or Jesus, but he wouldn't be named John if it wasn't important, right? The allusion could also be to John 11:7 which is "Then after that saith he to his disciples, Let us go into Judaea again." but it probably isn't. Others have pointed at Revelation 1:17 (and 18), which include "I am the First (in the novels, first to put on the MJOLNIR armour; also, "first" as leader of the SPARTAN-IIs) and the Last (ignoring the novels, the last SPARTAN). I am the Living One; I was dead (in cryogenic stasis), and behold I am alive (restored from cryogenic stasis) for ever and ever (you never truly fail if you have saves, since you can always reload)! And I hold the keys of death and Hades (One Man Army slaughterer of the Covenant)."
- 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 the style of symbolism the Japanese devs employed through the rest of the series, especially with monster design. To be fair, most players miss a lot of it, too, but this troper thought The Reveal to be somewhat of a let-down after suspecting since nearly the beginning that Alex was either gay or transgendered.
- 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". Whether any of these references are truly relevant to the story, or if they're just there to emphasize the fact that we're dealing with crazy cultist villains, is still a matter of debate among fans.
- Metal Gear Solid was doing fine until the fourth one. Then it gives the most Anvilicious sequence involving a church and a big statue of Mary and two factions fighting over different interpretations of a self-sacrificing person's words. Considering the games had multiple Snakes, an EVA, an ADAM, a David, a John, and a driving theme of heroism and idolisation, it was impressive the games managed to resist that long.
- More meaninglessly, 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.
- Not about Christ, but a lot of people claim GlaDoS looks like a woman dangling from the ceiling, restrained in a straitjacket, an obvious metaphor for an insane prisoner.
- 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. I'm not even sure if they knew what they were implying, but considering Genesis's character, it was probably intentional on his part.
- His name is Genesis — of course they knew what they were implying. Interestingly enough, Genesis has another motivation for doing it that can be found in a book in the final dungeon. The rest of the final dungeon had a large amount of What Do You Mean Its Not Symbolic, too, what with Dante's Inferno references and a statue that looked like the Virgin Mary (at least in Japan).
- Yet more examples from Final Fantasy: The Summons. Yeah, Ifrit, Shiva, Ramuh and the like make sense in the context of being gods, but Eden? Ark?
- 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.
- And then dropped straight in the most Anvilicious way possible with the sequel, which is a retelling of Paradise Lost and Genesis.
- Metroid Prime 3: Corruption has Samus' infusion of Phazon as a major plot point. Phazon gives Samus increased firepower and abilities, but can only be used for a short time. If Samus stays in Phazon-induced Hypermode for too long, she becomes "corrupted" and dies. Over time, Samus' corruption becomes worse and worse, disfiguring her skin and clogging her veins. At the height of her corruption, Samus has only ten minutes before she dies of excessive corruption. By the end of the game, Samus manages to purge herself of all Phazon and Phazon-related upgrades, saving her life. I refuse to believe that Nintendo didn't intend this as some kind of drug metaphor. There's just no way.
- In a more conventional religious example, the Phazon could represent sin, and the purge baptism for the remission of sins.
- On the flip side of religious examples, just try to tell me the corrupted Space Pirates aren't the Metroid equivalent of a fanatical cult.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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 the SNK vs Capcom Chaos game, you fight Bonus Boss Athena in a Fluffy Cloud Heaven and, after defeating her, an unnamed character who is a clear Expy of God appears to sends you back to Earth. Akuma returns to challenge him, though.
- 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 sons of Adam and Eve, which leaves one question: Where's Cain?
- 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.
- Not only that, Wind Waker has a backstory of the entire world being flooded. Now where could they have gotten that idea?
- 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.
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.
Web Comics
- Summed up brilliantly by this image◊ (Aptly titled "It makes you sound deep"), brought to you by RPG World.
Western Animation
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