What Do You Mean, It's Not Symbolic? - Television Tropes & Idioms

NEON. GENESIS. EVANGELION. How much of the religious imagery in Neon Genesis Evangelion is truly relevant and how much was added by this trope is up for debate; however, things like the cross-shaped energy blasts probably qualify. Producer Kazuya Tsurumaki admits that a lot of the material that the staff co-opted from Judeo-Christian esoterica is there specifically to Mind Screw the viewing audience, who, being Japanese, wouldn't be very familiar with it. But even NGE couldn't resist the temptation to throw in one gratuitous Buddhist reference, in the form of a One Hundred And Eight. European and American audiences are Mind Screwed not by its unfamiliarity but by the fact that it appears in totally unexpected contexts.
- There's actually a good collection of Buddhist and even Shinto imagery scattered around NGE — but it's handled a bit more subtly because the (intended) audience could be expected to pick up on it more easily.
- Don't forget the Sephirot (Yes, it's his namesake) you see behind EVA-01 (the image is also in the opening). Oh, and it's in Full Metal Alchemist's opening as well.
  - The Sephirot aren't just in the opening. They're on the floor of Gendo Ikari's office and briefly appear during the crucifixion (speaking of this trope) of Unit 01 in End of Evangelion.
- There's much more symbolism in NERV itself:
  - There are 22 layers of armor protecting the Geo-Front. This is taken from the number of paths between the 10 sephiroth in the Tree of Life.
  - Terminal Dogma (and what's housed in it) is very symbolic if you know the meaning of the word Dogma. Dictionary.com defines it as: An authoritative principle, belief, or statement of ideas or opinion, especially one considered to be absolutely true. It is often used in relation to religious beliefs. It only makes sense that NERV houses the being that they use to initiate Instrumentality there.
  - Terminal Dogma is also the part of the brain, which matches Nerv's nervous system naming conventions.
- The LCL fluid that surrounds an Eva pilot represents amniotic fluid in the womb, which is relevant given the relation the Evas have with the mothers of the pilots. The conflict between the Evas and their pilots mirrors the real conflict that takes place between the body of a mother and the fetus, since the fetus effectively uses chemical trickery in order to protect itself from an immune system that naturally views it as leeching parasite. It also denotes the Fruedian conflict between parent and child.
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).
The ending of Final Fantasy Advent Children is basically a bit fat wad of this. Cloud is temporarily killed by Loz and Yazoo, vanishes in a blur of light, and reappears in a CHURCH that has been flooded with magical healing water. As if it isn't blatant enough, he wakes up surrounded by kids suffering from geostigma, whom he heals by cupping water in his hands and "baptizing" them on top of the head.
- Yu-Gi-Oh! GX has three demon monsters and their fusions named for Judeo-Abrahamic angels, and the name of the organization pursuing them are the "Seven Stars" in the original version, a reference to the Book of Revelation.
For all the philosophical rambling and half-symbolism in Ghost In The Shell: Stand Alone Complex they mostly avoid religious imagery. But in the last episode of Second Gig, Batou grabs a cross beam and holds it over his shoulder before using it to free Motoko. And, well... judge for yourself if this is supposed to be symbolic◊.
- Not to mention the Tachikomas' self sacrifice at that same moment.
- The original film has an interesting moment where the enemy-controlled tank shoots the hell out of an evolutionary-tree stone relief in attempt to ventilate Motoko; the last round blows the 'homo sapiens' clean off the wall.
Jo Jos Bizarre Adventure Part 3 introduced Stands, spiritual entities named after tarot cards. Note the "named after", not "based on"; few of them have anything in common with their namesakes, the author's handwaves nonwithstanding. For example, Tower of Gray is a superfast fly, so named because it brings calamity; Death 13 is a dream-controlling Stand named only because it looks like The Grim Reaper (while the actual card, ironically, does not), The Emperor is a handgun, and The Empress is a sentient wart which grows on its victim. About the only Stand that was really accurate was The Sun, a miniature sun. But, there weren't enough Tarot cards to have all the requisite enemy Stand users, so the author started naming them after similarly unrelated Egyptian gods. See Horus, an ice Stand named after the sun god. When the author ran out of those he decided to just use name them after bands, and has continued to do so throughout parts 4, 5, 6, and 7, though even those can be sort of wonky at times, such as Super Fly, the tower Stand.
- The last one is obviously because Tower of Gray was the super-fly 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.
  - Well it was previously a church.
- L is the world's three greatest detectives. Three entities in one person — where have we heard that before?
Most of Hellsing's religious symbolism was put there simply because Kouhta Hirano was aiming to make a manga that "looked cool".
In Haruhi-chan, Haruhi (with Kyon's aid) ties Mikuru to a cross and decorates her with balloons. This is an obvious reference to Haruhi's nature as God, and thus the Cruxifcation of Mikuru shows Her love for the world in that she would sacrifice her favourite chew-toy for... no, I am just making it up here. It certainly means something, though.
- As far a Kyon and Haruhi knew Mikuru was dead before she was tied to the cross, so it doesn't involve her being a sacrifice of any sort.
Mercuremon from Digimon Frontier stages a huge Church Shootout against Takuya, complete with Ominous Pipe Organ (physical and musical) and a Crucified Hero Shot. The grand finale even involves stuffing him in a coffin. They are fighting inside Sefirotmon, which is a living cabbalistic figure.
- And Adventure had the whole 666 deal with Vamdemon's revival, which got by the radar.
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 Millennium Earl has commandeered Noah's Ark, the Black Order works for the Vatican, General Yeeger is crucified by the Noah, most Innocences have Creepy Cool Crosses on them, all Akuma have pentagrams on their faces (as does the hero), the Noah have lines of scar-like crosses across their foreheads...
- Um...technically, if you actually believe the story of the Ark, ALL of humanity is descended from Noah.
Fafner In The Azure Dead Aggressor outdoes its rivals with twice the pointless mythology: meaningless German myth for the heroes (see: Fafner), and vague Egyptian-ness for the villains.
Trigun goes for the subversion; Nicholas D. Wolfwood carries around a cross that's actually a minigun, rocket launcher, and holster for several handguns. The grip is shaped like a skull. However, his religious beliefs turn out to be very important to the story.
The third season of Sailor Moon (Sailor Moon S) features a lot of this trope. "The Messiah" has to use the Holy Grail to save the world from evil, but there's nothing particularly religion-related about this evil force — it's pretty similar to the Big Bads of the other seasons that don't have religious imagery. The episode where the Holy Grail makes its first appearance takes place largely in a cathedral.
- The Holy Grail appears when the three Talismans are brought together. Interestingly, these talismans are a sword, a mirror, and a garnet, which are three sacred objects in the traditional Japanese Shinto religion.
In the Downer Ending of episode five of Mnemosyne, Big Bad Apos rapes Rin's sidekick Mimi while she is chained and nailed to a stone lamp post as Ominous Latin Chanting and Ominous Pipe Organ plays in the background. This is only one in at least three incidents of Nightmare Fuel in the last five minutes before the end credits roll.
In the manga Samurai Deeper Kyo, Mibu Kyoshiro calls himself the son of God and goes around healing ~~leper~~ wounded children. In a spectacular mix-up of biblical stories, he also kills his own brother, which leads to his leaving the ~~Garden of Eden~~ Mibu lands.
Naruto's Big Bad Pain manipulates six bodies named after Buddhism's Six Paths of Rebirth: Animal Realm summons giant animals, Demon Realm is a friggin cyborg armed to the teeth with Schizo Tech hidden in his body, Hungry Ghost Realm absorbs chakra (the power source for 90% of the attacks in the series), God Realm had all kinds of weird shit with gravity and junk, Hell Realm could summon a monster that could revive the other bodies if they were too damaged plus kill someone if they lied or refuse to answer your question, and Human Realm reads your mind and can rip out your soul.
- It eventually turns out that the statue Akatsuki uses is something Nagato summoned to kill Hanzo and Danzo's men in revenge which is called "Gedo Mazo". "Gedo" means "outer path", referencing the term in Buddhism for a false path to enlightenment (as opposed to the inner path, which is the correct one).
- On top of that, Konan reveals that the monster that Hell Realm summons is itself another "path" of Pain called the "Outer Realm/Path" who can also revive the recently deceased; in this respect, it seems to be based on Yama, the King of Hell, who judged if people were to die and where they would be reincarnated.
- Don't forget that the Uchiha clan is convoluted in Shinto mythology, with several Sharingan techniques named after Shinto gods.
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.
- Not to mention some of the names of the mecha themselves: Seraphim, Throne, Cherubim, Virtue, etc.
Crona from Soul Eater... his/her name, when spoken, is said as "Kuro na" which translates to "dark one". What with the black blood, this is fitting.
- The final fight between Shinigami and Asura has their souls briefly meeting in a yin-yang symbol, though without each side having aspects of the other. Insignificant detail in the scheme of things, but oddly appropriate given how the anime decided to use order and chaos as analogus to good and evil.
In addition to more explainable symbolism (a stray dog as the main character's self, paired bullet casings for the two killers, puppet strings, masks), the first couple episodes of Phantom~Requiem for the Phantom has random crosses or shadows in the shapes of crosses cropping up around the two young assassins, Ein and Zwei.
Chrono Crusade teeters back and forth on the "significant/insignificant" line. The series is about a nun that hunts demons, so a lot of the religious symbolism is justified. But some moments push it, particularly in the anime. For example, after Chrono is badly injured in a battle and caught up in an explosion, Father Remington finds him buried in rubble marked by two steel beams welded together in the shape of a cross.
Yami No Matsuei. Period. It's practically an advertisment for this trope.
The main characters of Haibane Renmei are humans with grey wings and golden halos. Word Of God states that this is not supposed to be symbolic, but was instead chosen because it looked nice. It's hard to agree with that though, since the entire story seems to be a metaphor for Purgatory.
The main trio of leads in NEEDLESS are named Adam, Eve and ~~Yamada~~ Cruz ("Cross"). These elements seem to be almost purely decorative, considering the sheer wacky and over-the-top nature of the series.
Bloody Monday has this in spades, which isn't unusual considering the antagonists are an evil cult bent on killing millions of people to rebuild Japan. Off the top of my head, when the cult's imprisoned long-haired leader Simon is busted out he somehow manages to change into Jesus-like robes inside an Absurdly Spacious Sewer. He dubs his most trusted operatives Michael, Judas (who does what you'd expect him to do), Cain And Abel (even though that applies better to another pair of siblings) Eventually Simon is killed by a faithless operative (not Judas); the child of Simon who takes his place because they planned all this is also killed (by Judas, but because he felt the new leader was faithless, not to mention completely psychotic). On top of all that the cultists use the Babylonian calender for no reason other then Rule Of Cool.
This tends to be all over the place in the Riki Oh manga (The Story Of Ricky is basically regarding the pre-symbolism part).
All of the homonuculi in Full Metal Alchemist are named after the seven deadly sins.
- It doesn't end there: The manga version's Greed is more or less a walking example of this. Like every homonculi he was born from a single parent, (Father) he was later hunted down and ended up crucified on Father's orders. Father then killed him on the cross and absorbed his Philosopher's Stone back into his body. Then later on he is returned to life by Father. Sound similar to anything?
Pokémon: Arceus and the Jewel of Life has some of this, mainly due to the fact that Arceus is supposed to be God.

In Huntress: Year One #4, the Huntress essentially crucifies Stephen Mandragora, but even though Huntress is all about the Catholic imagery, she only does it to restrain him, and presumably because impaling someone through the palmar radial nerve is one of the most excruciatingly painful injuries one can inflict on someone. Lampshaded when Mandragora points out to her, with his dying breath "You honor me, with...with the stigmata...I knew...I'd be a saint someday."
The trope is parodied in Preacher when someone pointed out that Jesse Custer's name has "J.C." for initials and Jesse says it's a ridiculous idea.
The X Men went through a phase in the Dark Age when a lot of new characters had Biblical or religious names, sometimes appropriately (Apocalypse, Nimrod), vaguely appropriately (Babel spires), or for no particular reason at all (Exodus, Bishop, Gideon). Ahab would count, except that he's an obvious reference to Moby Dick.
- Wasn't Exodus a teleporter, whose main role was enabling the Acolytes (another religious name) to make convenient escapes? So it's kind of appropriate.

From the Deva Series, we have the Circles calling Device-using students "Fallen Angels" and the anti-Device spell "Judgment of the Fallen". That totally does not mean anything.

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.
- The Matrix draws a lot from Ancient Greek mythology and philosophy in the first movie, most notably Plato's Cave.
  - I actually went to a philosophy lecture that drew on the Matrix. It was awful.
- 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.
- Your Mileage May Vary.
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 — something 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 verse is deliberately built out of a patchwork of indistinct Bible references in order to emphasise that Jules wants to sound Biblical, rather than caring about his quotations.
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.
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.
- The same thing was used to dreadful effect in Stephen King's Salem's Lot. Aside from the symbolic name of the town, the vampire Barlow forces the priest to drink his blood, explicitly invoking communion as he does. It has the effects you would expect.
When you see the heavenly father and son scene in The Lion King, do you think of Christianity first, Hamlet, or Star Wars?
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).
- Don't forgot that Shmi Skywalker became pregnant by the Force (which was actually done by a real person, Sith Lord Darth Plagueis, but this is obviously not in the movies) and her child is the Chosen One. and then in the next episode she dies by crucifixion.
- "May the Force be with you." Uh... right.
In the Terminator series, John Connor has those initials for a reason.
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 Crucified Hero Shot 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.
- There is also the bit where one of the furnaces becomes an ancient temple for about 5 minutes and the workers are pulled into the 'mouth' of the 'temple' (which is now the 'face' of DAGON!) as human sacrifices.
- This reaches epic proportions in the novelization by his wife, Thea von Harbou, which uses single phrases repeated word-for-word to solidify Maria as the Virgin Mary, Freder as Jesus, Rotwang as Satan, etc. You know, just in case we didn't get it already. And let's not forget the random misquoted Bible passages and the fact that Freder's dead mother is named after the Norse goddess of the underworld...
- During the Legend of Babel sequence, Frieder is illuminated by a spotlight from behind him at one point. Assuming you've got a decent print of the movie, the light through his hair forms a halo.
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.)
There is the scene in The Half-Blood Prince where Ginny kneels down in front of Harry and ties his shoes.
Luke of Cool Hand Luke is frequently paralleled with Jesus.
Definitely some examples in the movie Watchmen. There are of course the direct references to God, such as "God exists, and he is American" and John reminiscing how hard it was for Janie, who said he's "like a god now" and John saying that he doesn't think there is a God, and if there is, it's not him. But there are other (slightly) more subtle references, such as the scene from the opening Montage where Sally Jupiter is at a retirement party which is a dead ringer for The Last Supper, the cross-like position that Dr. Manhattan takes not only when he is reborn in the cafeteria but when he's revealed to the world, and the cross-like position Jon Osterman takes as he's being disintegrated.
For a movie that's not even out yet, the trailer alone for 2012 is saturated to critical mass with this.
Slightly less religious example: Charlie Wilson's War is about the true story of how a seemingly Rich Idiot With No Day Job congressman was able to increse the defense budget (then $4 million because the defense department didn't want to get involved in another Vietnam) over a hundred fold and smuggle weapons into Afghanistan with the help of Israel and Pakistan (and you think stopping the invasion via unnatural disaster sounds nuts). At the end of the film Charlie and his CIA liason are enjoying the sight of the Russians retreating from Afghanistan when the CIA guy tells him that religious zealots are starting to show up and the Afgans have all those nifty weapons; just then there's the gratuitous sound effect of a plane roaring above the building, which happens to face the Pentagon and the scene cuts to Charlie being denied a mere $10 million to build "one fucking school" in Afghanistan because nationbuilding there is a very low priority compared to forming relations with Russia. If I recall correctly, the real Charlie Wilson hated the film's insinuation that they had basically armed the Taliban.
In Equilibrium, the enforcers of Libria are the Tetragrammaton clerics. The Tetragrammaton is a Greek term for the four-letter name of God. Utterly meaningless in the context of the film, but it sounds cool, right?
All of Lars Von Trier's Antichrist: The protagonist couple, known only as He and She, retreat to their cabin in the woods called "Eden" where they torture each other (He psychologically, She physically, with garden tools) following the untimely death of their child.
Pretty much most of Tron: Flynn is Jesus. Tron is Ben Hur. Sark is Pontius Pilate. The MCP is either Satan or Julius Caesar.
- So does that mean the "sample trailer" where Flynn is being all Obadiah Stane-ish implies that he's actually the Anti Christ?
Not sure if this counts, but the trailers for Avatar showcasing the film's amazing (fake) flora and fauna and Noble Savage vs. Humans Are Bastards plot features the same music as the trailers for Planet Earth.
The film Gigantic has several scenes in which the main character is attacked by a seemingly invulnerable homeless man for no apparent reason; near the end of the movie, the main character stabs his assailant with a knife, who then disappears without a trace. No explanation for this is ever given in the film itself; the writer/director said in an interview that the assailant is was a metaphor for the main character's subconscious demons.

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.
  - King Artur Hawkwing would like a word. Especially after what the witches of Tar Valon did to him.
- 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.
- It also probably wasn't actually an apple, though that mistake's a really common one.
There is the possibility that Joseph Curwen, the evil necromancer who rises from the dead in H.P. Lovecraft's The Case of Charles Dexter Ward has 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. And he has a ~~crown of thorns~~ wand made of holly. And there's the whole theme of sacrificial blood equaling sacred protection which Harry duplicates in the end. Gee, who could he represent?
- ... Wow, that's stretching it a bit. How does a wand represent a crown? I think you're reading into this a bit too much ...
  - Holly is a sacred wood. It is supposedly used to ward off evil. Let's not forget the phoenix feather core, for rebirth.
The Chosen: It is possible that Danny Saunders represents the Jewish people. He is a dutiful son trying to convince himself that his inscrutable father loves him, he and his father never talk except when studying Talmud. Oh yes, and his father led the congregation's immigration to America thus delivering them up out of the land of Russia.
Children Of Men is full of this. The protagonist, named Theo for starters, is on a mission to protect a woman pregnant with the child that is humanity's last hope, of which he is not the father. The character delivering the baby even goes as far as to exclaim "Jesus Christ" upon its arrival. Even the film's name is a reference to Psalm 90.
The Outsiders has one huge example in that Johnny dies while saving children from a burning building. Not symbolic? His initials are J.C..
- Not only that, but the building was an abandoned church.

In the seventh episode of the sixth season of MST3K, the movie, Bloodlust, is mostly a The Most Dangerous Game ripoff. However, at the end, after the bad guy is killed by the lackey he betrayed, said lackey pushes his hands through a pair of metal spikes, giving an obvious crucifixion image.
Tom Servo: So why this symbolism? Did Christ hunt people on deserted islands?
In the Ultraman franchise, crosses and other Christian imagery are used in attacks and story plots, however, it should be noted that the creator of the franchise, Eiji Tsuburaya is actually Christian.
Lost tends to throw in Christian imagery, randomly name its characters after various philosophers, have mysteriously appearing hieroglyphics, etc.
- Some of it vaguely makes sense, e.g. Rousseau lives apart from humanity in nature. Except for that she's extremely paranoid and distrusts everyone around her.
The 4400 featured Jordan Collier — although, aside from those initials and the long hair and beard, it's not very obvious at first. But then he dies and comes back to life, delivers prophecies and promises of salvation to humanity, and builds a heavily ostracized religion around himself. Really, the anvil couldn't fall any harder.
Two entirely different Professional Wrestling promotions have made allusions to a wrestler being Jesus in this manner. WWF, at one point, had Steve Austin attacked by The Undertaker and his almost-Satanic-but-not-quite Ministry, and strapped to a giant version of the Undertaker's personal logo (which looks like a capital T with an X at the bottom point). Of course, as with so many of the WWF's Attitude Era storylines, ECW did it first, and was even more blatant, having Raven and his Brood attack the Sandman and strap him to a wooden cross, then place a crown of barbed wire on his head. Thankfully, we were meant to interpret this more as an indictment of the occult-like Ministry and Brood than any statement on the foul-mouthed, violent Austin or Sandman.
- A few years before these, there was the 1994 Royal Rumble, where The Undertaker, who was a hero at that time, was ambushed by virtually all of the promotion's villains and put in a casket. Then, the inside of the casket appeared on the video wall, with 'Taker giving a vow to return. Then, his image on the screen turned inverse, with lots of white and ascended upwards, with his shadow appearing above the screen and ascending towards the sky before disappearing. This was followed by the appearance of an evil Anti-Undertaker and the return of the original to defeat his evil counterpart, who was worshipping money.
  - His most recent feud with born-again Christian Shawn Michaels just couldn't ignore this, especially the RAW before Wrestlemania 25, when Michaels dressed up in Undertaker's clothes (trenchcoat and wide-brimmed hat), but all in white to contrast the Undertaker's black. Then, because something worth doing is apparently also worth overdoing, Michaels enters Wrestlemania 25 descending from the rafters, bathed in light, as a triumphant chorus sings. Undertaker, appropriately, made his entrance by ascending from underneath the stage. Taker managed to keep his streak and break his losing record against HBK (who was playing the heel).
Accusations of the Doctor as Messiah abound regarding the new series. Tinkerbell Jesus rankles the most, though.
- Though the series doesn't follow through on any but the basic level; that instance, for example, is the inverse of Jesus once you get past the pose and the shiny lights (humanity saving him, and not the other way around).
- In the TV Movie, the regeneration-transfer-machine the Master straps the Doctor into looks an awful lot like a crucifix and crown of thorns.
Torchwood has Jesusfied Jack to the extent that he revives after three days after dying for the Team's sins, and later sacrifices himself again by being buried alive in the same year that Jesus was supposedly put on the cross. And that's just getting started.
- But then, maybe he's not Jesus, but God. He sacrifices his only-begotten (grand)son to save the Children of Earth.
  - Only begotten? Jack???
In Wizards Of Waverly Place there is an episode where Alex paints on a brick wall a big white circle that has in the middle the letter A, having the same proportions. She says that the painting represents her initial in a circle, but since she is an antisocial manipulator, she may send through the painting a not-so-surprising message... like she is a hard on anarchist.
In a slightly uncharacteristic moment (based on what we know of Daddy Shut Up and what we know of hell), Supernatural thought it would be a great idea to have him go out in a beautific white light after having defeated the big bad and leaving his sons almost in tears.
As mentioned above, Superman gets saddled with the Jesus archtype from time to time, but it was egregiously done in in the very first episode of Smallville when Clark Kent was crucified. It was lampshaded in the next episode when Lex Luthor points out that it was a method of torture the Romans reserved for those they hated the most.
In the new Battlestar Galactica, there are countless examples. The numbers 5 (Final Five Cylons, 5 priests of the unnamed God, etc.) and 12 (12 Colonies of Kobol, 12 models of human Cylons, 12 Lords of Kobol) keep popping up, the twelve being a reference to twelve signs of the Zodiac which also inspire the names of the colonies. Not to mention Gaius Baltar, who is absolutely convinced he's the Messiah. In "The Hand of God," at the end, he leans backward on a balcony, stares up at the sky, and says "I am an instrument of God." Then, in "Torn," he is imprisoned on a Cylon basestar, grows out his hair and beard, and wanders around in a white robe.
- In the original Galactica, the 12 colonies (despite their names) were pretty much meant to symbolize the 12 tribes of Israel. It borrowed from Mormon theology, which posits a lost 13th tribe; in the Galactica mythos they're looking for the lost 13th colony, which of course is Earth.
- And then the symbolism gets cranked up in Season 4. Gaius Baltar, still with beard, becomes the unwitting leader of a religious cult that preaches love and tolerance (although it's really more an Unwanted Harem). In the Grand Finale, Baltar brokers peace between humans and Cylons and gets to be with Number Six, his angel. And to top it off, Baltar is played by a Jewish actor named James Callis.
- Then there's the fact that this book is about the twelve ~~tribes~~ colonies, originated from ~~Eden~~ Kobol, but settled in foreign land (hence colonies) was forced to move from their homeland to find ~~a promised land~~ Earth that only was known from legend, all due to the actions of a certain man that was influenced by ~~an Angel~~ a woman who worship a single God, who after receiving visions and power from the higher being, eventually become the founder and leader of ~~Judaism Christianity~~ a monothestic religion and preach about grace, and after wandering around ~~the desert~~ space for ~~forty~~ five years (or four seasons), manage to arrive on a lush green ~~place~~ planet that is eventually OUR Earth, all according to the plan of the higher being. Hmm, sounds like a familiar book...
Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles has many. While they are not particularly subtle, that's kind of the point. Many of them mark Crowning Moments Of Awesome.
- Cromartie is killed guns akimbo, arms outstretched, in a church, right in front of a crucifix in an incredibly awesome scene.
- John Connor cuts his hair while the song "Samson and Delilah" plays, in the episode entitled Samson and Delilah.
- In the season one finale, twenty FBI agents are killed along to the song "The Man Comes Around.''. The song is about Revelations, ie, the end of the world.
- In the season two opener, after John risks his life to reactivate Cameron, she is shown sitting quietly and staring at the cross for a long time before asking Sarah if she believes in the Resurrection. She'd also been seen staring at it earlier in the episode.
In the Christmas episode of The Suite Life Of Zack And Cody, a couple that arrive at the Tipton after a snowstorm couldn't get a room because it was full and the woman gave birth in an elevator in the night during Christmas. The cast lampshades it by realizing that what the couple went through was surprisingly similar to Mary and Joseph and the birth of Jesus Christ.
The guy with the cheese slices in the Buffy The Vampire Slayer episode "Restless." When asked about what he represented, Joss Whedon said he was inserted specifically to be a meaningless element of a densely symbolic episode.
- In an article about the sybolism in the episode, the author of the piece interprets it anyway, but admits that it might be taking it too far because Joss Whedon said it was meaningless.
Firefly: There is something way too uncanny about a character who gives up his home in glory to save someone with a broken soul, who heals the sick, is shocked about being forsaken by his father, dines with harlots and sinners, and has the same name as the passerby who was pressed into carrying the cross in the Gospels. Not that that was necessarily intentional, the writer was an atheist and of course you find such things where you look. But still, it is spooky. And still spookier if it was unintentional.
The first Combining Mecha from Chouriki Sentai Ohranger is apparently based on Ezekiel's descriptions of Angels in The Bible. It's formed from a bird, a lion, a bull & two chariots. The Cherubim are said to have the faces of a man, an eagle a bull & a lion (although in Ohranger Robo's case the bird's face is folded inside the body when combined to make way for the robot's head) & Thrones are said to resemble chariot wheels.
In the miniseries, Children of Dune, a very dramatic scene occurs where Stilgar is leading men down a hallway. He was previously upset that the traditions of the planet had all but been wiped away by the changes that he helped bring about. In this scene, he proclaims his return to his traditional ways by exclaiming, "We will ride worms!" Only a true fan of the show could view this scene without laughing out loud.
Revealed in season five of [Supernatural] (the current season on CW) the plot of Dean and Sam being vessels for both Michael and Lucifer..... yeah big brother is good, little brother is evil...... so what does that make John aka [Daddy Shut Up] ?

Green Day's East Jesus Nowhere has a particularly incomprehensible example:
Raise your hands now to testify
Your confession will be crucified
You're a sacrificial suicide
Like a dog that's been sodomized
Rammstein's song "Laichzeit" has no meaning at all but sounds very symbolic or at least, depending on how you look at it, like a song about sex using metaphors. It may be that they just wanted to fuck with the minds of fans or critics who read too much in their songs.
Disturbed's Stupify video involves the psychologically broken character in a long crucified suspension shot, the sceen frquently blinking between this and the lead singer David Draiman in the same pose. According to Draiman, the song was about the racism of his parents in not accepting a non-Jewish girlfriend he had. Yeah.
Most of Nightwish's songs. Of particular interest is "Planet Hell", which conflates Greek mythology ("Save yourself a penny for the ferryman") and Christianity ("This world ain't ready for the Ark") in the chorus.
- Just about all of Century Child is an allusion to the myth of Selene and Endymion.

Most of the second half of The Fantasticks is a parade of symbols. The El Gallo number "Round and Round" is particularly trippy in its symbolism; even the actors in the production this editor attended didn't know what it meant.
- If you think The Fantasticks is symbol-laden, check out the authors' follow-up, Celebration. The bookwriter and lyricist Tom Jones even admits that the symbols were pretentious and overbearing, culminating in a song about the young hero's final battle with the old villain called "Winter and Summer."
Gilbert And Sullivan were mocking this way back in 1880:
And ev'ry one will say / As you walk your mystic way / "If this young man expresses himself in terms too deep for me / Why, what a very singularly deep young man / this deep young man must be!"

A murder-happy priest fighting the undead? No SYMBOLISM!!!1!! there, is there?
Xenogears and Xenosaga are notorious among Video Games for being chock-full of pretentious religious symbolism. Much like Neon Genesis Evangelion, matters are complicated by the fact that the core story really is based around religious symbolism—Xenogears in particular is heavily inspired by the Gnostic interpretation of Christianity.
- Some of this was lost in translation. The Elementals were named for four of the nine choirs of angels. Cherubina (Kelvena), Throne (Tolone), Seraphita and Dominia. Mr. Inferiority Complex Ramsus has a phonetic Japanese spelling that makes his surname pronounced like Rameses. And Miang's surname is a shout-out to Eve (Hawwa/Chavah).
Bioshock carries quite a bit of seemingly gratuitous religious symbolism, from crucified corpses, to discarded Bibles lying around, to the name of the game's Applied Phlebotinum, ADAM (which gives you powers that are fueled by EVE), to the name of the city itself, Rapture. One could argue that Rapture is actually named after "diver's rapture", a state of 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 X8 contains plenty of examples of this. The first stage is called "Noah's Park", a space elevator is named "The Jakob Project" for apparently no reason, and the final boss appears as a fallen angel whose ultimate attack is called "Paradise Lost".
- The last example is actually also a Title Drop, since "Paradise Lost" is the subtitle of the game.
- Sigma's true form is called Belial Sigma. Fans have also likened Lumine's name to that of Lucifer, the "light-bearer" and fallen angel who would eventually become Satan, due to the aforementioned angel motifs. Similiarly, the Maverick's plot to migrate to the Moon and escape a war-torn (and thus useless) Earth is seen as an allusion to the story of Noah and the Flood.
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 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.
- Also in Sacred Stones, there is a bow named "Nidhogg" which the game refers to as the "Serpent Bow". In Norse myth, Nidhogg is the name of the serpent that gnaws at the roots of Yggdrasill.
- In Sword of Flames/Blazing Blade, Eliwood receives a sword named Durandal, said to have been wielded by the hero Roland. Both of these names are taken directly from a French legend.
- Not to mention ~~Mars~~ Marth. Uh, nevermind, I guess.
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.
  - Or maybe, he dooms all of humanity when you consider that Nyx and Erebus in greek mythology give birth to Aether, the light. Then again, Light Is Not Good
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.". We have 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)."
- The Flood and the Ark.
- Halo. Things that float over angel's heads. Seem familiar?
- 117 is also 819 divided by 7 (seven itself is a major theme in Bungie games). "Hats Off to Eight Nineteen" was the hidden easter egg level in Marathon Infinity. Ironically, "Eight Nineteen" refers to the operator of the "Marathon Story Page", Hamish Sinclair (or H.S., or 8 19 if you translated the letters into numbers). A chat log proves the 8 19=H S point...
- As Halo's Wild Mass Guessing page points out...
  "I establish my covenant with you: Never again will all life be cut off by the waters of a flood; never again will there be a flood to destroy the earth." — Genesis 9:11
- Halopedia has an entire page on Religious References In The Halo Series.
Ikaruga contains many Buddhist symbolic elements, especially with the games theme of polarity (Ying and Yang). Not to mention the chapter titles which bookmark each stage reference man's struggle towards enlightenment.
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.
- 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.
  - The developers admitted they drew most of the first game's symbols from a Judeo-Christian-Whatever grabbag. This is most evident in the first game, especially when placed in contrast to later games that reduce the clutter with a greater focus on the town's own home grown nameless horror. Additionally, the third game is there to specifically address many of these inconsistencies, and even has a few instances of previous fan theories being Jossed.
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.
  - Which also abounds with this (see above).
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.
The final series of bosses in Final Fantasy VI screams this. The first three bosses are grotesque figures shaped out of human bodies with seemingly no relevance whatsoever to the storyline. Then, for the four and absolutely final boss in the game, the characters rise out from a dark and dreary background to shining light and clouds to fight an angelic and God-like being. The most plausible explanations are that this is based on Dante's Inferno with the first three bosses representing the different circles of Hell and the three major categories of sin or, respectively, the bosses themselves are Hell, Purgatory, Heaven, and then God.
- This can also be seen as Kefka specifically trying to make a mockery of religion by putting himself in all that religious imagery. The man is a textbook Nietzsche Wannabe after all.
It's pretty fair to say that so many fights wouldn't have been had about Final Fantasy VII if the villain hadn't been named after the Kabbalist 'Sephiroth' and he hadn't been obsessed with becoming a god and there wasn't a sacrificed martyr character.
- Add onto that a possible corrected translation of his final form, Sepher Sephiroth, and watch more heads explode.
- In Final Fantasy VII: Crisis Core, the character Genesis comes from a town famous for its apple harvest, and is producing clones of himself in an abandoned apple factory. When attempting to incite Sephiroth into rebellion against the Shinra, he offers him an apple. The rest of the final dungeon had a large amount of 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).
  - Speaking of apples, one can certainly slap some What Do You Mean Its Not Symbolic onto the burning apple when Tseng blows up Banora really, what could it mean? Especially its connection to not only Genesis but also Angeal...speaking of names and symbolism...
Yet more examples from Final Fantasy: The Summons. Yeah, Odin, Lakshmi, Quetzalcoatl and the like make sense in the context of being gods, but Eden? Ark?
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.
- It helps that it's easily dismissed as the ravings of crazy dudes tripping balls on V.
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.
  - This is made very close to explicit in a few of the Pirate lore scans. They describe themselves as "disciples" of the Dark Hunter, and mention casually executing a senior Pirate who questioned an order.
In the Sakura Taisen manga (and possibly by extent the game, but correct me if I'm wrong), the character Setsuna has a scene during his Mind Rape arc torturing Maria with her tied to a cross.
Silhouette Mirage contains notable examples, such as references like Megido, Zohar, and Metatron.
Let's not forget EVE Online, wherein humanity discovers a wormhole (the titular EVE) which delivers mankind to the New Eden system in another galaxy. It only gets better from this point onward, especially if you take the time to read the names of some of the systems and constellations.
A little-known game called Adventures of Darwin features a tribe of monkeys that have to evolve into humans in time to survive the coming apocalypse. They are led by a monkey named Darwin, a shout out that would make the actual Charles Darwin spin in his grave. Where does the symbology come in? The final boss is God Himself. Well, okay, according to the bestiary, He is actually Zeus, but given the context, he's clearly meant to be a monotheistic God, not one of a pantheon.
In The King Of Fighters, SNK Boss Goenitz is a priest, and in his waiting for turn animation, he is seen reading a book (presumibly a Bible). He serves and awaits the return of a powerful, supernatural entity who would bring The End Of The World As We Know It, who ended reincarnating in a the body of a boy named Chris; and to top it, he would throw phrases like "pray to your god" before fighting. In addittion, the Spin Off dating simulation games Days of Memories has him, Chris and Shermie wearing crucifixes. Also, Kyo wears a black shirt with a cross in the NESTS saga.
In SNK vs Capcom Chaos, you fight Bonus Boss Athena in a Fluffy Cloud Heaven and, after defeating her, an unnamed character who is a clear Captain Ersatz of God appears to sends you back to Earth. Akuma returns to challenge him, though.
- Alternatively, you go to ~~Hell~~ Makai, the Demon World, and face Red Arremer of Ghosts 'n Goblins fame. Arremer, despite only being something of an underling to recurring Big Bad Astaroth, is the closest thing this game has to Satan (despite the fact that said character already appears in the Ghost 'n Goblin series... as a lackey to Astaroth), being a cross between a devil and a gargoyle in appearance. Lose to him, and you're turned into a demon and then forced into servitude.
In Street Fighter IV, it's implied that either Abel was cloned from Seth, or that Seth was cloned from Abel. In the Old Testament, Abel and Seth were sons of Adam and Eve, which leaves one question: Where's Cain?
- Street Fighter III: 3rd Strike has Gill, who in the previous SF3 was little more than a Big Bad with a weird color scheme. In the Dreamcast Giant Attack game where he was playable, his ending gave a cryptic Bible-sounding verse predicting a future calamity, and in 3rd Strike he becomes a self-proclaimed savior who, in his ending in his Dreamcast ending, splits an ocean that leads to a paradise. We are all very impressed.
In The Legend Of Zelda: The Wind Waker, Link's sister Aryll is kidnapped by the Helmaroc King because Ganondorf ordered that all girls with pointy ears be brought to him, as one of them was the promised Princess Zelda. Meanwhile, in The Bible, King Herod ordered that all babies under three years be killed, as one of them was the promised Messiah.
The game Baroque is littered with crosses and minor religious messages. If you explore the Outer World, you can find a graveyard of metal framework crosses in the background.
La-Mulana sure has a lot of maternal symbolism. One quest requires you to take a statue of a woman to an area where you can see sperm swimming around in the background, and then stand under a diagram of the uterus. So Yeah.
The backstory concerning the destruction of the Echidna clan in Sonic Adventure somewhat mirrors the story of Noah and the Flood.
- Then there's the Heaven/Hell imagery in Sonic Riders and in the Chao Gardens of Sonic Adventure 2.
In Tales of Monkey Island: The Trial and Execution of Guybrush Threepwood, Morgan Le Flay betrays Guybrush and brings him to the Mad Doctor DeSinge in Floatsam Island. When she arrives the doctor pays her with 30 Thousand pieces of eight in silver.
What began harmlessly in the original Devil May Cry was cranked up to eleven by the time the fourth installment rolled in:
- In the first game, Dante, Trish, and Vergil were all named after characters from the Divine Comedy: Dante is Dante, Vergil is Virgil, and Trish is Lady Beatrice. Nelo Angelo, Vergil’s corrupted form, is a misspelling of Nero Angelo (Italian for “Black Angel”). The Alastor sword is named after a demon in Christian mythology. The Ifrit gauntlets are described as being powered by hellfire. Big Bad Mundus frequently goes by the monikers of “Prince of this World” and “Prince of Darkness”. Who else is known as that? Satan. Mundus’s three eyes could be another Divine Comedy reference, as Satan was portrayed there as having three faces. Mundus’s youthful and nigh-angelic appearance (before he enters High Octane Nightmare Fuel territory) could be symbolic of Lucifer’s supposed beauty before his fall from paradise. A common enemy variant goes by the name of Sin. Big Creepy Crawlies exist in the form of large flies called Beelzebub (lit. “Lord of the Flies”; a name that is commonly synonymous with Satan). This is also the first game to feature Divinity Statues, statues of an omniscient god of time and space that you offer demon blood to in order to buy items, upgrades, and techniques.
- Lucia’s namesake is a martyred saint from the Divine Comedy who helps Dante. Her Devil Trigger can best be described as a cross between a bird and an angel, a stark contrast to Dante's more demonic transformations. The Big Bad of Devil May Cry 2, Corrupt Corporate Executive Arius, shares his name with a 3rd-century Christian priest who was deemed as a heretic due to his assertion that Jesus was neither eternal nor did he exist before he was begotten by the father. Demonochorus appear to be demonic, mechanical versions of Putti (chubby, angelic babies that usually appear in Renaissance-era art). The Mancer Demons are the souls of the dead who have been condemned as heretics. Furiataurus has the classical look of a demon: hoofed feet, a bull's head and horns, and a man's torso. It also happens to be surrounded by hellfire. Nefasturris is a building animated by evil that is eventually reduced to a head named Nefascapitas. Both bosses are made up of thousands of goddamned bats called Nefasvermis. Translated from Latin, their names mean “Tower of Sin”, “Head of Sin”, and “Worm of Sin”, respectively. A recurring item that you pick up in one of the final levels is called "Sacrilege". Sacrilege is the violation or injurious treatment of a sacred object, which is seen as a transgression towards the virtue of a religion. You place these inside walls resembling the mouth of a lion. Lions appear frequently in Christianity, as well as several other religions and myths. Final Boss Argosax the Chaos has a name similar in sound to Abraxas, a Gnostic deity. His (or her) One Winged Angel/Bishonen Line, The Despair Embodied, appears as horned, angelic being made of fire.
- Devil May Cry 3 gives us Lady. Her real name, Mary, is shared with the Virgin Mary, another character who appears in the Divine Comedy. Thus, her nickname is likely a reference to one of the Virgin's other names, Madonna (Italian for "Lady"). The Gallery of Mooks includes the Seven Hells the Demon Army (named after the Seven Deadly Sins) and The Fallen (female demons with a vaguely angelic appearance). The manga also speaks of another group called the Seven Sins. Cerberus was the guardian of the third circle of Hell in the Divine Comedy. Similiarly, Geryon is the name of a bear-armed dragon with a man's face and a scorpion's tail from the Divine Comedy. Leviathan’s body is said to be the gateway to the Hell of Envy. It is also a sea monster mentioned in the Old Testament as a gigantic fish that cannot be killed by man, but will be slain by God at the end of times.
- The Order of the Sword in Devil May Cry 4 resembles the Roman Catholic Church. Their members rever Sparda as God and have even erected a statue in his honor. It is called The Savior. The Savior holds enough power to wipe out vast scores of demons easily, almost as if it were smiting them like a god. A majority of the areas inside of The Savior are appropriately named “Heaven”, despite the demonic influence. Their leader resembles the Pope and is addressed as "His Holiness". Nero is named after a tyrannical Roman emperor who harshly persecuted Christians; essentially, Nero accomplishes something similiar by putting an end to the Order. Nero was originally going to be named Rodan, after a sculptor who apparently once created a motif of a hell gate mentioned in the Divine Comedy. Kyrie, Gloria who is really Trish, Credo, Sanctus, and Agnus are (respectively) the first, second, third, fourth, and fifth parts of the Catholic Ordinary of the Mass, a song traditionally sung in Latin (well, minus the first part, which is sung in Greek, a language commonly used in Eastern Orthodox churches). Credo and Agnus have One Winged Angel forms that begin with Angelo (Italian for "Angel"); naturally, both are angelic in nature and Credo’s appears to be a literal One Winged Angel. Beings similar to them called Alto and Bianco Angelos ("High Angel" and "White Angel" in Italian) appear as lesser enemies, made up of the ranks of lower-ranking members of the Order. Sanctus’s One Winged Angel is Sanctus Diabolica (Diabolica being Italian for "demonic" or "inferal", again referring to the Devil). In battle, he constantly talks about how "a Savior is among you", thus likening himself to Jesus. After defeating Sanctus Diabolica, The Savior takes on Sanctus’s facial features and becomes the False Savior. This could be a reference to the Anti Christ and other prophetic deceivers that are mentioned frequently in the New Testament. The Ascenion Ceremony is a magical ritual used by the Order to enfuse their members with demonic powers, granting them the aformentioned One Winged Angel forms. Ascension is the belief in some religions that there are certain, rare individuals that have ascended into Heaven directly without dying first (i.e. Jesus, Enoch, Muhammad, etc.). Dante gets a Crucified Hero Shot when Nero throws him into a statue of Sparda with his Devil Bringer and then impales him with his own sword. Hellgates allow for travel between the Human and Demon Worlds. Dante obtains two weapons called Lucifer and Pandora, the latter of which is said to have 666 different forms. Berial (or Belial) is name sometimes used to refer to Satan. It also refers to one of the Four Crown Princes of Hell. Berial’s title in the game? Conqueror of the Fire Hell. Bael (or Baal/Ba'al) is Semetic for "master" or "lord" and is applied to a myriad of entities the Hebrews called demons. The name also is used as a part of the name Beelzebub. Dagon was a pagan god also considered to be a demon by the Hebrews. Finally, there's Mephisto. Mephistopheles is a Stock Character used in place of the Devil with whom the main character of Faust made a deal with the Devil. Staggering, isn’t it?
- And that's not even counting the Cain And Abel overtones that are given by Dante and Vergil (which, if you ignore the second game (like so many games and gamers do), could be considered the overarching plot of the series. Dante defeats Vergil in 1, overcoming him, 3 flashes back to show their initial clash and Vergil's fall from grace, 4 focuses on the revival of Vergil's legacy.
- Nor is it counting all of the series' non-Christian allegories and allusions. Essentially, if you didn't fall in the above sections, you'll end up having some sort of symbolism stemming elsewhere from the bowels of mythology and folktales.
In Hearthome City in Pokémon Diamond/Pearl/Platinum, there's a random church which serves no purpose in the story.
Like some earlier examples, Tales Of Symphonia has a lot of mythological names for things, particularly places given names from Norse mythology, most of which have little or no connection to the things they're named for. There are a couple of exceptions, though.
Chapter 7 of Super Paper Mario is THIS trope! The Underwhere (down below), The Overthere (up above), the battle between the Nimbis and the Skellobits, the chapter boss who was originally exiled from Heaven, and Luvbi's sacrifice at the end of the chapter (she comes back).
- How Do You Like Them Apples?
In Brutal Legend, Satanic circles are used as waypoint markers. It's supposed to fit in with the Metal theme. The Demons have a five-pointed emblem as well, but it's a Cheveron with a "V" superimposed.
Hmm... The X-Blade, also pronoucned "chi"blade, due to the Greek letter chi which can stand in for Christ, is the Key to Kingdom Hearts and also manages to look like the Keys to the Kingdom of Heaven. Not to meantion the keychain pretty much spells it out. Also, both the Kingdom Key, (a silver shafted key,) and Kingdom Key D, (a golden shafted key) are both needed to open Kingdom Hearts, if, you know, don't have the X-Blade and all...

Summed up brilliantly by this image◊ (Aptly titled "It makes you sound deep"), brought to you by RPG World.

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.

Season four of Teen Titans was full of religious references. Raven's visions of the arrival of Trigon and the end of the world, plus a sanctuary where Raven and Robin seek shelter from Slade (which reappears as the location of a powerless, purified Raven in the three-part season finale after Trigon has taken over the world).
- Then there's a possible, more subtle example when Raven is counting down the hours until her birthday is over, though it's possibly merely coincidence.
  Raven: Six PM. Just six more hours and it'll be over. Six more.
Parodied in Futurama, when Bender (who got himself there in the first place and was being rescued by Fry and Leela) saves Fry and Leela from Robot Hell by taking another robot's pair of wings and attaching them to his back, holding his arms out to each side, and getting some sort of laser ring caught on his antenna like a halo.

Seventh Sanctum has the Symbolitron, whose purpose is to generate random symbolism to use in your own writings.
This pic of the two presidential candidates
Scout PO Box number in my hometown is "666". Can't tell me that ain't symbolic.

Main Tropes Index

Troperville

Editing Help

Tools

Toys

Related Tropes:

Examples: