My Hero, Zero

They say that one is the loneliest number.
Zero is even lonelier.

Zero: My name is literally "0". There's no meaning behind it. It's just an empty number.
Main Character: I think the name Zero is wonderful.
Zero: Why do you think that?
MC: Because "zero" contains limitless potential, you know? Everything starts from 'zero.' If it weren't for "zero", nothing would exist at all. So, you can create anything you want, Zero. Just like how you created a place for me and Rico to belong.

— Ikemen Revolution

In real life, zero is a pretty undesirable number (unless you have zero bad things, which is good).

• If you have zero money on you, you can't buy anything.
• If you multiply by zero, you get nothing.
• If you Divide by Zero, you create a universe-breaking black hole.^note Unless you're God, or a Memetic Badass like Chuck Norris, Bruce Lee, Kenshiro, or Shaggy Rogers.
• If your friends call you a zero, your friends are jerks.

However... if a character in a story is named "Zero", or has "zero" as part of their name, then that character has at least one unique attribute that makes them significantly stand out from everyone else.

Often, 'Zero' may simply be used for its convenient Xtreme Kool Letterz. However, there is sometimes justification in that the "zero" model of something may be the prototype — thus, if The Ace is number one, the Phlebotinum Rebel is number zero. The "zero" might be the Super Prototype, Flawed Prototype...or Psycho Prototype. The "zeroth" example of something thus makes a nice candidate for a Sixth Ranger. It may follow the format of a "top ten list," where number one is the best...therefore Zero must be even better. This may also be used in a Tarot Motifs context.

As a side note, the name "Cypher" or "Cipher" has the meaning "zero", but is rarely a good or lucky name, for various reasons (for the French-language version, see Le Chiffre). As well, "Rei" means "zero" in Japanese, and (spelled a different way) is also a common name there; thus, it is sometimes used in this sense.

Zero may be one of those Names to Run Away from Really Fast.

Only tangentially related to The Zeroth Law of Trope Examples. May be good at using the Zeroth Law Rebellion. See also You Are Number 6. Not to be confused with Zorro, despite the spelling (and many other) similarities.

The name comes from a Schoolhouse Rock! segment about the number zero.

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Examples:

Advertising

• Very common on ads for diet foods. "Zero" is also seen as better than "diet" for extracting the male demographic.

Anime & Manga

• A example from a villain; in Bleach, Yammy reveals that the ranks of the Espada go from 0 to 9, not 1 to 10 as previously thought, when he proceeds to grow in immense strength and size as he loses the 1 from his 10 tattoo. (This won't help him, of course, as he is pitted against Kuchiki Byakuya and Zaraki Kenpachi, two of the most badass Shinigami.)
  • Bleach also offers us the nihilistic villain Ulqiorra Cifer, who actually seems to work most closely with Yammy.
  • There's also the Cero, a powerful class of energy blast. All the characters who can use it^note (basically all the Menos, Arrancar, and Visored we've met) have some connection to Hollows, so the name is fitting.
  • Another example from the Turn Back The Pendulum Arc: According to Kyoraku, aside from Gotei 13, there is Squad Zero, charged with protecting the Royal Family. This squad is special as its members are retired captains.
• Similarly, Zero from Bomberman Jetters.
• Change 123. Motoko, the main character, while normally a rather shy girl, has three distinct personalities, whose names start with 1, 2 and 3 (HiFuMi) and are able to use first class fighting skills. And then there is the (hopefully) last personality, who calls herself Zero, who has all the abilities of the HiFuMis (thus making her most likely the strongest fighter in the whole world), and the urge to kill everyone she sees.
• The protagonist of Yoshihiro Takahashi's Byakuren no Fang is a wolf pup named Zero.
• Parodied in the anime adaptation of Love, Chunibyo & Other Delusions! — every member of the club is member number zero, because other numbers aren't as cool.
• The protagonist Lelouch Lamperouge of Code Geass uses the alias Zero while working to obliterate the Britannian empire and build a new world in its place. It makes sense once you learn that Britannia names conquered areas and people with numbers (Ex: Area 11 and Elevens), so Zero signifies both his rebellion and his secret oppressed royal lineage.
  • If one notices, on top of Lelouch's alter-ego naming, anything that associates with him on some personal level in the rebellions will have "Zero" in the title. The Order of Black Knights has the Unit Zero, Zero's Personal Guard (of sorts) that is composed of Kallen as its leader among other pilots, and, there's the Type 0/0A Shinkiro, Zero's personal KMF, with its Structural Phase Transition Cannon...Er, "Zero Beam". However, The Type 0/0A Shinkiro was made AFTER the Type 02 Guren. And the Type 03, 04, and 05. And made using the prototype Druid System computer in the Gawain. So it's not even remotely a prototype.
  • In R2 episode 21, Lelouch becomes emperor of Britannia, and awards his best friend Suzaku the custom rank "Knight of Zero" as part of an inside joke for the people who know his dual identities. He creates this title as the highest knightly position, whereas the previously highest was the Knight of One.
    • And then Suzaku Kururugi drops the "Knight of" bit.
  • In Nightmare of Nunally, Nunnally's Geass is known as "The Zero." Which makes things die.
    • As well, her alter-ego/contractor is called "Nemo", which means no one, fitting with her brother's theme.
• Cosmo Warrior Zero, a Leijiverse series, has titular main character Captain Warrius Zero, a heroic veteran with PTSD who hunts Captain Harlock himself in the service of Vichy Earth.
  • Captain Harlock has a Doctor Zero on his crew as his medical officer.
• Cyborg 009 and his comrades.
• In the DearS universe, "Ren" means "zero" in the DearS' language. Having the main character say the equivalent of "My name is nothing" really pisses off some of the DearS.
• Subverted in Death Note. There is a minor character named Raye Penber, who almost discovers that Light is Kira. Then Light manipulates him into killing himself and all the other American agents in Japan.
• Zeromaru, the Veedramon from Digimon V-Tamer 01. "Maru" can mean "zero"; thus the two zeroes in his name, combined with the "ichi" (meaning "one") in his partner Taichi's name, lead to their catchphrase "Our combination is 100 percent!"
  • Furthermore, after first explaining this catchphrase, Lord HolyAngemon notes that zero and one are the basis for binary code and, thus, the Digital World.
• Back when Harmony Gold was dubbing Dragon Ball, they named Goku "Zero". Luckily, they only ever completed three episodes (which weren't even in order).
• Renton and Eureka of Eureka Seven pilot the Nirvash typeZero, the first LFO ever discovered.^note The Humongous Mecha of the Eurekaverse aren't so much machines as they are cyborgs based on the organic Archetypes excavated from the scub coral covering the planet.
• Fairy Tail: Zero, the most powerful member and Superpowered Evil Side of Guildmaster Brain of the Oracion Seis. In this case, his name is most likely intended to bring to mind 'nothingness' because he explicitly wishes to destroy all of creation.
• The Familiar of Zero:
  • Louise, the titular Zero is a Double Subversion. Her nickname comes from her apparently non-existent magical prowess, and nothing about her implies any level of other distinction... until it turns out that her inability to cast any normal spell properly comes from her alignment with the forgotten branch of "void magic" — which, needless to say, includes some insanely powerful combat spells. Some joke her nickname actually comes from her bust size. Don't tease her about this.
  • Saito's Gunship Rescue moment with a World War II Zero aircraft.
• Future GPX Cyber Formula has the Zero Realm, a type of Super Mode in which is a representation of having their limits surpassed by reading other drivers' thoughts, seeing a bit of the future and predicting other drivers' movements. Hayato, Shinjyo and Kaga have all entered the Zero Realm.
  • Hayato also drives the v-Asurada AKF-0 in SAGA and SIN and in the PS1 game, Seiichirou Shiba drives a variant of Asurada called AKF-0/1B Nemesis.
• Variation: (Genesic) GaoGaiGar is the God of Destruction that "bring hope of a new start from zero."
• A subtler example than most in Mobile Suit Gundam. Amuro Ray's name comes from the legendary Mitsubishi Zero fighter of World War II fame - it's shortened and rearranged from the Japanese designation - A6M Type 0 fighter, or A Roku Mu Reisen.
• Gundam Wing has Wing Gundam Zero, the Mid-Season Upgrade slash Super Prototype; it also bears the unit code XXXG-00W0. It and the Epyon have the so-called ZERO System (Short for Zoning and Emotional Range Omitted), which enhances the pilot's abilities tenfold at the price of making him psychotic.
  • The pilot of Wing Zero, Heero Yuy, is also an example, being the "zero" in the numerical theme naming.
  • SD Gundam Force has its expy named Zero, the Winged Knight of Lacroa.
  • The first Gundam to appear in Gundam 00 is the 0 Gundam. The second season brings us the 00 Gundam itself, possessing the 0 Gundam's GN Drive. The titular Gundam also have a catalyst unit, the 0-Raiser. If the 00 Gundam and 0-Raiser combine, they'll form the 00 Raiser, a mecha whose abilities are never seen before with any of the Gundams that appeared before it.
    • The full designation of the 00 Gundam is GN-0000 00 Gundam. And of course, it gets crazier when GNT-0000 00 Qan(T) comes up...
  • The Unicorn Gundam's official designation is RX-0 Unicorn Gundam.
• Iris Zero. In-universe, the title refers to the 1% of the non-adult population who, like the protagonist, don't have superhuman Augmented Reality powers.
• JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: Golden Wind: The Stand of main protagonist Giorno Giovanna, named Gold Experience, undergoes a transformation into a Requiem form. Its main ability is an extension of Gold Experience's base ability, Life-Giver, entitled Return to Zero, which results in any action done by an opponent being reset to its base state, in essence, "zero", while the opponent still remembers having done such an action after it was erased from existence. Such an ability is used to defeat the main antagonist, Diavolo.
• Kurohime's beloved is the heroic Zero…who also has a slightly Ax-Crazy twin brother named Rei.
  • Who actually is the heroic Zero just mentioned. Mind Screw for 900, please.
• In Loveless, a series chock full of meaningful pair names, there are two teams called Zero — one whose members are both boys, and one who are both girls. They are called the Zero series because they are Artificial Humans who cannot feel pain, and, in theory, are undefeatable - but the creation process denies them the individuality of a unique name, and everyone so altered will always be named Zero.
• The Type-0 Cyborgs from Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha StrikerS are Super Protoypes to the Numbers.
• Sifr Fran from My-Otome 0~S.ifr~ OVA, has the double whammy of a meaningful name and prequel name. (Note that the first trailers had the title rendered as "Mai-Otome Sifl" before they got around to fixing it. "Sifr" means "zero" in Arabic, and is the origin of words for "cipher" and "digit" in some languages.)
• Zero in Mamotte! Lollipop goes with the rest of the Numerical Theme Naming.
• Rei Kiriyama from March Comes in Like a Lion uses the kanji for zero and nothingness. This case is subverted in the sense that this hasn't been played for the Rule of Cool. The story has yet to tell his parents' reasons for giving him the name. In fact, it just gives Kyoko more fuel to taunt him with.
  Kyoko: "Your name is Rei? What a weird name! But it suits you...'No home. No relatives. No school. No friends."'
• Awfully subverted in one of the Mazinger Z spin-offs. Mazinger Zero is what Mazinger-Z may potentially become: an Eldritch Abomination. It happened in the spin-off, after Kouji crossed the Despair Event Horizon. He got in Mazinger-Z and fought like a relentless, raging The Berserker, fueling Mazinger's consciousness with a stream of negative emotions -rage, grief, despair, bitterness, pain-, until Mazinger-Z awoke, turned into a demon. The results were...not pretty.
• Chachazero of Negima! Magister Negi Magi. A deadly, Ax-Crazy Perverse Puppet With Psycho Weapon who serves as Evangeline's Ministra. Laments the fact that her master's gone soft these days.
• Rei Ayanami, pilot of EVA unit 00 in Neon Genesis Evangelion. Her given name can mean "zero" when written in kanji. Aside from the connection to her EVA, this may also be connected to her development as a representation of Hideaki Anno's unconscious.
• Zero in The Nightmare Before Christmas: Zero's Journey. He assists some of the Christmas Town citizens, helps Lock, Shock, and Barrel when they get in over their heads, and even saves Christmas.
• In O-Parts Hunter, Zero is the name of the white wolf that first trained and sort of raised Jio, to the point where Jio named his boomerang after him.
• One Piece:
  • Within the organization of bounty hunters known as Baroque Works, male members use numbers as their codenames, and the lower the number, the stronger the agent in question is. The organization's leader is Crocodile, a.k.a. "Mr. 0", and he is the most dangerous antagonist of the Baroque Works saga.
  • Bartholomew "Tyrant" Kuma is a cyborg labelled as PX-0, and he serves as the prototype and likeness for the robotic Pacifistas.
  • A less villainous example is Vinsmoke Reiju (Rei meaning zero in Japanese), the eldest of Vinsmoke Judge's five children. The quintuplets — with the exception of Sanji (san meaning three) — are Tyke Bombs who were genetically modified before birth to become Super Soldiers, with Ichiji (ichi = one), Niji (ni = two), and Yonji (yon = four) being remorseless sociopaths at Judge's behest. Reiju, however, still retains her humanity, and is disgusted by her family's vile actions and Lack of Empathy. Whereas Judge and the other siblings mercilessly abused Sanji for being the only one to be born entirely normal and thus "weak", she is the only one to actually care for him.
  • The World Government's various Cipher Pol agencies are ranked by their numerical designation, with CP1 being the weakest and CP9 being the strongest of these nine agencies. Cipher Pol 0 Aegis, however, is ranked even above CP9 and serves directly under the Celestial Dragons. The members of CP9 were all dismissed after the Enies Lobby incident and were chased by the World Government for a while. However, the CP9 agents returned to work for the World Government and they have all been promoted to CP0.
• Zero Enna in Candidate for Goddess was supposed to be a Messianic Archetype or something, and probably would have gotten there had the show not been cancelled/abandoned.
• Not even Pokémon is safe from the wrath of Zero. In Pokémon: Giratina and the Sky Warrior, the main villain was a rather yandere (not to a person, but a place) young man named Zero. His name is in contrast to his Spaceship Girl named Infi (short for Infinity), and his former mentor Mugen, which in Japanese means infinity.
  • And now Victini, #000 in the Unova Pokédex (#494 in the National Pokédex). Which may or may not be a nuclear bomb. It's also small, cute, and Legendary.
• The elder brother of the protagonist of Psychic Academy is a legendary aura user known as Zerodyme.
• Rurouni Kenshin: Saitou's "Gatotsu Zero" attack. His normal Gatotsu attack required momentum (from running, jumping, etc.) to give it power. The "Zero" form was done from a standing position, giving the enemy no time to react, but because Saitou was such a great swordsman he did not sacrifice any power that way.
• Zeroro from Sgt. Frog became quite the badass assassin before he became an invader. However, he changed his name to Dororo after coming to Earth to get rid of that hateful moniker. Oddly, the dog he did Ninja training with was named Zeroyasha.
• Tenchi Muyo! has Dr. Clay's robot assistant Zero, who captured Ryoko then became her duplicate. Or something.
• In the fourth episode of Umineko: When They Cry when Kanon grabs the bill-hooked cleaver on the wall and begins to talk (yell) to Kinzo and Beatrice (both of which aren't really there...we think) he says that he's "the Zero on (their) roulette." Jokingly enough, his resemblance to Lelouch in his introduction made this much less serious than it should have been. He then gets stabbed in the chest.
• Zero Kiryu from Vampire Knight for obvious reasons. His name actually is "Rei" in Japanese kanji, but it gets pronounced in English, presumably because it sounds cool.
• In Yami no Aegis, Zero is an assassin introduced early on (who incidentally looks exactly like the main character from The Professional).
• Yu-Gi-Oh! GX:
  • The Big Bad of the final season, Darkness, uses a deck of darkness. His two key cards are Zero and Infinity.
  • A more generic example of the trope is that any high-Level monster with 0 ATK will undoubtedly be far more destructive than the powerhouse monsters. The Big Bad of the third season, Yubel being the most obvious example, as they and their two evolutions have all 0 ATK and DEF, a hard to destroy and "reflect" damage on the opponent.
• Yu-Gi-Oh! 5Ds: Kyosuke Kiryu has a monster called Infernity Zero, which cannot be destroyed in battle and allows him to keep playing even if his Life Points have been reduced to zero.
  • Generally, Kiryu's entire Infernity deck is themed after zero. The effects of his monsters only work when he has zero cards in his hand, thus referring his strategy as "Zero Hand Combo".
• Yu-Gi-Oh! ZEXAL: The final duel between Yuma and Astral. When Yuma is on the verge of losing, he manages to activate a Trap which overlays two of his Xyz Monsters to create Future Number 0: King of the Future, Hope, a Rank 0 Xyz Monster with 0 ATK and DEF. The amazing part? Yuma wins using this new monster.
• Yu-Gi-Oh! ARC-V: The Big Bad Leo Akaba's given name can be translated as "Zero King". It doubles as Family Theme Naming as his son's given name, Reiji, can be translated as "Zero Child".
  • It goes further than with The Reveal: it turns out the eponymous Big Good of the series is named Ray which in Japanese is written just like "Zero"; in fact the plan to bring her back to life is called Revival Zero.
  • The ARC-V manga takes this one step further with Reiji's deck being completely themed around zero, mostly by reducing opposing monsters' DEF to 0, and has many cards that follow this naming scheme. Then there's his ultimate card, "GO-D/D/D God Zero King, Zero God Reiji"^note "Go! - D/D/D Divine Zero King Rage" in the TCG, a monster with 0 ATK and DEF, a Pendulum Scale of 0, and various effects to reduce the opponents' field, hand, Graveyard, and even Life Points to 0.
• Liger Zero from Zoids: New Century Zero.

Comic Books

• The Batman villain Mr. Freeze was introduced in 1959 as Mr. Zero.
• Stryfe, Cable's evil clone had a teleporting robot named Zero.
• Secret Agent Zero is the name of the Danger Girl's only male elite.
• The Daredevil villainess Typhoid Mary also goes by Mutant Zero when on the job with the Shadow Initiative. The Constrictor doesn't understand the necessity of the rest of the team not knowing Mutant Zero's identity, but the point is that she kicks it hardcore.
• The main character of the short-lived Ghost Rider 2099 was a hacker named Kenshiro "Zero" Cochrane.
• Waaay back when Jack Kirby was drawing the 2001: A Space Odyssey tie-in comic book, he introduced one character who was participating in a superhero LARP as White Zero. The very disappointing ending to the game convinces the character to go into space, where he encounters the Monolith and fulfills his true special destiny.
• Black Zero is an alternate, evil version of Superboy who kicked his super ass all around the court when they met. (Not to be confused with the later "evil alternate Superboy" Superboy-Prime.) And who took his codename from the Kryptonian suicidal cult/terrorist group who started a chain reaction in Krypton's core that, a few thousand years later, would make it blow up.
• DC's New 52 arc Forever Evil (2013) uses this trope as part of their reimagining of the origin of Bizarro. A global power failure brought on by the Crime Syndicate forced Lex Luthor to prematurely end an experiment of his to create a clone comprised of human and Kryptonian DNA, labeled Subject B-Zero. Luthor referred to B-Zero as 'creature' for most of the arc, but, in time, grew to care for him.
• In Comics' Greatest World, there's a superhero that literally is called "Hero Zero". In this comic a young boy named David MacRae comes across a space crystal which latches on to his chest. The crystal allowed David to turn into a hero from space known as Hero Zero. As the website ComicVine describes him, he's a cross between Iron Man and Ultraman, since his power suit is similar to the former but he can grow his size and fight against giant monsters as the latter. Even he has a crossover issue in he fights against Godzilla noneless.
• The new-continuity Marvel Star Wars comics, starting with Star Wars: Darth Vader, have a major character named 0-0-0 or Triple Zero, a sadistic, homicidally psychopathic assassin droid who looks and talks like a black protocol droid.
• Über has "Battleship Zero", a hideously mutated Psycho Prototype produced by the Nazi Germany Super-Soldier programme.

Comic Strips

• The character Zero from Beetle Bailey averts the trope. He's nothing more or less than The Ditz, and it seems likely that the reason for his name is that "zero" is his IQ.
  • He's also from near the very beginning of the comic's run, when Beetle was a college student (before he enlisted). "Zero" was an...endearing term older students had for the freshmen who they forced to do demeaning and degrading tasks to earn the approval of their betters. And now you know...the true story.
  • Also, the protagonist itself in Brazil, where he's known as "Recruta Zero" (Recruit zero; Zero is known there as Dentinho, "little tooth").
• Also averted in the comic strip "Little Annie Rooney" (a "Little Orphan Annie" imitator) where the title character travelled with her dog, Zero.

Fan Works

• Evangelion 303: Rei pilots Unit 00, a super-advanced war plane.
• HERZ: Reinforced with Rei. After Unit 00’s destruction in the original series, HERZ built a new Eva for her… and it was also called Unit 00, even though it was a brand-new robot.
• Okay, Cure Cipher in Puzzle Hunt Precure is themed after the code type of cipher — but the pun is still there, seeing as how her civilian name is Rei, which also means zero.

Films — Live-Action

• There are agents in the James Bond books and films whose numbers start with "00" — indicating their "license to kill". In Casino Royale (2006), it's revealed that to become a Double-0, you need two kills on your record; it's possible the "00" is meant to represent those kills. Inverted with the villain of Casino Royale (2006), Le Chiffre.
• Zéro from Crime Spree, a French badass.
• The Grand Budapest Hotel: Zero Moustafa, the last owner of the Grand Budapest Hotel, who started his life as a humble lobby boy with "zero" experience.
• The assembled Hackers from Hackers have a group moment of awe when they find out that their friend Wade had once been the badass uber-hacker called Zero Cool.
  Lord Nikon: "Zero Cool? Crashed fifteen hundred and seven computers in one day? Biggest crash in history, front page New York Times August 10th, 1988. I thought you was black, man." (beat) "YO! THIS IS ZERO COOL!"
• Zero from Holes. Also in the novel of the same name.
• Since Cipher counts, there's the traitorous Cypher (AKA Mr. Reagan) from The Matrix, who wanted to return to zero by reinserting himself in the program.
• Sub-Zero from The Running Man is a murderous hockey player.
  Now, PLAIN ZERO!
• In Wild America, the protagonist is nicknamed Zero by his older brothers.
• Subverted in X-Men Origins: Wolverine with Agent Zero, a rather two-dimensional throwaway villain. (He dies painfully.) To be fair, he's actually pretty dangerous — if you don't have a skeleton made of adamantium and the original Healing Factor.
• The Nightmare Before Christmas: Jack Skellington's heroic ghost dog is named Zero. His glowing nose assist the protagonists many times.
• In Zero Effect, the title character Darryl Zero is possibly the world's most skilled detective, to the detriment of his personal hygiene and social skills.
• King Ghidorah, arguably Godzilla's most persistent and powerful arch-enemy, is designated "Monster Zero" in the 1965 Toho Studios film Invasion of Astro-Monster ("Godzilla vs. Monster Zero" in the United States).
• Each of the seven evil exes from Scott Pilgrim vs. The World had a hidden number theme. Scott himself was zero, highlighted by him drinking Coke Zero and wearing a T-Shirt with Zero printed on it.
• In O Homem do Futuro, Zero is the nickname of the main character. He was named like that by his girlfriend as she started a public humiliation of his claiming he was "nothing but a zero" - and some time travel shenanigans later, she does it because his future counterpart told her to do it.

Literature

• Dean Blaine from Super Powereds was known as Zero before he left the field to train heroes. Justified in that his power actually relates to nothingness. He was actually one of the strongest Heroes of his class.
• Count Zero is the (nickname of the) hero of the William Gibson novel of the same name.
  • It's short for "Count Zero Interrupt", a real-world computer term that has since lost its relevance, but at the time of the novel's making was very new and sci-fi.
• Zachary "Zee" Miller of the Cronus Chronicles is referred to as Zero by Philonecron for being the 'starter', of sorts - his blood is used to animate the shadows that make up the villain's army.
• Zero from Holes. Though it's a derogatory nickname on the part of everybody else in the camp, it's later discovered that he's Hector Zeroni, the descendant of the old woman who put a curse on the great-great-grandfather of Stanley Yelnats IV who helps him undo the Murphy's Curse placed upon the Yelnats family. Sploosh!
• In Isaac Asimov's Robot stories, the "Zeroth Law" is the one that supersedes and overrides all the other Laws of Robotics and more or less gives the robots free will. Only robots that are Sufficiently Advanced consider it to be a real law, as it was deduced from philosophy rather than encoded into their original programming.
• In the Star Wars Legends canon, the phrase "Base Delta Zero" is the Imperial command code to commence an Orbital Bombardment that would wipe out all life on a planet and effectively render it uninhabitable. Famously, it is also the only Imperial command code that never changes, so as to prevent any chance of confusion or misinterpretation over what is being ordered.
• Averted in Helen Cresswell's The Bagthorpe Saga, where Zero is the name of Jack's dog and his only distinguishing characteristic is that he may well be the dumbest canine in existence.
• The Hero in the Web Serial Novel Tasakeru goes by Zero; it's based on an Alternate Character Reading of his given name, Reimaru, which can be translated as "zero zero".

Live-Action TV

• Captain Z-Ro, an early (1951-56) Sci-Fi children's show with a time travel theme.
• Deadliest Warrior: Zero Kazama:
  "I can do the same thing without a weapon. This? This is just to distract you while I break you with my foot!"
• Prisoner Zero in the Doctor Who episode "The Eleventh Hour". It's a shapeshifter, and it has a perception filter that prevents others from noticing it, so "Zero" is a doubly Meaningful Name.
• The tokusatsu series GARO ("Fanged Wolf"), has the title character's rival go by the name "ZERO" (officially spelled with the characters for "Cutting Wolf"). And his civilian name is, of course, Rei. Rei lampshades the Bilingual Bonus in his first appearance.
  Rei: I am Rei Suzumura. Also known as ZERO.
  Kouga: ZERO?
  Rei: You don't get the joke, do you?
• Mr. Zero, the mysterious employer of Spenser, Tracy, and Kong: The Ghost Busters (Not the famous ones).
• In Heroes, when Sylar was being studied by Chandra Suresh, he was referred to as "Patient Zero." This comes from medical research, where the focus patient of an investigation is referred to as the index case, or the patient zero.
• Kamen Rider:
  • In Kamen Rider Den-O, The Lancer Rider is called Zeronos, his time-travelling train is the ZeroLiner, his motorbike is the ZeroHorn, his weapon is the ZeroGasher and his Deadly Upgrade is called Zero Form.
  • Kamen Rider Zero-One. The name is in part a reference to binary code, as the series revolves around robotics and artificial intelligence.
• Subverted with Captain Zero in Last of the Summer Wine, the supposedly heroic human cannonball who turns out to be disappointingly prosaic.
• Japanese-American prison chaplain Ray Mukada from Oz, one of the closest things to a hero you're likely to find there. The fact that Rei is a possible reading of both the kanji for spirit & zero was probably not lost on the creators, as he often struggles with the possibility that his spiritual guidance amounts to nothing in an awful place like Oz.
• Ultraman Zero. Easily one of the most powerful of all the Ultra warriors and the protagonist of his own sub-franchise depicting various adventures through the Multiverse. His name is partly a play on his father's own numerical name; Zero's the Spin-Offspring of Ultraseven
• Zero, a powerful minion in the miniseries Tin Man.

Music

• Black Sabbath included the track "Zero the Hero" on their 1983 album "Born Again."[1]
• Steam Powered Giraffe's newest member, Zero (played by Bryan Barbarin).
• Gong included the track "Zero the Hero and the Witch's Spell" on their 1973 album "Flying Teapot". Zero is mentioned several times throughout the album.[2]

Myths & Religion

• God, if you are Muslim or Baha'i. The Ninety Nine or Hundred Names of God always begin with Al-Ilah, contracted as Allah as name number zero; if it wasn't counted that way there would be one too many names.

Puppet Shows

• In Fireball XL5, an early Gerry Anderson puppet show, Steve Zodiac's boss was Commander Zero. (They also had a Lieutenant Ninety so presumably they were going for the number theme...)

Tabletop Games

• Warhammer 40,000 features Cypher, an enigmatic member of the Fallen (Dark Angels Space Marines who turned to Chaos during the Horus Heresy) whose motives and ultimate allegiance is unclear. Though he ostensibly works for Chaos, including the closest thing the series has to a Big Bad in Abaddon the Despoiler, his actions often result in the Imperium growing in strength, suggesting that he may not be quite what he appears.
• Absolute Zero from Sentinels of the Multiverse is an unusual example, since his name is a reference to him being An Ice Person (the absolute zero being the coldest possible temperature in the universe).

Video Games

• The player character from Ace Combat Zero: The Belkan War, Galm 1, has the callsign Cipher, and is known for turning the tide of battle almost singlehandedly.
• A villainous example shows up in Anarchy Reigns, who is a Ninja in a nanosuit who seeks data for development of the Drone army's latest weaponry. Did we mention that he's also a Captain Ersatz of Raiden?
• Bayonetta features a group known as the "Little Devils" that you can summon to aid you in battle at times. Each of the devils are named by number (One, Two, so on), and they are loyal to their leader, "Little King Zero". Zero can be unlocked as a playable character, and he lives up to his name: upon taking damage from ANYTHING, his health will immediately be reduced to zero. Another hit will kill him.
• The Assassin in Borderlands 2 is named Zer0. Also, the names of all of his skills (like his action skill, Decepti0n) use zero instead of the letter O.
• The protagonist of Drakengard 3 is the Intoner known as Zero. She's the eldest of her sisters, who are numerically named from Zero to Five.
• In the Fallout: New Vegas DLC Old World Blues, one of the Mad Scientists you meet is Dr. 0, who is mistakenly called Dr. O by his compatriots. You can help him settle this by telling him to use a slashed zero. With the Math Wrath perk, you can also convince him that zero is an awesome number due to its ability to reduce anything it multiplies by into zero, which leads him to declare himself "Destroyer of Numbers".
  Dr. 0: I already wreck every robot I study, why not basic arithmetic?
• In the Fatal Frame series, Type-Zero film is the most powerful.
• Final Fantasy:
  • In Final Fantasy VII, the Bahamut ZERO summon is the strongest of the three versions of Bahamut, and the second-strongest summon altogether.
  • Zeromus in Final Fantasy IV and the Ivalice games.
  • The whole of Class 0, Party in My Pocket protagonists in Final Fantasy Type-0. As a team of elite hidden Child Soldiers, they robbed the title of top students of Class One.
  • Final Fantasy XIV introduces a voidsent named Zero in patch 6.2. She actually declines to give her real name, considering it irrelevant. Y'shtola dubs her 'Zero,' which the voidsent thinks appropriately means 'nothing,' but Y'shtola's real meaning was that it signifies a beginning. The voidsent doesn't really care either way, so "Zero" it is. This is eventually used to convince Zero to help the Scions of the Seventh Dawn, since she accepted the name (tersely or otherwise), so Zero owes them a debt, and Zero hates owing people a debt.
• One of the more common Japanese mecha in Front Mission 3 is known as the "Zeros", possibly in reference to the Mitsubishi A6M Zero.
• Inverted with Zero in Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas. He is an irritating nerd who gives you some of the worst missions of the game. One gets the impression he is thinking of the "special and badass" sense of the name, while everyone else is thinking "loser". He does make weaponized RC planes though...
• In Ikemen Revolution, one of the characters is named Zero. He doesn't like his name because he thinks it means nothing, but the female main character — who has been saved by him multiple times over and knows that he's an incredibly kind man who devotes himself to protecting others — argues that his name actually stands for limitless possibilities because zero is where all things start from and no thing would be able to exist without it. It's later revealed that he was named Zero because he's an Artificial Human who was called that by his creators who viewed him as nothing more than a tool for their magical research. When he learns about his true nature, he chooses to defy it and embrace the alternative meaning the MC gave to his name instead.
• Ansem the Wise in Kingdom Hearts is banished to the Realm of Nothingness and escapes using the power of darkness. So he takes the name "DiZ", meaning "Darkness in Zero".
• In The King of Fighters, there are two bosses who go by the name Zero. The Zero you fight in 2000 is a traitorous clone who tries using a Kill Sat to take over NESTS. He gets blasted with his own satellite by Kula and is ultimately killed by Whip, but succeeds in nuking Southtown (although Kula destroys the Zero Cannon before it can be used to cause any more damage). You fight the real Zero in 2001. Turns out he's actually an old man who prefers a fair fight. So he calls upon 3 strikers - a boss from a previous game, a Ninja, and a black mountain lion-to assist him in fighting you because he's a sub-boss. He dies in the end too. Both are capable of producing black holes.
• Kirby
  • Antagonistic video game example: the Eldritch Abomination True Final Boss of Kirby's Dream Land 3, the core of all Dark Matter, is called Zero. It subsequently reincarnates as 0² (pronounced "Zero Two") in Kirby 64: The Crystal Shards.
  • Dark Nebula from Kirby: Squeak Squad was called Dark Zero in Japan. It's said to be made of Dark Matter, but any further connection to Zero and 0² is unknown.
  • The trend continues with Void Termina/Nil Ende from Kirby Star Allies. When its core is faced during Soul Melter EX in the 4.0 update, it drops the "Termina/Ende" part of the name.
• Mass Effect has Subject Zero (known to companions as Jack). Who will mess you up if you look at her funny, or maybe just because. She also does not like being referred to as Subject Zero since it brings up some pretty horrible memories. Element Zero might also count.
• Mega Man
  • In Mega Man X and Mega Man Zero, Zero is a nigh-unstoppable, lightsaber-wielding, Maverick-turned-Maverick-Hunter-turned-freedom-fighter fighting for humanity and fellow Reploids alike, disregarding the fact that he was created by Dr. Wily, Big Bad of the original Mega Man series. The name is appropriate for a host of reasons: he knows nothing about his past, his best friend is X (making the classic "X and O"), and his ultimate role in the first game is a kamikaze attack (see Real Life for why that's significant). It's also a good name for a character who dies every other game.
  • Keiji Inafune, father of the franchise, wanted Zero to be the main character. Capcom only made him change his mind, though he knew before even talking to them that just bringing Zero up as the new Mega Man and flying in the face of the blue bomber tradition would fail, so he let a co-worker design the expy to be the main guy while pitching Zero as secondary but all along intending to make him the Ensemble Dark Horse and future main guy. It worked.
  • Blues/Proto Man in the original Mega Man series has the codename DLN-000. Justified as he's the prototype of Mega Man.
  • In Mega Man ZX, Master Albert's body is revealed as a decoy after Prometheus destroys it. Albert then appears in his "true" body, and telling his codename, DAN-000 "The Original".
  • As of Marvel vs. Capcom 3, Zero shares an English voice actor with… Zero.
  • Zero also appears in a Gaiden Game from the alternate timeline of Mega Man Battle Network, taking the form of, most appropriately, the Zero virus. Ironically, this version of Zero has a more robotic appearance than the Reploid original.
• Major Zero from the Metal Gear games — he's your commander in the third game, and was the original leader of the Patriots, making him the closest thing the series has to an overall Big Bad. He also uses the alias Cipher when he recruits Zadornov and Paz to spy on Big Boss, who by this time had left the Patriots, in Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker. However, it is revealed in Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain that he became The Atoner when he realised how wrong his plans for peace and order have gone. It helps that he is betrayed by his subordinate Skull Face. So in the end, Zero is not really the overall Big Bad of the series, just another misguided Well-Intentioned Extremist who ultimately tried to and even somewhat succeeded in fixing his mistakes.
• Sub-Zero from Mortal Kombat. He's actually less than Zero; it says so in his name!
• In Nine Hours, Nine Persons, Nine Doors, the characters are all kidnapped by someone who calls themselves Zero, to participate in the Nonary Game. The nine players are numbered one through nine, while Zero is the mastermind behind it all. With the release of the sequel, Virtue's Last Reward, the series has been renamed Zero Escape; the second game removes most of the numerical motif but keeps the mastermind's name Zero. Yet another Zero is the main antagonist of the third game, Zero Time Dilemma.
• The main character in Persona 3 is stated to represent a "zero", in sense of possessing unlimited potential. It also refers to his arcana, The Fool, which is also represented with a zero. The same idea is re-used in Persona 4 and Persona 5.
• From Pokémon:
  • The villainous "Cipher" variant shows up as the name of a criminal syndicate in Pokémon Colosseum and Pokémon XD: Gale of Darkness.
  • Also, there is the Gen VII Pokémon "Type: Null".
• Quake III: Arena: Xaero, Arrogant Kung-Fu Guy and expert marksman. Hope you like being gibbed!
• In Rumble Roses, the Japanese main character (there are two, but this one is..."mainer") is named Reiko and has the nickname "Zero Fighter" as a pun on her name. Somewhat averted in that she's not stronger than the others, though she is pretty easy to use.
• Princess Rei in SaGa Frontier is the only character capable of using Mirage magic, as well as being Orlouge's first mistress, and the only one ever to escape him. Also, ZEKE's Japanese name includes "Reishiki", or "Type-Zero", to denote its badassery. (Bahamut Zero was also known as Bahamut Reishiki in Japan. Japanese love Reishiki.)
• Zero, the robot from Sonic Adventure, is invincible until Amy's boss battle against him. He is also named E-100 Alpha, suggesting that he is the first of the E-series robots.
• One of the top level Korean StarCraft pro-gamers is nicknamed Zero. His real name is Kim Myung Woon.
• Grungust Type 0 from Super Robot Wars Original Generation(s). Unlike Eva-00 above, its primary pilot doesn't share the Theme Naming. It's still incredibly powerful, though. May be justified — wasn't it a prototype?
• Zero the Kamikaze Squirrel...he's a ninja squirrel.
• In Xenoblade Chronicles 3, Colony 0, while nominally a Kevesi colony, does not directly participate in the Forever War against Agnian colonies. Rather, under the direction of Consul F, its soldiers work behind the scenes as a black ops unit on behalf of Moebius, to perpetuate the war and frustrate attempts by either side to gain any meaningful advantage over one another. Moreover, unlike the other 'official' colonies, the soldiers of Colony 0 don't operate from a dedicated Ferronis, but pilot Ferrons with dedicated Flame Clocks that synchronise with their own life force, enabling them to increase their power output at the cost of their own flames. Between this and their Ferrons' cloaking technology, they're suited to carry out assassination and espionage tasks while remaining hidden from the war's direct participants.
• ZeroRanger: "Zero Ranger" is the alternate mode of the player characters' ships as well as Grapefruit's ship.

Web Animation

• Season 18 of Red vs. Blue, Zero, is named after its villain, Agent Zero. He used to be Agent One, but then rebelled once the government decided to shut down the squad he was meant to lead. The symbolism is made clear when he meets the new Agent One and greets her with "Hello, One. I'm Zero."

Webcomics

• Last Res0rt: Gabriel refers to Jigsaw as Patient Zero, which has a whole different set of implications…
• Unity: A subtle bit of Programmer Humor; when a new consciousness takes over all the systems in the starship, it assigns numbers to each system in the order it was taken over. The origin, naturally, was thus numbered "zero."

Web Original

• The protagonist of A Hint of Serendipity is called Zero, and he's pretty badass, to say the least.
• Jenny uses Zero as her code name in Curveball.

Western Animation

• Inverted in the Hungarian animated movie Captain of the Forest. Zero is the name of the eponymous captain's nemesis, a Gentleman Thief, Evil Genius, and Master of Disguise, who crosses the Moral Event Horizon several times, and also proves to be a Dirty Coward when the odds don't favor him.
• Codename: Kids Next Door, the titular organization was founded by Numbuh Zero, real name Monty Uno, Numbuh One's father. He took the name because his brother (later Big Bad Father) thought he had "zero chance" of overthrowing their Archnemesis Dad.
• Penn Zero: Part-Time Hero is about a kid named Penn Zero who warps into a different dimension everyday, where he is the hero of each mission.
• Duck Dodgers followed Popeye's example (sort of) and became Xero (still pronounced as "Zero")
• A Phineas and Ferb episode featured a British secret agent known as Double-0 Zero. Doofenshmirtz even asked if it shouldn't be Triple-0. This led to some toilet humour when Doof stated Perry is "P" and the agent was "OOO" and that made...The agent interrupted Doof to explain it wasn't the letter "O" but three zeroes. Doof then stated he'd say "OOOP" and that somebody became nervous.
• Played for laughs in a Popeye episode. Popeye parodies the masked hero Zorro, but instead calls himself Zero and draws the number instead of the letter Z with his sword (thus the Mark of Zero). Also done as a subversion in a Rocky and Bullwinkle story arc, about a masked antagonist who calls himself Zero and defaces all the buildings in a sleepy town with zeroes.
• The boss of The Robonic Stooges is 0-0-0.
• The title comes from the Schoolhouse Rock! song, "My Hero, Zero", in which the literal number zero is a hero. The song mostly concerns itself with 0's use as a placeholder in large numbers ("Place three zeros after any number, and you've multiplied that number by one thousand"), rather than with the mathematical concept of zero as the additive identity and the multiplicative...uh...zero-izer.
• Agent Triple-Zero, AKA Secret Squirrel.
• The U.S. Acres segment of Garfield and Friends featured Orson's Bond-like alter ego Double-0 Orson.
• In The Venture Brothers, a character named "Zero" arises, who serves not only as the Big Bad of the episode, but he turns out to be Scott Hall/Number 1, a henchman from a previous episode. Thus, while he may not be a hero, he survives not only being a henchman in a superhero/villain world, whose death is portented and lampshaded, but FIGHTING BROCK SAMPSON, which counts as a superpower in its own right. Then he DIES in his next appearance because he can't get over getting his ass kicked by BROCK FREAKING SAMPSON. One quick arm break and neck snap and he's back to being just another dead henchman.
• More of an Anti-Hero — in Wacky Races, Dick Dastardly drives a car with the number Double Zero.
• Zeroman: It's about a senior citizen who lives with his mother, and happens to be a mail carrier. He finds an alien super suit, and becomes a super hero...so you could say he fights crime. It's a comedy.

Real Life

• The Zeroth Law of Thermodynamics, which states that if the temperature of substance A is equal to the temperature of substance B, and the temperature of B is equal to the temperature of C, the the temperatures of A and C are also equal (it's the thermodynamic equivalent of the transitive property in mathematics). It is so named because, having named the first, second and third laws, scientists realized that it was important to state a very simple and obvious law which underwrote the others.
• The Mitsubishi A6M Zero (or Type 0 Carrier Fighter). While its name derives from the perfectly mundane fact that it was originally produced in 1940 (or 2600 by the Imperial Japanese calendar), its name carries a historical feeling of menace in Allied nations due to its being Japan's primary naval fighter in World War II as well as the best carrier fighter in the world at the time. Its maneuverability was the stuff of legend and getting into a low-speed dogfight with a zero was a death sentence to any early-war allied pilot. Even late in the war, with vastly superior allied aircraft and tactics, a zero with a skilled pilot was a fearsome opponent. It didn't help that many were relegated to kamikaze missions due to a lack of skilled pilots, adding a horrifying new level of dread at the end of the war.
• Zero Mostel may not have been a hero, but he was a good enough actor that he deserves mention here. His testimony before Congress and his defense of his fellow blacklisted actors should make him one.
• In computer science, the first position in arrays/strings/other list-type data structures in most languages has the index of zero, not one. There is a practical reason for this, however. It has its origins in assembly language and other early languages like C, which let (or pretty much forced) the programmer to work directly with the numeric addresses of information in memory. When working with a large chunk of data at once, what you actually have is an address of the first tiny bit of that data structure. From there, you get the rest of it by adding a number called an "index" to the base address — Base + Index = Address. Naturally, the first element of the structure logically goes right where the structure starts, which is another way to say it should be at the base address exactly — Base + 0. It may also do with the fact that in electronics, the ground state is a valid value. Ground state has a value of 0.
• Similar to the computer science example, outside of the United States, Japan, Russia (primarily in Latin America and Europe), the floor one most commonly enters a building on (the one at "ground-level") is not referred to as the "first floor." Instead, the floor above this floor is called the "first floor", and the numbering scheme continues from there. Many languages in these regions call the "ground-level" floor roughly the linguistic equivalent of the "zeroth floor," even if the floor isn't literally called that. Given that the numbering schemes for floors in buildings can often be quite inconsistent and ad hoc, this is definitely a much weaker example than the comp. sci. one above, but it does follow the same logic of starting counting at zero as opposed to one.
  • Buildings in downtown Milwaukee typically have "basement", "ground floor", and "first floor". One side of the building will typically have an entrance on the "ground floor", the other side will have an entrance on the "first floor". This has to do with changes in elevation between streets.
  • Also common in Seattle, San Francisco, and other cities built on steep hills, with the designation of the lowest entrance floor varying between "first floor", "ground floor" and "lobby", with no attempt at consistency. Since entrances can be separated by as many as three floors, depending on how steep that particular part of town is, the designated "first floor" will often be physical third floor (not including parking or basement floors). Entrance floors below the designated "first" will occasionally be referred to as "lobby" and "lower lobby".
  • It's not uncommon for college dorms that add a room near room 1 to number the new room 0 (and 00 if two rooms are added).
• In Formula One, pre-2014, a driver would have the number zero because the reigning champion retired, hence no number 'one'. The last time this happened was in 1994, when Alain Prost, the 1993 champion, retired, leaving Damon Hill with the number zero.
  • From 2014 onwards, drivers are assigned permanent numbers from 2-99. Hence, Damon Hill will be the last driver 0, unless a rule change occurs.
• Other motorsports examples of the number zero:
  • NASCAR allows for the assignment of both #0 and #00. Currently, there's 4 drivers/teams who used either #0 or #00: StarCom Racing's #00 car (driven by multiple drivers, primarily Landon Cassill) in Cup, Garrett Smithley (#0 for JD Motorsports in the Xfinity Series), Cole Custer (#00 for Stewart-Haas Racing, also in the Xfinity Series), and Jennifer Jo Cobb team's start-and-park #0 truck (also driven by multiple drivers).
    • An example of the former would be Gene Haas' original entry into the Sprint Cup Series in 2003, which carried the #0 due to sponsor NetZero, an internet service provider. Unfortunately, driver Jack Sprague, a three time Truck Series champion, proved so ill-suited for the Cup cars that he was fired after a half-season, and Haas CNC in general struggled mightily for a long time. When NetZero left the team (and NASCAR) after 2005, they switched to #66 in tribute to new sponsor Best Buy. When Tony Stewart bought into the team in 2009, this team became the #39 for Ryan Newman, and as of 2014 carries the #4, with Kevin Harvick behind the wheel.
    • The #00 was used by Buckshot Jones in the late 90's and early 2000's, as a play on his nickname. He eventually left it with Michael Waltrip Racing, the last team he drove for in the Cup Series, who themselves continued to use it to only minor success (a pair of wins with David Reutimann) until 2011. From 2012, this car has borne the number 55, and from 2014 until the team's folding in 2015 is mainly driven by Brian Vickers and David Ragan.
  • In the United Sports Car Championship pre-Daytona Prototype International (or DPi) era, the #0 is used by the Deltawing team, and they also stick out from the pack due to the particularly unique design of their car - the front wheelbase is significantly narrower than the rear base, and by extension the wheelbases on the other Prototype class cars. They also field the only female driver in the 2014 USCC field, Katherine Legge. Sadly, much like the NASCAR examples, the Deltawing is usually slower than other prototypes, and often drops out with mechanical issues.
  • In Japanese's Super GT series, the number 0 is actually reserved for GT300 class champions, albeit it isn't mandatory to use the #0 once you become the GT300 champion. Most of the GT300 class champions do use the #0 in the following season though, such as the case with the series' Ensemble Dark Horse, the three-time GT300 champion Good◊ Smile◊ Racing Hatsune Miku Itasha-liveried car.
• While playing for Aberdeen FC Hicham Zerouali had '0' as his shirt number. At least until the Scottish Premier League outlawed it.
• Former Oakland Raiders center Jim Otto wore 00 as a pun on his name ("aught-o").
• During his pre-season stint with the Detroit Lions, writer George Plimpton wore number 0. His experiences with the team are chronicled in the book Paper Lion, and was made into a movie starring Alan Alda as Plimpton.
• Many baseball and basketball players whose name starts with O (such as Rey Ordóñez, Al Oliver, and Orlando Woolridge) choose the number zero as a play off their name. However, it can also be used by other players (Gilbert Arenas, Robert Parrish who used '00') who just want a number that stands out.
• The invention of mathematical zero is considered to be a major milestone in the development of maths and science, as there are several types of calculation that simply aren't possible without a concept of zero. Roman numerals, for example, have no way to represent 0 (and they make calculation inconvenient for this reason, among many others).
• On the Roulette Wheel, zero is definitely hero for casinos. It is the presence of zero that tilts the probability of winning in favor of the House: the payoff on a single number is 36 for 1 (your original chip, plus 35 more like it), but completely fair odds would be 37:1 on a single zero wheel and 38:1 on a double zero wheel. This carries over to the red/black payoff, which pays even money but doesn't pay either bet if a 0 or 00 comes up. It may not sound like much, but the net result is that most bets on a double-zero roulette table have an expected payoff of just under ninety-five cents on a dollar (making it one of the most profitable games for the house, and the "first five" bet is even worse).
• As of late 2015, Raspberry Pi Zero is the latest and greatest version.
• In epidemiology the index case is the first documented case of an epidemiological event, also known as "patient zero". The term "patient zero" arose out of the AIDS epidemic that began in the 1980s. It is actually a misnomer as it comes from a symbol on a chart that was merely circular and not intended to represent a zero.
  • The patient zero identified in the AIDS epidemic was Gaetan Dugas, a French-Canadian flight attendant whose sexual history connected him to many early AIDS patients. Dugas's identity was made public in Randy Shilts's chronicle of the epidemic And the Band Played On but the author of the study that identified Dugas later repudiated the methodology behind it and the way Shilts reported it. Additionally a man died in 1969 of complications of AIDS, disproving Dugas as the disease's initiating vector.
• In the National Hockey League, players may no longer wear 0 or 00 as their jersey numbers. While this was mostly accepted without complaint, a few have admitted they'd use those numbers if possible.

Thematic use of zero numbering:

Anime & Manga

• 2007-9's entry in the Gundam franchise is Mobile Suit Gundam 00.
• Toei Animation's adaptation of Yu Gi Oh is often referred to as Season 0 in America. The name comes from a common misconception that the anime is actually the first season of the Duel Monsters anime that 4kids refused to dub.
• Future GPX Cyber Formula ZERO is the third entry and the second OVA in the series.

Comic Books

• Several of the Star Wars comic series have zero-based numbering.
• Comic books numbered "zero" are very common. It's a very old idea, dating back to the days of underground comics, and probably reached its pinnacle in Zero Hour: Crisis in Time!, where every comic book from DC at the time got an issue #0. Marvel eventually outdid them by having every comic in their lineup have a #-1 (that's negative one) issue.

Fan Works

• The Chaotic fan-series Of Men and Mugic starts all the first chapters of each book with "Chapter Zero" instead of "Chapter One". The author of this fan-fiction seems to have only done this with this story, as his other fan-fictions begin with the normal "Chapter One".

Films — Live-Action

• Ring 0: Birthday
• Cube Zero.
• In Scott Pilgrim vs. The World, all of the "seven evil exes" are visually associated with their number in the list. Scott himself is associated with the number zero. For example, at one point he wears a sports jersey with "0" on it, and Coke Zero is his beverage of choice.

Tabletop Games

• In Magic: The Gathering, many of the game breakers from the base set (dual lands, moxes, Black Lotus) cost zero mana. For that matter, cards that have an alternate cost (in effect costing zero mana) are generally Game Breakers, as is Lotus Petal, a toned down version of Black Lotus. Affinity decks relied on artifact lands (zero cost) and cards which got cheaper as you played more artifacts (sometimes down to zero). The latest of these zero mana cards are Mox Opal (a legendary mox which gives you a mana of any color, if you have two other artifacts in play) and Memnite (a free 1/1), which also combine well.

Video Games

• Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots has its infamous "Zero becomes one, one becomes 100" navelgaze during the ending by Big Boss when he euthanizes Major Zero.
• The Japanese tend to do this in titles of prequels, especially for video games: Ace Combat Zero, Street Fighter Zero, Resident Evil 0, Yakuza 0. Metroid: Zero Mission averts this, however, as it is not a prequel but a remake of the first game.
  • Similarly, the Silent Hill prequel was called Silent Hill Zero in Japan, and Silent Hill: Origins (with a zero instead of an O) elsewhere in the world.
  • Interestingly, the player character of Ace Combat Zero has the codename Cipher, but rather than being bad luck, he actually managed to avert several apocalypses.
    • Well, he was bad luck for everyone he met, friend and foe.
• Zork Zero, though not of Japanese origin, follows this convention.
• When the ROM image of the complete-but-unreleased English translation to MOTHER was leaked, it was dubbed EarthBound Zero◊, to avoid confusion with the sequel. As you can tell by the redirect, however, MOTHER was eventually officially localised as EarthBound Beginnings.

Web Comics

• Last Res0rt contains a 0 in its name, and uses "Mind the Zero" as a tagline in places (to help remind people that they need to type it with a '0' in the URL, natch). Also, certain conventions that don't have a full table / booth space for Last Res0rt are referred to as "Last Res0rt Zero" events — since the comic's creator is there, just in a reduced capacity.

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