The TVTropes Trope Finder is where you can come to ask questions like "Do we have this one?" and "What's the trope about...?" Trying to rediscover a long lost show or other medium but need a little help? Head to Media Finder and try your luck there. Want to propose a new trope? You should be over at You Know, That Thing Where.
4tell0life4
Since: Mar, 2018
7th Nov, 2019 02:57:22 PM
I want "symbolically played" as part of Playing with a Trope.
Edited by 4tell0life4 We can never truly eradicate the coronavirus, but we can suppress its threat like influenza
MetaFour
MOD
Since: Jan, 2001
8th Nov, 2019 09:09:22 AM
There's That Man Is Dead and Starting a New Life, but they're just about what happens after the symbolic death/rebirth.
Synchronicity
MOD
(4 Score & 7 Years Ago)
8th Nov, 2019 11:08:19 AM
We have Symbolic Baptism, which could be a subtrope.
A character symbolically "dies" and is "resurrected" - maybe they undergo some sort of permanent physical transformation, or they're declared legally dead and have plastic surgery done to make them look like a different person, or they go into a deep coma and have some sort of dream-epiphany that motivates them to change their whole personality - whatever, as long as they don't literally die and come Back from the Dead.
The Hero's Journey mentions a "Spiritual Death and Rebirth" but it just links to Can't Refuse the Call Anymore, which is much more specific (It only applies to the work's protagonist, as you'd expect.) and moreover doesn't have to involve much in the way of actual death-and-rebirth imagery.
For example, Xerxes' origin story from the 300 sequel and the Ironborn coronation ritual from Game of Thrones are symbolic rebirths but aren't Can't Refuse the Call Anymore, and (drawing on that page's examples) Odysseus being drafted into the Trojan war and the Enterprise crew being stranded in Star Trek: Beyond are Can't Refuse the Call Anymore but aren't symbolic rebirths.