Butterfly of Death and Rebirth: Difference between revisions

{{trope}}

[[File:golden-butterfly.jpg|link=Umineko no Naku Koro ni|thumb|350px|Oh, that [[Kill'Em All|can't be good]].]]

 

Whenever you see a pretty (usually blue or black) butterfly show up, things are about to get [[What Do You Mean Its Not Symbolic|Symbolic]].

For millenia, the world has latched on to the image of the butterfly: its metamorphosis from a caterpillar to a butterfly used as a metaphor for death and rebirth. In brighter series, it means "Don't worry, be at peace, the great circle of life continues on." In others, it means "You're going to die and turn into something else and it being pleasant isn't necessarily an option." ''Dead'' butterflies are an especially ill omen.

 

 

'''<big>Compare with:</big>'''

 

{{examples}}

* Used for double significance in the Sasuke Retrieval Arc of ''[[Naruto]]''; after Choji defeats Jirobo, allowing Naruto, Kiba and the rest of the retrieval team to continue on, he staggers to a tree and sags against it in a very moving death scene; [[Unexplained Recovery|he gets better]]. Right after he collapses, a blue butterfly passes Shikamaru, who looks dismayed. Doubly significant in that Choji's name means 'butterfly', and that is the form that his [[Deadly Upgrade|supposedly fatal final attack]] takes: [[Crowning Moment of Awesome|glowing butterfly wings of chakra]].

** In Shippuuden, {{spoiler|Choji achieves this form without pills, and it enables him to defeat his undead sensei. It also symbolises Choji's growth as a person; indeed, the Akimichi clan's oath, which clan members take as a coming-of-age ceremony, uses the symbol of a butterfly emerging from its chrysalis and taking flight.}}

** Similarly, in ''[[Umineko no Naku Koro ni|Umineko]]'', the Golden Witch Beatrice is said to appear in the form of glowing, gold butterflies. Seen above.

* In the opening of ''[[Majin Tantei Nougami Neuro]]'', Sai crushes a blue butterfly in his hand. He's a murderer who is constantly regenerating at the loss of his memories.

** After a certain dramatic moment in [[Tsubasa Reservoir Chronicle]], the concurrent xxxHolic chapter featured Watanuki dreaming of her death - then, when he wakes up, a butterfly appears over his clenched hand, and vanishes into thin air. Naturally, when he goes to look for Yuuko, she's gone, having moved on as payment to fight Fei Wong Reed's [[Gambit Roulette]].

* Keeping this in mind while you're watching any version of ''[[Revolutionary Girl Utena]]''. It may help your sanity.

* The butterflies seen in ''[[Cowboy Bebop]]'' the movie by people infected with nanomachines.

* These appear in ''[[Ga-Rei Zero]]''. They're ''evil''.

* ''[[Busou Renkin]]'' has Papillon, the butterfly-themed villain whose entire deal was that he replaced his dying, mortal body with an immortal [but still sick, oddly] homunculus body.

* Butterflies appear in the second season 2 OP for ''[[Mobile Suit Gundam 00]]'', although they range in color, and a separate one appears for each of the four different female characters ( {{spoiler|Marina, Feldt, Louise and Anew}}) featured. It's possible that the symbolism isn't death here, but rather a drastic change set for them all.

* Then there's ''[[G Gundam]]'''s Sai Saici, whose Hyper Mode Ultimate Attack and the Shaolin Temple's final and secret technique is a suicide attack in which his Gundam gains chi-created butterfly wings (much the same as the Naruto example with Chouji above, but with a [[Giant Robot]]). He also [[Unexplained Recovery|gets better]]. Multiple times.

* ''[[Paprika]]'' has the butterfly room scene.

* In ''[[Hunter X Hunter]]'', there is a type of butterfly that is attracted to fresh blood. In one of the Hunter Exams, [[The Messiah|Gon]] tracks these butterflies, which lead him to [[Monster Clown|Hisoka]], which is his target.

* One chapter of ''[[Pet Shop of Horrors]]'' elevates this into mindfuck: Leon (a cop) accidentally shoots a childhood friend (Harry) who turns out to have become a criminal over time. Count D allows him to experience Harry's life for himself, trapping him inside an illusion given by a magical butterfly. Just as Leon experiences being shot to death, D crushes the butterfly, giving Leon his normal life back.

* The first witch that appears in ''[[Puella Magi Madoka Magica]]'' seems to have a motif partially based around butterflies, as seen on her minions, in her barrier, on her Grief Seed, and on the witch herself. In addition once she's defeated there is a quick shot of a butterfly in a web afterwards. [[Fridge Brilliance]] / [[Fridge Horror|Horror]] kicks in when you realize {{spoiler|it may or may not be [[Foreshadowing]] that witches start out as a normal girl that gets contracted by Kyubey, followed by reaching the [[Despair Event Horizon]]}}.

* ''[[Loveless]]'' plays this for all the symbolism it can get, especially with Soubi, complete with Ritsu-sensei musing on how "humans are able to be reborn".

 

== [[Comic Books]] ==

* In the Infinity War, [[Omnicidal Maniac|Thanos]] turns his evil clone.. well, just as evil clone into a butterfly as he passes on. ...[[Shoot the Shaggy Dog|And then eats it.]]

* In a ''[[Doom Patrol]]'' story written by [[Grant Morrison]], [[Ax Crazy|Red Jack]] has found a way to keep himself immortal by imprisoning hundreds of butterflies and absorbing their life essence. When the butterflies are freed, he dies.

 

== [[Film]] ==

* ''[[The Matrix]]'': Neo's speech at the end was going to refer to the Matrix as a chrysalis but [[Executive Meddling|the execs]] weren't sure if [[Viewers are Morons|enough viewers would know what a chrysalis is]] ([http://en.m.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Pupa&mobileaction=view_normal_site#Chrysalis it's this, by the way]).

 

* The second book of the ''[[Malazan Book of the Fallen]]'' : A particularly bloody battle is fought on a river crossing that just happens to be the mating ground for a large group of migrating butterflies. They serve in a few different symbolic ways : ephemerality of life, instinctual drive to mate then die and premonition of the slaughter to come, as they coat the river in a yellow coat before the battle, before being replaced by the red of human blood. Finally, a thousand of them are used as psychopomps for the soul of a particularly powerful warlock.

* [[Mercedes Lackey]] and James Mallory's ''[[The Obsidian Trilogy]]'' has, as one of the signs that the heroes are getting close to an evil place, swaths of dead foreign butterflies. Other signs include flocks of starlings flying endless, unnaturally precise flower-loops and familiar flowers with strange black petals.

* In [[Gene Stratton Porter]]'s ''[[Freckles]]'', Freckles watches in wonder as a Luna moth comes from its cocoon and feels deeply frustrated at his ignorance at what it is, though he knows it's not a butterfly. This causes him to ponder his ignorance at length, until it dawns on him that he could find out these things.

 

* A butterfly makes an enigmatic cameo near the beginning of a ''[[Lexx]]'' season finale. Shortly afterwards, an alien character's cocoon-like sleep pod is destroyed, severely limiting her life expectancy, but her spirit lives after death in the Dream Zone.

** Also: Prince, the Satan/Death figure who formerly oversaw the judgment and reincarnation of all human souls, claims to keep a "butterfly room." "You'll love it. I'm very good... with butterflies."

* On ''[[The Fades]]'', butterflies are heavily associated with the Angelics' [[Healing Hands|powers of healing]]—people who have been successfully healed are shown puking out a butterfly, and Paul's resurrection in the fourth episode produces an entire swarm of butterflies. In addition, Fades are shown becoming Reborns by breaking out of sticky cocoons, like a caterpillar becoming a butterfly.

 

 

== [[Video Games]] ==

** Also from CAVE, every single final boss from the [[ESP Ra De|ESP]] [[Espgaluda|series]], as well as the player characters from the Galuda games.

* ''[[Trauma Center (series)|Trauma Team]]'' has Monarch Butterflies showing up occasionally, in particular after a massive virus outbreak starts. {{spoiler|Later on is discovered that these butterflies are directly related to the outbreak, working as carriers of the virus}}.

 

== [[Web Comics]] ==

* In ''[[Sinfest]]'', [https://web.archive.org/web/20140209184543/http://sinfest.net/archive_page.php?comicID=3129 Fuschia is inspired by a butterfly as it means people can change]. (Which she will have to do to win her love.)

** And when the Buddha [https://web.archive.org/web/20140209155700/http://sinfest.net/archive_page.php?comicID=4208 enlightens some Illumanti drones, they acquire butterfly wings.]

 

== [[Western Animation]] ==

* In one episode of ''[[Mighty Max]]'', Max teams up with a new band of heroes, [[We Hardly Knew Ye|all of whom are dead by the end of the episode.]] One of them, the Hindu monkey god Hanuman, muses that perhaps he'll come back as a butterfly. A butterfly appears in the last shot of the episode, [[You Fail Biology Forever|even though,considering how long it takes a butterfly to become an adult, he should still be in catapillar form.]]

 

 

{{reflist}}