It Always Rains At Funerals: Difference between revisions

{{trope}}

 

''As if funerals weren't depressing enough, it's gotta rain, too.''

Weather has always been used [[Empathic Environment|symbolically]] when it comes to death. When characters die it's often overcast. Even when all the characters are doing is visiting someone's grave, the sky will be cloudy and the colors will seem to be washed out. But quite often, when there's an actual funeral, it's always raining (though sometimes [[Snow Means Death|it'll be snowing]]). Or precisely at sunset. Or at night. Anything but in the bright, shiny daylight.

 

 

Subtrope of [[Gray Rain of Depression]]. This trope is the [[Sister Trope|sister]] and [[Averted Trope|direct opposite]] of [[It's Always Sunny At Funerals]], and is usually part of a [[Meaningful Funeral]] scene.

 

{{examples}}

== Anime and Manga ==

* It rained during the Third Hokage's funeral in ''[[Naruto]]''.

* In ''[[Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann]]'', it starts raining immediately when Kamina dies, and the rain keeps going for some time afterward. The skies eventually clear as soon as Nia enters the cast.

* The nice instrumental work for the funeral in ''[[Seirei no Moribito]]'' is titled ''Drizzle''

* It the anime ''[[One Piece]]'', during Zoro's flashback, it rains at Kuina's funeral.

* In the manga ''[[Dengeki Daisy]]'', it is stated in Chapter 11 by Kurosaki that it rained the day Teru's brother died and that it continued to rain until his funeral was over.

* In ''[[Puella Magi Madoka Magica]]'', when {{spoiler|Sayaka}}'s body is recovered and she is given a proper funeral in episode 11, it immediately starts raining.

* In ''[[Gundam AGE]]'', it starts raining just before Grodek Ainoa gets stabbed to death by Arabel Zoi.

* In ''[[Fullmetal Alchemist]]'' Maes Hughes' funeral is accompanied by sunny weather...but not for Roy Mustang.

'''Roy:''' [[Manly Tears|[covering his face with his cap as he begins to cry]]] ''[[Tear Jerker|It's raining.]]'' }}

** The significance can be mentioned further, as it's been made clear before that Mustang's fire-based alchemy is useless in the rain.

 

== Comic Books ==

** That is more of a [[What Do You Mean Its Not Symbolic]] moment, showing that they transcended such petty distinctions.

*** Could be some symbolism in the fact that it's technically not raining on the Comedian either, since he's safely tucked in his coffin.

* Parodied in the ''Radioactive Man'' comic book (and yes, that's the same Radioactive Man from ''[[The Simpsons]]''). When RM heroically dies (for something like the fifteenth time) his friends gather to pay their last respects during what appears to be a gloomy, rain-drenched funeral. In the next panel, we pull back to see that it's actually a beautiful sunny day and everyone is standing under a large tarp to block the sun out, while the "rain" is really just the work of a guy holding a hose. Turns out RM's girlfriend Gloria hired a company to make the event as somber as possible (their slogan: "We take the 'fun' out of funerals.")

* During Thomas Elliot's funeral in "[[Batman|Hush]]," there is at least a drizzle.

* It continuously rains throughout ''[[Spider-Man (Comic Book)|Kraven's Last Hunt]]", including the time Spider-Man is buried alive, when he claws his way out of his grave, and the time Kraven is buried. Only at the very end does the sun come out.

 

== Film ==

* It was snowing at the funeral at the end of ''[[What Lies Beneath]]''.

* [[Inverted Trope|Utterly inverted]] in [[The Crow]], where it's not only raining, but its raining ''at night'' when Eric Draven pulls himself out of his own grave.

* It snows at just about every version of Scrooge's funeral in ''[[A Christmas Carol]]'', but it is also Christmas Eve, so you couldn't get away from it in this case.

* In the film ''Deja Vu'' with Denzel Washington, it rains lightly during Claire's funeral. Justified as it is set in New Orleans, and there were concerns that the shoot in which the crew simulated rain would be interrupted by a real rain. The seasonal monsoon serendipitously delayed until immediately after shooting.

* ''[[The Bodyguard]]''. At the funeral of Rachel Marron's sister it rains buckets.

* Subverted in ''Firehouse Dog'' - at the celebrity funeral, it first appears to be raining, but when the ceremony is over, the camera pulls back to reveal that the rain is being faked by an FX crew.

* ''[[The Fly|Return of The Fly]]'' starts of with a rainy funeral.

* In ''[[Amadeus]]'', Mozart's corpse is dropped unceremoniously into a mass grave while it's raining cats and dogs.

** According to one Mozart scholar, the notion that it rained at Mozart's funeral is a myth. He checked out the local almanacs, and found out it was actually a bright and sunny day in Vienna.

 

== Literature ==

** Justified in that it's really difficult to make light sprinklings show up on film.

* When [[Dave Barry]] went to temples and cathedrals in Europe, he was surprised at all of the people buried in the floor. He postulates that it must've been raining at all of the funerals, so the mourners decided to bury the deceased inside to stay dry.

* ''[[Number the Stars]]'' has a variant, when it's raining the morning after the protagonist's sister dies. Her friend recalls thinking that it was like the sky was crying along with everyone else.

* ''[[The Great Gatsby]]''. It rains heavily at Jay Gatsby's already bleak and depressing funeral.

 

* It was snowing heavily at the funeral for Jonathan Kent in ''[[Smallville]]''.

* Averted in a first-season episode of ''[[Friends]]'', where the funeral of Ross and Monica's grandmother is a glorious autumn day.

'''Phoebe:''' What? Weather-wise! }}

* In ''[[Fringe]]'', a drizzily depressing funeral for Captain Lee.

 

== Music ==

* Chris Isaak's ''Funeral In The Rain'' fits this trope perfectly, as should be expected given the song's title.

* The music video of ''Helena'' by [[My Chemical Romance]].

* Kenny Rogers' ''Reuben James'': "And to your lonely graveside came / Just a preacher, me, and the rain."

 

* Moritz's funeral in ''[[Spring Awakening]]'' (though it isn't always shown on stage, both the original play and the musical's libretto state this).

 

== Video Games ==

 

== Web Comics ==

* After Riff is declared dead in ''[[Sluggy Freelance]]'', it actually [http://sluggy.com/comics/archives/daily/20090810 stops raining] ''just'' as the funeral's wrapping up.

 

== Western Animation ==

** Also Asa Phelps' funeral in "Raging Abe Simpson and His Grumbling Grandson in the Curse of the Flying Hellfish"

** Also Bea Simmons' funeral in "Old Money"

* Jerrica's father's funeral in the first episode of ''[[Jem]]''

 

== Real Life ==

* During the state funeral of Néstor Kirchner, former president of Argentina and husband to current president Cristina Fernández de Kirchner, thousands of people patiently waited under the rain in the Plaza de Mayo to pay their last respects.

* Keeping with the theme of former Argentine presidents, it also rained during Raúl Alfonsín's funeral. Not only that, but on the last day of the funeral, at dawn, there was a great rainbow in Buenos Aires. Lightened the mood quite a bit.

* It rained during the funeral of Archbishop Makarios, the first president of Cyprus - a highly unusual event for the island in August. Characteristically, the two ethnic groups on Cyprus had opposite views of this - the Greeks called the rain the tears of heaven, while the Turks claimed that rain attends the burial of a sinner to wash away his sins.

* Former Confederate General Joseph E. Johnston caught a cold while the very rainy funeral of his late opponent, General William T. Sherman, possibly beause he refused to put on his hat: "If I were in his place and he were standing here in mine, he would not put on his hat." The cold developed into pneumonia, causing Johnston's own death a month later.

 

{{reflist}}

[[Category:Death Tropes]]

[[Category:Weather and Environment]]

[[Category:Precipitation Index]]

[[Category:Sadness Tropes]]