Number of the Beast: Difference between revisions

[[File:lemmings 666.jpg|link=Lemmings|frame|[[Sarcasm Mode|Geez, I wonder how many levels you should beat before this one.]] [[Completely Missing the Point|665, perhaps?]]]]

 

 

You know what this is. Six hundred sixty six, the '''Number of the Beast''', first mentioned in the ''[[Book of Revelation]]'' in [[The Bible]], making this [[Older Than Feudalism]]. Sometimes used for that extra symbolism everyone loves, but it's usually used because it's [[Rule of Cool|a nifty keen]] way to show that [[Mark of the Beast|something is eeeevil]].

The "616" number given to the main [[Marvel]] universe (as opposed to the other alternate realities) was a bit of spite on a writer's part, using 616 as a way of [[Getting Crap Past the Radar]].

 

 

Compare with its Asian counterparts [[108]] and [[Four Is Death|4]]. For the [[Robert A. Heinlein]] novel, see ''[[The Number of the Beast]]''. Not to be confused with [[555]], which is about fake phone numbers.

 

* The Book of Darkness in ''[[Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha A's]]'' has 666 pages.

* In ''[[Neon Genesis Evangelion|The End Of Evangelion]]'', Ritsuko uses program 666 to protect NERV from being hacked by SEELE.

** ''[[Rebuild of Evangelion|Rebuild]]'''s Mari Illustrious Makinami {{spoiler|hijacks Unit-2 in order to fight the last Angel in You Can (Not) Advance, she activates the Eva's Berserker mode with Code: 666, named, you guessed it, The Beast}}

** Ironically, the new version of [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V2N8woYX7io The Beast] has the vocals (rather, vocal, as it's only one word) of ''Hallelujah''...which, given the use of Handel's [[Crowning Music of Awesome|Messiah Chorus]] in the original continuity, [[Mind Rape|caused many fans to freak out]].

* In the Eighth Child arc of ''[[Digimon Adventure]]'', a prophecy stated that the [[Big Bad]] Vamdemonm, [[Not Quite Dead|who was thought to be killed moments ago]], will rise in [[Satan|his true form]] at the hour of the Beast. And that evening, at 6:06 PM and 6 seconds, his insanely powerful [[One-Winged Angel]] form arises. Surprisingly, this plot point survived completely intact in the dub.

** In the broader ''Digimon'' canon, the Seven Great Demon Lords possess a series of crests, the rings of which state of a "Level 666". No defined meaning is given to the statement, but given that no Digimon is classified by numerical power levels, odds are it's only there because for [[Rule of Symbolism]].

* There's an actual manga called ''[[666 Satan]]'', which is about humans, angels, and demons hunting for [[Plot Coupon|magical artifacts]] and is [[Faux Symbolism|loaded with Kaballahlistic imagery]]. For obvious reasons, it was released in America as ''O-Parts Hunter'', though is otherwise still the same.

* Mr. Satan and Videl from ''[[Dragon Ball]]'' often had the number 666 plastered on their vehicles. Nothing evil about them (although the former is a bit of a prick) -- Toriyama was just throwing nods to the [[Theme Naming]].

** In the dub, his name is "Hercule". Probably more fitting, what with his reputation as the greatest fighter and all. I don't remember whether or not they kept the triple sixes.

* ''[[AMV Hell]] Championship Edition'' was released on June 6, 2006.

* In the manga version of ''[[Higurashi no Naku Koro ni|Matsuribayashi-hen]]'' [[Break the Cutie|Mi]][[A God Am I|yo]] [[Nietzsche Wannabe|Ta]][[Deadly Doctor|ka]][[Axe Crazy|no]] says God keeps showing her the "one" face on the dice, but she'll force all the dice to be 6 on their faces. There are a number of dice on screen for the "one" dice, but only 3 for the "six" dice. Considering the speech given an issue or two before, this wasn't likely unintentional.

* In ''[[Berserk]]'', the Eclipse, which heralds the birth of a new member of the demonic Godhand, happens once every 216 years, or 6 x 6 x 6.

* ''[[Hayate the Combat Butler]]'' had a completely unintentional example: in the first popularity poll, [[Yamato Nadeshiko|Isumi]] got 666 votes. The chapter revealing this joked about how bizarre it was for her, of all people, to get that number.

* Around the beginning of the Fishman Island arc, ''[[One Piece]]'' started a "Where are they now?" side story where chapter covers show what characters of varying importance are now doing after all the time that's passed. The chapters featuring characters from Impel Down, [[The Alcatraz]] where each floor is it's own special brand of Hell, take place during the 660s, and the final cover for this group is chapter 666.

 

* [[Marvel Comics]]' main universe is Earth-616. The term was created around the time of Alan Moore's run on ''[[Captain Britain]]''. Moore's son-in-law said that Moore intentionally used a random number with no meaning, but artist Alan Davis said it was created by the previous writer David Thorpe, who intentionally used the Number of the Beast to indicate his feelings about superheroes.

** Earth-666 is the [[Fan Nickname]] for the ''Marvel Zombies'' reality.

* Issue number 666 of ''[[Batman]]'' features a grim alternate universe where Batman's son Damien was in the cowl. Discount symbolism at its finest.

* In ''[[Judge Dredd]]'', iso-block 666 is used to contain the most dangerous criminals in Mega-City One.

* The [[X-Men]] snuck some of their members into a hostile installation once by pretending they were unconscious, their bodies marked with numbered tags. Dr. Hank McCoy is known as the Beast; one guess what number he put on ''his'' tag....

* One ''[[Ghost Rider]]'' arc (Vicious Cycle, if anyone's curious) had Johnny Blaze accidentally bring Lucifer with him when pulling a [[Like a Badass Out of Hell]] stunt, at which point Lucy fragmented and possessed a number of recently-dead people. If you can't guess how many from the page you're on, there is nothing we can do to help you.

* The first ''[[Silent Hill]]'' comic, ''Dying Inside'', mentioned and invoked this trope, when the main character declared a door code to be her own personal Number of the Beast. She had issues.

 

 

* The origin of the "modern" use of the Number of the Beast is probably ''[[The Omen]]''. They even released a remake of the film on June 6, 2006 nationwide. The original came out in the UK on June 6, '76... close enough.

** There was a real Route 666, which was a turnpike of Route 66. It's Route 491 now.

* In ''[[Escape From L.A.]]'', the code that unleashes the worldwide [[EMP]] is 666.

** The Devil will then try to return on the last day of the year, for every year ending in 999 (999, 1999, 2999, etc).

* In ''[[A Clockwork Orange (film)|A Clockwork Orange]]'' [[Villain Protagonist|Alex]] is seen with two of his former friends, now police officers, whose uniform numbers are 665 and 667. Since Alex is between them, that makes him 666.

* In ''[[Half Baked]]'', Tommy is scribbling over a calendar page of the big inmate who's been stalking him, at one point screaming "666, the mark of the beast!!!"

* The directors of ''[[Devil]]'' were positively thrilled that their location, a real office building that hadn't opened yet, had the address number 333 (close enough).

* Officer Vickers has this tattooed on him in the ''[[Psycho Cop]]'' duology.

 

* Used in the [[Robert A. Heinlein]] novel ''[[The Number of the Beast]]''. One of the protagonists builds a device that makes it possible to move arbitrarily through a six-dimensional space-time to [[Another Dimension|multiple universes]]; the number of possible destination universes is (6^6)^6 (10,314,424,798,490,535,546,171,949,056), which when written sloppily one of the characters mistakes for the traditional 666. This prompts a discussion over whether biblical prophecy actually refers to the 6-dimensional space-time geometry and the bad guys they've already encountered. (The conclusion is that there are enough similarities to at least be cautious about it.)

* In ''[[Good Omens]]'' by [[Neil Gaiman]] and [[Terry Pratchett]], Aziraphale is able to pick the Antichrist's phone number out of a list because it is "Tadfield six double-six". And they were going to name the sequel (which was never finished) ''668: The Neighbour of the Beast''.

{{quote|"Twelve times 55.5 is... Really?"}}

* In [[Robert Rankin]]'s ''Apocalypso'', every dimension is assigned a Greek letter and a number. Hell is Omega 666.

** Not really. The book Hermione reads that piece of info from is described to be a very old and worn book. Thus, he was six hundred and sixty six years old one year after the book was published, something of at least a century ago. Even in the movie the book is seen as an old piece of parchment.

* Conservative shock commentator Ann Coulter released a book called ''Godless'' on 6/6/06. She said it wasn't coincidence.

* Surprisingly averted in the ''[[Left Behind]]'' series. Nicolae Carpathia is the aforementioned Beast himself, but the obligatory references to 666 are all [[Fridge Brilliance|subtle]]: a fixation with the number 216, an assistant named [[Meaningful Name|Viv Ivins]], and the numerology of his full name. Nobody brings any of this up directly; they have other, less coincidental, ways of knowing he's the Antichrist.

* In Regina Doman's [[Fairytale Novels|''The Shadow of the Bear'']], the villain uses "666" as the keypad code for his apartment.

 

* In ''[[Doctor Who]]'', the atmosphere readings of "The Impossible Planet"/"The Satan Pit" are 66.6, the gravitational field is "6^6 every 6 seconds", and the name of the base, "SB6" is seen gradually melting into "666". The two-part episode was episode was even aired over the week of 6 June 2006, or 6/6/06. Also, the Ood go to work to the sound of Ravel's Bolero, which Torvill And Dean famously skated to in the 1984 Winter Olympics—and received perfect 6s for artistic impression.

** As an extra metatextual touch, the official web site's Fear Forecasters gave "The Impossible Planet" a Fear Factor score of 3/6/6/6 -- on a scale that usually only goes up to 5. ("The Satan Pit" got straight 5s.)

* An episode of ''[[That '70s Show]]'' had Laurie, Eric, Hyde and Kitty playing cards with their youth minister. Laurie ends up having three 6 cards(and this is after she tried to come on to him). The minister promptly gets up and leaves.

 

* "''Number Of The Beast''" by [[Iron Maiden]], which even begins with the above quote from Revelations.

* Slayer planned to release an album on 6.6.06, but due to problems they could only release a single. The album? ''Christ Illusion''. By amusing coincidence, 6.6.06 was also bassist/lead singer Tom Araya's 45th birthday.

* Mentioned in The Wicked End by [[Avenged Sevenfold]].

* ''(665) Hell Neighbour'' by Italian band Menace. It's about "[[Exactly What it Says on the Tin|livin' just a span from hell]]".

 

 

* There's a small and odd federation in Japan called 666. One notable character is President Ramu, a demonically-possessed wrestler with super strength for her size. Which is good, given that she'd fit under [[Cute Bruiser]]. Note she is NOT the least likely champion they've ever had....

 

* The secret Grey Knights chapter of [[Super Soldier|Space Marines]] in ''[[Warhammer 40,000]]'' is Chapter 666. They are an all-psyker, elite-among-elites group serving under the aegis of the Inquisition's Ordo Malleus and dedicated to combating Daemonic threats.

** Also before they join they have to go through the 666 Rites Of The Emperor, which can be described as 666 [[Mind Rape]]s.

** Inverted in older editions of [[Shadowrun]], in which rolling three consecutive sixes on the same die means you automatically beat a target number of 19, and possibly higher.

* ''[[Hunter: The Vigil]]'' features the Lucifuge, a secret order made up of people who have inherited the powers of Hell from demonic parents. The head of the organization (also known as the Lucifuge) has spent centuries keeping track of them, and knows exactly how many are on Earth at any one time. Take a guess.

 

* The catalog number for the auctioning of the infamous chandelier in ''[[The Phantom of the Opera]]'' is 666.

 

* Beelzebub from ''[[Ragnarok Online]]'' has a starting HP of 6,666,666 HP. And he looks like a Steel Chon Chon. Changing to his true form gives him more HP.

** Evil Land gives 666 damage to demi-humans at LV 6.

* In ''[[Castlevania: Symphony of the Night]]'', Death is level 66, the vampire Olrox and the Succubus have 666 HP, and the Malachi (which was ''supposed'' to be called [[Cthulhu Mythos]]) and the Fire Demon gives 666 experience points.

* In ''[[Luminous Arc 3]]'', the first stage of the final boss will have 666 HP. {{spoiler|However, the final boss is an [[God Is Evil|evil god....]]}}

* In ''[[Endless Ocean]]: Blue World'', of all places, the Pandora's Box salvage item with net the player 9,666 pelagos (the in-game currency). Notably, the only treasure to not have a multiple of ten (or a multiple of ten minus one) for its price.

* [[The Very Definitely Final Dungeon]] in ''[[Purple]]'' has a prominent 666 on its entrance [[Die, Chair, Die!|which you can freely break]]. The game in general uses [[Satan]] motif shamelessly.

* Several inferno units in ''[[Heroes of Might and Magic]] V'' utilize this: Nightmares and Hell Stallions have 66 HP, Pit lords and Pit spawns cost 1666 gold, Devils, Arch Devils and Arch Demons all have a maximal damage of 66, and cost 2666 gold (devils) or 3666 gold (the other two). Additionally, Devils have 166 HP (and Arch Devils have 199, turn that upside down).

* Although unintentional, Giratina from ''[[Pokémon]]'' is depicted with six legs, six neck spikes, and six wing spikes in Altered forme, and six wings, six leg spikes, and six tail spikes in Origin forme.

* In chapter 5 of ''[[Alice: Madness Returns]]'', a wall in the Dolltown Cellar<ref>in the room with the glass floor with hazards underneath</ref> has 666 affixed to it.

 

* ''[[Casey and Andy]]'' ended with strip #666. Appropriate, given that one of the main characters is Satan <s>him</s>herself.

* ''[[Questionable Content]]'''s 666th strip featured a non-canon "[http://www.questionablecontent.net/view.php?comic=666 spontaneous metal interlude]". Jeph Jacques had ''quite'' some fun drawing it (the strip is even titled "I've Been Waiting Three Years For This Strip).

* ''[[Freefall]]'''s 666th strip (officially #00666) [http://freefall.purrsia.com/ff700/fv00666.htm sees Florence pondering the choice between good and evil].

** Had two extra strips not been added to commemorate the deaths of D's co-creators, OotS #666 would have featured a scene of three fiends revealing their diabolical intentions to a fourth.

* The author of ''[[Sequential Art (webcomic)|Sequential Art]]'' would like to point out that he's much too mature and classy to include some arbitary and random occult references in his [http://www.collectedcurios.com/sequentialart.php?s=666 666-th strip].

* ''[[Ansem Retort]]'' Season 7 [https://web.archive.org/web/20160306064701/http://ansemretort.org/ansemretort/index.html?comic=666 ended] on this exact strip number. As did the use of Comic Sans in the comic. {{spoiler|And AR's dominance of [[Reality TV]] since Season 6, with the premiere of rival show Shibuya Shore.}}

* In ''[[Sinfest]]'', [https://web.archive.org/web/20140209182718/http://sinfest.net/archive_page.php?comicID=2378 Satan's floor number.]

 

* In v4 ''[[Open Blue]]'', the date of the foundation of the [[The Federation|Axifloan Coalition]] is June 6, 1666. In v5, that day is when Princess Elizabeth of Avelia is assassinated, prompting the three largest members of the Coalition to secede and declare war on one another. Most people in-universe consider it the day the Coalition ended (even though it still exists if weakened).

* 666 causes [[Nightmare Fuel]]-y things to happen to [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7iFXyLah2oQ YouTube].

** What the Hell this video is stupiTHAT'S OKAY I DIDN'T WANT TO SLEEP TONIGHT ANYWAY

* In [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jR1_epbmI2g The Number 24], a trailer spoofing ''[[The Number 23]]'', one of the professor's random associations is: "Two plus four is six. What's the number between two and four? Three. Three sixes, ''the sign of the devil!''"

* ''[[Global Guardians PBEM Universe|Global Guardians]]'' villain 666 is [[Super Strength|super-strong]] and [[Nigh Invulnerable]], and puts on a good game of being a "demonic force for evil", but the truth is he's just a thug in a costume who uses some special effects to put the "demon" angle across to the rubes.

 

* In the ''[[Futurama]]'' episode "The Honking", Bender sees the binary number 0101100101 written on the wall and is unfazed, calling it "gibberish" (it's 357 with an unnecessary leading zero). Then he sees it in a mirror and realises it's 1010011010, which is 666.

* Parodied in ''[[Courage the Cowardly Dog]]'', when the characters book a room at Hotel Katz, they are given room number 666½.

** In episode 9 of season 2, some of the protagonists are trapped in the Shushu world. They are forced to invoke the Rush, the favorite pastime of the Shushu, in order to avoid immediate execution. The Rush pits them against [[Zerg Rush|666 pyralshus]] until they fall. And to make ''sure'' they fall, Rushu also sends his [[The Dragon|Dragon]] Anathar into the fray.

* The ''[[South Park]]'' season 1 episode "Damien" manages to sneak in a couple of visual refrences. At the very start of the episode, a group of number magnets on the wall have three red sixes next to eachother, and the chalkboard has a sum that adds up to 666.

 

* Scholars contend that the number in the Revelation was a code for Nero. When treated as Hebrew numbers, the letters of "Nero Caesar" add up to 616, and "Neron Kesar", the Greek version of his name, to 666.

** One theory relies on the assumption that 666 is purely symbolic, not some code: basically, the number 6 is supposed to represent man ("a human number"), because man was made on the 6th day. Also, the fact that there are ''three'' 6s is meant to stand for [[Satan]], the Beast of the Sea, and the Beast of the Earth being an evil mockery of the Holy Trinity. This theory is total hogwash; as noted above, the number would have been written in [[wikipedia:Greek numerals|Greek numerals]], and the idea of "six-hundred-and-sixty-six" having anything to do with "three sixes" is a bit of a stretch (place-value notation would only have just been invented in India at the time, and it would not arrive in the Middle East until transmitted by Muslim Persian mathematicians in the 9th century).

* [[Image Board|B3TA]] had a helpful announcement in 2005: "Satanists! This is the last week to conceive if you want you child born on 6/6/06!"

* Comedian/Nerd/Metalhead Brian Posehn stands 6'7, but he likes to refer to himself as 6'6.6 or "the height of the beast."

* The A666 runs from Pendlebury to Langho in [[Oop North|north-west England]] and there are many local jokes about its number. Often in conjunction with its high accident rate.

* Another highways example. On northbound Interstate 29 just north of North Sioux City, South Dakota, there was a sign that used to read "Elk Point 6 / Sioux Falls 66." At some point in the mid-00s, the sign was changed to read "Elk Point 7 / Sioux Falls 66." Either the small town of Elk Point moved a mile to the north, or people got uncomfortable about the 666 associations and asked to have the sign changed.

* The P.O. Box address for This Is True—who also has Get Out Of Hell Free cards to keep up—is 666. According to the owner, he had had box number 668 for a while, then noticed 666 was free. When he inquired about it, he learned it was not to be offered to avoid people being offended. Since he specifically asked for the number, though, the post office figured it safe to give him the box.

* SF and computing journalist [[Dave Langford]] once wrote a computer program that could prove that ''any'' name [http://www.ansible.co.uk/writing/ft107.html adds up to 666]. You just have to assign numbers to the letters correctly (and there are hundreds, if not thousands, of ways to do that), then manipulate the numbers the right way (and there are more hundreds, if not thousands, of ways to do ''that'').

** Not that it's still avoiding the trope, but Intel could get away with it by fudging with the numbers. The increment suggests the clock speed was divided by 3 somewhere. 2/3 is 0.6666... Which at any given point you decide to chop off how many 6's you want, you could round up the last one to 7.

* A church was "lucky" enough to get 666 as part of its phone number. They quickly changed it. On the other hand, the University of San Francisco, a Catholic medical college, had 666 as one of its proprietary prefixes throughout the '90s, mostly for dormitory rooms.

* Here's one for the oddity department: Yahoo! Sports lists athletes and assigns them an ID number in the URL. For hockey, guess who gets 666? [http://sports.yahoo.com/nhl/players/666 Miroslav Satan] (though it's pronounced Shuh-tan, and spelled Šatan in Slovak).

*** If you plug in athlete number 616, you get Richard Smehlik, a player for the [http://sports.yahoo.com/nhl/players/616 New Jersey Devils]. I seriously think that Yahoo! employees are just fucking with us.

* The UN leaves seat number 666 free at meetings.

* The first [[Apple Macintosh|Apple]] computer ([[Exactly What It Says on the Tin|the Apple I]]) went on sale in July 1976 at the price of $666.66. This was due mostly to a collection of mundane coincidences: [[Steve Jobs]] setting the price at $500 (plus a 1/3rd markup), because Steve Wozniak "liked repeating digits" and both Steves' general ignorance of the significance of the number.<ref>This was before the Internet.</ref>

* Up until 1999 there was a bus # 666 in Moscow. At the request of the local Christian folk it was changed...[[Hilarious in Hindsight|into]] [[Did Not Do the Research|616]]. I kid you not.

* [[UNIX|POSIX]] file modes being represented by 3 bytes (owner-group-others) and 6 being 2nd and 3rd bits set, there is (per one of [http://www.nancybuttons.com/ Nancy Buttons]) "rw-rw-rw: The file protection of the beast" <ref>actually it should be "rw-rw-rw-", of course. or "-rw-rw-rw-"</ref>.

 

{{reflist}}

[[Category:Evil Tropes]]

[[Category:Number Tropes]]