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Number of the Beast: Difference between revisions
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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]].
Sometimes gets truncated to 66 or lengthened to 6666 if 666 is too high or too low a number, yet still evokes the [[Numerological Motif]].
The actual number, however, is a subject of debate among theologians and historians: many say the number is actually 616, as some of the older Latin copies of Revelation list it as that rather than 666; all the Greek ones list it as 666, and most probably the name it indicated had a different sum according to their numerological schemes in different alphabets. However, 666 is so much better known that if you try to go with 616 instead it will likely [[Viewers Are Geniuses|fly over the heads of most readers and viewers]]. Note that either way, it is the value six hundred and sixty six or six hundred and sixteen, not just three sixes in a row (I'm looking at you, June 6th 2006). In fact, back then it would have been written χξϛ/χιϛ (chi - xi - sigma / chi - iota - sigma) in Greek and the guy who wrote ''Revelation'' would totally not get the stuff about three sixes in a row.
Interestingly enough, another interpretation is 216, as some older translations define this enigmatic number as "6 by 6 by 6" or 6 cubed.
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]].
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* The Book of Darkness in ''[[Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha As|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 one Japanese ''[[Yu-Gi-Oh!]]!'' episode, we see a card with 666 ATK and 666 DEF points. The US version [[Bowdlerise|Bowdlerised]] it to 1000/1000.<ref>In the real-life game, the Attack and Defense stats for nearly all cards are some multiple of 50, before modifiers. Except the two cards Castle of Dark Illusions, which is 920 ATK/1930 DEF, and Reaper of the Cards, with 1380 ATK/1920 DEF. There are three others that break the "multiples of 50" rule, King of Yamimakai (2000 ATK, 1530 DEF), Barox (1380 ATK, 1530 DEF), and Dark Chimera (1610 ATK, 1460 DEF). It probably was no coincidence that all of these monsters were used in one duel, one before the rules for the [[Real Life]] version of the game came out, implying that they may have been planning to break that standard increments pattern further.</ref>
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* ''[[AMV Hell]] Championship Edition'' was released on June 6, 2006.
* The ''[[Gundam]]'' franchise has two [[Humongous Mecha]] with 666 in their model numbers, the ZGMF-X666S Legend Gundam from ''[[Gundam Seed Destiny]]'' and the NZ-666 Kshatriya from ''[[Gundam Unicorn]]''. With the Kshatriya it actually makes sense<ref>It's a descendant of ''[[Gundam ZZ]]'''s NZ-000 Queen Mansa and ''[[Chars Counterattack]]'''s NZ-333 Alpha Azieru</ref>, but for Legend there's really no excuse other than [[What Do You Mean Its Not Symbolic|implying that the pilot is evil]].
* 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.
* In ''[[Katekyo Hitman Reborn]]'', there are six powerful Mist-rings known as the Hell Rings. New Varia member [[Deadpan Snarker|Fran]] owns the one with the number 666 on it.
* In the opening pages of the manga ''[[Biomega]]'', we see the protagonist driving along an abandoned bridge...going 666 km/h, of course.
* ''[[Highschool of the Dead]]'' mentions the USA's National State of Emergency Tactical Regulation 666D.
* The ''[[Litchi Hikari Club]]'''s [[Artificial Human]] Litchi runs on a series of commands issued by a clunky looking calculator. His activation code? "The Number Of The Beast".
* In ''[[Yaiba]]'' the [[Evil Weapon|Devil King Sword]] (Maoken in jap.) is kept in the room Six-Six-Six of Kaguya's moonbase. Probably it's called like that because of the sword inside it. It's also well guarded.
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** 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.
* ''[[Star Wars]]'': "Order 66," which might double as a reference to [[WW 2]] Executive Order 9066, which interned Japanese civilians.
* The code for the suitcase in ''[[Pulp Fiction]]'' is 666.
* In ''[[The Ninth Gate]]'', guess what the keypad code to Satanic book collector Boris Balkan's private elevator is?
* Played with in the 1999 film ''[[End of Days]]''. Apparently, people who saw the number of the beast in their dreams/visions didn't realize it was shown upside down, so the number of the beast was 999 instead of 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.
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* In Book the Sixth of Lemony Snicket's ''[[A Series of Unfortunate Events]]'', ''The Ersatz Elevator'', the address of the Baudelaires' new home is 667 Dark Avenue. In addition, it has sixty-six floors.
* The short story [http://www.ravenelectrick.com/ssraven/neighbors.html "Neighbors"] by Robert Borski discusses the number 666 from the points of view of nearby numbers.
* [[John Hodgman]]'s ''[[The Areas of My Expertise]]'' includes a list of (North American) phone numbers beginning with the prefix "666" including "a bunch of Satanists who got lucky" and "the author's home phone number".
* ''[[Nightmare Academy]]'', by Frank Peretti has a rather contrived situation near the end of the book in which a row of buildings is being demolished and one of the characters needs to stop it by putting in a code that corresponds to... some technical detail. Anyway, it ends up being 666 (or 666.0 if you want to be picky, and the computer did). Lampshaded by the kid stopping it when he figures it out.
{{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.
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* 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 6th 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.)
** Another ''[[Doctor Who]]'' example: the coordinates for The Void -- the Whoniverse equivalent to Hell -- are all sixes, as seen in "Doomsday".
** Also invoked in "Midnight": When Mrs Silvestri starts repeating what everybody says, the teenaged Jethro says "six six six" to get her to repeat it.
** The [[Arc Words|prevalence of 666]] in the Doctor Who universe has lead observant fans to come up with [[WMG|theories]] to explain it.
* In the ''[[Twilight Zone]]'' episode "Dealer's Choice", a group of gamblers find themselves playing poker against the Devil. Every hand the Devil receives includes three sixes. When one of the players ends up playing for his soul, he attempts to use this to his advantage by invoking dealer's choice and chosing Low Ball as the game.
* ''[[Reaper]]'': Sam's house number is 667. In one episode, he hits the snooze button on his alarm clock and the numbers turn red and read "6:66".
* One episode of ''[[The X-Files]]'' ("Orison") had Scully's alarm clock read 666 twice, warning her about the evil man after her. It proved to be surprisingly effective as a piece of mis-en-scene.
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* One of the threats of the week for the [[Big Wolf on Campus]] team was a wrestler who would cause ''the apocalypse'' once he got to 666 victories.
* One episode of ''[[Criminal Minds]]'' had a Satanist whose name was '''F'''loyd '''F'''eylin '''F'''errell. F is the sixth letter of the alphabet.
* 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.
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** Ditto for [[Lordi]], who released their [[Eurovision Song Contest]] winner ''Hard Rock Hallelujah'' as a single in the UK on 6.6.06.
** [[Metallica]] played a concert in Berlin on 6/6/06.
* "666" in metal in general is very common due to its satanic connotations. Bands that have made songs with the number include [[Helloween]], Anvil and Burn to Black as well as many others.
** Danzig's album ''6:66 Satan's Child''.
* The death rap group Three 6 Mafia (aka Triple Six Mafia), once notorious for their Satanic lyrics and references to the occult. However the group has since stated that the name is just a reference the fact that their group started out with three members and ended up with six. That, and the fact that back when they were just starting out, they needed to put out something that would [[No Such Thing as Bad Publicity|draw attention to themselves]].
* The album ''666'' by Aphrodite's Child.
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* Death Metal band Deicide released the album "The Stench of Redemption" on June 6, 2006. (6/6/06)
* Blackened Thrash band Destroyer 666. They take it to extremes, portraying themselves as Australian anti-Christs.
* [[Soundgarden]]'s songs "665" and "667", which are parodies of other metal bands' Satanic imagery.
* Heavy metal band [[Loudness]] has an instrumental titled "222" and (more recently) a song titled "#666".
* The German trance band 666.
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* The song "Six Sixty-Six" by Christian-folk singer Larry Norman, covered by his fan Frank Black, is a straightforward retelling of the prophecies about the Antichrist in Bible fanon.
* Murdoc Niccals, the fictional bass player of [[Gorillaz]], was born on June 6, 1966 (6/6/66) and is a Satanist.
** He also refers to [[Punny Name|"Number of the Beats"]] as a band name they had been considering.
* Steve Vai was born on June 6, 1960 (6/6/60) and has skills that could very well be described as not of this world.
* Slipknot's song "The Heretic Anthem" featured the chorus: "If you're 5-5-5 then I'm 6-6-6", though the lyrics feature no real Satanic overtones and the use of the number was really just for shock value.
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* "666 - The Enemy Within" by [[Hammerfall]].
* [[The Pixies]] reference this in "Monkey Gone To Heaven", with the lines "man is five", "the devil is six", and "god is seven."
* "Disconnected 666", a spooky audio collage by Cop Shoot Cop, has an excerpt from a prerecorded disconnection notice repeating the number 666 over a backdrop of busy signals.
* 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]]".
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* ''Hero System'' uses three six-sided dice for skill rolls and "to-hits". A roll of three sixes always fails, no matter how many bonuses the character has. (However, it's referred to as a roll of 18, or 6+6+6, not a roll of 666.)
** 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.
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* In ''[[Devil May Cry]] 4'', Dante gets a weapon called Pandora, which is a demonic briefcase [[Swiss Army Weapon|that can transform into 666 evil forms]]...which all seem to be big guns.
** Big guns along with its original purpose of containing all the world's evil and still holding onto hope, as its debut cutscene seems to imply.
* ''[[Max Payne (series)|Max Payne]]'' had a level where the access code for a different part of a lab was 665, which Max snarkingly comments as the "neighbor of the beast". In the sequel, the code to access the suites in Max's apartment is 667, and the "neighbor of the beast" line is echoed.
** Both mentions are based on a recurring joke in the developers' native country of Finland. Of course, with street numbers the neighbor would be 668, but apartments need not be numbered the same way.
* ''[[Kingdom of Loathing]]'' spoofs this with the 668 scroll, allowing you to summon the ''neighbor'' of the beast.
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* The original ''[[Quake (series)|Quake]]'' features a powerup called the [[Invincibility Power-Up|Pentagram of Protection]], which puts a red 666 on your armor counter, although that's just for symbolic and aesthetic purposes -- your health will not go down while this powerup is active, and anything that tries to spawn at your position will be reverse telefragged. Note that your armor will still take damage if you have any on.
* The demon morph [[Super Mode]] from ''[[Painkiller]]'' is activated by Daniel's absorption of 66 souls. At least, without a powerup that reduces the number to 50.
* In ''[[Disgaea 3: Absence of Justice]]'', Mao calculates that it will take exactly 666 Nether hours (after Mao hijacks his "Hero" title) until [[Heroic Wannabe]] Almaz becomes a full-fledged demon.
** And Maritsu Evil Academy has 666 bathrooms.
* In ''[[Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories]]'', Marluxia's final form has a sleight that is activated by using three six cards (looking like 666 when it shows up on the screen). This forces Sora to have to break all his cards or else instant death.
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* 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).
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** The comic strip had a similar joke about Santa Claus. Huey evidently went through several possible "proofs" before landing on the fact that the date of Santa's annual errand, December 24th, adds up to 36 when expressed numerically. [[Insane Troll Logic|36 = 3 6's!]]
* ''[[Wakfu]]'' episode 4: In the flashback showing the backstory of the Ugly Princesses, there is such a long line of princes wanting to woo them that they use a "[[Take a Number]]" device. Then comes the god Osamodas, who picks number 666 before laying a curse on the disrespectful princesses.
** 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.
== Real Life ==
* 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.
** The scholarly theory is that Revelation is written as "prophetic allegory" -- writing a prophesy-style piece as social commentary on then-present conditions. Relatedly, there are those that believe the code stands for Gaius Caesar (which can also add up to 616) instead. Most scholars find that it's hairsplitting, however: Nero is the [[Trope Namer]] for [[While Rome Burns]], and Gaius is better known by his nickname, [[The Caligula|Caligula]].
** 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).
* It was a joke in Real Life during Ronald Reagan's presidency because "Ronald Wilson Reagan" is 6 letters, 6 letters, 6 letters. (Furthermore, Ronald Reagan had his house, 666 St. Cloud Road, renumbered 668, from superstition.)
* A totally serious chain email in the late '90s claimed that Bill Gates was the Antichrist and that the Internet (which... [[Insane Troll Logic|he owned?]]) was his Mark, by adding up the ASCII for "Bill Gates" (66 + 73 + 76 + 71 + 65 + 84 + 69 + 83) and [[Ass Pull|adding 3 as in William Gates ''III'']]. It went on to say this method also worked for "Windows 95", and that "WWW" represented the Number because of its resemblance to "VI VI VI".
* Speculation ran rampant the week before the 6th of June, 2006, over speculation that Armageddon would occur on 6/6/6. [[Captain Obvious|It didn't.]] Maybe it was the fact that the date was actually 6/6/'''0'''6, or that if the theory held water then the [[Fridge Logic|world should have already undergone divine judgement two thousand years ago]].
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