Prophetic Names: Difference between revisions

[[Steven Ulysses Perhero]] is a subset of this, focused specifically on the tendency for names to relate to super-powers and/or [[Secret Identity|secret identities]].

As some of the examples show, Icarus seems to be an unusually favored name in this regard (no fewer than ''five'' examples). [[Rule of Cool|Might have something to do with the name having a nice ring to it]]. Oh, yeah, and the melting wings of doom probably help.

== Anime ==

* Naming anyone after Japanese stars (''[[X 1999]]'', ''[[.hack//Sign]]'', ''[[GEAR Fighter Dendoh]]''), or the constellations from the astrology/geomancy system of [[The Four Gods]] (''[[Fushigi Yuugi]]''), is pretty much setting their status as Very Important in stone.

* Also in ''[[X 1999]]'', Satsuki's supercomputer, Beast, emblazoned with the number 666.

** It probably doesn't help matters that when written in hiragana, "satsuki" looks like "sakki", which means "bloodlust".

* The organization "Nergal" from ''[[Martian Successor Nadesico]]'' is named after the Babylonian god of war and pestilence, for whom the Babylonians named the planet Mars.

* Likewise, the "Marduk Institute" in ''[[Neon Genesis Evangelion]]'' chose child candidates to pilot the Evangelions. The fact that Marduk was also a Sumerian god to whom children were (supposedly) sacrificed is appropriate.

** More directly, as it's written using the [[Four Is Death|four-stroke kanji for "moon"]], it represents death in Japanese numerology.

* A tragic example in ''[[Angel Sanctuary]]'' is Yue Katou. His father called him "Yue," {{spoiler|which is a name usually given to still-born children and miscarriages in Japan, because Yue is his wife's son by her lover and he basically wants him to die young}}. Guess what? {{spoiler|He dies young. ''Twice''.}}

* [[Trigun|Million Knives]].

* The Planet Kallamity in ''Five Star Stories''. [[Earthshattering Kaboom|Guess how this one turns out]].

* Suzaku Kururugi of ''[[Code Geass]]'' has a name that means 'phoenix'. {{spoiler|This comes to make sense in the series finale, where he technically 'dies' as Suzaku Kururugi, and comes back to 'save the world' as Zero. To make it even more blatant, the way he "dies" is in an explosion of flames.}}

** Also Nina Einstein who ultimately invents [[Nuclear Weapons Taboo|something which isn't technically a nuclear weapon]] but might as well be.

* In [[Mobile Suit Gundam 00]], {{spoiler|the main character's (code)name means "A Moment From The Holy Eternity". If one translates it to Japanese except the ''From'', which you will remove the other three letters after ''F'' then it would read as Setsuna F<s>rom</s> Seiei. [[Word of God|The director said]] that it represents the moments of revolutions in the long history of mankind, hinting at Setsuna being the true Innovator, the one who is going to bring revolution to mankind. Appropriately, Setsuna [[Evolutionary Levels|evolves into an Innovator]] during the last few episodes of the series.}}

* In ''[[Narutaru]]'', the main character's name can be translated as "a seed that shall never sprout." [[Downer Ending|How appropriate.]]

** Sirius Black has the ability to turn into a black dog. Sirius is the "dog star".

*** Parodied in ''[[Sluggy Freelance]]'''s book three parody. Obvious names are given to the ''wrong'' characters.

** Of course, it helped that the person killing them was doing so by ''manipulating coincidences''.

* The central figure of much of the action in Neal Stephenson's novel ''[[Snow Crash]]'' is a young half-Japanese man named "Hiro Protagonist". In fact, he changed his name to it as deliberate statement of what he feels his karmic lot is.

* Done retroactively for the message-scrawling "Rat Man" of ''[[Portal (series)|Portal]]''; the cryptic promotional teasers for ''[[Portal 2]]'' reveal that his real name was "Doug Rattmann".

* In ''[[Starcraft]]'', the Protoss praetor Fenix "dies" and then is "reborn" as a dragoon. His name is obviously derived from the legendary phoenix, which is reborn from its ashes after it dies.

* ''[[Beyond the Beyond]]'' has a playable character named Samson, who possesses superhuman strength just like his [[The Bible|biblical]] namesake. No donkey jaws, though; this Samson prefers to kick ass with [[An Axe to Grind]].

** Played with in the case of Saves-A-Fox, who decided to [[Screw Destiny]] and kill the fox she was prophesied to save. {{spoiler|She then [[You Can't Fight Fate|saves the fox's tail]], [[Completely Missing the Point|as a symbol of how she defied her destiny]].}}

*** {{spoiler|Dies-Horribly later reveals that from her description of the fox, it was probably suffering from an illness that would soon have resulted in a drawn-out, agonizing death, so that in a sense she saved it by killing it quickly.}}

* ''[[Flintlocke's Guide to Azeroth]]'':

{{quote|'''With a name like "Westfall" we were setting that place up for failure.}}

** How about Jack Black and Michael Jai White?

** Or as Jimmy Pop Ali says "I'm not black like Barry White, nor I am white like Frank Black is."

* '''D'''avid '''Ten'''nant, playing the '''Ten'''th '''D'''octor in ''[[Doctor Who]]''. The [[Fan Nickname]] "d10" applies equally well to both the actor and the character.

* There's a Finnish meteorologist named Pekka Pouta. "Pouta" is Finnish for fair weather.