Rule of Symbolism: Difference between revisions

** Except ''possibly'' the car thing. At least one source claims [[Word of God]] is that the creator just wanted to turn a girl into a car. [[Your Mileage May Vary|Personal interpretations may vary wildly.]]

* ''[[Neon Genesis Evangelion]]''... [[Your Mileage May Vary|depending]] [[Everyone Is Jesus in Purgatory|on]] [[Faux Symbolism|who]] [[Broken Base|you]] [[Internet Backdraft|ask]].

* ''[[Ergo Proxy]]''... [[Your Mileage May Vary|maybe]].

* Magic in ''[[To Aru Majutsu no Index]]'' practically requires this trope to work, since magic relies on "idols" which use symbolism in order to draw power from the original. It's more obvious with the Roman Catholic Church's magic, especially that of God's Right Seat, in which each member represents an archangel of Christianity and has a unique power which draws from God.

* [[Loveless]]. Butterflies, anyone? Since the manga is essentially about growing up and/or leaving behind the past to become something new.

 

 

== [[Film]] ==

** 'Allegedly'? That's half of what makes the first one so great. On the other hand, this trope is largely what did in the sequels, which sacrificed plot for thematic indulgences, meaningless symbolism and pointless digressions that just slowed the pacing to a halt.

* ''[[Equilibrium]]'' had plenty of this.

* [[Takashi Miike]]'s ''[[Gozu]]'' makes almost no sense at all without the realization that, not only is nearly everything symbolic, it uses symbols and tropes drawn from several entirely unrelated sources ( {{spoiler|mainly Japanese and Greek mythology, as well as psychological metaphors for the main character's coming to terms with his homosexuality}}).

* ''[[Inception]]'' is filled to the brim with more things that could possibly be symbolic than you'll ever see. However, since most of the film takes place in peoples' dream and it's explicitly mentioned that artificially-created dreams only provide the frame, which is then filled in by the dreamer's subconsciousness, it's mostly justified.

* [[American Beauty]]: Everything. The director goes into great detail in the commentary about it. Its ripe for Media study classes.

* [[Black Swan]], would also invoke this trope.

* [[Sucker Punch]], when you have a metaphor/fantasy scene, inside another metaphor/fantasy scene, which all reverts around another metaphor/meaning.

== [[Literature]] ==

* The book of Revelation/The Apocalypse of St. John in ''[[The Bible]]'' is arguably the best example in all of Western civilization. It had to be; it was primarily an indictment against Rome, and wouldn't have made it past the Roman censors had its author(s) not hidden their message under a heap of symbolic language. ("The seven heads are seven hills.")

* The Toni Morrison novel ''Sula'' has the Deweys - three unrelated boys who are all given the same name and treated as interchangeable, subsequently becoming [[Single-Minded Twins|Single Minded Triplets]] who are somehow all child-sized after a decade or so. The bizarre, unlikely biology at work here is that they represent the larger social effects of stereotyping.

* The weird... meteor... giant "A"... THING that appears in the sky about midway through ''[[The Scarlet Letter]]''.

* [[Thomas Pynchon|ThomasPynchon's]] Magnum Opus ''[[Gravity's Rainbow]]'' is so rife with symbolism integrated magnificently into the story (even much of the [[Squick]] is symbolic!) that there's plenty of symbolism to be seen ''even when it might not be there at all''!

* ''[[The Wheel of Time]]'' has symbolism from almost every mythological source around, and somehow integrates it into the story ''all the time'' without sounding pretentious.

** Same with {{spoiler|Harry pulling Godric Gryffindor's sword out of the Sorting Hat}} in the second book, to demonstrate that a person's choices are what ultimately determines what kind of person they are. Of course, it could have just been sent to Harry by Dumbledore. If this is the case, then it's a subversion.

* In ''[[The Pale King]]'', The IRS seal depicts the mythical hero Bellerophon slaying the Chimera, which represents those who are stuck doing the difficult and unpopular work.

* The book ''The Rules of Survival'' deals with a teenage boy and his younger sisters living with their abusive mother. The cover? A picture of a bowl of broken glass with a spoon sticking out of it.

 

* The whole of ''[[Silent Hill 2]]'' itself is pretty much 80% symbolism. Another notable example -- one of many -- is when, near the beginning of the game, James stumbles across a bloody corpse that looks exactly like him slouched in an armchair, in front of a TV blaring static; a splatter of blood is also present on the TV, implying suicide. This would later be {{spoiler|some pretty ''huge'' (and not to mention tragic) foreshadowing, when James watches a tape near the end of the game that reveals he murdered his wife, Mary. Fittingly, one of the several endings available include poor James drowning himself.}} In addition, Freud would have had a field day with Team Silent -- don't even mention how Pyramid Head essentially looks like a walking penis.

** You're slightly off the mark. That room with the deceased man in front of the television isn't meant to be taken as a suicide, especially given the [[Suspiciously Specific Denial]] in the conversation that follows. Given {{spoiler|Eddie's}} downward spiral into sociopathy as {{spoiler|-he-}} murders more and more people — and the only human corpses you find are in {{spoiler|his}} wake, it becomes increasingly apparent that {{spoiler|Eddie murdered that man and is vomiting in the toilet due to his initial, short-lasting revulsion at his own actions.}} The character model is James' simply because — and they've admitted this — they got lazy and didn't think anyone would notice.

* In ''[[Final Fantasy VII]]'' the name of our very ''[[The Ace]]'' is a symbol: Zack (of course short for Zachery...) means "Memory", ...

* The [[Final Boss]] of ''[[Final Fantasy IX]]'', Necron, is one of the biggest cases of [[Giant Space Flea From Nowhere]] in the industry, but fans of the game justify his appearance with this. The main theme of the game is that everyone and everything wants to live, and even the [[Big Bad]] Kuja is only trying to kill everyone because his own life has been robbed from him by his father, Garland. Necron is the [[Anthropomorphic Personification]] of death, and shows up in the end to give the heroes a chance to literally defeat Death itself.

* The old RTS 7th Legion has much symbolism related to the Apocalypse.

* [[Yume Nikki]] takes place in a [[Dream Land]]. Being [[Mind Screw|more dream-like than usual]], the game is composed entirely of this and [[Rule of Scary]].

* What ''[[Braid]]'' is seemingly about is a man called Tim trying to rescue a princess from an evil monster. What Braid is ''really'' about, and who or what Tim, the Princess and the Monster represent is a topic that is heavily debated, with ideas ranging from the game being about {{spoiler|one man's slip from sanity, the relationships between men and women in general, a man trying to fix a crumbling relationship, a man learning that some mistakes cannot be reversed, a man stalking an innocent women etc}}. It's kinda [[Mind Screw|MindScrewy]], you see. The most accepted theory is that Tim is {{spoiler|a scientist on the Manhattan Project}} and the Princess is {{spoiler|the Atom Bomb}} but even that is contested. However, what the game is actually about is entirely up to you, as [[Word of God]] refuses to elaborate. A lot of this overlaps with [[Everyone Is Jesus in Purgatory]] style symbolism.

 

 

== [[Web Comics]] ==

 

== [[Web Original]] ==