Anthropomorphic Personification: Difference between revisions

 

This trope is [[Older Than Dirt]], and maybe even as old as religion itself.

 

This is very common in anime series, when various items come to life usually becoming completely human like creatures who seek to fulfill purpose which they had while being in item form, or taking revenge on humanity which disposed them.

Definitely not to be confused with [[Funny Animal]].

 

 

[[TV Tropes]] has its own personification in the form of [[Trope-tan]].

 

== Advertising ==

* The [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LLrTPrp-fW8 Chiffon Margarine commercials] from the late [[The Sixties|sixties]] and early [[The Seventies|seventies]] featured Mother Nature being fooled into thinking Chiffon was butter after tasting it. "It's not nice to fool... '''''Mother Nature!'''''".

* In one Halls cough drop ad, the personification of Winter - an old man, gets tackled by the personification of the cough drop - a football player.

*** [[Mad Scientist|Szayelaporro]] [[Complete Monster|Granz:]] Madness/Lust

*** [[All Your Powers Combined|Aaroniero Arruruerie:]] Greed/Gluttony

* ''[[Binchou Tan (Anime)|Binchou Tan]]'' is about a group of [[Anthropomorphic Personification|Anthropomorphic Personifications]] of various natural substances and phenomena, all of whom appear as cute Japanese children.

* In the ''[[Macademi Wasshoi (Anime)|Macademi Wasshoi]]'' world it is possible to personify any item (or it can personify itself) if the item collects some magic power. In fact, Falce's power is to turn items into living spirits.

* In one ''Ampney Crucis Investigates'' story, a group of contaminated souls ripped out of the afterlife attempt to create a physical embodiment of war.

* Newspaper cartoonists sometimes represent the new year as a newborn baby (and sometimes the old year as an old man) when producing cartoons to mark the turn of a new year.

* Carrying on from the above, [[DC Comics]] has an [[Anthropomorphic Personification]] [[Captain Patriotic]], Uncle Sam, the Spirit of America. According to his backstory, Uncle Sam has previously been known as Minuteman during [[The American Revolution]], then became Brother Jonathan between then and [[The American Civil War]], was split into Billy Yank and Johnny Reb during that war, and became Uncle Sam afterwards. [[Dork Age|He was also briefly the space-helmeted Patriot, but we don't talk about that]]. Interestingly, the reason America has an [[Anthropomorphic Personification]] but most other countries don't is actually explained- he isn't a natural phenomenon, but, rather, the Founding Fathers specifically created him with a magic ritual to help with the Revolutionary War.

* Also in DC Comics, Kismet [[I Have Many Names|aka Ahti aka Sharon Vance aka Strange Visitor]] is the personification of the entire universe, similar to Marvel's version: Eternity. In fact, in ''[[JLA-Avengers]]'', the two ''fell in love''.

* In [[The Darksword Trilogy]], [[The Fool]] Simkin is eventually revealed to be a personification of Magic.

* In the novel ''[[Rivers of London]]'' newly trained Police Constable Peter grant has to contend with the Personifications of the Thames and it's tributaries. More sinisterly the [[Big Bad]] {{spoiler|is [[Punch and Judy|Mister Punch]] Personification of Riot and Rebellion}}.

** A couple of BBC Books [[Eighth Doctor Adventures]] novels called the Eighth Doctor Life's Champion, but whether there's a Life amongst the Eternals or it just means life in general is unclear.

** Other novels have given us [[Faction Paradox|Grandfather Paradox]], who is the [[Anthropomorphic Personification]] of [[Future Me Scares Me]].

 

== Live Action TV ==

* An embodiment of Death appeared in the ''[[Torchwood (TV)|Torchwood]]'' episode "Dead Man Walking".

* ''[[Dead Like Me]]'' is about a [[Quirky Miniboss Squad]] of [[The Grim Reaper|Grim Reapers]].

* We do not talk about the [[Coupling|Melty Man]].

* In ''[[Supernatural (TV)|Supernatural]]'', the Four Horsemen (in addition to their rather unpleasant traditional duties) happen to wear the keys to Lucifer's prison as jewelry. It's implied that, except for Death (who claims to be possibly older than God himself and says he will eventually reap Him) their power actually resides in the rings, opening up the possibility that their roles might conceivably be passed along to someone else.

* In ''[[Buffy the Vampire Slayer]]'', The First is basically the very idea of evil itself.

 

 

== Music ==

* "Homecoming" by [[Kanye West (Music)|Kanye West]] is a love song to Windy, essentially the anthropomorphic personification of Chicago.

* The fat giant killed by The Guy in [[Music/Music/Disturbed|Music]]'s "Land of Confusion" video is either Anthropomorphic Personification of big corporations, industry, economy, rich elites, [[Greed]] or just all of it, people still discuss that matter.

** In the ''[[New World of Darkness (Tabletop Game)|New World of Darkness]]'' in general, [[Our Spirits Are Different|spirits]] are Anthropomorphic Personifications of things... although sometimes for ''very'' loose definitions of "anthropomorphic."

*** Geists of ''[[Geist: The Sin Eaters (Tabletop Game)|Geist: The Sin Eaters]]'' are part ghost, and part Anthropomorphic Personification of some aspect of Death. This allows them to overcome some of the limitations ghosts usually have in the ''[[New World of Darkness (Tabletop Game)|New World of Darkness]]''... and also causes them to overlap with spirits -- the book goes into this briefly, but ultimately decides it's unimportant since Sin-Eaters don't really deal with spirits.

** The Umbra of the [[Old World of Darkness (Tabletop Game)|Old World of Darkness]] was inhabited almost entirely by spirits of things or concepts, from huge, powerful ones like Luna (Anthropomorphic Personification of the moon and everything that goes with) through weaker but still impressive types like Stag (Anthropomorphic Personification of deers, obviously, but also mythically connected concepts like male virility, the hunt etc) down to fairly pathetic ones like the Anthropomorphic Personification of that pebble over there.

* ''[[Dungeons and Dragons (Tabletop Game)|Dungeons and Dragons]]'' had (along with gods, who were often in some sense [[Anthropomorphic Personification|Anthropomorphic Personifications]] themselves) entire species dedicated to concepts. Usually the [[Character Alignment|Nine Alignments]] (From [[Lawful Good]] to [[Chaotic Evil]]: Archons, Guardinals, Eladrin, Modrons, Rilmani, Slaadi, Baatezu, Yugoloth, Tanar'ri).

[[Category:Older Than Dirt]]

[[Category:Anthropomorphic Personification]]