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See also [[Arc Number]]
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'''Zero''' - This number represents The Void, the complete absence of being. It's usually something menacing, and it's always a bad moment when there's nothing left. Characters named after the number Zero form the trope [[My Hero Zero]]
'''One''' - This is the number for [[The Hero]], and it represents his standing alone as the best. One also represents the beginning, and the primal source of power. This is why a hero will succeed if there's only [[One Bullet Left]] or a [[Million-to-One Chance]] - One is just that [[Conservation of Ninjitsu|powerful]]. The Ace, representing the number One, is also typically the strongest card in standard poker.
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However, in Asian traditions, the number sounds almost like the word for "death" in all languages that borrow from Chinese, which arises in the trope [[Four Is Death]]. Curiously, the one aversion are [[The Four Gods]], although they frequently are depicted as rather dangerous (and at least one is frequently depicted as explicitly evil, like Seiryu in ''[[Fushigi Yuugi]]'').
'''Five''' - Also distinct in both Eastern and Western traditions, although not as radically different as they are with four. In the Asian tradition, the physical world was tied with five, and they classically had a five-pronged elemental system (adding wood and metal to the four Europeans used while removing air). The relationship between them was much more complex, as was the [[Elemental Rock-Paper-Scissors]] associated with them. This balance directly led to the formation of [[Five-Man Band|Five Man Bands]].
In Europe, five also represented [[Element Number Five|a fifth element]], but there it represented Ether, or Quintessence, the mystical substance which made up spirits and the like. It thus represented the esoteric and the spiritual plane, and was considered completely detached from the physical realm. This is most obvious in pentagrams. Some people holding to the idea of [[Four-Temperament Ensemble|four distinct personality types]] also hold the idea of a fifth type, balanced between the extremes of the four. It either has all their strengths (superior, above), none of their strengths or weaknesses (equal, between), or none of their strengths (inferior, empty). In some Japanese systems including that of Musashi's ''Book of Five Rings'', the fifth element is void, with associations similar to Western quintessence but a strong Zen flavor.
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This is taken even further in German, where it is pronounced very similar to sex (as in intercourse), also adding a dirty connotation (and source for double entendres). In Swedish the two words are pronounced and indeed spelled the same, leading to many a juvenile joke.
Interestingly enough, 666 is considered a good number in Chinese culture. For example, on June
'''Seven''' - Seven is the most popular lucky number, and was originally the number of the holy virtues man was said to have. Of course, [[Seven Deadly Sins|their opposites]] are much more memorable, but seven is still overall a positive force, to the point that days of the week are still numbered in seven. Dante's Paradiso exemplified this best, with seven layers of heaven. Of course, biblically, seven can also be the number of finality: the seven hills of Rome, the seven angels and the seven seals, etc. There are [[Seven Heavenly Virtues]] that oppose [[Seven Deadly Sins]]. In Japanese culture this manifests in [[The Seven Mysteries]]. Also, in the Japanese language, [[Seven Is Nana]]. See also [[The Magnificent Seven Samurai]], the Ensemble that falls under this number.
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Seven also comes up in gambling, specifically the roll of two dice, in which the most common resultant sum is seven. This helped cement its place as a "lucky" number.
'''Eight''' - Eight typically has notions of the hidden and esoteric, in part because it looks like an infinity symbol on its side (which was [[Lampshaded]] on ''[[The Tick (animation)]]''). It doesn't come up much, but expect plenty of mysteries when it does.
Eight is also the luckiest of lucky numbers if you are Chinese, so an office on the eighth floor at number 88 8th Avenue, for instance, would be considered to have excellent Feng Shui no matter how the furniture was arranged.
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Eight is also an important number atomically, as any given valence shell can only contain 8 electrons. Positively and negatively charged ions bond to other ions to reach 8 electrons between them. Until you get past the first three rows of the periodic table. Something similar holds in nuclear physics, which is why oxygen (with eight protons and eight neutrons) is one of the most stable and therefore common elements.
Eight also has both 2 and 4 as factors, so it's convenient for combining pairs of things with quadruplets of
Eight is also an important number in the Shinto religion of Japan. It is said in the creation myth that Izanagi-no-Mikoto and Izanami-no-Mikoto had a group of eight perfect children who became the islands of Japan. Another instance is in the belief that the kami (deities) represent all things, and are "countless", which in Japanese can be read as "eight million".
There's also a trend of [[Plot Coupons]] coming in groups of ''eight'' in [[Video Games]]; most notably the eight non-bonus worlds of pretty much every ''[[Mario]]'' game; as well as ''[[Mega Man (
'''Nine''' - Nine is the apex of the single digits, and thus the apex of worldly power. Appearances of this are usually sources of great power, since it's essentially a trio of [[Power Trio
Another facet of Nine is gestation , as in nine months, and thus it is closely associated with childbirth and fruition.
In Japanese culture, however, nine is often considered a cursed numeral because the word for it, "ku", is pronounced the same as the Japanese word for pain and suffering. Despite this, it does have connotations of power as well. Kitsune (fox spirits), for instance, wield magical powers whose strength and power are indicated by how many tails they have, and the maximum number of tails a Kitsune can have are nine tails (kyubi).
'''Ten''' - Since most people are born with ten fingers (which are the basis for beginning to count), ten is a comfortable number to express, either via powers of it or the number itself. It's extraordinarily popular for grouping, to the point that people will try to make things fit into a group of ten whether or not they'll fit. The entire Persian/Arabic numeral system (the one most Westerners use, because it's better than the Roman system) is based entirely on the number ten, as is the metric system. Tropes spawned of this shoehorning include [[Exty Years From Now]]. In certain numerologies, ten is also used as shorthand for 'lots'.
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'''Eleven''' - With ten as a maximum, eleven means [[Up to Eleven|going one step past the limit]] and breaking the rules. Conversely, thinking about it as the time on a clock has more or less the opposite meaning- "the eleventh hour" is the last hour before midnight and typically involves getting things done just on time. Being a symmetrical number can also bear some sinister connotations (see two, above).
'''Twelve''' - 1, 2, 3, 4, and 6 are all factors of this number, making it an early highly composite number. It symbolizes completeness as a result, and is easy to divide into smaller groups. It also has heavy mystic
Being "a dozen", it signifies the largest easily comprehensible small number; anything over "a dozen" can be rounded down in common parlance. Most non-decimal measurement systems are divisible by twelve ([[Pirate|pieces of eight]] being an exception).
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'''Thirteen''' - The number of full moons in a year, the number of people seated at the Last Supper, the traditional number of witches or Satanists in a coven, the age at which someone officially becomes a [[Teens Are Monsters|teenager]] etc. Bad medicine. Often not assigned to a house (it will be numbered 11A or 12A depending on the numbering system) or to a floor in a tower. [[The Eighties]]' Eagle comic strip ''The Thirteenth Floor'' featured a Holodeck run by the building's A.I. occupying the unlucky floor, seeing as how nobody wanted to live there. Also used to suggest certain words beginning with the letter M (the 13th letter of the alphabet).
[[Thirteen Is Unlucky|Thirteen has a long history of being unlucky]]; the Greek pantheon kicked out Hestia, goddess of the hearth, to make room for Dionysus, god of wine, in their circle of twelve; it was believed back then that having a thirteenth deity in the highest echelons of the pantheon would lead to ruin, and that alcohol was much more important on the sacred scale than the home. Judas Iscariot, the thirteenth attendee at the Last Supper, was the one who betrayed [[Jesus]], and it was believed that Jesus's crucifixion happened on Friday the
Note that Thirteen is one more than a dozen, and thus comprises "A Baker's Dozen", i.e. a little something extra. Whether this is an aversion or an invocation of thirteen's unluckiness (on the principle that someone will order no more than a dozen hot cross buns, [[Elite Mooks]], what have you) is hard to say. (The most widely held belief behind the reason for 13 being a baker's dozen is that the 13th roll, loaf, what-have-you, is intended as a redundancy in case one of the other twelve were somehow defective)
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There were also thirteen states at the time of the US Declaration of Independence, as commemorated by the thirteen stripes on the flag. The $1 bill has several references to the number thirteen: thirteen stripes on a shield, thirteen stars, a branch with thirteen leaves and thirteen berries, a sheaf of thirteen arrows, and the phrase "E Pluribus Unum" which contains thirteen letters. (The fact that 13 constantly crops up in American symbolism has led numerous conspiracy loons to theories of ever-increasing inanity. They always over look the simple explanation of thirteen states.)
Thirteen may also indicate a change in circumstances. The thirteenth member of a group of people may change them or bring them closer to some goal. (e.g. Roxas in the [[Kingdom Hearts]] series.) This is likely due to the meaning of the Death card in the Tarot, which is card number thirteen. Note: Misinterpretation of this meaning may also lead to thirteen bringing about death. (e.g. in ''[[
* Scott Lynch's novel ''[[Gentleman Bastard Sequence|The Lies of Locke Lamora]]'' plays with this trope. The city of Camorr has twelve official gods, and a nameless thirteenth god worshiped in secret by thieves and swindlers.
* The [[
* Don DeLillo's Underworld features characters consciously noticing the number 13 turning up in their lives, demonstrating the paranoid and self-defeating collective mind of the Cold War generation.
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Fifteen is an important number in Hispanic culture: A girl's 15th birthday signifies her transition into adulthood. This is usually celebrated in an extravagant manner, somewhat like a mini-wedding.
'''Sixteen''' - In many cultures, sixteen is the age when someone is considered an adult, or at least bestowed some adult privileges. In many countries and states it's the age of consent or the age when one can start learning to drive. The passage into adulthood usually means [[
'''Seventeen''' - In Italy, the number seventeen is considered to be at ''least'' as unlucky as ''thirteen'' because in Roman numerals, it's an anagram of the Latin word ''vixi'' which means "I have lived" which is the equivalent in Latin of meaning "I am dead" (the past tense of the word "live" meaning that one is no longer alive) making this superstition similar to the Asian cultural aversion to the number four.
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One of the number's more poignant connotations, however is a twenty-one gun salute. While it is a gesture of ''very'' deep respect, it is almost exclusively used as a salute in the context of a funeral or burial, and thus is often associated with mourning and bereavement.
'''Forty''' - In ancient literature, synonymous with ''"lots"''. Big in [[The Bible]]: "Forty days and forty nights", etc.
'''One Hundred And One, One Thousand And One''' etc. - Synonymous with ''"lots"'' for a modern audience.
'''[[108]]''' - see the entry.
'''187''' - Slang for murder. Comes from California Penal Code Section 187
There are other numbers which are said to have some significance either seriously or in jest ([[Dragaera|seventeen]], [[The Dark Tower|nineteen]], [[Illuminatus|twenty-three]], [[The Hitchhikers Guide to The Galaxy|forty-two]], and [[Star Trek|forty-seven]] are the most prominent).▼
'''2000''' - For most of the Twentieth Centiry, "2000" was synonymous with [[The Future]]. For [[Sarcasm Mode|some unexplained reason]], it [[Dead Horse Trope|abruptly dropped out of usage]] almost twenty years ago.
▲There are other numbers which are said to have some significance either seriously or in jest ([[Dragaera|seventeen]], [[The Dark Tower|nineteen]], [[Illuminatus|twenty-three]], [[The
Prime numbers in general are popular for the number of [[Plot Coupons]], especially three and seven.
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More examples can be found at [http://1kbwc.wikia.com/wiki/1000_Blank_White_Cards_Numbers the 1kbwc Wiki]
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{{examples}}
Here are some numbered tropes by number and type.
{| class="wikitable"
|-
| Number || '''
|-
| '''0''' || [[My Hero Zero]], [[0% Approval Rating]] || || ||
|-
|-
|| '''5''' || [[Five-Man Band]], [[Five-Bad Band]], [[Five Races]], [[Five Token Band]] || [[Five Rounds Rapid]], [[Element Number Five]] || [[Five Stages of Grief]] ||[[Defcon Five]], [[Five Stages of Grief]], [[Five Five Five]], [[Big Five Personality Traits]] ||▼
|-
|| '''7''' || [[Magnificent Seven]], [[Seven Is Nana]] || || || [[Rule of Seven]], [[Seven Deadly Sins]], [[Seven Heavenly Virtues]], [[Seven Basic Conflicts]] ||▼
|-
| '''4''' || [[Four-Temperament Ensemble]], [[Four-Girl Ensemble]] || || [[The Four Loves]] || [[Four Is Death]], [[The Four Gods]], [[Four Point Scale]]
|-
▲
|-
| '''6''' || [[Six-Student Clique]], [[Sixth Ranger]], [[Sixth Ranger Traitor]] || || || [[Number of the Beast]]
|-
▲
|-
| '''?''' || [[I Am Legion]] || [[Infinity+1 Sword]] || [[Love Dodecahedron]] || [[108]], [[Exty Years From Now]], [[Million-to-One Chance]], [[Readings Are Off the Scale]]
|}
{{reflist}}
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[[Category:Number Tropes]]
[[Category:Motifs]]
[[Category:
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