History Main / CreatingLife

* ''Manga/GushingOverMagicalGirls'': The main character can imbue life into inanimate object with a strike of her wand, turning them into monsters to do her bidding.

The act of creating life is a central part of many works. This goes for creating life in general and for intelligent life, biological or otherwise, in particular. The act can be portrayed in many ways, such as these subtropes:

[[folder:Anime and Manga]]

* One of the most notorious things the [[BigBad Black Wizard Zeref]] of ''Manga/FairyTail'' is known for his creation of an entire race of [[OurDemonsAreDifferent demons]] that have wrecked havoc across the world for hundreds of years. [[spoiler:It turns out Zeref perfected the art as both a method of [[DeathSeeker creating something strong enough to kill him]] and as the latest in his attempts to [[BackFromTheDead raise the dead]]. The final result of said project, the ultimate demon and the reason he started down his path in the first place, is [[TheHero Natsu Dragneel]], his revived younger brother.]]

* The main character of ''Manga/GushingOverMagicalGirls'' can imbue life into inanimate object with a strike of her wand, turning them into monsters to do her bidding.

* In ''Fanfic/WithStringsAttached'', on a quest to restore monsters to Baravada, Brox discovers a spell that will transform inorganic items into living creatures. Later, Paul is unwillingly taught the spell.
** The "Legendary Life Spell" turns out to be a valuable trade good when the four return to C'hou in ''Fanfic/TheKeysStandAlone: The Soft World'', so Paul casts it a few times to make sure he remembers how, then dumps the resultant little creations into the sewer to (hopefully) thrive there. Also, simply mentioning it intrigues the skahs enough that they actually have a long conversation with the four.
* "[[https://www.fanfiction.net/s/6263444/1/Transition Transition]]" has [[WesternAnimation/TeenTitans Raven and Jinx]] gaining godlike power and experimenting with it. Ironically Jinx decides CreatingLifeIsBad after her first attempt didn't last very long while Raven thinks CreatingLifeIsAwesome.

* In ''Franchise/StarWars Episode III: Film/RevengeOfTheSith'', Chancellor Palpatine makes a claim that the Sith Lord Darth Plagueis had the ability to create life.

* In the ''Literature/ChroniclesOfThomasCovenant'', the ur-viles and waynhim were artificial living beings created by the Demondim, who were themselves created by the Viles. Their motivations for doing so are explained in detail in the ''Last Chronicles''- the Viles (incorporeal spirits) were manipulated into self-loathing by [[BigBad Lord Foul]], and so determined to create the Demondim to be something totally different from themselves (undead beings). The Demondim in turn inherited their progenitors self-loathing, and decided to create creatures entirely different from ''them''selves, with the result being ur-viles and waynhim (corporeal living beings). The two races are physically almost identical, but took radically different approaches to dealing with their artificial nature, something about themselves which they found repellant- the waynhim dedicated themselves to the service of the Land and its people, while the ur-viles teamed up with Lord Foul and dedicated themselves to sharing their misery with the rest of the world (in the hopes that if they did well enough, Foul would [[DeathSeeker destroy them]]). [[spoiler: However, after Foul's defeat in the First Chronicles, the ur-viles decided that this was a poor strategy, and became Wild Cards (in the Second Chronicles) and eventually allies (in the Third)]].
* In the novel ''[[Literature/{{Frankenstein}} Frankenstein: A Modern Prometheus]]'' from 1818 and 1831, it is left ambiguous whether creating the creature was actually a bad thing or not. The creature suffers (and subsequently causes suffering to his creator), not because it was created but because the creator abandoned it afterwards. The story can be read in in many ways, unlike most of the (usually extremely heavy-handed) genre it spawned.
** Is Doctor Frankenstein a bad scientist (who did a bad experiment), a bad father (who abandoned the son he had created), or a bad God (who cast out his creation at first provocation... Just like the Yahveh of Literature/TheBible, but unlike the Allah of Literature/TheQuran - who instead forgave Adam and sent him out as a prophet rather than an outcast)? Well, that's something you'll just have to decide for yourself. Most re-tellings of the story will make the choice for you, however, by simply declaring that ScienceIsBad, period, and putting AlwaysChaoticEvil stamps all over the place.
* In ''Literature/TheHitchhikersGuideToTheGalaxy1'', an alien civilization created at least one sentient supercomputer, Deep Thought, for the purpose of answering philosophical questions regarding the meaning of life, the universe and everything.
* In ''Literature/BlackLegion'', Fabious Bile creates dozens upon dozens of forms of life, mostly fusions of xeno, human and daemonic. His crowning achievement is [[spoiler:successfully cloning the Primarchs themselves]].

[[folder:Live Action TV]]
* Averted in the ''Series/StarTrekEnterprise'' episode "Dead Stop". The ArtificialIntelligence controlling a SpaceStation abducts a crewmember and leaves a replicated corpse in his place to hide this. The ship's doctor however realises something is wrong because the microbiotic organisms in the bloodstream, which take a while to die out, are also dead.
-->'''Phlox:''' It's ironic, in a way. The station can duplicate a dead human body in all its exquisite detail, but a living, simple one-celled organism is beyond its capability.
[[/folder]]

* ''TabletopGame/{{Space 1889}}'' has artificial life as a possible invention. It is unexpectedly undramatic and is described as having applications for agriculture and simple labour.

* In ''VideoGame/SidMeiersAlphaCentauri'', your civilization will create intelligent life (unless you actively avoid those tech trees), and this is not part of the characterization of your faction. You may be awesome or horrible, honest or hypocrite, religious or unproblematically secular... In either case, you will create sentient life.
* This is the point of ''VideoGame/EvolveIdle''. Evolve from primordial ooze to a fully sentient race that grows and evolves and advances technologically. Eventually (likely after a few [[ApocalypseHow MAD resets]]) the players race can build a bioseeder ship to seed a new planet with life of their design to leave behind a lasting legacy.
* In ''VideoGame/LuminousArc2'', the reason Mage Queen Elicia was cast to Arthania [[spoiler:is because she attempted to create life to replace the children that she couldn't save while she was working as a nurse]].

* In ''VideoGame/QuestForGloryIV'' and ''VideoGame/QuestForGloryV'', we have Scientists creating life, Frankenstein style. While the ones in the fifth game falls squarely in the traditional CreatingLifeIsBad camp, the one in the fourth game is portrayed as morally neutral. Trying to do the right thing in ways that are sometimes misguided but not overly so.
* Several species of Franchise/{{Pokemon}} were artificially created by humans.

* Absolutely downplayed in ''ComicBook/FantasticFour''. Reed Richards has created a unicellular form of life that lived for some seconds, in his free time... but let's not give it a second thought, because the police just informed about the villain of the week.
* In ''ComicBook/{{Superman}}'' story ''ComicBook/HowLuthorMetSuperboy'', young Lex Luthor manages to create an artificial, protoplasmic lifeform. However, his artificial being gets accidentally destroyed when ComicBook/{{Superboy}} puts out a fire consuming his laboratory, Lex convinces himself that Superboy ruined his discovery deliberately, and swears revenge.

The act of creating life is a central part of many works. This goes for creating life in general and for intelligent life, biological or otherwise, in particular. The act can be portrayed in many ways, such as:

* CreatingLifeIsBad (also known as PlayingGod)