History Main / RuleOfSymbolism

** At the dinner table in "Valar Dohaeris", Margaery Tyrell and her brother Loras are seated next to each other, while Queen Cersei and her son King Joffrey are positioned at the opposite ends. To maintain symmetry, the Tyrell siblings would normally have been placed across from each other. Not surprisingly, Margaery and Loras are a harmonious BrotherSisterTeam, whereas Cersei and Joffrey exchange veiled insults against each other.

*** Season 3: Daenerys Targaryen (of a family strongly associated with fire) frees the slaves of Yunkai, a city that is located in a desert (fire), (mundane).
*** Season 4: Arya Stark (of a family strongly associated with ice) sails (on water, aka ice) away from Westeros. (ice), (mundane).
** In "Winter Is Coming", the Starks find a stag and a direwolf MutualKill. This is seen as a disturbing omen in-universe. The direwolf also has six pups which map directly onto the Stark children (including HeroicBastard Jon Snow, who gets an albino that was separated). Theon is also quick to accept the idea of killing the pups, which foreshadows his future.
** Tywin Lannister is introduced in "You Win Or You Die" butchering a stag (the sigil of House Baratheon) while his army assembles for what will become the War of the Five Kings. A DeletedScene from Season 3 also shows Tywin catching fish (the sigil of House Tully).
** In the midst of a melee, it is NonActionGuy MagnificentBastard Littlefinger who holds a knife to Ned's throat to underscore his backstabbing.

** The house sigil of House Baratheon of King's Landing is a quartering (the process of combining sigils; specifically, two sigils are ''impaled'' -- i.e. given equal space) of the Baratheon Stag and the Lannister Lion -- and yet the tail of the Lion hovers menacingly above the Stag's own field -- subtly emphasizing that it is really House Lannister calling the shots behind them.

* Invoked in a ''Literature/SecretHistories'' novel when an ordinary butterfly is on auction for a staggering sum because it was captured under ''just'' the right circumstances to make it a perfect symbol of chaos theory, potentially giving its owner power over the very concept of ForWantOfANail... and then the field [[TimeStandsStill suspending it in time]] is broken, and an ordinary butterfly carries on its way.

* The Greek poet and [[UsefulNotes/NobelPrizeInLiterature Literature Nobel Prize winner]] Odysseas Elytis once attended a celebration in his honor, where samples of his work were read and then had their meaning analyzed in detail by distinguished scholars. When his turn came to speak and thank everybody, he put his tongue in his cheek and gave special credit to the scholars for finding more depth to his poetry than even he had thought of.

* The book of Revelation/The Apocalypse of St. John in ''Literature/TheBible'': 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").

* In the first ''Literature/{{Harry Potter|and the Philosophers Stone}}'' book, Harry [[spoiler:is trapped by [[TheDragon Professor Quirrel]], but Quirrel is unable to kill Harry because [[ThePowerOfLove the love from Harry's mother, who sacrificed herself to save him]] had a lasting effect on him that prevented a loveless, heartless person like Quirrel from being able to touch him.]] Normally, this could be seen as a flawed DeusExMachina ending, but the symbolism of Lily Potter's love, and the moral message that it brings to readers, makes this more than acceptable. It helps that it's not simply dropped, and remains a major plot element throughout the series. In fact, we later find out that [[spoiler:there are are at least ''six'' different factors involved that had never been combined before.]]

*** Asya and Volkan shared their first kiss in a white rose garden, so she plants a couple of bushes in her garden to remind her of her love story. Both in the opening sequence and pre-divorce shots (and flashbacks), Asya is seen lovingly tending to them. Volkan's absence in those shots represents how he's no longer partaking in that sincere love and happy life. Asya is the only one in Heaven because she doesn't know her husband is having an extramarital affair.

** [[spoiler:When Yuji deals a decisive blow to Mahito and the latter realizes he's about to be killed, he attempts to flee. The scene is compared to an injured rabbit fleeing from a pack of wolves in a snowstorm.]]

* ''Fanfic/GreySkiesUniverse'': With the AmericaIsStillAColony setting, it's mentioned in passing in the first installment that America's voice finally died on the day UsefulNotes/ThomasJefferson, the primary author of the Declaration of Independence, was hanged, rendering him mute. Given how NationsAsPeople work in Hetalia...

** Arlene, the coffee-themed shopper looks alot like a mug of steaming coffee, and actively will not stop talking until the occasional coffee withdrawal, only perking back up with another sip, [[MustHaveCaffeine essentaily being addicted]]. The protagonist avoids this fate by getting a pack of decaf, witch lets him enjoy coffee without having to worry about addiction.

* In the ''[[Series/Charmed1998 Charmed]]'' fic "[[https://www.fanfiction.net/s/8098004/1/Charmed-Alternate Charmed Alternate]]", Paige's powers are activated at the time as Prue, Piper and Phoebe's as she and Piper became friends shortly after Grams' death and she was in the house when Phoebe cast the spell, Paige gaining [[BarrierWarrior the power to generate a forcefield]] as a 'new' power since the three foretold powers are already present. When the Halliwells first vocally affirm that they all consider Paige their sister even before knowing of their biological relationship, the Triquetra on the cover of the Book of Shadows changes to include an extra circle surrounding the three points, which Piper concludes is intended to represent Paige just as the Triquetra itself represents the Power of Three.
* In ''Fanfic/TheConfectionaryChronicles'', when Slytherin Hermione- who has spent years as essentially the high priestess of Loki (''Series/{{Supernatural}}'')- engages in a duel with Draco Malfoy, Loki’s children later note the symbolism of her summoning a black mamba to attack Malfoy, as a muggle-born attacking a pure-blood with the symbol of Slytherin is a clear display of which of them ‘deserves’ to be in this house.

** Several Colonials take this as a sign when Earth is asked to bring its ‘world animal’ and ‘world bird’ with them; the owl chosen to represent Earth eats all twelve of the signature birds of the other colonies when it’s put in a cage with them (the Colonies’ world birds all being songbirds rather than predators), and the wolves chosen as Earth’s world animal are slaughtered as a symbolic early stage of the war.
** After Aquaria is ‘accidentally’ destroyed by a Tau’ri weapon, some argue that the continued existence of a statue of Hermes on the planet shows that the Colonials must keep fighting as the Lords of Kobol will help them survive, but Sharon Valerii (still unaware of her Cylon status) offers the observation that it could also be a reflection of the fate that will await them if they don’t stop fighting.

*** Zeus=William Adama as the fleet’s benevolent yet powerful leader.
*** Hera=Laura Roslin as the fleet’s female ruler, who can be ruthless when the situation calls for it.

*** Athena=Sharon “Boomer” Valerii.

* ''Webcomic/TheLastDaysOfFOXHOUND'' uses this in-universe. When the characters are watching one of the last scenes of ''VideoGame/MetalGearSolid3SnakeEater'', the white flowers in a field turn red in a dramatic moment. Decoy Octopus questions the reason for such a phenomenon, only to be told it doesn't matter.

* In ''Fanfic/AThingOfVikings'', it is noted that dragon attacks in China are interpreted as symbolic of the emperor losing their heaven's mandate of their right to rule.

** The "Allegories" sculptures are {{Anthropomorphic Personification}}s of a concept tied to the Medicis' beliefs in Alchemy and the cyclic nature of time.

* Creator/FridaKahlo's paintings tend to involve a lot of symbolism, especially the ones when herself and her feelings in them (i.e ''[[https://www.khanacademy.org/humanities/art-1010/art-between-wars/latin-american-modernism1/a/kahlo-the-two-fridas-las-dos-fridas Las Dos Fridas]]'' being an example, symbolizing her feelings during a divorce from her husband Diego Rivera ).

* ''Manga/FullmetalAlchemist'''s Truth loves putting in symbolism when it punishes alchemists for their hubris.

** [[spoiler:Roy Mustang, despite being forced through the gate, was a man of great vision]]. Truth took their eyesight.

** In ''Manga/GoldenWind'' [[spoiler:Narancia]]'s death precedes their [[FightingSpirit Stand]] flying into the air for an extended period of time before disintegrating, leaving Fugo to notice, symbolic of their relationship with eachother. That Stand does not have enough range to have been seen by Fugo who was at the other side of Italy. In addition, Giorno is the character that keeps the group in good spirits and preserves both their and [[spoiler:Abbachio]]'s corpse with vines using his Stand so they do not decay before their funeral. Although vines would do absolutely nothing to prevent a corpse from decaying and may actually accelerate the process.