Messianic Archetype

"And lo, Jesus said unto them: thou shalt make many fictional characters in My likeness."

Kaladin: I'm putting it all on the long bet. If I die, then they'll come out, shake their heads, and tell themselves they knew it would happen. But if I live, they'll remember it. And it will give them hope. They might see it as a miracle.
Syl: Do you want to be a miracle?
Kaladin: No. But for them, I will be.

— The Way of Kings (2010)

While the word "messiah" has different meanings in different cultures and there have been dozens of claimants to the title according to Wikipedia, for most Western intents and purposes, the term has been Hijacked by Jesus, with Jesus becoming the Trope Maker.

In media, the Messianic Archetype is a character whose role in the story (but not necessarily personality) echoes that of Christ. They are portrayed as a savior, whether the thing they are saving is a person, a lot of people or the whole of humanity. They endure a sizable sacrifice as the means of bringing that salvation about for others, a fate they do not deserve up to and including death or a Fate Worse than Death. Other elements may be mixed and matched as required but the Messianic Archetype will include one or more of the following:

• The Chosen One
• True Companions who follow him
• Betrayal by one of those followers
• Persecution by nonbelievers
• Crucified Hero Shot (or other parallels to the Passion Play)
• Figurative or literal resurrection
• A Second Coming
• Literally having the initials 'J.C.'
• The Redeemer
• Dressing like Jesus

Some takes on what makes a Messianic Archetype include All-Loving Hero, the Dark Messiah (the extreme Anti-Hero version), The Antichrist, the False Prophet (the lying scammer version), and the Anti-Anti-Christ. However, keep in mind that All-Loving Hero and the Messianic Archetype are not synonymous. All-Loving Hero is about a character type with certain personality traits. The Messianic Archetype is about the role the character has in the events of the plot and can have any personality traits, even overtly villainous ones. Even spawns of The Devil themselves can be Messianic Archetypes (such as the more messianic versions of the Anti-Anti-Christ).

It's also not necessary for the archetypal character to be even remotely Christian. The Ur Examples include Osiris (Egyptian) and Inanna (ancient Mesopotamia and the actual city of Ur) making this trope Older Than They Think.

This trope is the good counterpart to the The Antichrist, which are characters inspired by the being of the same name as portrayed in the Book of Revelation^note though the book itself only refers to him as "The Beast".

Those who fall into this archetype are often Allegorical Characters. See Away in a Manger for Nativity parallels at an earlier point on the life timeline. Compare Madonna Archetype, Moses Archetype, Pietà Plagiarism, Crystal Dragon Jesus. Contrast Faux Symbolism. See A Protagonist Shall Lead Them for the pre-Christian model of "messiah".

Remember that while many Messiahs die (and many then come back to life), this is still not a Death Trope, so spoilers should still be marked. noreallife

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Examples:

Anime & Manga

• The most obvious example of this in AKIRA is, of course, the titular character, a godlike psychic mutant child whose extraordinary power could mean the end of the world as easily as its utter salvation; in the end, he 'dies' to create a new universe to contain his own and Tetsuo's man-made superpowers. Bonus points for his frothing-at-the-mouth cult following and his short resurrection in the movie.
  • More subtly, Kaori also fits the archetype nicely; she's a quietly suffering All-Loving Hero who offers her forgiveness to the resident Satanic Archetype Tetsuo, consistently preventing The End of the World as We Know It in doing so, despite the constant mistreatment she suffers from him; she's quite literally shot in the back by traitors and Tetsuo temporarily brings her spirit back, but it doesn't last. For the rest of his time in the manga, he carries her in his arms and mourns; her death incites the Superpower Meltdown that allows him to finally be defeated.
• This is being rather horrifically subverted in the Berserk manga; the people of Midland are suffering. The plague is decimating the populace. Bandits groups — the remnants of mercenaries left without livelihood because of the end of the Hundred Years War — are preying on the people. The heart of Midland, the great capital city of Wyndham, itself has been assailed by the horrible demonic Kushan Empire. The Demon Emperor Ganeshka of the Kushan Empire has the Princess Charlotte captive and intends to marry her to legitimize his conquest. However, a dream is had in common every night by the entire nation, of the Hawk of Light, the White Hawk which burns away the darkness, and is acknowledged as a miracle and an omen even by the Holy See. When the White Hawk finally does arrive, he is both beautiful and powerful, rescuing the princess from the Demon Emperor of the Kushan Empire, and saving the forces of the Holy See from being utterly annihilated with his great Band of the Hawk, which consists of both Apostles, superhuman soldiers which can each destroy legions single-handedly, and of the common men. The heroes and the common people both support him, for his deeds are both kind and miraculous. One problem though; the messiah is really Griffith, now named Femto, a demonic demigod, the aforementioned Apostles are demons as well, and it was established earlier in the manga that he is going to save the world just to drop it even further into darkness (if that is even possible). To make it even worse, it's implied that he is the legitimate Messiah as well.
  • Guts, however, is becoming a straight example. Farnese decides to follow Guts after seeing his strength of will during the events at Albion, where he fought off a horde of demons while everyone else simply panicked. Isidro admires Guts' martial skill and strives to be as much like him as possible. Schierke grows a crush on him and her experiences with him change her misanthropic viewpoint that humanity is not worth saving. Even Serpico, who is initially a rival of Guts', slowly grows to admire him.
• Chrono and Rosette of Chrono Crusade share duties for this, in a way. Chrono falls in love with a woman known as Mary Magdalene and after her death sleeps in her grave for 50 years until he's woken up by Joshua and Rosette. Rosette, on the other hand, is spending her lifespan to give Chrono his powers and in the manga does eventually die from it...but comes back to life partially through sheer force of will and partially with the help of Mary's soul. In the anime this is made even more obvious when Rosette receives stigmata marks that allow her to heal people and harm demons. Both her and Chrono die at the end of the series and don't come back to life...although Aion does.
• Lelouch Lamperouge in Code Geass often compares himself to a Messiah who produces miracles and can be seen as a Messianic Archetype at the end of the series. Or more accurately, a Dark Messiah. He redirected all the entire world's hatred upon himself so that the world may be united against him as a common enemy, causing peace. His "dark" aspects come from his deep love for his friends (and younger sisters in particular), but to strangers too — to the point where he becomes ruthlessly vengeful against those who threaten the innocent.
• Daimos: With his long blonde hair, wings and resemblance to archangel Michael, Richter can pass off as this. It helps that he's already under the (misguided) belief that he's doing right by his people. Which makes The Reveal that he's been leading them into further doom all the more tragic.
• Death Note:
  • L, despite being a Magnificent Bastard, gets some of this symbolism in the anime. When L figures out Light is about to kill him, he gives Light a foot massage that looks suspiciously like a reference to Jesus washing Judas's feet. The shot of Light holding L's dead body has shades of Pietà Plagiarism. He is symbolically resurrected through Mello and Near.
• Son Goku of Dragon Ball. The guy came to Earth from the stars, saved the world three times before he turned twenty. Gave his life twice for the Earth and is described as like an angel by his friends and family. This is more evident in the English dub. During the Frieza Saga, Goku refers to himself as "Justice, peace, light, and truth". This isn't present in the original manga, however. The fifth movie Cooler's Revenge was even more blatant in portraying Goku as Christ-like as he resurrects a bird with his Healing Hands. Played With, however, in that despite his heroic qualities, he's obsessed with fighting and usually prioritises it over helping others, in some cases allowing enemies to reach stronger forms just for a better fight once the time comes, even giving one of their group's limited healing items to a villain just so, when he tags in someone else, they can have a full fight. These Mr. Vice Guy tropes are heavily toned down in the original English dub, where his priorities are more in line with saving people... at least, where it can be.
• Fist of the North Star
  • Toki. When given the power of the Hokuto arts, he uses them for healing instead of harming and often performs miracles for sick people. When he has to kill, he uses a technique that causes the victims to experience great euphoria as they die. He even looks like Jesus, too.
  • Shu; he bears a cross of stone to his death for the sake of one hundred innocents.
  • Yuria, who bears the Star of the Mother, heals the villain's troops and bandages the villain, and voluntarily agrees to die when Ken-Oh wants to kill her.
  • Kenshiro himself is the strongest source of goodness in the series and one of the first things he does with his Healing Hands is cure a girl's muteness and another woman's blindness later.
• Freezing: Chiffon Fairchild becomes one at the end of the E-Pandora Arc. After Amelia transforms into a Nova, Chiffon tries to convince her to forgive the Chevalier for plotting to dispose of her and the rest of the E-Pandora when they outlived their usefulness to them, arguing that the Chevalier couldn't help themselves because they're only human. When Amelia refuses and begins to self-destruct, Chiffon performs a Heroic Sacrifice and absorbs the explosion at the cost of her life, explaining that she will take on Amelia's punishment, which humanity deserves, in order to protect her True Companions.
• Happy Sugar Life has Shouko Hida. Shouko is the only morally upright character in a world infested with mentally disturbed psychopaths, and is very compassionate, taking it upon herself to free her best friend Satou Matsuzaka from the darkness in her life, only to get stabbed to death. Shouko is also the only character in the manga and anime series who performed a true act of love by snapping a picture of Satou and Shio and texting it to Asahi at the cost of her life.
• Hanyuu from Higurashi: When They Cry is an interesting example. She used to be a Messianic Archetype, to the point where she had her daughter ritually sacrifice her as atonement for the sins of the inhabitants of Onigafuchi, but has since come to reject her former philosophy. She now believes that people cannot atone for their sins through the sacrifice of others.
• Touya in In Another World with My Smartphone. It's actually God's choice to send him to the world that needed him most. And considering he helps lots of people (including freeing slaves) and stops two assassination plots to usurp the throne, multiple coups (one involving undead uprising) and Fraze/Phrase invasions, he's pretty much that world's savior. It also helps that he's a Nice Guy. can use healing magic, nice to children (and occasionally makes toys new in that world), he's a demigod and is considered as God's adopted grandson.
• Etienne from Innocents Shounen Juujigun is designed to be this. The whole story is about his adventure as God's chosen child, and he goes on said adventure with an intentionally chosen twelve "disciples". Later, he is betrayed by one of said disciples, decreed a heretic by the church, captured and executed (after many failed attempts at killing him), and has his body mounted on a stake and displayed as an example. He also reincarnates as his own son, and goes on to play a major part in ending The Crusades.
• JoJo's Bizarre Adventure:
  • Jonathan Joestar, the protagonist of Phantom Blood, fits this trope, being an All-Loving Hero who meets his end via a Heroic Sacrifice.
  • Golden Wind:
    • The Part's protagonist, Giorno Giovanna, can best be described as an Anti-Heroic version of this trope. He's the son of DIO, whose name is the Italian word for "God", he gains a group of followers, who he inspires with his determination and ideals to take action, his Stand, Gold Experience, has the ability to heal and bring life to objects, and his ultimate enemy, Diavolo, whose name is the Italian word for "Devil", is, rather fittingly, a Satanic Archetype.
    • Scolippi is also one of these, being one of the few genuinely good people in a Part filled with characters that range from morally ambiguous to downright evil. His appearance being an obvious allusion to Christ probably helps.
• Shiro, the Silver King in K — he doesn't strike one as the type to fill this role at first. As his follower, Kuroh, says, he is "just hopeless, lazy, irresponsible, cowardly, and lacks commitment... yet, I find myself wanting to stand by his side and fight for him." He mostly fills the "salvation" and "resurrection" elements of this. Like Lelouch, he's an All-Loving Hero except to those who threaten the ones he loves the most.
• Mobile Suit Gundam SEED Destiny: PLANT Chairman Gilbert Durandal certainly sees himself as this, and puts a huge amount of effort into convincing the world of it as well. It helps that his main opposition are so Obviously Evil that he's looked at as a saint just for fighting them. When he puts his Utopia Justifies the Means project into action, he even names his Kill Sat equipped space station "Messiah" just in case anyone still had any doubts.
• Monster: Tenma, who takes him upon himself to save everyone around him through great personal sacrifice. Justified, in that the Big Bad of the series, Johan, really is the worst person ever, and is sometimes referred to by other characters in the series as the Second Hitler, The Antichrist and the Devil himself.
• William of Moriarty the Patriot is a Dark Messiah version often compared directly to Jesus by others, and hoping to bear the sins of removing evil from the world himself and die to save everyone else
• The titular character from Naruto. Let's count his Messiah credentials... He is The Chosen One by prophecy. He has a number of devoted followers. He's persecuted for most of his early life for being a Jinchuriki. He's technically dead with Kurama extracted from him and is about to be revived to save the world and most especially he is the reincarnation of the youngest son of the Sage of Six Paths, AKA the God of Shinobi, who was chosen as the Sage's successor.
• The titular character from the film version of Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind, who starts out as a Nice Girl and eventually becomes an ardently pacifistic crusader who just wants everyone to get along instead of allowing humanity's destructive nature to unleash a Gaia's Vengeance nobody can survive. The climax even has her sacrificing herself to protect her people, followed by her resurrection and a new era of peace, which was foretold by prophecy. This is averted in the manga, where, while still heroic, Nausicaa is a considerably more flawed and morally complex character.
• Neon Genesis Evangelion:
  • Shinji also has some Messianic elements, but really doesn't want to be one of these, but ended up acting as the channel for all the souls of humanity, along with Rei and Yui who had let herself be trapped in Eva-01. The parallel goes as far as Shinji forgiving everyone and deciding to redeem them, despite all the shit the world put him through.
  • As in Rebuild of Evangelion, this is definitely Kaworu "He Died for Your Sins" Nagisa^note oddly enough, he was based on The Mysterious Stranger's Satan more than ever: a crown of thorn analogue, Mark 06 Bible reference, walking on water (the game spin offs of Rebuild), literally carrying Shinji's sin and representing the hope for salvation and redemption. There's a song of Shinji's mindset that compares our protagonist to Judas hilariously.
• One Piece:
  • Portgas D. Ace out of all characters fits this bill. Not only is Ace the son of the Greater-Scope Paragon and god-like figure Gold D Roger, but Ace has a cross tattooed on his back, uses a cross symbol in his attacks and in the Arc War Marineford Ace gives his life for Luffy. Essentially Ace died for the sins of the previous era and even long past his death he is immortalized by his loved ones.
  • Kozuki Oden although he’s based off Real Life Outlaw Ishikawa Goemon, very quickly becomes a Jesus-analogue in the Wano Flash Back. He’s considered a radical among his people, he gains a group of followers and travels the world, at the end of his journey he is executed by the corrupt people of his country and performs a Heroic Sacrifice which saves all his followers, and long after he is gone people to regard him as a symbol of hope and righteous goodness. Also to hammer the point home, one of his most loyal followers (Kanjuro) betrays him much like Judas. In the present day, Ascended Fanboy and a self-proclaimed Oden, Yamato even refers to Oden's Journal as their bible.
  • The Sun God Nika is a mythological being said to embody freedom itself, and someone who frees the oppressed and the enslaved, predictably he is worshipped amongst slaves. It later turns out that Nika and the mysterious Joy Boy connected to Gol D. Roger are one and the same, and that there is a prophecy that Joy Boy - and by extention Nika - would reappear in the present...in the form of Luffy's awakened form, as his Devil Fruit turns out to have never been a Gum-Gum fruit - but the Human-Human Fruit Model: Nika.
• Himeno, as the White Prétear, falls into this archetype at the end of the series. She puts her heart and soul into saving the Dark Magical Girl and accomplishes it by feeding all of her life energy to the demon that Fenrir created. This causes her to fall into a deep sleep, but since this is based loosely on "Snow White", True Love's Kiss wakes her up.
• In the prologue of Princess Tutu, we're told a fairytale about a good Prince and an evil Raven who were locked in a furious battle. The fairytale was unfinished because the writer had died in the middle of writing the tale, but the Prince and Raven escaped the story so as to finish their battle. In the end, the Prince used forbidden magic to stab himself in the heart and shatter it, which sealed away the Raven at the cost of the Prince's personality and emotions. The story revolves around the Prince — Mytho — having his heart restored piece by piece by the titular magical girl.
• Madoka in Puella Magi Madoka Magica is a selfless omnibenevolent and pure Moe girl who suffered temptation under the Incubator, and would always try to put her friends before her own life, but Homura, the analogue of St. Peter, kept preventing her from doing so to make her continue to live for herself ("Get thee behind me Satan"). In the finale, Madoka takes all the multiplying Debt of Despair and suffering of all Magical Girls at every point in Space and Time into herself, preventing their mutation into the very abominations they fought against, and then becomes a Goddess of hope and compassion but at the cost of her eternal punishment of absorbing the despair of the Universe with her own hands. Made more effective by the fact that the Ending was premiered on the Real Life Good Friday 2011. However, unlike the classical depiction of the Messianic Archetype, which depicted the Messiah vanquishing the Satan figure (Incubator) to annihilation or eternal torture, Madoka recognized that the Incubator gave mankind civilization, and without them, we would still be naked and living in caves, which was why, despite not liking it herself, she let them exist while she bore the fallout of despair created by their civilization into herself. There are also alternative timelines in the series where she assumes a Messiah role from the very start especially if you ask Homura.
  • The movie fulfills the 'betrayal' aspect of this trope for poor Madoka, and unlike many other examples of this trope, the effects of Homura's betrayal stick. The messiah loses...at least for the moment.
• Deconstructed in Revolutionary Girl Utena. Anthy was killed by an angry mob when she tried to protect her brother, came back to life and has to bear the sins of humanity from then on. However, the anime shows that someone who is defined solely by sacrifice, suffering and martyrdom will eventually be warped into a bitter shadow of themselves. Furthermore, taking on someone else's sins and burdens does nothing good to them, as it generates guilt and eventually resentment and teaches that they can avoid consequences.
• Oscar de Jarjayes in The Rose of Versailles. She even has a December 25th birthday, has 12 "disciples" and dies at age 33.
• Ryu's Path: Ryu has an insane number of supernatural skills, can communicate telepathically, assembles a group of loyal followers, proclaims that he will fight the wicked and protect the weak, and is hailed by many survivors as their hope for the future and an actual messiah.
• Usagi Tsukino in Sailor Moon. Who is even called the Messiah in Sailor Moon S and for the duration of that series possesses an item called the "Holy Grail." Though the religious names were removed from The '90s US dub, the actual plot elements were kept. In the ending of Season 1 — She uses the silver crystal to defeat Metalia, dies, and makes a wish on the crystal that she, Mamouru, and the other senshi be returned to life as normal people. That doesn't last long...
• Saori Kido, the reincarnation of Athena in Saint Seiya has more in common with Jesus Christ rather than her mythological counterpart, mostly due to her willingness to sacrifice herself in order to protect earth and mankind from the other Jerkass Gods. In the fourth movie, she and her saints battle against Lucifer in order to save Earth.
• Seraph of the End:
  • Mikaela Hyakuya has a name that means Godlike, and is literally a Seraph. He also counts as immortal as he's a vampire
  • Gilbert Chartres, Crowley's comrade from the light novels. He is a religious Christian and everyone looks up to him as a leader, has True Companions that follow him and is betrayed by one of his followers. Oh, and he's a part of THOSE guys
• Yoh Asakura from Shaman King is practically Jesus Christ in human form. He is extremely kind, has a heart of pure gold, believes in the goodness of everyone, and always puts EVERYONE above himself, even his enemies. His example is so strong that he literally changes practically every major villain in the series, no matter how evil, into a good guy.
• Considering that Kirito from Sword Art Online often goes up against Satanic Archetypes, it's unsurprising he would be this.
  • In Fairy Dance, Sugou is the Satanic Archetype in the setting, having stolen an entire Virtual World and declared himself as God. Kirito is only able to beat Sugou with Divine Intervention from Kayaba the real God of this setting, by giving Kirito the tools he needs to take the bastard down.
  • In Alicization, Kirito defeats Quinella, the Immortal Ruler and tyrant of the Human Empire (and another Satanic Archetype), but at the cost of becoming an Empty Shell in the process. Later on, when Gabriel who is a God-Emperor and yet another Satanic Archetype arrives (aided by Vassago, another Satanic Archetype dating back to Aincrad), it takes Kirito returning from being brain-dead much like Christ's resurrection, to harness all of the belief of the people of the world to defeat this new threat. More fittingly, Kirito's recovery and victory over Vassago and his forces and later Gabriel fits in with the Second Coming of Christ and his victory against Satan and his forces in the Final Battle in the Book of Revelation.
• D-boy or Takaya Aiba from Tekkaman Blade is a Jerk with a Heart of Gold version this combined with Fantastic Racism and being treated as nothing but mere weapons and experimental subject by the military. (Although, when you actually see his backstory, his Jerkass tendency is VERY justified.) Humanity's savior? Check. Endured a sizable sacrifice? Check. Fate he does not deserve? TRIPLE CHECK!
• Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann: Kamina died for our sins! And Simon follows in his footsteps once he starts power-leveling in badassery. By the end of the series, the entire universe is calling out his name in joy, and while he doesn't die, he chooses to become a nameless hermit.
• In Trigun, Vash the Stampede is obviously a clear-cut Christ-analogue, being an All-Loving Hero Friend to All Children Badass Pacifist. Vash's sole mission in the series apart from fighting his Evil Twin is spreading "Love and Peace" across the Crapsack World he lives in. Thanks to the guidance of his surrogate mother, Vash refuses to kill, refuses to let people get hurt, and does his best to bring joy back to the downtrodden town he walks through. Hell, by the end of the series, Vash is carrying a huge cross on his back.
• Hiryuu the Red Dragon King from Yona of the Dawn is a deity who descended from the heavens to live as a human among mankind to make the world a better place. However, the ungrateful humans turned against him and would have killed him if it weren't for the four dragon warriors coming to his rescue. Despite the mistreatment he suffers, Hiryuu continues to love humankind and strives to free them from evil. He dies after achieving peace in his era, but returns to Earth (albeit reborn as Princess Yona) after 2000 years (a "Second Coming", if you will) in the midst of a great political upheaval to bring peace and happiness for the people once again.
• Yugi Mutou of Yu-Gi-Oh!. Everyone who knows him agrees that he's pure light and they would do virtually anything for him, but against the world as a whole, he's a tragically misunderstood innocent — his pacifism gets him beaten up by school bullies on a regular basis, for example.
  • Yusei Fudo from Yu-Gi-Oh! 5Ds is an even more clear example. With the goal of bringing a better future to Satellite (being even seen as their savior), Yusei is constantly prosecuted by the authorities of Neo Domino City for being a Satellite, being marked as a criminal, which grants him a bad reputation with the Neo Domino citizens, but despite that, he still manages to gather very loyal followers thanks to his determination, Duel Monsters skills and idealistic mindset, managing to free Aki from Divine's influence and being the catalyst to the Character Development of his fellow Signers. Additionally, his ace monster Stardust Dragon has the effect of sacrificing itself to negate the activation of cards with destruction effects and reviving itself after activating this effect at the end of the turn, and he's also the only Yu Gi Oh protagonist to never fall to darkness.

Comic Books

• Cable in Cable & Deadpool, so much so that he tries to sacrifice his life to show humanity that they can rise above war and prejudice. But, that doesn't mean that he is above a little violence to get things done.
• Paulie from Circles. He was a very kind and wise soul, he had many followers, many people looked up to him, he brought a change to his part of the world, and many regarded him as a pure person. He had a huge influence on so many people, that nearly the entire city of Boston knows Paulie and brought him gifts and visited him when he was bedridden at the hospital. He has a very meaningful death and his absence leaves a huge impact.
• J'on from The Great Power of Chninkel is a deconstruction of the Messiah. He's the only survivor of the endless war that is being fought between three tyrants before he is tasked by God himself to free his enslaved species, the Chninkel, from bondage or it will destroy the world in three days. He's only picked to be the Chosen One because he happened to be in the right place at the right time and finds himself thoroughly unsuitable for the role destiny has seen fit for him. He ends up sentenced to death when it turns J'on's sacrifice was all done for the sake of God's vanity to secure eternal worship. God destroys the world out of spite and J'on's story is lost to the sands of time.
• Judas (2017): Amazingly, for a story with Jesus in it, it is Judas who exhibits these traits. His entire time in Hell, the artistic style portrays him with a black halo similar to how saints and Jesus himself is portrayed in Christian iconography. By the end of the story, his forgiveness saves Jesus from Hell and Judas ends up becoming a shepherd to the damned, even beginning to resemble him as well.
• The Silver Surfer is one twice over: First, he accepted the role of Galactus's herald to save his home planet from being destroyed, then defied Galactus to save the Earth from the same fate and was stripped of much of his cosmic power and exiled to Earth to be shunned by the very people he gave his freedom to protect.
• From the DC Universe, Superman. He is also Moses.
  • Jor-El (God) cast Zod (Satan) out of Krypton (heaven) and into the Phantom Zone (hell). Kal-El arrives in a star-shaped spaceship (Star of Bethlehem) and is found by the infertile Martha Kent (Virgin Mary).
  • Superman also has this role in Legion of Super-Heroes, being the inspiration of the heroes of that century.
  • It's an especially big element in the Animated Adaptation (see Western Animation).
  • Also in Smallville (see live-action television).
  • Let's not forget the movies too (see Film below)!
• The Ultimates: Thor is a God-made man, sent by his father Odin to purify the Earth.
• X-Men has four big ones, all from the same Tangled Family Tree:
  • The first and best-known is Jean Grey, who as Phoenix saved the entire universe from extinction and then committed suicide to keep herself from blowing it up...then got better.
  • Second came Cable, as mentioned above.
  • Third came Nate Grey, who basically was Cable from an Alternate Universe without the virus holding his powers back and took it upon himself to be a mutant shaman, helping out ordinary people with his powers. Oh, and he resurrected Maddie Pryor, by accident, and the Age of Apocalypse version of Gwen Stacy, briefly, and also by accident. He also, naturally, died and came back from the dead at least twice, both times sacrificing himself for others — in the latter case, for the entire world. Sound familiar?
    • He's so much this trope that on his grand return in Dark Reign when he's looking to take Norman Osborn down by force all by himself (and he very nearly succeeds), he stops and informs a HAMMER Agent that she should go for that UNICEF job she was considering. On his return in 2018, he's fully embraced the role, claiming to be the literal second coming and making other Biblical allusions, while wandering around in white robes. He also takes it to Well-Intentioned Extremist levels, meaning that he's entirely willing to kill anyone in his way if he feels he has to (though he'd prefer not to). Later in the series, it's suggested that at least part of it was playing up to the role — the entire reason he's doing it is because he's dying as a result of getting his powers back and desperate to save the world while he can. And ultimately, he seems to consider Hope to be the 'true' Mutant Messiah.
  • And now we've got Hope Summers, the first mutant born after the Decimation, prophesied to be the last hope of mutantkind. What this means at this point is still anyone's guess, but she's become a kind of a walking MacGuffin for everyone with ideas regarding the future of mutants. To really drive the point home, when she gets back to the present and must save the Mutant Race, the story arc is called Second Coming. After that, the fact that she was raised by the above mentioned Cable, and name-checked as the then-current Mutant Messiah by Nate Grey, who had her as this even in his own Age of X-Man. Even Exodus, hardly the most humble of mutants, praises the power of the child he once tried to abduct and proselytizes about how "the prophecies ring true" when he is forced to fight her.
  • Magneto, on the other hand, can very easily be called a Dark Moses, fighting for the freedom of his people. (Bonus for the Moses parallel: he's Jewish.) Is killing a few humans that much worse than unleashing plagues and locust swarms and wiping out the firstborn of Egypt?
  • And to round off the Messiahs of the X-universe, in the nineties when Magneto was pushed from Dark Messiah to A God Am I territory he was given a messianic Mouth of Sauron in Exodus, who... well, the name's a little on the nose, isn't it? Despite not being pushed as hard in the messiah role since The '90s ended, he manages a traditional messianic feat that only Nate of the above-mentioned Messiahs can also claim — raising the dead.

Fan Works

• Abraxas (Hrodvitnon): Lampshaded a couple times. Vivienne Graham coming Back from the Dead in an Inhuman Human case as part of Monster X is compared to Jesus, and it fits because she died in a Heroic Sacrifice and upon her death she descended into the Devil's (Ghidorah's) jaws and was presumed dead by her human friends until after her resurrection when she unexpectedly returned to them.

  Mark Russell: Jesus.
  Vivienne: yeah?

• Always Visible: Galbraith considers himself this way when Delia dies. He believes that he is simply obliged to punish doctor Baselard (despite the fact that he himself let him get away from under his nose).
• All For Luz: Julia and the Pastor compare Luz to this, with her Power Palms feeding into this, as they give her the appearance of a stigmata. Her enemies with Fantastic Racism views, on the other hand, see her as a Dark Messiah due to her being a Person of Mass Destruction with a body count consisting of her enemies.
• The Stargate SG-1 fic "Child of the Ancients" introduces Liam Carter Jackson, the son of Daniel Jackson and Samantha Carter, conceived while Daniel was Ascended and taken away by Oma Desala for his protection. The SGC soon learn that Liam was essentially taken away so that he could eventually serve as a counterpart to Adria, the child of the Ori, but all parties are assured that Daniel didn't come to Sam solely to conceive Liam for this future purpose, as part of the reason Liam is a contrast to Adria is that he was conceived through an act of love rather than as part of a long-term agenda.
• Child of the Storm has Harry as a somewhat reluctant and much more mercurial example than most: he's the son of a god, he tends to associate with those that others reject and he even comes back from the dead. He's instinctively nice and kind, protective of those without power, and judging on outward appearance is completely alien to him. However, his temper and his hatred for injustice lead to comparisons to Magneto and with good reason, meaning that he borders on being a Dark Messiah at times. And that's even before one gets into the small matter of his potentially being the Dark Phoenix...
  • And, of course, there's Steve Rogers, all-loving and Humble Hero with Hair of Gold, Heart of Gold who performed a Heroic Sacrifice and came back from the (supposed) dead. Being a Humble Hero, he's a little bit uncomfortable with this.
• In Diamond in the Rough (Touhou), Shinki tells this to Brolli in Makai, that he might die in order to save Gensokyo. Brolli doesn't want that, but You Can't Fight Fate.
• Empath in Empath: The Luckiest Smurf. Lampshaded by Tapper in "Smurfed Behind: The Passion Of The Smurfs".
  Tapper: You sacrificed an only begotten son that you loved dearly and smurfed a much greater family, Papa Smurf. That's what God did with Jesus. He smurfed us His best from heaven so that we too could become part of His family through the blood of His only begotten Son.
• The protagonist of Fallout: Equestria, Littlepip, fits this trope. From obscure and humble beginnings, she sets out to fix a broken world, gaining followers and battling corruption along the way. In the ending, there are many clear parallels to the story of Jesus: Pip endures a figurative death and rebirth by Spike's fire, sacrifices her freedom for the sake of Equestria, and ascends to the SPP tower where she takes Celestia's side in watching over the ponies and controlling the weather, having been given a greatly extended lifespan — perhaps immortality — through mutation. The afterword even refers to the preceding story as an in-universe text: the 'Book of Littlepip'.
• Arturia Pendragon in A Knight's Tale as Inquisitor, as perfectly described by Mother Giselle in their first conversation, when Arturia questions why exactly they are so accepting of her as the The Chosen One.
  Revered Mother Giselle: Well, I do not think you can blame them considering what has occurred for them to presume you such: a giant hole in the sky suddenly and abruptly pierces the Veil between worlds, allowing demons to come and wreak havoc on all across Thedas without restraint or mercy. From what I've heard personally, people were forced to watch for hours as various mages and soldiers tried their damnedest but couldn't produce the slightest effect on the Rifts, which seemed to be bottomless doors of demons that allow them to our world. All was seemingly to all...until you came. You having physically entered the Fade, which has only ever happened once before in all of our history, during the Breach, before walking out unscathed at the Temple of Andraste's Sacred Ashes, one of the holiest places in Thedas from the explosion that killed all but you, with the ability to close the Rifts; able to destroy one in mere moments, with many claiming that it was Andraste, the Maker's bride, blessing you with that ability you bare now and guiding you out of the Fade herself. In addition to that, you wield a holy blade, one that brings shame to all other of its kind, beyond what the teachings and works of any mortal is capable of and shining gold brighter than any other treasure in the world, burning demons of any kind from a mere touch and cleansing the corruption of evil of all kinds. Can you exactly blame anyone for presuming you as a messiah of sorts after all that's said and done?
• Lance Greenfield in Living The Dream is the Equestrian equivalent of Jesus. He easily forgives those for their wrongdoings and befriends them. He has a group of loyal companions in the bronies. He was hated at first because of his appearance, before becoming a respected hero. To top it off, Lance has been killed and revived several times, even becoming one of God's angels after sacrificing himself.
• Played with in Ultraman Moedari: Moedari is apparently killed when Lunaram kicks the moon into his face, but his connection with Jake saves him and gives him his Trinity Form. The motif is a circle with a triangle with three circles inside of it with triangles inside, etc, and the finisher is cross-shaped. Ultimately subverted.

Films — Animation

• Frozen:
  • The first movie, Frozen (2013): Anna. She sacrifices herself and saves her sister, then comes back to life—the parallels are detailed here.
  • Frozen II: It's Elsa acts as the Christ-figure., as a divine agent of restoration and reconciliation.
• How to Train Your Dragon: Hiccup Horrendous Haddock III possesses these traits in allegory. He possesses a higher knowledge that could enlighten those around him (dragon-training), is considered a criminal and punished in his efforts to educate others (disowned by his father), sacrificing himself to save others from their own ignorance (nearly dying from his and Toothless' battle with the Red Death, which he tried to warn his father about), "dying" and then "resurrection" (waking from a coma) with signs of his sacrifice apparent on his body (his prosthetic leg) and not only "saves" his people but creates a new dawn for mankind (one of peace between the Hooligan Tribe and dragons) that is violently opposed or taken advantage of by those who disagree (The Outcasts and the Berserkers). Sound familiar?
• The titular giant of The Iron Giant. The Iron Giant arrives one day to Earth, befriends a young boy, is initially hated by those perceiving him as being a monster, and ultimately performs a Heroic Sacrifice, sparing the town from being leveled by a missile. However, because of his Healing Factor, this death doesn't stick.
• The Lion King (1994): There is Mufasa. He dies after saving his son from the wildebeest stampede and has an ascension of sorts by joining the past kings in the sky.
• The Scarlet Queen in Strawinsky and the Mysterious House is the stand-in for Jesus, being the agent of Elohim who saves the day by destroying the Rat King's evil books and giving the cello a purpose in Heaven. Sympathetic characters constantly wax poetic about her, and the movie outright tells the audience to worship her. This is very odd considering that scarlet is usually associated with sin in the Bible.
• WALLE. In the film, he unwittingly saves humanity when he discovers a small plant that Eve later retrieves. He is also noteworthy as being the only functional WALL-E unit that was still operating, and much like Christ, WALL-E dies and has a "resurrection" of sorts. He also came into contact with two humans on the Axiom named John and Mary who discover that there was more to life than luxury.

Films — Live-Action

• James Cole of 12 Monkeys has, amongst other aspects, the JC initials, the Cassandra Truth aspect of being a time traveller from the future whom no one (initially) believes, and the sacrifice of his life in his efforts to save humanity. He doesn't actually stop the release of the virus that killed off most of humanity's population, because it turns out the entire film is a Stable Time Loop, but his efforts to do so enable scientists to locate a pure sample of the virus, thus enabling them to create a vaccine.
• Kiri in Avatar: The Way of Water: She's born of Grace's old Avatar body, her conception being "a complete mystery." Throughout the film, she demonstrates a connection to Pandora's wildlife and biosphere that runs deeper than other Na'Vis, in their eyes and her own, she's performing miracles.
• Aurora in Babylon A.D. fits this trope to a T, but that's because she's actually been genetically engineered by the Noelite sect who hope to create a real-life 'miracle' in order to become the Number One religion in the world.
• Chance the Gardener in the film Being There subverts this by appearing noble, wise, compassionate, and brave — to everyone except his former co-worker (and the audience), who can see that he is actually The Fool — until the Twist Ending, which implies a more literal form of the trope.
• Bright: Jirak is the orc equivalent of this trope. 2,000 years ago, he united the Free Peoples and defeated the Dark Lord to save the world and is revered by orcs as their messianic figure. Ironically, most orcs had sided with the Dark Lord and because of this, are victims of racism and prejudice today for their ancestors' actions, nevermind it was one of their own that saved the world from the setting's ultimate evil.
• Bruce Wayne/Batman of The Dark Knight. He's motivated by an unflagging belief in the essential goodness of the people of Gotham. Twice he takes a bullet for someone else (albeit while he's inside his car), first intercepting Joker's bazooka, then protecting Mr Reese from that guy in the big truck (even though Reese had been trying to expose Bruce less than an hour before). And then at the end, he takes Harvey Dent's sins upon himself. The Dark Knight Rises plays this up even further, with Bruce even descending into a metaphorical hell in the form of Bane's prison and ascending once more (and leaving a rope for the wrongfully-imprisoned prisoners to escape with) before returning after his "death" at Bane's hands to save Gotham. And at the end, he seems to sacrifice himself to carry away the fusion bomb (except he didn't).
• Mr. Carpenter in The Day the Earth Stood Still.
• District 9: Christopher Johnson (notice the initials) intends to save his people from the poverty and slavery of the racist humans. While he is a Nice Guy, his return might entail a lot of firepower coming behind him. Which would make him a Kung-Fu Jesus (possibly also a Dark Messiah).
• Dennis Quaid's character Willis Davidge in Enemy Mine is a Messianic Archetype and dies halfway through the movie. Fortunately, he gets better.
• In a twisted way, The Man with No Name from the Dollars Trilogy. A tough-as-nails anti-hero, yet willing to help those in need. In The Good, the Bad and the Ugly, he is referred to by Angel Eyes as a "golden-haired guardian angel", resigns to Tuco's attempt on his life in a passive, Christlike manner, and offers the final judgement on Tuco's soul, which was sparing his life and undoing his "crucifixion". In A Fistful of Dollars, his beating reflects the flogging of Jesus while the party outside is staged to look like The Last Supper. He rides into town on a mule, and during the final duel he appears to "resurrect".
• Max himself in Elysium. In his childhood, the nun that he lives with states that he's bound to change the world. He ends up on a quest to save humanity by hacking Elysium to make everyone its citizens, gets "crucified" with exosuit parts drilled into his body, willingly sacrifices himself at the end, which enables all the people on Earth to get access to Elysium's medical facilities, basically giving them access to heaven.
• E.T. in E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial, right down to the resurrection and the Michaelangelo touching of fingers between man and the Divine. So blatant was the parable it was spoofed on The Simpsons:
  Rev. Lovejoy: I remember another gentle visitor from the heavens, he came in peace and then died, only to come back to life, and his name was... E.T., the Extra-Terrestrial. (cries) I loved that little guy.
• Marvel Cinematic Universe
  • Oddly enough, Tony Stark in The Avengers has very strong elements of this. He has a confrontation with a Satanic villain (Loki) who tries and fails to make him fall to The Dark Side, he is betrayed by the WSC, who ruthlessly orders the entire island of Manhattan to be nuked, he carries the nuke on his back through the city, saves the island and everyone on it by sacrificing his life to haul the nuke into space — by rising up through a wormhole into deep space, dies (temporarily, when his heart and lungs fail), falls back to earth, and then comes back to life. In Avengers: Endgame, Tony saves Earth and all of existence by using the Infinity Gauntlet to wipes out Thanos' forces with it at the cost of his life. In Spider-Man: Far From Home Tony is worshipped by society as a savior, and courtesy of a major Adaptation Relationship Overhaul, someone named Peter is tasked with carrying on his spiritual legacy. Also, Tony's mechanic skill is fitting for this trope since it is analogous to carpentry.
  • Steve Rogers aka Captain America also has some messianic stuff going on, some of which is carried over from his solo movie where he was The Chosen One, and also with his status as a legend and source of hope who sacrificed himself and has had a "second coming" by getting unfrozen from the ice. In Captain America: The Winter Soldier, Rogers continues this concept a fair bit with the betrayal element being the main plot of the movie. His near death in the end also fits this rather well, as he truly was dying for the sins of SHIELD.
  • Thor can be seen as this also being the son of Big Good-deity Odin and in his first movie performing a Heroic Sacrifice to save his loved ones which helped him get resurrected. Thor also humbles himself like most Christ figures and refusing to become a ruler himself, knowing that power corrupts people and he'd rather live his life without expectations cast upon him. Thor: Ragnarok goes the extra step further of depicting Thor with a very Jesus-like visage in a mural complete with Holy Halo.
  • Black Panther has a lot of elements of this being an incorruptible force of righteous goodness. T'challa not only forgoes his hatred and shows mercy to the antagonist Zemo in Civil War but in his solo movie he atones for the sins of his father and ancestors by spreading the wonders of his country with the rest of the world.
• Joe Kenehan from Sayles's Matewan. He's a charismatic leader who's also an Actual Pacifist, his first action when coming into town is to heal someone, and he dies at the end.
• The Matrix:
  • The Matrix: Neo, the prophesied savior known as "the One" bears a close resemblance to Jesus. He came before, but was prophesied to come again, and resurrects close to the end. On the other hand, he's far more violent than the Christian depiction, but perhaps would be closer to Jewish views of the Messiah as a warrior king. Morpheus may also resemble John the Baptist, Trinity Mary Magdalene, and the Oracle the various prophets who are believed to have foretold Christ.
  • In Reloaded, there's a kiosk of religious pictures and statues and symbols that Neo passes by on his way to another adventure.
• Subverted by Monty Python's Life of Brian. (He's a very naughty boy).
• Aronofsky's mother! (2017) has two. The baby that mother conceives with Him is an obvious stand-in for Christ coming down from his birth to his killing and subsequent cannibalization by Him's followers. Mother can be seen as a representation of many different aspects such as Mother Nature, the Virgin Mary, and later a Satanic Archetype. The film makes a point in how mother continually gives and gives, culminating in her willingly giving her heart to Him so that he could start again. She is even carried by Him in a fashion similar to how the Virgin Mary is said to have held Jesus when he was removed from the cross.
• The 1995 film Powder (not to be confused with the video game), which either replicates the story of Jesus Christ or replicates the story of ET. Either way, someone deserves some royalties for the story of a boy whose mother was struck by lightning when she was pregnant, leading to an outcast son with incredible intellect and human empathy, who can raise the dead by his touch, only to be raised to the heavens when he is struck by a bolt of lightning when refusing to bow to the laws of society... or something like that.
• Enzo in Reality (2012) is seen by Luciano as a Messianic figure. There's even a sequence in which Enzo is suspended over a crowd with lighting suggestive of artistic depictions of Christ's Transfiguration, with his arms spread as if he is being crucified.
• Caesar in Rise of the Planet of the Apes and its sequels. He is the "saviour" of the Apes, conceived from a miraculous birth (the only ape born intelligent rather than artificial brain modification) gives all Apekind the gift of Intelligence (ALZ-113) and leads them to an exodus away from the Human oppressors to the "Promised Land" of the forests where they can live in peace. Everyone, even Koba, looked up to him as a sort of God-Emperor but despite all this, he retained an overwhelming sense of compassion, understanding, and tolerance to all sapient life — human and ape alike. He follows a strict self-imposed morality of Ape Shall Not Kill Ape, seeking to avoid war whenever is possible, though if you cause him trouble, he definitely knows how to kick your ass. Of course, no Ape version of Christ can be complete without a catastrophic betrayal caused by his most trusted "brother": Koba, who "killed" him, dismantled all of Caesar's work and led the Apes to immoral brutality and persecution of both humans and Caesar's remaining apostles. Caesar even metaphorically "rose from the dead" when Malcolm found him, brought him back to Heaven (Will Rodman's house), and returned to Apekind injured but stronger, ending in the apes "repenting" and Koba's damnation into Hell. His personal symbol, the sequin-like window of Rodman's house even became the universal symbol of Ape liberation ala the Chi-Rho of early Christians.
• RoboCop: Believe it or not, Robo's the American Jesus.. Paul Verhoeven said he wanted to make a film about an "American Jesus" and there are multiple allusions to this, like Murphy being mocked and tortured before he's killed (and the Impaled Palm scene), his dying and being resurrected, and a scene where it looks like he's walking on water. He even gets pierced in his side with a spear.
• The Hero of all three Star Wars Trilogy are depicted as this, each with their own twist. A constant between the three is that they all came from a desert planet, much like Jesus' birth place:
  • Anakin Skywalker for the Prequel Trilogy is the most prominent example of the three as he is The Chosen One conceived by the Force itself. His character is a good example of why you generally want The Chosen One to be paired with this trope. Of course, he turns to the dark side for a bit there, becoming a sort of Dark Messiah and Antichrist, before ultimately turning back to the light side in Return of the Jedi. As such, this trope is Double Subverted.
  • Luke for the Original Trilogy. He is The Chosen One — the one whom Obi-Wan and Yoda train to become a Jedi. He gains a group of devoted followers (the Rebel Alliance, though mostly Han, Leia, Chewie, C3P0 and R2), and gallivants about spreading good and performing miracles like blowing up the Death Star. At the end of the sixth movie, he refuses to fight or resist his fate, then is zapped by the Emperor's lightning (his "death" scene). He manages to redeem evil while he's at it. The Last Jedi takes it to the logical end as Luke gives his life to save others, and becomes one with the Force.
  • Rey for the Sequel Trilogy. Other than rallying the people around her hope that the Jedi will return and bring balance to the Force, she also turns Ben Solo to the Light Side of the Force again. In Episode VIII, she even saves the Resistance by moving the rocks around her in a manner similar to Moses splitting the sea. Ironically, she is born the granddaughter of Emperor Palpatine, the resident Satanic Archetype, who planned to possess her body. Rey rejects her heritage in the end, making her an Anti-Anti-Christ and ends up sacrifcing herself to kill Palpatine, only to be revived by Ben Solo in matter similar to Pietà Plagiarism. During the fight against Palpatine, she uses to Lightsabers to block his Force Lightning in a form of a cross.
  • Cracked makes a good argument for Han Solo actually usurping the position of Messiah from Luke. When Luke heads off to Dagobah, Han takes over the role, is betrayed by a friend, tortured, "killed", and eventually resurrected.
  • You can also make a strong argument for Obi-Wan Kenobi being a Jesus figure, considering he is a wise and kind mentor who has walked the desert, been betrayed by his close friend, and performed a Heroic Sacrifice. It also helps Obi-Wan Looks Like Jesus especially in Attack of the Clones. Out-of-Universe some Real Life churches have even mistakenly used Obi-Wan’s visage to represent Christ.
• Even though some elements of this are present in the comic book, Superman: The Movie takes it much further:
  Jor-El: Live as one of them, Kal-El, to discover where your strength and your power are needed. Always hold in your heart the pride of your special heritage. They can be a great people, Kal-El, they wish to be. They only lack the light to show the way. For this reason above all, their capacity for good, I have sent them you... my only son.
  • Also, almost all of the versions of Superman have him assume the figure of Jesus on the cross, arms spread wide/one foot slightly higher than the other, whenever he is "absorbing" sunlight, or in a dangerous situation.
• John Connor in Terminator has the initials going for him, and is a savior who will deliver humanity from the apocalypse. Much of the movies deal with the good guys trying to ensure he is born/lives to save humanity, with the villains trying to prevent that instead. And ultimately, no matter how much the timeline changes, John will be one to do it, and no one else, because You Can't Fight Fate. He's the linchpin of the rebellion and the world would be doomed without him.
• Will Caster by the boatload in Transcendence. He was persecuted and then murdered for heresy, allegedly for the greater good but more for the benefit of the persecutors. He rises again from the dead and starts working miracles, starting with healing a dying man, a blind man, and a lame man (in that order) before eradicating pollution, purifying all of Earth's fresh water, and who knows what else. He is then killed again by those afraid of his gifts. It's later hinted he may rise again in the future, too.
• Kevin Flynn in TRON. In the world of Tron, the Programs see Users in a divine light. Plus, as Jesus was God who became man, Flynn was a User who became Program... to save them from the Antichrist.
• Selene in Underworld (2003) is a rather twisted example of this trope since she is a vampire anti-hero, but she qualifies: she is viewed as a traitor by fellow vampires and persecuted, but over the course of the movies she manages to perform "miracles" such as resurrect the dead using her blood, comes back to life and stronger than before and effectively becomes revered as her race's leader.
• X-Men Film Series: Professor X's role is reminiscent of Christ. Xavier is an All-Loving Hero who suffers greatly to be a savior of mutants and humans alike, even though the latter persecute him. He is the leader of his True Companions, who live by and defend his philosophy, and he is betrayed by one of his followers.^note Magneto is regarded as an Obvious Judas by the fandom. Charles is literally resurrected in The Stinger of X-Men: The Last Stand. This association also extends to imagery, where he takes Jesus' position in a Pietà Plagiarism (X-Men: First Class), is briefly given a Holy Backlight and a Crucified Hero Shot (X-Men: Days of Future Past). When he has a beard and lets his hair grow long, he even Looks Like Jesus. For X-Men: Apocalypse (which deals directly with religious themes), Bryan Singer has made a reference to a figurative resurrection in this snapshot by calling it "Xavier reborn." The director explicitly says that Professor X is analogous to Christ in the franchise.
  "I've gotten to explore Professor X when he was an older, bald, wise man, when he's insecure, when he's defenseless, when he's powerful. He's more of a Christ figure. He chooses to be a teacher. He could go inside Cerebro and rule the world, but he chooses not to. He chooses to teach and preach and hope that people follow his message: peace and unity. And I've gotten to see him as a drug addict and a loser, and in this movie, you're going to get to see him prosperous and almost blindly optimistic, and how he changes."
  • James McAvoy was asked in this interview to boil down his character to only three essential elements, and the actor answered, "Empathetic, generous, and slightly suffering from a messianic complex. [...] He thinks he's the Second Coming of Christ, he thinks he's gonna save the world."

Literature

• John Galt in Atlas Shrugged, complete with a Crucified Hero Shot as he's enduring Electric Torture at the hands of the villains. Subverted, since he's not acting out of altruism. Arguably Galt is an inversion of at least some components of the trope. His plan of going on strike in order to bring economic activity to a halt, and thus causing civilization to collapse and rebuild itself involves witholding a "salvation" and forcing society to confront the actual consequences of its morality of Comtean altruism (the morality which is at the core of the Messianic Archetype). Applying Fridge Logic to his plan's obvious consequences (i.e. lots of people die as a result of civilization's collapse) had led to some readers seeing Galt as a Dark Messiah instead of a Messianic Archetype.
• Female example: Doyler's mother in At Swim, Two Boys. Among other things, when she's doing laundry, much is made about the transfer of the stains from the dirty clothes to her own apron.
• The Conciliator (Severian) in Gene Wolfe's The Book of the New Sun is this, very likely as an Invoked Trope brought about by the 'powers from above the stage'.
• Father Zosima in The Brothers Karamazov is a mix of the Messianic Archetype and The Mentor.
• In Camouflage, Danilo starts off as a belligerent closet case, but as the novel progresses his actions become selfless to the point that he is remembered as an aspect of Jesus to the gay men he saved from execution.
• Aslan in The Chronicles of Narnia, a.k.a. Talking Lion Jesus, and/or Combat Jesus. He allows the Witch to sacrifice him in place of the traitor Edmund, and returns Edmund to his siblings to be forgiven. Then he comes back to life and helps the children defeat the Witch. In another book he appears briefly as a lamb (a well-known symbol of Christ) and hints that he has another name in our world.
• Creation Man And The Messiah by poet Henrik Wergeland has a divine Messiah, presented as the most divine of the celestial beings. He intervenes to inspire the earthly Jesus in his task. This presentation was so controversial it cost the author his priesthood (he wrote it while still a student). In 1845, he rewrote the work and renamed the being Akadiel.
• Crusade in Jeans: Subverted by Nicolaas. He was conned into believing he's on a Mission from God by the two monks accompanying him to send the children of the HRE on a crusade to liberate the Holy Land but actually to sell them into slavery. He's not particularly wise or noble, merely very pious and Holier Than Thou. One of the monks later points out that their "burning firebush" trick completely failed with the first two boys they tried it on, and it's only because Nicolaas was so full of himself already that he readily accepted that he must be some sort of savior.
• Jake Chambers from The Dark Tower. He's an innocent boy who has the JC initials (although there's no proof that this was intentional). In the first book, he has to die for Roland to be able to catch the Man in Black and find out about the Tower, and he later "comes back to life" through a time paradox that prevents him from originally being sent to Roland's world. In the "argument" sections where the earlier books are summarized, Jake is referred to as a "symbolic son". And in the last book, Jake jumps in front of the van to save Stephen King, thus sacrificing himself to save all existence from being destroyed.
• Brutha in the Discworld book Small Gods. He may not be The Chosen One — he's only chosen by his god Om because there's no-one else around, and Om keeps wishing there was — but hanging out with a god that turns out not to be what he'd always imagined and seeing a lot of things and new places makes him grow into a prophet of his own accord. And then he gets something like a Crucified Hero Shot...
• A giant griffin represents Christ in The Divine Comedy. The griffin has two natures (lion and eagle) that mirror the two natures of Jesus (human and divine), it mightily denies to eat from the corrupting Tree of Knowledge, and the griffin guides a Sun-bright chariot that represents the Church. The griffin also is a mixture of three colors: gold and white to highlight its divinity and blood-red to make light of Christ's suffering in his death.
• Paul "Muad'dib" Atreides in Dune plays on this by manipulating already implanted religious propaganda to lead the Fremen people into thinking he's a Messiah to achieve his own goals. He genuinely does have several amazing powers, but the one that really ruins his whole life is his clairvoyance.
• Jim Casy from The Grapes of Wrath — a preacher whose name abbreviates to J.C. His last words before he's murdered are: "You don't know what you're doing", mirroring Jesus's words about his executioners ("Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing.")
• Jay Gatsby from The Great Gatsby. The scene where he is shot goes into great detail about how he bears his pool mattress on his shoulder to the pool, analogous to Jesus bearing the cross on his shoulder.
• John Coffey from The Green Mile, a blatant example as stated by Stephen King himself. Coffey shares several traits with the biblical Christ. Aside from the initials, Coffey performs miracles by laying of the hands; he heals a woman of her terminal illness, he heals Paul of his urinary tract infection, and he even brings Mr. Jingles back to life. The only difference between Christ and Coffey, however, is that he chose to be executed on his own volition whereas Christ sacrificed himself for mankind as a whole. Coffey also does not get resurrected either.
• Harry Potter. To finally vanquish Voldemort, Harry realises that he must sacrifice himself in order for the Horcrux within him to be destroyed. However, once he has "died", he chooses to come back to life to finish the job and kill Voldy in person. Phew — it is a tad complicated!
• Katniss Everdeen in The Hunger Games has shades of this. Beginning with almost sacrificing herself for her sister, she becomes a Hope Bringer for the nation through her actions and choices in the Games. She is all but legally persecuted by President Snow and the Capitol government and endures more physical and emotional trauma over the course of the trilogy. And there's a scene in Mockingjay of her in a makeshift hospital that echoes scenes of Jesus surrounded by desperate but adoring believers. The Catching Fire movie really hammers the point by having Katniss in a Crucified Hero Shot as she's being lifted from the arena.
• Aenea, from Dan Simmon's Endymion—referred as Messiah throughout the novels. Besides other supernatural attributes, clearly shows Messianic touch and gathers a large following throughout the galaxy in a short period of time. Willingly lets herself be tortured and burnt to death by... the Vatican.
• Jonathan Livingston Seagull is about a seagull who discovers that the true purpose of life is to learn to fly as fast and as high as physically possible, then transcends his mortal existence and learns that his true path is to return in spirit to the world and teach others to do the same.
• The main plot of Keeping Faith by Jodi Picoult is about a little girl named Faith who starts showing signs of being the Messiah after her parents' divorce. It starts when she begins reciting Bible passages, even though the only religion she was exposed to was Judaism (and not very much at that). She then starts seeing her "Guard" (a female God), brings her dead grandmother back to life, heals an AIDS sufferer, and develops stigmata (holes in the hands where the nails went into Jesus' hands on the cross). However, after custody is given to her mother Mariah, all of her messianic acts stop, making it seem like they were just ploys for attention. But it is left ambiguous as to whether she still gets visits from her "Guard".
• The Unicorn in The Last Unicorn fits the elements pretty well. She's an incorruptible pure figure at the start of her story, the last of her species, she gains a group of loyal followers during her adventures, and once human she gets to understand humanity's flaws and beauties. She even "dies" at one point (returning to her original Unicorn form), sacrificing herself and the possibility of living a peaceful life as a human, but thanks to it she manages to save her world and her people from destruction.
• Enjolras from Les Misérables. He leads a band of loyal friends/followers in a doomed attempt to fight the injustice of the monarchy, and when it becomes clear that he has no hope of succeeding, he chooses to Face Death with Dignity and ends up 'nailed' to the wall with bullets. His angelic beauty and Incorruptible Pure Pureness give off Too Good for This Sinful Earth vibes.
• Several examples in The Lord of the Rings, each fulfilling a different aspect of the Christ figure.
  • Played straight in Gandalf as the prophet, who is a divine being (Maia) in human form. He sees the virtues in little "children" (hobbits), leads the fellowship, drives the hypocrite from the "temple" (Wormtongue from King Théoden's court), and comes back from the dead-dressed in white, no less. However, when critics began drawing straight lines between Gandalf and Jesus, Tolkien stated explicitly that Gandalf is not meant as a Christ analogue.
  • Played with in Aragorn as the king; except for his ancestry, he is a normal human. He is the hidden descendant of a royal line, harrows hell (the Paths of the Dead), and restores the kingdom.
  • Frodo fulfills the role of high priest and sacrifice (or alternatively, the One Ring is the sacrifice and Mount Doom is the altar), a hobbit who bears a terrible burden and constant temptation through the darkness of Mordor, suffering for the salvation of all good things. He also suffers a symbolic 'death' at the hands of Shelob. Subverted in that he is The Unchosen One, and in the end, he fails, and only with the intervention of Gollum does he achieve his mission.
• Even aside from the films, Luke Skywalker is especially this in Luke Skywalker and the Shadows of Mindor. It's a year after Return of the Jedi and Luke has lost much of his youthful idealism. He's been worn down towards despair and only becomes moreso during the book. Still, he's savior many times over and in many ways, he sacrifices a lot and quite willingly, he's the Hope Bringer for many characters, he's entombed in stone and experiences a severe And I Must Scream but rises again, he has a great many followers and numbers former enemies among them, some followers (unwillingly) betray him and in the end, he is alone... Also, he has a good dose of the personality, one who suffers greatly and still has great compassion. It's actually partly manipulated by the Big Bad, but here's a line—
  "My lord! Forgive me, I did not know you!"
  • Honestly, most of his stories in the Star Wars Expanded Universe could fulfill this trope.
• Steven Erikson's Malazan Book of the Fallen:
  • Coltaine of the Crow Clan in Deadhouse Gates. A hero to the Wickans whom they follow without questions and whom they almost worship, who leads tens of thousands of refugees he has no other connection to aside from being a Fist of the Malazan Empire across an entire continent, all while being under constant attack from religious fanatics. He then dies on a cross, his soul — too big to be taken in by one crow as would've been normal for his people — taken away by thousands of crows, and is reborn again on the Wickan Plains of Quon Tali.
  • Anomander Rake is the great hero of the Tiste Andii race, who took it upon himself to lead and guide his race after their goddess, Mother Dark, had turned away from them. In book eight, Toll the Hounds, he sacrifices himself in order to bring back Mother Dark, thus bringing redemption to the Tiste Andii.
• Thomas Jerome Newton in The Man Who Fell to Earth (both novel and film, though the novel makes this more explicit) is sent to Earth to save his people by masquerading as a human businessman, amassing a fortune through his homeworld's technology, and using the profits to build a rescue craft; not only will his people be saved, but humanity will benefit for their presence when they start new lives on Earth. He sacrifices, he suffers, he's betrayed...and in the end, it's all for nothing, as he can't complete the mission, leaving him a despairing alcoholic.
• Mistborn:
  • Playing around with this trope is one of the main threads of the book. A prophecy exists which refers to a figure called the Hero of Ages, but the prophecy has been tampered with by Ruin, the primordial god of entropy and destruction, who wants to trick the Hero into freeing him. As a result, several characters are identified as the Hero (and believe it) who really aren't. Most notably this includes Alendi, a legendary figure from the backstory, the Lord Ruler alias Rashek, the man who betrayed and killed Alendi and who is the current Evil Overlord, and the heroine, Vin. Ultimately, though, the Hero turns out to be Sazed, and even that doesn't really work out as expected and instead he picks up the literal pieces after the planets two Gods are killed fighting one another, becoming a single deity holding both of their powers and reforging the world.
  • Kelsier deliberately invokes this trope about himself in order to inspire rebellion but is unconnected to the Hero prophecy. It helps that he knew he was going to die, so hired a shapeshifter to impersonate him and inspire the people briefly after he was gone. In the Sequel Series there is an entire church devoted to him, plus the people near the south pole worship his revived self as a God after he saved them from freezing to death when Sazed fixed the planet's orbit.
• In The Night's Dawn Trilogy, Joshua Calvert has impossibly "good luck" and defies the possessed at every turn. In the end, he successfully petitions the Sleeping God and remakes the galaxy for the benefit of humanity.
• Owen Meany from A Prayer for Owen Meany. He even quotes Jesus directly with John 11:26 when he is dying.
• Darrow from Red Rising. Over the course of the trilogy, he gathers a group of friends who willingly follow him even after discovering his true origins, is betrayed by one of them in the second book, and has part-literal/part-figurative resurrections in books one and three.
• In an ending of Romeo and/or Juliet where Juliet chooses not to commit suicide after waking from her induced coma, her supposedly miraculous resurrection after two days and her very public funeral make people believe that she was imbued with some sort of holy power and begin to create a cult forming around her in one ending. Despite all her attempts to deny and downplay her waking up on her deathbed, she ends up rolling with it. The narrator informs her that everyone is now hanging on to her every word and will fight wars over interpretations of what she said. Her Significant Monogram of JC further hammers in the Jesus allusion.
• In Second Apocalypse, "Inrithism" is a Crystal Dragon Jesus version of Christianity. Anasûrimbor Kellhus learns to exploit the tropes of the religion to become exactly what Inrithi followers would see as a messiah. He preaches to the people and attracts thousands of followers until the people in charge feel threatened and convict him of heresy. He's hung up to die in a manner called "circumfixion," but comes back even stronger, now with the circumfix as his symbol. It's all just a means to an end for Kellhus, however.
• From the The Silmarillion:
  • Subverted with Fëanor. He was the mightiest, most skilled, most puissant of all the elven race... and the source of their greatest woes. The ultimate case of You Could Have Used Your Powers for Good!.
  • Played straight with Eärendil. All the Elven and Human kingdoms had been destroyed by Morgoth. He realized that only the might of the Valar could save what was left of them. He finally managed to reach Valinor (which only The Chosen One could do); and then Eärendil asked the Valar for pardon and aid for all the besieged survivors in Beleriand, even the exiled Noldor, and they granted it, finally defeating Morgoth and casting him from the world. His ship, bearing the Silmaril, was put up into the sky as a star, as a sign of hope for all in Middle-Earth. He quite literally saved the world. Also, like Jesus had human and divine parentage, Eärendil is one of the Half-Elven. Another point is that when he is a child he escapes death, the Fall of Gondolin.
• A Song of Ice and Fire has several in-universe examples that have yet to be confirmed in the books, which have led to many Epileptic Trees among the fandom.
  • The Targaryens believed in the Prince That Was Promised, a hero from their family line who would revive the dragons. Jaehaerys Targaryen married his sister and forced his children to marry each other because a woods-witch prophesied that the Prince would come from their line. Rhaegar Targaryen was heavily invested in this prophecy, initially believing he was the Prince but then comes to believe that it was his son Aegon. Aemon Targaryen believes that Daenerys is the Princess That Was Promised because she actually did bring three living dragons into the world after they had been extinct for a century.
  • The followers of the Lord of Light believe that Azor Ahai, a legendary hero from thousands of years ago, will be reborn and save the world from the Second Long Night and the Others with a Flaming Sword called Lightbringer. Melisandre, a red priestess, is currently backing Stannis Baratheon, whom she believed to be Azor Ahai reborn but other members of her faith seem to believe that Daenerys is Azor Ahai reborn.
  • The Dothraki believed that Daenerys and Drogo's unborn son was to be the Stallion Who Mounts the World, the greatest khal of khals. Then subverted when Rhaego was stillborn. But since khals are known for war, conquest, and general brutality, he may have been a Dark Messiah had he lived. Although, there are some hints that it actually refers to Daenerys' dragon Drogon..
  • Jon Snow, unlike the aforementioned examples, isn't connected to any prophesies in-universe, but he has all the classic messiah traits. He's heroic, honourable, good-hearted, is an outsider as the illegitimate son of a noble raised with a young lord's upbringing, learned to live humbly when he was with the Night's Watch and wildlings, suffers from Chronic Hero Syndrome, is trying to save everyone from the threat against humanity (the Others), and was stabbed by his own men. Since his last chapter in A Dance For Dragons ends in a cliffhanger, many fans think he'll survive or be resurrected. Another popular fan theory is that he's actually the son of Lyanna Stark and Rhaegar Targaryen, which would put him in the running for the Prince That Was Promised, and since he's one of the few characters actually doing something about the Others, many fans believe he might be Azor Ahai reborn.
• Ender Wiggin in the Speaker for the Dead series, who connects three alien races together in peace, and always (with the exception of his unknowing xenocide as a child in Ender's Game) answers violence with love, stating that to vanquish an enemy, you have to know him, and in knowing him, end up loving him. An easy example is in Ender in Exile when he lets Achilles' son beat the shit out of him to prove that the boy is Bean's son, but refuses to fight back.
• In The Testament of Jessie Lamb, in a world where a disease kills every single pregnant woman in a slow and painful way, Jessie Lamb decides that she wants to volunteer for carrying a frozen fetus that has been vaccinated against the disease, to term. Which means that she will lie in a medication-induced coma for nine months while the disease destroys her brain, then be allowed to die, while her child might possibly live. She does it so that mankind can live on. Her name is also quite symbolic.
• Lissa Dragomir from Vampire Academy, is a charming, beautiful, and naturally regal princess who heals the wounded, inspires the common people, and brings back Strigoi to their original state.
• The Way of Kings (2010): Kaladin invokes this trope when he's strung up in a Highstorm by telling his men he'll survive, despite knowing the chances are unbelievably low.
  Kaladin: I'm putting it all on the long bet. If I die, then they'll come out, shake their heads, and tell themselves they knew it would happen. But if I live, they'll remember it. And it will give them hope. They might see it as a miracle.
  Syl: Do you want to be a miracle?
  Kaladin: No. But for them, I will be.
• Rand al'Thor (AKA "The Dragon Reborn", the "Car'a'carn", the "Coramoor", "He Who Comes With the Dawn"...) from Robert Jordan's The Wheel of Time, a Chosen One in a never-ending reincarnation cycle. Prophecy states that his blood will be spilled to free mankind from the Dark One, most people think that means Rand must die, including himself. He does, but he comes back in another body due to Synchronization with the Nae'blis (he's actually that body's third inhabitant). Since prophecy also states that he will "break" the world, he is not always popular. He spends much of the series lamenting his status as the Chosen One but ends up an All-Loving Hero by the end.

Live-Action TV

• Octavia Blake in The 100 is born in secret, and hidden from her society since her birth was a crime. Already in the first season of the show she risks her life to save both her people and the enemy, the music of the scene having a hymn-like quality to it (as do many other of her pivotal scenes). By the end of Season 4, she saves as many as she can of all of the clans instead of just her own to survive the coming apocalypse in a bunker. Six years in the bunker cross her over into Dark Messiah territory for awhile, where the actions necessary to save what they believe to be the last of the human race are extreme, but she takes all of their sins onto herself to spare her people the guilt. She is exiled on a new planet after being rejected and betrayed by her people, and then experiences a figurative crucifixion. Her people experience multiple events analogous to the Biblical plagues in her absence, and when she returns to her people in the series finale to prevent a war by getting the armies to stand down, she thus saves humanity again and they are literally Raptured into the heavens. Her Season 5 and Season 7 character posters also have Christian imagery not used for the other characters.
• Jordan Collier in The 4400 believes he is sent to guide his people, dies, and is resurrected. His initials are, unsurprisingly, J.C. His temporary replacement, Shawn, also demonstrates Christ-like qualities, as he heals the sick and befriends drug addicts. In a slight subversion, Collier is presented as more sinister than most Messianic archetypes and is not above using terrorist tactics in his quest to improve the world. Is it any wonder he's a Dark Messiah? It is also worth noting he really was chosen to guide humanity by what are implied to be the closest thing to good guys from the future to save the world, and for all his sinisterness, the alternative is apparently worse in the long run.
• Captain Sheridan of Babylon 5 is referred to messianically several times, particularly after his return from the dead (following an intended Heroic Sacrifice) at the beginning of Season 4. Whether or not he's a true Chosen One is up for argument. (He is often referred to as simply "the right person, in the right place, at the right time.") However, he does amass a loyal following, something necessary for his role as leader in both the war against the Shadows and La Résistance against Earth's totalitarian government. President Clark, his most important single enemy, was apparently "obsessed with him," and promoted vicious smear campaigns against him. Many people treated him like he was divine, and though he did try to dissuade them from that belief, it still influenced his soured relations with Michael Garibaldi, one of his most trusted friends, who eventually betrayed him for personal gains (though it turns out he was a Manchurian Agent.) When he sets the trap to capture Sheridan, he even comments, "I think the last guy got thirty pieces of silver for the same job." Flashforward segments in the episode "The Deconstruction of Falling Stars," show that 100 years later, academics are analyzing Sheridan's life in much the same way people today analyze the mythology surrounding Jesus, and 500 years later a group of monks are shown with an illuminated text, in which Sheridan is said to have "risen from the dead" and then "ascended into Heaven." Slight exaggerations in this case, but not entirely untrue.
  • It is suggested that the Minbari also think this of Delenn, since she is one of the foremost spiritual and political leaders of her people, but is vilified by members of opposing clans. Once she proves herself willing to make a Heroic Sacrifice to save their people, however, she is widely lauded as a hero. In fact, at one point a human who is plotting to kill Delenn comments that the Minbari "think she's like the Second Coming", and the reveal of her rebirth after the beginning of Season 2 is accompanied by G'Kar reading a Yeats poem entitled "The Second Coming". Perhaps not a coincidence. The flashforwards mentioned earlier also indicate a similar mythology surrounding Delenn developing in the centuries following the events of the show.
  • For the Minbari, Valen is a sort of Messiah. He appeared suddenly at a time of great need, accompanied by angelic beings, sometime around Earth year AD 1300. After saving the Minbari from the Shadows, he then reformed their society and government, taught them philosophy, and eventually vanished without a trace. There is belief among the Minbari that Valen will come again, and as is revealed in the course of the series it's true, but not in the way they thought. Valen is actually Jeffrey Sinclair, who traveled through time to save the Minbari and transformed himself into one of them.
  • To add to the messianic parallels, these three characters are referred to collectively as The One^note Sinclair is The One Who Was, Delenn is The One Who Is, and Sheridan is The One Who Will Be, because of the way they all play a crucial role in the defeat of the Shadows and the union of the Minbari and Human people. (Again, whether that definitively makes them Chosen Ones is up for discussion, depending on whether one considers fate to be involved.)
  • G'Kar, as well, whose self-sacrifice for the Narns leads to a religion being formed around him — he even gets 39 lashes. As it happens, G'Kar struggles to get his followers to listen to what he says rather than what they want to hear, echoing recurring themes from earlier seasons about G'Kar's problems with keeping his subordinates in line.
  • The main thing keeping Londo from quite qualifying for most of the series is that he lacks the moral courage to do the right thing rather than the thing he believes will increase his own power or that of his people. As events quickly spin out of control, Londo becomes indirectly responsible for the deaths of millions across the galaxy. In the fourth season he finally finds the will to sacrifice his own life to save his people, asking Vir to kill him and let the Vorlons know so they won't destroy Centauri Prime, the planet is spared due to outside circumstances. Eventually, his own death at G'Kar's hands is revealed to be an assisted suicide, as it's the only way to ensure his Keeper won't prevent Sheridan and Delenn from escaping Centauri Prime. G'Kar dies along with Londo when his Keeper fights back.
• Laura Roslin on Battlestar Galactica could very well fall into this category — she is believed to be the "dying leader" destined to bring her people to Earth, and it doesn't get too much more messianic (specifically, Moses-like) than that. However, she tends more towards the morally grey end of the spectrum than most other messiahs, and that's before the recent revelation that her prophetic dreams are being shared by Cylons.
  • Also in Battlestar, the Number Threes see themselves as Messiahs who will find the Final Five Cylons. After proving that they consider themselves "above" the group consensus of the other Cylons, the line is deactivated.
  • This is all before the final season where Gaius Baltar, whose always had religious overtones to him, gains a cult and starts saying there is only one true God. It's a Jesus symbolism overload, seriously. D'Anna would have destroyed the fleet had she not proven susceptible to his religious urges in the past and subsequently backed down.
• Subverted with Brother Justin in Carnivàle; he's an outwardly saintly Methodist preacher with a "special destiny"... who turns out to be the Antichrist. It takes him, and us, a while to realize that.
• Doctor Who:
  • Tom Baker (a [former Catholic monk who thus [Culturally Religious tends to relate everything to religion]]) has commented that he found the Fourth Doctor to resonate with him as a messianic figure — he described the Doctor as a "perfect man" with superhuman understanding and boundless magnanimity, who descends from the sky to defeat evil and save people with faith and love. In fact, the messianism is one of the aspects of the Doctor's character that the seriously Lost in Character Baker struggled to live up to in his real life, to the detriment of his mental health.
  • So that's the performance then; as for the writing, "The Ark in Space" casts him as a figure removed from humanity bringing chosen people back from the dead after the end of the world; "Genesis of the Daleks" pits him against a Dark Messiah; "The Masque of Mandragora" put him in a church-like TARDIS with a mirror as its centrepiece; "The Deadly Assassin" has a significant scene of being dunked under a river in a billowing white shirt; "The Face of Evil" has him acquiring a companion who is explicitly his disciple and saving her from being tortured with thorns in his name; and there are many other incidental scenes throughout the rest of the Hinchcliffe era. Note also that Baker makes a point of pronouncing "Gallifrey" to sound as close as he can make it to "Galilee". It's a lot more subtle than with the Tenth, though, and heavily lets up when Graham Williams takes over as producer. "The Face of Evil" also has him wipe the mind of an evil godlike computer using a crown-of-thorns-like device that fries his brain and leaves him unconscious for two days, leaving him to revive on the third day...
  • In "Last of the Time Lords", Martha Jones walks the world alone for a year after the Master successfully takes over and reduces the planet to a living hell hole in preparation for his plan to go on to conquer the universe. She becomes something of a legend, considered to be a savior who will defeat the Master. Martha's means of saving the world, however, involves spreading stories about the Doctor "no weapons, just words", as well as leaving an instruction, and insisting the whole time that the Doctor is the actual saviour.
  • The RTD era is a subversion as "The Waters of Mars" thoroughly demonstrates that once the Doctor starts thinking of himself as a saviour or god, he becomes more of a Dark Messiah and that, ultimately, all the messiah metaphors scattered throughout Series 1-4 aren't meant to indicate anything good. In the post-S4 specials, the Tenth Doctor receives notice of his own death, undergoes a final temptation (and succumbs, which Adelaide Brooke soon corrects him on), has an Agony in the Garden plea after he hears Wilf knock, and then finally — angrily, but lovingly — agrees to sacrifice himself, though it will be prolonged and painful and in the end, he'll be alone. Hello, allegory!
  • The Steven Moffat era plays the Doctor-as-Messianic-Archetype concept straight until Series 9, when he undergoes another dark period in the three-part finale: In "Face the Raven" he is betrayed by someone who owes him her life — specifically, he brought her back to life — and to make matters worse it accidentally gets his beloved Clara killed. Clara tells him he can't let his resultant anguish change him, even though he's being sent to a place where he'll have absolutely no one to help him. In "Heaven Sent" it turns out to be a torture chamber that torments him with his own nightmares, and he is Driven to Madness, ultimately undergoing a cycle of, effectively, death and revival billions of times over until he's free. Having effectively been forsaken by the entire universe, in "Hell Bent" he becomes a vengeful, heartsick Woobie, Destroyer of Worlds who chooses to risk the safety of the universe on the Tragic Dream of saving Clara, which violates a fixed point in time, feeling he is owed this after all he's done for it and that he is no longer accountable to anyone. But he is ultimately convinced of the wrongness of these actions and not only repents but loses her and his key memories of her so he can return to his best self. The villains do not get the punishments they deserve (they get off lightly compared to their crimes or escape it altogether), and he sacrifices personal happiness in favor of continuing to serve the greater good — even though he knows the universe will never make up for the horrors he's faced in this Story Arc alone, much less reward him for all the good he's done.
• Game of Thrones:
  • Jon Snow is set up this way, what with the noble nature and the mysterious parentage and the possibly being the only hope for a good future for the common folk and the looking like Jesus. And, of course, the whole "being betrayed by his followers and then brought back from the dead" thing.
  • King Baelor Targaryen is a deconstruction. Many of the characteristics that made him a beloved ruler among the smallfolk also got in the way of his actual job of ruling and his responsibility to perpetuate the royal line.
  • Daenerys Targaryen definitely invokes some Christ parallels. In the first season, the Dothraki think she will give birth to the Stallion that Mounts the World and this seems to connect to a prophecy that she herself believes, which marks her as the Dragon of the Targaryens, which seems to be confirmed when she successfully hatches three dragons. It was not made clear at that point if the prophesies surrounding her involve the good kind of messiah or the bad one. Jorah Mormont seems to think she is the former. Out of everyone who's vying for the Iron Throne, he believes Daenerys is the only claimant with a good heart and the inner strength that would win her the love of her subjects and the fear of her enemies. On the other hand, he's probably a little biased. It's taken even further in Season 3, where she's responsible for freeing the Army of the Unsullied from slavery, as well as liberating the slaves of Astapor and Yunkai. In all instances, the former slaves pledge their Undying Loyalty to her and come to revere her as their saviour, and in Seasons 5 and 6, it is revealed that many of the Red Priests of Volantis consider her their religion's Chosen One, in place of Stannis. Season 8 put a final answer to the question of what kind of messiah.
  • Stannis Baratheon, according to Melisandre. Turns out she was wrong in identity, but right in general geography. Stannis wasn't the Chosen One but he would meet the true Chosen One, Jon Snow, and play an indirect role in his path to destiny.
• In Hannibal, Will Graham serves as this vis-a-vis Hannibal's satanic archetype. He's tested by a Satan figure (Hannibal), persecuted by Freddie Lounds, betrayed by one of the men he trusted most, and unjustly punished. In his daydreams in Season 2, he's shown standing in a stream, as if to invoke the image of baptism. In "Hassun", Hannibal likens himself to Peter and Will to Jesus, telling Jack that he cannot deny Will a third time, a reference to Matthew 26:69-75.
  • Of course, considering that Hannibal take a more cruel take on God with its focus on horror and the macabre, Will Graham might not be the messiah you're looking for.
• The titular character of John from Cincinnati (note the "J.C.", although his actual surname is Monad) might be Jesus, or perhaps an angel or some other supernatural being, but the short-livedshow never got around to giving a straight answer to that question, if indeed the creators ever intended to.
• The main character Tendou in Kamen Rider Kabuto. Born with amazing natural talent, trained to be the best in everything, told all his life that he will one day save mankind, and acts insufferably smug and superior as a result of it all.
• It takes watching every episode of Key West produced to realize it, but JoJo Nabouli is a Messianic Archetype. Everywhere he goes, good things happen to people who follow his advice. He hates no one and supports everyone. He always has a message to teach, even to people who don't think they need to learn. He is fortunate enough that, even when he falls ass-backward into piles of manure, he comes out spotless with a rose in his teeth. And when a friend needs a hand, he gives it without question.
• Kingdom Adventure: The Jesus-analog of this Religious Edutainment show is named "The Prince", but interestingly, it's not him alone that functions as the lynchpin of The Emperor's plan to save the land: it's actually the love between The Prince and his wife-to-be that is going to save the land.
• An episode of Kingdom Hospital involved the Reverend Jimmy being found crucified, followed by a series of miracles re-enacting those of the New Testament. Unusual in that his Messianic Archetype status only becomes evident after he's died.
• The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power: If the Istar from the meteorite is an amnesiac Gandalf, than he is implicitly a Messianic figure. While he is barely at the beginning of his journey, he already checks several conditions, he is a Friend to All Living Things, Looks Like Jesus, has Healing Hands and found True Companions in the Harfoots despite starting on the wrong foot with them. He even got his own version of the biblical Three Magi in the Mystics, a trio of evil women from the lands of Rhun, who were searching for him.
• There is a strong suggestion that Lost's Locke is the All-Loving Hero to the Others or the island itself. The Others have suggested they've been waiting for him because he is very special. Also, as seen in Season 4, he dies, and must be returned to the island. Season 5 update: he appears to have resurrected and gained new knowledge and confidence (as you might expect a person to in such a circumstance), but it turned out to be nothing but a trick, with him still dead after a miserable life and some ancient...power, masquerading as him
  • Season 6 Jack seems to have taken over Locke's role in this archetype.
• Emma Swan of Once Upon a Time is known across several realms as "The Savior" a role which defines her destiny as breaking the Dark Curse and restoring happy endings. She has redeemed wicked souls, even in Hades through love and mercy. Emma chooses to absorb the power of the Dark One in a selfless act to prevent its evil from corrupting any other soul. Her mother Snow White is renamed Mary Margaret under the curse. Her father David was a shepherd. (Jesus was born in the House of David and is called the Good Shepherd) If that was not enough, at the end of Season 6 Emma has dinner with her friends and family which becomes an illustration that closely resembles The Last Supper in the storybook.
• The short-lived Netflix series Messiah has this trope as its premise with the key character Al-Masih. A preacher from the Middle East who claims to be the eschatological return of 'Isa (Jesus in Arabic). The series plays with, subverts, deconstructs and actually plays this trope straight, as Al-Masih walks the lines between this trope and Dark Messiah since he does several very un-Christ like things, but also inspires goodness and change in people (although he also brings out the worst in others). The show strongly hints that it’s all just a highly elaborate con and Al-Masih is a pretender who thinks he’s the Messiah, except he does actually perform miracles that are impossible to stage such as in the Ambiguous Ending where he survives a plane crash and seemingly revives the passengers (his kidnappers) with Healing Hands. Since the show was cancelled we’ll never know if he was actually the Messiah or not.
• The Outer Limits (1995):
  • In "Starcrossed", Cass Trenton is the best hope of winning the war against the Hing as she is carrying a parasite that can kill them.
  • In the final scene of "Revival", Luke is already being worshiped as a new Messiah by small congregations led by Serena only two months after his death.
• Smallville: Clark Kent.
  • He had a crucifixion pose at least twice ("Pilot", "Salvation"; yes, we are aware of the allusion in the second episode title).
  • In "Hidden", he is pronounced dead, covered by a sheet then the body disappears and is resurrected by his father.
  • All the talk about him being the "light" in "Finale".
  • Him being an essentially Nice Guy who also leads his True Companions against evil.
• Star Trek:
  • The Vulcan philosopher Surak is more of a Space Confucius than a Space Jesus (right down to his major work being titled Analects), but we still have him saving a people from themselves through his teachings (despite those teachings having been misinterpreted, per Star Trek: Enterprise), acquired a cadre of followers, and died a violent death before his work was completed (specifically a nuclear detonation that gave him radiation poisoning). There was also a group that rejected his teachings, who became the Romulans.
  • Star Trek: The Next Generation. Jean-Luc Picard was necessary for Earth's survival. Without him becoming Locutus, Earth would have been assimilated by the Borg.
    • The Klingon have a Kung-Fu Jesus archetype called Kahless. Everything relating to his backstory builds him up as a godlike warrior. Before his death, he promised to return in the future and help restore peace and honor to his people. In "Rightful Heir", a clone of him is made, sparking a controversy between the Klingon.
  • In Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, Benjamin Sisko is the Emissary of the Prophets, the messiah figure in the Bajoran religion. It turns out that the Prophets even used their knowledge of the future to orchestrate the events of Sisko's birth. Sisko is initially put off by the idea of being a messiah (indeed, early seasons get a lot of mileage out of Sisko being the messiah of a religion he doesn't believe in) but eventually embraces the role.
• Stranger Things: Eleven is a girl with superpowers (more like a Yoda) who at the end of Season 1 sacrifices herself to save her friends and kill a monster, only to come back in Season 2. Also, Mike pretty much prays to her every day for a straight year.
• Supernatural:
  • Dean Winchester. While he drinks, cheats, steals, and enjoys the company of loose women (at least in the first three seasons), he's also got a tendency to sacrifice himself and would do so to save a stranger's life without hesitation. He starts off as the only member of the Winchester family who hunts for the sake of saving people instead of revenge and is also the most selfless and martyr-like individual on the show. By Season 4, however, this becomes nearly Word of God as after he's sent to Hell, an army of angels descends to Hell to save him and resurrect him, complete with crucifix imagery as he claws his way from his own grave. The title of the episode this happened in brings even more religious allusions: Lazarus Rising. In Season 5, the angelic plan is revealed, as Dean is "destined" to be the human vessel for the archangel Michael, the only angel powerful enough to stop Lucifer.
  • Sam also has his own share of Messianic imagery, as Season 5 ends with him in the crucifixion pose, sacrificing himself to seal away both Lucifer and Michael who were to bring about the Apocalypse. This becomes even more ironic as thanks to his demonic destiny that's alluded to throughout the seasons — to be the vessel for Lucifer, he's also set up as an Antichrist.
  • Jack is probably the closest thing the series has to the real deal. However, instead of being God's son, he's His grandson through Satan himself no less. Before he is even born, his mother Kelly, and later Castiel, say that he will do good things and change the world for the better. Due to his status as the Devil's son, he is often persecuted by those around him, most notably Dean, and the survivors of Apocalypse World because of his angelic heritage. Fortunately, he begins to turn people's view of him by consistently proving himself to be a genuinely good person. He dies and is resurrected (twice actually) and upon stealing Chuck's powers and becoming the new God, Jack shows himself to be a better God than Chuck could ever hope to be by undoing all of the wrong things Chuck has done, and even remaking Heaven from a place where people are restricted into their personal paradise, reliving their memories for eternity, into a place where the souls can reunite with their loved ones.
• Jack Harkness of Torchwood: Betrayed by his team and killed, rose from the dead, sacrifices himself to basically stop the devil from killing everyone in the world, dies again, and comes back after exactly three days to tell his killer that he forgives him. That's just the series one finale. The second one does so a little bit too but then the third series utterly and totally subverts it.
• A number of heroes in the Ultra Series fit — compassionate and valiant heroes who love and protect all of humanity, even when they are aware of their imperfections. They also have a tendency to get crucified and resurrected as well, and usually have the defence team or friends as True Companions supporting them against the monsters and aliens.
• Stefan Salvatore of The Vampire Diaries. Stefan is depicted as a heroic, noble, and selfless saviour and protector.
  • Not to mention that his last name means "Savior" in Italian.

Music

• Appears in a number of David Bowie's songs, most famously in the form of Ziggy Stardust. Also spoofed in "We Are Hungry Men," where the "messiah" is Jumping Off the Slippery Slope and his teachings are completely ignored. Interestingly, Bowie's first major film role was as the title character in the movie adaptation of The Man Who Fell to Earth (see Literature). And then came "The Next Day"...
• Halleluiah, or Holly, follows a Christ-like arc in music by the Hold Steady. In the album "Separation Sunday," she wears a cross and reads bible stories but falls into a downward spiral of drugs and bad decisions. She joins some locals in being "born again" by taking a hit of nitrous oxide and being dunked underwater, a parallel with baptism. Shortly afterwards, she blacks out and disappears, and finally wakes up in a confession booth during Easter mass where she asks, "Father, can I tell your congregation how a resurrection really feels?"
• Tommy by The Who: Tommy is convinced that his experiences gained from his self-imposed exile from reality have given him some sort of spiritual insight into reality and gathers a small cult about him. His family tries to make money off of his cult, and his followers largely miss the point and ultimately reject his message.
• Hero, who is basically Jesus with a Divine Race Lift in a Setting Update.
• "Are You Gonna Go My Way" by Lenny Kravitz is sung from the POV of one, who calls people to follow his way so that love can prevail.
• Poets of the Fall:
  • In the video for "Carnival of Rust, this is Invoked by Zoltar, the Carnival's fortuneteller, during a Tarot reading, as he pulls "The Star" (a hopeful savior figure) and "The Nine of Swords" (despair, entrapment) in succession, and in his chorus, demands she love him so that he might be free of the Carnival. His attempt is Subverted when she is taken aback and ignores his advances in favor of visiting other attractions, then leaving.
  • Played Straight in "The Ballad of Jeremiah Peacekeeper" a Western inspired Ennio Morricone Pastiche about a self-sacrificing, Reluctant Warrior lawman whose mission is "to keep your peace"
  He takes on the world all in a stride, and your wounds will be his scars
  So won't you remember when the night comes
  He will need your open arms
  For to be invincible, he needs your love.
• In Akiko Shikata's song "Infelious Rhaplanca. Ten no Inori ~Rhaplanca~/Chi no Aganai ~Maoh~," from her Ar tonelico based album Utau Oka ~Ar=Ciel Ar=Dor, Rhaplanca transforms herself into stone to stop a giant dead tree from falling, allowing the people of her city to climb it and escape the wrath of their god.

Myths & Religion

• Jesus Christ from The Bible. No further explanation needed.
  • While most modern Messianic Archetype characters are explicitly or implicitly likened to Christ, Jesus himself was likened to various Old Testament figures — most explicitly King David, Moses, and the obscure priest-king Melchizedek — of whom several took on messianic undertones. Some Jews even believe Melchizedek, or a Second Coming thereof to be one of four literally Messianic figures (usually alongside Elijah, the Son of David and the Son of Joseph) who between them will usher in the Messianic Age.
  • Samson, yet another Old Testament figure, is something of a Darker and Edgier type. He gave up his life to defeat his enemies (and even did so with his arms stretched out), although he was motivated more so by personal pride.
  • Related to this trope are Jesus's words, he more than once talked about false messiahs and prophets and warned people not to follow them, but the way he said it all but states that he was warning about scammers and cult leaders who'd use religious concepts to dupe their followers. Regarding people who follow him, he always acted like he wanted them to follow his example, under that interpretation, while no one should claim to be Jesus himself, being as close to being a Messianic Archetype as we can is the whole point of being a Christian.
  • Interestingly, the original Jewish conception of a messiah does not necessarily involve self-sacrifice. The Jewish messiah is more of A Protagonist Shall Lead Them, and Jews reject Jesus as messiah precisely because he failed to fulfill the messianic prophecies (including: liberating Judea from the Roman Empire, gathering all the Jews back to Israel, and rebuilding the Temple^note though the Temple was still around when Jesus was alive).
• Osiris from Egyptian Mythology. The oldest son of the primordial gods Geb and Nut, he came down to earth to live as the first Pharaoh who taught Humanity agriculture and civilization. However, he was betrayed by his jealous brother Seth, who mutilated and scattered his body to rule as a tyrant. After his son Horus took revenge upon Seth, Osiris was pieced back together by his wife Isis (except his penis, which got eaten by a fish), and assumed the role of judge of the dead.
• In Norse Mythology, Baldur, who like Christ is loved by all, is betrayed by one of his companions (Loki), and who will eventually return to rule the Earth after the End of the World as We Know It. Unlike Christ though, he didn't get better — at least not yet. C. S. Lewis (and his friend Tolkien) actually proposed Baldur was a Norse-friendly version of Jesus.
  • It is believed that the introduction of Christianity to Germany/Scandinavia led to a re-write of many of the myths of Norse Mythology (Thor's wedding, for one, is believed to have been written after said introduction as a way of mocking the old gods). It is possible the myths about Baldur were written or re-written to better fit the Christian faith, as was the part where Odin hung himself and was impaled by a spear much like Jesus.
• A common misconception about Quetzacoatl, the Feathered Serpent God, is that he's a messiah figure who got banished to the east, who will be heralded when he returns. This is in equal parts misidentifying the serpent god with the actual human ruler Topiltzin Quetzalcoatl (who was something of a religious reformist, who even tried to abolish Human Sacrifice with no success) and in part flat out fabrication by Hispanic religious writers to make sense out of the Spanish conquest (by claiming that Mesoamericans mistook the Spaniards by gods, thus helping their conquering effort, because they were so pious). In actuality the serpent god was frankly something of an atavism by the time contact between the two continents was made - the Aztec were much more into the War God Huitzilopochtli, and Quetzalcoatl was mostly just relevant for the purposes of the Five Suns myth. The idea that Quetzal boi was the Token Good Teammate of the Aztec pantheon is both the result of the aforementioned conflation between the serpent god and the human ruler and just flat out wrong (for starters, his aspect as the god of wind Ehecatl was the recipient of human sacrifices as a proxy for the sun, and none of the Aztec gods are "evil").
• Heracles — Born of god and man, martyred. Similar to Quetzalcoatl is Prometheus, Titan of knowledge and fire, who gifted humanity with the Olympian flames so that humankind is equal with the Gods, and like the others, was martyred.
• The Arthurian legends are, to a great extent, a retelling of the David story from The Bible, complete with the idea that Arthur will return to save Britain in her greatest hour of need.
  • This isn't just a British myth; France has the same myth about national hero Roland, and the Danes have a similar archetype in Holger Dansk.
• A similar myth exists about Frederick Barbarossa, who was a real historical figure, and a number of others, some real, some altogether legendary. A more extensive, but no doubt still partial list, can be found under the King in the Mountain entry at the other wiki.
• Buddhism has Buddha Gautama, who checks many points in the most mystic traditions: he was the chosen one by his being in his previous lifes, gathered a school of companions, was betrayed by one of them (Devadatta) who tried to convince kings to persecute him, redeemed some very bad people, and will return some day (if not him, another Buddha).
• Zoroastrianism has Zoraster himself, the prophet of that faith that rallied against the political system of the time. He, in turn, will be succeeded by Saoshyant, who will cleanse the earth at the end of the world.
• In Sami Mythology the sun goddess Beaivi's daughter, Beaivi-Nieida, was sent to earth by her mother to cure humans of illness. However, the humans became jealous of her powers and crushed her skull with a rock. Fortunately, it was instant and painless and she returned to the realm of the gods.
• In Hindu Mythology, Vishnu's Avatars take various forms, but the one thing that they have in common is that they all appear when the world and its balance is in incredible danger in order to save it. The most fitting of this trope, however, is Kalki, the prophesized 'Final Avatar' of Vishnu that will appear at The End of the World as We Know It to deliver it from evil.

Pro Wrestling

• Chris Hero, who has a beard and long hair like the popular image, claims to be the savior of CZW. His personal theme, "Chris Is Awesome" is a remix of El Mesías AAA theme even. He at times compares himself to other figures such as David, saving CZW from larger "Goliath" companies like ROH.
• For "God So Loved The WEW" he gave us light in a dark place by giving us T.H.A.I.
• Chris Jericho in 2007, when he returned to save the noble land of WWE from the tyranny of Randy Orton. But you people, who cheered that no good, lying cheat Shawn Michaels! You hypocrites don't want to be saved, you don't deserve to be saved!

Tabletop Games

• Abel in Anima: Beyond Fantasy, who's an Manga/Anime Ersatz of Jesus ^note  albeit far more violent than him (having forged several magical swords that need blood from supernatural entities in order to maintain their magical properties) and with a more than strong dislike of the supernatural complete with Apostles and a crucifixion.
• Urza from Magic: The Gathering is very far from being an All-Loving Hero, but he went through a whole lot of awful things and led a group of other planeswalkers to destroy Phyrexia.
• Warhammer 40,000:
  • The God-Emperor of Mankind, also known as the New Man and the Omnissiah (an incarnation and/or messenger of the Machine God). He sacrificed himself to save humanity fight off the demonic forces of Chaos, fights this battle on a throne that causes immense pain on his part, and (when he was alive) even had the long hair of a Renaissance-era painting of Jesus. That being said he borders between this and being a Dark Messiah, as he was much more violent and cruel in his pre-throne state.
  • His son Sanguinius is another example due to having inherited the better parts from his father, being an All-Loving Hero and pulling an Heroic Sacrifice to help save mankind.
  • Seastian Thor, one of the God Emperor's many saints, has the distinction of being one of the few examples of a Badass Pacifist in the setting.

Theatre

• Claude from Hair, more of a follower than a leader, but serves as kind of an emblematic persecution sink for the hippie movement, and, in most productions, is implied to have Ascended to a Higher Plane of Existence after being killed in Vietnam.
• Enjolras from Les Misérables is the leader of a passionate group of revolutionaries, betrayed by one of his followers (a disguised Javert), shunned by the very people he's trying to save, and whose death is always staged as an upside-down Crucified Hero Shot, hanging over the front of the barricade and clutching the red flag of the rebellion. Although his death is very permanent, he does get a second coming in "Empty Chairs at Empty Tables", and is the first to welcome Valjean to heaven besides Fantine and Eponine.

Video Games

• Aliens vs. Predator (2010): Specimen Six serves as a Moses figure for the Xenomorphs. Six is more intelligent than the rest of her kin, she is spared as an infant from being executed at the insistence of a human who sees her as a slave, she is forced to kill many innocent humans on her master's orders before hearing the commands of the Matriarch who orders her to liberate her people and in doing so, unleashing a plague on their oppressors. When Six is taken off-world, she is born again as a Queen to lead the Xenomorphs into a new era, and she is briefly shown in a Crucified Hero Shot at the beginning of the Alien campaign.
• The titular protagonist of Asura's Wrath is one of these. He has a strong moral compass and cares deeply about protecting innocents, was unjustly betrayed by those he trusted, was killed, only to come back to life, and when Chakravartin (who himself is a Satanic Archetype) offered him the chance to rule the world, he rejected the offer and performed a Heroic Sacrifice to defeat Chakravartin once and for all and destroy mantra (which has affinities themed after the Seven Deadly Sins) so as to save humanity and bring the world into a new age. Not bad for a guy who's literally fueled by Unstoppable Rage.
• Crono, from Chrono Trigger. He even dies. And comes back to life. His casting pose is eerily reminiscent to crucifixion. Additionally, many other characters and events in the game are analogous to people and events in the Bible.
• Prophet is initially a call-sign used by Laurence Barnes and Alcatraz following the former's death in Crysis but by the third game, he is essentially what the name is literally. In between the second and third game, Prophet was put on stasis and when he returns, he becomes humanity savior from the aliens. In fact, a nanosuit user is put into a crucified position whenever they are using a nanosuit cradle. To honor Barnes, the suit eventually takes Barnes' appearance, essentially bringing Barnes back to life.
• The Priest from Cultist Simulator is a deliberately and impressively blasphemous perversion of this trope. Nominally a Christian, but incorporating the incredibly heretical lore of Eldritch Abominations, the Priest inflicts horrific self-mutilation on themselves in clear parallel to Jesus. This culminates in a self-inflicted Fate Worse than Death that turns them into a gate allowing their followers to ascend to the Mansus. And in-game lore suggests that Jesus was real... and following the exact same eldritch path the Priest is on.
• Makoto Naegi, the Big Good of the Danganronpa series. He's extremely good at bringing allies over to his side through simple listening, by allowing himself to be relied on and unpretentiously helping people move past their pain and insecurity and instead towards a hope-filled path, which earned him the title of Ultimate Hope. In Chapter 5 of Danganronpa: Trigger Happy Havoc, he's betrayed by his friends and sentenced to death but escapes by a miracle and is a prisoner on the lowest level of the school. After returning, he instantly forgives them and as a result, they're inspired to share his conviction. At the end, he even makes an attempt to Save the Villain, which fails.
• Dark Souls.
  • Gwyn sacrificed himself as fuel for the First Flame to extend the Age of Fire.
  • The Chosen Undead can either follow in Gwyn's footsteps by sacrificing him or herself to the First Flame or let the Flame go out, becoming the lord of the Age of Darkness. Depending on your interpretation, either or both endings result in the Chosen Undead being a savior to the world.
  • Sir Artorias the Abyswalker gave his life halting the spread of the Abyss. This is actually the Chosen Undead as well, as it turns out that Artorias failed in his task and was consumed by the Abyss. Due to some time travel shenanigans, Artorias got the credit for stopping the Abyss. Artorias still arguably qualifies, though, as he was able to save his wolf companion Sif by giving up his shield, thus saving Sif from being corrupted by the Abyss as Artorias was.
• Sam Porter Bridges, protagonist of Death Stranding, a man with supernatural Resurrective Immortality who is known across America as the 'Great Deliverer' who will restore the country. Though Sam is Not in This for Your Revolution, he still ends up inadvertently causing various other porters to imitate him. By the end, Sam is primarily responsible for stopping the coming of the apocalypse.
• Gulcasa from the Dept. Heaven series' episode II-related games. Miracle birth? Check. Miracle worker and savior? Uh-huh. Twelve disciples? Yep, and one of them even backstabs him. Suffers in the process of saving people, and eventually attempts a Heroic Sacrifice? Check and check. The only discrepancy is in the fact that if he actually completes his Heroic Sacrifice, he'll cause The End of the World as We Know It, so you have to kill him before he can.
• JC Denton of Deus Ex loosely fits this trope, as he ultimately decides the fate of the world with his actions at the end of the game. The JC is likely an allusion to Jesus Christ, though the connection is never made explicit. It is made significantly more obvious by the sequel, in which JC's brother Paul founds an organization called Apostle Corps in order to spread the ideals of JC. Meanwhile, the progenitor of both JC and Paul from the prequel? His name is Adam.
• Devil May Cry:
  • Sparda, despite ironically being a demon, is frequently regarded as a Christ-figure throughout the series due to him saving humanity from the demonkind before sealing his powers away into his swords and dying from unspecified reasons. DMC4 is really on the nose about the allusions, as the Medieval Stasis citizens of Fortuna explicitly worship Sparda as "The Savior" and have an entire religion based on him called the "Order of the Sword", led by a Pope-like figure named Sanctus. However, these worshippers are the antagonists since they misinterpret Sparda's good deeds as an excuse to be a Knight Templar in a mad grab for demonic power. The protagonist Nero calls Sanctus out on this in the finale.
  • Dante is a subtler and less traditional example than his aforementioned father, but he still shows signs of being a Messianic Archetype. He's the son of a god-like figure who uses his abilities to help humanity and manages to bring/inspire goodness out of self-doubting or demonic-inclined characters such as Trish and his brother Vergil. Just like Jesus, Dante christens his allies with new names that they accept forever, as seen with "Lady" formerly known as Mary in DMC3. Trish and Lady also follow him as his trusted allies ever since he befriended them in their respective debut games. He also gets several Crucified Hero Shots throughout the series, but the 2007 anime made it more blatant with Dante being pinned to a life-sized cross, seemingly dead, but then waking up later. DMC5 adds more subtle allusions as Dante now has long hair and has facial hair and performs a Heroic Sacrifice which seemingly "killed" him but he awakens again after several days and returns to his friends.
  • Nero. Think about his circumstances in Devil May Cry 4 and his role in the Order of the Sword for a second. Sort of a Good-aligned rebel of the society's church? Thought of as a nuisance by the powers that be at the time? Betrayed by the same Order where he belongs? Stabbed while in a crucifixion-esque pose? A blood-relative of the religion's god? Sounds about right to us.
• Dragon Quest IX has Celestria, who is basically a gender-flipped Jesus. She is the daughter of the creator God, and sacrifices herself to save humanity, then comes back from the dead.
• Dragon Quest XI has The Luminary, whose title by default entails it: he's born by human parents but was chosen by the resident Physical God as The Chosen One, he's destined to deliver the world from evil and defeat The Dark One.
  • In an unusual application of this trope, he's technically the second coming of the Messianic Archetype, as he's basically the reincarnation of the first Luminary who died long before by being betrayed by one of his closest followers. For bonus points, he's at first a Hero with Bad Publicity and persecuted by King Carnelian, he's also of royal lineage, but was raised in a small village. Jesus was persecuted during his life, and was stated to have been from a long line of kings, but was born and raised as a commoner.
  • On top of that, a majority of the party members join him because he's the Luminary. Erick joins him because the Seer told him that he could atone for his sin by helping him, Veronica and Serena both come from a very religious city, and they were chosen for the role of helping the Luminary due to being reincarnations of Serenica, Rab and Jade both help him due to their past relation with the protagonist and to help him fulfill his destiny both, and the final party member Hendrik joins him after they realize the Luminary is actually a force of good, and swear undying loyalty to him.
• The orcs of Dungeon Crawl are still looking for their messiah. If playing as an orcish priest of Beogh, you can (usually violently) convert the numerous orcs into loyal followers by convincing them you are that messiah. And Beogh will eventually grant powers up to and including, yes, walking on water. You don't HAVE to die, as per the original Messianic Archetype, although the rest of the dungeon makes this the most likely outcome.
• Final Fantasy:
  • Aerith of Final Fantasy VII — Half-human, half-supernatural, the planet is ultimately saved through her prayers and her death, and humanity is kept alive. In Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children, she cures Geostigma from beyond the grave, which is effectively cancer. The disease is notably uncurable by any other means.
  • Yuna from Final Fantasy X. Worshiped and loved by everyone around her? Check. A ritualistic Heroic Sacrifice to defeat the ultimate evil in the world literally called "Sin", complete with The Final Temptation beforehand? Check. Walking on water? Check. Tidus also qualifies: Son of a Godlike figure who professes love even for those in Spira who face discrimination, also associated with water (to the extent that his love scene involves both himself and Yuna going underwater baptismal-style), also gets a Heroic Sacrifice and resurrection. Somewhat ironically, this is all present in a game that showcases the dangers of an organized religion.
  • Claire "Lightning" Farron from the Final Fantasy XIII trilogy goes from human granted magical powers by a demigod (XIII) to Valkyrie in the service of a goddess (XIII-2) to a super-powered, possibly transhuman servant of another god whose job is to save souls of the living so they can be reborn in another world (Lightning Returns). Lightning is even explicitly referred to as "The Savior". Her friend and ally, Oerba Dia Vanille, is also a messianic character in the third game, tasked unwittingly with guiding the souls of the dead to oblivion.
  • Final Fantasy XV's protagonist, Noctis Lucis Caelum, fits this trope to a T. He's chosen by the Crystal to bring an end to the Starscourge (a disease which is very similar in both name and appearance to the aforementioned Geostigma) by fulfilling the Calling of his royal line, seeking the favor of the Astral gods, and using the power of the Crystal. Near the end of the game, he learns of his true purpose — he must give his life to call forth divine Providence if he is to destroy the Accursed and end the Scourge. And so, the game ends with his ritual sacrifice on his throne, after which he and his dead fiancee's spirits are shown appearing as if at their wedding. He's sometimes referred to by titles like "King of Kings" or "the Son" to make sure no one overlooks the connection.
• In the Fire Emblem series:
  • Fire Emblem: Awakening has Robin. They are born from the blood of the setting's biggest evil, they sacrifice themselves to save all of humanity, and they come Back from the Dead afterwards.
  • Fire Emblem: Three Houses has Byleth. They are the vessel of the setting's goddess, born from a divine miracle, they are betrayed by a close disciple, they rise from death to save the continent in its hour of need, and their primary enemy is either a woman who wears horns, dresses in red, and seeks to destroy the goddess, or a false prophet who has corrupted the church for her own selfish ends.
• Gordon Freeman, of Half-Life fame: "And yet unsophisticated minds continue to imbue him with romantic power, giving him such dangerous poetic labels as the One Free Man, the Opener of the Way." There's even an Easter egg scene showing him in a stained glass window, complete with crowbar.
• In Honkai Impact 3rd, Mei's journey into the Elysian Realm brings her into contact with one of these. Her main companion throughout the virtual world of the Elysian Realm is its namesake, Elysia, who slowly reveals her true nature and story to Mei. Described quite literally as "god's daughter", she was discovered as a child and grew up among humanity while unaware of her own nature as a Herrscher. Unlike the normal cycle of Herrschers that would manifest, Elysia was not controlled by the Will of the Honkai and loved humanity with all her heart. She brought together a group of 13, the Flamechasers, to fight against the Honkai and would eventually sacrifice herself in an effort to give humanity hope. While her sacrifice did not save her own era, it would plant the seeds of salvation for the next Era and allow Herrschers like Mei to retain their humanity and eventually, save the world.
• Horizon Zero Dawn features a secularized reconstruction of the trope. The Zero Dawn AI, GAIA, is effectively "god" in the setting, recreating life on Earth after an Apocalypse How total extinction. However, when something causes all her subordinate functions (named after greek/roman gods) to go rogue, her prime concern is HADES, a contingency function for wiping the slate clean in the event that GAIA creates a nonviable biome. To respond, she engages in a Thanatos Gambit, self-destructing to contain HADES after causing the Uterine Replicators that respawned the Human race to clone her creator, Dr. Elisabet Sobeck, to solve the problem. This clone, Aloy, is effectively an immaculate conception by GAIA and is inherently able to access all the old Zero Dawn facilities due to her genetic match to the project's director. Combine this with the benighted tribal religions of the time, and Aloy's clone-inherited traits of intuitive genius, indomitable will, and a compassion to heal the world, and you have a secular Messiah.
• Kingdom Hearts: Sora, who has always been an All-Loving Hero, but is heading this way as of the secret ending to Birth by Sleep. By Kingdom Hearts III, his role as a Messiah in the KH universe is pretty much set in stone: he purifies two people from darkness, restores three people back to life, convinces the main villain to give up his evil ways, and last but not least, performs a Heroic Sacrifice.
• The Legend of Zelda:
  • As told in the Opening Narration of The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker, the Hero of Time became this to the people of the "ancient kingdom" after defeating the great evil that threatened to destroy it. Once the great evil resurfaced, many generations later, the people of the kingdom were sure that the Hero of Time would reappear to save them...and he didn't. The ancient Kingdom (Hyrule) was then flooded by the gods in an attempt to protect it from the Big Bad, Ganondorf; the world current to the game has lost all contact and has an imperfect recollection of many of the details of the ancient world.
  • In The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword, it is Zelda herself who is this. More particularly, both Hylia and Zelda split the difference of this archetype. Hylia was worshipped in ancient times as the protector of the Triforce, but those times ended when the Demon King Demise and his horde of demons rose to the surface, slaughtering anyone in their path. Hylia was able to seal Demise but was mortally wounded in the process, leading her to take a mortal form. In the present time, Zelda is that mortal form, and she goes on a journey separate from Link's to regain her memories and power as Hylia. Eventually, she seals herself away to strengthen the seal on Demise for a time.
• Mass Effect:
  • Mass Effect: Commander Shepard. Chosen to save the galactic population from imminent genocide? Check! Has a small group of loyal followers (twelve in the second game)? Check! Brought Back from the Dead? Check! And in the worst ending of the second game, s/he performs a Heroic Sacrifice in order to destroy the Collector base. It's not canon, but it's still there.
  • As the trailer for Mass Effect 3 indicates, everyone waits for Shepard to return to Earth and save them all...
    • Depending on Shepard's decisions, the end of Mass Effect 3 can see him/her potentially sacrificing him/herself to stop the Reapers for good, by taking the Reapers down with them in the Destroy Ending (though Shepard can survive this), sacrificing themselves to create a new form of life in the Synthesis Ending or uploading themselves and becoming the new AI governing the Reapers in the Control Ending.
    • The epilogue reveals that "The Shepard" is venerated far into the future, their life having become Shrouded in Myth.
  • Depending on the decisions made regarding the Quarian-Geth conflict, the archetype can also be applied to Legion, assuming the Geth are not wiped out after the Reaper that was controlling the Geth is defeated. If Shepard allows Legion to upload the unshackled Reaper code to the Geth collective consciousness that would allow them to truly "live", an error will be encountered that will require Legion to sacrifice itself in order to disseminate their own code to complete the upgrade. By this point, Legion has by far the most interaction with organic life forms out of any of the Geth and Legion's characterization across the second and third games show a developing sense of individuality and personhood, capped by Legion's first and only usage of the singular "I" instead of "we" or "this platform" to refer to itself (as EDI points out later). The first Geth to achieve individual sapience on par with other organic life forms in the galaxy...and Legion gives up its personality code so that all other Geth can make the jump as well — in Legion's words, "I must go to them." It's an entirely plausible line of thought that the sacrifice by Legion in order to bring all Geth to a true intelligent understanding on par with organics had a hand in inspiring Shepard to choose the Synthesis Ending where organics and synthetics are better able to understand each other, assuming the player decides on that path.
• Metal Gear:
  • The Boss in Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater has certain elements of this. Her death, in which she sacrificed everything for her country, is what set in motion the events of the entire series from Big Boss' Face–Heel Turn to the formation of the Patriots. Plus there's her dying in a white sneaking suit in a field of white flowers that are stained red with her blood. And all this is before we get to Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker…
  • The sequel follows this up by turning Big Boss into this, all the way down to church symbology, coveting of his remains, and even a short-lived resurrection.
• In OneShot, Niko is explicitly referred to as the savior and the Messiah by the residents of the dying world. It was foretold that a savior from another world would wake up in a strange room, find the new sun, and bring light back into the world, and Niko fits the bill perfectly. Whether or not Niko actually fulfills the "bring the light back into the world" part of the prophecy depends on which ending you choose.
• The main character of Persona 3. Just to hammer the point home, his ultimate persona is Messiah. True to form, he sacrifices his life to seal up Nyx at the end of the game. In the epilogue of The Answer, his reason for doing so is revealed; he sacrificed his life to seal Nyx away from Erebus, the Anthropomorphic Personification of humanity's desire for death. Just to hammer the point home, his life essence is shown crucified, guarding the door to Nyx — he literally dies to save humanity from its sins. His Evil Counterpart Takaya serves as The Antichrist.
• Eothas, god of light, renewal, and redemption, in Pillars of Eternity. He is a god particularly known for his forgiveness who took human form, walked among the poor, fed the starving, and died attempting to save mankind. In Pillars of Eternity II: Deadfire, he is even resurrected... though his resurrection involves him possessing a gigantic adra statue, destroying Caed Nua, and leaving the Watcher near death, making him the game's de facto Big Bad.
• Monika Schäfer from Shadowrun Returns Dragonfall is a subversion. At the beginning of the game Monika dies, and her death becomes key in averting a potentially world-ending plot, and in her home, the Kreuzbazar, people gush about how great she was and all the good things she did. However, as soon as you start digging, the cracks begin to appear. While she did do a great deal of good, her advice got Simmy Kim addicted to BTL sims, she never even took notice of Sam Beckenbauer's charity, seemingly because of anti-ork prejudice, and for all her claims of being an anarchist she essentially ran Kreuzbazar as her own little kingdom and clamped down hard on dissent.
• Shyna in Silhouette Mirage, to the point that she is called Messiah by Har.
• Silver the Hedgehog in Sonic the Hedgehog (2006) symbolises the Second Coming of Christ. He's here to save us all from doom!
  • And just for the record, the low-born, persecuted Shadow was the First Coming. Oh, come on. You saw him in that stasis field, in the Crucifix position, blamed for something he had nothing to do with despite being one of the protectors of humanity. Hell, he even told Mephiles where to shove it.
  • And in a certain point of view, Sonic represents all of Christ. He died for your sins and rose from the dead!
• StarCraft: Tassadar compromised his pursuit of the guilty in order to spare the innocents, sided with the outcasts, was condemned for his mercy, accomplished miracles, and died for us all. En taro Tassadar, Executor!
  • More than that, it turns out that he has survived in a different form. Or so we are led to believe; "Tassadar" turned out to be the projected avatar of Ouros, last of the benevolent Xel'Naga, in a form & voice Zeratul & Artanis would recognize and trust.
  • Zeratul also counts: he discovers a terrible truth about the possible end of the Universe no one will believe, gets alienated and considered a criminal and a heretic by every Protoss faction, has a very limited number of allies he can trust and rely on, and finally Artanis, his most precious ally, kills him while under the influence of Amon, and his death inspires every Protoss and Artanis, in particular, to fight back and defeat Amon for good.
• Lt. Miral Paris in Star Trek Online is this. To some of the Klingon, she's the Kuvah'Magh. To others, she's a traitor who should just be killed. Miral? She just wants to be Security Chief on the U.S.S. Kirk.
• Tales Series
  • Colette is set up for this role due to her duties of The Chosen One during the first third of Tales of Symphonia. It gets kind of subverted after that when Lloyd takes the centre stage in the story.
  • Tales of Xillia's Milla Maxwell is arguably the Captain Ersatz of Jesus. Her story is that of a God in Human Form who gathers a band of followers (including a traitor), truly loves humans in spite of all the things that they do, makes a Heroic Sacrifice before coming Back from the Dead — returning from a spiritual realm—and then rules the world benevolently as a compassionate deity.
  • Artorius from Tales of Berseria is definitely set up as the Shepherd and the savior of the world, though it doesn't exactly take much time at all to realize he isn't the holiest of men. The closest actual example in the game is Velvet Crowe. Yes, the anti-heroine, revenge-driven Lord of Calamity herself ends up being the one to pull the ultimate sacrifice for the good of everyone.
• The Avatar from the Ultima series. He serves as The Paragon for the eight Virtues and is implied to have sacrificed himself at the end of Ultima IX in order to defeat The Guardian.
• World of Warcraft Cataclysm has Thrall become this in the wake of the titular cataclysm. This did not go unnoticed by fans, who lent him the pejorative moniker "Green Jesus."
  • In Wrath of the Lich King we have Tirion Fordring, the Ashbringer.
  • The fourth expansion, brings us the Last (pandaren) Emperor of Pandaria, Shaohao, who upon learning that the sundering was coming, decided to purge himself from his negative emotions, and "become one with the land" to make Pandaria drift away from the destruction and protect the races of Pandaria, including his enemies the Mantid. Of course, given the far eastern theme of the expansion, he's more of a Crystal Dragon Buddha.
• Two of them in ULTRAKILL, although ironically both messianic figures are actually kings of Hell's layers^note Lust for King Minos and Greed for King Sisyphus, and those that struck them down were angels.
  • King Minos has a crown of thorns covering his eyes, his character is defined by kindness and altruism, he doesn't try to fight back as he's about to be executed, and he is cherished by many after his death.
  • King Sisyphus has a dark complexion with long hair and beard, his land is a desert, he was persecuted by zealots for blaspheming with his radical views, and his corpse looks like it was crucified.
• View from Below: While Ash is not only the one who is supposed to defeat the Crimson God to save all the spirits trapped in Below, the true ending is reached by showing kindness and mercy to Melody, Iris, and Bell despite all of them betraying him in some way, giving them a chance to become better people. Additionally, by slaying the Crimson God, he makes it possible for the lost spirits of Below to finally try to ascend to Heaven. Ironically, the Crimson God is a version of Jesus who failed to become this archetype, and is meant to represent what Ash could become if he succumbed to hatred.
• Fei from Xenogears. This is hardly surprising, as he is the messiah of the setting, and is loosely based on the Gnostic interpretation of Jesus
  • Elly/Sophia also fits the archetype of selfless love and self-sacrifice, like her Gnostic counterpart.
  • Speaking of Xeno, chaos from Xenosaga would also fit the archetype, being a literal messiah as well.

Web Animation

• In Time Squad, the online Web Animation movie of the Blockhead series, the titular character varies between this and being a Seemingly Profound Fool. He is shown to provide simple wisdom and inspiration to the other characters during their Darkest Hours and is shown as the only character that the Mad Scientist villain seems to consider his Worthy Opponent and the Red Oni to his Blue Oni since they somehow share a history together (Blockhead somehow existing in 15th century Romania and a collaborator in his mad schemes).

Web Comics

• Homestuck:
  • The story of The Sufferer has many parallels to Christ's. He lacked the kind of parent figure typical in troll society, and was instead raised by a woman called The Dolorosa^*The Virgin Mary is sometimes referred to as the Mater Dolorosa, or "Sorrowful Mother". He wandered the planet, spreading a message of an Alternia free from the Alien Blood-based Fantastic Caste System that rules their culture, attracting followers, one of whom was called The Disciple. He led a massive revolution that was ultimately crushed by the Highbloods and ended with him being tortured and killed, and his burning iron shackles became the symbol of his followers. However, The Sufferer is something of a subversion of the usual depictions of this trope, as in his last moments he undergoes what is described as a divine transformation of his compassion into limitless burning anger, and let out a Vast Expletive that served as his final sermon, and encoding his message into the fabric of existence itself for future followers to hear. This is implied to be the reason his descendant, Karkat, is so constantly angry and easily frustrated.
  • In Hussie's typical "every minuscule detail is going to get a callback later" style, John and Terezi have a brief discussion about "Troll Jegus" long before the existence of the Sufferer is revealed.
• Walky from It's Walky! would certainly count as this in the end he performs a heroic sacrifice, goes to the afterlife, is resurrected, and ends up saving the world.
• In Kill Six Billion Demons, the Song of Maybe tells of how Lord Intra the Sword-Saint once fed a valley of people using nothing but a rock, in a reference to Jesus' feeding of the multitude with only a single fish and a loaf of bread. Intra sharpened the rock and used it as flint to start a fire, then dug a well with the rock and hewed the mud he extracted into bricks, then built a baking oven around the fire using the bricks. Then, when the cruel Feudal Overlord who owned the valley and kept all the grain locked up tried to kill him, Intra killed all his men with the rock, freeing the people and opening the lord's granaries. The people then used the oven to bake a lot of bread.
• L's Empire: Following her Heroic Sacrifice, Indx was turned into one of these by her brother when he founded the Tribe of Darkness. She finds the sentiment creepy.
• Phantomarine: Shoshana fits this trope rather well, as she was created by one of the Gods to help destroy the other and is now seen as a prophet by the people.
• In Templars of the Shifting Verse, Augustus is seen as a messiah figure by many in the world. He even has three-day Resurrective Immortality.
• Bam from Tower of God is one to an absurd degree, being an All-Loving Hero with an incredible capacity for forgiveness and a tendency to inspire those around him, including villains, to become better people. He was betrayed by his close friend Rachel, is worshipped by FUG, and has been resurrected by the Outside god. Even his full name, the Twenty-Fifth Night, denotes the date he was born, just like Jesus was (claimed to be) born on December 25th.

Web Video

• Daniel Thrasher: Gsus from "When you pray to Gsus" is a King of All Cosmos take on Jesus, being summoned whenever a GSUS chord is played. He is the son of GAD (as in the notes), is super into himself and tries reenacting The Great Flood (with Daniel playing the part of Noah) because he hates modern music. When Daniel manages to convince him not the flood the Earth, he accidentally does it anyway using an app on his phone.
• Bible Illustrated: Parodied and Exaggerated in "When Christians Write Fiction". In it, a hero character named Ichthys is handed over to a warlock who ties the hero to a suspiciously cross-shaped torture device, only for the "Redemption Protocol" to malfunction, killing the warlock with Ichthys. Three days later, Ichthys's friends break into the chamber, only to find Ichthys still alive ... "for he was God in the flesh, who died for our sins".
  Bojan: "You see, my children, if you liked this story, I must say you have been duped! For you see, this has been a Christian allegory all along!" *chuckle*

Western Animation

• Amphibia: Anne Boonchuy is a girl of humble beginnings who fits this to a degree. She starts off the series in a town that initially treats her with scorn and disgust, but gains the respect of the people when she stands up for them. She is betrayed by her friends Marcy, Sasha, as well as Hop Pop, and Andrias, all of whom repent for doing so and who receive her forgiveness. And in the series finale, she sacrifices herself to save the titular setting and its inhabitants from the show's robotic Satanic Archetype, essentially dying for Amphibia's sins, but she does get resurrected, and returns from the dead a changed person to her friends and Found Family, having met a deity-like entity. Like most Christ-like figures, she still humbles herself and doesn't think much about having power or becoming a ruler. That said, she'd rather live life without the high expectations cast upon her, so she adopts the humble profession of being a herpetologist. Sure enough, she is worshipped by Amphibia as a savior.
• Avatar: The Last Airbender:
  • Avatar Aang. He's a Physical God, he has a love of all life, even his enemies, and is temporarily killed at the hands of Azula.
  • Katara, who is sorta like Aang's mother figure, carries his lifeless body in Pietà Plagiarism style after Azula's attack. Further emphasizing his messianic status.
  • Avatar Korra in The Legend of Korra fills a similar function to Aang, as she's the next Avatar after him. She, too, goes through tremendous dangers and is at one point purposely pushed into the Avatar State to try and kill her and end the Avatar cycle permanently. Luckily, she survives.
• Blue from Blue's Clues (yes you read that right). She is a special puppy, and that has nothing to do with being blue. She is the target of a prophecy, born during an important cosmic event, announced by a divine winged being (Moona), appeared on Christmas Day, is a Reality Warper born and raised around common puppies, is constantly accompanied by her True Companions, is an empath and an All-Loving Heroine who gives advice to people close to her.
• Subverted in Castlevania (2017) as Alucard is considered a Messiah by the Speakers being the opposite of his father, however, Trevor the Vampire Hunter is quick to note that the "Floating Vampire Jesus" is still technically a monster.
  • Played far straighter with his mother, Lisa Tepes of Lupu. She is by far the most unambiguously good person in the show, and she is prosecuted by a corrupt religious authority, a prosecution which is overlooked and authorized (though not directly supported) by the political authority in the region. While burning at the stake, she even yells out "Do not hurt them, they don't know what they are doing", just to drive the point home. Amazingly, the priest overlooking the execution does not pick up on the parallels.
• Prince Callum in The Dragon Prince certainly qualifies. He commits to a journey aimed at bringing peace to warring nations. He is helped by True Companions, two of whom (Claudia and Soren) betray him. At one point he does appear to have "died" before being reborn to perform a miracle—becoming the first human in history to do magic. Throughout his journey, he learns to have faith in love above all else. To drive this point home, he even performs a Crucified Hero Shot when he learns to fly.
  • To a lesser extent, King Ezran also fits this trope in Season 3, being betrayed by one of his advisors, tries to avoid violence as much as possible, and ends up imprisoned.
• As above, Superman in the Legion of Super Heroes cartoon fits the trope more than ever, as the Grand Finale even comes with its own Judas: Brainiac 5's Brainiac 1-induced Face–Heel Turn leads to him giving Supes a crown of Kryptonite. Though declared dead, Superman rises again later.
• Luz Noceda of The Owl House has all of the qualifications down pat. Firstly, she is an outsider to the Boiling Isles who is treated with scorn at home and who starts showing the inhabitants a new way of living that improves their lives and helps to deliver them from a great evil. Secondly, she shows love to everyone including her enemies, whom she helps to redeem throughout the show, offering them guidance to the correct path towards happiness. Thirdly she stands in direct juxtaposition to her nemesis Emperor Belos in that she speaks the truth of the world, whereas he deliberately attempts to lead people astray. To top it all off, Luz is briefly killed in "Watching and Dreaming" by Belos, sacrificing herself to save the Collector. However, due to the Titan giving her all of his power, Luz is able to come back from the dead even more powerful than before before and finally finish off the monstrous Belos for good. Luz even gets a spiffy new design to showcase her direct connection to the Titan, who fulfills the role of the setting's god, after being handpicked by said god to defeat Belos before he can corrupt the entire Boiling Isles, further cementing her status as his true emissary.^note For bonus ponits, "Watching and Dreaming" premiered the day before Easter
• Samurai Jack is the closest thing we can get of this trope in his setting. Jack heroic and tireless resistance against Aku's tyranny inspired all the oppressed people of Earth to stand up against it and to make a better world. By Season 5, he rather appropriately Looks Like Jesus but has lost much of his drive to keep on fighting due to crossing the Despair Event Horizon.
• In the South Park episode "Margaritaville", Kyle Broflovski is portrayed as a Christ-like savior who makes a tremendous sacrifice to save the economy and pay off everyone's debt. A dinner he has with his friends is portrayed as the Last Supper, with Cartman taking on the role of Judas, the disciple who betrayed Jesus, while some of the South Park residents form a council against the "young Jew spreading lies about the Economy". Played, to no one's surprise, for laughs.
• Steven Quartz Universe from Steven Universe bares many of the criteria for this trope. He is the son of a human (Greg) and a transcendent otherworldly being (Rose Quartz) who comes into his own and learn how to control his otherworldly power, including the power to create food (grow plant life), heal the injured (healing spit) and ultimately revive the virtuous (brings Lars back to life). He befriends and converts followers of his celestial parent's doctrines (Peridot and Lapis Lazuli) and is willing to sacrifice himself to his people's enemy (the Diamonds) and save his world in the process. This is especially telling in the episode "Three Gems and a Baby", where three ancient beings (Garnet, Amethyst, and Pearl) come bearing gifts for Steven and his weathered human parent (Greg) in a place that is not their own (Vidalia's house) set in December.
  • Rose Quartz as a whole is this through a unique Satan Is Good lens: she's a rebel to the social order that champions freedom, love, and nature and inspires a sense of reverence in her followers and Demonization from her enemies. Then she's revealed to be a "Fallen" member of "Heaven" Pink Diamond, who staged a rebellion against her fellow Diamonds and was technically "banished" to Earth, her fellow gems corrupted into monstrous shadows of their former selves.
• And in Superman: The Animated Series, Superman is tempted by Darkseid atop a mountain.
• Optimus Primal in Transformers: Beast Machines, somewhat on the heavy-handed side. Oddly enough for this trope, it's portrayed negatively (But still not Dark Messiah). Basically, like The Doctor on a bad day (see Live-Action TV) you can get too dark, alienate your allies, and come pretty darn close to relinquishing that "good guy" title when you start to see The Mission as (a) yours alone, and (b) the only thing that matters, even if your ends are just. Thing is, Primal's 'bad day' lasted for about 2/3 of the series and is a massive derailment of his Beast Wars portrayal.
  • In fact, the many heroic deaths of Optimii in the various Transformers series have led to the nickname "Jesus Prime".
  • The Aligned Continuity ramps it to an absurd degree by revealing in Covenant of Primus that the last member of the Thirteen, named "Thirteen" in the book by his own choice, chose to be reincarnated as an ordinary Cybertronian by entering the Well of All Sparks. That Cybertronian would be Orion Pax. When he inherited the Matrix of Leadership, the humble data clerk regained his memories as one of the Primes and retook his original name to symbolize this: Optimus Prime. It's noted that only Optimus and Alpha Trion were aware of this (the latter also being one of the Primes), with the former choosing to keep this fact to himself. As a final parallel, after merging the AllSpark with his own spark, he chooses to merge with the Well of All Sparks once more so it can create new life and bring about a new age for Cybertron.

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