Rebirth

Rebirth

1. Games

   • Resident Evil is a classic horror game franchise that features heavy rebirth imagery due to its use of zombies as the villians throughout the games. These zombie characters are a well known way of representing rebirth, and the use of character respawns when they die adds a more subtle rebirth theme to the player. Left 4 Dead is also a similar game that manipulates the use of zombies in a more traditional shoot them up sense.
     • Overwatch is an example of a game that at first would not clearly show the ideals behind rebirth, however features a character whos main job it is to heal and revive her fallen teammates. This 'revive' ability is a key function to her kit and her teams ability to win - this combined with the respawn mechanic found in a large majority of these modern games well represents the classic themes behind rebirth and being 'brought back to life'.
   • Silent Hill is also another game franchise that uses psychological and spiritual symbolic imagery to represent the theme of rebirth. The base story line of the games explores the worship of a god who later dies, and is reborn through rituals of pregnancy of cult memebers. This new god was supposed to create a paradise for its followers to live in, however died trying to create this utopia.
   • Pokemon is a franchise that has covered various different kinds of media, from games, shows and books that, although for a younger audience, includes a more 'innocent' representation of rebirth. The creatures in the game are called 'Pokemon' and can change form through evolutions - these evoultions can change the shape, size and colours of the pokemon, and acts as display of evolution. These characters evolve and change to gain better traits and to become more suited for the trainer (owner) and the environment they live in - this is a clear representation of rebirth and natural selection.

2. Films and Media

   • The star wars franchise is one that has greatly shaped the modern era of 'geeks and nerds'. This franchise has been iconic within pop culture and features plenty of extremely memorable characters - one of the more infamous being Darth vader. Anakin skywalker was his original identity until he was burnt severly in lava, he was assumed dead however was later revealed to have taken on a new person as 'Darth Vader', using a large black suit and voice changed to hide his identity. This 'rebirth' of the character led him to becoming a powerful icon within the star wars series, and will be known as one of the most infamous characters throughout the franchise.
   • The ring is a series of films within the horror genre that explore the rebirth of a curse. The plot is centered around the spirit of a girl haunting those who come across and watch her tape, the curse is kept at bay until somebody views the tape, which caused them to meet their demise due to her killing them. This curse is 'rebirthed' every time someone new watches the tape, and will continue to spread so long as a new person watches it.
   • There are a large variety of films and shows that interpret the 'end of the world' - the two I find to be the most appealing are "The Day After Tommorrow" and "2012". These movies represent the rebirth of the world through destruction of the existing cities, and causes civilisation to have to rebuild itself based on if they survive. This form of rebirth is found in the more non traditional sense, exploring possible ways in which the destruction of our known world was caused mass hysteria.
   • Doctor Who is a TV series that has been ongoing for many decades - the theme of this series explores the rebirth of the main character, 'The Doctor' who is constantly regenerating every time he dies into a new human form. This regeneration prevents his true death, however each new persona and body he takes over is considered a new him, meaning he has been re-birthed into a totally new personality, even sometimes with completely different compainions and most noticably, different traits and clothing styles.

3. Theology/Religion

   • The weller known tales of reincarnation come from the Buddhism religion - their beliefs on the afterlife and what happens after death have sparked controversy within sceptics, however those who do believe report the reincarnation to be rebirth in its ultimate form, taking the dead person/animal into a new life with a new form
   • Past lives are another religious belief held by certain groups - the 'theory' goes that everyone has experienced a life prior to their current ones, and many have experienced more than one. The life in which the person was previously in supposidly for tells how they shall live their next (and vice versa), and so their traits and even friends may carry over. Although not a complete rebirth, the second, third or fourth life the person experiences will be utterly different, and so their lifespan and memory is reborn.
   • Angels are one of the more well known within religious imagery, fallen angels are supposidly heavenly entities that have be either rejected by god or sent to earth to become human, and once there live their lives in cover of the ordinary. This is not a typical sense of rebirth, however the fact that they are starting a compeltely new life, undergoing massive change and becoming a new race heavily implies the theme of rebirth and reincarnation.
   • Ragnarok is a Norse myth that documents a series of events which would ultimately lead to the destruction and rebirth of the world. This recreation of the world would be due to large floods and various natural disasters to clean the planets from those who were weak - the tale is foretold throughout many legends and is the most well known representation of rebirth through a mythological event.

4. Art

   • A more literal example of rebirth within art forms is the restoration of paitings - this method is used to 'revamp' old masterpeices and to give them new life, either due to damage or wear over time. This method has been used for hundreds of years to keep extremely precious/expensive paintings 'alive' , and atcs as a way to preserve them eternally. An example of a famous restoration taking place was completed over the span of 10 months to artist Charles Le Brun’s painting of; Everhard Jabach and His Family - the process was taken place to fix the wear of the paint due to it being 355 years old, and allowed it to go back on public display. This technique cna go wrong however, and many paitnings have been further damaged or completely destroyed, elimitating the sense of 'rebirth' that restoration should bring.
   • In order to keep the artistic world alive various new styles and ways of working have been developed to keep ideas new and unique. This development of new styles has helped to give new life to art by opening up more opportunities and different medias to work with. An example of a new technique that arose within art was the implimentation and creation of 3D work - 3D modelling is a way of producing art in a three dimensional way, and the development in which its had on artistic industries, most recoginisably game development, has lead to an entirely new genre of games (hence the 'rebirth' of an art form.)
   • There are various ways in which historical elements can be reborn and modernised by art - graffiti is a form of street art that has become more common as of the 21st century, with it being created to decorate derelict buildings, street alleys, garage doors and other locations. This modern styled art has helped to revamp certain locations to become attractions for tourists, groups of artists and (stereotypically speaking) youths, and has allowed them to fall back into the scene, causing the 'rebirth' of the buildings affected.
   • Counterfeiting paintings is considered to be extremely wrong and an insult to the original artist, however this method of 'copying' has helped to shape a few famous artists into who they are now. The idea of counterfeiting another piece of work allows the artist to replicate someone elses work in their own style, perhaps as a way to practice their own abilities or in an attempt to gain knowledge on the art style the original was competed in. This hints at the theme of rebirth by re-imagining another piece of art through a different creator.

5. History

   • The conquering of nations and world wars have always been a part of history that is seemingly (sadly) unavoidable. Although often causing widespread destruction and death, these wars and battles have helped to shape the world into how it is now - various locations were taken under new lead after being conquered, and example of a nation that conquered large masses of countries was the Roman Empire, who in their peak had control of over 40 locations globally. Their power over these locations lead to the rebirth in their architecture, food, music and other cultural methods, and helped to develop the locations into their current states.
   • The Industrial Revolution was the transition to new manufacturing processes in the periods of 1760 - 1840 (approx). This revolution of modernised ways of manifacturing products, living and eating began the development of our current 'modern' world - this period of time marked the beggining of new discoveries and scientific methods, allowing the world at that point to be 'reborn' into a new era.
   • Plagues and illness are similar in ways they caused rebirth to that of natural disasters and wars. One of the most infamous plagues was the black plague, which wiped out approximately 1/3 of Europe between 1346 and 1353 - this mass loss of bodies caused Europe to be severely underpopulated and lacking work, health and income, and caused the new beginning and rebirth of their population, which took many years to recover.
   • Natural disasters are a large part of Earth's history and extend from small catastrophies to more large scale disasters. An infamous natural disaster that caused wide spread depression was that of the event that wiped out the dinosaurs. Although scientists are currently still unsure as to what specific distaster it was, there are theories that massive earth quakes, volancoes, floods and asteroid strikes are what caused their demise. This series of events lead to the largest mass extinxtion known to man, and began a new era in which humans as we know it originiated - these natural disasters caused a rebirth of a new world, compeltely eradicating life before it.

6. Science

   • Evolution is part of an ongoing biological study that explores the heritable characteristics that have changed throughout the same species - the theory of evolution and natural selection explains how changes within the bodies, minds and behaviour of organisims has helped them to become suited for our current enviornment, and those that did not evolve quick enough with the needed traits died off and eventually became extinct - evolution causes the indirect 'rebirth' of a species by changing their traits over the course of millions of years to better suit them for life.
   • Volcanoes have been greatly studied within geology as they are key to both the creation and destruction of lands. One of the most well known tales of destruction caused by volcano eruption was that of Pompeii - the italian city was destroyed and buried under layers of pumice and ash after the close mountain, 'Mount Vesuvius' erupted in 79 AD. This caused the death of all the cities inhabitiants and remains as one of the most catastphroic eruptions in history. Volcano eruptions however can also be found to create new land, bringing life and 'rebirthing' a new location - in January 2015, the underwater volcano 'Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha'apai' (near Tonga, Oceania) exploded with such force that the resulting volcanic ash collected and produced a island over two kilometers wide. This eruption caused the birth of a new island, and thus the theme of 'rebirth' relates.
   • Cloning has been bought to light recently through modern science and biological studies. This process (in simple terms) allows the 'replication' of another organism through cloning of its molecular cells, this allows scientists to 'produce' organisms they desire, and was tested on a sheep's DNA who was sucessfully cloned. The resulting domestic sheep was named 'Dolly', and was 'born' in 1996, before dying of natural causes in 2003. Cloning and relating methods of replication are currently being used on DNA found in fossils of extinct creatures, which if sucessful, would lead to the rebirth of animals who had become extinct.

7. Fantasy

   • Werewolves are a mythological/fantastical beast that transform during full moons. They are seemingly normal men at times during the day, however are rebirthed into new beings during full moons or other specific cirumstances. When they are in their newly re-birthed form the have no knowledge of who they previously were, and so become a whole new entity in themselves.
   • The Phoenix is a mythological bird that is heavily associated with rebirth and being reborn, this is due to its 'legacy' which allows it to be reborn through the ashes of its predocessor. Most commonly found within Greek Mythology and imagery, the Phoenix is depicited to be able to 'live' for 1400 years before needing to be reborn, and has been used in various films (Harry Potter most noticably) to demonstrate the ideals of being re-birthed and legacies continuing.
   • Zombies are a very traditional way of representing the dead coming back to life - they have been used continuously throguhout the years and within different forms of media (films, games and comics) and have quickly grown to become a sensation within the modern entertainment industry. Zombies represent rebirth through the ways in which the death imitates life - they die from a specified cause (can differ from creator to creator) and are then brought back to life in order to continue to spread the illness and turn those left alive into zombies. This way of representing rebirth is notably one of the more eerie and frightening of those mentioned here, as not only is the subject at hand horror-esque, but the possibilities of it happening have been proven to be able to occur.