A God Am I: Difference between revisions

When a character or villain gains superhuman abilities thanks to [[Green Rocks]], [[I Love Nuclear Power|nuclear power,]] [[Cybernetics Eat Your Soul|Transhumanism]], going [[One-Winged Angel]], being [[Touched by Vorlons]], or [[Ambition Is Evil|just achieving whatever his dream is]], [[With Great Power Comes Great Insanity|he is left less than sane and often gains delusions]] (or, in some cases, [[Story-Breaker PowerApotheosis|perfectly accurate assessments]]) of godhood at the same time.

Aiming for godhood by ''rewriting the rules of the world'' is [[In Their Own Image]]. Another alternate version is the [[End of the World Special]]. See [[Physical God]] for those who don't have to try so hard, and [[Apotheosis]] for those who actually succeed. May, but [[Did You Just Punch Out Cthulhu?|does not always]] result in a [[God Mode Sue]]. Having a sovereign ruler do this makes the character a [[God-Emperor]]. Also, see [[It's All About Me]] for a similar trope, minus the declaration of godhood.

* ''[[Rosario Plus+ Vampire]]'': Kamiya Kanade calls himself God. As a {{spoiler|[[Brown Note|siren]]}}, he really did win the [[Superpower Lottery]], but his delusions of godhood come to a crashing halt at the hands ({{spoiler|or rather, voice}}) of {{spoiler|Sun Otonashi, an even more powerful siren whose song causes his body to crumble to dust}}.

* In [[Terry Pratchett]]'s* ''[[Discworld/Thief of Time|Thief of Time]]'', {{spoiler|Lobsang/Jeremy becomes the new Time, with control over all aspects of it - although to be honest, it's more of a responsibility and a change of pace than anything having to do with powers. And despite his newfound status, he still submits to Lu-Tze in the dojo, in a brilliant denouement.}}

** Coin, from another of his novels, ''[[Discworld/Sourcery|Sourcery]]'', actually imprisoned all the known gods in a sphere of thought just to prove that he could.

** Also, in ''[[Discworld/Pyramids|Pyramids]]'', when now-King Teppic re-enters his home country of Djelibeybi (counterpart to Ancient Egypt), after {{spoiler|it has been pushed out of reality}}, the intense belief of his subjects makes him divine.

* ''[[Deus Ex]]'' plays with this trope and the aforementioned AI variant. Bob Page plans to become the {{spoiler|[[Physical God]] of the entire world}} by {{spoiler|merging his own mind with the AI Helios (who coincidentally is the [[Everything Is Online|Internet and other assorted global communications networks]], a [[Nano MachineNanomachines|Nanomachine]] [[Mook Maker|Assembler]] and a [[The Virus|nanomachine plague]] present in large amounts of the world's population, so that he becomes omniscient and omnipresent}}, with total control of the world. However, {{spoiler|Helios wants no part in this, and the player may choose to merge JC (not initials) with Helios}} to become the ''benevolent dictator'' of the world. There's a small distinction, but the ending's tagline notes that {{spoiler|JC}} has effectively become as a god anyways.

** Jim Jones, founder of The Peoples' Temple which essentially became a cult with him as the ringleader. He claimed to be the reincarnation of [[Jesus]], [[Buddha]], Akhenatan, [[Vladimir Lenin]], and Father Divine. He organized a mass suicide at Jonestown in Guyana by forcing his followers to drink Flavor-Aid laced with cyanide; it claimed the lives of 918 people.

** David Koresh, leader of a Branch Davidians sect believed to be the final prophet AKA Jesus himself. A raid on his ranch in Waco, Texas in 1993 eventually started a fire. The aftermath left 52 adutlsadults and 21 children dead, including Koresh himself.

*** The above 3four could all just be cases of narcissistic and / or anti-social personality disorders, ie. [[The Sociopath]], meaning that they were all just [[Manipulative Bastard]]s who ''told'' people that for money, power and [[For the Evulz]]. Jim Jones for instance used to be a con-man who reportedly once told a fellow criminal of a scheme to swindle people with a new religion, while Charles Manson has also claimed he was simply "nobody", and isn't considered insane by the state of California since he was simply locked up in prison for the rest of his life. In the case of Quiboloy, he used to be part of a United Pentecostal sect until he was kicked out of the congregation he was in, supposedly because his peers found him to be too arrogant. He since founded his own church called the "Kingdom of Jesus Christ" (KoJC) where he made bombastic claims about being the "owner of the universe" and the now-memetic claim that he was able to stop natural calamities under his command, and as with the previous examples, there have been allegations that he fleeced the hell out of his congregation–most of whom were made up of impoverished folk in and around Mindanao–under the promise of salvation; practically all of the proceeds from those whom he roped in to solicit funds for the KOJC allegedly was used to fund Quiboloy's lavish lifestyle.

* It should come as no surprise that [[Adolph Hitler]] allegedly wanted to do this, in one of his craziest schemes. According to (not entirely trustworthy) secondary sources, he planned to [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alleged_plot_to_kidnap_Pope_Pius_XII kidnap Pope Pius XII], outlaw Christianity, and replace it with a new religion that named himself as the Messiah. The reason this mad plan isn't well-known is because it didn't get far past the planning stages, mostly because one of Hitler's own underlings -– [https[wikipedia://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karl_WolffKarl Wolff|General Karl Wolff]] -– wanted no part of it, and warned Vatican officials of the plot; Wolff would later testify for the prosecution at Nuremberg as part of a plea bargain.