Creator Worship: Difference between revisions

[[File:literalrockgod 5532.jpg|link=Sound Horizon|frame|What happens when you start calling people "rock gods".]]

 

 

Isn't it interesting that the defining additional information coming from the creator of a medium is called the [[Word of God]]?

 

When it goes wrong, or when the inverse happens, see [[Scapegoat Creator]] and [[Fallen Creator]].

{{examples}}

== Actors ==

* [[Bruce Lee]].

== [[Anime]] and [[Manga]] ==

* [[Osamu Tezuka]], ''the'' God of Manga, the man who opened the door.

* [[Akira Toriyama]] of ''[[Dragonball Z]]''.

* [[Hayao Miyazaki]] and [[Studio Ghibli]] enjoy this in spades. Nearly every film they make is considered a masterpiece by the world at large, to say nothing of their serious fans, and if you say ''anything'' negative about any one of his films, you must prefer [[All Anime Is Naughty Tentacles|tentacle porn]] to [[True Art]].

* [[Go Nagai]], the creator of ''[[Devilman]]'' and ''[[Mazinger Z]]'', the manga that arguably started the [[Humongous Mecha]] genre.

* [[Hideaki Anno]] until the ending of ''[[Neon Genesis Evangelion]]'' (and ''the End of Evangelion'' for that matter) where he became somewhat of an anti-Christ for all of anime, even to the point where his e-mail was clogged with death threats.

** One group has taken it so far as to dedicate an FC to this.

* Half jokingly, fans of ''[[Super Dimension Fortress Macross]]'' call Shoji Kawamori "The Holy Floating Head".

* [[Satoshi Kon]] enjoys this to a certain degree, partially due to his untimely death.

* It's more than likely that fans of his [[Axis Powers Hetalia|brainchild]] worship [[Hidekaz Himaruya]] for being just plain awesome. Especially since [[Memetic Mutation|he's a troll-king alpaca that is always late for everything.]]

* The [[Puella Magi Madoka Magica|Magica Quartet]] ([[Studio Shaft|Iwakami, Shinbo]], [[Nitroplus|Urobuchi]], [[Ume Aoki|Ume-tentei]]) is quickly becoming this. It should be noted that in case of Urobuchi, this is Creator Worship meets [[God Is Evil]].

* Hiromu Arakawa of ''[[Fullmetal Alchemist]]''.

* [[Masashi Kishimoto]] gets a bit of this, but in particular gets a lot of it from the video game company ''[[Cyber Connect 2]]'', who makes a lot of good licensed games based on the ''[[Naruto]]'' series that even Kishimoto himself loves and approves of.

 

== [[Comic Books]] ==

 

== [[Fan Works]] ==

* Any [[Big Name Fan]].

 

 

== [[Film]] ==

* [[George Lucas]]. The godfather of modern entertainment. It has been said that the original ''[[Star Wars]]'' trilogy didn't ''invent'' movie marketing—just perfected it. His popularity has decreased somewhat since the prequel trilogy came out, with George Lucas bashing being popular now. But his name and image should not be taken lightly.

* [[Peter Jackson]] has his followers for his take on ''[[The Lord of the Rings (film)|The Lord of the Rings]]''. Although he also has his ''serious'' detractors among hard-core fans of the original books, as well as from fans of the original ''[[King Kong]]'' and the book of ''[[The Lovely Bones]]''.

* [[David Fincher]]

* [[Zack Snyder]]

 

== [[Literature]] ==

* [[Jane Austen]] of ''[[Sense and Sensibility (novel)|Sense and Sensibility]]'' and five other novels.

* [[Chuck Palahniuk]] (author of ''[[Fight Club]]'').

** Interestingly, Joss is also considered to be evil by these very same fans for the angst he puts his characters through, bordering on misanthropic. If the Cult of Joss were an actual religion, it would be a [[Religion of Evil]].

** This Creator Worship is in no small part responsible for ''[[Dollhouse]]'' getting a second season. It's a safe bet that had ''[[Dollhouse]]'' been made by someone else, there's no way it would've gotten that far, if only because of the inboxes full on hate-mail his fans could unleash like no other.

** So, in other words, obey the Josspel.

* JMS, aka [[J. Michael Straczynski]], creator of ''[[Babylon 5]]''. There was once a website called the Church of Joe, where his more obsessive fans could sign up to be clergy in a religion worshipping the Great Maker, Joe Straczynski himself.

* [[Gene Roddenberry]], creator of ''[[Star Trek]]'', is sometimes called The Great Bird of the Galaxy by his fans, after a Romulan god.

** This doesn't even begin to describe it. A lot of the older TOS fans positively worship the man, and it's practically [[Fandom Heresy]] to say anything against him. While Trek fans certainly do owe him some credit for creating the franchise, he also essentially abandoned TOS by the end of the second season (Season finale as a [[Poorly-Disguised Pilot]], anyone?), and his meddling in the TOS film era eventually led to him getting [[Kicked Upstairs]]. These same fans tend to vilify Rick Berman and Brannon Braga, who, while making some [[Star Trek: Voyager|questionable]] [[Star Trek: Enterprise|choices]] later in their term of presiding over the Trek series, helped to rescue TNG from the ruins of its first season, which had the most Roddenberry influence, and make it the classic it is today.

* There was a big to-do concerning a personal appearance of Rockne S. O'Bannon, the brains behind ''[[Alien Nation (TV series)|Alien Nation]]'', ''[[SeaQuest DSV]]'', and of course ''[[Farscape]]'', his biggest cult hit. There was an interview around the same time that said he was creating a new sci-fi show called ''Cult'' which would focus on loony fans of a show within a show series.

** ''[[Farscape]]'' screenwriter Justin Monjo also achieved God status among John/Aeryn shippers for specific shippy episodes he penned. They called themselves Monjonians and even had a prayer: ''Hail Monj, full of 'Scape, Rockne is with thee...'' When told about this, several of the show's actors agreed he was a God and were declared to be honorary Monjonians. I am not making any of this up...

* JJ Abrams, creator of ''[[Alias (TV series)|Alias]]'', ''[[Lost]]'', and ''[[Fringe]].''

** And while Abrams may have created ''Lost'', Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse perfected it. Fans have even given them a [[Portmanteau Couple Name]] of "Darlton".

** And now ''[[Star Trek (film)|Star Trek]]'' as well. While some of the pre-existing [[Fan Dumb]] will vilify him, the newer fans who were lured in by this movie will defend him to the last.

* Tim Kring, creator of ''[[Heroes (TV series)|Heroes]]''. Of course, given the [[Sophomore Slump]] of season 2, bashing him has also become a bit of fun.

* David Simon of ''[[The Wire]]''. The fact that this is mostly justified—he and everyone else who worked on ''[[The Wire]]'' pay far more attention to detail, characterization, and plot than nearly anyone else working in television—makes fandom all the more frustrating for the unlucky few who ''do'' take issue with some aspects of his work.

** Reinforcing the appearance of deity is that if you criticize him online, there's a non-zero chance that he'll actually see it and respond (usually witheringly).

* [[The Daily Show|Jon Stewart]]. Among the reasons cited by fans:

** He [http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/27/business/media/27stewart.html?_r=2 reports on important issues glossed over by other sources]

** Stewart actually reads his guests' books

** Targets of his satire may be on the right or the left. It's a merit-based system.

*** And Colbert won the popular vote in the [[Marvel Universe]]! Obama is still pres, however.

**** Even better - in the [[Neon Genesis Evangelion]] fanfic ''[[Nobody Dies]]'', Colbert ran for President and ''won''. Jon Stewart is his Veep.

** [[Writer on Board|That last one lost him a bit of standing.]] However, he did then write the screenplay for ''Charlie Wilson's War'', which was well-received and stuffed to the gills with all the Sorkin tropes we know and love.

** [[The Social Network]] has been so overwhelmingly well-received that any damage Studio 60 might've done to his standing is utterly irrelevant.

** It's really telling that they're able to [http://developer.valvesoftware.com/wiki/Valve_Time almost completely disregard release schedules] and still have the fans remain on their side: yeah, they delay so much it's a [[Running Gag]], but the game that comes out in the end is usually so good that the fans are willing to forgive the wait.

* The guys at Rocksteady Studios earned a lot of well-deserved respect from Batman fans (and videogame fans in general) for their work in ''[[Batman: Arkham Asylum]]'' and ''[[Batman: Arkham City]]''.

* Richard Garriot, AKA Lord British, creator of RPGs as we know them in the form of the fanatically loved ''[[Ultima]]'' series.

* Peter Molyneux, best known for boasting about incredible features and then failing to deliver them. Still loved mostly because you can't fault him for being enthusiastic about his own (High-quality) work. Responsible for ''Populous'', ''Black & White'', and ''Fable'', among others.

** The other members of id's founding pantheon ([[John Romero]], Tom Hall, and American McGee) also attract their share of sycophants and loathers.

* Michael Kirkbride, who wrote much of the background religious lore for ''[[The Elder Scrolls]]'' and had a hand in the spin-off game ''Redguard'' and the main quest of ''Morrowind.'' Going on the Imperial Library forum or the Lore subsection of the official Bethesda forum and saying anything even a little negative about any of his work, or even claiming one of his characters can be wrong about things (not all that hard to believe, considering all of the series lore is presented through in-character opinions by multiple authors) will get you flamed, then firebombed, then regular flamed again.

* [[Hideo Kojima]], best known for the ''[[Metal Gear Solid]]'' series and ''[[Snatcher]]''.

** "[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VHspMsgpji8 Kojima is God. Kojima is God.]"

 

== Webcomics ==

** There's been some scattered reports (nothing officially commented on by Andrew) that he and his girlfriend have actually been stalked by fans.

 

 

== Real Life ==

** Greg Stolze, another author of [[Tabletop Games]], gets the same treatment nowadays.

** In the ''[[Exalted]]'' community specifically, Michael Goodwin, also known as Nephilpal, has become synonymous with everything good there is about Exalted, and his presence on a controversial project make the [[And the Fandom Rejoiced|Fandom Rejoice]]. While he was an Ink Monkey for a time, he's now gone from the core team.

* [[The Nostalgia Chick]]. When her [[Fan Dumb]] clashes with the Critic's the results aren't pretty.

* [[Atop the Fourth Wall]]

* Andrew Hussie, creator of ''[[MS Paint Adventures]]'' is worshipped by his fanbase as [[Memetic Badass|godlike]], due to the massive amount of creativity and effort he puts into his work. His typical output is about five pages a day, or one 2-4 min flash movie in 3–5 days.

* Bill Watterson

 

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[[Category:Audience Reactions]]