God Guise: Difference between revisions

[[File:homer-ganesh 9228.gif|link=The Simpsons|frame|[[Bad Liar|"I am the God Ganesh! No, really!"]]]]

 

 

 

The God Guise can be carried out in a variety of ways ranging from good use of a [[Convenient Eclipse]], a fancy costume with special effects, to an impressive display of [[Sufficiently Advanced Technology]]. Less gullible victims might issue a [[God Test]] to challenge the pretender's claim to divinity.

 

{{noreallife|we don't want any part in religious debates.}}

{{examples|suf=s}}

* In ''[[One Piece]]'', the villainous Enel uses the electrical powers granted to him by the Goro-Goro Fruit to enslave the citizens of the flying island of Skypeia by convincing them ([[A God Am I|and himself]]) that he was a God. Note: this makes more sense to native Japanese speakers, as the word "lightning" literally translates to "heaven-energy". In addition, Enel's phrase ''"ware ga kaminari"'' has a dual meaning of "I am God"/"I am lightning".

** Then later on, {{spoiler|Bartholomew Kuma}} teleports resident living skeleton Brooke to an island right in the middle of a Satanic summoning ritual. Given that he is a walking, talking skeleton, they mistook him for the demon they meant to summon and ask him to smite their enemies. Of course, the first thing he does is see a young lady and request to see her panties. And then he starts composing a song while the (male) cultists show him their boxers, apparently desperate to get him to do some smiting.

* One episode of ''[[Dennou Coil]]'' has an illegal ''beard'' arrive—it's infectious, sentient, and worships the owner of the face it's on as a god. The characters' beards eventually start digi-nuclear warfare with each other using Inter-Facial Ballistic Missiles...

 

* Done with a [[Shout-Out]] to ''[[Real Genius]]'' in ''[[Incredible Hulk]]'' #384, when an inch-tall Hulk secretly perches on The Abomination's shoulder and pretends to be the voice of God to stop a kidnapping.

* One major story arc in the ''[[Tomb Of Dracula]]'' comics started as a result of Count Dracula appearing before a Satanic cult preparing a sacrifice to give to their dark master. Afterwards, Dracula says that he is in fact the Devil, and that the cult should serve him.

* Storm of the ''[[X-Men (Comic Book)|X-Men]]'' was worshiped as a rain goddess by African tribes.

** An issue of ''Excalibur'' reveals an island nation whose inhabitants saw the "All-New, All-Different" X-Men lineup in their first battle, against Krakoa, the Living Island. They are worshiped as Gods: Nightcrawler, who later became a priest, doesn't seem to mind spending a vacation enjoying this fact. He has to defeat another living island first, though.

* Back when [[Green Lantern]] Kyle Rayner had become the God-like Ion, there came a moment when Superman admonished him for already having his own religion.

* ''[[Kamandi]]'' had this, with Ben Boxer having to prove that he was "The Mighty One" to a tribe of intelligent apes. Ironically, the legends of "The Mighty One" were a [[Future Imperfect]] version of [[Superman]]!

* In the world-jumping plot arc of ''[[Cross Gen|Sigil]]'', [[Space Marine]] Sam Rey arrives in the middle of a Dark Ages-esque battlefield (from ''Brath''), and uses the power of his Sigil to frighten away the invaders and earn worship from the locals. However, he explains to the local leaders as soon as possible that he's no god, just very, ''very'' lost (... and [[Chronic Hero Syndrome|pretty good at helping people]]). {{spoiler|They aren't convinced, mostly because he ''does'' help them and even helps take down the opposing army's "god", one of the [[Sufficiently Advanced Aliens|First]].}}

* In ''[[Danger Girl]]: Revolver'', Abbey is taken to be a sun goddess because she has blonde hair.

 

* In ''[[Real Genius]]'', Chris Knight and his friends implant a radio transceiver in Kent's braces, whereupon Mitch pretends to be Jesus to learn what Hathaway plans to do with the laser.

'''Kent:''' "It ''is'' God!" }}

* In ''[[Back to The Future]]'', Marty uses his radiation suit and Walkman stereo to dress up as "Darth Vader from the Planet Vulcan". He frightens George McFly and threatens to melt his brain if he doesn't take Lorraine to the school dance.

** Which is in turn based on the real-life Kefir tribe of Afghanistan, who consider ''themselves'' long-lost descendants of Alexander the Great.

** The proof of divinity comes in two forms. Connery's character {{spoiler|survives an arrow to the chest because it happens to [[Pocket Protector|hit his bandolier]] }}, and later, {{spoiler|when the natives go "pitchfork" and intend to execute him, they see the Masonic pendant he wears [[Ancient Conspiracy|exactly matches the carved Masonic symbol]] Alexander left behind.}}

{{quote|'''Kirk:''' "What does God need with a starship?"}}

** In an [[Expanded Universe]] trilogy, it's revealed that The One (as he is called) really does believe He's God (and yes, He insists on capital "H"). This is despite the fact that the Q Continuum pretty much wiped the galaxy with Him and trapped His head at its center.

* ''[[Honey, I Shrunk the Kids|Honey We Shrunk Ourselves]]'': Gordon, at three-quarters of an inch tall, rigs up the stereo to become a loudspeaker and chews out the [[Hormone-Addled Teenager|Hormone Addled Teenagers]] [[Overprotective Dad|hitting on his daughter]], telling them "This is the voice of... GOD.", scaring them out of the house.

** The painting of Walker isn't quite so prophetic as it sounds: the kids probably painted it while Max was unconscious. (Otherwise, how would they have known about the monkey?)

* Also seen in the full-length animated feature ''[[The Road to El Dorado]]'', where con artists-cum-explorers Tulio and Miguel allow the residents of the titular city of gold to believe they are incarnations of the Gods that built the city. Rather heavily based on the [[Real Life]] treatment the Spanish got when they encountered the Aztecs (see below).

** Throughout the film, several characters begin to doubt their claims, but let it continue, as the two Spaniards are pretty harmless. Then the head priest sees one of the bleed after a heated ball game. Gods aren't supposed to bleed, right?

* In the animated [[Alvin and The Chipmunks]] movie ''A Chipmunk Adventure'' Theodore is mistaken for a god by jungle natives, and he forces his brothers to be his slaves. Until all three are almost made a [[Human Sacrifice|Chipmunk Sacrifice]].

* ''[[Thor (film)|Thor]]'' tends in this direction. While the Asgardians in the comic book are [[Physical God]]s, in the movie they avoid that designation—one talks about humans "worshiping us as gods", but doesn't claim to actually be one. (A human character specifically invokes [[Sufficiently Advanced Technology]].)

 

== [[Literature]] ==

* Mildly subverted in ''[[Dune]]'' with the Bene Gesserit's Missionaria Protectiva, wherein false legends were implanted in various cultures all over the galaxy by a cult specifically so that its members could fulfill them to take advantage of the natives in an emergencies. {{spoiler|Then ''[[Deconstruction|massively subverted]]'' when Arrakis' version of the Missionaria Protectiva turns out to be ''right''.}}

** In a Galaxy of humans using enhanced perception to guide their future, the Fremen—whose name, almost certainly, was chosen originally to denote their status as Free Men—were Zensunni (Islamic-Buddhist) settlers who were driven out and "denied the Hajj" in religious warfare. When they hid in plain sight on Arrakis, the combination of their culture, their ecology, and their stumbling on the Bene Gesserit methods of foresight and accessing the lives and knowledge of previous generations of women (and men, in certain cases) allowed them to not only ride out the ''Missionaria Protectiva'', it allowed them to gleefully await the entire Galaxy painting itself into a corner!

* In the [[Enid Blyton]] adventure story ''The Secret Mountain'', published 1941, this is how the main characters escape from the titular mountain. They find out that there's to be a [[Convenient Eclipse|solar eclipse]] the next day, so at the appropriate moment their father throws his hunting knife off the mountain. The lights go out and the tribe think he's killed the sun, at which point the [[Cool Plane|"big white bird"]] turns up to carry the heroes to safety before the tribe realize they've been had.

* Given that the [[Big Screwed-Up Family|royal family]] from the ''[[Book of Amber]]'' can walk across the [[The Multiverse]] as one of their powers, is it really surprising that they've chosen to go to worlds where they just happen to resemble the local gods? (This includes both for reasons of in a little private [[A God Am I]] time and to recruit huge, fanatically loyal armies in an attempt to claim the throne.)

** Leading to a [[Crowning Moment of Awesome]] for Salvor Hardin when the Anacreonian leader tries to invade the Foundation {{spoiler|with a ship that the Foundation had rebuilt for them}}.

{{quote|For it is the chief characteristic of the religion of science, that it works, and that such curses as that of Aporat's are really deadly.}}

* In the early [[Star Wars Expanded Universe]] novels, the [[Scary Dogmatic Aliens|Yuuzhan Vong]] mistook Jaina Solo for Yun-Harla, their Goddess of Deception. This gave the New Republic an advantage, as the Yuuzhan Vong were incredibly frightened and demoralized at the thought that one of their deities had turned against them.

** This is also how the [[Religion of Evil|Sith]] [[The Empire|Order]] got its start. After being defeated by the Jedi Order in the war known as the Hundred Year Darkness, a group of Dark Jedi were exiled from republic space in the hopes that they would learn the error of their ways and return to the Jedi Order. Instead, they landed on the planet Korriban, and encountered the native Sith species. Seeing that the Sith were very technologically undeveloped, some of the Dark Jedi got the great idea to pose as the gods of the Sith through use of their force powers and technology. This is also where the term "Dark Lord of the Sith" comes from, as the title refers to the reigning [[God-Emperor]] of the Sith people.

* In [[David Weber]]'s ''Heirs of Empire'', the third ''[[Empire From the Ashes]]'' book, the [[Lost Colony]] natives of Pardal decide that the stranded off-world protagonists are angels, which does not sit well with the repressive theocracy governing the planet; the end result is a full-scale religious war. Harriet and Sandy insist that they not be called angels, but the locals only humor them to their faces, and aside from the insistent terminology the crew largely goes along with it anyway.

* In [[Mark Twain]]'s ''A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court'', a late 19th-century American is sent back in time to the Dark Ages and becomes an important member of King Arthur's court, using his advanced scientific and political knowledge to greatly improve the quality of life of the kingdom, while also discrediting Merlin (revealed to be a fraud) with his own advanced technology and intelligence that makes him look like a true Sorcerer. In the end, he's {{spoiler|kicked out of the kingdom and he and a small number of his allies make a defensive position with 13 Gatling guns, dynamite, and electrical wiring that allows them to defeat 30,000 of England's soldiers.}}

* The short story [http://theopinionguy.com/OG25.pdf "Assumption" (scroll down)] by Desmond Warzel features a ''literal'' [[Cargo Cult]] (in that they worship an actual piece of cargo), but eventually becomes more like this trope—a person becomes an object of religious awe because of her advanced technology (she descends from the sky).

* This is how the angels in ''[[His Dark Materials]]'' created the Abrahamic religions. The first of them all convinced the ones that were born after that he was the supreme creator and being, and so [[God Is Evil|he came to rule them]]. Later, when the rebel angels gave sentience to mankind and other races, all he had to do was to send his agents and see the awestruck people convert to his cause.

** The witches in Lyra's world worship deities based on our Finnish mythology, but no indication about their nature is present. One of said witches does, however, kill the false gods that a human tribe worshipped - [[Panthera Awesome|tigers]].

* In the fourth book of ''[[Tales of the Magic Land]]'', Urfin Jus uses a lighter to convince a savage tribe he's the god of fire, and uses them to launch a conquest. Unfortunately for him, while lighters are unknown in the Magic Land (his came from an outsider), matches are sold in every shop, so after a short while, the army starts to smell something fishy...

* ''[[The Dresden Files]]'' has the Lords of Outer Night, the heads of the Red Court who posed as the Mayan pantheon - the Red King is implied to have done a stint at Kukulcan. Played with in that there's a point where the Lords of Outer Night show fear in the face of a divine assault, and Harry wonders if they just picked up the mask when the ''actual'' deities got out of town and they're afraid they're being called on the carpet.

* The Aleksandr Zarevin's ''Lonely Gods of the Universe'', the [[Human Alien|Ollan]] refugees pretend to be gods to the ancient Atlanteans. For reference, the security guard sent with them is called [[Roman Mythology|Mars]] [[Greek Mythology|Ares]]. They also call the hill when they have their palace Oll-ympus after their homeworld.

** Also, their home country on their planet is called Atl. They decide to call their new home "Atl-antis" in her honor.

* In [[Orson Scott Card]]'s ''[[Pastwatch: The Redemption of Christopher Columbus]]'', Hunahpu Matamoro is a native Mayan (in fact, he's named after a heroic figure in Mayan mythology). He is chosen to be one of the three people to be sent into the past to {{spoiler|the conquest of either the Americas by Europe or of Europe [[It Makes Sense in Context|by the Native Americans]]}}. His task is to found a new empire with different values from the bloodthirsty Aztecs and Tlaxcalans (mainly, those that combine Mesoamerican culture with a more temperate version of Christianity). In order to do this, he appears to a bunch of Zapotec villagers as a king (named One Hunahpu after his mythical figure namesake) who has come from Xibalba, the Mesoamerican underworld where the gods live, as an emissary from the gods. After proving his divinity through the use of technology he brought with him (a flashlight and some medicine), they accept his claim and start to follow him. Also, thanks to the technology that allows future people to view any event in the past as a video stream/recording, he knows everything about each villager. It also helps that Hunahpu is a full head taller than an average Pre-Columbian Mesoamerican.

** One of the first things Hunahpu does is, essentially, call the bloodthirsty and powerful (in the minds of the villagers) Aztec god Huitzilopochtli his bitch.

 

* This trope can be found in almost every incarnation of ''[[Star Trek]]''.

*** That and [[Bizarre Alien Biology|his ability to survive a gunshot to the chest.]]

*** "Once, just once," Dr. McCoy said, "I'd like to say, 'Behold! I am the Archangel Gabriel!'" Then he pointed out that ''Spock'' could never claim to be Gabriel. "But say you beamed down with a pitchfork...."

*** At the climax Picard is only able to convince them that he is not a God by daring the religious zealot to shoot him with the bow and arrow he was threatening someone else with. {{spoiler|He takes the shot and is shocked to see Picard lying on the ground and bleeding.}}

**** This only really works because this species tends to adopt mostly rational ideas. They voluntarily gave up religion in favor of pragmatism even before reaching the [[Industrial Revolution]].

*** The episode "Devil's Due" had the crew tangling with an alien con-woman who took advantage of a civilization's legend of a past [[Deal with the Devil]] to pose as said "devil" and thus literally claim ownership to the entire planet.

** ''[[Star Trek]]'' also subverts this, to a degree, with the Federation's Prime Directive—since it's all-too-easy to get a swelled head from being called "God", the Prime Directive ''forbids'' starship captains from interfering in a lesser-developed culture, to protect both captain and alien from the effects of Pseudo-Godhood.

*** Coincidentally, Gene Roddenberry's first-hand experience and unease with real-life [[Cargo Cult]]s is said to be one of the things that inspired the Prime Directive in the first place.

*** But to the audience it comes off as really more of a weird [[Lampshade Hanging]], as this is ignored whenever the plot demands.

* Seen repeatedly in ''[[Stargate SG-1]]'' (as well as the original ''[[Stargate (film)|Stargate]]'' movie) -- usually, anyone who comes through the Stargate is automatically assumed to be God. (This is perfectly in tune with the plot, however. The [[Sufficiently Advanced Aliens]] who stole the gates have invested a ''lot'' of energy in making this happen; it's less a God Guise than somebody else's [[Path of Inspiration]].) The Goa'uld at first used this trope to maintain their positions of power, but most of them [[A God Am I|actually came to believe their own propaganda]]. Ba'al is one of the few exceptions; Anubis's case [[Physical God|is justified]]. Vala actually impersonated the Goa'uld (Qetesh) who once controlled her for a while, acting as a god to the people of a particular planet.

* The ''[[Doctor Who]]'' serials ''The Myth Makers'', ''Underworld'', and many others.

** Though since he was flirting at the time, this may have been facetious.

* In the British children's program ''[[Roger and The Rottentrolls]]'', all one needed to do to become a God-king of the trolls was to stand in the middle of an abandoned quarry and yell "Roger was here", as the trolls had an ancient document (graffiti on the wall of the quarry) that said those exact words.

* In the ''[[Farscape]]'' episode "Jeremiah Crichton", John Crichton gets marooned on a planet which turns out to have religious iconography drawn from contact with the Rygel's race, the Hynerians. Surprisingly for the usually shallow ex-monarch, while Rygel ''expects'' to be treated like royalty, he is actually profoundly offended that his ancestors would allow themselves to be taken for ''divinity''. He's even more shocked when he discovers that the ancient Hynerians actually intended this: the natives of the planet were the loyal subjects of one of Rygel's ancestors, marooned on the planet with no way of escaping, advancing technologically, or even contacting other cultures -- [[Moral Event Horizon|all so they could act as eternal worshippers of the Hynerian empire.]]

* In ''[[Smallville]]'', a Kryptonian visitor to Earth became the basis for God of an Indian tribe's religion, and a prophecy about him (or someone like him) returning some day to save the world.

* ''[[Pixelface]]'': In "High Spirits", the angry ghost of a pharaoh mistakes Rex for an Egyptian god after Romford falls out of the ceiling and gets stuck on his head. [[It Makes Sense in Context]].

 

* Parodied in ''[[The Far Side]]'' when two jungle explorers come across natives so gigantic only their feet and calves are shown in-panel. One explorer says to the other, "With any luck, they'll revere us as Gods."

 

* ''[[Traveller]]''

** Classic ''[[Traveller]]'' Double Adventure 6 ''Divine Intervention''. The [[PC]]s must get a device into the chambers of Orobid, the High Priest of the Church of Stellar Divinity. The device will appear to be a manifestation of Orobid's deity and give him orders that will benefit the [[PC]]s' patron.

** Mind you, many of the Exalted can fight ''the creators of the universe'' and ''win'', so it's not that huge an imposture.

** And considering that Gods and Exalted literally differ only in that Gods are immortal and Exalted aren't, it's even less of a stretch.

** In addition, the Black Library novel ''Dead Men Walking'' featured a cult which worshipped the Necrons as "Iron Gods".

** This was how Goge Vandire was able to convince the Sisters of Battle (then Brides of the Emperor) to join him. He declared himself being protected by the emperor and had his bodyguard shoot him with his sidearm. Vandire later remarks on the backwardness of the cult, and how they didn't know about the [[Deflector Shields|Conversion Field]] built into the Rosarius (a symbol of faith and badge of office) carried by senior priests.

** In the ''[[Ravenloft]]'' setting, the Barovian church of the Morninglord was founded by a semi-addled priest who, as a young boy, had been rescued from certain death by the vampire elf Jander Sunstar. Although the faith resembles the Forgotten Realms' worship of the God Lathander, artwork and tales of Barovia's version depict this deity as resembling Jander Sunstar.

 

* In ''[[Disgaea]]'', [[Disgaea: Hour of Darkness/Characters|Vulcanus]] does this to [[Disgaea: Hour of Darkness/Characters|Flonne]] in [[A Day in the Limelight|Etna mode]].

* [[The Reptilians|The Watchers]] from ''[[Dark Void]]'' did this to exert control over early humanity.

* ''[[Star Control]] 2'' has the Umgah do this to the Ilwrath by means of a powerful hyperspace transmitter. As a joke, they tell the Ilwrath to go to war with the neighboring Pkunk (although some believe that the Umgah ''meant'' to tell the Ilwrath to attack the Yehat, who would have made mincemeat of the evil spiders, and the Ilwrath misinterpreted the instruction). If the player gets that transmitter, they can pull the same trick, and tell the Ilwrath to attack the warlike Thraddash, leading the two bloodthirsty species to annihilate each other.

* In ''[[The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess]]'', {{spoiler|Ganondorf pretended to be a god to make Zant his [[Unwitting Pawn]] to get out of the Twilight Realm and take over Hyrule.}}

 

== [[Web Comics]] ==

* ''[[Schlock Mercenary]]'' sort of subverts this trope. While the primitive natives of a backwater planet do revere the mercenary company, they view Schlock as... the excrement of a huge and very sick pack beast. Aforementioned natives also throw their mercenary-given robot messiah [[Appease the Volcano God|into a volcano]], so you know that they don't have the proper viewpoint about things.

** But don't worry, they didn't. They worshiped his felt hand-puppet. Because it's hat was like the islands one mountain, it's eyes and mouth shaped like the three patches of jungle, and it's three buttons like the three reefs to the south of the island.

*** They used to have their own god. Worshiped a giant bull. That ended sometime around the washed up cargo of burger buns and individually wrapped cheese slices...

*** Interestingly enough, Elan ALSO worships his own hand puppet. But that's just because he has the brains of a five-year old.

* In ''[[Yamara]]'', the titular protagonist had ascended to Godhood for a storyline, and accidentally had a religion grow around her by the time she returned to normal—except for the three wishes she was granted as a "parting gift". She finally tries to talk her followers out of it with a heartfelt and humble speech—which she ends by saying "I wish you all the finest things in life" when she's on her last wish. An audience member says, "Whatta kidder!"

* ''[[Buck Godot]]'' also uses this. The Winslow, an indestructible creature resembling an animate plush toy with the mind of a five year old ([[Obfuscating Stupidity|maybe]]) is believed by various interstellar races to be an equivalent of [[God]], [[Jesus]] or [[Satan]], or weirder. [[Sufficiently Advanced Aliens]] put it in the care of [[Humans Are Special|humans]] because we just think it's [[Small Annoying Creature|annoying]].

{{quote|''"We appreciate you expediting matters, ye old god."''}}

* In ''[[Wapsi Square]]'', many ancient deities seem to have been this. Most were created by a far older civilization.

 

== [[Web Original]] ==

* The Archai originally suffered from being inadvertently treated as gods by modosophonts, in ''[[Orion's Arm]]'', as a result of their attainment of [[Sufficiently Advanced]] technology after having crossed several [[The Singularity|singularities]]. For a while the archai tried to convince people that they were not actually divine, but then later gave up and let the modosophs believe whatever they wanted. Thus, they're now often referred to as "AI Gods".

 

== [[Western Animation]] ==

* Appears in the ''[[Hi Hi Puffy AmiYumi]]'' episode "Kaz Almighty".

* In the ''[[Futurama]]'' episode "Godfellas", Bender ends up drifting in space, where he becomes God to the Shrimpkins, a race of miniature people who end up settling on his body. {{spoiler|His bad advice results in the Shrimpkins wiping themselves out through a nuclear holocaust.}}

* At the end of ''[[Beast Wars]]'', the resident [[Chew Toy]] Waspinator is shown being worshiped as a God by the protohumans.

** Even earlier in the [[Transformers]] mythos, the G1 second-season episode 'The God Gambit' has a tribe of [[Rubber Forehead Aliens]] on the moon Titan [[Cargo Cult|worshipping a statue]] that looked vaguely Transformer-like, before actual Transformers crash-landed there.

* In an episode of ''[[South Park]]'', [[Jerkass|Cartman]] creates a civilization of "sea people" in his aquarium. When their culture reaches the Classical Age, he discovers that they know of his existence and are worshiping him as a God. Later, the "sea people" on the other side of the aquarium start worshiping Tweek. In the end, they suicide-bomb each other, followed by a nuclear exchange that destroys the aquarium.

* ''[[Total Drama Island]]'': [[Word of God]] confirms this happens to Heather when they go to the Amazon.

** Episode "The Infinite Vulcan". The Phylosians are very reverent toward Keniclius 5, despite his predecessor having caused all their problems in the first place.

* One episode of ''[[Avatar: The Last Airbender]]'' has Katara disguising herself as a local deity, {{spoiler|The Painted Lady}}, in order to attack a Fire Nation outpost and inspire the locals who worship the goddess. Though she's eventually exposed, the villagers ultimately forgive her.

** One of the short comics released had Sokka being mistaken for being the Avatar. He doesn't seem to mind. [[Hilarity Ensues]].

 

{{reflist}}

[[Category:Disguise Tropes]]

[[Category:Index of Exact Trope Titles]]

[[Category:Truth and Lies]]

[[Category:Mistaken for Index]]

[[Category:No Real Life Examples, Please]]

[[Category:God Tropes]]