God Is Dead: Difference between revisions

{{trope}}

In the beginning, God created Heaven and Earth. Whether it took six days or six billion years for Him (or It, or Her, or Them, you know) to complete the Creation, there's nobody to give the award plaque to. Why not, you ask? Because, somewhere along the way, God croaked. Went belly up. Bought the farm. Kicked the bucket. [[Hurricane of Euphemisms|Answered the last prayer]]. [[Dogma|Played the last game of skee-ball]]. [[Overly Long Gag|Named the last prophet]].

Of course, the subject of [[Trope Namer|Nietzsche]]'s pronouncement is [[Serious Business|one of the most serious debates in the academic world]].[[hottip:*:What he was probably trying to get at is that modern people have started to wake up to the "fact" that everything is meaningless, and there is no such thing as universal truths, absolute values, or any sort of afterlife -- thus, a more accurate statement (according to Nietzsche) would be "God never even existed", but that wouldn't quite manage to convey the poetic severity of the message. Thankfully, [[MST3K Mantra|we don't need to dwell on grim philosophical intangibles to enjoy a story about the mortality of the divine]].

== Anime & Manga ==

* In ''[[Dragonball Z]]'', a creature named Buu killed off much of the order of the Kais, the closest thing to a god in their universe, since they rule over everything.

* Volume 48 of ''[[Bleach]]'' is entitled [[God Is Dead]].

* Yukko in ''[[Nichijou]]'' uses this exact phrase, in English, after Mai hits her on the head with a book. This is followed by a dramatic camera angle change to focus on the (possibly reincarnated) wooden Buddha statue on the desk in front of her, and the narrator exclaims "''[[You Are the Translated Foreign Word|Kami ga shinda]]''" accompanied by a lightning strike in the background.

* ''Ruins'', a [[Marvel Comics]] graphic novel, shows a newspaper headline with a photo of Galactus' corpse and the headline reading: [http://images.comicbookresources.com/solicits/marvelcomics/200901/RUINS_cov.jpg "God Found Dead In Space"].

* The Millennium story for ''[[The Authority]]'' was about a creature who created the Earth and is explicitly described as the closest thing there is to God. This creature was the being that had physically collected the matter that the Earth is formed of and placed it into orbit around the sun, but its plan was to return someday and use the Earth as a home; the evolution of life was a completely unplanned event that stemmed from a freak asteroid collision billions of years ago. The creature, as large as the moon and of comparable power, planned to de-terraform the planet back to its original state before taking up residence, unconcerned with the extinction of humanity since we are less than microorganisms compared to it. It was killed by Jenny Sparks in a [[Heroic Sacrifice]] (as the Spirit Of The 20th Century, her time was up anyway -- until she was resurrected as Jenny Quantum). The creature qualifies for this trope. Jenny does not.

* In ''Towing Jehovah'' by James Morrow, God's corpse is found in the Atlantic Ocean. The Vatican decides to bury it in Antarctica, while [[Hollywood Atheist|pissed-off atheists]] want to destroy it, as even a dead God is proof that they were wrong all along. In the next book of the trilogy, God gets posthumously put on trial for crimes against humanity.

** Well, {{spoiler|[[Not Quite Dead|Not Quite Posthumous]], as it turns out. At the end of the second, though, He gets [[Killed Off for Real]]}}. The third novel is about how a visible reminder of God's death -- a giant skull in geosynchronous orbit -- affects Western civilization.

* ''[[Discworld]]'': In ''[[Discworld (Literature)/Monstrous Regiment|Monstrous Regiment]]'', the Borogravian god Nuggan died some time ago. Since gods live or die based on their worshippers' belief. It is revealed that {{spoiler|Nuggan died because everyone came to believe in his numerous abominations more than Nuggan himself.}}

** In ''[[Discworld (Literature)/Small Gods|Small Gods]]'', the Great God Om {{spoiler|narrowly avoids this fate.}}

== Tabletop Games ==

* In ''[[Planescape]]'', dead gods are a part of the setting, their corpses floating in the Astral Plane. There's even a high-level adventure entitled "Dead Gods". Also, [[Dungeon Master|the Lady of Pain]] killed the god Aoskar for daring to set up shop in Sigil; this is one of the greatest demonstrations of why you really don't mess with her.

** She didn't attack him when he merely came there and has a portfolio that covered her portals. She killed him when his followers started to talk about her as his aspect aloud and some of her servants became his worshippers. Not only does she flay people with her gaze even for attempting to worship her as a deity in her own right, but in ''[[Planescape]]'', the "aspect" part alone sometimes causes problems to the target (e.g. Bast didn't make it through).

** And then there are resurrection attempts. In ''Finder's Bane'', for one.

* In ''[[KULT]]'', {{spoiler|God is dead, and the Devil is the only one who wants him back. Also, god is dying retroactively, being dead further and further back in history.}} It's mostly a good thing (as far as anything can be good in this [[Crapsack World]]).

* In ''[[Exalted]]'', this can (depending on your ST's preference for where to take the story) happen in the Endgame chapter of ''Return of the Scarlet Emperor'' with {{spoiler|Infernal Exalted, possibly backed up by demons or even Abyssals, breaking into the Jade Pleasure Dome through a long-forgotten 'back door' and assassinating the Unconquered Sun, who lacked his usual invulnerability because he was addicted to the Games of Divinity. The Ebon Dragon never expected the [[Oh Crap|massive power boost every Solar Exalt in Creation got]] when their patron Incarnae was killed.}}

* One of the possible final bosses in ''[[Guardian Heroes]]'' is "The Creator". {{spoiler|When you beat him, he admits that he was just toying with humanity all along, and now that he's dying, humans are free to choose their own destiny.}}

* The entire premise of the ''[[God of War (Video Game)|God of War]]'' series is about the protagonist going on a quest to essentially [[Rage Against the Heavens|kill all of the Greek gods]], and he's already taken down Ares and Athena. At the end of [[God of War (Video Game)|God of War]] 3, every God Kratos encountered is dead, with the exceptions of Artemis and Aphrodite.

* In the Zul'drak region of ''[[World of Warcraft]]'', the Drakkari trolls native to the region have been killing their gods and stealing their powers in a desperate bid to protect themselves from the Scourge. Your character can go through a quest chain in which you try to save the gods or, failing that, [[Mercy Kill]] them or help them avenge themselves on their killers.

* The whole ''[[Shin Megami Tensei (Franchise)|Shin Megami Tensei]]'' series. You have gods. You get to fight gods. {{spoiler|YHVH is effectively immortal, however, even though he is temporarily killed in SMT II. As long as there is even one human who believes in a higher power, God will exist.}}