God in Human Form: Difference between revisions

[[File:rsz_jesus_and_krishna_304rsz jesus and krishna 304.png|frame|[[Cyndi Lauper|Gods just wanna have fun.]]]]

* {{spoiler|Tenchi}} of ''[[Tenchi Muyo!]]'' turns out to be the human avatar of the god that created the Tenchi multiverse (yes, that includes [[Dual]] and [[El Hazard]].), and who is above even the Tenchiverse's three resident ''Choushin'' (lit. "[[Our Gods Are Greater|super-deities]]").

* ''[[Kamichu!]]!'' is all about [[Shrinking Violet|an unassuming schoolgirl]] who becomes one of these. [[Slice of Life|Reality ensues]].

* ''[[Neon Genesis Evangelion]]'' has two examples: [[It Was His Sled|The seventeenth Angel, Kaworu]] and {{spoiler|Rei Ayanami}} are both opposing [[Eldritch Abomination|alien gods]] trapped in human form by an [[Ancient Conspiracy]] and a [[Magnificent Bastard]], respectively. In other words, (a) [[God Was My Co-Pilot|God was literally]] [[The Hero|Shinji's]] [[God Was My Co-Pilot|copilot.]]

== [[Comic Books]] ==

== [[Film]] ==

* [[George Burns]] plays the Almighty in the ''[[Oh, God!]]'' movie series. In the third movie [[Acting for Two| he also]] plays the Devil.

** This is also parodied in the second movie, where a tribe of cannibals ''think'' for whatever reason that [[Loveable Rogue]] Jack Sparrow is a [[God in Human Form]]. He thinks this is great- until he finds out that they intend to "release" him from said human form... [[I'm a Humanitarian|by eating him]].

* ''[[Bruce Almighty]]'' and the sequel has [[Morgan Freeman]] (in a ''very'' nice suit and tie) as God.

* Steven Baxter in ''[[The Second Coming (TV series)|The Second Coming]]'' is a very ordinary, not particularly bright bloke who suddenly finds out he's the son of God. He only discovers what he's supposed to do little by little. {{spoiler|Killing him, in his human form, means that God dies. His dual nature makes it all [[Tear Jerker|incredibly sad]]: though the death of God is supposed to be a good thing and he eventually accepts this, Steven is also very much human and doesn't want to die at all.}}

* Leo in ''[[Charmed (TV)|Charmed]]'', after [[Ascending to A Higher Plane of Existence]] ''twice''. The second time was the reason for his depowering and [[Laser-Guided Amnesia|mind wipe]], as he had betrayed the set of gods he became part of for another more powerful set of gods.

== [[Literature]] ==

* The [[Ur Example]] of this trope is oldest known work of fiction, ''[[The Epic of Gilgamesh (Literature)|The Epic of Gilgamesh]]''. Gilgamesh is a demigod, and Enkidu is made by the gods to keep him in check. Not sure if that makes them gods themselves or just [[Cursed Withwith Awesome]].

* Emmanuel, the main character in the novel ''The Divine Invasion'' by [[Philip K. Dick]], is, in actuality, the Judeo-Christian [[God]] - and he lost his memories in a car accident.

* [[HPH.P. Lovecraft|Nyarlathotep]] often appears in the form of a man. He has several other avatars as well, ranging from aformentionedaforementioned human form to [[Eldritch Abomination|monstrous and inhuman]].

*** He also appears as a human in ''Nyarlathotep'', the first story he appears in. He appears in a monstrous form in ''Haunter in the Dark'', and one of his non-human forms is mentioned in ''Rats in the Walls''. He also appears in both human and pseudo-human forms (described as looking demonic) in Lovecraft's sonnet ''Fungi from Yuggoth''. In ''Hanter in the Dark'' it's somewhat implied that he gained his human form by posessingpossessing a human (most likely an egyptian pharaoh named Nephren-kha).

** In ''[[Discworld (Literature)/Small Gods|Small Gods]]'', the Great God Om decides to visit the Disc in the body of a great bull. Instead, he gets stuck in the body of a tortoise, and doesn't have enough godly mojo left to get out.

* [[Ian McDonald]]'s novel ''Out On Blue Six'' -- {{spoiler|Kilimanjaro West turns out to be this}}.

* In the ''[[Young Wizards]]'' series the most powerful of the [[Powers That Be]] exist [[Time Dissonance|mainly outside of time]] and, to be able to do anything to that which exists inside of time, not only need to insert fragments of themselves into the time stream(s), but also to [[God in Human Form|put that fragment into a physical body]]. This is usually done by the fragment hitching a ride in an already living being (usually without the mortal host being aware), which limits the amount of power they can use. However, if the host dies they can slap together a blob of physical matter and shove the fragment into that, giving them much greater access to their powers (and in a few instances the [[Big Bad]] starts out that way).

* The Devil from Glen Duncan's ''[[I Lucifer|I, Lucifer]]'' is given the choice by God to redeem himself by taking over the body of Declan Gunn. He retains his devilish characteristics, but spends much of his time utterly overcome by the power of his human senses.

* The group of so-called "wizards" in [[JRRJ. TolkienR. (Creator)R. Tolkien|JRR Tolkien]]'s ''[[The Lord of the Rings]]'', while appearing as old human men, are actually five ''Maiar'', a kind of angelic spirit, who are themselves incorporeal but can usually clothe themselves in any form they like. The five have been sent on a mission to help the peoples of Middle-earth against Sauron, during which they are bound in their physical form, unable to change it, and also limited in their powers and knownledgeknowledge. (When Gandalf the Grey dies and comes back as Gandalf the White, it's hinted that he regained his Maia powers in "death" and this allowed him to rebuild his body. [[Alternate Character Interpretation|It might also have been a near-death experience: the text never explicitly says he died.]])

* In Heinlein's ''[[Stranger in Aa Strange Land]]'', it's strongly hinted a couple of times (though never quite confirmed) that the Martian-raised protagonist may in fact be the archangel Michael in human form.

* In [[John C. Wright]]'s ''[[Chronicles of Chaos (Literature)|Chronicles of Chaos]]'', {{spoiler|the children.}}

* In ''The [[Wheel of Time]]'', the [[Sealed Evil in Aa Can|Dark One]] can manifest in the form of a [[Eyeless Face|Myrddraal]] called Shaidar Haran after the seals on his prison begin to weaken. He mainly uses this to spy on and terrorize [[Quirky Miniboss Squad|the Forsaken]].

* In [[Japanese Mythology]], [[Jerk Withwith a Heart of Gold|Susanoo]] was exiled from heaven for offending his sister, [[Yamato Nadeshiko|Amaterasu]] and forced to wander Japan for awhile. Eventually he killed [[Our Dragons Are Different|the]] [[Orochi]], [[Boy Meets Girl|found a wife]], and [[Awesome Moment of Crowning|got restored to his status as a god]]. He later became an [[Overprotective Dad]] against his daughter's suitor Okuninushi, but was eventually won over.

* Thoroughly averted in [[Useful Notes/Islam|Islam]]. To believe that God would ever put himself in human form is not blasphemy or apostasy, it makes you non-Muslim by definition. Islam is very big on picturing God as a transcendent if benevolent being bordering on the [[Eldritch Abomination|Eldritch]] and is very critical of [[Pride]] (to say that God would take human form is to hold the human form somehow equal to Him, which is prideful on humanity's part) so it makes sense.

** 4th Edition has taken this to new levels by actually allowing player characters to be the mortal embodiments of a god with the various divine Avatar epic destinies, which represent a character discovering that they are a [[God in Human Form]], or at least part of one, and ultimately ascending to rejoin that god.

* In ''[[Warhammer 4000040,000|Warhammer40K]]'', The [[God-Emperor]] of the Imperium is the God of Humanity ...and a mortally wounded and crippled man kept alive in the most complex iron lung imaginable.

** In both [[Warhammer 4000040,000|Warhammer 40K]] and [[Warhammer Fantasy Battle|Warhammer Fantasy]], Chaos Demons are weak forms of the chaos gods.

* In ''[[The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword (Video Game)|The Legend of Zelda Skyward Sword]]'' {{spoiler|Zelda is revealed to be the reincarnation of the goddess Hylia.}}

* {{spoiler|Joshua aka [[Physical God|The Composer]]}} in ''[[The World Ends With You (Video Game)|The World Ends With You]]''.

* ''[[Aveyond (Video Game)|Aveyond]]'' has {{spoiler|The Oracle, who is an old woman despite statues of a young and beautiful Goddess. She claims that [[I Was Quite a Looker|that was what she looked like way back when.]]}}

* The ''[[Lunar]]'' series has Althena routinely taking the form of a human girl (usually a singer), who is the incarnation of the deity. They don't usually know this fact, nor do the other characters. Lampshaded in ''[[Lunar Silver Star Harmony]]'', when Alex tries to make a sculpture of Luna, and the person looking at it notices the similarity to the Goddess Althena.

* In ''[[Harukanaru Toki no Naka Dede|Harukanaru Toki no Naka de 3]]'', both halves of the Dragon-God get depowered and assume human forms as a result. Kokuryuu/the Dark Dragon had his weakened human body destroyed and his powers snatched by an enemy, although it didn't cause power loss to his [[Miko]]. Hakuryuu/the White Dragon is initially found in the form of a pre-teen kid (also qualifying for the [[Really Seven Hundred Years Old]] trope as the Dragons have been around for at least 300-400300–400 years by that point); he partially retains the ability to cross time-space, and later regains some of his power and assumes [[Bishonen|a more]] [[Long-Haired Pretty Boy|adult]] form. In one side game, both Dragons can be seen in both childlike and adult human forms.

* ''[[Mortal Kombat]]'''s Raiden, Thunder God and protector of Earthrealm. Originally a [[God of Evil]] in [[Mortal Kombat (Videovideo Gamegame)|the original game]], later [[Retcon|retconnedretcon]]ned into a [[Mentor]] for the good guys. ([[Ret Canon|By way of]] [[Mortal Kombat (Filmfilm)|the movie]]) Once an Elder God, he later took human form to assist the heroes in their defense of Earthrealm.

* ''[[Oracle of Tao (Video Game)|Oracle of Tao]]'', this is the basic premise behind the hero's amnesia. Things don't add up with her memories and she thinks that [[Dream Apocalypse|she might not exist]], but the truth is in fact she's the only one who ''does exist'', and the world is a dream.

* The twin goddesses of ''[[Ys (Video Game)|Ys]]'' in the first two games.

* {{spoiler|Miang}}, the [[Big Bad]] of ''[[Xenogears (Video Game)|Xenogears]]'', is essentially the physical avatar of Deus, created 10,000 before the beginning of the game, manipulating history in order to orchestrate its revival.

== Web[[Western OriginalAnimation]] ==

[[Category:God In Human FormTropes]]