Gods Need Prayer Badly: Difference between revisions

** In the ''Fear Itself'' crossover, [[Iron Man]] mocks, invokes, ''and'' turns this into one helluva [[Tear Jerker]]. He started screaming at Odin and the other gods (but mostly Odin), yelling that if they wanted a sacrifce he'd give them the "only thing he could give worth anything": his sobriety, by taking a huge swig of alcohol. Even though it was a [[Narm]] scene, it was effective to the fans who know how hard he works to stay sober.

** DC perhaps most notably has this apply to a modern-day god of recent birth, Uncle Sam, whose power is directly proportional to the American People's belief in freedom and liberty. Whether American protecterates like Puerto Rico, Guam, and the Virgin Islands' people's belief in freedom and liberty counts towards this is never specified.

** In fact, [[Neil Gaiman]] frequently reminded readers that [[Anthropomorphic Personification|The Endless]] are not gods, because they do not care if they are remembered and will persist long after humanity is gone. They ''really are'' Death, Dream, Despair etc, and their existence depends on these aspects of the universe rather than mythology, and not just on Earth.

* In ''[[Knights of the Dinner Table]]'', after Bob's character, Knuckles III, dies, his next character (Knuckles IV) manages to get Knuckles III promoted to [[Phantasy Spelling|gawdhood]]. Temples to Knu-Kyle-Ra are now a recurring feature in the comic. Unfortunately, they don't owe Bob's other characters any favors.

* ''[[American Gods]]'' uses this as a central plot point. There's some major [[Fridge Logic]] (or perhaps [[Fridge Brilliance]]) at one point given the slighting way one of them refers to Jesus. Given that deities are powered by belief, he (probably along with Vishnu) would likely be the most powerful god around at present.

** There's also the implication that each nation has localised versions of gods: the American Kali mentions that there is a much more powerful Indian Kali, the protagonist briefly meets an Icelandic Odin and a powerless Jesus in Afghanistan is mentioned.

* [[David Eddings]] uses it in the ''Elenium'' and ''Tamuli'' trilogies (the source of the page header quote). At one point, the goddess Aphrael becomes ill because her worshippers are being killed.

* [[Douglas Adams]]' ''[[The Long Dark Tea-Time of the Soul]]'': Old gods who have fallen out of belief become powerless destitutes, while a new god is actually spawned as a critical mass of Guilt builds up through the book.

** It should be noted that if you read the supplements, you'll find out that the current administrator only makes use of the Wall because the other gods forced him to. Also, this is a setting where the gods are very real and walked the earth in mortal form ''en masse'' less than twenty years ago (a period known as the Time of Troubles). On Toril, literally ''every'' atheist is a [[Flat Earth Atheist]]: ending up in the Wall for atheism is akin to starving to death because you don't believe food exists.

** WARNING! PLOT POINT AHEAD! {{spoiler|1=The creator of the Spirit-Eater curse that drives the plot of ''MotB'' is the now-dead god Myrkul, who created it to ensure his [[Immortality]] by abusing this principle: as long as there was a Spirit-Eater, there would be at least one person who feared and/or worshiped him, so he could never truly die. Then the game gives you the opportunity to [[Did You Just Punch Out Cthulhu?|finish him off]] [[Death by Irony|with the Spirit-Eater]].}}

* ''[[Blaz Blue]]'' has an interesting variation on this trope: [[Big Bad|Hazama]]/[[Ax Crazy|Yuuki]] [[Card-Carrying Villain|Terumi]]'s existence is sustained by other people hating him. Which really does explain his ''[[Moral Event Horizon|thorough]]'' traumatization of [[Anti-Hero|Ragna]] at the start of the story, as well as his [[Troll|behavior]] [[Complete Monster|in general]]... Of course, [[Crazy Prepared|he also has his network]] of [[All Powerful Bystander|Observers]] and [[Synchronization|Life-Links]] to fall back on if that lifeline ever failed him.

** It should be noted that though hatred sustains Hazama/Terumi's existence, thus making it necessary for him to be the worst kind of [[Jerkass]] possible in order to stay alive, he is still as far from sympathetic as one can get. He has ''no'' shades of [[I Did What I Had to Do]], and has even openly admitted that he ''loves'' ruining other people's lives [[For the Evulz|for the sheer hell of it]].