Automoderated users, Autopatrolled users, Bureaucrats, Comment administrators, Confirmed users, Moderators, Rollbackers, Administrators
213,517
edits
Kill the God: Difference between revisions
no edit summary
m (Mass update links) |
No edit summary |
||
| (17 intermediate revisions by 7 users not shown) | |||
Line 1:
{{trope}}
{{quote|''Now watch closely, everyone. I'm going to show you how to kill a god.''
|Lady Eboshi, ''[[Princess Mononoke]]''}}
[[wikipedia:Deicide|Deicide]], aka '''killing a god'''.
To kill the [[Our Gods Are Greater|gods]], or even [[God]] (or a [[Crystal Dragon Jesus]] [[Expy]]) Himself, is a daunting task. You're often dealing with an [[Immortal]], [[Nigh Invulnerable]], [[Physical God]] that can probably snuff the light out of you in an instant.
But that doesn't sit well with how deities are portrayed in stories, where they have a [[Anyone Can Die|tendency to die]], as mythology often shows. As a result, you may have a setting where you can [[Title Drop|Kill The Gods]]. This makes sense if the character who kills the god is its equal or [[The Old Gods|greater]] in power, [[Did You Just Punch Out Cthulhu?|although it's not unheard of to see someone who's weaker than the god kill them anyway]].
If the [[Gods Need Prayer Badly]], this could be accomplished by everybody ceasing worship at once and letting the god just shrivel up.
Of course, once you do this, [[God Is Dead]]. See also [[Rage Against the Heavens]]. Compare [[Did You Just Punch Out Cthulhu?]], which might be their cause of death.
{{examples}}
== [[Anime]] and [[Manga]] ==
* Almost happens to {{spoiler|Haruhi at the hands of Kuyo and Fujiwara}} at the climax of ''[[Suzumiya Haruhi|The Astonishment of Haruhi Suzumiya Vol. 2]]''.
* ''[[Bleach]]'' gets this pretty easily, considering the Soul Reapers are considered [[A God Am I|Death Gods]] by their own submission.
* In ''[[Princess Mononoke]]'', Lady Eboshi kills the forest spirit, which is a sort of [[Physical God]]. The results, however, aren't quite what she intended.
* An extremely difficult proposition in ''[[Saint Seiya]]'', as the gods (with the exception of Eris in the first OVA) are really powerful, but possible with the right means. The real problem is getting them to
* A variation occurs in ''[[Code Geass]]''.
* Since the gods' powers are sealed in ''[[Is It Wrong to Try to Pick Up Girls in a Dungeon?]]'', killing one is as easy as pushing him or her off a ledge, or running a sword through the god's heart... and it's shown to have happened more than once. The god doesn't actually die, but is sent to (the setting's very boring) Heaven with no way to return to the (interesting) Lower World where the mortals live.
* Depending on how you interpret its origins, it could be argued that Usagi Tsukino accomplished this when she defeated Metaria at the end of the first season of ''[[Sailor Moon]]''.
== [[Comic
* It happens in ''[[Preacher (Comic Book)|Preacher]]''. {{spoiler|The Saint of Killers}} REALLY lived up to his name.
* In ''[[Thorgal]]'', Ogotai
* One of the enemies of the [[Marvel Comics]] version of ''[[Thor]]'', Desak, wants to kill every god in the universe because of the actions of his home planet's [[Jerkass Gods]].
* [[Darkseid]] sees other gods besides his [[New Gods|New God]] underlings as threats to his conquest of everything, so he kills them and takes their powers.
* The title character of ''[[Harry Kipling (Deceased)]]'' does this on a regular basis. He can do it because he's technically a god himself.
== [[Fan Works]] ==
* Thanks to a divine artifact putting itself in his hands at an unexpected moment, Doug Sangnoir ''almost'' accomplishes this in ''[[Drunkard's Walk|Drunkard's Walk V]]''.
==
* ''[[Star Trek V]]'' has earned the [[Fan Nickname]] ''[[Star Trek]]: Shoot God in the Face'' since its climax involves going to the heart of the galaxy and meeting an [[Omnipotent]], godlike being in need of a starship, and then shooting it in the face.
* In the 2010 remake of ''[[Clash of the Titans]]'', various rulers are trying to do this to the Olympians by [[Gods Need Prayer Badly|destroying their temples and denying them worship]]. While it does weaken them, the gods are still powerful enough to inflict misery on the commonfolk, whose suffering their arrogant rulers ignore. It also doesn't do anything to weaken Hades, since he draws power from their fear of death.
* The climax of ''[[Dogma]]'' involves the protagonist finding and killing God, in order to allow Her to respawn at the place She needs to be to stop the villain from destroying the universe.
== [[Literature]] ==
* In ''[[His Dark Materials]]'', this is Asriel's mission. There's also a knife which is properly called the [[Meaningful Name|god-destroyer]].
* In ''[[Percy Jackson and The Olympians]]'', Pan is killed because of [[Gods Need Prayer Badly|a lack of people who believe in him]], which also doubled as a [[Green Aesop]].
* ''[[Belgariad
* Also by Eddings, Sparhawk killed a god at the end of both ''[[The Elenium]]'' and ''[[The Tamuli]]''. The gods were even aware this was a danger because Sparhawk was born [[Immune to Fate]].
* In ''[[Everworld]]'' gods can't be killed by mortal means, but they can be killed by other gods or godly weapons. {{spoiler|Or modern weapons from our world}}. There's also the [[Eldritch Abomination]] Ka Anor, an alien god who ''eats'' other gods and is basically trying to genocide the whole holy race.
* In ''[[
* Several gods are slain using the eponymous items in the ''[[Book of Swords]]'' series by [[Fred Saberhagen]]. In fact, once humans realize gods are not immortal, [[Clap Your Hands If You Believe|they start not believing in them]], [[Gods Need Prayer Badly|and the rest die from disbelief]].
* The goal of Nicolae Carpathia's Global Community One World Unity Army at the battle of Armageddon in the ''[[Left Behind]]'' book ''Glorious Appearing'', and also that of The Other Light at the end of the Millennium Kingdom in ''Kingdom Come'' -- [[You Can't Fight Fate|neither of which was achieved]] [[Curb Stomp Battle|as God and Jesus wiped out both armies]].
== [[Live-Action TV]] ==
* In ''[[Xena: Warrior Princess]]'', the title character gains the Power to Kill Gods in the season 5 finale, and uses it so often that she is actually billed as "[http://hercxena.wikia.com/wiki/Xena Xena of Amphipolis, the Warrior Princess, Slayer of Gods and Defender of the Elijans]."
** On the Hercules and Xena Wiki, there's a ''category'' on the trope "[http://hercxena.wikia.com/wiki/Category:Power_to_kill_Gods Power to kill Gods]{{Dead link}}".
* The entire fifth season of ''[[Buffy the Vampire Slayer]]'' revolves around killing Glory, a seemingly unstoppable hellgod trapped in a mortal body.
* Another ''[[Star Trek]]'' example: [[Star Trek: The Next Generation|Worf]] claims that Klingons have no gods, because they killed them centuries ago. Apparently they were "more trouble than they were worth."
** Yet another ''[[Star Trek]]'' example: in the TOS episode, ''Who Mourns for Adonais'', an alien claiming to be the Greek god Apollo captures the [[Cool Starship|Enterprise]]. They destroy the source of his powers and he "spreads himself upon the winds" to join his fellow gods that had passed on.
* In ''[[Stargate SG-1]]'', a device is created that is capable of killing [[Ascend to a Higher Plane of Existence|ascended]] [[Powers That Be|beings]]. In the Ori galaxy, the Ori themselves are ascended beings who have become, quite literally, gods. The device is sent through a stargate to the Ori galaxy, where it goes off, destroying all of the Ori.
* In season five of ''[[Supernatural (TV series)|Supernatural]]'', Lucifer wipes out a hotelful of gods in about five minutes. [[Death]] also claims he will reap God at the end of time.
==
* The third act of Fireaxe's epic four hour metal album [[Food for the Gods]] centers around [[Satan]] leading an army of demons and damned in a full-on assault of Heaven with this goal. {{spoiler|And it works! [[Pyrrhic Victory|Sort of]].}}
* The whole point of [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8-F3n_G_0O0 "Godwhacker"] by [[Steely Dan]].
* Similarly, [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GoC8OBjs7Iw&list=RDPnKxhbRqqx0&index=6 "Godhunter"] by [[Aviators]] is about a god acknowledging that he's marked for death by a godslayer -- and that he deserves it.
== [[New Media]] ==
* In ''[[Descendant of a Demon Lord]]'' someone tried to make a god. The ritual didn't go as planned and instead of making a mature god, there was an unfinished god. Celes, with the help of Lady Lust, killed it. Also in the backstory, the first demons might have been humans that got their power by waging war against the gods.
== [[Oral Tradition]], [[Folklore]], Myths and Legends ==
* [[Older Than Dirt]]: In [[Egyptian Mythology]], Set chopped up his brother Osiris and threw all the pieces into the Nile.
* Balder in ''[[Norse Mythology]]''. Killed by an arrow (or spear) through the heart shot by Hodr, but he was set up by Loki. He knew Balder's only weakness: [[Weaksauce Weakness|mistletoe]].
** In Gesta Danorum's version, Baldr dies via a sword ''called'' mistletoe.
** At Ragnarok, Odin, Thor, Loki, Heimdall, Frey, and most of the Aesir bite it at the hands of giants, trolls, Fenrir, Jormungandr, and Surtr.
== [[Tabletop Games]] ==
* ''[[Exalted]]'' is full of [[Exaggerated|exaggeration]], and this trope is no exception. You can trivially kill the vast majority of gods right out of chargen. And not only you can kill typical day-to-day house-spirit gods, you can also kill the Incarnae, who are the big bosses of the gods. And ultimately you can kill the [[Our Titans Are Different|Primordials]], who are ''the'' [[The Old Gods|gods of the gods]]. In fact, that last one was the very reason why the Exalted were created.
* For an RPG based on Gnosticism, this trope is [[Averted]] in ''[[
* ''[[Dungeons
** 1st Edition
*** Under the rules (Deities and Demigods Cyclopedia) it was possible to kill deities, which led to bizarre results. One example was a letter to Dragon magazine in which a PC killed the [[Norse Mythology]] god Thor by pushing him off the top of a wall and getting Thor's magical hammer Mjolnir as booty.
Line 78 ⟶ 82:
** Killing gods were a fairly trivial task (although it's rarely ''easy'') in 3.5e. 4E has a few deities statted up (Bahamut, Tiamat, Torog, Lolth at least), and usually require you meet some special condition to permanently beat them down (either affecting them in some way that violates their portfolio, using something against their iconic material, or getting a bunch of Primordials/Demon Lords and having them gang up on them).
== [[Video Games]] ==
* In ''[[The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind]]'', you can kill up to [[Rule of Three|three Gods]], with two being required to finish the story. They are [[Physical God|Vivec]], Almalexia in ''[[Expansion Pack|Tribunal]]'' (necessary to finish Tribunal's story), and Dagoth Ur (necessary to finish the main game's story).
** Killing [[Big Bad|Mehrunes Dagon]] in ''[[The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion|Oblivion]]'' is ''supposed'' to be impossible (he's got something like 10,000 HP and can stomp you to death without half-trying), but can be done if you A) abuse the Alchemy and Enchant skills to make a [[Game Breaker|Game Breaking]] enchanted weapon, or B) get lucky with [[Lethal Joke Item|Wabbajack]].
** The endgame of ''[[The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim|Skyrim]]'' subverts this. {{spoiler|Alduin is literally unkillable. The best you can do is knock him back into the timestream, putting off [[The End of the World as We Know It]].}}
* ''[[God of War (series)|God of War]]'', [[Up to Eleven|of course]]. [[Sociopathic Hero|Kratos]] goes on a killing spree in Olympus as well as many other legends from [[Greek Mythology]]. Of course, killing the gods that govern the elements or the guy that guards the souls of the dead may have [[The End of the World as We Know It|small inconveniences]], but hey, no plan is perfect!
* The ending of the first and third ''[[Silent Hill]]'' games.
* One of the branching paths in ''[[Guardian Heroes]]'' allows you to [[Rage Against the Heavens|storm the gates of Heaven]] and kill God.
* The ''[[Shin Megami Tensei]]'' series has this alongside [[Did You Just Punch Out Cthulhu?]], what with being able to fuse gods like [[Classical Mythology|Pallas Athena]], [[Hindu Mythology|Vishnu]], or [[Japanese Mythology|Amaterasu]] and getting them to fight other demons based on deities.
** ''[[Shin Megami Tensei II]]'' ends with the protagonist slaying {{spoiler|YHVH, an egotistical caricature of ''the'' Judeo-Christian [[God]]}}. He pays ''[[Fate Worse Than Death|dearly]]'' for this after {{spoiler|YHVH}} [[As Long as There Is Evil|comes back]].
** ''[[Shin Megami Tensei
** The [[Persona]] series continues this trend, with the main characters fighting [[Persona 2|Nyarlathotep]], [[Persona 3|Nyx]], and {{spoiler|[[Persona 4|Izanami]]}}. {{spoiler|Of course, it takes two whole games to banish Nyarlathotep, you don't kill Nyx so much as seal her away, and Izanami seems rather pleased to have been defeated.}}
* ''[[Arc Rise Fantasia]]'' has the main characters kill the god of their world. {{spoiler|Unlike the other examples however, [[God Is Good|God is most definitely NOT evil]], but saving the world means that either they kill her, or she just disappears.}}
* One ending in ''[[Yggdra Union]]'' has the eponymous character head to heaven to do just that.
* ''[[Sacrifice]]'' sees the five gods of the world dropping like flies as the story goes on: Eldred kills at least two in every campaign, and [[Omnicidal Maniac|Marduk]] inevitably kills the rest. It's explained to you that the gods you killed may return with a new name later as long as there are people to believe in the forces they represent, but the process takes centuries at best.
* Pretty much the entire point of ''[[Kid Icarus]]'' is to go from a [[Take a Level In Badass|weakling cherub to badass]] so you can kill the goddess of darkness and save the goddesses of light. No wonder it's [[Nintendo Hard]].
* ''[[Asura's Wrath]]'' has this as well. The Seven Deities started out as [[Sufficiently Advanced Alien|Sufficiently Advanced Cyborgs]] as part of a species known as "demigods" who decided to elevate themselves to full-on godhood by assassinating the emperor and pinning the murder on Asura, then kidnapping his daughter because of her unique ability at controlling Mantra, their power source. Asura is betrayed, his wife is murdered, and he is killed. [[Like a Badass Out of Hell|He comes back]], and he is '''[[Unstoppable Rage|pissed.]]'''
** [[Serial Escalation|Elevated]] to really [[Up to Eleven|ridiculous levels]] with Asura killing
* ''[[Final Fantasy VI]]'' has this, as well. The playable characters' kill the three gods of magic; Goddess, Demon and Fiend, in order to [[The Magic Goes Away|bereave]] [[Big Bad|Kefka]] [[The Magic Goes Away|of his magical powers]]. However, it turns out after the Warring Triad had been felled that Kefka had drained them of so much of their powers, he was sustaining magic by himself, making ''him'' the [[Physical God|God of magic]].
** And then the playable characters proceed to kill him.
** Later, in ''[[Final Fantasy VIII]]'', if you have Odin on your side when you fight Seifer, he up and kills the poor guy right at the get-go. [[Discard and Draw|Fortunately, Gilgamesh shows up to finish him off, taking up Odin's sword.]]
* ''[[Record of Agarest War 2]]'' has Weiss, the first generation protagonist who kills a god and now must pay the price.
* The Sinistrals in the ''[[Lufia]]'' series claim to be gods, and they've got the power to back up that claim. They're also [[God of Evil|embodiments of evil]], so the plot of the games usually revolves around finding the [[Sword of Plot Advancement|Dual Blade]], a sword which can kill gods, and then kicking the Sinistrals' asses with it.
* In ''[[Dungeon Crawl]]'', [[Gods Need Prayer Badly]]. Gods without intelligent followers will fade away. This makes it possible to kill {{spoiler|Jiyva, the god of slime, by killing Royal Jelly, the only slime intelligent enough to worship}}. The other gods have enough followers to not be suspectible to this.
* In ''[[Dark Souls]]'', you end up killing all of the deities mentioned in the opening cutscene. Granted, most of them are in pretty bad shape by the time you actually meet them. A few of the other bosses are minor gods as well, but they can be killed like any other enemy in the game.
* ''[[
* Overlapping with [[Did You Just Punch Out Cthulhu?]], this is the entire reason the Grey Wardens were created in the ''[[Dragon Age]]'' [[The Verse|'verse]]: the [[Big Bad|archdemons]] are the slumbering gods of the [[The Empire|Tevinter]] [[Vestigial Empire|Imperium]], awoken by darkspawn. If killed by a normal mortal, they'll come back to life via [[Body Surf|body surfing]] to the nearest darkspawn. If a Grey Warden is in proximity, however, it'll jump to the Warden and their souls will [[Mutual Kill|mutually annihilate]].
* The second half of the plot of ''[[Star Ocean
* ''[[Planescape: Torment]]'': Part of the
== [[Web Comics]] ==
* Attempted twice in ''[[Bob and George]]'' with the Author, who is essentially the God of the comic's universe. At the end of the first game storyline Dr Wily captures and seemingly kills the Author, erasing the comic from existence. It was quickly established the Author was only injured and recovered (at the time this was done because the Mega Man strips were meant to be filler and the Author did intend to stop them, but then wound up going back to them and they became the main story).
** In the final storyline, Bob attempts the same plan but takes it [[Up to Eleven]] by arranging for the Author to get killed in three time periods, ensuring his destruction. When George points out that Wily already tried killing the Author and failed, the Shadowy Author reminds him that since it's already known the comic is coming to an end there's no guarantee Bob's plan will fail this time (it does, but the point is still valid).
* In ''[[Penny Arcade]]'' Tycho recommends killing the gods of Gabe's ludicrously powerful ''[[Dungeons & Dragons]]'' group in an attempt to find something to frighten them. Unfortunately...
{{quote|'''Gabe:''' ''They'' killed their gods.
'''Gabe:''' To ingest their godseeds. }}
* A major plot point in ''[[
* ''[[Sluggy Freelance]]'': The talking sword Chaz can kill just about anything when powered by innocent blood. It claims it could easily kill the Demon King, a [[God of Evil]].
== [[Web Original]] ==
* This article from ''[[The Onion]]'': [http://www.theonion.com/articles/nasa-completes-52year-mission-to-find-kill-god,19263/ Nasa Completes 52-Year Mission to Find, Kill God].
* ''[[Tales of MU]]'' gives us Gillian "Gottmorder" Callahan.
{{quote|'''Imperial Agent''': The charges against you include three counts of attempted deicide...
'''Callahan''': One of those succeeded.
'''Imperial Agent''': We don't have a law that covers successful deicide. }}
* Perhaps the ultimate example would be ''[[The Salvation War]]'' series. The first story has humanity go to war with Hell ''and win so hard that it is later referred to as the [[Curb Stomp Battle|Curbstomp War.]]'' Then we kill Satan with cruise missiles. The next story, we go to war with Heaven. The only reason that we don't personally kill God there... well... {{spoiler|[[The Starscream|someone]] beat us to it.}}
* In the ''[[SCP Foundation]]'' universe, the Global Occult Coalition (an organization devoted to destroying the supernatural) traces its origin, in part, from a [https://web.archive.org/web/20131105154136/http://goc.wikidot.com/lte-0913-exmachina group of German occultists that supposedly killed the biblical God.] (The article's more of a [[Feghoot]] actually.)
* From ''[[Atop the Fourth Wall]]'', Linkara is against the entity which is {{spoiler|Missingno}}, whom is described as an elder God. Linkara acknowledges that conventional combat does not work and only by using a ''Hannibal Lecture'' is he able to defeat the entity.
== [[Western Animation]] ==
* Admiral Zhao in ''[[Avatar: The Last Airbender]]''' declares his ultimate goal to be the death of the Moon Spirit. {{spoiler|1=He does succeed in this, but the Moon Spirit is quickly replaced/resurrected.}}
* In ''[[Hercules (
* In some ''[[Transformers]]''
{{reflist}}
[[Category:{{PAGENAME}}]]
[[Category:Older Than Dirt]]
[[Category:
| |||