Mad God: Difference between revisions
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{{trope}}
[[File:DeliriumBubbles 6395.jpg|link=The Sandman|frame|Be glad she's not sculpting with C4.]]
{{quote|''"You '''dare''' interrupt me! Only '''I''' interrupt me! Like just then. I'm speaking with someone! We'll talk later. Or not. When is later, exactly? Not now, I'm sure of that."''|'''Sheogorath''', ''[[The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion]]''}}
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It might even be posing as a sane and good god because it has momentarily grown [[Bored with Insanity]]. Of course, that doesn't usually last, as sanity tends to bore it greatly as well.
Expect the [[Nietzsche Wannabe]] to consider it [[Above Good and Evil]], or that it follows [[Blue and Orange Morality]] that anyone can understand... [[Go Mad
Contrast [[A God I Am Not]], where a god-like being refuses to be called a god to avoid something like this occurring.
{{examples}}
== Anime and Manga ==
* Asura from ''[[Soul Eater]]'', [[Eldritch Abomination|a demon god who went mad with fear and infects the world with his insanity merely by existing]].
** Later chapters imply that all Eight Warriors from the days of old each represent some form of madness, like Shinigami representing madness from Rule of Law.
== Comic Books ==
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* Delirium from ''[[The Sandman]]'', what with her being the [[Anthropomorphic Personification]] of madness.
* [[Thanos]] is occasionally referred to as The Mad God.
== Film ==
* The protagonist of ''[[The Gods Must Be Crazy]]'' assumes this is why a Coke bottle falls out of the sky into his primitive village, bringing strife to the community. To them, it's a cruel trial that can only have been masterminded by a malevolent and crazy god.
* Loki in ''[[The Avengers (2012 film)|The Avengers]]'' seems to have a bit of this—he's more than a little unhinged after the events of ''[[Thor (film)|Thor]]'' {{spoiler|(namely falling through a portal into the abyss of the universe)}}, and abuses his powers as the God of Mischief to [[Big Bad|terrifying effect]].
== Literature ==
* ''[[
* [[Eldritch Abomination|Azathoth]], the Blind Idiot God gibbering at the chaotic center of Creation (''his'' creation) in the [[Cthulhu Mythos]]. Note however his being a 'god' is debatable, as it is with practically all of Lovecraft's more tremendously powerful entities.
* Nalar, [[Big Bad]] of the ''[[Riftwar Cycle]]'' is sometimes called the Mad God, though it's implied that even if he was sane he'd still be a [[God of Evil]].
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* [[Harlan Ellison]]'s short story "The Region Between" proposes that all life in the universe is formed from fragments of a god like this, which destroyed itself in its own madness. {{spoiler|In the end, it's reconstituted just long enough to kill itself for real by ending the universe.}}
▲== Live Action Television ==
* Bobo is [[Mistaken for Gods|mistaken]] for this by the ancient Romans in [[Mystery Science Theater 3000]]. Oddly, he's only really "mad" in the sense that he fights lions in the gladiatorial arena for fun- which admittedly is a bit much since the other local "Gods" (Pearl and Brain guy) spend most of their time not doing anything even remotely that impressive.
* In the [[Mirror Universe]] of ''[[Hercules: The Legendary Journeys]]'', Zeus went mad from the strain of building "The Labyrinth of Eternal Memory" for his newborn son Hercules. With the king of the gods insane and the rest of the pantheon thrown into chaos, the stage is set for [[Evil Counterpart|this version of Hercules]] (known as [[Evil Overlord|"the Sovereign"]]) to [[Take Over the World]] and hatch a scheme to become the new ruler of Olympus.
== Tabletop Games ==
* ''[[Forgotten Realms]]'': Cyric is much more competent sane than insane. A lot more pragmatic, too. But still -very- evil.
* The Chaos gods of ''[[Warhammer Fantasy Battle]]'' and ''[[Warhammer
** Tzeentch is mad even by Chaos standards. [[The Chessmaster]] par excellence, it constantly weaves [[Gambit Roulette|extremely complex schemes]] that more often than not [[Gambit Pileup|contradict each other]], that ultimately have no point at all, and in succeeding with one it foils countless others (and so on ad infinitum). Indeed, to Tzeentch scheming is a purpose in itself, as if any of its big plans were to ever succeed it would [[Puff of Logic|cease to exist]].
** The [[Physical God|C'tan]] Outsider in ''40K'', one of the Necron star gods who was tricked by the Laughing God of the Eldar into consuming others of its own kind, which eventually drove it insane.
* The Primordials of ''[[Exalted]]'', the creators of the universe, are quite insane by human standards, even the relatively nice ones like Gaia and Autochthon. The developers have even used human mental disorders as metaphors for how each Primordial views the world—Oramus is schizophrenic, Malfeas is solipsistic, Autochthon is autistic, She Who Lives In Her Name is obsessive-compulsive, and so on.
* All of the Madlander deities in ''[[GURPS]] Fantasy II: Adventures in the Mad Lands''. Togeth, god of the Togethians, may be one too - the magic he grants to worshipers is extremely random, though at least it's always beneficial, unlike what the Madlander gods tend to do.
* [[Dungeons
* Ragnaglar from ''[[
* The Mad Gods from ''[[Witchcraft]]'', natch- every single one is a [[Cosmic Horror]] from beyond our reality, whose understanding of it is terribly limited; so when they manage to intrude here (and before, even), they begin to [[Reality Warper|reshape it to a form they prefer]]. Which needless to say is very bad news for the natives (even including the angels and demons).
* The Mad God from the [[Fighting Fantasy]] gamebook "Portal of Evil." Provides the hero with a helmet that has mirrors attached to it. The helmet turns out to be useful later on when revealing to [[The Dragon]] what a monster he has become.
== Video Games ==
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* In ''[[Pokémon Mystery Dungeon Explorers]]'', Dialga is a benevolent enough god, but for most of the pre-credits storyline, he's going insane and changing into ''Primal'' Dialga.
* [[Call a Rabbit a Smeerp|Jubileus The Creator]] of ''[[Bayonetta]]'' goes insane {{spoiler|once the Left Eye is lost, throwing the [[Balance Between Good and Evil|Balance Between Light and Darkness]] out of alignment.}} Whether Jubileus was good or evil to begin with isn't clear, since in this [[Crapsack World]] [[Dark Is Evil]], [[Light Is Not Good]], ''both'' Angels and Demons qualify as [[Eldritch Abomination]]s and humans are, for the most part [[Humans Are the Real Monsters|worldly]] or [[Too Dumb to Live|gullible]] [[What the Hell, Townspeople?|idiots]].
* In ''[[
* Majora of ''[[The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask|The Legend of Zelda Majoras Mask]]''. Very little is known about Majora, except that he goes completely ''apeshit'' and tries to destroy the entire world by crashing the moon into the earth, cuz he's freakin' god, and he feels like it.
* In ''[[Eternal Darkness]]'' [[Evil Is Visceral|Chattur'gha]] and [[Light Is Not Good|Ulyaoth]] are not particularly right in the head, at least [[Blue and Orange Morality|not to human senses]], but Xel'lo'tath is the only one whose very ''presence'' (and those of her troops) drives people mad; she hears voices in her head, and ''you'' hear voices in her head too.
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* Malygos, the Aspect of Magic from the ''[[Warcraft]]'' games used to be a fun-loving [[Our Dragons Are Different|dragon]] who ruled over magic. But after his entire people, including his mate and children, was slaughtered by his best friend with a weapon he helped create, he completely lost his mind. He hid for millennia in a cave and was prone to killing anybody who approached him. It's only after being given a new flight that he starts to become sane again... at which point he decides to declare war on every magic user in the world (that is every single faction of the game, including the other dragons which helped him and the mortals who did his job for 10,000 years).
** Neltharion aka Deathwing is this ''and'' a [[God of Evil]]. That's what happens when a godlike dragon is [[Mind Rape]]d by a cabal of [[Eldritch Abomination]]s. Deathwing's own power tearing his body apart (to the point that he has to have metal plates riveted to his body just to keep it together) leaving him in constant agony probably didn't help his sanity either. In the finale of ''Cataclysm'' {{spoiler|being blasted by the Dragon Soul makes him lose what little control he had over his own power. His body falls apart and the last vestiges of his sanity go along for the ride.}}
* The main villain in the flash game ''[[Realm of the Mad God]]'' is one of these.
== Web Comics ==
* One ''[[Nodwick]]'' story features a schizm between the fathful of Skizzopreen, a deity with two aspects, "one brings the blessings of order and the other the curse of chaos" and they ''really'' hate each other. While the description is made by the head of the orderly clergy, even the followers of the chaotic aspect admit that Skizzopreen "isn't the most stable of gods" and that his [[Literal Split Personality]] are constantly fighting each other, each blaming the other for starting the conflict. Piffany seems to succeed in making peace between them, but it doesn't last, and the two clergies end up eradicating each other.
== Web Original ==
* Yahweh in ''[[The Salvation War]]'' is arbitrary, narcissistic, throws temper tantrums when things don't go the way he wants or expects, and seems somewhat... impaired at times. Then again, he may not be an actual, literal god in the sense that's used here.
== Western Animation ==
* ''[[My Little Pony:
** [[Super-Powered Evil Side|Nightmare Moon]] resulted from [[The Sacred Darkness|Luna]] resenting the ponies who rejected her night in favour of [[Light Is Good|Celestia]]'s day, her [[Green-Eyed Monster|jealousy]] (and a bit of [[The Corruption|corruption]] by dark magic) consuming her until she enacted [[The Night That Never Ends|eternal night]] in a stubborn attempt to ''force'' the ponies to love her. She seems completely unaware that this would kill all life in Equestria.
** Discord, [[God of Evil|spirit of chaos and disharmony]], whose body even looks like someone chopped up half a dozen different creatures, lost most of the pieces and tried to stick them back together. As a [[Reality Warper]] of near-unlimited power, within a day he [[Reality Is Out to Lunch|turns Equestria almost literally upside down]], with days and nights lasting less than a minute, gravity turned off in places, and at one point he drinks a glass of chocolate milk (not the milk, the glass) and throws the milk away where it explodes.
{{reflist}}
[[Category:Cosmic Entity]]
[[Category:Madness Tropes]]
[[Category:Cosmic Horror Tropes]]
▲[[Category:Mad God]]
[[Category:God Tropes]]
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