Clap Your Hands If You Believe: Difference between revisions

Not to be confused with [[Your Mind Makes It Real]], which has more to do with characters getting physically hurt with The Power Of Imagination (though the two tropes do sometimes intertwine). For those who don't even ''need'' to clap, see [[Reality Warper]]. See also [[Puff of Logic]], [[Psychoactive Powers]], [[All Myths Are True]], and [[The Treachery of Images]]. Has nothing to do with [[Clasp Your Hands If You Deceive]].

 

 

== Anime and Manga ==

** His sometime ally Michael is a devout believer however, so the Cross works just fine, as does his named sword and since Michael is a Knight of the Cross his bare hands work equally well. (He's not called the Fist of God as a pet name, folks!) When a Red Court vampire (who are not as vulnerable to faith as the Black Court) mocks the idea that Michael's faith in the cross will defend him, she lightly places a finger on one of the crosses stitched into his cloak, and she instantly bursts into white flames.

** Faith in [[God]] himself is not necessary for a Knight of the Cross. Of the three knights presented so far, only Michael is particularly religious. Shiro was confused when he was being converted (though he tries his best to be a good Baptist regardless) and Sanya is Agnostic. It's their belief in defending the common man against evil that gives the knights their powers. It just happens that in Michael's case, this belief manifest itself as Christian Faith.

** However, this apparently ''does'' work when fairies gain confidence in their own abilities: the more Toot-toot accomplishes on Harry's behalf, the bigger he gets. In the first book he is only six inches tall; by the 12th book, he is more than 15 inches tall and described as "ridiculously tall." Or alternatively, it was the result of [[Gods Need Prayer Badly|him becoming the leader of the "Za Lords" and gaining followers]].

** Magic in the Dresdenverse requires belief in whatever the caster is doing. A caster cannot produce a spell if they do not, deep down, believe in the reasons behind why they are casting the spell. This is actually a small but critical plot point in ''Turn Coat'', where LaFortier's murder involved no magic being slung. It is eventually revealed that the killer {{spoiler|1=was being mind-controlled, but deep down she understood that she shouldn't be doing it, so she couldn't use magic against LaFortier. Meanwhile LaFortier knew she was being mind controlled and wasn't responsible for what she was doing, so he couldn't target her either.}}

** [[Stephen Colbert]] (apparently sincerely) believes this to be an instance of comic relief in the Bible, saying Jesus wouldn't be truly human if he could witness that without laughing.

* In ''[[I Am Legend]]'', vampires fear the holy symbol of what they believed in before they became vampires. The Protagonist's archenemy is terrified by the Star of David.

* ''[[Good Omens (Literature)|Good Omens]]'' not only explicitly uses this concept as the core of its magic system, but actually introduces a system which measures the intensity of belief in one of its footnotes.

* This appears to be the driving force behind mythological beings in the ''Logical Magician'' series of books by Robert Weinberg. In the second book, an Amazon (naturally, exceedingly beautiful) serving as a weapons instructor is explicitly confronted by the main character with theories regarding the rather hideous appearance of historical amazon women; he's rebuffed with "Maybe the real ones were. We aren't." Applies to myths both old and new; one of the most feared mythological beings around is 'The Man'. Also given an interesting inversion; {{spoiler|Nergal, the Babylonian god of disease, has been hauled into the modern world. With no believers to get rid of, he seems invincible, until the main character gets an article about him published in several supermarket tabloids. Since people automatically disbelieve what they read in those, this does Nergal in.}}

** The [[Star Trek Expanded Universe]] has "the Beings" in Peter David's ''[[Star Trek New Frontier]]'' series, who gained power from worship and fear, and inverted when it turned out the most powerful among them was so because he gained power from peoples' belief in ''themselves''.

** Also in the [[Expanded Universe]] is the novel ''Gods Above'', featuring more Beings like Apollo who not only thrive on worship, but on fear and doubt as well. The only way for the crew to defeat them is to be truly fearless.

* The ''[[Stargate SG-1]]'' [[Big Bad]] of seasons 9 and 10, [[Sufficiently Advanced Alien|the Ori]], are [[Ascend to A Higher Plane of Existence|ascended beings]] who thrive on worship. And they also ''lose'' their powers when not worshiped, {{spoiler|hence how The Ark Of Truth beats Adria, forcing the Priors to realize that the Ori, and by extension, Adria herself, were ''not'' gods.}} A fitting end.

** The [[Big Bad|Big Bads]] of the previous eight seasons, [[A God Am I|the Goa'uld]], are a more figurative example. Once a significant number of people stop believing that a particular Goa'uld is a god, it's usually a sign that said Goa'uld is about to lose out.