A God Am I: Difference between revisions

{{quote|''Because you are haughty of heart, you say, '[[Trope Namer|A god am I]]! I occupy a godly throne in the heart of the sea!'''|''[[The Bible (Literature)|The Bible]]'', '''Ezekiel 28:2'''}}

 

 

 

This guy is very likely to be brought down by his own [[Hubris]], though. [[Tempting Fate|Especially]] [[Blasphemous Boast|if he declares himself God right in front of a real God.]]

Aiming for godhood by ''rewriting the rules of the world'' is [[In Their Own Image]]. Another alternate version is the [[End of the World Special]]. See [[Physical God]] for those who don't have to try so hard. May, but [[Did You Just Punch Out Cthulhu?|does not always]] result in a [[God Mode Sue]]. Having a sovereign ruler do this makes the character a [[God-Emperor]]. Also, see [[It's All About Me]] for a similar trope, minus the declaration of godhood.

 

 

'''Note that this trope requires a ''self-proclamation of godhood''.''' Possessing or gaining [[Physical God|godlike powers]] by itself doesn’t count, nor is it a requirement to possess such powers to qualify for this trope.

* Creed from ''[[Black Cat (Manga)|Black Cat]]'' does this after he {{spoiler|uses nanomachines to become immortal}}. He tells Sephiria that her death will be the result of her opposing God (in other words, him). In a rather comedic moment, Creed explains to Train that he can recover from any life-threatening wound in a few seconds except for damage to the brain. Train promptly supplies that makes him more like a zombie, to which Creed angrily replies that it makes him a god.

* [[Osamu Tezuka]]'s ''[[Phoenix]]'': volume Future, has main character Masato Yamanobe fill the role of God. Masato must begin the evolution of Earth anew when the current world is devastated by nuclear war (and it is hinted that this isn't the first time life on Earth has been obliterated). Masato doesn't want to be god and in fact tries to discourage the people he helps create from thinking of him in that way. The real god of the story is the eternal Phoenix, who gave Masato his power and immortality in the first place.

** It turns out that Claire Stanfield's god complex is hereditary, as his great-grandaughter Claudia has much the same worldview.

* ''[[Mirai Nikki]]'' has twelve already mentally unstable individuals empowered with precognitive diaries and [[There Can Be Only One|made to battle each other]]; the winner will become God once the other 11 are dead. As a result, it's probably easier to state which one of the diary holders ''do not'' suffer from this to one degree or another.

* Every other appearance by [[Thanos]] has him stealing an artifact or power source that gives them godlike power. This was most obvious when he acquired the Infinity Gems.

* ''[[Thunderbolts]]'' #120: [[Norman Osborn]] loses his shit, resulting in the following exchange;

'''Green Goblin''': "I am God!" }}

* The Skull of ''[[Earth X]]'' has the power to control the minds (or at least bodies) of every human being on Earth. Not surprisingly, he declares himself to be God. Ironically, he's more of [[Touched By Vorlons|a pawn]] of the "real" gods of the setting, the Celestial Host.

== Fan Fiction ==

* ''[[Thousand Shinji (Fanfic)|Thousand Shinji]]'' ends with {{spoiler|Shinji, Asuka, Rei and Misato ascending to becoming the new Chaos gods}}, leading after a [[Time Skip]] into ''[[The Open Door (Fanfic)|The Open Door]]''.

* ''[[Harry Potter and The Methods of Rationality (Fanfic)|Harry Potter and The Methods of Rationality]]'': Harry's ultimate goal is:

{{quote| To understand everything important there is to know about the universe, apply that knowledge to become omnipotent, and use that power to rewrite reality because I have some objections to the way it works now.}}

** In the episode "Return to Tomorrow", [[Energy Beings|Sargon]] explains that his civilization destroyed itself when it became so advanced and arrogant that "we dared think of ourselves as gods".

* The [[Sufficiently Advanced Alien]] Q plays with this in ''[[Star Trek the Next Generation]]''. In "Tapestry", Picard dies and enters the "afterlife", where he finds Q awaiting him, who informs him that he's dead and that Q himself is God. Picard rejects this, because he doesn't think that "the Universe is so badly designed". Q just snarks that Picard is lucky Q doesn't smite him for his blasphemy.

* An episode of ''[[Honey I Shrunk the Kids (TV)|Honey I Shrunk the Kids]]'' (the TV series) sets up the alternate form, with the newly divine daughter setting out to ascend to a higher plane and become one with the universe. But in a last second subversion, because [[Status Quo Is God]], Wayne applies [[Reverse Polarity]] on the [[Green Rocks]] and pulls her back to Earth.

* {{spoiler|Cordelia's ascension}} in ''[[Angel (TV)|Angel]]''.

*** They couldn't {{spoiler|stop the team from killing them}}.

*** Also, Adria explicitly states in ''The Ark of Truth'' that the Ark can only make people believe what is true, which is why she can't use it. Since the Ark makes the Priors believe that the Ori are not gods, clearly the Ori are actually not gods. Although she fully believes she could use it if it weren't for the existance of ancients undermining her by being just as high up in the grand scheme.

* ''[[I Claudius]]'' has a variant [[Truth in Television|mirroring real life]] when [[The Caligula|Caligula]] declares himself to be a god; however, in Caligula's case there were no [[Green Rocks]] or [[Touched By Vorlons|Vorlons]] -- his declaration is caused solely because he is, at that point, ''absolutely barking mad''. Some Roman emperors were deified ''after death'' -- the last words of Vespasian were, "Alas, I am becoming a god" -- so Caligula was jumping the gun a bit. (Deification even after death was in real life somewhat rare: among others, Tiberius and Nero were not deified after death - and neither was Caligula. His pre-death self-deification was also quietly shelved in Claudius's time.) "And his sister's become a goddess. Any questions?"

* ''[[Heroes (TV)|Heroes]]'': A number of characters, most emphatically {{spoiler|Adam Monroe}}. Meanwhile Peter Petrelli, who has a claim to godlike powers since he absorbs the powers of everyone he encounters, has yet to fall victim to this.

** If we can assume that {{spoiler|Maury Parkman's illusion of Linderman}} accurately portrays the actual character's personality, then we can infer that {{spoiler|Linderman}} thought of himself as either a god or very close to one. In one season 3 episode, he implied that he spoke the word of God.

*** However, he may have been simply trying to ''convince'' Nathan, who had recently gone through a bit of a religious awakening, that he was God in order to manipulate him into doing what {{spoiler|his father}} wanted him to do.

** Also, in the same episode, Rose Tyler absorbs the heart of the TARDIS and is turned into a godlike hybrid called ''Bad Wolf'', who disproves the Dalek Emperor's "I am God" hypothesis by disintegrating him.

{{quote| '''The Doctor:''' This is wrong. You can't control life and death!<br />

* Kilobyte the Freaky Tentacles Guy (yeah, [[Squick]] please) in ''[[Ace Lightning]]''... though since he's a videogame character, he was kinda trippin...

* Callisto in ''[[Xena: Warrior Princess]]'' consumes ambrosia, the food of the gods, to become a god during a battle with a vengeful Amazon that had ''also'' consumed ambrosia solely [[Disproportionate Retribution|so that she could kill Gabrielle]]. Uniquely, in later episodes she regrets her godhood and tries to find ways of undoing it, culminating in her begging Xena to find a way to kill her. {{spoiler|She changes her mind after witnessing Gabrielle make a [[Heroic Sacrifice]] - unfortunately for her, Xena had already found a way to kill her, and didn't particularly appreciate her gloating about this.}}

* ''[[Caprica]]'': {{spoiler|Given her godlike powers in V-World, Zoe proclaims herself God when confronting Clarice Willow in the Apotheosis simulation in the series finale}}.

* In one episode of the ''[[Twilight Zone]]'', a pair of space-farers found themselves stranded on an apparently desolate planet. One of these men found a civilization of microscopic people, and quickly set himself up as their god. Though his fellow tried to talk him out of it, the newly deified pilot decided to stay as the god of these tiny people. This being the [[Twilight Zone]], [[It Got Worse|things went south quickly for him]].

 

* The accurate assessment version of the trope appears in ''[[Nobilis (Tabletop Game)|Nobilis]]'', where everyone of significance is equivalent in power to what a human would call a god. A great deal of the game's drama comes from dealing with this fact.

** Which effectively makes him one, due to how the Immaterium works. Not counting the one thousand Psykers sacrificed daily to keep the Astronomican lit/the Emperor alive, he is slowly gaining more and more power as people believe in him and die in his name - hence, his position as the up-and-coming Fifth God of Chaos, the "God of Mankind". Then again, seeing as how he stopped a great fleet during the Age of Apostasy by creating a Warp Storm which is still raging five millennia later...

** The Chaos worshippers who win the Gods' favours and turn into Daemon Princes, which are, according to the fluff, pretty damn powerful in and of themselves.

*** Link and Zelda don't get as much power out of their Triforce parts because of which parts they have. Link has the Triforce of Courage, Zelda has the Triforce of Wisdom, Ganon has the Triforce of Power. Which do you think is going to cause the most damage?

*** And yet, Link and Zelda win every time.

*** This is incorrect. Only a person who has a balanced heart can acquire the triforce initially. If a person touches the triforce with an unbalanced heart, the triforce will split apart and he/she will only acquire 1 of the three part of the triforce (Power. Courage, Wisdom). However, said person can afterwards acquire the triforce from whoever the other two pieces went to. This is seen in ''Ocarina of Time'' when Ganon first enters the sacred realm and touches the triforce, gaining the triforce of power and scattering the triforce of wisdom to Zelda and the triforce of courage to Link. Afterwards, Ganondorf tries to take the two triforce pieces from them. This is seen again in WW when Ganondorf has been released from his seal in the Sacred Realm. He is already in possession of the triforce of power from the events of OoT so he takes the triforce of courage and wisdom from Link and Zelda, finally uniting them {{spoiler|although he doesn't manage to get his wish}}

** When you defeat Vaati for the second time in ''The Minish Cap'' he claims that as a god, it shouldn't have been possible for him to be defeated.

*** {{spoiler|Afterwards, Luthor became obsessed with reattaining Godhood, with some horrible consequences...}}

** There was an episode of BTAS that had Scarecrow scream out "WORSHIP ME, YOU FOOLS! WORSHIP ME!"

* Beast-Era Megatron, starting in the [[Grand Finale]] of ''[[Beast Wars (Animation)|Beast Wars]]''. After discovering his G1 namesake's old flagship, the Nemesis, he starts raining fire on the landscape while quoting the Covenant of Primus, which is the closest thing we've seen to a [[Robot Religion|Cybertronian Bible]]. He clearly considered himself to be god-''like'' throughout ''[[Beast Machines (Animation)|Beast Machines]]''. In the last couple of episodes, he started raving about actually becoming one - [[Near Villain Victory|and he nearly did, too]].

** In ''[[Transformers Cybertron]]'', Megatron sought the series' [[Plot Coupon|Plot Coupons]] in order to become a god. Starscream wanted this power for himself, which was what led him to betray Megatron. Successfully, too; an [[Enemy Civil War]] resulted. As a result of their progress towards godhood, the final battle between Starscream and [[Mid-Season Upgrade|Galvatron]] caused further damage to the fabric of reality.

* In the Cartoon Wars episodes of ''[[South Park]]'', Cartman thinks he's managed to pull ''[[Family Guy]]'' off the air:

{{quote| "I did it! [[Punctuated for Emphasis|I...am...GOD!]]"}}

* ''[[Futurama (Animation)|Futurama]]'': Bender becomes a god to the Shrimpkins he picks up while floating through space. It didn't last long or end well.

** He also became Pharaoh of an ancient Egypt-style planet; since pharaohs are viewed as gods...

 

== Other ==

* In ''[[Bionicle (Franchise)|Bionicle]]'', the Barraki's goal when they dwelled on land was to conquer all the universe and overthrow the Great Spirit Mata Nui. While they failed, Makuta was inspired by it and began formulating a [[Gambit Roulette]] to do it himself on an even grander scale. {{spoiler|''And he succeeds,'' committing [[Grand Theft Me]] against a [[Physical God]] and banishing Mata Nui's spirit into space in a [[Soul Jar]].}}

** On a smaller scale, [[The Starscream|Hakann and Thok]] pull off the "get superpowers and subsequently have delusions of godhood" deal after they steal Brutaka's power via improvised [[Power Copying]]. Despite razing half of Voya Nui and [[Curb Stomp Battle|effortlessly flattening the rest of the]] [[Quirky Miniboss Squad|Piraka]] [[Curb Stomp Battle|and the Toa Inika]] ''[[Curb Stomp Battle|twice]]'', it doesn't last.

* Linus Torvalds, introducing himself at the 1998 Linux Expo, Durham, NC: ''"[[Large Ham|My name is Linus Torvalds, and I am your God.]]"''

* Basketball player Josh Childress said that during his experience for playing with Greece (more specifically, the Olympiakos), he ended up being treated as a God towards the country. When Josh decided to leave Greece to return to the Americas (as a member for the Phoenix Suns), some citizens got a little bit hot-blooded.

* [http://www.thechurchofgoogle.org/ Google] seems to be invoking this trope.

* Quote of Cleverbot:

[[Category:Villains]]

[[Category:A God Am I]]