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{{quote|So, isn't this terrifying? I'm terrified too... Giygas cannot think rationally any more, and he isn't even aware of what he is doing now. His own mind was destroyed by his incredible power...What an all-mighty idiot!
▲{{trope workshop}}
|[[The Dragon]] {{spoiler|Porky Minch}} describing [[Big Bad|Giygas]], ''[[EarthBound]]''}}
▲{{quote|So, isn't this terrifying? I'm terrified too... Giygas cannot think rationally any more, and he isn't even aware of what he is doing now. His own mind was destroyed by his incredible power...What an all-mighty idiot!|[[The Dragon|Porky Minch]] describing [[Big Bad|Giygas]], [[EarthBound]]''}}
A (usually) mortal being falls to the temptations of attaining significant and often god-like power and eventually succeeds; but where temptation proved too great for them, [[Phlebotinum Overload|the power proves ten times more so]], and they begin to literally lose their mind. Sapience, sentience, individual will, sense of self—at least one of more of these will end up buried or destroyed, possibly completely, from sheer force of intake. Alternately, someone who is already a deity (or at least [[Physical God|strong enough to be one]]) undergoes a further enhancement that pushes them beyond their bounds, eroding their mind and/or soul - often until they're an empty shell of their former self. Finally, some deity-like beings... simply turn out to not be all that smart to begin with.
In summary, [[With Great Power Comes Great Insanity]] and the potential to create
The
Many animals display their own form of understanding and self-awareness in ways we humans have yet to fully understand - but even the most "intelligent" animals are still incredibly dangerous if they go feral. The idea of such a ravaged mind being likened to that of a child is technically more accurate: in psychoanalytic theory, the mind of a newborn child is regarded as the purest form of ''id''. If the deity is a ''literal'' child, that's [[Goo-Goo Godlike]].
Becoming
Compare:
* [[Mad God]], which overlaps significantly due to the base concept of "deity whose mind is shattered".
* [[Tortured Abomination]], where a sufficiently strong [[Eldritch Abomination]] is subjected to enough torture that they are rendered 'feral' enough to lash out (or worse).
* Severe cases of [[Superpower Meltdown]] or being [[Touched by Vorlons]].
Contrast:
* [[King of All Cosmos]], where the deity is more highly eccentric or outright weird than anything else, though it's still possible that their mind is fried besides that.
* [[Goo-Goo Godlike]], when a being with god-like power is still in the actual stages of infancy and hasn't ''developed'' their intelligence to begin with.
* [[A God I Am Not]], for characters who are fully aware of their godlike
{{examples}}
== [[Anime]] and [[Manga]] ==
* An Incarnation of the Radius from ''[[Sword Art Online: Ordinal Scale]]'' is a demon-goddess meant to serve as the [[Final Boss]] and main villain of the titular [[Fictional Video Game]] in the original ''[[Sword Art Online]]'' - but after [[Big Bad]] Kayaba Akihiko [[Deadly Game|turned the MMO into a deathtrap]], the plot no longer mattered and it went unused. Tetsuhiro Shigemura, the villain of ''Ordinal Scale'', uncovered it while data-mining and downloaded it into the game to use against the heroes. While it clearly had the raw power worthy of a game’s main antagonist, it entirely lacked personality and seemed to be guided mostly by programmed AI patterns. (VS Battles Wiki has more on this [https://vsbattles.fandom.com/wiki/An_Incarnation_of_the_Radius here].) Tetsuhiro may have chosen it for this reason, as he wanted a vessel to reincarnate his deceased daughter in the virtual world.
* ''[[Naruto]]'': {{Spoiler|Becoming host of the Ten Tailed Beast makes you incredibly powerful, but it is mindless and instinct-driven, and quickly robs the host of their own sanity if they do not have a strong enough will to restrain the beast's impulses to kill everything it sees.}}
* In ''[[Another]]'', the reason for the curse on the school that causes students to die horribly is because one student is an "Extra", who is supposed to be dead, and is there due to some error in reality. A paranormal force of some kind is trying to eliminate the Extra, but it seems to have no idea just who it is, and many innocents end up dying before it succeeds. The challenge the students face is, in effect, a [[Cosmic Horror]] version of a [[Fair Play Whodunit]], where they must identify the Extra so the killings will stop.
== [[Comic Books]] ==
* In the [[Preacher (Comic Book)|''Preacher'' comics]], {{spoiler|Genesis}} is revealed to be an example of this once Jesse learns more about the being {{spoiler|and why it came to choose him as a vessel}}.
* ''[[Green Lantern]]'': Larfleeze is the only Orange Lantern, and having on hand the source of his own power made him ageless and incredibly powerful. But that same source drove him into becoming [[Greed]] incarnate, wanting only riches, and only for the sake of having them, not wanting and even getting angry at the visage of other individuals.
* This is discussed in ''[[The Sandman]]'' a few times. As Dream puts it, he and his siblings are technically not gods; they are anthropomorphic representations of abstract forces, with rules and provisos to keep them in check. That's why it's ''really'' bad if a human gains access to such power:
** John Dee acquires Dream's Ruby and attains the power to warp people's minds, both in and out of the Dreaming. It turns him into the villain Dr. Destiny, a serial killer that has battled the Justice League. {{spoiler|When Dee destroys the Ruby during his fight with Morpheus, believing it would kill Dream, he loses the power while Dream regains it. Morpheus then calmly escorts him back to Arkham, saying he is harmless as a shell of his former self. Dee certainly looks pathetic as he meekly returns to his cell.}}
** Also mentioned about what happens to humans used as vessels for the supernatural: They can't handle the onslaught of power or awareness equivalent to a god, and may prefer if they didn't survive the outcome. Brute and Glob said that one of their Sandman incarnations, Wesley Dodds, lost his mind after they gave him Dream's power, so they tried seeing if a dead person could handle it better. Hector Hall does, but there's the whole problem of him being dead so his reach only extends over one boy's mind. His widow Hippolyta Hall is reduced to a raving homeless woman after {{spoiler|she invokes the wrath of the Kindly Ones on Dream, mistakenly believing he murdered Daniel, and becomes catatonic as her soul rampages in the Dreaming. Dream considers it mercy if he killed Hippolyta before she goes too far; he doesn't because the Kindly Ones blackmailed his ex Thessaly to protect Hippolyta's body, who apologizes and says it's [[Nothing Personal]]. Hippolyta is revived with a sinking sensation that she did something, and Thessaly gives her thirty minutes to get a shower and leave before a lot of supernatural beings, including Thessaly, go for Lyta's head. Lyta is protected from Dream-Daniel, but she becomes a permanent vessel for the Furies and any takebacksies would kill her. She can only become normal if she kills one of her kin, ''but'' then the Furies will kill her, using a new vessel}}.
== [[Film]] ==
* Averted in ''[[Bruce Almighty]]''. Bruce is a down-on-his-luck reporter who thinks God has it in for him, so God gives him His powers, telling him, in so many words, [[God for a Day|"let's see if you can do better"]]. [[Sarcasm Mode|Spoiler alert]]: Bruce cannot do better, but not for lack of any ''lost'' cognition as opposed to [[Jerkass|his pre-existing]] [[Deconstructed Trope|human flaws]].
== [[Literature]] ==
* A classic example is Azathoth from the [[Cthulhu Mythos]], literally referred to as the "Blind Idiot God". Where Nyarlathotep was actively malicious towards humanity to a degree, and Cthulhu even had aspirations to bring back the Old Gods, Azathoth is far beyond either of them in power, but comparatively is utterly lacking in motive of any kind. [[H. P. Lovecraft]] conceived it as ''"The Nuclear Chaos"'' that mindlessly drives the forces of physics and may have created our universe - and as such, it [[Primordial Chaos|embodies this]] [[Blue and Orange Morality|quite literally]].
** Later writers made it so that this wasn't always the case, and instead became that way upon losing its mind; [[August Derleth]] in particular portrays this as divine punishment from the Elder Gods.
** Azathoth also [[Truly Single Parent|reproduces by fission]], [[Bizarre Alien Reproduction|as does its offspring]] -- it's not uncommon at all to liken ol' Azzy to the universe's most powerful amoeba.
* In ''[[His Dark Materials]]'', it's eventually revealed that {{spoiler|God has been reduced to this. Once he might have been a man or an angel. These days, he's a shriveled whispering figure, and the angels carrying out his orders actually don't know what he's saying. Lord Asriel finds it rather anticlimactic when he kills God, thinking there would be more satisfaction from it}}.
== [[Tabletop Games]] ==
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** Banghtu, the orcish god of strength, has almost limitless physical might, but he's known for being woefully stupid. The ''Monster Mythology'' splatbook gives him an Intelligence Score of only 3 (putting him below most mortal ''children'', orc or otherwise). Naturally, he values strength and little else besides - he's also [[Undying Loyalty|completely loyal]] to his father Gruumsh, the head of the orc pantheon.
** Leviathan, one of the [[Eldritch Abomination]]s detailed in ''Elder Evils'', is an entity that took form from a leftover aspect of Chaos after it combined with Law during Creation. Best described as “mindless”, it is driven by little except raw instinct.
** [[Demon Lords and Archdevils|
== [[Theatre]] ==
* Some of the malevolent beings in ''[[Hatchetfield]]'' are this, which is good for the human inhabitants trying to survive in the various timelines. They can then take advantage of the childlike or wild tendencies to retaliate.
** In ''Black Friday'', if the Wiggly brainwashing gets to the adults, they attain both powers and a strong desire to kill for a Tickle-Me-Wiggly doll. Some, as a result, become irrational. In an ironic case of this, sociopathic Linda Munroe is recruited by Uncle Wiley to serve as the prophet for the Cult of Wiggly.
** Blinky in "Watcher's World" wants the theme park residents to adore him, and for the Snigglys to be happy. Anyone who hates Blinky or speaks up about the unfair Sniggly conditions may find themselves near-beaten to death or hunted down like prey. That's because it depowers him. {{spoiler|Fortunately, resisting Blinky gives Alice enough of a window to shoot him with the gun that the Snigglys thoughtfully provided her}}.
==[[Video Games]]==
* ''[[Bowser's Fury]]'' has an example that may or may not be [[Played for Laughs]] in Fury Bowser. The King of the Koopas is so powerful in this form that he can affect the weather, summon burning blocks from the sky, and corrupt innocent cats into his minions. He is also completely irrational, with no personality displayed beyond a constant rage and and a single-minded instinct to kill Mario. How did Bowser become so powerful and berserk, and why might it be considered Played For Laughs? {{Spoiler|His son Bowser Jr. painted his face while he was sleeping, and when he woke up he became extremely angry.}}
* The final boss of ''[[EarthBound]]'' is described as such by his [[The Dragon|Dragon]] {{spoiler|
* ''[[Final Fantasy X]]'': {{Spoiler|Yu Yevon becomes a god which creates a dream-like recreation of his home city by possessing aeons, but a thousand of years later his consciousness has been reduced to nearly nothing but an instinct to possess aeons. And if he isn't possessing an specially powerful Aeon empowered by his daughter Yunalesca, he can be easily killed, what makes the final boss fight in the game completely trivial to the party once Braska's Final Aeon is defeated}}.
* [[Xenoblade Chronicles]]: {{spoiler|Professor Klaus was a little megalomaniac but not mean-minded before he activated the Conduit, creating a new universe and becoming Zanza. Millions of years later, he is an empty sociopath motivated only by hunger to eat the beings who he creates to further sustain himself, but with incredible power. It is implied the Conduit did that}}. [[Xenoblade Chronicles 2]] further elaborates on that: {{Spoiler|the Conduit had split him into two, with only the human-like part remaining on a destroyed Earth}}.▼
* [[Sonic the Hedgehog 2006 (video game)|''Sonic the Hedgehog (2006)'']] justifies this with Iblis, who is a mindless monster with godlike power because {{spoiler|his mind had been split from him ten years before present time, and manifested into the cunning-but-physically-weak Mephiles}}.
* ''[[The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild]]'': Calamity Ganon, which is revealed to be {{spoiler|the result of Ganondorf giving up on reincarnation and intending to release the full force of its wrath upon the world}}. Indeed, Calamity Ganon is incredibly powerful, capable of constantly resurrecting his minions, but has nothing resembling sentience or personality and usually appears a red-purple cloud of pure malevolence {{spoiler|or else in the shape of a boar. Or so it seemed...}}
** The sequel, ''[[The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom]]'', reveals that {{spoiler|this was not the case at all, that Ganondorf was never reincarnated because he had never died to begin with, and that Link and Zelda had been [[Fighting a Shadow]] the whole time. Ganon's true body - as Ganondorf, the true Calamity - had [[Sealed Evil in a Can|been sealed underground]], the Malice infecting Hyrule extensions of his power. Calamity Ganon was simply an oversized concentrated mass of Malice with Sheka technology woven into it that Ganondorf was controlling remotely. When Link and Zelda inadvertently open his tomb in the beginning of ''Tears of the Kingdom'', he proves much like his previous self and just as talkative.}}
▲* ''[[Xenoblade Chronicles]]'': {{spoiler|Professor Klaus was a little megalomaniac but not mean-minded before he activated the Conduit, creating a new universe and becoming Zanza. Millions of years later, he is an empty sociopath motivated only by hunger to eat the beings who he creates to further sustain himself, but with incredible power. It is implied the Conduit did that}}. ''[[Xenoblade Chronicles 2]]'' further elaborates on that: {{Spoiler|the Conduit had split him into two, with only
* At the climax of ''[[Xenoblade Chronicles 2]]'', {{Spoiler|the Architect reveals that the Blades were made for data collection and assimilation - the Aegis blades, with their immense power and agelessness, are as empty in personality as any blade at the start, confirming Mythra's suspicions and Malos' doubt that the latter wasn't acting of his own free will, and was influenced by his omnicidal driver Amalthus}}. Outside of the main storyline, the optional Blade Herald is incredibly powerful, and also can go berserk and destroy everything on her sight under certain circumstances - her last driver killed himself to make her stop before she completely destroyed the kingdom of Tantal. The party outright gets a warning about this from the Tantalese before awakening her.
* Many of the ''[[Mega Man Battle Network]]'' series' final bosses are incredibly powerful programs or viruses packing godlike power. Some, like the Life Virus and the Cybeasts, are basically feral and uncontrollable wild animals. Then there's Alpha, an utterly alien creature that is literally the old internet itself, presented as an outright [[Eldritch Abomination]] with the intellect of an amoeba that lives solely to assimilate the Net and all its inhabitants into its being. But the unifying thread behind all of them (save for Duo, an intelligent being) is that they are irrational, mindless beings that have far too much power for their own good.
* In fan-made ''[[Free Space 2]]'' campaign ''Transcend'', the [[Big Bad]] is a being known only as "the Transcendant", who distorts the laws of reality itself just by being there, and unconsciously evokes human souls to play out particular roles. He is eventually revealed to be an example of this: {{spoiler|The Transcendant [[Was Once a Man|was originally human]] and somehow expelled from the physical universe, growing into an [[Eldritch Abomination]] and having his mind shattered in the process. His attempt to return home very nearly ''breaks the universe'' in the process, and completely by accident - all you hear from him directly is his static-broken voice over your radio begging for help... and thanking you when you finally kill him.}}
== [[Western Animation]] ==
* Season two of ''[[The Owl House]]'' hints that {{spoiler|the Collector is this. The Collector is an unknown being that once captured the Owlbeast which now inhabits Eda and Lilith's body, and they later became trapped under the Boiling Isles. They are all-knowing enough to offer a Draining Spell to Emperor Belos as part of a deal to free them, while giggling about how many Grimwalkers he's killed and the games that he wants to play once free. In King's visions in "Clouds on the Tides", however, the Collector sounds like a petulant child, the way King used to be when he thought he was the King of Demons}}.
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