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"From the beginning, no one has ever stood in Heaven. Not you, nor me, nor God Himself. But soon, that unbearable vacancy on the throne in the sky will be filled. From now on... I will stand in Heaven!"
"Oh, dammit — I think I'm becoming a god..."
When a character gains superhuman abilities thanks to Green Rocks, nuclear power, or being Touched By Vorlons, he often gains delusions (or, in some cases, perfectly accurate assessments) of godhood at the same time. It then becomes almost inevitable that he will give an overblown speech emphasizing just how far beyond ordinary humanity he has evolved, and how lowly they are compared to him. If their transformations leaves them less than sane, cue the villain becoming Drunk On The Dark Side on tearing up the stage. This usually happens about ninety seconds before the heroes figure out how to kill him/ seal him away/drain his powers/ short circuit his powers. Any non-evil Energy Beings will usually use this as an excuse to avoid helping the heroes and be Neglectful Precursors.
There is an alternate form of this trope, in which the protogod character gives a speech that is insightful, cryptic, or both, expressing his discovery of his benevolent and distant new place in the order of things. He then vanishes entirely from human ken, never to be seen again.
Sometimes the character in question doesn't have hyper-advanced superpowers and abilities (or, if they do, they're usually quite minor), and doesn't Ascend To A Higher Plane Of Existence; s/he's just so evil and / or hubristic, and most of the time so utterly mad, that they genuinely believe themselves to be a God. This character usually collects together a harem of easily-deluded followers to act as worshippers, and takes great pleasure in forcing people to acknowledge their divinity by any means necessary. This often serves as the villain's Kick The Dog moment, and often serves to indicate the moment when it becomes clear that they're really a major adversary (and have also flipped out waaay beyond the point of no return). If the character is a hero, however, this kind more often played for humour, to show that they've become a bit too Drunk With Power and, upon this declaration being heard, are all but announcing that their inevitable downfall is imminent.
The character may declare that he has transcended morality as well, and is Above Good And Evil, but the tropes do not have to coincide.
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 does not always result in a God Mode Sue.
Examples:
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Anime and Manga
- One of the many themes, and arguably the point of, AKIRA
- Done by multiple characters in Neon Genesis Evangelion.
- Suzumiya Haruhi features an interesting twist on this: The God character doesn't actually know that she's God. It's believed to be vitally necessary that she be Locked Out Of The Loop, because if she ever does learn the truth she may make the intuitive leap to A God Am I and wipe out the universe out of sheer boredom... which, knowing what we know about this character, seems like a very real possibility, as she nearly manages it a couple of times without conscious thought.
- The trope gets further twisted when more theories about it arise. For example Mikuru does not think Haruhi is God, nor did she create the world in it's current state. Figuring out what Haruhi is was not yet successful. Cue the fan theories.
- In Transformers Headmasters, Galvatron hatches a scheme to use the Earth as raw material to become a being akin to his creator, Unicron. When Punch, the Autobot spy learned of this plot, he uttered the word, "He's gone mad!" As if ALL of Galvatron's actions since the third season of the Generation 1 cartoon didn't clue us in already.
- A noticeable aversion: The main character of the anime Kamichu actually does become a god, for no particular reason, just before the series begins. She continues, however, to act like a confused, shy, somewhat overwhelmed middle-school girl, and her deific status is treated more or less like a part-time job. This is not so much a usual instance of A God Am I but more of an expression of the Shinto belief that all things and beings are tied to their gods.
- Scrapped Princess also twists this trope in at the end.
- Largo, of Bubblegum Crisis, not only considered himself a god, but developed a messiah complex for his Boomer "brethren" to boot.
- Sasami of Tenchi Muyo! knows for most of her life before revealing to the main characters (and the audience) that she actually died and is only alive by having fused with Tsunami, one of the three Goddesses that created the universe. Later on, it is revealed that the main character Tenchi, whose powers were beyond explanation, is actually the avatar for a being much greater than the Goddesses.
- In Gundam SEED, Rau Le Creuset, tortured by the intense pain due to the short telomeres he received from being cloned, thus accelerating his aging process, went insane, although no one noticed this until late in the series, where he reveals that humans are capable of nothing but destroying themselves, and that he, as God, is the only one who deserves to pass judgment on humanity, and attempted to escalate the war between Naturals and Coordinators by enticing them into committing genocides in an effort to wipe out humanity. Heck, even his mobile suit was called "Providence" (as in, "divine providence").
- Ironically, in Gundam SEED Destiny, the sequel to Gundam SEED, a friend to Rau Le Creuset, former genetics specialist and current PLANT chairman Gilbert Dullindal, believes just the opposite of Rau, that humanity is worth saving, and that he, as God, is the only one who can do it. This results in the Destiny Plan, which was an attempt to build society upon genetic determinism, a plan which was built upon a lot of corpses to manipulate events for him to nearly achieve his utopia.
- Given his motivations and reasoning, Rau is more of a Dark Messiah than a guy with a god complex.
- In Death Note, Yagami Light believes himself a god who brings justice to the world by killing criminals (any thoughts concerning this are usually accompanied by Glowing Eyes Of Doom). Eventually, people also start worshipping him as one too.
- It's worthy of noting that he proclaimed this in the first episode. It's like an Action Prologue.
- Katsura-sensei of Hayate The Combat Butler makes a shout out
 ◊ to Light's trademark glowing eyes and "I will be god of a new world" line during her scheme to shame a rival teacher into leaving.
- Lelouch Lamperouge in Code Geass, otherwise quite similar to Light, explicitly doesn't associate himself with God. Instead, in the final episodes of the first season, he describes himself as someone rather more akin to the Devil.
- One of the trailers for the series release(in English, at least) even makes reference to this, using the line: "If you could change the world, would you be a god or a demon?"
- Lelouch's brother Schneizel develops a sudden God complex himself in episode 23 of R2, and ends up nearly killing Cornelia because of it. He intends to use Damocles' arsenal of FLEIJA nukes to rule the world by forced peace. Lelouch foils his plan and Geasses him to serve Zero.
- In Digimon Adventure 02, Ichijouji Ken (aka the Digimon Kaiser) has quite the streak of More Than Mind Control-induced sociopathy. Considering himself superior to everyone else because of his genius, he goes so far as to declare himself the only individual worthy of entering the Digital World. Oh, and controlling it along with the actual Digimon, using Dark Rings. Of course, he pays for this. Big time.
- In Bleach, Aizen appears to have somewhat of a God complex after he is revealed as the Big Bad. He rises up to the skies as he states "I will stand in Heaven," a feat which he claims no one, not even God, has ever achieved.
- Father, the main villan of the manga Fullmetal Alchemist believes that humans are mere insects that are to be used as pawns in his plan. Of course he's not human himself, being the original homunculus that all other homunculi comes from. His contempt shows when Ed goes to Xerxes, and discovers a transmutation circle that shows the name of God upside down.
- Cars, the villain of the second part of Jojos Bizarre Adventure, becomes "the perfect lifeform" just before the final battle. When you have absolutely no weaknesses and can feed on any living thing, claiming godhood is not that much of a stretch.
- GaoGaiGar, in its OVA, introduced Palparepa, a villain who believed that the "law of the material world" was that the victor was God and the loser was the devil. He always saw himself as the god and GaoGaiGar as the demon, and the color schemes (GaoGaiGar was always black, Palparepa is a medical white) didn't help, giving him a distinct A God Am I variety of confidence in battle as well. After he's finally defeated, he goes out muttering "so this is the law of the material world...", seemingly acknowledging Guy as a god, albeit one of destruction (and subsequently, as the OVA strives to remind us, rebirth).
- Shapiro Keats from Dancougar is always under the ambition that he will be a God. Which leads him to dump his lover Sara, and join the Muge Empire, rising up the ranks as a top-class strategist. But then, his plans eventually come crashing down, but he still held his delusions that he will be a God.
- Which doesn't stop him from saving the Cyber Beast Force in "Blazing Epilogue" with his anger against the aliens who betrayed him. Dancougar is a machine fed by fury, and he had lots of it. All that frustration had to go somewhere.
- That's if you don't assign the Blazing Epilogue OAV to Canon Discontinuity for ignoring most of the established characterizations and relationships from the original series. And the fact that Shapiro is supposed to be dead....
- Masami Eiri from Serial Experiments Lain: he commits suicide so he can enter the Wired and become its God, but he states that he's only able to be a god because he has followers, the hacker group known as the Knights of the Eastern Calculus. Eiri's ultimate goal is to connect all of humankind subconsciously through the Wired. That's what he created Lain to accomplish.
- He’s proven wrong quite dramatically at the end, where he actually does declare himself an Omnipotent God before being interrupted by Lain. In a single Hannibal Lecture she hints at the existence of a real God, mocks Eiri for thinking himself anything more than a puny human and destroys him effortlessly when he tries to attack her in a rage. A God I'm Not...
- He's declaring this to a girl who is omnipotent, omniscient and omnipresent. And probably immortal. Oh the irony...
- Played straight and slightly subverted in One Piece. The villain of the Skypeia arc, Eneru, declares himself God. This is subverted in that, according to Gan Fall, the prior God of Skypeia, "God" is merely the title for the Skypeian leader. However, Eneru believes himself a true god by virtue of his lightning-based Devil Fruit abilities and power to read others' conscious thoughts.
- And the fact that the word for God (Kami) is similar to the word for Thunder (Kaminari) in Japanese. A fact he puns on by introducing himself with "I am Kami!"
- Subverted gloriously in Magic Knight Rayearth: The Pillar of Cephiro literally has limitless power, as it is her will which gives shape to the entire world. When Hikaru achieves this state, in both anime and manga, she relinquishes it immediately and gives it willingly to the inhabitants of Cephiro, so they, rather than a single person, are responsible for their own world.
- In Macross Frontier, the ultimate goal of the Big Bad is to unite the entire galaxy in a galaxy-spanning collective consciousness (whether it wants to or not) with the Big Bad personally at the very top.
- Miyo Takano, the Big Bad of Higurashi No Naku Koro Ni. Their goal is stated at the end of Minagoroshi-hen to be "to become a God"; exactly what they mean is explored through their backstory in the beginning of Matsuribayashi-hen.
Big Bad: "Without a curse, there is no God. Because of the curse, there is fear. Because of fear, there is worship. Now is the time when God advents! I have become Oyashiro-sama!"
- Zanaffar in episode 13 of Slayers Revolution: "Everything, from gods to demons, I was created to surpass them all! ... And if my numbers keep growing, ... I will be able to consume even the gods!"
- In Naruto, Pain, the leader of Akatsuki thinks that his suffering has made him enlightened and his power made him God. It's not entirely unjustified.
- It is highly implied that the Sage of the Six Paths, otherwise known as the creator of ninjutsu itself, is this. It is unknown whether the sage played the trope as straight as his descendant Pain does, but if the rumors were true and he single-handedly created the/a goddamn MOON it is very justified.
- Also, "god" is used in a more Shinto/Buddhist meaning than most examples on this list (even other ones from Japan): he thinks that he's incredibly strong (true) and enlightened (which he's definitely not), but isn't so deluded as to think he's omnipotent or omniscient.
- He does however, give moral absolutes, only to illustrate that the ninja world are simply unable to uphold them and is only concerned with his way of thinking being that he's convinced he's the only enlightened being in the world, hence his plan to use the power of the tailed beasts to use a jutsu powerful enough to wipe out a country in an instant and guide the world to peace through that pain. Seems to me this example is played just as straight as the several Japanese examples. Even more so.
- Happens (arguably) to two characters in Rah Xephon. The first (and arguable) one is after Ayato fully awakens. The second is when Bahbem watches the tuning of the world. In Ayato's case, as he just merged with the Rah Xephon and RETUNED THE WORLD, this isn't an unjustifiable assumption.
- Creed from Black Cat does this after he 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 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.
- Claire Stanfield from Baccano!. Of course, he doesn't use powers to convince himself that he's God — he just needs Solipism.
- Mirai Nikki has 12 already mentally unstable individuals empowered with precognitive diaries and 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.
- The exact opposite also occurs: Dragonball features our green Namekian friend Kami. As you all know by now, that's Japanese for God. Though he may be called a God, he has higher-ups in heaven and is infinitely weaker than all bad guys in Dragonball Z.
- The last few episodes of Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann have Simon doing this ocassionally, most notably the beginning of the pentultimate episode. It takes some Macross Missle Madness to snap him back. The Anti-Spiral does this in a more blatant version.
- He was piloting THE MOON, armed with giant drills and sunglasses. And those missiles were PLANETS. And his defenses were perfect, it was only that it was battling an enemy who could mess up with probability and make things that could not happen happen. And he won.
- Rex Godwin in Yu-Gi-Oh! 5D's. Explaining this is too ridiculous and painful, so I'm not going to.
Comic Books
- Explored in Solar Man Of The Atom.
- This is common in Super Hero comics, as With Great Power Comes Great Insanity. Perhaps the single best-known example is Jean Grey of the X-Men, who, as Dark Phoenix, goes to star-eating levels before committing suicide. (Though later retcons serve to confuse the issue.) Dr. Doom is also a frequent offender.
- In one particularly literal case, Dr. Doom tried to claim Thor's hammer to gain his power.
- In Marvel: Ultimate Alliance, Doom's plan is to Overrun Asgard with an army of super-soldiers, then defeat and steal the power from Odin himself. And it initially works.
- This troper would go as far as claim Doom the unsurpassed master and monarch of this trope. "I want that power. By right, it is mine. For ultimate power is the ultimate destiny of Doom!" And, in fact, Victor von Doom has come within a fraction of a hair's width of securing Real Ultimate Power (tm) several times in the past - to the extent of successfully stealing not only the Power Cosmic of Galactus but also the Beyonder's apparently omnipotent abilities in the course of the Secret Wars story arc. Naturally, he is beaten in the end once again, but still...
- Hopping up on Chaos energy tends to do this with Echidnas in Archie Comics' Sonic The Hedgehog series; both Enerjak and his descendant Knuckles have attempted to warp reality to their own design after being supercharged by the Master Emerald.
- The Batman villain Max Zeus is one of the 'so mad he thinks he's God' versions; although he doesn't possess any superpowers himself, he's managed to delude himself into believing that he is Zeus, All-Powerful Lord of Olympus. His last name doesn't help matters. Nor does his lightning cannon.
- Zeus makes an appearance in the animated series but has a happy ending, of sorts. After being defeated by Batman (who he insists is Hades, since no mere mortal could best a god), he gets sent to Arkham. When he sees his cellmates "Hermes" (the Joker), "Janus" (Two-Face), and "Demeter" (Poison Ivy), he happily concludes he's reached Olympus at last.
- In Powers, 'The Sellouts' storyline revolves around a Captain Ersatz of Superman who has lost his mind and believes himself to be a God. The results aren't pretty.
- The 70s Marvel character Adam Warlock encounters a mad future version of himself called the Magus who not only believes he's a god, but has his own vastly powerful church of fanatical followers sweeping across the galaxy in a Crusade. It doesn't help clear up matters when Warlock is crucified, dies and comes back to life.
- Winnowill from ElfQuest has some very distinct ideas about The World How It Should Be - including her own unquestioned dominion over earth and space, and the non-existence of the main cast. Her Love Martyr Rayek suffers from the same malady, to a somewhat lesser extent (not that much lesser, though).
- In The Books of Magic, Timothy Hunter may become this in the future, and we catch glimpses of it. The first story arc of the series involves various magicians in The DCU trying to decide what to do about this.
- Element Lad in the Legion Of Super Heroes storyline "Legion Lost." After getting lost through a time/space rift he transmutes himself into living mineral to survive, becoming immortal, and starts altering life on developing worlds to pass time, eventually creating whole civilizations of Scary Dogmatic Aliens. By the time his time-displaced friends find him again billions of years later, his powers have grown a thousandfold; he's lost all sense of morality and murders one of his former comrades on a whim.
- In the Incredible Hulk "Planet Hulk" storyline, The Red King claims to be God in the flesh while fighting the Hulk in a mecha suit, yes it was a mecha...then the Hulk got really mad and strongly begged to differ.
- During the end of Peter David's run on Marvel's Captain Marvel, Genis, the then-Captain, became Cosmically Aware and empowered. He was driven mad by being suddenly conscious of every event and being that existed throughout the universe at once, then subsequently went about erasing all of reality within a meager few pages. Reality gets better later, though.
- Ironically subverted during "The Korvac Saga" in The Avengers. Korvac, a supervillain, accidentally gains cosmic powers and knowledge... and, realizing humanity is at the mercy of uncaring cosmic beings, decides to help free the universe from them. Unfortunately, he is tracked down by The Avengers (who had no idea what had happened to him) and is exposed, ruining his plans. In the end, he commits suicide out of despair.
- It should be noted that this story has been retconned later to make it seem that Korvac was still villainous and that the Avengers were right in opposing him, but anybody who reads the original version can clearly tell that wasn't the case.
- Even though the New Gods aren't really gods per se, rather being highly advanced aliens, the New God Darkseid proclaims to be a dark God in the flesh. He is the unquestioned ruler of his planet, has highly advanced powers and the only opponent who can stop him even temporarily is Superman. In the animated series, when Supes manages to beat Darkseid in battle, his followers pick him up and help him.
"I am many things, Kal-El. But here, I am God."
- 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.
- Watchmen's Dr. Manhattan fits this to a tee. "In my opinion [the existence of life] is a highly overrated phenomenon" and "I am disappointed, Veidt...this world's smartest man means no more to me than does its smartest termite" jump to mind.
- Thunderbolts #120: Norman Osborn loses his shit, resulting in the following exchange.
Swordsman: "You can't treat me like this! I'm a royally screwed up baron!"
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 a pawn of the "real" gods of the setting, the Celestial Host.
Skull: "You wouldn't even eat if I didn't remind you to. Fall down. You wouldn't bathe if I didn't get sick of your stink and make you. I'm God."
Captain America: "Then I'm Nietzche."
Film
- Neatly subverted in Batman Forever as The Riddler makes a deep dark speech involving the titular line, finished with a deep, echoing invocation of "I", then asks, "Was that over the top? I can never tell..."
- Jafar from Aladdin does a textbook example of the rundown of this trope, wishing to become an all-powerful genie. In his following exultations, he mentions how the universe is now his to control, even going so far as to create a small solar system between his hands just for the hell of it. This is until Aladdin reminds him what the other half of "phenomenal cosmic power" is... "itty bitty living space".
- Skeletor has one of these speeches at the climax of the Masters of the Universe live-action movie, right down to the line "I am a god!"
- The Lawnmower Man (a sad instance of Adaptation Decay in that it has nothing but the title in common with the Stephen King short story, but the movie is more interesting anyway), where Jobe declares his intention to be the "Cyberchrist." His defining line (referring to Cyberspace): "I am God here!"
- Bill Murray's character in Groundhog Day. After reliving the same day over and over again, and attempting suicide in a vast number of different ways, eventually concludes that he's god, then hastily adds, "Not the God. Just a god."
- Watchmen. In the film adaptation Ozymandias makes it appear that Dr. Manhattan has set himself up as a wrathful God, punishing humanity for contemplating nuclear war by destroying several major cities. As for himself, Dr. Manhattan rejects the idea that he's a god. He states that he doesn't know if there is a God, and if there is, he's nothing like Him. In the end, however, he leaves Earth and contemplates creating new life.
- Street Fighter - see above. Raul Julia's fantastic ham makes the movie.
- Sutter Cane, the reality-rewriting author from In The Mouth Of Madness claims to have become god sometime after completing his latest work, and proves it by turning the world blue.
- Bruce Almighty features a mortal (that's Bruce!) who is granted divine powers for a week. Naturally, mistakes were made and chaos ensues.
- Xerxes fits the bill in 300.
Literature
Live Action TV
- Gary Mitchell in Star Trek The Original Series, "Where No Man Has Gone Before".
- Star Trek The Next Generation - in the episode "Hide and Q" Q gives such powers to Riker.
- Jason Ironheart in the Babylon 5 episode "Mind War". Unlike most of this trope, he conducts himself with responsibility, humility, and some amount of restraint (he kills someone while escaping, arguably to save more lives).
- Also from Babylon 5: Emperor Cartaggia, who was convinced (if he needed any convincing) by the Shadows that he was a god and Centauri Prime should be sacrificed to him.
- An episode of 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.
- Cordelia's ascension in Angel.
- The Goa'uld of Stargate SG 1, fit this trope not only perfectly, but are also really extreme cases. Although they are just highly advanced aliens they do not only pose as god in front of their primitive slaves, they also think they are gods, likely due to thousands of years playing that role and their natural megalomania. Even when confronted with even more advanced cultures or people who know they are not gods, they still babble about how they are immortal, all-knowing gods. Could border on a deconstruction, as this quite frequently leads to their doom.
- Which is precisely why Baal managed to outlive his fellow Goa'uld; he didn't believe his own propaganda.
- Anubis may be an exception too. He certainly acts out the melodramatic Large Ham speeches about his power, but he never directly adressed himself as a god, despite being more advanced, immortal and the most evil Goa'uld.
- And as a partially ascended being he really has, of all the Goa'uld, the best case for calling himself one.
- The Ori also fit into this trope quite nicely, though with all the power and knowledge they possess they don't just claim to be gods, the pretty much are gods. Especially Adria.
- An episode of The Outer Limits, "The Sixth Finger," combines both versions. An illiterate miner is put through a process that quickly evolves him, resulting in increased intelligence and psychokinetic power, which he unleashes on the pathetic lesser beings around him; but then he evolves even further and rises above such petty emotions, realizing the true nobility of existence.
- A variant on this occurs in I Claudius, (and in real life) when Caligula declares himself to be a god; however, in Caligula's case there were no Green Rocks or Vorlons - his declaration is caused pretty much solely by the fact that 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?"
- A number of characters on Heroes, most emphatically Adam Monroe. Meanwhile Peter Petrelli, who has a heck of 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 Maury Parkman's illusion of Linderman accurately portrays the actual character's personality, then we can infer that 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.
- On the new series of Doctor Who, the Dalek Emperor had a pretty high opinion of itself. So much so that insulting it would trigger the now-famous line, "THOSE WORDS ARE BLASPHEMY!" and a chorus of "Do not blaspheme! Do not blaspheme!" from his subordinate Daleks.
- 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.
- Played with in the original series serial "The Armageddon Factor", when the Doctor, possessing the full power of the Key To Time, starts making an A God Am I speech, much to Romana's alarm. He's just making a point about how dangerous the power is, in anyone's hands.
- The 1982 story 'Four to Doomsday' focuses an alien who not only believes himself to be a God but, in fact, destroyed his home planet in an attempt to travel back in time to the creation of the universe to see how he had created it.
- In an episode of Law and Order: SVU, a religious cult leader is on the run with one of the children from his cult, a 12-year-old girl who is pregnant with his baby. Olivia has her gun on him, and the girl has a gun on Olivia, when the leader starts telling the girl that the police want to destroy him because "They know that I am greater than man, I am greater than God!" The girl promptly shoots him, and sobs to Olivia that she did it because "He said he was greater than God... but nobody is."
- 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 literally become a God during a battle with a vengeful Amazon that had also consumed ambrosia solely 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. 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.
- In the Season 1 finale of Dollhouse Alpha proclaims that he has "ascended" because he contains multiple personalities and gives this "gift" to Echo who rejects it.
- Parodied somewhat in Professional Wrestling when John Bradshaw Layfield would occasionally taunt his opponents that he's a "Wrestling God" (even if he's a whiny cowardly Heel).
- Also played straight in Professional Wrestling when Vince McMahon briefly declared himself a god in 2006.
Music
- In the Queen song "The Seven Seas of Rhye" [1], the lyrics are essentially Freddie Mercury stating this.
Myth And Legend
- Several mortal characters in Greek mythology became gods or otherwise immortal, including Apollo's son Asclepius, who became the god of healing and medicine; Ino, who raised Dionysius for Zeus and became a minor goddess of the sea, who helped Odysseus return home; the Diomedes who appeared in The Iliad, raised to godhood by Athena; and most famously Hercules, AKA Herakles, who in return for saving the gods of Olympus from the Giants and for his many heroic deeds, became a god after his death.
Tabletop Games
- The accurate assessment version of the trope appears in 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.
- The Emperor for Warhammer 40000 may or may not have become a god.
- He was also heavily insinuated to be, well, every major magical / metaphysical person in the history of time. (Jesus, Merlin, etc.) They were intentionally using their mystical (psychic) powers to reincarnate themselves into one big angry man — The Emperor.
- In addition, the way the Warp (alternate dimension where psychic powers draw from) works, it's highly possible that having a few QUADRILLION people worship him as a god has made him into a literal god - the Eldar created the god(dess) of Lust, Slaanesh, by doing something similar.
- If so, he's a god with nearly no brain activity- his primary contribution to the running of the Imperium consisting of acting as a psychic lighthouse with a tube up it's arse. He might become a god if someone were ever to pull the plug, allowing him to re-incarnate, but given that would make the setting less Grimdark, that's unlikely to happen.
- It is heavily implied that his psychically amplified mind is more or less stuck in the warp, tethered to him, unable to resurrect — but that it's also the only thing keeping the Warp from overrunning the Universe and enslaving everyone — and, true to the GRIMDARK setting, it was recently discovered (in the latest rulebook/update to the storyline) that his life support system is breaking down.
- In certain Dungeons and Dragons settings, such as the Forgotten Realms, particularly powerful P Cs can become gods if they perform sufficiently heroic deeds.
- In the fourth edition of the game, this is one of the possible epic destinies awaiting characters that reach 30th level.
- Cyric, from Forgotten Realms, goes this one step further. After becoming a deity, he creates a book, called the Cyrinishad, which will make anyone who reads it believe that Cyric is the most important being in the universe. He then reads it himself. He now believes that he is the most important being in the universe, and (for example) that if someone thwarts his plans, he is simply letting them do so.
- Even back in the old days of the boxed sets, high-level characters had the option of going on a quest for and potentially achieving 'Immortality' — godhood in all but name. Many (if perhaps not all) Immortals of the Known World (Mystara) were implied to have gained their status in precisely this fashion.
- Exalted: the Great Curse is instant A God Am I inspiration for most Celestials. Sidereals are the most prone to the pride overload, as their Curse is Hubris (others get possessed by their Virtues occasionally). Of course, this does mostly fall under "accurate self-assessment": most Exalts could take down a minor god fairly easily, and a major one if they team up or get their Essence up high enough.
- In Scion a player character ascends to godhood when they reach Legend 9
Video Games
- What a fool you are. I'm a god! How can you kill a god?! What a grand and intoxicating innocence!
- Said entity was not entirely incorrect in his assessment of being a god, going by the other examples we have...
- Final Fantasy VII's Sephiroth, who wished to destroy the Planet and remake it in his own image as a new God.
- Kefka from Final Fantasy VI also fell prey to this line of thinking after absorbing the power of the Goddess Statues and bringing about the World of Ruin. Unlike Sephiroth however, Kefka, being a psychopathic Nietzsche Wannabe, wasn't interested in remaking anything, and wanted only to destroy everything, creating "a monument to non-existence."
- Considering that the Statues were (demi)gods of Magic, and that by absorbing their powers, Kefka became the source of all Magic, his claims might not be so unfounded.
- Kane, from the Command & Conquer series, actually calls himself "The Messiah" (not the trope) and the Brotherhood of NOD "the chosen people." Then, again, Kane has been alive and unaged for nearly a century now, and has successfully deflected shots from an orbital laser cannon with his face several times, so why not? Not even the Sufficiently Advanced Aliens know what he is.
- This is even lampshaded in the GDI ending to Tiberium Sun.
McNeil: You aren't God, Kane!
Kane: No...but I am a close second.
- And stated way earlier by his right-hand man, Seth:
Seth: I'm Seth. Just Seth. From God, to Kane, to Seth. I am his right hand and I have a task for you.
- And then Kane shot him.
- A full frontal assault to your face!
- Master Albert of Mega Man ZX Advent deludes himself into thinking that he's god and attempts a Xanatos Gambit spanning centuries in order to confirm it.
- And he even tries to re-enforce the idea right before the final boss battle.
Albert: I don't THINK I'm a god... I AM a God!
- But to be fair, as insane the man was, he was a Magnificent Bastard with an obvious background in genetics, a mechanical genius, and when he gets Ouroboros up and running, very, very powerful. It's no surprise that he thinks of himself as a deity who will reset the world. And it took his own great-great-great grand-daughter (Ashe) or his backup-body (Grey), either with Albert's own Biometal, to take him down. Of anyone on this list, Albert may be one of the most deserving of such a title.
- Essentially Bowser's plan in Super Mario Galaxy; after stealing all of the stars from Rosalina's ship, he attempts to use them to create his own galaxy to rule over.
- Don't forget that he plans to make it into a base and proceed to conquer the entire universe.
- An example of the latter (benevolent) god transformation comes in the Nightfall campaign of the MMORPG Guild Wars when the leader of the Sunspears, Kormir, ascends to godhood.
- In Star Craft, the Zerg Overmind seeks to invade the Protoss homeworld and assimilate the Protoss into the Zerg Swarm: "Thenceforth shall we be the greatest of creation's children. We shall be... perfect."
- There's also the fact that he wakes the player cerebrate with a magnificently biblical: "Awaken my child, and embrace the glory that is your birthright. Know that I am the Overmind; the eternal will of the Swarm, and that you have been created to serve me." For being a Hive Mind unable of god complexes, he does it pretty well.
- That's because the Overmind is NOT a hivemind. A hivemind is a decentralised intelligence, such as ants coordinating to find food. The Overmind, on the other hand, is a centralised intelligence (as the name obviously implies). Being a nigh-omnipotent intelligent entity that controls the Swarm, the Overmind IS virtually the God of the Zerg.
- Turns out to be the ultimate plan of the leader of Team Galaxy in Pokemon Diamond and Pearl.
- Inuart proclaims this in Drakengard shortly before he explodes along with the rest of the sky-fortress. Either that, or he really did succeed.
- Kratos from God Of War, who actually becomes a god at the end of the first game.
- In Perfect Dark Zero, after defeating the Big Bad, he decides to escape by ascending into godhood. Why he didn't do that before you beat up on him, nobody knows.
- The Gravemind of Halo apparently actually believes it is a divine entity and the Flood are the pinnacle of all existence - going so far as to accuse anyone fighting against it as being a "sinner" for standing in its way.
- Before the High Prophet of Truth's death by the Arbiter (who, ironically, was picked by the former), one of his last sentences was ""My feet tread the path; I shall become a god!", which Gravemind retorts, "You will be food - nothing more!".
- Selin Fireheart, a minor boss in World Of Warcraft's current final 5-man dungeon, the Magister's Terrace, screams, "Yes! I am a GOD!", after draining one of the green crystals around his section of the area. (Needless to say, he is nothing close, and most advanced groups just kick his ass right through the resulting attacks.)
- Spoofed in Disgaea Hour Of Darkness, wherein Vulcanus's plans to become God are met with bored remarks along the lines of, "That's it?" and "See? I told you it'd be selfish and unoriginal."
- In The World Ends With You, Joshua is Shibuya's Composer and not only runs The Game, but could erase the entire city if he so chose.
- He has been it for a long time though, and he doesn't act overly egoistic about it (no more than normal, really.). And he's not deluded about godhood- he is pretty much a god (of Shibuya's dead at least), and to reiterate, has been one for who knows how long but still probably pretty long.
- In The Legend Of Zelda: Twilight Princess, Ganon is not a god. However, he convinces Zant that he is by providing Zant with the power to usurp the throne of the Twilight realm, then invade Hyrule.
- In the series as a whole, Ganondorf/Ganon isn't quite a god, but seeing as he wields part of the Triforce, he comes as close to it as possible in the setting (while Link and Zelda hold the other two parts, they don't seem to have the same power over them), being effectively immortal.
- Given that the setting includes three legitimate goddesses who created the Triforce to begin with, I don't think possessing a single piece really qualifies as "as close to it as possible"....
- Considering that nobody can possess the full Triforce for very long, it's as close as a mortal can get without, say, wishing for godhood on the Triforce.
- The Triforce used to be in one piece. Back in Link to the Past, Ganon had all of it, granting him absolute power over the Golden Realm (corrupted into the Dark World), but he was sealed in his own domain. It took him a long time to gather enough strength to send a fraction of his power (the wizard Agahnim) out of the Dark World and begin his plan to conquer Hyrule.
- Occurs twice in the Devil May Cry universe- first with Arkham in 3, whose megalomania was so great that even after being thoroughly trounced by Dante and Vergil united against him and being crippled and unable to stand after falling at least forty feet onto a stone floor, he still denied that anyone could stop him in his quest for Godhood. Only the reality of his daughter's pistol about to blow his brains out destroyed his illusions of invincibility.
- The second candidate, Sanctus of the Order of the Sword didn't necessarily consider himself God per se, but sought to create an artificial God and unify with it to reign over a new utopia purged of chaos.
- Gehn from the game Riven is a good example of the third variant of this trope. Though Gehn himself does not specifically say this, it is implied. Plus, the whole temple-on-the-first-island-in-the-game is a pretty big tipoff...
- There's also Esher from Myst V: End of Ages. While he doesn't quite believe that he is a god, he does believe that he's the rightful owner of a certain gold tablet that controls another species of sentient beings. And in one bad ending, he gains control of the MacGuffin and even states that he now has control over these beings and their power in a god-like manner. He also rants that he's the Grower and that "D'ni needed him!" in the good ending, so the delusions of God-hood are definitely there.
- Pul Wat Aa in the Tower Defense game Immortal Defense.
- SHODAN of System Shock fame referred to herself that way (see Quotes page). And has sort of recognition for her efforts:
Prefontaine: ...What's clear is that SHODAN shouldn't be allowed to play God. She's far too good at it.
- Durandal, the resident Magnificent Bastard AI from Marathon frequently claims that "Escape will make me God," and has many a Xanatos Roulette in place to escape from the humans, and later the entire physical universe, just in time to watch it collapse 15 billion years later, no doubt. He (probably) failed. But he understood the entire universe before it ceased to exist. Oh, and he even comes back to life for seemingly no reason at least once in the series (though there are a couple other instances that would probably count as well). Hey, What Do You Mean Its Not Symbolic? ... and yes, that would seem to make Tycho the devil.
- While we are at it, pick a media with a smart AI in it. Seems that Ai is such a Crapshoot that making one automatically gives it a god complex.
- Deus Ex plays with this trope and the aforementioned AI variant. Bob Page plans to become the Physical God of the entire world by merging his own mind with the AI Helios (who coincidentally is the Internet) and other assorted global communications networks, a Nanomachine Assembler and a nanomachine plague present in large amounts of the world's population, so that he becomes omniscient and omnipresent, with total control of the world. However, Helios wants no part in this, and the player may choose to merge JC (not initials) with Helios to become the benevolent dictator of the world. There's a small distinction, but the ending's tagline notes that JC has effectively become as a god anyways.
- Amelissan, in Baldurs Gate II: Throne Of Bhaal, is described as "welding" the collected essence of the dead Bhaalspawn to her own soul, granting vast power. Even after you defeat her, she refuses to believe it, and gets verbablly pwned for it.
Solar: You wield great power, and play with energies that make you immortal. That does not make you a god.
- The Player Character also applies to this trope, depending on how you played through the game.
- Both Summoner and its sequel apply. In the first, Joseph, the Summoner, must become Urath Reborn, and the second takes it a step further when Maya, named in the blurb as the Goddess Laharah, is revealed as Aosi, creation itself, far beyond any mere god.
- It appears in Resident Evil 5, Albert Wesker is falling to this line of thinking, if a certain trailer is of any indication...
- The right to become a god? That right is now mine!
- It gets better: Let me clarify something for you, Chris. I don't think of myself as a king. I am a GOD! And even kings bow to gods!
- In Psi-Ops: The Mindgate Conspiracy, the insane psychic agent Nicholas Wrightson styles himself as the "True God of the Ether." Even though his real and decidedly emaciated body is hooked up to a life support machine, his mind roams freely across the world, taking over different bodies according to his needs. This, coupled with his ability to tame Creatures from Beyond was pretty much all the evidence he needed. Interestingly enough, after you defeat him, he appears to Ascend To A Higher Plane Of Existence.
- About halfway through Phantom Dust, Edgar, the main character's best friend, finds out that he is actually the last person left on Earth and all other life he sees was actually created by him after he learned to control the mysterious dust that he linked with the disappearance of life. Edgar is unable to accecpt this truth and sets out to destroy his creations since he sees them as lies and visions. However, at the end of the game He finds out that HE'S NOT EVEN THE ORIGINAL Edgar. Apparently, the original created this duplicate to continue the recreation of Earth just before his death. Sadly, the double's personality was twisted.
- In the climax of Viewtiful Joe, Captain Blue reveals himself to be "The Omnipotent" King Blue, creator of Movie Land. ('cause he's the director, of course)
- Skies Of Arcadia leads up to one of these with Galcian. By harnessing the Rains of Destruction and using the Moons as a continent-killing weapon, he actually does subjugate the "gods" of Arcadia - most of the in-game cultures worship the things.
- During the spirit journey in the latter half of Terranigma, Ark encounters a number of characters that look like other important characters he's met in the game, some with slightly altered names (Royd becomes Roy, Mei becomes Meila, etc. etc.). You are asked to go into a ruin filled with monsters to check on someone who was left there a year earlier for a ritual that could cause them to become a god. When you get there, it turns out it worked, and the equivalent of Elle has, in fact, attained nigh-godly powers, immediately giving the other warriors who came to check a Hannibal Lecture about why this ritual even exists. After utterly destroying them, she beckons the player to choose one of the cups of god water near her. The player does, and then the spirit journey ends.
- Gill from Street Fighter III is an SNK Boss whose repertoire of voice clips include "I am your god."
- Rugal and Igniz are picture perfect examples of this trope (Igniz provided one of the above quotes). Rugal dares you to repeat to him that you won't attack a god again in 98, and Igniz has a gigantic god complex in 2001. When he gets beaten, Lovable Igniz go esnuts and decides to forgoe the god thing, insead deciding to be a demon instead. Hell, his winquote says it all
- Is it a coincidence that in the Japanese edition of Capcom vs SNK 2, Rugal's uber form is called GOD Rugal?
- Hector from Dept. Heaven series is already a god-like being, sitting at the top of the celestial bureaucracy that is Asgard. However, unsatisfied with his power, he plans throughout the THREE games, manipulating events in those games to become the true creator. To that end, he commits various atrocities, some of which paint him as a complete monster.
- Lezard in Valkyrie Profile series spends most of his time hatching up an elaborate Xanatos Gambit to set himself up for this in the first game and succeeds in the second, complete with his own world to govern over. He's pretty damned megalomanical and egoistic even before his grand scheme succeeds, and by the time he actually succeeds in the second game, well...
- In Ni GHTS: Journey of Dreams, now that he actually has dialogue, Wizeman is revealed to have a case of the Evil/Hubris one. Given that he created an entire world and race of beings from nothing more than unpleasant thoughts and stolen dreams, he may have a point, though.
- Touhou has plenty enough virtual Gods, if not actual Gods, already, but Utsuho (AKA "Nuke-tan"), after having the powers of a God of the Sun implanted in her, decided to blow up and/or conquer the world with her newfound powers. Too bad for her half the cast also won the Superpower Lottery, and those same virtual Gods had other plans.
- In Fable 2, it's strongly implied that this is the—probably successful—plan of Theresa. She just needed you to get access to the Spire.
Web Comics
Web Original
- This will happen in Mitadake High if Kira can create a cult of Kira-worshippers. Which is creepy.
- Can also happen with the Shinigami Eyes character, since the game lampshades that there is no reason whatsoever for the character to have them, players often have it be a power they were born with that instilled this trope in them. Or they'll (far less commonly) be [[Tsukihime Mystic Eyes.]] Which is REALLY fitting given the game in question.
- If she manages to live long enough, Carmilla in the Whateley Universe may find herself becoming a pretty much divine entity, Eldritch Abomination style. She already has a cult worshiping her now, courtesy of her father Gothmog. So far it doesn't seem to have gone to her head, though some of her actions of late could be considered suspicious if one were so inclined.
Western Animation
- In the Justice League episode Tabula Rasa, after beating all the members of the League and gaining their powers, the antagonist android AMAZO decides there's no challenge left for him on Earth and simply leaves to travel the universe. He eventually returns to Earth in Justice League Unlimited and helps the League on several occasions.
- Amazo's godlike nature was also directly referenced by the other characters. Lex Luthor is openly dismissive of the idea, but Superman notes that if Amazo comes back, Luthor will be "doing a lot of praying".
- An episode of Jimmy Neutron had his Cloudcuckoolander friend Sheen get zapped with an evolved brain, giving him Psychic Powers and, of course, power madness. Naturally, it was only temporary.
Other
- In 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 Teridax was inspired by it and began formulating a Xanatos Roulette to do it himself on an even grander scale. And he succeeds, committing Grand Theft Me against a Physical God and banishing Mata Nui's spirit into space in a Soul Jar.
- A So Bad Its Horrible Chick Tract had one of these - an approximately 8-year old boy deciding he was a god after his mother explained to him the point of atheism - thus, he thought that if there is no god, he could become one. Straw Atheist? What else do you expect from Jack Chick?
- Thousand Shinji ends with Shinji, Asuka, Rei and Misato ascending to becoming the new Chaos gods, leading after a Time Skip into The Open Door.
Real Life
- As mentioned above, the Roman Emperor Caligula is a notable example of this trope occurring in real life.
- Also Diocletian.
- The big problem that the Romans had with this was Caligula's self-deification. The Roman idea of godhood was completely different than ours: they believed that people could become gods, but only if others freely chose to worship them. This would normally happen after death but in some cases a person could be a god even in life. Claudius, for instance, was worshipped in Britain long before he died (hence the title of Robert Graves's second book, Claudius the God). Caligula crossed the line by proclaiming himself a god and forcing others to worship him.
- It was much more common to deify previous emperors posthumously, although this was often done for ulterior motives. Octavian, later known as Augustus, deified his adoptive father Julius Caesar so he could claim to be the son of a god. (It's worth noting that Julius Caesar, the most cynical and worldly of men, honestly believed he was a descendant of the goddess Venus.) Tiberius in turn deified Augustus to introduce the charge of treason to Rome. Claudius deified Livia because he had promised to do so. Nero deified Claudius as a joke. And so on. Trajan, on the other hand, is said to have deified Nerva because he honestly thought his adoptive father deserved deification; since Nerva was the first of the Good Emperors, perhaps that was the case.
- The deification (or to use the Greek term, Apotheosis) of Claudius was mocked by the Roman philosopher Seneca in his playlet, Apolocyntosis Claudii — the “Pumpkinification of Claudius.” Sadly, the title (which wasn’t even Seneca’s own) is the funniest thing about it.
- The story of ancient British King Canute the Great futilely ordering the tide to turn back is sometimes told as an example of this trope, but most scholars agree that if it did occur, then it was most likely an inversion, with Canute expressly doing such a futile thing in order to demonstrate to his over-flattering courtiers that he explicitly wasn't a God, and that no mortal king was.
- And then there was Empedocles, who, literally and without a doubt, thought he was God. An active volcano disagreed. Strongly.
- The Imperial Regalia of Japan were considered by tradition the descendants of Shinto sun goddess Amaterasu, and thus divinity in human form. This served a major part in the prelude to World War II, when Japan invaded China and Korea, when Emperor Showa/Hirohito decided to expand his empire. Even kamikaze attacks were slightly inspired by this notion. This view occured until 1946, a year after Japan lost the war, Hirohito was forced to reject the claim that he was an arahitogami. However, a historians argue he didn't actually reject his claim by using a different to appease the Americans.
- Declaring themselves as gods has been very common to the rulers in ancient history. It handily brought religious and secular power together, and gave the ruler an absolute power, which was always welcome. The Egyptian pharaohs are probably the most famous example of the trend.
- This Troper. Now bow before me!
- More realistically, every world-building writer ever.
- Robespierre would like to have a word with you, and then will most likely introduce you to his barber.
- Be fair, that wasn't so much A God Am I as "My Beliefs Are God, So You Better Listen." Still, that's plenty crazy enough to make people nervous.
- Robespierre's hatchet man Joseph Fouché, the "Butcher of Lyons", went around France desecrating churches, killing priests, and generally saying "A God Ain'tYou" to the Catholic object of worship.
- French King Louis XIV, or as he preferred 'The Sun King'.
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