Basic Trope: God-like beings are encountered in a science fiction setting, and turn out to not be gods.
- Straight: God-King Tropelor rules Tropia, worshiped by the masses, but turns out to be from another planet using advanced technology.
- Exaggerated: Tropelor actually has god-like powers, is immortal, is worshiped by most of the galaxy, and also created all other lifeforms via intelligent design, but it all turns out to still be technology somehow.
- Downplayed: Tropelor only claims to be a prophet or some other enlightened being rather than a god.
- Justified:
- The people of Tropia are naive and are yearning for gods.
- Tropelor has a god complex of a very literal sort, and genuinely believes himself a divine being.
- Inverted:
- Tropelor is obviously a giant computer that isn't worshiped, but turns out to have created the universe.
- Tropelor is a Sufficiently Advanced Alien Reality Warper who's existed since the dawn of time. He claims not to be a god, even when others point out that the only real difference is a matter of semantics.
- When the humans go to space they find that their god is infact real.
- Subverted:
- The technology is all fake, and the powers are still divine in origin.
- Tropelor's technology became so advanced that it became divine in nature.
- Double Subverted: The divine origin is actually another set of even more advanced technology.
- Parodied: Tropelor is played up like The Wizard of Oz, complete with curtain.
- Zig Zagged:
- .. Until another religion starts up and begins a holy war.
- God is real, but he's simply the master of Earth and not the entire universe. He goes on space adventures with the humans.
- Averted: Tropia has a regular beard-and-clouds god that (is or isn't) seen and proven.
- Enforced: Every sci fi series has to do it sometime.
- Lampshaded: "Yeah, that 'I'm a god oooooh' shtick gets old. How'd you do it? Teleporters?"
- Invoked: ???
- Exploited: Tropelor decides to pretend to be a god to make the natives strip-mine the planet for him.
- Defied:
- "You're no god, and it's wrong for you to fool these people!"
- "I am not a god - please do not worship me."
- There actually is one or more. (Note this can open up a can of worms as to whether science fiction is still science fiction if the supernatural is present in it.)
- Discussed: "A God-King? I bet it's just an alien with a fancy hat."
- Conversed: "What's with this show and false gods? Doesn't anyone believe in a non-physical god in this show?"
- Deconstructed: When revealed, Tropia society splinters and collapses.
- Reconstructed:
- Until they join under a new, harmonious society - one of reason, and not blind faith.
- While their deity is in reality fake, they still uphold the philosophies taught by it.
- Played For Laughs: Tropelor tells his subjects to do things like make silly faces.
- Played For Drama:
- The people of Tropia are under the thumb of a tyrannical God-King, and things only get worse when their belief system is shattered.
- Tropelor is posing as a god, but is doing so to help the Tropians. The debate on whether or not to expose his true nature could have serious ramifications not only for Tropia, but it could fracture the crew of the spaceship that's crossed paths with him and his people.
- Implied: Captain Bob is asked if he found God in space, and he responds, "Kind of?", while looking uncomfortable.
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