Basic Trope: Someone challenges someone else to do something extraordinary as proof that they're extraordinary.
- Straight: Alice asks Bob to prove he's God. Bob puts down a house fire with a flip of his fingers.
- Exaggerated: Alice screams "So prove it!" and Bob proves it. He creates an entire planet hovering over their heads, populates it with entire new fauna and flora, creates there a sentient, "centuries old" culture of non-humans and keeps the planet hovering, even if it should fall. All with Stab the Sky pose, storm and lightning.
- Downplayed:
- Alice asks "Really?". Bob makes Alice's teapot disappear with a blink.
- The Secret-Keeper asks Cornelius for proof of the magical Masquerade, so Cornelius demonstrates his mage powers with a simple charm.
- Justified: Many people claim to be or have contact with gods without any evidence, so Alice doesn't believe anyone who claims to be God.
- Inverted: In the world of gods, Bob asks Alice to prove she's mortal human.
- Subverted: Alice ask Bob to prove his powers. He focuses, screams and... nothing happens.
- Double Subverted: Nothing happens at first, but only later Alice realizes that the storm that just arrived is not a natural one and must've been called by Bob, proving his godhood.
- Parodied:
- Alice ask Bob dramatically to prove his godhood. He's clearly annoyed by it and turns nearby cabbage into a bunny.
- While having tea with Bob, Alice unthinkingly makes a remark about how God should just strike her down already. Bob responds by slapping her in the face, with just enough sparks of lightning to prove that this is the divine smiting that Alice was asking for.
- Alice is a Flat-Earth Atheist who doesn't believe Bob is a god despite his hell-filled spike rampage that she very clearly saw, but when Bob makes a rabbit disappear into a hat, she starts to grovel at his feet.
- Averted:
- Alice just accepts Bob's claims and never doubts them.
- Bob doesn't exist.
- Bob never contacts mortals.
- Nobody in the story claims to be a god.
- Enforced: Producers decided they need some cool scene for the trailer, so author makes Bob prove his god status by doing something impressive.
- Lampshaded: "They always ask for it! You wouldn't believe how many times I did this cabbage-tiger trick!"
- Invoked: Bob phrases his A God Am I revelation so that Alice will ask this question - he wants to show off, matter of fact.
- Exploited: Alice needs something important done - something only this Jerkass God Bob can do. She teases him with "I don't believe you're a god" so that he'll prove his point by doing said thing.
- Defied:
- "Come on, we both know Decartes. Even if I did everything you asked, at best I'd only prove that I'm something like God. You're going to have to take me on faith here."
- "You shall not put the Lord, your God, to the test."
- Discussed: Alice discuss with Charlie how to be sure Bob is a god he claims to be.
- Conversed: "Of course, Alice didn't believe him", explained Charlie, "so Bob exploded the Moon".
- Deconstructed:
- Alice publicly challenges Bob to prove he's a God. He can't do it, because that would destroy his Masquerade and because of that, Alice is convinced he's a loony and doesn't trust him anymore. What's more, public believes Alice to be a loony, because of her insane claim that Bob may be a God. Bob plays the "loony Alice" card to keep up his Masquerade and Alice ends up in Psychiatric Asylum, while Bob is hated among his ex-friends because of that.
- Alice challenges Bob to prove he's a God. Bob is, in fact, an old-fashioned, arrogant Jerkass God, and Alice may or may not survive the results of testing his patience.
- Reconstructed: While Bob does not respond to Alice's challenge in public, he later takes her somewhere remote and creates the Northern Lights for her to compensate for her public embarrassment. Cue the climatic kiss.
And now prove you're a god and return to God Test!
