A God Am I/Playing With

Basic Trope: A character develops a literal god complex.

• Straight: Having amassed power over all he sees, Emperor Evulz begins to believe that he is a god.
• Exaggerated:
  • Having gained all the pieces of the Cosmic Artifacts That Must Not Be Obtained, Emperor Evulz is infused with superpowers and goes One-Winged Angel, which places him (or so he believes) above and beyond the Powers That Be, and he starts ordering them around and constructing a new Crystal Dragon Jesus religion and universal order based on his massive ego. Complete with Ominous Latin Chanting.
  • Emperor Evulz has no power. He still claims himself to be a god.
• Downplayed: Evulz declares himself a messenger of God.
• Justified:
  • After all, With Great Power Comes Great Insanity.
  • Evulz's recently acquired superpowers have had a drastic effect on his psyche and have divorced him from regular human experience.
  • Evulz has experienced being belittled before and hated it, thus he metaphorically compensates by developing delirium as a defence mechanism.
  • Evulz actually has become a god, or as near enough to make little difference.
  • Evulz already is a god.
• Inverted:
  • Brought Down to Normal.
  • A God I Am Not.
  • One of Evulz's newfound powers grants him a new perspective, letting him know that even in his new state he's nothing but a cosmic speck.
  • An already god-like being gets so caught up in the fun of the mortal world that he forgets about his divinity at a time when those powers would have been fairly helpful.
  • "I am the Devil."
• Subverted:
  • Evulz gains godlike powers, but maintains a grip on himself and does not succumb to a god complex.
  • Evulz has become a god, but just sees himself as a normal human being.
  • Evulz is a militant Nay Theist who, despite all the power he has gained, refuses to acknowledge himself as the thing he hates. He sees his godlike power as nothing more than a means to an end.
• Doubly Subverted: Evulz's control gradually slips as he begins to use his powers more and more, until he eventually gives in to his god complex.
• Parodied:
  • Eddie has received a minor promotion at his office job and become Drunk with Power; in the middle of throwing his weight around he begins to muse about whether he's actually become a god, much to the bemusement of his co-workers. He ends up wearing a toga and insisting people call him 'Zeus'.
  • Bob has declared himself a god, written out a text - The Boble - by hand, established the Church of Bobology, and started an inquisition to weed out the people who don't accept him as the One True Bob.
• Deconstructed:
  • Evulz's god complex is symbolic of nothing more than his complete insanity, and actually sees him lose power; as long as his underlings are careful to humour their boss, they can do as they please and he is none the wiser.
  • In a situation very similar to real-life versions of The Caligula, Evulz's God-complex sees him begin to rule his empire in an increasingly erratic and hubristic fashion, causing suffering and pain to everyone around him, while his own god complex turns against him, with his delusional insanity preventing him from seeing events realistically and drawing him closer to his own downfall. Things get so bad that even Evulz's trusted underlings decide they have to do something about their leader's mania.
  • Evulz turns out to have Hidden Depths. He's actually a Broken Ace who became so damn good at everything that his gifts caused people to follow him rather than befriend him; gradually resulting in his alienation from conventional society and self-proclaimed status as a God-Emperor. Now, gaining power for its own sake is his only purpose in life and he cannot form any kind of emotional bond with others.
• Reconstructed: Evulz gradually learns that his underlings haven't been taking him seriously and shows them what he really means when he claims to be a god. They don't come out of it well.
• Averted:
  • Evulz is a power-mad dictator, but shows no signs of any kind of god complex.
  • A good, humble guy is appointed to godhood, and remains a good, humble guy.
• Enforced: "We need an antagonist that is a god, but is mortal and killable, so let's have the antagonist claim he has become a god, where in reality he is not."
• Lampshaded: "Calling yourself a god now, Evulz? You know, that's got to be pretty high up on the list of signs of madness."
• Invoked:
  • The Man Behind Evulz pretends to be a cultist and subtly pushes Evulz into believing himself a god, so that in his arrogance, he's easier to control... and dispose of, if need be.
  • Emperor Evulz is a Manipulative Bastard armed with sufficiently advanced technology who passes himself off as a god to a primitive tribe to win their loyalty so that he can use them as Cannon Fodder against the Five-Man Band later down the line.
• Defied:
  • Evulz insists that he be subject to routine psychological profiles so as to detect and catch any impending signs of a god complex, and thus deal with it before it gets out of hand.
  • You think you have become a god now, Evulz? News flash - you're still not quite bulletproof.
  • Evulz's powers have made him a Reality Warper, but he emphatically denies that he is a god at every opportunity.
• Discussed: "All reports indicate that Evulz's mind is slipping daily... he's making his followers worship him, now."
• Conversed: "A god complex seems to be a required standard of entry into the supervillain club in these comic books."
• Played for Laughs: The heroes hear that Evulz has started believing he's a god. They sneak into his lair only to find a massive party. As it turns out, Evulz DOES think he's a god. Bacchus, to be exact.
• Played for Drama:
  • Evulz is aware that he's losing his sanity but can't do anything about it. While believing he's a god, he ends up harming the few people he actually cared about. After being brought down to normal, Evulz is forced to face the consequences of his actions.
  • The heroes hear that Evulz has started believing he's a god. They sneak into his lair only to find a massive party. As it turns out, Evulz DOES think he's a god. Bacchus, to be exact. It's when the maenads start tearing animals and babies to bits in their drunken rampages that it dawns on people that this is not a good thing.

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