Greetings, fellow video gamers! I am a doctoral student in music researching a trope in video games that I’m calling the “God-Slayer” trope. Basically, the God-Slayer trope occurs whenever the protagonist (+ party) confronts and defeats an antagonist who is a god-like entity within the game world, usually as the final boss and climax of the game’s story. The role and attributes of the god in question depends heavily on the game world, but usually will be the most powerful being in the game world, overseeing or establishing the world’s social systems (especially spiritual institutions), and would normally be unbeatable if not for some special power or equipment gained by the protagonists. I’m sure some video games already come to mind fitting this description!
Since life is too short to play all the video games out there, I am trying to crowd-source this research, at least to gain some leads to examples of this trope that I otherwise would not know about. Please post below with examples of the God-Slayer trope that you have encountered or can think of! I will then follow up investigating and/or playing those games as part of my research.
- I would like to issue one big, blanket SPOILER WARNING for this whole thread. Since we will be talking about the final bosses and antagonists of games, any game discussed will probably have spoilers for someone who has not yet played the game.
- The god-antagonist in question can be a final boss, superboss, or even a non-combatant mastermind antagonist. If a superboss, it would help if there is some sort of story background, at least indicating why that god is fought. If the god is a non-combatant, the protagonist must at least thwart the non-combatant god in some way.
- I am aware of a common “Evil God” variant, in which the god to be defeated is an evil deity, usually opposed to an allied good deity requesting the protagonist’s aid (e.g. Chaos from Final Fantasy I or Dissidia). Feel free to mention examples of the Evil God variant as well—I will be tracking it separately from the “vanilla” God-Slayer trope in this research.
- I’m not really looking for the “seizure of God-like power” variant of this trope (e.g. Kefka from Final Fantasy VI), because that version tends to have different thematic associations and motivations from the protagonists/antagonist.
- I have already consulted trope listing sites like All the Tropes and TVtropes. Please list games from your own personal playing experience!
I look forward to seeing the examples you give, and thank you in advance for your knowledge and help!
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