Bolt of Divine Retribution: Difference between revisions

{{trope}}

 

{{quote|'''Priest''': ''Offler is a vengeful god!''

In [[Tabletop Games]], this may be used as a more localized form of [[Rocks Fall, Everyone Dies]], designed to let the [[Game Master]] strike down the annoying [[Munchkin]] ruining the game without too much collateral damage.

 

 

{{examples}}

{{quote|"If I'm really as evil as you say I am, then let God strike me down where I stand." (ZAP!) "Ha! Nice try, jackass! Next time, give it your A-game!"}}

 

* Happens in the Disney version of ''Hercules'' when Phil initially refuses to tutor Herc.

* Zeus also did this in ''[[Fantasia]]'', mostly because he's bored. [[Jerkass Gods|This IS an accurate representation of him, though.]]

* Appears in ''[[Beavis and Butthead|Beavis and Butthead Do America]]'', when the title duo have spent several minutes taking confessions and assigning ridiculous penances (after mistaking the confessional for the toilet). They get hit as soon as they leave the church.

* The Evil Queen in ''[[Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (Disney film)|Snow White and The Seven Dwarfs]]''. The bolt doesn't hit her directly, but it does knock her down a cliff and sends the boulder she was trying to push over the dwarfs down after her.

* In ''[[Caddyshack]]'', Bishop Pickering is winning a [[Bizarre and Improbable Golf Game]] during a heavy rainstorm, at one point declaring, "[[Tempting Fate|The Good Lord would never disrupt the best game of my life]]." When he misses his final putt on the 18th hole, he [[Smite Me, O Mighty Smiter!|shakes his fist at the sky]] yelling, "[[Unusual Euphemism|Oh, rat farts]]!" Cue lightning bolt.

* ''[[Monty Python's The Meaning of Life]]'':

* Parodied occasionally in the ''[[Discworld]]'' series. As one book puts it, a man who goes around the disc arguing that gods don't exist tends to be found later as a pair of [[Smoldering Shoes|still-smoking shoes]] next to a sign reading "YES WE DO."

** A notable example is when Dorfl (a ceramic golem) declares his atheism; he notes afterward that a bolt of lighting isn't much of a logical argument. He is probably the safest atheist on the Disc, by virtue of being immune to lightning bolts.

** In one description of the Disc, it mentions that it's the kind of world where gods go around breaking atheists' windows.

** In the page quote, it's probably worth noting that Offler responded to this accusation by trying to [[I Resemble That Remark|hit the speaker with a lightning bolt]]. Fortunately it bent at right angles a few feet above his head and hit the floor instead. Being high priest of Io, [[Top God|chief of the gods]] has perks.

** ''[[Tales of Destiny]] 2'' introduces the Divine Saber spell that hits all enemies in range with multiple bolts of lightning. It retains its [[Holy Hand Grenade|light element]] even in games with a separate lightning element.

* A possible outcome of angering your god in ''[[Nethack]]''. If you've built up enough resistance to lightning to survive the bolt, the god shoots a [[Disintegrator Ray|disintegration beam]] at you.

* ''[[La-Mulana]]'' does this when you fail to solve certain types of puzzles. Or when you attack holy relics. Or some perfectly blank walls. As they lay out in the manual, it's an intentional attempt on the part of the developers to get players out of the [[Try Everything]] mentality.

* Follow Honda in his plan to [[Screw This, I'm Outta Here|escape Tokyo]] on day 6 in ''[[Devil Survivor]]'', and God exterminates everyone you left inside in such fashion. [[Bad End]] indeed...

* In ''[[Discworld Noir]]'', a disillusioned cultist decides to declare his complete renouncement of all gods from the top of his own temple. He is immediately struck by a dozen lightning bolts simultaneously.

{{quote|'''Mooncalf:''' "What were the odds that I'd get hit by lightning just as I renounced all gods?"

* {{spoiler|Marietta}} from ''[[Yggdra Union]]'' will use lightning to smite your forces. {{spoiler|She's just doing her job as an angel, defending heaven, which you are about to invade.}}

* Arguably the Best Crusader skill (until the priest patch) in ''[[Dungeon Fighter Online]]'', Revenge of Light calls down highly damaging lightning when the blessed player is hit with attacks that deal magic damage.

* An episode of ''[[The Tom and Jerry Show]]'' where the two are detectives has a wolf hire them to find a sheep that he was accused of stealing. Tom and Jerry (and the Narrator) are skeptical. The wolf stutters "If I'm lying" a couple times and then looks out the window at the clear weather. He gets a idea and says, "If I'm lying, let lightning strike me down dead." Lightning immediately strikes him through the roof, leaving him charred but alive. The wolf gets struck again seconds later when he says he didn't do it on his way out, using the same line he said when he got struck the first time.

 

* Saint Barbara's father had her executed for converting to Christianity and was killed by a lightning bolt later that day, which have inspired the popular use of lightning bolts as a tool of divine wrath.

* One of the [[Darwin Awards]] in 1999 was won by a man who standing on a boat in the middle of a lake during the lightning storm screamed "HERE I AM LORD, LET ME HAVE IT!". For those not familiar with those awards - they are normally only given post mortem (a few ''lucky'' ones, if you want to call them that, had to settle for being unable to reproduce instead of dying, but this is rare).

 

{{reflist}}

[[Category:Religion Tropes]]

[[Category:Thunderbolts and Lightning]]

[[Category:Tabletop Game Tropes]]

[[Category:Older Than Feudalism]]