God for a Day

"Most men can survive adversity. If you want to test a man, give him power." —Abraham Lincoln

A character can be tested and taught to learn their weaknesses and strengths not just by making them suffer burden and limitation but by giving them all the power and ease in the world. A trope for teaching characters a lesson can be making them God for a Day.

The character may love it at first, indulge in several whims, fulfil some wishes but then they may find themselves getting Drunk with Power or finding that they can't handle all the responsibilities associated with the power so well, each well meaning move being a blunder that leads to more to fix. These difficulties may cause a Sudden Humility.

If the character can handle the responsibility but becomes bored with having everything at his back and call, God for a Day can become similar to Victory Is Boring or Lonely At the Top, in that things are now easy for the character and he wonders how best to use his powers when everything comes so easily to him with his omnipotence.

The difficulty for the writer lies in figuring out how to make being in charge difficult. The story can fail if the powers given don't match up properly to the original owner in an overcontrived manner that forces a failure or if the character is being too limited by their own Idiot Ball and not something genuinely inherent to the power.

Compare: Subbing for Santa. Also see God Guise and A God I Am.

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Examples:

• Noire considers offering this opportunity in one of her blog entries in Hyperdimension Neptunia. Keeping with her being the PlayStation 3 rep, she says you'd "only have to do everything".
• The plot of Bruce Almighty: Bruce thinks that God does a rubbish job because...he was passed up for promotion in favour of his Jerkass rival, he got fired after a breakdown, a gang of thugs beat him up and vandalised his car and his dog wasn't toilet trained. Rather than smiting him like a mighty smiter, God gives Bruce the job. Bruce gives himself some frivolities, screws over a few people who annoy him, gets laid and has some really good coffee but alas God-like powers don't get you love and answering yes to every prayer just makes things worse.
• Star Trek: The Next Generation - in the episode "Hide and Q" Q gives such powers to Riker and makes, unknown to Riker, a bet with Picard: Picard thinks that Riker will reject Q's offer and bets the Enterprise herself on him against Q offering to never bother them again. Picard wins after Riker finds every gift he tries to give to his friends rings hollow.

"But it's what you've always wanted Data, to become human." "Yes, sir. That is true. But I never wanted to compound one... illusion with another. It might be real to Q,... perhaps even you, sir. But it would never be so to me. Was it not one of the Captain's favourite authors who wrote, "This above all: to thine own self be true?" Sorry, Commander, I must decline."

• Another wager with godlike entities: Rachel of the Animorphs was given the chance to become the ultimate fighting machine by Crayak. However such things are not much fun for a Blood Knight and it leaves only the satisfaction of sadistically snuffing out your enemies which is a road she doesn't feel comfortably going down when Crayak starting saying she is Not So Different.
  • It doesn't help that she would have to kill her cousin in exchange for getting the powers.
• Possibly the Trope Maker is H.G. Wells' "The Man Who Could Work Miracles" (1898), adapted into a film of the same name in 1936.
• In the cartoon Dungeons & Dragons episode "Day of the Dungeon Master," Eric the Cavalier is given the practically limitless power of the Dungeon Master. He screws up a lot by being rather pompous but he actually ends up becoming very sagelike himself and even gets the capability to send everyone back to the real world but they stay because it would require him being left behind on his own.
• There was a Flintstones episode, Boss For A Day where Fred is envious of his boss and the Great Gazoo turns him into a boss. He finds that it's actually a burden, since he has to deal with higher-ups, stay late in meetings, etc.
• In the Supernatural episode "Appointment in Samarra", Dean is given the job of being Death for one day. He tries to let a little girl with a heart condition live, only to discover that letting someone live "against the natural order" sets off a cascade of other deaths, and he has to give up before the day is over, admitting that it's harder than it looks.
• Shel Silverstein toys with this in a poem called "God's Wheel" where God gives someone a chance "to be God awhile and steer the world." After a barrage of questions about the working hours, pay, etc., the offer is withdrawn.

"Gimme back that wheel," says GOD. "I don't think you're quite ready yet."

• Subverted with Thanos of Titan. Whenever Thanos becomes omnipotent (whether by the Infinity Gauntlet, Cosmic Cube or the Heart of the Universe), he is typically able to handle the responsibility, at least initially. However, this is nearly always bad for everyone else as Thanos as a tendency to try destroying the universe whenever he can. When he loses the power, Thanos often wonders if he was worthy of it in the first place.