How would you defeat...

Buffysquirrel · Jan 5, 2012

Offer them something they want more than what you want.

fantasyfables · Jan 5, 2012

Thanks for all the suggestions, it's given me a lot to think about!
I'm considering sealing him away/imprisoning him rather than actually getting rid of him permnanently, because it'd leave the story open to a sequel.

JimmyB27 · Jan 5, 2012

aliwood said:
Logic.

buzhidao said:
What, like in Flight of Dragons....?

Or like this:

Douglas Adams said:
The Babel fish is small, yellow and leech-like, and probably the oddest thing in the Universe. It feeds on brainwave energy received not from its own carrier but from those around it. It absorbs all unconscious mental frequencies from this brainwave energy to nourish itself with. It then excretes into the mind of its carrier a telepathic matrix formed by combining the conscious thought frequencies with the nerve signals picked up from the speech centres of the brain which has supplied them. The practical upshot of all this is that if you stick a Babel fish in your ear you can instantly understand anything said to you in any form of language. The speech patterns you actually hear decode the brainwave matrix which has been fed into your mind by your Babel fish.
Now it is such a bizarrely improbable coincidence that anything so mindbogglingly useful could have evolved purely by chance that some thinkers have chosen it to see it as a final and clinching proof of the non-existence of God.
The argument goes something like this: "I refuse to prove that I exist," says God, "for proof denies faith, and without faith I am nothing."
"But," says Man, "the Babel fish is a dead giveaway isn't it? It could not have evolved by chance. It proves you exist, and therefore, by your own arguments, you don't. QED."
"Oh dear," says God, "I hadn't thought of that," and promptly vanishes in a puff of logic.

JWNelson · Jan 5, 2012

Not my area of expertise, but I believe trickery was a primary technique for fooling/defeating the gods of Greek mythology. Good luck!

joeyc · Jan 5, 2012

Lhipenwhe said:
I'd personally find a way to annoy him enough to make him concede defeat out of sheer annoyance.

It worked for my D&D character...

lordzapharos · Jan 8, 2012

fantasyfables said:
Thanks for all the suggestions, it's given me a lot to think about!
I'm considering sealing him away/imprisoning him rather than actually getting rid of him permnanently, because it'd leave the story open to a sequel.

That works, or you can have him (temporarily) "banished" to the void via any of the creative means our community has already offered. If you have the other gods intervene, you can even make a mythological story out of it, in which the evil god is bound to [location] by chains forged from [über material], or anything else that appeases the campfire storytellers of your world.

Otherwise, I agree with everyone here -- read your mythology. You might also want to read The Silmarillion by Tolkien. He treated his deities in some very unique ways.

julzperri · Jan 9, 2012

Whatever it is, I think it needs to be both simple, yet unexpected - it should be a revelation to your protagonist.

In the Eragon series, Eragon performed a simple spell in which he forced Galbatorix to 'understand' what he'd done and it sent him mad and he killed himself... something to do with the mind like this would be best I think.

Maybe remind them of a love they lost, or that they can't experience the emotions, relationships and friendships that humans can...

Hope it helps!

Martin Persson · Jan 9, 2012

fantasyfables said:
How would you defeat a God, or a ruler of the Underworld, like Hades? I'm really struggling with how to resolve conflict in a story I'm working on.

I don't think you defeat a being like that. Like Q in Star Trek you just win his little games and then he goes away when he is bored. He lets you live for the same reason we don't smash our video games when we loose one game, he can always come back and play again later.

silentpoet · Jan 12, 2012

Dues ex machina, maybe.

glutton · Jan 12, 2012

You defeat a God by punching him.

Or intimidating him with the threat that you might punch him.

kiwiviktor81 · Jan 12, 2012

If I was seriously to go up against a god I'd have to look for something about the nature of reality itself that could be used on my side. Perhaps there's some truth about the order of life that this god is not aware of, and if he did become aware he would go instantly insane? Of course, the protagonist would have to be immune to the effects of this secret in order to be able to deliver it. I'm thinking the defeat of Medusa could be a guideline.

Maybe the very fact that the protagonist is mortal means that they can deal with the nature of reality (always changing) better than the god can?

darnzen · Jan 13, 2012

When people have extremist points of view, or are egomaniacs, they tend to see everything through their own tinted glasses. I would think gods would be extreme examples of this. When faced with any problem they would have an almost predetermined approach to solving it.

Unless your character is facing a god of chaos or something, they should be able to predict how the god is going to act. Use that somehow because the god will never see it coming!

Then there's the question of if a god can / should be slain. There would be definite repercussions with killing a god. Who would do that god's job? Kill the storm god and the weather is nice forever? If you have a pantheon of gods, perhaps you just need them to be banished by the other gods into the "mortal realm" where he/she can be slain.

Most often the stories I've read handle it this way. The god is vulnerable when in "our world" and if they die they are banished for a hundred years (thousand, era, whatever) and can not cross-over into the mortal realm for that time. They hate this of course because in that time they will be forgotten.

J.S.F. · Jan 19, 2012

"Turn the little schnootzie...mortal."

Hey, it worked for Hercules!

Outside of that, the only thing I can think of is this: In your story, if you have hinted at something which bothers him/annoys him/hurts him, or something he/she shies away from, then use that or a variation of it to smite the little bugger.

Trapping him only works if it's within the parameters of the world you've constructed. If you've set him/her/it up as unbeatable, you've written yourself into a corner. Gods, especially jealous ones, don't forgive and do not go gently into that good night. Find the chink in his/her/its armour and then get under it.

Torgo · Jan 19, 2012

Trickery is the traditional method for defeating omnipotent beings in fiction. You get them to promise something that has consequences they weren't quite expecting. See, for example, the 'Dangerous Habits' storyline in Hellblazer, or the old Death/Genie in the bottle folk tale.

AceTachyon · Jan 19, 2012

silentpoet said:
Dues ex machina, maybe.

Membership fees from the machine?

Oh! You meant deus ex machina, right?

ravenmuse · Jan 23, 2012

What about finding some way of using the god's own powers against him. Something like showing Medusa a mirror, or challenging a shapeshifter to change into something very small to contain him. Or tricking a Midas to touch himself (and turn to an immobile statue).

glutton · Jan 23, 2012

ravenmuse said:
What about finding some way of using the god's own powers against him. Something like showing Medusa a mirror, or challenging a shapeshifter to change into something very small to contain him. Or tricking a Midas to touch himself (and turn to an immobile statue).

Or grasping the so-called God's weapon and turning it on him while it's still in his hands. :evil

Luciamaria · Jan 24, 2012

What is their weakness? I've heard in North American Indian myths, the tricky coyote (I think it was a coyote, but no guarantees, it might have been a fox or a wolf) listened in on the good and evil gods talking to themselves about their weaknesses, whispered the enemy's secret into the opponent's ear for both of them, and watch the fight unfold. The good god won.

I think one of the gods was allergic to a type of fern. Again, this isn't really clear in my memory.

How would you defeat...

Buffysquirrel

fantasyfables

JimmyB27

Hoopy frood

JWNelson

JWNelson

joeyc

lordzapharos

Computer & Systems Specialist

julzperri

Caffeine & trying not to scream.

Martin Persson

silentpoet

practical experience, FTW

glutton

kiwiviktor81

Cough up blood. Laugh, light cig

darnzen

J.S.F.

Red fish, blue fish...

Torgo

Formerly Phantom of Krankor.

AceTachyon

Odd person

ravenmuse

glutton

Luciamaria